Introduction

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ DnD 5e campaign I ran in 2017-18, the ‘Tomb of Annihilation’ campaign I ran in 2018-19, the ‘Out of the Abyss’, a campaign I ran in 2020, the ‘Phandelver’s Pact’ campaign I ran from 2020-21, the ‘Shadows over Saltmarsh’ campaign from 2021-22, and my current Pathfinder 2e campaign, ‘Vaults of Otari‘. CoS was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that), which is why I can use them for this column. Now, I post summaries to Roll20 after each session.

Here are the session summaries from my first Dragonbane campaign which I started running in 2024 after buying the Dragonbane Starter Set. It’s adventures from that set, plus some homebrewed content. We’re still playing; this summary is from early on in the campaign.

I apologize in advance for the writing in these summaries – they’re a bit raw, and not fancy at all (I don’t have time for fancy writing when typing them up late at night after each game lol). Some will be more detailed than others. The campaign continues!

Steve 🙂

Session 4 – The Riddermound, The Shops & Dead Eyes

Having just rested, the party heard metal scraping and booted footfalls on stone approaching from the east. Suddenly, the huge, armored skeleton with the horned helm burst into the room. The party was quick to react, but the Barrow Wight was quicker. It grabbed Krisanna the bold halfling rogue, the chill of death seeping deep into her bones. She squirmed out of the wight’s vice-like grip and hid shaking under the table.

Makander the Mallard knight rushed forward, lighting his torch and grinding it into the monster’s belly. It screamed in pain, but the flame went out. Bastonn the wolfkin warrior lit his torch but was slammed by the wight’s morning star before he could use it, knocking him off his feet and unconscious. He managed to rally himself, but was once again pounded into the ground by the wight’s powerful attacks. Volcarian the wolfkin wizard blasted the wight with his last fireballs. His magic spent, the wizard was reduced to rushing over to the prostrate forms of various party members and binding their wounds (he turned out to be highly successful in his new role as battle medic). At one point, the wight swept his morning star across three of the party at once – Baston and Makander were knocked unconsious and Kris was hurled across the room into a wall. Only Volcarian was left. He managed to slide to Makander’s side, heal the mallard’s wounds and rush to safety. Makander arose, picked up his still burning torch and with a mighty thrust drove the firebrand into the wight’s belly. It screamed as its skeletal form succumbed to the flames, collapsing in a smoldering heap.

With the wight defeated, Makander recovered a mastercrafted light Warhammer (with the ability to detect demons) and some exceptional chain mail from the mummified corpse they’d found earlier. Krisanna entered the north chamber, which held the wight’s open sarcophagus. A gilded crown lay within, but as the halfling reached in she set off a trap. Knives sprung out from the sides of the coffin, but while Volcarian was nicked, Kris avoided them easily.

The corpse of the wight appeared to be slowly pulling itself back together. Bones slowly crawled across the floor, relinking with sinew and stringy muscle tissue, the faded light in the cracked skull’s eye sockets slowly growing in intensity.

The party decided it was time to leave, and headed back to the antechamber to find their rope was missing. The 5-meter-tall ceiling and the shaft in its center were now so far away. Apparently Grub the goblin had pulled up the rope after climbing out. Krisanna managed to locate a branch, with which Makander started a small campfire. Volcarian’s sleeting fur made an effective blanket to capture smoke. They had been informed by the knight Tylos that they should smoke signal him if they found any cultists, and now they were hoping he’d come and save them.

And come he did! As he stared down from above upon the beaten and weary foursome, he asked where the cultists were. He tossed down the rope and they climbed out. As he rode away, they heard him say: “Keep looking for cultists and try not to get stuck in any more holes…”

The party found a campsite outside the small barrow-mound valley. Volcarian hunted, killing a squirrel and cooking it. Unfortunately, it was not ideal and his stomach and bowel started churning the next day. Bastonn couldn’t find a good place to sleep and also had a very uncomfortable night.

The next day Volcarian acted as pathfinder as they made their way back to Outskirt village. Arriving by nightfall, they headed to the Three Stags inn where Leannara welcomed them back. She asked quietly whether they had located more portions of the statuette, then served them stew for dinner. Exhausted and glad to be back in warm beds, the party members drifted into sleep. Archmaster Aodhan was where they had left him, still snoring.

The next morning, Krissana got up early to visit Master Ulvar’s, where she exchanged the gold ring she’d swiped from a coffin for a new backpack. When the rest of the party awoke, Volcarian spent much of the time in the toilet, feeling most ill. Despite this, he managed to ask Vagnihild whether there were any magicians in the village, hoping he might learn some new spells. She directed him to Dranath, a hermit who lived a spartan lifestyle on the village’s tallest hill. Volcarian returned to the toilet while the rest of the party visited Master Ulvar’s, purchasing numerous goods with their new wealth. Bastonn, now the proud owner of gilded chainmail, sold his studded leather armor at the smithy, while Kris, now in possession of very fancy lockpicks, sold her old ones.

Volcarian and Kris made their way up the hill to visit Dranath. Unfortunately, the shriveled, hairless wizard was an animist and his spells were incompatible with Volcarian’s elementalism. Dranath noticed Volcarian’s ailment, and promised to cure him for the princely sum of 4 GP. Making up a quick healing broth, the animist managed to cure the ailing wizard of his ills, for which Volcarian was immensely grateful.

That evening the party reassembled to discuss what to do next. They finally settled on investigating Dead Eyes Cave, and to help out blind Hildi, whose farm had been attacked by a monster. Volcarian bedded down outside the inn overnight, but it rained and he got little sleep.

The next morning the party set off across country, travelling all day to get to Hildi’s farm in the evening. When they arrived, they noticed several graves outside. Hildi was indeed blind (Kris tested her, just to be sure). Hildi described what she had heard and smelled during the attack. “People and animals screamed as a horrible stench filled the air. I tried to escape but got stopped by the beast and was sure I was going to die, but it left me and the chicken coop alone. I heard it slither off in the direction of the mountain and I think it came from the cave at the top. My niece Gunhill, who was out hunting at the time of the attack, has now gone to the cave to kill the beast. She’s quite headstrong and may get herself into trouble – I beg you to find her.” After resting the night in Hildi’s spare beds, the party made their way up Mount Oculus, arriving at the cave. Kris crept inside, finding the dead body of a cultists with its eyes torn out…

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