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 13 – Shopping + The Temple of the Purple Flame

The party spent much of the day buying and selling items, discussing how to hide the two pieces of statue they’d recovered and who would check and carry the party’s money. While Taliah the cleric slept at the Three Stags Inn, the party traipsed all over town.

Aodhan the archmaster successfully bought some bushels of wheat from farmer Oda and his son Medina. Krisanna the bold halfling paid Master Ulvar the supplier a few coppers to look after the party’s two barrels for the day, and stuffed the wheat inside.

Kris managed to offend Omar the jeweller, who had his orc bodyguard throw her out. Omar recognized Bastonn the mysterious wolfkin (now rather full of himself after learning the village held him in high regard after talking the troll down), and agreed to negotiate with him ONLY, as the party sought to sell treasures found during their adventures.

Kris and Bastonn negotiated with Brogert at the stable for a mule, ending up with a beautiful black donkey called “Windblown”. They realized afterwards why he was called so – because of his penchant for incredibly foul-smelling farts.

Bastonn got his short bow fixed by Bill the female bowyer, and picked up his fine suit of clothes from Squig the halfling tailer. 

All the while, Aodhan heard the mysterious voice in his head, telling him to push north to Draaken’s Peak. Every once in a while, he would inform the others that they needed to go north soon…

The party settled down for the night, but on her watch, Kris noticed some seemingly familiar-looking men arguing in the square outside and pointing at the Inn. They left without her recognizing them…

The next day Kris negotiated with Master Ulvar to store the barrels (with the statue parts hidden inside under wheat) in his storeroom, which he agreed to do for a month. Bastonn had learned that oats were a potential cure for Windblown’s wind, and so Kris purchased a big bag (a week’s supply) from Master Ulvar.

Finally, the party headed out on the road north, leading Windblown the donkey with Taliah draped unconscious over his back. The trip was rather uneventful, and after a day’s travel Volcarian the embercaller wolfkin and Kris both unsuccessfully hunted for dinner. The party settled for dried jerky instead.

The next day the party set off for the final leg of the journey to the Temple of the Purple Flame, which they’d heard about on their travels. The Magna Woods were indeed somewhat diseased looking, lending credence to the rumor. As they approached the temple, they noted it was covered in purple murals and thorny brambles.

Kris spotted an open courtyard to the left through the front door and beyond the vestibule. She and Aodhan entered an overgrown garden, in which Aodhan spotted some large blueberries (he left them for later after a warning from the halfling). Kris smelled tobacco smoke coming from a walled off section of the garden to the west. Aodhan called out, and an elderly gentleman called Hafarmal answered, explaining he was here growing tobacco and that he had encountered some cultists in the temple a few days ago. Unfortunately, he would not invite Aodhan into his garden.

The party pressed on to the altar room. Volcarian and Aodhan noted the green altar, covered in reliefs of demons and dragon under a violet sun. The sun carving was on each of the altar’s sides. Upon pressing each sun simultaneously, a panel opened and a frightening bone mask arose. Volcarian took the protector mask, but realized once it was on it was difficult to remove…

The party entered the next chamber, and a giant spider dropped down from the ceiling to attack Kris. Volcarian and Aodhan killed it with fire, while Bastonn’s arrows went astray (nobody misses like Bastonn). A spiral stair led below…

Session 14 –Temple, Portal, Taliah, Troll

Theoline Barrelmaker, elderly halfling adventurer from the village of Outskirt, had been tracking the party for several days, ever since they left the village. He had heard about their strange deeds and his natural fear of magic was only inflamed by the news that two spell casters travelled with the group. Theoline arrived at the Temple of the Purple Flame, entered and found a mule with an unconscious woman draped over its back. He checked to make sure she was still alive, realized she was in a coma, and crept into the garden, attempting to pick up the party’s trail. Deeper into the temple he dove, past a recently deceased giant spider to a spiral stairwell. He could hear faint voices from below…

Krisanna the bold halfling, crept into the room at the end of the stairs. There she found two frightened men, huddling in the corner. They asked her who she was, and she pretended she was a servant of Sathmog. The cultists, named L’Vis and Jonn’e, explained in hushed tones that a monster lurked in the next chamber. They nervously inferred they had come here as a group but were the only ones left. Krisanna introduced the rest of the party, but Archmaster Aodhan the wizard failed to convince them of his cultiness when he wouldn’t (couldn’t) reveal his cult tattoo.

At that point Theoline entered the chamber. Hearing that the party were cultists, all his worst fears were realized. He intended to defend Outskirt from these demon worshipers!

Kris krept into the next chamber, immediately recognizing the huge manticore that padded around the room. Unfortunately, it saw her and followed her back, bursting through the doorway and sending people packing in all directions – Kris and Aodhan fled into a treasure room to the south. Both Volcarian and Aodhan were somewhat drained after the last battle, so it was up to Bastonn the wolfkin hunter and newcomer Theoline to take the great beast down.

During the fight, the two cultists were paralyzed by the Manticore’s tail spikes, so Theodine took the opportunity to dispatch them both by removing their heads. The rest of the party quickly persuaded the elderly halfling they were definitely not cultists, with Aodhan going so far as to flash nakedly to prove he didn’t have a Sathmog tattoo.

Meanwhile, Krisanna and Aodhan discovered some treasures – of particular note was a magical grimoire of spells that Aodhan planned to keep to himself (until Krisanna outed him).

The party, along with new recruit Theoline, headed further into the depths of the temple. Kris found a room with animated skeletal remains and a corpse, quickly closing the door.

Kris also discovered a room with a strange altar of glowing purple flames and two ivory-fleshed guards illumined in a purple aura, protecting what appeared to be a portal to another world. She raised the portcullis, sneaked into the room, then left when confronted verbally by the guards.

The party rushed in together, charging into the fray. Fireballs and daggers flew. Theoline hacked with his hand axe. Bastonn stabbed with his spear and was knocked unconscious twice (brought back by Theoline the first time and rallying himself the second).

Eventually the guards were dispatched – a keen backstab by Kris and a head crushing hit by Aodhan’s staff. Unfortunately, the guards arose again to fight on. Kris attempted to put out the altar’s purple flames with water, and Bastonn attempted to break the flames’ brazier with his spear, but they burned on. Finally, Volcarian, draining power from his own body with blood trailing from his eyes and ears, managed to dispel the flames and collapse the guards into piles of ash.

With the party in dire need of a rest, they moved to the treasure room and bedded down for the night. Aodhan and Volcarian learned some new spells from their grimoires, while the others rested and healed.

The next morning everyone ate rations for breakfast. It was only then that Kris realized that Windblown the donkey and Taliah the cleric had been left upstairs! She rushed up the spiral staircase to find that the mule and the cleric were gone, an ominous blood smear leading to the edge of the forest. Theoline was able to track the blood trail until they all came to a large cave in the side of a hill. They could hear crunching, tearing and munching sounds within. Kris called out and Bog the troll emerged with a black donkey haunch and a human thighbone in his mouth. Kris inquired about the lost animal and party member, but the news was not positive.

After some discussion, the party realized they had lost both (with some more concerned about the mule and the money lost on their investment). Volcarian’s eye’s flamed, but he was hesitant to take his revenge. Bastonn claimed the moral high ground as he never wanted a mule in the first place. Despondent, the party headed back to the temple to discuss what to do about the portal. Kris entered the altar room via the double doors and fell through a trapdoor into the skeleton pit below…

For more Laidback DM, click here.