Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for January 31, 2023, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Intevar Dagella (Centurian Drow Silent Hunter played by Casey Scruggs), Jiraiya (Hurwaeti Freebooter played by Andrew Renfrow), Khesen Pavel (Human Brawler played by Parker Harmon), and Neko (Half-Orc Magus played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The echoes of battle had just begun to fade when Shafi’s counterstrike arrived.  More armed humans and tengu swarmed in.  Behind them skuttled a drider!  It carried a large mace and had long flowing blonde hair.  They weren’t quite sure if it was originally male or female.  The drider recognized Stanley and Simmons and snarled.  “You!  You and your boss are so meddlesome!  This moon isn’t big enough for all of us.  You keep showing up and interrupting our business!  We’re not gonna take it.  No, we ain’t gonna take it.  We’re not gonna take it anymore!”

Stanley snarled as well.  “It’s Dee, Dee Spider.  He’s twisted, sister.”  With blades drawn, the two forces crashed together! 

The drider split the room with wall of fire and burned several of the party.  Dastardly cads and tengu vandals engaged the party with various degrees of success.  The divided room slowed the party’s advance and effectiveness.  Dee Spider cast create pit and tried to drop Helg into it but failed.  The pit further slowed the team.  Simmons took a devastating blow but countered with a lethal one to his opponent.  Intevar put her bow to very deadly effect while Jiraiya began his deadly dance.  Neko unleashed magic missiles and fireballs.  Khesen was blasted by a fire-converted lightning bolt that nearly killed him.  Dee then fled using dimension door! 

Game summary for January 24, 2023, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Intevar Dagella (Centurian Drow Silent Hunter played by Casey Scruggs), Jiraiya (Hurwaeti Freebooter played by Andrew Renfrow), Khesen Pavel (Human Brawler played by Parker Harmon), and Neko (Half-Orc Magus played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team decided to do some equipment shopping and then went out and found two more businesses for investments.  The first was Muckbuckle’s Marvelous Munchables, a tinker gnome bakery that hasn’t had an explosion in hours.  The second was Lezah’s House of Practical Magic, a place where they teach how to use magic in industry and everyday life.  The group invested 10,000 gp in each.

The group sat around the Low Dive enjoying an early evening dinner and talking to the locals when a tiefling strolled in.  The locals gave him a wide berth, and he walked up to the table.  He introduced himself as Stanley and invited them to come meet with his boss, Mugsy.  After he left, they asked around about him and confirmed he is a local criminal, and Mugsy is the neighborhood crime lord.  Stanley is a wicked sorcerer known for a love of magic involving skulls and demons.  He also has a maniacal axe-wielding brother named Simmons.  They also learned the Low Dive pays protection money to Mugsy. 

A few hours later, Stanley returned to get them and led them through the under halls where they met up with Simmons.  They escorted the party to meet the criminal mastermind, the one and only Mugs Money.  The harengon crime lord was quite gracious and hired them to strike out against his new rival, Shafi Schmuck.  He sent Stanley and Simmons with them, and the brothers were chomping at the bit for some mayhem. 

They arrived at a chamber where Shafi was moving goods stolen from Mugs.  Shafi ordered his human and tengu guards to attack while he fled out the back.  Simmons entered a rage and swelled to double his normal size!  The team moved in and engaged.  At first, both sides exchanged a couple solid hits.  Helg cast ring of blades and rushed in.  Khesen attacked a tengu who redirected his attack right into Intevar!  JIraiya nimbly moved about the battlefield whacking opponents with his flail.  Intevar setup some flanks, and Neko unleashed mind thrust.  A margoyle swooped in from the darkness above and attacked Neko.  Meanwhile, Simmons scored a critical hit and cut one of the humans, a despicable cad, completely in two.  Moments later, Neko did the same.  Stanley cast a calling and brought in a gelatinous cube!  The ooze began engulfing guards and dissolving them!  The team took down the rest of the enemies, and Stanley and Simmons began feeding bodies to the ooze and leading it away from the chamber! 

Game summary for January 17, 2023, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Intevar Dagella (Centurian Drow Silent Hunter played by Casey Scruggs), Khesen Pavel (Human Brawler played by Parker Harmon), Neko (Half-Orc Magus played by Peyton Harmon), and Sienna Whispermist (Half-Elf Cleric / Illusionist / Rogue played by Todd Hughes). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The Perry arrived at Refuge, and the party could see the famed gardens and sprawling city on the small moon.  Orbiting the base were 24 massive stone golems equipped with spelljamming helms, ballistae, and armed crew—flying animated ships of destruction!  Swimming about the docks were space remora, void fish large enough to serve as mounts.  Astride each were armored knights carrying lances.  Cruising around to keep the peace was another blue and yellow squidship.  Stretching out behind Refuge as far as the eye could see was the Salvage Ring, a collection of shipwrecks used for parts, repairs, and salvage. 

Once docked, the team paid 67 gp in docking and air refreshment fees.  They talked to the tax collector and learned where to find Renaldo’s Respectable Reclamations, a place they could sell the vipership.  While walking through the dock ward, they heard a merchant yelling for a thief to stop.  A giff guard caught the man, and the man began screaming.  Next to the party, another man began screaming as well.  After a few moments, both exploded!  Not in gore and viscera, but into clouds of dust leaving only their clothing behind!  Everyone looked on in stunned amazement.  A woman fainted.  The guards began trying to usher people along claiming it was an illusionist trick. 

The group moved along and visited Renaldo.  He went with them to the docks to inspect the ship, and they haggled a bit.  In the end, they sold the ship for 43,500 gp!  After making the sale, they decided they should start investing rather than walking around with mountains of coins.  Following much debate, they decided they wanted to buy into a tavern.  They went into the Low Dive, a tavern near the docks.  After meeting the owner and carousing with the locals, they decided it was just the place they had in mind.  They invested 10,000 gp into the tavern.  They also decided they wanted to seek out a place that teaches magic and a tinker gnome enterprise to invest in.

While in the bar, they listened to the locals and gathered some rumors.  They weren’t sure how much truth was in each, but they did take note of several:

1. The entire city of Refuge is riddled with secret doors, hidden tunnels, and interconnecting ways.  They say every building has one to three secret entrances.
2. The underground tunnels are ruled by the Watcher Below, a gigantic beholder who kills and eats everything it catches.
3. The Arcane are strict in their laws and often remove trouble rather than try to arrest or detain.
4. A recently arrived ship was filled with a dead crew covered in crawling green worms. 
5. A contingent of rastipede traders have infiltrated Refuge and are slowly stealing trade from the Arcane.

They were able to confirm with their new business partner, Bueford, that the Low Dive does have a secret entrance into the under halls. 

Game summary for January 10, 2023, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Jiraiya (Hurwaeti Freebooter played by Andrew Renfrow), Khesen Pavel (Human Brawler played by Parker Harmon), and Neko (Half-Orc Magus played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team nursed their wounds and searched the last room of the viper ship hold.  Within they found supplies to repair a ship along with a single medium chest.  Jiraiya tried to pick the lock only to later discover it wasn’t locked at all.  Within they found a horrifying item, a severed mind flayer head!  They realized it was preserved and tentacles braided together down into a handle.  Someone had crafted and enchanted a flayer flail!  Jiraiya immediately adopted it into his arsenal.  They also found several copper ingots and some amethysts. 

As they began searching the enemy bodies, they heard the giff and several human soldiers board the ship from the squid ship.  They met each other and began talking.  The giff, Captain Horatio Macefist, was thankful for their taking of the goblinoid vessel and let them know it was theirs by right of plunder.  Thus, the team acquired another ship, the Deathbite.  They learned it was powered by a lifejammer helm that permanently drains lifeforce to power the ship.  Unwilling to make that sacrifice they realized they lacked the helm-power to get the new ship, the cargo barge, and their ship to port.  After debating cutting the barge loose, they then asked Captain Macefist if he had any spare helms.  He told them he had an emergency furnace helm he could loan them since they were heading to his home base of Refuge.  He let them borrow it and stationed one of his men with them.  The tinker gnomes were overjoyed to have the unstable, potentially explosive, dangerous helm strapped in to their ship!

Two days’ journey later, they came across another Arcane squid ship, the Pride.  Jiraiya used semaphore to communicate with them and learned they were looking for them specifically and had a visitor seeking them.  The ship came alongside and requested permission to board.  Several soldiers crossed over along with an aging red-robed catfolk with brown fur and black stripes (tinged with silver).  He walked with a cane and urgently asked to speak with Botticelli.  He introduced himself as Needle and told the tortle that he had traveled from the nation of Wa in the lands of Kara-Tur of the planet Toril in Realmspace, the home of Botticelli’s egg clutch.  He informed Botticelli he is prophesied to be one of four heroes destined to become the mightiest samurai ever known.  Needle had come to return him to Kara-Tur and begin his training in the martial arts.  He also offered to hire the Perry and team to take them to the planet, which is just a short jaunt away from the Rock of Bral.  The party agreed, and he paid them 500 gp now, five potions of cure moderate wounds, and will pay another 2,500 gp when they arrive.  Next, he presented Botticelli with a beautiful matched set of daisho—a samurai katana and wakizashi. 

Botticelli’s training began immediately, and the team watched the proceedings in wonder and fascination.  Needle noted their interest and offered to teach the basics of ninjitsu to them as well.  So, the party has begun the process of learning from Master Needle! 

Game summary for January 3, 2023, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Intevar Dagella (Centurian Drow Silent Hunter played by Casey Scruggs), Jiraiya (Hurwaeti Freebooter played by Andrew Renfrow), Khesen Pavel (Human Brawler played by Parker Harmon), and Neko (Half-Orc Magus played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Helg channeled positive energy and healed his allies.  The team then surged down into the main deck searching for more foes.  They found a hobgoblin in the galley, but he was cut down quickly.  The team opened the hatch to the cargo deck and found it full of enemy crew!  Enemy crew hurling lit fuse grenades through the opening!  Jiraiya rolled into the cargo hold and engaged the entire force himself!  He disarmed one and dealt several blows before being forced to flee.  Helg cast create water and put out two fuses.  The third was extinguished by Intevar.  Neko stepped forward and cast fireball through the hatch and burned the enemies below, but it also hit Jiraiya!  The already injured hurwaet was rendered unconscious from his wounds. 

Helg rushed forward and spontaneously cast cure critical wounds on Jiraiya.  Hekera, Intevar, and Khesen went down into the hold.  Intevar used targeting foreknowledge and tore into a corsair.  Khesen and Hekera then finished up the stragglers.