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The Runecaster in the Cellar

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

Session recap — 2026-07-08

Transcribed with whisper.cpp + pyannote diarisation. Speaker labels left anonymous (Ben DMs; the party is Gwrtheryn, Leaf Ear, Vašek, Mouse and “Mourning” Star). Proper nouns standardised to the campaign’s canonical list (Gwrtheryn, Leaf Ear, Vašek, the dog Lleuad, Mouse, “Mourning” Star; the world Karneia; Aetherium; Ulkma). Names absent from that list are marked [unclear].

Where we left off

Still in Ellswater, the morning after the university. The session opened with a full recap of last time — Vašek’s dead-end on Ulkma as a powder (it’s only ever recorded as a purple alpine flower of the Truran Mountains), Gwrtheryn’s escape from the sealed Index chamber, the wrangling of the runaway Lleuad, and Mouse returning the stolen play to Master Orin Thatch. From there the party finished their shopping and split off to the Ledgeryards — which is where the real business of the night began.

What happened

1. Errands in the Ledgeryards

• The party split to run errands, keeping Vašek and Mouse (both on the syndicate’s wanted paper trail) out of sight. Leaf Ear disguised himself as a young man with long yellow hair tied in a bandana; Gwrtheryn travelled openly under the cover-name “Jeremy”.
• Mouse got the Prize Pet Protector collar from the Brines Menagerie [unclear]. Gwrtheryn paid the 25 gp balance on his flail at the [unclear] Ironworks — he now owns two flails (plus the Hydra Flail). Leaf Ear hit the Scribe’s Nook (run by Tessaline Quill) for scrolls and spell components, and browsed Moonshade Curios [unclear] — a broken drift globe, a ceiling-projecting star map (25 gp, bought), four bags of holding, a single-use arcane battery, and a minor-illusion cube.
• Passing through Clockwrights’ Row, they noted a heavy guard presence around the still-smouldering Exchange [unclear] — wreckage from the day before.

2. The Cog and Cinder Workshop

• Leaf Ear, Gwrtheryn and Vašek reached the Cog and Cinder Workshop, greeted by its proprietors — Whizzbig Cog (a grubby, crotchety gnome) and Jorren Cinder (a singed, eyebrow-less dwarven artificer whose hair was literally smoking). The pair bickered constantly and fawned over Lleuad — “Magnificent King’s Rapture!” — inspecting her craftsmanship with goggles down, until she nipped Whizzbig on the hand.
• Leaf Ear invoked the password Star gave him, ordering an absurdly precise cup of tea for “Adric.” The shopkeepers played dumb, made him pass a persuasion check, then bolted the door, flipped the sign, and pulled back a rug to reveal a cellar door.

3. Adrik Eversharp

• Down in the cellar, Leaf Ear was reunited with Adrik Eversharp — an ancient dwarven runecaster, one of his oldest and dearest friends, who lifted him clean off the ground in a hug. Adric has been hiding in Ellswater for ~3 years, only sneaking out at night to pursue his inquiries; he’d popped back to Dhil Garom 18 months ago to check on his forge (now run by his young second, Dagna Flintwhistle) but was drawn back by a mystery.
• Adric’s intel — the through-line of the campaign: all the Aetherium supply around Dhil Garom has been quietly bought up. He traced the purchases to a man named Braun [unclear], whom he believes sits at the centre of everything. The Amash family are doing the shipping, and Adric gathers a second Aetherium source has been found in Ketî, to the east. He’d already told Star about the warehouses — Star’s next lead.
• Leaf Ear shared the party’s side: the salt obelisk / Triadic Obelisk beneath Honington, ringed with Aetherium crystals, which he believes seals away a garden realm the elven race originally came from — and that there are more pillars (one in Ketî, and word of a third). Adric, electrified by a renewed sense of purpose, pledged himself to the cause: “Wherever you go, let me come.” Gwrtheryn, quietly, noted his own interest in Aetherium.

4. Adric’s gifts

Adric loaded them up with gear (with 50 gp pressed on him out of friendship, though he wanted no gold):

• Disguise brooch — a silver-and-emerald brooch that casts disguise self once a day, but the wearer can’t choose their look (Star turned into a droopy-eyed, red-haired human woman). For Star.
• Whisper Lens — a monocle that casts detect magic once a day.
• Ember Cage — stores a 1st/2nd-level spell so a non-caster can release it (the spell dissipates on a long rest); Adric wants it field-tested.
• Cinder Step Boots — once/day disengage as a bonus action (with a spark effect).
• Aether Tuning Rod — a divining rod that vibrates by the purity of an Aetherium source (built specifically for the warehouse job).
• Darkvision mask — a white half-mask granting short darkvision.
• 8 explosive arrows — for Star (Adric warned they’re untested; best split among the party).
• Auto-quill — a self-writing magical pen, sold for 50 gp — perfect for Vašek’s endless pamphlets.

5. Back at the safe house — planning the heist

• Star had spent the day sketching a mind-palace map of Ellswater on the wall (Keen Mind), marking shops, warehouses, and Braun’s private wharf. Digging through the syndicate notes, they found dealings around the Elshammer Arena [unclear] and trade running through Stonevale [unclear], the well-to-do district in the shadow of Crowncliff.
• The party distributed the loot, and finally named the wolf pup “Trouble” now that he has a collar (he promptly needed prestidigitation after fouling Mouse’s bag of holding — briefly floated as a delivery mechanism for warehouse sabotage).
• The plan: hit the quieter Warehouse 2 (off the main strip) after dark. Star (invisible) and Gwrtheryn infiltrate via the rooftops; Leaf Ear, Mouse and Vašek wait in a nearby alley playing cards (Leaf Ear “teaching” card-counting), ready to move within ~30 seconds. Leaf Ear’s sparrows to scout the high windows. Standing order from Mouse: avoid a bloodbath, and specifically do not harm Varro’s daughter, Elena Varro [unclear] — 17, short blonde bob — whose safety keeps Varro on Mouse’s leash.

6. Approaching the warehouse

The infiltration team reached Warehouse 2 — a vast building ~75–80 ft tall, half a dozen tall frosted windows well above street level, sealed double yard-gates, a couple of lit street lamps. Star’s scouting spotted flickering light in the first and the two far windows (the middle four dark) and voices coming from the yard. The adjoining single-storey pitched roof offered a way up toward the warehouse windows. The session ended here, on the threshold of the break-in. (No game next week.)

NPCs met / re-met

• Whizzbig Cog — gnome artificer, co-owner of the Cog and Cinder Workshop; grubby, excitable, obsessed with Lleuad’s engineering.
• Jorren Cinder — dwarven artificer, his partner; singed and eyebrow-less, equally smitten with the mechanical dog.
• Adrik Eversharp — ancient dwarven runecaster, Leaf Ear’s oldest friend; in hiding beneath Cog and Cinder for ~3 years, obsessively tracking the Aetherium trade. Now allied to the party, generous with magic items.
• Dagna Flintwhistle — Adric’s young, enthusiastic second, minding his forge back in Dhil Garom (mentioned, not present).
• Braun [unclear] — the man Adric believes is buying up all the Aetherium and sits at the centre of the conspiracy; the syndicate figure Lysander [Thorn] wanted the party to capture.
• Elena Varro [unclear] — Varro’s 17-year-old daughter (short blonde bob); the party means to keep her out of harm’s way.

Decisions & open threads

• The warehouse job is live — Warehouse 2 first, tonight, rooftop entry. Braun’s boats at his private wharf are a tempting secondary target (Star wanted to burn them; the group vetoed it to avoid antagonising a noble house and blowing the mission).
• The pillar thread deepens: Leaf Ear’s garden-realm origin, the Honington obelisk, a pillar in Ketî, and a rumoured third — now explicitly tied to Adric’s Aetherium investigation and Braun’s buying spree.
• Aetherium supply chain: Braun buys, the Amash family ships, and a new source sits in Ketî. The Aether Tuning Rod should confirm whether the warehouses hold the real thing.
• Gwrtheryn’s quiet interest in Aetherium (noted but unspoken to the group) continues.
• Still open from before: the item Gwrtheryn took from the Index (DM never wrote down what), Varro alive and in Mouse’s debt, and the three-moon contradiction.

Loot & purchases

• Prize Pet Protector collar (Mouse, for the pup now named Trouble) — ~50–70 gp.
• Pocket star map — 25 gp (Leaf Ear).
• Flail balance — 25 gp paid (Gwrtheryn; second flail alongside the Hydra Flail).
• Scrolls & 3 pinches of diamond dust (~150 gp) — Leaf Ear / shared.
• Auto-quill — 50 gp (for Vašek).
• From Adric, gratis: disguise brooch, Whisper Lens, Ember Cage, Cinder Step Boots, Aether Tuning Rod, darkvision mask, 8 explosive arrows (a token 50 gp given in return).

Memorable moments

• Whizzbig and Jorren dropping everything to gawp at Lleuad — “Magnificent King’s Rapture!” — and Whizzbig getting bitten for reaching in.
• Leaf Ear’s password being a cup of tea with military-grade brewing instructions (3.5-minute steep, half a lump of sugar, milk to the millimetre).
• Adric’s off-hand backstory with Leaf Ear: “that’s how you took the book out of the library” — “I wasn’t stealing the mithril, I was just borrowing it for a moderately long time. The century isn’t that long.”
• The “cat’s-paw / catspaw” pun landing on Star the Tabaxi — followed by Star, mid-brooch-disguise, realising he’d turned into a human woman and lost his cat paws.
• Naming the wolf pup “Trouble” — moments before discovering he’d filled Mouse’s bag of holding, and the group seriously debating weaponising a bag of flaming dog mess.
• Gwrtheryn as the world’s worst stealth option: strutting down the street as a deliberate distraction while children cry in horror at the sight of him.
• Real-world sign-off: the table breaking to chat Critical Role and a member heading off to a live show — session called early, and no game next week.