DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Session

February 14, 2026, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We leave Lanthet and return to Quadroads. Salris can't come, so Seamus is convinced to come in his stead, and we head to Setton. A.R.N. desires our services for a heist: killing a painting.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Lanthet
  3. Quadroads
  4. Setton
    1. The Hunter's Table
  5. A.R.N.'s Quest
  6. Next session

Last session

We infiltrated Lanthet and killed some Elementals and their Summoners, saving Merrill from them.

Lanthet

We head towards the center of town, stopping for a moment to check on the building where we left Majorie. She's not there.

We head towards the center of town, and hear the tail end of combat. We hear humanoid voices in Orcish and Common and Dwarvish, celebrating victory. We round the corner and see the center of town, where Lanthet is celebrating. The last elemental is an Earth Elemental, collapsing under a horde of villagers with farming implements. Another cheer.

Ryltar smiles at the scene: If these people can fight and defend their town, we can defeat Belladonna.

Majorie runs up, smiling, hugs. We hear that all the gates are secured.

Folks come up to Merrill and Majorie and congratulate them, check in on them. Umara appears with the rest of the family in tow, kisses Jerry, and then goes on to healing.

Majorie asks, "You're going to stay here and help, right?"

"There are more people that we need to help." She puts a hand on Majorie's shoulder. "I know that they will be in good hands."

A messenger arrives: One of the attackers has been caught, alive. We rush off to interrogate. The South Gate has a clot of people with improvised weapons, surrounding a near-death shaman. The crowd is trying to get at the summoner; Jerry walks through the crowd.

Ryltar, in Primordial, interrogates the summoner, who says that the threats are closer than we realize. We learn that Belladonna is aligned with primordial and demonic energies. Then he passes away.

What other types of energy are there?

We probably have the Celestials on our side, and maybe the Fey.

Percival plays a rousing song for the town, and people's moods improve.

We take a short rest, and make some speeches, not very persuasively.

We find Merrill. Ryltar explains why we were late: Degrazil, Fey Realm, Belladonna kicked things off, Quadroads. Merrill says that, as a result of what we did, there's now probably a connection between Lake Renewal and the Fey Wilds. We used Wish to teleport through there; that has weakened the barrier between the worlds there.

We talk about how the world's going to hell in a handbasket. She looks to the spot where Ren was slain. "I had my faith. He had his."

"Some days it feels misplaced," says Ryltar.

"I put my faith in him; now I put my faith in you," she says. "The burden you carry is tremendous, but there are those who will help."

"The common folk are as much heroes as we are."

"You were once us."

"It takes great courage to stand in the face of such a threat."

We tell Merrill what we're going to do:

  1. Go to Quadroads
  2. Grab Salris
  3. Go to Setton
  4. Help another friend there.

Quadroads

We land in the Temple of Ioun. It's still a mess, but acolytes are beginning to put it right. Ryltar goes to find Moon, and succeeds. "Long day, yesterday," says Ryltar. Moon points out a blood splatter on his neck. "Today's going to be another long one, probably." She points him towards Salris, indicating that he lived.

Moon walks him over to the acolytes' chambers, where Salris is taking some forced rest in a bed. Seamus stands over him, making sure that he stays in it. Doctor's orders.

Salris says that something has actually happened.

Seamus objects; we argue over it. We can't bring both brothers. Seamus doesn't want to Salris to be endangered further; doesn't care about his deals. Jerry suggests that maybe Seamus should come on his behalf. Ryltar thinks that maybe Seamus could hold his own. We know he was a pirate captain.

Ryltar successfully convinces Seamus that Salris will be safe here, in the Temple of Ioun.

Setton

We Teleport to the Teleportation Circle in Guelva's house-shop. The five of us are packed in a 10' room. Ryltar grabs Embersia and Dimension Doors out. This is the second floor, a smallish attic. There's a window. Seamus looks out the window and does his own Misty Step out. Percival grabs Jerry and Dimension Doors out.

We've avoided Guelva!

The Hunter's Table

We walk up. Jerry, Ryltar, and Percival are recognized. Seamus and Embersia need to prove their admittance. Seamus pulls a giant tooth from his necklace. Jerry pulls out a Purple Worm stinger that Embersia helped kill. We are allowed in.

It's the usual giant lodge, with the central trough firepit. We buy food and drink and sit down to eat, and halfway through, our contact, Winifred, appears.

We banter a bit. Ryltar steals a dart from the board to use as a teleportation focus. Winifred asks who Embersia and Seamus are; we explain that Embersia has replaced Vurguron and that Seamus is taking the place of Salris, who died yesterday — and was brought back. But anyone at the Hunter's Table would be trusted by "our employers," says Winifred. We explain to them the terms of the NDA,

A.R.N.'s Quest

We arrive at A.R.N.'s house, and the doors open. He's waiting for us just inside the front door.

A.R.N., speaking to Salris, says that he's calling in the favor that Salris had traded for. And then he realizes that Seamus isn't Salris. We've taken on Salris' responsibilities, he concludes, and says that he needs us to infiltrate a "highly fortified encampment" and retrieve something of his. "I was a bit rambunctious in my youth, and something has come back to haunt me."

A.R.N. is the person in the hand.

tl;dr: it's him! He made a "self-image", a copy of himself, painted, lent to a family friend, and then a week ago, that family friend was found dead. This would just normally be a natural death, but this person was in a secret black-market item-trading group. We just need to kill the painting, to prevent the painting from spilling the secrets that A.R.N. knew at that time.

The location that we're going to infiltrate is a secret auction. Many bidders send proxies; Winifred is A.R.N.'s usual choice. But it would be weird if A.R.N. sent someone to buy his own art back, so

The participants will all have an issued invitation to the Roslyn Ilis, It's a fancy resort establishment.

The night of the auction, we will be summoned, each given two items: a mask and a potion. The mask will obscure your identity to other auction bidders; you will be taken through a teleportation gate. At a sign, you will drink the potion. Can't breathe for an hour, can hold breath for an hour. The entire area will be filled with a poisoned incense. Anyone who speaks or breathes will be poisoned, complicating spellcasting. The auction will proceed at intervals, with additional potion dosages, until all things are auctioned off.

Bidding proxies will be on the floor; non-bidding proxies will be at the back of the hall. There are guards at the gates, the auctioneers are also going to be defensive. The attendees will be searched; we don't know for sure what we'll be allowed to bring in. Possibly not even Jerry's gauntlets!

The building is stone, not flammable. The auction hall is 40' by 40'.

A.R.N doesn't know if people there know that the panting is sentient.

The next day, we will proceed to the Ruba Arnet. It's an art gallery where the bid pieces purchased the night be for will be displayed as proxies, and the items will be paid for.

The auction will happen in two days.

A.R.N. will provide us with:

A.R.N. himself looks like a high-fashion gentleman of eccentricity.

A.R.N. says that the guards will search us, and probably confiscate anything specifically offensive. We discuss various items; A.R.N. coos over the Deck of Many Things. He is very tempted by the offer. Perhaps if he loses this scheme.

Ryltar asks if A.R.N. has heard of an ancient library of Ioun. A.R.N. thinks it's a myth. We betray that it's real.

We start with divination.

How to kill the painting:

  1. Fireball on the painting, after getting to it stealthily.
  2. Kill the painting during intermission, patch it, be very cool
  3. Scorched Earth: Destroy the venue. Web in the 40' cube auction hall, followed by fire. Punch through the walls to the object; smash it and everything else.

How to find the painting:

  1. Locate Creature on the painting, which Jerry can do before entering the poison area.
  2. Use the divination route.

How to move around the place:

  1. Use the spell Hero's Feast, via Wish, to bypass the poison one long rest before the event, leaving Ryltar a Wish for the day afterwards. But this is risky, because we don't know for sure that the effect is poison. If this doesn't work; there's no point.
  2. Glib
  3. Percival True Polymorphs himself into a Fiendish Giant Spider (immune to poison and the poisoned condition), paired with Spider Lady Jerry, for some thematic stuff.
  4. Wait for an intermission, then go run around.

Embersia will prepare Stone Shape, to give us another casting ebyond Percival's.

We go back to the Hunter's Table to rest up and prepare.

Next session