Session 24 — A Pit of Hands, an Old Necromancer, and the Tomb Below

Session Recap

The Session-23 cliffhanger pays off at last: the party finishes the Grabbler fight at the chasm-edge camp, cutting down all three hand-beasts — including a frighteningly intelligent one that flanks, casts a Hunter's-Mark "Point" onto Magra, grapples Thalia, and flings her forty-five feet off the cliff into the pit. Thalia glides to a ledge and clings there through the rest of the fight; once the smart grabbler is shot out of the air by Magra's crossbow, the party stages a long, comic rope-rescue (a sad crow, a fishing pole baited with an IOU, and finally Valmora swan-diving down to fly her up). Thalia heals the rescued hunter Jaxley's ribs; he hands over the last of the cave's lore — the trapped survivors, the smuggler's-den history, the ladder weakness, and a robed "creepy man" who comes and goes — and stays behind in Valmora's camp rather than venture deeper.

After everyone shimmies, rides, oozes and tightropes across the chasm, the party explores the cave proper, skirting the edges as warned. They find three things at once: a hidden smuggler's cache behind a great bone-piled boulder (fine cloth, explosive bitumen, drink, and a false-bottomed coffin-chest holding a concealed-weapons kit and a magic Amulet of Crossed Fists); an old acquaintance — the ship's "not-a-necromancer" Gravis, now openly animating rats and a cat in the ruins of the smuggler's den; and a wandering "wood boy," a living plant creature (Dee) who has lost his "mama" and is adopted into Thalia's bag. Lash swims the flooded water passage alone and surfaces at a sunken tomb — a red-candle "temple" corridor and a flooded chamber with a 14-foot coffin — almost certainly the dead-gods ruins Valmora came to find, but reachable only by a five-minute underwater swim none of the others can yet make. The party resolves to save the living first, then chase the tomb, and levels up to 6 as the session ends, still deep in the cave.

Key Events

• The Grabbler fight resumes. Three hand-beasts close on the camp: a "normal" Grabbler, an Angry Grabbler (snared in Thalia's Entangle and cursed with terrible rolls all fight — "this thing's fucking stupid"), and an unnervingly intelligent Grabbler. Valmora opens with Spirit Guardians (a 15-ft swirl of dead-god spirits draining life), later chunking out "World of Warcraft DPS numbers" with Toll the Dead.
• Jordane's special arrow, spent. Jex looses the arrow gifted by her old militia leader Jordane: it leaves a trail of white light and outlines the target, letting everyone see and attack it with advantage. (One-time use, now expended.)
• Thalia flung into the pit. The intelligent Grabbler grapples Thalia and flings her ~45 ft off the chasm edge. As a fairy she falls at half speed and steers her glide, fails to whip-anchor a grabbler (hitting bare stone), and lands clinging to a tiny ledge ~50 ft down, good for maybe 15–20 minutes before her arms give out.
• The smart one dies in the air. Cornered, the intelligent Grabbler leaps 35 ft straight up to escape; Silithane hurls his Shadow Blade at it and Magra, with darkvision and Sharpshooter, lands two shots (39 damage) to drop it lifeless to the cave floor — all three Grabblers defeated.
• The rope-rescue of Thalia. A drawn-out comedy: Fenric's crow tries to carry a rope down (too heavy, gives up with a sad cry); Magra lowers a fishing line baited with a scrap reading "Kain owes you one favor" (freshwater line, can't lift a person); finally Valmora swan-dives into the pit, flies the rope up, and the party hauls Thalia to the lip — "avoided a holiday to hell."
• Jaxley healed and questioned. Jaxley (who in the fight hit himself, hit Magra, and broke two of his own ribs slinging a grabbler for 2 damage) is healed by Thalia's thorn-vine bandage magic. He confirms the ladder weakness, the 4–6 safe ledges, the central Queen, and that the cave was a smuggler's den before Laewendas "decriminalized crime." He names the other trapped souls — a mushroom-studying scholar, the hunter Huffley father and son, and a silent third man — and warns of a robed, gangly "creepy man" with "weird little wood friends" who comes and goes (he saw him go in, never out). Jaxley stays in camp; he won't go deeper.
• The crossing (again, comedically). Everyone gets over the chasm via the rope/ski-lift: Fenric shimmies on his belt-rope, Silithane repeatedly dangles off his own rope until Magra cranks him across on the ski-lift, Lash rides Squishy across, Jex monkey-bars over (then remembers she could have just oozed), and Thalia tightrope-walks it doing tricks. Halfway break.
• The smuggler's cache. Behind a 30-ft, bone-piled boulder, a hidden hoard: barrels of fine cloth, explosive bitumen tar-goop, and alcohol; and a 12-ft, coffin-shaped, false-bottomed chest. Fenric saws the back off (avoiding the magic latch) to find traveling cover-supplies up top and, below, a concealed-weapon kit — dagger, short sword, spiked knuckle-glove, two throwable vials, a bitumen "dynamite stick," and the magic Amulet of Crossed Fists.
• Reunion with the necromancer. Deep in the old smuggler's den the party meets Gravis — the ship's "not-a-necromancer," now happily animating 57 skeletal rats and one cat, plus a botched animated-hands creature (his failed bid to kill the hand-monster with its own kind). He's been here since he "kept his right hand on the right wall," is reclusive by design, knows the Queen as a symbiotic bone-supplier, and mentions ruins deep beneath with "other things" in them.
• The lost wood boy. A living plant creature (Dee) at Gravis's fire is searching for his "mama" — "like me but bigger," named Rolo. Thalia talks to him with Speak with Plants and adopts him ("+1 sprout"); Valmora bonds with him over crackers. A second such sprout is found inside the chest, tossed in like cargo.
• Residual magic on Jex. As Fenric sorts the cache with his magic-hunter's sight, Jex asks "am I magic?" He reads her: not a spellcaster, no magic items (she left her gear behind in the gap) — but the faintest sliver of residual higher-level magic clings to her, evidence she was exposed to high-level magic at some unknown point (a 3rd-level spell yesterday or a 10th-level spell years ago — impossible to date from one reading; he suggests checking again in a week to gauge the decay). A possible thread back to her amnesiac origins.
• Lash finds the tomb. Lash and Squishy swim ~4–5 minutes down the flooded passage to a new area: stairs rising to a red-candle "temple" corridor lit by flickering magical light, and a flooded 30×30 ft chamber with a 14-ft coffin (wall collapsed where the water eroded in). Both reek of deadly danger; she returns safely and reports it.
• Save the living, then the tomb. Valmora recognizes the red-candle ruins as the dead-gods site she seeks, but the only route is a ~5-minute fully-underwater swim none of the others can make (no Water Breathing, not enough breath). The party resolves to rescue the trapped survivors first, then find a way to the tomb. Level 6.

Combat & Encounters

• The three Grabblers (resolved). The Session-23 cliffhanger fight finally runs and ends in a clean party victory — all three hand-beasts killed, no party deaths. Highlights: Valmora's Spirit Guardians doing the bulk of the damage (a single turn hit ~78), the Angry Grabbler whiffing nearly every attack (the table decides it's "brain damaged"), and the intelligent Grabbler playing tactically — flanking, Pointing at Magra, grappling and flinging Thalia off the cliff, and leaping 35 ft airborne before Magra shoots it dead.
• The "Point" quirk. The intelligent Grabbler's Point marks a target (Hunter's-Mark style) and can redirect misses onto the marked creature; an unforeseen rules edge has Magra forced to point at herself when she tries to gesture for help inside the 30-ft zone.
• The only casualties are the three Grabblers; the Queen/Mother Grabbler remains alive and breeding at the bottom of the pit. Jaxley self-inflicts two broken ribs (healed). No combat in the second half — the cave exploration is hazard- and discovery-driven, not a fight.

NPCs & Factions

• Gravis — the masked ship "not-a-necromancer," reunited with the party deep in the Grey Vale Cave. Now an open, practicing necromancer (rats, a cat, a failed animated-hands experiment), reclusive, living off the old smuggler's den. Friendly to the party (they're the ones who talked him into embracing his father's craft); knows the Queen Grabbler and the ruins below. (Named "Gravis" this session.)
• Dee — new note: a small, living wood/plant creature ("wood boy") found at Gravis's fire, searching for his mother Rolo. Adopted into Thalia's bag; one of the cave's "little men made of wood with glowing eyes" Jaxley warned of. At least two exist.
• Jaxley — healed of his broken ribs by Thalia and questioned dry: confirms the ladder weakness, the smuggler's-den past, the trapped survivors, and the robed "creepy man." Stays in camp; won't go deeper.
• The trapped survivors — still uncollected: a mushroom-studying scholar, the hunter Huffley father and son, and a silent third man whose fire Jaxley sees but who never speaks. The party's next-session rescue targets (kept here).
• The "creepy man" — a robed, gangly, two-handed figure with "weird little creepy friends," who comes and goes from the cave; Jaxley fears he may still be inside. Identity open.
• Reclamation — the party's allegiance; Valmora still rides the borrowed Reclamation gambeson while her flight-armor waits on a town forge.

Locations

• Grey Vale Cave — explored at depth for the first time. Beyond the chasm it opens into a 3–500-ft cavern of ledges and ladders: the old smuggler's den (now Gravis's necromancy lair), a hidden boulder cache, a flowing water passage that descends underwater, and — far below — a sunken tomb: a red-candle "temple" corridor and a flooded 30×30 ft chamber with a 14-ft coffin. The Queen Grabbler breeds in the central pit, too big (15+ ft) to fit the smaller tunnels but possibly able to take a wider one.
• The underworld (lore) — Thalia, peering down the pit, recalls the Veilwood teaching of a distinct underworld beneath the world: home of the Dark Elves and mushroom people, the world's inner heat/"sun," and famously the origin of demonkind, who rose from below into the Veilwood.

Loot, Items & Rewards

• Ring of Independent Digits — new note: looted (magic-detected) from the intelligent Grabbler, where it had bent hands into a "brain." Lets the wearer move each finger independently (not thumbs). Identified and taken by Fenric.
• Amulet of Crossed Fists — new note: an iron necklace of crossed forearms and clenched fists from the smuggler's chest. Uncommon, magical, benefits unarmed/weaponless combat (only while carrying no weapons). Valmora reads it as a religious artifact of an unnamed peace/self-defense faith — opposed to her death domain, but not what she seeks. Would suit Fenric (works with his claws if he gives up his other weapons).
• The smuggler's cache — barrels of fine cloth/linens, a barrel of explosive bitumen tar-goop (would detonate if lit; signs the smugglers ran chemicals across Rivalon with a capable alchemist), a barrel of alcohol; plus the concealed-weapon kit: dagger, short sword, spiked knuckle-glove (d6 unarmed), two throwable vials, and a bitumen-caked "dynamite stick."
• Grabbler odds-and-ends — Jex collects the dead victims' jewelry and gloves from the hands (broken wristwatches, copper/silver rings, an iron signet missing its crest, a brass-knuckle ring, fingerless leather gloves worn, a noble's silk glove, a bloodstained surgeon's glove, a child's woolly wraps, a falconer's glove, prayer-bead bracelets, a tumored knuckle-bone curio). Proof for the ~120-gold bounty requires a cluster of heads or interconnected arms.
• Dee — a rescued/adopted sprout, riding in Thalia's bag.

Decisions & Open Threads

• The Queen Grabbler lives. Three drones are dead, but the breeding Mother Grabbler is still in the central pit — and the party notes a wider tunnel she might squeeze through. Whether they hunt her (for the full 120-gold bounty) is open.
• Rescue the trapped first. The party formally chooses to find and free the scholar, the Huffleys, and the silent third man before pursuing the tomb.
• The sunken tomb / dead-gods ruins. Lash's red-candle "temple" and 14-ft coffin are almost certainly Valmora's quest-target — relics of the dead gods from before the final empire — but reaching them needs a ~5-minute underwater swim the rest of the party can't yet survive (no Water Breathing). They suspect a possible dry second entrance.
• Gravis underfoot. The ship's necromancer now lives in the cave, friendly but reclusive, with knowledge of the Queen and the ruins below — a standing asset (or complication) for the dungeon ahead. (And a 14-ft coffin downstream of a man who once shipped a giant coffin to Orathos.)
• The lost mother Rolo. The party has taken on finding Dee's "mama," Rolo — a larger plant creature somewhere in or beyond the cave.
• Jex's residual magic. Fenric's magic-sight found higher-level magic clinging to Jex, origin and date unknown — a standing mystery (and possible link to her lost past). To be re-checked in ~a week to triangulate when she was exposed.
• Roster. On-screen this session: Thalia, Fenric, Silithane, Lash, Magra, Jex, Valmora (all six players present). Ashlyn remains recalled to the Veilwood; Draak is gone. The party hits level 6.
• Carryover: Valmora's broken flight scale-mail (still needs a town forge + materials); Lash's in-progress auricalcum hammer; the missing mothers; the Veilwood as the longer heading; the trapped survivors and the Queen as the immediate work.

Memorable Moments

• The Angry Grabbler rolling so catastrophically the GM makes six rolls in a row to confirm it's "fucking stupid" — and the table deciding the monster has brain damage.
• Magra gesturing for help inside the Point zone and being forced by the spell's own wording to point at herself — "you go to point at the arrow… but you're pointing at yourself."
• Thalia flung off the cliff and the whole table reverse-engineering D&D falling speed ("500 feet in 6 seconds?!") while she glides to a ledge — then the rescue circus: a crow that drops the rope and cries, and Magra fishing for her with an IOU note ("Are you trying to fish me?").
• Jaxley's combat: hitting himself with his own sling, hitting Magra, finally landing 2 damage on a dying grabbler — then kicking the corpse: "Fuck you, grabber!"
• Gravis kneeling to pat each new skeletal rat on the head before booting it into the swarm — "I'm necromantizing. What does it look like?" — and his one reanimated cat the rats won't go near.
• The "100 hands makes a grabber, 100 grabbers makes a queen" math turning into the party realizing the bounty board just says "the Grabber" — "If it's 100 hands, that's a lot of hands to bring back."
• Dee climbing into Thalia's bag chanting "mama, mama, mama" — and the dawning dread that there might be a sprout for everyone to carry.
• Lash surfacing from a solo deep-water swim to report a coffin in a flooded tomb that "something was gonna come out of and eat all of us," and a corridor of red candles "who lights red candles every day? Nobody."