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.

The following is the last campaign summary by a player – the writer realized he couldn’t keep it up and so the summaries from session 57 onward were done by me (and were somewhat short and sweet lol).

Cheers

Steve 🙂

Part 56: The Herald + The Dwarven Kingdom

At the Neverwinter docks, a fight was underway. The Phandelver’s Pact were investigating (and fighting) a corrupt and evil ship captain who unexpectedly transformed into a dark and mysterious figure, clad in flowing dark robes and glistening silvery armor. His voice rang out inside the minds of the party: “I am Fu’at Mu’an. I am the Herald of Footfall!”

As the fight continued Kathra (resident aasimar paladin) used his Radiant Consumption ability to good effect against the shadow vortices defending Fu’at Mu’an. Grigor (resident human fighter) fired bolts from his shiny new magic crossbow. Verendus (resident tiefling sorcerer/fighter) was caught inside the building from which Captain McCall originally emerged, and so released a massive fireball against the captain’s henchmen. While this was very effective against McCall’s mortal employees, it also set the building and its contents on fire.

Outside the building, Fu’at Mu’an’s bone sword broke into individual shards which flew inside the building to test Verendus’ armor and shield, after which they returned to him and reformed into the sword. Nearly 100 feet down the road, Grigor and Aelfwyn (resident elven wizard/fighter) were dealing massive damage to the shadow fiends when shards of the bone sword came flying down towards them, hitting Aelfwyn and stunning him. Again the shards flew back to Fu’at Mu’an and reformed the sword.

Outside the building, Kathra heard a strange musical sound flowing from Fu’at Mu’an, a lyrical and enticing sound that left him charmed and inexplicably unable to attack the herald. He swung his battleaxe at the shadow fiends instead, which, combined with this Radiant Consumption, took out one of them. Aelfwyn was momentarily taken down by a tendril from a shadow vortex, but a flash of a stored magic spell automatically activated as he went down, reviving him! Kathra was struck, seemingly drained of some of his wisdom as well as taking damage. A second strike against Aelfwyn took him down again, after which Fu’at Mu’an flew down the road to him with his sword out, impaling the unconscious Aelfwyn through his belly and inflicting a constantly bleeding wound. Grigor grabbed a healing potion from his belt and administered it to Aelfwyn, reviving him, but it failed to heal the bloody, seeping wound. As he did this, he glimpsed a horrifying sight of swirling eddies inside Fu’at Mu’an’s cowl. The chaotic sight left him terrified.

Verendus blasted through the roof of the burning warehouse using a Fire Bolt and attempted to Hex Fu’at Mu’an, but again the magic seemed to get redirected into the herald – absorbed! Hovering over a frightened Grigor, Fu’at Mu’an said: “My liege Footfall knows of you. You were the one who took his eye and in return I shall take yours.” As Fu’at Mu’an plunged a bony hand towards the fighter’s face, Grigor deftly avoided it. Kathra rushed down the road and attacked with his whip, which combined with his Radiant Consumption dealt considerable damage. Aelfwyn again attempted to leave with a Thunderstep, however Fu’at Mu’an seemed to intercept the magic even before it formed, glowing briefly as the magic entered its body. It seemed he was storing the magic.

As the shadows attacked Kathra again, draining more of his intelligence, Fu’at Mu’an turned back to Grigor. “You are the key,” he said as he swiped at him with his sword, narrowly missing. Not knowing what to make of this, Grigor redirected his attacks at the cowled figure in front of him. The first two bolts glanced off the herald’s silvery armor, but the third struck home. Grigor dug deep for a surge of extra energy and he followed up with another three shots which all hit hard. Verendus flew down towards the group from above the warehouse, twin casting an extremely powerful Disintegrate spell. One of these missed a shadow vortex, but to Verendus’ horror, Fu’at Mu’an absorbed the magic of even this powerful spell. The bone sword again separated into shards which flew to retaliate against the sorcerer, but the distance seemed to reduce their accuracy and they missed. Kathra, came up behind Fu’at Mu’an and struck with his battleaxe as his Radiant Consumption finished off another of the shadows. The herald called out in pain from the blows and struck behind him with his sword, missing. His focus seemed to remain on Grigor in front.

Aelfwyn, trying something different, summoned a Green-Flame Blade on his shortsword, but unfortunately the attack missed. Curiously Fu’at Mu’an did not seem to absorb this spell, however. Aelfwyn’s belly wound continued to bleed badly. Fu’at Mu’an’s sword disassembled itself again and the shards flew at Grigor. He evaded two of them, but the third struck a massive blow. Grigor somehow managed to maintain his composure and shot back – another two precision hits from his crossbow. Once again Fu’at Mu’an threatened Grigor: “I will have your eye!” A sickening blow from the herald’s bone sword slashed across Grigor’s temple, barely missing his eye. The fighter dropped to the ground. Fu’at Mu’an leant down and reached towards the unconscious Grigor’s eye socket. Verendus rushed forward firing twin Fire Bolts, one striking a shadow vortex and the other barely missing Fu’at Mu’an. Fortunately this was enough to distract him from taking Grigor’s eye and he suddenly started to glow all over, the light expanding from the area on his back where he has absorbed the previous magic as some of the rips and tears in his armor repaired themselves. Kathra bravely took a hit from Fu’at Mu’an’s sword as he dodged around to lay hands on Grigor, healing and reviving him. The wound to Kathra’s shoulder, like Aelfwyn’s earlier belly wound, refused to close. Aelfwyn again struck with his Green-Flame Blade, and this time Fu’at Mu’an appeared to absorb the magic, however the shortsword still hit.

Fu’at Mu’an, however, seemed very focused on Grigor and another two blows from his sword left the fighter unconscious and bleeding again. Again, a musical sound emanated from the herald, charming both Verendus and Kathra. Despite being charmed, Kathra managed the will to use Channel Divinity to Turn the Faithless, speaking the sacred words and presenting his holy symbol to the remaining shadow vortex. Coincidentally, Fu’at Mu’an also heard this and reared back, ominously declaring: “I will return for Grigor! He will die!” Then he flew off.

Aelfwyn took a moment to bind his stomach wound, finally stopping the bleeding, and to heal Grigor again. Disoriented and unsure what was happening, Grigor got back to his feet. He heard Verendus shouting at him not to attack the retreating Fu’at Mu’an and Aelfwyn urged him to “kill the remaining shadow first!” In an unusual flash of good judgement Grigor heeded the words of his companions and ignored his strongest instincts to attack this creature that had done so much harm. He unleashed a perfectly aimed shot that whizzed past Verendus’s ear and into the shadow pursuing him. A second shot put it down, leaving no remaining enemies as Fu’at Mu’an dissipated into streams of black mist above and disappeared.

Grigor thanked both Kathra and an exhausted Aelfwyn for their healing and charged back towards Verendus, imploring him to do something to stop the fire in the warehouse from causing any more damage. A well-placed Fireball converted to do cold damage very effectively did just that, extinguishing the fire and saving the surrounding buildings.

On the dockside, outside the charred warehouse and next to McCall’s old ship, Grigor apologetically explained to the group that he has completely unaware that his old foe Captain McCall had any ties to Footfall at all. As he did so, time froze for him. His companions were frozen mid-sentence, the workers on the ship also completely still and even the smoke rising in the air stopped. The world was completely silent and still except for Grigor himself. As the fighter looked around, a glowing point of light appeared a few feet away on the side of a building. It expanded to the size of a human being. A humanoid shape emerged, walking just above the ground towards the astonished Grigor. The creature’s voice seemed to fill the world while also seeming to be inside Grigor’s head.

“We are the Lords of Order, and you are the chosen.” It held out a glowing hand of light, and in it appeared a glowing quarrel similar to the magic ones fired by Grigor’s new crossbow, but with an altogether different glow. Rather than the pale golden glow of his usual bolts, this one glowed a pure intense white. “You, Grigor, have been chosen. Only a man of the noblest bearing can use this. This is a weapon against Footfall. We, the Lords of Order, have chosen you out of all others to harm him. But believe me when I say you will not be able to kill him with this. You will hurt him, but you will not kill him. It will take more than this to destroy Footfall. But you will need this in the final battle and only you will know when to use it.” It reached out and Grigor considered for a moment before accepting. The being turned over its hand and the quarrel floated down gently into Grigor’s hand, where it rested with a surprising lightness and no heat at all. Suddenly it is absorbed into the fighter’s palm and was gone. “You will know when to use it,” the creature repeated, “but only you will know when to use it.” And with that, the creature faded away, and the world sped up again. Aelfwyn’s voice ramped up to normal speed and he continued what he was saying as if nothing happened.

At this point some of Grigor’s old co-workers ran up, pleased that McCall had been dealt with. They were grateful, but are also looking for information – would he return again? Grigor explained the situation, and the group retired to a popular dockside pub – An old haunt of Grigor’s from the old days. The party celebrated with the dock workers, but also found moments to reflect on all the extraordinary events of the evening. The party stayed the night in the pub (with the exception of Aelfwyn, who returned to the House of Knowledge). In private before they retired for the night, Grigor tried to discuss his strange encounter. With their faculties drained from the encounter no one had much to say and the discussion was postponed until the next day.

27 days to Footfall.

The following morning, with his mind functioning at full capacity again, Kathra had had time to contemplate Grigor’s remarkable story. When Aelfwyn returned, they explained that from between the planes of existence came beings that were not really Gods, but kind of “great old ones”. Aelfwyn knew that where there were “Lords of Chaos” there were also their direct opposites – “Lords of Order”. It seemed that Footfall was one of the former, and Grigor seemed to have had an encounter with one of the latter. Using his magic to try to gain more insight, Aelfwyn had visions of a huge being he knew to be Footfall, a massive humanoid with three glowing eyes. Facing him were three white glowing figures that appeared to be his direct opposites. Some kind of balance appeared to exist between Footfall on one side and the three figures on the other. Aelfwyn ensured the party he had everything he needed to use this spell again another day.

Meanwhile, Verendus insisted on buying everyone fine new clothes suitable for meeting with royalty. He also made sure to spread the word of the Pact’s amazing deeds. Finally, before leaving, Grigor advised a trusted friend at the docks to update Bill of the Lord’s Alliance if there was any more trouble that we should know about. Reminded of the sending stone linked to Bill, Grigor pulled it from the Bag of Holding and coincidently a message from Bill said: “Come to my office quickly. We need to talk.”

Bill brought the Pact up to date with some events that have transpired in the Dessarin Valley while they’d been away. It seemed that, like Red Larch before it, the town of Belliard had also been destroyed in a major earthquake, apparently the work of the remnants of the Earth Cult. The Lord’s Alliance agent told of firestorms and Fire Cult activity around Westbridge and even as far north as Tribor. He urged the Pact to return to the Dessarin Valley region to deal with those threats as soon as they could.

Grigor, in particular, was disturbed by this news and although Aelfwyn initially said it’s not our problem, the majority agreed that leaving before fully dealing with all the cults and their leaders was a mistake they needed to correct. After some discussion, a new plan was formulated. The Pact decided to proceed as planned to meet up with the airship at Citadel Felbar before Teleporting back to the Dessarin Valley.

After Teleporting to the airship, the Pact made their way along an elevated road, and between two enormous gates called the Hammer and the Anvil. Passing immense fortifications, they were welcomed by the dwarves who seemed to know all about the Phandelver’s Pact. Showing a letter of recommendation opened a lot of doors, and the Pact were soon granted an audience with King Morinn and Queen Tithmel, who wisely ruled here together as equals.

In the huge underground throne room, lined with armored dwarves, the King and Queen sat on immense stone thrones. The royal couple welcomed the party. Verendus spoke for the group, explaining that we sought assistance to deal with the threat posed by Footfall, which they were already aware of. They pledged to gather their armies from around the region and build up their stores of weapons and ammunition to join the fight in around 26 days. Verendus also expressed concerns for the refugees and displaced populations from the battles already fought and those ahead and was assured that both Citadel Felbar and Citadel Adbar would always take in refugees. The dwarves were concerned to hear that the Pact had formed an alliance with the Fire Giants at Ironslag, since they were mortal enemies. A spectacular effort of persuasion from Verendus had them fully assured that the Fire Giants were soundly defeated and the small numbers remaining were fully loyal to the Pact and posed no threat.

The royal couple offered the group some magical items to assist them in their endeavors. Verendus requested and received magical Morningstar. Aelfwyn was offered a Pearl of Power as well as a magical shortsword. Kathra was equipped with a better magical battleaxe. They also collected another shortsword for Fuzz (the resident halfling rogue, currently missing) for when he returned. Finally, Grigor received an Immovable Rod, which he found absolutely fascinating.

Pleased with their new allies and their new gear, the Pact returned to their airship. They sent it ahead to Zymorven Hall with instructions from Verendus to let everyone know that the Phandelver’s Pact was coming and were on their way. He also had a word with his hobgoblin troops, encouraging them to lift their game and be in better shape when he returned (they had spent their time drinking and gambling), under threat of a change in their leadership.

Verendus then teleported the group directly to the Sacred Stone Monastery, arriving in the evening at the south-east corner, all with their new abilities and items at the ready…

Next: The Final Assault on the Elemental Temples Begins!

Check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmf65iCIYu70YP7zaRP-6Q

For more Laidback DM, click here.

For Laidback DM products, visit Drivethrurpg.