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 🙂

Session 64: Iymrith!

The Pact fought Iymrith in her lair! The dragon’s eyes were glowing a mysterious green and she was strangely silent throughout the battle. Kathra, the aasimar paladin, suspected perhaps she was either possessed by Footfall or she was drawing on his power somehow.

Eventually the party wore Iymrith down and she escaped via a side passage. The Pact fought 2 Purple Worms sent by the dragon to cover her escape, but by the time they exited to the surface, the dragon was gone.

Taking a short rest after the harrowing battle, the party was now prepared to search the lair…

Session 65: The Return of Fu’at Mu’an

After a short rest the Pact explored Iymrith’s lair. Fuzz, the halfling rogue, found a secret chamber behind a pile of sand; inside, an illusory dragon horde turned out to be a pile of rocks. Fu’at Mu’an made a guest appearance, proving much easier to defeat than last time – Fuzz failed to trap the herald in the Iron Flask, but Grigor, the human fighter, ended up nailing the creature with six crossbow shots in a row. Fu’at Mu’an disappeared in a column of solid black mist that broke through the ceiling and swept up into the clouds above.

Aelfwyn, the elvish wizard/fighter, searched the rock pile and found the Apocalyptica. Scanning it for relevant information, he discovered that the herald was created as a conduit to allow Footfall to pierce the membranes of the multiverse and enter Faerun. Doh!

Iymrith appeared, telling the party she was now free of Fu’at Mu’an’s control, that she respected them because of their win over her and that she would join their alliance against Footfall.

The Pact teleported back to the airship the next day. The skies everywhere were red – not a good sign. Grigor and Kathra hunted for a day to get meat for the White Dragon on board. Aelfwyn contacted Iarno about the new Apocalyptica, but Iarno didn’t believe his copy was wrong. Aelfwyn contacted his god via Legend Lore, confirming the Apocalyptica he held was indeed the correct version.

The Pact were contacted by Bill of the Lord’s Alliance, advising the Tarrasque had awoken and was ravaging the city of Waterdeep – caused by Footfall? The Pact informed their contact that they were prioritizing the giant relics, as these were indicated by the Apocalytica as the only way to defeat Fu’at Fu’al.

At the Svardborg Glacier, the Pact defeated a bunch of Frost Giants and Yeti. Aelfwyn spotted the shape of a rapidly approaching ship in the distance. While waiting, the Pact investigated a huge lodge, making their way upstairs and bursting in on some Frost Giants guarding dragon eggs…

Session 66: The Svardborg Glacier

The Pact defeated the two Frost Giants and Winter Wolves easily. Verendus, the tiefling sorcerer, placed the 6 x white dragon eggs into a demiplane so he could keep them safe and eventually raise the dragons as his own little army. Kathra used speak with animals to persuade the Frost Giant Jarl’s giant owl to take a message to the approaching longship. Meanwhile, the ship circled around the iceberg and docked, with Frost Giants spreading out to take the Pact from all sides.

Aelfwyn and Verendus took to the skies and caused spell carnage. The last three Frost Giants near the ship surrendered after a mass suggestion made the others run away. Aelfwyn set about freeing Cryovain, the white dragon held captive on the ship’s deck, who asked about her eggs. “Last I saw them, they were fine,” said Aelfwyn, telling the truth.

Meanwhile, Grigor, Fuzz and Kathra faced off against several Frost Giants in one of the lodges, with more giants coming up from behind…

Next: The Tarrasque!

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