Session 4: The Still Current, the Black Mask, and Hugo's Pact

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Session 4
Session 4: The Still Current, the Black Mask, and Hugo's Pact
Session
In-fiction date17 to 19 March 843 A.I.
Recordedunknown
Party presentTerry, Caelumn, Hugo, Vasquez, Harvo
LocationsWyrmbough Grove, Gloamhearth, Mirestrand, The Still Current Inn, Umbrafall, Black Hollow Market

Session 4 opened with a player-delivered recap of session 3 by Polar (whose character is Vasquez) and introduced Terry, a tortle bard, as Chris’s new player character in place of the briefly-played Earthwing [16][20]. The party left Wyrmbough Grove by road through Gloamhearth for Mirestrand, and Harvo killed all three sabretooth tigers that ambushed them, the last two in a single turn [23][25][4]. At The Still Current Inn, under its mask-and-murmur custom, the dwarf-disguised devil The Black Mask offered a wager on the egg quest and played Hugo a recording of Project Veilbreak [26][97][7]. In Umbrafall an unexplained compulsion drew Hugo to the Black Hollow Market, where The Broker contracted the party to kill Maelis Dirn [34][126]. Hugo then summoned the Black Mask alone, was called “Corvin”, and signed a pact of ten years’ service after the egg quest, free if he dies in the last three of them, for the Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks and the Mask’s help killing the Project’s doctor [11][210][163][211]. The session ended with the party tracking Maelis Dirn’s collectors to an opening in the ground [41].

Session 4: The Still Current, the Black Mask, and Hugo’s Pact

Metadata

Recap heard at start of session

The DM rolled a five and asked Polar for the recap [16]. Speaking as Vasquez, Polar ran through the sap and the poison-resistance potions, the frightened elves of the lair, the tiny venomous dragon and its snakes, Cholmondeley’s death, the trip home with the dragon’s head, the two “shambling mounds” Caelumn’s curiosity set loose, and the owl who left and the tortle, Terry, who sat down in his place [17]. He claimed Cholmondeley’s head had been bitten off, and the DM corrected him: “No, he was just bitten into his throat and he got critically wounded and died.” [18]. Polar took an inspiration for the recap [19].

Executive Summary

Terry, Chris’s new tortle bard, joined the party at Fergus’s Grill as it set out by road for Eldwythe by way of Umbrafall, where Hugo had business [20][21][22]. On the road to Mirestrand three sabretooth tigers ambushed them; Vasquez first fired his gunblade, and Harvo’s new Eldritch Cannon and his Fire Bolt killed all three [23][24][25][4]. At The Still Current Inn, where guests wear masks and speak in murmurs, a dwarf in a helmet offered his wares, then drew Hugo, Caelumn and Terry into a black void and showed himself as a devil, The Black Mask [26][27][28][29][30]. He offered a wager on the egg quest, an unremovable onyx ring, and the truth about Hugo’s forgotten wife and child, and played Hugo a log of Project Veilbreak signed by Dr Flem Josenge [31][32][33][7]. In Umbrafall a compulsion drew Hugo to the Black Hollow Market, where The Broker offered clean passage and payment for the death of Maelis Dirn [34][35]. Hugo slipped away, summoned the Black Mask and signed a pact: ten years’ service after the egg quest, free if he dies in the last three, for the Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks and help killing the Project’s doctor [36][37][38]. The party then followed Maelis’s collectors until a noise behind Terry gave them away, and tracked them to an opening in the ground [39][40][41].

Narrative

The session opened on the evening of the dragon dinner at Fergus’s [42][13]. After Polar’s recap, the DM gave everyone five temporary hit points for the dragon meat, and the players agreed that Nancy had been left in the village [43]. Terry, the tortle who had taken the Owlin’s seat, was introduced, and the party grumbled that Sevryn needed a password for the people he kept sending [20][44]. On an Insight check the DM gave Vasquez a cold thought: Sevryn, who looks through the time streams, had most likely known that Cholmondeley would die, sent him in anyway, and had Terry ready to pick up the pieces [45][46]. Vasquez said it aloud: “If he knows, then why doesn’t he just send the best?” [47].

The road was the safer choice: back through Gloamhearth to Mirestrand, up to Umbrafall, where Hugo had “some places and some people I need to meet”, and on to Eldwythe [21][22][48][49]. Nancy had taken the cart, and with no horse they would walk [50]. They slept in Fergus’s hut, and in the morning Fergus reheated a portion of dragon meat for Hugo, worth five more temporary hit points, and served it with “Well, here you go, savior of Wyrmbough.” [51][52].

Three or four hours brought them to Gloamhearth, as human as Wyrmbough was elven, its tilted old buildings almost falling apart [14]. Beyond it, in heavy rain, Terry, Vasquez and Hugo saw “roughly six eyes in the brush and a low growl”: not dogs but large cats, sabretooth tigers [53][23][54][55]. Caelumn’s Faerie Fire caught two of them [56][57]. Vasquez slammed the hammer of his gunblade to prime a charge and cut into the first tiger for 9, the charge bursting for 9 fire more; the second tiger raked him for 8 and 14 and left him on 6 HP [24][58]. Hugo’s natural 20 hit the first for 26, and Harvo threw down a packet that unfolded on spider legs into a turret, his Eldritch Cannon, whose first shot killed the wounded tiger in mid-leap [59][60][61]. A tiger’s claw stopped short of Terry’s face, and Caelumn’s Shield turned another [62]. Caelumn wanted to twin a Chromatic Orb; the DM held him to the 2024 Twin Spell, so he cast the orb at third level instead, and it leapt from one tiger to the other for 18 and 34 [63]. Terry’s bagpipes inspired Vasquez and Terry’s magic-infused crossbow bolt burned a tiger’s shoulder, while Vasquez’s maximum Second Wind put him back on 19 [64]. A tiger clawed Caelumn down to 5 HP, and Hugo cut the other for 16 [65][66]. Then Harvo ended it in a single turn: a natural-20 cannon shot through the heart of the tiger over Caelumn and Terry, and a Fire Bolt from his gun between the eyes of the one about to finish Vasquez, “three for three” [67]. Caelumn healed Vasquez for 11, and he and Vasquez skinned two rough half-pelts of unknown worth [68][69].

Four or five more hours of walking brought them to Mirestrand: a poor marsh port that Velkris has claimed, almost an extension of it, choked by a fog good for ambushes and contraband, where masked tax agents from Velkris collected coin from the shops [70][71]. Hugo’s History check of 18 recalled the town as the place to find a liaison between Umbrafall and Velkris, and the inn he used there, The Still Current Inn, a creaking platform on algae-blackened stilts over a channel [72]. A sign at its door told guests to wear a mask or veil, and a basket held plain reed masks; spies used the place, Hugo explained [26][73]. Inside, a half-giant woman sat with two orcs and a halfling talked with a human, all in murmurs, and anyone louder drew scornful looks [27][74]. Hugo paid 5 gp for five rooms and bought red whisper, a filtered clear spirit, and marsh wine for the table; the barmaid gave him a knowing nod [75]. When a patron banged his drink on the table three times, the whole bar drank, their way of cheering [76].

Over the evening the party traded what they would share of themselves. Caelumn spoke of his devout, dragon-revering home, Vhal’Zarim, and his calling from the Platinum Dragon [77][78]. Vasquez explained his gunblade’s safety, a primer that only fires when primed, and called it a promise he had yet to finish [79][80]. Harvo would say only that he could build things, and Hugo that some of it was classified [81][82][83]. Terry, from the far side of the continent, talked for hours, at one point about travelling 47 years for a single source of fresh water [84][85][86]. Vasquez and Harvo went up to bed [87].

Near midnight, with the bar emptying, a dwarf in a special helmet sat down at the table [86][88]. He was “a procurer of items, goods, from Umbrafall”, offering spell scrolls of any first-level spell, poisons, and magic items that had “fell off a cart” [89][90][91][92][93]. He offered a first-level scroll on a wager, the 25 gold lost if they lost; Hugo pleaded a gambling problem [94]. So the dwarf snapped his fingers, and Hugo, Caelumn and Terry found themselves at a table in a black void [95]. He took off his helmet, horns sprouted and wings unfurled, and the devil named what Caelumn carried: not the seal but “the world dragon egg. don’t worry I don’t want the egg. in fact I want you to succeed.” [96]. His wager was this: if they completed Sevryn’s quest, the one who took the deal would go free and keep the ring; if they failed, lost the egg or that one died, that one would come back to him, with no resurrection [97][98]. The ring was plain onyx with barbs inside, hooked so that it could not come off, and it “gives you power” [99][100]. Devils, he said, keep their deals and “we cannot lie”, and he gave his name as the Black Mask [101][30]. Caelumn declined for now [102].

He turned to Hugo, mocking the name Hugo went by now [103]. For a price he would tell Hugo about his past: did he not want to know about “your wife and your child that you left behind?” [104]. The group Hugo served, the devil said, had stolen him from a promising future, tortured him, changed him beyond recognition and made him forget [105]. If Hugo completed Sevryn’s quest and saved the magic, so that the Black Mask kept his realm, “pillars of the world and all that”, he would tell Hugo where his family was [33]. As proof he conjured an altered sending stone, “the first one’s free”, which played a log [106]:

“Project Veilbreak is underway. All 140,000 candidates from range of backgrounds have been collected. The first phase, which was injection of Redacted, was brutal. with the substance eliminating 50% of the candidates within the first 24 hours, those who survived now glow with a shimmering light coming from the viscous fluid that has replaced their blood and have had their biology rewritten at a cellular level. Upon survival of this, the remaining candidates were forced into arenas with 100 other candidates and told only one would emerge alive. This was repeated twice, leaving a mere total of 7 candidates.” — Recording (Nick voicing), [107]

The log was headed “Log 1. The first trial. The Arena of Calling.” and signed by its narrator, Dr Flem Josenge, a name Hugo did not recognise [108][107][109]. A History check of 17 brought a flash of memory: holding the hands of a woman and a small girl in a white dress and pigtails, who laughed “daddy daddy see what I found”, their faces unseen, until the pain burrowed in and he was back in the arena, his blood burning [110]. “Is that the proof you were looking for, Hugo?” [111]. The devil snapped his fingers, and the three sat in the Still Current again; the dwarf was gone [112]. As Caelumn, half tempted by the ring, went up to his room, a crow pecked at his window, looked at him and flew off [113].

Vasquez made a new charge for the gunblade, a shell casing filled with lightning [114]. On the stairs a human bumped Terry and tried for his gold pouch [115]. In the foggy morning the three wondered whether the night had happened at all, and Hugo asked Caelumn not to take up the ring until they had left Umbrafall, as he needed to check something first [116][117].

Out of the marsh, four hours of glowing purple, green and blue fungi, beautiful but deadly, brought them to the walls of Umbrafall [118][15]. Its main export is poison, from fungus that grew after the wizards of Umbrafall broke their sky and turned the region’s crops to poison and choke; those who remain are assassins and spies [119]. The city sits in perpetual night [120].

“and somewhere deeper in the city the bell tolls, not for time but for warning. Umbrafall waits, its silence louder than any welcome.” — Nick (DM), [119]

Heading for his organisation’s hideout, Hugo felt “an almost burning desire” to go to the Black Hollow Market: “it’s not something you want, but you need to do this.” [121]. A History check of 8 brought back only a vague memory of someone bumping into him [122]. The market’s lanterns dripped pale light over vials, shackled figures and fungus that hissed when touched, and a masked broker with green-stained fingers watched them over a ledger carved of bone [123]. Hugo knew him as The Broker, who keeps the market running and can procure anything; no one in Umbrafall is trustworthy, but once he strikes a deal he keeps his end [124][125]. His deal concerned Maelis Dirn: “Maelis Dirn, Coven Filth. she’s bleeding the market with her own racket. charges protection fees, drags her pet giant through the streets to make examples.” [126]. Kill her, and the party’s passage through the Hollow would be clean, no tax and no questions, and they would be paid in “coin, poisons, and probably something sharper than all of it.” [35]. Without the deal everyone but Hugo would pay a tax of 50 gold [127]. The Broker did not care how she died, and the giant probably had to die as well [128]. Terry, who barely knew how to use a sword, hated the idea of killing a stranger but said he had nowhere else to go; Vasquez saw no problem, and Caelumn counted three of four in favour [129][130]. Her collectors, the Broker said, walk the same alley every night and would lead them to her sanctum in the Warrens, “if you come back breathing” [131]. The giant only came out when someone refused to pay, and the last to refuse had lost his head [132].

Hugo reported in to someone “decently higher” at his organisation’s hideout, where his missions usually came to him as simply knowing what to do, and came back with the giant’s name: the Titan [133][134]. At the tavern where the party waited, he paid the innkeeper 5 gp for a private room for 15 minutes (“Don’t do anything weird in there.”) and said to the empty room “Black Mask I’m ready to accept your deal.” [135]. He was back in the void, facing a devil of full human size [136]. Hugo asked for Bella, who had gone through it with him, to learn the truth and break away too, and for the devil’s help destroying the group if he failed; “Corvin, you ask too much.” was the answer, a name that brought Hugo up short [137]. The devil agreed instead to help him kill the scientist who had done this to them, in return for “10 years of service after the quest of the egg” [138]. Hugo ruled out killing his family or himself, and any certain death [139]. The pen drew blood for one piercing damage, and Hugo read the long scroll before signing: if he died, dead and not merely downed, his soul was the Black Mask’s for ever; success on Sevryn’s quest would free him; the addendum added the ten years of service and the doctor [140]. Dying during the ten years would also forfeit his soul, so Hugo pressed for better on a Persuasion check, and won it: “very well seven years then and if you die during the three you’re still free to go.” [141]. He signed, and the barbed ring was in his hand [142]. No time had passed downstairs [143].

With an hour or two before the collectors came out, the party watched the market [144]. Three cloaked figures in plain stitched-leather masks went straight to a spice stall, tipped the merchant’s coins on the ground, and promised that next time Maelis would come herself, with the giant [39]. The party followed, Hugo leading and Terry rolling a 19 even at disadvantage, but the moment Terry tried to be sneaky a noise behind him gave them away, and the collectors bolted [145]. They were no faster than the party but knew the ground better, and Hugo tracked them to an opening into the ground [146]. Hugo proposed going down stealthily; Terry wondered how to stop the air going through his bagpipes [147][148]. There the session ended [149].

Dialogue Highlights

  1. Vasquez, recapping Cholmondeley’s death for posterity: “We’ll say for historics that his head was bitten off. Write that down.” [150]
  2. Vasquez, on Sevryn’s foresight: “I’m starting to think that he knew what was going to happen. He mentioned that he looks through the time streams. … If he knows, then why doesn’t he just send the best?” [47]
  3. Fergus, seeing Hugo off: “now, don’t go do anything I wouldn’t do. and definitely don’t do stuff I would do. there’s a small gray area in there.” [151]
  4. Terry, on the egg quest: “Sevryn seems to be pulling people from all around the world.” [84]
  5. The Black Mask, on where his goods come from: “Oh. they fell off a truck. okay. oh, sorry. they fell off a cart. I don’t know what a truck is.” [92]
  6. The Black Mask, to Caelumn: “I’m talking about the world dragon egg. don’t worry I don’t want the egg. in fact I want you to succeed.” [152]
  7. The Black Mask, on devils’ rules: “see we devils have a rule set. once a wager is set once a deal is made we abide by the deal. we don’t change it midway and we cannot lie.” [101]
  8. The Black Mask, on names: “but that’s the thing about names. in my realm, they hold power. however, you may call me the Black Mask.” [30]
  9. The Black Mask, to Hugo: “so you don’t want to know about your wife and your child that you left behind?” [32]
  10. The recording, the Project’s log, signed by its narrator Dr Flem Josenge: “All 140,000 candidates from range of backgrounds have been collected. […] This was repeated twice, leaving a mere total of 7 candidates.” [107]
  11. The Broker, contracting Maelis: “Maelis Dirn, Coven Filth. she’s bleeding the market with her own racket. … You deal with her, and your passage through the hollow is clean.” [126]
  12. The Broker, on method: “as long as she dies, I don’t care how.” [153]
  13. Terry, on the contract: “I’m not even a soldier I barely know how to use a sword.” [154]
  14. The Black Mask, naming Hugo: “Corvin, you ask too much.” [11]
  15. The Black Mask, giving way to Hugo’s Persuasion: “very well seven years then and if you die during the three you’re still free to go.” [155]
  16. The collector, threatening the spice merchant: “next time, she’ll come herself, and she’ll bring the giant. and you’ll pay. in more than one way.” [156]

NPCs

  1. Terry (named, in-fiction; new player character): a tortle bard with bagpipes, Chris’s new character in the Owlin’s place [20][157][158]; from the opposite side of the continent, an 8-Intelligence character by his own account, and “I barely know how to use a sword” [84][159][154]. Status: with the party. New this session: yes.
  2. The Black Mask (named, in-fiction): a devil first met as a dwarf in a special helmet, a procurer of goods from Umbrafall; horned and winged in his black void [88][89][29]. Bound by rules: “we cannot lie” [101]. Holds Hugo’s pact [160]. Status: active. New this session: yes.
  3. The Broker (named, in-fiction): the masked keeper of the Black Hollow Market, with a bone ledger and green-stained gloves; he can procure anything, and keeps a deal once it is struck [123][124][125]. Status: active. New this session: yes.
  4. Maelis Dirn (off-screen reference): “Coven Filth”, who runs a protection racket on the market and drags her pet giant through the streets to make examples [126][161]. Status: alive, the party’s target. New this session: yes.
  5. The Titan (off-screen reference): Maelis’s giant, named to Hugo at his hideout; out only when someone will not pay [132][134]. Status: alive. New this session: yes.
  6. Three collectors (unnamed): cloaked, in plain stitched-leather masks; they shook down a spice merchant and fled into the ground [39][40][41]. Status: alive. New this session: yes.
  7. Bella (off-screen reference): named by Hugo as one who went through it with him; he asked the Black Mask to free her too [162]. Status: unknown. New this session: yes.
  8. Dr Flem Josenge (off-screen reference): the narrator of the Project Veilbreak log, a name Hugo does not know [107][109]; the pact promises the Black Mask’s help to kill “one doctor” [163]. Status: unknown. New this session: yes.
  9. Fergus (returning): reheated Hugo’s dragon meat and saw him off [164]. Status: alive. New this session: no.
  10. Nancy (off-screen reference): left in Wyrmbough Grove, with the cart [165][166]. New this session: no.
  11. Sevryn (off-screen reference): looks through the time streams and pulls people “from all around the world” [46][84]. New this session: no.
  12. Earthwing (departed): by Polar’s recap, the owl left and Terry took his seat [167]. New this session: no.
  13. A barmaid at the Still Current (unnamed): served the drinks and seemed to recognise Hugo through his mask [168].
  14. An Umbrafall innkeeper (unnamed): rented Hugo a room for 15 minutes for 5 gp [169].
  15. A crow (unnamed): pecked at Caelumn’s window after the Black Mask scene [8].
  16. A pickpocket (unnamed): a human who bumped Terry on the stairs and tried for his gold pouch [115].

Locations

  1. Gloamhearth: a human town three or four hours from Wyrmbough, its tilted old buildings almost falling apart; passed through [14].
  2. The road to Mirestrand: where the tigers struck, in heavy rain [14][53].
  3. Mirestrand (new): a poor marsh port that Velkris has claimed, with a blacksmith, a tavern and a general store, choked by a near-permanent fog and visited by masked tax agents of Velkris [71]; a midway town for liaisons between Umbrafall and Velkris [170].
  4. The Still Current Inn (new): on algae-blackened stilts over a channel, its main room a creaking platform over the water; masks or veils required, murmurs only; five rooms for 5 gp; used by spies [170][26][73][27][171].
  5. The Black Mask’s void: a table in a black void, where no time passes outside [172][173][143].
  6. Umbrafall (new): perpetual night over fields of glowing poisonous fungi, with jagged roofs, broken towers, green-fire lanterns, masked figures in the mist and a warning bell; poison is its main export since its wizards broke their sky; “the main capital of crime, assassination and poison” [15][119][120].
  7. Black Hollow Market (new): under pale lanterns, stalls of glass vials, shackled figures and hissing fungus, venom smoke and rot, every deal whispered [123].
  8. The Warrens (entrance only): an opening in the ground where the collectors vanished; by the Broker’s account the way to Maelis’s sanctum [174][41].

Items & Loot

  1. Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks (acquired): plain onyx with barbs inside, hooked so that it cannot be removed; it “gives you power”, unspecified; Hugo’s from the pact [99][100][38]. The DM added it to his sheet at the end of the session [149].
  2. Altered Sending Stone (acquired): conjured by the Black Mask as proof, “the first one’s free”; a button plays the Project Veilbreak log [106][107].
  3. Sabretooth tiger pelts (acquired): two rough half-pelts, worth unknown [175][176][177].
  4. Dragon meat: five temporary hit points for the dinner, and five more for Hugo’s reheated portion [178][179].
  5. Vasquez’s Gunblade (first used in combat): a primed charge bursts for an extra 2d6 fire [180][181]; Vasquez makes a new casing filled with lightning [114].
  6. Harvo’s Eldritch Cannon (first used): a turret that unfolds on spider legs from a packet; 15 HP and AC 18 [60][182].

Currency: 5 gp for five rooms at the Still Current; five silver for the red whisper and 15 copper for the marsh wine; 5 gp for the private room in Umbrafall [171][183][184]. The Broker’s deal spares everyone but Hugo a 50-gold tax [127].

Combat Encounters

  • Encounter 1: Sabretooth tigers on the road to Mirestrand [185].
    • Trigger: six eyes and a growl in the rain, then large cats breaking cover [23][54].
    • Enemies: three sabretooth tigers [23][186].
    • Party state at start: full HP, plus five temporary HP from the dragon meat [178].
    • Notable rolls: Caelumn’s Faerie Fire, failed on a natural 1 and a 4 [187]; Vasquez’s primed gunblade, 9 slashing and 9 fire [188]; Hugo’s natural 20 for 26 [59]; Caelumn’s third-level Chromatic Orb, 18 and 34 [189]; Harvo’s natural-20 cannon shot for 22 [190].
    • Hits on the party: Vasquez took 8 and 14, down to 6 HP [58]; Caelumn took 14, down to 5 HP, his Shield stopping another claw [191][192]; a claw stopped short of Terry [193][194].
    • Resources spent: Vasquez’s primer charge and Second Wind [180][195]; Caelumn’s Innate Sorcery, Font of Magic and a third-level slot [196][197]; Harvo’s Eldritch Cannon [60]; Terry’s Bardic Inspiration [198][157].
    • Downs: none.
    • Resolution: all three killed by Harvo, one with the cannon’s first shot and two on his next turn [25][199][200]; Caelumn healed Vasquez for 11 [68].

Clues & Foreshadowing

  1. Sevryn foresaw Cholmondeley’s death: the DM’s answer to Vasquez’s Insight check, that he most likely knew and sent him anyway, with Terry ready [46]; voiced by Vasquez [47]. A DM-given inference.
  2. Hugo was “Corvin” [11]. Source: the Black Mask; the party does not know.
  3. A wife and a small girl in pigtails [32][201]. The Black Mask’s claim and Hugo’s flash of memory.
  4. Project Veilbreak: 140,000 candidates; an injection of “Redacted” that killed half within 24 hours and left the survivors glowing, a viscous fluid for blood; arenas of 100 with one survivor, run twice, leaving 7 [108][107].
  5. Bella, another who went through it [162]. Source: Hugo.
  6. “the world dragon egg”: the Black Mask’s name for the egg, and his stake in it: his realm, one of the “pillars of the world” [152][33].
  7. The crow at Caelumn’s window [8]. Possibly the Black Mask’s; not confirmed.
  8. The pickpocket on the stairs [115]. Significance unknown.
  9. Hugo’s compulsion to visit the market [34], with a vague memory of someone bumping into him [202]. Unexplained.
  10. Hugo’s missions come to him as simply knowing what to do [203]. DM-confirmed.
  11. Umbrafall’s broken sky: its wizards broke it, and the poisonous fungus followed [119]. DM lore.

Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions

  1. Will the pact give Hugo his family back? The Black Mask says he cannot lie [101][33]. Cares: Hugo.
  2. What is Hugo’s organisation? Only “the group I work for” in this session [204]. Hugo names it The Ascendancy in session 12; the name is Hugo-only in-fiction knowledge. Cares: Hugo, Vasquez.
  3. What does the ring do? “It gives you power.” [100].
  4. Can Bella be freed? The Black Mask would not take it on [205].
  5. What drew Hugo to the market? The DM answered his question with a question [34][206].
  6. What is The Titan? Only its name and its size are known [207].
  7. What lies in The Warrens? Maelis’s sanctum, by the Broker’s account [174][41].
  8. Whose is the crow? [8].

Quests

  1. [Status: active] The Egg Quest: to Eldwythe, by way of Umbrafall [22].
  2. [Status: active] Hugo’s business in Umbrafall: he reported in [21][208].
  3. [Status: new] Kill Maelis Dirn for The Broker: clean passage through the Hollow and payment in coin, poisons and “something sharper” [35][209]. Progress: collectors tracked to an opening in the ground [41].
  4. [Status: new] Hugo’s pact (private to Hugo): ten years’ service after the egg quest, free if he dies in the last three; the Black Mask’s help killing the doctor; his family’s whereabouts once the quest is done [33][210][163][211].

Faction & Relationship Changes

Table Rulings

  1. Twin Spell follows the 2024 rules: the DM refused the 2014 version, and Caelumn cast the Chromatic Orb at third level instead [214][215].
  2. Advantage does not stack without a feature such as Elven Accuracy [216][217].
  3. Innate Sorcery gives advantage on sorcerer spell attacks [218].
  4. Eldritch Cannon: needs a token, has 15 HP and AC 18, makes no opportunity attacks, like Spiritual Weapon, and cannot be moved and fired with one bonus action [219][220][221].
  5. Faerie Fire gives advantage against the creatures in it [222][223].
  6. Devils’ pacts: no lies and no change midway; terms can be improved by Persuasion before signing; signed in blood [101][224][225].
  7. No time passes outside the Black Mask’s void [143].
  8. Passive Insight was enough to see the Black Mask’s sarcasm [226].
  9. Inspiration can cancel disadvantage: Terry used the DM’s inspiration on his Stealth [227].

Callbacks

  • Session 3: Cholmondeley’s death, retold in the recap [18]; the dragon meat [178][179]; Sevryn’s Eldwythe message [228]; the gunblade, first used in combat [180]; the cart Nancy kept [166].
  • Session 2: the hut Fergus rents them [51].
  • Session 1: Sevryn’s time streams, recalled through Vasquez’s insight [229], and the egg’s purpose, to save the magic of Eldurae [230].

Meta notes

  • Chris’s new character, the tortle bard Terry, joins, in place of Earthwing, who appeared only at the end of session 3 [20].
  • The session opened with out-of-character talk about the 2014 and 2024 rules [231].
  • The DM built the Project Veilbreak recording from the backstory Dylan wrote for Hugo [232].
  • A ten-minute break came on the road out of Mirestrand [233].
  • The DM added the Onyx Ring to Hugo’s sheet at the end of the session [234][149].

Next Steps

Entities in this session

People (13)

Locations (11)

Things (6)

References

  1. ^ Session 4, line 30-44: Polar recaps session 3; receives DM inspiration.
  2. ^ Session 4, line 90-100: Vasquez's insight on Sevryn's foresight; he knew Cholmondeley would die and sent him anyway.
  3. ^ Session 4, line 346-380: Sabretooth tigers ambush; Vasquez first use of the gunblade primer mechanic.
  4. ^ Session 4, line 698-724: Harvo kills the last two sabretooth tigers in one turn, with the Eldritch Cannon and a Fire Bolt.
  5. ^ Session 4, line 870-882: The Still Current Inn's mask requirement and whisper protocol.
  6. ^ Session 4, line 1066-1230: First meeting with the Black Mask; gambling wager offered then refused.
  7. ^ Session 4, line 1312-1322: Recording from the Project doctor reveals Project Veilbreak experiments.
  8. ^ Session 4, line 1352: A crow pecks at Caelumn's window after the Black Mask vanishes.
  9. ^ Session 4, line 1480-1510: The Broker's bone ledger and the Maelis Dirn / Coven Filth contract.
  10. ^ Session 4, line 1658-1730: Hugo signs the pact alone in his room; receives the Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks.
  11. ^ Session 4, line 1670: Black Mask names Hugo "Corvin".
  12. ^ Session 4, line 1816-1830: The collectors spot the party; the party tracks them to an opening in the ground.
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