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 includes adventures from that set, plus homebrewed content. We recently finished the campaign, after 38 sessions!

I apologize in advance for the writing in these summaries – they’re a bit raw, and not fancy at all (I didn’t have time for fancy writing when typing them up late at night after each game lol). Some will be more detailed than others.

Steve 🙂

Session 24 – The Cellar, the Statue & Fort Malus

Harga stopped laughing maniacally and grinned embarrassedly. “Sorry,” she said. Got a little carried away.” The little troll offered the party a new mission: use the iron key to enter the cellar and recover the treasure rumored to be below. After some negotiation, the party agreed. They took the iron key and headed down to the first floor, where the stone trapdoor awaited.

Zog lifted the door easily, revealing a narrow spiral staircase leading down into the darkness. “Why do the stairs always have to be so small,” grumbled the ogre. Down they traipsed, Kalgrim the artisan dwarf in the lead. When they reached the bottom, Kalgrim found a black iron door with a dragon’s head lock. He placed the key in the lock and turned it. A fireball swept out and up the stairwell, immolating everyone. Then the door opened. 

As the befuddled party stepped into the room, they activated pressure plates in the walls. The skeletal warriors standing in alcoves around the room slowly creaked to life, stepping forth and brandishing swords and shields. Piscapo the wolfkin bard sang a battle song to aid everyone’s attacks, then stepped back outside. Zog the mentalist ogre pounded a skeleton with his power fist. Bastonn the wolfkin hunter speared another. Kalgrim and Zog were knocked unconscious, but Aodhan managed to heal them both with some handy bandage work, as well as unleashing fire blasts at the monsters. Kalgrim and Zog went down again before the last skeletal warrior fell. Zog lost a toe and Kalgrim lost an eye during the battle.

A wooden case sat atop a stone pedestal at the center of the chamber. Inside were two octagonal gemstones and the third part of Eledain’s statuette. The door slammed shut, locking the party in, but it didn’t take long for Aodhan to work out that the gemstones needed to be placed in slots on the back of the door to open it.

The party made their weary way upstairs with the statue. Harga confronted them about the treasure, but they managed to persuade her there was no way to recover the gems. She asked them to leave and they did.

That night, while the party rested in their tent, Zog witnessed the troll flying away from the top of her tower in the moonlight. He also briefly witnessed the ghost of Kris, gesturing for the party to head north.

The next day the party travelled to Fort Malus. Outside they met a furtive fellow, Ossiar, who claimed his friend had been kidnapped by the knights. Zog took the man’s money as payment for finding his comrade. The party approached the walls and were allowed in by the guards. A dragon knight called Niklion (soon to be joined by another called Isadelia), asked the party their business and then to leave. Bastonn crept up to a burnt-out bonfire and spotted a skull with an injury similar to that described by the man they had encountered. What followed was a discussion (argument?) about who was a Sathmog cultist and who wasn’t (the knights claimed they had burned one at the stake).

 Zog left the castle to find Ossiar, and when the ogre asked him to show his wrists, he ran away. Zog returned and although he could not confirm that Ossiar was a cultist, he was more suspicious now.

Meanwhile, Aodhan sampled one of the golden apples from the withered tree in the courtyard. It was very refreshing (aside from the fact he almost choked on it). Finally, the party left. Except for Piscapo.

The wolfkin bard decided to tease Niklion with a lick across his face. The knight had finally reached his limit and attacked Piscapo with his sword, narrowly missing. Bastonn came to Piscapo’s defence and the battle was on…  

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