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. 

Game summary for November 25, 2025, 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), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

With several of their spells in effect, Ursay scouted ahead and reported back.  With what he told the team, Adeline was able to consult her father’s journal and warn them of a whispering bridge ahead that would sow confusion and attempt to drive them to jump into a chasm.  Forewarned, the group moved ahead.  The room was dim, but not dark.  Torches burned along the walls beside glyphs and etchings glowing with a pale sickly luminescence.  Stepping in the team was well illuminated, but the far side of the chamber was shrouded in darkness.  The chamber was enormous with an ancient rope bridge spanning one side to the other.  Treacherous wooden planks provided footholds across.  The chasm yawned like a bottomless mouth.  Blackness churned far below—not quite shadow, not quite smoke, but something that felt like eyes turned inside out.  Faint whispers tugged at the edge of their consciousness.  Something called to them, and they were certain they did not want to answer.  Ursay fired an arrow enchanted with Adeline’s light spell.  Yuan-ti slithered on the far side of the chasm.  As they fired their bows, their arrows twisted and wriggled like serpents in midair.

Ursay backed up into the doorway to gain some cover and started firing arrows back.  Callum hurled a fireball, and Herezis tried to fly across the chasm with his enchanted steed.  Something ended the sky steed spell, plunging Herezis and his ankylosaurus into the chasm.  They slammed painfully into the floor.  Skree ran out and dashed across the bridge, the whispers tugging at his mind.  In his haste, he tripped and plunged through the rotting slats.  He crashed into the ground near Herezis.  Helg cast spiritual weapon against the far yuan-ti.  Adeline started across the swinging bridge as the yuan-ti fired arrows around the chamber that turned into biting snakes. 

The yuan-ti took good advantage of cover on their side of the chasm.  Some were dropped by the party, but a group of reinforcements arrived.  They nearly killed Helg, but Ursay snatched him up and took off across the bridge!  Biting snake-arrows slammed into them, but they continued on.  Callum cast dimension door while Adeline’s grease arrow caused one yuan-ti to fall into the pit!  Helg cast blade barrier, destroying the bridge, and plunging a yuan-ti into the pit.  Callum cast dark way to give the team a way out of the pit.  Skree came up and went toe-to-toe with a yuan-ti, killing it.  Helg cast weapon of awe on Ursay’s weapon, and soon the yuan-ti were defeated.  The group looted the bodies and prepared to head into the next room.

Game summary for November 18, 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), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team rushed down the stairs and found the corridor arched overhead like the inside of some ancient beast’s throat.  Tattered sheets of humanoid skin—flensed, emptied, and dried—hung from rusted iron rods like grotesque banners.  They fluttered softly in an unfelt breeze, whispering against the stone.  The flagstones beneath the adventuring party’s boots were slick with fresh oil and glistening blood.  Long, serpentine scrape-marks traced the passage ahead—deep furrows in the stone, as though something immense and scaled had crawled free of its old flesh and slithered deeper into the temple.  The shed scales were red and purple.  The scent was overpowering: musk, incense, and decay… and something older, metallic—like blood on a forge.

Six yuan-ti thrallcoil sentinels guarded the room and dropped darkness upon a pillar.  Helg countered it with daylight.  The flourishers darted in trying to sneak attack while the pack leader marked Herezis as prey.  The hardy sentinels came in slower and sought to position for heavy attacks.  Piper and Callum cast spells like stone discus, lightning bolt, and fireball while Helg channeled healing energy and cast bane weapon on Ursay.  Skree and Herezis darted out to bring melee to the enemies.  The yuan-ti were tougher than they looked and possessed spell resistance.  When badly injured, the hardy yuan-ti fell into a hardy resolve and were reinvigorated.  The yuan-ti fought with deadly precision and cut Skree down in his tracks with their razored scimitars.  Ursay sent numerous arrows into fleshy new homes but missed several as well.  It didn’t help when one of the yuan-ti kicked out his legs and crashed him to the ground.  He scampered back up and delivered another killing shot in spite of them.  While the yuan-ti proved challenging, the team handled them pretty readily.  The team used their final scroll of raise dead to recover Skree and prepared to delve deeper into the temple. 

Game summary for November 11, 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), Piper Quickstep (Human Druid-Mage played by John Osborne), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team crept out into the temple district and discovered the bugbears and yuan-ti were on high alert.  Ursay did some scouting and came back to warn the party of a group guarding an interesting temple.  The party cast several spells upon themselves and moved in.  The bugbears and yuan-ti proved quick and closed in before the team could attack.  An attic whisperer associated with the bugbears moved among the party and brought its aura of sobs to them.  Most of the team were saddened and crying along with the spirit of the undead child.  Three yuan-ti flourishers closed in but only landed a few of their attacks.  One dropped darkness on itself which was dispelled by Callum.  A white-furred koblak bugbear, a fearmonger, sauntered up to Herezis.  Its aura of cowardice overcame his religious convictions and filled him with a near-blinding fear.  His terror was palpable, and the fearmonger was delighted. 

A spirit naga emerged from the temple, and a sword spider closed in on the team.  Things appeared bleak, but the team suddenly unleashed an onslaught of arrows, melee attacks, and magical spells.  Dalamar’s lightning lance, flame strike, searing light, mad monkeys, release the hounds, and other magic flashed across the battlefield.  The spirit naga countered with a fireball, which failed against the spell resistance of its ally but hit several of the party.  Komorebi caught it in a shadow conjuration, which plunged it into a spiked pit!  Skree, Hammer, and Herezis ripped foes apart, and Ursay put on a sharpshooting clinic.  Herezis prepared to fly into the pit to attack the naga, but before he could, Helg blasted it to death with flame strike.

With the foes defeated, the team looted the corpses and searched the temple.  Inside, they discovered a secret door leading to a wide descending stairwell!

Game summary for November 4, 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), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The party made camp to rest before tracking down the chuul; however, Ursay and Callum were wracked by agony from their curses gaining a negative level and fatigue.  Herezis used his mercy to remove their fatigue and provide rest.  The team also noticed something seemed off with Helg.  He was not his normal angelic gleeful self.  He was more taciturn and dourer, seeming to be absent his joy.  Even the idea of smiting his enemies with divine fire did little more than twitch the corners of his mouth.

The group went to find the chuul cavern.  Ursay applied several magical oils to his arrows and quaffed a potion of invisibility.  Herezis cast sea steed, and Helg cast righteous wrath of the faithful, several protection from evil, and several water breathing spells.  The group moved into a dark partially flood cavern spanned by an old rope bridge.  They spread out in the chamber and explored a bit before a dark lake terror chuul erupted from the water and snatched Herezis off his dinosaur!  It grappled him and put him in its tentacles.  Callum transformed into a small water elemental and moved into the room.  An ulat-kini and a giant freshwater crab emerged from the dark waters and attacked.

The vicious chuul proved tough and formidable, inflicting deep wounds; however, Herezis granted his smite to Skree who was able to cut down the monster!  Arrows sailed out of the darkness alongside powerful spells like Dalamar’s lightning lance.  The enemies took injury after injury before morale broke, and the team cut them down in the retreat.  The team quickly gathered the chuul brain fluids, searched the cave, and returned to the mongrelfolk slums. 

The high priests of the Maw That Remembers was able to concoct a horrid potion that cured the transformative curse afflicting Ursay and Callum!  The team rested another day, and Helg prepared and cast a couple of commune spells seeking answers about his bizarre melancholia. 

Game summary for October 28, 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), Skree Grizzlehide (Mongrelfolk Gladiator played by Peyton Harmon), and Ursay (Mongrelfolk Slayer played by Paul Potter). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Not wanting to waste the days they have remaining before the curse claims Ursay and Callum, the team rushed down into the deep caverns to find the ur-histachii.  Ursay scouted ahead and found the lair, confirmed by the stench.  Skree quaffed a potion of good hope, Callum cast Bailey’s golden retriever, and Helg cast blessing of fervor.  Callum had cast light on Herezis so even though Ursay was very quiet, the team was very obvious in their approach.  Out of the darkness, ur-histachii black bloods and a single histachii rager rushed into battle.  Ursay was up front and took the brunt of the initial assault.  One of the black bloods vomited forth a spray of tar-like bile that burned and coated the team.  Helg was entangled for a round, and the rest of the team found themselves in difficult terrain due to the sticky gunk. 

Helg cast spiritual weapon right away, which began slashing away at the enemies.  Ursay fired acidic arrows, Skree put his maca to great utility, and Herezis used magic to grant his amount the blessing of flight.  Callum cast his first of two fireballs.  The living and dead histachii withstood the opening assault with tenacity.  They ripped back into the party with tooth and nail.  Another ur-histachii sprayed its breath over the flying Herezis with limited impact.  He countered with charge and smite!  He ravaged the undead but coated his lance in hardening, encumbering black blood. 

After another fireball, slashes from Skree, and precise arrows from Ursay, the foes were suddenly driven back and cut down.  Skree used the vial he had stored his potion in to gather heart blood for the antidote to the curse.  Callum used detect magic to locate a powerful set of spellguard bracers which Helg donned.  The team also found several gemstones.  They decided before facing the chuul, they needed to camp and recover.  They debated heading back to the mongrelfolk pens but opted to hide out closer to the chuul caverns.