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

If you’ve been following these posts from the beginning, you’ll have noticed the initial summaries were written by my players because I just didn’t have the time. Then I started doing them because they didn’t have the time (even though I still didn’t have the time – it was a bit of a chicken and egg situation, really). Then another of my players volunteered, and he actually recorded the sessions so he could transcribe them. As you might expect, his summaries had a lot more detail than the previous ones because of this (and no, I don’t have those recordings lol).

All the remaining summaries from 57 onwards were done by me, and the length basically came down to how much time I had (or more accurately, didn’t have).

Cheers

Steve 🙂

Part 61: Imix Goes Down

While in Neverwinter waiting for Verendus (the tiefling sorcerer) to organize accommodation for his parents, the Pact converted some treasure to cash and visited Bill of the Lord’s Alliance. Bill indicated that Aelfwyn’s warning to the Grand Master at the Temple of Oghma the previous day had been taken very seriously. A War Council was currently taking place with representatives from all the major cities of the Sword Coast, looking at ways to help in the fight against Footfall. Iarno Albrecht had also made a guest appearance as a holograph, providing information on Footfall and the Pact’s quest to recover the Giant relics. Bill indicated the Council was concerned about the veracity of Albrecht’s information, given his betrayal of the Lord’s Alliance and his work with the giants and elemental cults to undermine the Sword Coast. According to Albrecht, the elemental princes’ appearance seemed to be foretold as part of the coming of Footfall, so it was important to take them out of the equation. Bill also advised Fuzz (the halfling rogue) that the Council were considering a Barony for him if the Footfall situation was resolved. Bill stated that Imix, the Prince of Elemental Fire, was spotted ravaging the Dessarin Valley and that a number of towns and villages were already destroyed. He appealed to the Pact to intercept the demigod at Triboar and then to take the fight to Yan-C-Bin, Elemental Prince of Air and Olhydra, Elemental Prince of Water.

The Pact teleported to Triboar, where they battled Imix to a standstill. The party used their potions of fire resistance to reduce the efficacy of Imix’s fire attacks and heat exhaustion, with Aelfwyn (the elvish wizard) using an illusory dragon to blast the prince, Grigor (the human fighter) and Fuzz attacking from greater invisibility cast by Verendus, and Kathra (the aasimar paladin) delivering the finishing blow. Triboar’s refugees returned and hailed the heroes of the Sword Coast!

The Pact teleported south to ensure the fire portal was closed – they found a melted tunnel leading to the Weeping Colossus deep below and the portal gone.

The party walked 10 miles to Feathergale Spire, which remained empty from when they cleared out the cultists and assaulted the Cloud Castle tethered nearby (it was gone). They took a long rest, then headed down into the depths to the Howling Caves, where they discovered a dead drow and learned Aelfwyn was an elf (!). Deeper into the caves they delved…

Part 62: Yan-C-Bin Has a Chat & Olhydra Has a Tantrum

The Pact wandered through the Howling Caves until they arrived at the portal to the Elemental Plane of Air. Yan-C-Bin, the Evil Prince of Air, stepped out and in a strange turnaround of events, told the Pact he didn’t want to fight them. He had been chatting with the other defeated elemental princes and decided it wasn’t worth it, saying: “how about I go back through the portal and tell Footfall we just fought and you beat me?” After some discussion (including Kathra and Fuzz attempting to persuade him to join their crusade against Footfall, to which Yan-C-Bin politely declined), a huge six-fingered fist extended through the portal, wrapped around the Prince of Air and dragged him back within. The Pact observed three great eyes as the portal closed. The cavern collapsed and Aelfwyn teleported the party back to Triboar.

In Triboar, the locals were rebuilding after the destruction caused by Imix. The Pact didn’t linger long, deciding to teleport to Rivergard keep, 200 miles away. Unfortunately, Aelfwyn’s spell went astray and they ended up about 30 miles from Triboar, in the Dessarin Hills. Verendus showed everyone how it was done, teleporting the Pact to the keep without a problem (Aelfwyn was suitably miffed). Down into the earth they delved, eventually reaching the caverns of the Plunging Waters. Resting for the night, the Pact moved into the caves via a small punt, over several waterfalls (courtesy of Verendus’s telekinesis) and got directions from a Storm Giant before finally reaching the water portal in a vast cavern.

The Pact set themselves up to prepare for the coming of Olhydra, but nothing happened for almost an hour. Realizing something was wrong, they went back to the Storm Giant, which then changed into the evil prince of elemental water and attacked! Olhydra caused the party some problems, changing its body to acid and moving through each of them in quick succession, then producing a blinding and freezing fog around itself. Aelfwyn used a number of high level spells, with his concentration failing each time he was hit. Grigor fired off light bolts blindly into the fog – a somewhat hit and miss affair. Fuzz was ravaged by acid and knocked unconscious, before Kathra and Verendus delivered the final blows to take out the elemental prince.

Teleporting to the airship (which was hovering over the Eye of the Allfather temple in the northern mountains) and finding the hobgoblin crew sleeping on the job again, the Pact rested another night and then were dropped off at the temple.

Into the Eye of the Allfather, where the Pact met a number of barbarians (and their white dragon) attempting to loot the place. Kathra opened the giant entry doors and they faced twelve Air, Fire, Water and Earth elementals. To cut a long story short: easy money (or xp, in this case).

Part 63: The Eye of the Allfather

Meanwhile, at the Eye of the Allfather temple…

The Pact and their new barbarian allies explored the main temple, discovering a giant statue of the Allfather of the Giants, surrounded by 6 statues representing each of the giant races, and a mist-shrouded portal on the far wall. Venturing north, they found ancient guest rooms and set off a rather uneventful rolling sphere trap. Into a side tunnel and fighting ice spiders, until they reached a cave where Grigor was swamped by the creatures. Verendus fireballed the spiders, bringing down the roof and trapping the party. Verendus reversed gravity to get rid of the rubble, while Aelfwyn used disintegrate to escape (he was quite upset at Verendus, though, having been brought close to death).

To the south room, where the Pact fought and defeated 3 Remorhazs, then found a giant metal axe belonging to one of the statues. The party were now 18th level! Working out the sequence of runes on the portal and touching the various massive weapons each statue held to each rune using telekinesis opened the portal to the Eye of Annam, an ancient giant oracle. Fuzz found a dead giant clutching the opal of the ild rune and wearing a magic breastplate. The Pact asked the oracle 6 questions, which were vaguely answered, except for the one about the purpose of the giant relics in the battle against Footfall – once brought together they would assemble into a weapon that could be used against him.

Exiting the Eye of Annam, a strange dark mist had killed the barbarians and their white dragon. Verendus used telekinesis to drag the dragon to the door, where Kathra revivified it. Thorax the dragon was grateful, and agreed to accompany the party for a share of treasure. Aelfwyn held back the dark mist with sickening radiance. Upstairs, Fuzz discovered the shard of the ise rune in a frozen sack, along with several dwarf heads. The Pact teleported to their airship, where they long rested for the night.    

As the airship headed for the Sea of Moving Ice (a trip of 42.5 hours), the Pact teleported to Iymrith’s lair, fought a Purple Worm and dropped down onto a sand mound in the lair below… 

20 days until Footfall…

Next Week: Imryth’s Lair – Take 2!

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