Session 53 - The Battle of Nuts Deep (2026-08-09)

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Session 53 - The Battle of Nuts Deep (2026-08-09)

Summary

Deez Nuts' first day as lords of Nuts Deep began with a battle for it. As the party toured their derelict fort with their squires and Thavius Kreeg's administrator, a bloodied Dawnbringer knight galloped through the gates begging reinforcement for a caravan bound for Elturel — secret cargo, pursued by a Cult of the Dragon force of zombies, skeletons, a wight, a dragonborn cultist, a necromancer, and two blue dragon wyrmlings. The party took the walls, Carl took the catapult, and the fort worked exactly as its builders intended: every attacker died, the caravan rolled in safe, and three squires went down (all recovered — Spurt briefly among the dead).

Afterward a Banneret of the Dawnbringers formally recruited Baelgrum into the militant order — Squire Rogar included — and delivered the in-world history of Elturel's Companion (summoned by Thavius Kreeg to break a lich's grip on the city) and of the Hellriders, whose gate into Hell was opened beside this very fort. Baelgrum's takeaway: "So we have a mysterious glowing ball and a demonic incursion all in the same area. That's interesting."

Everyone leveled to 9 (Carl to 7, squires to 2). The Tempered Soul Aspect domains were laid out for the whole table. Through Maccath and the Harpers, the Prophecy of the Thorn-Born Star gained a third stanza — "The tide once turned, a debt comes due — the star that turned it, setting too" — recovered from the sealed vault of the lich-archmage Arklem Greeth, along with a warning that the research itself can be divined by hostile eyes. The wyrmlings were harvested (see Harvested Materials), a week of downtime begins at the fort, and next session the company rides north to Boareskr Bridge after Varram the White.

Detailed Chronology

The fort, walked

The DM set the scene at the Greywatch — now Nuts Deep. New details entered canon: the walls are the height of a tall two-story building (~25 ft, 30 to the crenellation tops) and are hollow — an internal hallway runs their full circuit, with doors at intervals and hatches opening onto each star-point. The gatehouse is a murder room: the wall passage runs up and over the inner doors, so defenders can rain death on anyone trapped between the two gates. The northern wizard tower rises two levels above the walls; the catapult on the siege tower proved to be in working order, with a range of 240 feet and a stock of strange mucus-wrapped burst-stones. Bastion facilities will take time — the administrator and squires must find staff, and the rooms are bare.

The standing quest was restated: find Varram the White, Wyrmspeaker, last known near Boareskr Bridge north of Elturel — unusually close by the party's standards.

Squire assignments were also confirmed at the table: Will (Gootcha), Henrietta (Shade), Spurt (Keyleth), Diana (Karma), V (Xanphina — not yet formally met in-fiction), and Rogar (Baelgrum). See Squires of Deez Nuts.

The knight at the gate

A knight on a dying horse tore through the front gates — bloodied, bandaged, and astonished to find the fort occupied. ("Who goes there?" / Baelgrum: "We're Deez Nuts, and this is our fort." / Karma: "This is Nuts Deep.") He was outrider for a caravan bound into Elturel, attacked on the road: "It's the Dragon Cult. I can't tell you what [the cargo] is, but it is important that we protect this caravan. If you are true friends of Eltarel, I beg you, you must help us." The administrator turned to the party: "This is why you are here." Baelgrum: "We're here to kick Dragon Cult ass and chew bubblegum." (DM: "Bubble gum? That's actually what we're carrying." — It was not.)

The battle

The caravan — a knight, a Banneret, two paladins, and a wagon behind exhausted horses — crawled toward the gates with roughly fifteen pursuers behind it: zombies, skeleton soldiers and archers, a wight, a dragonborn cultist with a necrotic breath weapon, a Dragon Cult necromancer, and two blue dragon wyrmlings flanking from the air. The DM codified the terrain rules on the spot: crenellations give three-quarters cover (+5 AC and Dex saves) against attackers below, half cover (+2) against fliers, and meaningful height difference gives advantage/disadvantage on attacks.

Highlights, in rough order:

  • Xanphina raged and parkoured straight up the outside of the wall (strength-swapped Acrobatics 16, cat-flip landing on top).
  • Karma dropped Spike Growth across the road behind the fleeing caravan — camouflaged, 2d4 per 5 feet. It shredded the pursuit: the dragonborn and the wight staggered through it bleeding, and it ultimately killed the dragonborn ("a la Evil Dead," per Shanna) one round after his dying-breath necrotic cone hit the paladins.
  • Baelgrum opened with Misty Step (a once-per-long-rest feature) into a 4th-level Fireball on the horde — the DM ruled mid-cast that Tempered Soul save-DC boosts now apply to only one creature (his d4+1 made it DC 18 for the dragonborn alone, DC 17 for the rest). Zombies died in droves.
  • Keyleth marked the first wyrmling, and when her second shot missed, cashed in her super inspiration from naming Nuts Deep — an automatic natural 20. Double-dice on the bow, Hunter's Mark, an Ensnaring Strike rider, a re-rolled Hellfire Pixie crit, and her Tempered Soul d6 later, the first blue wyrmling was ensnared out of the sky and dead. ("The pixies are desecrating him.")
  • Carl checked, cranked, aimed, and fired the catapult: the mucus-wrapped stone burst apart in the air into a rain of projectiles over a wide area — 30 damage, Dex save — annihilating the northern zombies and an archer. Later in the fight he two-shot one skeleton archer and Action Surged to kill a second. The table's verdict: "The Redemption of Carl."
  • The second wyrmling strafed the wall with lightning breath (28 damage, Dex save 22) — Gootcha's Evasion took her to zero damage, but squire Whippoorwill (Will) took the full 28 and dropped. Baelgrum answered with Command: "Halt" — legal against a creature that understands a language, per an at-table check — boosted by his Aspect d6 to DC 19. The wyrmling failed, and being unable to act, could do nothing but land on the wall. Gootcha then poisoned it (poison sneak attack, failed Con save) and killed it the following round with crossbow and poisoned sneak.
  • Xanphina one-shot the wight with her Javelin of Lightning (6 piercing + 14 lightning), then used Hellgate's Passage to teleport down beside the cornered necromancer (16 thunder on arrival; the DM noted she can bring one ally along — nobody volunteered) and laid into him with Garmok's Flail (13, plus Sap mastery).
  • The necromancer proved the fight's engine: he hatched five fresh skeletons (once per day), regained hit points as a reaction when his necrotic damage killed (fed by the squire casualties), and detonated a 60-foot sphere of negative energy (Con DC 15) that downed Henrietta, Whippoorwill, and Spurt — Spurt, at 7 HP, outright dead. He then Bestow Cursed Xanphina (she rolled a 4): a DC 15 Wisdom save at the start of each turn or lose her action — which she then failed even with her Tempered Soul d6. Karma's Tranquil Rebuke bounced off a 22 save (the ability is only expended on a failure).
  • Squires earned their keep: Spurt magic-missiled the necromancer for 5 (who "just sort of shakes it off — are you serious?"); Whippoorwill, potion-revived by Gootcha, cast Armor of Agathys and put a 10-damage Eldritch Blast into the dragonborn; Rogar bodyguarded Karma (+2 AC), cast Sanctuary on her, and his dragonborn breath weapon finished a skeleton soldier ("Good job, Ro-Ro"); Diana was shoved off the 15-foot inner tower by a skeleton (8 falling damage), dusted herself off, and threw daggers; V — a gnome with a pistol nobody can explain ("I didn't make this character!" — the DM ruled firearms will be swapped out) — shrugged off the same shove ("She's got that low center of gravity"), missed with the gun, and Cure Woundsed Carl for 11.
  • Baelgrum closed the skeleton problem with Spirit Guardians — one archer's "mind just goes completely blank… he just lets go and falls to his death" off the wall — then used his jaunty boots to teleport into the middle of the five catapult-top skeletons: all five failed DC 17 Wisdom saves and died at once. He is still workshopping a name for the Jaunty Boots + Spirit Guardians combo.
  • Keyleth finished it: leaping off the 30-foot wall on a DC 15 Acrobatics (23 — "ninja tuck and roll"), sprinting to the corner, and — after a natural 1 — putting a 23-to-hit longbow arrow, Hunter's Mark, and a max-rolled Hellfire Pixie burst into the necromancer. The pixies went for his eyes. "This necromancer has finally fallen."

The caravan made it through the gates intact. All downed squires were recovered — Keyleth spent a Cure Wounds after the fight to revive Spurt from the dead ("Forgot he's dead… I've been stepping over him" — Xanphina).

The Banneret's thanks — Baelgrum joins the Dawnbringers

Once the paladins had bound their wounds, the Banneret of the Dawnbringers (unnamed) addressed the party: her order — clerics and paladins of the light of Lathander — has counted the Cult of the Dragon among its chief foes "over the past hundreds of years," and the deeds of Deez Nuts are known. Turning to Baelgrum: "You, sir, showed a strong connection to Lathander, but I don't know you. Who are you, and where are you from?"

Baelgrum gave his history — Goldenfields, the dragon that destroyed it, the revelation, the years of smiting the Dragon Cult in the Morninglord's name — and confirmed he is unaffiliated. Her answer: "We would be honored if you would join our ranks in the Dawnbringers." His: "Do it. As long as Squire Rogar can come." She sensed at once that Rogar too follows Lathander: "Absolutely." Given his axe and accomplishments, he will not start at the order's lowest rank; the next time the party is in Elturel, he is to visit one of the order's temples for the symbols and items fitting his stature. This is the in-story handoff of Baelgrum's faction track from Alexios's frozen Athena boons to the Dawnbringers, and the order will provide a quest.

The Companion, and the Hellriders — the Banneret's history lesson

Asked about the unsetting sun over Elturel, the Banneret told the story as Elturel knows it: some years ago the city's leader was secretly taken over by a lich, who corrupted the other officials and bent the city toward his dark agenda. An uprising rose and was hopeless — until Thavius Kreeg, a man of the Elturgard outlands, came to the city and summoned the Companion. It descended from the sky, and its light is death to the undead; the lich's grip was broken, and the orb has hung there ever since. Nobody knows what the Companion is or how Kreeg summoned it. He has been High Overseer since, steering the city toward the light and building up the Dawnbringers and the Hellriders.

And the Hellriders: hundreds of years before the lich, devils sought to take Elturel, and a gate to Hell was opened — near this very bastion. The paladins of Elturel rode through it to fight the devils on their home ground and won, at great cost: the gate closed behind them, and only a handful ever found their way back. The paladin corps of Elturel still bears the name, and still keeps the pact to destroy any devil's influence on the city. No infernal energy lingers at the site today — but the party now garrisons the doorstep of a former hellmouth, under a light no one can explain. (Retroactive date correction: the record now fixes the Companion's rise at 1444 DR and the Hellriders' ride at 1354 DR — see The Rise of the Companion, The Ride of the Hellriders, and the Timeline.) Baelgrum, filing it away: "So we have a mysterious glowing ball and a demonic incursion all in the same area. That's interesting."

Nuts Deep also sits at the edge of the Companion's reach — roughly the limit of where undead can survive near Elturel. The caravan had been racing for the fort precisely because the light there might have driven off the horde on its own.

The cargo, and the fort's future

The Banneret would not name the cargo even to a fellow Lathanderite: "supplies and magic items that we are using in our fight against Tiamat," bound for Elturel, where the Dawnbringers and Hellriders are jointly provisioning for "the upcoming battles." (Baelgrum: "You're probably lucky our friend Shadier is taking a nap right now, otherwise she might be breaking into your wagon.")

In return for the rescue, she will report to her superiors and to Thavius Kreeg himself: craftsmen, supplies, and equipment will be sent to stand the fort up. The party's wishlist went on record — a smith, an artificer, a potion master, a war room, administrators, and soldiers to man the walls. And a major discovery: the mage tower holds a working teleportation circle (such circles must be cast in the same spot every day for a year to become permanent — this one still holds its energies). Shade can memorize it, making Nuts Deep a one-way teleport home after every future adventure.

An extended downtime of about a week begins: working with the craftsmen, choosing facilities, getting the bastion running.

Level 9, Aspects, and the harvest

  • Everyone leveled to 9 — proficiency +4 (weapons, spell DCs, proficient skills and saves all +1); full casters (Shade, Karma, Baelgrum) gain a 5th-level spell slot. Carl is now level 7. Squires may level to 2.
  • Tempered Soul Aspect domains were laid out for the whole table (see Tempered Soul for the definitions: Baelgrum — protection/sacrifice; Xanphina — past-the-breaking-point; Karma — suppression, harvest-craft, and finding weakness; Keyleth — the hunt and the wild; Gootcha — name, memory, and the Raven Queen's domain; Shade — arcane certainty). Charge pools grow with proficiency bonus (7 + 5 boxes at level 9). New rulings: a save-DC boost applies to one creature only; and the soul die may be added to damage (a legal, if less efficient, use — confirmed by the DM post-session). D&D Beyond setup: delete the old Tempered Soul feat, keep Tempered Soul Aspects (three drop-down slots exist; only one Aspect may be filled until a soul evolution).
  • Faction renown: the whole party has reached rank 3 in their factions; the DM is designing the boon feats and invited direction requests. (Karma's floated idea: a Scales of Eldath boon letting her wild shape into dragon types — at level 9 she can take CR 3 forms, and a blue dragon wyrmling is CR 3 with a fly speed of 60.)
  • The wyrmlings were harvested — two blue dragon wyrmling carcasses, two checks per character (the DM rolled for the absent Shade). Karma rolled a natural 20 (29 Herbalism), prompting a new house rule: a nat 20 on a harvest check can claim a component one rarity level above the monster's normal ceiling. Full record: Harvested Materials; rules: Monster Harvesting.
  • Loot owed (DM to compile): the S52 assassin-squad loot, this battle's spoils, and the necromancer's "necromancy-type treasures" (the party dragged his corpse in for Shade to pick over).

The Thorn-Born Star — the third stanza

With Maccath the Crimson embedded at the Arcane Brotherhood and the Harpers able to write directly into Gootcha's magic notebook, two packets of intelligence arrived:

From Maccath / the Brotherhood: the Brotherhood found a sealed vault of Arklem Greeth — the lich-archmage who once ruled the Host Tower and obsessively collected any prophecy touching on overthrow. His copy of the Prophecy of the Thorn-Born Star carries a final stanza the party had never seen:

"The tide once turned, a debt comes due — the star that turned it, setting too."

Scholars argue over both halves: whether the child of the prophecy can kill any god or only a single god ("her arrows pierce what gods have dreamed" is what caught the lich's eye), and whether "setting" means death or transformation. Keyleth, brightly: "I'm going to go with the transformation."

From the Harpers: with the full prophecy in hand, their archives connected the dragon attack on Starspire Grove (Xanphina's ancestors) and the burning of Narthalas (Keyleth's home) to six further attacks across the centuries that no longer look random — see The Grove Burnings in Gootcha's book. Every file ends the same way: no known survivors. The Harpers are re-investigating each site.

And a warning from Maccath: this research resonates — it is the sort of inquiry that hostile divination can detect. It is now possible that the Cult of the Dragon knows the party is digging into the Thorn-Born Star. Keyleth also confirmed her identity as the Star is not generally known — though anyone hearing her questions could draw the conclusion.

Notable Characters

  • PCs: Xanphina (Amber), Keyleth (Patty), Gootcha (Ashley, at Patty's), Karma (Shanna), Baelgrum (Richard). Shade (Sarah) absent — in-fiction, "taking a nap"; the DM rolled her harvest checks.
  • Allies: Carl (catapult hero, Action Surge, now level 7), the Banneret of the Dawnbringers (unnamed — recruited Baelgrum), the Dawnbringer knight and two paladins of the caravan, Thavius Kreeg's administrator (still unnamed — the DM flagged the placeholder at the table).
  • Squires (all now level 2 — see Squires of Deez Nuts): Will/"Whippoorwill" (downed twice), Henrietta (downed), Spurt (killed, revived), Diana (shoved off a tower), V (pistol-toting gnome artificer; healed Carl), Rogar (bodyguard; joining the Dawnbringers with Baelgrum).
  • Enemies (all destroyed): a Dragon Cult necromancer (unnamed; skeleton-hatcher, negative-energy sphere, Bestow Curse — killed by Keyleth), a dragonborn cultist (necrotic breath — killed by Spike Growth), a wight (killed by Xanphina), two blue dragon wyrmlings (killed by Keyleth and Gootcha), and some fifteen-plus zombies, skeleton soldiers, and skeleton archers.

Locations

Nuts Deep — the whole session. New canon: hollow fighting-walls with internal hallways and star-point hatches, the gatehouse murder room, the working 240-ft catapult and its burst-stones, the mage tower's active teleportation circle, and the fort's position at the edge of the Companion's undead-suppressing light. Also: the Hellriders' gate to Hell was opened near this fort. • Elturel and the Companion (history revealed). • Boareskr Bridge — next destination.

Factions

  • Dawnbringers — Baelgrum formally recruited (Rogar too); he skips the lowest rank; a faction quest is coming. The order is provisioning Elturel jointly with the Hellriders for battles against Tiamat.
  • Cult of the Dragon — an undead strike force with air support thrown at a secret supply caravan, within sight of Elturel. The cult is getting "more brazen"; and per Maccath's warning, it may now know the party is researching the Prophecy of the Thorn-Born Star.
  • Arcane Brotherhood — delivered the third stanza from Arklem Greeth's vault. • Harpers — delivered The Grove Burnings.
  • All PC factions — rank 3 renown reached party-wide; boon feats incoming.

Quests

  • COMPLETED: Defend the Elturel caravan — every attacker destroyed; the caravan (secret anti-Tiamat supplies and magic items) delivered safely onward; Thavius Kreeg to be told.
  • ADVANCED: Restore Nuts Deep — Elturel is sending craftsmen, staff, and supplies; teleportation circle discovered; a week of downtime begins; squires garrison the fort.
  • ADVANCED: Find Varram the White — next destination: Boareskr Bridge, north of Elturel. The march resumes next session.
  • ADVANCED: Prophecy of the Thorn-Born Star — third stanza recovered (Greeth's vault); The Grove Burnings pattern delivered; the research may now be visible to the Cult.
  • NEW LEADS: the Companion and the old hellmouth sit in the same place — Baelgrum smells a story • the caravan's secret war-stockpile in Elturel • the Dawnbringers' quest for Baelgrum (pending) • rank-3 faction boons (pending).

Quotes

  • "We're Deez Nuts, and this is our fort." — Baelgrum / "This is Nuts Deep." — Karma
  • "We're here to kick Dragon Cult ass and chew bubblegum. We're all out of bubblegum." — Baelgrum
  • "I like having a fort, man." — Keyleth (Patty, from the crenellations)
  • "Can we rename today's episode, These Nuts Need a Nap?" — Shanna (the whole table forgot how to play for a month)
  • "It's the result that counts." — Xanphina, on Gootcha's scramble up the wall
  • "Let's go, Carl." / "The Redemption of Carl." — the table, as the catapult shot lands
  • "She stays strapped!" — Baelgrum, on Squire V's inexplicable pistol / "I didn't make this character!" — Amber
  • "Do it. As long as Squire Rogar can come." — Baelgrum, accepting the Dawnbringers
  • "So we have a mysterious glowing ball and a demonic incursion all in the same area. That's interesting." — Baelgrum
  • "Because we are Deez Nuts and this is our keep, our deep." — Keyleth (the Banneret, gamely: "Well, that is well named.")
  • "I harvested the ' out of that thing." — Karma (natural 20 — and a new house rule)
  • "I'm going to go with the transformation." — Keyleth, on the prophecy's final line

Session End

The fort held. The caravan is safe, the walls are proven, and Elturel's craftsmen are coming. Baelgrum is a Dawnbringer, the party is level 9, and a week of downtime at Nuts Deep begins — facilities to choose, a teleportation circle to memorize, faction boons and loot to collect. Then north, to Boareskr Bridge and the trail of Varram the White. Hanging over it all: a prophecy that now ends with the Star setting, and the knowledge that the act of reading it may have been overheard.

Attribution & Uncertainties

  • Sarah (Shade) was absent; Ashley played Gootcha from Patty's house. Zoom labels: "Amber Vaske" (Xanphina), "Patty Kehoe" (Keyleth + relaying Ashley), "Shanna Harper" (Karma), "Baelgrum" (Richard), "Wes Vaske" (DM).
  • The wight is rendered "the Wit"/"Whit" in the recording (the table debated "wih-jit"); treated here as a wight.
  • The Banneret and the administrator are both unnamed; the DM explicitly flagged the administrator's placeholder name at the table.
  • "Boareskyr Bridge" is rendered "Borske/Borskir Bridge" in the recording; this wiki's existing spelling Boareskr Bridge is used.
  • Tempered Soul on damage is now an official ruling (DM confirmation, 2026-08-09): the soul die may be added to damage — a legal, less efficient use. Keyleth's S52 and S53 damage spends stand as rules-clean.
  • Wyrmling harvest component assignments were made in post-session processing from the rolls the DM recorded at the table; the DM said "I'll figure out what that means" — see Harvested Materials and flag any corrections.
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