📘 Session 17 - Carriage of the Stilled Tongue

🎵 Music

 

🖼️ Images

🪐 Campaign Arc

• Campaign: Spelljammer
• Session: 17 — The Stilled Tongue’s Carriage
• Date: 21/02/2026
• Dungeon Master: James / Jamie / Sicareus
• Setting: On the road during portal travel (rocky outcrops and a stopped carriage)

🧭 Overview

Mid-journey and still under Primus’ not-so-subtle “keep moving” mandate, the party’s travel turned into a roadside nightmare: shadows swarmed in, backed by two hulking minotaur skeletons. The fight immediately became a positioning puzzle—carriage, rock cover, and a fallen pillar mattered as much as damage.

Then the real problem stirred: a lich revealed itself from within the carriage and started carving the battlefield apart with necrotic surges, brutal force blasts, and repeated deathly teleports. Fear scattered key bodies at the worst possible time, heals were constantly racing damage spikes, and more than one ally hit the dirt—then got dragged back into the fight anyway. By the end, the lich dropped, the road went quiet, and the party crawled away richer, scarier, and ready to level up.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Party Members

Character	Player	Class/Subclass	Race	Notable Actions
Garrick “Rigg” Dalhart	Ben / Elemunk	Rogue (Swashbuckler)	Human	Heavy Sneak Attack turns; dropped late, then revived post-fight.
Laydrick Gefinhal	Jared / Galindis	Cleric (Life Domain)	Dwarf	Kept the party alive with Aura of Life, Healing Word / Mass Healing Word, and Channel Divinity; eventually downed.
High Jinks	Kate / Keitachan	Warlock (Great Old One)	Tabaxi	Thunder Step, Eldritch Blast pressure, and one of the final blows on the lich; imp familiar assisted.
Dino Roar (Dynoth Rokos)	Robb / Baconbuff	Artificer (Battle Smith) / Fighter	Githyanki	Frontline damage with Moon-Touched longsword + Dancing Longsword; forced to run when Fear landed.
Valen Pyre	Justin / Slitzer	Wizard (Evoker)	Human	Mind Sliver + Eldritch Blast output; Shield reactions; delivered the last hit that ended the lich.
Rook Varrek	DM (Ally NPC)	Unknown (rapier user)	Human	Ice-encrusted rapier strikes; soaked big hits; feared into a full retreat at one point.

📍 Key Locations

• The stopped carriage/wagon (where the lich was hiding).
• A fallen pillar / rocky outcrop used for cover, leaps, and line-of-sight breaks.

• The surrounding road/approach where shadows and skeletons closed in.

⚔️ Session Highlights

• Initiative opened on six shadows and two minotaur skeletons—then escalated when the lich joined from the carriage.
• High Jinks’ imp (often acting like a sneaky little aerial menace) contributed alongside repeated Eldritch Blasts.
• The lich’s toolkit defined the fight: Disrupt Life necrotic bursts, Deathly Teleport, heavy force blasts, and later Fear—which sent Dino and Rook sprinting.
• Leydrick’s Aura of Life (plus relentless healing) prevented a wipe when bodies started dropping. He still went down before the end.
• Rook dealt meaningful damage and soaked punishment, but ran away with fear along with DIno.
• Final sequence: High Jinks landed one of the last blows on the lich, then Valen finished it.
• Post-battle revives: High Jinks brought Leydrick back up; Valen brought Rigg back up.

🎬 Key Scenes

Dino climbs onto the carriage and keeps the lid shut on instinct—because whatever’s inside is absolutely going to ruin someone’s night. He instead commits to the nearest shadow, blade flashing in tight arcs as the road turns into a swarm.

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Leydrick plants himself where allies can stay in reach, forcing the battlefield to orbit around his Aura of Life. Necrotic waves slam through the group.

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Rigg vaulting off a fallen stone pillar at a diagonal angle, coat snapping in the wind, both hands gripping a massive metal wrench overhead as he brings it down toward a Shadow

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A lich stepping out from the open carriage door

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Rook and Dino running full-tilt past jagged stone outcrops, breath visible in cold air, frost scattering from Rook’s rapier, Dino clutching his glowing blade as if it’s the only thing keeping him real.

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Valen and Jinx take down the Lich

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🧩 Ongoing Threads & Plot Hooks

• Primus’ mandate continues: the party is still bound to “further the task,” and delays tend to invite consequences. (Context from prior arc.)
• Rook Varrek remains central as a portal-route ally—also now clearly a liability when Fear and high burst damage start flying.
• The lich’s presence on the road: why was it traveling hidden in a carriage, and what was it doing in the party’s path?
• New dangerous assets acquired: the Tome and Crystal Ball raise questions about attention from enemies who know what those are.

💰 Loot & Discoveries

Item	Finder	Description / Status
Tome of the Stilled Tongue	Valen	A forbidden grimoire that feels less like a book and more like a sealed argument with death itself. Status: In Valen’s possession.
Crystal Ball of Mind Reading	High Jinks	A cold, luminous orb that seems to dim when handled—like it resents being observed. Status: In High Jinks’ possession.
5,000 gp	Party	Recovered after the lich was defeated.

🧨 Cliffhanger

Valen and Jinx revive Rigg and Leydrick

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• The party survives the roadside lich encounter and secures high-tier loot and coin.
• After a rest, the party levels up to 8.
• Next session: 07/03/2026.