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 finished the campaign a few months ago, 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 🙂

Warning: Contains Spoilers for the Dragonbane Starter Set Campaign (as well as some of my own Db Adventures)

Session 36 – The Isle of Mists (Part 1)

The party gathered around Kalgrim Rockbreaker, the artisan dwarf, as he raised the Sword of Um-Durman into the air. Winds whipped and whistled, the world around them blurred, and they appeared on a rocky outcropping on a barren atoll. Red mist swirled around them, strange skull-like faces formed and faded, whispery claws scratched the surface of an unseen globe – a field projected by the sword. Archmaster Aodhan the wizard had previously identified these mists as corrosive, so the party was happy the sword formed a magical barrier. 

To the north of the island the party could see swarms of bats circling in the sky. In the middle of the island lay a depression with a pond of clear blue water inside. To the south stood a 20-meter-high marble column, with an encircling stone stairway. The top of the column extended 5 meters above the roiling red mists. They decided to head south to the column, dragging their overloaded red wagon with them.

Narrow stone stairs, some cracked and broken, wound upward around the white marble column. The party climbed, Kris-astra the halfling and Orla the elvish hunter lifting the red wagon between them with Kalgrim in the middle so that his sword’s aura could protect them from the mists. Zog the animist ogre had some difficulties sidling up the narrow staircase to the top of the tower, but eventually arrived.

At the top was a charred skeleton chained to a burnt area in the center of the roof. Aodhan noticed a mysterious medallion around the skeleton’s neck, grabbed it and placed it around his own neck. As he did, a shimmering ghost appeared before him – it hugged hm, draining most of his life away, then pushed him off the side of the column! The archmaster grabbed the side of the stairs as he fell, but the pain was agonizing as he was still recovering from a broken arm – he heard the other snap as he lapsed into unconsciousness. Kalgrim ran and slid across the column to grab Aodhan as the wizard let go, pulling him back onto the safety of the roof. He pulled the necklace from around Aodhan’s neck and tossed it back at the skeleton. The ghost nodded and disappeared.

Realizing that taking the wagon anywhere on the island was a big ask, especially in light of the corrosive mists, the party reassessed their needs and took various items with them, leaving the wagon on top of the column. After observing the landscape (and the far shore across the lake, which they could see the red mist had extended to and covered), the party elected to head to the central pond.

Through the pond’s clear waters, they could see a stairway leading up beneath a rocky overhang. One after another, they plunged in. Zog and Aodhan faced difficulty in the water, with Aodhan almost drowning, but Zog made it through while Kris managed to pull Aodhan out. They emerged into a dark cavern, Aodhan vomiting up water.

Kalgrim lit his lantern, leading the way forward. Zog cursed his massive form as he squeezed around corners and through narrow tunnels. Aodhan groaned in pain (Kris had splinted both his arms with leftover thigh bones; he looked rather comical in his soaked and “robot-armed” state).

Making their way east, Kalgrim and Kris entered a foul-smelling cavern full of neatly stacked boxes of supplies. A huge troll stood over them. The pair introduced themselves and noticed the troll, named Okvid, had a rotten tooth causing him some pain. They promised to fix his toothache. With some deft pulling and bandaging from the two, the rotted stump of a tooth was removed. Okrid thanked them, and rewarded them with some rotten food and directions. He also warned them that Azrahel Koth knew they were here.

The party came to a rockfall, but realizing it would take some time to clear, headed back to a junction and down a tunnel towards a waiting demon. The crab-like creature was sitting on an island in the center of a lake that filled its cavern, with several wet stones providing access to the island. It confronted Kalgrim and Kris, who pretended to be Sathmog cultists. It asked to see the mark of Sathmog, and Kris decided to hastily carve the mark into the back of Kalgrim’s neck – without telling him first. A lot of blood and pain and an unrecognizable mark later, Kalgrim hopped and skipped across the rocks and slashed the mighty demon with the sword of Um-Durman, which split open its chest and stomach. Orla’s arrow zipped past the demon’s head as it dodged. Zog attempted to fire up his power fist, but it misfired, leaving him angry. Kris danced over the rocks and backstabbed the beast to finish it off.

The party gathered on the island and elected to head south. Everyone was in a bad way, so they decided to enter a blocked-off tunnel and rest against the south side of the rockfall they’d seen earlier (which Kalgrim determined had been made deliberately to force travelers towards the demon they had just fought). As they all collapsed against the walls, a black-robed humanoid with a skeletal face and horned hat teleported in, appearing before Zog. As the smoke cleared, it said: “You must be the adventurers, come to destroy me. I am Azrahel Koth.” The herald of Sathmog’s hands started to twist into unusual shapes and combinations, as if casting a mighty spell.

“Time to die,” cried Azrahel Koth.

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