📘Session 11 – Engines of Limbo2

🎶 Music (placeholder)

🖼️ Images (placeholder)

Tower – upper room (hat & note) Tower – basement sigil doors (green • blue • red) Water World – frozen wizard in ice Ship’s hold – water elementals fight Limbo → Black Portal → Realm of Chaos (floating land) Red Slaad encounter (cliffhanger)

🪐 Campaign Arc

Campaign: Spelljammer – Beyond the Sword Coast
Session: 11 – Engines of Limbo
Dungeon Master: James / Sicareus
Setting: Wizard’s Tower (upper room & basement), our nautiloid ship, a Water World portal, Limbo, and the Realm of Chaos

🧭 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

Character

Player

Class/Subclass

Race

Notable Actions

Garrick “Rigg” Dalhart

Ben / Elemunk

Rogue (Swashbuckler)

Human

Sneak Attacks and precise strikes during the elemental fight aboard ship.

Laydrick Gefinhal

Jared / Galindis

Cleric (Life)

Dwarf

Kept the line stable with timely healing and radiant pressure on the elementals.

High Jinks

Kate / Keitachan

Warlock (Great Old One)

Tabaxi

Claimed and tested the mind-flayer disguise hat; eldritch firepower in the shipboard brawl.

Dino Roar (Dynoth Rokos)

Robb / Baconbuff

Artificer (Battle Smith) / Fighter

Githyanki

Tethered dive into the Water World; used psychic force to haul the ice; first contact with the elementals.

Valen Pyre

Justin / Slitzer

Wizard (Evoker)

Human

Claimed the tower; dispelled the green sigil; with Dino solved the riddle; managed arcane logistics.

📍 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.

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.

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.

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

Item

Finder / Holder

Description / Status

Hat of Disguise (Mind-Flayer Guise)

High Jinks

Alters appearance to a mind flayer; useful for deception, potentially hazardous socially.

3000 gp

2× 1000 gp diamonds,

3×500 gp emeralds

Party

Vault spoils from the green-sigil path.

Wand of Scorching

Party

Fire-evocation wand recovered from the vault.

You create three rays of fire and hurl them at targets within range. You can hurl them at one target or several.

Make a ranged spell attack for each ray. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 fire damage.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you create one additional ray for each slot level above 2nd.

Dancing Sword

Dino

Found in the Green Sigal door

You can take a Bonus Action to toss this magic weapon into the air. When you do so, the weapon begins to hover, flies up to 30 feet, and attacks one creature of your choice within 5 feet of itself. The weapon uses your attack roll and adds your ability modifier to damage rolls.

While the weapon hovers, you can take a Bonus Action to cause it to fly up to 30 feet to another spot within 30 feet of you. As part of the same Bonus Action, you can cause the weapon to attack one creature within 5 feet of the weapon.

After the hovering weapon attacks for the fourth time, it flies back to you and tries to return to your hand. If you have no hand free, the weapon falls to the ground in your space. If the weapon has no unobstructed path to you, it moves as close to you as it can and then falls to the ground. It also ceases to hover if you grasp it or are more than 30 feet away from it.

Spellbook (gold-inlaid)

Valen (tower claimant)

Finely crafted wizard’s tome; contents blank.

Spellbook (flesh-bound)

Party

Uneasy provenance; contents unknown—handle with care. Looks difficult to read

Far Realm Shard

Party →

Consumed

Used as helm fuel to reach Limbo / Realm of Chaos.

Wand of Winter (Wand of Frost)

High Jinx

Found in the Water World ice block; taken from the dead wizard’s grasp.

The wand possessed seven charges, one or more of which were expended every time it was used. Whomever wielded a wand of winter could use it to produce the spells ray of frost (without expending a charge), sleet storm, or ice storm.^[1]

A number of the wand's charges were restored each day. If it was ever completely exhausted of its power, there was a chance the wand would instantly melt and never be usable again.

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.