Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

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Session 15
Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins
Session
In-fiction date26 to 27 March 843 A.I.
Recordedunknown
Party presentTerry, Hugo, Caelumn, Vasquez, Ruin, Althea
LocationsForest clearing, Eldwythe sewers

Session 15 opened with the introduction of Althea Stormsoro (Maliwana’s new character, a white-scaled kobold cleric/paladin of the All Hammer), who fled into the party’s clearing pursued by an Aurelian patrol [11]. Mharos whispered to Vasquez to “blame the arcane on her”; Vasquez took the blame himself, and Ruin was decapitated by an Aurelian chain with no save [12], the campaign’s third player-character death (after Cholmondeley in s3 and Harvo in s9). Terry debuted Bladesong with a natural-20 kill [14][15]. Phil Flowerforge’s smoke bomb covered the escape into the Eldwythe sewers [18][21], but a chain from the smoke took Caelumn’s backpack and The Egg with it [20]. Phil named his contact Hett Varn at the White Lantern Shrine, a few miles from Aurelia’s outer approaches [77]. The session ended with fights against Kuo-toa and then needle blights and rat swarms deeper in the sewers [24][28][29].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Metadata

  • In-game date: The end of the night of session 14, in the clearing outside Eldwythe, then about an hour’s run to the sewers and on into the early hours [5][6].
  • Locations visited: the forest clearing outside Eldwythe (ambush, Ruin’s death, Phil’s smoke); the Eldwythe sewers (the entry tunnel, a junction with a Kuo-toa channel, a room with a corpse, a flooded storeroom).
  • Major NPCs present: Althea Stormsoro (new PC), Phil Flowerforge (rescues the party, guides them, parts in the sewers), the Aurelian patrol under the Aurelian chain-master, Mharos (as a voice and a figure of smoke), Briochebane, Kuo-toa, needle blights and rat swarms.
  • Factions involved: Aurelian forces / Pure Light (hunting the party), Mharos (pressing Vasquez).
  • Sessions referenced (callbacks): s14 (the occupation of Eldwythe, Brioche); s12 (Phil’s brigand confession); s9 (Hugo’s mind-control); s2 to s3 (the egg); Umbrafall (the guards’ flare); Fergus.

Recap heard at start of session

The DM rolled a die to choose the recapper, and a four picked Terry’s player, Chris [7]. He gave session 14 at “top level”: trapped in the candy house basement after waking the gummy prince (“One might say a gummy mummy,” the DM put in), which knocked out Caelumn and Vasquez until Hugo airlifted them out of the escape hatch; his own bluff past Nibblecheek to reach Brioche; Ruin tricking Nibblecheek into curing the cursed pair as good servants; Vasquez tackling Nibblecheek and the chocolate chickens; Nibblecheek’s plea for mercy; and the Aurelians holding Eldwythe and hunting them [8]. “You got the gist of it,” said the DM [9].

Executive Summary

A new character, Althea Stormsoro, a white-scaled kobold played by newcomer Maliwana, ran into the party’s camp outside Eldwythe with an Aurelian patrol on her trail [10][11]. Mharos urged Vasquez to blame the arcane on her; Vasquez took the blame himself, and a chain shot out and tore off Ruin’s head [12]. In the fight that followed, an archer killed Asger [13], Terry debuted Bladesong with a natural-20 kill [14][15], Althea blessed the party [16], and Briochebane and Hugo brought down an archer [17]. Phil Flowerforge’s smoke bomb covered their escape [18]; in the smoke Vasquez faced down Mharos with his Mage Slayer feat [19], and a chain from the cloud pulled away Caelumn’s backpack with The Egg in it [20]. Phil led them through a cellar door into the Eldwythe sewers [21], owned to his brigand past [22] and named a contact, Hett Varn, to be met at the White Lantern Shrine outside Aurelia, before leaving them near his old stash [23]. Deeper in they fought Kuo-toa with lightning bone whips, Vasquez’s electrified water knocking out Caelumn along the way [24][25][26]; they short-rested [27], and the session ended as they finished off needle blights and rat swarms in a flooded storeroom [28][29].

Narrative

The session began just short of the end of the long rest, with the party’s level-4 features in place [30]. The camp fire burned low, and a small figure ran out of the trees with shouting behind her [31]: a three-foot, white-scaled kobold with deep blue eyes, a simple dress and jacket, an oversized pointed hat with a skull emblem, and a silver and golden gorget with a burning gem [32]. Armoured travellers had wanted to look at her gorget, she said; she refused, and they tried to take her hostage [33]. Lanterns came through the trees, and a hard voice called “Clearing ahead! Show yourselves!” [34]; an officer ordered them, by order of the Pure Light, to step away from the fugitive [35].

The party spread out [36], and a dark rumbling voice in Vasquez’s head told him to blame the arcane on her [37]. Vasquez stood, cracked his neck, walked forward and raised his hand: “You can blame the arcane on me” [38]. A chain shot out, caught Ruin around the neck and pulled with such force that his neck snapped and his head came off [39]. Initiative followed at once [40]; there had been no save or roll, and Vasquez’s player called it “a scripted death” [41].

Caelumn, without darkvision, readied a second-level Chromatic Orb for the first enemy in sight [42][43]; a spear thrust at Vasquez missed, and an archer picked out the weakest target, Asger [44]. The orb hit an Aurelian recruit for 18 fire and set his hair alight [45], and the archer’s natural 20 drove an arrow the size of the halfling through Asger’s skull and into the lake by the camp [13]. Terry, his bagpipes filling, activated Bladesong for the first time and, on a natural 20, ran his scimitar through an Aurelian’s throat [46][15]. Another Aurelian fired something like a gun into the air as a signal [47]. Retreating, Althea took a knight’s greatsword across her back for 9 slashing and 3 radiant [48], then cast a second-level Bless on Hugo, Caelumn, Vasquez and Terry with a prayer to the All Hammer, shards of metal forming a hammer-and-anvil crest on each [49]. Briochebane tore into an archer for 20, and Hugo, raging, drove his longsword through its chest [17].

The knight turned on Caelumn for using magic; Shield stopped one blow and the second landed for 17 [50]. Archers hit Hugo, Brioche and Vasquez, the last for 7 piercing and 6 radiant [51][52], and Vasquez’s gunblade twice failed to touch the knight, who only smiled [53], while Mharos urged him to bring their misery [54]. Caelumn’s second orb, curved round Terry’s head, set the recruit attacking Terry alight [55]. The patrol’s leader, who had stood back with his arms crossed [56], whispered a word that burned Althea for 9 radiant with no save; she just held her concentration [57]. Then he lashed twice at Terry with an unnaturally long chain from his hands, smiling behind his mask, and an aura from him forced Constitution saves, half of 10 force on Vasquez and Terry [58]. Terry cut down the recruit, and the DM remarked that these were “just cannon fodder” [59].

As Terry finished, something small and dark arced out of the trees and burst between them and the Aurelians in thick black smoke that swallowed sound, smell and sight, and a familiar voice shouted “Follow me if you want to live!” [18]. Hugo took a parting swing that left his target badly hurt [60], and they ran [61]. In the smoke a figure of pure smoke paced in front of Vasquez: “No, coward. Face them” [62]. As they came out it was five centimetres from his face, speaking of his “grand purpose, which is bringing this world to its knees”, and then it looked over at Caelumn: “Remember. You did this” [63]. Vasquez’s Wisdom save, at disadvantage, became a success through his Mage Slayer feat, and he headbutted the figure: “Yeah, you’re trapped in my mind. I make the fucking rules for right now” [64]; the DM gave him inspiration for it [65]. Then a chain struck Caelumn out of the cloud with a tug that did not hurt, and his backpack, the egg inside it, was pulled into the smoke [20].

Phil, a little winded, told them he had a getaway boat near the sewers and that Brioche knew where to go [66]. “Currently, you’ve lost the main artifact of your quest, the one reason why you’re doing this,” the DM summed up, with hounds somewhere behind [67]. After about an hour’s run Phil led them, not to the gate, but to a cellar door at the edge of the walls and into the Eldwythe sewers [6][21], tight, low tunnels with black water in a narrow channel [68].

The sewers were an old haunt, Phil admitted: “as you know I used to be a brigand”, which was how he had come by Brioche before settling down to bake [69]. He had seen the Aurelians chasing Althea and followed them with a smoke bomb ready, and he would meet Brioche at their agreed spot before heading on, perhaps to Arcanthys, Velkris or Wyrmbough [70][71][72]. For Aurelia he had a contact, Hett Varn, with a safe house in Ashward, where the dock workers and tanners live; their magic would be severely limited there, and “your friend with the horns is going to have a bad time” [73]. Since Aurelia does not like infernal races, he pointed them to a disguise item in his old stash near the sewer exit, a hat of disguise from an old job, that might make Vasquez a dwarf, a race well respected in Aurelia [74][75]. Vasquez, reluctantly, called himself half-elf, changed by a parasite [76]. “However, this is as far as we go, lads,” Phil said, and wrote a note for Hett: meet him at the White Lantern, a red-haired dwarf with goggles on his forehead, and tell him that Phil sent them [77]. Hugo waved off the promised reward; the rescue was “reward enough” [78].

Caelumn spent his free daily Cure Wounds [79], and Hugo found a chest in a cubby in the wall with a healing potion and an antitoxin [80]. Althea, grateful for her life, asked to come along and introduced herself properly as Althea Stormsoro [81][82]. When Mharos stirred an urge in Vasquez to hurt Caelumn, he held up a finger and slammed his forehead into the wall for 1 bludgeoning damage [83].

The tunnel opened into a junction of rusted wheel valves and broken gates spilling water “like glowing ribbons”, around a platform half collapsed into slick blue sludge [84]. Vasquez kicked a rock into a side channel, and pale, slick-skinned shapes surged out with spears, nets and scavenged gears: Kuo-toa [85]. Their long bone whips crackled with lightning and reached 10 feet, and the DM noted their true sight [86][87][88][89]. Althea renewed Bless and roused the party with a Draconic Cry, “Fuck you, kill those guys” [90]; Caelumn’s Burning Hands caught one Kuo-toa as the other ducked [91], Terry opened with a natural 20 [92], and Vasquez’s charged gunblade blew a chunk out of another [93]. Hugo killed the first, biting it before he let it fall into the water [94], and the table broke for 15 minutes [95].

Terry cast Shadow Blade for the first time [96] and later killed a Kuo-toa with it, the blade passing through without a mark: “okay instant death” [97]; he threw it too, since it has the thrown property [98], and Silvery Barbs turned a natural 20 against him into a miss [99]. Mid-fight Vasquez asked whether a lightning charge slammed into the water would reach a Kuo-toa; “Rule of cool, I’ll say yes,” said the DM, with a DC 15 Constitution save [100]. Terry, doing the splits across the channel like Van Damme, and Caelumn, who argued he stood on the walkway, both failed and took 7, and the Kuo-toa took nothing [101]; Caelumn dropped into the sewer water, and Althea’s Divine Spark brought him round with 11 hit points [102][103]. Vasquez tried to scare the last one (“Come on, fish face!”), but it probably did not understand him [104]. Althea finished it with Toll the Dead, throwing her onyx bell (“The bell tolls to you, motherfucker,” said Terry), and as it sank the party seemed to hear “get these motherfuckers” from below the waves [105]. “Wait, they do speak English,” said Terry [106].

Knowing the Aurelians had hounds, Hugo smeared Kuo-toa blood on himself to mask his scent [107], and Vasquez, feeling something inside him satisfied, slammed his head into the wall again so that it would feed on his misery and no one else’s [108]. Terry’s owl, Earthwing, came out of its pocket dimension to scout, and found a grate barring one way [109][110]. In the short rest Caelumn used his Bloodwell Vial to recover his sorcery points, Terry took Arcane Recovery, and Althea’s candle ritual gave Vasquez 8 temporary hit points [111][112][113]; she told Caelumn she had once wanted to be a runesmith [114]. Hugo found a decomposed body with a pouch of two healing potions, a crowbar, 15 feet of rope and seven gold pieces [115].

Earthwing found a room of crates and another it took for a boss room, with bones on the floor [116][117]. Althea and Caelumn went in by the back way [118], into a low storage pocket of buckled brick, rotting shelves and floating crates thick with blue glow, where three pale pinpricks blinked from a crack and fast little wakes came at them [28]. Rat swarms nibbled at their feet and wooden needle blights clawed and fired needles [119][120]. Caelumn’s Burning Hands hit the blights for 17 each [121], Althea checked that he was light on his feet before blowing them both up with Acid Splash [122], and Vasquez ran in to ask what Caelumn had been up to: “It wasn’t even me!” [123]. A fungus puffed spores at Vasquez that seemed “very much like biogloom toxin”, and he held his breath [124]. Vasquez chopped one blight in half [125], Hugo killed another and the last with a thrown hand axe [126][127], and Vasquez’s gunblade finished the swarm under Althea [128]. Terry’s hit killed the last rats, ending initiative and the session [129].

Dialogue Highlights

  1. Althea, on the patrol: “They wanted to take a look at my gorgets and I denied them that chance.” [33]
  2. Mharos, whispering inside Vasquez’s head: “This is your chance. Blame the arcane on her.” [130]
  3. Vasquez, standing to refuse the demon: “You can blame the arcane on me.” [38]
  4. The DM, Ruin’s death: “a chain […] shoot out and hit Ruin around the neck as he pulls with such force that his neck snaps and pulls his head off.” [39]
  5. Althea, her Bless: “All Hammer, Father of the Forge, hear me, bless those whose hammer shape the foundations of the world” [131]
  6. The DM, on the recruits: “It’s almost like there is a power hierarchy. And these are just cannon fodder you’re fighting right now.” [132]
  7. Phil Flowerforge, through the smoke: “Follow me if you want to live!” [133]
  8. Mharos, out of the smoke: “I have tried to be patient. I have tried letting you see your grand purpose, which is bringing this world to its knees. Fine. If you won’t bring me others’ misery, I’ll settle for yours.” [63]
  9. Vasquez, to Mharos: “Yeah, you’re trapped in my mind. I make the fucking rules for right now. I don’t think you’re going to be doing any goddamn thing. Remember that I’m the victim here, not them. Feed on me and me alone and you’ll have what you’ll want.” [134]
  10. The DM, on the stolen backpack: “Feel free to go back to Aurelia and claim your backpack mate, but I don’t think you’re getting it back.” [135]
  11. Terry, on his +9 Constitution save: “It’s why Bladesinger is the best wizard you don’t need to actually be a melee it just gives you a good con save.” [136]
  12. Phil Flowerforge, on his past: “as you know I used to be a brigand and I had all kinds of unsavory business all over Eldurae […] that’s where I came upon Brioche and decided to settle down in this nice little village.” [137]
  13. Phil Flowerforge, on the contact: “But his name is Hett Varn. He has a small safe house in what can only be described as the side of Aurelia, where the normal dock workers and the tanners live […] Also, I think your friend with the horns is going to have a bad time.” [138]
  14. Phil Flowerforge, on the rendezvous: “Give him this note and tell him that Phil sent you.” [139]
  15. Althea, her Draconic Cry: “Fuck you, kill those guys.” [140]
  16. Vasquez, after slamming his head into the wall: “Like I said, I’m the demon now. I’m the one it feeds off of. No one else.” [141]

NPCs

  1. Althea Stormsoro (new PC, played by Maliwana): a three-foot white-scaled kobold in a simple dress and jacket and an oversized pointed hat with a skull emblem, with a silver and golden gorget bearing a burning gem ([32]; see Althea’s Gorget). She prays to The All Hammer [131] and once wanted to be a runesmith [114]. This session: Bless, Draconic Cry, Toll the Dead with an onyx bell, Shield, Divine Spark (11 to Caelumn), Acid Splash and Sacred Flame [142][143][144][145][146][147][148]. Status: alive, with the party. New this session: yes.
  2. Phil Flowerforge (returning): the dwarf baker and former brigand [22] who saved the party with a smoke bomb [18][70], led them into the sewers and named Hett Varn and his old stash, leaving them a note [23]. He keeps a getaway boat near the sewers [149] and is meeting Brioche at their agreed spot [72]. Status: alive. New this session: no.
  3. The Aurelian patrol (collective, new): a mixed strike group with an elite chain-wielding officer, archers, a knight with a greatsword and lesser soldiers the DM called “cannon fodder” [44][150][132]; one fired a signal into the air [151]. Terry killed two and Hugo an archer [152][153][132]. Status: hunting the party with hounds [154][155].
  4. Aurelian chain-master (named role, new): the masked leader who stood back watching [56]; his chain killed Ruin [39], a whispered word burned Althea for 9 radiant with no save [156], his chain lashed at Terry [157], and his aura of force forced Constitution saves [158]. He is the elite tied to the Egg’s theft (DM ruling 47; [20]). Status: alive.
  5. Mharos (the entity inside Vasquez): urged him to blame Althea [130], then appeared in the smoke, spoke of “bringing this world to its knees” and turned on Caelumn [159]; Vasquez beat his hold with Mage Slayer [160]. Later he stirred an urge to hurt Caelumn, and Vasquez answered by hurting himself [83][108]. Status: inside Vasquez.
  6. Ruin (PC): killed by the chain in the opening moments [39]. Status: dead.
  7. Asger (returning): killed by an archer’s natural-20 arrow and thrown into the lake [13]. Status: dead (DM ruling 42).
  8. Briochebane (returning): fought the archer [161], was shot in the back [52], and went off on his own to meet Phil [162][72]. Status: alive, with Phil.
  9. Kuo-toa (new monster type): pale, slick-skinned and wide-eyed, with spears, nets and scavenged gears [24], bone whips charged with lightning and a 10-foot reach [163][89], “cr3 creatures with true sight” per the DM [88]. Three are seen to die [94][164][165]. New this session: yes.
  10. Hett Varn (named, off-screen): Phil’s contact, a red-haired dwarf with goggles on his forehead and “kind of a tinkerer”, with a safe house in Ashward [166][167]. New this session: yes.
  11. Needle blights (new monster type): wooden creatures that claw and fire needles [168][169][120]. All killed [125][170][171].
  12. Rat swarms: nibbling swarms that weakened as their numbers fell [172][173]; killed by Vasquez and Terry [174][29].

Locations

  1. Forest clearing outside Eldwythe: the camp of session 14, by a small lake; the ambush, Ruin’s death and the smoke [31][175][176].
  2. Eldwythe sewers: entered through a cellar door at the edge of the town walls [21]; tight, low tunnels with black water and hanging roots [68], and blue growths that pulse faintly in the dark [177]. Phil’s old haunt [178].
  3. The junction: rusted wheel valves, water through broken gates, a platform half collapsed into blue sludge, and a deep side channel; the Kuo-toa fight [179].
  4. The corpse’s room: valve wheels under damp fungus and a decomposed human with a pouch [180]; a metal grate bars the way on [181][182].
  5. The flooded storeroom: buckled brick, rotting shelves, floating crates and thick blue glow; the needle-blight fight [28].
  6. White Lantern Shrine (named, off-screen): “a half-ruined way shrine on the freight road, a few miles from Aurelia’s outer approaches”, where labour wagons and supply carts stop before entering the city [75][183].
  7. Ashward (named, off-screen): the side of Aurelia where the dock workers and tanners live, and Hett Varn’s safe house [73].

Items & Loot

  1. The Egg, in its carrier: taken with Caelumn’s backpack by a chain from the smoke [20]. Its exact current location is unknown (DM ruling 26).
  2. Caelumn’s backpack: lost with what was in it, including a healing potion he later reached for [184]. The candied dentures were not in it: the DM has ruled that they went back to Uncle Nibblecheek before the theft (DM ruling 51). Whether the crooked broom was in it is not stated; it was last seen with Terry [185].
  3. Phil’s note for Hett Varn: written and handed over; who carries it is not stated [167].
  4. Hat of Disguise (named): in one of the crates of Phil’s old stash near the sewer exit [186][75]; found in session 16 [187].
  5. The cubby chest: a healing potion and an antitoxin, taken by Hugo [188][189].
  6. The corpse’s pouch: two healing potions, a crowbar, 15 feet of rope and seven gold pieces, taken by Hugo [190].
  7. Bloodwell Vial: Caelumn spent its charge to recover his sorcery points [191].

Combat Encounters

  • The Aurelian patrol [192].
    • Trigger: Vasquez took the blame for the arcane, and the chain killed Ruin [193].
    • Enemies: a mixed strike group, the chain-master with archers, a knight with a greatsword and lesser soldiers [44][150][56][132].
    • Party state at start: rested, with the level-4 features [30]; Caelumn without darkvision by the firelight [194].
    • Notable rolls: Caelumn’s natural 20 for initiative [195]; the archer’s natural 20 on Asger [196]; Terry’s natural-20 kill [15]; Althea’s concentration save at disadvantage, just made [197].
    • Damage: Caelumn’s fire orbs, 18 and more [198][199]; the knight’s greatsword, slashing and radiant [150][200]; arrows, piercing and radiant [51][52]; the whisper’s 9 radiant [201]; the aura’s force, half of 10 [202].
    • Resources spent: Bladesong and Shield for Terry [14][203]; Shield and Innate Sorcery for Caelumn [204][205]; second-level Bless for Althea [142]; Rage for Hugo [206]; Action Surge for Vasquez [207].
    • Downs and deaths: Ruin and Asger killed [208][175].
    • Resolution: Phil’s smoke bomb ended it; the party fled and lost Caelumn’s backpack [209].
  • Kuo-toa ambush [4].
    • Trigger: Vasquez’s rock in the side channel [210].
    • Enemies: Kuo-toa, number not given [24][88].
    • Notable rolls: Terry’s natural 20 [92]; Caelumn’s natural-20 Fire Bolt [211]; a Kuo-toa’s natural 20 on Terry, turned by Silvery Barbs [99]; Terry’s natural 1 against the electrified water [212].
    • Damage: the bone whips, slashing and lightning, up to 9 and 10 [163][213][214][215][216]; Vasquez’s charge, 8 slashing and 6 lightning [217]; the electrified water, 7 each to Terry and Caelumn [218]; Shadow Blade for 17, and 14 thrown [219][220].
    • Resources spent: Bless, Draconic Cry, four castings of Toll the Dead and Divine Spark for Althea [90][221][222][223][224][225]; Bladesong, Shadow Blade, Silvery Barbs, Shield and two Second Winds for Terry [226][227][228][229][230][231]; Burning Hands and Shield for Caelumn [232][87]; Rage for Hugo [233]; Second Wind for Vasquez [234].
    • Downs: Caelumn, knocked out by Vasquez’s lightning and healed by Althea [102][146].
    • Resolution: Hugo, Terry and Althea each killed one [94][164][165].
  • Needle blights and rat swarms [235].
    • Trigger: Althea and Caelumn walked into the flooded storeroom [118].
    • Enemies: needle blights and rat swarms [236][120].
    • Notable rolls: every blight failed against Burning Hands [237]; Vasquez’s 23 against the spores [238]; a blight’s natural 20 against Sacred Flame [239]; the rats’ 17 against Toll the Dead [240].
    • Damage: needles and bites, 4 to 8 piercing [241][242][243][244][245]; Burning Hands, 17 [237].
    • Resources spent: Burning Hands and Shield for Caelumn [246]; Acid Splash, Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame for Althea [147][247][148]; Bladesong and Shield for Terry [248][249].
    • Resolution: Vasquez and Hugo cut down the blights [125][170][171], and Vasquez and Terry finished the swarms [174][29].

Clues & Foreshadowing

  1. The Egg is in Aurelian hands (DM-stated): taken in the smoke [20]; its exact location is unknown (DM ruling 26).
  2. Mharos is pressing harder (DM-voiced): from a whisper [130] to a figure in the smoke with a “grand purpose” of bringing the world to its knees [250], to an urge to hurt Caelumn [251]. Vasquez’s answer is to make himself the one it feeds on [134][252].
  3. The signal (DM-stated): an Aurelian fired something like a gun into the air; the DM said only Althea and Vasquez, being from Khaldun, might know what it was, but neither placed it [253]. Hugo took it for a flare like the Umbrafall guards’ [254].
  4. The chain-master (open): his chain killed Ruin with no save [39], his whisper hurt Althea with no save or roll [156], and his aura forced saves [158]; Terry expects him back as a recurring villain [255].
  5. Aurelia’s welcome (DM-stated): magic severely limited, and no love for infernal races [138][256]; dwarves are well respected [257].
  6. Phil’s getaway boat waits near the sewers [149].
  7. A voice from the water (DM-narrated): “get these motherfuckers” from below the waves as the last Kuo-toa sank [26].
  8. Biogloom in the sewers: blue growths pulse in the dark [177], and the spores that puffed at Vasquez seemed “very much like biogloom toxin” [258].

Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions

  1. Where is the Egg now, and who holds it? [259][260]. See The Egg Quest.
  2. Who is the chain-master, and what is his chain? [39][261]. See Aurelian chain-master.
  3. What is Althea’s gorget, that the Aurelians wanted to see it? [32][33]. See Althea’s Gorget.
  4. What lies in the room the owl took for a boss room, bones on its floor? [117]
  5. What spoke from below the water? [262]
  6. Where does the sewer lead past the grate and the corridors the owl saw? [181][263]

Quests

  1. [Status: completed] Brioche Retrieval (Phil): Brioche is back with Phil, and Hugo counted the rescue “reward enough” [72][78].
  2. [Status: critically active] The Egg Quest: the Egg is gone with Caelumn’s backpack [259][260].
  3. [Status: new] Phil’s Contact at White Lantern Shrine: meet Hett Varn, give him the note and tell him that Phil sent them [77].
  4. [Status: active] The Aurelian forces on the party’s trail: the patrol and its hounds are behind them [154][155].
  5. [Status: active] Risa’s Sister Conspiracy: the party had been asked to sort things out in Aurelia and now has to go there anyway [264].

Faction & Relationship Changes

Table Rulings

  • Ruin’s death came with no save or roll: a scripted death [267][41].
  • The long rest was marked at the start, so the level-4 features were live [30].
  • Bladesong took Terry’s AC to 21 and his Constitution saves to +9 [268][269].
  • Metamagic: Caelumn had been using Twinned Spell on Chromatic Orb wrongly and changed his metamagic at the level up; the DM allowed it [270].
  • Mage Slayer: Vasquez turned a failed Wisdom save into a success [160].
  • Checks and saves: Caelumn rolled a Constitution check instead of a save, and the DM let him take the save with his proficiency [271]. Terry feared he had done it for years; Caelumn said he normally clicks the right one [272].
  • Lightning in the water, rule of cool: a DC 15 Constitution save for anyone in it [273]; normally, the DM said, Vasquez’s charge would not conduct [274].
  • Shadow Blade has the thrown property, and Terry said it returns at the start of his next turn [275].
  • Areas of effect hit a square if they cover more than half of it [276].
  • Spores do not affect creatures that do not breathe [277].
  • Short rest: looking through a familiar’s eyes would be strenuous, but talking to it telepathically counts as speaking [278].
  • Crybaby points: Terry holds two [279].

Callbacks

  • Phil the brigand (s12): “as you know I used to be a brigand” [22], as he had confessed in session 12 [280].
  • The egg (s2 to s3): the reason for the whole quest is now in Aurelian hands [260].
  • The Aurelians at Eldwythe (s14): the hunt that began at the town gate reached the camp [35].
  • Hugo’s mind control (s9): “Dylan has killed a previous party member while mind controlled,” Terry warned the new player [281].
  • The Umbrafall guards: Hugo recognised the signal from a fight with the guards in Umbrafall [282].
  • Fergus (s1, s4): Terry and Caelumn recommended Fergus’s barbecue to Phil [283].

Meta notes

  • Maliwana joined the table with Althea [10][284]; the DM welcomed “Mally” at the close [285].
  • Mordane is no longer at the table: Ruin dies in the opening scene, and Maliwana takes the seat [39].
  • Dylan joined just after the start [286][287].
  • Terry’s player stepped away for a few minutes before the Kuo-toa fight, and the DM piloted Terry until he was back [288][289].
  • There was a 15-minute break after the first Kuo-toa died [95].

Next Steps

  • Find the way on through the sewers, past the grate or down the corridors the owl found [181][263].
  • Find Phil’s old stash and the hat of disguise near the sewer exit [186][75].
  • Reach the White Lantern Shrine, give Hett Varn the note and tell him that Phil sent them [77].
  • Get into Aurelia to recover the Egg, with Vasquez disguised and the casters’ magic held in check [290][138].
  • Keep ahead of the Aurelian hounds [155].
Entities in this session

People (15)

Locations (10)

Things (11)

References

  1. ^ Session 15, line 14-119: Althea joins, Aurelian arrival, Mharos whispers, Vasquez refuses, Ruin executed.
  2. ^ Session 15, line 446-510: Phil's smoke bomb, Egg stolen by an unseen chain.
  3. ^ Session 15, line 573-700: Sewers entry, Phil's contact at the White Lantern Shrine.
  4. ^ Session 15, line 826-1313: Kuo-toa combat with bone-whip lightning weapons.
  5. ^ Session 15, line 66-73: Inline citation.
  6. ^ Session 15, line 545: Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 15, line 38-42: Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 15, line 46-55: Inline citation.
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  11. ^ Session 15, line 73-89: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 15, line 111-119: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 15, line 160-164: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 15, line 173: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 15, line 195-199: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 15, line 260-274: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 15, line 279-287: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 15, line 446-448: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 15, line 479-490: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 15, line 493-501: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 15, line 573: Inline citation.
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  23. ^ Session 15, line 655-700: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 15, line 826: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 15, line 1156-1193: Inline citation.
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