Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Session 16 completed the Eldwythe sewers crawl and put the party on a boat heading south. The party found a Hat of Disguise in a hidden crate; Althea Stormsoro identified it via ritual and Vazquez attuned during the boat journey, gaining a tiefling-disguising solution for Aurelian gates. They navigated a seven-lock binary-language puzzle door (open/closed in seven tongues, three of which the party could read), brute-forced it via process of elimination, and found a sarcophagus chamber whose chest pressure plate triggered an ambush of two flame-skulls and a ghoul. After defeating most of the encounter (with Caelumn downed twice and a flame-skull’s fireball doing 24 damage in a 15-foot radius), the party stealthed past the Aurelian sewer exit, found a small skiff, and chose to sail to the White Lantern Shrine to meet Phil Flowerforge’s contact Hett Varn — three days’ sail south toward Aurelia. The session ended on the open water, with Sevryn’s telepathic voice in their heads: “Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to” ^[6]. Subsequently retconned in s17 — see Retcon section.

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Metadata

• In-game date: Continuation of the s15 night. Session covers ~30 minutes of in-game time in the sewers, then 3 days of sailing southward at session end.
• Locations visited: Eldwythe sewers (continued) — the sewer-crate room, the long passageway with the Aurelians’ invisible wall puzzle (and the puzzle door with seven locks), the sarcophagus chamber, the bend with the injured man, the sewer outflow / cliff exit, and the skiff on open water heading south.
• Major NPCs present: An injured man (briefly encountered in the sewer basin; vanished into invisibility), the Aurelian patrol (heard at the mouth of the sewer; party stealthed past), Sevryn (telepathic communication at session end).
• Factions involved: Aurelian forces (still hunting), Pure Light (passive presence at the sewer mouth).
• Sessions referenced (callbacks): s15 (sewer entry, hat of disguise foreshadowed, Phil’s contact, Mharos); s9 (Vazquez’s parasite); s12 (Eldwythe origin); s4-s10 (Umbrafall / Maelis shipping / biogloom).

Executive Summary

The party continued the sewer crawl and discovered the Hat of Disguise that Phil had referenced in s15 — hidden in a wet crate, visible only when water hit the magical effect ^[7]. Althea ritual-cast Identify (10 minutes) and confirmed the hat’s properties; Vazquez attuned to it later during the boat journey and successfully disguised himself as a dwarf. They navigated a seven-lock binary-language puzzle door (each lock toggling between open/closed in a different language; only three of the seven languages were readable to the party — Common, Common, Common, Halfling, Infernal, Giant, Undercommon, and the party realized too late they could investigate the wear pattern of locks 1, 3, and 5 to find the answer). After 20 minutes of brute-force, Hugo solved it: open-closed-open-closed-open-closed-closed ^[8].

Past the door was an inscription on the wall — “keep your eye on the wall” — which the party interpreted multiple ways before Caelumn walked backwards into the wall and passed through it (a quantum/illusion wall). Inside: a sarcophagus chamber with five sarcophagi and a chest. Caelumn opened the chest (containing 300gp diamond, ~10gp/53sp/20cp, and an empty-looking potion — the table speculated invisibility potion but it was likely a real liquid). The chest’s removal triggered an ambush of two flame-skulls and a ghoul, with a ghoul biting a downed Caelumn for 2 fail death-saves ^[9]. Vazquez and Althea, separated by a magical wall, eventually found an injured man in a side room who told them about a stash tip before vanishing via invisibility potion. They rejoined the main fight in time. The flame-skulls’ fire damage was effectively wasted on a fire-immune ghoul, and the party finished the encounter — Vazquez crit-killed a flame-skull with a 25 to-hit advantage roll ^[10], and Althea finished the last flame-skull with a thrown cowbell.

The party stealthed past the Aurelian patrol at the sewer exit (a group stealth check averaging 7 was the best they got, but Phil’s earlier head-start was enough), found a small skiff at the sewer outflow, and chose to sailing south to the White Lantern Shrine to meet Phil’s contact Hett Varn (3 days sail). Vazquez attuned to the Hat of Disguise over the boat trip. The session ended with Sevryn’s telepathic voice in the party’s heads: “Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to.” ^[6].

Narrative

The session opened with Caelumn looting a wet crate that contained two healing potions, a greater healing potion, a smoke bomb, 50 feet of silk rope, a hooded lantern, a flask of oil, and 12gp/8sp ^[11]. Caelumn noticed something unseen shimmer in the crate — Caelumn shoved Terry’s head into the crate to verify (Terry rolled investigation 0); Caelumn tipped the crate over, water hit the unseen object, and a Hat of Disguise materialized ^[7].

Caelumn attempted to slap the hat onto Vazquez without warning. Vazquez intercepted with a sleight-of-hand contest (Vazquez 12 to Caelumn’s roll), gently pushing Caelumn’s hand aside ^[12]. Vazquez refused: “We don’t know if it’s cursed. We don’t know if it’s going to make this and he points to like generally the entirety of himself worse” ^[13]. Althea offered to ritual-cast Identify (10 minutes). The party let her. During the cast, Terry ritual-cast Detect Magic (10 minutes); the cast revealed the Hat of Disguise (Disguise Self per attune) and confirmed the sewer’s biogloom was bio-magic (slightly diluted Umbrafall variant), but otherwise the area was magical-quiet. Caelumn, Hugo, and Vazquez chatted philosophically about religion during the wait — Terry’s player went on a long monologue about a Filarion wedding that Caelumn pretended to ignore.

Hugo (with a history check at advantage) caught a faint sense of recognising the biogloom but failed to remember (rolled a 4 after the dice rolled an 18). The biogloom’s tie to House Tallow-linked buyers (a rare potion ingredient that Tallow-linked buyers cultivate and trade) was revealed only after Hugo’s later medicine check ^[14]. The s16 transcript Whisper-rendered the buyer name as “Talaward”, which is likely a transcript error for House Tallow. Hugo also collected biogloom from the rats’ bodies (~7 vials), and on a sleight-of-hand roll, extracted a poison-spore gland from one of the bigger creatures ^[15]. Hugo noted the gland was roughly grapefruit-size and could potentially be used as an improvised explosive bomb.

The party explored a side door and reached a seven-lock binary-language puzzle door ^[16]. Each lock had its own slide-catch and a short line of writing in a different language. Three were readable:

• Lock 1: “open” (Common)
• Lock 2: “closed” (Hugo, Common)
• Lock 3: “open” (Caelumn, Common)
• Locks 4, 5, 6, 7: gibberish to all readable languages. Later revealed: Infernal, Giant, Undercommon, and Halfling.

Vazquez tried to brute-force by setting all to open; nothing happened. Hugo settled in for a 20-minute systematic brute-force. The DM revealed too late that an investigation check after each failure would have revealed locks 1, 3, and 5 had moved more than the others — a wear-mark hint. Hugo successfully unlocked it: open-closed-open-closed-open-closed-closed ^[8]. Hugo locked it from the other side (inverted) for security.

Past the door was a long passageway dead-ending at a wall with the inscription: “keep your eye on the wall.” The party tried multiple interpretations — closing eyes, placing an eye against the wall, cleaning the wall, even Hugo physically pressing his pupil against the wall (“Bring your eye up close, but keep it gentle,” ^[17]. Nothing worked. The party investigated; nothing. Eventually Caelumn walked backwards into the wall ^[18] and passed straight through. The party realized the wall was a quantum/illusion wall — visible to those in front of it but passable backwards. Hugo had previously tried this exact thing earlier in the session ^[19] and the DM had missed it. The DM apologised and let the party through.

In the next chamber: five stone sarcophagi, a small iron-bound chest on a low plinth in the centre, and the inscription “keep your eye on the wall” already passed. Caelumn investigated the chest (unlocked, corroded). Inside: a 300gp diamond (Caelumn’s appraisal), 10gp/53sp/20cp, and an empty-seeming potion bottle that felt like it held liquid ^[20] — the table speculated invisibility potion but the empty appearance is a feature rather than a bug. Lifting the chest triggered the trap.

A pulse ran through the floor, the seam of the plinth flashed black, and one of the sarcophagi opened. Initiative. The DM had to upload the new scene because he hadn’t expected the party to make it this far ^[21]. Two flame-skulls and a ghoul emerged.

The fight was rough. The first flame-skull cast Fireball (24 damage, 15-foot radius), Terry took full damage (24, with Absorb Elements as a reaction reducing it to half, then Hugo absorbing), Caelumn took half (12), and the ghoul next to Caelumn died from the AoE ^[22]. The other flame-skull was immune to fire. Caelumn went for the wounded skull and was dropped to 0 by an opportunity attack (a flame-skull headbutt for 18 fire damage — comically high, ^[23]. The ghoul (still alive in the skull’s flame radius) eventually targeted the unconscious Caelumn for 2 death-save fails.

Vazquez and Althea, in a different room (separated by another magical wall when they were placed onto a different track), found an injured man ^[24] in a basin with overflowing glowing roots. He asked for healing in exchange for information; Vazquez negotiated; Althea healed him. He named a stash of gold, rope, rations, biogloom toxins, and healing potions to the south-and-west (“push in the wall and it should fall,” ^[25]. He invisibility-potioned and vanished before they could press for more.

Vazquez and Althea heard the explosion from the sarcophagus chamber. They rushed back; Vazquez had to make a Con save against a lingering biogloom spore on the floor — succeeded. They rejoined the fight via a re-opened path (the magical wall returned them). Hugo killed one flame-skull on a 14 hit; Vazquez crit-killed another with a 25 to-hit advantage attack for 12 slashing damage ^[10]. The ghoul attacked the unconscious Caelumn (2 death-save fails) but Vazquez heroically dashed in and poured a Greater Healing Potion down Althea’s throat for 17 healing ^[26]. Hugo gave Caelumn a regular healing potion for 5. The remaining flame-skull fled out of range (incapacitated and frightened due to Althea’s earlier Turn Undead, which had a delayed effect once the skull took damage). The party let it run. Initiative ended.

The party set out for the sewer exit. A failed group stealth check (5 vs 7 average) was salvaged by the fact that the patrol had earlier been distracted; the DM chose to let them sneak past. The sewer outflow opened to cold night air, salt water, wet reeds, and distant smoke, and a small skiff bobbed against the current ^[27].

The party debated routes. The choices were:

• Aurelia (3 days sail south) — meet Hett Varn at the White Lantern Shrine, attempt to recover the Egg, but face the magic-banning Aurelians (Vazquez tiefling-presenting; Caelumn and Terry sorcerer/wizard).
• Velkris — chase Maelis Dirn’s shipping leads (no concrete plan).
• Umbrafall — gather strength.
• Mire Strand → Sevryn — explain the Brioche-misfire, gather information on the egg.

The party voted for Aurelia (toward the White Lantern Shrine first). Vazquez attuned to the Hat of Disguise over the hour-long boat trip and tested the Disguise Self spell — successfully disguising himself as a dwarf ^[28].

The session ended with the DM’s narration: “You feel a strengthened bond between you… and the only thing that rings in your mind at this point is Sevryn telling you everything is happening the way it’s supposed to. And as you set your sails towards the pale city of Aurelia, you feel a strengthened bond between you, from what you’ve achieved, from what you’ve gone through, and to where you’re going. And that, dear friends, is the end of today’s session.” ^[29].

Dialogue Highlights

1. Caelumn to Vazquez, slamming the hat: “I’m not gonna wear it. I’m turning around and I look at Vasquez without any warning I slam it on his head just praying that it’s not a cursed item.” ^[30]
2. Vazquez’s refusal: “We don’t know what this is… We don’t know if it’s cursed. We don’t know if it’s going to make this and he points to like generally the entirety of himself worse.” ^[13]
3. Hugo reading the puzzle door: “Open closed open blank blank blank blank.” ^[31]
4. Caelumn, opening the cursed chest: “Cool. And I would have done this as we were on our way here, but can I have used some healing on myself?” — followed by being downed by a flame-skull moments later.
5. The injured man: “I’m sure if it wasn’t for you, I would have been toast… but if you go down the south and to the west, there’s a small hidden stash. Just push in the wall and it should fall.” ^[25]
6. Vazquez to the injured man: “If you ever need any more assistance, we’ll be waiting around Aurelia, I guess. Same goes for our side. If you want to help us out as a thank you, we’d appreciate it!” ^[32]
7. The DM, session-ending: “Sevryn telling you everything is happening the way it’s supposed to. And as you set your sails towards the pale city of Aurelia…” ^[29]

NPCs

1. The injured man (unnamed): wounded, in a stone basin with overflowing biogloom roots. Asked for healing in exchange for information; named a stash. Vanished via invisibility potion ^[25]. Status: alive, fled. New this session: yes.
2. Two flame-skulls and a ghoul: in the sarcophagus chamber. Triggered by lifting the chest. Two flame-skulls were defeated; the ghoul died in a flame-skull’s fireball; one flame-skull fled (incapacitated/frightened from Althea’s Turn Undead). Status: 2 destroyed, 1 fled.
3. Sevryn: not present in person. Telepathic voice at session end: “Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to” ^[6]. His egg quest is now in critical disarray — Egg stolen, party heading toward Aurelia. Sevryn’s message is enigmatically affirmative.
4. Hett Varn: not yet met. Phil’s contact, to be met at the White Lantern Shrine. Awaiting party arrival.
5. Aurelian forces at the sewer mouth: at least 1-2 patrols heard. Party stealthed past.
6. Earthwing the owl (Terry’s familiar): killed (or “connection caught”) by something unseen on the ceiling during sewer scouting ^[33]. Terry’s mental connection to the owl was broken; the owl’s consciousness was either killed or trapped. The DM described “Something came out of the dark” ^[34]. The party left it unspoken; the owl is presumed dead. Terry can re-summon Earthwing later.

Locations

1. Eldwythe sewers — sewer-crate room: small chamber with a wedge-in-wall crate containing healing potions, greater healing potion, smoke bomb, rope, lantern, oil, gold/silver, and the Hat of Disguise.
2. Eldwythe sewers — Hugo’s biogloom-collection bend: the corridor where the rats died with their guts disembowelled. Hugo extracted ~7 vials of biogloom and 1 poison-spore gland.
3. Eldwythe sewers — long puzzle hallway: tunnel ending at the iron-banded door with seven locks, the inscription “keep your eye on the wall,” and the invisible quantum wall.
4. Eldwythe sewers — sarcophagus chamber: five stone sarcophagi, central plinth with chest, ceiling lit by lantern. Trap-triggered ambush site.
5. Eldwythe sewers — basin chamber (where Vazquez and Althea found the injured man): four stone drains, stone basin with overflowing glowing roots, single lantern on a dry ledge, an injured man against the wall.
6. Eldwythe sewers — exit / sewer mouth: opens to cold night air, salt water, wet reeds, distant smoke. Aurelian patrol stationed nearby.
7. The skiff on open water: small boat sufficient for all five PCs. Heading 3 days south toward White Lantern Shrine.
8. White Lantern Shrine: half-ruined waystation roughly half a day’s travel from Aurelia (direction not explicitly named on-screen — likely a coastal waystation on the freight road approaching the city). Code phrase: “Phil sent us.” Destination, not yet reached.

Items & Loot

1. Hat of Disguise: found in the wet crate, identified by Althea via ritual cast Identify, attuned by Vazquez during the boat trip. Casts Disguise Self while worn. Vazquez tested the disguise — successfully appeared as a dwarf ^[35].
2. 300gp diamond (from the sarcophagus-chamber chest): suitable for revivify spell-component. Carried by ?-NA.
3. 10gp / 53sp / 20cp / empty-feeling potion bottle: from the same chest. The potion bottle “feels like it holds liquid” — likely an invisibility potion. Carried by ?-NA.
4. Phil’s hooded lantern: still in Caelumn’s possession (or in a party member’s hand) for navigating the sewer.
5. Hugo’s biogloom collection: ~7 vials of biogloom, 1 poison-spore gland (grapefruit-size). Hugo plans to use as improvised weapons / war-crime escape route (“It’s not a war crime if it’s the first time, right?”, ^[36].
6. Greater healing potion (used by Vazquez on Althea, 17 healing in ^[37].
7. Healing potions (used: 1 by Hugo on Caelumn for 5; 1 by Caelumn on himself for an average roll; party still carries 2-3 more).

Combat Encounters

• Sarcophagus chamber ambush (~9 rounds): Triggered by lifting the chest. Party state at start: full long-rest HP for Hugo and Vazquez; Caelumn at full from healing earlier. State at end: Caelumn revived from 2 death-saves (Vazquez’s healing potion administered just in time); Althea downed once (Vazquez’s greater healing potion); Terry took repeated fireball/magic-missile damage; Hugo took multiple ghoul claws; one flame-skull fled.

  • Monsters faced: Flame-skull x2, ghoul x1.
  • To-hit results against party: ~7 hits across the encounter.
  • Saving throws: Caelumn ghoul-bite incapacitation save (succeeded after some). Dex saves vs flame-skull’s Fireball (Hugo and Caelumn, both took half/none).
  • Damage types: fire (flame-skull fireball, 24 in 15-foot radius; flame-skull headbutt, 18 fire), bludgeoning (ghoul claw + bite); force (flame-skull magic missile, 5 force per dart, 4 darts at level 2).
  • Resources spent: Caelumn — Innate Sorcery, multiple chromatic orbs (cold variant on the wounded flame-skull), Misty Step (free use), 2 sorcery points → spell slot conversion. Hugo — Rage charge, Reckless Attack, longsword strike, Greater Healing Potion administered to Vazquez, healing potion to Caelumn. Vazquez — Action Surge, gunblade strike at advantage, Greater Healing Potion to Althea, multiple gunblade swings. Terry — Bladesong, Shadow Blade x2 (re-cast and yeeted; respawned each turn), Silvery Barbs, Second Wind, scimitar attacks, hand-crossbow attack, Mirror Image (3 images), Absorb Elements (vs Fireball). Althea — Bless x2 (level 2, on the wounded party), Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead (failed once), Channel Divinity Turn Undead (succeeded once at 17, scaring the second flame-skull off-field), Cure Wounds.
  • Notable rolls: Caelumn’s natural-1 Con save against biogloom ^[38]; Vazquez’s natural-25 critical attack on the second flame-skull ^[10]; Caelumn’s two-ones fire-bolt on the wounded flame-skull ^[39]; a flame-skull’s natural-20 magic missile on Althea with double max damage (10 force in shield-blocked attempt) — Caelumn shielded and absorbed.

• Basin-chamber encounter (Vazquez and Althea separated): Restraining biogloom roots tested both. Vazquez succeeded a strength check 23 to pull Althea free. No formal combat, but initiative was rolled to track resolution.

Clues & Foreshadowing

1. The biogloom in the sewer is the same strain as in Umbrafall: confirmed by Hugo’s medicine check ^[14]. Maelis Dirn’s shipping operation through Dock 13 in Umbrafall (going to Duskwatch) may include biogloom; the sewer dwellers may be a Maelis associate, or may be supplying / supplied by House Tallow-linked buyers (the s16 transcript Whisper-rendered the buyer name as “Talaward”, which is likely a transcript error for House Tallow). Players invested: Hugo, Caelumn.
2. The House Tallow biogloom-client connection: Hugo recalled that the buyers use biogloom for rare potions, poisons, and remedies ^[40]; the transcript Whisper-rendered the buyer name as “Talaward”, likely a transcript error for House Tallow). The underlying observation - that the Eldwythe sewers are an active cultivation site, possibly a Maelis remnant operation supplying an external customer - stands.
3. A stash to the south-and-west: the injured man named a hidden stash ^[25]. Vazquez didn’t pursue it (chose to stay with the injured man), but the stash exists.
4. An unseen ceiling predator ^[41]: “Something came out of the dark” killed Earthwing while it scouted ahead. Vazquez and Althea later see “something blended into the biogloom and the vines” on the ceiling ^[42]. Identity unknown; presumed to be in the sewer near the Aurelian patrol.
5. The Egg’s location is unknown: The Egg was stolen by Aurelian forces in s15. Its exact current location is unknown.
6. Sevryn’s affirmation: the DM’s session-end message “Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to” ^[6] is a meta-affirmation that the campaign’s setbacks (Egg stolen, Brioche misfire, Aurelian persecution) are part of the larger plot. Sevryn has been correct about plot beats throughout (correctly predicted Cholmondeley’s death in s2-s3, correctly predicted Harvo’s death in s9). His affirmation suggests these events are intentional from the campaign’s perspective.
7. The “keep your eye on the wall” puzzle: the wall passes through if you walk backwards into it. The DM let the party through after the second attempt (Hugo had tried and the DM missed it). The puzzle is now solved, but the mechanism (illusion vs quantum) remains undetermined.
8. Caelumn has revivify: not directly demonstrated, but the 300gp diamond is the standard revivify component. The party may now have the means to revive a fallen ally — though ruin’s body was not recovered.

Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions

1. What happened to Earthwing? Killed or trapped by something on the ceiling. Terry’s connection to the familiar was severed mid-sentence. Players invested: Terry.
2. Was the empty-looking potion in the sarcophagus-chamber chest an invisibility potion? The party took it but did not test. It “feels like it holds liquid.” Players invested: Caelumn.
3. Is the injured man ally or a future enemy? Vazquez and Althea healed him; he gave information; he vanished invisibly. He named a stash but the party didn’t pursue it. He may resurface.
4. What is the seven-locks puzzle’s actual purpose? It’s not magical (Identify confirmed). It’s a brigand-made door with a binary-language passcode. The languages were: Common (x3), Halfling, Infernal, Giant, Undercommon. The combination is pretty arbitrary. Possibly a Phil / brigand stash door; possibly Maelis / House Tallow-linked supplier.
5. Where does the egg go from here? The Egg was stolen by Aurelian forces in s15. Its exact current location is unknown. Players invested: all.
6. What does Sevryn know, and how? Sevryn’s telepathic message at session end suggests he is aware of recent events — the Egg theft, the Aurelian arrival, the party’s redirection toward Aurelia. He has not contacted them in 14 sessions. His affirmation is unsettling. Players invested: all.

Quests

1. [Status: active] The Egg Quest: The Egg was stolen by Aurelian forces in s15. Its exact current location is unknown. Party heading toward White Lantern Shrine and Aurelia to recover.
2. [Status: active] Phil’s Contact at White Lantern Shrine: 3 days’ sail south. Note for Hett Varn in hand. Code phrase “Phil sent us.”
3. [Status: active] Aurelian Persecution: party still wanted; Aurelians remain hostile.
4. [Status: deferred] Risa’s Sister Conspiracy: party is now en route to Aurelia, where they may investigate.
5. [Status: deferred] The Duskwatch Shipping Ledger: not progressed; Velkris was an alternative the party rejected.
6. [Status: dormant] Hugo’s Devil Pact: not progressed.

Faction & Relationship Changes

• Sevryn: contacts the party telepathically for the first time in many sessions. Tone: affirmative. Suggests the misfire and Egg-loss are not deviations from the plan but part of it.
• Aurelian forces: passive at the sewer mouth this session (party stealthed past). Still hostile, still hunting.
• Phil Flowerforge: travelling separately with Brioche; relationship unchanged but separated.
• The injured man (unnamed): tentative ally; vanished before any commitment.
• Briochebane: still with Phil, off-screen this session.
• Mharos: silent this session. Vazquez headbutted himself with a +1 bludgeoning during the rest to feed Mharos misery ^[43], keeping the parasite occupied with Vazquez’s pain rather than the party’s.

Table Rulings

• Bonus action to administer a healing potion to another creature within 5 feet: confirmed RAW from s13’s prior ruling and applied here (Vazquez to Althea ^[26]; Hugo to Caelumn ^[44].
• Detect Magic ritual (10-minute cast): confirmed; Terry retro-classified his Identify-style cantrip behavior as Detect Magic to use the ritual cast time, as muttering-stories incantation flavour.
• Identify ritual on a magic item (10 minutes): confirmed; Althea identifies Hat of Disguise.
• Quantum/illusion wall traversable backwards ^[18]: novel ruling. The wall is visible from one side and passes through from the other. The DM applied this; Hugo’s earlier (uncalled) attempt was retroactively allowed when Caelumn made the same attempt 5 minutes later in real-time.
• Disguise Self via Hat of Disguise (1-hour attunement): confirmed; Vazquez attunes during boat trip and successfully disguises as a dwarf.
• Stealth check for sneaking past Aurelian patrols (group check): party averaged a 7. The DM allowed the sneak past based on the patrol’s prior distraction. Group stealth check vs 15 DC roughly.

Callbacks

• Phil’s hidden Hat of Disguise stash from s15: the hat referenced in ^[45] is found in s16. Mechanic resolved.
• Vazquez’s tiefling-presenting form (s9-s14): the Hat of Disguise solves the Aurelia-entry problem.
• Sevryn’s foreshadowing of plot events (s2-s3, s7, s9): his telepathic affirmation in s16 fits the pattern. Sevryn has predicted the deaths of Cholmondeley and Harvo and now appears to have foreseen the Egg-loss and Aurelian pursuit.
• Caelumn’s lost backpack from s15: contained the Egg, the crooked broom, healing potions, and gold. None of these have been recovered this session. (Per the DM’s post-s16 correction, the candied dentures had been returned to Uncle Nibblecheek before the s15 backpack snare and were NOT in the pack at the time of the theft — an earlier reading of this callback line incorrectly listed them.)
• Brioche-bun-as-keystone (s14): the Brioche-bun stash in Hugo’s bag is now offline; Brioche left with Phil.
• The Mharos parasite arc: Vazquez’s coping mechanism (slamming his head into a wall to feed Mharos misery rather than letting it feed on others, ^[43] — a callback to the s12-s14 character development of Vazquez resisting the parasite.

Next Steps

The party last stated:

1. Sail 3 days south to the White Lantern Shrine.
2. Meet Hett Varn (red-headed dwarf with forehead goggles), give him Phil’s note, and use the code phrase “Phil sent us.”
3. Use the Hat of Disguise on Vazquez to get into Aurelia (and possibly disguise other party members through other means).
4. Once in Aurelia, recover the Egg (exact current location unknown).
5. Investigate Risa’s sister disappearance during Aurelia transit (s10 commitment).

Retcon (s17)

At the opening of session 17 the DM laid out a framing retcon of this session’s ending. Per the maintenance contract’s “On structural change” rule, both readings are preserved here.

Original framing (this recap, as it ran on the night). Vazquez and Althea continued onto the skiff with Terry, Hugo, and Caelumn. Vazquez attuned the Hat of Disguise over the boat trip and successfully tested the dwarf disguise ^[28]. The session ended with all five PCs aboard, sailing south, Sevryn’s telepathic affirmation in their heads.

S17-retconned framing. Vazquez and Althea split off from the party at the sewer mid-point. As the Aurelian patrol closed in, the two were forced back into the sewer. The remaining party had to choose between fleeing and rescuing them, and chose to flee. Vazquez and Althea were captured by Aurelians ^[46], restated for Caelumn’s player at ^[47]. The Hat of Disguise Vazquez had attuned was destroyed in the escape ^[48], removing the planned tiefling-disguise solution for Aurelian gates. Terry briefly objected to losing the hat at the table — “I object to that retcon. I want a different retcon. I want one where he keeps the fucking hat” ^[49] — but the change stood. The session-end skiff therefore departed with only three PCs aboard (Terry, Hugo, Caelumn); Mike and Steven joined a few hours into the s17 sail when the party rescued them from another Aurelian-sunk shipwreck.

Frontmatter consistency. This recap’s party_present: field still reads [Terry, Hugo, Caelumn, Vazquez, Althea] - the session as it ran. The s17 recap’s party_present: reads [Terry, Hugo, Caelumn, Mike, Steven], reflecting the retcon. The departed PCs’ entity files (Vasquez, Althea Stormsoro) flip status: from alive to departed (per Chris’s post-s17 clarification: same category as Cholmondeley/Harvo/Ruin, not pending rescue). The Hat of Disguise entity flips status: from attuned (Vasquez, s16) to destroyed (s17 retcon).

Meta. The retcon is in-fiction; the real-world meta — the departures of players Polar (Vasquez) and Maliwana (Althea) between sessions 16 and 17 — is documented in their player handle articles (Polar, Maliwana) and is intentionally not surfaced in any in-fiction article.

References

1. ^ Session 16, line 18-160 — Hat of Disguise found, Althea identifies, Vazquez attunes (later).
2. ^ Session 16, line 286-296 — Bioglomum cultivation foreshadowing.
3. ^ Session 16, line 818-995 — Seven-lock binary puzzle door.
4. ^ Session 16, line 1240-1500 — Sarcophagus chamber ambush — 2 flame-skulls + ghoul.
5. ^ Session 16, line 1601-1626 — Skiff escape, choice toward White Lantern Shrine.
6. ^ Session 16, line 1753 — Sevryn's telepathic message.
7. ^ Session 16, line 66 — Inline citation.
8. ^ Session 16, line 995 — Inline citation.
9. ^ Session 16, line 1467-1469 — Inline citation.
10. ^ Session 16, line 1543 — Inline citation.
11. ^ Session 16, line 20 — Inline citation.
12. ^ Session 16, line 86 — Inline citation.
13. ^ Session 16, line 88 — Inline citation.
14. ^ Session 16, line 769 — Inline citation.
15. ^ Session 16, line 789 — Inline citation.
16. ^ Session 16, line 818 — Inline citation.
17. ^ Session 16, line 1099-1115 — Inline citation.
18. ^ Session 16, line 1224 — Inline citation.
19. ^ Session 16, line 1227 — Inline citation.
20. ^ Session 16, line 1267 — Inline citation.
21. ^ Session 16, line 1611-1612 — Inline citation.
22. ^ Session 16, line 1300-1308 — Inline citation.
23. ^ Session 16, line 1369 — Inline citation.
24. ^ Session 16, line 1130 — Inline citation.
25. ^ Session 16, line 1160 — Inline citation.
26. ^ Session 16, line 1483 — Inline citation.
27. ^ Session 16, line 1603 — Inline citation.
28. ^ Session 16, line 1671-1676 — Inline citation.
29. ^ Session 16, line 1751-1753 — Inline citation.
30. ^ Session 16, line 72 — Inline citation.
31. ^ Session 16, line 857 — Inline citation.
32. ^ Session 16, line 1161 — Inline citation.
33. ^ Session 16, line 1068-1077 — Inline citation.
34. ^ Session 16, line 1070 — Inline citation.
35. ^ Session 16, line 1676 — Inline citation.
36. ^ Session 16, line 795 — Inline citation.
37. ^ Session 16, line 1481-1483 — Inline citation.
38. ^ Session 16, line 353 — Inline citation.
39. ^ Session 16, line 693-694 — Inline citation.
40. ^ Session 16, line 776 — Inline citation.
41. ^ Session 16, line 1071 — Inline citation.
42. ^ Session 16, line 1171 — Inline citation.
43. ^ Session 16, line 1364 — Inline citation.
44. ^ Session 16, line 1497 — Inline citation.
45. ^ Session 15, line 693 — Inline citation.
46. ^ Session 17, line 130 — Inline citation.
47. ^ Session 17, line 785 — Inline citation.
48. ^ Session 17, line 134-136 — Inline citation.
49. ^ Session 17, line 137 — Inline citation.