Rejecting the Deal

In previous tight spaces, the party was unwilling to compromise their principles and this was no exception, they rejected the Illithid offer.

At this point, I knew I needed to create a way for them to obtain the hand of vecna, so I changed the rules a bit. I gave the players 2 options, 1, fight the Illithids. I told them in no uncertain terms, the Illithids will keep coming until everyone is dead. Even if it takes all night. Or, 2, they could accept that happened and save us 4 hours of combat. Fortunately, they opted to skip the combat and move onto the next scene.