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 🙂

Session 25 – Tiefling on Elf Action (or ‘PVP Can Cramp Your Style’)

(Transcription by James, who played Kathra the Aasimar Paladin)

After taking a well-deserved rest overnight, the party met up with Shendrel and we told her of the job we had been tasked with by Lady Atrasian and the Lords’ Alliance. She thanked us for our help and gave us 2 healing potions each, plus some gold for our troubles. Shendrel mentioned some of the townsfolk might want to speak with us. She asked us to take a platinum badge with a Triboar insignia to Danivar’s House in Everlund, to speak to Dral Thelev, the one-eyed half orc proprietor, for more information.

After we exited the tower, we spoke to three different townsfolk who asked us to complete tasks:

• A potential valuable bounty was awaiting us at Xantharl’s Keep, worth 5000 gp if we could capture and escort a dwarf named ‘Weevil’ to Mirabar.
• Narth Tezrin of Lionshield Costco asked us to deliver harnesses to Amrath Mulnobar, Castellan of Noanar’s Hold – worth 100 GP with a free cart to do so.
• Harthos Zymorven of Zymorven Hall, northwest of Silverymoon, had a Giant-slayer Greatsword that he might be willing to part with if we told him why we needed it and mentioned Urgala Meltimer’s name.

We were given a Letter of Recommendation from Ghelryn Foehammer to King Morinn and Queen Tithmel of Citadel Felbarr; it might come in handy at some point. Grigor was tasked with holding onto the Rod of Vonindod to use for locating any more of the pieces the giants were seeking – it could also locate other objects.

After much deliberation, we eventually settled on heading back to New Thundertree to see if there was a way to take the Vonindod piece there, but when we arrived, we found that it had been taken by giants shortly after we left for Triboar. The party decided to head to Longsaddle, to follow up on a wanted poster and some potential bounty money.

After much trudging through the Neverwinter Woods, we set up camp by the river. A dragon turtle emerged from the water, and we fought. Verendus, the tiefling sorcerer, ended the battle by casting a spell and convincing it to go away and take a bite out of a ship. Aelfwyn, the elvish wizard/fighter, had grown increasingly annoyed at Verendus and struck him with some magic. Verendus threw some of his own, and in the ensuing argument a spell-battle erupted between the two, despite protestations from Grigor the fighter. At one point, Verendus summoned darkness and Aelfwyn turned invisible.

Some Trolls came to investigate the commotion, and another battle ensued. They were quickly dispatched but the clearing where camp had been set up ended up on fire (Verendus responded to Aelfwyn setting off meteors at him to “finish the fight”). Aelfwyn once again went invisible and flew away in a huff, with the rest of the party now having to move elsewhere and finish resting for the night.

Session 26 – Wish You Were Behir

(Transcription by James, who played Kathra the Aasimar Paladin)

Aelfwyn and his owl continued to fly away, but were set upon by two Manticores. After a valiant attempt at putting distance between the two to decimate them, he decided discretion was the better part of valor. He turned invisible and fell to the ground to make his escape, continuing to flee the area.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party awoke from their long rest and proceeded to continue towards Longsaddle, hoping to find Aelfwyn there. After some fiddling with the Rod of Vonindod, we managed to figure out that we were heading in the right direction as Aelfwyn was carrying an item the rod could sense. We continued through the forest until we were set upon by two barbarian warriors, but we outnumbered them and they quickly fell. After hiding of the bodies and searching the area, it seemed there were no more.

Continuing on the path towards Longsaddle, the Rod of Vonindod indicated there was something in a different direction – a necklace belonging to Grigor and Fuzz, the halfling rogue, which they had surrendered to a green dragon some time ago. We decided to investigate. The party soon came across a pit, and we climbed down.

Deep below was a maze-like cave complex. Aided by Grigor’s Nightgoggles, Fuzz scouted ahead and gave the all-clear. Unfortunately, Kathra’s light spell on his necklace set off some shrieking mushrooms. A roar echoed throughout the caverns. A giant, purple, lizard-like creature – a Behir – appeared and a battle commenced.

All seemed to be going well against the Behir until its mate appeared from around one of the many rock columns, flanking the party. It swallowed Fuzz whole, with Kathra swallowed soon after by the other. Verendus pulled out his meteors and fired them at the creature that had swallowed Kathra, causing him to be vomited out of the beast. Fuzz was in mortal danger, so Verendus polymorphed Kathra and himself into giant apes. The cave was suddenly plunged into darkness, and Verendus (in ape form) grabbed the Behir and shoved his arm down its throat to pull out the unconscious Fuzz. Grigor lit a torch so he could see what was going on, just as Kathra’s fist crushed the final Behir’s skull.

After more exploration, the party located an underground lake. Grigor swam in, finding a staff with a snake head on it. We weren’t sure what it did, but if we found Aelfwyn, he might know. Our stolen treasure was also found, along with some new goodies that were divided up evenly amongst the group. The party exited the cave, rested and then continued onwards to Longsaddle. Little did we know we were heading towards one of our greatest challenges yet…

Next Session: Longsaddle awaits!

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