10/19/2026: Paws Off/Nine Hells DnD log session

Borark spots the entrance in the side of the ice mountain first. A pool of magical darkness blots out everything inside the mouth of the opening, and from somewhere within it a voice rasps, "Beware! Stay out, lest you join the suffering of those consigned within!" Paws Off/Nine Hells DnD log session

The barbarian blinks. "Isn't everyone here suffering? I mean, this is Hell."

There is a distinct pause. Then the voice snaps, offended, "Well, this is true suffering! You really don't want to be in there!"

By now Borark has pressed his lace handkerchief over his face, and the enchanted cloth lets him make out a dim aura of magic within the dark. He walks in. The black closes around him, thick as wool. Close to his right ear, the voice hisses, "It is your fate, friend!"

Meanwhile, Gearloose, Kiki, Reklaw, and Vali wander up. "Hello?" calls Kiki.

From deep in the darkness comes the heavy shuffle of Borark's feet, and then the rasping voice again: "Are you the famous Kiki? You seek fuel."

From somewhere inside the blackness, Borark snarls, "What am I, invisible?! How come you didn't know my name?"

Reklaw snaps his fingers and pours extra power into Dispel Magic. The pulse rolls outward. The darkness dissolves at once, and a gem hanging from a furry neck goes dim.

Revealed is a mangy tabaxi in a tricorn hat and a dirty eye patch. His clothes are tattered, and so are his ears. He grins, showing yellowed teeth and the gap where a fang used to be. Then he tears the darkened amulet from his neck and throws it on the ground in disgust.

Reklaw picks it up. From a heavy platinum chain hangs a ruby the size of a hen's egg. "May I take it?"

The tabaxi shrugs, then bows low, sweeping the hat from his head. "Captain Three Rings, formerly of Waterdeep. It is yours, kind sir. It is of no value in Hell."

Reklaw pockets it.

To Kiki, the captain adds, "There is fuel within the cave. Beware." Then he saunters away.

⚔️

The party has not owned a rope since Stygia, and in Cania they could really use one. They stand at the edge of a frozen cavern facing a thirty-foot gap. Far below runs the River Styx. Nobody wants to swim in it.

Borark has a plan. "Just have the monk grab me, run me across, and do that with everyone."

Reklaw points out that Borark is a big guy. The barbarian agrees. "And I am not strong," he adds. "Emotionally, physically, or intellectually."

Borark pauses to absorb what he has just said about himself, then moves on to another plan altogether. He climbs the icy wall and inches along it, clinging tight, until he is safely across.

Vali transforms into a bone devil, unfurls a pair of leathery wings, and starts ferrying passengers. Kiki goes first. Gearloose is light enough to count as carry-on. Reklaw, whose feet stick to walls, simply jogs sideways across the cavern.

Past the gap, a staircase carved from ice spirals downward. It is slippery, and it is long, and it does not care who is on it.

Reklaw falls first, boom, boom, boom, and lands unhurt at the bottom. Vali starts to fall too, then remembers he has wings. Kiki bounces thirty feet down and arrives hurt, though she admits it could have been worse. Gearloose tumbles after her and takes the worst of it, collecting every step on the way down.

⚔️

Thunk, meanwhile, has opted to stay in the truck.

In the back, Lula the angel groans and rolls over, conscious for the first time since Phlegethos. They introduce themself to Thunk, and Thunk returns the favor.

"All of these creatures are yours?" Lula gestures at Cerberus, the baby griffon, and Horatio the manticore. "You have quite the touch with creatures, do you not?"

"Yes, I do. Thank you for noticing." Thunk is pleased.

"You don't often meet a bugbear with that quality," Lula marvels, their voice hoarse from disuse.

Thunk considers this. "I'm just different. I don't know what to say, man. I'm special."

"You're a special bugbear. Do you also need your soul replaced? Those I was traveling with need to recover theirs."

"No. I don't really remember how I joined this party," Thunk admits. "I'm just kinda here for the ride, I guess."

Lula nods toward the far end of the truck bed, where another bugbear sits. "Is he your brother? You're both bugbears." They seem genuinely interested.

From across the truck, Thunk's former business partner, Clunk, glares. Thunk refuses to look back. "Oh, I hate that guy. He is the one person I hate in this entire world."

"Is there something I can do for you?"

"Destroy him."

Lula looks closer. "You have a curse upon you. Is that why you dislike him so?"

Thunk blinks. "I'm cursed?" A long pause. "That really makes me rethink things. My entire life."

"Allow me." Lula presses a hand to Thunk's forehead and murmurs a prayer. All the old bitterness drains out of him at once. His eyes fill with tears.

"Clunk. Oh, Clunk. I missed you."

Clunk starts crying too. After six years, the feud is over, and they are best friends again.

Lula leans back, smiling, but weary.

⚔️

Back in the caves, the party begins to hear pickaxes in the distance.

Borark sets his stone raven, a figurine of wondrous power, on the icy ground. It shivers into a living bird, and he sends it ahead to scout. It finds a mine where tormented shades hack at the frozen walls while two ice devils stalk among them, whipping anyone who slows down.

In the corner sits something that looks a lot like a mate to Kiki's stolen engine. This one glows hot, and the devils are using it to keep warm. Nearby, at a safe distance from the heat, sits a pile of steel fuel canisters.

The raven swoops in and snatches one. The first ice devil never sees it. The second one does, and hurls a spear of ice. With a pained squawk, the raven crashes to the floor and turns back to stone. The canister skids across the ice toward the party.

Heavy footsteps come crunching down the hall.

Gearloose readies his eldritch cannon.

⚔️

Someone knocks on the truck window, startling Thunk. Cautiously, the bugbear rolls it down a few inches.

Outside stands a mangy tabaxi with three earrings in one torn ear, a missing tooth, an eye patch, and a pirate hat. He gives Thunk a wide smile.

"Hello. Are you with the gentlemen who went into the cave?" The smile, impossibly, gets wider.

Thunk is suspicious. "Yeah, I am. Is there a problem?"

Three Rings raises his paws, as if to brush away any notion of a problem. "Oh, no, no problem at all. I am called Three Rings. They have agreed to give me a ride out of here."

"Have they?" Thunk shakes his head. "Doesn't seem like something they would do."

Three Rings reaches for the door handle anyway.

"Paws off! Paws off! My friend is very protective of this truck, and your beautifully long claws could scratch the paint."

The paint is already scratched to oblivion.

Three Rings strolls toward the back of the truck. "I'm admiring the workmanship."

"You don't look like the kind of guy who does that." Thunk rolls the window all the way down and hangs out of it, staring after him.

"We all have our hobbies." He lifts his eye patch, winks with the eye beneath, then takes the patch off and holds it out. "Put it on. With it, I see all manner of magical things. For instance, the cannon. Nice workmanship."

Thunk shrinks back, horrified. "Ewwww. It's got germs. You're just gonna hand this to me? I feel like that's not very smart."

Thunk does not stab him. Thunk would not stab a tabaxi over an eye patch.

Three Rings puts the patch back on and leaps onto the roof.

"Hey, get off the truck, pal! You're starting to make me angry. I have an angel, a giant beast, and a three-headed dog that will tear your head off. And somebody with a very funny hat. Don't mess with them."

"Funnier than my hat?" Three Rings tips his tricorn politely.

"Are you challenging the funniness of Vali's hat?" Thunk finds he is getting quite angry.

"I dare him to compete with my funny hat." Three Rings grins wider than ever and vanishes into the gear piled in the back of the truck.

Thunk has an angel, a manticore, a three-headed dog, and his best friend back. As of now, he also has a pirate.

Continuity Flags

• Borark's species: your draft called him "the orc," but earlier logs describe him as a tiefling with hooves. I changed it to "he." Swap it back if he's an orc now.

• Horatio: this log calls him a manticore. An earlier Cania log called him a fire dog. Which is correct?

• Dispel Magic: I kept Reklaw as the caster, but since he's the monk, double-check that it wasn't Kiki or Vali.

• The cannon: Three Rings admires "the cannon" from outside the truck while Gearloose has it in the cave. Is it mounted on the truck, or is the eye patch seeing it from a distance? Either works if it's intentional.

• Lula's pronouns: your draft used "themself" and later "he is weary." I made it consistently "they."

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Focus keyword: Nine Hells D&D session log

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A pirate cat hides in magic darkness, an ice stair tries to kill everyone, and an angel ends a six-year feud. The Nine Hells party digs deeper into Cania.

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• D&D for kids Austin

• online D&D campaign for teens

• Cania Nine Hells adventure

• tabaxi pirate D&D

• ice devils D&D

• River Styx D&D

• bugbear character D&D

Tags: D&D With Dee, Nine Hells, Cania, Session Log, Kids D&D, Tabaxi, Ice Devils, Bugbear, Actual Play

Image alt text:

A one-eyed tabaxi pirate in a tricorn hat grins at the mouth of a dark ice cave in the frozen Hell of Cania.

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General social:

A pirate cat in a tricorn hat. An icy staircase with opinions. A bugbear who finds out he's been cursed for six years. Just another day in Cania. 🧊⚔️ New session log is up!

Substack / Facebook:

This week in the Nine Hells, the party meets Captain Three Rings, a mangy tabaxi pirate who swears he has no use for a ruby the size of a hen's egg. Meanwhile, back in the truck, an angel wakes up and quietly fixes a six-year grudge between two bugbears. It's one of my favorite moments of the campaign so far: kids discovering that sometimes the person you can't stand isn't the problem. Read the full log at dndwithdee.com.

LinkedIn:

In our latest Nine Hells session, one player's character learned that a long-running grudge was actually the result of a curse. Once it lifted, the two characters reconciled on the spot. Moments like this are why I run tabletop games for young people: the story gives them a safe space to practice forgiveness, rethink their assumptions, and repair relationships. The full session log is on the D&D With Dee blog.