Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for September 15, 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 decided to slip into the pirate caves.  Some approached overland and lowered themselves into the cave opening while the rest swam past the large pirate vessel and into the cave opening.  Glowstones cast cold blue-green light across stacked crates, knotted nets, and the general wreckage of a pirate operation.  Minotaurs moved through the cave with an alertness that surprised the party—these were not lazy sentries.

Then they spotted the reason for their unease made flesh: a skeletal minotaur, still clad in barnacle-crusted armor, pacing a circuit around the dock as though it had never gotten the message that it was dead.

The minotaurs came rushing in as the party dropped into the cave and climbed up onto the docks.  Ursay’s arrows dropped an approaching minotaur instantly.  Callum cast an empowered fireball and cold ice strike which hurt several and killed another.  Polaris put his vicious dwarven axe to work.  Khan cast warrior’s touch and mirror image.  One of the smaller minotaurs, a hush hoof rakehorn, used sneak attack on Callum and inflicted a horrible bleeding wound.  Not to be outdone, one of the massive keelhaul cudgelhorns his Ursay with its enormous cutlass and caused a profusely bleeding wound.  Meanwhile, the bosun bonebellow skeleton approached and bellowed, shaking and deafening Callum!  Helg hit a minotaur with elemental assessor while Khan moved up to provide interference cover for Helg from approaching foes. 

Helg bolstered the team with channeled positive energy while the bonebellow cut into Polaris.  Callum mumbled out a scorching ray and dropped the undead to a pile of bones.  However, the creature sprung back to animation seconds later!  They cut it down again, and then Helg hit it with a mass cure light wounds, destroying it.  The team quickly looted the bodies while Ursay went scouting.  He found an intricate labyrinth filled with pirates preparing for a fight!  Callum cast Bailey’s golden retriever, and the team debated what other spell-ups to use for their plunge into the battle.

Game summary for September 8, 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), Polaris Helmsmeade (Dwarf Templar played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team sent Vinnie to acquire cargo for the next leg of their adventure while they went and negotiated investment terms with Rathun Brangus (25,000 gp) and Neris Thalassene (5,000 gp) to buy into their enterprises. 

They then boarded The Shooting Star and headed for the island of Kwalish.  As their ship nosed around the island’s black-rock point, they spotted the “lab” immediately—not because it was large, but because it refused to blend in. A squat, angular structure sat above the surf on pilings and stone footings, braced with scavenged timbers and iron bands. Copper rods and weather vanes sprouted from the roof like a thorny crown, and a web of lines ran down to anchored buoys that kept the whole place steady against wind and tide.

A narrow dock jutted out into the water, fitted with a hand-cranked crane and a pair of thick chains that disappeared into the sea. The air tasted of salt and lamp oil. Something inside whined, clicked, and clunked with a steady, patient rhythm—the sound of a machine that never truly stopped working.

Inside, the space was warm and dry, lit by hooded lanterns and the pale glow of glass tubes set into the walls. Every surface was claimed: benches crowded with calipers, wire spools, and half-disassembled mechanisms; shelves stacked with jars of strange parts and carefully labeled sketches; chalkboards covered in diagrams of levers, pressure seals, and notes about “depth” written and rewritten until the chalk had worn grooves into the slate. The place smelled of hot metal, ink, and brine.

Dominating the center of the lab was the reason they had come: a massive sealed iron barrel fitted with a hatch and a row of sturdy levers, its outer shell scarred and patched as though it had been rebuilt after hard use. Even at rest, it looked heavy enough to crush a wagon—but the fittings were precise, purposeful, and unmistakably designed for the sea. Nearby, a spread of notes and cross-sections made its purpose plain: this contraption had been built to descend into the ocean depths and return with its occupants alive.

Then they noticed the other work.  Odd fragments of unfamiliar metal were laid out like pieces of a puzzle, etched with markings that matched no local craft tradition. Nearby, a separate set of sketches obsessively compared their angles and fastenings to gnomish designs.

Whatever else this wizard was, he was the sort of inventor who could disappear into a problem for years—the kind who found strange technology and could not rest until he understood it, repurposed it, and made it better.

Kwalish was an elderly but spry gnome with excitable mannerisms and a flowing white beard. Compact and wiry, he had a shock of unruly hair singed at the tips and goggles that had left permanent pale rings around his eyes. His coat was a patchwork of pockets and stitched-on tool loops, bulging with calipers, chalk, and tiny brass fittings. He smelled faintly of brine, hot metal, and alchemical solvent, and gestured constantly as though turning invisible levers in the air.

Although a gnome, Kwalish was not a tinker gnome, which gave the party a bit more confidence in his engineering prowess.  Their need to explore the ocean depths intrigued and excited him, and they got the impression that he was genuinely interested in helping.  However, there was always a catch.

Kwalish explained that he had several wonderful machines capable of carrying them safely all the way to the ocean floor. Unfortunately, the devices required a special kind of crystal for fuel. In fact, he had built his laboratory here specifically because such crystals could be found in a cave on a nearby island.  There was just one problem.  A minotaur pirate crew known as the Dreadhorn Reavers had taken up residence there.

The party agreed to raid the pirate-occupied caves for the crystals they need for fuel.  Kwalish will lend them the devices for their journey.  They also spent much of their remaining treasure buying magical items to help them in case they have to leave the safety of the apparatuses.  There is a chance the sahuagin took anything of value to one of their cities or enclaves, which may mean they have to exit and explore. 

Game summary for September 1, 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 whole building shuddered. Not from the fighting—or not just from the fighting.  Something below was deliberate about it, rhythmic, as though the building itself were being used as a weapon.  The floor buckled and popped.  A section of catwalk tore free overhead and crashed somewhere behind them.  Through gaps opening in the floorboards, they could see the dark water beneath the pier, closer than they would have liked.

The Brine Knives still on their feet were not running.  They were laughing.  Jumping, actually.  Some of them were jumping, adding their weight to whatever was happening below, riding the chaos as though they had been born in it.  Maybe they had.

Then he emerged from the shadows at the far end of the loft, and the room seemed to reorganize itself around him the way rooms did around certain kinds of men.  Big.  Not just tall—wide and heavy, with the kind of build that came from decades of physical labor and absolutely no interest in restraint.  He carried a greatclub over one shoulder that was roughly the size of a small tree, wrapped in twisted metal wire that caught the lamplight in unsettling ways.  Something was stuck in the barbs.  They chose not to look too closely.

He was whistling.  He stopped when he saw them, tilted his head as though they were mildly interesting, and grinned with every tooth he had.  “Which of you pricks is the leader?”

He swung the club from his shoulder and rested it against the floor.  The building groaned beneath the impact.  “Come on.  Don’t be shy.  Lucille and I just want to have a conversation.”

 Around him, the Brine Knives howled with anticipation and closed the gap.

Ursay fired arrows at the man, the Bilgewater King, and swatted several out of the air before others landed true.  The King then charged Callum and hit him with Lucille!  Before he could gloat much, however, Helg cast hold person.  Surprisingly, the Bilgewater King froze in place!  The team rallied and brought a deadly fight to the Brine Knives.  They tried to put up a resistance, but Polaris had his footing under him and engaged.  Several attempted grapples, but Khan cast liberating command and shut down those fantasies.  The group focused their main attacks on the paralyzed Bilgewater King hoping to kill him before he could shake off the effects of the spell.  Hekera stepped up and did just that.  Within seconds of the battle beginning, it was over.  The remaining Brine Knives’ morale broke, and they fled.  Some charged out the door while others jumped down into the water.  Ursay shot down the runners while Callum, polymorphed into a water elemental, and Hekera dove after the swimmers and dragged one survivor back. 

The group searched the loft and found a good amount of silver trade bars as well as the crates stolen from Neris.  They dragged all the bodies out onto the street as a warning to others and took the crates to Neris.  She was delighted to have her property returned and gave the team a small fortune in magical items in reward. 

The group then went to check in with Thessal Murvak who was very pleased with the work they had done.  She considered their debt paid and offered to employ them again if they ever came through again in the future.  The group then went to meet with Rathan Brangus. 

Rathun Brangus was pleased with the party’s efforts to uncover the source and reason for the disappearances.  Their information confirmed the Upright Men had been behind it all and gave Rathun the proof he needed to put pressure back on them. 

He had been busy as well, gathering information for them.  He leaned in and began to speak.  “The tablet fragment you seek was indeed here in Kristophan until recently.  It was in the possession of Hiram, a merchant and owner of Hiram’s Bookshop.  It had been in his family for several years, but no one could make sense of it.  According to Hiram, he sold it to a wizard of the Order of Black Robes about three weeks ago.  The wizard, and the tablet locked inside a black stone chest, set sail for the continent of Ansalon aboard The Destiny.  The ship was sunk several days out of port, destroyed by sahuagin.  There were only two survivors, who were picked up by another merchant vessel heading toward Kristophan.  The tablet either went down with the ship to the bottom of the sea or was taken as spoils by the sea devils.”

Brangus paused to let all this wonderful news sink in.  He slid a nautical map across the table and continued.  “If this tablet is important to you, I have found some resources that may help.  Here is a map showing where the ship went down.  The wreck would be at quite a depth, so temporary magic like potions and spells would be frightfully inadequate—not just for breathing, but for the pressure.  Here, on this island in the Spine of Taladas, dwells an eccentric foreign gnomish wizard named Kwalish.  He is an inventor, a powerful spellcaster, and an expert in ocean exploration.  He sells magical devices that they say can walk along the bottom of the sea.  Perhaps you could bargain with Kwalish to gain the use of his incredible devices and reach the wreck.  You could use temporary magic to leave them and explore, while still having a secure base from which to survive the unforgiving depths.”

The party thanked Brangus and went back to Neris to see what she could tell them about sahuagin and Kwalish.  She told them what her people knew of the sharkmen and their fearsome reputation.  Looking at the map, she warned them the location was dangerously close to sahuagin territory and also near Dargonesti realms.  Neris was able to reveal the primary dangers of the ocean would not only be drowning but the combination of frigid cold and overwhelming pressure.  She sold them some more of her magical items, including numerous magical black pearls.  These function like potions, but in the ocean you cannot drink liquid from containers.  The pearls are swallowed and dissolve, releasing their magic.  The black pearls she provided allow water breathing and pressure resistance.  She reminded them several times they will need cold resistance too.  She was amazed they were going to see Kwalish, whom she held in high regard.  Neris encouraged them to get all the ocean survival magic from him they could for their journey.  When asked about weaknesses of the sahuagin, she mentioned as deep abyss dwellers, they don’t like bright lights.