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 10 – The Lake Has Eyes & The Perilous Pit

Cantus Boetii, the mallard professor investigating the now non-existent time barrier, farewelled the party and headed back to Outskirt. The group spent more time at the stream washing the remnants of dragon poo off their clothes. They settled down for a night of rest, setting up the tent. Krisanna explained to the party what had happened in the village and how she had made a deal with the demon Ix for them to escape.

 Archmaster Aodhan the mage eagerly returned to reading his Draakentongue book. The next morning his eyes were itchy and watering. He rushed down to the stream where he saw his eyes had changed – they now had yellow irises and elongated pupils, like a snake’s. He screamed out in suprise. Bastonn the wolfkin hunter, who was cleaning and perfuming his clothes downstream, rushed over to investigate, as did Volcarian the wolfkin wizard. Aodhan blamed the transformation on the demon Ix.

Krisanna the bold halfling suspected this wasn’t the reason, and took advantage of the situation to riffle through Aodhan’s belongings. She found the leather book with the dragon sigils inscribed on it, but before she could dispose of it an odd, whispering voice in Aodhan’s mind warned him someone was attempting to take the book. He rushed back to the tent, but Kris had hidden. Unfortunately, she’d left the book behind – Aodhan hugged it to his heart. Volcarian suspected the tome was cursed. Aodhan discovered his new eyes granted him an interesting ability – he could now see in the dark…

The party made their way along the lakeside on their way west, staying between the forest’s edge and the shore. About halfway through the day, Kris picked up the sound of chanting coming from the woods. She sneaked into the forest while the party hid behind a boulder (except for Volcarian, who believed he should keep an eye on Kris and half-buried himself in a ditch near the forest’s edge). Kris discovered a group of Sathmog demon worshippers, conducting a ritual to raise a demon. As she watched, a mini-tornado with a humanoid shape in the center arose between the seated ritualists. They continued to chant as the column in their midst grew, lightning sparking regularly from the twister.

Kris informed the party and they rushed off to stop the cultists from completing the ritual. The Sathmog ritualists were outclassed in every way – Kris dispatched two with her dagger while the others were stabbed and fireballed into non-existence. The shadowy humanoid within the mini-tornado faded away.

Kris searched the bodies for coin, but when she offered to split the meager returns with the party, Bastonn indicated he didn’t trust her. The two remained stand offish for the rest of the day. Aodhan commented on the strange sea serpent drawn on the lake on the map, and Kris entered the water to check (gaining a nasty rash in the process), but nothing else emerged.        

The party journeyed on, and by the end of the day came to a narrow section of shore where the forest almost met the lake’s edge. Volcarian, the pathfinder that day, found a covered pit trap, but as he revealed it, goblins burst from the trees and started peppering the party with arrows and slashing with their short swords. As this was happening, the water at the lake’s edge bubbled and rippled mysteriously…  

Fireballs, spears and daggers made short work of their attackers, but as Bastonn, Kris and Volcarian gathered by the shoreline to dispatch the final goblin, a massive, serpentine head broke the surface, roaring. Bastonn froze, Volcarian and Aodhan fled into the forest. Kris darted across to search a dead goblin’s pockets, finding a nice brooch. The serpent, previously content with eating burned goblin bodies, rushed forth and crushed Bastonn in its mouth. Luckily the brave wolfkin hunter rallied himself and escaped its toothy maw, fleeing with the others. Kris lost her favorite dagger attempting to distract the serpent. The lake beast eventually returned to feasting on burnt goblin flesh.

The party rejoined further into the woods, relieved they had narrowly escaped death. Bastonn was literally holey, but the last of Volcarian’s tea towel bandages insured he didn’t bleed to death. After setting up camp and eating some roasted griffin rations, the party drifted into a fitful sleep.

The next day the group decided to return to Outskirt to resupply, rather than continuing on to the Temple of the Purple Flame, which they had decided would be their next adventuring destination. While heading to a stone bridge over the river, they heard the cries of two children. Rushing into the forest, they found two kids kneeling at a hole, with the sound of a child’s crying from below. The children begged the party to help recover Timmy, who had fallen below and was now injured. Kris descended into the pit, but the rope broke and she fell flat on her back. After lighting a torch, she found several tunnels leading from the main chamber, with the smell of rotting meat emanating from a few of them. Kris determined Timmy’s cries were coming from the east tunnel, so she sidled down, locating a strange conch shell on the floor of a small, rocky chamber – it was emitting the sounds of a child sobbing. Kris heard the sound of scales sliding against stone, felt a creature’s hot breath on her neck, and slowly turned…     

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