📘 Session 11 – Engines of Limbo

🪐 Campaign Arc

🧭 Overview

Picking up from Session 10, the party chose to go up the tower first. In the upper room, a hat and a note awaited: the former owner left the tower “for the next wizard to own.” Valen claimed the tower. The hat, when worn, makes the wearer appear as a mind flayer—Jinks tried it and kept it.

Descending to the basement, the party found three doors warded by sigils—green, blue, and red. Valen dispelled the green sigil, revealing a second sealed door that “clicked” and posed a riddle. Dino solved it (answer: “Tomorrow / the Future”), opening a hidden vault with coin, gems, spellbooks, and rare magic items. The blue door proved empty; the red door was left sealed (Valen had no more Dispel Magic).

Returning to the party’s nautiloid (already theirs for several sessions), they navigated to a Water World. Through the portal, about sixty feet away, a large block of ice held a dead wizard clutching a wand. Tethered by rope, Dino swam in and dragged the ice closer with psychic force—but two Water Elementals ambushed him and followed through the portal into the ship. A close-quarters battle in the hold ended with both elementals destroyed and the prize secured: a Wand of Winter.

For the next leg, the crew used the recovered Far Realm Shard as fuel for the helm and translated into Limbo, where a black portal opened to the Realm of Chaos. Crossing through onto a drifting chunk of land, the party was immediately confronted by three Red Slaadi. The session closed on that cliffhanger.

🎭 Party Members

📍 Key Locations

• Wizard’s Tower – Upper Room: Hat & note bequeathing the tower to “the next wizard” (claimed by Valen).
• Wizard’s Tower – Basement: Three sigil doors (Green, Blue, Red); green led to the vault after a riddle; blue was empty; red left sealed.
• Our Nautiloid Ship: Party’s spelljamming vessel; site of the portal spillover fight with Water Elementals.
• Water World Portal: Submerged realm; a dead wizard frozen in ice with a wand.
• Limbo → Black Portal: Transition to the Realm of Chaos and a floating land shard (The Far Fortress).

⚔️ Session Highlights

• Up the tower first: Valen claims ownership via the note; Jinks keeps the mind-flayer disguise hat.
• Basement: Three sigils (green/blue/red). Valen dispels the green; Dino solves the riddle (“Tomorrow / Future”) to access the vault. Blue is empty. Red remains sealed (no more Dispel Magic).
• Loot haul from the vault: substantial coin and gems, Wand of Scorching, Dancing Sword, Far Realm Shard, a gold-inlaid spellbook, and a flesh-bound spellbook.
• Water World dive: Dino (roped) swims through, uses psychic force to tow a huge ice block containing a dead wizard holding a Wand of Winter.
• Ambush & shipboard battle: Two Water Elementals follow through the portal into the hold—party destroys them.
• Fuel & jump: The Far Realm Shard is consumed to power the helm to Limbo; a black portal opens to the Realm of Chaos.
• Cliffhanger: On a floating land shard, the party is confronted by three Red Slaadi.

🎬 Key Scenes

Valen and High Jinx : Inside the ruined wizard’s tower, Valen Pyre holds up an old parchment that reads “Here is my hat, this tower is for the next wizard to own.” At his feet lies a pointed wizard’s hat shimmering with illusion, making the wearer resemble a mind flayer. High Jinks eyes the hat warily, tail twitching, silver moonlight pouring through a cracked window.

The Green-Sigil Vault Opens

In the torchlit stone basement, Dino Roar stands before a glowing green-sigil door. Arcane runes shimmer as he confidently speaks the word “Tomorrow.” The stone door parts open, revealing faint gleams of treasure within, while magical sparks scatter across the floor.

Beneath a vast underwater expanse, Dino Roar swims with a rope tied to his waist, straining as he psychically pulls a 15-foot cube of ice closer. Inside the block lies the corpse of a wizard clutching a Wand of Frost. Dim light filters through the water, illuminating his Steel Defender construct perched anxiously at the portal’s edge.

Water Elemental Boarding the Nautiloid

A water elemental surges through the blue portal onto the nautiloid ship’s deck, spraying seawater across alien tentacle-like walls. Garrick “Rigg” Dalhart braces himself mid-swing, ready to strike. The elemental towers above him, coiled waves forming a humanoid shape, glowing eyes fixed on its prey.

Slaadi at the Black Portal

On a jagged floating landmass within a stormy void, the party emerges from a black, swirling portal. Leydrick Gefinhal plants his feet as three hulking red Slaadi leap forward from the mists. One Slaad’s claws drip with chaotic energy, the air itself warping around them.

🧵 Ongoing Threads & Plot Hooks

• Red Sigil Door: Still unopened in the tower basement—requires further magic or a different approach.
• Disguise Risks: Jinks’ mind-flayer appearance could help infiltration—or attract exactly the wrong attention.
• Spellbooks: The gold-inlaid and the flesh-bound tomes need careful study for contents (and possible consequences).
• Fuel Problem: The Far Realm Shard was consumed—how will the ship be fueled next time?
• Chaos Front: Three Red Slaadi block the party’s path in the Realm of Chaos.

💰 Loot & Discoveries

Vault riddle: “I am always in front of you, yet never seen. Without me, you cannot begin, and without me, you cannot end.” — Answer: Tomorrow / the Future.

⏳ Cliffhanger

• Helm jump completed using the Far Realm Shard → arrival in Limbo.
• A black portal opened to the Realm of Chaos; the party crossed onto a floating land shard.
• Three Red Slaadi closed in—combat starts next session.