Category: Play reports

The party:

• Ploikal, orange magic-user level 6 (TM)
• Pholgon, purple fighter level 4 (MG)
• Xull, orange fighter level 4 (JW)
• Ilyas, orange non-combatant
• Burak, Hasan, Nisa, and Ziba, orange bowmen
• Sgt. Uzildar, orange fighter level 2
• 4 unnamed soldiers, all orange fighters, level 1

Treasure:

• Bone crown with blue stones (30 SP)
• Brass weighing scales (100 SP)
• Carved ivory manacle keys (100 SP)
• Dyed textile crate (100 CP)
• Foreign trade tokens (200 SP)
• Ornate measuring tentacles in bronze and wood (200 SP)
• Phorkys-Thanatos’ Revealing Rod (Wand of Detecting Enemies), taken from boogieman chief Movog
• Potion of Dinosaur Mastery
• Potion of Weightlessness in hollowed thundrasaur tooth.
• Red leather merchant ledger (250 GP)
• Hyginos’ Circle (Ring of Protection), formerly owned by Sgt. Uzildar
• Scroll with “The Call to the Foetid Cloud”
• The Glavrac Blade (sword +1, jale tentacles hold blade), formerly wielded by the boogieman Tribe Glavrac chief Movog
• War banner of exotic hide with gold thread (250 GP)

XP: 5,640

Casualties: Sgt. Uzildar, slain by boogiemen and brutes.

Report:
While Pholgon struggles to train his snarlwyrm—injuring a farmer in the process and earning the ire of the man’s family despite arranging a stay at the temple—Xull successfully breaks in his bird, and Ploikal edges closer to unlocking deeper psionic secrets.

Continue reading Session 34

The party:

• Ploikal, orange magic-user level 6 (TM)
• Gorakal, orange thief level 5 / fighter level 2 (JH)
• Pholgon, purple fighter level 4 (MG)
• Xull, orange fighter level 4 (JW)

Treasure:

• Embroidered toad skin (305 SP)
• Silver instruments (1,920 SP)
• Ancient serpent man coinage (468 SP / 155 GP)
• Unholy sword +2 “Sibilant Doom” – a sinister curved black blade with serpentine runes, snake-hilt with gemstone eyes, and bat-wing guard
• Snakeskin scroll with two spells in blood (Hibernate, Protection from Vermin)

XP: 4,243

Casualties: None

Report:

Day 1

The party sets out to investigate the derelict mech of the ancients rumored to lie in the Yellow Flats desert. They acquire potions of mithridate from Neferha as protection against the sickness the mech supposedly causes. As a precaution, they tie a rope around Xull.

Carefully skirting the boogieman encampments, they make their way into the desert. Xull struggles to maintain control over his possessed visitor claw, which desperately wants to engage the boogiemen, but manages to resist its influence.

In the desert, they spot their destination: the mech, enclosed by a low wall and guarded by a massive purple iron statue of a muscled man tending the sand with a rake. They approach and engage the statue in conversation. It introduces itself as Gonazir, servant of Nachatak, the god of war.

Through careful negotiation, they convince Gonazir to allow them closer to inspect the mech. However, when they begin speculating about how to enter it, the statue firmly states they are not permitted inside. Frustration mounting, the party decides to resort to force.

Ploikal attempts mind-affecting magic, but Gonazir shrugs it off with a warning about “funny business.” Gorakal makes a failed backstab attempt with a crowbar. The statue sighs, says “suit yourselves,” and attacks with his rake.

The battle is brief but intense. Gorakal uses his magic boots to dash away at high speed while firing his laser, scoring hits on the statue. Gonazir retaliates against Pholgon with a devastating rake strike. Xull’s claw damages the statue though his magic sword proves ineffective. Ploikal contributes a barrage of magic missiles. Recognizing they’re outmatched, the party exchanges glances and flees. Gonazir lets them escape.

They return across the desert and fields without incident, once again avoiding the boogiemen.

Days 2-3

Pholgon recovers from his wounds. The party purchases rope and Gorakal searches unsuccessfully for acid. Ploikal uses his crystal ball to observe the mech, confirming the statue maintains constant vigil.

Day 4

That evening, the party pivots to explore the guild hall instead. Ploikal’s inkbat familiar scouts ahead, reporting skeletons at the bottom of the shaft.

Pholgon and Xull drop down and smash the skeletons to pieces before they can react. They discover and pocket an embroidered toad skin.

Moving to the cave with the bioluminescent stream, they find a brute bathing in it. Pholgon skewers it with his spear before it can respond.

The party begins shooting down the shaft at oozes in the cave below. The oozes retreat before being destroyed. They lower Gorakal on a rope, and he continues the assault as the oozes crawl up the walls toward him. Just before they reach him, all are eliminated.

Descending into the cave, they strip it of valuable instruments. The adjacent eastern cave yields more treasure: ancient coinage, a sword, and a scroll. Ploikal’s magic reveals the sword radiates powerful evil.

Ploikal summons an unseen servant to collect the treasure, which grudgingly complies. Gorakal carefully wraps the sinister blade in leather armor.

Three toads appear in their entry tunnel. Ploikal obliterates them instantly with a lightning bolt.

The party stares at him. “You can cast lightning bolts?! Now you tell us?”

Ploikal shrugs.

They return to town without further incident.

The party:

• Pholgon, purple fighter level 4 (MG)
• Ploikal, orange magic-user level 6 (TM)

Treasure:

• Bioluminescent painting (1,000 SP)
• Gold and silver inlays (512 SP)
• Ring of Mastery Over Men (“Vasith’s Ring of Coercion”)
• Spear +2 (“The Spear of Ssyrinthian”)

XP: 1,512

Casualties: Pholgon’s orux, killed by quantum serpents.

Report:

The party can’t pay their upkeep because they haven’t been able to liquidate treasure for quite a while. They decide they must try to reach Khodang Town despite the encirclement of Batbeng by boogiemen. Under the cover of heavy rain, they manage to make it to the desert unseen, and from there on to Khodang.

At the gate, the guards recognize Ploikal as a wanted criminal for his repeated use of magic to force merchants to sell him things at extremely low prices. Pholgon manages to fool them into believing he’s taken Ploikal into custody and is bringing him in for punishment, so they are let in. They stay in an obscure inn tucked away in a quiet part of town and liquidate a significant amount of treasure for a total of 5,336 SP.

The next day, Ploikal asks around about psionicists, hoping to find leads to meeting one somewhere. He hears there might be one or more in Khodang. Meanwhile, Pholgon goes out to buy a disguise for Ploikal and returns with a dramatic pitch-black beard and flamboyant set of spectacles. They make their way out of town unseen and head back to Batbeng the way they came.

They once again evade notice from the boogiemen despite the heavy rains having stopped. They do, however, stumble onto a nest of three quantum serpents. Pholgon’s orux is attacked and killed instantly. The snakes attack Pholgon next and manage to wound him, though he withstands the lethal poison. Two snakes are dispatched without much trouble, and the third flees. The rest of the way back home is uneventful.

Pholgon spends the third adventuring day resting and recovering from his minor injuries while Ploikal scribes a scroll. On the fourth day, in the evening, they head out to the farmers’ guild hall. The wizard lock opens for its caster, Ploikal, and they enter furtively. Inside, the remains of the cultists slain during the previous adventure are in an advanced state of decomposition.

They make their way to the main hall and from there enter the council chamber, which Ploikal searches while Pholgon holds watch. An ectoplasmic ooze tendril appears and attacks! Ploikal flees. Pholgon is slapped and wounded, his armor hisses from its acid touch, but remains intact. Pholgon easily cuts through the tendril and dispatches it. The fighter quaffs a healing potion and feels better straight away.

They realize they’ve forgotten to bring rope, quickly go back to fetch some, and continue their expedition. They head down the shaft into the cave system beneath. Ploikal’s inkbat familiar scouts ahead and warns them of several skeletons awaiting them below. Pholgon, fearless as ever, jumps down and destroys the four skeletons in one fell swoop.

They head southeast through a long tunnel. The inkbat warns them of treasure and traps ahead. Suddenly, they are attacked in the back by two skeletons. Pholgon easily dispatches them, headbutting one of its skulls to dust. They approach the cave ahead and see the treasure, a pendulum trap, but also murals that show the history of the alien god and its followers, a celestial map on walls and ceilings with silver and gold inlays, and a shaft down.

They trigger the pressure plate by throwing a heap of skeletons on top of it after a first failed attempt with a tossed hammer. They enter, Ploikal casts detect evil, and when the treasure appears safe, the magic-user takes the ring and the fighting-man takes the spear. Both are decorated in that distinctly evil-looking serpent-man fashion. The inkbat is sent down to check what is below. It returns scared witless with tales of mirrors and ghosts about 50 feet below.

Ploikal summons an unseen servant to pry out the silver and gold inlays. It grudgingly sets to work while the heroes continue their exploration. The next cave is previously explored and holds an ominous-looking altar but not much else. They pass through a short tunnel east into a cave with terracotta serpent man statues, several of which have been broken. There is also a shaft down in the floor. Pholgon uses his crossbow to shoot open the remaining statues. They find nothing of value. The inkbat is sent down once again. The way down is about fifty feet again. The inkbat returns with tales of feeling much lighter down there.

They backtrack, go through a cave where they previously killed brutish primitive looking serpent men, and where they took several geodes from. Passing through a tunnel heading southeast they approach a cave lit by bioluminescent creatures swimming in a stream and an equally shimmering painted panel depicting the summoning and entrapment of an alien godling and yet another shaft down. The cave also holds a grey ooze, which the inkbat spots before it can surprise them. They kill it with crossbow fire and magic missiles.

While they search the cave with the stream they are attacked by two brutes approaching from the north tunnel. Pholgon rushes ahead and kills them both with one attack by impaling them on his spear. They send the inkbat down the shaft once more. The way down is shorter than the previous ones, a mere twenty feet. It warns of many oozes and intricate instruments that must be very valuable.

They take the painted panel, backtrack to the cave where they left the unseen servant to remove the inlays. It has finished the job. They dismiss the servant, take the inlays, and head back out without further trouble.

The party:

• Gorakal, orange T5/F2 (JH)
• Ploikal, orange MU6 (TM)

Treasure: 

• Crude effigies of Gelathrax (387 SP)
• Smashed tablet cases and scroll tubes (775 SP)
• “Harvest’s Fury” (War Hammer +1)
• Scroll with Magic Missile
• Scroll with Hex
• Potion of Curing
• Ring of Darkvision

XP: 1,162

Casualties: None

Report:

Gorakal and Ploikal return to the farmers’ guild hall to regain access to the caves underneath. Guards deny them entry, refusing bribes and resisting persuasion.

After a failed charm attempt, Ploikal uses psionics to mind control one guard. They’re allowed inside, though the other guard’s suspicions nearly lead to violence before Gorakal and the charmed guard grapple him.

Inside, they find the hall transformed—the Yiggub statue is destroyed, farming tools melted into tentacled effigies of Gelathrax, and cultists lie on the floor, slick with slime, spacing out. When attempts to see Morival fail, Ploikal loses patience and opens fire with a frost ray gun, killing most cultists instantly.

Morival materializes from nowhere, wielding an evil-looking hammer that nearly crushes Ploikal’s skull. Guards pour in from side chambers. Ploikal is badly wounded and barely survives the first exchange. Morival attempts to escape, but Gorakal shoots him in the back with the laser crossbow. Ploikal finishes him off by exploding his head with psionics.

The remaining cultists swarm them. Gorakal leaps over their heads to hang from the ceiling beams as guards hurl weapons at him. Ploikal turns invisible and squeezes past his attackers. From above, Gorakal picks off enemies with crossbow fire while Ploikal begins casting sleep spells from scrolls.

As Gorakal drops from the ceiling and flees to the courtyard (chugging a healing potion), guards pursue him and nearly cut him down. Meanwhile, other guards block the main hall exits to trap the invisible wizard. Some even begin disemboweling a comrade to spray gore around and reveal Ploikal’s position.

Through a combination of laser crossbow fire, a barrage of sleep spells, and desperate maneuvering, they gradually eliminate all resistance. After ensuring no cultists survive, they strip the hall of valuables, including Morival’s magical hammer and items, then escape and magically lock the entrance behind them.

The party:

• Gorakal, orange T5/F1 (JH)
• Ploikal, orange MU6 (TM)

Treasure:

• 1,650 SP in coin and trade bars
• Measurement weights marked with guild seal (193 SP)
• Geodes containing strange crystals (449 SP)

XP: 2,292

Casualties: None

Report: 

Under cover of invisibility and darkvision, Ploikal and Gorakal infiltrate the farmers’ guild hall, aiming to discover what lies beneath the statue of Yiggub. Their mission is nearly compromised when an ectoplasmic pseudopod emerges from under the statue and attacks them, causing the guards to mobilize.

While the guild members deal with the strange manifestation, our duo sneaks into the council room where they overhear Morival planning a ritual for the new moon. After the meeting, they discover a secret room used for grain assessment and pocket a set of official guild weights.

Their exploration continues to the basement where Ploikal puts the guards to sleep after one raises an alarm. They loot jars filled with coin and trade bars, then manage to push aside the statue of Yiggub, revealing a wizard-locked trapdoor with an arcane seal. Ploikal’s knock spell breaks the enchantment.

Beneath, they find a natural cave system where animated skeletons assemble from scattered bones. After climbing to safety, Ploikal destroys the undead with a well-placed fireball. Proceeding deeper, they encounter three bulky humanoid snake creatures. After a brief but violent skirmish, they collect several valuable geodes.

The final chamber holds only an ancient stone altar smeared with strange substances. Deciding they’ve seen enough, they return to the surface and slip away into the night, their pockets heavier and minds filled with questions about what dark purpose the underground chambers serve.

The party:

• Ploikal, orange MU6 (TM)
• Pholgon, purple F4 (MG)
• Gorakal, orange T4/F1 (JH)
• Xull, orange F2 (JW)
• Konn, orange F2 (NtH)
• Gunn, blue F2 (HB)
• Umut, Faruk & Vugar, non-combatants; Zayn, Gita & Pervin, light foot; Saida, heavy foot

Treasure: 

• Altar cloth
• Braziers ×2
• Bowls ×7
• Scroll w/ 3 spells
• Lab equipment
• Jars of rare ingredients
• Specimen containers ×6

XP: 9,179

Casualties:

• Vugar, fled into the desert
• Pervin, killed by mummies
• Gita, killed by spiders
• Zayn leaves after being gassed

Report:

Day 1

The party prepares for a massive expedition to the serpent man citadel. After hiring numerous retainers and stocking up on supplies, particularly water, they depart from Batbeng. Their journey takes them south through the Mirror Hills, where they encounter nine Crystal Harvesters. They reach the Yellow Flats desert but decide to turn back before nightfall, making camp in the hills. The night passes uneventfully.

Day 2

The party ventures into the desert again, searching for and locating the serpent man citadel mostly submerged in sand with only one tower visible above the surface. They confront a desert constrictor that has made its lair there. During the battle, Gunn is swallowed whole, and Vugar flees in terror. Despite this setback, they eventually prevail, decapitating the snake and freeing Gunn, who miraculously survives.

As they inspect the tower for entrances, eight rainbow-scaled snakes pass by without engaging them. The party struggles to break through the citadel’s roof until the robot Sterling suddenly appears. Ploikal uses Visitor language to persuade Sterling to help, and the robot cuts open the tower roof with its laser. Though Ploikal repeatedly tries to convince Sterling to join them, the robot refuses but agrees to remain outside on guard.

The party descends through a series of rooms: first an unremarkable chamber, then a room with a disarmed arrow trap, followed by one decorated with sigils. They reach a large irregular octagonal room filled with motionless mummified humanoids wearing snake skull masks. When they attempt to douse these figures in oil, the mummies animate and attack. In the ensuing battle, Pervin dies from a poisoned knife wound, but the party eventually triumphs.

As they search the room, three acid scarabs burrow through the floor but don’t engage. Continuing down a spiral staircase, they enter a circular room infested with seven large spiders and covered in webs. Another fierce battle ensues, claiming Gita’s life before they emerge victorious.

After looting the room for an altar cloth, braziers, and offering bowls, they’re confronted by three reptilian humanoids with huge black claws. The party quickly surrounds and dispatches these creatures, though the fighters feel an unsettling tingling sensation where they’re spattered with the monsters’ gore.

From this room, they find a cranked platform leading down and a door leading northeast. Behind the door, they glimpse a massive colonnaded hallway extending east into darkness. They opt for the platform.

Descending, they enter a room with ominously vibrating air and a raised platform. As they finish searching, a massive serpent/crocodile hybrid with bony plates and vestigial limbs crashes through the east door. Surprisingly, the creature—Vushk—is friendly. Ploikal communicates with it telepathically and strikes a deal: Vushk will lead them to a spellbook. The creature explains that its kind wants to turn this level into a nest around power cores, but magical wards are interfering.

Vushk guides them through a massive room with a summoning circle guarded by two snake-human hybrids with dragon wings and spiked tails. They carefully skirt the circle and sentinels, passing through an archway into a room with floating crystals and orbs, where two more of Vushk’s kind reside.

Vushk directs them to a southern door behind which lies the promised spellbook, warning them about an automaton inside. Opening the door reveals a bronze bull automaton and a materials lab. While Ploikal summons an invisible servant, Gorakal sneaks in to plug the bull’s nostrils with oily rags as the servant tries to grab the scroll. The plan partially succeeds, but the bull makes a terrible noise and releases a cloud of gas. They barely escape, with only the tails of Gorakal’s cloak being petrified.

The disturbance agitates the sand serpents in the room with the orbs, and Vushk warns them to leave. Instead, they try another door to the south, finding a room with green vapors hanging near the ceiling. When they send in two retainers, a trap is triggered, filling the room with corrosive gas that damages Pholgon’s armor. Zayn abandons the expedition.

The party makes one final attempt at the lab with the bull. They open the door, cast Knock on the bull, and quickly shut it again. They hear metal falling apart as the bull partially disassembles. They swiftly loot the room’s valuables while the increasingly agitated sand serpents lurk nearby.

Checking the lab’s southern door, they find it opens onto a long hallway extending east. Deciding it’s time to leave, they promise Vushk to help remove the wards another time. Miraculously, they escape without further incident, emerging from the citadel in the late evening. They thank Sterling for its service and make camp.

Day 3

The party travels back to Batbeng without incident.

The party:

• Shav (DZ) orange F2
• Gunn (HB) blue F1
• Ploikal (TM) orange MU6
• Umut, Faruk, NC
• Zayn, Gita, Pervin, LF
• Saida, HF

Treasure:

• 230 SP
• 73 GP
• An ivory ring carved with vapor-like patterns. Magical, but otherwise unidentified.

XP: 960.

Casualties: None.

Report:

Rain delays the party’s expedition to the Balok by a day. When they finally set out under heavy clouds, they take their usual route to level 2, noting several previously spiked doors are now closed.

Their path: reception room → indoor garden (avoiding green slime in hanging globe) → shrine → second indoor garden (another globe) → circular reception area with stairs → long corridor east.

At a bath chamber off the corridor, they encounter three hostile cavemen stitching hides. Shav attempts to pacify them with iron rations, but one caveman slaps the food away and attacks. Gunn attempts to slide dramatically between a caveman’s legs but fails, and later manages to wound himself during a back attack. Despite these setbacks, they defeat the cavemen.

They explore systematically: north to a storeroom with collapsed shelving, then east to a toilet chamber where they face both a shadow and a grey ooze extending a pseudopod from one of the holes. The ooze claims Gunn’s zweihander with its corrosive slime. The light footmen courageously hold off the shadow, which manages to drain some of Zayn’s life force. Meanwhile, Ploikal casts protective spells before destroying the shadow with magic missiles, while the party beats the ooze down with wooden torch handles.

Backtracking to orient themselves, they pass through: storeroom → laboratory → another toilet room (defeating another ooze with sacrificed weapons and the back end of Shav’s pike) → dorm with crumbling beds → storeroom with dinnerware and pig tracks → pantry with spoiled goods → kitchen.

Following rumors of a ring, Ploikal’s Locate Object spell leads them east to a dining room where three pigs, easily pacified with rations, have nested. North of here, through a secret entrance, they find a dust-covered, well-appointed apartment. Ploikal summons an invisible servant to open the trapped wardrobe, which triggers an arrow that flies harmlessly past, revealing their prizes.

They make a swift retreat to Batbeng, where Gunn celebrates with tavern tales and generous rounds.

The party: 

• Ploikal, orange MU6 (TM)
• Pholgon, purple F4 (MG)
• Xull, orange F3 (JW)
• Gunn, blue F1 (HB)
• Zain, orange light foot
• Zara, Faruk (both orange) and Kaya (black) porters

Treasure: none.

XP: none.

Casualties: none.

Report: 

The party resolves to finally take the fight to the boogiemen up north. They secure support from Count Egan to cover expenses and recruit three soldiers (Sai, Yann, and Tain) along with Sergeant Uzildar. A new hero, a blue fighter named Gunn, also joins their ranks.

The journey into the Iron Slopes proves uneventful. Upon sighting the marching camp, they establish a concealed position. Ploikal uses scrying to scout the camp’s tents, eventually locating the chief. He then turns invisible and infiltrates by blending in with a returning patrol.

Inside, he makes his way to the chief’s tent where Movog is holding court, listening to followers petition for work. Ploikal attempts to manipulate the chief, trying telepathy and suggestion to convince him to attack the mercenary company Vicious Omen to the west. When these fail, he attempts mind control. Movog resists all three attempts, angrily slashing at invisible foes with his impressive sword before his bodyguards rush him to safety.

Outside the camp, Xull faces his own battle as his claw—possessed by the spirit of Cista, a retainer previously killed fighting these same boogiemen—begins speaking and urging revenge. The vengeful spirit’s influence is so strong that Pholgon and Gunn must tie Xull to a tree to prevent him from charging into camp. During this crisis, two blue deinonychuses approach their position. A tense standoff ensues, with Pholgon readying his crossbow while the soldiers prepare their alien ray gun. The dinosaurs eventually move on, though Pholgon’s attempt to shoot them in the back proves embarrassingly ineffective.

Back in the camp, Ploikal launches a desperate plan. He uses a knock spell to release brutes from their tents, causing chaos as they rampage through the camp. He seizes control of one brute’s mind and sends it against Movog’s guards. The brute kills one guard and forces its way into the tent, only to face more bodyguards and Movog himself, armed with a jale betentacled two-handed sword. Despite pushing through the guards and nearly killing one elite, the brute falls quickly.

As the boogiemen regain control of their camp and secure the other brutes, Ploikal attempts one final gambit. He tries to put all the guards in front of the chief’s tent to sleep, but one remains awake and raises another alarm. Finally accepting defeat, he slips out through the south gate just as the boogiemen lock down the camp.

The party returns to town without further incident, their ambitious infiltration yielding neither treasure nor glory.

The party: 

• Ploikal, orange MU5 (TM)
• Gorakal, orange T4 (JH)
• Faruk, orange non-combatant
• Zayn, orange light foot
• Umut, brown rider
• Deniz, Elif, and Mina, orange riders

Treasure: 

• Ornate silver shield inset with five pearls held by beetles (3,247 SP)
• 76 GP in coin
• Five malachite gems (160 SP each)
• Five primitive gold necklaces (880 SP each)
• Machine parts (1,116 SP)

XP: 11,273

Casualties: 

Several retainers, the details lost in the fray.

• Elif’s morale broke during a fight, and they fled.
• One was killed by centipedes.
• One paralyzed by centipedes and abandoned.
• One drained of their life force by a shadow.

Report: 

The party heads to The Balok. They pass ten giant white ants but ignore them. Upon reaching The Balok, they enter their usual way. Rats guard a door to the room with cabinets—the party rewards them with food. More rats appear in the next room, receive rations, and let the party pass.

A single boogieman ambushes them in the large room with the caveman corpse and opened chest. Gorakal drops it with one arrow. The party descends to level 2. The reception area stands empty. In the next room, an indoor garden, they spot green slime just in time. They pass through an empty shrine and hear insect noises behind the door to the study.

Magic reveals angry centipedes and treasure inside. They ready a sleep spell, throw open the door, and knock out many centipedes—but one paralyzes a retainer with its poison, and another is killed. The party prevails and recovers an ornate shield before entering the first library.

Four bone crusher dogs confront them here. The party distracts them with rations, puts one to sleep, and dispatches the rest. The next library is empty. Wet noises and caveman speech emanate from the eastern door.

Inside, ten cavemen make offerings to three statues. The party strikes with surprise—some fall asleep, the rest die by the sword. They collect gold from around the statues and loot corpses in wicker caskets. Gorakal’s x-ray vision reveals nothing more.

The next room appears to be a workshop with mechanical devices. They enter as pigs arrive behind them, but the animals care only for the offerings. The party explores the study and discovers a secret door behind a tall machine. This leads to a machine room where they extract platinum parts from cabinets.

A shadow enters as they try to leave. The two remaining retainers cover the retreat—one dies as the shadow drains him dry, but Ploikal destroys it with magic. They decide they’ve had enough and flee.

Back in town, Ploikal pours resources into rebuilding the farmers’ guild hall. Two discoveries disturb him: the leader’s clear insanity and a strange hatch where the harvest goddess statue once stood.