Summary 004

Session 004: Grime And Punishment #

Date: 2026-04-26

Chapter I: The Great Plaza Sinkhole & The Acidic Splatter #

• The Ground Gives Way: On a particularly thick and foggy Caliphas morning, our heroes were just setting out when the cobblestones thirty feet ahead of them violently collapsed into a sinkhole. A hapless civilian plummeted into the pit, but he was not alone; a foul, acidic ooze and two skeletal warriors—one donning an inexplicably fancy scarf—crawled from the depths.

• Al the Valiant Crutch: While the barbarians prepared for bloodshed, Al dove headfirst into the sinkhole. He found the injured civilian, offered himself as a literal crutch to the man with a twisted ankle, and bravely hauled him out of the fray.

• The Barbarian Beatdown: Helena, tapping into her inner rage , cleaved into the undead with her great axe, dealing a staggering blow that left one skeleton nearly shattered. The ooze, meanwhile, retaliated by spewing a wave of foul acid, coating the party and significantly slowing their movement.

• A Looney Tunes Demise & A Tag-Team Finisher: Al unleashed a divine wave of vitality that healed his allies and scorched the undead to dust. Though a remaining skeleton managed to strike Al down into unconsciousness, Helena quickly revived him with a potion. Helena then turned her sights on the ooze, delivering a legendary critical strike that obliterated the monster so thoroughly it left a perfect, cartoonish silhouette of splattered slime on the nearby wall! Rhea finished the skirmish with flair, lassoing the final skeleton to trip it, before receiving a boost from Helena to drop a devastating, wrestling-style elbow onto its skull.

Chapter II: The Hollow Hag’s Hex & The Iron Saint #

• A Gruesome Discovery: From the remains of the ooze, Helena recovered a rusted iron lockbox. Inside was a deeply unsettling voodoo doll wrapped in a torn scrap of Rhea’s clothing. The fabric was stained with Rhea’s own toxic Tripkee skin secretions and pinned together with yellowed, monstrous fingernails. Al deduced that the deep scratch marks on the sinkhole walls matched the doll’s fingernails, linking this ambush directly to the dreaded Hollow Hag.

  

• The Quarterfaux Archives: Seeking answers and a payday, the party ventured to the Quarterfaux Archives, a dark-stone hub of knowledge kept magically silenced to muffle footsteps and preserve concentration. They met Stacee Thistletop, their smuggler contact, who covertly messaged her boss, Vesper, via a magical ring.

• Vesper’s Grand Design: Stacey revealed a secret staircase behind a massive Shining Crusade golem known as “ The Iron Saint,” leading to Vesper’s underground workshop. Vesper, suffering from radiation poisoning that was only held at bay by a mechanical spider on her neck, revealed her ultimate plan: she intended to use the party’s cursed sword, along with other relics, to transfer her soul into the Iron Saint to achieve immortality.

• New Contracts & Hag Intel: Vesper paid the party 60 gold for the sword and offered 100 gold for their next target: the “Crystalline Heart,” located a week’s travel away in the undead-infested ruins of Vigil. She also confirmed the voodoo doll was the work of Agnes Hollow - using it as a means to enhance the natural shape-shifting ability of a doppelganger, one of a coven of three hags who scurry through the subterranean tunnels of Ashtown. Vesper provided the party with a modified earpiece that would signal them whenever her spies heard Agnes’s rhythmic underground scratching.

Chapter III: Sandwiches, Stand-Up, and Shadows #

• Tailing the Captain: Before leaving the city, the party decided to investigate Captain Tharivol, a suspiciously straight-laced guard captain known for paying laborers out of his own pocket. They learned from Vesper that he mysteriously vanishes off the grid every evening between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

• The Iron Lung: The party staked out Tharivol during his lunch hour at the “Iron Lunch”. The food cart was run by Rolf, an eccentric sandwich artist obsessed with the “structural integrity” of his creations.

• A Masterclass in Bureaucratic Distraction: Tracking the Captain to a municipal building, the party realized they needed to blend in. After purchasing disguise kits, they attempted to infiltrate the lobby. Confronted by a receptionist named Cheryl, Rhea brilliantly pivoted, claiming to be a politician running for City Council. Rhea launched into an impromptu, flawless stand-up comedy routine that entirely captivated Cheryl and the lobby.

• The Fixer & The Factory: While Rhea worked the room, Al and Helena snooped on the agenda, discovering Thativol was in a closed-door meeting with Diaudin, a high-ranking fixer for the Prince who handles sensitive city matters.

• Into the Night: Later that evening, the party trailed Thativol into the industrial district. Pushing through the dark, Al cast Detect Magic and witnessed the Captain step through a magically conjured door that transported him straight into a heavily guarded industrial factory. Sprinting to catch up—and leaving themselves winded and fatigued—the party peered into the dim factory to find the Captain secretly convening with a towering Union Foreman. Preparing to cast a shadow spell, Al readied the party to sneak closer and uncover the true depths of Ashtown’s conspiracy.