I realized I've forgotten to post my Session 11 Recap. We played this session back in August, but I'm only now noticing that I've been lax in updating my post repository here.
Session 10 saw our players face off against Rhonden Faar, one of the enigmatic members of The Quill that has been haunting them. In that session, they managed to best her and her companions just before a massive earthquake caused everything to get shaken up.
Rhonden Faar used the leaning bridge and quake to conveniently fall off the bridge and thumb a Gate device, allowing her to get back to HQ. I had not anticipated two of my players following her in what was near-certain-death, and managing to also get into the gate before it closed. But, they did, and now I had a problem that I dubbed "The Oh-No-Ening". PCs were in a location they shouldn't be reaching yet. And, worse, only two of my PCs made it in. The rest didn't even see what happened.
And, that's where we picked up for Session 11. With a split party, little to no information about where the rest of the party was or how to reunite them, and the chaos from a giant earthquake hitting a city that just doesn't get quakes. Because one of the players couldn't make it - conveniently one of the split players in the BBEG Fortress - I simply had him come through the Gate and smash his head on a rock.
The rest of our party begin to try to try to question the Imp familiar of Peril, to see if he knows where his master is. Only, nobody speaks Infernal except Peril. Muk-Muk (our goblin rogue/barbarian multiclass) manages to find an Infernal Phrase Book which with a lot of trial and mostly error, does manage to get some necessary information across.
From my session prep notes:
Muk-Muk, dragging a kicking and screaming imp (John), Syl, and Gwynn are in the mansion. None of them speak Infernal, and John's common is mostly swears and types of booze. He could probably tell them that Peril is alive, but nothing more in-depth. For any real answers they'll have to find help outside of the Mansion. (Kieran Vega, Elaria Silverleaf, Bandyhand Institute for example)
Getting anywhere is going to run into some kind of roadblock. Wounded, fires, unstable/collapsed buildings, a lot of chaos. Whatever seems more practical along the way should be what we throw at them, at which point they'll meet Peril's alt.
They managed to extract more info from John the Backpack Imp than I'd initially planned for, because they came up with cool solutions to the problem (like searching for an infernal phrases book in the mansion of a powerful wizard).
I had planned for the second act of the session to be mostly about gathering help and beginning preparations for a longer rescue... but they ignored that option entirely when I dropped a second option for them: They could make a deal with the supposedly-dead Hag, Shtriga Nonna (who is smart enough to roll with a few Clones as backups).
Rather than take the slower, more predictable route... they made a pact with a Hag, and got a Gate box of their own... a quick little device sure to drop them in the middle of bad-guy-fortress, and all they needed to give up was a few vials of blood. Surely that's nothing to worry about.
Which is where we ended Session 11. Gate-box in hand, a plan for a quick smash and grab, and their usual chaotic flair of "fuck the consequences, lets do this!".
My original obsidian notes are copy/pasted below:
Session 11 Recap
Date: 30, Aug, 2025
[[Session 11]]
MM rolls nat 20 on investigation to find infernal phrase book
- Super basic but it exists.
Q: Peril Alive
- A: Yes
Q: Is he close?
- A: Four Big Demon Wingspans
- Gwynn asks if there's a map, and they make a guess as to the range, and then extrapolate from what they know the likely location of the fort
- A: Four Big Demon Wingspans
Gwynn goes to her room, feeling overwhelmed.
- Comes out with dyed black hair and a side-cut similar to this:
- Comes out with dyed black hair and a side-cut similar to this:
MM with Syl -> Elaria -> Bandyhand
MM, Syl, Eggy manage to save patrons of the inn three buildings down, as it was on fire and the door was blocked.
Elaria's shop:
- [[Syl]] collects two jars and one vial of random alchemical spilled ingredients, and 3 bindles of parchment-wrapped powders. [Determine what these are later].
- Eggy lore-drops about ML and dimension/gate magic being weird near the border.
- Tries to rip open the portal at some point in the session. 5% chance, which he misses.
- She can help but it'll take at least a week.
Bandyhand Institute:
- Avoided
Contract with the Hag:
- Accepted
- [[Quywn]] wants to make a contract with John.
- [[Quywn]] makes a very vague contract with John to protect her from the hag: [[Shtriga Nonna]]
- Rolls 24 to purify her blood after also turning into a crab.
- Syl's blood is not Humanoid, she is Fey. Her blood cannot be used against her.
Peril roll: 2 wis after the 8h long rest.
Syl communicated with She Who Dreams, received dream-vision like answers to her questions:
Shadow the covers the world, danger, loss.
Three paths:
Do nothing - blackness covers everything
Follow Fast - Danger, but less chance of loss
Follow Slow - Danger, more chance of loss
MM Children Yeeted: 3
Syl consumed one dose of [[strange pink mushrooms]]. ~30m remaining once they portal into [[Thorios Point Fortress]]
