Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for May 27, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Adeline Tormak (Human Magus played by Andrew Renfrow), Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Finch Bloodrain (Half-Hobgoblin Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Hwrulf (Human Unchained Barbarian played by Paul Potter), and Snagyndar Blackthorn (Huldran War Master played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team sailed The Shooting Star into the docks at Turashar, a large town of a few thousand inhabitants on the northern coast of Hepmonaland.  The town, under control of the despicable Scarlet Brotherhood, was appalling to the team.  They could see thralls laboring under the relentless sun.  All around were robed Scarlet Brotherhood monks, and huge banners flapped in the wind displaying the crimson standard and wavy black cross.  Adeline told them they needed to find Aratheas, a powerful elf who owed her father his life.  She would know how to bypass the warding that protects the Forbidden City, Xuxulieto. 

The group paid their docking fees and went to the tavern, the Broken Fetish run by Zarutka Nalembe, a Touv woman with broken teeth and thick accent.  The party noticed the Brotherhood was not present in the tavern, but many sailors and native inhabitants were.  The place was in an old crumbling adobe dome with broad-leaf canopies tied to stone columns.  Colorful fetishes — broken masks, cracked bone charms, melted wax seals — hang from strings overhead, rattling in the wind like warning bells.  Something was carved in the lintel in a language the party did not understand. 

Patrons inside were in a haze of spice-scented smoke.  Drummers played exciting music from one corner.  The low tables were arranged in alcoves with reed mats for seating.  Nets hung down to block the eyes and sound.  Zarutka served the team gold-palm spirits, a fruity drink served in gourds.  For a meal, they consumed snake jerky on black-bean flatbread and fried piranha skewers. 

Callum cast comprehend languages and overheard all kinds of tidbits.  The group tried to get friendly and buy the locals some drinks but scared them off with the assumption they work for the Brotherhood.  Hwrulf asked about where to buy a quality knife and was directed to find Molok Ka’taz at the Stone Fang Forge.  Snagy sought out an old contact, Ekka Bonebrace.  She was able to provide a map into the Pelisso Swamp to find Aratheas’ home.  She also warned them of the presence of boggards, also called bullywugs, in the swamp.  When asked, she confirmed at least one black dragon, the Mirelord, called the swamp home.  Meanwhile, Hwrulf bought a masterwork scramaseax from weaponsmith Molok. 

The group bought robes to wear to protect them from the oppressive sun and took off their armor to avoid heat strokes.  The team debated a long time and decided to use the furnace helm on their cargo barge to fly it into the swamp to find the elf’s hut.  They sailed The Shooting Star out to sea and dropped anchor instruction Sailmaster Tuk and the giff marines to await their return.  None of the team had experience piloting a spelljamming vessel, so Adeline took her best shot.  She maneuvered the ship under the cover of darkness out into the swamp.  She could not see in the dark, so Helg and Finch clung to the front of the ship and called out directions.  They kept the barge about 60 ft. in the air so the two with darkvision could scan the ground.  The group flew for a couple hours deep into the swamp. 

Helg and Finch spotted some bullywugs in the water.  Soon thereafter they heard great croaks calling out, and being answered, all across the swamp.  Eventually, Callum cast comprehend languages and learned the frog men were alerting each other to the presence of the strange flying boat and were off to alert the Mirelord!  The team came to the hut described by Ekka.  A battle had played out here in the last few days.  After casting several wardings and landing the ship, the team found frog-like footprints, evidence of many area of effect spells being unleashed, and signs that many boggards had died here.  From the tracks, it appeared crocodiles and dragged off the corpses.  The hut was damaged by acid, arrows, and physical bashing.  Inside parts of it had burned.  Everything of value had been carried off.  Hwrulf determined Aratheas had been marched off in chains deeper into the swamp.  He was confident on the ground he could track the monsters, but with it being a couple days already, the trail would be getting hard and harder to follow.  The team decided to put Adeline and Helg in the barge and let it trail along behind them. 

Game summary for May 13, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Finch Bloodrain (Half-Hobgoblin Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Hwrulf (Human Unchained Barbarian played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The heroes gathered atop the stairs leading down into the bowels beneath Drenk’s Slaughterhouse. The butcher had been slain, and their wounds mended by divine and alchemical means. Callum cast Bailey’s golden retriever to augment himself and others, and the team advanced with caution.  Finch quaffed several admixtures and potions, including one of displacement.  Helg called down one of his mightiest blessings, righteous wrath of the faithful.  Hwrulf activated his tattoo of Odin and entered a rage.  The stairwell descended into deeper darkness and an overpowering stench. The smell of blood and old rot was nearly overwhelming, and several members of the team struggled to suppress the urge to vomit.

At the bottom of the stairs, three men waited. One, a hulking half-orc, stood shirtless with muscles bulging and a massive falchion clutched in hand. Two dwarves flanked him—both with the cold, measured stance of disciplined martial artists their heavy picks resting at the ready. Behind them, chained to the wall, was a battered and bloodied woman. The party had no doubt it was Adeline.  A red-robed human, Drenk perhaps, bearing the symbol of the Scarlet Brotherhood emerged from the shadows.

The man sneered. “Leave one alive to question. Kill the rest.”

The first move came from Finch, who darted into the room and lunged at the armored dwarf. He swept the legs out from under the man, knocking him prone. The dwarf’s weapon clattered loudly against the wet stone as he slammed into the floor. Helg and Callum moved to follow up on Finch’s momentum, and Helg’s sword and the slayer’s scythe struck home, hacking into the dwarf’s ribs. Hekera surged forward and took the prone dwarf’s head clean off his shoulders in a blur of steel.

Callum’s fire snake erupted next, coursing through two enemies, singing flesh and scorching hair. Though they avoided the worst of it, the burns were evident. The second dwarf closed with Finch and tried to retaliate but was thrown off by Finch’s arcane displacement. The monk-like dwarf then turned his attacks toward Helg, landing a heavy kick that nearly sent the cleric reeling.

Finch parried and struck again, carving into his opponent while the rest of the team surged into the cramped room. Hekera followed the monk dwarf and delivered a punishing combination of sword strikes. Helg recovered, evaded another flurry of fists, and called down divine magic to bolster his allies. Hwrulf, fueled by rage, barreled past the melee and leapt at Drenk with a roar, his sword gleaming in the dim light.

The human was clearly the leader—cruel, tactical, and confident. He traded strikes with Hwrulf and landed a few sharp blows, but it quickly became apparent he was outmatched. One by one, the attackers fell. The monk dwarf collapsed under Hekera’s blade, and Drenk was slain in the final exchange by Hwrulf, his rage-powered strikes overwhelming his foe’s defenses.

With the battle ended, the group turned immediately to the woman in chains. Adeline was bruised and bloodied, but alive. Helg freed her from the shackles and cast spells to begin her healing. She confirmed she was Professor Tormak’s daughter and that she had been taken by these men recently. She thanked the group and told them she knew how to decipher her father’s encoded journal. Whatever secrets the professor hid, Adeline was the key.

The party searched the room and collected what valuables they could find. They patched their wounds, steadied their breath, and prepared to leave the slaughterhouse behind—alive, victorious, and one step closer to uncovering the truth.  With Adeline in tow, they returned to The Shooting Star to head toward Hepmonaland. 

Game summary for May 6, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Finch Bloodrain (Half-Hobgoblin Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Hwrulf (Human Unchained Barbarian played by Paul Potter), Notch Bowman (Human Fighter played by Andrew Renfrow), and Snagyndar Blackthorn (Huldran War Master played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The party slipped into Drenk’s and let their eyes slowly adjust to the gloom.  The smell was not as terrible as the party had imagined.  The floor and walls were stained from years of gruesome work.  Ropes and pulleys ran through the building, and an extensive network of sharp meat hooks dangled from the ceiling, posing a serious threat to anything taller than a man.  Heavy hammers rested in a rack, their handles well worn by hands long accustomed to swinging and crushing the skulls of livestock.

The smell of death was intermingled with another odor—the acrid scent of brimstone.  Something rattled in the darkness.  An enormous shape pushed through the meat hooks, completely unfazed by their presence.  The monstrosity was humanoid in shape but nearly twice the height of a man.  Grotesque red skin covered its muscular frame, and great horns swept out from either side of its head.  A bloodstained apron covered its torso.  In one beefy hand, it clutched the largest cleaver the adventurers had ever seen.  Trailing along in the other hand was a whip of chains and barbed hooks.  A deep, otherworldly voice gleefully exclaimed, “Fresh meat!”

From the shadows emerged more demonic creatures.  A great featured vulture-like demon, a vrock, stalked out of a corner.  Deep mooing sounds echoed through the chamber as Abyssal bullfiends, bipedal demon cows, armed with halberds approached across the blood-slicked floor.  One of the bullfiends unleashed a cattle call, frightening several of the party.  The butcher, a flayreaver demon, whipped its barbed chain in arc to entangle Notch!  It dragged the terrified man to its side and hacked him to pieces with its cleaver!  His contingent raise dead brought him back to life just long enough to experience the exquisite fatal mortification of his flesh at the gentle blade of the butcher twice.  The demon hung his dismembered parts from the meat hooks!

Hekera engaged the vrock and was infested with spores before it teleported to engage Helg and Snagy.  Callum terrified by the bullfiends cast dimension door and had his scorching ray fail against the demons’ spell resistance.  Helg tried to cast flame strike but lost his spell after taking a brutal hit.  Finch darted out, nimbly sliding across the blood, after two of the bullfiends.  He tripped one to the ground and brutalized it before its companion sundered his scythe!  The demon then sundered his armor leaving him unarmed and defenseless!  Hwrulf entered a rage and tore into the demons with glee.  The mighty sword of Wayland was not particularly effective against the demon flesh, but Hwrulf hit them with it relentlessly, causing massive damage through sheer stubborn determination.

Snagy and Stingy were forced to stay near the floor and creeping along to avoid the meat hooks.  Snagy landed blow after blow with his lance, but the demonic flesh proved too resilient for several of the attacks to deal significant harm.  Even still, he managed to slip the lance through the defenses of one bullfiend and slaughter it on the killing floor.

Hekera, sprouting demonic vines growing through his flesh, attacked the flayreaver demon and delt a solid blow.  The two fought for a moment, but Hekera proved too deadly and killed the powerful fiend.  Meanwhile, Hwrulf repositioned and killed both an Abyssal bullfiend and a vrock.  Callum blasted away with a cold-augmented lightning bolt and Helg narrowly avoided setting the building on fire with a flame strike!  Finch bashed away with his flail before being critically injured and left dying on the floor.  Hekera killed the other bullfiend, and Helg channeled positive energy just in time to save Finch’s life.

The group looked at what remained of Notch and decided they could do nothing for him.  Hwrulf distributed some potions to Finch while Helg quickly cast a number of mending spells to repair Snagy’s damaged and Finch’s destroyed equipment.  Finch was soon outfitted with armor and scythe again, although their magical enchantment was lost. 

The group nursed a few wounds and realized they needed to spell up before heading downstairs to see if they can rescue Adeline.  Maybe no one heard the crack of thunder from the lighting bolt, the fanatical mooing, the crash of the flaming strike, the gleeful roaring of Hwrulf, or the butcher’s rattling chains.  Yeah, I bet the enemies are about to suffer a surprise round…