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 7 – Many Rivers to Cross (& the Giant Thong)

The party ate breakfast at the Road’s End Inn. Archmaster Aodhan the wizard enquired about selling his sword but was turned down. The rumor about the Tower of Sighs indicated the marsh was full of buried treasure (or at least that’s how our heroes interpreted it) and Makander the mallard knight fixated on buying a shovel. He became rather upset when Innkeeper Helemi retorted: “But aren’t you all adventurers? I thought you’re supposed to be prepared?”

Having decided that they should travel to the Tower of Sighs in the Haunted Marshes, the party headed west along the riverbank to find a way across. After a day of travel, they reached a crumbling bridge across an 80m-wide stretch. Unfortunately, their plans to have Makander swim across with a rope fell apart when they realized they only had 20m of said rope. They made their way despondently back to the Road’s End Inn where they paid for a room and breakfast and retired for the night.

Aodhan read more of his book, the Draakentongue – once again, that bizarre link between dragons and demons. As he put out his reading candle and turned over to go to sleep, the fingers on his left hand were numb…

The next day the party spoke to Helemi, who explained the two narrowest channels of the river were right behind the Inn (the party had never thought to ask the innkeeper). Perhaps Hellemi felt sorry for their ineptness, but she offered to sell them 10m of rope (at an exorbitant markup). Kris the halfling rogue sneaked into the storeroom and stole a clean towel, which Volcarian Embercaller the wolfkin wizard converted into two bandages. She also slyly carved an insult on the Inn’s back door. Meanwhile, Helemi sold the party a rickety boat so they could cross the river a little more easily.

Or so they thought. It turned out the current, Makander’s poor rowing skills and the leaky boat itself made the job somewhat more difficult than originally imagined. Eventually, Kris managed to plug some of the hull’s holes with tree sap, and the entire party made it to the other side in shifts. They carried the small boat across land to the next river crossing and made their way over the other side. Aodhan and Volcarian camouflaged the boat, and the heroes set out for the forest north of the marsh, where they set up their tent and camped. Pickings at the forest’s edge were slim, but Aodhan and Makander managed to find enough fresh mushrooms and tubers to make a rather pleasant vegetarian stew for breakfast.

The heavens opened up, rain poured down and the ground quickly became a bog. The party marched on, making little headway. Eventually they settled beneath the trees to wait out the storm. Voices from a clearing beyond prompted the party’s interest. Two young men, their cloaks sopping wet, carrying a keg and supplies, cautiously approached the party. They introduced themselves as Rilke and Feder, belonging to a group of adventurers camped at the Tower of Sighs. They mentioned they were having some problems with a giant and that their boss Ursic might like some help for a share of treasure.

The thought of gold and silver piqued the party’s interest, and they followed the two lads through the twisting paths of the Haunted Marsh until they arrived at the Tower of Sighs. A horrible, whispering moaning emanated from the tower – the mystery of the source of its name was solved. There the party met Ursic One-Ear, a tall redheaded woman with – you guessed it – one ear. Negotiations over a share of treasure progressed with the final offer of 35% accepted after some deft diplomacy by Kris, Aodhan, Makander and the mathematical mind of Bastonn the fighter (“no one calculates like Bastonn”).

Kris sneaked up the hill to the tower to wake Glam-Glam the giant, who explained he had been tasked with opening the shaft to the tunnels below but had grown annoyed with the adventurers down the hill. He mentioned he was very hungry and would like a boar to eat, so Kris promised they would get him his food if he would clear the huge slab blocking the shaft.

Aodhan, Bastonn and Volcarian headed out into the marsh to find a boar. Eventually they spotted a dark shape moving in the trees across a patch of water – a giant water spider. The wizards peppered it with fireballs (Bastonn’s arrows went astray), and it slid across the water and attacked. It was blown apart by Volcarian’s fireball. Luckily (luckily?), another appeared and rammed the two wizards as Bastonn (somewhat uncharacteristically) ran away in fear. Soon the spider was killed, and the heroes carried it’s carcass back to the Tower of Sighs.

The party cooked the spider and took it to the tower as an offering for Glam-Glam. He consumed it with relish, but when Kris asked him to remove the slab he asked if they could find some new materials to make his ramshackle bed more comfortable. Aodhan had had enough, and angrily ranted at the giant, which made the huge fellow rather upset. He charged the party and bellowed, enraging the rest of the heroes who then attacked. Glam-Glam’s sweeping blow took out several of the party. Kris lost her dagger, stuck in the giant’s thong (no, not that kind of thong, the Aussie kind – a flip flop).

Eventually, as all seemed lost, Kris ran forward, hugged the giant’s leg and appealed to the giant’s better nature. Glam-Glam stopped fighting and apologized for his bad temper. With Makander, Volcarian and Aodhan all rallied but on death’s door and Bastonn and Kris severely wounded, Ursic and her band of “adventurers” finally entered the tower.

“Take them out,” she said, a malevolent glint in her eyes…         

For more Laidback DM, click here.