Session 24 Player Notes — The Airship and the Giant’s Escape

These are the players’ own session notes, preserved from the party’s game document. They capture the table’s perspective – what the players saw, did, and said.

Key Events

• The party returned to the Tower of Light with Lux’s body while his soul remained in a fire giant via Magic Jar
• Kaial communed with Lux/Azir through the crystal ball – learned Magic Jar can be dispelled by a basic Dispel Magic
• Alora scried on Lux, watching him work the forge and pick up the Rod (taking radiant damage), before the giants teleported away
• Side Adventure: Kaial, Reaghl and Danny led recruits (Felix, Jorah, Farren, Poona, Zephyr, Dazzlebelt) to salvage a crashed Cult of the Dragon airship
• The airship crew fought wraiths on nightmare horses who demanded “the prisoner” – Nester Coin, a scrawny rogue with a purple tattoo
• Character dreams revealed: Guts has mechanical components and was programmed; Lyra visited Reeny in a dream plane where Reeny returned her dagger and revealed Vecna’s deception about Kalemvor
• Lux escaped the fire giants by teleporting back to Kaial at the Tower of Light

Session Notes

Back at the Tower of Light

Interesting note: Lux emanates radiance. He doesn’t like necromancy, but the beginning of his career was spent with a necromancer. Lux has all of Azir’s spells, and not only has he been trained in it, has access to an artillery of spells.

We are back at the Tower of Light with Lux’s body. We have a rendezvous with Kaial and Reaghl. Lyra understands that his soul is separated from his body. This is delicate, and she understands the ramifications of this, and that it can be traumatic. Lyra explains the fragile relationship between soul and body to Alora and suggests that we go back to get Lux from the giant’s body.

Alora goes out to check on the progress of the church building, and the children’s school. Someone is creating a statue of Alora. They tell her that Kaial approved it after a vote, so she grimaces and moves on. Lyra is vandalising the back of the pews with her knife. “Lyra was here ‘24.”

Kaial Contacts Lux

Kaial is playing with Baby Guts, and trying to keep it away from Reaghl. Kaial suddenly asks: “Why can I hear Azir’s voice in Lux’s head?” We immediately pass the buck and blame it on Lux. “He’s in a fire giant.”

“In a fire giant?” Kaial repeats. We nod. Lyra and Alora walk in and we see the blood has drained from Kaial’s face.

We explain that we are going to meet up where the Rod of Seven Parts is going to be delivered. Lux decided to stay with the Rod so that it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Kaial grabs the crystal ball, walks over to Lux’s body and stands there for two minutes. He shakes a little, like he has performed a saving throw. He pops out and says: “That dude is fucking crazy. Apparently there is a fire giant trapped in there, and Azir is chumming up with a fire giant. I told him that if anything happens, Guts will cut his soul up with his sword. He told me a few things about what is happening, and frankly, he sounds a little impressed. Azir is actually a little proud. He says we need to be within 100 feet of the fire giant, and if the spell ends he is dead and nothing will bring him back.”

Guts: “What ends the spell?”

Kaial jumps back into the spell. “He’s persistent that fucker. He said that Magic Jar is one of the strongest spells, but it can be dispelled with a basic Dispel Magic spell. A fairly low level wizard could perform this spell.”

Guts considers taking Lux’s body into the ball of rest and recovery. Kaial asks Azir. Azir says: “It might only suppress the magical effect, but I’m in here too, so I’d rather you don’t take that chance.”

Scrying on Lux

Alora tries to scry on Lux/giant with the ball. She sees herself soar over space and into a room with the fire giant. It is working away at the bellows at the forge. He currently has two points of exhaustion. HP 156.

Alora hears them talking but can’t understand Giant. Lux hears the other giant say: “I can’t believe I lost those gloves. We have to move this thing. How much longer can we keep doing this for?” Lux casts Mage Hand with his hand wrapped as a pretence. The Rod is heavy – way heavier than ten pounds. He can feel it slipping.

Alora twists her camera angle around a little, and she notices that Lux is trying to cast the Mage Hand. Two more fire giants arrive. “What’s taking so long? We have to get moving!” One of the giants wants to jump in on the action and help get it finished.

Lux picks it up. “Let’s go!” He takes 9 points of radiant damage. The giants exclaim when they see him holding it without the gloves. “Someone must have stolen them. Is there another pair of gloves?” The giants scoff at this, but they are impressed that he is holding the Rod without the gloves.

Lux picks up the Rod. One of the giants blows a conch, and Alora sees them disappear through a teleportation circle.

Side Adventure – The Airship

A green dragon is attacking an airship with a red balloon and netting around it.

Danny, Kaial and Reaghl see the airship get attacked. “Mate. Captain of the seas. Captain of the desert. Captain of the skies!” They plan to get the new recruits and go and collect the airship.

Felix (one of the gladiators from Fork) is in the training pits with the new potentials. There are two people that he is training: Jorah Fairwind and Farren Stonefoot.

Jorah hits Felix in the face, and Farren is hit on top of the head by Felix. Farren flicks his hair as Felix kicks him. He grunts. “It’s just my abs.” Reaghl tells of the airship. Felix cries out: “Let’s go kill a dragon!” Felix gestures to Poona Willowshade and Zephyr Windrider. “These guys aren’t doing anything. They can come along.”

Kaial gives a retrospective inspirational speech. We receive 18 temporary hit points.

Into the Woods

We head off into the woods. Farren takes Dazzlebelt who is on the floating disc. We come up to a massive crater in the ground. The light breaks through the canopy, as we can see spores floating in the air, with an enormous mushroom growing out of the crater. As we get closer we can see worms crawling around in the mushroom, but they are fat with little tentacles and burrs in their mouth. They are eating the mushroom, and some of them are eating each other. They look like they’re sweating.

Jorah exclaims: “Eeew.”

Farren helps out: “My mother always told me if anything has maggots on it, you shouldn’t touch it.”

Jorah raises an eyebrow: “You needed your mother to tell you that?”

Danny agrees: “I’ve seen some weird shit. But sweaty maggots hanging off a mushroom testicle? That’s some weird shit.”

The Crashed Airship

We continue on and have travelled about ten kilometres, finding an airship in tatters on the ground. The big red balloon is deflated and covered in a ropy netting. There is a crow’s nest on the top and there is a body hanging out of it, mangled up and dead (it is human).

The airship is wooden with one deck level and is resting on its side. It has ski-type legs, allowing a smooth landing. The red canopy is really thick, Zephyr notes, like a lizard. Dazzlebelt inspects it and notes that it is dragon hide. Zephyr licks her finger and rubs it, noting the red rubs off on her finger. The colour underneath is black.

There is a symbol on the side of the canopy. It looks like the bottom maw of a face, with fingers coming out the side with long nails (like a predator). It has a moustache of bone and a head of flame. It looks like the face of a dragon swirling up into flames.

Zephyr notes: “I read about this in one of the books. This is a Cult of the Dragon symbol. There are different colours based on the dragons that you follow. These people are pretending to be red dragon followers, but they are using black dragon hide. Maybe they are enemies with the black dragon faction?”

The Fire Elemental

Danny observes that the steering wheel looks intact, but the balloon is shredded. We see a trapdoor leading down into the deck. Reaghl opens the trap door, and Zephyr notes a metal cage with burn marks, like a brazier or a cauldron. We see burn marks on parts of the deck.

Over the edge of the ship we see fire stand up and run towards us. Farren notes smoke coming through the boards of the deck, and suddenly a flaming elemental explodes out from under the deck. Farren is engulfed in flames. Reaghl helps out, reducing the damage, blue flames of protection surrounding him. Farren is excited! “Sir would be so proud. Wait until my mother hears about this.”

Felix notes: “Seems like we might need a perimeter check. Reaghl, keep babysitting the troops?” Reaghl nods and strikes out at the elemental with psionic force. The elemental becomes gaseous and keeps reforming as it is hit, leaving a trail of flames behind it. Poona runs over to Farren. “Here, eat these herbs. It will put the fire out.” They taste minty. Farren says: “My mother always told me never to refuse a lady. Peppermint, with some slight crisp.”

Jorah turns to Reaghl: “What do I hit? It’s fire?!” He cuts a vine and throws the collected water on the elemental. It shrinks a size.

Zephyr casts a little ball of light over to the brazier. The elemental follows it like a cat to a laser, pauses out of the brazier, and says something no one understands. Reaghl says: “Command it!”

Zephyr shrugs and shouts “In you go!” The elemental looks around, reaches out then closes the door to latch itself in. Dazzlebelt finds a little lock on the ground, and pops it back on the brazier.

Nester Coin

Felix mentions seeing horse tracks. Poona notices the tracks and thinks they might be pig tracks, then sees another that looks like a regular size horse hoof. Poona is upset because everyone has started calling her TicTac. At the stern of the ship is a wind elemental trapped in another cage. In front of us is a hallway with two doors on either side and a door at the very end.

Zephyr nudges Reaghl with her shoulder. “After you big guy.” They enter. There is blood on the floor, and we hear muffled murmuring coming from the very end of the corridor. The door has a lock on it. Jorah whips out a little bag of lock picks. She undoes the lock. Reaghl pushes the door open. There is a guy with a gag in his mouth, tied up on the wall. His shoulder is popped out and he has been thrashed against the barrels.

Zephyr runs over to untie him. She almost collapses under his weight. Farren runs over and helps lift him off of her. He grabs the man’s dislocated shoulder: “I can help this. It’ll pop right back in a moment.” Reaghl grabs him by the scruff of his neck and pulls it off. “I almost had it!”

The man is really starting to fade. Reaghl uses Commanding Presence: “It’s not about how many times you get knocked down, it’s about how many times you get back up. Come on, Man!” He stands up with 16 temporary HP.

Zephyr picks up a piece of shrapnel and pegs it at Farren’s head. “Nester Coin. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” In his hand is a coin. “Didn’t drop it.”

Jorah asks: “Who did this to you?”

Nester responds: “Let me cut to the chase. I guess I’m a prisoner. Or cargo. Fuckin’ feel fantastic after your words my friend. You should fuckin’ bottle that and sell it.” He starts flicking his coin, looks at each one of them. “So I guess this thing’s not in the sky any more? Where are we?”

Reaghl responds: “You’re in the vicinity of the City of Light. You’ll remember when you see it. If you see it. Who had you locked up?”

“Have you ever heard of the Cult of the Dragon? They took me to do a job I guess. Kill people. Steal things.”

Zephyr pipes up: “Why did they need you for that?”

“I have a specific skill set I suppose. I talk about my father a lot. These fuckers talk about the All Father even more.” Reaghl has heard of Annam the All Father, the first of the giants, one of the primordials. “I don’t know what these fucking cults are trying to do, but they seemed pretty excited that something big was about to happen. Me old man would be proud.”

The Wraith Riders

Poona, walking through the forest, sees 7 black horses with riders approaching at a casual trot. She sticks her head down the trap door: “There are people coming.”

Zephyr calls back: “Could you be more specific?”

“There are 7. They look trustworthy.”

Reaghl looks at Coin: “Looks like things are about to get real. Time to show your worth.”

“You gonna give me another motivational speech? Let’s see if I’m worth my coin.” He flexes his arm, a purple tattoo shimmering. Coin looks a bit scrawny and beat up, like he has a gambling debt. He is wearing only a loincloth. He flips his coin, and as it lands we see a shimmer of light go around the coin. He stands up and walks with us. He looks ready.

Reaghl calls out: “You are running towards our property. Halt!” The horses continue towards them. With their dark masks it is hard to see any defining features. “Halt!” he calls again. The riders have spurs on their boots which have gouged into the rib cages of their horses. Sitting on each of their shoulders is a black crow. It slows down a little, and a little fire escapes from the nostrils of the horse.

Reaghl fires the harpoon at the lead horse. Poona notices that there is a little girl who is a passenger on the horse at the very back of the group. Poona calls out: “What is that little girl doing?” The first horse takes a full harpoon to the body, and it hits the rider on the horse behind. The crows on their shoulders all hover above the group now.

The group hears a voice in their head: “Hand over the prisoner. Or flee!” Jorah is so frightened that she can’t move forward.

Round 1

Reaghl – a wave of blue shimmering energy explodes out from the ship. Four of the crows disappear. The ground underneath burns out as Reaghl drives his sword into the ground. “Here we go.”

Poona/TicTac is trying to shape shift into a wolf. A wolf pokes its head out of the woods: “Need some help, mate?” shaking its head in disbelief. It looks out at the undead, and then retreats back into the woods.

Coin is looking very afraid right now, flipping his coin repeatedly and waiting for an outcome.

Zephyr steps to the edge of the boat. A screech of hawks and the sound of wind rushes towards the group. Four horses flee, and then Zephyr breathes out and a minty fresh coolness rushes over the horses. They heal and four beautiful horses trot over the forest area behind the ship.

A horse that got knocked over steps up and digs its hooves into the ground. It now has a fire mane, and trots up to the side of its rider. It rears in front of Reaghl and strikes out with its hooves, missing him. The rider wails, and Reaghl takes some psychic damage, while Felix drops unconscious.

There is a wailing that just rips at Reaghl’s soul. Reaghl yells at Felix: “Come on friend, we’ve been through worse. Stand up, make me proud.” Felix slow-stands with 16 temporary hit points.

One of the horses jumps onto the deck and attacks Felix. He throws an arm up and defends the first attack. On the second attack he grabs the sword and front kicks the wraith, knocking the wraith’s sword to the deck. The wraith falls to the ground. “Reaghl, I’m not sure this is worth the coin we’re getting paid. Thanks, brother.”

One of the wraiths grabs the little girl, who Reaghl now recognises from the village, and holds a knife to her neck. “A coin for a soul.”

Farren swings at one of the wraiths and misses. Reaghl calls out a battle cry, and everyone zips over to him. As Farren runs past a sword cuts through his chest, and he feels a minty freshness. There is a wailing across the battlefield and Felix falls to the deck. One of the wraiths pulls Felix over his shoulder and moves to the corner of the deck.

Round 2

Reaghl swings at the wraith in front of him. The wraith with the girl slices the girl’s head off. Reaghl uses his reaction to shield her. The psionic energy protects her like armour. As the wraith cuts, the little girl looks like she is ageing as it slices through her. Her skin is decaying away and she is a little dust ball. Reaghl kills one of the wraiths. He attacks the remaining horse and it is still alive, but kneeling and on death’s door.

Poona attempts to shift into an owlbear. She turns into a tiny little owl.

A wraith pulls out a burning paper scroll and hands it to Reaghl. He says: “It’s nice to know that our neighbours value diplomacy.” It rides off towards Coin.

Some of the wraiths take on a ghostly form, running through the group. “To live is to know your place.” He responds: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Reaghl starts to summon a little fireball in his hand. Zephyr sidles up to his side, brushing his shoulder humming a little tune. Jorah flips them the bird and calls out: “Fuck you, and the horse you rode in on!” Poona hoots, “whoo.” The fireball consumes the wraiths and they ride away in flames.

After the Battle

Dazzlebelt huffs: “Well, let’s get this off the ground.”

Farren gulps: “Like, off the ground? In the air? We could just leave it here.”

“We could leave you here,” grunts Reaghl.

Farren helps to lead the charge to repair the ship. The nightmare horse acts very submissive and doesn’t try to escape or attack. The four horses come out of the forest with the wolves. In the barrels where Nester Coin was chained we find hay and oats. We make friends with each of the horses.

Reaghl casts Commanding Presence on the nightmare: “You were once a great creature and can be again. I would be proud to stand by you on the field of battle.” It does a bit of a circle and then fire erupts out the side of the horse, engulfing them in a powerful but harmless flame.

The wolves snigger on the sideline: “What a bunch of pussies.” They look at Poona. “What’s your name? There is a good story in what you did today. Now fuck off.”

We load up the troops into the ship, get the horses on the boat, arrange the sails, and the fire and wind elementals get to work.

“Pancho! Feeran! Get your head out of the clouds. Zephyr – play us a tune! Jorah! Are you old enough to drink? Hold my beer.” We fly our ship back to the City of Light, as Farren presses himself to the deck. Poona hands him some herbs.

We see that there is a big bonfire ready in the city. The townsfolk are excited to see the balloon. From our vantage point, we can see in the distance sitting ominously against the mountain, a dark looming castle. We are looking at Dark Hold. The greenery starts to wither away as it approaches Dark Hold. We spend the evening telling stories around the campfire.

Character Dreams

Arawn is talking to the childhood version of himself in his own head. Very philosophical for a child who doesn’t know how old he is. A light floats out onto the table and turns into a puppy wolf. Arawn then turns into a grown wolf. It has wicked galaxy eyes with a trail of deep space paw prints. As they rest, Arawn has dreams of being a child. It’s as though something has been unlocked inside him and memories are flooding back to him.

Reaghl is dreaming of the stadium at Forks and his gladiator days.

Guts has a vision of himself as a younger man. A lady is looking down at him with a mechanical eye. He is in a street, slumped against a wall. She leans down towards him and says “Status check 3435.” He responds: “Health 120, last sleep three hours ago.” He hears mechanical sounds whirring inside of him. She turns to someone. “Set the coordinates.” To him: “This might be the last time we see each other, and if you do see me again, you need to kill me.”

Lyra’s Dream – Reeny’s Revelation

Lyra is walking through the plane with the spirits that Kalemvor reigned. She hears Reeny complaining about her father not wanting to read her a story. Reeny and her maid start reading a story about the gods. When they get to the god of death, Reeny says: “He sounds so cool.”

Mum explains that the first god of death got bored, and stopped doing his job. The second god of death was terrible – Myrkul. The third god of death is Kalemvor. He made everything better and had empathy.

Lyra walks to Reeny, as Reeny looks at her. “Lyra? Where am I? What’s happening?”

“Let me in.” When she touches Reeny it’s as though she’s woken her from something. “These were my nightmares. Not being allowed out. Then I got out and met you. What’s happening?” She starts to break down.

“Did you make a deal with a god to get what you wanted?”

“What did I want?”

“You wanted to become the god of death?”

“I just wanted to get out.” Lyra is losing her back to this dream state.

Words appear on a paper on the desk: “You’ve broken their pact. Help me. Help me. Kalemvor was a lie. Vecna knows.”

Lyra tries to ask the paper a question. It’s as though she’s broken through Reeny’s conscious. “They told me that Jergal the first god of death got bored and retired. But he didn’t. He did a good job, but they trapped him. Kalemvor made sure that Jergal did not come back. They summoned me up to destroy the dagger because they knew that it had power. The only way that they could destroy it was to bring me back. I’m sorry. You’re my best friend.” She is starting to remember. “Lyra, I was never going to hurt you. I miss you.”

As Lyra looks around the room, Reeny says: “He can’t watch us here.” Lyra cuts some of her own hair off, ties it around the bracelet and hands it to her. She tells her that she will contact her when she’s ready. Reeny takes a big gulp and shows the bracelet on her own wrist. “They were going to destroy the dagger if they could bring my soul back. I’m not going to see you again, because I’m not going to let them have it.” She opens up her hands and the dagger is in her hands. “Don’t let them know that you have it, because it can kill them.”

She tucks a lock of her own hair around the bracelet and hands it to Lyra. Lyra hides it underneath her own hair. Reeny rushes towards her and hugs her, eyes shining and wet. She blinks then a voice says: “Oh, nobody is home anymore. This little bitch is fucked now!” Her eyes go blank, and Lyra wakes up. She presses her hand to her back. The dagger is gone, but the sensation of being able to slip into the shadows has returned.

Back to the Fire Giants – Lux Escapes

The Rod is ready, but we have a problem. They have the fucking gloves!

“The gloves of the prince – a relic of our kind! We will find our place again in the material realm. Those gloves felt meaningless at the time, and you don’t know where the fuck they are?! Step forth.”

Lux tries to explain: “We’ve forged the Rod. I had to get it here so I carried it. The burden fell on me so I carried it.” He shows the giant his hands that are still burned from carrying the Rod.

“It’s good to know we have people who will go above and beyond to make sure we achieve our goal, despite others’ shortcomings. You have done a great deed to help us progress.” Someone detects magic coming from Lux. The eye seems to be giving off a Detect Magic sense.

Lux teleports out of there! A Counterspell is counterspelled! And bam! He’s gone!

He is in a room with Kaial, sitting on Lux’s desk. The fire giant erupts into the room. Kaial charges at him. Lux shouts: “You wear that armour because I got you the gloves to wear that armour! Remember, you couldn’t carry the armour.”

“What’s my favourite berry to put on my pancakes?”

“Blueberry!!! And Guts makes better pancakes than you do.”

He explains the story to Kaial who responds: “Isn’t Counterspell a bitch?!”

Items & Loot

• Airship – salvaged Cult of the Dragon vessel with fire and wind elemental engines, black dragon hide balloon painted red
• Nightmare Horse – tamed by Reaghl’s Commanding Presence
• 4 Horses – healed by Zephyr from the wraith riders’ mounts
• Burning Paper Scroll – diplomatic message from the wraith riders (contents unclear)
• Lyra’s shadow abilities restored – sensation of slipping into shadows returned after Reeny’s dream

NPCs Encountered

• Kaial – communed with Lux via crystal ball, led the airship expedition, gave inspirational speeches
• Reaghl – led the recruits in the airship salvage and wraith battle
• Danny – helped with the airship expedition
• Felix – gladiator from Fork, training recruits, fought wraiths
• Jorah Fairwind – new recruit, lock picker, mouthy
• Farren Stonefoot – new recruit, talks about his mother constantly, afraid of heights
• Poona Willowshade (TicTac) – new recruit, druid who struggles with shapeshifting (tried wolf, got owl)
• Zephyr Windrider – new recruit, knowledgeable about Cult of the Dragon, good with elementals, musical
• Dazzlebelt – on the floating disc, helped identify dragon hide and repair the ship
• Nester Coin – scrawny rogue prisoner from the airship, purple tattoo, Cult of the Dragon captive with a “specific skill set”
• Azir – communicated through the crystal ball, expressed pride in Lux’s Magic Jar play
• Reeny – appeared in Lyra’s dream, revealed that Jergal was trapped (not retired), returned the dagger to Lyra, warned that Vecna knows about Kalemvor’s deception
• Vordana – referenced (statue being built, town growing)
• The Wolves – talked to Poona, called the group pussies, then told them to fuck off

Notable Quotes

• Kaial, on contacting Lux: “Why can I hear Azir’s voice in Lux’s head?”
• Kaial, after communing: “That dude is fucking crazy.”
• Danny, on the mushroom crater: “I’ve seen some weird shit. But sweaty maggots hanging off a mushroom testicle? That’s some weird shit.”
• Farren: “My mother always told me if anything has maggots on it, you shouldn’t touch it.” Jorah: “You needed your mother to tell you that?”
• Nester Coin, after Reaghl’s speech: “Fuckin’ feel fantastic after your words my friend. You should fuckin’ bottle that and sell it.”
• Reaghl to the wraiths: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
• Jorah to the wraiths: “Fuck you, and the horse you rode in on!”
• The wolves to the group: “What a bunch of pussies.”
• Reaghl to Farren about the airship: “We could leave you here.”
• Reeny to Lyra: “I just wanted to get out.”
• Reeny, on the dagger: “Don’t let them know that you have it, because it can kill them.”
• The unknown voice after Reeny fades: “Oh, nobody is home anymore. This little bitch is fucked now!”
• Lux proving his identity to Kaial: “Blueberry!!! And Guts makes better pancakes than you do.”
• Kaial: “Isn’t Counterspell a bitch?!”
• The mysterious woman in Guts’ vision: “This might be the last time we see each other, and if you do see me again, you need to kill me.”