Session 3
Recap
Picking up with the party escorting Nathara and her three drow companions toward the city, the group was ambushed in the tunnels by a pack of armored ghouls led by a large brute, with the vampire Azeron Vale closing from the other side. Vale demanded that Nathara hand over "the artifact," claiming her kind could not properly manifest its power. She refused, told the party to handle the rear while she dealt with the bloodsucker, and the fight began.
The ghouls proved to be grabbers and whisperers — several party members were grappled, restrained, and infected with a curse the group later identified as Forbidden Cravings, an escalating hunger for raw flesh. The party ground through the ghoul line with AoE healing, flaming spears, lightning, and a lot of reactive strikes. Before she fell, Nathara smeared her blood onto a compass, pressed it and a small box into a party member's pouch, and told them to bring it to the city — the drow would accept them there — and above all not to let "them" have the artifact. Vale punched through her chest, discarded her heart, turned to the party, and when the fight turned against him dissolved into mist with a promise that they would meet again, leaving nine summoned thralls behind.
Afterward the party recovered the drow bodies and, with the ice-tipped drow spear, recreated the entombment rite Nathara had used on her fallen scout, freezing the corpses so they could be carried back to the composer. They stripped the brooch talismans from the dead as identifiers and took the lead priestess's silver brooch. Then they opened the box. The orb inside compelled first one, then two, then three of them to touch it; each gained a glowing archaic tattoo on the wrist, a connection to the orb that let them call it back to hand at will, and the ability to push themselves past their limits at the cost of being drained. The party split into two camps for the night — "team orb" and everyone else — sixty feet apart, with the orb sealed inside an ice block between them. It didn't help; the pull reached across the distance anyway.
The night cost them dearly. Those keeping watch away from the orb got no sleep at all, and the Forbidden Cravings nearly drove one of the party to attack a sleeping companion before he was talked down. In the morning, fatigued and drained, they followed the blood-marked compass through the tunnels until it opened into a vast cavern over a glowing river — where a male drider dropped from the ceiling, enraged at the mention of the composer, and brought bees and more driders down on them. The party fought through the swarm; the session ended with the drider beaten and a great many more creatures crawling down the walls toward them.
Timeline
Brendan recapped the dead drow woman found being eaten by ghouls and the party's agreement to escort the surviving drow back to their city.
The drow party was revealed to be fleeing something, and the party learned they were being hunted by the First Blood Court.
Heading out, the party was caught between a group of ghouls and a vampire on one side and more ghouls behind them.
The vampire introduced himself as Azeron Vale and demanded Nathara hand over the artifact, claiming her kind could not properly manifest its power.
Nathara refused, told the party to take care of the rear while she handled the bloodsucker, and combat began.
A ghoul grappled Rowan and whispered in his ear; he resisted the Forbidden Cravings.
Shim, grappled by a ghoul, cast Sudden Bolt — the one spell without the manipulate trait — directly into it.
Lux used a ranged heal that damaged the undead ghouls while healing the party, dropping two of them hard.
Vosk arrived and used Get Down, Mr. President to intercept attacks aimed at allies.
Vosk failed a save against a ghoul's whisper and contracted stage one of Forbidden Cravings; Russ later caught it too.
With the drow priestess badly wounded, Vosk charged forward, raised his shield, and taunted the vampire off her.
Nathara pressed a small box and a blood-marked compass into a party pouch and said: bring this to the city, they will accept you there, don't let them have the artifact.
Vosk resisted the vampire's dominate attempt with a natural 20; the vampire drained the drow instead.
Lux's heal was rejected by the drow's body — something in her conflicted with the vitality magic.
The vampire used a mythic point to dominate Russ, who then summoned nine thralls among the party.
Azeron Vale said "we will see each other again," turned to mist, and fled around a corner; the party chose not to pursue.
The party confronted the goblin among them, who was revealed to be a spider creature and a necromancer; the group decided to keep going anyway.
Lia used the drow spear's ice to entomb the fallen drow, recreating the rite Nathara had performed for her scout.
Lux collected the sound talismans and brooches from the dead drow, pinning the leader's silver one on himself.
Shim opened the box; the orb's energy flowed down his arm and left an off-center archaic tattoo on his wrist.
Lux and Russ were each compelled across the march to touch the orb, gaining matching tattoos and a connection to it.
The party tested sealing the orb in an ice block between Lia's spear and the frozen body; the compulsion crossed sixty feet anyway.
Shim called the orb back to his hand from inside Lia's ice block, proving distance and containment meant nothing.
The party split into two camps for the night — the orb-bound on one side, everyone else on the other.
Russ, in the grip of the Forbidden Cravings, began walking toward sleeping James until Lia stood with her spear and stopped him.
Vosk's dwarven constitution threw off the Forbidden Cravings overnight without eating raw flesh.
Lia and Vosk pulled their camp another twenty feet out and still got compelled, but Lia fought it off.
The party set out following the blood-marked compass with team orb up front and sixty feet of separation.
The tunnel opened into a vast cavern with a glowing river sixty feet below and a ceiling so far up it looked like a night sky.
A male drider dropped from above, accused the party of trespassing, and went into a rage at the mention of the composer.
The party fought the drider and a swarm of cat-sized blood-draining bees that attached to Shim, Vosk, and others.
Lux and Shim each drew on the orb mid-fight to turn misses into hits, taking drained conditions in exchange — and inflicting drained on the other orb-bound as well.
Brendan called the drider defeated, then described a handful more driders and other creatures crawling down the cavern walls.
At the table
It's monologuing. Let them monologue.
At the table
Bring this to the city. They will accept you there. Don't let them have the artifact.
At the table
We will see each other again.
At the table
A tendril of the energy flows down into your hand and makes a tattoo right on your wrist.
We should widen the distance between the rest of our group. This thing is forcing us to touch it.
At the table
You feel like if you wanted to you could push your body by drawing energy out of this.
I definitely got that curse. I have to keep myself away from Rowan.
Hey, Kyle, by the way, I used the orb and it was still in your hand the whole time too.
I have to save everybody here before I can save the drow.
If the rest of us can't handle one ghoul, we didn't deserve to be rescued.
At a Glance
Session
3
Recording
2026-10-10-1640
Played
2026-10-10
Length
7:06:28
For the GM
Can the orb's tattoo be removed, and what will the drow of the city do when they see three outsiders physically bound to the artifact they were sent to deliver?
What exactly is 'the composer' that the drow serve, and why do the driders react with rage at the name?
Where did Azeron Vale go, and how soon does he come back for the artifact?
Why was the drow priestess's body rejecting vitality healing — was she already turning?
What does the orb actually draw power from when it's used, beyond the drained condition on the bound?
Will Russ and the others who caught Forbidden Cravings manage to resist the peak craving, or will one of them eat raw flesh and advance the curse?
Answering corrects the transcript and teaches the voice for this microphone, so next session asks fewer questions.