Aftermath

(Below is the opening segment from this week’s adventure. The artifacts explosion thrust the party forward in time. You have come nearly seven thousand years into the future. It is now present day realms 1372 D.R. The party awakened in a broken room in the temple of death on the street of temples in Waterdeep.)

You follow Selber through the quiet streets of Thayonestia in the late evening. It is early summer but a cool breeze is blowing and it is a clear starry night. Selber is gripping the great silver sword in both hands and there is a maniacal look in his eyes. He resists all efforts to deter him from what ever course it is that he is taking. You have to rush to keep up this pace. Luckily it is late because striding boldly through town brandishing a huge glowing great sword is frowned upon by the law keepers. The few citizens that you do encounter quickly find that their business takes them in an opposite direction. Selber leads you to the huge temple complex of the cult of blood where you are immediately met by several men at arms who interpose themselves between you and the main entrance. From somewhere in the vicinity an alarm bell is being sounded. Selber shouts out a single word that incinerates one of the guards. In a flurry of blows he beheads two others. There is one pale looking guard left who is turning to run. Selber waves the sword above his head and the tip of his blade leaves a trail of magical energy that looks like a large magical spear. With his free hand he gestures and the spear quickly skewers the fleeing man through the back. It is just about now that red wizards start to pop into existence here and there about the courtyard. Magical energies flicker and flair and the drain on the weave creates an immense vortex like a cosmic black hole or so it would appear to one who was attuned to such things. In seconds the courtyard now contains a half dozen assorted wizards and sorcerers, a cleric of Belial, a beholder and a twenty foot tall winged devil with a flaming sword. Just when it seems like violence will surely erupt you hear a deafening voice that seems to come from everywhere and it shouts one simple word, “HOLD.” For a startled second all parties pause and look about. Immediately before you an ancient man in red robes and a huge humanoid in full plate materialize. The man in red robes has a short neatly trimmed white beard and a golden circlet with three rubies that glow brightly. Seven colored stones orbit haphazardly around his head. His red robes glisten as if wet and are almost completely covered in fine golden glowing runes. He holds a short scepter made of gold that is encrusted with cut glowing rubies that form a myriad of runes. A huge diamond the size of your fist tops the scepter. His right hand and the left side of his face are covered with red tattoos that are comprised of magical writing and symbols. He wears an onyx and diamond broach on his right breast and electrum bracers can be seen beneath his sleeves. A thin red mist like aura covers him and everything within five feet of him. This is Vecna in the flesh. The man in full plate is completely encased in white metal armor. The white metal crackles with blue sparks of electricity. The individual plates of the armor each depict either some sort of demonic visage or are covered with magical runes. The faces are all animated and they quietly speak among themselves in a language that has been dead for a thousand years. His high spiked helm is covered with magical runes. He holds in his right hand an adamantium great sword with red runes down the center of the blade. It has large glowing rubies in the quillions and pommel. His left hand cannot be seen through the melon sized ball of crackling blue energy. Vecna says to the red robed ones amongst you, “what is the meaning of this?” Without a word Selber strides boldly forward and kneels before Kas holding up the great sword as if in offering. Kas immediately drops the sword he was holding to the ground and the magic from his hand drains away as he grips either side of his head as if struggling against some unseen force. The ancient sword held by Selber fairs up emitting light so bright that it is impossible to look at it directly. Vecna attempts to counter the magic and one by one his spells are swatted away by the power of the sword. In a fluid movement of near impossible speed Kas snatches the offering of the sword from Selber. He immediately becomes incased in a crackling aura of electric blue power. The drain on the weave can be felt on other worlds across the gulf of space. The battle is joined by two red wizards and the beholder. The devil slowly fades to black, all the while a broad grin on his red face. Kas pauses in his battle with Vecna every now and then to deflect a black beam from the beholder or to swat away a spell from one of the lesser wizards. The priest of belial is on fire and his screams echo about the courtyard as he runs about with no apparent destination. Vecna and Kas are locked in mortal combat the likes of which are rarely witnessed by mortals. During a brutal flurry of blows by Kas, Vecna is forced to attempt to block the blade with his scepter. His ruby scepter explodes in a titanic eruption of magical energies. You are caught up in the blast and you feel the world around you fade away as you are thrown through a tear in the fabric of reality and possibly even time itself. The last thing that registered in your mind as you were ripped from that courtyard was the thousands of black shapes glinting with silver magic that were appearing in the night sky.