Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for December 29, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Herezis Tahriol (Mongrelfolk Paladin played by Preston Harmon), Piper Quickstep (Human Druid-Mage played by John Osborne), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), Snagyndar Blackthorn (Huldran War Master played by Casey Scruggs), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Things seemed darker in the Pelisso Swamp since the party left.  The sky was more overcast.  The gloom was thick and oppressive.  The biting insects seemed to bite more.  The mud sucked at their feet.  Flowers appeared withered.  Animals seemed more feral.  There was a sense of menace and doom all around.

They came across a dead deer lying and decaying in the tall grass.  Flies buzzed and droned around the corpse.  Suddenly, its eyelids opened, revealing sightless white orbs.  The head jerked up at an unnatural angle, and the deer began laughing hysterically.

A pair of massive frogodiles came crashing out of the swamp in a frenzy.  Charging behind them, maybe in pursuit or maybe just after the same meal, came rotting yet mobile corpses.  Their flesh was bloated by the swamp moisture and heat and even ruptured in places.  Maggots teemed and flies buzzed.

Herezis recognized the undead as deadites, bodies inhabited by otherworldly evil spirits that twist the bodies into a mockery of their former selves.  These deadites were corrupted boggards that leapt into battle with cruel taunting and vicious teeth and claws.  Skree moved into battle and sliced a piece of dead flesh off a deadite.  The undead frogman seemed unconcerned by the injury.  Piper cast quickened shield and mage armor and positioned Hammer in front of him for cover. 

One of the bogbound hopper deadites used an unholy leap to close with the party while screaming, “Hop to it mortal!  You’re late for your funeral!”  One of the frogodiles tried to snatch Snagy with its sticky tongue but failed.  Helg moved up and cast bane weapon on Ursay’s bow.  Another hopper jumped into the fray yelling, “BOING! Right into your face!”  A gurgling boggard deadite climbed upon a rock and proclaimed, “Gleh loves a screamer!” while unleashing a terrible cloak.  Fortunately, none of the party succumbed to its effect. 

Snagy summoned Stingy and activated battle tactics.  Callum steamed up the area with an impressive empowered fireball.  The other frogodile closed on Snagy and death rolled him to the ground!  Ursay whipped out his baned bow and unleashed a flurry of arrows at the undead!  Herezis found himself hemmed in between rocks, allies, and enemies, so he was unable to charge about.  However, his lance gave him the reach to attack several foes. 

The remaining boggard deadites came lurching in yelling phrases like “Time to gargle with doom!’ and “What’s that smell?  Oh, it’s you!”  Their sharp claws and teeth tore into the adventurers. 

The deadites proved a resilient threat with the team hurling several big spells such as flame strike, scorching ray, and searing light into their ranks to wear them down.  Much to the team’s dismay, the gurgling boggards exploded in a spray of acidic water when destroyed. 

Skree and Snagy both found themselves contending with the frogodiles trying to eat them.  This kept the reptiles busy while the rest of the team dealt with the deadites.  They eventually were able to fend off the beasts, and the team defeated this onslaught. 

In the aftermath, they built a crude raft and put the bodies of Finch, Hwrulf, and Hekera (brought back from the Forbidden City) upon it along with their furnace helm.  They returned to Aratheas’ hut and found it deserted.  The team decided to seek out Nada and see if he could tell them what is going on. 

They found the odd goblin preparing to leave the swamp, and he encouraged the team to leave Helg behind and flee as well.  He told them the vapors of his special veilroot pipeweed revealed Gleh is Helg but not Helg.  Gleh is the source of the deadites; wherever he goes, evil spirits inhabit and animate the bodies of the dead.  Nada told them Gleh will not rest until Helg is dead and Helg will not rest until Gleh is dead.  They debated for a while but decided the faster they deal with Gleh the fewer undead he will have created. 

They decided they would raise Hekera from the dead and set him up in Aratheas’ home to protect Professor Tormak as they go to rid the world of Gleh.

Game summary for December 22, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Herezis Tahriol (Mongrelfolk Paladin played by Preston Harmon), Piper Quickstep (Human Druid-Mage played by John Osborne), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), Snagyndar Blackthorn (Huldran War Master played by Casey Scruggs), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The eyeless gray-skinned men, grimlocks, advanced on the party while wielding crude axes.  The massive serpentine monstrosity, a thousandtooth, slithered forward as well.  Skree and Snagy ended up meeting its gaze and slowly began to petrify!  Herezis discovered the Maw That Remembers had forsaken him and stripped him of his paladin abilities due to their turning over Uncle Izdreth to be sacrificed to a demon lord by the behtu.  He was forced to fight with his sword rather than with his lance astride his holy mount, which limited his effectiveness.  Piper fired off quickened stone discus and mad monkeys while Callum cast empowered fireball and later scorching ray.  Ursay planted arrows into foes all across the battlefield, and Helg stepped up to cast healing magic upon an imperiled Skree. 

The thousandtooth had tremendous reach, a poisonous bite, and its gaze slowly petrified targets.  Soon all but Herezis and Ursay were turning to stone!  The grimlocks took a number of hits from the party before collapsing, but they really were no match for the might of the team, even slowed by the thousandtooth’s gaze.  Callum tried unsuccessfully to dispel the effect.  The team watched in horror as Snagy turned into a stone statue!  Skree was rendered unconscious and dying but did not succumb to petrifaction.  Piper’s wolf mount, Hammer, ripped apart a grimlock while Callum blasted down two more.  Herezis proved his skill with the sword is still formidable and cut down the grimlock chieftan.  Ursay sank arrows into the thousandtooth, slaying it, but not before it afflicted Helg who also petrified. 

The group looted the area and setup sleds to drag their two friends and the statues of mongrelfolk back to the mongrelfolk tunnels.  They met with the clergy of the Maw, and they traded the statues of mongrelfolk for the restorative spells necessary to save Snagy and Helg.  They then performed a ritual of atonement for Herezis.  The team rested a day and the headed to the portal back to the Pelisso Swamp. 

Activating the portal to return from the Forbidden City was easier than it was getting there. It seemed Aratheas was able to repair the portal on her end. With ease, the portal glowed and hummed, allowing the party to step through.

There was the familiar falling-not-falling sensation of plunging through dimensional travel, followed by a wave of intense vertigo. As they crossed the boundaries of time and space, a vision overtook them. They saw the sun dim in the sky, turning ruddy like blood clotting behind gauze. The ground rippled, not just seen but felt, like ocean waves made of earth and stone. A single breath, not belonging to any of them, broke the silence.

Then came gibberish. No, talking, but in a language ancient and unknown. A reptilian eye opened in the center of the darkened sun, staring down at each of them. They felt exposed. Seen. Known. Something unfathomable took their measure. Tears ripped through the sky, and drops of blood began to flow, falling upward against gravity. And then the vision was gone.

They stood once again in the Pelisso Swamp. The three serpent statues stared mutely at them. It was close to dusk. Their cargo barge lay destroyed, a smoking heap of ruin. Something had ripped it apart and set it ablaze fairly recently. The only thing to survive the fire was the heavy metal furnace helm, sunk halfway into the mire.

Scattered around the barge were savaged boggard corpses. They were ripped, torn, and shredded, body parts strewn across the mud. A terrifying altar stood nearby, built of intertwined spinal cords and limb bones. Upon it sat a severed boggard head, rotting in the swamp. Flies buzzed and scattered as its eyelids slid open, revealing white-dimmed, dead orbs.

In a gurgling voice, the head spoke. “Helg, Helg! Your doom is foretold. Gleh has come. Gleh has come for you!”

With the final syllable, the flesh sloughed off the head in a disgusting, flowing ooze, leaving behind only a bare skull.

Game summary for December 9, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Herezis Tahriol (Mongrelfolk Paladin played by Preston Harmon), Piper Quickstep (Human Druid-Mage played by John Osborne), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), Snagyndar Blackthorn (Huldran War Master played by Casey Scruggs), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Ursay quaffed his final potion of invisibility and scouted ahead.  Awhile later he returned befuddled and babbling.  Helg helped him shake it off a bit, and they learned he had come across a room with serpent statues with glowing red eyes.  They caused confusion and disorientation.  The group proceeded with caution and found the room filled with movable tiles and glyphs and those disorienting statues.  They tried to decipher the puzzle as an incorporeal spirit attacked!  They fought it back and solved the puzzle, which opened a way down deeper into the complex!

The team entered the temple’s inner sanctum and found time running askew.  Things seemed to happen in reverse order, and the fastest among the team found themselves operating the slowest.  They engaged in violence against several yuan-ti, including another ignan and a new foe, a darkfang apostle!  The apostle, an oracle of Cthulhu unleashed magical curses which drastically impacted the team’s capabilities.  Fortunately, Snagy was able to use battle tactics to keep the team from succumbing too deeply to the negative effects as long as they stayed relatively close.  The writhebow cultists were mostly a nuisance rather than a real threat.  The thrallcoil sentinel and ignan, however, provided quite effective in melee.

The team was appalled to learn the darkfang apostle could manipulate time in this room!  Repeatedly the team would slay a yuan-ti only for the apostle to bring it back as some kind of dark revenant and continue the fight!  Callum and Piper bopped around the room with dimension door spells. Skree and Herezis held the front line while Snagy and Stingy flew out to try and fight the apostle.  Helg, depleted of most of his spells, contributed healing and battle rage.  Callum and Piper both ended up with deadly foes near them during the battle and paid a steep price in blood.  Piper even suffered a mangled limb due to the apostle’s spellcasting.  Ursay struck enemies over and over with precise arrows. 

The twin lances of Herezis and Snagy proved very effective, especially with Stingy able to fly.  Piper fell back and cast release the hounds which harried the enemy caster.  Skree held his own against some particularly skilled yuan-ti, and Herezis narrowly avoided his mount being tripped out from under him.  One of Callum’s spells, scorching ray, was ineffective against the yuan-ti ignan.  However, he did greatly help the team by dispelling yet another darkness effect. 

Piper put more pressure on the caster with a second casting of release the hounds.  His triumphant moment came, however, with two stone discuses slamming into and slaying the darkfang apostle!  The team cut down the revenants, again, and took control of the room!  They quickly found a hidden panel and revealed the tablet fragment!  Handling it caused scenes to play out in their minds, revealing much (little of it good) about the history of the tablet and the Witchlight Marauders! 

Game summary for December 2, 2025, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Herezis Tahriol (Mongrelfolk Paladin played by Preston Harmon), Komorebi (Kitsune Bard played by Josh Jenkins), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Ursay quaffed another potion of invisibility and scouted ahead.  He discovered a strange room where his darkvision worked, but he could see torches burning on the wall but casting no light.  He saw a short bridge and creatures moving in shadows.  He slinked back, and Komorebi was able to make out just enough in the journal to learn the more light brought into the room, the darker it would get! 

The team slipped in and tried to dispel the darkness effect, but it withstood the abjuration.  Herezis and Skree ended up across the bridge trying to engage the yuan-ti while Komorebi inspired his allies.  A great red-and-purple-scaled elder serpent rose up from the darkness and cast spike stones, making it difficult for the team to maneuver.  It placed it strategically to not really impede its allies.  The yuan-ti flourisher feinted Skree and hit him with several sneak attacks, but the mongrelfolk dished out heavy blows of his own.  Although unable to charge, Herezis still brought down the hardy yuan-ti. 

Callum polymorphed into a small water elemental so he could see in the darkness.  Komorebi had a clever idea and cast break enchantment, dismissing the darkness effect.  As the heat from the pits of coals and torches on the wall hit them, they realized not only did light turn to dark in the room’s effect, but fire produced cold!  With proper order restored, the elder serpent cast fireball and hit half the team.  The bridge fell with Ursay atop it.  He crashed into the pit of fiery coals and was badly burned.  He quickly scrambled out. 

The melee yuan-ti were defeated leaving only a pair of writhebow cultists and the elder serpent, all of whom started falling back toward a corridor.  The team put up pursuit with Helg casting a string of buffing spells before siding up to Skree and granting him a heal.  The elder serpent cast spell after spell to hamper the party’s movement including floor of fire, doom fog, and mud pit.  The group painfully pursued it, with Herezis and Skree getting bit multiple times.  Fortunately these mighty warriors shook off the virulent poison.  They both landed devastating hits, and firing blindly, Ursay landed a few powerful arrow shots.  Komorebi and Callum went on a spree of dispelling magical effects until Skree was able to line up a charge on the snake and cut it down! 

The group looted the corpses, examined an obelisk dedicated to Cthulhu, and Helg discovered a secret door!  They debated a few moments but decided to press on rather than seek a place to rest and recover.