Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for January 27, 2026, 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), 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.

A foul wind churned the swamp as a cackle erupted from the fog — high-pitched, mocking, and painfully familiar.  The sky blackened.  The air turned sour.   From the mire stepped a rotted reflection of Helg, his face split by an impossible grin, eyes oozing black ichor, radiating corruption.

“Klaatu… nikto… Gleeeeeh,” he crooned.

With every step, the earth split, and skeletal hands burst from the muck, clawing toward you, grasping at your boots.  “Look at you,” Gleh sneered, “all full of hope and hit points.”  Then he lunged.  Hell just found a new hype man.  Along with him came a gurgling boggard deadite, two skullbelly deadites, and a string-wretch deadite. 

Black negative energy blasted out of the corpse totem trying to taint the party.  Gleh cast a silence spell to try and inconvenience casters.  Ursay hit him with several arrows including some critical hits which caused Gleh to vomit up additional gurgling boggard deadites and absorb some of their animating energy to heal his injuries!  The gurgling dead advanced and ended up surrounding Skree, but the mongrelfolk gladiator held his ground with his magical maca.  Snagy and Stingy owned the skies and put on an impressive display of melee prowess.  Callum boiled part of the swamp with a fireball that scorched almost all of the enemies.  Gleh taunted and uttered puns for those who could hear him.  Helg cast blessing of fervor, giving his allies a tremendous advantage.  Herezis cast sky steed, causing wings to sprout from his holy ankylosaurus mount!  The skullbellies proved frustrating as the severed heads stitched into their torso and stomach absorbed attacks.  Gleh frustrated Herezis by dispelling his sky steed spell, and his grasping hands made it hard for Herezis to approach.

Gleh cast desiccating breath which sapped the strength from most of the party.  Ursay struck Gleh with more arrows, and the head deadite sacrificed some of his own minions to absorb their undead spirits and recovery his injuries.  The string-wretch spread its arrows around the entire party inflicting bleed damage on everyone it could hit.  Fortunately, no one succumbed to the black fletch curse as well.  Callum cast an empowered fireball, which really rocked the enemy ranks.  Helg tried to channel positive energy, but Gleh corrupted it causing him to injury his companions with negative energy.  Herezis swung out way wide and worked himself around to try and put pressure on the string-wretch.  Skree, now with three enemies around him, cut down two foes within reach.  Gleh hit most of the party with waves of grief demoralizing them.  He also moved up to the team and channeled negative energy to heal himself and all his allies.  Snagy was able to counter the confusing effect of a skullbelly’s voice of madness which had affected Skree and Ursay. 

The battle raged on until Callum cast an empowered scorching ray which caught Gleh in the chest, blasting him into a flaming pile of corpse.  His deadite companions dissolved into the swamp as their master fell!  The team quickly looted the area and found several very expensive magic items including a new sword for Helg! 

Game summary for January 20, 2026, 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), and Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Thick, cloying fog rolled across the reeking waters of the Pelisso Swamp as the trail led the party into a clearing ringed by bent trees and sickly reeds.  The stench of decay was overwhelming, a vile cocktail of swamp gas, old blood, and something far fouler.

At the center of the mire rose a mound of shattered tree and mud, the remnants of an ancient shrine now warped beyond recognition and grown into a tree covered in screaming faces. Lurking in the muck around it were tall wooden poles, each crowned with a writhing corpse, skin stretched tight over twisted bones.  Their heads jerked and twitched as they chanted in unison, backward and broken: “Nikto… Klaatu… Gleeeeeeh…”

The words crawled under their skin like centipedes.  Each syllable pulsed with black energy, floating motes of darkness that drifted through the air like ash.  The chanting grew louder, faster.  The mud began to bubble.

They felt it in their teeth.  A summoning was near.  Something was coming, unless they stopped it. 

The team quickly used their knowledge and other skills to attempt to disrupt the growing power of Gleh.  The swamp reacted, releasing maddening disharmony causing the team’s minds to reel with confusion, and noxious gas bubbled up making them sick.  Despite the hazards, the group overcame the ritual.  This broke some of Gleh’s power in the swamp making necromantic energy less effective.

A skeletal deadite with glowing blue eyes emerged from the swamp.  It wore dirty, wizardly robes and carried a staff made of vertebrae topped with a human skull.  A palpable aura of decay and death radiated from it, and boggard deadites accompanied it.

The boggards engaged the team while the necro-mite spellcaster yelled “I studied death so hard I aced it!” and cast stinking cloud.  Skree rushed to fight the boggards as Adeline cast haste.  Helg unleashed positive energy, ravaging the undead.  Callum followed it with a fierce fireball.  Herezis put his lance to work. 

Adeline fell victim to the stinking cloud, and most of the rest of the team fell victim to mass curse of impending blades.  The boggard deadites were slaughtered by Skree and Helg’s blades, but the necro-mite caused the team frustration.  Herezis got hit by its spine staff and was shocked by the wallop it dealt.  Helg tried to heal his allies with a channel positive energy near the undead, and it usurped it and turned it into negative energy!  As it tried to disappear into the stinking cloud, Skree struck it down!

Game summary for January 13, 2026, 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.

Undead came pouring from the swamp. Some were human, some boggard. They were all bloated, rotting, and hideous. They all also seemed to be having a grand old time. Filled with glee, they rampaged through the swamp. A former shaman lurched through the mud. A zombie-like archer lumbered about, wielding a bow made of sinews and tendons still dripping with gore. Black-fletched arrows made of bone rode in a quiver made of flesh. The most bizarre among them were human, blob-like with either fat or bloat. Their stomachs was enormous and had multiple severed heads stitched to their bellies. They all spoke in different voices, arguing with themselves.

A spiked pole stood in the muck, feathers, beads, and charms swaying in the wind. The stench of rot thickened in the fog-choked swamp. Tied to the pole was an embalmed and mutilated corpse, animated with a semblance of life. From its split throat, the totem chanted “nikto… klaatu… Gleh…” and dark motes of black energy floated out into the air around it. Their ears rang. Their stomachs churned. The dead seemed to shudder in time with the beat.

Piper quickly cast mirror image and release the hounds.  Callum unleashed an empowered fireball that hit most of the foes and destroyed the corpse totem.  The skullbelly deadites approach biting with multiple heads.  Herezis charged one skullbelly, but his lance just ruptured one of the stitched on heads but didn’t seem to really effect the creature.  Herezis rode by to prepare for another charge.  The skullbelly deadite yelled, “You know what bites?  When I do this!” and ripped some of the stitched-on heads from its torso and hurled them at Herezis!  They both missed and dissolved into the swamp and reformed on the deadite.  Irritated, it ripped off its main head and hurled it at the paladin, biting him viciously!  The deadite shuddered and another head grew from the festering stump.

Ursay traded arrows with the deadite archer while the gurgling deadites closed in moving ever closer to Helg; fortunately, Skree stood between him and the monsters.  Snagy flew about on Stingy with his lance able to get to enemies the terrain made it difficult for others to approach.  The shaman cast obscuring mist which hampered visibility and frustrated the team by forcing movement and slowed their progress.  Callum tried to dispel the fog but fumbled the attempt.  Helg cut down a deadite in the fog using his magical sword.  Snagy catch an arrow from the string wretch deadite and suffered the black fletch curse, making him resistant to any healing magic! 

Callum cast another fireball and Piper hurled stone discus.  Skree slashed with his maca, cutting deep into dead flesh.  The skullbellies proved difficult to fight because their torso heads absorbed the blows like some kind of perverse mirror image effect.  Some area of effects helped bring them low.  The deadites were taunting, annoying, but ultimately unsuccessful in taking down the team.  The party cut down the undead and healed their own.  They were unable to remove the curse from Snagy, but they were able to get him temporarily patched up.

Off in the distance, they could hear more corpse totems chanting, an ominous sign of things to come.   

Game summary for January 6, 2026, 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), 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 team continued into the swamp to seek out and destroy Gleh.  They came across an old hunter’s shack and a host of rotting deadites!  Several gurgling boggard and bogbound hopper deadites emerged from the swamp accompanied by a muckmaw giant deadite and a death ettin!  The half-dead ettin shambled forward and blasted the group with a miasma of doom, inflicting ghoul plague upon Snagy and Stingy!  The boggard deadites closed quickly clawing and biting and taunting. 

Piper cast greater invisibility and climbed astride Hammer for safety.  Ursay fired numerous arrows into a deadite.  Meanwhile, the muckmaw deadite lumbered forward, leaned over to bite Helg and swallowed him whole!  Herezis used his aura of justice to allow his allies to smite evil and then charged with his lance and divine ankylosaurus steed, impaling and killing the death ettin.  Skree started attacking the giant with his obsidian-edged macahuitl.  Adeline cast a very welcome haste upon the party.  Inside the deadite giant, Helg channeled positive energy and drew his boot knife.  Snagy, weakened by disease and flying on Stingy, still managed to land several telling blows. 

Scorching rays and stone discuses flashed about the field of battle.  Deadites screamed and burned yet still taunted and maimed.  The giant was brought down, and Helg cut himself free with his boot knife.  Soon, the deadites were simply dead once more.

Several of the team went into the cabin to explore and found a torn sheet of parchment, written in Helg’s handwriting, that seemed to be some kind of reversed prayer or a curse.  They burned the paper in the fireplace.  Helg was using detect magic and gazed into the wall mirror.  Suddenly, he saw his reflection leap out and grab him about the neck.  The rest of the team, however, saw Helg sudden grab himself with both hands by the throat and begin throttling himself.  Ursay pried his hands away and helped him come to his senses realizing he was simply choking himself and not being attacked.  Ursay then shattered the mirror.  The group examined the shack and found signs of blood.  They followed it outside and picked up trail of someone moving quickly at a weird gait into the swamp in the same direction they had been going. 

After a while, they found a bizarre flat stone with a symbol crudely drawn upon it.  Picking up the stone, they found it was covering a shallow hole occupied by a small undead frog.  The frog viciously (and completely ineffectually) attacked Skree!  It clung to his face kicking with its tiny undead frog legs.  Appalled by this undead mockery, Herezis grabbed it and ripped it to pieces.  Callum examined the rock and realized the mark was supposed to be one of warding but was done crudely by an amateur.  It had no arcane power and was of no supernatural use. 

Continuing to follow the footprints, the heard whispers of “Gleh… Gleh” ahead.  Ursay stealthily scouted ahead and found a man lying face down in the swamp, blood and mud mixing around his head.  The whispering seemed to come from the other side of the tree behind which Ursay hid.  He poked his head around and was horrified to find the flesh of a human face nailed to the tree!  The eyeless skin spoke “Gleh… Gleh…” and began to taunt the party.  Ursay rolled the body over and found it to be a trapper or hunter who had been injured in the leg recently.  The person they had been tracking!  At some point, the man’s face had been ripped from his skull and nailed to the tree behind him.  The face warned Helg that Gleh was coming for him.  It also called Herezis a “holy one” and voiced its disdain for him.  Offended by this thing’s existence, Herezis activated lay on hands and touched the skin.  It (and the body) burst into flames and ceased to communicate!