Session 34 Player Notes — The Four Portals

These are the players’ own session notes, preserved from the party’s game document. They capture the table’s perspective — what the players saw, did, and said.

Key Events

The red moon hangs over the Star Forge volcano, watching
Lyra reads from the Grimoire of Shadows — an ancient passage about contracts that survive their vessel’s destruction
Lux disguised himself as a fire giant and descended alone to speak with Durrak Stoneforge at the forge
Durrak confirmed he can forge the Rod into something that strengthens Vecna’s chains instead of breaking them
The party descended through Wawwen’s tunnels and a vent shaft, reaching the forge island as the bridge retracted
Vecna spoke into every mind — then four portals opened: a Pit Fiend with Reeny, Asmodeus with Glasya, Vecna, and a version of Lyra from the Fugue Plane

Session Notes

The Red Moon

The red moon — the monstrosity that we saw coming out of the earth at the Battle of Fawkes — is in the sky. Guts gasps: “There is a mirror in the sky!” Lyra feels like the light is bending in a strange way, and that something isn’t right. It’s like there is light piercing through a cut in the moon. Lux and Alora Amathur feel like the moon is looking at us and watching. The glow is iridescent, and we can see little asteroids in front of the moon.

We are on a ledge on the volcano, a ledge that has been carved for primordial giants. It has been there for so long it feels architectural. There are pavers with designs. We can see a spiralling pathway working down inside the throat of the volcano. The heat is coming in waves, and when it hits, the tongue almost feels like it’s alive. It carries hints of iron and sulfur, and age.

Durrak Stoneforge, the Duergar, is here. But this forge is more of a machine, a primordial steampunk machine. The fire giants are pushing levers and there are massive hammers falling and clanging. In the middle is an anvil that is 30 or 40 feet wide. Durrak is there. There is no passion. This is something he has to do. The chained dragon is carrying the lava to the top of the machine to perpetuate the process. Durrak is a descendant of Durgeddin, the primordial blacksmith.

The Grimoire of Shadows

There doesn’t seem to be a leader there. Lux puts on the Hat of Disguise. Lyra has been doing a little reading lately. Her memory is triggered about a passage that she has read that might support what is potentially happening right now. Lyra pulls out a journal from Jergal (the Grimoire of Shadows) and reads a passage.

Lyra knows that Asmodeus and the devils would go through the portal and invite people to come and fight for them instead of going to the afterlife, by coaxing and bribing them. Jergal got mad because you can’t promise people things and not fulfil it, so contracts came into existence.

Lux can see that the book has a passage about exceptions, that specifically says that Vecna can come back every 100 years. There is also a clause that has been added in fresh ink. Lyra is the exception to the contract. She is the weapon.

In the book:

“When the vessel breaks, the covenant does not.

A contract written in death’s ledger cannot be burned, cannot be shattered, cannot be unwritten by mortal or god. It merely moves. As water finds a new channel when the river is dammed, so too does the binding seek a living host when the dead one is destroyed.

The foolish believe a weapon is steel. The wise know a weapon is intent. But the dead know this: the greatest weapon ever forged was not forged at all. It was bound. A soul willingly given, tethered to others, becomes a blade no forge can make and no god can break.

Written in the year before the Crown of Horns was lost, when the office of Death still had its first keeper: ‘The one who carries the covenant need not know they carry it. The binding is patient. It waits in the blood, in the bond, in the thread between souls. When the moment comes, the bearer will not reach for a blade. The bearer will reach for the contract — and the dead will answer.’”

Lux’s Descent to the Forge

Lux disguised as a giant walks down the spiralling staircase into the volcano. There is a dead fire giant who bashed his head in against the wall. There was something inside of him that he was trying to get out.

Kaial casts Inspiring Leader (18 temporary hit points). As he walks down, Alora can see that the machinery is just at an idle.

Reaghl feels the rod start to pulse, and it isn’t as hot. When Lux is questioned, he feels like there is an instruction set inside him that gives him the correct response to being questioned.

Lux speaks to Durrak, saying: “What if the thing that would stop this machine being at idle is within my grasp?”

The Steam Vent Conversation

Durrak walks up to a control panel and pulls a lever. Steam rushes out. “You have 30 seconds before that vent cycles. Talk fast.”

“The rod is within my control. But we don’t want it to fall into their hands. We are great in number and power but can you produce the rod into something that we can utilise to free ourselves of this tyranny? You have friends.”

Steam is filling up the volcano, and our vision of what is happening is completely obscured.

“Fuck,” Kaial exclaims. We start running down into the volcano. Kaial casts Warding Bond (+1 to AC, +1 to all saves, add +5 to saving throws as well if you are within 10 feet).

Durrak states that he can forge the rod into something positive, and sets a list of demands to make this happen.

The Descent Through the Vents

Wawwen shows a crack in the wall and we all slide down to level four (takes 3 rounds). As we are descending, the steam starts to settle. The dragon gives out an insane roar as the machine has cooled down, and it is forced to get another bucket of lava. The scream sounds like the dragon is close to death, and the wall starts to vibrate.

The entire cavern suddenly fills with light. The rod that Lux is holding is bursting with light. His legs start to move, and he resists. His legs slowly start to move in the direction of the others. Lux calls to Durrak: “The fighter has it.”

Durrak runs off to another lever. He has gloves on, and with all his might pushes the lever. The bridge starts to lift. Durrak yells: “Chain wheel, back to your station!” All of a sudden, the resistance Lux was feeling lifts. Lux follows the command and goes back to the chains he was originally working. “You’re not leaving, not until your people get here!” The light is radiating from the rod.

Reaghl uses telekinesis to push the rod towards the forge where he can see Lux. Reaghl is currently blinded, but he can feel where the rod needs to go.

Finding Another Way Down

The group turns to Wawwen. “There is one thing to think of when you back a wat into a corner. The stomach.” He backs up against the wall and starts digging into the wall to see if there are other tunnels.

Arawn rolls for luck (Alora casts Guidance) — 22! We open up the wall. It gives way and steam blasts back into his face. He can see a vent shaft that he can pry into. It is a part of the forge plumbing system. It’s four feet wide.

Kaial turns to the rat. “Fuck you.” He grabs Wawwen and jumps into the vent.

We jump in behind him. As Reaghl falls, the blindness is pulled away from him. The walls begin to close in, become sticky and we feel like we are becoming stuck in a vein. Those who don’t make the CON save (Guts) become poisoned.

Arriving at the Forge

We crawl out the other end. We see that we are in a material room. Looking out to the right we see the opening, Lux on the chain room. We have fallen to the bottom of Mount Rushmore. We see the remnants of old magical weapons, some of which are destroyed, but others that aren’t. Guts and Lyra gasp: “Loot!”

Alora starts retching. She doesn’t feel poisoned, but like she is covered in necrotic filth. Kaial casts Prestidigitation and cleans it all off of her.

Lux sees the rest of Nemesis pile through, covered in filth. The bridge completes its retraction, and the other giants continue to file up the side of the volcano. We come together. Durrak starts counting. “Five, six, seven, seven point five…” His eyes run over Wawwen.

“You’ve brought it back,” Durrak explains.

“Man the forge,” Reaghl yells. The rod is burning. Durrak looks at the sky and sees the moon. “I have always refused to make what they’ve asked. I can turn it. I can make something that strengthens the chain instead of breaking it.” He looks down at blistered hands, destroyed by their mission. “I need you all at your stations. Everything in this mountain is going to try and stop it. Durgeddin would have killed to see this day — let’s not waste it.”

Vecna Speaks

The mountain opens and a red portal is there. We hear a voice:

“Did you think the rat found that tunnel? Did you think any step was not a step that I allowed? The rod is in the anvil. The smith stands ready. Everything is exactly as I designed it. In the end it was seven mortals who carried it home for me.”

Lux hears in his voice: “Thank you.”

Lyra looks into the chamber she released the chains on. She sees Vecna in his lair with the skeletons and cages. It is looking through the portal at us all.

In Reaghl’s mind he hears: “You carry a shield inside your mind. For keeping things out, or keeping things in?”

To Alora Amathur: “You heal because you cannot bear to feel pain. You cannot heal all of this. Ilmater knows all of this. Don’t you think this is cruel?”

To Lyra: “Your mother is still alive.”

To Guts: “Rage is a door. But rage opens both ways. Will one day you open it and someone will walk through who is not you? The strongest always fall the loudest.” On the other side of his body he sees the metallic arm, and we see metal in his face where he has been cut.

To Arawn: “You didn’t see me in the eyes of every giant your friends passed. You have never seen what matters.”

To Lux: “You never listened. You still crawled into my house. Out of all of you, you are most like me.”

To Lyra: “You wrote your name in a dead god’s ledger. The contract was meant to die with the dagger, but you caught it. It lies in you now, in every soul tethered to yours. You don’t even know what it says, but I do, and it’s the only thing in life I have ever feared. But you’re mine now.”

Lyra: “And I see a scared little boy who is playing at god. Fuck you.”

The Four Portals

The other faces open up. In one we see a Pit Fiend with a little girl on its back. Reeny. She seems a little bit older. We see Asmodeus (who is a god). He is unable to be on this plane but he has a daughter who he gives a nudge to step through.

Through the fourth portal we see Lyra. It looks like a human version of heaven. Our Lyra realises that she is back — the one she pushed through the portal.

Items & Loot

8 temporary hit points (noted at session end — likely residual from Inspiring Leader)
Remnants of old magical weapons spotted in the material room at the base of Mount Rushmore (not yet looted)

NPCs Encountered

Durrak Stoneforge — Duergar master smith, descendant of Durgeddin. Chained at the Star Forge but willing to forge the Rod into something that strengthens Vecna’s chains. Blistered hands. “Durgeddin would have killed to see this day.”
Wawwen — Wererat guide. Led the party through a slag chute and helped find the vent shaft. Got called “seven point five” by Durrak.
Vecna — Spoke directly into every party member’s mind. Claims he orchestrated the entire descent. Fears the contract Lyra carries.
Reeny — Appeared through the first portal on the back of a Pit Fiend. She seems older. Vecna’s harbinger — a mortal princess, NOT Asmodeus’s daughter.
Glasya — Asmodeus’s actual daughter. Stepped through the second portal in black and gold armour, crown of nine points.
Asmodeus — Visible behind Glasya in the second portal. Unable to be on this plane but nudges his daughter through.
Fugue-Lyra — The version of Lyra that was pushed through the portal on the Fugue Plane. Standing calmly in the fourth portal, which shows a human version of heaven.

Notable Quotes

Guts: “There is a mirror in the sky!”
Durrak: “You have 30 seconds before that vent cycles. Talk fast.”
Durrak: “Chain wheel, back to your station!”
Kaial (to Wawwen): “Fuck you.” (then grabs him and jumps into the vent)
Guts & Lyra: “Loot!”
Durrak (counting the party): “Five, six, seven, seven point five…”
Durrak: “I have always refused to make what they’ve asked. I can turn it. I can make something that strengthens the chain instead of breaking it.”
Durrak: “I need you all at your stations. Everything in this mountain is going to try and stop it. Durgeddin would have killed to see this day — let’s not waste it.”
Vecna: “In the end it was seven mortals who carried it home for me.”
Vecna (to Lux): “Out of all of you, you are most like me.”
Vecna (to Lyra): “It’s the only thing in life I have ever feared. But you’re mine now.”
Lyra (to Vecna): “And I see a scared little boy who is playing at god. Fuck you.”
Wawwen: “There is one thing to think of when you back a wat into a corner. The stomach.”