Session Date: 01/11/2026
Session Start
Kestrel St. Clair sends Rohan a repeating hand crossbow called Attrition. Dia stops after a while to re-treat Arythas and help him feel a bit better. Rdest reviews the parts she received from the automatons and she recognizes she will need multiple days to really review the parts she’s gotten, but she knows that the automatons were put together by someone who’s quite mad and dangerous.
We continue on and our path seems that it will take us through the harengon town of Hollow Point - there should be boats on the sea here because of the town, but there are none here. As we approach we see that there is nobody there - there’s no movement, there seems to be no people. We begin to muse what might be going on, and Rohan holds onto hope that the people here may still be alive. Dia wonders if perhaps the parts that the mage had alluded to is to strengthen her body so she’s harder to kill, but Rdest isn’t so sure, though it’s hard to know as the mage’s thoughts aren’t exactly logical.
We approach Hollow Point and we find that everyone’s gone. There are signs of a struggle and it seems that everyone’s been taken away from here. Rohan works on finding a trail and helps Rdest tweak her machine so that it’s easier to find the mad mage. It’s clear that had Rdest’s mother not been home, this would have been the fate of her home.
During all of the events, Misha sees a raven and his mood tangibly lowers and when Rdest asks what’s wrong, he says nothing of importance and walks away - something the raven seems offended by.
Rohan does point out that this was a kidnapping and not a slaughter, so if we hurry we might be able to rescue some people.
Rdest muses that she wishes she could reach out to her dad and speak with him to ask him about this place. Dia gives her the spare communicator and she calls her father and explains what’s going on: had her mother not been there to defend, everyone would be gone. Rdest asks if he’s been here recently and he says it’s been 3 or so weeks, and Rdest explains nobody’s here. Her dad reassures that they’ll notify all of the nearby towns of what’s going on. The connection ends and Misha asks if we all need one of these, and Dia says it would be nice, but we don’t have any more of them. Rdest comments that this is beyond her ability to craft at this time, but she would love to make them in the future. Rdest considers if she should sell her soul for more power, which Dia discourages.
Suddenly, Rdest casts paralyze on the raven. The raven redirects it to her, and the spell fails. We have a back and forth where Rdest tries to glean what the raven is and why it’s there. Everyone but Arythas figures out it’s a Raven Queen thing (Arythas is mostly concerned with just going to rescue the townsfolk). Rdest starts questioning the raven and Misha both and there are no real answers until Rdest asks what the raven wants, and it says revenge before flying away.
We leave and begin to heat toward where the mad mage is, Rdest really grilling Misha about it. Arythas eventually steps into the conversation to act as a buffer to sort of get her off of his back because Misha is getting really frustrated talking about the raven. Rdest eventually gives up and stomps along following the machine before asking Rohan if we have to cross the water to get to where we need to. (Rohan confirms we do.)
We get to an area where Rohan can see that the water is moving weird and he can tell there’s definitely something under water and an entrance below. Rohan points it out and then asks if there’s a spell to help us get to the water base. Rdest taps her foot on the ground a few times and there’s a corridor that appears under the water. Arythas and Misha jump down into it first, and Arythas has to grab Misha as he tries to run away. Misha explains he’s not afraid of water, but he is nervous to crushed by water (fair). Once everyone is accounted for, Arythas lets go of Misha, who sprints and says he’s definitely just scouting.
We make it to the end of the corridor and swim up and find what is essentially a shanty town that is inhabited by harengon that are working - seems we’ve found our missing population. There are clockwork automatons keeping peace with whips as the harengon work to create a lair.
Dia notices a an older harengon and like a chain gang that’s digging to make the chamber bigger. One of the people fall from exhaustion and a pair of automatons grab him, remove the chain, and take him away to elsewhere. Misha puts a hand in front of Dia as Arythas’ hand lands heavily on her shoulder to stop her from darting off. Misha reassures her that we will rescue everyone, presumably when we kill the mage.
Rdest thinks quickly and casts shared invisibility and we follow after where they took the harengon. We turn into the corridor that they went down and the door closes behind us as a bulkhead slams down before us. From a box nearby is a voice: “Well! You keep going into my places! That’s rude! Why are you this rude?” Rdest says that this isn’t her place, and the voice says that she claimed this cave, and Misha asks why the hell we are talking to her - if she’s going to be dead, we should just be rude now. Rdest continues talking to her, threatening to steal her schematics and do her research and the like.
Dia notices that there are holes around the room that could easily be open, and Rohan recognizes that he could unlock the doors with the proper tools and some time. Rdest keeps the mage talking as Rohan and Misha pick the lock to the bulkhead door. We get through and push ahead. The mage continues talking and thinking she’s clever until we reach another bulkhead, then the floor drops out and we land in a prison cell. Misha, Rohan, and Rdest manage to climb out of the cell and Misha turns off the electricity so that Arythas can destroy the cell door and he and Dia can get out.
Dia looks around and notices that there’s another person in another cell. They are a harengon who had been sleeping and has woken after all of our faffing about. He looks pretty tough. Rdest knows him: a harengon ranger named Grot - a party member with Rdest’s mom back when she was a barbarian.
Grot explains he was trying to find who was kidnapping the harengon in the area and he got himself kidnapped.
The exits from here are a door of lead that Rohan is apparently afraid of, and then the chamber we fell down is also an option.
Rdest thinks about why the door would be lead and she recalls a spell that is a theory - it’s cataract of colorless flame. Colorless flame is something that just keeps burning and it makes everything around it sick (tl;dr it’s radiation). Rdest explains all of this and we all recognize that we can’t go that way. Misha begins distracting her by speaking about trying to make a deal and Arythas goes over to pull the sight runes that give her vision out of the walls.
She gives up and tells us to sit for a few hours and she’ll be back. While she’s away, we move back up the passage we fell down and Misha gets the trap door open. Once we’re all up, Rdest uses shared invisibility again and we all move together. We follow Grot to an area that’s safe where we can rest and plan.