Session 12: Shadowfang and the Black Fog
Session date: 2026-07-08 Campaign: Tip of the Diceberg Status: Canon summary with review flags
Previously on…
Isilrod won the 284th Midsommer Night’s Song at Old Tin Top’s, earning a private audience with the Muse himself. The victory came with a darker harvest: Vesper Ralk confirmed the party was framed for Throbbin Mistwillow’s murder by a Symposium-linked arrow, and Shago’s note still pointed south toward the Basin, LaFleur, and “Grackles.” The party still had the golden idol in Bodius’s pocket when Old Tin Top called Isilrod in to collect his prize.
Summary
Old Tin Top’s reward was stranger and kinder than money. He questioned Isilrod about what music is for, whether a bard can fight for a true principle, and how to tell the difference between violence and conviction. Then he let Isilrod draw two pieces of sheet music from his hat. One song can summon Old Tin Top and restore the whole party to full health. The other, Old Tin Top’s Song of Home, can bring the party back to the place they all call home, as long as that place is shared. The table immediately treated the Milk Maiden or its people as the likely anchor.
Isilrod also asked about the Symposium. Old Tin Top only knew it as a centuries-old ballad, something his grandfather sang about a murky force defeated by an unnamed warrior. To him it sounded like fairy-tale folklore, not a live faction. That made the party’s recent evidence look worse, not better: a secret thought dead or mythical is moving in the open again.
Back in the hall, the afterparty detonated. Bodius discovered the golden idol had been picked from him. The party tried to lock down the room, Faf drove the tip of his axe into Eoin Cooper’s gut before the wider fight began, Bonzo grabbed Gus Galloway, and suspicion ricocheted around Old Tin Top’s. Eoin died, and Faf looted 250 gp from him.
Then Isolde the Moth took the stage, smashed the bone flute, and transformed into Jacques LaFleur. Volo recognized him. LaFleur said he had come disguised because there was a traitor among the bards. His earlier death-curse expedition had been destroyed by shadows and mist, and his remaining companion, probably “Grackles,” was being held at Shadowfang Keep in the Aldani Basin.
The party searched suspects. Raif Bright-fin was stripped and seemed clean. Summer Mooneyham had drugs, spikes, and leather-band gear, but nothing that proved the theft. Lilith disappeared during the chaos, apparently fleeing down the elevator. The idol’s path remains murky: the room first blamed Lilith, but LaFleur eventually had it and returned it.
Suspicion finally turned toward Vesper Ralk. Her eyes went black, and a voice demanded the idol from Faf D’Gnarwol, threatening to kill Grackles at Shadowfang Keep. A possession wave hit the room: Summer, monkeys, rhino bartenders, and other bards turned violent or blank-eyed. Old Tin Top and Topsy withdrew rather than fight. LaFleur attacked the Vesper form, Raif called back his trident and joined in, and the party fought a chaotic brawl through the damaged hall.
At one point the Vesper form disintegrated the floor under Isilrod, Raif, Gus, and two rhinos. Isilrod survived the canopy fall with help from a Chwinga-signaled branch; Raif and Gus also survived, while the falling rhinos died. Bodius finally hit Vesper with Eldritch Blast. Vesper died, but the possessing entity escaped as black fog; the possessed creatures and people snapped back, frightened and confused. LaFleur indicated that he knows where the entity went.
LaFleur returned the idol and explained what he knew. The idol can reveal who is affected by the death curse. When Bodius took it back, its red eyes showed the entire party was now afflicted. The table stated the mechanical clock plainly: each character loses 0.25 maximum HP per day, or 1 max HP every four days. The party also reached level 5.
The post-fight council turned LaFleur from mystery into guide. He had been sent by Syndra Sylvane and Throbbin on an earlier death-curse expedition, then hunted by shadows and mist before finding the source. He believes Ras Nsi may be tied to the curse because of the undead, but he does not know the hidden city. He recently saw Artus Cimber somewhere in the jungle, though he cannot place where.
Most importantly, LaFleur gave the party two concrete routes. First, Shadowfang Keep in the Aldani Basin, where his captured companion is held and where something may have harmed the Aldani. Second, Wyrmheart Mine, an old dwarven stronghold south-southwest of the Basin where a red dragon lairs deep below. The dragon lead intersects both the death curse and Mina Aubrey’s vampire-cure ritual, though those remain separate quests.
The session closed with logistics and departures. Old Tin Top’s blue-flame fireplace can reach the Port Xibalba bathhouse, where Tubbs runs the flue. Raif chose not to join the party; he headed back toward Captain Ortimay Swift and the Aremag treasure lead, likely with Gus and Volo. Summer Mooneyham joined the Shadowfang trip. Gubber Trout offered to join, was gently declined, and left through the fire portal, possibly toward Port Xibalba or Baldur’s Gate. The party recovered the Jug of Living Lightning, kept the idol, and left Old Tin Top’s around noon with LaFleur, boarding his steamboat on the Soshenstar River. The boat can make about five hexes per day by water, running around the clock.
Outcomes
- Isilrod collected two Old Tin Top song rewards: a full-party healing/summoning song and Old Tin Top’s Song of Home.
- Jacques LaFleur is alive and was disguised as Isolde the Moth at Old Tin Top’s.
- The golden idol was stolen during the afterparty, then returned. It can reveal death-curse affliction.
- The party reached level 5 and is now directly afflicted by the death curse: 1 max HP lost every four days.
- Vesper Ralk was killed, but the entity possessing her escaped as black fog after controlling several creatures and people at once.
- Shadowfang Keep in the Aldani Basin is the immediate destination; LaFleur’s captured companion, probably “Grackles,” is held there.
- Wyrmheart Mine is now the red dragon lead, an old dwarven stronghold southwest of the Basin.
- Artus Cimber was reportedly seen by LaFleur about two weeks ago somewhere in the jungle.
- Lilith is missing after the idol-theft chaos.
- Raif departed toward Port Xibalba / Captain Ortimay / the Aremag treasure lead. Summer Mooneyham joined the party toward Shadowfang.
Open Threads
- Confirm whether there is a separate real Isolde the Moth, or whether Session 10-12 Isolde was always Jacques LaFleur.
- Confirm the captured companion’s exact name: Grackles is likely, but the transcript is noisy.
- Confirm Wyrmheart/Wormhart spelling and the red dragon’s name.
- Find Lilith or decide whether she fled permanently.
- Track the death-curse clock now that the party itself is afflicted.
Transcript: Full session transcript
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