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 5 – Dead Eyes Cave & The Road’s End Inn

The party gathered at the entrance to the cave while Krisanna the bold, halfling rogue, investigated further. Makander of Halfbay (Mallard knight), lost his temper while waiting and stormed down the hill back to Hildi’s place. Luckily, Archmaster Aodhan the wizard wandered up and took his place. Kris noticed numerous holes in the cavern’s walls. Glancing in, she realized the 2-3 ft. wide holes were tunnels that must honeycomb the mountain. Aodhan suspected a serpentine creature of some kind might use them to move around.

Volcarian the wolfkin wizard entered, sidling up to Kris as she listened at a wider tunnel entrance. They both heard the distinct sound of chickens clucking in the distance. Volcarian thought he may have heard a whispered voice as well. As Bastonn the wolfkin hunter cautiously entered, Kris sneaked up the tunnel towards a firelight in the distance, exiting into a cave with a cage with two chickens and a campfire. Four men in black robes and blindfolds stood to the side, their scimitars glinting wickedly. They removed their headbands and confronted the halfling. The rest of the party rushed in and the fight was on! Aodhan and Volcarian fireballed, Bastonn lost his spear and had to resort to his shortsword. Eventually the men in black were dispatched. Kris searched their bodies and discovered the mark of Sathmog – they were demon-worshipping cultists, with cult tattoos on their back, neck, and two forearms, respectively.

Moving further into the caves, the party encountered a pit filled with vipers – they would have to cross it to move forward. Kris rushed ahead, fell, but was saved by Aodhan’s pillar spell. Bastonn used his grappling hook and rope to help guide the others around the narrow ledge surrounding the pit, but Aodhan fell in. Vipers swarmed over him. Kris swung down on the rope, suspended via her legs, tied the rope around Aodhan’s waist and Bastonn and Volcarian hauled them all to safety. Poor old Aodhan suffered more bites on the way up.

In a boulder-filled cavern beyond the pit, Kris encountered Gunhill, blindfolded and hiding. Gunhill explained she had come here to kill the creature – a beast with a rooster’s head and a serpentine body, a creature that could kill people with a glance! Aodhan suspected it was a basilisk. Gunhill explained she had seen the cultists using a chicken to scare the creature away, so Kris climbed back over the pit and recovered a chicken. Unfortunately, when she threw the poor bird to Bastonn it fell into the pit and was bitten to death by vipers. Returning to the cage, she pulled out another and this time made sure the wolfkin caught it. Armed with their defensive chicken, the party located a small passage through a wall of rocks into the northern chamber – the basilisk’s lair.

Kris blindfolded herself and crawled through. She felt and smelled the hot breath and incredible stench of the basilisk as she slid out of the narrow tunnel. Bastonn followed, staring away from the beast and attempting to attack its head. He stabbed it several times as Volcarian and Aodhan peppered it with fireballs. Gunhill waved the chicken around, and the basilisk did seem scared, but it continued to fight. Kris tried to mount the creature so she could stab its head, but was tossed aside. At one point the basilisk exhaled a cloud of poisonous gas – poor Volcarian choked and gagged on his own blood. Finally, the beast was killed. Volcarian rushed forward to consume some of its bile – this appeared to act like an antidote to the poison, and before long he was resting easily with the others as they bound their wounds. Kris managed to pocket an expensive brooch she found amongst the bones and refuse in the corner; Aodhan saw her do so, but kept quiet.

Gunhill thanked the party profusely, invited them back to Hildi’s farm for a celebratory dinner, and the party headed back. At Hildi’s house, the blind woman was reunited with her missing niece. Volcarian killed and cooked the heroic chicken (which Bastonn gorged himself on). They rested overnight, content in the knowledge they had stopped a monstrous scourge. Volcarian decided to camp outside, setting up his new tent and resting comfortably. The next morning, Hildi mentioned they might want to visit the Road’s End Inn – apparently several guests (including Antelia, a local shepherd) had gone missing, and perhaps the heroes might be able to help.

As the party marched up the broken emperor road to the north, passing mist-shrouded plains and forests, they came upon the Haunted Marshes, a vast bog stretching west to the mountains. In the distance, a single stone tower stood high above the encompassing fog. Aodahn remembered something about a place called the Tower of Sighs, a building from the Dragon Emperor’s time that had been overrun by orcs.

As the party reached the Road’s End Inn, they noticed it was actually at the end of the main road leading from Outskirt village. Inside, groups of people were drinking and chatting. Kris went to the bar and spoke with the proprietor Helemi, a boisterous halfling. At least she was until Kris started asking about missing persons, at which point she avoided the question and the rogue. As Aodhan surveyed the room, the walls and ceiling wavered and everything went black. The entire party passed out.

They awoke in a narrow dormitory, with a dwarf asleep in a rocking chair at the end. Outside the window, gale-force winds buffeted crooked trees and a fiery volcano dominated the landscape. Bastonn interrogated the dwarf, who appeared to be paralyzed. The dwarf called himself Stig Stonehilt, and stated they were trapped in an illusion created by “old hag stare”. Aodhan recognised him from the tavern they had entered. Kris was already heading out the north door and down the stairs to a storeroom. The rest of the party followed, while Kris discovered a side tunnel and once again headed off with little regard for her own safety.

Aodhan discovered a floor trap in the room to the north of the storeroom, but luckily Kris’s tunnel bypassed it. She located a nursery with a cradle and a picture on the wall. The rest of the party joined her. The picture featured a man and woman (who Aodhan recognized as a sad looking couple from the tavern) and a small boy. Kris pulled an odd porcelain doll from the cradle – it looked just like the child…

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