Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for August 25, 2026, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 1st Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Polaris Helmsmeade (Dwarf Templar played by Peyton Harmon), Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter), and Vulkanthos (Nephilim Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Eldritch Knight played by John Osborne). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The last of them barely hit the floor before the party heard boots on the catwalks above.

More of them—a lot more.  Word traveled fast in a building this size.

Heavy shapes swung down from the rafters on mooring lines, landing hard on the workshop floor.  Gaff hooks caught the lamplight.  These were not the quick, knife-work fighters they had just handled—these were the ones built for damage, the longshoremen and wharf muscle the Brine Knives kept for when subtlety had already failed.  Behind them, the dock lurkers the party recognized from before were already circling wide to cut off their angles.  One of them looked twice at Ursay and muttered, “Isn’t that the guy from the card game the other night?”

Then something cracked overhead.  Not a weapon—rigging.  A frayed support line snapped with a sound like a gunshot, and a massive bundle of sailcloth dropped and swung in a wild arc, scattering everyone beneath it.  The whole loft shifted.  Half the cargo suspended overhead began to move.  Nobody had stopped to check the rigging before the fighting started.  Was that an oversight or design?

Ursay shot down one of the tar knuckles immediately.  Vulkanthos (Khan) cast long arms and moved to protect the casters.  A Brine Knife attacked him, but his combination of mirror image and displacement easily protected him.  The Brine Knives swarmed in punching and stabbing.  Hekera fought back, cutting down several.  Helg caught one with hold person, and Callum blasted him out of existence.  Polaris got hit by a falling barrel and dropped his axe.  The team cut down the Brine Knives pretty easily. 

The loft went quiet for exactly one breath.  Then the chains moved.  Not the rigging—the cargo chains, the heavy industrial ones strung through the pulley systems overhead.  Someone yanked a release cord somewhere in the darkness above them, and a length of iron chain whipped across the loft with a sound like a thunderclap, scattering anyone in its path.

Then another.  Hands moved in the shadows, working the pulleys deliberately.  Someone had set this up.

He stepped out of the darkness at the far end of the loft as though he had been waiting specifically for them.  Tall and unhurried, he had fifty feet of heavy chain coiled across his shoulders and forearms the size of dock pilings.  He did not reach for a weapon.  He was already holding it.  The chain uncoiled slowly as he rolled his neck once, twice, and fixed the party with the particular look of a man who had ended a great many arguments with his hands and found the next one about as interesting as the last.

Around him, more gang members poured in.  The Brine Knives were not broken yet.  They were just angry now.

The whipping chains caught and entangled Helg.  The Brine Knife chainmaster ripped Polaris’ feet out from under him and battered him with a flurry of blows.  The dwarf drew his warhammer and fought valiantly from the ground.  Callum cast numerous spells including lightning bolt, cold ice strike, and empowered scorching ray.  Helg hit a Brine Knife with his sword several times before moving up and casting heal on Polaris. 

Ursay’s arrows found fleshly homes all through the building, and Hekera’s sword (stilled baned against humans by Helg’s magic) cut a swathe through the resistance.  Khan squared up against, and cut down, foe after foe. 

After the last enemy fell, the team took a moment to recoup before more enemies swarmed in!

Game summary for August 11, 2026, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 1st Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Polaris Helmsmeade (Dwarf Templar played by Peyton Harmon), Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter), and Vulkanthos (Nephilim Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Eldritch Knight played by John Osborne). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team made haste through Kristophan’s sewer system and emerged in an alley.  They delivered their prisoner and documents to Rathun Brangus.  He told them he would see what he could learn from them and get back with them the next day at the Tenderloin Lodge.  The team went to visit Snagy’s contact, Rhedda Boltmark.  They were in search of a high-level priest to restore Callum’s negative levels as well as seeking some disguises.  They did not want to wait around for her to get some minor illusion magicks, so they grabbed some robes and cloaks and went to the High Temple of Sargas.  They told the guards they wanted to make a donation and find a healer.  They were escorted to a chamber where they were introduced to Ilsara Bloodhorn, a high priestess of Sargas.  They paid her 7,000 gold pieces for a greater restoration to immediately aid Callum.  She encouraged Callum to take his vengeance upon those who killed him, in the name of Sargas. 

The group went back to the Tenderloin and met with Jorvek Ashwill, their contact with the Chainbreakers.  They talked with him a bit about what happened beneath the Forest Gate.  Meanwhile, Pella Quickwake approached and told them a representative of House Murvak was looking for them.  They went and met with him, and he told them he was to escort them to meet with Thessal Murvak.  They took a route through back alleys, cellars, and dark shadows, arriving mostly secretly at House Murvak.

Thessal revealed Rathun Brangus had reached out to her and revealed the ciphered book the party recovered contained evidence of the Upright Men meddling not only with Brangus affairs, but Murvak as well.  There was a reference to a group of thugs called the Brine Knives who Thessal had just learned were harassing one of the merchants under her protection.  To pay their debt to her, Thessal sent them to meet the Neris Thalassene down by the docks.  The Dimernesti elf is an apothecary who supplies House Murvak divers with magical trinkets allowing them to acquire deeper and rarer pearls.  The Brine Knives had stolen many of Neris’ goods.  She told them about the Brine Knives and their location and seemed to drawn to a spiritual connection with Callum (a water bloodline sorcerer) and Hekera, the sebek-ka.  She said their mutual aquatic nature made them all siblings.  Because of this connection, she said she would share some of the stolen goods if they could recover them from the Brine Knives for her.

Ursay scouted the rickety old sailmaker’s loft the Brine Knives use as a home base while the rest of the team took a rest at Neris’ to regain spells.  Ursay returned with a wealth of information, and the team devised a two-prong approach to the waterside building.  Most of the team approached through the ocean and climbed up the dock and stairs into the building while two of them snuck right up and through the front.  Inside, the Brine Knives sprung into action. 

Callum got the attention of everyone by unleashing his elemental blast of freezing cold followed with a cold ice strike.  Four of the Brine Knives suffered varying degrees of frostbite from the magic.  Ursay cut down some and injured others with a quick volley.  Brine Knives armed with daggers and fish cleavers rushed in.  Several landed good blows, but the party certainly got the better of the opening moments.  Polaris chopped down one, and Hekera cut down two.  Khan, who had protected himself with both mirror image and displacement stepped into the fray, his mighty blade cutting down yet another.  Much to the extreme detriment of the Brine Knives, Helg cast bane weapon upon Hekera’s sword. 

Most of this wave of Brine Knives was defeated, but then Khan tripped a wire.  A whaling harpoon blasted out of a harpoon gun and impaled him.  It was a brutal injury, but he stayed upright.  Helg taunted the last of the Brine Knives, but rather than surrender, the man confidently indicated help was coming quickly. 

Game summary for August 4, 2026, Chronoshift: Spelljammer campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 1st Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Callum Spellhardt (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Hekera Nephera Mawhesk Vyk’sebekenka (Sebek-ka Fighter played by Preston Harmon), Helg Ingvar (Aasimar Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Polaris Helmsmeade (Dwarf Templar played by Peyton Harmon), Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter), and Vulkanthos “Khan” (Nephilim Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Eldritch Knight played by John Osborne). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team raised up the portcullis and jammed it with crates Helg had scorched earlier.  They continued down a hallway and found a training area and a closed door ahead.  The group could hear armored men not too far away from the way they had come.  The team went through the door and found several armed men, including one holding a fine pepperbox pistol.  Callum cast teleport to try and appear behind the men, but he was slightly off target.  He accidentally made them appear among a group of approaching Saiones!  Battle erupted immediately. 

Archers hit Callum and Hekera while swordsmen and a spearman threw themselves into melee.  Khan cast mirror image and warrior’s touch.  Callum cast lightning bolt and cold ice strike, ripping through the guards.  Helg cast heal on Callum while Khan, Polaris, Hekera, and Ursay dropped opponents right and left.  The team then decided to teleport back into the room, but Ursay was going to come around the long way from another angle. 

The team teleported in and found the defenders had brought in reinforcements from a trapdoor above!  Saiones and Upright Men were ready to defend.  The team immediately hit the defenders hard, but the blast of a pepperbox gun echoed through the room.  Callum was hit repeatedly!  Ursay found the door back had been locked and was unable to get to the team!  Callum was brutally killed by a Saione captain.  Hekera tried to advance and was tripped to ground, surrounded, and brutally stabbed.  Khan and Polaris cut down several enemies to try and save him.  The crocodile man proved deadly from the ground and killed several more.  Helg cast blade barrier which divided the enemies and broke the morale of most.  They fled up through the trap door as Ursay bashed down the door with an oaken melee trainer.  He came in firing arrows and dropping the resistance.  Hekera beat a guard unconscious and manacled him securely.  With all the foes dead or having run away, they searched the room.  They collected a coded ledger, numerous documents, and six bars of gold bullion.  Helg then cast raise dead on Callum.  Meanwhile, Khan found a trap door down into the sewers.  They decided to take the documents and prisoner and flee into the sewers.