Session 43 — The Riverside Camp, by Dawn

Session Recap

The dawn ambush set up at the end of Session 42 opens at ~5 AM on the 30th: the party hits the riverside raider camp in Laewendas's upstream cave from two sides at once. From the north, Thalia, Fenric, Silithane, Lash and Jex creep in with the catman tank Pavid and the False Snatcher Pimothy; from the south, Magra, the animatrix Patricia, the ghoul Rusty and the six raised wight-puppets strike the beastmen half of the camp — a pincer meant to catch the half-asleep agents before they can rally. The party slips past the Candleman's side-shrine untouched ("don't fuck with the god thingamajig"), gets the drop with an invisible Fenric, and burns the fire-mage Simon's fireball out of him in the opening round.

The fight is a long, chaotic six-plus rounds dominated by two un-killable problems. The Hat Man folds himself into his hat and sucks Jex into the "hat dimension" — a spiralling pink-and-black void where, in ten minutes, you are lost forever — and spends the fight teleporting between hat-throws, swallowing Salamandine and later Thalia in turn, until Thalia at last whips him out and Hail-of-Thorns him dead (and claims his hat). Meanwhile Thunt the unkillable noble proves exactly that: a slightly obese, unarmoured middle-aged man with a protective "bubble" that bounces off every blade, spell, claw, rope and poison the party throws — "because I am God." The watch-sergeant Kregit, the acrobatic crossbow-cretin Snurch, a feral Wild Man and a pack of half-dressed bandits round out the camp; the organ-collecting Grinning Gutter even carves out Fenric's spleen before Lash and Fenric put him down. Magra's southern group, simulated, wins handily — killing the Toe Skinner and his clone-son, a masked Pig Man, and a giant ("the Magnificent Giant").

With the camp cleared, the cave is finally taken in full. Per Rusty's prices, the party spares the Wild Man (knocked out non-lethally — the cave was his before it was theirs) and the stitched "tea-party" woman, who turns out to be the work of an inventor named Victor / Dr. Voltz; they guide her somewhere quiet rather than return her to her maker. Snurch is taken alive as a prisoner (Jex wants to rehabilitate him). Thunt can't be killed, roped, grappled or poisoned, so the party strikes an uneasy truce and lets him wander off with his looted coin — but not before he lets slip that Laewendas's coffers are bone dry: she has spent everything she ever robbed. Pimothy will hold the cave as a "kill floor" against any Laewendas reinforcements. The session closes on the GM's wrap-up: Ponterford is done, and the party must pick a next direction — Varian dead-drop jobs, Eldrich the Elder's plan to kill a Laewendas general, or strike out on their own toward the Veilwood — before the eventual siege of Cathalon. Still level 7; the loot is the reward.

Key Events

• The pincer set. The party has long-rested in the boss chamber; at dawn they split into a north and south pincer to take the camp before its agents wake. North: Thalia, Fenric, Silithane, Lash, Jex with Pavid and Pimothy. South: Magra, Patricia, Rusty and the six wight-puppets against the beastmen subgroup. The camp's four loose factions are mapped: the tea-party (Hat Man + the woman not to be killed), the beastmen (all south, the others' problem), an "odds and ends" group (the fire mage, the wild man, sundry bandits), the unkillable Thunt and his band, and the Toe Skinner and son.
• Past the Candleman, unseen. The party agrees to leave the Candleman alone in his ritual chamber ("he just stays in there, don't bother him"). High stealth (and Fenric's pre-cast Invisibility) gets them right up on the lone watchman.
• The opening burst on Simon. Invisible Fenric gets a free surprise turn and double-claws the fire mage Simon for 28 — and, as a spellbreaker, burns two first-level slots and a third off him ("that's a fireball gone"). Jex follows with a Sharpshooter pair (45) that drops him past half; Thalia whips him off his ledge for falling damage, and Jex finishes him a round later. His captive baby magmite is freed.
• The watch-sergeant, Kregit. A grey-haired old veteran in patched full plate with a tower shield and longsword ("here from before the wars"), he screams "intruders," seals the entrance and trades blows with Silithane for the whole fight — AC 26 with the shield, shrugging off 19s. Lash's new feature lets her negate hits that barely beat an ally's AC (via Salamandine's tongue yanking the blade aside), so Silithane survives him; Pimothy knocks him prone, and Silithane finally kills him with the silvered short sword, Shadow Blade and Green Flame Blade.
• Snurch, the acrobatic cretin. A quick, back-flipping little skirmisher with a hand crossbow who works for Kregit; he peppers the party with mostly-missing bolts all fight. When Kregit dies he's "super motivated" by revenge but gets shield-slammed prone and knocked out non-lethally by Pimothy — taken prisoner for questioning. (Jex likes the name enough to want to rehabilitate him.)
• Jex in the hat dimension. The Hat Man throws his hat at Jex and sucks them inside (he spends 4 charges of Luck to force the save) — a weightless pink-black-purple spiral void with a tiny head-hole exit ~40 ft off and no leverage to swim toward it; the GM gives Jex 9 minutes 54 seconds before they cease to exist forever. Jex is freed only when Thalia whips into the hat and drags them (and the downed Salamandine) back out.
• The Gutter takes a spleen. The Grinning ("Burning") Gutter — a knife-fighter who guts people for an "organ table" — reverse-grips a sharpened blade into Fenric's belly (38, then 25) and on a failed Con save removes his spleen (livable, but he'll want a healer to put it back). He nearly kills Fenric and Lash both; Lash crits him with the magic hammer and Fenric finishes him.
• Thunt, the unkillable. A pudgy, unarmoured, middle-aged commoner with a letter-opener stiletto doing 1 damage — and a protective bubble that makes him immune to everything. Crossbows, fire, claws, Shadow Blade (psychic + thunder + silver + piercing), ropes, grapples, poison, the tiniest needle: nothing touches him; he doesn't even dodge. He has 27 Luck rolls a day, trips Fenric prone with a martial maneuver, and only ever stabs back for 1 when attacked, smug the entire time ("Thunt" = "thunder cunt"). The party can't kill him and won't keep feeding him free stabs, so they let an uneasy truce settle and he wanders the tents looting coin.
• The Wild Man, spared. A feral, fur-clad caveman who drops to all fours and bulks into a beast-mode (fangs lengthen, eyes narrow), fighting like a bear. He beats Pavid down, but per Rusty's request the party fights non-lethally — Jex knocks him out with a max-damage non-lethal crit (porcupined "to 2 HP") and he's left alive in the cave.
• The Hat Man falls. After swallowing Jex, Salamandine and Thalia in turn, throwing the hat as a frisbee, and Edward-Scissorhands-ing the front line with whirling shrapnel (all of which bounces off Thunt), the Hat Man is whittled down by Jex's arrows and Thalia's Sylvan insults luring him out; Thalia drags him from the hat and Hail-of-Thorns him dead, claiming the hat for her collection.
• The second mage surrenders. A separate bandit "hedge-mage" flings fireballs and twin firebolts at Pavid and Fenric all fight; Fenric the spellbreaker walks up and strips his last spell slot, leaving him "just a guy" — he throws down his staff and surrenders, and is cut down.
• The southern fight, won. The GM simulates Magra's south pincer and reports it won "especially with Magra's help." Casualties on the enemy side: the Toe Skinner and his identical clone-son (who'd fled south eating toes mid-combat, unsettling Magra), a masked Pig Man, and a giant ("the Magnificent Giant" / "a better one").
• The tea-party woman, spared. The stitched "twelve-women" maiden sits through the whole battle at a tea table, feigning sips and cycling wind-up-toy lines ("The tea is quite good," "We're having a tea party"). Thunt explains she's the work of an inventor — Victor / Vector / Dr. Voltz — who left her there "for collection" and controls her by command-phrase; even Thunt finds him repellent ("you think to assemble a woman, make it subservient, is good?"). The party declines to return her to Voltz and instead gently guides her somewhere quiet (she'll have her tea party wherever she's led).
• Laewendas's empty coffers. Pressed by Jex to hire on against Laewendas for the gold in her castle, Thunt scoffs: "Between you and I, her coffers run dry — she spent every penny of what she's robbed and every penny of what was there before." He keeps "a sliver of what I collect"; Detect Magic confirms he himself is no great source of magic (a cantrip or a few attuned items at most) — the source of his invincibility stays his secret.
• The cave becomes a kill floor. With the camp cleared, Pimothy will garrison the cave to slaughter any Laewendas agents who return ("we're gonna make this a kill floor"), and is teased to randomise the trap corridor (whose untrapped centre line the party exploited).
• Loose ends and the road ahead. The GM wraps the Ponterford arc: the frog-folk lumber problem is settled by the party's downtime (a skeleton fence around their trees + bards spreading that the woods-monster is "at maximum power for six months"), buying time for the Reclamation to seize the town — after which Laewendas can no longer order the trees cut. He floats the next direction as a poll (see Decisions).

Combat & Encounters

• The riverside raider camp (the session's fight). A dawn pincer ambush on the camp half-asleep mid-rest. North side (the party + Pavid tanking three foes + Pimothy): the watch-sergeant Kregit (patched full plate, tower shield, AC 26), the crossbow skirmisher Snurch, the fire-mage Simon (drains a captive magmite to upcast Fireball), a second bandit hedge-mage, the organ-stealing Grinning Gutter (knife reverse-grips for ~40, an "organ table" on Con saves), the shapeshifting Hat Man (folds into his hat, sucks creatures into a kill-them-slowly void, legendary actions, bladed-finger flurries), a feral beast-mode Wild Man, the unkillable Thunt, and a pack of mid-rest bandits (one naked, ice-frisbees, truncheons). South side (simulated — Magra, Patricia, Rusty, 6 wight-puppets): the beastmen, the Toe Skinner + son, a masked Pig Man, and a giant.
• Casualties and outcomes. Killed: Simon, the second mage, the Gutter, the Hat Man, Kregit, most bandits — and (south) the Toe Skinner, his son, the Pig Man and the giant. Spared: the Wild Man (KO'd non-lethally, left in the cave), the stitched tea-party woman, Snurch (KO'd, taken prisoner). Un-killable / left be: Thunt (truce — wandered off with looted coin). Party down: Pavid dropped by the Wild Man and revived by a potion; Fenric lost his spleen; Jex, Salamandine and Thalia each spent time trapped in the hat. No PC died.
• Reward. The whole cave is cleared — the long-promised payoff for the raid. No level-up or pip-count happened on screen (loot-and-XP sorting deferred to Discord); still level 7.

NPCs & Factions

• Thunt — appears in person at last: the unkillable Laewendas tax-collector, a pudgy unarmoured commoner inside an impervious "bubble," smug and "a villain but not a bad guy." Survives the whole session untouched, reveals Laewendas's coffers are empty, identifies the stitched woman's maker, and is left alive under a truce. See Thunt.
• The Penway Hat Man — killed. Confirmed to fold into his hat and drag victims into an inescapable void (~10 minutes to oblivion); felled by Thalia, who keeps the hat as her own magic item. See The Penway Hat Man.
• The Toeskinner — he and his clone-son are killed in the south fight, after fleeing there eating toes mid-combat. See The Toeskinner.
• Kregit (the watch-sergeant) — grey-haired old veteran in patched full plate and tower shield (AC 26), the camp's lookout; killed by Silithane. Kept to this note.
• Snurch (also Snurge / The Snatcher) — acrobatic hand-crossbow cretin in Kregit's service; knocked out and taken prisoner, with Jex keen to rehabilitate him. Kept to this note (may recur as a captive). See Canon Questions.
• Simon (the fire mage) — wizard-robed pyromancer who drains a captive magmite to power his Fireball; killed in the opening rounds. His grimoire (every fire spell, levels 1–3) is looted. Kept to this note.
• The Grinning ("Burning") Gutter — knife-fighter who guts people for their organs; carves out Fenric's spleen before Lash and Fenric kill him. Kept to this note. See Canon Questions.
• The Wild Man — feral beast-mode caveman; spared (KO'd) at Rusty's request and left to keep the cave that "was his before it was ours." Kept to this note.
• The stitched tea-party woman (the "twelve-women" maiden) — a subservient assembled woman stuck on a loop of tea-party lines; spared and guided away by the party rather than returned to her maker. The masked Pig Man (south) carries a cursed mask ("do not the mask" — it takes over whoever attunes it). Kept to this note; her maker gets his own page.
• Victor / Dr. Voltz (new) — the inventor who built the stitched woman (and others), leaving her at the cave "for collection"; controls his creations by command-phrase. Repellent even to Thunt; named only secondhand this session. A fresh villain thread. See Dr. Voltz and Canon Questions.
• Pimothy — leads the north fight in Snatcher plate: knocks Kregit prone, wrestles the Hat Man, and takes Snurch alive as a prisoner. Will garrison the cleared cave as a "kill floor."
• Pavid — tanks three foes at once (the Wild Man and two bandits), is downed by the Wild Man and revived; dodges to soak the camp's attention. See Pavid.
• Patricia & Rusty & the wight-puppets — the south pincer with Magra; won their fight. Rusty reflects sadly on the spared tea-party woman and confirms the Wild Man should keep the cave. See The Varian Trio.
• Laewendas — her riverside camp falls, completing the loss of her upstream cave; and her treasury is revealed to be empty by her own tax-man.

Locations

• The Snatcher's Cave — fully cleared. The riverside raider camp (the last obstacle) is taken at dawn; the Candleman's shrine is left untouched, the Wild Man left in residence, and Pimothy stays to hold it as a kill floor. The day is the 30th.
• Ponterford — declared "done" by the GM: the missing-children/Snatcher case, the river cave, and the frog-folk lumber problem are all resolved (the latter via the party's downtime measures, pending the Reclamation taking the town).
• Cathalon — named as the eventual endgame: the siege of the capital and Laewendas herself.
• Veilwood — the direction the party means to head ("we've been trying to head that direction").

Loot, Items & Rewards

• The Hat Man's Hat (new) — the Hat Man's signature hat, claimed by Thalia: a magic item that swallows creatures into a spiralling pocket-void (lost forever after ~10 minutes) and lets its wearer travel via the thrown hat. Once attuned (a rest), Thalia can enter and leave it at will; untrained, it simply sucks the wearer in. See The Hat Man's Hat.
• Simon's fire grimoire — a wizard's spellbook holding every fire spell of levels 1–3; Silithane can scribe from it or keep it whole.
• The cursed mask — taken from the masked Pig Man (south side); "do not the mask" — attuning it lets the mask take over its wearer. Held, not worn. Lash muses about combining it with the cave's symbiotes on an evil host.
• The tea table — the stitched woman's little tea set, taken by Thalia.
• Assorted +1 weapons and armour, spare change, and looted coin purses — semi-decent gear and currency from the tents (Jex grabs purses ahead of Thunt).
• The captive magmite — Simon's drained "missing child" magmite, to be returned to the Magmother.
• No bounty, no level-up on screen. Clearing the cave is the reward; the money and XP tally is deferred to Discord/downtime. Still level 7.

Decisions & Open Threads

• The next direction (a coming poll). With Ponterford done, the GM lays out three paths: (1) Varian jobs — Pimothy connects the party to a handler giving dead-drops and objectives (hit-and-run, like the Varia work); (2) Eldrich the Elder's plan — the Rivalon knight has spent weeks studying one of Laewendas's generals to take down; or (3) their own free will — beeline toward their own land / the Veilwood. Beyond that lies the siege of Cathalon, a home base, and possibly the Veilwood. The party leans toward heading for the Veilwood ("give me a few weeks for that").
• Thunt, the unkillable, left at large. No weapon, rope, grapple, poison or spell harmed him; the party struck a truce and let him loot coin and wander. The nature of his invincibility (a "bubble," some hidden item, "because I am God") and any counter remain open.
• The stitched woman and Dr. Voltz. The party spared and relocated her rather than return her to her maker, Victor / Dr. Voltz — an inventor who assembles subservient women from corpses. A new villain to find; whether she stays with the party, and what Voltz wants, are open. See Dr. Voltz.
• Snurch, the prisoner. Taken alive; Jex wants to recruit/rehabilitate him. His fate and any intel he holds are open.
• Fenric's missing spleen. Removed by the Gutter — livable, but Fenric may want a healer to restore it.
• The cursed mask and the cave's symbiotes. The party holds a mind-controlling mask and floats schemes (mask an evil host, feed a symbiote to the Candleman). Unused for now.
• The cave held. Pimothy garrisons the cleared cave as a kill floor; the Wild Man stays as its resident, and the Candleman shrine is deliberately left alone.
• Carryover: Lash's wyrm-fang claw weapon for Fenric; the imprisoned Caressa and her hoard; the dragon hand-in to Sheriff Jeremiah Falconer and Dominus; Jex's legal non-existence; the missing mothers; Wetzel's missing wife; the full money/loot tally (deferred to Discord); and the eventual assault on Laewendas.
• Roster. On screen: Thalia, Silithane, Lash, Jex — with Fenric away for ~an hour mid-session (others piloted him) — plus NPC allies Pimothy, Pavid, Patricia, Rusty and Salamandine. Magra is run by the GM (Mia absent; she ran the south pincer, back next week). Ashlyn's player absent; Draak gone; Valmora has left. Still level 7.

Memorable Moments

• "Because I am God." Thunt absorbing crossbows, fire, silvered blades, ropes, grapples and poison without a scratch, stabbing back for exactly 1 each time — and refusing, with "what a fucking stupid question, with all due respect," to ever explain why he can't die.
• The birthday hat dimension. It being Nat's birthday (Jex's player) while Jex floats helplessly in the Hat Man's void — the table adding "streamers and cake" to the abyss, and the GM apologising "for trapping you in the hat dimension until you cease to exist."
• The reverse-momentum void. Jex learning that you can't swim through nothingness with no leverage — flailing, spinning, going nowhere — until Thalia's whip gives them an anchor: "unlike everywhere you've ever been, apart from maybe a test tube once, you now have momentum with no means of being stopped."
• Saved by the inspirational bat. Silithane's familiar gripping the back of Thalia's head, wings beating, "adding force" to her Athletics — "the bat never stops pulling, so you never stop pulling either" — to drag Jex and Salamandine out of the hat.
• "The tea is quite good." The stitched woman feigning a sip and cycling the same wind-up line through a pitched battle and its grim aftermath, and Thunt's flicker of real sorrow at the sight of her.
• The world's most powerful blood-splat. Silithane's killing crit on the Hat Man rolling a 100%-blood splatter "as big as a stamp" — "he had a lot of blood in him."
• Turning the hat inside out. Lash solving the hat the engineer's way — pushing the brim through itself like a bag of holding turned inside out — dumping 15–20 half-decayed corpses (and a head-first Thalia) out onto the cave floor.
• The trap-corridor postmortem. The table ribbing Pimothy's "kill floor" plan — a trapped hallway with a permanently safe centre line, arrow traps left un-replenished, "Sun" walking through them un-scathed while spikes bend off his bubble.