The party chased the source of the cursed child's nightmares. After consulting Otari's bound spirit about the hidden writing in Zarmavdian's journal (no luck yet), they took the recurring Ruby to Rin, who identified it as a conduit for a denizen of Leng tied to the dimension of dreams. A night-long attunement let Veve divine the villain's name — Yazongleer — and unlock a once-per-day 5th-level locate that hunts him specifically. Following that signal back down into the Gauntlight, they sneaked past a grothlet brigade drilled by a Barbazu devil and a patrolling witch fire, then burst in on Yazongleer himself. A parley collapsed into combat. The session ended on a cliffhanger mid-fight, with Yazongleer reaching for something hidden behind his back.
The party has been protecting a cursed child (Doriana) at the Menhems manor, plagued by a Ruby that keeps reappearing in her stuffed dolls and pulls her toward a dream-realm. They recovered Zarmavdian's journal, which hides writing on its blank pages. They had recently fought their way into the Gauntlight's tower (killing Jaffke/"cigarche" two days ago) and freed some underdweller prisoners.
| 00:00:02 | Consulting Otari's spirit about Zarmavdian's journal The party brings Zarmavdian's recovered journal to the bound spirit of Otari, noting it contains hidden writing on apparently blank pages that they cannot read. Otari, a former party-mate of Zarmavdian, pages through it like an old man with dementia, re-experiencing memories. He recalls Zarmavdian once showing him a concealment magic but can't remember the details; he promises to think on it and find them an answer if they return. (Speaker D is the GM this session.) [S54 · 00:00:02 · turn 0001 · scene 001] |
| 00:21:24 | Recall knowledge on Otari's binding and the wand of peaceful rest The party tries to recall knowledge on whether Otari's spirit can be freed or his worsening condition healed. They confirm his soul is bound here for a reason tied to the Gauntlight (not the disease), and that his decayed appearance reflects how he died. There is a hint that the 'rot' and his dementia are getting worse, but not enough evidence to be sure. The cleric casts a wand of peaceful rest on Otari's visible corpse to slow further decay, which Otari appreciates though his body is already gone; the GM privately notes it may affect the spirit's rot. [S54 · 00:25:39 · turn 0170 · scene 002] |
| 00:39:46 | Back in town: shops closed, return to the cursed child The party returns to Otari (the logging town) around 5 PM only to find the markets already closing; a Diplomacy attempt to keep a vendor open fails. They head to the Menhems manor to check on the cursed child, where the recurring Ruby keeps reappearing roughly hourly inside her stuffed dolls. Veve plays with the girl to slip the doll holding the Ruby to Abbas (a deception/performance success), and they prepare to take it to Rin for analysis. [S54 · 00:39:54 · turn 0242 · scene 003] |
| 00:55:09 | Rin analyzes the Ruby; the locate attunement and the denizen of Leng Rin (the town's psychic) surgically extracts the Ruby and works out it is a conduit for the denizen of Leng tied to the dimension of dreams, built with a variation of the locate spell; destroying or moving it just makes it rematerialize with the girl, and only destroying the creature will save Doriana from being drawn wholly into the dream-dimension. Over a night-long investigation (aided by Abbas, who knows locate, plus Rin's and Veve's bonuses), Veve attunes to the Ruby: she divines the denizen's name (Yazongleer), gets a mental image of him and his lair (a black-stone chamber with a fire-lit map of the Inner Sea / Otari), and unlocks the ability to spend ten minutes focusing on the Ruby to cast a 5th-level locate that only targets Yazongleer. They see him casting on a mirror-image 'reversed' Ruby of his own. [S54 · 01:10:22 · turn 0493 · scene 004] |
| 01:23:41 | Morning shopping, rune transfers, and downtime selling The next morning the party does downtime in town. The market hasn't replenished, so they mostly sell and reorganize gear: a +1 striking rapier and +1 composite longbow are sold, ephemeral potions (misform elixir, elixir of life, cognitive mutagen) are deleted, and a broken expanded healer's toolkit and a duplicate alchemist's lab are sold. Cid arranges with Carman (the smith) to transfer his striking rune from a composite longbow back to his old non-composite family-heirloom longbow (an 8-hour, next-day job). Venris keeps the party's pooled ~370 gold. Veve/Venris retrains the never-used Shadow Mark feat into Titan's Wrestler (and Cid retrains too). They debate keeping a rank-1 Force Barrage wand versus a scroll. [S54 · 01:33:11 · turn 0697 · scene 005] |
| 01:58:37 | Into the vault: tracking Yazongleer and looting a storage closet The party returns to the Abomination Vaults via their usual route, with Veve sustaining the locate spell, which points down and to the southwest toward the Gauntlight's depths. They search a previously-unchecked storage closet and loot a Hand of the Mage, an Emerald Grasshopper talisman, two Ichthyosis mutagens, and a (broken) splinter find. They sort out exploration activities (avoid notice, scout, follow the expert, detect magic, sustaining locate) and descend the wide spiral staircase past a window overlooking a vast cavern pool with an orange sulfurous glow far below. [S54 · 01:54:48 · turn 0904 · scene 006] |
| 02:15:33 | Sneaking past the grothlet brigade and the witch fire Deeper in, Venris (avoid notice + swift sneak) scouts a chamber: a 15-foot pentagram door to the west, a rubble-choked southwest stair, and a hallway where a Barbazu devil drills a brigade of grothlets near a shimmering orange wall. The party slips past using Follow the Expert (Venris, a master, grants +3). Venris then scouts a room of fifteen transparent pillars, each holding a creature frozen in time (a dryad, a gibbering mouther, and others). A patrolling incorporeal undead appears: a recall-knowledge identifies it as a witch fire, a 9th-level hate-filled undead that attacks on sight and needs ghost-touch. The party times its patrol loop and sneaks through a door toward where locate points. [S54 · 02:21:55 · turn 1130 · scene 007] |
| 03:11:48 | Confrontation with Yazongleer and combat cliffhanger Venris opens the door to Yazongleer's chamber and they roll initiative tied at 28. Yazongleer (the Motley Man / denizen of Leng) is found with two severed hands crawling on their own (one recognized as belonging to a missing, mute prisoner). A tense parley fails: Venris tries to bluff/goad him into dismissing his minions (a failed Deception), and Yazongleer, hostile, threatens to throw them to the witch. Combat breaks out: Cid raises his shield and uses his Dread Marshal aura (Menacing, +2 damage); Venris casts Organ Sight on Yazongleer, discovers he has no lungs (so doesn't breathe), and crit-chops one frightened crawling hand for 30 damage; Veve uses Fortissimo + Courageous Anthem (a success, +2 status) and grabs a chair to smash him via Venris's Inspired Stratagem. The session ends as Yazongleer reaches for something hidden behind his back, with Cid potentially getting a reactive strike — a cliffhanger. [S54 · 03:23:15 · turn 1583 · scene 008] |