Session 24: The Knight of Smoke
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Session 24 resumes, on the same night as session 23, the fight at the sealed door of the ridge temple north of Greysmere. Hugo disarms the last greatsword skeleton, after which “whatever magic is empowering it seems to fade away”, and finishes it on a natural 20, and Father Thomas destroys both spectres [43][44][5][46][45]. A low chanting spreads through the temple and Rime says “she’s completing the ritual” [45][32]. The party is blinded and compelled by the mist hall, finds a room of six stone figures and a root room that leaves Caelumn failing his death saves, and wins two black orbs, one with Kole’s lute and one with Terry’s blood [47][76][92][50][48][49]. After a vote of three to two to go on [20], Terry topples a knight statue and a knight of smoke comes out [52]. Asked whether he abandons Bahamut for Vecna, Caelumn’s player answers that Caelumn is “starting to see Vecna’s ways”, and the knight turns its gaze to his allies [53][208][33]; the DM stops the session in mid-fight and asks everyone for a backup character [28].
Session 24: The Knight of Smoke
Metadata
- In-game date: 843-04-05, the same night as sessions 21 to 23 (approximate, pending the DM calendar); the DM gives no hour [29][30].
- Locations visited: the ridge temple, which the DM calls only “the temple” [31]: the cells, the mist hall, a sloping passage, a room of six stone figures, a root room, a knight chamber and Rime’s statue room.
- Major NPCs present: Rime (a voice), the third greatsword skeleton, two spectres, the faces in the mist and a knight of smoke. Off-screen: Sarah, Pell, Sevryn, Alston.
- Factions involved: the temple’s cult, through Rime’s “ritual” [32]; Vecna, whose name the knight answers [33].
- Sessions referenced (callbacks): s6, s11, s21, s22, s23.
Recap heard at start of session
The DM got a three, counted up to it and asked Dylan, Hugo’s player, to give the recap; he had missed one combat, so he would “do part of it” and “people can fill in the rest” [34][35][36]. It ran from the short rest to the pause, with Kole “freeing himself”, “five undead” and Father Thomas knocking on the door [36], although Terry had cut Kole’s chain and the DM had shown a skeleton and three zombie-like creatures [37][38]. The DM changed nothing: “Yeah, that is roughly how it shakes.” [39]. Father Thomas’s player replied that he “was trying to beat down the door” [40]. The prize was an inspiration for a lore question about Velkris [41][42].
Executive Summary
Session 24 resumed the fight at the sealed door of the ridge temple. Hugo disarmed the last greatsword skeleton and finished it on a natural 20, and Father Thomas destroyed both spectres [43][44][45][5][46]. A low chanting began and Rime said Sarah was “completing the ritual” [45][32]. The party was blinded by the mist hall [47], took two black orbs [48][49] and nearly lost Caelumn to a wall of roots [50][51]. After a vote of three to two to go on [20], Terry toppled a knight statue and a knight of smoke rose [52]. Caelumn’s answer to the DM’s question about Bahamut and Vecna turned its gaze to his allies [53][33], and the DM stopped the session mid-fight [28].
Narrative
Play resumed with the round that session 23 left open. Caelumn was “badly injured” and out of resources, Hugo was fighting a third giant skeleton, a spectre was heading for Kole, and from the cells Caelumn could hear “that Father Thomas is being molested by ghosts” [3][54]. The skeleton’s greatsword cost Hugo eight maximum hit points, his “purple blood” almost absorbed into the blade [4]. Father Thomas, shut in the cells, destroyed the first spectre with his staff, still under Shillelagh; the second, which had cost Kole six maximum hit points, fell to it later [5][55][46]. Hugo asked what it would take to steal the sword and was given an improvised attack roll followed by a contested Athletics check; he rolled a 17, and as he pulled the sword free “whatever magic is empowering it seems to fade away” [56][57][58][43]. The DM noted that “the pulsing in the floor and the temple” was speeding up [31]. Father Thomas’s Toll the Dead left the skeleton at nothing, a Constitution save of 16 kept it up on one hit point, and Hugo’s natural 20 ended it [59][60][61][44][45]. “As you start to hear a low chanting spreading out through the temple.” [45]
Father Thomas asked whether the chanting was “in a language we understand” and judged himself “bad at this”; asked how long they had, he was told “You have as much time as you think you have.” [62][63][29]. Hugo led the way into the mist hall that Kole had opened in session 23 and was blinded: “As you enter the mist, you are under the blinded condition.” It never lifts, the DM said: “nope” [64][65][47][66][67][68]. Father Thomas went to ask “a little baby dragon” for help, and Rime, voiced by the DM, answered his talk of “the special orbs” with “I’ll join you when you go to fight Sarah.” and “Now hurry, she’s completing the ritual.” [69][70][71][32]. Sarah is probably the woman he named Mother Sarah before [72][73]. Kole, still in the dead cultist’s robes, put his head into the hall to test them; a failed Wisdom save and “you feel compelled to move further into the fog” drew him in, and Father Thomas followed a step and was blinded [74][75][76][77][78]. A face in the mist hit Kole for seven psychic damage and Father Thomas for nine, and a voice told Father Thomas “you’re going to die here” [79][80][81][82]. Father Thomas disengaged and ran, Terry shot into the fog at disadvantage and hit a wall, and Caelumn, with no more than 13 hit points and no spells, would not go in [83][84][85][86][87]. Kole broke out hearing “You’re all gonna die.” and answered “Don’t threaten me.”; the robes, he said, had not been what held the fog off him before [88][89][90].
Hugo, scouting alone, was told of “a thin stream that slows and stops and creeps uphill before spilling back down” and then of “six stone figures”, each with “empty eye sockets and a missing left hand” [91][92]. The others followed, and Caelumn found “an orb in the mouth of this skull” and two hidden doors [93][94][95]. Pushing in behind one statue, he was struck by it as it swung round for eight bludgeoning damage; Hugo took the Dodge action and ducked it [96][97][98]. Caelumn later destroyed the statue with acid [99][100]. Terry and Father Thomas went back round the fog to loot the skeletons and found “a big shield and two great swords” [101][102]. Kole, wary of the mouth, was told the orb “seems to be not trapped” and poked it out with his lute; “a giant set of teeth emanate from the mouth and chomp down where your lute was a second ago”, he caught the orb, and the DM confirmed it as “just black orb” [103][48][104].
The root room held roots that filled an alcove, “a wooden staff resting on two stone brackets”, “a lidded stone cistern” and a curved knife under “a worn carving of a roped figure” [98]. Fire and every blast only showed that “it just respawns and another one takes its place”, and Father Thomas’s Thorn Whip at the staff failed, the hole shrinking as the vines “gently place it back onto the mantle” [105][106][107][108]. Caelumn took the knife, “stained, dark, old”, and cut at a root; a barbed vine dragged his unconscious body into the mass at 0 hit points [109][110][111]. Hugo cut it free, took four piercing damage and lost his Rage [112][113]. While the table argued about leaving, nobody tended Caelumn, so the DM called his death saves in one batch and pronounced “He’s very dead.” [114][50]. Father Thomas said he would have cast Healing Word; the DM said “I’m going to allow you to do this”, once, warning that “it’s not sliding again” [115][51][116]. Water was the answer: the roots “hungrily” went for it, and a trail Caelumn splashed away from the staff drew them off, “gobbling up all the water, leaving an opening in the wall”, while Terry ran in and out with the staff [117][118][119][120].
With the staff in hand Father Thomas wanted to go: “I think he is a human sacrifice”, he said of the missing boy, whose name he could not recall [121][122]. Terry wavered, calling himself “a selfish fucking turtle”; Kole, who had been a prisoner and “was after the egg”, asked what they were doing there at all [123][124][125]. Father Thomas said they had to be back in town “before the sun comes up”, but Kole held that if the boy died “their blood is on our hands” and asked “Do you have so little faith, Father Thomas?” [126][127][128]. Father Thomas cast a ten-minute Augury on whether to go on and the DM gave him “weal and woe” [129][130][131]. While it ran, Caelumn melted the statues at the other hidden door, and the DM showed “a short tunnel that opens into a five-sided chamber”, with a “statue that stands in the far corner, resembling a knight” [132][133][134][135]. The DM then called a fifteen-minute break [136].
After the break the DM took a roll call and told them “You are running out of time”; at Terry’s and Father Thomas’s suggestion he held a vote [137][138][139]. Caelumn (“a moral obligation to save a small child”) and Kole wanted to stay; Father Thomas (“The servants of the Everlight can not be of service if they are dead”) and Hugo (“I think leaving would probably be wise”) wanted to leave; and Terry, called as the tiebreaker, stayed, “begrudgingly” [140][141][142]. Kole’s count of “two orbs out of three” was corrected at once: they had one [143][144]. In the statue room the DM described “multiple conduits going to the statue”, and Rime said “You got to hurry.” and, asked where the orbs were, “I don’t know.” [145][146]. The vampire-lord statue, Kole reasoned, wanted blood; it had “an open mouth with teeth and a beckoning hand”, and his pricked finger left it “hungry” [147][148][149]. Father Thomas proposed using the dead cultists’ blood instead, and of the cultist Caelumn had burned the DM said “Yeah, it was turned to dust.” [150][151][152]. Kole talked Terry into the price; Terry was drained for 8 necrotic damage, and “a small compartment opening in front of the statue that seems to hold an orb” appeared, which Kole said he would pass to Terry [153][154][49][155]. The mummy-lord statue’s remains held nothing; Caelumn counted two orbs of three [156][157].
Kole searched the statue room and, on a DC of 15, found “a secret passage behind one of the statues”, with “a statue of a Dracolich” inside that “Seems to just be standing there.” [158][159][160]. A question about healing potions led the DM to retire the party inventory, to ask “where the fuck did you get 12 moonstones from?” and to rule “We’re not using the party inventory after this session.”; Father Thomas took a healing potion, a light crossbow and the 300 gold diamond [161][162][163][164][165]. Father Thomas, who said he knew something about Dracoliches, was given only general lore: “Dracoliches are generally creatures that seek power beyond anything else.” [166][167]. The party tried offerings and displays of power: an axe, a bow, a hand lit with eldritch fire, two moonstones in the statue’s eyes, Kole’s Intimidation (a 15: “You’re met with silence. It’s a statue.”) and a growl that left Caelumn feeling “ridiculous” [168][169][170][171][172][173][174]. Father Thomas, again for going home, was offered “Father Thomas the Martyr” by Terry, then “Father Thomas the Still Alive.”; he gave in with “we’re all going to die Let’s go” [175][176][177].
At the knight statue the DM said it “just looks like a suit of armor”, and his answer was much the same each time. Guidance, Word of Radiance, a bow and a salute, Father Thomas’s holy symbol of Aurelia and a proposed knighting brought “Nothing happens” or silence, Kole’s Suggestion could not “find any mind that it can attach to”, and an Investigation of 4 found “no openings” [178][179][180][181][182][183][184]. Twice the DM drew their eyes to the circular seam and said that, if it was like the mummy lord’s statue, it was “kind of like a cork inside the floor” [185][186][187]. The chanting was “nearing a peak” and the pulsing “more violent and more erratic” [188]. Terry wedged a sword in and pushed: “you see smoke emit from it that forms in the form of a knight” [189][190][191][52]. Afterwards he said the DM had “presented that as the only way out of this situation” [192].
The knight appeared, the players said, in the middle of the room and behind Terry [193][194]. Its first turn cut Terry down with 11 slashing and 9 force damage; Hugo’s thrown axe on a 20 “is a miss”; and neither Kole’s appeal nor his Phantasmal Force did anything [195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202]. Caelumn asked “this is a Vecna temple right”, knelt, and called it “great knight of Vecna”, saying the party had “been tasked with completing the ritual” [203][204][205]. The DM asked: “Do you believe in your heart that you’re a follower of Vecna?” and “Do you abandon Bahamut and everything else in your former faith and accept Vecna as your one true god?” [206][53]. Caelumn’s player thought aloud, then said “Caelumn is starting to see Vecna’s ways”, and the DM told him “the knight seems to turn its gaze away from you and towards your allies”, adding “No.” when Caelumn asked whether it counted for anything that he had told the knight “me and my allies had done this” [207][208][33][209][210]. Father Thomas fed Terry a healing potion [211][212]. Under the toppled statue Kole found no orb, only “a pink unicorn resting on top of a couple of gold coins”; the knight let Caelumn pass, and he came out with a plush whose back opened onto “a ginormous, endless void” [213][214][215][216][217]. Father Thomas then spat at the knight and said fuck Vecna, and it turned on him with a natural 20: “Because you just said fuck Vecna.” [218][219][220]. Hugo’s pitch about a necromancer in Vecna’s temple left it “relatively unaffected”; Hugo disengaged, carried the fallen Father Thomas out of its reach and laid him on the floor, Kole Misty Stepped clear, and Caelumn fed Father Thomas a potion for six hit points [221][222][223][224][225][226]. The DM stopped there, in initiative, and asked everyone for “one backup character” [28].
Dialogue Highlights
- Nick (DM), the last skeleton falls: “As you start to hear a low chanting spreading out through the temple.” [45]
- Rime (Nick, DM), to Father Thomas: “I’ll join you when you go to fight Sarah.” [71], then “Now hurry, she’s completing the ritual.” [32]
- Kole, answering a voice in his mind that says “You’re all gonna die.” [88]: “Don’t threaten me.” [89]
- Nick (DM), on Caelumn’s death saves: “He’s very dead.” [50]
- Nick (DM), allowing the Healing Word: “if you guys see someone going down outside of combat and doing nothing about it, it’s not sliding again.” [116]
- Kole, to Father Thomas: “if that person dies because we didn’t help them, then their blood is on our hands” [127], then “Do you have so little faith, Father Thomas?” [128]
- Nick (DM), the Augury: “you come to a conclusion with your augury and it is weal and woe.” [131]
- Nick (DM), on the Dracolich statue: “Dracoliches are generally creatures that seek power beyond anything else.” [167]
- Terry, to Father Thomas, who wants to leave: “Father Thomas the Still Alive.” [176]
- Nick (DM), the knight statue gives way: “you see smoke emit from it that forms in the form of a knight” [52]
- Nick (DM), to Caelumn, who has just knelt to the knight: “Do you abandon Bahamut and everything else in your former faith and accept Vecna as your one true god?” [53]
- Caelumn, answering as his player: “Caelumn is starting to see Vecna’s ways.” [208]
- Nick (DM), to Father Thomas, on the knight’s target: “Because you just said fuck Vecna.” [219]
- Nick (DM), at the stop: “I would like everyone to at least have one backup character ready.” [28]
NPCs
- Rime (returning; a voice, never named): alive. He will “join you when you go to fight Sarah”, says “she’s completing the ritual”, and does not know where the orbs are [71][32][146]; that he is in pain is Father Thomas’s reading of “multiple conduits going to the statue” [145][227]. New: no.
- Sarah (off-screen; probably Mother Sarah): unknown. She is the one “completing the ritual”; nobody sees her, and the DM does not say Mother [71][32]. New: no.
- The third greatsword skeleton (returning): dead. Its sword cut Hugo’s maximum hit points, his blood almost absorbed into the blade; it is the first skeleton seen to roll for undead fortitude [4][60]. Destroyed by Hugo [45]; all three are down. New: no.
- The two spectres (returning): dead. The DM’s words are “ghosts” [3] and “specter” [5]; “wraith” is the players’ [36][228]. New: no.
- The faces in the mist (possibly returning, hostile for the first time; no page): alive. Blinding mist, a compulsion, psychic strikes and a voice [47][76][80][88]; the DM never says what they are [229]. New: no.
- The knight of smoke (new, unnamed): alive at the pause. A sword, a shield and two attacks a turn; it answers talk of Vecna [230][231][33][219]. The DM calls it “the Knight” and does not say whom it serves [232]. New: yes.
- Hazards that act (new; statues and roots, not creatures): a swinging statue, a toothed mouth, roots that regrow and drink, a blood-taking vampire-lord statue and an inert Dracolich statue [96][48][105][148][160].
- Off-screen: Pell, never named by the DM [122]; Sevryn, Kole’s “dragonborn” [90]; Alston, who gave them the black potion to test [233][234].
Locations
- The ridge temple (revisited; the DM says only “the temple”, [31]). Rooms met:
- The cells: the DM’s word for where Father Thomas is shut in; whether it is session 21’s cell block is not said [3][235].
- The mist hall: blinds without end, compels, and its faces now strike [67][76][81]. Not crossed.
- The sloping passage: “steps down” and an uphill stream [236][91].
- The room of six stone figures (new), with a door at its back that Hugo thinks “leads back into the fog” [92][237].
- The root room (new), behind the swinging statue [98].
- The knight chamber (new): a short tunnel and a five-sided room [135].
- The statue room, “this bigger chamber” [145]: the vampire-lord chamber is opened [49], the mummy-lord statue’s remains are empty [156], and a third hidden passage holds a Dracolich statue [159].
- “the antechamber” is the DM’s word for where “something is growing” [31]; not placed. The sealed door is not visited [238].
- Directions: the DM’s only compass word is “hightailed it to north”, of the others as Hugo heard them [239]; “South of here” is a player’s [240].
- Greysmere and the caravan are not named; Father Thomas says “town” [126].
Items & Loot
- The black orbs (two held; “just black orb”, [104]): the first prised from a statue’s mouth by Kole [48]; the second from the vampire-lord statue, passed to Terry on Kole’s word only [49][155]. Three is the door’s number of indentations [241], not a count the DM gives for orbs.
- The third skeleton’s greatsword: asked whether its runes reacted, the DM said “it reacted to the blood” [242]; Hugo disarmed the skeleton, and “whatever magic is empowering it seems to fade away” [43]; he threw the sword [243]. Caelumn later asked to pick up “the giant cursed greatsword” and feel its magic, and the DM said “Yeah, kind of. But yes, you can.” [244][245]; which sword he meant is not stated.
- “a big shield and two great swords” from the skeletons [102]: Father Thomas proposed laying one across the knight statue’s chest, and a sword was wedged in [246][190][191]. Holders not stated.
- The curved knife and the wooden staff: unidentified. Caelumn took the knife, probably, and Terry the staff, which Caelumn asked to look at [247][248][249]; “walking stick” is Kole’s guess [250].
- The pink unicorn plush and “a couple of gold coins”: Caelumn has them; opening the plush is a “Free item interaction.” [214][251][252].
- Kole’s lute: broken in half, by his account; Father Thomas has Mending [253][254].
- The party inventory: retired after this session [164]. It held 12 moonstones, healing potions, a light crossbow and a 300 gold diamond; Father Thomas took a potion, the crossbow and the diamond, and two moonstones went into the Dracolich statue’s eyes [163][165][173]. Potions raised Terry by 10 and Father Thomas by 6 [212][226].
- Caelumn’s black potion is untested [255]; he also read his Soulbinder’s Packed Ring for whether its soul was lost, asked to retcon it, and said he would take it off for the Dracolich statue [256][257]. Hugo’s boots, which he clicked before carrying Father Thomas clear, are by the wiki’s record the Winged Boots [258][222].
Combat Encounters
The sealed-door fight, concluded ([3] to L160 and L187 to L382; the DM never counts rounds).
- Trigger: resumes mid-initiative from session 23 [259][3].
- Enemies: the third greatsword skeleton and two spectres [3][235].
- Party at start: all five; Caelumn with nothing left, Hugo raging [54][260].
- Notable rolls: critical hits for Terry twice and a natural 20 for Hugo [261][262][263]; the skeleton’s Constitution save of 16 [60]. The second of Hugo’s double rolls stood [264][4].
- Resources: Shillelagh and Toll the Dead (Father Thomas), Eldritch Blast (Kole), True Strike (Terry), Reckless Attack, inspiration and the disarm (Hugo) [5][46][265][266][267][268][269][57].
- Downs: none; maximum hit points down 8 for Hugo and 6 for Kole [4][55].
- Resolution: Hugo destroyed the skeleton on a natural 20 after its save left it on one hit point; Father Thomas destroyed both spectres [270][44][45][5][46].
The faces in the mist ([75] to L587).
- Trigger: Kole puts his head into the mist hall, fails a Wisdom save and walks in blind; Father Thomas follows, and both roll initiative at disadvantage [271][79].
- Enemies: “faces that kind of move within the mist” [229], not the spectres, which were already destroyed. Attacks of 20 and 23 both hit [272][273].
- Downs: none; Kole took 7 and Father Thomas 9 psychic damage [80][81].
- Resolution: nothing killed; the party withdrew [90].
Hazards played without initiative. The swinging statue: 8 bludgeoning damage to Caelumn, ducked by Hugo [96][274][98]. The root wall: Caelumn at 0 after 5 piercing damage, Hugo 4 piercing, Caelumn’s death saves failed, and a Healing Word returned him at 7 [110][111][113][50][275]. The vampire-lord statue: 8 necrotic damage to Terry, after Kole pricked his own finger for 1 piercing [149][154].
The knight of smoke ([189] to L2003; paused).
- Trigger: Terry pushes over the knight statue [276].
- Enemy: a knight formed of smoke, with a sword, a shield and two attacks a turn; no hit points are stated, and its armour class is at least 21 by the table’s reckoning [230][203][231].
- Party at start: all five, short of hit points and unable to rest [277][278].
- Notable rolls: the knight’s natural 20 on Father Thomas [220]; Hugo’s axe on a 20 missed [198]; its saves of 17 and 18 held and a 13 failed [279][201][280].
- Resources: Twilight Sanctuary, Shillelagh and Toll the Dead (Father Thomas), Phantasmal Force and Misty Step (Kole), Create Bonfire (Caelumn), Blade Ward (Terry), an axe (Hugo) [281][282][283][284][225][285][286][287].
- Downs: Terry at 0 [197], raised to 10 by a potion [212]; Father Thomas at 0, ending Twilight Sanctuary [288], raised to 6 [226]. No deaths.
- Status at the pause: the knight is up, hurt only by one cantrip [218]; Father Thomas is next in initiative [28][289].
Clues & Foreshadowing
- The ritual’s clock (DM-stated): the pulsing speeds up, the chanting starts when the last skeleton falls and is “nearing a peak” [31][45][188]; Rime says Sarah is “completing the ritual” [32]. Cross-reference the black-pulse thread [290]. “something is growing in the antechamber” and “multiple conduits going to the statue” stay undefined [31][145].
- Each trial wants something (an inference from DM-narrated results): water for the roots, blood for the vampire lord, a push for the knight; the Dracolich statue’s want is unknown [119][49][52][160].
- The six figures’ missing left hands and eyes (DM-described): the mural’s figure and the great statue show the same marks [291][292]; the DM draws no link [92].
- The knight and Vecna (DM-stated): it turned from a professed follower to his allies and struck the one who cursed Vecna [33][219]. “knight of Vecna” is Caelumn’s phrase [205].
- Table speculation, not canon: “the necromancer” [293], the boy as “a human sacrifice” [122], “a world ending threat” [294], three orbs [295] and “Vecna’s return” [296].
Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions
Cross-reference 09_mysteries/open_threads.md.
- What is the ritual, who chants, and what is growing in the antechamber? [31][32][188]
- Is Rime’s Sarah the Mother of session 21, and what are the conduits to his statue? [71][145][72]
- How many black orbs does the sealed door take, and where is the last? [157][241]
- What are the faces and the voice in the mist? [81][229][88]
- What is the knight of smoke, whom does it serve, and does Caelumn’s answer last? [52][208][33]
- What does the Dracolich statue want, and what are the staff, the curved knife and the plush? [160][98][109][216]
- Bones or dust: what became of the cultist’s body? [151][152]
- Is the greatsword magical, and do lost maximum hit points return? [4][43][55][245]
- What is the black potion? [255]
Quests
- [Status: active] Find and bring back Pell (Orrin Sol’s job): the party votes to go on [20]; the DM neither names nor finds him, and “sacrifice” is Father Thomas’s inference [122][297]. See
08_quests/active.md. - [Status: active] Stop Mother Sarah: Rime will help “when you go to fight Sarah” [71]; two of an unknown number of orbs found [157].
- [Status: active] Escort Laura Bennett to Umbrafall: Father Thomas restates the deadline as “before the sun comes up” [126], against midday [298].
- [Status: deferred] The Egg Quest: Kole “was after the egg” and, told it is lost, is “a bit miffed” [123].
Faction & Relationship Changes
- Kole and the party: Kole argues the party into staying and says he will pass Terry the second orb [128][299][155]; Father Thomas stands by calling arcane casters heretics, and Kole says he has a patron [300].
- Caelumn, Vecna and Bahamut: the DM frames Bahamut and “everything else in your former faith” as what he would abandon [53]; the knight’s change of target covers him alone, and no change to his sheet or standing is stated [33][210].
- The party: “the group is very split right now” [301]; Father Thomas and Hugo voted to leave [302][303].
Table Rulings
No ruling numbers have been assigned yet; these are for the register.
- Disarm (new, improvised): an attack roll followed by a contested Athletics check; a greatsword needs two hands [57][304].
- Undead fortitude (restates ruling 100): the DM rolls a skeleton’s Constitution save when it is brought to 0, and Hugo’s critical hit then ended it with no save mentioned [305][60][263][45].
- Critical damage (restates rulings 65 and 105): the dice doubled and the modifiers added once, “not 2 times 1d8 plus 4 plus 2” [306]; “Don’t use double damage. Use double damage dice.” [307].
- The sheet’s double roll: Hugo proposed taking the second roll and the DM agreed [264][4].
- The mist: a ranged attack at an unseen target is allowed “at disadvantage”, and those inside roll initiative at disadvantage [79][85].
- A late Healing Word, once, with the warning that “it’s not sliding again” [51][116].
- The Dodge action gives advantage on a Dexterity save against a trap [274]; speech is “a free action to speak” [308]; cover for a thrown axe was withdrawn once Hugo drew a line [309].
- Feeding a potion is a bonus action, on Hugo’s report of an earlier DM change [310]; Twilight Sanctuary is now rolled as a d6 plus 4 [311][312].
- The party inventory is retired [164].
Callbacks
- The black potion (s11): the DM restates the deal, discounted healing potions for testing it “on yourselves or someone else” [233][313][234].
- The mummy-lord statue (s22): the DM guesses from the others that the knight statue sits “like a cork” in the floor as the mummy lord’s did [314][186].
- The mist hall (s21, s23): its basins showed “three faces” that only turned towards the party [315][68]; this session faces strike, though the DM does not say they are the same [81][229].
- The cultist (s23): “a singed pile of bones” [152] is now “turned to dust” [151].
- Caelumn’s joke (s23): “I’m now a worshipper of Vecna, apparently.” [316] returns in his reasoning that he is “technically” a “follower of Vecna by accident” [203][204].
- Terry and statues (s6): his grievance that defacing a statue once cost him, “I got smited for it” [317], echoes “I get smited if I do it” [318] as Caelumn melts two statues [133][134][319].
Meta notes
- Played on 2026-10-24, two weeks after session 23 (“been two weeks”, [320]); the next session has no date [28].
- Dylan gave the recap and played on a poor connection: “the internet is a bit slow” [321]. His sheet rolled twice [322], and a token glitch kept moving Terry [323].
- A fifteen-minute break was called [136] and play resumed with a roll call [137]. Table chat during the break, and the other out-of-character chat, is not summarised.
- The vote to stay was three to two [20]. The DM retired the party inventory [164] and asked everyone for a backup character [28].
- Terry’s player says the party levels up when the dungeon is cleared, as the DM said in session 22 [324][325][326]; Kole’s player says he could have started at level five [327]. The DM states no level.
- Terry’s “Sunday, the 5th of April” [328] is the player’s tally, not a DM calendar, and the DM’s quip “I’m bringing back the Vecna team one by one.” [329] is table talk. Barney, Vasquez and Althea have no lines and are not mentioned.
Next Steps
- Resume the knight fight in initiative: Father Thomas is next, on 6 hit points, and the knight is all but unhurt [226][28][289].
- Find the third orb, if the door takes three; the knight’s hollow and the mummy-lord statue held none, and the Dracolich statue is unsolved [157][160][214].
- Stop Sarah’s ritual before the chanting peaks, with Rime’s help [71][188].
- Find Pell and reach the caravan, whose deadline is unclear [126][298].
- Distribute the party inventory and bring backup characters [164][28]; the level up waits on the dungeon [325].
References
- ^ Session 24, line 41-46: Dylan gives the table recap of session 23; the DM: "Yeah, that is roughly how it shakes." (s24 L46).
- ^ Session 24, line 58-67: The inspiration question: "How many families rule Velkris for the inspiration?" (s24 L58); Hugo's player: "It's five powerful merchant families." (s24 L66).
- ^ Session 24, line 77: The round resumes: Caelumn "badly injured", Father Thomas shut in "the cells", a spectre heading for Kole.
- ^ Session 24, line 126: The third skeleton's greatsword takes eight maximum hit points, Hugo's "purple blood" almost absorbed into the blade.
- ^ Session 24, line 157: Father Thomas's staff destroys the first spectre; the second falls to it at s24 L290.
- ^ Session 24, line 194-219: Hugo's disarm: an attack roll then a contested Athletics check; "whatever magic is empowering it seems to fade away" (s24 L219).
- ^ Session 24, line 321-327: The pulsing speeds up; Toll the Dead and a Constitution save of 16 keep the skeleton up on one hit point.
- ^ Session 24, line 334-382: Hugo's natural 20 ends the skeleton: "As you start to hear a low chanting spreading out through the temple." (s24 L382).
- ^ Session 24, line 400-403: The mist hall: "As you enter the mist, you are under the blinded condition." (s24 L400); it never lifts, "nope" (s24 L403).
- ^ Session 24, line 427-429: Rime: "I'll join you when you go to fight Sarah." (s24 L427); "Now hurry, she's completing the ritual." (s24 L429).
- ^ Session 24, line 448-450: Kole fails a Wisdom save and "you feel compelled to move further into the fog" (s24 L450).
- ^ Session 24, line 473-481: Faces in the mist strike Kole for 7 and Father Thomas for 9 psychic damage; a voice says "you're going to die here" (s24 L481).
- ^ Session 24, line 534-538: The sloping passage and the room of six stone figures with "a missing left hand" (s24 L538).
- ^ Session 24, line 660-669: An orb "in the mouth of this skull", two hidden doors, and a statue that swings for eight bludgeoning damage.
- ^ Session 24, line 756-760: Kole's lute and the first black orb: "Yeah, just black orb." (s24 L760).
- ^ Session 24, line 794-832: Caelumn dragged into the roots, his death saves fail, and a Healing Word is allowed once (s24 L816, L820, L830).
- ^ Session 24, line 908-912: The roots follow a water trail, "gobbling up all the water, leaving an opening in the wall" (s24 L908); Terry takes the staff.
- ^ Session 24, line 967-970: Kole to Father Thomas: "Do you have so little faith, Father Thomas?" (s24 L970).
- ^ Session 24, line 1003-1014: A short tunnel to a five-sided chamber with a knight statue (s24 L1003); the Augury answers "weal and woe" (s24 L1014).
- ^ Session 24, line 1146-1156: The vote: Caelumn, Kole and Terry stay; Father Thomas and Hugo would leave.
- ^ Session 24, line 1173-1183: Rime again: "multiple conduits going to the statue", "You got to hurry.", and "I don't know." about the orbs.
- ^ Session 24, line 1278-1316: The vampire-lord statue takes Kole's blood and Terry's wrist (8 necrotic) and opens "a small compartment" with an orb.
- ^ Session 24, line 1363-1366: A third hidden passage with "a statue of a Dracolich" (s24 L1363) that "Seems to just be standing there." (s24 L1366).
- ^ Session 24, line 1371-1390: The party inventory is retired: "We're not using the party inventory after this session." (s24 L1388).
- ^ Session 24, line 1633-1663: The chanting is "nearing a peak" (s24 L1633); Terry pushes the knight statue over and smoke "forms in the form of a knight" (s24 L1663).
- ^ Session 24, line 1787-1806: Caelumn kneels to the knight; the DM asks whether he abandons Bahamut for Vecna; "the knight seems to turn its gaze away from you and towards your allies" (s24 L1806).
- ^ Session 24, line 1921-1934: Father Thomas says fuck Vecna and the knight drops him with a natural 20 (s24 L1924, L1928).
- ^ Session 24, line 2003: The pause in initiative: "I would like everyone to at least have one backup character ready." (s24 L2003).
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- turn-back-from-aurelia
- greysmere-kidnapping
- ridge-temple
- vecna
- rime
- mother-sarah
- ritual
- chanting
- black-orbs
- sealed-door
- mist-hall
- faces-in-the-mist
- six-stone-figures
- root-room
- curved-knife
- wooden-staff
- swinging-statue
- vampire-lord-statue
- dracolich-statue
- knight-statue
- smoke-knight
- pink-unicorn-plush
- bahamut
- undead-fortitude
- disarm
- max-hp-drain
- death-saves
- healing-word
- party-inventory-retired
- moonstones
- black-potion
- augury
- level-up-pending
- backup-characters
- mid-combat-pause