Session 23

The air here is filled with ash, and a blazing red sun hovers overhead. The world has been transformed into a inhospitable wasteland in the span of only a couple of hours. This all comes as a surprise to Quang who wonders why you all react so strangely to a beautiful fall day in a sylvan grove. What you can agree on, however, is that something is fundamentally wrong, and that the berries are somehow related to whatever's going on.

The feeling of paranoia that was dogging you before you delved into the Underdark has returned tenfold. You avoid Beregost at all costs, keeping to the edge of the forest and out of sight of other travelers. You can feel eyes watching you wherever you go, as though some inescapable force was right behind you, claws outstretched. Quietly, you set up camp to take an extended rest and recover from your underground ordeal.

Sleep does not come easy, and when it does, it is filled with fits and nightmares. You suddenly realize that you are not alone in your dream, and to your great surprise, you suddenly find yourselves together in a damp room composed of worked stone. Even the members of your party that were supposed to be on watch are here, leaving you concerned about your slumbering bodies, but without a clear way to wake up.

Hundreds of years ago, magic was governed by the Weave and tended to by the goddess Mystra. The Weave was considered many things, including Mystra's body, the source of magic, all the studies of casters, arcane and divine alike, and the many energies and forces that exist around the planes. It can be thought of as a "fabric" on which magic was "drawn." Though circumstances long forgotten, a creature was born in the Weave, who swam though raw magic as a fish swims through water. For untold eons, this creature lived peacefully, neither interfering with the material world, nor impacted by the machinations of spellcasters. But all this came to an end one hundred years ago when the goddess Mystra died and the Weave was ripped apart by the Spellplague, destroying the creature in the process.

And there the story would have ended, it were not for a curious event that took place 150 years ago. Three giants fell to earth from a place that even now I have not discovered. As they fell, the phased through planes and dimensions, though space and time, and most importantly, through the Weave. As they fell, each tore out a chunk of the Weave, and preserved it in the demi plane inside them. Inside this beast, was preserved a shred of the goddess Mystra." Wimpington Jr. gestures towards his assistant. "She retains very little of the goddess from which she came, but it is through her power that I have learned as much as I have."

Inside another beast, was preserved a shred of the Creature, and through that tiny scrap, it survived. The creature's giant landed on the island of Chult, and though means and power unknown to me, the creature was able to escape from the beast and translate its astral form into its closest equivalent on the physical plane: a tall bush covered in red berries. Far from innocuous, these bushes gave off spores that spread the consciousness of the beast, or at least what was left of it, through the wind into the brains of native islanders and explorers such as myself, embedding a piece of itself in each of us.

At first, these pieces were mostly harmless. The beast's once vast intelligence had been reduced to a pale shade of its former self, and it was content to watch the world using its hundreds of newly acquired eyes. But then it made an important discovery. Certain artifacts left over from before the Spellplague retained a fraction of their magical power, and in that power, the beast found pieces of itself. Worse, the beast discovered that it could assimilate these pieces back into its collective consciousness, growing smarter and stronger with every new addition.

As soon as the plan had been hatched, the beast began implanting desires and obsessions into its minions, telling them to go and seek out ancient magical artifacts. While most people ignored this call, the beast's command resonated with adventurers such as myself, and we became obsessed with finding magical artifacts. Every time we saw an item with a blue aura, we felt compelled to take it; I'm sure you've felt something similar in you journeys.

The beast would then compel its chosen few, those with power and authority in the world, those who it could control most thoroughly, to create massive collections of artifacts and empty their magical essence into the beast's consciousness so that it could grow and feed. Even after death, the beast retained control of the spirits of these chosen disciples, ones such as my son and my servant Henderson, so that they could continue their work.

And now we face the greatest danger of our time. The beast's power has grown to the point where it is beginning to spread it's physical self. It had previously been content to spread its spores from Chult, choosing its servants from those brave enough to face those savage jungles. The infected carry with them secondary-spores, which can cloud the minds of innocents that the infected comes in contact with, but this is not enough for the beast. Underneath the Sword Coast, the beast has begun a grand experiment, to turn an entire nation its slaves, and despite accidents such as the destruction of Candlekeep and the town of Vinland, its well on its way to creating an army of looters, searching for its scattered body.

Despite its size and severity, the only people confronting this threat is the nation of Amn, which has purged the secondary-spore from their country and enacted an complete embargo on all infected regions. But at this point, the beast has already spread too far for there to be any hope of containing it. The only way to prevent it from infecting every person on the face of the planet is to venture to its source and destroy it.

You alone are able to complete this task. Once you have driven the beast from your mind, it cannot return and you can see the world as it truly is. You must slay the beast, but first you must return to Chult. You can expect no help along the way. Now that you are free, everyone will be your enemy and you will quickly find yourselves overwhelmed unless you travel quickly and quietly. Make your way to the ruins of Candlekeep. You will find there a manual by the Wizard Radcliff on the creation of an inter-dimensional conduit. Use it to repair the gate in the attic of Wimpington Manor and travel back to Chult. Once there, you will be on your own. You must use your wits and your abilities to defeat the beast and destroy it. Doing so will free the minds of all who labor under its influence, including your friends and family.