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 37 – The Isle of Mists (Part 2)

The ancient wizard Azrahel Koth pointed to the floor, which cracked open, spewing forth black flames. Zog the ogre animist powered up his fists, while Kalgrim the dwarven artisan slid between the ogre’s legs and slashed Koth with his magic Fellsword. Koth let out a fearful bellow leaving the party were frightened, with Orla the elven hunter fleeing to the rockfall at the back of the tunnel. Ice filled the air, freezing the party in place. Kalgrim broke free and rushed Koth with the sword of Um-Durman, striking the wizard. Koth’s eyes widened with fear and he teleported away. The party sighed with relief and freed themselves from the ice.

Rather than rest longer in the tunnel, the party agreed it was better to move forward. They set off down some stone stairs, finding a copper door with a Sathmog symbol carved into it and words beneath praising the demon. Kalgrim tried to open the door and was blasted by a lightning bolt, which flashed to Kris-Astra the bold halfling, standing just behind. She ran to the back of the line to make sure she wasn’t anywhere near Kalgrim in future. Archmaster Aodhan the mage intuited that the saying must be spoken while tracing a finger over the Sathmog symbol. Kalgrim tried it, and the door swung inward, revealing a square room with a demonic statue pointing east to a door with an upside-down Sathmog symbol. Two other doors to the north and south had normal symbols on them.

Kalgrim opened the south door to find a pit filled with skeletons. He narrowly avoided them and closed the door as he fled. The north door led to a row of cells where the party freed a tortured orc and knight of the immaculate flame. They revealed the pass phrase for the east door while Aodhan provided some healing, then remained to recover.

Kalgrim led the way through the east door, across a series of lettered tiles which needed to be crossed in a particular combination. All were fine, until Zog attempted it – his massive size made it tricky landing on the right tiles, and as a result he was hit by a crossbow bolt which shot from the wall. Aodhan was able to bring the ogre back, and the party made their way through the next door to a chamber with a fire demon.

The fire demon posed three riddles – the party struggled with each, but eventually answered them all successfully and were free to progress through the doors north or south. Through the north door was a clear corridor; Aodhan spotted a tripwire but Zog stumbled through and released numerous sword-wielding skeletons from several secret doors. He escaped through the south door back into the demon’s room, who was getting tetchy about the party hanging around.

Through the south door was a spinning “blender” door. Kalgrim stepped in and was swept to the other side, straight over a pit. Luckily, he pulled himself into the corridor beyond. Kris decided to feed a rope around to help prevent the party falling in the hole. Zog got stuck as the blender doors slowly turned him into mincemeat. He was dragged from the spinning doors by the others as Olga followed. The poor ogre was nursed back to health by Aodhan, but his skin had been almost completely torn off!

The next room was a library, where the party located several useful books and grimoires and managed to rest for 15 minutes before hitting the next corridor. At the end was a room, with a statue facing a solid copper door. Aodhan correctly guessed the way through, and as Kalgrim activated the statue the door swung inwards. Azrahel Koth stood facing the dwarf, magical energy swirling around him…      

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