Spoilers.
Party:
Crock-Killer (Folk Hero Stout Halfling Paladin)
Duggin (Outlander High Elf Ranger)
Harold (Hermit Half-Elf Monk)
Tree (Outlander Wood Elf Druid)
Mordra (NPC Half Elf Cleric for insurance purposes)
The party met up in the town of Beregost, all with their own reasons (I came up with recent events for each character that tied into the adventure somehow) and took up with the NPC Cleric, Mordra, who was traveling to Greenest to investigate the inceased banditry in the area. The first hour was just goofing around at the Jovial Juggler (I am a huge Baldur's Gate Computer Game fan), the halfling's flaw was being an alcholic (being a paladin and halfling makes this one hell of a flaw), and the ranger was a conspiracy theorist, and boy did he have some wild theories about Shadow Wizards, Old One Cults and Half-Dragon Cabals, so it was all good and fun tavern times, but on with the real adventure.
They get to the outskirts of the town and witness the carnage. The halfling rushes ahead and spots a group of six cultists looting on the outskirts of the town. He decides, wisely, to circumvent them and try and find a safer route in. All the characters made stealth checks to stay just outside the town, save the druid, who was spotted by the six cultists, along with the NPC cleric. The druid quickly casted fog which obscured them, and as the bandits rushed forward to attack, they snuck out and joined their friends. They found a way into the town, but soon ran into another group of cultists and an acolyte. They were sneaking around, doing squad tactics, hiding behind walls and houses, with the paladin leading the way. They won initiative and made quick work of the group without taking any damage. They ran into six more cultists in the middle of looting a house, same situation, though this time the monk rushed head long into the six of them and took the full brunt of their scimitars, dropping him. The ensuing combat was quick, and the rest of the group was fine. The NPC cleric got the monk back up with Spare the Living and healed him with Cure Wounds. During the combat, the cleric also used Charm Person on one of the cultists, causing him to drop his weapon and be entranced. They tied this goon up and headed to the fort.
They met the mayor who was overjoyed that they managed to snag a cultist. This essentially eliminated one of the missions to bring back a guy to interrogate without having to go on the mission. They interrogate him (they do a good cop bad cop routine with the paladin and ranger) and find out about the dragon cult, the hoard gathering and Tiamat. The mayor then asks them to save some people trapped in a temple at the corner of the town. They agree, go through the tunnel, kill a group of kobolds washing blood off in the stream, and head to the temple. They decide to go through the front door (which is not the easiest route) but get the drop on the two cultists out front, and make quick work of the kobolds (who essentially go down in one hit). For some reason, I mistakenly thought that Dragon Claw was Ambush Drake and so that group had a giant dragon creature with it as well, which took a good chunk out of the halfing, but no one died. They convince the citizens inside they are there to resuce them, just as the second group of bandits is rounding the corner. They brace the doors once more and this is where I let the PCs level up. At that point, the druid player had to leave, so it was down to a four member party. The halfing paladin chose the protection fighting style, while the ranger picked two-weapon fighting. The second group of bandits pick up the dropped battering ram and start trying to get through the doors. The group decided to time their actions at the right moment to open the door as the battering ram was rushing forward, causing the kobolds holding the battering ram to go flying into the room, giving them a surprise and advantage on all six of them. They down half of them, and the ranger uses his action to shut the doors and brace against the remaining bandits and two ambush drakes. The ranger unsuccessfully tries to rally the villagers to help him brace against the drakes - he loses an opposed strength check against the drakes attacking at the door, causing the two to drakes to rush in. Despite this, they manage to kill both ambush drakes, one the bandits and the rest of the kobolds, I attest this to terrible rolls on the bad guy's side, though I did misread one of the paladin skills which made it way easier. Anyway, they decide to kill the rest of the bandits and open the back door. The monk decides to vault off the halfling's shield (the little runt has a 17 strength), plant his bo staff in the ground, and do a flying kick at one of the cultists in the back of the group. He rolls a one on planting his bo staff and hits the ground right between the two cultists. The ranger throws his dagger at one of the cultists, getting his attention, but the other one crits the monk doing seven damage (that's roughly half his hp at this point). The kobolds rush the paladin, nicking away at his hp little by little, but ultimately unable to do any real damage. The monk tries a trip attack...and fails. He takes more damage, but he isn't dead. The kobolds are falling fast. The monk dienages, rolls away, and moves fifteen feet, giving the cultist a death stare. The cultist swings at him, misses, and goes down with a few well placed unarmed strikes. They rescue ALL the villagers in the temple and head back to the fort.
I decided, at this point, that many of the missions in Greenest felt very samey (go out, kill cultists, rescue villagers, repeat), so I decided to just go to the part where the half-dragon challenges the party's best warrior. This is where things got interesting. The halfling, feeling more than confident in his abilities (the bastard is very full of himself) decides that this won't be a big deal. He walks out, casts a few spells (Shield of Faith and Wrathful Smite) and the half-dragon laughs at this little halfling in chain mail. They roll for initiative, halfling goes first, scores a critical, does 15 damage plus 6 more with Wrathful Smite and the half-dragon misses his save and must run away. He expends an action on his turn to try and come to his senses, rolls a one, and runs again. All his goons run away in terror that such a small little peck could cause their leader to run in fear, and so...everyone runs away. I am sure when the half-dragon came to his senses he had only one thing on his mind: kill that little paladin halfling bastard! Which is going to be a great roleplaying opportunity later in the game. There's no rule on what happens if you cause the half-dragon to run from you, so I just gave the party half experience for the encounter, so they are well on their way to third level.
They tracked the bandits for a while and we ended the session just outside the bandit camp.
Fun times. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
My Thoughts: One of my players mentioned that at low levels many of the classes feel the same. This may have been because everyone was playing a melee type character, but it may also be because there's not much meat in the very beginning of the campaign. It's just sort of the same encounter a few times. I told him that the campaign is about to get interesting, so just wait and see.
Deadliness: At moments. The players played smart and when they rushed in they were punished for it. At the very end of the night the ranger rushed eight kobolds and almost died...cause, yeah, don't do that, but with three beefy melee classes monsters went down quick. Heck, kobolds go down mostly automatically with a hit. Some expressed that combat was too easy, but that had a little bit to do with bad roles, but mostly they took on what they felt they could and played smart in each encounter.
Overall: Players liked it. Even though this is a new edition, they picked up the rules easy enough (most are rpg experts, though) and definitely felt like heroes right out of the gate. We'll see where it goes, but I think everyone had a fun time and are itching for more.
SIDE NOTE: By the end of the night, with ranger and paladin healing, I nixed the NPC Cleric. Wasn't really needed.
Great summary! Thank you. Out of curiosity, were you giving the kobolds advantage due to their Pack Tactics ability?
I did when it came up, but their random encounters were bandits and cultists, not really kobolds until they went to the temple, and they pretty much dropped them right away. The halfling goaded them on and they had a hard time hitting his high AC. They weren't as deadly as I thought they were going to be. Plus, all the PCs rolled max for HP when they leveled, which helped.
Shocked the Halfling managed to froce Cyanwrath to run away. However I doubt Cyanwrath would hold a large grudge over this he is quite honrable and would probbaly just want a rematch.
I think I am going to play it where Cyanwrath considered it "cheating" that the halfling enhanced his abilities for the bout and will insist on a fair fight, or doom the entire party.
Thanks for writing this up. Summaries like this really help me as I plan my own session. It's always nice to see what other groups do. So you didn't run the encounter with the dragon dive bombing the keep? I'm not sure how that will play... it seems like a lot of players may just try to hide indefinitely from the dragon.
Swede, in one of the initial battles you indicated that the Cleric cast Charm Person on one of the cultists. Why did the cultist subsequently drop his weapon and become entranced? Why wouldn't he continue to battle the other PCs in the party? Did you Cleric have some special domain ability to make the Charm Person spell incredibly more powerful than it is described in the rules?
Swede1985 wrote:
pedro2112 wrote:
Given that D&D is a creative exercise first and foremost, I come to these forums looking for inspiration and creative ideas. It's a bit like mining for gold since 99% of the discussions seem to center on the rules of the game. Threads like this one provide me with the nuggets of inspiration that I am looking for. When I am defining a character, I am always hard-pressed to invent personality traits that will resonate at the table and inform my character's decisions in interesting ways. I really like the idea of a conspiracy theorist, a character who sees the dark hand of the <<substitute your organization name here>> behind every significant event that occurs in the campaign, no matter how implausible. I can see this as the foundation for an interesting and memorable character. Thanks for that!!
Where did you get stats for Kobolds and Urds?
Wolvercote wrote:
Session 2
SPOILERS!
When we left off the adventurers were following the trail of the retreating cult members tailing them to their camp. They ran into some stragglers along the way and, despite the high elf ranger being pummeled by kobolds (diving in head first was not a good thing), they cleaned up this group no problem. They also didn't leave anyone alive, which meant they had no knowledge of the rearguard ahead. Now, whenever you as a DM describe any kind of rocky outcropping, gorge or bend in a trail, PCs get spooked. This was no exception, and fearing an ambush they donned cultist garb and confidently walked forward hoping to fool what they were sure was an impending conflict. A cultist guard blocked their way as they came around a bend and asked them something In Draconic (I figured that the rearguard might test anyone who looks like cultists to see if they're part of the cult or not) and, seeing as no one in the party spoke Draconic, they took the full brunt of the falling rocks, though the damage wasn't too bad. They waded through the cultists no problem with some minor scrapes and bruises. When they arrived at the camp they saw many mercenaries and cult members arriving and being ushered in by guards out front. They spilt up and decided to walk in separately, so if something happened, all three wouldn't be caught and at least someone would be able to sneak in. The ranger and monk slipped in no problem, the halfing paladin however had some...issues. You see, last session the halfling managed to make Cyanwrath run away when challenged to a duel (see end of Episode 1) and word had spread through the camp that some amazing halfing warrior had bested the half-dragon! And, seeing as there weren't many halflings around in the cult, they were rightly suspicious of the halfling. Tensions grew even higher when Cyanwrath appeared exiting the cave entrance in the back of the camp headed toward the front of the camp to verify the identity of the Crock-Killer, the Folk Hero Halfling, Bane of Dragon-Kin. Seeing that his number was up, the halfling fled, dodging and weaving between new arrivals, and gave the guards the slip.
Meanwhile, inside the camp the ranger and monk started casing the joint, finding out a bit about cult, Rezmir, and rumors of their future plans. Most importantly, they spotted Leosin, the monk they were sent to rescue. I had the half-elf monk character have a backstory where Leosin taught him for a time so they knew each other personally. The ranger communicated with Leosin using the Message cantrip and the monk suggested they wait until nightfall to approach him and talk face to face. The halfling paladin bided his time and kept an eye on the camp, knowing that there was no way he was getting in. Night came and the ranger chatted up the guards while the monk stealthly made his way to his old master. Leosin insisted on staying, to find out exactly what the cult was up to, but the monk convinced him that he would die, and it would serve the Sword Coast better if he were to return and fight another day. They snuck out mostly without incident and all three PCs leveled to 3. The Paladin took the Oath of Vengence, the Ranger chose the Beastmaster sublcass (with a wolf companion) and the Monk chose the Elemental Path with the ability to cast Burning Hands. When they arrived at Greenest, Leosin told them to return and find out what they could about Rezmir's plans. They got back to the camp and started to tackle the first dungeon...
They confidently walked up to the cave entrance after chatting with the remaining hunters in camp. The Dragonclaws guarding the cave retreated for a later ambush. The ranger, poor guy, sent his wolf up ahead to scout (after many personal experiences of playing D&D I know NEVER to send an animal ahead to scout unless it is a bird or a very small mammal...but live and learn) and the Dragonclaw's ambushed the wolf with advantage, with multiattack, and killed the wolf outright. It was a hard lesson, but one the ranger won't soon forget. They rushed in and diced the Dragonclaws, headed to the fungi room, avoided the violet fungus, and got to the room with the bats. Oh, jeebus. The bat room. I described the dead bats, I described the many flying rodents on the ceiling, but they decided to rush ahead, causing the stirges to attack with their crazy bat-shield. This, by far, was the most deadly of rooms. Nobody went down, but they were forced to retreat as the stirges latched on for dear life and sucked away. They spent most of their healing after running away and decided, even though I told them that they could totally rest up and head back out later, to head further into the dungeon, avoiding the bat room entirely. They ran into a few cultists, Frulam Mondath was alerted to their presence, and it wasn't long before they were tenatively exchanging words with the woman down the hall. She had heard that the halfling bested Cyanwrath and offered a deal: if the halfling could best her three veteran guards she would surrender. After much consideration, and an understandable amount of aprehension, he decided to do it. Well, actually, Cyanwrath had heard that the halfing and his party had begun storming the dungeon and he and a retinue of kobolds decided to block the party's way out if they decided to flee - Cyanwrath was taunting the halfling from the main chamber of the dungeon the whole time - so he was more or less forced into fighting Mondath or Cyanwrath and chose the latter. After killing two of Mondath's guards (I made them Dragonclaws to really up the challenge) the paladin was down to five hit points. The monk, lawful neutral, did not want to interfere with the rules of the contest, but the ranger could not sit idle by and let his friend be killed, he loosed an arrow and all bets were off. Mondath immediately attempted to Hold Person on Crock-Killer, but the halfling resisted. She then retreated down the chute into the dragon shrine chamber after taking the full force of the monk's Burning Hands as he jumped into the fight. They followed her down and managed to best her. The monk left behind caltrops at the bottom the chute and, the ranger being the only one not in single digit Hit Points, made a run for it. They would normally have run into a bunch of kobolds...and Cyanwrath for that matter, but I made it so Cyanwrath gathered up most of the kobolds to head the PCs off from retreating from Mondath, so they ran into no resistence, however, a simple falling rock trap dropped both the paladin and the monk who were rushed and weren't looking for traps. The ranger stashed the monks body in a pile of garbage and refuse the kobolds were using and carried the halfling out of the dungeon, giving Cyanwrath the slip as he was pursuing the PCs through the dungeon. Both the paladin and the monk made their death saving throws...but it came down to ONE roll on the paladin between life and death - super tense and super exciting! The monk was knocked out for one hour and a I made a roll to see if any kobolds found him...ROLLED A ONE! He was safe, with one HP, and in the middle of a dungeon! OH MAN! Meanwhile, the elf and the halfling made it to safety and spent an hour resting to regain their strength. The monk stealthed past some kobolds, donned a cultist uniform, and bluffed his way out of the dungeon. They all met up at Greenest, licking their wounds, and ready to return and finish of Cyanwrath!
Thoughts: Great Session! Very Exciting and Very Interesting! The module is tough for three PCs, but no toooooo tough. I lessened some monsters here and there, but I didn't pull any punches when it came to damage. Being so close to death was more exciting than irritating to the players and the fact that they made it out alive was even more amazing. The halfing player loved the idea of his Folk Hero status growing and the bad guys starting to take notice of him and the monk was really into describing every cool martial art attack he did. Overall, the players can't wait to play again and I am excited to finish up the dungeon and get on with the real meat of the module.
Great job. Keep em coming 
Really enjoying your reports and looking forward to more.
Steve
Swede, thanks for these posts. Since it looks like we are running a week behind you, these reports will be instructive to me (and others I'm sure) in anticipating potential speed bumps at my FLGS games.
if you have any "If I ran this again, I'd do this different" type comments, I'd like to hear those too.
Also, I have been away from the forums for a few months and it seems a lot has changed. There used to be a forum dedicated to each Encounters module that was very useful for DMs to share ideas and pitfalls about the sessions. Is that no longer around?
YoungOnce wrote:
Session 3 Recap
Spoilers
When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they were licking their wounds in Greenest after a tense fight with Mondath in the Dragon Hatchery. The many monsters in the dungeon had chipped away their hit points and after stumbling into a falling rock trap, Crock Killer the halfling paladin and Harold the elemental monk, fell unconcious. Crock Killer almost died, but the high elf ranger, Duggin, snuck the halfling out of the dungeon and by sheer luck alone (seriously, the rolls were good) Harold managed to come to in the dungeon and sneak out on his own. The group were resolved to return to the cavern - if nothing else, they wanted to confront the half-dragon Cyanwrath and finish up any loose ends. It seemed that Cyanwrath had the same thought, and in the time between the adventurers coming back to the cavern, the half-dragon was able to move the black dragon eggs out and relocate them - but he stuck around to have a final confrontation with Crock Killer. The party approached the cavern and there was a welcoming party waiting for them. Kobolds filled the area around the entrance to the dungeon, Cyanwrath's two human beserkers leashed two ambush drakes, but no one was attacking. Cyanwrath came forward and challenged the halfling to one more bout. I had the PCs make insight checks to prove that the half-dragon was honorable and a half-dragon of his word. The fight began and this time Cyanwrath won, easily. Duggin immediately cured Crock Killer's wounds when he went down and Cyanwrath, his ego readjusted, told the adventurers that there was nothing of worth in the cavern, but he would not stop them if they wanted to explore it. The enemies then dispersed. Duggin tried to convince Cyanwrath to follow them, to fight by their side, but since their goals were completely opposite, the half-dragon refused, but told them they may meet again. The PCs stormed the caves and found a single chest that was left behind full of treasure! They felt like they knew enough to meet up with Leosin in Elturel.
In Elturel they immediately went to the A Pair of Black Antlers to inquire about Ontharr Frume. While waiting, Harold was challenged to a dart throwing contest by a local. Crock Killer stuck his nose in and the three engaged in a little friendly sport. Crock Killer won the contest, easy, and before long the two new arrivals had become quite chummy with the locals. Eventually, Frume showed up and talked with Duggin, explaining that they should talk the next morning about what to do about the Cult of the Dragon. In the meantime, Harold challenged Frume to a sparring match and lost. Crock Killer then challenged him to a arm wrestling match and also lost. The party drank and had a great time with Frume and the next morning, with a sizable hang over, they got down to business. They learned that the Cult of the Dragon was heading toward Baldur's Gate and the party needed to head them off and join their wagon company. They do so but not before some rather...interesting adventures in Baldur's Gate.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen has very little for the player's to do in the actual major cities. The module has the group travel to both Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep, but beside them being stop-offs to buy stuff, there's not any encounters planned for the city. I found, however, that the player's expected something to happen once they were in a large city so I made up something that made the stop at Baldur's Gate more interesting. First of all, Duggin and Harold went immiedately to the first tavern they saw, while Crock Killer was looking around for magic items for sale (yeah...I am not really a fan of the "magic item shop" but..); anyway, I could tell that the ranger and monk were looking for trouble (or adventure) so I had them find trouble! At the Elfsong Tavern a half-orc and halfling were discussing their recent exploits stealing a nose stud from a stone giant and saying that they would need a new wizard after their last one met an unfortunate end. For some reason, not sure why, but for some reason Duggin the Ranger tried to pose as a wizard and say that he was looking for work. I had the half-orc and halfling make an Insight check and they both nailed it and they know a sucker when they see it. The halfling negotiated a test for the ranger to prove his worth and at no point did Duggin come clean, he went with it. The test was to go to a small tavern in the city that was a front for where thieves were storing stolen goods; how the halfling knew this no one asked, so he convientenly didn't provide an answer. The test was for Duggin to dispel a magical lock leading to the loot and bring back something of worth. Meanwhile, the half-orc and Harold the monk decided to go off on their own for some good old "larceny" (the half-orc's words) and decided to jump a merchant and take his stuff. Now, at this point the monk player knew something didn't smell right with these two and when him and the half-orc headed out for a classic mugging, the monk ditched the orc at the first possible chance. He used his ki to use his special movement enhancement and left his companion in the wind. On the way to the tavern Duggin came clean and stated he was not really a wizard, and the halfling was disappointed, but said that there's no reason why he still couldn't complete his mission and the halfling would put a good word in with a certain orginization he was a part of in the city - this would lead to better jobs, riches, real opportunity - and the ranger...the poor, poor ranger, decided this sounded great! They got to the seedy tavern and the halfling found a table and kept a look out. The ranger nailed his stealth check to get into the back room and approached the "magical" door. The halfling gave the ranger a Dispel Magic scroll that ANYONE can read (yeah...anyone...heh) and, after reciting the "arcane" words the door "magically" unlocked (it was never locked to begin with). Duggin gets into the first room and, lo and behold, there's plenty of loot down there - nothing special, just valuables pinched from locals - he starts loading up on loot and, as he's heading out, he realizes (with a great Preception check) that there's a welcoming party waiting for him, so he goes the other direction, to yet another room with more valuables and fenced goods. There he runs into another halfling who convinces him that he's been kept there for ransom. Seems legit! Sigh...well, while the ranger is looking for a secret way out of the basement of this tavern...that's just a tavern...the halfling betrays him (SURPRISE!) and does sneak attack damage to the poor, poor ranger. The rest of the thieves show up and, after long negotiations, decide to let the high elf ranger go after taking all of his wordly possessions. Yeah. It may have been cruel; yes, it's kind of shitty thing to happen to a character...but, well, it's something that COULD happen to someone in a large city known for intrigue and theivery and at no point did any of this seem on the level. And before I am labeled as being a jerk Dungeon Master, things level out eventually. They meet up with Frume's contact in Baldur's Gate, learn of Duggin's unfortunate run in with the thieves guild, and find an employer for the wagons headed north to Waterdeep. They take up with one of the suggested NPCs in the module (the half-elf brewer transporting wine and ale); I thought this would be great for Crock Killer who is an alcoholic. Crock Killer was looking for magic items the whole time and I decided to bite and said that there was a ring for sale that created an energy shield - it had the same stats of a shield but wieghed nothing, could be summoned at will, and could withstand a good amount of physical impact. It was 1500 Gold Pieces, a throw away item from a magic shop funded by the Wizard's Tower in town. Crock Killer had no where near that amount of money, but was resovled to raise that amount in the next four days.
How does he do this? Undeground wrestling matches! Of course! Crock Killer and Harold find a particularly brutal wrestling league that focused on dwarf sized combatants and smaller: gruff gnomes, scarred halflings, sumo-sized dwarves, silly brownie fights, but major betting going on. They try their hand at betting on a few matches, but realize they won't make nearly enough for Crock Killer's new shield. There is one match, however, between a local favorite, Greggin "The Wolf" Wolfbane and his challenger, Hugh "Needle-Knees" Grim Tooth, two dwarves. After visting the wrestlers, Crock Killer was sure that Neddle Knees would win and put all their money on him. Well, it turns out that The Wolf took the show and, as he was celebrating his victory, Crock Killer dived into the ring and challenged The Wolf to a match (this was all done super macho wrestler style with the gruff voices and all which was super fun to roleplay). The wrestling match proceeded and we decided to just describe what wrestling moves we were using and then make the approriate roll, this included: choke holds, flying kicks, suplexes, elbow drops, throws, submission holds and, right at the end, pummeling the guy with your fists. Depending on whether or not the move hit or missed changed the dynamic of the fight. For example, when Crock Killer missed his elbow drop he was now on the ground and easier for The Wolf to grapple. It was really fun and a nice change of pace from the normal combat. Still, the halfling was victorious, and they made out with tons of gold as most everyone bet on The Wolf. Crock Killer had enough for his sweet energy shield and was rewarded with such. He also gave Duggin the Ranger some gold to re-equip himself and eventually they found their way on the road on their way to Waterdeep.
Now, there were plenty of on the road encounters to choose from, but to be honest, I really didn't find many of them interesting. I decided to give the ranger a break and picked the Golden Stag encounter as the first encounter on the trip. The ranger tracked the stag to a wooded area and, instead of shooting it, stepped foward to talk with it. The stag responded in Elvish and the ranger warned the graceful animal that a few hunters were after it. For warning him the stag gave Duggin a +1 bow and told him and the party to seek the floating castle (last episode of the module). The +1 Bow made up for the earlier misstep in Baldur's Gate and now the Ranger was coming out ahead. I chose the animal abuse encounter next and they decided to free the horses being mistreated by the traveling merchant without any real altercation. They arrived at Daggerford, the two NPCs relevent to the story joined the wagon company, and everything went pretty much exactly how it is written in the adventure. The gnome assassin that joined the wagon company met up with the PCs and asked them to look in the cultist's cargo to figure out what they were traveling with. She also pointed out the Red Wizard traveling with them. Part of the Ranger's backstory is have a complex conspiracy theory that involved the Red Wizards so he was really interested in the arrival of this man from Thay. Conflict escalated with the cultists, but it didn't come to violence, even though the module insisted that the cultists would try and attack the PCs once they reached the Roadhouse, the PCs managed to talk their way out of fighting them, so I let it stand. After investigating the Roadhouse they found the tunnel leading into the swamp and that's where the session ended...
Thoughts: Another entertaining session! For a session devoid of any real or extended combat no one really noticed or cared. They enjoyed interacting with NPCs at Baldur's Gate and even the player with the Ranger really enjoyed his mugging. Once again, Crock Killer found a way to build his folk hero status by becoming an underground wrestler who took down the crowd favorite. I like that Cyanwrath spared their lives and was just seeking a worthy opponent to fight. He may show up again. The module probably assumes that the half-dragon is supposed to die, but I like the potential of keeping him alive and having him show up at an unexpected moment instead. Suggestions for those who are planning on running this module: I have a feeling that, like my players, many other players will expect some kind of adventure or interaction to happen in Balduer's Gate or Waterdeep. Come up with something and let your players go wild. I had to come up with stuff off the top of my head, but it was great and memorable. Plan for some urban adventures, something small that doesn't detract from the main story too much, that let's you stretch your DM creativity within the module. Anyway, good game and things are going to get a bit more brutal with their approach to Castle Naerytar.
I found the first session a railroaded and a heavy handed one at that.
Noon wrote:
Swede1985 wrote:
Whatever happened to the wood elf druid from the first session?
Leugren wrote: