Who Needs Finger Nails? (23 August 2025 Session Report)

Paul DMing; Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 8 / barbarian 2) and Martin (duergar cleric 10); Dane: Tudo Fleck (dwarf cleric 10); Jake: Draxx Sklounst (human rogue 10); Sophie: Dill (hobgoblin sorcerer 10) and her talking goat familiar, Scruffly.

Resuming from last time in the room with a ghost asking the heroes if they want to gamble their souls.

Dill plays the ghost to a draw in tik tac toe. The ghost says "good game" and fades away.

Tudo stone shapes through the wall into a library.

Draxx uses his ring of x-ray vision to look around. He determines that the fish on level five have very unusual (even alien) anatomy.

They search the library for books about beholders. Martin finds a slim volume titled Speculative Anatomy of True and Pseudo Beholders and takes it.

The party descends to the basement, where a giant spider drops on Smudge's back. With a little help from Draxx, Smudge quickly dispatches the giant spider, but thousands of very tiny spiders pour out of its wound to scuttle all over Smudge and the floor.

Tudo casts spirit guardians to drive away the horde of mite-size arachnids.

[🎵 "Let's all go out to the lobby!" 🎵]
Cartoon-like spirit guardians

Tudo and Draxx find a room full of chests. Many contain copper and silver coins. One contains gems. Another contains a glass jug that has a stone or ivory idol inside that's too bit to fit through the mouth of the jug. Dill takes the jug with the idol and wraps it in a cloak to protect it.

Smudge notices that the coins are fragile stone or plaster that's been painted. Tudo realizes that the gems are glass.

In another room, behind a heavy portcullis, the party finds a laboratory bench with a rack of enticingly colorful liquids. They drink all the liquids, one after another, despite the only apparent effects being the loss of hair, teeth, finger nails, and continence. One potion reduces Scruffly, the goat familiar, to two inches tall, to the delight of Dill.

Enemies defeated: a giant spider, lots of tiny spiders

Treasure: a stone idol in a glass jug, Speculative Anatomy of True and Pseudo Beholders

Map of the Stargazer's tower basement