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 🙂

Part 24: Trouble in Triboar

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

Witnessing the chaos from the top of the hill, it was evident that the Phandelver’s Pact had to strike now if we were to save the town of Triboar. After some discussion, we decided to use the forest as cover to get close, then fire upon the fire giant at the edge of town.

We definitely got the giant’s attention, as it ran into the forest after us. As we retreated deeper and further away from the civilians, hitting it through the trees wasn’t always ideal, and Kathra the aasimar paladin, preferring close combat, took the brunt of the attacks. One massive hit smacked him to a tree, knocking the wind out of him. Nevertheless, he recovered and managed to get some good hits in, and soon the fire giant fell, the forest cracking under its downfall. Rummaging through its pockets, we found a bright ruby pendant, definitely worth something.

With this strong straggler struck down, we planned to hit the edges of town, targetting the smaller creatures that were setting the buildings on fire and harassing citizens. Aelfwyn wanted to split off on his own, but the rest urged him not to, until he shot a ray of frost to one of the fire minions and saw it explode into bits and pieces. This gave them the confidence to let Aelfwyn handle the ones in the north on his own, as they handled the ones in the south. And thus, it happened. While Aelfwyn drew away one of the minions, which he identified as a magmin, the rest of the party started shooting some from the edge of the forest. Only when one of the magmin was smacked against the cliffside and exploded, did Aelfwyn take a sliver of damage from these small creatures. Flying in the air with his winged boots made it easier for him to rain ice on them. Meanwhile, Grigor unleashed his bolts, but saw hell hounds rushing at them. Kathra stood fast in front of Grigor the fighter and Fuzz the halfling rogue to block their assault, though one managed to unleash fire breath at Grigor. It took quite a few hits before both dogs were downed. The magmin proved far easier.

As this transpired and the minions were being taken care of, Aelfwyn’s flight caught the attention of the fire giant in the center of town – at its command, a red dragon rose up and flew in the wizard’s direction. Panicked by this sight and knowing he was only just out of its range, Aelfwyn flitted through the window of a burning house, hoping to draw it in and cast web on it, but the building was burning too fiercely for this plan to work. Hasting himself, he rushed out of the burning building again, through the backdoor, only to find the dragon hovering above him, ready to pounce. To Aelfwyn’s surprise, this didn’t happen. Instead, the dragon shouted: “you should not be here!” “Neither should you,” Aelfwyn replied. A brief exchange of words revealed that this dragon was being forced to do the giants’ bidding, due to them holding its wyrmlings hostage. Agreeing not to attack each other, Aelfwyn turned around, flew up and blasted the remaining giants who were digging something up from the center of town.

Recognising the signature blast, Grigor, followed by Fuzz and Kathra, understood the message and headed for the center of town. As Aelfwyn faced both hill giants on his own, using his magical shield when needed, the rest faced their leader, a female fire giant. She was clearly not to be underestimated, easily being stronger than both hill giants together. A big swing knocked Grigor unconscious, before she moved on to Kathra. Fuzz managed to sneak in, sticking his shortsword deep into the fire giant’s knee – it was coated with very potent wyvern poison – followed by some very good hits by Kathra’s battleaxe. Not liking that one bit, the fire giant smashed Fuzz unconscious, and Kathra didn’t last long after that either. Seeing his friends fall one by one, Aelfwyn rushed over, dodging the hill giants’ ire, administering healing potions to his friends, one by one, while trying not to die via a trifecta of giants. He told his friends to “play dead”, in the hopes of them avoiding death, as Aelfwyn drew the giants away. A good hit almost took the wizard out as well, and with three members down and himself almost down as well, things were looking dire indeed.

With the immediate threat down, the giants were ordered back to digging up whatever it was they were digging up, and thus they did. The hill giants started pulling a big, sickle-like object out of the ground, and began carrying it off out of town. Aelfwyn, still in the fight, not wanting the giants to leave with their prize, continued to harass them, and managed to take another giant down. At this point, the rest of the party regrouped, and took a shot at the isolated and gravely wounded fire giant, wounding her even further. A thrown boulder took Grigor down again, after which the fire giant yelled something at the dragon and pointed at Aelfwyn. While none of us understood giant, it was obvious she ordered it to attack. Aelfwyn, from the top of the keep, took good aim and with striking precision, doused the fire giant’s flame, before rushing in flight for the last remaining giant, which had been fleeing with the object and yelling at the dragon to finish him. Thus it did, as dragon’s breath reduced the last hill giant to ashes.

Exhausted, Aelfwyn landed next to the dragon, and they could speak more freely. Its name was Aerinvex, and she pleaded for the safety of her children, whom had been taken captive by Duke Zalto, the leader of the fire giants, and held in Ironslag, in the Icespire mountain range to the far north. The object was a piece of the “Vonindod”, which Aelfwyn knew from his readings about the ancient giant empire of Ostoria, was a weapon used by the giants to fight the dragons. The giants were planning to rebuild the artifact and needed a very powerful elemental to fuel it. An alliance of necessity was formed, and Aerinvex took the piece and flew off to Ironslag, so as to not draw suspicion and protect its children.

Now, with the imminent danger over, and the town of Triboar saved, the Phandelver’s Pact could finally take a well-deserved long rest, before meeting up with Lady Protector Shendrel.

Next Session: Quests and Sidebars…

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