Session Recap 5/7/15

Deep in the Darken Wood, facing down a band of ghastly ghosties, the party had avoided a potentially deadly fight due to Brevofurgins quick thinking and his knowledge of the Ergothian tongue. They agreed to follow the head-ghost-in-charge into the heart of the forest.

The twisted branches and sinister mists of the Darken Wood concealed a hidden glade. Standing on a rocky promontory was a magnificent (and sexy) beast: a powerful spirit in the form of a silver unicorn! Communicating telepathically, the Unicorn introduced itself as Forestmaster, laird of this realm.

Forestmaster told the heroes that it had been visited by a Glorious Radiant Being (GRB) who foretold their imminent arrival. The GRB gave Forestmaster instructions to pass on to the party. Forestmaster explained that a fearsome army would soon overrun Abanasinia, and that the only chance to defeat it was to get the bearer of the BCS to the sunken city of Xak-Tsaroth. In Xak-Tsaroth waited a great danger, but also a great prize.

Friendship is Magic!

Forestmaster was hep to helping our troupe out, and he summoned his pal Cloud-splitter and his flock of pegasi to carry the heroes to the Eastwall Mountains. The group had already determined that they should head to Xak-Tsaroth, and sensing no treachery they were more than happy to catch a quick flight. Before they left the glade, they asked the Forestmaster a few questions, learning that the “prize” was a set of metallic disks engraved with holy scripture – the Disks of Mishakal.

There was a mid-flight long rest and then the party was deposited in the eastern reaches of the great plains of Abanasinia. As they disembarked, they noticed a pillar of black smoke rising from the western horizon. Goldmoon spazzed-out, screaming that her village lay in the direction of the burning. The party debated it, but agreed to a detour on behalf of the princess.

By the time they got to Que-Shu village, it was too late. The dragon-armies had totally ransacked the place. Nobody was left alive. Just in case it was not obvious, mustache twirling villian, Highlord Verminaard had left a note claiming responsibility. The party made sure to underline and circle his name several times so they would remember to kill him later.

The party hightailed it back toward the Eastwall Mountains and the swamps beyond. They crossed through the Forsaken Pass and made camp high in the mountains, where they had a better view of the countryside. At dawn on their 4^th day since leaving Solace, the party trudged down from the mountains and into the swamps.

Brevofurgins took point, stealthily moving about 100 feet ahead of the group. This proved useful when he found that their path was blocked by a nest of fearsome saltwater Crocs! Having not killed anything since last session, the group decided to charge in rather than find a way around. A battle ensued between our protagonists and a force of crocodiles, will-o-wisps, and one giant crocodile. This time the heroes paid extra attention to battle tactics and it paid off big time.

Continuing through the mucky-muck, they were at the outskirts of the ruined city. The path into town was suspiciously blocked by a giant log. Smelling an ambush, Brevofurgins scouted it out once again, discovering a force of Draconians waiting for them. The party was able to pre-buff for this encounter, providing an early edge.

This time the Draconians had a few tricks of their own – there was a new type of dragon-man, a larger, meaner spell-casting variety that exploded when killed. They also had a pet shambling mound who had nearly 150 hit points. Once again, the party's tactics were superb (and they were rolling great all night)! Keys to the battle included a crucial use of entanglement, a divide and conquer strategy, and forcing the powerful shambling mound to attack Grundlesnatch (high AC) or Solaire (high HP) only. This DM was impressed.

Before they stepped up to the streets, the party wanted some additional intel. Salvin knocked one of the Bozak's unconscious and the party determined to question it before they took a long rest. The Bozak was a real anus and would not answer any questions until Marshall ensorcelled him.

The Bozak told them that Xak-Tsaroth had been the staging ground for the army that destroyed Que-Shu. He further revealed that several armies had attacked Abanasinia all at once. Haven was to be attacked on the fifth day! The armies here were called the “Red Dragon-Army” and the field-commander was this Verminaard guy. Verminaard had left a garrison in Xak-Tsaroth along with a black dragon called Onyx. Onyx was guarding something important.

What really got everybody upset was when the Bozak described the death of Chief Arrowthorn, Goldmoon's father. Having taken a liking to the princess and not wanting this fiend to torture her with his filthy talk, Grundlesnatch and Brevofurgins cut him down! It was time to get serious.

Nothing now stood between the heroes and the sunken city. They followed the broken cobblestone streets towards a natural confluence – a great plaza at the center of the city. Brevofurgins scouting revealed a force of 9 Baaz, 2 Bozak and 2 flying devils (Green Ashibai). The party pre-buffed and Brevofurgins fired a stealth shot to start the battle.

Solaire's initiative feat paid off and he launched a devastating flame strike on the enemies' leadership. The damage was enough to kill both Bozak outright and bring one Devil into the danger zone. Marshall followed this up by casting a sleep spell, which put the injured Devil crashing into slumber. The rest of the party spread out to intercept the charging Baaz.

At some point in the battle, Princess Goldmoon seemed to be under a magical compulsion and went running off toward a temple-building in the east. Brevofurgins tried to intercept her but she juked him and got away. The party was mopping up the opposition WHEN THE DRAGON APPEARED!

Onyx would like a word with you..,

Flying out of a well-shaft in the center of the plaza, the HEWJ DRAGON Onyx flew into the air and cast a spell shrouded herself in impenetrable darkness. The party wasn't prepared to deal with such witchcraft and so they continued to kill the last remaining dragon-men on the ground, hoping the dragon would just go away or something. I do recall that both Grundlesnatch and Marshall got in some shots on Onyx as she emerged, but nothing significant.

On its second round, Onyx hocked back, and delivered an acid loogie that struck Solaire and Salvin. The Dragon was no joke – Soliare took 57 damage dropping him out of his final wildshape and all the way down to 1 point away from perma-death. It was quite shocking. Luckily for our heroes, that was apparently all the dragon felt like doing that day and it roared off down the well like a bat out of hell. The party killed the final dragon-man and we called it for the night.

Solaire had some bad Acid

Wow. This session was the tits. It was dominated by three back to back combats, but somebody had managed to balance them fairly well (despite the DEADLY SURPRISE at the end there). Everybody seemed to enjoy it, and I know I can't wait to see what kind of shananigans they get up to in Xak-Tsaroth's dungeons. Hi-ho Silver!

DM CHAS

Marshall Rhapsodizes on Recent Events

So one of our heroes, the (rap) Bard Marshall has been keeping his own notes on the events of the last two sessions. I thought I would include them here as its illustrative of how the players experienced the sessions as well as fairly humorous.

Marshall is beginning to feel like a Rap Bard...

Session One: Stuff Happens
On their way into town, the five adventurers encountered a group of goblins, led by a mail clad fiend, Toerde Furguson.  Immediately prior to combat, the Toerde fled to the city of Solace. They gobos were dispatched with quickly, thanks in large part to Solaire's magic boom stick.  After the combat, the group headed towards the tavern at which they had all agreed to meet.  There, Marshall learned from the busty young bar maiden, that the sixth companion, whom both Solaire and Brevofurgins had each apparently had their way with, was not coming.  She had pledged her sword to some silly 'king' of some sort; one whom she was most likely controlling with her mystical lady parts. After feeling out the scene, the group learned that the town had been overtaken by the dubious Seekers, who had placed a turd with a silly name that started with an 'H' the leader of the town.  This same turd, the group learned, had hired a band of goblin ruffians to 'keep the peace.' This silly Seeker man happened to be at the same tavern that very night! He was not the only interesting character there, however.  Two Plainsfolk huddled in the corner caught the eye of Salvin Dragonfucker.  After he gave them the third degree, they told him about a blue magik staff they had found; they were convinced it had something to do with the old gawds, and they asked that our group escort them to the city of Haven. At about the point in time some drunk old man stood up and started spewing about gods doing magikal things.  Immediately, the drunk Seeker-man got up and screamed at the old drunk, using a bunch of unkind language, and called for his goblin police to arrest the herritec immediately.  Not liking any of that, Brevofudgkins stood up and murdered the man in cold blood.  Right in front of everyone.  Like some maniac, with no regard for 'law,' 'rules,' 'social mores,' 'decency,' or anything of the sort. As you can immagine, that didn't go over too well.  While no one was too hip on the idea of the Seekers controling everything, they were quite shocked.  At about the same time his body hit the floor, the goblin police broke down the door, and combat ensued.  After handling the gobos fairly handily, the group, along with the Pocahontas and Geronamo, left the tavern through the 'backdoor,' a rope ladder behind the bar. As they made their way down, they saw hundreds of torches in the night. Realizing the Toerde had rallied his troops to capture the group.  They decided immediatly to sneak outta town.  Solaire took the shape of a giant spider and took to the treetops to navigate the best route. He lowered a rope of silk to guide his commrades.  However, Grundlesnatch, the only one in the group that could not see in the dark, who somehow owned zero torches, tripped on a rock and then Solaire shat his pants.  The goblins of course heard the racket, and pounced.  Grundlesnatch found himself completely useless as combat commenced, as I'll say again, he HAD ZERO TORCHES. At first the heroes seemed out matched; they took fairly large amounts of initial damage, and Marshal was set ablaze! Oddly enough, however, this provided plenty of light for Grundle to operate.  The tides quickly turned, and the gobos were dispatched.

Session Two: Even More Things Transpire
The group found itself in the aftermath of the goblin attack in the forest.  After initial healing, they set out immediately. Heading north, as it was the quickest way outta town, they traveled several hours to put some distance between them and the gobos.  The group camped at midnight, and woke up around 8 am.  However, Grundlesnatch sneakily asked for last watch; but he did no watching. He spent the first part of his watch reading the book, 'The Game;' learning the ins and outs of tricking women into sleeping with you. He forsook the safety of his commrades in order to search the prairies for eggs and wheat.  Used the remaining hour and a half to grind the wheat into flour, made batter, relit the campfire, and made pancakes.  As the group rose, Grundle serves these cakes to Princess Pocahooters, and of course did not make enough for everyone. Meanwhile, Marshall decided to implement the D.E.N.N.I.S. System in an effort to woo Pocahooters; and is deep in the process of Demonstrating Value.  Soon he will move on to the second leg of the system, Engaging Physically. After Grundle sufficiently pissed off the rest of the group, they set out on the road to Haven. After hours of travel, while making their was through the Gingerbread Pass, the group was approached by a group of wayward zealots. Expecting the worse, several members of the party took up strategic positions, while Marshall stepped forward to serve as the Mouth of Sauron.  They spouted off some garbage about a blue staff being stolen from their monestery, and needing it to heal their sick friend.  Knowing this was most likely 100% BS, Marshall denied having any knowledge of the blu staff, and the monks revealed themselves as hideous lizard men. Immediately, Marshall cast a devastating spell on the group of Lizard men, that would have been super effective had he not tripped, and let down his guard, losing concentration on the spell.  However, although the lizard men were a group of hotshot army men, they stood no chance.  Soon, one by one, the lizard men fell. However, as they did, they turned into grotesque statues, trapping any weapon whose weilder was too slow and clumsy to move out of the way.  Of course Grundlesnatch lost his silver glaive in this manner... No worries, however, as the stone lizard men quickly whithered to dust. After dispatching with the lizard men, the group completed their journey towards the city of Haven. Their the group found thousands of refugees surrounding the Capital. After speaking with them, they learned that there were several armies roaming the country side, forcing them to flee. They also learned that the city was closed, but the Council members of the city were searching for a blue staff, that supposedly would save them all!  However, distrusting the Seekers, and not wanting to reveal the fact that they in fact had the blu staff, the silver tongued rap bard, Marshall, weaved his word webs, the guards gladly let them in. Upon entrance to the city, the group found plenty more refugees.  Wanting to gather more info, they headed to the nearest tavern.  There, they met Henry and Jewse, who, after some discussion, told them that if they meet them later at Grubb's Tavern, they will them them where the treasure is buried. They also told the group that it was common knowledge that the Kights of Solomi had fallen, and the blu staff was Haven's only hope.  Hearing this, the group ventured to the center of the city, searching for the council. Under the guise of offering the council their services to find the blue staff, the group learned the coucil's plan to trade the staff to the Lizard Folk in exchange for their guranteed safety. Not liking what they heard, they searched for another opinon.  The oldest man on the council, Elron Hubbard, obviously did not agree with the council's plans, and suggested that they should investigate the sunken city of Zak and Sarah to learn more of the staff.  The group agreed.  However, it was suggested that they take a shortcut through the Darkened Wood, as there were regular patrols of Lizard Men on the roads. Most of the way through the Wood, the group was waylayed by SPECTORS! Speaking in some odd language the group could not understand, they attacked! Immediately, after an inniatial bear attack by Solaire, the group learned that only magik and silver weapons would deal with these ghosties. Marshall did a fair amount of damage with his magikal prose, and the rest of the party brought the beatdown with the silver.  However, the ghosts let fly a volley of spectral fists upon Silvan, beating the tar out of him.  Brevofartkins then realized that he actually understood the ghostmen.  They stated that if we meant no evil, we should sheath our weapons and submit to them.  Brevo was very eager to submit, and convinced his comrade to do so as well.  Unlikely as it seemed, this coarse of action worked! While speaking with the ghosties, the group learned of their interest in the blue staff and revealed the fact that they had it.  The ghosties implored them to follow them deeper into the wood, and the group did so.

DM's Corner #1

Time for a few thoughts from the lonely side of the screen...

Git thee on mah train!

So Dragonlance is the archetypal railroad in many ways -- I don't believe that automatically makes it unfun. However, for the choo-choo train to run correctly, I think it needs to do a couple of things better than DL1 does as written.

We had a moderate breakdown in Haven last night. We know that the ultimate destination is Xak-Tsaroth, and the Haven interlude is supposed to be one method of getting characters interested in going there. But given the build-up and characterization of the Seekers (especially Hederick in Solace) the party likely already doesn't trust them (or even like them much).

The module seems to think the players will march up to the Councilhall and show the staff to the Highseekers. After playing through this section last night, this seems exceedingly unlikely. So the players naturally concealed the BCS from the Highseekers and suddenly the train was out of steam, stuck in Haven with no natural next move for the PC's.

I was able to salvage the scene with some heavy handed DM fiat; I retroactively suggested that the party noticed one seeker (Elistan) did not seem to agree with Lorcar's plan (after the players suggested this, thank god.) So we did a little impromptu scene and got the plot-train back on the tracks. I think any DM attempting this should prepare alternative measures for when the PC's don't play nice with the seekers.

The other major issue we had was monster math/encounters. I'm new to DM'ing 5E, though I have played some. I tend to err on the side of having tougher encounters, as I believe the vast number of player's abilities and healing makes weak combats nothing more than a time waster. If we are gonna ride the plot-train, the payoff MUST be cool as hell set-piece encounters and general epic-ness.

We had 1.5 combat encounters. First was with the disguised draconians. I used enworld's draconian conversions for this purpose and I definitely miscalculated AC, having it be 1 higher than it should be. That said, the Draconians as written on Enworld are faithful conversions, but they seem to buck 5E's monster design trends. There is a lot of 4E's monster roles in 5E -- some monsters are easy to hit but have high health, others have high ac but low damage, etc. Draconians are pretty well rounded without an obvious weakness, and this threw the players for a loop -- especially my buddy that is a 5E DM.

Now not all was lost, as the encounter was not overwhelming and we had loads of fun, but something to think about.

The second combat encounter was with my version of Dragonlance's spectral minions. I basically combined a ghost and a wight to make these guys and WHOOPS. They were probably too strong. If we didn't have the plot-train swoop in to end the combat, it could have gotten out of hand. I'm not sure how my players felt about the whole thing, but I know that myself as a player, an aborted combat ending in deus-ex-machina would probably annoy me. I would caution DM's to think hard about the spectral minion encounter in general. It may be more frustrating than its worth.

I've got one week to prep for next session and I'll be examining encounters a little harder. I'll also try and keep an eye out for times when there is a potential stall-out. Again, I don't think railroad is necessarily an invalid way to play, but in the IDEAL scenario the players decide for themselves to go to the right places. You have to anticipate how they are thinking and leave lots of hooks for them.

Just my thoughts after week 2.

Onward and upward.

DM CHAS

Session Recap 4/30/15

The Players:

Brevofurgins -- Human (Ergothian) Fighter 2/Rogue 2

Grundlesnatch -- Human (Solamnic) Fighter 4

Marshall -- 1/2 Elf Bard 4

Salvin -- Elf (Kagonesti) Ranger 4

Solaire -- Human (Nordmaarine) Druid 4

Second session of Dragons of Despair! After unsuccessfully sneaking their way out of Solace, the party was confronted and forced into combat with several goblins and their worg pets. Victorious but somewhat beat-up, preliminary first aid was administered and the group skedaddled right out of town.

They left Solace heading north and found themselves on the eastern shores of Crystalmir Lake. Pushing on into the night, they only made camp once they were several miles away from Solace. At midnight they reached the foot of the pass called Sentinal Gap and took their long rest. During the break, the plainsfolk Goldmoon and Riverwind shared a little more of their background and explained what had brought them out of the plains.

Goldmoon yakked about her life as Queen of the Injuns. She came off a little headstrong and naive. Riverwind is her bodyguard and he does whatever the Princess wants, up to and including things that get him condemned to death by his tribe. Of particular note, is Goldmoon's Blue Crystal Staff (BCS), a magical artifact with mysterious powers (including healing). Riverwind found the staff in a sunken city in an eastern swamp, where he had some kind of long-form hallucination.

Goldmoon is Hella Hot

The next morning the party got up and headed into the pass. That's when they spotted a group of cenobites coming down the road with their wagon. The monks were covered head to toe, and they were acting mighty suspicious. Solaire, Salvin and Brevofurgins hid in the bushes while Marshall went forward to parley with the strangers.

The monks explained that they were from some nebulous monastery and that they were searching for a Blue Crystal Staff with healing powers. They claimed it had been stolen from them, and that they needed it to heal their sick compadre. Marshall chose not to tell them anything about the BCS, but the monks didn't believe him.

Casting off their disguises, the monks revealed themselves as horrible dragon-men hybrids! They were geared-up for a scuffle and the party obliged them. This battle was actually fairly long (I may have set the AC a little high as one of my players/sometime DM remarked), but the party was never in real danger. Solaire's wild shape allows him to soak tons of damage while the rest of the party took the Draconians out one by one. Brevofurgin's mobility feat continues to shine, and Marshall's (rap) Bard is almost unrecognizable compared to its weak 3.5/Pathfinder counterparts.

F*ck You, I'm a Dragon

Once the battle concluded the party set forth again, entering Haven's Vale and coming in sight of the Lord-city. The city was surrounded by a couple thousand dirty-ass refugees, displaced by fighting in the north. Apparently an army of Dragon-men, humans and goblins had crossed the sea and was terrorizing northern Abanasinia. Due to the massive influx of people and its limited supplies, Haven had been sealed by order of the Holy Guard.

This proved to be no problem for the party as Marshall placed a magical suggestion on the guards who let them into the city. Inside, Haven was little better -- there were refugees spilling into the streets. The party did a little information gathering and determined that they wanted to speak with the Highseekers in the Councilhall.

Through some shrewd diplomacy they talked their way inside the citadel. Here they met Lorcar, Grandmaster of the Seekers. Lorcar told them that he needed the BCS to save the city; however, by save the city he meant turn the staff over to 'Lord Verminaard' so that he would spare Haven from conquest. Goldmoon insisted that they reveal the BCS to the Highseekers despite Lorcar's plan, but Brevofurgins and Grundlesnatch (among others) were not about to let that happen. Instead, they were able to corner Elistan, an elderly Highseeker that they believed might disagree with Lorcar's decision.

Haven is for Nards

Elistan did indeed disagree -- he said that if the enemy wanted this BCS badly, then they should probably not have it. Elistan told the party that he had learned the BCS came from the ancient city of Xak-Tsaroth, and perhaps there were additional clues about its nature to be found there. He also cautioned the party to avoid the roads since the Dragon-men armies were presumably nearby. He advised that they enter the infamous Darken Wood and take a shortcut.

The Party decided to do just that and after another long rest, they left Haven heading east over some low mountains. They were making their way through Darken Wood, when all of a sudden, GHOSTS! Surrounded by 10 spectres the party prepared to defend themselves.

The spectres were immune to the touch of normal weapons (but not silver ones) and they caused exhaustion (and pretty high damage) with their touch. It was looking rather grim, but Brevofurgins, a native Ergothian, was able to decipher the strange dialect of the spirits and communicate with them. The spirits were guardians of the wood, and they announced that they would only slay those of "evil intent."

Brevofurgins explained that no, the group was not evil, in fact they were on a noble quest. Brevofurgins let slip something about the BCS, which immediately got the Ghosts' attention. The ghosts dropped aggro and told the party to follow them further into the woods... and we lost a player as it was getting late and we decided to call it a night.

Overall I had a great time. We continue to have a few issues getting used to the rules, and I'm starting to see places where my conversion work has been dubious. I thought we'd at least get through another combat, but some aspects of the module were pretty frustrating. I'll share my thought on that in a future post.

DM CHAS

Session Recap 4/23/15

The Players:

Brevofurgins -- Human (Ergothian) Fighter 2/Rogue 2
Grundlesnatch -- Human (Solamnic) Fighter 4
Marshall -- 1/2 Elf Bard 4
Salvin -- Elf (Kagonesti) Ranger 4
Solaire -- Human (Nordmaarine) Druid 4

So our inaugural game began with a much modified version of Dragons of Despair. Each player began with a veteran (4th level) hero. As in the module, these characters had sworn an oath to return to the Inn of the Last Home in the town of Solace after a period of 5 years.

The action began right away. Marshall had bumped into Brevofurgins on the road into Solace. As twilight fell, they were about to enter the town when they were accosted by a group of Goblins led by the despicable Fewmaster Toede. Even though it was just the two heroes verse 12 or 13 Goblins, they chose not to surrender and combat began.

In the second round, three other heroes (Grundlesnatch, Salvin, and Solaire) heard the commotion from the woods nearby and entered the fray from the flanks. Solaire possesses a powerful but limited magical staff, which he used to Flamestrike the Goblin force, causing much destruction. The rest of the Goblins were easily dispatched once their Commander had been burned to a crisp. Unfortunately, Fewmaster Toede had run off like a coward before the party could kill him.

They kept one Goblin alive (magically slept) for interrogation purposes. The Goblin didn't know much -- he had been recruited by Fewmaster Toede to serve in his warband. The Fewmaster was providing security services to the Theocrat of Solace, who seemed to be some kind of authority. The party was naturally disturbed that somebody would hire such bloodthirsty Goblins to serve as police.

Proceeding into Solace, the group headed to the Inn of the Last Home as they had planned. They were still missing their 6th companion, the Swordmaiden Sandarina (Sandy) Uth-Matar and they hoped she would be waiting at the Inn. As it turned out, she was not, though she had left a message with the barmaid, Sally-Anne.

It's a damn Ewok Village!

Sandarina's letter informed the party that she would not be showing up anytime soon. She further warned them of impending war, and that Solace would soon be unsafe. The party drank copious amounts of hard cidar and shared their recent solo-adventures. Each had undergone some kind of tribulation during their 5 years apart (worked out ahead of time between DM and player). Interestingly, both Brevofurgins and Solaire revealed that they had romantic ties to Sandarina, but apparently there were no hard feelings between these eskimo-brothers.

The party split up to canvas the Inn and pump the locals for intel. Solaire spoke with Thoros the Blacksmith, learning that Solace had been over run by the Seeker Cult of Haven. The Seekers were a group of religious fanatics, who believed in all kinds of new-age quackery. Marshall talked with the innkeeper, Otik Sandith, but he didn't have too much to say. He did warn Marshall to be careful around the Theocrat Hederick, who happened to be drinking in the bar that night. Brevofurgins spoke with the Theocrat and listened to him ramble drunkenly about blasphemers and heretics. Salvin sat down with some shy Plainsfolk who were chilling in the back.

Theocrat Hederick is a Dick

At this point, an old story-teller named Fez began a tale about Huma and the Old Gods. This got the Theocrat all riled up and he demanded that the Plainsfolk (who were nearby) denounce the Old Gods along with him. The Plainsfolk woman refused, and revealed a magical blue crystal staff (from here on the BCS) which she claimed was a sign of the Gods. The Theocrat began calling for everyone's arrest but Brevofurgins decided to bushwhack him for his impertinence. The Theocrat was stabbed to death much to everyone's horror.

At that moment a posse of Goblins burst through the door having been sent by the Fewmaster to kill the infidels. The party sprung into action, quickly blocking the door and killing most of the force within 2 rounds. Sally-Anne begged the party to get out of town before they could be hung for murder and she told the to use the secret trap door exit (which Marshall had already found).

The party decided to split as they could see search parties moving towards the Inn. As they prepared to slide down to ground level, the Plainswoman who was called Goldmoon asked them if they would escort her and her bodyguard Riverwind to the town of Haven, where she seemed to think the BCS needed to go. Salvin spoke for the party and agreed.

Once they got to the ground, they chose to try and evade the search parties and get on the road to Haven. Unfortunately the darkness really disoriented those without darkvision, causing them to botch their stealth. The party ran into a patrol of Goblins and Worg-Riders.

There was a pretty epic battle at this point -- the party had not gotten a chance to short rest and they were getting low on resources. Also some players were getting drunk and careless. The fight was a close one, but the tide eventually turned for the players and they managed to defeat all opposition without any serious casualties. As it was now 11:45 we called it quits for the week.

Overall a great session, with some aspects better received than others. Next Week: the road to Haven!

DM CHAZ

Dragonlance in the Age of 5th Edition!

This is my Dragonlance (D&D 5E) blog. There are many like it but this one is mine.

Ever since exploring the newest edition of that venerable table-top game, I thought it was a great fit for that oft-neglected classic setting, Dragonlance. In fact I think it works better than many previous editions that were not especially well suited to the original modules (possible exception of 3X). So until I get busy or bored, I'll be recording session recaps and other thoughts, right here. Stay tuned!

DM Chas