D&D 5E Our Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle Campaign Continues (5th level)

Rhenny

Adventurer
Cast of Characters (5th Level)

Eyeta – Female Human Fighter
Kat (Katka) – Female Human Wizard (Not present)
Vale (Valemon)– Male High Elven Rogue
Erebus – Male Human War Cleric (not present)
Ivan – Human Monk sent by Isteval as reinforcement, left and returned again.
Alagarthas – Wood Elven Fighter, Prince NPC in adventure played by a player in the game


We played for about 3 hours.

The party had just left Delfen’s tower and arranged with him to come back in the morning so that they could try to conduct a scrying ritual to attempt to locate Grit and Lump as they made their way back to Mount Illefarn. They spoke with Sir Istevel and found that they were invited to a feast held by Lady and Duke Maldwyn so they headed toward the inn before the feast.

On the way, Sherlen Miller, the captain of the guards caught up to them and joked a little. Then she offered to buy the party a drink. That’s when another soldier ran over and told the captain that some smoke was rising to the east. The group accompanied Sherlen to the east wall and they saw that many miles in the distance a dark cloud was rising into the sky and the area around it was glowing an strange orange. Ivan could see that it was probably a fire of sorts and Sherlen confirmed that it could be a forest fire in the Laughing Hollows region. She told them there was nothing they could do about it since it was over 70 miles away so they decided to take her up on the drink offer.

At the inn, the group had a few drinks with the captain, but Ivan kept on drinking. He started to fall back into old habits. After the captain left, Ivan kept drinking and the group cleaned up to get ready for the feast. They walked over to the Duke’s palace and entered. When the guards asked them to store their weapons at the front hall, they all agreed, but Vale palmed a dagger and kept it hidden in his cloak. Ivan tried to stuff his quarterstaff down his pants, which made the guards look at him, heads askew. They joked that perhaps that one was a jester. They could definitely tell that he was a little drunk. Just then, Lady Maldwyn found the guests and Ivan proceeded to vomit on the floor. Lady Maldwyn was a little upset, but she quickly had a servant take care of the mess. The others gave their inebriated friend horrible looks. Lady Maldwyn avoided Ivan, but ushered the others into the banquet hall to introduce them to Duke Maldwyn, Lord Floshin, Sir Isteval and Kelson Darktreader, the half-elf huntsmaster.

The party heard a lot about Daggerford, the fear of the Red Wizards of Thay, some other local business too. They also heard the others talk about giving Darwa Dalion a quick trial and execution in the morning. The party made small talk, and eventually Sir Isteval told them that they should go to get their weapons sharpened in the morning at Deval’s shop. He was an old Dwarf who hailed from Mount Illefarn. His brother was the supposed king of Ironaxe Hall even now. Eyeta could tell that Sir Isteval was telling them that they could find more information by speaking with the Dwarf, so she let the others know after the party. When the party ended, Ivan had all but crawled into a bottle, and the others pushed him back to the inn so that they could get a good night’s sleep before the next day.

In the morning, the party went to Deval’s shop. They saw that the old Dwarf was in an iron chair. Derval asked the group to enter and said that he had a lot of secrets to reveal. Just then, he stopped talking abruptly. Erebus passed his hand in front of Deval’s face and saw no response. Then he realized that the old Dwarf quietly passed away right before their eyes. One of the workers came over and told the other that he had thought Derval would live for 500 more years, but alas, death cut him down. Erebus realized he could wait a day to pray for a speak with dead spell, but the group didn’t have time to waste. Instead, Erebus went to the local temple and made a 50 gp donation to the temple for a scroll that he could use. Then he spoke with the Dwarf and found out that Korin was the king of the Mount Illefarn Dwarves. The place had been crumbling into ruin even when Derval left, and he knew that his folk were in a bad way, corrupted and overrun by orcs. In fact, rumor had it that Korin himself was insane. The spirit of Derval told the group to find Alagarthas, a wood elf out near the Laughing Hollow, and then he ended by saying “The owls are not what they seem.” With that, his spirit departed and his workers came to bear him to the temple for a proper burial.

Without wasting more time, the party traveled to Delfen’s tower. Delfen welcomed them and told them that they would be able to attempt to scry on Grit and locate him. He needed Katka’s help and he told all the others to help as well. The group gathered around a table that had a small crystal orb upon it. Then, after Delfen showed Kat a page in his spellbook, they began to chant. (I gave the group 2 rolls to roll above a 10….unfortunately they rolled an 8 and a 9). As they looked at the orb, they saw two figures walking toward a burnt forest. Then, they saw a heard of horses gallop by the two and the two figures looked as if they were trying to control at least two of the horses. (Here I gave Grit a chance to handle the animals…he rolled a 15). That’s when the orb went dull again. It seemed as if the scrying was not a complete success. The group had learned that Grit and Lump were nearing Laughing Hollows, but they didn’t learn if they were able to get on mounts to speed their journey home.

With that, the group thanked Delfen and bounded out to ask Istevel for horses so that they could ride and try to catch up to Grit and Lump. Istevel bid them luck chasing down the Earth Key that Lump had carried off. He also reminded them that in Mount Illefarn, there was an anvil shaped alter that the Dwarves mistakenly think is a relic of Moradin. It is not. Istevel believed it was an alter that may contain a Fire Key.

The party traveled for hours and hours, finally stopping to give their horses some water and a rubdown. Then they continued until near dark. As they approached the burnt forest at Laughing Hollows, they saw 9 humanoid figures walking towards them, one in front seemed to be leading them. As they got closer, Vale could see them all draw bows so he drew his as well. That’s when their leader, Alagarthas spoke to them. He asked who they were and where they were going. Then he asked if they knew what caused this great fire. As the party responded, they felt a wind above them and their mounts started to panic. Ivan could not control his mount, and since he was probably still drunk, he fell off the horse, but was still able to comfort his landing using his monk-trained reflexes. The others managed to hold their mounts still, but then they saw behind the Elves, the ground depress and burnt trees crush to the ground as if something huge had landed. As a cloud of green gas engulfed 8 Elves, the party could see a huge green dragon appear. Its breath weapon killed the 8 Elves on the spot, and then it told them that it was hunting Elves; it’s favorite meal. Alagarthas knew that this was Cluth, the legendary invisible assassin that his tribe told stories about. Cluth wanted to kill and eat as many Elves as possible, and it had been tracking Alagarthas and his Elves for days.

Only Ivan was able to shake off the dragonfear right away, but he was still drunk. Perhaps that made him brave so he ran closer to the dragon and threw darts at it. None hit. Erebus ran back and conjured some guardian spirits while Alagarthas ran behind a clump of burnt trees and rock and fired arrows at the dragon. Even with fear, he hit the mark with a deadly shot (crit). Kat ran back as well, but then she hurled a fireball at the dragon. That got its attention. Vale and Eyeta both attacked from range, but only Vale’s arrow hit the mark. Instead of fighting, Cluth began eating the dead Elves. It was a horrible sight, especially to Alagarthas. Pretty soon the others shook off the dragonfear and prepared to attack. Alagarthas hit twice with his arrows (another crit too). Eyeta decided to charge Cluth with her magic longspear and she was able to hit the mark. That spurred Cluth to slap at Eyeta with his tail. Eyeta took the blow and felt it. Then after Vale fired an arrow into the dragon, the dragon finished eating some of the elves and buffeted its wings. The force of the air and wings nearly knocked Eyeta down, but she managed to remain standing as the dragon lifted itself 30’ into the air. As it was ascending, Ivan tried to do a running high jump to hit the dragon with a his staff and a kick. He looked a little silly as he jumped up and swung at the air. Again, he was probably still feeling the effects of the alcohol he drank last night. Before the dragon could fly away, Kat unleashed another fireball that scorched it. That perhaps was the straw that broke the dragon’s back, so Cluth decided to take flight and leave the group rather than risk more damage. He had eaten so he was sated for the moment. That’s when the party heard Cluth utter draconic words and gesture with its hands, turning invisible as it flew away.

Alagarthas mourned for his fallen followers and then he joined the party. The group decided to find an area to camp and rest for the night. The night passed uneventfully and they all woke up more refreshed. Even Ivan felt more clear-headed. Alagarthas was able to lead the group toward Ironaxe Hall, but the group never caught sight of Grit or Lump. Perhaps they had found a way to capture and mount the horses the group had seen in the crystal orb, or perhaps they took another path toward their home.

As the adventurers approached Mount Illefarn, they could see the terraced quarry of the Mount. There were 3 levels….a ground level, a 2nd level 20’ above and a 3rd level 40’ above that. The ground level had a massive opening where two stone doors used to stand, but now had fallen to the ground leaving a gaping whole in the side of the hill. As the party approached, Ivan was able to find a few boulders that he could tie ropes to and tether their horses. Then they turned to go inside the open doorway, but 4 orc guards ran out to attack them. In merely 6 seconds, the party took down the orcs and were able to sneak inside the doors.

Inside, they saw a large room with about 18 orcs and half orcs in it, wrestling, joking around and milling about. As the party crept closer, the orcs realized they were there and they rushed to defend their home. The party engaged in a very large scaled battle. Two of the half orcs to the north eventually ran away to the north through another passage. More orcs came from the east. Kat used her fireball to kill 8 of the orcs and the others dealt with more. Vale got hit a few times by javalins. Erebus got hit by a vicious axe blade and then again by another axe attack that nearly brought him down (a crit with a great axe is not pretty). Eyeta took a few hits too. Near the end of the combat, an orc shaman appeared. It cast blur upon itself and then even after getting caught in Kat’s burning hands was able to maintain concentration. The orc caster moved over to target both Erebus and Eyeta as fire burst from its hands. Erebus went down, a burning clump of unconscious flesh. Before Erebus perished, the others vanquished the shaman and the remaining orcs (Alagarthas scored a number of hits and another crit). That’s when Ivan remembered that Erebus’ magic shield had a magic apple upon it that could be drawn forth once per day. Quickly he plunged his hand into the magic shield and pulled out the magic apple. Then he cut a piece and put it into Erebus’ mouth. In a split second, Erebus was chewing on his own. When he was able to stand, he called upon his god to heal some more of his wounds. The party had made it inside Ironaxe Hall, but for sure, the rest of the orcs and half-orcs, and who knows what else, will know of their presence.

End of session.

Comments

I ran this session using Fantasy Grounds so I was kind of learning on the fly. I was getting the hang of things, but I also found that I miss typed some of the damage formulas in my half-orcs, so I had to do a combination of manual and automated attacks. The large battle really was a great test for me and for the players. I’m really glad the wizard’s fireball worked on selected foes so that it did the Dex saves for me and then applied the damage after (even ½ damage killed them so it was an easy application).

We had a great time roleplaying especially at the feast. Everyone loved how Ivan got drunk (actually his flaw). Ivan earned an inspiration point for his performance and Vale earned one for palming his dagger and secreting it in his cloak when they went to the feast. Alagarthas was played by another player who was not sure he could make the game session. It was fun giving him control of the NPC, basically turning it into a PC.

Eyeta’s PC had prior to this session decided to attune her magic longspear. It communicated with her and after attuning, it allowed her to use her dexterity bonus instead of strength bonus to wield the weapon. This was a magic weapon they found in the prior adventure – a longspear that can change into a 10’ pole on command. It is magical but has no bonuses to hit or damage. (I made up the attuning part to make it more usable).

I like how the dragon encounter worked. Dragonfear is pretty nice against lower level (or at least 5th level heroes). Cluth did not want to risk much injury, so he had already decided to flee if he took ¼ of his hit points of damage.

Man, even though the orcs may not hit so often, seeing the crit that nearly knocked down Erebus, showed the players how dangerous combat could be. I think it did 24 points of damage…really good rolls.
 

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So I am curious how you ran the second adventure at Ambergul estate. My party is just about to head that way. Are you using the monster stats from the adventure guide, or from the MM? I ask because Alicia Ambergul looks like a total TPK if the party engages in combat, even with the adventure stats, not to mention the insane CR21 stats of the lich in the MM.
 

So I am curious how you ran the second adventure at Ambergul estate. My party is just about to head that way. Are you using the monster stats from the adventure guide, or from the MM? I ask because Alicia Ambergul looks like a total TPK if the party engages in combat, even with the adventure stats, not to mention the insane CR21 stats of the lich in the MM.

I converted all monsters to their 5e form. Basically, I roleplayed Alicia Ambergul so over the top eccentric and interested in how the party would do in the dungeon that the players didn't think twice about attacking her. A few of the players had played older versions of D&D and knew that a real lich was no joke. I really think that 5e is designed to let the PCs interact with a wider variety of monsters (and like 1e and 2e most) give them a chance to decide for themselves when combat is not the best or even a possible option.

If your party decides to fight Alicia, I'd have her dimension door away from the fight and let them fight the mummies. They may kill the party too, but at least they have a chance with them. Then, when they meet her again, she should tell them straight up that she can kill them with one spell, but she finds them interesting and she'd love for them to brave the dungeon and possibly rid the dungeon of thieves. (Darwa Dalion's party).

If you want to read that session you can check it out here http://community.wizards.com/user/1497701/blog

Also, just a note about the Ambergul Estate part, I made another exit that Grit and Lump used to escape after they got the Earth Key. I had them bend bars in the gargoyle room and then ascend a very steep underground stream that would be very difficult for the PCs to climb due to the water and the angle. In my game, while they were running from the Alter Room, the Dwarf fell in the stream and got carried towards the minotaurs, the other adventurer got killed by the gargoyles, but Grit and Lump escaped. I also put a strange rune contraption in the east most alcove of the secret cut through, which if activated would move the sliding stone at the entrance back (plus I added a giant spider encounter at that point too).

Have fun.
 
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