Hi all,
I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017. It was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s the follow up campaign – 2018’s ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. We used experience points rather than milestones/level-based progression, which led to some ‘xp grinding’ along the way. Each session was 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing; don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.
Game on!
Steve 🙂
Week 15
The Wyrmheart Mine!
Tinder, a huge Adult Red Dragon, confronted the party. Mark’s Kenku Monk protected Jake’s unconscious Aasimar Warlock (who fell from a great height last week) while attempting to tell Tinder that Jake wasn’t wholly responsible for killing all of her Kobold minions. And then he offered Hew Hackysack up as a sacrifice!
Hew HackandGo, riding a Giant Strider, decided it was time to show the Dragon who was boss. Daniel’s Human Bard and Dan’s Halfing Warlock decided to stop him by pushing Hew off the tracks, but the Giant Strider was too strong. Hew faced the dragon: “Geronimo!! And thanks for all the fish!” he cried lustily, then was slaughtered and eaten. Thus ended the brief, but world-weary tale of Hew HanksfortheMemories. A tale of sweaty, odour-filled nights, lots of standing around yelling support and deckchair reclining by rivers. His Scottish brogue would be sorely missed. By someone, I’m sure.
The fawning party then decided to give Tinder all their Giant Strider mounts to eat. Now sated, Tinder the dating Dragon, asked the party to clear the Fire Newts out the Dwarven forge of Hrakhamar, which lay 40 miles north along an abandoned cart track. If they succeeded she would consider flying them to the lost city of Omu. And set them up with some online dates who would look nothing like their photos.
A very cool roller coaster mining cart ride later (including jumping a gap in the tracks – Gavin’s Druid and Jake’s Warlock assisted with Thornwhip and Lightning Lure), and stopping before an underground river, where Ghasts and Ghouls lurked. Most were turned by Chloe’s Drow Cleric, but then a huge Krake Spawn decided to cream Jake’s Warlock and Chloe’s Cleric (but not before Dan’s Warlock decided to show his true colours and run away). The Krake Spawn formed a huge Wall of Ice which Morgan’s Barbarian scaled and leaped to the rescue, hurling Japanese anime epithets left and right (apparently the Japanese know how to get the most out of conversations about trains) but unfortunately missed completely. Leave it to Mark’s Kenku Monk to save the day and bash and kick that nasty beastie into the sushi Morgan’s Barbarian originally intended. Davor’s Ranger had an opportunity to attack the monster with his sword, but declined. “I’m a long range kinda guy,” he said, checking his nails.
In the magma-spawned heat of Hrakhamar, the party split up (as usual), with Jake’s Warlock and Chloe’s Cleric wandering off one way, Mark’s Monk, Steve’s Rogue and William’s Lizardfolk Druid sneaking off on a scouting mission, and the rest just hanging around. Mark’s Monk, sneaky little fellow that he was, got to the armoury only to be trounced by a bunch of Flying Swords. “Run away, run away!” he cried, Monti Python-style.
A number of Fire Newts pursued and in a Giant Strider-packed corridor, everyone caused enough ruckus with spells (including Gavin’s Druid–conjured Dire Wolves), to set the Giant Striders stampeding (ouch!).
Next week: Hrakhamar! And maybe a dragon ride…
Cheers
Steve 😊
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