Session 11: The Night Song Crown
Session date: 2026-07-02 Campaign: Tip of the Diceberg Status: Canon summary
Previously on…
Fresh off killing Shago and sparing Lilith, the party raced through the jungle to reach Old Tin Top’s Juke Joint and Casino in time for the 284th Midsommer Night’s Song. Isilrod cleared round one and advanced into a field of six finalists. Shago’s note still hung over everything: deliver the idol after the Night Song, then race south to the Basin to intercept “Grackles and LaFleur.” Session 10 ended as Vesper Ralk, the Tongue of Baldur’s Gate, opened round two.
Summary
Round two was a parade of rivals. Vesper Ralk sang a somber acapella piece aimed at someone long lost. Raif Bright-fin, a blue-scaled Triton bard, whipped the room into a literal storm and magically compelled the crowd. Eoin Cooper played something quiet and devastating that left the audience wrecked. Isilrod took the stage behind a grandiose introduction from Faf and Bonzo’s druidcraft sensory effects, and sang “Give Back the Feet (Feat) to my Bard,” an Uncle Tubbs bit about family, the mines, and loss. Summer “Hardcore” Mooneyham screamed through angry heavy metal. Gus Galloway abandoned a crowd-pleaser mid-song to play “The Watcher,” an ancestral ballad about a Lich Lord casting a withering curse over the land, which landed a little too close to Chult’s own death curse. Ballots were cast; Old Tin Top pushed the final round to just before sunrise.
The long break was where the real game happened. In the canopy casino the party gambled at a prime-number dice game, Faf turning a fat stake into a fatter one. Bodius, newly self-appointed “Master of Whispers,” ran Lilith and Bonzo as intel assets. Raif, over cards and drinks, spilled his whole story: a runaway Triton from Tritonia, hitchhiked out of an oppressive water-polo dynasty aboard Captain Ortimay Swift’s ship the Brazen Pegasus, still tangled up with Swift and the hunt for Aremag’s treasure, and itching to visit the Aldani down in the Basin.
Then the night turned. Vesper Ralk cornered the party over the death of Throbbin Mistwillow, blade drawn, demanding to know if they killed him. She had been Throbbin’s lover. Through a desperate read of the truth (Bonzo’s “Clarky” and a natural 20), the party convinced her they had been framed. The picture sharpened and turned grim: Throbbin was shot through a window, through the neck, by an arrow bearing the algiz rune of the Symposium; there are now wanted posters across Baldur’s Gate naming the party as his murderers; and Throbbin’s butler, Mr. Stephens, was seen wearing a Symposium necklace. Vesper became the party’s first real witness that the frame job is Symposium work.
A second thread pulled tight. The name from Shago’s note, “LaFleur,” clicked: Jacques LaFleur, a brilliant Baldur’s Gate bard out of the Slaughtered Pig Tavern who competed at the Night Song but never won. A newspaper photo recovered upstairs showed Gus Galloway and Jacques LaFleur duetting five years ago, with Throbbin kissing Vesper in the background. The bards couldn’t agree whether LaFleur is still alive. Whoever “Grackles” is, LaFleur is now a real, findable person tied to the Basin.
Suspecting Raif might be their Symposium mole, the party burgled his room. Bonzo slipped in as a raven and found an eight-foot moss-covered trident and a jug of pure living lightning, the engine behind Raif’s storm act, plus a letter tying him to the Pegasus, the “strange folk” aboard it, and the Aremag hunt. They stole the lightning and the trident outright to kneecap his final performance. Other rooms gave up secrets too: Summer Mooneyham’s cocaine and a copy of “The Music of the Aldani,” Eoin Cooper’s Baldurian finery. They also learned the casino’s blue-flame fireplace is a portal to Baldur’s Gate, walkable only by those carrying a Night Song signet ring, which round-two finalists receive and which Bodius has quietly carried since the campaign began.
Round three came down to Raif, Eoin, and Isilrod. Stripped of his lightning, Raif fell flat. Eoin entranced half the hall. Isilrod closed with an original, “Fake Ass Bards,” a lament for hollow performers that named names, the Symposium and Ras Nsi among them, and slipped the word “Symposium” into the room to flush a reaction. Three bards flinched in recognition: Eoin Cooper, Vesper, and Gus Galloway. Isolde the Moth, the bone-flute half-elf, glanced around too.
The finale was judged by the Advocates and the Muse. Each finalist’s champion pleaded their case for a scoring modifier before Old Tin Top, “the Muse,” rolled the result. Eoin’s advocate spoke well. Faf delivered a soaring advocacy for Isilrod on the difference between a musician who borrows a melody and a bard who cannot borrow another’s truth. Bodius advocated for Raif with a deliberately off-brief love letter. Isilrod rolled near-perfect and won the entire 284th Midsommer Night’s Song. All three finalists were inducted into the Midsummer Night’s Office with an instrument tattoo from Topsy; Isilrod’s name goes on the Block forever. He played an encore for his “goblins,” and Old Tin Top summoned him to his office to collect a reward, which the party has yet to claim.
Outcomes
- 🏆 Isilrod won the 284th Midsommer Night’s Song; his name goes on the Block, and all three finalists were tattooed into the Midsummer Night’s Office.
- 🎁 A reward from Old Tin Top is waiting in his office, uncollected.
- 🤝 Vesper Ralk is now a witness/ally who believes the party was framed; she was Throbbin’s lover.
- 🗡️ Confirmed: Throbbin was killed with a Symposium algiz-rune arrow; the party is wanted for murder across Baldur’s Gate; butler Mr. Stephens wore a Symposium necklace.
- 🔎 “LaFleur” identified as Jacques LaFleur, a Baldur’s Gate bard tied to Gus Galloway and, via Shago’s note, to the Basin.
- ⚡ The party stole Raif’s living-lightning jug and trident and sabotaged his final.
- 🕵️ Isilrod’s “Symposium” bait drew flinches from Eoin Cooper, Vesper, and Gus Galloway.
- 🚪 The casino’s blue-flame fireplace is a portal to Baldur’s Gate, keyed to Night Song signet rings.
Open Threads
- Collect Isilrod’s Night Song reward from Old Tin Top’s office.
- Find Jacques LaFleur and the unidentified “Grackles”; head south to the Basin per Shago’s note (and Raif’s own plan to visit the Aldani).
- Use Vesper Ralk and the Baldur’s Gate wanted-poster thread to clear the party’s names and trace the Symposium (butler Mr. Stephens, the algiz rune).
- Figure out which reacting bard (Eoin, Vesper, or Gus) is Symposium-connected, and why Isolde the Moth reacted too.
- Gus Galloway’s “The Watcher” and the Lich Lord curse may connect to Chult’s death curse.
- Still owed: tell Flea that Mosquito is dead. Deliver Shago’s idol.
Transcript: Full session transcript
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