The party cleared three new rooms past the library: a cozy reading room guarded by an evil light-throwing fairy (defeated by hurling furniture), a haunted furnace full of two bickering scholar-ghosts who burned away the heroes' memories, and a sculpture room where an animated wooden woman nearly killed Cid. They looted a magical book, an everlight crystal, a magical pickaxe, and a songbird ring of Ventriloquism, but burned a necromantic tome ("Pathways of the Worm"). Out of spells and badly hurt, they broke off the wooden-woman fight to retreat toward town. Gauntlight's beam is now wider than ever — something is escalating.
Last session the party fought a ghost three times before defeating it, found a demon contract and gave it to the jailer demon (who eventually freed himself and vanished), burned through blue earthy flame to interrupt two cultists animating a many-eyed creature, and began exploring new rooms off the library.
| 00:00:00 | Recap and Path-Choice Planning The table opens its 17th session with a recap of session 16: fighting the same ghost three times before defeating it, finding a demon contract, taking it to the jailer demon (who eventually freed himself and vanished), burning past blue earthy flame to interrupt two cultists animating a many-eyed creature, and exploring new rooms off the library. The party debates which way to go next; Cid wants the corridor, BB/Venris lean toward a nearby room, and they settle on pushing through the corridor with Cid scouting (avoid notice). They also discuss the level/XP timeline (leveled to 4 mid-session 15) and that Speaker B must leave around the two-and-a-half-hour mark. [S17 · 00:00:19 · turn 0005 · scene 001] |
| 00:12:13 | The Reading Room and the Will-o'-Wisp Fairy Venris opens a door (a library/book key fits) into a comfortable reading room: thick carpet, glowing chandelier, incense, oversized chairs, a mossy-skull fountain, and shelves of books. A small evil fairy-like creature sits awkwardly reading an oversized book. It detects as evil; combat begins. The creature repeatedly turns invisible and blinks through the light, lobbing 'mouth of light' attacks and a ceiling beam (5d6 fire). The party (especially Veve, half-joking about jarring it as a pet/light source) batters it with chairs and a thrown sofa. Cid crits it with cold iron, Abus and Venris land crits, and it is finally splatted against the wall by a thrown sofa. [S17 · 00:13:46 · turn 0130 · scene 002] |
| 00:46:05 | Reading Room Loot: Necromantic Books and the Magical Tome The party searches the reading room. They find the book the creature was reading, written in an unrecognized language with a colorful quill beside it. Cid identifies a necromantic tome titled 'Pathways of the Worm' full of grisly ritual-sacrifice illustrations; Veve (Visigoth) burns it after skimming, on the principle that dangerous knowledge should not be kept. Veve also finds a separate magical book worth a notable sum, handed secretly to Venice (Venris) to hide in the bag. They grab the colorful quill (worthless, kept on a hat) and the everlight crystal from the chandelier as a light source. [S17 · 00:49:28 · turn 0497 · scene 003] |
| 00:56:25 | Locked Doors, Lock-Pick Trouble, and the Magical Pickaxe Back in the main hallway the party notices Gauntlight's beam is fatter/wider than ever, an ominous sign. Venice tries every key on a locked door (the rusted iron keys fail, the silver key fails, a key breaks in the lock) then starts a 10-minute lock-pick repair after breaking picks. Meanwhile the others explore: a surprisingly clean bathroom, an unfinished chisel-marked room where Cid finds a shimmering magical pickaxe (added to his belt; not yet identified beyond 'magical'), and a furnace room where the air is blisteringly hot with no visible source, pinpointed to a metal bin with a hatch lid; the heat radiates magic. [S17 · 00:56:58 · turn 0571 · scene 004] |
| 01:16:18 | The Haunted Furnace and the Bickering Scholar Ghosts When the furnace hatch is opened, two shrieking burning ghosts (scholarly nerds who constantly bicker about how they should have taken Absalom) erupt. The ghosts inflict stupefied (stacking up to 4) and fire/mental damage, burning memories from those who fail will saves. Cid is nearly killed (down to 1 HP twice), kept alive by Abus/BB's healing hymn and Veve's heals. The furnace bin has object immunities, so weapon attacks pass through the ghosts and dent the bin uselessly; only Abus's exorcism, demoralize/intimidation, and a final exorcism end them. Everyone present (including a late-arriving Venris) gets stupefied and loses memories; Cid forgets his mother's name and that he is a priest, Venice forgets details about Rajani/Carman, Abus loses a soldier's name and lore. [S17 · 01:16:49 · turn 0756 · scene 005] |
| 02:05:13 | Furnace Loot, Memory Loss, and the Songbird Ring After the ghosts are banished, everyone is left stupefied for a while and must decide which memories were burned away (GM rules a lost memory is gone permanently). Inside the furnace, beneath ashes, the party finds an elegant copper ring engraved with songbirds; Veve identifies it (religion) as letting the wearer cast the spell Ventriloquism. Venice keeps repairing his lock picks, having broken three things inside the lock and raised its DC, finally fixing the picks in five minutes once his stupefied wears off. [S17 · 02:10:44 · turn 1272 · scene 006] |
| 02:18:16 | The Sculpture Room and the Wooden Woman Cid finally shoulders through the stubborn locked door into a room with shelves, a partially completed/ruined sculpture of a sprawling city on a circular table, and a wooden figure resembling a woman that animates and attacks. It hits brutally: a crit splinter volley plus a double-fisted crit (38 damage) drops and nearly kills Cid. Venice (BB) creates a distracting diversion to hide Cid, Veve heals, and Venris hauls Cid to his feet and hands him his sword. Cid trips the construct prone but misses follow-ups. The party, out of spells (no level 1 or 2 spells left, one refocus point), decides to retreat; Cid books it out the door and the session ends mid-disengagement, with the wooden woman still a live threat. [S17 · 02:18:43 · turn 1366 · scene 007] |