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 🙂

Spoiler Alert: This summary contains spoilers for the adventure Kisak’s Vault, available on DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/513705/draakenslund-adventures-2-kisak-s-vault

Session 16 – The Vault of Kisak     

Archmaster Aodhan (a wizard) rushed forward, grabbing some bandages from his belt pouch and staunching Krisanna the halfling’s wounds. She arose as arrows filled the air around the pair, and both leapt for a nearby wall for cover. Aodhan shielded Kris from arrows, thinking the goblinoids wouldn’t attack him, however one hobgoblin must not have gotten the message. Their arrow flew straight and true, knocking Aodhan off his feet. The hobgoblin was shocked – he ran down, stood over the archmaster and applied pressure to stop the blood flowing from the wizard’s neck.

Bastonn (wolfkin hunter) rushed into the room, spearing the hobgoblin and attempting to climb the wall to the next higher platform. Alas, he slipped and fell, landing on his back. A nearby goblin slashed his chest with a scimitar and the wolfkin passed out.

Theoline, an old halfling barrelmaker, made his way into the temple. He had been chasing down the party for several days and was tired. Hearing the battle, he rushed in to assist, throwing his handaxe into the fray.

Volcarian the wolfkin embercaller abruptly awoke, his back somewhat painful from being carried around for several days. He fired several fire blasts, taking out a few hobgoblins on the upper platform levels of the temple. Kris used a hit and run strategy to eliminate a goblin sniping from the platform level above. Eventually all the goblins and hobgoblins were killed.

Theoline spotted some carvings on the walls, images of dragons battling demons. Hidden amongst the carvings were text engravings, which the halfling translated: “Kisak is defeated, but her will lives on through the Draakenstongue” and “The fountain reveals the way”.

Aodhan and Volcarian discovered the fountain on the topmost platform of the staggered step pyramid. The cracked stone bowl contained murky, black water, and the statue that previously filled the bowl were sculpted draaken and demon faces, placed back-to-back. Their mouths were open, perhaps the source of the water at one point.

After a short rest, the party investigated the fountain. Theoline and Kris discovered the statue’s mouths had throats, and that they weren’t blocked. They couldn’t determine what to do with the fountain, though.

Meanwhile, Aodhan elected to explore the rest of the temple himself, his inner voice pushing him to continue west. He came across a giant, winged statue, with features both draaken and demonic. The statue clutched a fist-sized silver egg and silver heart. Kris climbed up to retrieve the two objects but couldn’t free them from the statue’s stony grip.

Aodhan felt compelled to touch the statue, and as he did electricity leapt across its surface. The colossus animated and stared down at the wizard, who attempted to communicate with it. Ignoring him, it strode to the south wall and smashed its way through. The party followed, dumbfounded.

The statue entered a long chamber beyond the wall. A spherical vault with iron doors sat at one end. The statue strode up to it, dropped the silver items and tore the iron doors open. A tall demon with a dragon-like face strode forth, covered in ice and disoriented. “I am Kisak,” she said. “And I am finally free!” The party stood dumbstruck, while Kris grabbed the egg and the heart. As she did so, the egg morphed into a silver dagger and the silver heart started beating. The plucky rogue realized she could heal everyone within a 6-meter radius, and so she did.

Something about the Draakenheart started to affect Aodhan. He writhed in pain as his eyes changed back to human, and the scales left his body. “You have the Draakenheart,” screamed the demon. “You have the weapons of my captors! No matter, the wizard was the source of my essence from the Draakentongue. I required him to touch the statue and release the stored up psychic energies of a 1000 years of captivity to animate the statue and allow it to free me from the vault I was trapped in, but now his usefulness is at an end.” As the demon recovered from her time in the freezer, the ice on her body melted and steamed.

The party attacked! Theoline slammed his battleaxe into the demon’s knee. Bastonn stabbed her in the ribs with his spear. Kris stuck the silver dagger into her back. The demon responded by smashing Theoline into a wall and knocking him out, slashing those around her with her claws and finally, blasting Bastonn and Kris with her fire breath. Volcarian fired flame blasts at the demon, but they were useless. The party was broken – all hope seemed lost.

Aodhan had finally recovered from his transformation back into the wizard he previously was. Seeing the demon was injured, he summoned all his willpower and cast a pillar under Kisak that lifted her six meters into the air. The demon slipped off and fell, crashing headfirst to the floor, her skull crushed. As Kisak expired, her chest cracked open to reveal a large diamond, which Aodhan grabbed as the demon’s body turned to dust.

The party dragged themselves back to the hobgoblin’s camp on one of the step pyramid’s lower platforms and rested for the night. During Aodhan’s watch he read the carvings on the walls and realized that Kisak had been experimenting with crossbreeding dragons with demons to create a new mutant species. Unfortunately, this had brought her to the attention of the archdraaken and archdemon, and for the first time in history the two had worked together to trap Kisak in a vault from which there was no escape. Just in case, they left the two silver items for others to use against her. Aodhan guessed the Draakentongue had been prepared by Kisak as a failsafe, just in case anything should happen to her. He felt like a fool – he had been used to free the demon, all the while assuming he would gain great power.

The party travelled back to Outskirt, climbing down the mountain, hiking through the woods, past the Temple of the Purple Flame and finally back onto the road. Along the way they ran into Tylos, the knight who had helped them escape the Riddermound. He provided some rations to the hungry party and advised they head to Fort Malus to help out his knightly order. Then off he rode. Bastonn and Volcarian each killed a boar, cooked them and the party feasted in celebration with the gates of outskirt not too far away…

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