After many months it was time to restart the campaign
We started by going around the table and reintroducing our characters after doing a recap of the first and only game we had played in the so-called campaign so far. We were at the perfect place, both in time and setting, to introduce a new character to the campaign. It was only our second game and we were starting at a Priory dedicated to Lathander that functions as a highway rest stop for adventurers: Emily was joining the game and her character Cinder the Druid could just be there resting like the party.
I wanted an extra player for several reasons. First of all, after we get a game or two in, we will be in a place where we can play a game with someone missing and be better able to explain it away: this has been an issue as adults with different work schedules and family obligations trying to get regular games in. With five players, I can still run a game with four if someone ends up unable to attend a planned game.
Additionally, this allows me to forgo running a full character sheet style NPC along with the group for a little support. I say that, but we flow into this game with an NPC that the party had transported here under citizen arrest and introduced my NPC that I plan to influence the party with, and move them along into faction focus situations to come.
With the idea that some games in this campaign may have a missing player, I wanted to do shorter story arcs based on factions and guilds as a focus instead of as side-content tacked onto a long running epic story. There were a few things to get out of the way in order to get to that point. The first was to get to Waterdeep, the second was to get the characters to the Yawning Portal and the third was to do some of the beginning Dragon Heist adventure elements to get a home base and facilitate guild and faction interest.
Much like the first adventure all those months back, I was going to take a one-page adventure idea out of the Forgotten Realms DM book, and turn it into a night and a half worth of content. The Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerûn book is perfect as far as I am concerned. It fits my DM style well, as it offers a little structure but leaves the fun stuff up for me to determine on the fly and with no more thana few moments of prep time. We were about to embark on my version of The Siege of Shaleshire Priory.
Rude Awakenings
The party from the first game, were all resting up in one room in the Priory after traveling all day. A ruckous awoke them while there was just a little light left in the nigth sky. Tibbz the Barbarian was first up, armed and to the door, with Thimdig the Cleric, Lindel the Warlock and Two Left Feet, no nicknames, not far behind. The sleep of Cinder the Druid was disturbed in the adjacent room, and all five of them entered an ante-chamber between the resting rooms and the church proper: there were unmistakable sounds of screaming people.
They opened the door to see peasants being ushered farther into the sanctum by the monks of the Shaleshire Priory. The back half of the church was built into a hill, so the sanctum was a dead end, but a defendable one at least.
The party ascertained the threat at hand rather quickly. They discovered that a few tenants were cut down by goblins as they ran for safety. Messenger pigeons were released right before the doors were barred shut. They were surrounded by something like a hundred goblinoids. With luck, a patrol from Waterdeep would be alerted and send help.
I gave the party a few moments to plan. Then the siege began in earnest, as I slammed my fist on the table. An Ogre used a chunk of tree as a ram and was forcing it’s way through the door. Behind the living battering ram was a handful of Hobgoblins.
Wendi offers her assistance, stating that she has a lot to atone for. A mysterious shadow elf bard converts his lute to a crossbow by flicking a switch and the bard joins the fight, parsing out inspiration. Our friendly neighborhood barbarian was waiting at the door, ahead of a few barricades that were erected by piling church pews up into a defendable wall.
A few massive axe swings and a handful of cantrips and crossbow bolts felled the Ogre. Tibbz took a step onto the stairs outside. Noticed three bugbears watching the side entrance. Good thing they didn’t try to sneak out that door, which was one of the suggested plan options before I got things going. Seeing that they were found out, the bugbears joined the fight along with the last remaining Hobgoblin.
Nate got a lot of good work done with Tibbz’s cleave trait while Wendi supported him through healing. Two Left Feet tumbled through the entrance and started slashing goblinoids and the mysterious shadow elf teleported outside and unloaded his musical crossbow contraption into a few bugbears while Thimdig made some hammer time with the Hobgoblins at the door and Cinder cast firebolts over his shoulder.
After the first wave of the siege was defeated the group took a few moments to barricade the door shut and set up an oil trap with a lit torch ready to fall over if something came through the door. Bugbear comes to the door, slams on it, proclaims proudly and with surety to the patrons of the Priory that Lac the Breaker will have this place as his own before morning. They would give them an hour to give up or they would take the decision away from them. Thimdig tried to make a snappy comeback but the messenger had already departed.
Some pitiful perception checks led to Thimdig being the only one that heard a window pane crack in the rear, ran over to see goblins trying to get in through the back. Turns out the goblinoids can’t tell time. That or they don’t care about proclamations made by official messengers. Anyway, windows get shot out with flaming arrows from all directions, both npcs are somehow the only ones to get hit, other than church pews.
The page in the book gave 6 encounters that were implied to be fairly easy but also stated that any two would be tough. Naturally, I grouped them together, and even went so far as to have one set move to the front door while another flanked around the rear.
A group of Goblins and a goblin boss attacked through destroyed windows in the back, while two Ogrillons attack through the front door, setting the barricade and the double door on fire. A goblin zeroed out Thimdig’s hit points and Wendi used her last first level spell to heal him.
Tibbz proceeded to take down one Ogrillon and the Bard whom they had learned was named Merikoth, Merry for short, finished off the other after getting particularly hurt in the process.
A bugbear commanding a small pack of wolves attack the rear but was laid low when it failed a saving throw and made the final wave of that game night easier to get through. At the same time, three hobgoblins and their pet worg attacked through the busted and burning front door but didn’t last long since the attack at the rear was negated rather quickly.
It was getting late and we didn’t have time to run through the final encounter with the end of the night on a Short Rest by falling back to the inner sanctum. I didn’t want to rush the final fight. They were also low on resources, morning was coming and they didn’t know it yet, but they were in for one last big push by the goblinoids.
Night Two
We started the second evening of this story with an opportunity for a short rest: everyone burnt their hit dice to heal during this rest. Their hour long respite came with an opportunity to prepare a little. Kera decided that Two Left Feet was going to prepare burning arrows. Ian’s choice was to have Thimdig attempt to pray to Lathander, since it was his shrine and hoped that his god Gond wouldn’t mind: I had Wendi and the acolyte Brother Attanash join him. Tibbz stood ready by the door that could no longer be closed, as Nate put his character directly in the way of incoming bad guys. Cinder was joined by Merikoth towards the back to be able to react to an attack from either the windows of the church or the main door where Tibbz was lurking.
They didn’t have long. The dark of night was slowly receeding and they saw that they were surrounded by dozens and dozens of goblinoids. Calling for a religion roll, Ian of course rolled a natural 20: well, fuck. Now what do I do. I gave each player advantage on their next attack and a spell slot or another daily use ability back of their choice.
This was going to make for some good drama in the story later, but, we would have to come back to that some other day. At that moment, they had a final battle to survive and they were given a godly gift to help them through it.
They saw a half-dozen hobgoblins advancing, with a captain they could only presume was Lac. He held to the rear, pacing back and forth, letting his heavily armored warriors soften up the characters inside the Priory. Having received a rage as Thimdig’s prayers were answered, Tibbz raged and rushed into the fight. Both Thimdig and Wendi used their divinely gifted first level spell slots to keep him alive while he tanked the shit out of the Hobgoblins.
I love 5.5e hobgoblins. They are possessed of relatively low hit points, but heavily armored enough to be hard to hit when characters are at appropriate levels to be challenging and hit like fucking trucks: they only reason he made it through was the damage reduction he gets from raging. And the heals from both clerics.
Despite their armored defense the hobgoblins were ultimately chewed through and Lac moved in to engage as the last two of his pawns were still upright. As a Hobgoblin Captain, Lac’s attacks did less damage than the standard Hobgoblin warrior, but, it also did poison damage which Tibbz did not have a resistance to. That put him on the back foot and added to the tangible level of stress.
It was great. But it was also short lived. Cinder used firebolt like she was named after it. Lindel cast Eldritch blast like it was the only thing he did, because it pretty much was. Having gained aid for the group Thimdig spent the rest of the fight hitting goblinoids with his hammer. He was also the first to notice the sound in the distance that was moving towards them.
As light crested the hill, per the details within the book, a host of knights appeared from the direction of Waterdeep. The goblins, they started running for their lives. Unfortunately for them, likewise fortunately for us, the barded horses were faster than their lil’ goblin legs. The horde was crushed under hooves and impaled upon by lances as a gory background for the end of the fight with Lac.
His force was being routed. Both Lac and his army were done for.
The fight with Lac was over quickly. When asked how she did it, Kera described her gnome tumbling into a bush. Then from the shrubbery, she jammed her rapier directedly up into a location that no man, regardless of species, wanted to have a blade inserted. For good measure she raked her dagger across his gut to add to his suffering as Lacs life spilled upon the ground.
The Finish Line
Wait, I hear you, you’re saying “wait, you said you were making a night and a half worth of content. What about the other half?” Damnit, that’s what I was trying to get to:
It was here that I added some extra pazaaz to the one-page adventure. They were supposed to meet a priest of Lathander, but I decided to add a noble knight also dedicated to Lathander named Raynor Heavyheart, and he is also a member of the Order of the Guantlet. Since the culmination of the adventure gave the group a point of renown with the Order of the Gaunlet, and the fact that I wanted to run the Waterdeep based game around factions like a game of Fallout: New Vegas, it seemed the thing to do.
“You guys are fun” proclaimed Merikoth, whom told them his friends call him Merri. “We should do that again.” he continued and invited them to the Yawning Portal. He said room and board was on him for a week if they chose to meet him there. With that, he was on his way. This was also all my idea as a way to help get the group into additional adventures, but I had not and still haven’t decided if he will be part of a defined faction or as a member of a mostly good mercenary company that could hire the PCS.
Additionally, Wendi made a case to be brought to the Font of Knowledge, a church and library dedicated to Oghma. Having experienced the divine intervention within the Priory and working to help others instead of herself, she asked for a chance to redeem herself further. And also be a connection for the group within the Font of Knowledge.
I described the rest of the trip to the South Gate of Waterdeep, brought up the large map of the massive city. Much time and effort was put into prepping to described their travel through the fantasy metropolis, complete with the colors and icons of the wards and a bit of their personalities.
They dropped off Wendi at the northern tip fo the Castle Ward, having passed Castle Waterdeep and Blackstaff Tower, then retraced their steps to the South Ward to get some Halfling hot-pot. They described themselves having a good time and I took their constitution saves as a ranking of whom tapped out, or passed out first. It was great fun. Especially showing them art representing the Walking Statues they passed along their first journey through the massive city.
They finally made their way to the Yawning Portal. Here I returned to the Dragon Heist book, more or less. Instead of givign each PC a known acquaintance within the portal, which felt like far too much, I had Nate’s barbarian recognize the orc mercenary Yagra, whom had gotten herself into a fist fight with some Zentarim thugs shortly after the party had sat down to have a drink with Merri.
Tibbz stood at the ready, but Nate decided that Tibbz would not interrupt the fun unless Yagra was in serious danger. Lindel crouched behind one of the aggressors, and Thimdig pushed the Zentarim thug over the giggling halfling. Then shit got real.
Amidst the hooting and the hollering, an emaciated Troll climbed out of the portal. Several blood-sucking Stirges fell from its gross green frame back into the hole, while a few more starting flying about, harassing patrons. Half-dead as it emerged, they could already see the healing ability of the troll at work when it went in initiative order. Retrieving the magic sword from it’s perch on the wall, Durnan leapt the bar with ease and rushed the rapidly regenerating monster. I got to pop a map of the Yawning Portal I found online onto my TV sitting on the table and within moments we had a great looking fight map. Too bad I forgot to take a pic…
Utilizing his warlock abilities well, Lindel sent an eldritch blast with bonus pushback that sent the Troll over the edge: I decided that was too easy. When Tibbz looked over the edge, he saw it crawling back up: he threw an axe into its face.
The Troll got back up. It mostly missed Tibbz and Durnan two turns in a row and finally died for real after Cinder hit it with a firebolt, canceling it’s regen leaving it vulnerable to the whole group.
For the second time, the Troll tipped over and began to tumble back into the portal. It was going to fall all the way down over one-hundred feet to the first level of Undermountain. Nate declared that Tibbz would grab his throwing axe back as it fell. I declared a reflex save. He rolled a nat one. Because of course.
Sad-foghorn sound.
Nate laughed. Ian proclaimed “oh no”. I described him forgetting to pull the axe from the head of the troll corpse. Tibbz was on his way down. I did some DM shennanigans and described Durnan slamming his badass magic sword into the stone floor and catching the oversized northern barbarian by the wrist that wasn’t connected to the hand still holding the axe. The proprietor of the Yawning Portal pulled him to safety, you know, instead of making him craft a new character after two game nights…
“That could have been tragic…
– Tibbz
I almost lost an axe!”
Cue Volo. Continuing the intro to the Dragon Heist campaign, he attempts to hire the party to find his friend Floon. After a successful insight check, Thimdig determines that he means to pay them but might be struggling to gather the funds the job requires. Having learned that Volo was worried Floon got himself in trouble with one of the factions of Waterdeep, the party spoke briefly with Yagra and tried to get her to agree to work with them and act as a spy against the Zentarim that had hired her on as a merc. .
They had made a little headway but hadn’t convinced her. This is where we left the game for the night, sharing a drink with the famous Volo in the Yawning Portal around the entrance into the Undermountain. Within the biggest city in Dungeons and Dragons above the largest dungeon.
Check back here to see what happens next, as the following day is ganna be the Day of Wonders finally.
Click here for more Game Night entries
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
