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 🙂

Disclaimer

Okay, okay – if you’ve been following these posts, you’ll have noticed my players were writing the game summaries each week and they were fairly detailed (I originally asked them to do this as I just didn’t have the time to do the summaries myself, the way I normally do). Well, from week 29 forward, my players stopped doing summaries, and I was forced to step in.

Normally, I would spend more time writing session summaries, but this campaign it was tricky, so what you’ll see from now on is some very short session notes and some occasionally detailed ones, depending on what was available from my prep or what I remembered at the time. Sorry it can’t be as detailed as it was, but at least the short summaries give you a general idea of what was going on each week.

Steve 🙂

Part 49: Wham, Bam, Thank You, Maam

A monumental battle in Deadstone Cleft! The Stone Giants and their barbarian and Earth Elemental  allies never knew what hit them! The party took a well-earned long rest in a Leomund’s Tiny Hut and leveled up to 14th!

Part 50: Jumping the Shark

The Pact fought and defeated Kayalithica and 4 Stone Golems in her central chamber, killing an innocent gnome held captive in the stone giant’s sidebag in the process (Verendus the tiefling sorcerer used reverse gravity and when Kayalithica fell, the gnome was crushed, much to Verendus’s amusement).

Aelfwyn the elvish wizard was ambushed by a Roper (bringing back memories of an earlier encounter in the Lost Mine of Phandelver) and Verendus (“Trust Me, Grigor!”) polymorphed Grigor the human fighter into a Giant Shark. Unfortunately, the pool of water was far too shallow, and the poor shark wallowed while the Roper chewed on Fuzz the halfling rogue. Poor old Kathra, the aasimar paladin, didn’t even get a chance to hit it after Aelfwyn’s disintegration and fire bolt.

Recovering the Orb of the Stein Rune from a massive statue of Skoraeus Stonebones at the end of Deadstone Cleft canyon, the Pact took to the air again. Aelfwyn received a letter and package from the House of Knowledge, pointing the party to ruins in the desert of Anaurach, where a copy of the Apocolyptica was rumored to be protected by a powerful guardian. One divination phone call to Oghma later and the Pact confirmed the guardian was the Blue Dragon they were looking for. Their airship headed northeast for a day and a half, eventually passing over the ancient dwarven ruins of Ascore. The skies darkened as they sighted a ruined stadium in the distance, and Grigor in the crow’s nest spotted something huge moving through the desert sands below…

The party called for Fuzz but his cabin was empty! Where could he be? On holiday in the midwest with his family? Or taken by Footfall, whom Fuzz encountered before while in a coma…

31 days to Footfall…

Part 51: Iymrith Kicks Butt & Ironslag Awaits

The Pact headed into the ruined stadium, less Fuzz, who had mysteriously disappeared from his airship cabin.

The heroes scared off two Purple Worms, then climbed the stadium’s outer wall. Verendus called to Iymrith, telling the Ancient Blue Dragon that he and the Pact were powerful warriors who intended to defeat Footfall and that she should join them. Iymrith’s disembodied voice advised him she hadn’t heard of the Pact, but agreed with Verendus that if they could beat her she would consider it. Verendus was immediately swallowed by a Purple Worm and dragged underground. Kathra used plant growth to channel the worm back to the surface, and eventually it was vanquished.

Aelfwyn’s owl scouted about below ground, spotting a pit of baby purple worms. Aelfwyn wanted to kill them all, but Verendus counterspelled him twice. Grigor didn’t want to kill the babies either. The party went up above ground again and entered the lair through a large hole, but Aelfwyn had some reservations now that several of his most powerful spell slots were gone. 

The Pact were ambushed, lightning breathed, frightened, beaten, mauled and generally embarrassed by Iymrith. They limped away via Verendus’s teleport before the great Dragon could slaughter them.

Off to Ironslag, where the pickings should be easier. First off, a Yakfolk village on top of the mountain where Verendus freed some slaves.

Down an elevator into Ironslag itself, where the team spotted the Vonendod under construction. Aelfwyn and Kathra confronted Duke Zalto. When Aelfwyn pretended to be Verendus the tiefling furiously leapt off an overhead gantry, polymorphed the Duke into a camel and then disintegrated him. So much for the boss fight.

Soon the Pact was under attack by Zalto’s bodyguards – numerous Fire Elementals. Grigor, standing on a gantry 50 ft. above, picked several off – until he was attacked from behind by Orcs and a Fire Giant and left hanging, suspended by his balloon belt 6 ft. under the gantry…         

30 days to Footfall…

Part 52: Ironslag Again

The Pact fought Fire Giants, Fire Elementals and the Cultists of the Eternal Flame in the shadow of the Vonendod, finally teleporting away as more giants arrived and attempted to release Maegera the Dawn Titan (which Aelfwyn had stirred up).

Taking a long rest on the airship, the Pact returned to the Yakfolk village atop Ironslag mountain where they persuaded the Yakfolk to stand down. Defeating several Fire Giants guarding the elevator, they descended to the mines where they slaughtered Salamanders and freed numerous slaves.

Footfall in 29 days…

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