Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Session 21 picks up on the same night that closed session 20, at the mill-pond settlement where the road to Umbrafall had stopped on a still-twitching severed hand, and the DM names it: Greysmere, a village so small it is not on the map, much of its land given over to graves ^[5][40]. The DM’s opening recap settles Laura Bennett’s escort fee at fifty gold, twenty-five up front and twenty-five on arrival ^[39][2]. At the inn, the innkeeper, Orrin Sol, hires the party to find his son Pell, taken by undead that very night, offering “50 gold now and 150 gold” for his return ^[41][42][8], and Fen, the nervous local who cut the hand off, reports three kidnappers in charcoal robes, one of whom said “Mother wants him alive.” as they dragged the boy “up north to the woods” ^[9]. Laura agrees to wait for the party until about midday ^[43]. Father Thomas puts the severed hand, which wears a ring bearing the initials E.V. and strains northward, on a rope leash ^[13][74], and the party follows it, a silver-paint trail and a single wheelbarrow track about forty minutes north through pine woods to a ridge where a half-defaced carved eye above a stone stair is “the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers” ^[18][19]. Inside the temple, six undead sentries fall to Terry and Hugo, three kills each, but a swollen zombie’s haze leaves Father Thomas and Terry carrying an “undead plague” ^{[25][125][34]}. Deeper in, the hand stops moving ^[28], and a sealed cell releases a creature of living skin that wraps itself around Father Thomas’s face ^[45][46]. The session pauses mid-fight, with the creature loose, Father Thomas still poisoned, and Pell not yet found ^[35][47].

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Metadata

• In-game date: 843-04-05, one night continuous from the end of s20 (approximate, pending the DM calendar).
• Locations visited: Greysmere (the s20 mill-pond settlement, named this session), the pine woods to its north, and the ridge temple; Umbrafall, the Eldwythe bridge and Aurelia are referenced only.
• Major NPCs present: Laura Bennett (employer); Orrin Sol (the innkeeper, Pell’s father); Fen (the witness); six undead sentries; the living skin. Off-screen: Pell, The charcoal-robed kidnappers and their Mother.
• Factions involved: The charcoal-robed kidnappers (raiding Greysmere); Vecna (whose symbol marks the temple; no worshippers seen).
• Sessions referenced (callbacks): s10 (Mira Hale), s13 (the candied apple), s18 (the red dragon), s19 and s20 (Twilight Sanctuary, the Silvery Barbs counter, the retcon, the binder patrol, Laura’s fee, the road ambush, the mill-pond hook).

Recap heard at start of session

The DM gave the recap himself ^[37]. He restated the s20 retcon, adding that Barney “doesn’t remember these two different timelines”, and likened the flash that saved Father Thomas’s bluff past the Aurelian Binder’s patrol to “the dragon that flew overhead and attacked something in the distance” ^[1], recap wording rather than an event: the DM’s notes record only the dragon flying north (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). The road ambush’s controller became “a cloaked figure in the treeline” ^[3]. Caelumn remembered Laura’s fee as 100 gold; the DM’s notes said 50, and Terry confirmed “25 up front and 25 on arrival” ^[38][39][2].

Executive Summary

Session 21 turned session 20’s cliffhanger into a rescue. The mill-pond settlement is Greysmere, a village of graves too small for the map ^[5][40]. Its innkeeper, Orrin Sol, hired the party to find his son Pell, taken that night by undead, for fifty gold now and a hundred and fifty on his return ^[41][42][8], and Fen, who had cut off the twitching hand, described three kidnappers in charcoal robes, one of whom said “Mother wants him alive.” ^[9]. Laura Bennett agreed to wait until about midday ^[43]. Father Thomas leashed the severed hand, which strained north, and the party followed it some forty minutes to a temple beneath the symbol of Vecna ^[18][19]. Six undead sentries fell to Terry and Hugo, three apiece, but a swollen zombie’s poison proved an “undead plague” that outlasted the fight ^[25][44][34]. Deeper in, the hand stopped moving ^[28], and a sealed cell released a creature of living skin that wrapped itself around Father Thomas’s face ^[45][46]. The session paused mid-fight, with Pell not yet found ^[47].

Narrative

Play resumed at nightfall at the mill-pond settlement a little short of Umbrafall: a storehouse hanging from one hinge, silver paint streaked through the mud towards a northern track, and near the graveyard an axe pinning a human hand to a chopping block, “its fingers slowly scrape against the wood” ^[3][48]. Laura Bennett put Umbrafall “roughly a day’s ride from here” and chose to stay the night ^[4]. A History check named the place: Greysmere, a town “too insignificant to actually bother putting on the map”, where “a lot of the land is used for graves”, with an inn that is also its only tavern and a small general shop ^[5][40][49].

Inside, the innkeeper was “counting coins into several small stacks” while two locals sat by the hearth ^[50]. Father Thomas declined the ale, his faith forbidding drink fermented from grain or grape ^[6]. Then the innkeeper asked to “purchase your skills” for his son ^[51]. The boy, Pell, had been taken by undead “Just this night.”, and Fen, the local turning a muddy cap by the hearth, had cut off the hand when he saw it happen ^[41][42][52]. The offer was fifty gold now and a hundred and fifty on Pell’s return, with a warning of “Really weird raids of late.” ^[8]. The innkeeper is Orrin Sol: nobody addresses him by name, but Laura and the storehouse inventory name him ^[11][15]. The party took the job ^[53].

Terry and Father Thomas questioned Fen as “good cop, logical cop” ^[54]. Thomas made his eyes glow and conjured a phantom sound at the door ^[55][56][57], and the startled Fen gave the night’s key testimony: three people in charcoal robes, The charcoal-robed kidnappers, “accompanied by several undead”, one of whom said “Mother wants him alive.” as they dragged the boy “up north to the woods” ^[9]. His “at least like 50” undead is a frightened estimate, not a count, and who Mother is, nobody knows. He had severed the hand from a body that “didn’t look alive” ^[58], and Terry’s Insight caught a flash of shame on his face that nobody has explained ^[59]. People from Umbrafall “do tend to bring some of their dead to here”, he said, and the raiders took “Paint, rugs, food, tools.” and his kid’s dragon chess game ^[60][61]. When Thomas tried to recruit him as a guide, having openly weighed him as “cannon fodder”, the Persuasion failed and Fen walked away into the village ^[62][63][64].

Laura, at the stabling lean-to, asked what undead attacks next to so many necromancers had to do with them ^[65], but Caelumn’s Persuasion of 20 bought a night’s leave. She would wait “until midday, a little before evening” before looking for other road guards, and “My fee will remain the same, 50 total.” ^[66][43][67]. Room and board went on her bill ^[11].

Neither interrogator could remember which way Fen had said the kidnappers went, a lapse the DM let stand ^[68][69], so Father Thomas proposed putting the severed hand on a leash and following it to its body ^[70]. At the chopping block the DM described it:

“You see the hand’s grey skin has pulled tight over the bones. You notice a ring that bears the initials E.V. And you see charcoal clothing that is twisted around one finger. The fingertips kind of drag against the chopping block, straining towards its northern edge.” — Nick (DM), ^[13]

Hugo found “fresh upheaved soil moving towards the northern end of the town” ^[71], and Father Thomas’s natural-20 check read the hand: it “retains a fragment of the corpse’s animation”, would crawl back towards its body if released, could be destroyed “with a dispel or if you burn it”, and “doesn’t seem to be aggressive” ^[72][14]. He freed it from the axe, hung it on a rope, pocketed the ring and the charcoal cloth, and named it Righty ^{[73][74][75][76][77]}: this is The severed hand, and the ring is The E.V. ring. Held up, it pointed north ^[78], and an Augury to the “Great Everlight” about travelling north came up Weal ^[79][80].

In the storehouse behind the inn, a coin box sat open “with coins still inside”, and Caelumn left it alone ^[81][82]. His Investigation found Orrin’s own list of the losses, “silver paint, brushes, letters, four rugs, cooked food, cheese, incense, a dragon chess set, rope, picking tools, and two wheelbarrows. other than that coins and alcohol and valuable parcels are left behind” ^[15], and he took it with him ^[83]. The footprints came from “several different nights” ^[16]. Beyond the door the paint gave out after about fifty feet, and “one singular track, like a wheelbarrow” ran on north ^[84][85][86]. Thomas drew the conclusion: “It looks a whole lot like someone’s stealing corpses.” ^[87].

With the hand as a “guiding beacon” ^[88], Caelumn’s Religion check confirmed the logic: severed parts keep moving as long as their host lives ^[17]. The track ran into pine woods ^[89] and, after about forty minutes, reached the ridge:

“And you come to a low root-covered ridge. You see a stolen wheelbarrow that lies beside a cleared stone stair. You also see silver handprints that mark its handles. Above the stair is an open eye that has been carved into the stone. Half of it has been hacked away. You’ve walked roughly 40 minutes on foot.” — Nick (DM), ^[18]

A Religion check read the carving as “the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers” ^[19], the first time Vecna is named in the campaign; those words are all the canon there is. Father Thomas, in character, called the temple the lair of the god of secrets, “The whispering one.” ^[90]. Terry asked whether “the 150 gold” was worth their lives ^[91], but Caelumn’s loot-goblin nature and Hugo’s appetite for a fight carried the vote ^[92][93].

Inside, six undead sentries waited: two corpses hauling ropes around a cracked statue, a swollen body exhaling a yellow-green haze, two gaunt figures and a third in rotting burial robes ^[20]. They were watching the entrance, and Hugo’s rage set them charging ^[94][95]. The swollen body’s poison cloud left Father Thomas and Terry poisoned ^[21][96][97], and Father Thomas’s natural 1 sent his staff flying, the table’s first critical fumble: “it slips out of your hand, and your staff lands over here.” ^[22][98]. Hugo beheaded the swollen plague zombie with a critical opportunity attack and later cut the burial-robed undead apart on a natural 20 ^{[99][23][100]}, and Terry ended the fight on the last ghoul ^[25]; each killed three. The bodies held “just dirt” ^[101], and the poison did not lift with its source: Father Thomas and Terry stayed poisoned, and nobody had Lesser Restoration prepared ^[44][102].

Past the entrance, iron doors stood at the north and west ends of a fork, with three robed skeletons at the junction and scrape marks leading north ^[103]. On the skeletons Caelumn found a stone token “showing an eye above a closed mouth” and pocketed it unrecognised ^{[26][104][105]}. At the north door he heard a faint scratching and told the others he heard nothing ^[106][107]. Beyond lay a cell block:

“As you open the door you see rusted shackles that hang above two stone slabs. You see an eye-patched skeleton lie across one of them, holding a whip. You see three barred cells that lie in the eastern wall. And in the last cells, the bars have been covered with fitted metal sheets. And something is rubbing against them from the inside.” — Nick (DM), ^[108]

Caelumn felt drawn to the whip, and when he asked why, the DM said “It’s cursed.” ^[109][27]; he put it in his backpack anyway ^[110]. This is The skeleton’s whip: no curse has shown itself, and the DM has since said none is confirmed (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). Then the DM had news: “The hand has stopped moving.” ^[28]. Terry asked whether any of the undead had one hand and concluded “We killed the host.” ^[111][29], a player’s claim: which creature was the host is unknown, and the DM is leaving it to play (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). In a passage of four skeletons, Hugo fished a ring of iron keys from one with a hand axe, leaving its silver eye-and-hand amulet, and tossed the keys to Father Thomas ^{[112][113][114]}. Stepping away from the group, Thomas glimpsed a pillared hall where mist from two cracked basins formed three faces that turned towards him, and black stairs descended to the south ^[30].

The first cell Thomas unlocked was empty ^[115]. The second was the sealed one, and “what jumps into your face can only be described as a bag” ^[116]. Initiative came at disadvantage ^[117], and the living skin went first, wrapping itself around Father Thomas’s face: “you are grappled and blinded and restrained and you are suffocating” ^[118][45], while the sight of it frightened Hugo and Caelumn ^[119]. Asked whether it was undead, the DM said “It’s living skin, so that’s fair to assume.” ^[32], and it is treated as undead (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). It squeezed every turn and dragged Thomas with it when Dissonant Whispers made it flee, and when Caelumn’s Command pried it off, it leapt onto Caelumn instead ^{[120][121][122][123]}. A History check reminded Terry that Hugo carried anti-toxin, and the DM ruled that the poison was a plague rather than a toxin, which the anti-toxin would let him resist again with advantage ^{[124][125][126]}. Father Thomas’s own Command freed Caelumn, and the creature’s next leap slid off Caelumn’s Shield ^{[127][128][129]}. Terry drank the anti-toxin and cleared the plague, and Thomas’s Toll the Dead met a natural-20 save ^{[34][130][131]}.

There the DM paused the session, at the end of the round ^[47]. The living skin is loose and wounded on the cell-room floor, eyeing “the entire group” ^{[129][132][133]}; Father Thomas still carries the undead plague ^[35]; Terry has spent his last Bladesong ^[134][135]; no one is down. Pell has not been found, and Laura will wait only until about midday ^[43].

Dialogue Highlights

1. Thomas, declining the ale: “I’m not permitted libations made from the ferment of grain, nor of grape.” ^[6]
2. The innkeeper (Nick, DM), the plea: “Would I be able to purchase your skills? It’s my son.” ^[51]
3. The innkeeper (Nick, DM), the terms: “I’ll be able to pay you 50 gold now and 150 gold” ^[8]
4. Fen (Nick, DM), the witness account: “One of them said, one of them said, what was it? Mother wants him alive.” ^[9]
5. Terry, on the party’s record with tagalongs: “I tend to think that when someone comes with us they tend to die, so…” ^[136]
6. Laura Bennett (Nick, DM), unsentimental: “they live right next to a lot of necromancers, so you’re going to have a lot of undead attacks. What is this to do with us?” ^[65]
7. Thomas, naming the hand: “this is very clearly a right hand so I’m going to name him righty” ^[77]
8. Terry, with a rival name for the hand: “I think he should be called Handjob.” ^[137]
9. Nick (DM), the rule of severed parts: “as long as the host is alive, body parts will keep on trucking.” ^[17]
10. Nick (DM), the reveal: “you recognize this as the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers.” ^[19]
11. Thomas, at the stair: “This is the lair of the necromancer. The god of secrets. The whispering one.” ^[90]
12. Hugo, before going in: “I’m always ready for a fight, but, you know, I do want to live.” ^[93]
13. Caelumn, steering the party with a lie: “I can’t hear anything in there. It’s the one I want to go through first.” ^[107]
14. Caelumn and Nick (DM), on the whip: “Why am I so drawn to this whip?” “It’s cursed.” ^[109][27]
15. Nick (DM), describing the indescribable: “The bag is it. It’s hard to describe. It’s literally just skin.” ^[31]
16. Nick (DM), the ruling that doubles as lore: “it’s not a toxin per se. One might say it’s a plague.” ^[125]

NPCs

1. Orrin Sol (named, in-fiction; confirmed by the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27): the Greysmere innkeeper and Pell’s father. Hired the party and pointed them to the storehouse and the open graves ^[8][12]. Status: alive. New this session: yes.
2. Pell (named, in-fiction; off-screen): the innkeeper’s son ^[41], spelling confirmed by the DM’s post-s21 clarifications (2026-09-27). Taken by undead that night and dragged north ^[42][9]; medium brown hair, “A bit skinny.”, and not the s20 road necromancer ^[138][139]. Status: captured, whereabouts unknown. New this session: yes.
3. Fen (named, in-fiction): the local with the muddy cap who cut the hand off, and the only eyewitness ^[52][140]; ashamed, for reasons unexplained ^[59]; walked away, perhaps to his mother’s ^[63][141]. Status: alive. New this session: yes.
4. Laura Bennett (returning): fee confirmed at fifty gold ^[39][2]; waits at Greysmere until about midday ^[43]. Status: alive. New this session: no.
5. The charcoal-robed kidnappers (off-screen reference): three people in charcoal robes with “several undead”, who took Pell north; apparently the raiders who have robbed Greysmere over several nights ^[9][16]. Status: unknown. New this session: yes.
6. Mother (off-screen reference): the figure the kidnappers invoke ^[9]; not Fen’s own mother ^[141]. Status: unknown. New this session: yes.
7. Swollen plague zombie (Session 21) (new monster type, in-fiction): “a swollen body exhaling a yellow-green haze” ^[20], whose poison persists as the undead plague ^[125]. Killed by Hugo ^[23]. Status: destroyed. New this session: yes.
8. Burial-robed undead (Session 21) (new monster type, in-fiction): the figure “in rotting burial robes” ^[20], with a stench and infecting claws ^[142][143]. Killed by Hugo ^[100]. Status: destroyed. New this session: yes.
9. Zombies (2) and ghouls (2) (generic undead): destroyed by Terry and Hugo ^{[144][145][146][25]}. No pages.
10. The living skin (Session 21) (new monster type, in-fiction): the sealed cell’s occupant, “literally just skin” ^[31], treated as undead ^[32]. Status: alive at the pause. New this session: yes.
11. The Road Necromancer and the Aurelian Binder (off-screen references): in the DM’s recap ^[1][3]; the DM links the necromancer to neither the kidnappers nor the temple, and the patrol’s camp is “roughly two and a half days away” ^[147]. New this session: no.
12. Minor and unnamed: the second local at the hearth ^[50]; Fen’s mother ^[141]; the temple’s inert skeletons ^{[103][148][112]}; the three mist faces ^[30].

Locations

1. Greysmere (revisited; named this session, spelling confirmed by the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27): the s20 mill-pond settlement, “a little bit out of” Umbrafall ^[3]. Not on the map and largely graves, with an inn that is its only tavern, a stabling lean-to, a storehouse behind the inn, open graves, a residential area and a general shop ^{[5][40][49][149][12][150]}; some of Umbrafall’s dead are buried here ^[60]. Compass: the paint trail, the hand and the upheaved soil all point north ^[48][13][71].
2. Pine woods north of Greysmere (unnamed, first appears ^[89]): the wheelbarrow track’s route, about forty minutes on foot to the ridge ^[18].
3. The ridge temple (new; the DM’s word is temple, ^[151][20]): a cleared stone stair in a low root-covered ridge beneath the half-defaced symbol of Vecna ^[18][19]. Explored: the entrance chamber, with its cracked statue and green lights ^[20][152]; a fork with iron doors north and west ^[103]; a cell block ^[108]; a passage of four skeletons ^[112]. Glimpsed: a pillared hall with doors east and west, two tunnels north and black stairs descending south ^[30]. Compass: about forty minutes north of Greysmere.
4. Umbrafall (referenced): “roughly a day’s ride” from Greysmere ^[4], “right next to a lot of necromancers” in Laura’s words ^[65].
5. Eldwythe bridge and Aurelia (referenced): the bridge in the DM’s recap ^[1]; Aurelia when the DM corrects Father Thomas’s “Illyria” ^[153][154].

Items & Loot

1. The severed hand (nicknamed Righty): leashed and carried by Father Thomas as a compass north; inert since it stopped moving in the temple ^{[74][78][77][28]}.
2. The E.V. ring and a charcoal cloth: taken off the hand; unidentified ^{[13][155][76]}. Holder: Father Thomas.
3. Orrin Sol’s missing-inventory list: taken by Caelumn ^[15][83].
4. The eye-and-mouth token: from the robed skeletons; unrecognised ^[26][104]. Holder: Caelumn.
5. The skeleton’s whip: from the eye-patched skeleton; no curse is confirmed (see Narrative). Holder: Caelumn ^[27][110].
6. Ring of iron keys: Hugo to Father Thomas; opened two cells ^{[114][156][116]}. Holder: presumably Father Thomas.
7. Silver eye-and-hand amulet: seen, not taken ^[112].
8. Anti-toxin: Hugo’s, drunk by Terry; consumed ^{[157][158][34]}.
9. Stolen wheelbarrow: left at the temple stair ^[18].
10. Father Thomas’s quarterstaff: dropped on the fumble; a pickup is implied but never narrated ^[22][159].
11. Hugo’s hand axes: two thrown at the living skin and missed; not recovered on-screen ^[160][161].
12. Mentioned: Caelumn still carries the Bloodwell Vial ^[162] and now a spear ^[163]; Father Thomas casts Augury with rune stones ^[79].

Currency: Caelumn paid three silver for the drinks ^[164][165]. The innkeeper’s 50-gold advance was offered and the job accepted, but no coin is shown changing hands, so whether it was paid is open, for the players; 150 gold is promised on Pell’s return ^[8][53]. Laura owes 25 gold on arrival ^[2][67]; her escort fee and the innkeeper’s reward are separate agreements, and whether her “50 total” replaced the s20 five-gold dock and Terry’s ten-gold buy-out is unresolved (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). The storehouse coins were left untouched ^[82].

Combat Encounters

The round-by-round detail of both fights is in 10_combat/encounters_log.md (s21-E1 and s21-E2).

Ambush at the temple entrance ^[166].

• Trigger: Hugo raged before acting, and the watching sentries charged ^[94][95]; no surprise on either side.
• Enemies: two zombies and two ghouls ^{[167][168][169][170]}; the swollen plague zombie (a ten-foot haze aura, a poison cloud of 18 with half on a save, Undead Fortitude; ^{[171][21][172][173]}); the burial-robed undead (stench, infecting claws; ^[142][143]). Which undead wore the crown is unresolved (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27): Terry’s “that one looks like the king” ^[174], Hugo’s “the one with the crown on it” for the swollen zombie ^[23] and the DM’s “the guy with the crown” ^[175] do not settle it, and Hugo killed both.
• Party at start: all four, entering by the front stair.
• Notable rolls: Caelumn’s Aganazzar’s Scorcher, “a platinum flame” in the DM’s narration ^[176], and natural-20 Fire Bolt for 17 ^[177][178]; a crybaby point spent to make Terry reroll a save he passed anyway ^[179][180]; Father Thomas’s natural-1 fumble ^[22]; Hugo’s two natural 20s, one for 28 ^{[23][181][182]}.
• Damage taken: Father Thomas 18 poison ^[96]; Hugo 6 poison and 5 slashing ^[183][184]; Terry 6 poison, where half of 18 is nine ^[172][185]; Caelumn none.
• Resources: Caelumn (Heroic Inspiration, Aganazzar’s Scorcher, Shield, a Quickened Magic Missile); Terry (Bladesong, Mirror Image); Father Thomas (Green-Flame Blade, Shield, Word of Radiance twice; Turn Undead held back, ^[186]); Hugo (Rage).
• Kills and downs: Terry 3 (a ghoul, inferred from the initiative order; a zombie; the last ghoul; ^{[144][145][25]}); Hugo 3 (the swollen zombie, a zombie, the burial-robed undead; ^{[23][146][100]}). No downs or death saves.
• Resolution: all six destroyed, no loot ^[101]; Father Thomas and Terry left with the undead plague ^[44][187].

The living skin in the sealed cell (^[188]; in progress at the pause).

• Trigger: Father Thomas unlocked the metal-sheeted cell ^[116]; initiative at disadvantage, with three natural 1s ^[189].
• Enemy: the living skin: two attacks a turn, a face-wrapping grab that grapples, blinds, restrains and suffocates, an automatic squeeze each turn, fear on sight, and it drags its victim when forced to move ^{[45][119][190][121][191]}.
• Party at start: all four, Father Thomas and Terry poisoned.
• Notable rolls: the creature failed its saves against Dissonant Whispers and both Commands, then saved against Toll the Dead on a natural 20 ^{[192][122][193][131]}; Terry’s anti-toxin save of 18 and 19 ^[194].
• Damage: Father Thomas 22 bludgeoning, partly absorbed by Twilight temporary hit points ^{[45][121][195][191]}; Caelumn 6 ^[123]; the creature 14 from Hugo, plus unstated amounts from Dissonant Whispers and Terry’s hit ^{[196][197][198]}.
• Resources: Father Thomas (Shield, Twilight Sanctuary, Command, Toll the Dead); Caelumn (Dissonant Whispers, Command, Shield twice, sorcery points for a slot; ^[199]); Terry (Shocking Grasp, his last Bladesong, the anti-toxin); Hugo (two thrown hand axes).
• Downs and status at the pause: no PC down; initiative live, the creature wounded beside Caelumn, Father Thomas still poisoned, Terry cured ^{[129][34][35][47]}.

Clues & Foreshadowing

1. “Mother wants him alive.” ^[9]: a DM-voiced NPC report; the kidnappers answer to someone called Mother. Identity unknown.
2. The raiders’ shopping list (DM-stated): paint, letters, rugs, food, incense, a dragon chess set, tools and wheelbarrows, and bodies from the graves, but not coin, alcohol or valuables, over several nights ^[12][15][16].
3. The E.V. ring and the charcoal cloth ^[13]: DM-stated objects; matching the cloth to the kidnappers’ “charcoal robes” ^[9] is an inference.
4. Eye imagery: the carved eye, Vecna’s symbol by the DM’s account, half hacked away ^[18][19]; the token’s eye above a closed mouth ^[26]; the silver eye-and-hand amulet ^[112]; silver handprints on the wheelbarrow ^[18]; an eye-patched skeleton ^[108]. Only the carved eye is tied to Vecna by the DM.
5. The rope-hauling undead and the cracked statue ^[20]: unexplained.
6. DM foreshadowing on the plague: “especially for like the source that you got the the poison from it’s gonna be so much more fun don’t worry about it” ^[200].
7. “there might be secret entrances” ^[201]: the DM’s hedge, from Vecna’s portfolio.
8. Table speculation, not canon. That the severed hand is the Hand of Vecna ^[202][203], when the DM describes an ordinary animated fragment ^[14][17]. That Umbrafall is “Very much lawless.” ^[204], against the DM’s standing ruling that it has real if informal power structures. That it “interferes with all the magic” ^[205], a player recollection the DM neither confirmed nor tested.

Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions

1. Who is Mother, and what does she want with Pell? ^[9].
2. Where is Pell? The pillared hall, the black stairs and the west door are unexplored ^[103][30].
3. Where are the three kidnappers, and which creature was the hand’s host? ^[9][20][29].
4. What are the raiders collecting for, and why the corpses? ^[12][15].
5. Whose initials are E.V.? ^[13].
6. What is the temple, and who defaced its eye? ^[18][19].
7. What are the token, the amulet and the whip? ^{[26][27][112]}.
8. What is the living skin, and why was it sealed in behind metal? ^[108][206].
9. How long does the undead plague last, and what comes next? ^[200][125].
10. Why is Fen ashamed, and whose dragon chess set was stolen? Fen speaks of his kid’s ^[61]; one is also on Orrin Sol’s list ^[15].
11. The rug exchange ^[207]: something about a voice that wants a better rug; who said it and what it means are uncertain.
12. Any link between the kidnappers and the s20 road necromancer? None stated ^[3][138].
13. What rewrote reality to replace Steven with Barney? Advanced slightly: Barney does not remember the other timeline ^[1].

Quests

1. [Status: new] Find and bring back Pell: given by Orrin Sol, who offered “50 gold now and 150 gold” ^[8]; accepted ^[53]. The trail has been followed to the ridge temple and its entrance cleared ^[18][25]; Pell is not yet found ^[47]. Cross-reference 08_quests/active.md.
2. [Status: active] Escort Laura Bennett to Umbrafall: halted at Greysmere, a day’s ride short ^[4]. Laura waits until about midday, then looks for other guards; the fee stays at 50, with 25 owed on arrival ^[2][43][67].
3. [Status: active] Redeem the forged Duskwatch ledger at Velkris: Hugo, the errand’s owner, is back, but it was not raised.
4. [Status: deferred] The Egg Quest: not mentioned.
5. [Status: active] Update Sevryn at Gloamhearth: not advanced.

Faction & Relationship Changes

• The charcoal-robed kidnappers emerge as an active hostile group, apparently the raiders whose trail runs from the storehouse to the ridge temple ^[9][16][18]. Not yet a recurring threat under the one-appearance rule.
• Vecna is named for the first time, through the symbol on the temple ^[19].
• Laura Bennett: the relationship holds; she grants leave until midday and covers room and board ^[43][11].
• Father Thomas openly owns his arcane casting (“I’m Aurelian, but you’ve seen me use Arcane Magic.”, ^[208]), abstains from grain and grape ^[6], and prays to the Everlight by name ^[79]. The Church of the Pure Light’s deity is Aurelia ^[209], and his player has said the Everlight is “not the god of my order” ^[210]; whether it is another title for her is still open (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).

Table Rulings

1. Laura’s fee is 50 gold, 25 up front and 25 on arrival (DM ruling, from his notes; ^[39][2]), restated by Laura in fiction ^[67].
2. Critical fumbles (DM ruling, applied once): Father Thomas’s natural 1 sent his staff flying, the table’s first fumble ^[22][98]. A one-off, not a house rule: extra mishaps on a natural 1 would need an explicit house rule, saying too whether monsters fumble (ruling 63; the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).
3. Crybaby points and the Silvery Barbs counter are separate tallies (DM ruling): a counter point for each Silvery Barbs, a crybaby point for each complaint ^{[211][212][213]}. The DM spent one of Terry’s crybaby points to force a reroll ^[179].
4. Critical damage (DM statement, settled after the session): standard crits are current, though the DM was “tempted to go back to crunchy crits” ^[178]; the baseline is the 2024 rule, and no return to the old homebrew is confirmed (ruling 65; the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).
5. The undead plague (DM ruling): the swollen zombie’s poisoned condition outlasts the fight and is a plague rather than a toxin ^{[214][44][125]}. No duration was stated; “until a long rest” is player hearsay ^[215].
6. Anti-toxin against the plague (DM ruling): a bonus action to drink, granting an immediate reroll of the Constitution save with advantage, not an automatic cure ^{[126][158][34]}. Handing it over as a free action was the player’s assumption, unchallenged ^[216].
7. Shield while blinded (DM ruling): allowed, because the spell triggers on being hit ^[217][218].
8. Misty Step needs sight of the destination (DM ruling; ^[219]).
9. Dissonant Whispers against a grappler (DM ruling): the creature flees still holding its victim, with no drag penalty ^[220][190].
10. Command “release” against a grappler (DM ruling, after debate): it takes effect on the creature’s turn and uses its movement, leaving it free to attack ^{[221][122][222]}.
11. Escaping the living skin (DM ruling): a Strength (Athletics) check as an action, with help from allies; Acrobatics refused ^[191][223].
12. Ambush initiative at disadvantage (DM ruling; ^[117]).
13. Nick weapon mastery (player explanation, accepted by the DM): Terry’s extra attack does not use his bonus action ^{[224][225][226]}.
14. Twilight Sanctuary (reaffirmed table procedure): temporary hit points rolled once per round at the end of Father Thomas’s turn, and the end-of-turn benefit can end frightened instead ^{[227][228][229]}.
15. Leftover temporary hit points from session 20 (player claim; the rule settled after the session): Terry and Father Thomas counted temporary hit points left from session 20 ^[230][231], and Hugo, who had missed it, said only “I had temp HP from some form” ^[232]; the DM did not rule at the table ^[233]. Ruling 84 (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27): a session break does not remove temporary hit points, which last until depleted, replaced or a Long Rest is finished. Whether any carried over is open, for the players, since the s20 close has the party “well rested” ^[234].

Callbacks

• The dual-memory retcon (s20) and the red dragon (s18): both restated in the DM’s opening recap ^[1]; see Recap heard at start of session.
• The binder patrol (s20): the camp where it found the party is “roughly two and a half days away” ^[147].
• The road ambush (s20): its controller becomes “a cloaked figure” ^[3], and Pell is not him ^[138].
• The mill-pond hook (s20): resolved into Greysmere, the raids and the kidnapping ^[48][5][41].
• Mira Hale’s abduction (s10): Caelumn cites the party’s own search for “someone who got kidnapped by Aurelians” ^[235], most plausibly Mira Hale.
• The candied apple with dentures (s13): still on Caelumn’s character sheet; the DM reaffirms it was returned ^[236][237].
• Twilight Sanctuary and the Silvery Barbs counter (s19, s20): the same table procedures continue ^[212][227].

Meta notes

• First session after a two-month real-world break since session 20 ^[238][239].
• Hugo’s player returned after missing session 20 ^[240]; Hugo’s absence gets no in-fiction account.
• Barney’s player was absent, so Barney has no lines and takes no actions, and his in-fiction whereabouts are never stated (“Barney isn’t here.”, ^[241]).
• A 15-minute break followed the first fight ^[242].
• The session paused mid-fight, at the end of a round of initiative, with the next session set for Sunday the 27th ^[47][243].

Next Steps

• Finish the fight with the living skin, and find a cure for Father Thomas’s undead plague ^[35][47].
• Search the rest of the temple for Pell: the pillared hall with its mist faces, the black stairs and the unopened west door ^[103][30].
• Bring Pell back to Greysmere for the 150 gold before midday, when Laura Bennett starts looking for other guards ^[8][43][67].
• Then resume the escort to Umbrafall and the road to Velkris.

References

1. ^ Session 21, line 32: DM recap of s20: the retcon, restated with the new detail that Barney "doesn't remember these two different timelines"; the binder patrol; the sky-flash likened to the s18 dragon; the hire by Laura Bennett.
2. ^ Session 21, line 43: Laura's fee settled at 50 gold: the DM's notes said 50 (s21 L34), and Terry confirmed "25 up front and 25 on arrival. Just to confirm." (s21 L43); Caelumn's 100 rejected (s21 L33).
3. ^ Session 21, line 44: The s20 road necromancer recapped as "a cloaked figure in the treeline"; play resumes at the mill-pond settlement.
4. ^ Session 21, line 63: Laura: Umbrafall is "roughly a day's ride from here"; she will stay the night and leave in the morning.
5. ^ Session 21, line 94: The settlement is named Greysmere; not on the map; "a lot of the land is used for graves"; an inn and a small general shop.
6. ^ Session 21, line 149: Father Thomas: "not permitted libations made from the ferment of grain, nor of grape".
7. ^ Session 21, line 185-187: The innkeeper asks to "purchase your skills" for his son Pell, taken by undead; Fen cut off the hand.
8. ^ Session 21, line 202: The reward: "50 gold now and 150 gold" on the boy's return; "Really weird raids of late".
9. ^ Session 21, line 289: Fen: three kidnappers in charcoal robes with undead; "Mother wants him alive."; dragged "up north to the woods".
10. ^ Session 21, line 383-385: Laura will wait "until midday, a little before evening", then look for other guards; "My fee will remain the same, 50 total.".
11. ^ Session 21, line 389: Room and board go on Laura's bill: "I'll get settled up with Orrin.".
12. ^ Session 21, line 447: The innkeeper: the raiders "stole a lot of stuff" from the storehouse and "a lot of bodies" from the open graves.
13. ^ Session 21, line 481: The hand: grey skin, a ring bearing the initials E.V., charcoal cloth on one finger, "straining towards its northern edge".
14. ^ Session 21, line 503: The hand "retains a fragment of the corpse's animation"; destroyable by dispel or fire; not aggressive.
15. ^ Session 21, line 635: Orrin Sol's missing-inventory list; "coins and alcohol and valuable parcels are left behind".
16. ^ Session 21, line 651: Footprints from "several different nights": the raids are repeated.
17. ^ Session 21, line 702: DM lore: "as long as the host is alive, body parts will keep on trucking.".
18. ^ Session 21, line 708: The ridge: a stolen wheelbarrow, a cleared stone stair, silver handprints, a carved eye, "Half of it has been hacked away."; about 40 minutes on foot.
19. ^ Session 21, line 728: The carved eye is "the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers.".
20. ^ Session 21, line 797: The temple entrance: two rope-hauling corpses, a swollen haze-exhaling body, two gaunt figures, and a third "in rotting burial robes".
21. ^ Session 21, line 967: The swollen body "exhales a giant smoke cloud of poison".
22. ^ Session 21, line 1090: Critical fumble: Father Thomas's staff "slips out of your hand".
23. ^ Session 21, line 1213: Hugo's critical opportunity attack kills the swollen zombie as it runs towards Caelumn.
24. ^ Session 21, line 1286-1287: Hugo's critical kills the burial-robed undead: "Just the three piece combo on it.".
25. ^ Session 21, line 1303: Terry kills the last ghoul; "that's the end of initiative".
26. ^ Session 21, line 1446: Caelumn's find: "a stone token showing an eye above a closed mouth".
27. ^ Session 21, line 1533: The DM on the whip: "It's cursed." (no curse is confirmed: the DM's post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).
28. ^ Session 21, line 1588: "The hand has stopped moving.".
29. ^ Session 21, line 1596: Terry: "We killed the host." (a player's claim; which creature was the host is unknown).
30. ^ Session 21, line 1637: The pillared hall: mist faces rising from two cracked basins; black stairs descending to the south.
31. ^ Session 21, line 1766: The DM: "It's literally just skin.".
32. ^ Session 21, line 1777: Asked whether the creature is undead, the DM: "It's living skin, so that's fair to assume.".
33. ^ Session 21, line 1942-1944: The undead plague ruling: "One might say it's a plague."; anti-toxin gives "a free re-roll with advantage".
34. ^ Session 21, line 1976: Terry clears "the undead plague from your system".
35. ^ Session 21, line 2031: Father Thomas still poisoned at the pause.
36. ^ Session 21, line 2035-2038: The living skin saves against Toll the Dead on a natural 20; the session pauses at the end of the round.
37. ^ Session 21, line 32-44: Inline citation.
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