Campaign Timeline

Start-class article

The Campaign Timeline is a chronological event list across all recorded sessions of the campaign, with session and line citations. Each session has its own subsection; events within a session are listed in approximate chronological order. Cross-references to entities use wikilinks. The timeline is a navigation device, not a synthesis — for the synthesis, see the Campaign Bible.

Session 1 (unrecorded; reconstructed from Cholmondeley’s s2 recap)

Session 2: The Bark, the Dryad, and the Riddle that Wasn’t a Tree

  • Cholmondeley delivers a complete recap of the unrecorded session 1; awarded a Ring of Swimming on a d100 of 90 [4].
  • Cholmondeley persuades Nancy to mind the cart in the Wyrmbough Grove central square while the party heads to the Corrupted Redwood Grove to collect six bark samples for Gwen Homora.
  • At the treeline the party meets Harvo (full name Harvalent Irsaron) of Arcanthes, Howville, sent by Sevryn via letter to assist. He presents a humming brass-glass contraption — the Sevryn’s Egg-Carrier — that stabilises the egg’s vibrations; Caelumn takes the egg into the contraption [5].
  • Cholmondeley introduces himself as “Chumley Fenshaw” [6].
  • The party defeats three zombie bandits at a burnt camp; loots 11gp + 240sp + 400cp + crossbows, scimitars, healer’s kit, hooded lantern, oil flasks, shovel; Vasquez notes two-toed humanoid prints and large canine paw prints circling the camp [7].
  • Vasquez is splashed for 3 necrotic damage by a popping pustule; the central burial mound is noted as untouched by corruption [8].
  • The Dryad descends from the canopy and offers the party a riddle: “I am a wall grown from within. Storm writes scars across my skin. Take my circle and the heart goes still. Take a single scale and I live. What am I?” [9]. Party answers “tree”. Correct answer: “bark”. Combat begins [10].
  • In the dryad fight, Cholmondeley is reduced to 0 HP by a natural-twenty critical vine whip for max 20 damage; he stabilises on his first death save. Caelumn is later reduced to 0 HP and revived. Hugo decapitates the dryad with a 24-Athletics escape and a nat-20 attack of opportunity [11].
  • The party loots a healing potion from the dryad’s pouch (identified by Harvo via alchemist’s supplies; given to Caelumn).
  • Three further fights: a giant centipede + insect swarm; three “mud mosquitoes” with death-burst dex saves. Party levels up to 2.
  • Gwen Homora receives the samples [12] and brews five poison-resistance potions, delivered at supper [13]. She admits she has no idea how long they last.
  • Sunny the halfling merchant trades 3 light crossbows + 3 scimitars for a hand crossbow + free healing potion; +17 Persuasion from Vasquez secures alchemist’s fire for 15gp + scimitar [14].
  • The party rents Fergus’s cottages at 5gp.
  • In the morning, Cholmondeley discovers he has forgotten about Nancy, who slept beside the cart in the rain. Failed Deception. Nancy: “fuck you, fuck your horses, fuck your face and your stupid ass moustache I’m out peace.” [15]. She walks off.

Session 3: The Lair of Sunset is Nigh and the Death of Cholmondeley

  • Gwen Homora explains that the central dirt mound in the Corrupted Redwood Grove is the burial mound of 34 elves who fell against Death-at-Sunset, sealed by their leader Edvan’s final long-sword blow [16].
  • Caelumn enters the burial-mound circle and dream-sees Death-at-Sunset choking dozens of elves with poison breath in tunnels and the location of the cave entrance across the poisoned stream [17].
  • The party drinks Gwen Homora’s poison-resistance potions before crossing the leech-infested stream. Caelumn singes off half of Cholmondeley’s moustache with Control Flames; failed Deception fails to hide it.
  • At the cave mouth, the rescued elf hunter Armin Whisperwind intentionally misses Caelumn with an arrow as a warning. Caelumn’s 23 Persuasion convinces him to wait for an escort home; he reports four other elves taken and presumed dead [18].
  • The party encounters four broken elf cultists at the cave throat; Hugo decapitates one in a cleaving rage attack; Vasquez intimidates the remaining three into retreat.
  • In the deep chamber lies Death-at-Sunset’s skeleton with a poison fog. Sunset is Nigh — a small green wyrmling, Death-at-Sunset’s son — claims to be his mother’s avatar of vengeance. A masked yuan-ti woman flanks from a side chamber with snakes including one called “Nagini”.
  • Sunset is Nigh casts Suggestion on Hugo; Hugo (failed Wisdom save) leaves the cave raging.
  • Round 2: the yuan-ti woman hits Cholmondeley twice — the first attack a natural 20 critical for 9 piercing + 21 poison [19]. Cholmondeley fails his stabilisation, breaks his neck on the death-save attempt. Last words: “I hate you all.” [20].
  • Vasquez takes a perfect-crit opportunity attack on Sunset is Nigh, tearing off the wyrmling’s tail and hind legs; on his next turn decapitates the wyrmling [21]. Vasquez then back-stabs the yuan-ti woman to end the fight [22].
  • The party brings the egg to Death-at-Sunset’s corpse. The egg absorbs the lingering poison and the hoard’s essence, glowing permanently green [23].
  • Treasure: thousands of mostly copper-and-silver coins, a magnificent elvish-runed sword (the Dragonslayer Longsword), a corpse of a previous looter clutching a pistol, dragon teeth, the wyrmling’s body for transport.
  • Side-room fight with three small plant creatures; Hugo one-shots one on a nat 20.
  • Returning to Wyrmbough Grove dragging the wyrmling’s corpse and Cholmondeley’s body, the party delivers Armin Whisperwind home.
  • Funeral at the village green: Gwen Homora places six sprigs of mosswort into the fire (one extra for Cholmondeley); Selenor plays the carved war-horn of the Grove Wars [24]. Cholmondeley’s holy symbol is passed to Nancy, who asks to stay with the party.
  • Sevryn’s telepathic voice reaches the party: “I sense a dragon’s presence in the town of Eldwythe. … if it is what we need, we must not lose it.” [25].
  • Caelumn attunes the Dragonslayer Longsword (rare, enchantment school) overnight. Vasquez crafts the looted pistol and his longsword into his gunblade at Shamil’s forge on a d100 of 4 (clean, no improvements; [26].
  • Harvo visits the burial mound at night; sees Edvan’s ghostly echo on a loop; recognises the Dragonslayer Longsword as the one that fits Edvan’s empty scabbard (nat-20 Insight; echoes are non-interactive).
  • Hugo asks Fergus to butcher Sunset is Nigh for the village. Fergus fashions the dragon’s skull into a clean-toothed crown for Hugo and prepares eight portions of dragon meat for the road.
  • Dragon-meat feast. The Owlin Earthwing in a Vietnamese rice hat sits down at the party’s table and introduces himself (Chris’s replacement PC, [27]. Party levels up to 3.

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

  • Polar (Vasquez’s player) delivers the s3 recap; awarded a DM inspiration. Five temp HP for everyone from leftover dragon meat [28].
  • Vasquez surfaces the theory that Sevryn is canon-event-aware and queues replacement characters in advance [29].
  • Earthwing departs off-screen between sessions; Terry introduces himself as a tortle bard from “the far side of the continent” (Chris’s new PC, replacing Earthwing).
  • The party departs Wyrmbough Grove toward Eldwythe via Gloamhearth and the road south.
  • Two sabretooth tigers ambush in fog and rain. Vasquez uses his gunblade for the first time, slamming the hammer to charge a primer for +2d6 fire [30]. Caelumn’s twinned, font-of-magic-converted 3rd-level Chromatic Orb deals 18 + 34 (bouncing) for the kill. Harvo deploys his Eldritch Cannon for the first time. Two crude pelts skinned roughly.
  • The party reaches Mirestrand, a fog-choked stilted marsh village adjacent to Velkris. Velkris tax-agents shake down local shops.
  • At The Still Current Inn, all guests must wear plain reed masks and speak in murmurs. Hugo orders five red whispers + five marsh wines.
  • A dwarf with a special helmet sits down at the table; offers a wager (25gp for a 1st-level spell scroll on a coin flip). Hugo and Caelumn decline.
  • The dwarf snaps his fingers. Hugo, Caelumn, Terry are transported to a black void. The dwarf removes his helmet to reveal horns and wings — The Black Mask. He proposes a wager that the party will succeed at The Egg Quest; if they fail, one of them returns to him. He produces an onyx ring with internal barbed hooks that gives power but cannot be removed [31].
  • The Black Mask plays an altered sending stone recording from the Project doctor describing Project Veilbreak: 140,000 candidates injected with viscous-fluid blood replacement (50% killed in 24 hours), survivors’ blood replaced with shimmering viscous fluid, biology rewritten cellularly, 1-of-100 arena combat run twice, 7 survivors [32].
  • Hugo’s history check (17) summons a flashed memory of holding the hand of a woman and a small girl in pigtails saying “daddy daddy see what I found” before pain “burrowed into his mind” and he was back in the arena.
  • Snap. Back at the inn. As Caelumn retires to his room, a crow pecks at his window, looks at him, and flies off [33].
  • The party travels to Umbrafall the next morning. Perpetual night, bioluminescent poisonous fungi, masked figures in fog, warning bell tolling deep.
  • Hugo reports in to a “decently higher” representative of his organisation off-screen. Magnetic compulsion draws the rest toward the Black Hollow Market [34].
  • At the market, The Broker (masked figure with bone ledger and green-stained gloves) offers a contract on Maelis Dirn (“Coven Filth”) and her giant minion the Titan. Reward: free passage through the Hollow plus coin, poisons, and “something sharper than all of it”. 50gp passage tax otherwise. Party accepts [35].
  • Hugo retreats to a private 5gp inn room and summons The Black Mask in full devil form (this time with horns visible). Hugo negotiates additions: conversion or freedom for Bella (another Project Veilbreak survivor); help destroying his organisation if he dies pursuing it; help killing the Project doctor.
  • Hugo signs the pact [36]: 7 years post-quest service + 3 years amnesty (Persuasion-renegotiated from 10 years). The pen draws blood. Hugo receives the Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks (cannot be removed). The Black Mask names him “Corvin” [37]. No time passes in the real world.
  • The party trails three Maelis-Dern collectors in leather masks through the market. Terry’s 19-on-disadvantage stealth is disrupted by an audible sneeze [38]; the collectors bolt for a hatch entrance to The Warrens.

Session 5: Black Hollow Market Tunnels and the Hollow Guardians

  • The party enters the underground tunnel beneath the Black Hollow Market. Faint violet runes glow on the walls; spores drift “like lazy snow” [39].
  • Harvo’s Detect Magic is “about useless” — every surface in Umbrafall is saturated with corrupted animation magic [40].
  • A fungus-puff hits Harvo with airborne spores. Caelumn casts Produce Flame to ignite them. The fungi explode: 28 fire to Caelumn (full damage; failed save, downed in his own fireball), 14 to Terry, 14 to Harvo. Terry Cure-Wounds-revives Caelumn at 22HP. The detonation reveals runes on the now-exposed wall [41].
  • Vasquez holds up two fingers at Caelumn — silent warning that one more fire-related incident will result in “one very hard hit to your face.”
  • A fungal-zombie giant ambushes from beneath slime. The creature regenerates via three fungal nodes flickering in time with its heartbeat. 12+ rounds. Vasquez slices open its chest, asks if it cauterised, then Action Surges to shove an alchemist’s fire into the cavity [42]. Caelumn upcasts Witch Bolt at 3rd level, electrocutes the creature, detonating the alchemist’s fire from the inside.
  • Two Hollow Guardians in the next corridor demand: “Speak. Who enters? Thieves? Or servants of the Hollow?” [43]. Caelumn declares “we are servants of the hollow.” Deception check fails: “Thieves!” Combat. The Guardians’ touch deals necrotic + max-HP reduction. Caelumn’s twin-cast Chromatic Orb at 3rd level bounces for 20+24. Hugo finishes both with a thrown handaxe and a reckless nat 20 [44].
  • Loot in a hidden satchel: five red vials (one larger), a spell scroll of Wither and Bloom (identified by Caelumn, Arcana 15), a bag of dust [45]. Vasquez gets the larger vial; identified poorly enough that Hugo speculates “I’m going to assume it’s a healing potion.”
  • The party enters a humid bowl-shaped sludge-pit cavern with three sludge-pits. Three fungal-zombies crawl out of the muck. Their auras force Con saves; Hugo is poisoned, Vasquez is paralysed-then-bitten in the throat for 28 damage and downed [46].
  • Session ends mid-combat with Vasquez stabilised at 7HP after Harvo’s Battle Medic.

Session 6: Maze of the Minotaur and the Titan

  • The sludge-pit fight resolves; party long-rests inside an enemy storeroom (Terry casts Alarm; Hugo builds a barricade with Vasquez’s nat-20 Athletics help). Vasquez extracts a vial of phase-spider venom with Alchemist’s Supplies [47].
  • During the rest, Caelumn fails his Wisdom save vs creeping fungal tendrils on a nat 1 and wakes with one level of exhaustion [48].
  • A phase spider ambushes from the ceiling above Caelumn [49]: 3 nat 20s in 3 rounds; Caelumn and Harvo both downed and paralysed for one hour. Hugo’s Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks triggers for the first time — when reduced to 0 HP, the demonic-blade feature deals 1d8 necrotic to the spider and restores Hugo to 4 HP [50]. Terry’s held-action true-strike crossbow shot finishes the spider on a portal exit [51].
  • Loot from the storeroom: 3 healing potions, a salve, a silvered short sword (Terry), a Gloom-Touched Buckler (Hugo).
  • Side room: a Mind-Control Bookshelf speaks telepathically only to Terry: “Come closer Terry. We got secrets.” Terry refuses. Caelumn enters, fails Wisdom save with 12, begins grovelling. Hugo makes a nat 20 Strength check to drag Caelumn out by the leg without entering himself [52]. The bookshelf is abandoned, never destroyed.
  • A research-desk room contains Maelis Dirn’s notes describing the Titan binding ritual (“Tri-cap bio-gloom. Cultiver binds soul thread. Three nodes to hold the weave. Two pulses to seal.”) and a forged shipping ledger routing goods through Duskwatch to Velkris [53]. Final notes update to five nodes instead of three [54].
  • Loot: 2 scrolls of Guiding Bolt, healing potion, antitoxin, bio-gloom toxin, a stoppered jar with a violet bio-gloom mushroom cap preserved in resin that “tries to bind to me through the glass” (Harvo). Greater healing potion.
  • The party enters the Maze of the Minotaur. Hugo proposes the right-hand rule.
  • The Titan boss fight begins. The Titan is a giant orc-shape wrapped in chains digging into its own skin, glowing purple. Ranged attacks heal it as the shadows reform.
  • Mid-fight, the Titan throws boulders at Hugo (13 + 18 bludgeoning) and forces a Wisdom save. Hugo fails and is stunned and pulled into a vision of fighting the Titan as it had looked before, surrounded by allies he didn’t recognise being torn in half. Emerges with 80 feet of movement for 10 minutes (s6 vision-trance reward).
  • Maelis Dirn appears mid-fight, firing arcane bursts from cover. To Hugo: “Liar. I see the project’s work on you. You work for them and you will die and you will become a pet” [55].
  • Hugo sprints the maze hunting fungal mushroom clusters. Two of five nodes destroyed by session end.
  • Session ends mid-combat with Vasquez down, Caelumn at 5/29, Terry running back from a dead end.

Session 7: Maelis Falls, Vasquez Captured

  • Titan + Maelis Dirn fight resumes round 12. Vasquez death-save nat 20 to recover. Caelumn casts the Wither and Bloom scroll at the Titan-chamber centre; Vasquez burns a hit die to heal 9HP.
  • Hugo destroys the fifth fungal node. The Titan rises larger and angrier than before — but looks at Maelis Dirn through her control ring, declares “No more”, and slams her with two boulders. Second boulder: nat 20 for 34 bludgeoning. Maelis is reduced to “a fine mist into the ground” [56]. The Titan shrinks, looks at Hugo “before disappearing forever”.
  • Loot from Maelis’s remains: 50gp coin purse, 2 vials of bio-gloom toxin, a Soulbinder’s Packed Ring (cracked, magical) [57].
  • The Broker pays out: 50gp + 2 bio-gloom toxins; he identifies the ring as a Soulbinder’s Packed Ring. He gifts Hugo a Greataxe of Frost +1, points the party at Silent Intake in Velkris (near “the Talking Skulls” entrance) for the Duskwatch ledger, and offers a sending stone for future contracts (Hugo accepts) [58].
  • The Broker offers a follow-up: Black Vein Quarry missing-miners job (~3 weeks gone, day-and-a-half travel north). 100gp reward. Party accepts.
  • The Glomangol Inn long rest (5gp/room negotiated from 15gp). The bartender confirms Maelis’s death and gives free venison stew [59]. Free dinner.
  • The Wraith dream: Hugo in a dark alley facing a familiar female figure: “Subject. Status report.” Hugo reports the Titan eliminated, Maelis dead, shows the ring. The Wraith: “The project seems to have worries about your loyalties changing. Something about their leash weakening on you?” Hugo’s Deception passes. The Wraith: “Lean in closer. Stick with the group. Learn what you can. We’ll be in touch.” [60].
  • Whisper Coil Emporium in the morning. A shifty blonde-shaved-haired dwarf with a fungal-orb eye sells healing potions at 50gp; opened “just last month”. Offers an experimental bio-gloom-tinged potion. Vasquez drinks it — gains glowing-green bioluminescent meeping bubbles trailing from his skin every 5 feet for one hour. Harvo trades the bio-gloom mushroom-cap-jar for 5 healing potions (Harvo got the better deal).
  • Exiting the Emporium, two Nightwatch guards try to drag a metal urn from a young woman (Risa — name not given this session). Caelumn: “the dead are sacred, you should know that, and it is not your business taking the dead away from their family” [61]. Combat.
  • The Nightwatch fight runs 5 rounds. Vasquez is downed by a 19-damage hit; Caelumn heals him via Cure Wounds spell scroll (14HP) but the second guard kills him again. The first guard’s flare summons reinforcements within ~6 seconds [62]. Hugo wraps a scarf around his face and dashes; Caelumn altered self and fled; Terry hides; Vasquez is arrested and dragged off to jail.

Session 8: Bruise the Cellmate, the Succubus, and the Quarry Ghosts

  • Vasquez wakes in a Nightwatch jail cell. Guard’s “teach you mess with Nightwatch business” + faceful of cold water [63]. Cellmate Jack — spindly human, eats prison rats — offers chicken-flavoured rats: “the only reason I’m asking is because the rats sometimes taste a bit like chicken.” Vasquez gives the alias “Cruz”. Jack hears “Bruise”. Bruise it is.
  • Outside, the rest of the party investigates the urn. Hugo’s passive Perception 22 identifies the smell as lye [64]. Hugo: “I wondered if they aquamated her, that’s why it smelled of lye because the chemicals they use for aquamation will somewhat resemble lye” [65].
  • Risa (named through conversation) recounts her sister’s timeline: burned at 10:00 AM, but the clinic logs show someone “checking on” her at 10:20. The clinic name is Dawn Mercy Clinic. Her sister had headaches, saw things, and “had turned a candle on with her mind” [66].
  • Harvo disguises in plain civilian and walks into the Nightwatch jail front office. Two clerks named Jorin and Harak. The official log entry for Vasquez reads: “It’s written down as bitch-ass elf” [67]. Harvo bribes 75gp each (150gp total) for an off-record release [68].
  • Vasquez is led out, gear dumped on the floor. Reunion. Vasquez owes the party 150gp.
  • The party heads north toward the Black Vein Quarry. Camp in a forest clearing 8 hours along. Caelumn perception-checks canine footprints approaching. Harvo Tinkers a metal-plate-and-stick spade for Vasquez’s fire-pit.
  • An old woman with a torch approaches asking for help. She whispers something to Vasquez (Charisma save failed); transforms into a succubus with two stealthed crossbow-thief-archers. Combat [69].
  • The succubus dominates Terry, then Harvo, ordering them to “heal me with your biggest spell”. Hugo crit-decapitates her on a nat 20 hand-axe. Harvo kills the archers.
  • Loot: a Charlatan’s Die (homebrew d6 with controlled-result; identified by Harvo) — Caelumn takes it. 23gp + 4 hand crossbows + 4 short swords + 4 sets of thieves’ tools.
  • Terry finally completes Find Familiar mid-camp (1h 10m ritual; the succubus interrupted at 1h 9m). Macarena chant. Familiar manifests as Earthwing the owl, named after the s3 Owlin PC.
  • Long rest. The party reaches the Black Vein Quarry: black-stone terraces, broken lift-grain, no birds, no insects. Metal-on-stone strikes from below.
  • Earthwing the owl is shot out of the sky on its first scouting flight by a stealthed creature with a 20 stealth check. Killer unknown.
  • Two ghost-miners crawl along walls “as we’re searching for something inside the rock” [70]. Caelumn casts Blade Ward (verbal/somatic); ghosts notice and attack. Necrotic + max-HP-drain hand attacks.
  • Session ends mid-combat as the Christmas/New Year cliffhanger; Caelumn down (-9 max HP), Harvo down (-11 max HP).

Session 9: The Death of Harvo

  • Mid-fight with the quarry specters, an unseen presence offers Vasquez a bargain to take the weight he carries. He accepts [71]. Pain blooms white-hot as nerves scream and your vision blurs. Horns tear through Vasquez’s skull, runes appear on his skin.
  • The presence introduces itself as Mharos: “I am Empraros. I am what remains when fear is carried too long and hope is set down. They buried me because I would not stop spreading that weight” [72].
  • Vasquez’s race rewrites from elf to half-demon-elf. His face heals. The metal bars holding his mouth closed fall out. Necrotic resistance now in effect.
  • The party finds a deceased priest of Ilmater half-buried on a higher platform — gold chain, ivory hand grasping a ruby heart with smirking and sad faces. Caelumn’s 20 Religion identifies the symbol; nobody recognises the body. Hugo pockets the pendant for the Broker.
  • Climbing platforms: skeletal sniper combat + a CR3 wight on the upper deck. The wight taunts Vasquez: “What makes you so special? Why did it succeed with you?” [73].
  • Behind a one-way illusion wall: a man kneels before a hovering cracked red crystal radiating enchantment. He turns. Smoke rushes past. The party is yanked into personal failure-visions [74]:
    • Vasquez relives a knife he tried to forge to impress his adopted dwarf father, Bison — the mould shattered.
    • Harvo relives the failed research into restoring his lost hand.
    • Terry relives playing the Rite of Returning for his dead sister, where the song failed.
    • Hugo relives a battlefield massacre where he turned on and killed his entire prior team.
    • Caelumn relives his time at the Platinum Order never being able to live up to his ancient draconic blood.
  • Wisdom saves: Vasquez 18 (passed), Harvo passed, Hugo 17 (passed), Caelumn used Heroic Inspiration but failed, Terry failed at disadvantage and broke out Frightened. The vision ends; in its place stands a succubus.
  • Round 1: Caelumn’s Witch Bolt for 11. The succubus flies over Hugo, casts Charm/Dominate Person; Hugo fails his Wisdom save. She points at Vasquez: “Kill that one.” Hugo (raging) throws a hand-axe and downs Vasquez.
  • Caelumn’s quickened Magic Missile breaks concentration, freeing Hugo. The succubus re-casts Dominate on Terry (failed) and points Hugo at Harvo: “Kill that one.” Hugo’s first axe hits, the second is a natural 20 critical for 23 damage [75]. Harvo’s reduced max-HP from the earlier necrotic drain means he cannot survive. Mordane gives his last words: “Well, fuck.” Hugo’s hand-axe takes Harvo’s head.
  • Hugo killed her on a re-roll (29 damage two-axe “tomahawk” to the neck). Crushes her decapitated head under his boot.
  • Caelumn attempts to bind the succubus’s soul with the Soulbinder’s Packed Ring at 2nd level; CR3 vs 4th-level slot is outside range; spell fizzles [76].
  • Vasquez (post-fight, hosting Mharos) reports feeling “schadenfreude” at the wight’s death and “weirdly enough, a little bit happy about what’s happening in the group right now” [77].
  • Crystal destroyed (Hugo pockets the shards). Per Caelumn’s post-combat Intelligence check, the crystal was the channel by which the succubus corrupted miners into ghosts [78].
  • The party hauls Harvo’s headless corpse and his head out of the mine. Pyre. Vasquez cuts a small piece of metal from one of Harvo’s weapons and turns it into a charm to wear. Hugo’s eulogy: “you were smart, probably smarter than a lot of us here” [79]. Caelumn says burial rites and lights the pyre.
  • Terry attempts his people’s Rite of Returning on the pyre; rolls badly on Performance (he is not yet proficient). The voice from his vision returns: “it’s your fault that she’s not part of the harmony.” The DM rules the failure permanent: -1 Charisma, permanent [80].

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

  • A sealed letter from Sevryn appears on a flat stone beside Harvo’s pyre, sealed with a stamped S and scented with Sevryn’s familiar oso [81]. The letter:
    • “I’m sorry. I knew Harvo wasn’t coming back from this. I still sent him — not because he deserved it, not because it was his destiny, because the path you’re on only stays open if the wrong thing happens at the right time.”
    • “There are more sacrifices ahead, bigger ones, the kind you don’t recover from. If you want out, take it now.”
    • “A tiefling named Ruin is going to meet you on the road and travel with you from there. He’s charismatic. He’s capable. However, don’t confuse charm with harmlessness.”
  • The party hikes back through the Umbrafall fungal forest. As they make camp, Ruin wanders into the firelight asking if anyone has food. He confirms he was sent only by a letter from a “Sevryn” he didn’t know. Vasquez introduces himself: “Just Cruz will do fine.”
  • On Vasquez’s watch, a smoking shadowy figure with burning red eyes manifests at the edge of camp — Mharos in physical form for the first time. Vasquez tries to negotiate a partnership; Mharos refuses [82]: “Oh, but you misunderstood the standard. There is no deal. There is only this. There is only me feeding on your delicious misery. … You and I will become one. You will be my terrible sword that sweeps across Eldurae and they will all bow to us” [83]. Vanishes with a fanged smile.
  • In Umbrafall, the Broker pays the mining-quest reward (100gp) and offers an Aurelian assassination job (200gp, must look like an accident, two-week deadline — declined). Hugo asks about Dawn Mercy. Broker: “Doesn’t move products, doesn’t move secrets, doesn’t move leverage” [84]. Points to The Rat, an information broker who only contacts you when he wants you [85].
  • The party visits Risa briefly at The Glomangol Inn — distinctly disappointed and visibly drinking heavily.
  • Dawn Mercy Clinic interrogation. Vinegar and herbs, suspiciously clean. Hugo’s Perception spots a half-covered keg labelled L-Y — lye. Orderly Drew denies knowledge. Caelumn manifests fire in his hand and rolls Intimidation with three nat 20s in a row under advantage and inspiration. Drew breaks [86]:
    • “They were Aurelians. They came a few days ago. They had papers. They weren’t looking for patients. They already had a name. Mira Hale, that she had shown magical capabilities, and they wanted her for some reason.”
    • Mira had been taken to Dock 13 and shipped to Aurelia four days previously. The Nightwatch had been paid off. Drew, threatened with death, was forced to file false records and burn the originals.
  • Returning via the streets, Ruin and Vasquez’s passive perceptions clock four men trailing them for four blocks. Crowd thins; dagger flies past Caelumn’s face. Aurelian Paladin combat begins [87].
  • The Paladin attempts to convert Caelumn: “Why don’t you come join the winning side?” — Wisdom save passed. The Paladin’s greatsword deals slashing + radiant; the radiant bypasses Mharos’s necrotic resistance, burning through Vasquez at full damage [88], L931).
  • The party prevails. Ruin’s Eldritch Blast finishes the Paladin. The party keeps the body for the Broker’s office.
  • The Broker confirms Aurelians do not normally venture into Umbrafall, advises selling the information in Velkris (“the city of money”), declines the assassination contract for time, declines a 500gp/night safe house. Broker confirms the Paladin’s plate is enchanted.
  • The party tells Risa her sister is alive but in Aurelia. Risa: “she’s never coming back”. Vasquez: “If anything goes south, we’ll make sure that the entire place goes up in flames.” Mharos in his head: “Pathetic” [89].
  • Long rest. Ruin casts Identify on the plate: Aurelian Plate Armour with Nullstone Runes — advantage on saves vs arcane spells; blocks the wearer’s own arcane casting; blocks barbarian rage [90].
  • Vasquez modifies the crest from Aurelian sunburst to his adopted-dwarf-family sigil during the long rest (eight hours, no check for crest-only) [91]. Attunes.
  • Treasure split policy change: per Ruin’s request, future loot is per-character rather than party-pool [92].

Session 11: Owlbears and the Soulbinder

  • Polar (Vasquez’s player) is absent. Vasquez does not appear in the session at all.
  • Magic-item handout (Sevryn’s gift, one uncommon item per player): Hugo takes Winged Boots, Terry takes Cloak of Protection, Caelumn picks the Bloodwell Vial. Caelumn already has the Dragonslayer Longsword from s3.
  • Terry confirms his next level will be his Bladesinger subclass.
  • Glomangol Inn breakfast. Innkeeper recommends Starpoint Secrets. Ruin tries to steal a red potion while Caelumn negotiates; the fairy shopkeeper notices, points up at a string of severed hands of various races strung from the ceiling, and immediately raises the price by 60gp per potion [93]. Party leaves empty-handed.
  • Whisper Coil Emporium: Caelumn buys 2 healing potions at 49gp each. Ruin volunteers to trial an experimental blue potion in exchange for a free healing potion — drinking it paralyses him for 10 minutes and gives him one level of exhaustion. The dwarf shopkeeper introduces himself as Alston.
  • Walking east. Thomas Feld (orchard farmer) and his eight-year-old daughter Lysa are encountered at a broken-down cart. Caelumn helps repair the axle (nat-20 Investigation) [94].
    • Thomas: “Listen, friend, I appreciate the help, but you’re near Aurelion territory. Would keep the theatrics to a minimum if I was you. Or you might go missing.”
    • Thomas: “All I know is people with magic rarely make it. Unless you’re part of the church, I guess.”
    • Thomas: “I don’t quite like what they did with those dragons back in the day.”
    • Thomas confirms Aurelians and Vhal’Zarim hunted the chromatic dragons together; there are no chromatic dragons left on this side of the world to find.
    • Thomas saw a dragon flying once — northeast, toward Palathorn [95].
    • Thomas warns of “berry figgets” and “big pigs” in the woods.
  • Camp in a clearing. On Caelumn’s watch, while seeking firewood at the edge of the woods (kited 120ft away), three owlbears emerge in pursuit [96].
  • Owlbear combat (~10 rounds). Caelumn casts Burning Hands at level 2 for 45 damage split (all three failed Dex 14 saves). Hugo activates Winged Boots for the first time, rages, throws hand-axes. When Caelumn drops to 0HP, Hugo flies down 10 feet, picks up Caelumn’s 65.5lb body, and lifts them both back to 20 feet of altitude while continuing to throw axes [97].
  • After the third owlbear falls, Caelumn captures one owlbear’s soul in the Soulbinder’s Packed Ring at fourth-level slot (succeeded, [98].

Session 12: Eldwythe and the Candy Cottage

  • Hugo’s long-rest watch. Hugo taps the Onyx Ring of Barbed Hooks and summons The Black Mask — appearing this time as a tiefling with green horns, not the dwarf form. Time freezes around the camp [99].
  • Hugo proposes upgrading his contract to “champion eternal”, offering the souls of every member of The Ascendancy (named explicitly to the Mask, [100] as sacrifice in exchange for resurrection-after-death and help corrupting the Wraith.
  • The Black Mask refuses: “You can’t just go killing people and they’ll go up to heaven. Or hell. … There’s rules” [101]. He proposes a counter: convert a party ally to the same pact and the Mask will help with the Wraith mind-control.
  • The Mask names Vasquez as the recruitment target: “I do have my eye on the one they call Vasquez. He has unlocked something that should probably have been locked away. But now that it’s free, it’s very enticing” [102]. On Mharos: “Once he’s dead, the demon has no hold of him” [103].
  • Ruin’s watch: a small boy attempts to rummage in Terry’s shell; Ruin shouts him off.
  • Terry’s watch: a faint woman’s voice on the wind (possibly his sister’s). Terry chooses not to wake the others.
  • The party walks. Orchard family encountered (the Felds; Lysa daughter named again).
  • Arrival at Eldwythe: timber houses, mossy steep roofs, smoke from stone chimneys, smell of fresh pine and warm bread [104]. A thick column of black smoke rises from a squat log building at the edge of the woods.
  • The party fire-fight saves Edith Applegarth (named, [105]. Hugo kicks the door open (5 fire damage on a Dex save), carries out the elderly confectioner. Vasquez organises a bucket-brigade by Intimidation. Edith offers 10gp each + dessert batch reward for finding the arsonist.
  • Inside the burned shop: a charred painting of young Edith with a young boy (her brother, who disappeared into the woods years ago); a half-eaten cinnamon bun in the grass behind the shop (History matches it to Phil’s Bakery).
  • Phil Flowerforge (named, [106] confesses on Caelumn’s draconic-scale-display: in his past as a brigand, he stole a dragon egg from a hoard; the dragon hatched; he raised it in secret and named it Briochebane. His pastries are toasted with dragon’s fire.
  • Phil offers 100gp + 12 cinnamon rolls for retrieval. Ruin negotiates a private side-deal: 20gp upfront + dozen cinnamon rolls + non-snitching agreement. Phil hands the party a sack of warm cinnamon rolls as bait.
  • East-walk along a magic-conjured candy trail. After an hour: the Candy Cottage [107] — pink wafer planks, sugar-glass windows, licorice-thatched roof, peppermint tower behind, fruit-leather doormat reading “Please wipe your feet”. Ruin’s Detect Magic returns conjuration for the entire structure. Food regenerates 10 minutes after consumption (Ruin tested).
  • Terry enters without wiping his feet. The animate fruit-leather rug shouts “GASMUS WHITE FEET!” and flies at his face [108]. Killed in 3 rounds.
  • Playroom: rocking horse emits “HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DOG” with each rock.
  • Three candy goblins combat [109]. One grapples Vasquez (DC 12, failed) and shoves him through a taffy puller. Vasquez fails his Strength save [110] — his armour-and-body are forcibly transformed into soft, slightly elastic taffy form while retaining his dimensions.
  • After combat, Hugo surveys: three buckets each containing ~100 wrapped pieces of saltwater taffy, plus an unstretched, unwrapped large blob of taffy by the west window (implication: the goblins are processing previous victims into taffy).
  • Session ends at the threshold of a peppermint hallway dusted with flour.

Session 13: Bubba Walker and the Gummy Sarcophagus

  • Continuation of the same morning. Hugo’s player Dylan absent for the opening; Hugo botted by the DM until Dylan arrived.
  • The peppermint-tiled hallway dead-ends at Bubba Walker, a seven-foot diapered baby-doll with one cyclopic eye and a menacing lollipop, declaring “kitchen’s closed” [111].
  • Ruin steps backwards onto a pressure plate; a magical rolling-pin trap descends and transforms Terry, Hugo, and Ruin into gingerbread on a failed Dex save [112]. Caelumn and Vasquez make the save.
  • Caelumn summons the owlbear soul from the Soulbinder’s Packed Ring to attack Bubba (over the strenuous objections of Hugo’s player and Vasquez’s player, who advocated for taffy-bribe). The DM repeats twice that a non-combative solution is available [113], 659). The owlbear is torn apart in 3 rounds; Bubba is “made of wood” [114].
  • After several rounds of poor damage, Vasquez attempts persuasion with advantage: “Look, we don’t want to have to finish this. Just move aside” [115]. Bubba accepts on condition: three different kinds of candy.
  • The party feeds Bubba a candied apple from the orchard (after a brief secondary combat with three tree-spirits that Charmed Terry; party retreated and shut the door). Caelumn explores the rock-candy library upstairs alone, finding a children’s storybook depicting young Edith Applegarth visiting the cottage and “betraying her brother” by striking a bargain with the hag [116]. Last pages blank “because the story isn’t over.”
  • Loot from the study: a candied apple with dentures stuck in it (“definitely cursed. Do not remove dentures”, [117] and a crooked broom.
  • Basement (hidden hatch under a rug): candy-cane cages. Bubblegum Halfling in one; large skeleton clutching an axe in another; three six-foot Gingerbread Steves with rolling pins.
  • Steves combat (~5 rounds, [118]. After the third Steve cries “Steve free!” while surrendering, Hugo kills him mid-plea, losing potential information.
  • The bubblegum boy is freed. He confirms that the kitchen contains Uncle Nibblecheek and the assistant Briochebane, and holds Bubba Walker in a familial light. When Terry mentions Edith Applegarth by name, the halfling’s face changes — confirmed long-lost brother. Caelumn (Insight) confirms the halfling does NOT know Edith betrayed him. The party chooses not to disclose. The halfling retreats to Bubba’s room.
  • The skeleton’s axe is identified by Ruin as a +1 Greataxe; Hugo retains it as backup.
  • The party opens the next door and enters the sarcophagus treasure room: hard-candy sarcophagus, two crystalline-sugar statues, a trove of gold coins. Inscription: “May death curse all who interrupt my rest” [119].
  • Ruin casts Detect Magic; the room reads as ambient cottage conjuration with no specific curse-glow.
  • Caelumn: “Alright, everybody wants to know what it is, but everyone’s too scared to do it, so I’ll go do it” [120]. He reaches for a coin. The statues animate, the sarcophagus lid scrapes open: “Who has disturbed my slumber?” [121]. Session ends.

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

  • The DM clarifies that the door behind Caelumn closed by itself, trapping him with the rising Gummy Mummy (the Gummy Prince) [122].
  • The DM had told Dylan during the s13 break that this creature was “the most deadly inside this entire place” — a glass cannon with a damage-type vulnerability — and that Hugo would meta-act on retreat.
  • Combat with the Gummy Mummy and two frosting-imp minions (~7 rounds). The Mummy’s first hit on Caelumn (24 to hit, 10 bludgeoning + 6 necrotic): mummy’s curse applied — cannot regain HP, max HP -13, drains 3d6 max HP per 24 hours [123].
  • Hugo flies in via Winged Boots, hooks unconscious Caelumn under one arm, and dashes for the basement hatch. Vasquez holds the chokepoint; the Mummy punches through his plate for 12 bludgeoning + 11 necrotic. Vasquez is downed and cursed (max HP -11).
  • A homebrew d100 roll on the Mummy’s curse interaction with Mharos returned no demon-versus-curse effect [124].
  • Hugo airlifts Vasquez out as well. Terry retreats 30 feet up the kitchen-tower stairs, sends Earthwing the owl further up. Kitchen view: a toothless green-skinned hag in a stained baking apron darting between sugar-pots, and a dragon the size of a large dog with cloudy white eyes asleep on a wood-fired oven [125].
  • The Mummy retreats to its sarcophagus when the threats leave.
  • History check on the curse: 3d6 max HP loss every 24 hours until death [126]. Available healers: Aurelia (2 days, hostile to magic), Umbrafall (2 days). Neither will reach in time.
  • Plan: bluff Nibblecheek into lifting the curse himself. Bubba Walker (still in his room with the candy-bribe) is given the orchard apple and another piece. He waddles off to eat them.
  • Terry (with the crooked broom) and Ruin approach Nibblecheek as “new recruits” — Terry holding the broom and a rambling cover story [127]:
    • Terry: “Sir, sir, sir. Mr. Nibblecheek, sir. The boy, the apple garth boy. He’s disturbed the gummy mummy downstairs. … I’m one of the new recruits fresh out of the oven, sir.”
    • Ruin: “I think ultimately, as a business plan, you and this entire establishment would benefit from them being workers… give the baker a candy, you feed him for a day, get his enemies turned into his workers to produce candy for him, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
  • Deception 18 + Persuasion. Nibblecheek buys it [128]: “Yeah, that is my most favorite saying. … Lead me to them. Brioche, stay here. Be a good dragon.”
  • Nibblecheek lifts the curses on Caelumn and Vasquez [129], then immediately attempts mass-mind-control with disadvantage on Wisdom save. Vasquez succeeds (Mage Slayer held but not consumed; succeeded the natural roll). Caelumn fails. Caelumn becomes Nibblecheek’s eternal servant.
  • Terry approaches Briochebane. Perception 21: scales are gold-with-red, not chromatic. Terry covertly produces a brioche-bun from Phil’s bakery; Brioche wakes with clear eyes, recognises Phil’s name, accepts the rescue [130].
  • Combat re-erupts. Brioche breath-attacks Nibblecheek for 23 (half on save). Vasquez grapples Nibblecheek to the ground (contested 9 vs 13). Hugo cuts down two chocolate-cockatrices summoned from the barn.
  • After several rounds, Nibblecheek pleads mercy: “Wait, wait, wait. I’m sure we can find out something. I’ll turn your friends back into normal people and you and the dragon can leave” [131]. Vasquez negotiates exit including reversion of all transformations (taffy, gingerbread, bubblegum-halfling-to-normal).
  • Nibblecheek complies. The party leaves with Brioche.
  • Egg-resonance test: the Egg in Caelumn’s backpack does not resonate with Brioche [132]. DM: “It seems like Sevryn’s magic may have misfired and accidentally sent you on the path to a golden dragon” [133]. The party realises Brioche is not the egg’s target.
  • Level up to 4 [134]. Terry selects the Bladesinger subclass.
  • The party walks back toward Eldwythe. Brief short rest in the s12 owlbear-clearing.
  • Eldwythe is occupied at nightfall: white and gold banners on the palisade, Aurelian forces in pale tabards searching every cart, wanted posters at the entrance with descriptions of all five PCs charging “unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry” [135]. Aurelians arrived in less than a day. Wanted poster includes Vasquez, who used no magic in s12.
  • The party retreats to the clearing. Brioche is sad about being kept from Phil. Hugo and Caelumn push him to wait until the Aurelians leave.
  • Session ends with bedrolls laid out and the snap of a branch nearby [136].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

  • Althea Stormsoro (Maluana / Maliwana’s first character) is introduced: 3-foot white-scaled kobold cleric/paladin of the All Hammer. Deep blue eyes, simple full-on dress and jacket, oversized pointed hat with skull emblem, silver-and-golden gorget with a burning gem (“smashed in like a runic symbol”). Apprentice runesmith past. She fled into the clearing pursued by armoured Aurelians who wanted to inspect her gorget [137].
  • The Aurelian patrol arrives: knight, archer, recruit, anti-magic / chain-master elite, standard-bearer (signal flare). “Clearing ahead! Show yourselves!” [138].
  • Mharos whispers telepathically into Vasquez’s head: “This is your chance. Blame the arcane on her” [139].
  • Vasquez refuses. He stands, walks ten feet, raises his hand: “You can blame the arcane on me. That was right here” [140].
  • The Aurelian elite responds with a chain attack that snaps around Ruin’s neck and pulls his head off in a scripted execution with no save [141]. Ruin is dead. Mordane’s second character lost.
  • Combat. Caelumn held-action Chromatic Orb at the first recruit (18 damage, set hair on fire). Terry activates Bladesong for the first time [142] and rolls a natural-20 scimitar attack to decapitate the lead recruit [143]. Althea casts 2nd-level Bless on Terry, Vasquez, Hugo, Caelumn; bonus-action Draconic Cry: “Fuck you, kill those guys” [144].
  • The Aurelian elite casts a chest-thump field that breaks concentration on Althea, then fires a chain attack with multi-strike at Terry. The chain wraps around Hugo as well. Anti-magic aura damage on Con save fail.
  • Brioche flies in and breath-attacks the elite (no fear effect; recharge fail).
  • Phil’s smoke bomb arrives from the woods. Phil shouts: “Follow me if you want to live!” [145].
  • Through the smoke, Vasquez is confronted by a smoke-figure of Mharos: “No, coward. Face them” [146]. On emerging, Mharos reappears 5cm from Vasquez’s face: “I have tried to be patient. … If you won’t bring me others’ misery, I’ll settle for yours” [147]. Mharos targets Caelumn with a Wisdom save attack. Vasquez uses Mage Slayer’s once-a-day fail-to-succeed to defeat the manipulation [148]. Vasquez headbutts the smoke-figure: “Yeah, you’re trapped in my mind. I make the fucking rules for right now… feed on me and me alone and you’ll have what you’ll want” [149].
  • Caelumn’s backpack vanishes. A chain shoots out from the smoke and yanks Caelumn’s backpack — including the Egg — into the cloud [150]. The Egg is gone.
  • The party flees with Phil. An hour of wet-earth running with dogs barking. They reach Eldwythe sewers via a small cellar door (not the main gate).
  • Phil Flowerforge reveals his backstory: former brigand, “all kinds of unsavoury business all over Eldray,” picked up Brioche in his old career, settled to bake [151].
  • Phil’s contact: Hett Varn, red-headed dwarf with forehead goggles, residing in Ashward of Aurelia, with a meeting place at the White Lantern Shrine — a half-ruined waystation roughly half a day’s travel from Aurelia (direction not explicitly named on-screen — likely a coastal waystation on the freight road approaching the city). Code phrase: “Phil sent us.” Phil hands over a note [152].
  • Phil parts ways at the sewer mid-point with Brioche.
  • The sewer’s main hall opens. Vasquez kicks a stone into a side pool; four Kuatoa fish-folk ambush from the water [153]. Bone-whip weapons (slashing + lightning, 10ft reach), true sight.
  • 6+ rounds. Vasquez electrifies the sewer water (Rule of Cool) — Caelumn deemed in the water (7 lightning damage), Terry deemed on a walkway (saved). Terry’s Shadow Blade (cast for the first time, used at advantage from Bless) instant-kills Kuatoa #2 by piercing through soul-stuff [154].
  • After all four Kuatoa fall, voice from below: “Get these motherfuckers” — implying Kuatoa reinforcements [155].
  • Short rest. Caelumn cashes in his Bloodwell Vial charge to fully restore his sorcery points.
  • Side room with a dead body and a backpack pouch: 2 healing potions, a crowbar, 15ft of rope, 7gp.
  • Second combat: a needle-blight (Ent-style spore-tree-creature), two rat-swarms, two flame-skull-shaped casters (~12 rounds). Spore-cone Con saves DC 12; failures = stunned for 1 minute or until taking damage. Caelumn paralysed for several rounds. Althea managed a Turn Undead via the All Hammer (succeeded on a 17). The needle-blight shake dealt 5+5 cone damage to anyone in radius. The fight ended with all monsters destroyed.
  • The DM closes initiative and ends the session.

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

  • Caelumn loots a wet crate: 2 healing potions, greater healing potion, smoke bomb, 50ft silk rope, hooded lantern, oil flask, 12gp/8sp [156]. Caelumn notices something unseen shimmer; Terry’s investigation 0; Caelumn tips the crate, water hits the unseen object — Hat of Disguise materialises [157].
  • Caelumn attempts to slap the hat onto Vasquez without warning. Vasquez intercepts with a sleight-of-hand contest. Vasquez refuses: “We don’t know if it’s cursed.”
  • Althea ritual-casts Identify (10 minutes); confirms Hat of Disguise (Disguise Self per attune).
  • Terry ritual-casts Detect Magic (10 minutes); reveals the sewer’s biogloom is bio-magic (slightly diluted Umbrafall variant). Otherwise quiet.
  • Hugo (medicine check, [158]: the biogloom in the sewer is the same strain as in Umbrafall; the typical client is House Tallow-linked buyers (rare potion ingredient). The s16 transcript Whisper-rendered the buyer name as “Talaward”, which is likely a transcript error for House Tallow. Hugo collects ~7 vials of biogloom from rats’ bodies and extracts a poison-spore gland (grapefruit-size, potential improvised explosive) [159].
  • Seven-lock binary-language puzzle door [160]. Each lock toggles between open/closed in a different language. Three are readable: Common (lock 1: open), Common (lock 2: closed), Common (lock 3: open). Locks 4-7 are gibberish to all readable languages. Later revealed: Halfling, Infernal, Giant, Undercommon.
  • 20 minutes of brute-force. Hugo solves it: open-closed-open-closed-open-closed-closed [161]. Hugo locks it from the other side for security.
  • Past the door: long passageway dead-ending at a wall with the inscription “keep your eye on the wall”. Multiple interpretations; nothing works. Caelumn walks backwards into the wall and passes through [162]. It is a quantum/illusion wall — visible from one side, passable from the other. Hugo had tried this earlier; the DM had missed it and apologised.
  • Earthwing the owl is killed (or “connection caught”) by something unseen on the ceiling during sewer scouting [163]. DM: “Something came out of the dark.” The ceiling predator’s identity remains unknown.
  • Sarcophagus chamber: five stone sarcophagi, central plinth with chest. Caelumn opens the chest: 300gp diamond, 10gp/53sp/20cp, an empty-feeling potion bottle (the table speculated invisibility potion).
  • Lifting the chest triggers the trap. Two flame-skulls and a ghoul emerge from the sarcophagi [164]. The DM had to upload the new scene because he hadn’t expected the party to make it this far [165].
  • Round 1: First flame-skull casts Fireball (24 damage, 15ft radius). Terry takes full → half via Absorb Elements; Caelumn takes half (12); the ghoul next to Caelumn dies in the AoE.
  • The other flame-skull is fire-immune. Caelumn drops to 0 from a flame-skull headbutt for 18 fire [166]. The ghoul (still alive in the flame-skull radius) targets unconscious Caelumn for 2 death-save fails [167].
  • Vasquez and Althea, in a different room (separated by another magical wall), find an injured man in a basin with overflowing glowing roots [168]. Healing for information: he names a stash south-and-west (“push in the wall and it should fall,” [169]. He invisibility-potions and vanishes.
  • Vasquez and Althea hear the explosion from the sarcophagus chamber. They rush back. Vasquez Con-saves a lingering biogloom spore. They rejoin the fight.
  • Hugo kills one flame-skull on a 14 hit. Vasquez crit-kills the second flame-skull on a 25-to-hit advantage roll for 12 slashing [170]. The ghoul’s death-save attacks on Caelumn: Vasquez dashes in and pours a Greater Healing Potion down Althea’s throat for 17 healing; Hugo gives Caelumn a regular healing potion for 5. The remaining flame-skull (incapacitated/frightened from Althea’s earlier Turn Undead, delayed effect) flees out of range. The party lets it run.
  • Group stealth check averaging 7 vs Aurelian patrol at the sewer exit; the patrol had been distracted earlier; the DM allows the party to sneak past.
  • The sewer outflow opens to cold night air, salt water, wet reeds, distant smoke. A small skiff bobs against the current [171].
  • Choices debated: Aurelia / White Lantern Shrine (3 days sail south), Velkris (Maelis shipping leads), Umbrafall (regroup), Mire Strand → Sevryn. Party votes for Aurelia / White Lantern Shrine first.
  • Vasquez attunes the Hat of Disguise during the boat trip and tests it — successfully appearing as a dwarf [172].
  • The session ends with Sevryn’s telepathic voice: “Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to.” [173]. The party sets sails toward the pale city of Aurelia.

Session 17: New Hands, the Black Mask’s Renegotiation, and the Rimeclaw

  • New players join. Brian (playing Mike, a Vedalken caster built around the Mizzium Apparatus) and Ash (playing Steven, a halfling Pact-of-the-Blade warlock) take seats at the table, replacing Polar and Maliwana between sessions [174], L622).
  • s16 retcon: Vasquez and Althea departed offscreen via Aurelian capture. They split off at the end of session 16, were forced back to the sewer, and the party fled rather than go back for them. Vasquez’s Hat of Disguise was destroyed in the escape [175], L134-136, L785). Terry: “I object to that retcon. I want a different retcon. I want one where he keeps the fucking hat” [176]. Per Chris’s post-s17 clarification, the rescue is not the campaign’s direction - Vasquez and Althea are departed PCs in the same category as Cholmondeley, Harvo, and Ruin, not pending recovery.
  • Three to four hours after the sewer outflow the skiff finds the wreckage of an Aurelian-sunk ship: a broken plank with a half-scorched golden sunburst, two figures clinging to the largest piece [177].
  • The party hauls aboard Mike (half-conscious) and Steven (arms hooked around the wood). Mike notes he is partially amphibious; Steven asks if they can blame the disaster on the Aurelians [178].
  • The breath-hold bet. Hugo proposes to Mike: “If I can hold my breath longer than you, would you be willing to sign a contract with me?” [179]. Mike agrees, unaware Hugo is Voidforged and doesn’t breathe. Terry bets 10gp on Hugo; Steven matches the side bet [180].
  • First on-transcript naming of Voidforged as Hugo’s race — DM out-of-character to Ash: “Hugo is playing something called a void forged that don’t need to breathe” [181]. Mike’s Investigation on Hugo reveals “slight glowing veins underneath his skin… his eyes seem to be glowing ever so faintly” [182] — first in-fiction visual reveal of Voidforged biology.
  • The Black Mask renegotiates, in frozen time. Hugo wins the bet. Time stops. The Mask appears only to Hugo, in a new third visual form (a gnome on a fishing chair on the water): “Rookie mistake. Always have them sign the thing before the bet” [183]. She rewrites the substitution clause: “self, hmm, what is better than one attack dog? to attack dogs” [184]. Both Hugo and the Wraith (“Rafe”) get their mind-control lifted in exchange for a second attack-dog [185].
  • Hugo restates the egg-quest immunity and Ascendancy-destruction clauses; Mask agrees and pinky-promises [186]. The largest faction-canon line of the session: “Fine I’ll crush your little ascendancy and probably send my little attack dog after he’s done fetching that egg” [187].
  • Mike refuses the written contract on three lawyerly grounds: “You bet with something you don’t have I declare this contract null and void” [188]; “there’s an expectation of a reasonableness now i do not believe in any court of law in these lands that anyone would consider this to be something a reasonable person would consider signing” [189]. First failed substitute-recruitment attempt under the renegotiated terms.
  • Mike’s verbal IOU substitute: “Ah That I can Commit to Eventually doing Should I live Long enough” [190]; he later clarifies that “wish” means a 9th-level spell slot [191]. One favour owed, no soul clause, redeemable at his death.
  • Nella, Pim, and Leo rescue. Hours later the skiff finds another wrecked fishing boat with a mother and two small children. Nella names herself [192]; Pim shyly gifts Mike a painted pebble named “Captain Stone” [193]. Caelumn casts Mending on Nella’s sail; Mike gives two trail rations.
  • Aurelian “road offices” confirmed as small-town arrest infrastructure. Nella’s husband was “taken three nights ago into the road offices… the officers called it unauthorized studies” for holding old tide charts and weather notes [194]. Second on-screen Aurelian abduction pattern, parallel to Mira Hale. The family sails on toward Gloamhearth.
  • Hugo’s voluntary disclosure to Mike under Detect Thoughts: “I am the result of some form of experiment. And that I’m one of a few survivors” [195].
  • Mike’s Detect Magic ritual on Hugo’s blood triggers a concrete vision: “you see flashes of iron restraints, dark glass and a chamber with no clean air. You see a body surviving things that it shouldn’t survive… His blood is acting like a living conduit. It stores stress, poison, pain, violence” [196]. Connects Project Veilbreak to the Titan environment [197]. Mike’s verdict: “You are an abomination” [198].
  • Biogloom stockpile correction. Hugo confirms 7 normal + 7 rare biogloom vials, not the previous “~7 total” estimate [199].
  • White Lantern Shrine geography confirmed. Hugo: “the White Lantern Shrine, which is the outskirts of Irelia on the north entrance of it”; Terry: “It’s on the freight road approaching Irelia” [200]. The Shrine sits on Aurelia’s north entrance.
  • The Rimeclaw Skulker cliffhanger. Late on day 2 of sailing, the air drops and the water ices. A localised cold-water reef line — a Rimeclaw Skulker (a.k.a. Reef Stalker) ambushes from beneath with a pack of three to four water wolves with luminous purplish-blue blood that visually echoes Hugo’s own [201], L1850-1857).
  • Notable rolls: Steven’s debut nat-20 dagger crit on a wolf [202]; the Skulker’s frost-breath line clipping its own water-wolf ally for full 32 cold [203]; a 1-in-400 double-nat-20 Silvery Barbs interaction — water wolf nat-20 bite on Mike, Terry’s Silvery Barbs reroll lands another nat 20, Mike Shield-blocks for 0 [204], L1810-1815); Caelumn’s 52-damage double-nat-20 second-level Chromatic Orb thunder-bounce one-shot kill on the smallest wolf [205].
  • Mike’s signature spell: Phantasmal Force in 2024 wording (2d8 psychic per failed save). Conjures an illusory lava-cube around the Skulker; the creature fails two Int saves and remains trapped at session end [206], L1877).
  • Session ends mid-Round 3. The Skulker is still in the lava illusion, one Rimeclaw Skulker pup alive next to Mike, Hugo hovering on Winged Boots, Steven at the boat’s edge after a wide Eldritch Blast [207]. Combat resumes in session 18.

References

  1. ^ per-session recaps s2-s16
  2. ^ Session 2, line 20 — Inline citation.
  3. ^ Session 2, line 48 — Inline citation.
  4. ^ Session 2, line 20-48 — Inline citation.
  5. ^ Session 2, line 254-298 — Inline citation.
  6. ^ Session 2, line 257-298 — Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 2, line 962 — Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 2, line 1044 — Inline citation.
  9. ^ Session 2, line 1168 — Inline citation.
  10. ^ Session 2, line 1244-1276 — Inline citation.
  11. ^ Session 2, line 1564-1632 — Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 2, line 2700-2706 — Inline citation.
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