Last session, in Spelljammer part 5, the party boarded Captain Solomon Neegan’s ship “The Lucille.” They were introduced to the eclectic crew, assigned cabins, and waited for all the other ships to set sail. Afterwards, they prepped to head for Phandalin on New Toril when the Helmsman called out that the Halfing ship “The Unexpected Party” was hailing them in distress. They had 300 survivors from Rockholm aboard but were being besieged by Astral Blights. Solomon told the Heroes of Athas to make a call whether to assist Captain Onyx and the Unexpected Party. They opted to help, and so The Lucille turned broadsides to board the Halfling ship. The heroes defeated the Astral Blights and only one Halfling crewman was killed. With the ship and 300 survivors now safe, Captain Onyx agreed to take them for refuge to New Toril. Soon, the Halfling ship soared off into the Astral Sea. Captain Solomon called for the Helmsman head for New Toril. The ship shot out into the Astral Sea momentarily, but slowed as something began to approach the ship. It was a dragon! The dragon introduced itself, explaining that it was a Time Dragon. It placed a chest on the deck. It explained that Time Dragons exist in all time and space at once, so it had met them in the future and it was “happy to meet them again for the first time!” The box, the dragon explained, was sent to them from “future them” because when they explored Doomspace (in the future) something terrible occured and half of them were killed. The dragon delivered the box as a fulfillment of a boon, as their future selves had saved it and its wyrmlings. The heroes found magic items in the box. These items will help them in their endeavors until later when apparently they will need to send the box back with the dragon … again. Oddly though, whenever they interacted with the items from the future, the Warforged Druid noticed that the others would flicker and “glitch” momentarily, possibly due to bending and altering the timeline through the intervention of the Time Dragon. Using a Sigil Mimir included in the box, they discovered bits of information. One interesting tidbit was that in the future they were unaware (until it was too late) that Fel Arda made a deal with Neogi Traders to sell the survivors rather than transporting them to Phandalin. Armed with this information, they decided to intervene and attack Fel Arda’s ship,the Second Wind. They strategized with a powerful wizard in Neegan’s crew named Morris. Morris has knowledge of The Second Wind having served temporarily on it when it was still under the ownership of Commander Krux, a Giff Pirate. The heroes devised a plan to teleport on to the Second Wind, neutralize Fel Arda, and rescue the survivors before they are sold into slavery.
Zin recovered from his coma as the Obsidian Shard in his pocket absorbed the Power Word: Kill spell and then crumbled to dust.
The adventurers decided to flee to Bleak Hollow, recalling that “The Moondancer” was in port recently. At the same time, three more adventurers arrived, having been sent to Eldagast by the Blacksmith: Arlen Strangeways, City Watch Sergeant Koval, and Lady Rayna Mithrow.
Phrred became distraught and essentially gave up, collapsing to sit down near the Blacksmith shop. Koval proved to be rather unhelpful, mocking Phrred and suggesting he turn into a blob so Koval can carry him around in a bucket. This only adds to the Plasmoid’s dispair making him completely despondent.
As Khale, Cadramar, and Strangeways, and the Helper Bot loaded the wagon with Khale’s hoarded provisions, the others realized that something terrible was happening at the Mandolin Inn.
The TWO SPIES(Elanod and Rehmand) finally made their move, slaying the remaining survivors of the Starwood as ordered by Prince Xeleth who had used his authority to assign them to his sister’s ship. Rehmand fled after the survivors were killed but Elanod remained, determined to murder Princess Xendalli to gain favor from Prince Xeleth.
However, the arrival of the adventurers interrupted Elanod and he fled to the roof where he was confronted by Breeze and Zin. Rayna shot the assassin in the leg, and a well placed shot from Strangeways’s hand cannon killed the assassin. They realized that one of the Astral Elves was missing, but they didn’t have time to look for him. They loaded up the wagons and rode towards Bleak Hollow.
As they left, they saw that Phrred was single-handedly fending off a monstrous Otyugh Astral Mutate. Phrred shouted that they should flee while they could, and they left Belisarius’shorse behind in the hopes the Plasmoid might use it to escape.
They observed that the Astral Seeds falling from the sky as intermittent intervals, embedded in the ground, sprouted vines that grew to be 50 feet around and thousands of feet high, sprouted roots that drilled deep into the ground, and then began pulsing with energy.
Astral Blight
Spider-Things crawled all over the vines, weaving webs that began making a canopy twenty feet in the sky, linking the vines together. More Otyugh Astral Mutates and Humanoid-shaped Astral Blights sprouted from the Astral Vines, seeking out and slaying any living creatures nearby.
When the Adventurers arrived in Bleak Hollow, they went to the docks to see that it was a madhouse of citizens trying to load on to the three remaining ships in port. The city was in ruins, citizens lay dead throughout the streets, monsters rampaged in hoards slaying everyone in sight, and Traevus and his Markano thugs were on the docks pummeling people for sheer cruel delight.
Belisarius used Command to make Traevus and his thugs rescue a group of trapped citizens from a nearby collapsed building.
The the party fled to the former Watchtower, now a lighthouse, and Belisarius continued to use the Ring of Shooting Stars to call for help from “The Moondancer.”
The Moondancer!
Soon the Spelljamming galleon arrived and rescued the adventurers. There were about 150 Bleak Hollow citizens on board along with the cargo of 12 donkeys and a prize winning dairy cow named Daisy which needed delivering to the frontier town of Phandolin on a planet called “New Toril.”
Captain Sartell
They met Captain Elaina Sartell and her Spelljamming Helmsman, Flapjack the Flumph. They rode on “The Moondancer” into Wildspace and met with several other Spelljamming ships that had just escaped from Athas as well: “The Lucille” captained by Solomon Neegan, “The Incorrigible” captained by Daar’Vik a Gith pirate, “The Last Breath” captained by a vampire named Gizmod, and “The Second Wind” captained by a Tiefling named Fel Arda.
Captain Fel Arda
As the crews of the ships were helping survivors from Athas reunite with their families, Breeze was below decks helping the Bleak Hollow survivors settle into the cargo decks, get food and water, and recover from shock. He spied the Astral Elf named Rehmand trying to blend in with the refugees. Breeze captured the assassin and had Arlan take the Elf to the brig where he was interrogated in front of Xendalli.
Again, Sargent Koval proved to be unhelpful and subversive, taunting Xendalli throughout the interrogation.
The adventurers, the Captains, and Princess Xendalli talked about what to do with the refugees and how to best travel to Xaryxispace to seek audience with the Astral Elf King. Xendalli is convinced that if they gather enough witnesses to testify against her brother, the King will agree to stop the Light of Xaryxis from devouring Athas and its galaxy.
They all agreed that taking the refugees to New Toril and the frontier town of Phandolin, then the individual ships will make their contracted deliveries and meet back up at THE ROCK OF BRAL in a galactic week (7 days) but sooner if possible.
Solomon needs to get Ambassador Jarnathan back to Revel’s End Prison on Toril.
Daar’Vik wishes to report to the Gith Lich Queen to report the war crime committed by Prince Xeleth.
Fel Arda agrees to transport her refugees to Phandolin but says she’s not interested in helping in this mess unless they want to hire her as a mercenary at an expensive fee. She is transporting a cache of Healing Potions to the Black network from the Cacuzzo Crime Family.
Xendalli promises that if the adventurers help her lay claim to the Xaryxian throne, she will do everything in her power to prevent further harm to Athaspace and ensure the Light of Xaryxis device is never misused ever again.
Children of the Ampersand 