Session Summary: Chwinga, Glowing Fungi, and the Temple of Cayochan
Tags: dnd session-summary campaign
Campaign: Tip of the Diceberg Session: Episode 9 Session date: 2026-06-02 In-game window: First-light departure from Xibalba through temple cleared and party leveled up Start: Canoes drifting down the Soshenstar River with Lilith End: Outside the temple, Shago dead, Lilith in custody, party Level 4 Status: Complete (full transcript recovered 2026-06-17)
Previously, on Tip of the Diceberg
The party left Xibalba at first light in two canoes with Lilith, Moghammer, a written death contract from a sewer wizard, a glowing Midsommer invitation, a Hat of Water Breathing, a Pipe of Smoke Monsters, three active clocks, and a Hot Wheels–tattooed amphibian.
Down the Soshenstar
Lilith called the distance: about 40 miles to the Temple of Cayochan.
Jungle travel rules formalized:
- River, normal: 2 hexes/day (1 hex = 10 miles)
- River, fast: 3 hexes/day, beat d14 on a survival check or be susceptible to ambush
- Off-river walking: 1 hex/day
- Off-river navigation: survival check at +3, need 15+ or risk wandering into any adjacent hex
- Raven form flight: 3 hexes/day
The party picked fast travel. Survival 10. Fail. Susceptible to ambush, but nothing hit. Faf raised a Narwhal-family banner on a manticore spike, painted with shredded fine garments and manticore-blood purple. Party also used manticore blood as face paint.
At sunset they pulled in to a sandy inlet under a 20-foot trickling waterfall. Fireflies came out.
The Chwinga
Isilrod played dulcimer quietly on the riverbank and collected fireflies in a milk jug (roll 19, 38 fireflies — super-torch).
Fireflies multiplied and grew larger around his music. The river sped up in front of it. A six-inch-tall barky black creature with a white mask, black eyes, and a mossy crown appeared on Isilrod’s lute frets — a Chwinga — then vanished.
Lilith:
You’ve been blessed by one of the Chwinga. Few souls can report that one has come to them. I lied earlier — I wasn’t so sure about you or yours. But now I trust you, Isilrod. I hope you’ll extend me the same trust.
Isilrod’s blessing (permanent): +2 to night survival checks; reads stars and constellations clearly.
Glowing Fungi
Bonzo found ~1/8 oz of glowing fungi in a cave behind the waterfall. Faf investigated (roll 19), identified them:
- No sleep for 3 days
- First 6 hours: -2 to all rolls
- Last 6 hours of day 3: +3 to all rolls
Six heads total. Party ate them. Since no one could sleep, they night-floated — about half a hex over six hours.
After four hours, vines draped like curtains. Lilith: time to leave the river and head west.
Bonzo vs. the Vine Trap
Bonzo Raven-scouted. 100-foot canopy, only 40-foot vision at night. Perception 9 — nothing. Dropped into the understory. Acrobatics 7. Vine trap. 2 damage. Raven form breaks on any damage — he fell out mid-flight, ~100 feet into the jungle.
Comms solution: Bonzo gave Moghammer one Feather of Sending (15-sec walkie-talkie message, once/day). Other feather held to Moghammer’s open mouth = PA system.
Bonzo hollered menacingly. Party recognized him (“two pitches shy of a banshee”). Lilith: “we must go.” Faf chopped a tree, then hacked westward. Party found Bonzo within five minutes.
The Fog
After about an hour westward, party walked into a great magical fog. Visibility: ~one yard.
Bodius rolled 19: the fog was cast millennia ago to hide something. Cast Detect Magic — saw blue wisps about 50 yards out. Faf held Moghammer’s head to keep the column together.
Bodius ran for the wisps and popped out of the fog. Sun rising, god rays through canopy. Before him: two giant flanking trees, stone double doors with a crack between them, two bust-sized dragonfly statues with gargoyle tongues, a ~30-yard antechamber of open space.
This was the Temple of Cayochan.
Speak Spider to Enter
Bodius cast Comprehend Languages, touched the door. Inscription lit up blue-magenta. Door grumbled. Dragonfly tongues wiggled.
Translation: “Speak spider to enter.” Language: Aldani — the lobster folk’s language. The Aldani word for spider is Shagoleth.
Isilrod tried a smoke spider from the Pipe of Smoke Monsters. It crawled up the crevice and shook violently — close, but not enough. Needs a real spider.
Lilith revealed: the temple is cursed by the Aldani to protect entrants from vainglory. The Aldani are the spirit companions of the Chwinga. Those blessed by the Chwinga cannot enter — to protect them.
Isilrod is permanently locked out of this temple.
Lilith:
I fear what resides inside. Shago and Mosquito only ever told me that the gold idol — but I fear they both lost their lives in that pursuit. I will stay with you.
Plan: Bodius, Faf, Bonzo (and Moghammer) enter. Isilrod and Lilith wait outside. Moghammer got the other Feather of Sending.
Temple Interior
The smoke spider reanimated and opened the doors. Inside: a stone tunnel with vines growing on the walls, torchholders (empty), rock floor interspliced with soil.
The Pit Trap
Faf charged ahead — Faf stepped on a pressure plate. A 20-foot-wide pit opened up with wooden spikes at the bottom. Party solution:
- Bonzo flew across as Raven carrying the rope
- Tied off the rope on the far side
- Faf jumped and rope-climbed across
Bodius Eldritch-blasted the wooden spikes into calcified uselessness (just in case).
The Inner Chamber
A throne room of stone and vine. Sitting on/near the throne: an undead creature (a man-bear-pig hybrid — an undead owlbear variant).
Faf used stone cunning to confirm no life in the tunnel. History check on the owlbear via Volo’s Guide: no magic immunities, weaknesses to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing, doesn’t sleep or eat.
The party found:
- A ring with an “f” on the underside — pocketed by Bodius
- A letter inside the owlbear’s stomach, rolled up and slimy: a letter to Flea, starting “my boy, have you set sight on Baldur’s Gate yet?” No signature — but Mosquito is confirmed dead, eaten by this creature
- A carved kidney that happened to resemble the statue (Bodius pocketed this for the switch)
- The golden statue — cylindrical, pure gold, 8 spider eyes on its face, roughly kidney-sized
Bodius cast Detect Magic: the statue is not magical. The doors had closed behind them.
The Switcheroo
Bodius swapped the golden statue for the kidney and immediately cast Minor Illusion on the kidney so it looked like the statue (1 minute duration). Statue went into Bodius’s pocket.
The Boulder Trap
The instant of the switch: a portal opened above the throne. Giant boulder. The party sprinted back.
Bonzo flew the rope across the pit again. Faf — no axe, no weapons — jumped and grabbed the rope. Made it about 50% up before the boulder overtook him.
Nat 20: Bodius Eldritch-blasted the bottom of the pit for thrust. Bonzo’s raven wings expanded eagle-sized and launched Faf just 12 inches — enough to partially clear — but the boulder clipped his beard/hair, dealing 25 damage. Faf survived (31 HP). Boulder crashed into the pit, smashing all the calcified spikes.
Party made it out.
Shago
Exiting the temple doors into the sunlit antechamber:
Moghammer and Isilrod were bound and gagged on the ground. Their eyes were wide with warning.
A figure stepped out of the fog:
- 7 feet tall, shaved head, bare chest
- A cloak of once-fine fabric now half-scorched, half-rotten
- Left arm from the elbow down: twisted and violet-black, veins lit beneath the skin like cracks in cooling lava
- Half-undead appearance
- The air tasted like copper and ozone
Give me the statue, or the frog dies.
Knife under Moghammer’s gullet.
Combat
Surprise round:
- Faf threw his axe (Nat 20). Hit in the shoulder. Knife shears off, cutting Moghammer for 1 damage.
- Bodius Misty-Stepped behind Shago and Eldritch-blasted him (13 damage) — also blasted free Isilrod’s gag binds (hands still bound).
The move: “The Toadless Triad’s Kiss” — Faf sprint + axe throw, Bodius Misty Step + gooch Eldritch Blast, screaming “Triads kiss!” in unison.
Full combat:
- Shago cast Hypnotic Pattern (30-foot cube, DC 14 wisdom save). Only Faf saved. Bodius, Bonzo, and Isilrod were incapacitated — can only act if they take damage or make the save on their turn.
- Shago had Unnerving Presence: any creature starting its turn within 10 feet makes DC 13 wisdom save or is frightened (disadvantage, can’t move closer).
- Shago used Misty Step to reposition.
- Faf (with no ranged weapons left after throwing both axe and maul) had to fight frightened at disadvantage.
- Eventually the incapacitated party members broke free through damage or saves.
- Bodius delivered the kill shot: Eldritch blast, the “Eldritch wood” moment. Shago’s head “flies back into the foggy mist. Disintegrated.”
- Lilith let out a cry — “could be interpreted as pure despair or pure relief.”
Aftermath
Lilith reveals the truth about Shago:
He was blessed by the Chwinga as a boy. He couldn’t enter the temple. He led Mosquito in — and Mosquito died in pursuit. He brought you here to do the same. He’s used this temple before to surprise others. But whatever he was after, it was beyond money. The statue could fetch 10,000 GP in Baldur’s Gate. But I don’t think that was it for him.
Lilith is an admitted conspirator — she knew what Shago intended but says she didn’t actively bind Isilrod and Moghammer. The party debates what to do with her. Session ends before resolution.
Everyone levels up to Level 4.
Where Things Stand
Active clocks:
- ~3-4 nights remaining: Isilrod’s Midsommer Night’s invite at Old Tin Top’s Juke Joint & Casino
- ~1 month: Waddo’s raid on Jabari Muktow’s villa
- 3 months: Balm Bitdoom’s Kilburg Card Deck contract
Session outcomes:
- Golden statue in Bodius’s pocket. Non-magical. 8 spider eyes on face. ~10,000 GP value in Baldur’s Gate.
- Ring with “f” in Bodius’s pocket. Unclear whose — possibly mosquito’s.
- Letter to Flea recovered from owlbear’s stomach (written by Mosquito).
- Mosquito confirmed dead — eaten by the owlbear inside the temple.
- Shago confirmed dead — killed by Bodius.
- Lilith in custody — admitted Shago conspirator, fate TBD.
- Faf: 25 damage from boulder (beard clipped), no weapons (axe in the fog, maul thrown).
- Party: Level 4.
Next-session launch pad
The party stands in the antechamber of a defeated Aldani temple with a golden statue in Bodius’s pocket, a letter to Flea, a ring of unknown origin, and an admitted conspirator in Lilith whose fate is undecided. Faf is weaponless and low-health. The Midsommer clock is ticking. The owlbear confirmed Mosquito’s fate — Flea doesn’t know yet.
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