The crown hit the floorboards with a sound far too small for what it was — a thin metallic ring, the noise of a dropped coin. Yet everyone in Nimue’s cabin flinched as though a mountain had come down. The thing lay there on the wood, a circlet of old dark metal catching the firelight, looking like nothing at all. For a long handful of heartbeats, nobody moved.

Above it, Maledurk hung in the air.

The dragonborn blinked up at the rough-hewn ceiling, his thoughts still half a world away. A moment ago he had been standing before a roaring crowd, their voices breaking over him like surf on rock. King Maledurk. The title clung to him even now. Thousands had cheered, banners had snapped in the wind, and every upturned face had shone with love for him. It had felt right. It had felt like the natural order of things, the way the world was always meant to be.

And yet somewhere under all that golden noise, a small stubborn part of him had remembered his friends. Had remembered who he was. So he had fought — not an army, not a monster, but a dream — and the waking hit him almost as hard as the fall should have. His body jerked, bracing for a floor that never came. He simply hung there.

Below him stood Elora, one hand still raised, the last of her restoration magic guttering around her fingers like candle smoke. Thorn watched with narrow concentration. Tempest looked caught somewhere between relief and laughter. By the far wall Nimue stood pale and rigid, her eyes fixed not on Maledurk but on the crown — that quiet little circle of metal lying among them like a coiled snake.

Maledurk let himself drift down to the boards. “Well,” he said at last. “That was unpleasant.”

A little of the tension cracked. Only a little. They all knew how near a thing it had been.

“It did the same to me,” Nimue said softly, and the room went quiet again.

She told it slowly, as if each memory had to be pried loose. When she’d first touched the crown it had flooded her with visions, tempting and beautiful, pulling her gaze this way and that. But the visions were never the real danger. The danger was what the crown did while she was looking the other way. It hadn’t only shown her things. It had shut her away, walled her up inside her own skull while something else wore her body like a glove.

Maledurk listened, and the back of his neck went cold, because he knew that story. The crowds. The worship. The bone-deep certainty that he had earned every bit of it. He remembered reaching up to take the crown off his own head, and the pain that tore through him when he tried, and how he had refused to stop anyway. Now he understood. The dream had never been a reward. It was bait, and he had very nearly swallowed the hook.

The others pressed Nimue with questions. What was it? Whose had it been? Why did it exist at all? Her answers gave no one any comfort. She believed the crown held a sliver of something far larger than magic — a piece of a will. A shard of some ancient mind that reached past anything mortals were built to understand. Old. Caged. Desperate to get out. The thought settled over the cabin like a storm front rolling in low.

The longer they talked, the worse the shape of it became. For years now they had been dragged from one impossible mess to the next, across far countries, across whole worlds, across edges of reality that were never meant to touch. There had always been mysteries, always some strange power working behind the curtain. But this was the first time a single thread seemed to run through all of it. What if the crown wasn’t one stray evil but a single finger of a hand groping toward them out of the dark?

That chilled even Thorn, and Thorn lived for unraveling mysteries — for pulling them apart, for finding the pattern where everyone else saw noise. This pattern was simply too big. Nimue looked no steadier than the rest of them. Time, she said, might mean nothing to a thing like this; cause and effect might not chain it the way they chained ordinary people. Which raised an ugly possibility. What if their adventures had never been luck or chance at all? What if they hadn’t been chasing the mystery — what if the mystery had been steering them the whole time, herding them, setting them down square by square like pieces on a board?

The cabin got quieter still while everyone sat with that.

Eventually they came back to the crown itself, and the plain problem of what to do with it. Destroying it was past anything they could manage. Ignoring it was impossible. Following wherever it wanted to lead them was dangerous, and probably the only road forward anyway. Nimue floated an idea none of them liked: someone could put it on deliberately, watch where it tried to drag them, and learn what it wanted. She ruled herself out before anyone could even suggest her. She’d felt the thing’s grip once, and once was a lifetime’s worth. No argument in the world would put it back on her head.

The rest of them sat with the idea in uneasy quiet. Thorn turned over his own brush with the crown. His had been different from Nimue’s or Maledurk’s — distant, oddly detached, more like watching than living it. He’d caught only fragments. Images, echoes, memories that might not even have been his own. Nimue had a theory: the crown had been groggy when it first woke, fumbling through old tricks and old temptations, replaying lures it had used on victims long dead. It made a horrible kind of sense. The crown wasn’t only clever. It learned. It adapted as it went. And that turned it from merely dangerous into something that genuinely scared her.

After a while the talk turned practical. If the threat was real — and no one in that cabin doubted it — then they needed to know a great deal more than they did. The crown had come off Knogbruth, the lich whose end had led them to it in the first place. Dig into the lich’s history, and they might turn up where the thing had come from. All at once Waterdeep felt very far away and very important. Its libraries. Its records. The old histories moldering in them, and maybe a few answers.

And as they talked, a second idea started to grow. Absurd at first. Then hopeful. Then something close to obvious. They didn’t have to do this alone.

It came to them slowly. Over all these years they had crossed kingdoms and saved cities, broken curses and pulled down tyrants, hacked through jungle and crawled under mountains, and lived through things that by rights should have killed them several times over. And everywhere they’d gone, they had left people behind them. Friends. Allies. People who owed them. A few honest heroes. So why walk into the dark by themselves?

The notion caught and spread like fire in dry brush. There was Qualish, the half-mad inventor, and Gearbox, his clever construct. The crew they’d bled alongside in Chult. The kings and townsfolk they’d hauled out of ruin. And the dragons. The dragons opened up a whole new argument — Thumberchaud, proud and impossible, and the ancient gold dragon coiled somewhere beneath Waterdeep. Creatures who, as a rule, wanted nothing to do with the squabbles of mortals. But there was precedent even for that. Dragons had set aside their feuds and stood together before, when the threat was bad enough. And if the whole world was staring down its own ending, who could say what might answer a call like that?

By now the picture had gone grand, nearly the stuff of legend. Cities standing together. Old heroes coming back. Companions walking out of comfortable retirement, archmages down from their towers, warriors remembering oaths they’d let gather dust. An army raised not by conquest or command but by gratitude and plain need. For the first time since the crown fell off Maledurk’s head, something like hope got a foot in the door. Faint and far off and a long way from certain. But there.

Nimue listened to the plans swell and didn’t say much, until she did, and her words dropped a last shadow across the firelight. “There’s something else.” Everyone turned. “If this thing really is trying to come back —” she stopped. “If it has worshippers. Servants. A cult already working to free it —”

She didn’t have to finish. An ancient power, caged and patient, would not simply sit and wait. Not if there were already hands working in the dark to loose it. Not if the rituals had already started. Not if the groundwork was already laid.

The adventurers traded looks. The road in front of them had gotten clearer all at once, and a good deal more dangerous for it. Research first — Waterdeep, the libraries, their old allies, everything they could scrape together. Then, maybe, the gathering of armies.

For now the crown only lay there on the floor where it had fallen, silent, going nowhere. Though if you watched it long enough in the firelight, it was hard to shake the feeling that it was watching back. And somewhere past the edge of anything mortal eyes could see, something old and unhurried waited along with it, turning the problem over and over, hunting for the way home.

Session Notes

  • The session began with the party having returned to the situation involving the crown after Nimue had previously stolen it and been forced under its influence.

    • The party had chased Nimue after she ran off with the crown.
    • They fought her and managed to remove the crown from her head.
    • Once the crown was removed, Nimue appeared to regain her senses.
    • The party concluded that Nimue herself might not have been the real enemy.
    • They suspected that the crown, or the entity acting through the crown, was the true danger.

  • The DM recapped the immediate danger from the previous session.

    • After Nimue was freed, the party had spoken together.
    • While the others were distracted, Maledurk looked at the crown, picked it up, and put it on his own head.
    • Maledurk immediately fell unconscious.
    • The rest of the party tried to remove the crown from him.
    • They remembered that when Thorn had been affected by the crown previously, Greater Restoration had been used to remove it.
    • They also remembered that a similar attempt on Nimue had not worked; the magic appeared to be absorbed by the crown.
    • Because the party was wary of touching the crown directly, they did not simply pull it off Maledurk.
    • Instead, they levitated Maledurk and carried him back to Nimue’s cabin, with Maledurk floating behind them like a balloon or kite.

  • The party brought Maledurk back into Nimue’s cabin.

    • The DM described Maledurk being bumped into the doorframe several times as the party maneuvered his floating unconscious body inside.
    • Maledurk remained unconscious and did not wake from the impacts.
    • The crown remained on Maledurk’s head.
    • The party could see that Maledurk seemed to be struggling internally.
    • He was not physically moving much, but his expression made it look as though he was having a bad dream or fighting something from within.

  • Elora and Thorn considered ways to help Maledurk.

    • Elora asked whether she and Thorn had any powers that could assist him.
    • She wondered whether Mage Hand or another magical method might help pull the crown from his head.
    • The DM reminded the party that Greater Restoration had removed the crown from Thorn previously.
    • The DM also reminded them that Greater Restoration had been attempted on Nimue, but the crown had absorbed the magic and the spell had not worked.
    • The party reasoned that Nimue’s case might have been different because of who or what Nimue is.
    • They decided Greater Restoration was still worth trying on Maledurk.
    • Elora confirmed that she still had access to a fifth-level spell slot and prepared to cast the spell.

  • While Elora began casting Greater Restoration on Maledurk, the DM shifted to Maledurk’s internal experience.

    • Maledurk found himself in a vision where he was King Maledurk.
    • He was standing on a balcony before an adoring crowd.
    • The crowd was cheering for him and celebrating him as king.
    • Maledurk remembered seeing himself wearing the crown.
    • He also remembered having already tried once to remove the crown, but the effort had caused him severe pain.
    • Despite the pain and the cheering crowd, Maledurk decided not to remain in the vision or accept the adulation.
    • He chose to go back inside and try again to remove the crown.

  • Maledurk tried to resist the crown from within the vision.

    • He reached up and attempted to pull the crown off by brute force.
    • The DM called for a Constitution saving throw.
    • Maledurk steeled himself against the pain.
    • The pain was still present when he grabbed the crown, but this time it was not as overwhelming as before.
    • Maledurk managed to keep hold of the crown and continue pulling.
    • The DM then called for an Athletics check.
    • Maledurk pulled hard against the crown.
    • The crown resisted him and seemed stuck to his head.
    • Maledurk continued fighting against it.
    • Suddenly, his vision went black.
    • The cheering crowd disappeared.
    • Maledurk found himself floating in darkness and emptiness, hearing nothing and feeling nothing.

  • Elora completed Greater Restoration on Maledurk.

    • As Elora touched Maledurk and cast the spell, she felt the magic enter him as expected.
    • For a moment, nothing appeared to happen.
    • Then the crown fell off Maledurk’s head and landed on the floor.
    • Maledurk snapped awake.
    • Because he was still under the effect of levitation, he woke up floating about five feet in the air and staring at the ceiling.
    • The DM called for a Dexterity saving throw as Maledurk instinctively expected to fall.
    • Maledurk jerked and spun in the air like a startled cat.
    • He then realized he was not actually falling because the levitation was still holding him aloft.
    • He looked around and saw his friends and Nimue staring at him.
    • The crown lay on the floor beneath him.
    • Maledurk no longer heard the cheering crowd.
    • He remembered what had happened in the vision.
    • The party confirmed that Maledurk seemed to be back to normal.

  • The party turned its attention back to Nimue and began questioning her about the crown.

    • Nimue kept her distance from the crown after it fell from Maledurk’s head.
    • She moved to the opposite side of the room and remained wary of it.
    • The party asked what she knew about the crown and about what had happened.
    • Nimue said the crown was a powerful artifact, more powerful than she had realized.
    • She explained that the crown had been able to take control of her body.
    • It had tried to distract her with visions.
    • Nimue said she was able to resist the visions, but the crown still managed to lock her away inside her own mind.
    • The party recognized that this sounded similar to what had happened to Maledurk.

  • Nimue explained what she believed the crown was.

    • She said she had heard of the crown before but had not seen it before.
    • She had not understood how powerful it truly was.
    • She said the crown compelled her to put it on.
    • Looking at Maledurk, she assumed the same thing had happened to him.
    • Maledurk agreed that it had not been his fault.
    • The DM confirmed that Maledurk had failed the earlier check because he had felt an overwhelming sense that he would look very good wearing the crown.
    • Because of that compulsion, he had been unable to resist putting it on.

  • The party asked whether the crown had an owner or whether they needed to go after the entity behind it.

    • Nimue said she suspected the party would inevitably have to face the entity.
    • She believed the crown contained a portion of the entity’s will.
    • She said it was difficult for her to recall exactly what had happened while she was locked away in her own mind.
    • She thought the crown had been trying to get back somewhere.
    • She suggested that the crown might have been trying to reach other artifacts it needed to gather.
    • She also suggested it might have been seeking a location of power that would allow the entity to re-enter the realm.
    • Nimue emphasized that the crown had a will and wanted something.

  • Nimue warned the party about keeping the crown.

    • She said the adventurers were capable, but the longer they kept the crown, the more likely it was that the crown would compel one of them again.
    • The party compared the crown to a corrupting artifact that tempts and controls its bearer.
    • They began discussing how to protect themselves from its influence.
    • They asked whether the crown could simply be put in a bag.
    • They wondered whether it radiated its influence outward.
    • They asked whether they needed to keep physical distance from it.
    • They considered whether they should return it to where they had found it.

  • The party asked Nimue how they could be safe from the will of the entity.

    • They also asked what the entity had been when it was previously in the world.
    • They wondered whether it had been banished to the place where they had briefly encountered it.
    • Nimue explained that the entity was extraplanar.
    • She said some might call it a god.
    • She believed the very existence of the crown confirmed that the entity had once been present in the world’s history.
    • She did not know the specific historical event connected to it.
    • She said history was full of stories about powerful evil figures taking over and eventually being vanquished.
    • She thought it was likely that something like that had happened before.
    • She said she would need to research the matter further to know more.

  • The party considered whether the crown was aware of them.

    • Maledurk noted that he had previously carried the crown in his backpack and felt some pull from it, but had been able to move around with it.
    • Others pointed out that the crown now knew they were there.
    • They suspected it was aware of them and perhaps observing them.
    • Nimue agreed that this was possible.
    • She said the crown might simply be looking for opportunities.

  • The party connected the crown to the larger mystery of their recent adventures.

    • They reminded themselves that they had been trying to determine who or what had been behind the strange events sending them to different places and planes.
    • They considered that the entity associated with the crown might be the source they had been searching for.
    • They wondered whether the entity had existed across different planes of existence.
    • Nimue said that the entity might not experience time in the same way the party does.
    • She explained that the party’s sense of cause and effect might not match the entity’s experience.
    • She suggested it was possible the entity had seen the party as a way back into the world.
    • She said it might have arranged events before them in order to guide them to where it needed them to be.
    • She also suggested that past enemies the party had faced might have been manifestations of portions of the entity.
    • Those enemies or beings might have been under the entity’s control through similar items or by other means.

  • The party discussed the need for greater power and preparation.

    • They recognized that whatever the entity was, it seemed extremely powerful.
    • They reflected that in past battles they had combined spells, weapons, and individual abilities to defeat difficult enemies.
    • They wondered whether this threat required more than the power of the four adventurers alone.
    • They asked whether there was a place where they could find more information about the entity.
    • They also wondered whether they could somehow align their powers as a small group and increase their magic beyond what any one of them could accomplish alone.
    • Nimue said that increasing their power or finding more allies would certainly be useful.
    • For information, she suggested returning to the libraries in Waterdeep.
    • She specifically suggested researching Knogbruth, the lich from whom the party had taken the crown.
    • Nimue thought Knogbruth’s history might reveal clues about how the crown came into being.
    • The DM clarified that Knogbruth was the lich from whom the party had taken both the lich moss and the crown.

  • The party expressed a desire to act proactively rather than wait for the entity to move against them.

    • They did not want to simply wait for the entity to drag them into another vulnerable situation.
    • Nimue said the crown clearly wanted to get somewhere.
    • She suggested that one way to learn where it wanted to go would be to follow it.
    • When the party asked what that meant, she said someone could wear the crown and see where they went.
    • The party immediately recognized the danger in that idea.
    • They recalled that Nimue had put it on, jumped out a window, and run away.
    • Maledurk had put it on and experienced a vision in which he was king.
    • Thorn had previously put it on and had his own experience.
    • Nimue refused to put the crown on again when the idea was raised.

  • The party made Arcana or History checks to reason through what the crown was doing.

    • Maledurk thought back on his experience with the crown.
    • He remembered the adoring crowd cheering for him and wanting him to be king.
    • He recognized that the vision had been alluring.
    • He had resisted it rather than indulging in it.
    • He realized the crown seemed to be trying to get him to go along with the vision.
    • He reasoned that if he had given in and accepted the role of king, he might have lost full control of himself.
    • Elora also considered the nature of the crown’s influence.
    • She concluded that it seemed plausible the crown was battling the wearer’s will.
    • The crown appeared to use visions, tricks, and distractions while trying to take control of the wearer’s body.
    • Thorn’s prior experience did not perfectly match the same pattern.
    • Thorn had seen something more like a highlight reel and had observed it as an outsider.
    • Nimue suggested that because the crown had been locked away for so long, it might have been confused or disoriented when first awakened.
    • She suggested Thorn may have seen memories or visions from previous wearers.
    • The crown might have reacted by cycling through old experiences that had worked before.
    • Once it realized it was dealing with new people, it may have changed tactics.

  • The party discussed who, if anyone, might be safest or most useful as a potential wearer of the crown.

    • Thorn joked or observed that, based on his previous experience, he might be the one who would have to put the crown back on.
    • The party considered whether Tempest putting on the crown would produce a different result.
    • Because Tempest is chaotic, they wondered whether her nature might interfere with the crown’s manipulation.
    • They noted that Tempest’s chaos might make it hard to tell whether she was behaving differently.
    • They compared Tempest to Maledurk because both are dragonborn.
    • They compared Elora and Thorn because both are elves.
    • Nimue said elves are known to be complex creatures.
    • The party considered that the entity was clever and manipulative.
    • They wondered whether raw chaos might be an unexpected counter to such a manipulator.

  • The party returned to the idea of research and contacting Nimue.

    • They agreed that going back to the library in Waterdeep made sense.
    • Elora noted that she had the Sending spell.
    • She said she could use Sending to contact Nimue from almost anywhere.
    • She noted that distance or plane of existence would not necessarily block the spell.
    • The party considered staying in touch with Nimue and alerting her when they were preparing for a battle.
    • They discussed the possibility that Nimue could join them or support them when needed.
    • Nimue said she had some power and was skilled.
    • When saying this, she looked toward the pot of stew she had been cooking.

  • The party considered returning to Waterdeep.

    • They remembered Thorn’s staff or teleportation item that could return them to Waterdeep.
    • They agreed that going back to Waterdeep would be a useful first step.
    • They wanted to do research there and begin gathering more information.
    • They also recognized that they might need allies in addition to Nimue.

  • The party began discussing old allies, resources, and possible recruits from their past adventures.

    • They thought about collecting useful allies and items from previous adventures.
    • Someone mentioned a mechanical thing from an earlier adventure.
    • The group remembered a small construct or mechanical companion that had been able to sneak into places.
    • It was referred to as Ratatouille before the party remembered its name as Gearbox.
    • They considered whether Gearbox could be useful.
    • They joked about collecting all of their allies, dinosaurs, and resources from past adventures.
    • They imagined gathering enough allies to distract or attack the entity while Tempest’s chaos delivered the decisive blow.
    • They recognized that they would need a battlefield and more information about the entity before planning a final confrontation.

  • The party considered whether the entity might be trapped on another plane.

    • Nimue said that based on what the crown seemed to be doing, it was likely that the entity was at least partially trapped or locked away somewhere.
    • She believed the entity had probably been banished at some point in history.
    • The crown seemed to be part of its attempt to find a way back.
    • The party wondered whether the entity might be connected to places they had previously visited, including Barovia and Strahd’s castle.
    • They discussed the possibility of luring the entity into a trap.
    • They considered raising an army from cities, towns, and peoples they had previously saved.
    • They imagined rallying groups across the world to fight for their survival.

  • The party strongly developed the idea of recruiting allies.

    • They considered that the four adventurers alone might not be enough to defeat the entity.
    • They thought that if they had masses of allies, including people and powerful beings from previous adventures, they might be able to face it.
    • They discussed teleporting from place to place to recruit people.
    • They wanted to find both old allies and new powerful allies.
    • They considered seeking retired wizards or powerful spellcasters who might be willing to help.
    • They imagined linking multiple magic users together to magnify their magical power.
    • They speculated that combined magic might become more than the sum of its parts.

  • The party discussed whether they could recruit allies from places where they had not been themselves.

    • The DM reminded them that when they were at the wizarding school, they were not actually themselves.
    • They had been other characters at that time.
    • The DM clarified that the party could still go there, but the people there would not recognize them as the same individuals.
    • The party would have to convince those people rather than rely on previous recognition.
    • The DM emphasized that this did not prevent them from going there; it simply made that location more complicated than places where the party’s current characters were known.

  • The party decided that it made more sense to focus on D&D-world allies from their current characters’ adventures.

    • They acknowledged that they had traveled through different kinds of adventures and worlds.
    • They chose to prioritize allies within the D&D continuity these characters had directly experienced.
    • They believed there were many potential allies to seek out.
    • The DM noted that the party had many people they had met, though not all of them would necessarily still be willing to talk to them.
    • The party reflected that people they saved were not always as appreciative as they should be.

  • The party settled on Waterdeep as the first destination.

    • They agreed again that they should return to Waterdeep and conduct research.
    • They planned to use Waterdeep’s libraries.
    • They also considered visiting the Yawning Portal.
    • They remembered that the owner of the Yawning Portal had provided useful information during their earliest adventures.
    • They remembered that they had property or a hotel-like establishment in Waterdeep.
    • They believed they likely had a place to stay there.
    • The DM noted that it had been a while since they had been there, so circumstances might have changed.

  • The DM helped the players recall old allies and contacts who might be useful.

    • The DM mentioned Glob, the gelatinous ooze that had followed the party underground for a while.
    • The DM mentioned Qualish, an inventor whom the party had found.
    • The party considered that Qualish might be very useful.
    • The DM mentioned a warrior or paladin-like ally from the jungles who had traveled with them for a while, along with a lizardfolk companion.
    • The DM could not recall that ally’s name immediately.
    • The party remembered the jungle city of Omu from Chult.
    • They also remembered Port Nyanzaru, where they had participated in the dinosaur race.
    • The DM reminded them that their guide into the jungle had turned out to be a more powerful creature pretending to be human.
    • The DM noted that the party had ended on good terms with that guide.
    • The DM also reminded them that Port Nyanzaru was probably the place where they would be most enthusiastically welcomed.
    • The city had been grateful after the party ended the death curse.
    • The people there had invited the party back for a dinosaur race on the one-year anniversary of that victory.
    • That return invitation had led into the fog that carried them into Barovia.

  • The party identified Waterdeep allies.

    • The DM reminded them of the Blackstaff, the head wizard of Waterdeep.
    • The party remembered that she had sent them on an early quest into the sewers.
    • They also remembered that she had given them the teleportation wand or similar teleportation item.
    • The party considered that Waterdeep’s sewers, being familiar territory, might even be a place to lure the enemy.
    • They also considered using knowledge of the location to their advantage.

  • The DM reminded the party of two dragons they knew.

    • One was Thumberchaud, a red dragon from the Underdark who had fought Demogorgon with them.
    • Thumberchaud was aloof, full of himself, and technically evil.
    • He had been mildly threatening but not directly hostile to the party.
    • The party considered him as a possible enemy-of-my-enemy ally.
    • The second dragon was an ancient gold dragon beneath Waterdeep.
    • The party had encountered him in the vault beneath the city where the treasure had been hidden.
    • He had appeared at first as a caretaker in human form.
    • He was actually an ancient gold dragon living in the vault because dragons love gold.
    • The party had made a deal with him rather than fighting him.
    • They had agreed to let him stay there, and in return they could access money from the vault when needed.
    • The DM reminded them that Waterdeep has magical protections against dragons entering the city.
    • The gold dragon was secretly bypassing those wards with a magical item that allowed him to remain beneath the city.
    • The party had kept his presence secret.
    • Because he was a gold dragon and good-aligned, the party considered that they might be able to appeal to his honor or sense of duty.
    • They also considered that he might have friends or family who could help.
    • The DM noted that dragons are usually independent once they become adults, but there is historical precedent for dragons banding together for a greater cause.

  • The party discussed the historical precedent of dragons uniting.

    • The DM explained that there had once been a great war between giants and dragons.
    • The metallic dragons, such as gold, silver, and bronze dragons, had banded together during that conflict.
    • The DM clarified that this was a known historical point the characters would be aware of.
    • The party recognized that this precedent might support the idea of recruiting dragons against a world-threatening entity.

  • Before leaving Nimue, the party asked whether she believed the threat required that scale of defense.

    • They asked whether this entity’s return would require an army or a broad coalition.
    • Nimue said that such preparation certainly would not hurt.
    • After listening to the party’s discussion, Nimue said another possibility had occurred to her.
    • She suggested that there could be a group of people, perhaps a cult, actively trying to bring the entity back.
    • If the entity had worshipers or servants, they might already be working to begin the process.
    • Nimue said that if such a cult existed, the party might need an army to deal with the cult while the adventurers themselves dealt with the entity.

  • The session ended with the party’s working plan focused on research and recruitment.

    • The party intended to return to Waterdeep.
    • They planned to research Knogbruth, the crown, and the extraplanar entity.
    • They planned to consider old allies and possible new allies.
    • Potential allies discussed included Nimue, the Blackstaff, Qualish, Gearbox, Glob, contacts from Chult and Port Nyanzaru, the gold dragon beneath Waterdeep, Thumberchaud, and possibly other dragons or powerful spellcasters.
    • They also considered the possibility of a cult working to free the entity.
    • The party recognized that they might need to prepare for both a direct confrontation with the entity and a larger conflict against its servants.