The party cleared the library's restricted collection of a ghoul-cultist pack and their void-casting leader, but Venris caught a near-fatal case of ghoul fever. They left the imposing Nimbaloth door (the cult's "high priestess") unopened, fooled a band of hostile werewolf hunters with an illusion, slipped past an eerie swamp light at night, and then spent days in Otari winning a grueling dice Gauntlight to cure the disease.
Deep in the Gauntlight's library floor, the party had been jailed by a deal-demon, trained in town, cleared rearranged Morlock rooms, and finally exorcised the library's ghost lady, Velcora. They're still hunting the deal-demon's contract and a ghostly green light trail from Otari.
| 00:00:03 | Pregame setup and stream troubleshooting Table chatter while getting the stream started: brightness, a flaky power situation that might force a phone stream, and general banter before play begins. [S13 · 00:00:03 · turn 0001 · scene 001] |
| 00:01:35 | Collaborative campaign recap (the whole story so far) The group rebuilds the full campaign so far from memory: clearing the Gauntlight's first floor and the mitflit boss; the cemetery undead and a monster teleported into Otari that rallied the townspeople; a deal with Skrong to deal with the Morlocks (whom they ended up helping more than killing); killing a dragon; following the ghostly green light into deeper floors; the worm room, shades, ghouls and Morlocks; the boathouse and the little creature who wanted a shiny spyglass that Venris stole; the soul-stone doll; the blood worm that nearly killed them; the great library; a contracted/deal demon that jailed Ben Riss; training in town; clearing rearranged Morlock rooms; an infected goblin boat; and finally exorcising the ghost lady (Velcora) of the library workroom. [S13 · 00:02:28 · turn 0028 · scene 002] |
| 00:14:06 | Searching the library workroom and side offices Post-exorcism, the party searches the third-floor library workroom and adjacent rooms. They identify the unidentified eyepiece as giving a +1 to Crafting and give it to Veve, the party's crafter. They find a magical book-repair storeroom containing two scrolls of 2nd-rank mending plus an unidentified 3rd-rank arcane scroll. They open and search Velcora's personal office (Everlight crystal lighting, love letters to her, nothing valuable). One locked door buzzes faintly when listened to. A purple-sludge bathroom is dismissed as a 'shit room.' [S13 · 00:16:50 · turn 0163 · scene 003] |
| 00:32:21 | Scouting the ghoul cultists in the restricted collection The party finds a large library annex where humanoid figures are carefully repairing shelves and re-shelving books. Venris (avoiding notice) scouts and counts at least three, including a spellcaster, then quietly closes the door. The group debates whether to push on (the demon's contract or other clues could be inside) or clear this room first; they choose to engage. Venris opens the door for the attack; it creaks and combat begins. [S13 · 00:35:31 · turn 0332 · scene 004] |
| 00:42:09 | Combat: ghoul cultists and their canker-cult caster A long, grindy fight in the cramped hallway/library annex against a pack of ghouls and a ghoulish cultist spellcaster (canker/cancer cultist) who fights from cover behind a ladder, casts void-damage AoE spells, and tries to lure the party toward his 'high priestess.' Veve repeatedly uses Counter Performance to negate fear effects. The table works through delay-initiative confusion and the GM rules on off-grid attacks and reposition-vs-prone. Abus/BV blasts with Violent/Divine Lens fire and Vitality Lash, Cid trips and impales ghouls, and Venris gets repeatedly bitten and infected with ghoul fever, ending paralyzed. A thrown chair decapitates one cultist. The party kills all ghouls and the caster. [S13 · 00:42:10 · turn 0397 · scene 005] |
| 01:57:12 | Aftermath: looting, the Nimbaloth door, and book recovery After the fight the party heals up (Abus medicine, sooth/heal spells) and tries to cure Venris's ghoul fever, which is already at stage four. They loot Morlock and cultist bodies (foul flesh necklaces, nothing wanted). The GM reveals the room is the 'restricted collection,' whose curated books grant a +2 item bonus to regional history, arcane, and occult checks; Veve recovers six bulk of books (nine total with the prior three). They examine the imposing stone north door carved with Nimbaloth feeding on her worshippers; the caster had gestured at it as the high priestess's location. The party decides they cannot handle what is behind it now and prepares to leave. [S13 · 02:11:17 · turn 1242 · scene 006] |
| 02:41:02 | Break Short table break ('five while I pee'), with idle chatter and a returning-from-break bit before play resumes. [S13 · 02:41:11 · turn 1504 · scene 007] |
| 02:49:20 | The werewolf hunters and the illusory decoy Venris reminds the party that this room is where the ghostly green Otari/Gauntlight light trail led, but no one saw it. Leaving, the party runs into a band of hunters (led by Lathenar; a member named Jasper, another Rogan) searching for a werewolf named Jal/Jow, who mock 'the throwny woman that made a fool of herself at the market.' The hunters were tipped to the way down by Lathenar. The party deflects them by casting an illusion (figment) of a fast werewolf-like blur down the corridor, distracting the hunters away. Venris drops caltrops behind them as they leave. [S13 · 02:49:41 · turn 1517 · scene 008] |
| 03:08:02 | Escape from the Gauntlight and the firefly light in the swamp The party routes out through the boathouse at night (around 11 PM). They glimpse an unfamiliar door (skipped) and route back through the blood-siphon area. Outside on the island, a light like fireflies (hair-like fibers, ribbons, eerie yellow light) approaches across the swamp at about half their speed. Venris spots a soccer-ball-sized thing peek near a doorway. The party cuts line of sight with trees and makes it back to town; a recall-knowledge identifies the lights only as (dire?) fireflies. [S13 · 03:08:45 · turn 1706 · scene 009] |
| 03:25:20 | Downtime in Otari: curing Venris's ghoul fever Back in town the party takes Venris to Rin for healing. Over several in-game days they fight the ghoul fever with Treat Disease checks, Veve's Guidance, a Cleanse Affliction spell, town help (+2 circumstance), and a stockpile of anti-plague potions funded by selling nine recovered books (45 gold). The disease repeatedly climbs and drops stages amid brutal dice luck (many natural 1s, a malfunctioning VTT die the group rerolls). Multiple hero points are spent across the days. Eventually the fever is fully cured (stage zero). Cid spends the time buying potions and is celebrated; the alchemist and librarian (Bandy Van Der) become well-acquainted with the party. [S13 · 03:25:50 · turn 1855 · scene 010] |
| 04:16:54 | Wrap-up and next-session pointers Session wind-down: XP to be tallied later (possibly near level 4). Cid plans to spend remaining downtime gathering information on the side-quests they've been ignoring. The GM reminds the party of an ignored traveling potion-seller boy in the fog/woods and closes out. The 'lesson' of the session: ghouls have ghoul fever, and the party admits they missed several earlier fever checks. [S13 · 04:16:54 · turn 2391 · scene 011] |