session-2026-04-29

The Void, The Warlock, and The Wandering Beholder

Date: Apr 29th, 2026

Summary

The party found themselves gathered once more in the mysterious chessboard chamber deep within the floating wizard’s tower, the memory of their recent defeat still fresh. Tybalt and Izzy had only just regained consciousness after being expelled from the magical chess pieces, with Tybalt insisting with great conviction that he had personally cut down at least ten opponents in a valiant battle before falling. The others exchanged knowing glances, gently reminding him that it had only been a game. Meanwhile, Corneleus sent his octopus familiar, Archimedes, swimming up through the water-filled exit high above, only to watch through the creature’s eyes as it was swallowed whole by a lurking shark. With a quiet act of will, he dismissed Archimedes to a pocket dimension and resummoned him safely at his side, keeping the little creature moisturized with careful attention.

Determined not to repeat their earlier failure, the party devised a new strategy for the chessboard. Rather than sending multiple people onto the board, they agreed that a single player would control all the pieces while another directed from the outside. Tybalt volunteered to step onto the board, guided by Izzy’s sharp historical knowledge from the safety of the sidelines. He took the form of a knight, but the opposing queen swept across the board and knocked him unconscious almost immediately, sending him crumpling to the floor. Undeterred, the remaining party members pressed on, and through a combination of clever direction and sheer determination, they managed to put the black king in checkmate, winning the game at last.

From a small hole in the wall, a tiny lizard scurried out and presented the victors with a miniature trophy inscribed with the words “Number 1 Checkers Player” and “Maiden China.” The creature seemed to have no memory of its own name and spoke in a confused, fragmented way, mentioning only that it had once been something else — something with two legs — before angering its master. The party was charmed by the little creature and listened carefully as it explained that it had been left here, forgotten, with only a piece of paper it could not read. Curious about the hole the lizard had emerged from, Izzy transformed herself into a small lizard and crawled inside to investigate.

Beyond the hole lay something that defied all reason. Izzy found herself in an expansive void filled with stars and nebulae, a floating rock resting upon an impossible ocean, and in the distance, a gray stone castle drifting slowly toward her. As she drew closer, she noticed the castle’s walls seemed to pulse — convex and concave at the same time — and from the ocean surrounding it, gigantic purple tentacles waved lazily in the void. Stepping inside the castle, she discovered a floor that stretched infinitely in all directions and walls that seemed to close in around her, making the air feel thick and suffocating. Time moved strangely there; what felt like years passed in what the others outside experienced as mere minutes.

The party attempted to reach Izzy through the hole, with Corneleus extending Archimedes’ tentacle just far enough to peer inside, seeing only endless space. A message was sent through the gap, and Izzy’s fragmented replies came back — she had encountered a mysterious entity named Zaqar, who spoke in riddles about moving forward to go backward and backward to go forward. Before long, another party member leaned too close to the hole and was cartoonishly sucked through the wall, vanishing into the dimension entirely. The rest of the party, unwilling to leave their friends behind, began physically attacking the magical wall until a crack formed and the hole expanded, pulling them all through in a rush.

They found themselves suspended on a vast vertical surface that somehow functioned as a floor, held in place by a localized gravity none of them fully understood. The voice of Zaqar spoke to each of them from directly behind, no matter which way they turned, and when the entity finally revealed itself, it appeared as a tiny marble that swelled to an enormous size before shrinking away into nothing. Zaqar explained that the party existed on a lower plane and offered to show one of them its own dimension. A volunteer was pulled briefly into Zaqar’s reality, their body turning completely inside out before being flipped back to normal — an experience that left everyone shaken. Eventually, Zaqar, seemingly satisfied by its curiosity, returned the entire party to the chess room in an instant.

Back in the familiar stone chamber, the party turned their attention to the amnesiac lizard. One of them noticed the scroll the creature carried was written in Primordial and read it aloud without hesitation. The words of the incantation rippled through the air, and the lizard shimmered and transformed into a young woman with dark, gothic features and a necklace that glowed faintly at her throat. She was Amanda, a servant of Myrkul, the god of death, who had been cursed into lizard form for losing her relic. With her memories and powers restored, she floated gently off the ground, her eyes turning white as the air vibrated around her, and explained that she had been sent to escort a death-cheating wizard to the underworld. Without another word, she rose into the tower’s infinite heights and disappeared into the darkness above.

The party located a teleportation sigil etched into the floor just outside the tower and, after a brief investigation confirmed it was transportation magic, stepped onto it together. Rather than returning to solid ground, they were pulled into a strange, doorless room with four mirrored walls and two pedestals at its center. Without warning, each party member found themselves utterly alone — their friends gone, the room identical but empty. A disembodied voice presented each of them with a choice: pick up the blue gem and, if more than half the group did the same, everyone would live; pick up the red gem and, if a majority chose it, those who had chosen blue would die. Isolated and unable to consult one another, every single party member independently chose the blue gem, and they were reunited in an instant, the red gem sitting untouched on its pedestal.

The trials were not over. One party member climbed onto the now-empty pedestal and heard the voice demand they choose one of their friends, repeating the command with growing insistence. Rather than condemn anyone else, the character chose themselves — a noble if ultimately ineffective gesture. Then the room split the party once more, this time into two groups. Two members were told they could sacrifice themselves to guarantee the others’ survival, or they could gamble on a slim chance that everyone would live. Tybalt and his companion lay down without hesitation, ready to accept death rather than risk the lives of their friends. The remaining four, faced with the mirror choice of whether to condemn their companions, refused — and in that shared act of selfless trust, the magic released them all. They reappeared on the road near Myeve to the sound of a brass band, confetti raining down and a banner reading “Self-Sacrifice” stretched overhead, with tiny trophies pressed into their hands by a man in a tall hat.

The celebration was short-lived. One party member punched the band leader squarely in the face, took his hat, and the group quickly noticed that the band members all seemed to have something writhing beneath their clothes. They captured the leader and dragged him into a nearby barn for questioning, tying him to a post and charming him into a more cooperative state. The interrogation was bizarre and meandering, with the charmed man asking repeatedly for his rod and his voice shifting into something deeper and stranger whenever the tentacles beneath his skin began to stir. When the tentacles erupted from the ground around him, a party member struck the earth to suppress them — and inadvertently killed the band leader in the process.

A magical rod floated twenty feet above the barn floor, surrounded by writhing purple tentacles that pushed up through the rock itself. The party attacked the tentacles with fire and cold and force, but for every one they destroyed, more appeared in its place. A massive eyeball opened in the mass of tentacles, its lashes transforming into further writhing limbs, and a voice demanded that one of them become its champion to lead the end of all time. Several party members fell into brief catatonic states simply from attempting to learn the entity’s name. Frustrated and unwilling to submit, one party member leapt into the air, seized the rod with both hands, and was immediately engulfed by tentacles that seemed to pour into her body rather than restrain it. When the tentacles receded, she stood changed — no longer purely a warrior, but something stranger, a warlock bound to a power she did not yet fully understand, the rod now hers to wield.

The party made their way back along the road toward Myeve, shaken and in need of rest. As they walked, one member fell without warning into a muddy hole twenty feet deep, landing with a wet thud at the bottom. Peering down after them, the others discovered the hole was already occupied — by a Beholder, a massive floating orb covered in eleven eyes and ringed with teeth, who introduced himself as Frogra. He chomped through the rescue rope, fired beams from his eyes that left party members slowed and disoriented, and telekinetically hauled one of them down into the pit. But Frogra, it turned out, was less a monster than a deeply lonely creature — his father had never loved him, he had accidentally disintegrated his only friend, and he had been sitting in this muddy hole ever since, waiting for minions to fall in.

The party negotiated their release by promising to bring Frogra twenty stronger minions, and he let them go with a reluctant farewell. They made camp nearby for the night, unwilling to leave the Beholder entirely behind, and gathered around a fire with him hovering overhead. To pass the time, they played a game of Two Truths and a Lie, learning that Corneleus had once been engaged to someone still waiting for him in his home village of Sesura’s Rest — a place he could not return to because of mysterious marks on his body. He produced a small nut on a chain, inscribed with Gnomish writing, as a quiet testament to the life he had left behind. Frogra listened to all of it, occasionally weaponizing therapeutic language when he felt unheard, and the party began to wonder if this strange, eyeball creature might one day be something more than a reluctant acquaintance — perhaps even an unlikely ally against the dragon rumored to lurk near the kobold cave.

Short

The party regrouped in the chessboard chamber of the floating wizard’s tower, devising a new strategy after their earlier defeat. With Tybalt on the board as a knight and Izzy directing from the sidelines, they ultimately achieved checkmate despite Tybalt being quickly knocked unconscious by the opposing queen. Their victory produced a tiny amnesiac lizard bearing a miniature trophy, who led Izzy — transformed into lizard form — through a hole in the wall into a mind-bending extradimensional void filled with stars, a drifting stone castle, and enormous purple tentacles. The entire party was eventually pulled through, where they encountered the enigmatic entity Zaqar, who spoke in paradoxes and briefly turned a volunteer inside out before returning them all to the chess room. Back in the chamber, a scroll written in Primordial restored the lizard to her true form: Amanda, a servant of the death god Myrkul, cursed for losing her relic. Fully restored, she floated upward into the tower’s darkness to fulfill her mission of escorting a death-cheating wizard to the underworld.

Stepping onto a teleportation sigil outside the tower, the party was pulled into a series of harrowing moral trials — isolation chambers forcing individual choices between self-preservation and sacrifice — which they passed through unanimous selflessness, emerging to a brass band celebration near Myeve. The festivities turned strange when writhing tentacles were discovered beneath the band members’ skin; interrogating the charmed leader in a barn ended with his accidental death and the appearance of a massive tentacled entity demanding a champion to herald the end of all time. One party member seized the entity’s floating rod and was engulfed by tentacles, emerging transformed into a warlock bound to an alien power. On the road back to Myeve, the party fell into a muddy pit occupied by Frogra, a lonely Beholder whose father never loved him and who had accidentally disintegrated his only friend. After negotiating their release by promising him minions, the party camped nearby, bonding with Frogra over a campfire game that revealed Corneleus’s hidden past — an abandoned engagement and a life he could not return to — while beginning to wonder if the melancholy Beholder might prove an unlikely ally against the dragon rumored near the kobold cave.

Classic

Last we left off, our intrepid party found themselves once again standing before the enchanted chessboard deep within a floating wizard’s tower — bruised in pride if not entirely in body. Tybalt and Izzy had only just been expelled from the magical chess pieces, with Tybalt insisting, with the full conviction of a man who remembers things differently than they occurred, that he had cut down no fewer than ten opponents before his fall. The party, wiser and more coordinated this time, devised a new approach: one player on the board, one directing from outside. It nearly worked. Tybalt took the form of a knight, was immediately swept off the board by the opposing queen, and crumpled to the floor — yet the others pressed on and claimed victory at last, earning a tiny trophy from a confused amnesiac lizard who had once been something else entirely. That lizard, it turned out, was Amanda — a servant of Myrkul, cursed into her scaled form for losing a sacred relic — and when the scroll she carried was read aloud in Primordial, she was restored, floated serenely into the tower’s infinite heights, and vanished into the dark above.

What followed was a journey through dimensions that defied all reason. A hole in the wall led Izzy — in lizard form — into a vast starlit void surrounding a drifting stone castle, where time moved like honey and a strange entity named Zaqar spoke in riddles about direction and paradox. One by one, the party was pulled through the wall, suspended on a vertical surface held by impossible gravity, and subjected to Zaqar’s curiosity — including one volunteer whose body was turned entirely inside out before being returned to normal. Zaqar, apparently satisfied, deposited them all back in the chess room without ceremony. A teleportation sigil outside the tower then drew them into a mirrored chamber of moral trials: a prisoner’s dilemma with gems of blue and red, a demand to sacrifice a friend, and finally a choice between certain death and a gamble on survival. Every member of the party chose selflessly, every time — and they emerged onto the road near Myeve to confetti, a brass band, and tiny trophies pressed into their hands.

The celebration did not last. One party member punched the bandleader in the face, took his hat, and the group quickly discovered that something was writhing beneath the skin of every musician. A barn interrogation, a charmed confession, and a floating magical rod later, the party found themselves battling an eruption of purple tentacles from the earth itself — a vast, hungry entity demanding a champion to herald the end of all time. Rather than submit, one party member seized the rod with both hands and was engulfed — and when the tentacles receded, she stood changed, bound to a power older and stranger than anything she had sought. The road back to Myeve brought one final surprise: a muddy hole, a Beholder named Frogra, and a negotiation that ended in a promise of twenty minions and an unexpectedly tender evening around a campfire, where secrets were shared, a small nut on a chain hinted at a life left behind, and the party began to wonder whether this lonely, eyeball-covered creature might one day prove to be something more than a reluctant acquaintance.

Middle English

Hearke well, ye souls of curious mind, To tales of trials strange and rare, Where chessboard magicks left behind A knight unconscious, cold as air, Yet victory came to those who’d dare!

A lizard small, of mem’ry bare, Did scurry forth with trophy bright, And Izzy, bold beyond compare, Did crawl within the hole of night, And found a void of starlit light.

Through walls of stone the party fell, Into a realm of twisted space, Where Zaqar spoke in riddles fell, And turned one soul inside their face, Then sent them back to their own place.

A sigil led to mirrored halls, Where gems of blue and red did gleam, And selfless hearts within those walls Did choose as one a common dream, And burst to light like morning’s beam.

Then Frogra, lonely orb of eyes, Did chomp their rope and fire his beams, Yet shared his grief beneath the skies, And round the fire, by firelight’s gleams, The party wondered — friend, it seems!

Snarky

Okay, so the party went back to the magic chess room, decided the problem last time was “too many people on the board,” put Tybalt on the board alone, and watched him get immediately destroyed by the queen. Groundbreaking strategy. They still won, somehow, and were rewarded by a tiny lizard with amnesia who handed them a trophy that said “Number 1 Checkers Player.” It wasn’t even chess. Then Izzy turned into a lizard to investigate a hole in the wall and accidentally discovered an eldritch void dimension, because of course she did. The whole party got sucked in, met a being named Zaqar who turned someone inside out for fun, and were then teleported into a morality quiz room where they all chose the selfless option every single time — which, honestly, is either beautiful or deeply suspicious. They emerged to a brass band and confetti, one member immediately punched the bandleader, and things escalated into a tentacle monster demanding a champion to end all of time. One party member grabbed the cursed rod, got consumed by eldritch energy, and is now a warlock. Totally normal Tuesday.

The cherry on top of this deeply unhinged session was falling into a muddy hole and meeting Frogra: a Beholder with daddy issues who accidentally disintegrated his only friend and has been sitting in a pit ever since, waiting for minions. They negotiated their freedom by promising him twenty people, then sat around a campfire with him anyway, played Two Truths and a Lie, and learned that Corneleus has a fiancée he abandoned in a village he can never return to. Frogra responded to all of this with therapeutic language and eye beams. Truly, this is the found family we deserve.

Limerick

A knight on the board, Tybalt stood tall, The queen swept him straight to the wall. But the party pressed on, Checkmated at dawn, And a lizard gave trophies to all!

Through a hole in the wall, Izzy crept, Into starfields where strange castles slept. Zaqar spoke in reverse, Made things better, then worse, And turned someone inside out — then stepped!

A blue gem or red — make your choice! Each member alone, not a voice. They all chose the blue, As good people do, And emerged to a brass band’s noise.

A rod floated high, tentacles spread, An old god demanded they wed. One grabbed it with flair, Got eldritch despair, And became a new warlock instead!

Then Frogra the Beholder appeared, In a muddy pit, lonely and weird. He chomped through their rope, But gave them some hope — Round the campfire, a friendship was reared!

Memorable Moments

“I definitely saw it. I’m pretty sure it was quite valiant. I’m pretty sure I took off at least 10 of them before I went down.” — Tybalt

Tybalt wakes up after being knocked unconscious by the chessboard and insists his experience of fighting fifty enemies was real, while the party tries to tell him it was just a game.

Izzy crawls through a tiny hole in the wall as a lizard and ends up in an infinite space dimension, while the rest of the party watches stars through the hole and tries to shout in after her.

The party’s attempts to communicate with Izzy through the hole devolve into chaos as they realize she is lost in another dimension entirely.

A party member touches the edge of the dimensional hole and is cartoonishly sucked through the wall, disappearing into the infinite dimension.

The party was debating how to rescue Izzy when a member got too close to the hole and was instantly pulled through.

A party member is briefly pulled into Zaqar’s fourth-dimensional plane, causing their body to turn completely inside out before being flipped back to normal.

Zaqar offered to show the party its plane of existence, and one member volunteered, with unexpected and grotesque results.

All party members, isolated and unable to communicate, independently choose the blue gem — ensuring everyone’s survival in the mirror room’s deadly dilemma.

Each character had to make a life-or-death choice alone, with no knowledge of what their friends would choose.

Tybalt and another party member choose to sacrifice themselves rather than risk a 75% chance of killing the rest of the party, while the other four simultaneously choose not to condemn their friends.

The final moral trial in the mirror room split the party and forced them to act on trust alone, with no communication possible.

A party member leaps twenty feet into the air, seizes the floating rod, and is immediately engulfed by tentacles that transform her from a barbarian into a warlock.

Frustrated with the entity’s demands for a champion, the party member grabbed the rod herself, triggering an irreversible magical transformation.

“You are gasolating me. You’re really putting down my emotions right now. You’re not validating myself. I feel really triggered in this space.” — Frogra

The Beholder, after being persuaded to let the party leave, begins using modern therapeutic language to guilt-trip them into staying.

Frogra the Beholder reveals he was dreamed into existence by a father who did not love him, that he killed his own father, and that he accidentally disintegrated his only friend.

During the campfire game of Two Truths and a Lie, Frogra’s tragic backstory is slowly revealed, recontextualizing his desperate search for minions.

Corneleus reveals his engagement memento — a small nut on a chain inscribed with Gnomish writing — and admits he cannot return to his home village of Sesura’s Rest due to mysterious marks.

During Two Truths and a Lie around the campfire, Corneleus’s lie about his fairy best friend is exposed, leading to a surprisingly heartfelt reveal.

Scenes

The Chessboard Chamber

The party regroups in a mysterious chamber featuring a giant magical chessboard and a water-filled exit high above.

• The party discusses their previous failure at the magical chessboard, which left Tybalt and Izzy unconscious.
• Corneleus sends his octopus familiar up through a hole into the water-filled area above to scout.
• Through the familiar’s eyes, Corneleus sees ink and then the interior of a shark’s stomach, indicating the familiar was eaten.
• Corneleus uses his magic to dismiss the familiar to a pocket dimension and then resummon it safely, keeping it moisturized beside him.
• Tybalt and Izzy wake up after an hour, with Tybalt vividly describing a valiant battle against fifty opponents that the others dismiss as part of the game’s illusion.
• The party strategizes for a second attempt at the chessboard, debating whether to send one person to control all pieces or have multiple people participate.

The Chessboard Challenge

The party attempts to solve a magical chessboard puzzle to progress through the tower, with one member directing from outside.

• Tybalt volunteers to be a piece on the board, guided by Izzy from the sidelines using her history knowledge.
• Tybalt takes the form of a knight but is quickly knocked unconscious by the opposing queen.
• The party attempts the game again with a different strategy, successfully putting the black king in checkmate.
• A small lizard emerges from a hole in the wall to present the victors with a tiny trophy.

The Hole in the Wall and the Infinite Dimension

Izzy explores a mysterious hole in the wall revealed by the lizard, entering a bizarre reality-bending dimension.

• Izzy uses wild shape to transform into a small lizard and crawls through a small hole in the room’s wall.
• Beyond the hole, Izzy finds an expansive void filled with stars, nebulae, and a floating rock with a castle sitting upon an ocean.
• Izzy observes gigantic tentacles waving from the ocean surrounding the floating castle.
• Upon entering the castle, Izzy experiences a reality-bending environment where the floor is infinite and the walls feel suffocating.
• The party attempts to communicate with Izzy using the familiar and the message spell, but the magical properties of the hole interfere.
• Izzy encounters a mysterious entity named Zaqar who speaks in riddles about moving forward to go back.
• A party member touches the edge of the hole and is cartoonishly sucked through the wall into the alternate dimension.
• The party decides to enlarge the hole by physically attacking the magical wall, causing a crack to appear that sucks them all in.

The Infinite Wall and Zaqar

The party finds themselves suspended on an infinite vertical surface with strange gravity and encounters the mysterious entity Zaqar.

• The party finds themselves stuck to a wall that functions as a floor due to localized gravity.
• Izzy describes the sensation of time dilation, feeling as though years have passed while only minutes have gone by outside.
• A mysterious voice belonging to a being named Zaqar speaks to the party from directly behind them, regardless of which way they turn.
• A tiny marble appears, grows to a massive size, and then shrinks away as Zaqar reveals its presence.
• Zaqar explains that the party is on a lower plane and offers to show them its own dimension.
• One party member is briefly pulled into Zaqar’s plane, causing their body to turn inside out before being flipped back to normal.
• Zaqar expresses curiosity about the party and eventually transports them all back to the chess room.

The Restoration of Amanda

The party helps the amnesiac lizard regain her true form by reading a primordial scroll, revealing her identity as a former acquaintance.

• The party returns to the chess room and finds the amnesiac lizard waiting for them.
• The lizard provides a set of instructions written in Primordial, which she needs someone to read aloud to reclaim her relic.
• A party member reads the scroll aloud, transforming the lizard into a young goth-looking woman named Amanda.
• Amanda reveals she was cursed by her master, Myrkul, for losing her necklace and was tasked with escorting a wizard to the underworld.
• Amanda demonstrates her restored magical powers by floating and causing the air to vibrate around her.
• The party recognizes Amanda as someone they had previously encountered, noting that the person who had stolen her necklace is now in the underworld.

The Wizard’s End and the Mirror Room

Amanda ascends the tower to confront the wizard while the party discovers a teleportation sigil that leads them to a mysterious mirror room.

• Amanda flies up the infinitely tall tower to confront the wizard who has been cheating death on behalf of Myrkul.
• The party locates a teleportation sigil on the floor outside the tower and investigates it with arcane knowledge, determining it is transportation magic.
• After approximately fifteen minutes, water, sharks, and debris fall from the upper levels of the tower, suggesting Amanda was successful.
• The party steps onto the teleportation sigil to escape, but instead of returning to the ground, they are transported to a room with four mirrored walls and no doors.
• Two pedestals appear in the center of the room, and the party members are suddenly separated into individual versions of the room.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Separated and unable to communicate, the party members are forced to make a life-or-death choice involving magical gems.

• A mysterious voice presents each isolated party member with a choice: pick up a blue gem or a red gem.
• The voice explains that if more than 50% pick blue, everyone lives; if more than 50% pick red, those who chose blue will die.
• The party members are forced to make their decisions in total isolation, writing their choices on slips of paper.
• All party members choose the blue gem, ensuring everyone’s survival.
• The blue gems disappear and the party is reunited, with the red gem remaining on its pedestal.
• One character climbs onto the now-empty pedestal and is told by the voice to choose one of their friends.
• The voice repeatedly demands a choice, leading to a tense moment where the character ultimately chooses themselves.
• The party is then split into two groups and presented with a final moral dilemma: two members can sacrifice themselves, or there is a 75% chance everyone else dies.
• The two isolated characters choose to sacrifice themselves rather than risk the lives of the other four.
• The remaining four members simultaneously face the choice of whether to let their friends die or risk their own lives, and choose not to condemn their friends.
• All party members are magically transported back to the ground near Myeve, greeted by a celebratory parade and small trophies for their self-sacrifice.

The Cursed Baton and the Tentacle Band

After returning to the road near Myeve, the party encounters a mysterious marching band whose leader wields a cursed, tentacled rod.

• The party reappears in front of a farmhouse near Myeve, greeted by a surreal parade with confetti and a ‘Self-Sacrifice’ banner.
• A band leader in a tall hat presents the party with trophies, but a party member decks him in the face and takes his hat.
• A magical baton is discovered and picked up; it immediately sprouts tentacles that wrap around the wielder’s arm.
• A voice in the wielder’s head offers unlimited power in exchange for worship.
• The tentacles attempt to rip into the character’s abdomen, but the party successfully wrestles the rod away and throws it to the ground.
• The tentacles retreat back into the rod, and a voice tells the party to seek it out for power.
• The party observes that the band members all appear to have tentacles and decides to capture the leader for interrogation.
• The party drags the unconscious band leader into a nearby barn, tying him up to interrogate him.
• Upon waking, the band leader is charmed by magic and confused, leading to a bizarre conversation.
• The band leader asks for his rod, his voice shifts, and tentacles begin erupting from the ground around him.
• A party member strikes the ground with an earth tremor to suppress the tentacles, inadvertently killing the band leader in the process.

The Floating Rod and the Eyeball Entity

The party confronts a mysterious floating rod and a massive, multi-eyed entity manifesting through purple tentacles.

• A magical rod floats twenty feet above the ground, surrounded by writhing purple tentacles emerging from the rock.
• The party attempts to interact with the rod using magic and physical force, but it remains suspended and speaks into their minds.
• Several party members fall into a catatonic state or experience mental strain after attempting to learn or speak the entity’s name.
• A party member leaps into the air and successfully grabs the floating rod, attempting to strike it with a great axe.
• The tentacles part to reveal a gigantic eyeball with eyelashes that transform into further tentacles.
• The entity demands a champion to lead the end of the world, attempting to restrain the party with its lash-tentacles.
• The party coordinates a synchronized attack, counting down to strike the central eyeball simultaneously.
• A party member grabs the rod and is surrounded by tentacles that appear to be absorbed into her body, transforming her from a barbarian into a level two warlock.
• The party discusses the implications of the transformation and the tentacle curse, deciding to seek information in town.

The Road Back and the Muddy Pit

As the party travels back toward Myeve, a party member falls into a muddy hole and discovers a lonely Beholder named Frogra.

• The party interviews each other about the castle seen through the mysterious hole, trying to gather architectural details for John Harrison.
• A party member trips and falls twenty feet into a muddy hole, taking minor injuries from the fall.
• The party discovers a giant floating orb with eleven eyes and many teeth at the bottom of the pit — a Beholder.
• The Beholder chomps a rescue rope in half when the party tries to assist their fallen friend.
• A fight breaks out as a party member casts a bolt of lightning down into the hole at the creature.
• The Beholder retaliates with its eye rays, hitting a party member with a beam that halves their speed and prevents bonus actions, and telekinetically lifting another into the hole.
• The Beholder stops attacking and begins to speak, explaining it is only looking for minions because its father didn’t love it and it accidentally disintegrated its only friend.
• The party negotiates their release by promising to bring the Beholder twenty stronger minions.
• The party debates whether to bring Frogra back to Myeve or lead him to the kobold cave, ultimately deciding to camp for the night.

A Night with Frogra

The party camps for the night with the Beholder Frogra, building rapport through a trust fall and a game of Two Truths and a Lie.

• The party debates whether to return to town or head straight to the kobold cave with Frogra, ultimately deciding to camp.
• Lestra agrees to take the injured woman back to town while the rest of the party stays with the Beholder.
• Frogra attempts a trust fall with the party, nearly crushing several members under his massive weight.
• The group settles around a campfire and begins a game of Two Truths and a Lie.
• Corneleus shares that his best friend is a fairy, that he was once trained as a tinkerer, and that he was once engaged — the fairy claim being the lie.
• Corneleus reveals he carries a nut on a chain inscribed with Gnomish writing as a memento of his former fiancé, and that he cannot return to his village of Sesura’s Rest due to mysterious marks.
• Other party members share their own truths and lies, revealing backstories including griffin riding, goblin language fluency, and a vendetta against mining corporations.
• Frogra the Beholder reveals he was dreamed into existence by a father who did not love him and that he accidentally disintegrated his only friend.
• The party considers adopting Frogra as a companion and using him against a dragon at the kobold cave.

NPCs

Tybalt

A companion who was knocked unconscious by the magical chessboard. Upon waking, he vividly describes a valiant battle against fifty opponents that the others dismiss as part of the game’s illusion.

Izzy

A member of the party who was knocked unconscious during the first chessboard attempt. She later uses wild shape to explore the dimensional hole and experiences severe time dilation within the infinite dimension.

The Amnesiac Lizard (Amanda)

A small lizard found in the tower who presents the party with a trophy after they win the chess game. She is revealed to be a woman cursed by her master Myrkul for losing her necklace, and is restored to her true form when a party member reads a Primordial scroll aloud.

Zaqar

A mysterious fourth-dimensional being that appears as a shifting marble or sphere. It speaks in riddles about moving forward to go back, and has the power to flip a person’s anatomy inside out. It is genuinely curious rather than malevolent.

Amanda

A goth-looking woman and servant of the death god Myrkul. She was cursed to be a lizard until her relic necklace was restored. She seeks to bring a death-cheating wizard to the underworld and flies up the tower to confront him, disappearing into the clouds.

Myrkul

The god of death and Amanda’s master, who cursed her for losing her necklace and sent her to the tower to escort a wizard to the underworld.

The Old Lady

A local resident near Myeve who nonchalantly watches the parade and mentions that the flying tower and other strange events are common occurrences in the area.

The Band Leader

The leader of a nineteen-member marching band who appears at the parade. He is revealed to have tentacles erupting from his abdomen and seeks a mysterious rod. He is charmed and interrogated by the party before being accidentally killed when an earth tremor is used to suppress the tentacles.

The Eyeball Entity

A massive, multi-eyed being that manifests through purple tentacles and a floating rod. It seeks a champion to lead the end of time and exerts a powerful mental influence on those who try to learn its name, ultimately transforming a party member into a warlock.

Lestra

A hireling accompanying the party who offers to carry the injured woman back to town while the rest of the party camps with the Beholder.

Frogra

A Beholder living in a muddy hole on the road near Myeve. He is emotionally needy, claiming his father didn’t love him and that he accidentally disintegrated his only friend. He seeks minions but is persuaded by the party to let them go in exchange for a promise of better servants. He participates in campfire games and uses modern therapeutic language when he feels unheard.

Locations

The Chessboard Chamber

A room within the wizard’s tower dominated by a large, magical chessboard. An exit is located high up, filled with water and inhabited by sharks.

The Astral Void

A dimension accessible through a small hole in the chess room, characterized by floating islands, nebulae, stars, and a surreal floating castle sitting upon an ocean on a rock.

The Infinite Castle

A paradoxical gray brick structure where walls are convex and concave simultaneously and the floor is infinitely long. It sits upon an ocean on a floating rock in space, surrounded by gigantic tentacles.

The Infinite Wall

A bizarre dimension where the party finds themselves suspended on a vertical surface that functions as a floor due to localized gravity, with nebulae and stars filling the sky.

The Wizard Tower

A strange, infinitely tall floating structure where the party faced a series of trials, including a magical chessboard, a dimensional hole, and a teleportation sigil.

The Mirror Room

A mysterious, doorless room with four mirrored walls and two pedestals in the center. It serves as a testing ground for the party’s loyalty and morality, separating them into individual versions of the room.

Myeve Road

The road in front of a farmhouse near Myeve where the party reappears after their ordeal in the tower, greeted by a surreal parade celebrating their self-sacrifice.

The Farm Barn

A simple farm structure near Myeve where the party interrogated the captured band leader, featuring rafters used to hang the prisoner.

The Muddy Hole

A twenty-foot deep, muddy pit located in the farmlands on the road back to Myeve. It serves as the lair for a lonely Beholder named Frogra, who waits there for minions to fall in.

Sesura’s Rest

Corneleus’s home village, which he is currently unable to return to due to mysterious marks on his body. His former fiancé still lives there.

Items

Magical Chessboard

A large-scale chessboard that draws the souls of players into the pieces. Losing the game results in the players being booted back to their bodies and knocked unconscious for hours.

Tiny Trophy

A small trophy presented by the lizard after the party wins the chess game, inscribed with ‘Number 1 Checkers Player’ and ‘Maiden China.‘

Primordial Instructions

A scroll written in the Primordial language that contains the incantation necessary to restore Amanda to her human form and summon her relic back to her.

Amanda’s Relic Necklace

A magical necklace that holds Amanda’s power. It was restored to her when a party member read the Primordial scroll aloud, breaking her lizard curse and granting her the ability to float and transport souls.

Blue Gem

A magical gem on a pedestal in the mirror room. Choosing it was part of a life-or-death cooperative game; all party members chose it, ensuring everyone’s survival.

Red Gem

A magical gemstone that remained on its pedestal after the party chose the blue gems. It was associated with a choice that could lead to the death of those who chose the blue gem.

Self-Sacrifice Trophy

Small trophies awarded to the party members by mysterious parade participants to commemorate their willingness to sacrifice themselves for each other during the mirror room trials.

Magical Baton

A cursed rod that sprouts purple tentacles when held. It contains a sentient entity that offers unlimited power and attempts to physically bond with its wielder by burrowing into their body.

Band Leader’s Hat

A tall, decorative band hat taken from the band leader after he was knocked unconscious by a party member.

Rod of the Pact Keeper

A magical +1 rod that grants its wielder enhanced warlock spellcasting abilities, including a bonus to spell attack rolls and saving throw DCs, and the ability to regain a spell slot. It carries a tentacle curse and transformed a party member from a barbarian into a level two warlock upon being seized.

Bilaro

A magical item intended to trap large creatures, which the party considers using on the Beholder or a dragon at the kobold cave.

Gnomish Inscribed Nut

A small nut hanging from a chain, inscribed with Gnomish writing, which Corneleus keeps as a memento of his former fiancé who still lives in his home village of Sesura’s Rest.

Spells

Find Familiar

Used by Corneleus to command his octopus familiar to scout the water-filled area above the chessboard. After the familiar was eaten by a shark, Corneleus dismissed it to a pocket dimension and resummoned it safely beside him.

Wild Shape

Used by Izzy to transform into a small lizard in order to fit through the tiny hole in the wall and explore the alternate dimension beyond.

Message

Used by a party member to attempt communication with Izzy through the dimensional hole. The spell had limited effectiveness due to the stone and the strange properties of the dimension.

Charm Person

Cast on the captured band leader to make him more compliant and friendly during the interrogation in the barn.

Earth Tremor

Employed to strike the ground and disrupt the writhing tentacles erupting around the band leader, inadvertently killing him in the process.

Mage Hand

A spectral, floating hand conjured to attempt to push or move the floating rod from a distance.

Firebolt

A mote of fire cast at the writhing purple tentacles, successfully burning a patch of them before they were replaced by more.

Chill Touch

A ghostly, skeletal hand used to touch a tentacle, inflicting cold damage and preventing it from healing, though another tentacle quickly replaced it.

Witchbolt

A crackling beam of lightning cast at the eyeball entity, dealing sustained damage during the confrontation.

Guidance

A divinely inspired boost used to assist party members in their efforts to resist the entity’s influence and recall information during the session.