📘 Session 24 – Rot and Ruin in Cathrys

[Intro]
Red sky.
Dead air.
No birds in the trees.
Cathrys waits
Where nothing breathes.

[Verse 1]
Mist on the river, black boat drifting slow,
Ferryman silent where the cold waters flow.
Rigg asks why we free what should never be freed,
Old god chained underneath all the red and the reeds.

Step from the boat,
Into the rot.
Sweet in the air like the whole world forgot.
High Jinks rising, eyes in the trees—
Something moves where nobody sees.

[Pre-Hook]
Then the ground breaks open,
Dead bloom, corpse-filled spine.
Leydrick keeps talking:
“We’re gonna be fine.”

[Hook]
Red sky over Cathrys,
Rot beneath our feet.
Kill the bloody thing,
Then get out clean.

Through the corpse and acid,
Through the claws and screams,
Five walked into Cathrys—
Five leave the scene.

[Verse 2]
Valen throws Fear and the nightmare recoils,
Rod goes up—now the horror changes sides.
Flower spits bodies, dead hit the ground,
Farastu closing while the roots lash around.

Steel Defender shattered,
Parts in the mud.
Dino throws a field—
Takes the edge off the blood.

Then R drops still.

High Jinks turns cold.
Eldritch force hits hard—
No mercy left to hold.

[Break]
One fiend vanishes.
One stays to fight.

Rigg steps forward.

Big wrench.

Good night.

[Drop]
Fifty-seven damage.

Peppermint tea.

[Hook]
Red sky over Cathrys,
Rot beneath our feet.
Kill the bloody thing,
Then get out clean.

Through the corpse and acid,
Through the claws and screams,
Five walked into Cathrys—
Five leave the scene.

[Bridge]
Valen Thunder Steps,
Gets out alive.
Leydrick takes the claws,
Still refuses to die.

One prayer.
One save.
One flash of light.

Farastu gone—

But not for good.

[Final Hook]
Red sky over Cathrys,
Silence in the trees.
One fiend is hiding,
One waits somewhere unseen.

R is gone.
Steel is broken.
Still we follow through.

Mind Flayers deeper.

Resident waiting.

What the hell are we about to do?

[Outro]
No birds.
No flies.
Red sky overhead.

And somewhere in Cathrys—

Something isn’t dead.

🪐 Campaign Arc

• Campaign: Spelljammer
• Session: 24 – Rot and Ruin in Cathrys
• Date: 8 August 2026
• Dungeon Master: James / Jamie / Sicareus
• Setting: The Ferryman’s silvery river and boat → Cathrys, the second layer of Carceri
• Next Session: 29 August 2026

🎬 Previously On...

Session 23 ended with the party standing over the body of the corrupted Frost Giant on Othrys. The creature had been killing the ferryman’s kind, and Dino had personally sealed a bargain: kill it, and the ferryman would carry the group deeper into Carceri. With the giant slain, the debt was paid and passage toward Cathrys, Carceri’s second layer, was now owed.

Behind them remained the red portal, the damaged Illithid nautiloid and at least one escaped Mind Flayer. Ahead, the surviving Illithid expedition had already travelled deeper into Carceri. Primus’ command still hung over almost everyone in the party: stop the Mind Flayers, find the Red Prison, and ultimately release Tharizdun. The closer they came to that final instruction, however, the less anyone liked the sound of it.

🧭 Overview

Session 24 began in the immediate aftermath of the Frost Giant battle. The party returned to the ferryman, boarded his mist-shrouded vessel and finally took the long rest they had been craving. During the journey the entire party advanced to level 9, with new spells and abilities selected before the next leg of the descent. High Jinks chose Ascendant Step, granting her the ability to levitate at will, while Leydrick prepared Motivational Speech for whatever inevitable disaster waited on the far shore.The quiet voyage also gave the party time to confront the increasingly uncomfortable truth behind their mission. Rigg openly questioned why they were being compelled to release “the resident” when everything they had learned suggested doing so was an appalling idea. When the ferryman was questioned directly about Tharizdun, even he recoiled from the name and warned against speaking it freely. He described Tharizdun as an ancient god chained by newer powers after attempting to tear a hole through the planes. The party was also reminded that another group was already moving toward the same objective; whatever decision they eventually made, they were no longer the only pieces on the board.

The ferryman finally delivered them to Cathrys. What awaited them was a rotting jungle beneath another crimson sky: swampy ground, collapsing vegetation, the sickly-sweet smell of overripe decay and, most disturbingly, almost complete silence. There were no birds or insects. While Rigg and High Jinks searched for signs of movement, something invisible stalked them between the trees. Before they could identify it, a vast bone-filled plant monstrosity pushed its way out of the jungle. The ensuing battle drew out zombies and two Farastu Demodands, cost High Jinks her newly summoned pseudodragon R, destroyed Dino’s Steel Defender, and ended with one Farastu fleeing invisibly and the other being banished somewhere else on Cathrys.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Party Members

Party Level up to level 9

📍 Key Locations

• The Ferryman’s Boat: The party’s protected transport through Carceri. Mist swallowed the vessel during the journey, providing enough time for a long rest and the party’s level-up to 9.
• The Silvery River: The dangerous waterway previously encountered on Othrys. The ferryman remained the party’s only safe means of travelling it. When asked about returning later, his answer remained transactional: without the required coin, there was no guarantee of another crossing.
• Cathrys Shore: The party’s landing point on Carceri’s second layer. From here the ferryman pointed them onward and left them to continue their descent.
• The Rotting Jungle of Cathrys: A dead and decomposing jungle beneath a red sky. The air carried a disturbingly sweet smell of decay, while the complete absence of birds and insects made the silence itself feel threatening.
• The Jungle Bridge: A crossing used as the group pushed farther into Cathrys before signs of nearby movement became obvious.
• The Corpse Flower Battlefield: A swampy clearing among dead trees where the Sovereign Corpse Flower emerged and the two Farastu Demodands finally revealed themselves.

📑 Session Highlights

• The ferryman honoured his bargain from Session 23 and carried the party toward Cathrys.
• The party completed a long rest aboard the boat and advanced to level 9.
• High Jinks selected Ascendant Step, gaining at-will Levitate.
• Rigg openly questioned whether releasing Tharizdun was becoming an obviously terrible idea despite the compulsion driving most of the party.
• The ferryman warned the party not to speak Tharizdun’s name lightly and described him as an ancient imprisoned god who had attempted to tear a hole through the planes.
• The party was reminded that another group is already travelling toward the same objective.
• The ferryman delivered the party to Cathrys, Carceri’s second layer.
• The party discovered a silent, rotting jungle filled with swamp, dead vegetation and a sickly-sweet smell of decay.
• High Jinks’ Robe of Eyes and Rigg’s perception revealed signs of something unseen moving through the trees.
• A Sovereign Corpse Flower emerged from the jungle carrying corpses within its body and began throwing or releasing them as zombies.
• Leydrick completed Motivational Speech while combat continued around him, granting the party temporary protection and a badly needed morale boost.

“All right, team, we’ve come a long way. We’ve just got off a bloody boat, and we’re gonna venture through this forest. We’re gonna find the Resident, but first we may have to make it through this shithole.There’s some bloody things stalking us, and there’s a bloody giant plant-looking thing with bloody bones coming out of it.So we’re gonna kill this bloody thing, and we’re gonna pass this place, and we’re gonna be fine, right?”

• Valen successfully used Cause Fear on the Corpse Flower, forcing the enormous plant horror to recoil and retreat.
• High Jinks’ pseudodragon R attacked one of the zombies but was killed. High Jinks immediately destroyed the zombie responsible.
• Two previously hidden creatures revealed themselves as Farastu Demodands, powerful fiends capable of grappling prey and delivering devastating acidic bites.
• Valen activated the Rod of Rulership. Both Farastu resisted its magic, but the Corpse Flower and one zombie fell under his control and were ordered to attack the fiends.
• One Farastu destroyed Dino’s Steel Defender, reducing it to component parts.
• The charmed Corpse Flower attacked a Farastu but was eventually struck down by one of the fiends while attempting to move away. The Sovereign Corpse Flower died with a final shriek.
• Roll20 began failing and delaying rolls badly enough that several attacks had to be resolved manually with physical dice and increasingly questionable arithmetic.
• Rigg delivered the session’s largest single hit: a 57-damage critical with the Big Ol’ Wrench against a Farastu, immediately christened “peppermint tea.”
• Valen used Thunder Step to escape a Farastu at close range while damaging it in the process.
• One wounded Farastu turned invisible and fled into the jungle. High Jinks’ Robe of Eyes allowed the party to continue tracking its movement briefly, but it escaped.
• The remaining Farastu savaged Leydrick with a claw-and-bite combination for roughly 50 damage, leaving him standing but barely.
• Leydrick retaliated with Banishment. Because the Farastu was a fiend already on its native plane, it did not return to the battlefield after one minute; instead it was displaced somewhere else on Carceri.
• The battle ended with no player-character deaths, but High Jinks had lost R and Dino had lost his Steel Defender.
• After combat, Leydrick smashed the Corpse Flower’s remains to prevent any unpleasant reuse of the bodies while High Jinks sat with R and repeatedly blasted the remains of the zombie that had killed him.
• The party searched the immediate area, but no specific new treasure was confirmed before the session ended.

🎭 Key Scenes

The Ferryman Refuses the Name

With the boat moving silently through the mist, Rigg pushed the ferryman for answers about the being everyone else called “the resident.” When Tharizdun’s name was finally spoken, the Ferryman reacted immediately. He did not want the name repeated aboard his vessel. What little he offered was hardly reassuring: Tharizdun was an old god, chained by newer gods after attempting to tear open the structure of the planes. Asked why anyone would free such a being, the ferryman had no comforting answer.

Valen Turns the Flower

The enormous Sovereign Corpse Flower had already filled the clearing with poison, corpses and zombies when Valen broke its momentum with Cause Fear. Later, as the Farastu emerged, he raised the Rod of Rulership. The fiends resisted—but the flower did not. Moments later the same monster that had been trying to kill the party twisted around under Valen’s command and lashed out at the new arrivals instead.

Peppermint Tea

With Roll20 barely functioning and the fight reduced to physical dice and increasingly hostile arithmetic, Rigg closed on a wounded Farastu Demodand. The Big Ol’ Wrench came around in a brutal critical strike for 57 damage. The blow smashed into the fiend before Rigg slipped back out of its immediate reach. The attack was promptly—and inexplicably—named “peppermint tea.”

Leydrick Sends It Away

The remaining Farastu Demodand finally reached Leydrick and demonstrated why the earlier caution had been justified. Claw and acidic bite tore through most of the cleric’s remaining health in a single sequence. Still standing, Leydrick answered with Banishment. The fiend failed. It vanished from the clearing—not destroyed, but hurled somewhere else across the prison plane. The immediate problem disappeared. The future problem became considerably angrier.

🧵 Ongoing Threads & Plot Hooks

• Primus’ Mandate: The party remains compelled to stop the Mind Flayers and ultimately release Tharizdun. The group is now openly questioning whether completing that order could be catastrophic.
• Tharizdun: The ferryman’s reaction reinforced everything previously learned: the “resident” is not simply another prisoner. He is an ancient god imprisoned after attempting to tear open the multiverse or planes.
• The Other Group: Another group is already travelling toward the same broader objective. Their identity, motives and current distance ahead of the party remain unknown.
• The Illithid Expedition: Mind Flayers who survived the earlier journey through Othrys are still somewhere deeper in Carceri. One Illithid also escaped the nautiloid battle before the party entered the red portal.
• The Invisible Farastu: One Farastu Demodand escaped alive and invisible into Cathrys. It now knows exactly who the party is.
• The Banished Farastu: Leydrick’s Banishment removed the second Farastu from the fight, but did not destroy it. It remains alive somewhere else on the same plane.
• Two Angry Fiends: By the DM’s own assessment, the party now has two very angry Farastu somewhere on Carceri.
• High Jinks’ Familiar: Pseudodragon R was killed only one session after being summoned. High Jinks ended the encounter holding the body.
• Dino’s Steel Defender: The construct was destroyed by a Farastu. Dino intends to repair or rebuild it, but that work had not been completed when the session ended.
• The Alhoon Crystals: Session 23 recorded two mind-trapping crystals recovered from the destroyed Alhoons. During Session 24’s recap the DM confirmed that the party had not given them to the ferryman and that at least one remained. The exact current count should be reconciled against character inventory.
• The Ferryman’s Return: The ferryman delivered the party as promised, but a future crossing appears to require the traditional payment. The party still does not possess a convenient supply of soul coins.
• Safe Rest: The group survived the battle and Leydrick restored himself, but no secure campsite or resting location in Cathrys had been established by the end of the session.

💰 Loot & Discoveries

⏳ Cliffhanger

• The Sovereign Corpse Flower is dead and its remaining corpses have been deliberately smashed or destroyed.
• High Jinks’ pseudodragon R is dead.
• Dino’s Steel Defender has been destroyed.
• One Farastu escaped invisibly into Cathrys.
• The second Farastu was banished elsewhere on Carceri and remains alive.
• No secure resting place has yet been confirmed in the dead jungle.
• The surviving Illithids and the unidentified rival group remain somewhere ahead.
• The party must continue deeper toward a prisoner they increasingly believe should probably remain imprisoned.

Next Session: 29 August 2026.