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 minor edits). If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Steve 🙂

Part 15: The Cragmaw Clearance Sale

(Transcription by Pieter, who played Aelwyn the elvish wizard.)

The party needed a rest. Aelfwyn cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut, so they could rest for the night. Outside forces noticed this and could do nothing about it but wait. After a peaceful eight hours, it was time to get back into action. As the party gazed through the magical force field, they saw dire wolves and giants waiting. As they prepared, everyone ran into the castle, ready to hold the line, and once everyone was ready to fight, Aelfwyn dropped the field. With Striver the dwarven cleric and Lady Atrasian the human fighter at the fore, the dire wolves could only rush in one at a time. Grigor the fighter shot arrows from the rear, with Fuzz the halfling rogue switching between stabbing and shooting into one of the side wall arrow slits. Aelfwyn tried the haste spell on himself, and went somewhat crazy, rushing here and there, stabbing, throwing spells, b*tchslapping a giant with shocking grasp. When the battle was over, he quickly explored all the nearby rooms, found a nice sword which he hastily gave to Grigor, and hopped into a room where ghastly things waited for him.

The party knew what the ghastly things were, as they had encountered them several times before. They all rushed in, slaying creeping claws, and even a grick that pounced from above. In the next room, the party found Versh’arek the Lucid, their old foe. Hovering above a desecrated altar, they noticed black tendrils springing forth from his wraith-like form. For once, he was surprisingly quiet. Together, the party attacked with arrows, swords and spells, yet Versh’arek seemed to do very little in return. He tried to attach his tendrils onto them, but without success. Striver threw a shatter on top of him, cracking the sacred altar to Oghma (and displeasing Aelfwyn). The wizard sent a fireball to cleanse the room, making sure the party did not get hit…mostly… It took longer than past encounters with the creature, but eventually, Versh’arek vanished once more.

At this point, Striver explored the castle on his own. Of course, he got himself into a little trouble, and soon started screaming for help. Fuzz was the first to rush in, but Aelfwyn, still displeased with the damage done to his god’s altar, casually guided Lady Atrasian towards the fighting. Once all were there, the fight had nearly ended. Identifying one of the creatures as a doppelganger, Striver revived it with the sole purpose of interrogating it. They learned that it worked for “the Black Spider”, a Drow elf at Wave Echo Cave, searching for the “Forge of Spells”. The doppelganger was a liaison with the goblins. They also found one of Striver’s cousins, Gundrun Rockseeker, who initially travelled with Sildar until they were attacked and separated.

Having cleared the castle of all threats, the party explored and looted the place, finding 220 SP, 250 EP, 120 GP, 4 potions of healing, a map to Wave Echo Cave, Sildar’s chainmail and longsword, a surprisingly light quarterstaff (10 GP), a damaged gold statuette of a sun elf with a single use of augury to it, a scroll of revivify, a greatsword +1, some supplies and a bunch of weapons and armor from the previous occupants.

Then there was a conflict of the gods. Striver’s god wanted everything destroyed, while Aelfwyn’s god needed the altar repaired and reconsecrated, but the tower destroyed. Nearly coming to blows, they came to terms. Over the course of a week, the party moved the altar, Aelfwyn reconsecrated it, and they leveled the tower.

Part 16: Wyvern Canyon & Couch Surfing

(Transcription by Pieter, who played Aelwyn the elvish wizard.)

A week had passed since the party entered Cragmaw Castle and rid it of the pests living there. The altar was reconsecrated, the tower destroyed, Gundrun Rockseeker recovered from his injuries and everyone cleaned the place up a bit. Finally, the party gathered up everything of value onto their cart and decided to go to Thundertree, then visit Neverwinter, then continue south to Phandalin.

Deciding to go through the forest to save time, the party suddenly stumbled upon a big gorge. There was a rickety wooden bridge across it and a raging river below. Aelfwyn used his familiar to scout about, seeing ragged rocks at the bottom, the ancient remains of big dragons, and several cave openings on the other side of the gorge. As Athena the owl flew past them, a gaping maw snapped at her! Fortunately, she managed to dodge it and get back to safety. A Wyvern occupied one of the caves. Clearly posing a threat if one were to cross, the party discussed a plan to get rid of it. After a few minutes of debating, they got into position. Athena flew over to find out the wyvern had already left the cave! Suddenly looming and ready to snap her up, an arrow struck true in the creature’s neck, causing it to tumble down. Athena flew down to shock it, after which Aelfwyn snapped her back to her pocket dimension for safety. Striver roared, daring it to attack. Once more the wyvern flew up from the ravine, only to face one arrow shot, another, and then a huge fireball! Clearly having enough, it flew off.

For a brief moment the party thought they had secured the area, until two more wyverns flew up from below, surprising Striver and Lady Atrasian. The fight was on, as another rushed in. The party’s weapons struck true, as sword, arrow and spell all did a lot of damage to them. Soon after the engagement started, the first wyvern fell. Lady Atrasian got one, Fuzz another, but Aelfwyn did not do enough damage and was attacked. Dodging the first attack, he suddenly felt a great sting in his back, frothing poison from his mouth. A critical strike that would’ve killed him, had he not resisted the poison somewhat. Fortunately, Striver was able to revive Aelfwyn, allowing the wizard to finish off the wyvern that attacked him. As the last one fell, all went quiet again. No more ‘dragons’ to slay. Knowing from firsthand experience how potent wyvern poison could be, Aelfwyn tried to collect some of the venom. Failing a few times (to the point of needing healing), the party recovered one dose of wyvern poison. Further inspecting the caves with Athena, they found two wyvern eggs in a nest. Striver and Aelfwyn claimed one each, to hatch, grow and train.

Moving on, the party finally arrived at Thundertree, where the ruined town was bustling with life again. Workers were restoring and rebuilding structures there, under the watchful eyes of a company of guards supplied by the Lords’ Alliance. Grigor was most pleased to see his birth town coming back to life again, and there was even talk of putting up a statue of him, once the town was rebuilt. It would take about six months to complete, and food and other supplies were needed. The party dropped off a few weapons. After all, they can’t slay every dragon, can they?

After spending the night, the party moved on to Neverwinter. Bill from the Lords’ Alliance provided them with a nice reward of 100 GP each for clearing Cragmaw Castle, and offered membership in the organisation. Nobody seemed interested, due to personal conflicts of interest. Aelfwyn went to ask the high priest for advice, and he too advised against joining the Lords’ Alliance. Aelfwyn did get a silver holy symbol of Oghma (50 GP) and improved standing within the school thanks to completing his task of reconsecrating the altar to Oghma (he was now allowed to borrow a book from the library!) He went to ask Sister Gonads (a true ballsy lady) about wyverns and how to raise them. A treasure of information was provided, though training a wyvern would prove challenging. Contacting the Harpers provided the party with the knowledge that there were a lot more giants roaming around, harassing towns everywhere – something must be up. The party decided that once they completed their quest to find the Rockseeker brothers, they would look into it…

Next Episode: Neverwinter Chores?!

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