38: The Road to Greyport

🎧 Podcast coming soon • January 9, 2026

Morning in High Forge

The session opens several weeks after Helja's death and the restructuring of High Forge. The party has been enjoying the peace and stability, with Chalk Rock leading the city alongside Grimjaw. The newly confident Chalk Rock has been working out with Olivia daily, developing impressive gains and newfound swagger.

At Bernardo's Pizza Shop: Leliana and Ohma attend a morning pizza-making class with Bernardo, who continues teaching the art of pizza craftsmanship. Ohma has developed his own house style: a vegetarian pizza on a thin, cracker-style crust. Chalk Rock stops by to order pizza for "the boys" at the police office, showing off his muscular physique and confident demeanor. The party notices that he's been transformed from the anxious detective they once knew.

The Tony Workshop: Across from the pizza shop, a new workshop opens displaying the symbol of Tony—a silver wrench against a green explosion background. Elspeth, who was told by a talking sheep that Tony is the god she should pray to, crosses the street and meets the owner, Stacy, a fabricator and fellow Tony follower. Stacy recognizes the banned racer, hears her out about being framed, and invites her to that evening's Tony gathering at Rebecca's apartment, where the group plans to build an engine around a crystal.

Investigating Helja's Apartment

Bru and Silas decide to investigate Helja's former apartment, seeking information about the dragon orb and any other secrets she might have hidden. Helja had claimed a historic three-story brownstone when the Iron Claws took the city—an immaculately maintained gem of an apartment, worth a fortune.

Searching the Apartment:

• In the living room, by a reading chair at the fireplace, Bru finds Helja's research into disruptions of reality, filed under "reality stones": a rumored cave at the peak of a northern mountain that disrupts the fabric of reality, and an ore from it that the giant people living there use to build a starship they launched by imbuing it with a soul
• Silas opens Helja's bedroom door and triggers a trap: spikes drive poison into his hand (his cloak blunts the damage). A strong medicine check tells him the poison is also planting a magical trace in him
• Beside her bed is a small study with journals organized by year

The Journals:

• Helja meticulously documented her activities in yearly journals
• Silas finds the journal from the year the Sisyphus Circle (his old crew) was destroyed
• The journal reveals Helja's complicated relationship with her mother, who pressured her to obtain the dragon orb
• Key entry: "I must have the orb. My mother said it would be the only way we were respected. But mother, there are other ways to gain respect. But this last thing I will do, not because you deserve it, but because I do."
• The journal describes the job Helja gave to the Sisyphus Circle crew, and its bloody end: "Bartleby and Bug were able to escape into the sewers. When I went back to the rest of the bodies, it looks like Sander was gone. The rest are dead and we made sure of it." (Bartleby was Silas's alias in the crew; Bug is Bru. The two escaped with the real orb, which Silas still carries.)
• Later entries mostly concern the Order of St. George, a dragon hunting society—the same people who tried to stop the crew from stealing the orb in the first place
• Helja sent people to Greyport to find Sander, but the trail went cold: they scoped out the Cogenstein bar, the zoo, and the bakery where Sander had worked loading flour, and found nothing

The Discovery:

• Sander might still be alive
• Silas reasons that if Helja's people couldn't find him, more competent searchers—Silas and Bru themselves—might pick up what they missed
• They were headed to Greyport anyway, but the trip now needs to happen sooner rather than later
• Bru packs the next few years of journals into the portable hole

Unwanted Resident:

• A man named Jonathan has been using the apartment (given access by a friend named Trevor who had connections to Helja)
• Jonathan is preparing a romantic dinner for his girlfriend Jessica (the guards from the bank heist)
• Bru sneaks behind him stealing noodles, cheese, and bacon from his carbonara, while Silas walks up the wall onto the ceiling (courtesy of his cloak) and drops a rope for Bru to join him
• Silas confronts Jonathan from above; when Jessica arrives, she spots the two on the ceiling and recognizes them from the bank
• After some awkward conversation, they let Jonathan continue his date
• Weeks later, Silas has the poison from the bedroom trap extracted with a physician's help. It was never harming him; it was a magical tracker, probably meant to alert someone that the room had been opened. He releases it into the sewers

Family Brunch and Planning

Saturday Morning Gathering: The party meets for their regular Saturday family brunch to discuss their plans. Olivia can't make it; though retired, she has been called away on business in the countryside.

Scarlet's Request: Scarlet confirms that the reality stones from the Goliath village would be essential for completing the pocket village (Stellaro) project. She needs them to stabilize the internal dimensional space.

Multiple Objectives Converge:

• Bru and Silas need to go to Greyport to find their potentially-alive crew member and deal with the dragon orb
• Ohma and Lakitu have been researching where the moon goddess fell—turns out it's just off the coast of Greyport
• The party needs to retrieve reality stones from the Goliath village, which is somewhat on the way
• Silas notes that Elspeth's racing scandal also happened in Greyport, and privately tells Bru the people who framed her deserve some mischief

Party Dynamics:

• Silas uses psychic phone to discuss his concerns about Scarlet potentially building dangerous inventions (referencing an alternate Scarlet who created a "time gun" that destroyed a universe)
• The party agrees to keep Scarlet focused on existing projects rather than letting her start new experimental work
• Kevin (Bru's steel defender) continues to be playful, jumping on the table with Pepsi (the baby dragon) chasing him

Route Planning: They decide to:

1. Travel to Redbrook (the thriving refugee town)
2. Continue to the Goliath village to retrieve reality stones
3. Head to Greyport for multiple objectives
4. Investigate the moon goddess's location off the coast

Journey to the Goliath Village

Through Redbrook: The party hitches up the Zoomfall and heads out along the Gold Road, bringing the Bugatti along; the F-150 stays behind, since the party gave it to High Forge. They pass through Redbrook, which has grown into a proper market town serving as a nexus between High Forge, the farms, and the mountain pass.

Milstrom: On the four-day diversion up the mountain, the party stops in Milstrom. The locals mention that Eldoran soldiers have passed through on their way to the mountain peak. At the inn Leliana plays a folk set (performance 27), and where Helisanna's music drove crowds into a mania, hers calms and clarifies the room—arguments settle, couples snuggle up, even drunken eyes seem to clear. Silas sets up a table selling Bru's "moon crystals" (gussied-up ball bearings that smell like potpourri), makes a big early sale to two bidding customers, then watches sales dry up as Leliana's clarifying music lets the crowd see they're just broken rocks.

Arrival at the Village: The party reaches the Goliath village at the mountain peak where they previously participated in the Krag Tul (trials of strength). Only two figures are there: two Eldoran soldiers, with a tent, a telescope and a campfire.

Changes to the Village:

• The soldiers are tearing down many of the village's structures
• An arcane shield, projected by a pylon in their tent, surrounds their camp
• A mysterious cube-shaped device (oven-sized) is being used to process materials, wired to a large relay wall of bays holding glowing blue-and-silver stones
• The two soldiers work the machine: one feeds materials (boulders, lumber) into it while the other works at a control terminal, calling out adjustments to the relay
• The machine has a dangerous exhaust that radiates intense heat
• The machine appears to be some kind of matter conversion or transportation device

Investigation:

• Silas sneaks close to observe the machine
• He notes the operators wear protective gear when working near it
• The soldiers talk of stabilizing a "threshold" and its connection with "point alpha"; Elspeth concludes the machine is teleporting the village materials to another location, possibly the Eldoran Empire
• The energy output is significant enough to be scalding hot from several feet away

Retrieving the Reality Stones

The Heist: The party coordinates a plan to obtain the reality stones while dealing with the machine operators.

Execution:

• Leliana casts invisibility on Elspeth to get her in position
• Ohma stands ready as backup to physically push if needed
• Silas sneaks up to the control terminal operator and pants him (sleight of hand check: 27), then teleports away
• The embarrassed operator takes a moment to realize his predicament in the cold mountain wind
• Elspeth uses her psychic shove to push the worker feeding materials into the machine's entrance
• Kevin throws a stick of dynamite at the machine's exhaust

Consequences:

• The worker is three-quarters of the way through the cube when the dynamite hits; his legs are severed and fall, cauterized, to the snow
• The machine explodes and keeps exploding—each blast seeming to reverse and repeat, over and over
• The pantsless operator trips over his pants, crawls into a shelter, and radios that "the whole thing's coming down"; soon after, he emerges and blasts off into the sky on a jetpack
• Ohma dashes into the repeating explosions (athletics 26), yanks the stones out of the relay array one after another, and knee-slides the waiting cart of stones out from under the machine—about 500 pounds of reality stones in all
• The stones go into the portable hole alongside Helja's journals, bound for Scarlet's pocket village project
• The exact nature and purpose of the cube machine remains mysterious

Arrival in Greyport

The Journey Continues: After securing the reality stones, the party descends from the mountains and continues east toward Greyport.

First Impressions: As they approach the city, each party member notes changes since the last campaign:

Silas's Observation: The party sees statues erected over the main city gate depicting the heroes from the previous campaign (the Steve Squad):

• A water genasi
• A dwarf with a prosthetic arm
• A warforged with a Daft Punk mask
• Two gnomes (forest and stone)
• A human cowboy
• Steve (a dire wolf) - disproportionately large and wearing sunglasses in a central leadership position

Bru's Observation: Dane's small petting zoo has expanded dramatically into a full San Diego Zoo-style attraction with sanctuaries for rare species. Long lines of families with strollers wait to enter, with sounds of exotic creatures echoing from within.

Elspeth's Observation: Construction on the future Kenny G Museum (Lenny T Museum) - renovating an old opera house into a performance venue and memorial for the famous bard from the previous campaign.

Leliana's Observation: The Caspian Center (named for the previous campaign's character) has grown into a full religious campus dedicated to the Winter King. The quad features:

• A statue of the Winter King
• Beautiful buildings including a chapel and humanities center
• Students in distinctive blue mesh robes (fashionable and somewhat revealing)
• A pizza place on campus filled with the attractive students

Ohma's Observation: He notices the distinct lack of crowds in most areas of the city, making the gathered community at the Caspian Center campus stand out. The smell of pizza fills the air, giving him comfort that he won't go without his new favorite food.

The Gaines Bankery: At the very end of the boulevard stands the Gaines Brewery, Bakery, and Bankery, for which Elspeth still holds VIP tickets. As the party settles into the city, they see someone they haven't seen in a long time step out of it: Sander.

Cultural Changes:

• Greyport remains the capital of the Free Republic resisting the Eldoran Empire
• The city has become more gentrified, especially around the religious campus area
• The world's technology has long since moved beyond steampunk into a sleek "disco punk" look (70s sci-fi tech, like Star Wars)

Information Gathering

Moon Goddess Research: Through conversations with customers at the pizza shop in High Forge, Ohma gathered information about the fallen moon:

• Witnesses saw it crash off the coast near Greyport
• The impact created a huge explosion but the water is fairly shallow there
• Visitors sometimes travel to the crash site
• The goddess has reportedly taken a human form, appearing like a fallen angel
• She can be seen at the site off the coast
• There's a small island nearby known for coral reefs
• The party can rent a boat from Greyport to investigate

Character Moments

Chalk Rock's Transformation: The once-anxious detective has become a confident leader through Olivia's mentorship and physical training. His new swagger and muscle definition represent his growth into his leadership role in High Forge.

Bru's Schemes: The goblin continues his chaotic energy, from pilfering a date-night carbonara to crafting fake moon crystals for Silas to sell, while Kevin handles the bombing of exhaust ports. His partnership with Silas shows their growing trust and ability to work together on elaborate plans.

Silas's Investigation: His search through Helja's journals reveals a more complex picture of their antagonist—a woman trying to earn respect and distance herself from her mother's shadow while still fulfilling final obligations.

Elspeth's New Friends: Finding fellow Tony followers who are happy to have her—and who call her by her name—means a great deal to the framed racer, even if she wonders aloud whether she has joined a cult. Silas and Bru are already scheming on her behalf against the people who framed her. Her mental shove ability proves extremely effective in combat situations.

Ohma's Priorities: The monk's relief at finding pizza in Greyport demonstrates how quickly he's adopted this new culinary obsession. His research into the moon goddess shows his continued connection to spiritual matters.

Leliana's Support: The bard's invisibility spell proves crucial for stealth operations, and her first concert shows how different her music is from Helisanna's: where Helisanna's drove crowds into a mania, Leliana's calms and clarifies. Elspeth declares herself her first fan and signs up for tambourine lessons.

Scarlet's Dedication: Her continued work on the pocket village project shows her commitment, though the party worries about keeping her focused on safe inventions rather than universe-destroying experiments.

Key Information Learned

Sander May Be Alive: Helja's journal records that Sander's body was gone when she returned to the scene, and her people's search for him in Greyport went cold.

The Order of St. George: A dragon hunting society—the people who tried to stop the Sisyphus Circle from stealing the orb—and the main subject of Helja's later journal entries.

Helja's Mother: Pressured Helja to obtain the orb as the only way their family would be respected.

The Reality Stones: Successfully obtained for the pocket village project, representing significant progress toward completion.

The Cube Machine: A mysterious Eldoran device being used to transport materials from the Goliath village to a "point alpha." Its purpose and destination remain unknown.

Moon Goddess Location: Confirmed to be off the coast of Greyport in relatively shallow water, accessible by boat.

Greyport's Evolution: The city has grown and changed significantly since the previous campaign, with new monuments, institutions, and cultural developments.

Unresolved Threads

• What happened to Sander after the Sisyphus Circle fell, and what will he say now that he has stepped out of the Gaines Bankery?
• What is the Order of St. George's interest in the orb?
• How can Silas and Bru destroy or seal the dragon trapped in their orb?
• What is the cube machine's purpose, and where is "point alpha"?
• Who reads the tracker in Helja's trapped bedroom door, and who was alerted?
• Can Elspeth clear her name with those who framed her?
• What form has the moon goddess taken and can she be communicated with?
• How will the party balance their multiple objectives in Greyport?
• Where is Olivia and what countryside business called her away?
• What happened to Helisanna in the depths of High Forge?

The session ends in the heart of Greyport as Sander steps out of the Gaines Bankery, a face Silas and Bru haven't seen in a long time. The convergence of multiple plot threads—the dragon orb, the moon goddess, Elspeth's past, and Silas and Bru's lost crew—promises significant developments in future sessions.