Recap - 2026-06-04

Angelus

Angelus was the first to get back to Chirper’s after getting his payment. Dreri and Grebo followed, less following Angelus specifically and more just that they weren’t sure where to go in this tangled mass of creatures. At the door, Dreri paused. Looking around, she smiled, “Well, you brought me here, just as you promised.” Angelus grinned, and then turned red as Dreri bent down and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek.

She straightened, then let her gaze drift over the bazaar and its myriad colors. “Thank you for this. I never dreamed I would get to see such colors. I can’t wait to go see this city and all it contains.” She looked at Angelus, and he smiled at her. A genuine smile, not his normal rakish grin, and said, “Dreri, when I met you, I saw a painting. It was missing some parts, sure, some were more drawn in than others, but it was a painting of someone full of power, strength, and beauty. And I wanted to see the whole picture. And I’ve had the honor of watching as you’ve found pieces of your painting, and as the missing spots have been filled in, it’s only grown more beautiful.”

Dreri laughed, and said, “Well, I think that earns you a drink before I go.” Angelus, without missing a beat, pulled three glasses out of his bag, winking, “Why have one when you can have three?”

The two of them went into Chirper’s, and Angelus ordered the drinks, asking for something “from the lower planes, but good.” The bartender handed over the bar’s lower plane specialty: Styxwater. Angelus blanched at this, looking at Dreri, and said, “Maybe something a little lighter.” Taking the glasses of Nectar the bartender offered, he took them to Dreri further down the bar, and they sat chatting, thinking back over their brief but harrowing adventure and their shared escaped. Dreri seemed to be slowly relaxing, but every time a loud voice was raised or a glass clattered to the floor, she would tense.

By their third drink, the conversation was veering more to future plans, and Dreri confirmed she wouldn’t be joining the group out on their next excursion. Angelus was about to protest when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Then another. Then someone tapped his shoulder. Angelus twisted around to face Dreri more fully, trying to block out the distraction, but he heard someone scamper up onto the stool behind him and begin whispering his name in his ear. Finally, Angelus turned around and shouted, “WHAT? Can I not have ONE MOMENT of peace?!”

Grebo, still wearing his full armor and backpack, cowered back slightly, and spread his kobold hands, “But I gave you five moments! I just want to know: What is Grebo to do? Grebo does not know this city.”

Angelus sighed, and turned back to Dreri, who was swirling what was left of her drink meditatively. “I hate to poison the air,” he said, “But would you be able to watch out for this small creature?” Dreri leaned back to look at Grebo, who waved and said, “Hello!” She huffed a breathy chuckle and said, “Sure. Those of us who got a little too close to the Styx need to stick together.”

She went to finish her drink, and Angelus leaned back over to Grebo and whispered in his ear, “Listen, Grebo. I need you to watch out for that woman there. She is near and dear to me, and nothing can happen to her. Do you understand? I am trusting you!” Grebo stood ramrod straight and saluted, and without a word, jumped down from his stool and proceeded to draw his axe and menace anyone who approached the bar.

Finally, the bartender had to ask them to leave, as they were scaring away the business. Dreri and Grebo left, passing Gobbie as he entered, and Angelus sat watching them go, a melancholy peace in his heart.

He went to bed that night content, but woke the next morning with the knowledge he had five thousand gold pieces and a burning need to play a game of chance. He ran to Fortune’s Wheel, and bought himself a spin. He won no prize the first time, and vowed to return each week to try again. Each week he returned, and each time, he failed to win anything grand. He did win a small locket. He put the key to his house in Rigis that he had won the last time he was successful at the Fortune’s Wheel, and gave it to Dreri the next time he saw her. She had ditched the heavy dark metal plate in favor of leather fur-lined armor and had cut her hair short. Grebo was with her, dressed in a suit and wearing goggles with darkened lenses, carrying a knife and threatening anyone who walked too close to Dreri. She accepted the key, and offered to explore the place as Angelus had never been there before.

After Dreri and Grebo left, he decided that the quasi-demigod of street gamblers and magicians needed to have faith in himself, and stepped forward, placing his entire remaining wad of cash on one bet. And with an incredible amount of luck (AKA two critical successes), he won double that back.

Shemeshka noticed this gamble and “invited” Angelus back to her private room. They bantered back and forth, and she asked Angelus where he had earned this money, and why he would risk it all. Angelus offered to tell her, but only if she could win against him in a game of chance. Shemeshka agreed, and offered up either a spin at Fortune’s Wheel, bypassing the first ring, or an answer to a secret, if Angelus won.

Angelus agreed, and they began to play. It was a nerve-biting game of Dead Hands Dice, but Angelus came out on top. Shemeshka asked him what he wanted to know, and Angelus took a mulligan and left to consult his party.

Gobbie

Gobbie left the group and headed back to Chirper’s, moving slowly, weighed down both by the money and the weight of what he had seen on the lower plains. He came in as Dreri and Grebo were leaving, and had a brief exchange with Angelus, before heading to his room to bed. He promised himself that this newfound wealth would be used to build a temple to Tyr, to honor him.

The next morning, he woke up feeling renewed and rested. He immediately set out into the city to do the work of Tyr, and to seek out any who followed him. Day after day, he crossed through the city, adjudicating disputes, righting wrongs where he could, helping the needy. He gave away some of his money as he did, and spread the word that he was looking for a place to establish a temple to his god.

After a couple of weeks of this work, a messenger came to him, telling him to come to the Tower of the Prophet in the Lady’s Ward. Having never heard of this place, he was curious, and followed the Tout to the building. It was incredibly tall, a single long thin tower with windows every so often spiraling up the outside, with a massive pointed dome on the top. The doors at the front were not overlarge like many doors in Sigil are, made to allow through the larger creatures from across the plains. Instead, they were clearly sized for humanoids and below.

The doors creaked open at his approach, and he was gestured inside by a woman in a long silver hooded robe, with a single black line painted vertically down her lips, from her nose to her chin, as if she had shushed someone with ink on her finger. She also had the same black ink around her eyes like a blindfold, the effect strengthening each time she blinked.

Without a word, she gestured for Gobbie to follow her, and they proceeded up the spiral stairwell, passing nondescript rooms that had trappings of a chapel or religious building but without any clear symbols or markings. At the top, the woman gestured for Gobbie to go through a thick wooden door into the main room.

Gobbie entered, and found himself standing on a wooden floor of extremely high craftsmanship between four golden statues, one at each point of the compass. He didn’t recognize the other three, but the fourth stood out: Tyr. Near the center of the room, another woman in long flowing silver robes and the same inked blindfold, but instead of a vertical line of black down her lips, the ink wrapped around her lips, cheeks and behind her head, giving the impression of something wrapped around her mouth.

She nodded to him, and in a voice barely higher than a whisper, said, “Welcome, worshiper of Tyr. We have heard of your great deeds, and your desire to build a temple. The one who rules here,” and she gestured about her head in the shape of a spiked mask, indicating, Gobbie knew, the Lady of Pain, “does not like temples rising here. Too many gods means too many holy wars.” She pointed at the statues and said, “But there are places for it. Here stands Tyr. Go, rest your hand on the statue.”

Gobbie, without pause, walked over and gave the statue a hug, wrapping his little goblin arms around its leg. “Now, close your eyes,” the woman said, but Gobbie was so entranced he couldn’t bring himself to tear his vision away. Finally, he managed to drop his head and look at the floor, and as he did, the world tore away from him.

He found himself standing in a field, surrounded by grazing sheep, with a large river lazily swirling by nearby. An incredibly tall man, easily ten feet tall, sits against the stump of a massive tree, one knee propped up, and an apple balanced between the knee and the stump of his missing left hand. With his right, he deftly peels the apple, and cuts a slice and offers it out to Gobbie.

“It’s good to see you again, Hankin.” His voice is firm, but kind. Gobbie reaches out to accept the slice, and sees his hands are grey, not green. His arms are long, and ropy with muscle. He stands tall, in his true goliath form.

The man cuts and pops a piece of apple in his mouth, and Gobbie does the same. The apple is sweet and warm and lovely, better than any food Gobbie had ever tasted. The giant handed him another piece, and nodded at him.

“Goliath,” he says, “I have many followers. I am not often seen by one who would march their way into the Crawling City in the depths of Gehenna, stare down the head of the ruling council, and ask them to convert to following me.”

Gobbie, humbled but glowing from the praise, spread his hands and said, “I am only trying to do the will of Tyr in the world.”

Tyr smiles, the smile of a parent proud at the audacity of their child while bemused by its naivety. “It was impossible, of course. Had they followed your request, they would have, as he said, immediately been ejected from their plane, to I don’t even know where. I know you said it at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it spoke well of you, servant of mine. You’ve done many great things.”

He finished the apple, core and all, then stuck the knife into the stump. “I have summoned you here to reward you for your faith. I offer you three gifts. Take which you seek, but know they all have a cost.”

“The first: A boon. I can grant you a powerful blessing that will carry you far.”

“The second: A weapon. An intensely powerful artifact thought lost to my followers.

“And the third: The mantle of my Divine Agent. You will become my agent in the world. However, I will warn you, it comes with many costs. You will no longer be just Gobbie. You will be a vessel. Your alignment will be locked to Lawful Good. You will feel the pain of injustice as physical agony. You will be unable to lie, even to save a life, unless the lie serves a greater justice. And worst of all…you will hear the cries of the innocent everywhere you go, a constant whisper that will never cease until the scales are balanced.”

Gobbie paused, and spoke quietly, “Tyr, there was a time, earlier in my life, that I would have wished for your tools, your divine touch, to help me further your mission. However, as I’ve grown and experienced more of the world, I’ve come to realize that what really matters is what you believe, and who you are doing these things for. So, if you judge me worthy, I will gladly take on the role of your divine agent, whatever the cost.”

Tyr nodded, a small smile on his face, and said, “I judge you worthy, my son. Kneel.”

Gobbie, without question, kneeled. Tyr grabbed Gobbie’s left hand, and in a booming voice, spoke, “Before you commit to this, I must know who is committing. Gobbie, are you the Goliath, looming large over those around you, using your might to bring justice to the weak? To lead the way to what is right? Or are you small, in your goblin form, better to stand in the place of those who cannot defend themselves, to understand the pains of those who those in power trod upon? Tell me!”

Gobbie thought, then spoke, “Tyr, I have spent much of my life as a goliath, and having that strength and power that was able to be used in your service, to leverage your will on the planes, gave me a chance to help a great many people. But when I was made a goblin, I learned that you don’t always need large muscles and power to help others, and sometimes it can merely get in the way, as a distraction. I don’t know which one is better, Tyr. You are the judge. Judge me. Who am I?”

Tyr stood to his full ten feet, looming over Gobbie even in his goliath form, and put a hand on Gobbie’s shoulder. “My son. The truth you forget is that there is always someone larger. Size is not what matters. How you use the strength you have is.” Tyr hefted an axe, grabbed Gobbie’s left wrist, and said, “Hankin, my servant, I commission you into my service.” With one mighty blow, he cut off Hankin’s hand at the wrist. “I bequeath to you my power.” He clamped a golden cap onto the wound. “I give to you my glory.” He screwed a thick golden hand onto the cap. “This hand was forged for me by Gond, and I have gifted it to each of my champions in turn. Now, rise, Hankin Hummock, and go into the world, and do my bidding. The planes are tilting on their scales, and you are my champion to right them.”

Hankin stood, and found himself back in the chamber, standing next to the statue of Tyr. The priest was so shocked, she screamed and fainted. Hankin carried her gently down to one of the rooms, and left her in the care of the other priests. With his body restored, and his purpose clarified, he stepped out into the streets of Sigil.

Josiah

Josiah went the other way from the rest of the group, and headed out into the market. He started scouting around for supplies, realizing that his bullet count was getting perilously low. He managed to find a few here and there, but then Tag invited him to come over to see Sea of Opportunity and see if she had anything for him.

Tag and Sea spent some time catching up, then he left, carrying out some jewelry she had picked up from her supplier. Sea offered up some cartridges she had, and said that she might have more in the back room but couldn’t check right then as she was closing up.

Josiah said he would come back again, and then left for Chirper’s. When he finally arrived, Angelus was sitting at the bar, smiling to himself and finishing off the last of his drink. Josiah waved to him, but went back to his room and collapsed.

Over the next few weeks, Josiah alternated between doing handyman jobs around the town with his tinkers tools and spending time carousing with people he knew around Sigil. One of his attempts to fix something at Chirper’s went so wrong he was evicted for a few days and had to find another place to stay. He attempted to go spend some time with the law in Sigil, and looked up Anelrond and Melthalrian, two Harmonium soldiers they met when they first arrived, but they were fairly stiff and his attempts to connect with them lawman to lawman failed miserably.

The next week, he made a decent amount of cash setting up a stall near Tag and doing some basic repairs, but not much else. He went back to Sea’s shop a few times, and picked up a cheap set of Eyes of Minute Seeing, and a low-level Spell Scroll, but not much else.

He then ran into Checker one night, and Checker invited him to attend a function with many of the higher-ups in the factions in Sigil, put on by the sensates. Josiah agreed, but felt out place when he arrived. After a few awkward interactions, Checker brought him a drink. The drink was in a massive metal cup, easily a half-foot in diameter, and was filled with a swirling liquid, spinning in a constant whirlpool. Checker told Josiah, “It is a great experience to do this, but you must drink it all in one go.” Josiah tried to gulp it down, but the swirling water felt as though it was trying to jump down his nose, into his ears. He began to choke and gasp, but Checker just kept pouring. Finally, Josiah managed to choke it down, but felt it whirling and bucking in his stomach. Feeling very ill, he collapsed into a seat next to two figures in black robes.

Checker clapped his hands together and said, “No one has ever done that before! Drinking a water elemental is not easy!” He saw how green Josiah was and said, “I will be back. Wait here.” The other two figures at the table seemed impressed and vaguely disgusted by this feat, and began to chat with him. One of them recognized Josiah, and he remembered her as the one who picked him up off the ground after the portal ejected them out of the Great Foundry. Lorthaldel Strang and her counterpart, Kieran Shieldspark, sat with Josiah as he fought to keep the water elemental from crawling up his throat and suffocating him.

Lorthaldel offered two pieces of advice, and an offer of a favor. The advice was simple:

• Small and Coats are the most brilliant artificer and wizard in Sigil, but they are not cautious with their customers. Always check what cargo they ask you to carry, or what they ask you to retrieve.
• Do not drink any more water elementals.

Kieran, her counterpart, when he heard reference to Small, made a comment about “the thing we’re keeping for him,” but Lorthaldel shushed him and they made their exit. Finally, Checker returned with a different bowl with a rune on the bottom, and he activated it, and the elemental returned to the bowl. Josiah, feeling worn out, left the event and went back to rest.

The next morning, he was shopping in the market, when a vendor recognized the bag he was carrying. This bag was given to Josiah by Togek in the Night Market, pulled from who knows where as part of the transaction. The blacksmith, upon seeing the bag, became terrified, telling Josiah that bag carries the mark of the Smith of the Deep, one of the armorers of the armies of the Abyss, who is rumored to work in the depths of the Pit. He warned Josiah that the Smith always came for his crafts, and Josiah should get rid of it. Later, as Josiah sat watching the market, his eyes fell on the bag and its odd symbol. As he watched, the symbol flashed a deep, crimson red, then returned to its original state. “Well…That’s not good.”

Josiah also hired a planar hireling to go the material plane and pluck a tumbleweed from his creator’s hometown and bring it to him. When he received it, he animated it using the spell “Awaken”, and the Elvish-speaking tumbleweed was born.

Chibro

Chibro followed closely after Angelus, and bypassed him and the rest of the group and went back and to bed. The next day, he got up and went to the Armory, where he struck a deal. He would leave the pieces he did not use for them, and in exchange for the pieces of metal from the Field of Nettles and the remaining pieces of the giant crocodile skin, they would allow him to use their tools to forge his armor.

He worked alone for a few days, but soon a younger member of the Doomguard, the faction who run the Armory, offered to help as a way to learn armor crafting. The short squat but musclebound tiefling was named Sishu Vultuehr, and she and Chibro started chatting as they worked through the days on the armor.

Eventually, after hearing Chibro’s story, Sishu asked him if she had seen a tiefling that looked like her at the Night Market. She explained that her brother had been there, and had sent her a few messages from there, but never came back.

Chibro, using every ounce of his limited tact, gently teased out details from her. When she balked at his prompting, he changed tact and offered that he would buy dinner as a thanks for helping with the armor. She agreed, and they went to Chirper’s. They sat at the bar, chatting, talking about the armor, the planes, generic things.

Finally, Chibro began to ask about her brother again, and began to offer up information about what he had seen, including that someone matching her brother’s description was one of the Hands of Havoc who he saw messing with the crate in the Night Market, and that he jumped in the River Styx to cover his tracks.

Sishu was stricken by this news, and began to leave, but as she got to the door, Angelus, Dreri and Grebo burst in. Dreri was wearing a gold necklace that Chibro had never seen her wear before, and Grebo was in a nice suit with darkened goggles, and wielding a knife menacingly. Angelus invited Chibro back to their table for a drink, but Chibro, seeing Sishu standing in the doorway staring at Angelus and his companions, waved him off.

Sishu slowly made her way back to Chibro, and handed him some wadded up papers. The first paper was mostly gibberish, chaotic scribblings about the dark and the outer places beyond where the eyes can see, but amidst the crazed rantings is a small burst of lucidity: “I am sorry, Sishu, my beloved sister. You will not understand, but I have to do this. Her has commanded it. They have commanded it.” The second page, which Sishu said was sent first, was more coherent, and detailed her brother’s adventurers visiting the Crawling City and at the Night Market.

Sishu explained that her brother began acting strange, and she found out he was hanging out with the Hands of Havoc. After a while, he started disappearing for days at a time, leaving her messages through magical means via touts, but then one day, she got his crazed screed, and there has been no contact since.

Chibro explained what he thought the Hands were doing there, and Sishu was despondent, “You think my brother abandoned me to, what, end the world?” She thanked Chibro for listening, and gave him an artifact she had found in her brother’s room, under his bed. It was a Dodecahedron that shifted and seemed to be in multiple positions at once.

Chibro then decided to seek out anyone from the Hands to see if he could trace what is going on. Their dispersed locations made it hard to track anyone down, but he found through his code when the next meeting would be, and where, and planned to visit.

Before he could, he was intercepted by a tout who gave him a message to meet a mysterious stranger at the Smoldering Corpse bar. Chibro immediately followed the tout to the Hive Ward and into the smoky and unkept tavern.

The air in the Smouldering Corpse Bar tastes like ash and cheap ale, a combination that somehow works better than it should.
You push through the heavy, charred door, and the noise hits you first—a raucous mix of bellowing laughter, clinking tankards, and the occasional sound of something exploding in the kitchen.
“Watch your step!” a voice bellows. A half-orc bartender slides a mug across the counter, narrowly missing a small, scuttling imp that’s trying to steal a napkin. “That’s the third time today, little gremlin. Go bother the patrons in the back.”
The imp hisses, snatches the napkin, and scampers off toward a corner where a group of tieflings are playing a card game that involves actual fire.
The tout points to a small human figure sitting at the far side of the room, a roll of parchment in front of him, looking vaguely uneasy at his surroundings.

Chibro went over and introduced himself, and the figure introduced himself as Jeff, servant of Khalreshaar - DM Note, queen of the forest, ruler of the Beastlands, etc.

Jeff apologized for the terrible surroundings, saying he had asked the guide for a good place to meet, and the tout had offered up the Smoldering Copse bar, which to Jeff sounded like a nice little wooded area with some mildly burning incense.

Jeff told Chibro he didn’t know why Khalreshaar was doing what she was doing, but that she had planted a seed of the World Tree, given to her by her now adopted father Silvanus, in the astral sea, and was giving it to them as part of a deal made with the yugoloth Quintus.

He warned them that the plane was still growing, and there would be some weird effects going on, but gave Chibro the scroll with the magic key phrase and the location. He said that the plane will shift in size, and will one day reach its full size, and detach from its Branch and float in the Sea. Other things, beasts and the like, might appear as it grows.

Chibro read that the portal on the Outlands is set in a metal ring that a massive tree grew around, about six miles from Faunel in a thick forest.

Jeff wished him well, told him to say hi to Josiah and Gobbie, and left. Chibro followed after him, and returned to Chirper’s Inn, eager to gather the party and explore the new demiplane. However, the group was still dispersed on their own quests, and so Chibro and Josiah were the only ones to visit at first. They found a portal that let them out nearish Faunel, and sought out the portal. When they found it, Chibro spoke the passphrase, and the portal opened.

The demiplane is roughly 1.5 acres in size, with thick brambles around the outer edges. It is covered in thick earthy loam, with a single tall sapling standing in the exact center of the plane, covered in rounded leaves that emit a soft but bright light, illuminating the whole plane. At one corner stands a rugged pile of stone in roughly the shape of an arch, where the entrance portal forms. At the opposite corner stands a mirrored stone arch, with the exit portal.

Chibro and Josiah (and eventually Hankin and the rest of the party) explored the plane, discovering small plants growing there, with a handful of bugs flying around. Hankin discovered he could not open the portal, and the group realized that this was because he didn’t sign the agreement. Chibro, Josiah and Tag could all open the portal, but Angelus, Hankin, and Kor could not.

The party returned to Chirper’s, eager to discuss their plans for the demiplane, and where they were going to go next.

Song of the Session

Down to Earth or Supernatural by Ben Rector

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