The party finished questioning their captured snake-person prisoner (who drew them rough maps and pointed out threats), explored the lighthouse surface, found a hidden staircase and a metal-caged lantern chamber, and fought their way through a cold, skull-carved chapel of corpse-light ghosts and a reanimated zombie thief. The chapel turned out to be a shrine to Nimbaloth, the Empty Death, an outer god of soul-devouring undeath. They came away with magic loot (a +1 rapier, a minor elixir of life, a Channel Protection Amulet, a wand of heal, a scroll, and a ring of keys) but the lighthouse light itself and a recurring bloodstain haunt remain unresolved.
The party explored the Gauntlight ruins, fought a ghost in the lighthouse, captured the snake-person "boss" of the surface folk, and rested overnight.
| 00:00:00 | Pregame banter and recap Table chatter while waiting for the late player (D). The group recaps session 2: exploring the castle/Gauntlight, fighting a ghost in the lighthouse, capturing the snake-person leader of the 'mud lickers' as a prisoner, and resting overnight. The GM mentions setting up a GM screen for faster Pathfinder 2e rules access and notes Foundry/Pathbuilder inventory bugs that reverted some character data. [S3 · 00:00:54 · turn 0011 · scene 001] |
| 00:12:32 | Interrogating the captured boss The party questions their snake-person prisoner ('boss' of the people opposed to the mushroom-eyed folk). He demands they kill all the 'mushroom eye' people and bring him the king's head in exchange for treasure. Through intimidation (Veve) and coercion, he is pressured to draw rough maps of both the surface and the dungeon. He warns of threats: Buzz Buzz (a fly/bug monster) in the NE, Sting Sting (a big stinger pet locked behind a collapsed door), a swamp/salt dragon under the ruined boathouse, ghosts in the dining room, and a sneaky boatload of big people seen a week ago. He marks a way down behind a cabinet near the lighthouse. The party frees him and leaves to check the lighthouse lights first. [S3 · 00:25:11 · turn 0191 · scene 002] |
| 00:46:41 | The bloodstain room and the boathouse The party cautiously opens the room where they previously fought a ghost and finds the magical bloodstain has returned. Venris wipes it up with his bedroll (ruining it) and they discard it. Peeking out the open door into the collapsed boathouse, Venris spots and retrieves a discarded bedroll and notices a recently-used smoldering campfire and a rowboat, suggesting sneaky intruders may still be in the area. They decide to head to the lighthouse stairs. [S3 · 00:51:01 · turn 0411 · scene 003] |
| 01:01:16 | The locked lighthouse trapdoor Climbing the lighthouse stairs, the party reaches a locked metal trapdoor in the ceiling. Venris repeatedly fails to pick the lock, breaking his thieves' tools picks twice even with aid and Veve's guidance. The GM rules the lock is unusually complex (four chambers instead of two). Cid repairs the picks with a crafting check. The party concludes the lock is beyond Venris's current skill and decides a key must exist somewhere; they resolve to keep exploring for another way up. [S3 · 01:02:18 · turn 0528 · scene 004] |
| 01:18:16 | The rotted office: vials and the hidden stairs In a decayed office room (rotted books, desk, chair), Venris searches a drawer and finds three alchemical items: a glass vial wrapped in inscribed leaflets (common and Elven jumbled words), a metal receptacle with clear rosy liquid (identified via Medicine as a minor elixir of life), and a thick glass vial of clear bubbly liquid. Visigoth/Abyss reasons the inscribed one is likely a potion of tongues/languages but cannot confirm. The third remains unidentified pending an alchemist kit. Venris then finds and opens a hidden staircase leading down into the dungeon by pulling a book on a shelf. [S3 · 01:21:15 · turn 0697 · scene 005] |
| 01:30:02 | Devotion room, keys, magic weapons, and the hidden chapel door Deciding not to descend yet, the party explores a triangular devotion room with rotted armor and tapestries. Venris finds a rusted ring of six iron keys (pocketed sneakily; only Abyss notices) and discovers a hidden wooden door behind a fallen tapestry, leading toward the previously-seen ghost room. The GM clarifies it is a double-walled door arrangement. A player (D, Danny) crashes/disconnects; the table takes a 15-minute break. [S3 · 01:35:53 · turn 0825 · scene 006] |
| 01:41:08 | Break and reconnection Roughly fifteen-minute break while player D (Danny) reconnects after a disconnect (Foundry/Tailspire/Discord dropped). The GM hands out a hero point to everyone for Danny coming back. The GM reports he now has a battlemap prepared for going downstairs. [S3 · 01:58:38 · turn 0891 · scene 007] |
| 01:58:58 | Entering the chapel of Nimbaloth Past two doors, the party enters a large, cold chapel: condensed water on walls carved with countless skulls, a smoldering human corpse wedged in a wall crack, three short flights of steps to a white-stone altar, and four 20-foot stained-glass windows depicting ghosts rising toward a four-pointed orange star. Venris loots a pinned-up thief's corpse (rapier, four daggers, a silver ring) and equips the +1 Mulan Rapier upgrade. Visigoth detects magic from the altar and corpses and feels a nagging, can't-quite-recall sense of dread. Two corpse-light ghosts rise from the bodies and combat begins. [S3 · 02:02:51 · turn 0919 · scene 008] |
| 02:21:46 | Combat: the corpse lights and the zombie thief Initiative is rolled (Cid first at 21). The corpse lights are weak in sunlight (becoming stunned and clumsy when exposed). Cid grapples and crushes the first ghost with crits from the Mulan Rapier. Venris critically fumbles, stabbing himself for double damage and dropping to dying; Visigoth heals him via a divine burst (back to 4 HP, wounded 2). A third corpse light reanimates a thief's body into a zombie thief, which casts a void/death-light cone that frightens the party. Veve supports with Soothe, shield, courageous anthem, telekinetic projectile (mostly missing), and counter-performance to negate fear. The party flanks, shoves the zombie into sunlight, and Venris finally finishes it; the remaining wisp is slapped/destroyed at Visigoth's insistence. [S3 · 02:39:29 · turn 1221 · scene 009] |
| 03:28:56 | Post-combat looting and the amulet Veve heals the party (including a critical Medicine success). Cid finds a gold, purple-gem-encrusted amulet on a silk cord, later identified as a Channel Protection Amulet (resistance vs harm spells); he keeps it, holding it suspiciously in-hand and palming a pickpocket attempt by Venris. Visigoth/Abyss repeatedly rolls Religion to recall the chapel's significance and remains unable to place it. Veve refocuses; downtime healing is performed over multiple ten-minute intervals. [S3 · 03:31:45 · turn 1755 · scene 010] |
| 04:02:39 | Identifying Nimbaloth and the altar nook loot After an in-game hour of searching, Venris finds a hidden nook behind the altar containing a 1st-level wand of heal and an unidentified scroll. Visigoth finally succeeds (with guidance) on a Religion check and recognizes the chapel as a shrine to Nimbaloth, the Empty Death, a reclusive outer god who devours souls so they have no afterlife or resurrection, whose edicts involve creating incorporeal undead. He declares the room a disgrace and urges the party to leave. The party hears scuffling behind a locked door (a Sphinx-thing / the buzzing Buzz Buzz area). [S3 · 04:08:49 · turn 2073 · scene 011] |
| 04:19:08 | Unlocking the trapdoor and the caged lantern chamber Venris reveals (and clumsily exposes, failing a Deception roll when he dropped the keys) the ring of keys; one bronze key bears a lighthouse engraving and another a book. Using the lighthouse key, the party unlocks the iron trapdoor and ascends into a circular caged chamber ringed with black metal bars and shimmering force, containing a faintly magical lantern (the Gauntlight's source) and another still, non-dripping bloodstain haunt near a bedroll. Buzz Buzz is seen flying nearby. With it being midday the haunt is dormant; the party debates returning at night versus exploring the dungeon below, leaning toward going down. Session ends with friendly wrap-up. [S3 · 04:22:55 · turn 2207 · scene 012] |