Game summary for August 12, 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), Einar Ormsson (Human Fighter / Unchained Barbarian played by John Osborne), 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.
Hwrulf reached down and pulled Aratheas out of the dragon’s pit. Much to their surprise, she was indignant at their arrival! She was quite put out that they had slain the dragon. They learned she had allowed herself to be captured because she knew the egotistical dragon would talk and reveal answers to her questions. However, since the party got there and killed the dragon, she would not get her answers! She wanted to know why the Mirelord, with whom she has coexisted peacefully for three decades, would suddenly attack her.
The team was able to tell her about the Scarlet Brotherhood and how they expect they have taken Professor Tormak to the Forbidden City. Aratheas was annoyed but told them the Professor once helped her escape the Forbidden City and so would help them mount a rescue. She told them about the city, as it was when she was there thirty years earlier. They learned the Olman civilization built the city but believed it was haunted by the spirits of the dead and abandoned it. Aratheas claimed to have never seen any undead there. She warned them the city is in a valley surrounded by cliffs and the skies are filled with giant wasps. The wasps are aggressive and viciously attack anything that flies within the city!
Aratheas let them know there is a group of yuan-ti that controls the city. They seem to worship some kind of cosmic entity. She often heard them muttering something like “Cthulhu fhtagn!” The yuan-ti dominate a vicious tribe of bugbear enforcers who have enslaved mongrelmen to farm and do manual labor. Aratheas had befriended some of the mongrelmen but did not really trust them. She said they worship something in the waters beneath the city they call The Maw that Remembers.
She also told them of the tasloi, a tribe of jungle goblins that live around the city and often tame the wasps. Aratheas would not go with them but revealed she had already sent her apprentice, Piper, through the portal into the Forbidden City to try and learn what was going on there. She gave them her sigil and told them Piper would help them.
They traveled to the portal and Aratheas taught them what to do and helped them start the portal ritual. She realized it has been sabotaged by the Scarlet Brotherhood and was starting to collapse! The team scrambled, some to physically hold up the stones and others to stabilize the magic. Aratheas urged them to go through quickly and she’d try to salvage the portal. The team struggled for a bit but was able to help her get the portal open and slip through!
The team emerged in the sweltering jungle heat of the Forbidden City in a secluded area. There were obvious tracks where the Scarlet Brotherhood had come through. All around they could hear the droning of the wasps. The group traveled toward the city and found a battle scene. A dead red-robed human and several slain bugbears lay rotting on the ground, partially consumed. Finch carelessly kicked the human corpse, causing it to burst upon and spray rot grubs across the ground! Finch narrowly avoided being infested himself.
They could tell the Brotherhood took some injuries and dragged their wounded off the battlefield. They tracked them to an old stone house. It was apparent they had gone in and nursed their wounds before traveling on. Lots of prints crossed over this area including those of mongrelmen and some simian tracks.
The party continued tracking the Brotherhood and came upon another battle site. This one was different; there were no corpses in the street but a lot of blood. Some of the pavestones were depressed as if from a great weight. Stepping back it appeared to be from a giant ape! They noticed a blonde-haired human head sitting up on something in a second story window but decided not to investigate. Moving on, they got closer to the edge of the city by the encroaching jungle. Soon, they could see halfling-sized ape-like creatures in the trees moving along with them. Finally, Hwrulf hurled a javelin and hit one. It nearly fell out of the tree, and they got a good look at it. It was brown-furred with a pink face with blue and yellow highlights. It wore crude studded leather armor, and an obsidian-studded macuahuitl hung at its side. It righted itself and snarled with rage at Hwrulf before disappearing into the trees howling and hooting. Answers from the jungle were immediate, and the trees began to shake! As the team circled up, something large began to crash through the foliage!
