Recap - 2025-09-11

The party, having awoken from their rest feeling more powerful than before, went downstairs for breakfast before heading out into the Grey Wastes. They were served by the literal skeleton staff a breakfast that was more palatable than yesterday’s (though not by much).

While they were eating, they watched the staff of the Castle of Bones haul the furniture and entertainments from the speakeasy below, arranging some of it on the ground floor. As two skeletons carried a large armchair past the table, a foot jutted out and tripped them, forcing the chair to skitter to a stop on the floor. It slid to a stop next to Josiah, and Orphelia, the Jackalwere vendor the group met the day before reclined on it. She purred to Josiah, “I hear I have you to thank for ridding us of that terrible Thingol.” Josiah acknowledged the praise, and she pulled out a map case, showing the cracked parchment inside. “Well, I just finished talking to Roric, and he says he’s changing the rules around the portal a bit, now that he’s in charge. He wanted to block it off entirely, but I convinced the poor dear that would be in poor taste. So for now, I’m free to come and go as I please, scavenging my little way across the plane. Consider this my thank you present: A map of the Grey Wastes, in all its glory. Only one gold piece.”

Josiah, without questioning it, dropped a gold piece in her hand, and Chibro tossed two more silver for her to explain the map. She gladly obliged.

“So, are you travelling to Gehenna or Carceri? Ah, it doesn’t matter. Either way, you only have three options to reach the Styx. Pestilence, War, or Death. Yes, there is also Famine, but you mortals literally cannot survive there.
The first path, of Pestilence, will mean the longest time on the river, and you will have to navigate the Sea of Lamentations, but it is the shortest time walking through the wastes. It is called the Path of Pestilence because you must traipse through the Wasting Plains. All who enter those lands fall prey to the Wasting Disease, eventually, as it drifts down from the tower of Khin-Oin.
The second path, of War, bypasses the Sea of Lamentation, but takes you through the edge of the Wasting Plains, and through the Field of Nettles. Imagine a battlefield so ancient, that the forces of Baator and the Abyss have waged war there for eons. Their blood has soaked into the soil, growing thistles and thorns so sharp that they say just looking at them can cut you. The field is strewn with the equipment and bones of thousands of fallen warriors, and enormous scavengers pick their way through the remains. Skirmishes of the blood war break out constantly but if you are lucky, smart, or both, you can avoid them. It’s currently a quiet decade there as they work on recruiting the next wave.
The final path, of Death, bypasses the plagues of the Wasting Plains, and the dangers of the Field of Nettles, but takes you by the Forlorn Pit in the Ashen Reach. There is nowhere in the Reach you can go that does not pass by the Pit. Travellers who venture there rarely escape the pull of the Pit, and it is well known that if you fall into the pit, you are not just killed - you are erased, and your essence is taken by the Ultroloth who manages the Pit, Yama. However, if you did manage to survive the Pit, you would be at the edge of the plane, and your time on the Styx would be greatly minimized.
So, the Path of Pestilence leads you to the longest time on the Styx, and the Sea of Lamentations. The path of War bypasses the Sea, but takes you through the Field of Nettles, and the Path of Death leaves you almost no time on the Styx on this plane, but takes you by the Forlorn Pit.”

She wished them well, and stepped through the door, with Angelus throwing some non-Bardic cutting words at her as she departed.

Angelus wandered over to a skeleton staffer and told them he expected a thank you for his brave actions the day before. The skeleton agreed that the actions were impressive, but insisted he was no better or worse off as he is still, in fact, a skeleton. He asked one of the human workers to thank Angelus, and he told Angelus to go to Hades.

Angelus, offended, stalked over to the bar, where he saw Derrick, the man he was terrorizing the day before. Derrick, intimidated by Angelus, thanked him profusely. Angelus then told the skeleton that this is how to be grateful. The skeleton, moved by his words (or just tired of dealing with him) gave him an armchair. Angelus tacked a sign to it claiming it as his (and also Derrick’s some of the time) and then the group proceeded out into the street.

Roric and Seamus were both there, and Roric explained that he is going to dismantle the Gallows Stage and instead put up a large statue that flanks the courtyard. Half will be an enormous statue of Thingol and her beholders, looming over the square, and the other will be of the adventuring party, running to the town’s defense. A visible reminder of those who seek to rule through terror and hopelessness, and those who bring hope.

The party thanked Roric, then stepped through the portal. Chibro went first.

You step carefully into the well, and feel it climb up you like a living ooze. it completely coats you, and you fall into it, then through it, and find yourself on your hands and knees on the Plane of the Grey Wastes. You stand, trying to brush the tar off your faded clothes, but it sticks to you.
As the others follow you through, your gaze sweeps around, and the landscape around you feels empty—vast, barren, a desolate grey wasteland. The air is heavy with the scent of decay, the sky above a sickly, unmoving grey, as if the thick haze sits waiting for a breeze that will never come. The portal burbles behind you, a black ichorish pool set in the stony ground.
Off in the distance, its fabled reddish waters muted to a dull umber, you see what must be the River Styx. An enormous tower looms in front of it, stretching seemingly miles into the air, the spine of an enormous creature, long dead.

After the rest of the party came through, the group formed up to head out. When Chibro and Kor took their places in the front, a larvae (two feet long, shaped like a slug, but with a number of thin, insectile legs along its torso, and a humanoid face focused at you) lunged out of a crevice in a nearby rock and attacked Chibro. Kor managed to stomp it to pieces.

Kor then investigated the area, as did Chibro, looking for signs of the halfling Pasinia or her comrade Calobel. They did not find them, but they found evidence of Calobel picking up an unconscious or dead Pasinia, heading to the portal, then those same footprints then leading away from the portal into the Ashen Reach.

The group debated about which way to go for a while, long enough for another larvae to launch out of a different crevice and attack Angelus. It was quickly dispatched, and the group decided to go the path of War, to the Field of Nettles.

As they went, Tag tried to locate the Firbolg and his companion by casting locate object, but to no avail. The pair was too far ahead of them, having had a long rest’s amount of time to head into the Wastes.

As they headed out, they felt pressed down and weighted by their desire to get to their destination. The harder they tried to go to the River, the harder it was to move, until they found themselves literally walking backwards. Tag remembered from his training that in the Grey Wastes, desire is dangerous. Wanting to go somewhere means you will never arrive, and so he instructs the party to wish they were anywhere else.

Chibro remembered his brief visit to the plane of Ysguard.
Kor longed to be back in the King’s forest.
Tag wanted to be sitting across from Sea of Opportunity in her shop, chatting as the flumphs packed up for the day.
Josiah wished to be back in his creator’s hometown, living out a modicum of the life Jesse once did.
Angelus thought fondly of the casinos back in Sigil, or really, anywhere.
Gobbie wanted to be anywhere but on the Grey Wastes.

With this in mind, they headed out, able to make good time.

The group headed into the Wasting Plains, having to cross through the edge to get to the Field of Nettles. Everyone wrapped clothing around their faces to block the myriad and sickly spores that were tossed into the air by their shuffling feet. The terrain was hard to handle, as their feet slid and stumbled in the muck and slick mold; all except Tag, who was able to walk steadily.

After walking through this terrible expanse for eight hours, the group decided to forgo their rest and press on. Tag, due to the focus required to keep his sure footing, became exhausted, but the rest of the group helped him press on.

Finally, they reached the outskirts of the Wasting Plains. Before they left, however, Tag felt a pair of eyes on him from the Tower of Khin-Oin (the enormous spine building in the distance), though he couldn’t tell who or what. The feeling dropped as they crossed out of the Wasting Plains.

The group, exhausted, decided to take a rest on the outskirts of the plain before tackling the Field of Nettles beyond. They could see the enormous miles-wide field of foot high brambles, each twisting vine coated in impossibly sharp thorns. They could also see vague movement in the brambles.

The group began their long rest in the hut provided by Chibro’s magic item. First Chibro, then Kor, then Tag, then Gobbie, then Josiah, all stood watch and didn’t see anything. As the hut began to fade, Josiah saw something lunge up out of the ground, skittering up the side of the hut, then falling directly on him. The rest of the group was jarred awake, and combat ensued.

Combat Highlights

Tag summoned eight owls to add to his menagerie of one snake and one panther. The owls managed to rip one of the fiendish creatures apart.
Kor destroyed one with a mighty blow from his maul, and tried desperately to destroy another before it could kill his new-found friend.
Josiah attacked valiantly, summoning a horde of animated bullets, only to be downed by another hidden creature as he attempted to gain a more advantageous position.
Angelus helped kill one of the creatures, and used the Myrmidons and their crate for battlefield control and taxi services.
Chibro blasted one to pieces, narrowly avoiding several deadly strikes to the head while prone on the ground.
Gobbie cast Slow on the two remaining creatures, leveling the field.
One of the creatures took Angelus down for one round, only for him to be brought back by another.
Despite the party’s best efforts, Josiah was killed by one of the creatures. Gobbie prayed desperately to Try to cast Revivify, but didn’t have the materials.
The dust settled, and the group gathered around to mourn Josiah. As they did, a fiend appeared, leaned on one enormous arm next to Josiah, and muttered, “No, no, no, this won’t do,” and brought Josiah back to life. But at what cost?

Song of the Session

To the River by Down Like Silver

#sigil/recap

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