Game summary for October 21, 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), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Herezis Tahriol (Mongrelfolk Paladin played by Preston Harmon), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
The team limped back into the caverns and met back up with Helg, Skree, and Adeline. After debating a while, they decided to seek the high priests of the Maw That Remembers. Herezis’ association with the clergy of the Maw That Remembers had granted them an audience with its trio of high priests. High Archivist Kreezhel of the Slime-Sealed Scroll is short and round with flipper-like feet, slitted nostrils, and one massive translucent eyelid. His robes do not fully cover his ochre skin, which is etched with tattoos of sermons and calligraphic scarring—memory marks. His fingers are ink-stained, and he constantly scribbles notes. Priestess Zaalet of the Bleeding Pool is lithe and hunched, always keeping a veil over her face. Her hair is mossy and clumpy, and she smells faintly of salt and rot. Deacon Brumm, a towering mongrelfolk with crustacean plates along his arms and torso and large tusks, wears a harness strung with hollow bells made from skulls, bones, and shells.
These holy figures examined the cursed companions and then went to pray to the Maw. Some time later, they returned bearing both good and bad news. The Maw had spoken and revealed that the curse was not transforming the party members into yuan-ti. Instead, it was a curse of servitude. It twisted the victim into a slave race loyal to the yuan-ti. Humans became a type of creature known as a tainted one—still appearing human, but imbued with yuan-ti abilities and compelled to serve as spies, infiltrators, and bodyguards. Non-humans, however, were transformed into horrific, nearly mindless creatures known as histachii—degenerate, serpent-like humanoids used as soldiers and disposable fodder in war.
This transformation occurred over the course of 10 to 14 days and, once complete, permanently altered or killed the cursed. Death offered no escape—unless the curse was lifted, any resurrection would be followed by immediate re-death as the curse reasserted itself. That was the bad news.
The good news was that the process could be stopped. The clergy could brew an antidote of uncoiling, but it required three rare components found throughout the caverns: sporeheart fungus growing in the Fomorian caves, chuul brain fluid from the flooded chambers, and the heart blood of an ur-histachii—an undead version of the histachii that dwelled in the deep caves. If these ingredients were gathered and delivered before the curse ran its course, the transformation could be halted and the curse broken.
The team decided to seek the Fomorian caves since they had recently fought some of them. Ursay scouted ahead and found himself in a cloud of spores through which he could make out the shapes of giants battering some recently slain body. His sneezing fit alerted the giants to his presence. He slipped back to the party to prepare. He quaffed potions of invisibility and good hope. Adeline cast haste. Helg cast bane weapon. The group advanced and found two Fomorian giants and two ogres. The Fomorians sent them reeling with their evil eyes, and the ogres closed in. Arrows flew out followed by devastating fireball and flame strike spells. Callum warded himself from the fungus spores using a wand of Drawmij’s protection from gas.
The giants hit the party easily and brutally, but the team proved their tremendous damage potential by hewing down several of the monsters. Skree revealed his magical fire-spewing gauntlets. The team suffered several heavy blows, but Helg and Herezis were able to mend those wounds when the last giant had fallen. The team scooped up a lot of sporeheart fungus as well as a magical ring they located.
The team then compared notes and stories they had heard about chuul and decided they would rather next seek out the ur-histachii!
