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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8845523" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/FbVmDGQ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 3: When Home BurnsThis is the first real chapter where the PCs all meet up, they and are now 2nd level after beating their respective Preludes. It starts out slow, with some fun and games in your stereotypical Starting RPG Village of Vogler…only to see it all burn down when the Red Dragon Army marches to war. During this chapter the PCs will go from 2nd to 4th level, where 3rd level is achieved after the first major battle at High Hill.Vogler is a village along the Vingaard River. During the Age of Might it was the scene of a border skirmish between Istar and Solamnia, with the latter country winning. The Kingfisher Festival, named after the bird that is the symbol for the Knights of Solamnia, is an annual holiday celebrating the country’s victory over Istar. Vogler’s major industries revolve around fishing and river travel, and the partially ruined keep of Thornwall is home to a non-binary tinker gnome by the name of Than.  They built a catapult-like gnomeflinger device at Thornwall’s top that the town tolerates because it looks like an intimidating siege engine that can give raiders second thoughts.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Nxw4or2.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The DM is encouraged to play up Vogler’s small town charm and has short descriptions of local vendors and notable citizens to make them care for the community. All the better to motivate them in saving the people from the Red Dragon Army!Ispin’s funeral begins after the PCs meet up with Becklin Uth Viharin, a lady Knight of Solamnia who dresses openly for the part and is tolerated by locals as she’s served the community in defense against bandits and monsters. They can also meet Darrett Highwater, Becklin’s pupil who isn’t like most Solamnics and is in love with the legacy of the Knights. He can share details about the celebrations, Vogler’s history, and an upcoming mock battle with some mercenaries of the Ironclad Regiment as an historical reenactment known as the Battle of High Hill.During Ispin’s funeral they will send his body to a boat to be sailed downriver, and to honor his memory his various friends and family members gather at the Sand Crab tavern to tell tall tales about his various adventures. PCs who participate can gain inspiration, but the good cheer will come to a stop due to the heckling of an arrogant boor of a man by the name of Bakaris the Younger. <a href="https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Bakaris" target="_blank">For those veteran fans you might recognize the name,</a> for he was Kitiara’s second-in-command as the Blue Dragon Highmaster in the Chronicles. In this adventure he hasn’t yet defected to the Dragonarmies, but is a privileged bastard who harbors violent fantasies and relies on his father’s connections as a Solamnic noble to avoid being strung up. There will be several times when the PCs can use skill checks to distract or run him off during the festivities, although it doesn’t say what happens if someone loses their cool and decides to teach him what the five fingers said to the face. He and his father will be frequent foils to the party in challenges that aren’t meant to be solved with murderhoboing.Other events during the Kingfisher Festival include a fishing contest with skill checks and minor prizes along with Becklin approaching a party member. She will read Ispin’s will where he gives his signature +1 shield to the party, but Beckline will only do this if they agree to participate in the Battle of High Hill.Withholding a shield doesn’t seem very knightly. I presume this is meant to be played out as more of a gentle encouragement than a mandate.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/CMdyCkR.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Battle at High Hill is meant to take place between the village militia and volunteers from the Ironclad Regiment. Although their leader Cudgel Ironsmile is a straight-shooter, there are secretly a group of warriors who’ve been bought out by the Red Dragon Army and plan to use real weapons during the reenactment to kill Vogler’s people-at-arms and leave the village defenseless. As professional adventuring types the various NPCs will convince the PCs to take part, at the very least as impartial observers to ensure that “nobody gets hurt.”Observant PCs can notice that the mercenaries aren’t using padded weapons, but whatever they hope to do is too late as all hell breaks loose and the PCs are immediately accosted by three mercenaries using Guard stats, one of whom is riding a warhorse.You might notice that the above map has some intimidating-looking flames surrounding the edges. These are special Battlefield Encounters representing a larger surrounding skirmish or war. The flaming edges of the map are the Fray, which is a zone of difficult terrain that deals damage to characters who fail a Dexterity save when entering it from stray shots and the din of flashing swords. Additionally Battlefield Encounters make use of a rule similar to Lair Actions where at initiative 0 or whenever a PC enters the Fray some random event happens. Each Battlefield Encounter has its own table and tend to be things reflecting the chaotic nature of mass combat. In this case we have options such as terrified horses running people over, the appearance of an allied or hostile unit close to the party, or stray arrows dealing an area of effect attack.PCs who dispatch the initial enemies will then come to face Gragonis, the half-ogre leader of the traitorous faction of the Ironclad Regiment and four more mercenaries with him. He uses ogre stats, and if the PCs are defeated during this or the previous battle then militia members can drag them to safety albeit at 1 hit point. Either way, the mercenaries are forced into a retreat but almost all of Vogler’s militia perished. Cudgel was also targeted by Gragonis’ goons for death but managed to survive, and she is just as pissed off as the villagers about this affair.PCs have several opportunities to take charge of things, and will be asked to by allied NPCs. Healing the wounded results in grateful villagers rewarding them with valuables, and magical healing in particular can have rescued NPCs eager to learn more about their healer’s deity. PCs can interrogate a surviving mercenary to learn what he knows via successful Charisma skill checks, although Becklin and the mayor will interfere if the PCs try to torture him. Little can be found out besides the fact that Gragonis met with some armed group in the forest and got paid a lot of gold, and if Gragonis was taken alive he doesn’t know his client’s identity besides the fact they wore red and black armor.The party will have a night to rest while Cudgel Ironsmile and villager scouts do some reconnaissance in the woods, although if they wish the PCs can also go scouting on their own. Either way the discovered information is the same: there’s a camp of hundreds of red tents in a shadowy valley. It is populated by hooded baaz draconians and Dragon Army Soldiers, and combat is meant more as a deterrence if PCs manage to visit. They won’t be overwhelmed or tracked back to the village if they decide to attack some of the warriors.Dragon Army Soldiers are a new enemy NPC type in this module. They’re indoctrinated soldiers a cut above the average Guard or Bandit at Challenge Rating 1. They have a high 17 Armor Class thanks to their armor and shield, and their weapons have been magically enchanted with the power of red dragon breath to deal +1d4 bonus fire damage on top of the base weapon damage. Like baaz they have advantage on attacks when within sight of an allied dragon. Needless to say they can be a threat in numbers to 3rd level PCs, although they can’t really do much other than fight.Vogler’s leadership is fully aware that they can’t win against this mysterious army in conventional battle. Cudgel is guilt-ridden and promises the support of the Regiment to Vogler’s defense if need be, and Becklin privately suspects the worst but puts on a confident face to the public. Lord Bakaris doesn’t care at all about the safety of the villagers but expects his half-baked ideas to be taken seriously. They will all listen to the PCs for advice, and once enough planning and debate is done a messenger from the Red Dragon Army arrives, speaking for the Voice of Takhisis demanding Vogler’s surrender and to quarter the soldiers of the Red Dragon Army.I love how this module takes into account the completely oddball chance that some gaming group out there has a PC who is worshiping the primary villain of the setting, but decides to fight her minions anyway.The messenger will leave peacefully but PCs who try to attack or capture her will be countered by four Dragon Army Soldiers throwing javelins from nearby cliffs.Only the Mayor is in favor of acquiescing to the Dragon Army’s demands, but Becklin and Cudgel veto her knowing that the villagers will suffer in being personal witnesses to the “horrors of occupying forces.” The plan is to find a way to keep the Dragon Army occupied for the eventual goal of evacuating the village. The PCs have two options for the former in scaling the cliffs to deal with Dragon Army scouts using its vantage point to keep abreast of the horizon. They can climb normally or use Than’s gnomeflinger to get up there.Sadly this plan doesn’t make any noticeable changes to the module, even if a Dragon Army Soldier retreats back to their main camp as the main force will invade and any buying of time won’t make a mechanical difference for the later encounters. The evacuation is a series of skill challenges, from Persuading the Mayor that it’s the best out of a series of bad options,* helping the Mayor avoid mass panic among an addressed crowd with Intimidation or Persuasion, using Survival to make impromptu boats out of ropes and logs to help locals flee by river, Investigation to convert the raft and boat pulley system of the ferry crossing to even more boats, and convincing the fishers to lend their personal boats to the evacuation effort with Persuasion. While the module mentions what happens for failures during some individual rolls, there’s no mention of how things turn out if the PCs fail to evacuate enough people in time. Presumably the casualties are higher, but this isn’t elaborated or reflected on in the Chapter itself.*This is pretty much a But Thou Must skill check, as the rest of the module assumes that she agrees.Becklin will aid Cudgel and the Ironclad Regiment in diverting the Red Dragon Army’s attention once they arrive at Vogler, and the PCs and Darrett will be asked to remain with the mayor to ensure that straggling villagers have protection if the Regiment falls. But Becklin has another piece of armor and private request for the PCs. She asks the group to give a large wooden box weighing 70 pounds to Darrett once he safely escapes town. The box contains a suit of Solamnic plate armor, which he will wear with pride for the rest of the campaign after this request is honored.You know, this raises the inevitable question of what happens if the PCs suggest that the armor would be of more practical use in the upcoming battle. Like getting Darrett to wear it immediately, or if a PC decides to don it themselves. The module doesn’t make any suggestions on how the NPCs will react in such a case.What’s that? Rules for incorporating the Warriors of Krynn board game into providing in-game benefits to groups running Shadow of the Dragon Queen? Say it ain’t so!Several times throughout this adventure we get Warriors of Krynn Scenarios telling what events to run from that strategy game to be in line with Shadows’ narrative. PCs who win or hold during a scenario often gain benefits such as a magic item, although they don’t suffer any penalties on a loss. In this case a victory causes the Mayor to gift the party with a Quaal’s Feather Token (Bird).While this sounds like a cool idea, the board game isn’t out yet, <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23466257/dnd-dragonlance-campaign-board-game-preview-guide" target="_blank">and according to this Polygon review</a> one of the manuals actually spoils a later part of the adventure. So DMs seeking to use it will have to weigh the balance of spoiling some story details ahead of time vs enhanced simulation of the war-game aspects of Dragonlance.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/G2fAReh.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Invasion of Vogler is a series of combat encounters one after another, such as saving a messenger scout from a pursuing baaz draconian, a random 1d10 table of events such as a gliding kapak ambushing the party, and a mandatory encounter with four baaz draconians wheeling forward a dragon-shaped siege engine known as a boilerdrak to burn down buildings.The boilerdrak is not a monster in game terms, and requires three separate actions to light, aim, and fire a 60 foot cone of 5d10 fire damage. But it’s a gnomish device, meaning that every action triggers a d20 roll which causes the boilerdrak to explode on a natural 1 for the same amount as its breath weapon.The Vogler Battlefield table has an even mixture of fishers and militia helping out the party and enemy draconians throwing flasks of fire or dying from its death throes as potential results.Once the boilerdrak is destroyed, the ogre known as Fewmaster Gholcrag and two baaz minions will come to fight the party as the final battle during this chapter. The PCs will be forced to board a boat as Vogler burns in the background, and Cudgel’s lieutenant will arrive with Becklin’s horned helmet. The ultimate fate of Becklin and Cudgel are left to the DM, with a few sample events: the lieutenant is a traitor who assassinated Becklin and hopes to make Darrett his next target, he was sent by Becklin to warn the party their defenses failed and the knight has been captured alive, and so on.Sadly, none of these scenarios are further elaborated on as potential encounters in the rest of this module. At this point the party levels up to 4.Thoughts So Far: I’ll start out with what I like about When Home Burns. Its pacing and escalation are well-timed, and the important NPCs leave strong first impressions that even a DM with amateur skill can use to elicit the proper reactions from players. I can see Darrett in particular being a trusted ally, if by a shared bond of knowing what they’re fighting for if nothing else.I have mixed feelings on the Battlefield Encounters mechanic. The Fray is very clearly an invisible barrier that punishes PCs who get too far from the battle, and is rather punishing against mounted and high-speed characters who would use their mobility to their advantage. It doesn’t really act as a stopgap against PCs with a natural flying speed, for the Fray is at the edges of the map and not above. I do like the pseudo-lair actions which throw random events into the fight, which helps round by round combat from growing too stale.What I don’t like is the fact that this Chapter’s rather railroady, in that while there is the illusion of choice many of those choices don’t matter. The module suggests using Charisma checks to persuade the Mayor to go with the evacuation plan…and the rest of the module operates on her agreeing to this. The PCs can do recon to learn the Red Dragon Army’s numbers…or let some NPCs do it without any consequence. Vogler’s leaders and warriors will suggest the PCs kill the Dragon Army soldiers standing watch on the cliffs, but it doesn’t matter if any of them escape as the Army is going to besiege the village anyway.As for the enemies themselves, besides the Boilerdrak siege engine and kapak glider the vast majority of enemies are virtually identical in being melee-focused armored warriors without any special abilities or actions in combat to make them do things besides “I attack” or “roll to save vs the draconian’s death throes.” At the very least the Dragon Army could have domesticated monsters for some variety in battle, and it wouldn’t be out of character with the existing lore.Join us next time as we venture to the city of Kalaman, retake a fortress from the Dragon Army, and venture into some haunted catacombs in Chapter 4: Shadow of War!</blockquote>

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