pre-2026-04-14-campaign-catchup

Campaign Catch-up: Everything Before the Bathhouse and Moghammer Session

Tags: dnd session-summary campaign

Campaign: Tip of the Diceberg
Coverage: Campaign start through the Biscar compound raid and the setup for the 2026-04-14 bathhouse session
Status: Catch-up summary

The big picture

The party’s whole situation can be summarized as: a group of extremely weird specialists sailed into Chult chasing a death curse, immediately got tangled in local politics, uncovered a monster-juicing criminal enterprise, and somehow became the kind of people who solve mysteries by fighting in arenas, impersonating criminals, and trusting a toad.

The central long-term objective is still the Death Curse somewhere in Chult. The known clue chain says the party may need a red dragon, medusa, or eagle to locate it, and Dr. Jack Aubry is tied to the ritual language: “Light a candle to the milk and that will show him the way.” His own personal problem is also enormous: he is trying to cure his wife’s vampirism with the heart of a dragon, tears of an angel, and milk of a faerie.

So yes, the campaign began with cosmic death magic and immediately also became a local corruption investigation. Classic adventuring disease.

The party

• Bodius Tea, Reed’s High Elf Warlock, is a refined art-world survivor with Lower City instincts, a murder-family backstory, and a patron who knows too much. His family was destroyed in Baldur’s Gate by someone who wanted his dimensional magical creations. He now carries a Book of Shadows, at-will disguises, and an increasingly risky habit of putting his real face near powerful villains.
• Isilrod Gurglestrom, Dwarf Bard, plays bagpipes and makes decisions with incredible narrative consequences, including branding Relzar Biscar in the crotch.
• Bonzo Nutly, Human Monk, son of a bean farmer, big beard, coonskin hat, now owner of boots with little bells and the kind of personal brand that apparently earns spa tattoos.
• Faf D’Gnorwhal IV, ancient compact fighter, bonded with the freed riding toad Moghammer and may be the campaign’s leading expert in questionable potion testing.

Why Chult matters

Chult is the jungle destination, and Port Xibalba is the entry point. The party is there because the Death Curse is somewhere in the region. Ras Nsi, a cast-out fallen angel turned Huantee snake-person, controls an undead horde in the jungle and may be connected to the curse.

The party is not entering Chult cleanly. They already have obligations:

• Find and stop the Death Curse.
• Clear their names for the killing of Throbbin Willowmist.
• Pay back Balm Bitdoom by finding his kin within 7 days of arriving in Chult.
• Find Flea’s missing father, Mosquito, last seen in the jungle with Uncle Chago.
• Keep Syndra Sylvane alive and involved, now that she is with the party on the boat.

The Throbbin problem

Throbbin Willowmist, bard ally and chaos agent, was killed by an arrow marked with an algiz rune, supposedly “of the Symposium.” The party is implicated and needs to clear its name.

The complication: almost nobody believes the Symposium is real. Even credible NPCs treat it like a myth. That makes the murder both a legal problem and a conspiracy problem, which is very annoying when the party is already trying to solve jungle necromancy.

Balm Bitdoom and the sewer debt

Balm Bitdoom, head of the Sewer Tinkerer’s Society, gifted Bodius the Hyperspectral Peddler’s Cloak. The cloak is useful. The favor attached to it is less cute.

The debt: within 7 days of arriving in Chult, the party must find Balm Bitdoom’s kin.

Balm Bitdoom and the sewer tinkerers operate below the surface, know more than they say, and sit in the exact genre slot marked “small weird ally who will become important later.”

Arrival in Port Xibalba

Port Xibalba is run by Merchant Prince Jibari Muchtow, a tall Choltan power broker with too many earrings and even more schemes. He appears friendly-adjacent through intermediaries, but the city is basically a machine for turning local entertainment into political control.

Key local structures:

• The arena, run by Waddo, who is tied to Jibari.
• The dinosaur races, run by Sebulba.
• The Biscar exotic stock and racing operation, tied to suspicious animal enhancement.
• Old Town and the sewers.
• The west side, where the Zantaram operate as a legitimate religious and charitable group.
• The Veiled Quill, an artifact-focused criminal network with direct relevance to Bodius’s backstory.

Legrand, Waddo, and the arena deal

The party met Legrand, a big sassy gambler and fixer connected to Waddo and the arena. Legrand knew Lazlo Toth, a carpenter who could help repair the ship’s figurehead and other damage.

But Legrand’s help had a price: fight in Waddo’s gladiatorial ring.

The party did it. They fought for Waddo at the arena, won, and reached level 3. Bodius looted faintly purple Manticore Blood, which later became a very important clue because purple bodily fluids in this campaign are apparently always evidence.

Winning the arena fight unlocked Legrand’s help for the Biscar compound invasion.

The Biscar thread begins

The Biscars were tied to two different problems:

• Sebulba suspected Relzar Biscar of cheating in the dinosaur races.
• Lazlo Toth’s daughter, Elza, had run off with Bast Biscar and was somewhere in or around the Biscar operation.

The party learned that the Biscar Exotic Stock and Racing Prospects building was a front operation near the grand market. It sold saddles aboveboard, but animals were brought through the back, and people disappeared inside for weeks.

Velmira Biscar, self-styled “The Choltan Psychiatrist,” appeared to be running the operation’s lab. Relzar’s racing triceratops had purple bloodshot eyes, matching the faintly purple manticore blood from the arena. The working theory became obvious: the Biscars were juicing race animals and probably arena creatures with some purple substance.

Infiltration plan: clever, dumb, and therefore perfect

The plan for the Biscar compound split the party:

• Faf and Bonzo went through the front, pretending to shop for saddles and creating distraction.
• Bodius and Isilrod worked the back, with Bodius using disguise magic and stealth.

At the back entrance, Bodius Misty Stepped behind Futch, the pygmy ogre right-hand man, and killed him basically solo. He looted Futch’s club. Bodius and Isilrod then entered through the shop backroom while Faf and Bonzo dealt with a bigfoot monster up front.

Inside, the party discovered a magical painting that functioned as a secret elevator down to an underground level. Because every respectable saddle shop needs a murder basement.

The underground Biscar fight

The party descended into a large underground chamber containing the Biscar brothers: Relzar and Bast, with Darius also tied into the operation.

The disguises held until one of the brothers demanded that the party brand Elza Toth. Instead, Isilrod took the brand and branded Relzar in the crotch.

Disguises blown. Fight on.

Velmira emerged from a side room, firing poison darts loaded with purple juice. During the fight, she zombified Elza Toth. The party killed the Biscar family members and everyone directly in the room, leaving the operation shattered but Elza transformed.

The result: the party had destroyed the Biscar lab, but inherited every loose thread the lab was sitting on.

Loot, clues, and cursed paperwork

The raid produced a useful and suspicious haul:

• Isilrod found the recipe for mind breaker poison antidote, a poison recipe, a potion of healing, pale purple liquid, black liquid, and magic identification candles usable 3 times per day.
• Isilrod also found a letter on Darius: Invitation to a Midsommer’s Night Song, with the rest of the letter blank.
• Bodius took Biscar’s Bastardly Brew, a Book of Grungalung History, and more context on the purple substance.
• Bonzo found boots with little bells and a note saying Waddo’s lap dog Legrand had returned and needed to be disposed of quietly, like the others, with a midnight meeting at the bathhouse.

That note was the bridge into the bathhouse session.

Moghammer’s origin

In the Biscar compound, the party found a riding toad chained up in the slaughter room. They freed him. Faf named him Moghammer.

At this point, Moghammer was not yet a citywide celebrity. He was simply a freed battle toad with strong companion energy and obvious future merchandise potential.

The political picture before the bathhouse

By the end of the Biscar raid, the party knew enough to be dangerous but not enough to be safe.

Confirmed or strongly suspected:

• The Biscars were running a purple-juice enhancement operation for animals and people.
• Relzar’s cheating was probably real.
• Velmira’s lab was the source of the poison, antidote recipe, and zombification threat.
• Elza Toth was a victim, though possibly an extremely unpleasant one.
• Legrand was marked for death.
• The midnight bathhouse meeting was the next live lead.
• Darius had a mysterious Midsommer’s Night Song invitation.
• The purple substance, Chult jungle sourcing, arena plague, and dinosaur race corruption might all connect.

Main campaign threads entering the 2026-04-14 session

• Death Curse: Still the central quest. Ras Nsi and the jungle undead remain major threats.
• Throbbin’s murder: The algiz rune and mythical Symposium still need investigation.
• Balm Bitdoom’s debt: Find his kin within the 7-day window.
• Flea’s father: Find Mosquito and Uncle Chago’s trail in the jungle.
• Bodius’s backstory: The Veiled Quill may know about planar artifacts and the forces that destroyed his family.
• Biscar fallout: The lab is wrecked, but its financiers and supply chain are not yet fully exposed.
• Legrand: Needs warning or protection.
• Midsommer’s Night Song: Blank invitation from Darius is unexplained.
• Purple substance: The campaign’s current neon warning sign.

Session handoff

The party ends this catch-up point freshly victorious from the Biscar raid, carrying Elza in her zombified state, holding antidote instructions, pocketing forbidden purple liquids, and following a note toward a midnight bathhouse meeting.

In other words: the party successfully completed the infiltration, burned down the criminal lab, got promoted from “local weirdos” to “active threat to a merchant prince’s business model,” and walked directly into the next trap wearing spa sandals.

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