Session A24 — Workshop, Spectator, and the Forge

Summary

Continuing directly from A23, the party forces open the workshop door in Wave Echo Cave and discovers the chamber's guardian: a spectator called Calypso, bound to the room for over a century and desperate for release. The Forge of Spells itself is active and dangerous — a 120-foot wild magic cone emanates from Calypso's central eye, and nearly every spell the party attempts triggers a surge. Kavu's ancestral vision of the kobold shaman Emberclaw grants him a new divine ability. Haldak reads a Netherese tome by his own ancestor Eldrin Tencloak and instantly absorbs four chronomancy spells. The party fights a wraith in a sealed side chamber, loots magical bagpipes, and ultimately frees Calypso by having Othorion enchant his rapier in the Forge — making him the forge's Master. Both Othorion and Kavu use the Forge before departing. The flameskull, upon regenerating, proves loyal to Othorion as Master and is commanded to guard the cave.

Back in Phandalin after a fifteen-hour ride, the party is greeted by Pip commanding a children's militia with Drizzle as Grand Marshal. A thirty-day downtime period reshapes the town: Sildar Hallwinter wins the mayoral election, Kavu becomes Treasurer, and the party levels to 6. Arc A ends when a paper bird arrives from Vajra Safahr of Force Grey: escort Nezznar to Revel's End prison in Icewind Dale. A mysterious old man appears on the road toward the Stonehill Inn as the session closes, setting up Arc B.

Key Events

Forcing the Workshop Door

The door to the inner workshop came apart under pressure — the frame had warped shut rather than being locked. Inside: a large chamber dominated by a massive stone forge with an open pit, cold green flames banked low in the basin. Workbenches lined the walls. The air smelled of old metal and something older.

A spherical creature floated at the room's center, the size of a large dog, with a single enormous central eye and multiple smaller eye stalks extending outward. It had clearly been there for a very long time.

Calypso — The Spectator

The creature communicated telepathically. At first only Kavu could hear it; the spectator eventually extended the connection to the full party.

It introduced itself — after some prompting — as Calypso, though it had nearly forgotten its own name. It had been bound to guard the workshop and Forge of Spells for over a hundred years. Its original masters, the Phandelver Pact artificers who commissioned the enchantment, had long since died. Calypso had spent over a century in the sealed room, never seeing the sun, slowly losing memory of its masters' names and its own purpose.

The masters' names, as best it could reconstruct:

"Bob was fine. Tim was fine. Jeff was cool. And Richard..." A pause. "Richard stole my pudding. Fuck Richard."

Calypso explained the mechanics of the room: the Forge of Spells generated a 120-foot wild magic cone emanating from its central eye. Any spell cast within that area triggered a roll on the wild magic surge table. It had no control over this. It could not turn it off. It was simply what the room was.

It also explained the one condition that could free it: only a recognised Master of the Forge could release the binding. And the only way to become Master of the Forge was to successfully enchant an item within the green flames.

Until the party could manage that, it would guard the room. Passively, if they didn't start anything. But it could not let them take the items in the workshop — those belonged to the Masters, and it was bound to protect them.

The Wild Magic Cascade

The party's attempts to act in the workshop produced a sustained chain of surges.

Kavu's Firebolt — Ancestral Vision of Emberclaw

Kavu cast a Firebolt outside the Forge's direct line to test the effect. The wild magic surge took him completely out of the room — an ancestral vision flooded his mind:

A kobold elder at a massive forge, red-scaled, ancient, the heat of the fire visible in the way the air bent around him. He wielded a hammer at a scale the modern world no longer builds to. Around him, a kobold clan at ritual prayer, dozens of small forms in the firelight. The elder's name came through: Emberclaw, shaman of the Dragonspine Mountains, wielder of Kossuth's ancient flame.

When the vision cleared, Kavu found he had something new. He had received Channel Divinity: Radiance of the Dawn — a gift from the vision, or from Kossuth, or from the Forge itself.

Haldak's Armillary Sphere

Haldak activated his chronomancy armillary sphere. The wild magic surge had an immediate, specific result: he was forced to speak exclusively in owlbear for ten minutes. The party was treated to Haldak — a Netherese temporal scholar — communicating only through the vocalizations of a giant bear-owl hybrid for the duration. He kept the language permanently afterward.

The Angelic Choir

At some point during the early workshop exploration, someone cast the Light cantrip. The surge produced an angelic choir — dozens of harmonized voices singing in response every time the cantrip activated. The DM confirmed this was a permanent wild magic residue effect tied to that specific cantrip.

The Rotting Undead Manifestation

A further surge transformed the visual appearance of every person in the room — party and Calypso alike. Every party member appeared as a rotting undead corpse, flesh hanging loosely from the bones, eyes milky, skin mottled and decaying. Roland's appearance was noted specifically: his wings, the celestial appendages visible in his divine heritage, appeared as shattered, decaying angel wings — feathers hanging by threads, the bones cracked through.

Kavu, faced with a room full of rotting corpses including what appeared to be an undead death-construct wolf, retreated under one of the workbenches and refused to emerge.

Kelvin's Mending → Grease

Kelvin attempted Mending to try to address the situation. The surge fired instead: Grease. The workshop floor became slick. Kavu, still under the workbench, caught fire during the chaos.

Kelvin Wildshaped — Wolf with Feathers

Kelvin wildshaped into a wolf to retrieve Kavu from under the bench. The surge this time coated the wolf briefly in feathers — a large, broadly confused bird-wolf hybrid loping across a greased floor toward a burning kobold. Kavu, seeing what appeared to be an undead feathered death-wolf emerging from the chaos, cast Burning Hands. He hit Kelvin and Haldak both.

Roland had had enough. He reached over and flicked Kelvin on the forehead.

"Stop casting magic."

The party coaxed Kavu out. The temporary wild magic effects resolved when Calypso departed the plane — the permanent ones (the angelic choir, Haldak's owlbear, Radiance of the Dawn) remained.

Eldrin Tencloak's Tome

Among the workshop's items: a Netherese tome, old enough that the binding had gone soft. Haldak read the opening inscription.

"I, Eldrin Tencloak, have committed the fruits of my life's work within the field of variation."

The name was his own family name. Eldrin Tencloak — a Netherese chronomancer, the ancestor whose work Haldak had been chasing through every second-hand source he could find. The book was the primary source.

Haldak read. The information transferred directly, the way some magical texts do for those with the right blood. He absorbed four chronomancy spells on the spot: Purge, Halt, Grist, and Novice. They settled into his mind as if he had always known them.

The Brazier — Burned Chardalyn Residue

Kavu investigated the forge's main brazier. At the bottom, among the cold ash of burned material: small black chips, brittle and irregular. These were the residue of consumed chardalyn — the pieces that had fueled previous enchantments in the Forge. They contained no remaining power. Whatever items had been created here in the Phandelver Pact era, those processes were long complete.

South Corridor — The Wraith

Othorion picked the second workshop door (the frame was warped but the lock yielded). A south corridor led to dense glowing fungi carpeting the floor and a second freestanding structure with warped doors.

Inside: a wraith. It spoke immediately.

"I'm going to say this once. Kindly fuck off. Or die."

Kavu, apparently not counting this as an instruction: "Are you undead?"

"Very much so, actually. I am the pinnacle of undead."

Initiative began. Roland charged through the door and fell prone over the threshold — Haldak had attempted to use a chronomancy inspiration effect to give Roland a perfect future, but the wild magic cone made every possible future equally catastrophic. Roland hit the floor.

He got up. He was hasted. He had Divine Favor active, Winter's Fury charged, a 2nd-level Divine Smite loaded, and a natural 20 on the critical attack.

The wraith died before it got another turn: 38 + 18 + 31 = 87 total damage.

The room held scorched quarters, a scorched iron chest, and servant's quarters with another chest. Among the contents: a set of magical bagpipes that turn the musician invisible to all who can hear the music.

Othorion at the Forge — Master of the Forge

Othorion had been considering this from the moment Calypso explained the mechanics. He retrieved his mundane rapier — a weapon he'd called L'Oreal — placed a chardalyn piece in the Forge, and dropped the blade into the green flames.

The enchantment took. The rapier came up +1, the edge holding a faint cold gleam.

Now he was the Master of the Forge. He turned to Calypso and delivered the release:

"The Archmage of the College of Winterhold! I dub thee the Master of Skyrim's magical abilities! You have forsook all other bonds and are now the Master of all things magic! Master, how may I continue to serve you? I will release you from your oath."

Calypso, who had spent over a century in a sealed underground workshop remembering that Richard stole its pudding, disappeared with a vacuum sound — pulled back to its home plane. All temporary wild magic effects in the room ended.

The DM confirmed the consequence: Othorion was now the Master of the Forge — the workshop and its residual magical protections were keyed to him. This came with a complication the party was now aware of: Othorion had outstanding contract obligations to Gum-Gum, the pirate queen. A Master of the Forge held by an external contract was a situation that would need resolving.

Kavu's Enchantment

Kavu had a second chardalyn stone. He placed it in the Forge and held his Chain of Kossuth in the green flames. The Forge asked, in its way, for the heart's desire — the purpose the enchanter most wanted the item to serve.

He passed the Constitution save (DC 12). The chain came free with the enchantment complete. He chose searing as his heart's desire. The chain now deals +1d4 radiant damage on a hit, its attacks count as magical, and a permanent ethereal blue flame is visible along its length.

Kavu cast Locate Object searching for any remaining chardalyn in the cave system. Nothing was found.

The Flameskull — Loyal to the Master

The flameskull had been destroyed earlier in the delve. Flameskulls regenerate; approximately ninety minutes had passed, and it had come back.

The second encounter resolved through insight rather than combat. Haldak, Othorion, and Kelvin all noticed the same thing independently: the flameskull was attacking the party, but it was never attacking Othorion. Every strike, every spell aimed outward at the others, nothing toward the Master of the Forge.

Othorion spoke a command:

"Protect this place from all those I deem an enemy."

The flameskull settled. It turned toward the cave entrance and waited, attentive, like a very committed dog that happens to be a floating burning skull. The party left it there.

Return to Gundren and Nundro

The party brought news to Gundren Rockseeker and Nundro at the cave entrance. Nundro, who had spent the session waiting outside while the party cleared his ancestral mining claim, received the information with the grace he is known for.

When someone indicated the +1 rapier:

"Did you steal that from us too?"

The journey back to Phandalin was fifteen hours — not three days, as the players had been estimating. The party arrived the same day.

Phandalin — Pip's Militia

The village road into Phandalin was lined with children. Pip Stonehill had spent the party's absence organizing the younger residents of the town into a formation unit. They stood in reasonably orderly rows with improvised weapons. Drizzle stood at the front, serving as Grand Marshal under her command.

The party rode in. Roland, without breaking stride, raised one hand in a formal salute toward Pip.

Daran Edermath watched from his orchard.

"The new guard."

Downtime — Alturiak 13 to Nightal 15, 1507 DR

Approximately thirty days passed. The following events were established.

Roland spent the downtime enriching the community — funds distributed, relationships maintained, the work of being a local presence in Phandalin rather than a passing hero. He used Lay on Hands to cure a case of Sight Rot (a disease that would have caused magical blindness in its victim if left untreated).

Kelvin cast large-scale druidcraft over Phandalin's surrounding farmland, boosting the fields for a full year's growing cycle. He spent his evenings with Pip, telling her adventure stories in exchange for her not starting any actual adventures without supervision.

Haldak spent the period in Barthen's Provisions and the Stonehill library corner, working through books on Netherese history. He and Elmar Barthen developed a genuine friendship rooted in shared interest in the old tongue and obscure alchemical history. He also made inquiries in correspondence about the controlled status of Dwarven Moss — enough inquiry to land him on a Force Grey / Lord's Alliance watch list. He would have difficulty entering major Sword Coast cities without additional scrutiny.

Kavu established daily Kossuth sermons at the Shrine of Good Luck, renting the space from Sister Garaele for two silver pieces per week. He spent a significant portion of his private hours sitting with the Emberclaw vision — what it meant, who the elder was, what the connection to the Forge implied about his own lineage and calling.

Othorion began training Pip at dusk and dawn — the kind of patient, structured work that suggests he expects her to need these skills. He performed Eilistraee's dances on new and full moons in the woods at the edge of town. Gween appeared to approve.

Daran Edermath gave Othorion formal, official permission to retain the Frostbrand scimitar recovered during the arc — provided his goals remained aligned with Phandalin's interests. Othorion accepted the terms.

Boulders for Muscles and Linene Graywind — sufficiently recovered from her catastrophic injury in the giant assault but no longer interested in fighting — retired together to Neverwinter. Linene's granddaughter, Alara Graywind, arrived in Phandalin and took over the Lion's Shield Coster. She does not appear to have inherited her grandmother's warmth for the party, at least not yet.

Wave Echo Cave saw partial clearing during the downtime period — trolls, residual undead, and the worst of the fungus removed. The Forge of Spells, with its flameskull guardian and new Master, was left to settle.

All party members received +1 to one ability score. The party reached Level 6.

The Mayoral Election

Sildar Hallwinter won Phandalin's first proper mayoral election, defeating the incumbent Harbin Wester by a comfortable margin. The town had wanted someone who had actually defended it.

Kavu was appointed Treasurer of Phandalin by the new administration. He immediately nominated Sister Garaele as co-treasurer.

The Paper Bird — Force Grey

On Nightal 15, 1507 DR, a paper bird arrived.

It unfolded into a letter from Vajra Safahr, the Blackstaff of Waterdeep and head of Force Grey. The mission: escort Nezznar from Phandalin to Revel's End, the prison on the Sword Coast's northernmost reach in Icewind Dale. The route would take the party through Neverwinter and then by merchant ship up through Luskan.

Pip, upon hearing the destination:

She wanted to come. At minimum to Neverwinter.

Closing Hook — The Old Man

As the session ended, an old man appeared on the road outside Phandalin — walking toward the village from the south, moving with no particular urgency. He looked directly at the Stonehill Inn.

He had not been identified. The session closed on that image.

NPCs Encountered

Loot / Discoveries

Abilities and Advancement

Threads Opened / Advanced

• Othorion — Master of the Forge: He holds the Forge of Spells and its flameskull guardian. The complication with Gum-Gum's contract over Othorion has not been resolved; a bound master creates leverage.
• Revel's End — Arc B Setup: Vajra Safahr's assignment is to escort Nezznar through Neverwinter and Luskan to the Icewind Dale prison. Pip wants to travel at least as far as Neverwinter.
• The Mysterious Old Man: An unidentified figure arrived on the southern road and looked directly at the Stonehill Inn as the session closed. No other details established.
• Haldak's Watch List: Force Grey / Lord's Alliance are now aware of his inquiries into Dwarven Moss. Entry into Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and other major cities will involve additional scrutiny.
• Alara Graywind: New NPC taking over the Lion's Shield Coster. Her relationship with the party is not yet established; she is not her grandmother.
• Emberclaw and the Forge: Kavu's ancestral vision connects his Kossuth worship to a Dragonspine Mountains kobold shaman lineage that predates the Phandelver Pact's use of the Forge. The meaning of this connection is unresolved.
• Eldrin Tencloak: Haldak's ancestor authored the chronomancy tome in the workshop. What else he left behind — in the cave, in Netherese records, or still active in the world — is unknown.
• Wave Echo Cave (partial): Trolls, undead, and fungus cleared. The deep sections and the Forge itself remain under the flameskull's watch.