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 17: Neverwinter & Phandalin Interval

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

Over the course of a few days, the party funded and prepared a caravan for Thundertree, purchasing food, supplies, animals, shepherds and mercenaries, carts, etc. This would be a great boon to the rebuilding efforts there. Gundrun Rockseeker, having been safely escorted to Neverwinter, was tired of adventuring and (reluctantly) signed a contract, handing over his share of Wave Echo Cave to Striver the dwarven cleric.

Meanwhile, I took care of the Wyvern eggs and requested information about the legal owners of Cragmaw Castle. Historical lore recorded it as having been built by a wizard of the Forlorn Realm, a now gone kingdom that rose after the Netherill Empire fell. Apparently, the castle had been built around one of Versh’arek’s towers. As far as could be gathered, there were no legal owners left to claim the structure. The party claimed ownership of Cragmaw Castle, and I requested at least a presence of a Temple to Oghma there. It was determined it would take a lot of resources to rebuild the castle.

After our business was done in Neverwinter, the party gathered its belongings and set out on the road to Phandalin, to delve into Wave Echo Cave at last. Two days in, screams were heard on the road ahead. They quickly rushed in to find two wagons being attacked by a band of orcs and two ogres. A storm was called up by Striver, and fireballs flew, scorching the area. These orcs were stronger than previous encounters, but nevertheless, they all fell soon enough. Once the dust settled, we discovered only one of the civilians survived the attack. I used Gentle Repose to try and preserve the bodies for resurrection, and we moved the carts and the civilian with us to Phandalin. The civilian explained they came from Diata, near Triboar, and were searching for a new life after their town was raided by giants. In Phandalin, the verdict was it would be too costly to revive the dead civilians, so they were buried in town.

Talking to Sildar, the Phandalin militia now counted 10 members, and with the influx of new weapons and armor, they were looking competent. Helping the civilian settle in, we had a good meal with Fuzz the halfling rogue’s family. Phandalin does feel like home. Some books were added to the library in Tresendar Manor, our home base.

Ready for the grand finale, we left the Wyvern eggs with the smith to keep warm and safe, and we set forth for Wave Echo Cave. As we drew close, we were ambushed by a ravager. He gave a few good hits, but like all else before, it was no match for our prowess.

(The party had now earned enough XP to advance to level 6)

Feeling more powerful than before, we rested before what we thought would be the final showdown.

Part 18: Wave Echo Cave

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

We arrived at Wave Echo Cave and headed inside the cavern. Light was cast on a ribbon tied to Athena, my owl familiar, and we sent her ahead to scout. The first chamber we found was crawling with shadows, the ghastly creatures known to accompany Versh’arek the Lucid. Grigor the fighter rushed in a bit too eagerly, and soon found himself surrounded by the fiendish creatures, his strength being sucked out of him. Attacks seemed to do little damage to them. Normal weapons, fire, cold, thunder, lightning – they were all resistant to them. Grigor had to take the potion of giant’s strength, just to keep swinging. Fortunately, we managed to take out the creatures before his strength was completely drained. After this encounter, we had to take a short rest, so he could get back on his feet. Another good strike would’ve killed him.

Once rested up, we headed back in, Athena in front. We found a dwarven body, surrounded by various supplies. Upon investigation, it was Tharden Rockseeker, Gundrun’s brother and Striver’s cousin. The latter seemed not as shocked by the sight as would have been expected. Nevertheless, I provided a service to preserve the body, at least for the time being.

We climbed down the pit and used Athena to scout the two pathways. The eastern one had creatures fluttering about, while the western one seemed clear. Heading west, we came across a few oozes. Fortunately, a good ray of frost stopped them in their tracks, then they weren’t hard to kill at all. Following the left-hand walls, we moved further ahead to the north, until we came to a chamber with water. There, we encountered some bugbears, which shot and killed Athena – those bastards! Rushing in, fighting the bugbears that swarmed in, using grease on the stairs causing some of them to slip up and tumble down. Unexpectedly, a swarm of ghouls rushed in from behind, targeting Grigor. Flanked from both sides, we split our attention to deal with this threat. Striver finished off the ghouls with his divine shatter, while the bugbears took a bit more to kill. Nevertheless, after a good fight, all opposition was defeated. As we gathered our senses, Grigor looked around, dove into the pool, and came back up with a wand and two rings, which he presented to me for identifying. I was checking the wand when a pack of bugbears rushed down the stairs, nearly overwhelming us. The party was a bit shaken by this sudden influx of violence, but a solid fireball made short work of these furry fiends.

Needing a bit more protection this time, I conjured up a Leomund’s Tiny Hut first, for all to take shelter in and rest, then focused on identifying the items. The wand was a Wand of Magic Missiles, while the rings were normal platinum rings worth about 75GP a piece. Some contention arose over who should have custody over the magical wand, as both Striver and I laid claim to it. I made compelling arguments – Striver utterly failed to intimidate me! At least, that’s how I remember it. Very condescendingly, I patted the dwarf on the head, whom unleashed his wrath in a shocking manner. In the end, the wand naturally ended up with the wizard – me.

Secure within the hut, we prepared for the next step. About 40 foes had been slain so far, which begged the question: how many more are there? And what about the bosses we might encounter? The mysterious Black Spider? Versh’arek? Venomfang? Or perhaps we would finally find the Redbrand wizard, Iarno Albrek? Would we find the last Rockseeker brother alive? Would we find Haemund and Droop, kidnapped from our home so long ago?

Next: Deeper into Wave Echo Cave…

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