Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for November 3, 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), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

After tending their wounds, the team took some time to examine their surroundings.  The found a scrap of knotted cloth stuffed into a crevasse like some kind of marker and some old pooled blood like someone had been treated there for wounds right in the floor.  Helg discovered a cutlass bearing some kind of religious emblem of an unknown sea deity.  They also found some words recently scratched into a wall stating “Mira – alive – deeper.” 

The team then went through some large doors.  The chamber opened into something between a chapel and a slaughterhouse.  Red condors on crimson banners flanked a stone altar still dark with old blood. Braziers blazed in each corner, driving back the cave’s chill and filling the air with the scents of scorched iron and incense.  Candles burned in clusters.  Someone had been maintaining this place—and had been doing so for a very long time.  Several minotaurs guarded the room along with an armored minotaur priest of Sargas.  He cast quickened voidmote, hitting the entire party.  He then cast a blade barrier to divide the party.  Several of the team were already in the room and engaged the minotaurs.  Hekera marched right up the stairs toward the altar, fighting for every step.  Ursay’s arrows found chinks in armor and drew lots of blood.  Polaris boldly strode up to another undead minotaur and traded powerful blows.  Helg attempted to dispel the blade barrier but failed.  Callum launched a fire snake into the foes along with cold ice strike, killing a hush hoof rakehorn.  The Sargas priest dropped a doom fog in the midst of the blade barrier making things even more difficult.  However, because the team was bolstered by Helg earlier, they were not shaken by the fog, only hampered by the obscurement.  Polaris beat the undead bosun bonebellow into a pile of bones, and Helg walked through the blade barrier, getting cut terribly, to cast positive energy into it to destroy it.  Callum dispelled the doom fog while the rest of the team was able to mop up the rest of the minotaurs. 

Searching the room, the found a bound and gagged woman stuffed into a wardrobe on the side of the temple.  She told them her name, Mira Saltborn.  She was a marine aboard The Sable Current, a ship sunk by the Dreadhorn Reavers.  She and her captain had been dragged her, and she had to watch the captain get sacrificed to the minotaurs’ dark deity.  She feared she was next!  The team gave her some of the smaller armor from the man-sized minotaurs and armed her with fine blades.

The team went through another door.  The passage opened into a cavern split between worked stone and raw rock—and from the raw rock, crystals.  Clusters of deep violet crystals jutted from the walls and ceiling, humming with a resonance the party could feel in their back teeth.  Their light pulsed like a slow heartbeat.  Standing in the middle of it all was the largest minotaur they had seen yet.  Form-fitted hardened mail.  A greataxe that looked as though it had been forged specifically for someone of his size, rather than adapted to fit him.  A gold ring through his nose.

He did not move toward them.  He simply watched them enter, with the patience of a warrior who had never once doubted the outcome of a fight.

Polaris and Hekera boldly went into the room, followed closely by Mira.  The minotaurs guarding the captain closed in swinging wildly.  The captain charged, and hit, Hekera.  Blood flowed freely from the brutal wound.  Callum slipped in, cast fire snake, and then used his lich’s hand to activate his wand of invisibility.  Ursay moved in, firing arrows as he came.  It seemed the captain had some control over the glowing crystals and blasted the team with sonic energy.  Crystals formed around the party, slashing at their feet as they moved!  The lack of mobility slowed them down, but they still cut down the minotaur riffraff.  Ursay sunk an arrow into the captain, and he suddenly surged with power!  He shook off all his wounds and blasted the entire party with force, driving them back into walls and each other.  The team was surprised by this but did not stop.  Mira proved both brave and capable, even going toe-to-toe with the minotaur captain while cussing like a sailor.  Polaris slipped around and cut down the captain with his mighty axe!  Hekera then defeated the last remaining guard. 

With the pirates defeated, the team looted the bodies and quickly gathered great numbers of crystals Kwalish needs to power the apparatuses.  They then began to head out of the caverns. 

Game summary for September 22, 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 cast numerous spells upon themselves before moving further into the minotaur complex including Vulkanthos “Khan” casting haste, Helg’s blessing of fervor, and Callum’s invisibility.  Meanwhile, Ursay donned a vanish cap and disappeared from sight, Hekera quaffed a potion of shield of faith, and Polaris consumed a combat boost admixture.  Mightily enhanced, the team moved forward. 

Deeper in, the glowstones gave way to raw stone and the roar of the sea.  Channels cut into the rock funneled surging water across the floor.  The ground underfoot was slick and treacherous, and the air tasted of brine and cold darkness.  More Krynnish minotaurs waited there—but one held the party’s attention.  A barrel-chested brute wielding a cudgel began to snort and stomp, his hooves cracking against the wet stone in a driving rhythm.  Impossibly, it worked.  His companions’ shoulders dropped into fighting postures, suddenly energized.  Even the cave itself seemed to answer, the surge and slap of the water falling into time with the beat.

The channels caused treacherous blasts of water to crash through the chamber.  The pirates seemed to understand the rhythm and avoided them all together.  Callum, invisible, was hit by a wave, knocked prone, staggered, and swept several feet away from his starting location.  Ursay, completely hidden by his magical cap, killed the dancing broadside beatbull with a single volley!  He then plucked several arrows into a massive keelhaul cudgelhorn.  The minotaurs tried to close in, but Khan was there swinging his falchion.  A terrifying bosun bonebellow skeletal minotaur closed in but took numerous hits.  It quickly collapsed into a pile of bones, but the team knew it would rattleback into fighting ability in seconds.  The team rushed to hold back the minotaur line while Helg stepped up and cast cure serious wounds on the bone pile, laying the undead minotaur to rest. 

Ursay, covered by invisibility had slipped to the side and glanced into another chamber.   The natural cavern gave way to cut stone—someone had built there long before the Dreadhorns arrived.  The masonry was old and precise, the work of patient hands.  The minotaurs had done their best to ruin it.  Seized weapons bristled from iron pegs along the walls, more trophy rack than armory, their good steel long since put to use elsewhere.  The corridor smelled of torch smoke and old iron.  Whatever this place had been built for, it was not pirates.

He found a room filled with minotaurs and some truly bizarre creatures.  A black pudding slithered across the floor, a horrifying spider-like bebilith scurried across the ceiling, and a froglike hydrodaemon croaked off to the side.  One of the minotaurs, a robed arcanist of some sort, hit Ursay with a glitterdust spell ruining his invisibility.  Having advanced well ahead of the rest of the party, he got swarmed.  A hush hoof rakehorn moved around to flank him while the black pudding got up next to him.  The bebilith anchored him to the pillar with its web, and a keelhaul cudgelhorn closed off his last possible retreat.  Ursay got a shot off with his bow, splitting the black pudding into two puddings!  They quickly grappled him, and the combined onslaught killed the mongrelfolk archer! 

Callum hit many of the creatures with fire snake while the team closed into melee range with several foes.  Hekera cut his way toward the front line, and Polaris continued to tank his way forward.  Helg dropped a scathing flame strike on a minotaur and a pudding.  Both sides dealt some telling blows.  The minotaur spellcaster, a stormsnort hornbinder, cast spiked pit and quickened grease trying to take down Helg, but his astounding acrobatics skill (which astonished everyone, especially his allies who know he lacks any real talent in such) allowed him to roll out of the way.  Another broadside beatbull emerged and hit several of the team with a mass curse of impending blades.  He then dropped a distracting cacophony around several of the spellcasters. 

Disaster struck when Callum used his elemental blast spell-like ability.  The black puddings and the bebilith were slain!  They dissolved into mist, seemingly summoned creatures.  Instantly, they reformed fully healed!  For a few moments, panic flitted through the minds of the party, but they regrouped and attacked even more fervently.  The recovered bebilith ripped Hekera’s armor from his body.  The black puddings closed in on Polaris.  The hydrodaemon spit on Polaris several times trying to put him to sleep. 

Helg cast bane weapon upon Hekera.  They discovered also that Polaris’ holy weapon slashed right through the defenses of the bebilith.  Khan used his new favorite club, “Lucille”, to great effect before swapping back to his vicious falchion.  He surged forward and cut down the hydrodaemon, dismissing it back into the outer planes!  Hekera was able to finish off the bebilith.  Callum destroyed the black puddings.  The group put pressure on the caster, and he eventually cast teleport and fled!

In the minutes following the battle, Helg cast raise dead.  Meanwhile, Callum used mending to fix Hekera’s armor.

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. 

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.   

Game summary for July 28, 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), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

With the Saiones guards closing in, the team decided to teleport back to the Tenderloin Lodge and come back later.  They made a very big show of being seen in the main tavern, buying drinks and interacting with the locals.  Some of them patrons that evening they suspected were off-duty guardsmen who might otherwise had been reporting to the Forest Gate but for the agreement the party made with House Murvak. 

The group rested peacefully in their beds, and Helg prepared restoration to remove the negative levels affecting Hekera.  Callum activated his wand of invisibility on each of the party members and cast teleport to get them back into the room beneath the Loaded Keel.  They could tell guards had been here, but it was now empty.  Ursay decided to scout ahead past the steel door they had previously battered down, but he disastrously failed to notice an egregious gelatinous cube lurking in the hallway!  He was instantly engulfed by the ooze, and being invisible, no one knew!  With Ursay often scouts alone for a while, so there was no immediate alarm or concern. 

The ooze slid along the hallway and engulfed Polaris and Hekera as well!  Callum was able to cast anticipate attack and step away in time to save himself.  He then sizzled the ooze with fire snake.  Helg stepped back and cast elemental assessor but somehow missed the 10-ft. cube.  Filled with delicious party members, the ooze began moving down the hallway to digest the team.  The team thrashed within trying to break free.  Callum succeeded with a scorching ray and killed the monster, freeing his allies. 

The team nursed wounds and continued down the hallway to a door.  Still invisible, Ursay opened the door.  Two slicer thugs hurled their daggers when the door opened by hit no target.  Helg peaked around the corner, and they spotted him.  Polaris, also still invisible, came clanking up the hallway.  Helg cast a flame strike, but both women evaded the attack entirely.  It did though set some crates on fire.  The team closed in but found themselves setting off traps!  Ursay was able to help guide Helg safely through various trap triggers, but others were not as lucky as floor spikes blasted through and foot-pits collapsed under heavy boots.

Hekera moved into the room, as did Polaris.  The thugs tried to fight back but were cut down by Hekera.  Ursay moved beneath the open portcullis and waited there.  Callum accidentally tripped a wire causing the gate to crash down (narrowly avoided Ursay) and releasing a second gelatinous cube!  The team wasted no time killing this ooze, with Ursay’s arrows fired through the grate finally killing it. 

The team took a breath and prepared to search the room.

Game summary for July 21, 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), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team fled down a corridor hauling the bodies with them.  They dumped them in the darkness and crept along until they came upon a door.  Hekera, still enlarged by his potion tried to break it down.  It did not budge, and he triggered an energy drain trap!  Blasted by negative energy, he tried again and failed miserably.  The occupants of the room opened another door and came down a side hallway.  The ruffians were armed with daggers and cudgels and had a snorting miniature guardian bull with them.  Polaris held them at a corner with his axe and shield while Callum blasted two of them with Dalamar’s lightning lance.  Helg moved up and cast a blade barrier into the approaching enemies, slicing them horribly.  Hekera used his bulk to block the corridor while Callum slipped in between him and Helg and cast another fire snake.  Down in the stone corridors, the flames did not cause a conflagration, but it wreaked havoc on the enemies.  The survivors abandoned the bull fighting Polaris, fled back down the hallway, and slammed a door.  Ursay tried to break down the other door without success. 

Callum grabbed Hekera and Helg and cast teleport to enter the guarded room.  Behind the enemies, the team quickly cut them down.  They opened the doors and let the rest of the group in.  Examining a portcullis, he pulled the rope and triggered a cone of cold trap blasting the party.  Helg, who had been channeling positive energy trying to heal wounds, had to channel much more to mend the damage.  Inside the room, they found a chest and could not detect magic upon it.  Ursay opened it and triggered a mechanical trap that caused spikes to shoot through the floor and harm Callum. 

Looking in the chest, Callum found very fine magical bracers but realized at the last moment they were cursed!  They closed the chest and backed away.  The team found a metal door leading in the direction of the Forest Gate tower and hammered their way through it.  With all the racket, they were unsurprised to hear shouting and running Saiones approaching and finding the bodies.  The group ducked through the door to see where it leads.