After rescuing Princess Xedalli, the party reasoned that they should just slip through the Xaryxian blockade rather than go to open war. Having a stolen star moth and a crew heavy with astral elves, including the believed-dead princess herself, they reasoned they could get to the Xaryxian homeworld without combat. What follows replaces the bulk of chapters 7-10. The party will split from Krux, Gargenhale, and their Nightspider, all of whom will continue to Doomspace to raise an attack force. Topolah will want to go with them to see this cosmic event. Hired hands that were not hadozee taken from the star moth will go with the Nightspider.
Having brought Gargenhale’s secret weapon–Princess Xedalli, heir to the Xaryxian Empire–upon the nightspider, the party quickly reconsidered their options. Krux and Gargenhale wanted to raise an armada in Doomspace to face the Xaryxian navy head on, a plan Xedalli initially thought necessary given the navy’s might.
However, the party suggested an alternative: Sneak through the armada in their Xaryxian star moth, having only the astral elves among them visible from outside, and make their way to the Imperial Citadel, a city-on-a-rock not wholly unlike the Rock of Bral. Once making landfall, they would march to the palace, accuse Prince Xeleth of his treachery before their father, and reclaim Xedalli’s right to the throne. Upon their success, Xedalli would be able to stop the process that would soon destroy Toril.
In order to do this, the party would have to let go of their nightspider in order to not arouse suspicion. An opportunity in front of him, Gargenhale quickly offered to take the nightspider to Doomspace as part of the armada-recruitment plan. The party had some reluctance in trusting the pirate to return the ship after their mission. They trusted even less that he would deliver the full load of the spelljamming helms that Idakath arranged to drop off on Vocath. With few options, they decided to go ahead and entrust this work to Gargenhale, but arranged for payment to be held by the fence until the party could retrieve it personally.
The party would also leave the damselfly attached to the nightspider to further reduce their chance of being caught. They told Gargenhale of the last-resort weapon on the ship and gave him the slip of paper with the magic words.
Gargenhale tried to convince Topolah to join him, but she insisted on staying with the party to watch whatever new magic would need to be performed to save Toril.
As a navy man himself, Inrim argued that the party should all go to raise an armada. Outnumbered and unwilling to leave his companions, he chose to go along with the party’s new plan to fly straight for the Imperial Citadel in Xaryxispace.
As the party would set sail for Xaryxispace, Krux and Gargenhale would make their way to Doomspace. Krux wanted nothing to do with the undead Gargenhale, and Gargenhale had no problem keeping his distance. Gargenhale would make his way straight for Vocath to make his case for raising an armada to fight the Xaryxian navy.
Krux would decide upon another destination in Doomspace. Days removed from his last ale and driven by his conviction to atone for his past failures against the Xaryxian forces, his memory began to clear up.
Back on Bral, he only remembered talk of a force possibly building in Doomspace. Now, he remembered it was actually his long time friend, Major Warwyck Blastimoff. Blastimoff tried to recruit Commander Krux to the cause weeks ago, when Xaryxians came to tell people of Bral to stay away from Toril. Blastimoff was unsuccessful in recruiting the very drunk Krux, but Krux now remembered that Blastimoff was specifically headed toward Aruun. So it was there that Krux first went.
On his way, he also had the time for some soul searching and listening to his crew. He had to come to terms with Bral’s navy not being the problem after all. In fact, they were looking to save Toril and him. He was too consumed with losing his fleet in battle to recognize that the navy did not strip him of his rank. He was too caught up in drinking away the pain to recognize when his friends offered him a shot at redemption. Now, with clear mind, he would not fail again.
He made his way to Aruun in time to give Blastimoff a literal lifeline when his attempts to recruit were not going well among hostile natives of the planet. Together, and taking what fleet Blastimoff originally brought with him, they regrouped on Vocath where Gargenhale had already been rallying the hooligans.
The hardest part of all would be convincing Vocath himself to support their assault. Gargenhale had been granted an audience with Vocath when Krux and Blastimoff arrived. Despite his disdain for the undead, Krux joined in the discussion.
The tipping point in the conversation would come from Blastimoff, who openly acknowledged the issues that have existed between Vocath and Mirt, and the navy of Bral by extension. He recognized that the conflict between Vocath and Mirt were the result of Mirt capitalizing on Vocath’s charity toward people needing to flee the doomed world of Fyreen. In that time, Mirt made off with ships and spelljamming helms to use for his new Academy. Vocath did not appreciate this slight, and Mirt would never acknowledge that he did anything wrong. The resulting feud had Mirt trying to take swipes at Vocath’s organization and Voacath trying to undermine Mirt’s Academy. With the Academy in ruin, Mirt was removed from his station.
As a peace offering from the navy, Blastimoff promised that five of the seven ships he brought (not including Krux’s living ship) would be given to Vocath after the battle in exchange for his own matched support.
Tiring of the feud and the expenses it comes with, and sensing an opportunity to regain some markets, he agreed to join the coalition. Vocath would also sell his recently acquired spelljamming helms at cost to any who would join the fight. (He was the buyer of the party’s recently acquired helm haul in the deal arranged by Idakath’s fence.) Their forces, combined with other mercenary and true believer vessels, would manage to bring together 25 ships in all.
As geared up as they could be in short order, the newly forged armada made haste for Xaryxispace.
Next chapter: Spelljammer 2022 – Session 13, 2023-03-15