Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017-18, the ‘Tomb of Annihilation’ campaign I ran in 2018-19 and ‘Out of the Abyss’, a campaign I ran in 2020. CoS was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s another grand campaign that started out with a slightly warped version of ‘Lost Mine of Phandelver’, then rolled on to merge ‘Storm King’s Thunder’ and ‘Princes of the Apocalypse’ (it took the intrepid heroes to 20th level using experience points – yes, those antiquated things lol). Please note it was never called ‘Footfall’ in the beginning, as it was originally just going to be playing the Lost Mine, but I had some ideas along the way and the campaign grew as it went along in an ad hoc, improvised manner, adapting parts of Storm King’s and Princes to fill out the story. The main villain wasn’t even thought of until about three-quarters of the way through the 70-session campaign. Each session was approximately 5 hours (sometimes more) long. This campaign was also the first time I didn’t write all the summaries – some of the players were given that task and did so admirably! Most of the summaries appear here as they first appeared (with some edits). If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Steve 🙂

Disclaimer

If you’ve been following these posts from the beginning, you’ll have noticed the initial summaries were written by my players because I just didn’t have the time. Then I started doing them because they didn’t have the time (even though I still didn’t have the time – it was a bit of a chicken and egg situation, really). Then another of my players volunteered, and he actually recorded the session so he could transcribe it. As you might expect, it has a LOT more detail than the previous summaries because of this.

And no, I don’t have those recordings lol.

Steve 🙂

Part 55: The Surrender & The Docks

(Transcription by Graham, who played Grigor the human fighter.)

In the kitchen area of the lower levels of Ironslag, a battle was under way. Kathra, the aasimar paladin, polymorphed into giant ape form leapt down off a giant table and killed an ogre. The red dragon Aerinvex watched as Aelfwyn, the elvish wizard, sent his chain lightning flashing from target to target, taking out another completely and severely injuring the remaining giants. Kathra-ape took several blows from the enemies surrounding him and Grigor, the human fighter, now back in human form after being polymorphed into a giant ape, took a rock to the shoulder before responding with a volley of bolts from his crossbow. Meanwhile Verendus, the tiefling sorcerer, used Scorching Ray, which seemed oddly lacking in effectiveness – he seemed a little pre-occupied trying to impress the great dragon.

Finally, a horrifying blast of Synaptic Static from Aelfwyn finished off all but one giant, who decided to cut his losses and retreat into the darkness. Grigor, however, took one final shot into the dark in the direction of the remaining giant. A thud was heard as the last enemy dropped.

Investigating the area revealed that the goblin kitchen staff had fled, so they wouldn’t be providing any more useful information. The party found a stairway which lead up to an area they hadn’t seen. Verendus loudly announced the approach of the Phandelver’s Pact as they headed up the stairs, warning anyone up there to “flee or die!”

Waiting at the top of the stairs was Duchess Brimskarda, the leader of the fire giants, who immediately surrendered. In the room a few fire giants layed down their arms and a smaller fire giant, apparently Brimskarda’s daughter, hid behind her mother along with several female hobgoblin handmaidens. Brimskarda explaind that between the party’s attacks the fire giants’ inability to contain or control the huge fire elemental roaming their lower level, she was left with no other option. She revealed the elemental had been summoned by fire cultists, captured in an iron flask, and held in the furnace. They took the flask with them when they left, on the understanding that it would not be released. The elemental, called Maegera the Dawn Titan, was freed because the giants felt it was the only way to counter the Pact’s onslaught.

Aelfwyn explained the state of things as he understood them. Brimskarda confirmed that Iarno Albrek was behind their conversion to worshipping Imix, the elemental lord of fire, which had not gone well for them. Aelfwyn explained Albrek’s true motives and of the threat to the world.

Aerinvex and Verendus demanded to know the location of the young dragons, which Brimskarda revealed. They were held in a part of the complex no longer accessible on the other side of the area controlled by Maegera, and that she could not contact the guards there to inform them of the surrender.

After some discussion, it was decided that Brimskarda would accompany Aerinvex and Verendus to the southern area to rescue the young dragons with Aelfwyn and his owl scouting to avoid encountering Maegera. Kathra and Grigor remained at the northern end of the complex to distract Maegera. Brimskarda commanded the guards, both giants and elementals, to stand down and warned that the room was also protected by a lightning trap. Aelfwyn flew into the room to reassure the chained-up dragon children that they were about to be rescued and returned to their mother, hoping in vain that flying would avoid the trap. He deftly dodged most of the lightning that filled the room, only taking minimal damage and releasing the children who flew straight to their grateful mother. Aerinvex refused to accept Brimskarda’s apology, but agreed to ally with her and the Pact to avert the coming apocalypse.

Returning to the northern room, the alliance was discussed further. Aelfwyn explained the need to recover the Apocolyptica held by Iymrith. Brimskarda promised to provide two fire giants to assist with Iymrith, but Aerinvex refused on the basis that Iymrith was too powerful to fight and would not be swayed by negotiation. Both Aerinvex and Brimskarda, however, promised to assist the Pact in the final battle to save the world.

Brimskarda explained she had no influence over other giants, as The Ordning had collapsed. The storm giants had disappeared completely, along with their king, who was the leader of all the giants. Since then, each giant group had followed their own path.

As the discussion turned to the Pact’s demand to free those enslaved by the yak-folk above, Verendus slipped away, initially unnoticed. He entered the great furnace where Maegera had previously been held and attempted to attract the creature’s attention. The furnace filled with blinding, choking smoke followed by a number of fire elementals and a fireball, all courtesy of Maegera. Hearing the sound of the fireball going off in the furnace room alerted the rest of the party to the situation. Verendus was extremely disturbed to realize that Maegera was draining the tiefling of his resistance to fire! Realising his plan was bound to fail, Verendus teleported out of the furnace and back to the room upstairs, reporting that Maegera was too intelligent to be lured back into the furnace so easily.

Over the rest of the day the giants gathered all their treasure, including some very special magic items, to surrender to the Pact. Meanwhile the Pact and Brimskarda travelled to the top of Ironslag to inform the yak folk of the new situation and ordered them to free the slaves. The quantity of treasure, combined with the giant-size proportions of some of the valuable items presented significant logistical issues, however a plan was developed to transport the bulk of it to Neverwinter via a clever combination of magic. In the meantime, the airship was sent on ahead to Citadel Felbarr.

Arriving at the Temple of Oghma in Neverwinter, the Grandmaster reported on his progress building the Fallout shelter. Some in the Pact were concerned at the Grandmaster’s attitude to the selection process for the shelter – apparently only the rich and powerful. Aelfwyn pressed the Grandmaster for more resources and information to assist, but he was not particularly helpful.

After depositing their treasure at the bank, the pact turned to upgrading some of their gear. Grigor acquired a magic heavy crossbow which uses magical auto-replenishing bolts and Kathra ordered some adamantine plate armor. Verendus assisted with negotiating a good deal including getting a good trade-in value for Grigor’s old magical heavy crossbow and the party agreed to contribute a significant amount of party funds to the purchases.

During the day around town, Grigor ran into Bill, an old friend from his time as a dock worker. While reminiscing about old times, Bill reminded Grigor of the time he stood up to a ship captain by the name of Fegrin McCall who was taking unfair advantage of the workers. This was a defining moment for Grigor, earning him the respect of his fellow dockworkers and setting him on his folk hero path.

Bill revealed that Capt. McCall was back and had assumed control of some local gangs, causing trouble. McCall seemed to have acquired some kind of powerful magic that allowed him to take over the docks. Bill passed on second-hand reports that McCall had the ability to transform himself into some kind of armored creature that could fly. Grigor promised to come to the docks and see what he could do.

Grigor relayed this news to the rest of the party, asking them if they wouldn’t mind helping out his old friends and co-workers. Kathra was the first to agree, remembering the group’s willingness to help with his personal situation on a previous occasion. Verendus and Aelfwyn were quick to follow, feeling that making allies of the dock workers while removing another evil from the world could only be a good thing. On their way to the docks, they picked up some healing potions and Verendus talked his way into getting a very good discount on a Potion of Lightning Resistance. Aelfwyn was interested in a Potion of Invulnerability for 12,000 gp, but decided he couldn’t afford it right now – maybe later.

Finally arriving in the evening at the Neverwinter Docks, Grigor was warmly welcomed by old friends and co-workers, but there was a sense of unease. Some of them mentioned that McCall was back, mentioning rumors of powerful magics, strange lights at night, people going missing and strange corpses washing up desiccated and drained completely of life. Grigor was horrified.

They soon located Capt. McCall’s ship docked opposite a warehouse. The ship didn’t look to be much changed from when Grigor last saw it. Several sailors on the ship are unhelpful and Grigor raised his new crossbow for the first time. It gleamed with a golden glow in the dim light and as he raised it a bolt appeared in the flight groove and the weapon was suddenly loaded and cocked, ready to fire.

At that moment Capt. McCall himself appeared from the building behind. Grigor demanded to know what he has been up to. McCall claimed to own the docks. This last statement was Grigor’s breaking point and he immediately fireed his new weapon at McCall, even as Aelfwyn continued to try to debate the captain.

The bolt took Fegrin by surprise, pushing him back against the door. His eyes began to glow and a bright white light expanded from him. He demanded that Grigor go back to fighting giants and leave, repeating his claim that the docks were his, at which point Grigor fired again. Another two bolts disappeared into the white glow where McCall was standing, Grigor unsure whether they had hit.

Four swirling dark vortexes appeared around the group and Aelfwyn recognized these as shadow fiends, like the one they fought at Kathra’s druidic sect. Battle ensued. Aelfwyn’s shocking grasp seemed to have as much impact as he had hoped against the shadow creatures as Grigor redirected his fire at the same shadow. He shouted one last demand that McCall stand down and dismiss these creatures as his bolts seem to tear shreds of mist off them. McCall continued to glow and rises into the air.

Verendus attempted to cast Haste on Kathra and Grigor, but the magical energy was redirected and sucked into the glowing Fegrin McCall instead. Much to the party’s surprise, Verendus sprouted two majestic wings from his back and rose into the air!

Fegrin’s glow continued to intensify as he floated in the air. Kathra recognized the glow as almost an angelic, heavenly light, however it seemed to be tarnished somehow – discolored and flecked with darkness. With his first swing going astray, Kathra’s second swing of his battleaxe seemed to hit metal, despite the fact that McCall had not been wearing armor.

Aelfwyn trapped Fegrin in a Wall of Force, surrounding him with a force field anchoring him to the wall behind and the ground below. Inside the field, Fegrin’s glow continued to intensify. In response, the shadow creatures attacking Aelfwyn, causing him to sink into the ground.

More of the creatures attacked Grigor, who took damage but managed to avoid their draining effects. Kathra was not so lucky. Grigor’s new crossbow continued to do significant damage to the shadow creatures and he shouted encouragement to the party. Verendus tried to Toll the Dead, but found it ineffective. He Misty Stepped inside the open building, finding himself surrounded by Fegrin’s henchmen.

Inside the Wall of Force, the glow around Fegrin intensified even further, the light blinding and obscuring him completely. Kathra summoned a Moonbeam, but the magical energy also drained into Fegrin. Dismayed, he summoned a burst of energy to swing at the shadow creatures again with his battleaxe, doing significant damage enhanced by his divine energy.

As he extracted himself from the ground, Aelfwyn found himself and Grigor surrounded by shadow fiends. He grabbed Grigor by the collar and cast Thunderstep, dealing damage to the creatures while relocating himself and Grigor some distance to the east, where they could safely attack from range.

Kathra was left behind to take more attacks from two of the shadows as the other two broke off to pursue Aelfwyn and Kathra. Much to Aelfwyn’s surprise and dismay, his Wall of Force cracked as the blinding light where Fegrin McCall had been reformed into something entirely new. The new figure was large and dark, wearing flowing black robes and glistening silver armor. It carried a sword that seemed to be made out of a shards of bone. Its voice rung out loudly and clearly, seemingly in the minds of party. It declared: “I am Fu’at Mu’an, the Herald of Footfall!”

Next: Fighting the Herald of Footfall!

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