Road to Kelvin's Cairn 1

The party start out in Neverwinter having had a week pass. They met Baelnar at the north gate to set out. Upon eating him they found him in conversation with someone in all black. This fellow was introduced to them as Morian, a half elf. The half elf was in all black, and the party could see leather armor beneath his cloak, and a rapier at his waist. They left Neverwinter for Ten Towns and Kelvin’s Cairn with the adventurer’s making small talk. The party soon learned that Morian was born in Neverwinter, and really only travelled to make money.

The trip North was unremarkable, until the party stopped in the early afternoon about half a day south of Luskan. Baelnar explained that Luskan has becoem an extremely rough town. It is said that it is run by the 5 High Captains, but that was not entirely true. In reality, they ran their territory, but the rest of the town was run by various gangs. The next morning they ventured into the town. Not long after entering, Morian whispered something to Baelnar and slipped away down an alley. The rest of the group made their way through town, eventually reaching the bridge that spanned the river. A “guard” was there, and told Baelnar it would be 10gp per person to cross. He eyed up the adventurers, wary that they might try to force their way across. Baelnar passed a leather roll of coins to the guard, and then crossed the bridge. While crossing, Baelnar pointed out the Host Tower of the Arcane on an island towards the ocean. He told them that it is said to be haunted by undead, and that no one goes near it anymore. They group made their way through the rest of Luskan, and Morian joined the group just before they all left town again. Camp was made about half a day north of town.

The party stuck close to the shoreline as the biggest dangers lied in the mountains. Gareth spotted some wolves during the night, but was able to chase them away with a torch. The next day Baelnar told the group that wolves were not uncommon here, but that they would not attack a party of this size. That same day the group noticed a large white object pass overhead, and discovered that it was a White Dragon passing by. It seemed to pay the group no mind, but Baelnar said that White Dragons did tend to live in the colder climate, and that they needed to be be wary of them.

A few more days into the journey the group crested a small hill and found themselves about 80 yards from a group of 3 Orcs. Both sides were surprised, but the Orcs still decided to charge into the battle. The Orcs threw javelins at Gareth, and hit him, but the wounds were minor. Everyone returned fire and eventually Morian and Nefresil engaged the Orcs in melee and finally felled the beasts. Baelnar said this was bad as Orcs almost never ventured this far out. The group concluded that this was a scouting party, and that it was likely that there were more Orcs. Baelnar said they were only about 2 days from Fireshear and that this could only bode ill for that town. The group took the Orc weapons and searched the bodies for anything else of value/use.

Gareth and Nefresil decided to track the Orcs, they spent a coupe of hours tracking the Orcs, but never came across any others. Baelnar informed then that they went directly towards Fireshear. That evening Nefresil healed Gareth, and the group decided to travel through the night, and rest during the day. They followed the path of the Orcs through the night, but lost it the next day. They decided to continue towards the town, as that would be a good place to rest, and get some more information about the Orcs.

As the town became visible the group noticed smoke rising from it, indicating that it had been, at least partially, burned. The group then noticed a party of Orcs moving out as if tracking the previous group. The party decided to try to hide in the rolling valleys and move inland to go around the town. As they did this they found that they had to crest hills from time to time, and that the Orcs noticed them. The group took a stand at the top of the hill and nocked arrows to fire into the Orcs. Nefresil correctly determined that their bow range would be much farther than the javelins the Orcs employed. As the Orcs got within bow range, the party unleashed arrows into the Orcs. The Orcs did their best to move into melee range, and threw javelins, without much success. The party continued to attack Orcs with arrows and spells before using melee weapons. Two Orcs were felled easily, but the 3rd put up a bigger fight. The group noticed that this Orc attacked more frequently and with more deadly blows. Gareth unleashed multiple magic missiles at it, as Nefresil and Morian were in melee combat with it, and suffered greatly for that. Nefresil took 2 hits from the beast’s great and fell. Then it turned on Morian and felled him in 2 hits as well. Baelnar came around and attempted to hit the creature, but missed. It was then that Gareth unleashed a final magic missile, finally killing the beast.

Gareth then went and stabilized Nefresil, and attempted to do the same for Morian, only to discover that Morian was dead. They loaded Morian’s body onto the wagon and decided to continue inland and make their way around Fireshear to head towards Ironmaster, which is only a few days short of Ten Towns. They all had the unspoken hope that Ironmaster and Ten Towns were not overrun by Orcs as well.

DM Recap
This session showed me just how boring travel can be if nothing is happening. Small talk may be interesting, but no one wants to role play several hours of small talk. This caused the session to go father than I expected, however, I don’t think it went off the rails from what I anticipated. I will say though that the second group of Orcs contained an Orog as the leader. I think it was a reasonable decision to have one, but I did not make it clear in the description that this Orc looked different, so the players rightfully assumed it was just another Orc. It was not until it did not go down as easy and started to take out players that they realized this was not a regular Orc. Thankfully, neither of the players died. Having said that an NPC did fall to overflow damage. Morian started with 17 HP then took a 16 point attack dropping him to 1. This was followed with a critical hit causing about 25 points of damage. That dropped him below his max HP in 1 hit causing an instant death. Thankfully, it was an NPC and not a player character as I don’t want my mistake as a DM to cause a player death.

Loot and XP
No XP will be awarded for this session as the players are not currently resting in a safe spot. This will be awarded at a later date. The players were able to recover 12 Javelins and 6 Greataxes from the Orcs. In addition, the player found a couple of gems, specifically an Obsidian, a Star Ruby, and a Jasper.

Lost Mines of Phandelver - Session 6

The session started off with the party bidding farewell to Gundren at the base camp. Gundren gave each party member a roll of 50 gp as a start of the mine payments. The party travelled back to Phandalin, and discussed the future with their fighting companions. Anlow said he would got back to his home in Phandalin, and continue to keep the woods outside of the city safe. Feck and Daylen said they would also stay in town, though they had no definitive plans. Nefresil and Gareth offered each of Daylen and Feck 1 pp a day to help them travel to Neverwinter, a 3 day trip. The pair eagerly agreed, as this was more money than they could reasonably earn in 3 months, let alone 3 days. Nefresil and Gareth bedded down for the night, and met the pair in the morning. The group travelled to Neverwinter over the course of 3 days. About an hour outside of the city they ran into a company of mercenaries leaving town. They hailed the leaders and learned that the Lord Protector of Neverwinter was in the process of moving mercenaries out of town after there had been several run ins with the town militia that was starting to form. This was confirmed in the inn at night in a conversation with some of the local militiamen.

Nefresil and Gareth paid for Feck and Daylen’s room and dinner for the night before bidding them farewell in the morning. The pair went to a money changer, and changed their coinage into a more manageable number of coins, opting to carry a handful of platinum. They then went around town looking for some work, but not finding anything that interested them. They went to look for any caravans that needed guards.

They came across a Dwarf named Baelnar that was looking to travel up to Kelvin’s Cairn near Ten Towns in Icewind Dale. After some negotiations they agreed to a price of 150 gp each, along with a 2 week stay in Iceland Dale so the adventurers could investigate anything interesting they found. They would then guard the Dwarf back to Luskan. Baelnar gave each 50 gp up front, and told them to meet him near the North Gate in a week’s time.

With some daylight left they decided to purchase some supplies for the upcoming trip. Then they went to find a Wizard to identify the Spider Staff and pipe that they possessed. They found one in a library who told them that the staff indeed was magical, but the pipe was not. He said he could identify it for 50 gp. The party agreed and the wizard told them that the staff, when wielded as a melee weapon did an extra 1d6 poison damage. In addition, it could be used to cast spells. If 1 charge was expended the caster could cast spider climb, and for 2 charges the spell web could be cast. He said the magic in the staff felt full, but he was unable to tell how many charges the staff contained.

DM Recap
This was an interesting session for me. This marked the first session I ran that was not out of a module. I tried to give the players the freedom to do what they wanted. However, I think I went too far in that direction. I did not give them plot hooks in Neverwinter that they could follow. I realized this the next day, and it is something I will try to fix going forward. There were no fights during the session, but the plot still moved forward.

Loot and XP
The party rested in both Phandalin and Neverwinter so the remaining XP from Wave Echo Cave can be awarded. There is 1300 XP to be split 3 ways (Nefresil, Gareth, and a third share to the hirelings), which is 433 each. There is an additional, 1950 XP to be divided 4 ways (Nefresil, Gareth, Gundren, and the hirelings), which is 487 each. Each player is awarded 920 XP, bringing their total to 2195. Here is the breakdown.

Zombies - 150 XP (50 x3)
Flameskull - 1100 XP
Ghouls - 600 XP (200 x3)
Mormesk the Wraith - 700 XP
Spectator - 700 XP

Lost Mines of Phandelver - Session 5

The group started out at their base camp outside of Wave Echo Cave. Their entered the cave, and decided to go East this time into an unexplored art of the cave. After a bit they turned North, and went up a set of steps. They found themselves in a large room that was raised up on both the East and West ends, with a lower part in the middle. There was a cold brazier in the middle part, a pair of tables, and dozens of skeletons. These skeletons were decades, if not centuries old, and had nothing of value on them. However, at the top of the steps, the party ran into a trio of ghouls that attacked. The party retreated down the steps and blocked the hallway while taking bowshots at the ghouls. They quickly dispatched the ghouls without taking much damage themselves.

They crossed the room, and exited to the North where they found a set of bellows and a giant waterwheel. There was also a floating skull wreathed in green flames. The skull told the party to turn back as it was tasked with keeping intruders out. Nefresil and Gareth attempted to convince the skull that they were not intruders, but the skull refused to believe them. The party was able to carefully go along the wall to get to an exit to the East. Here they found a room with gems in the ceiling that glittered in the light. There were also 2 built buildings here. They entered the northernmost building and found a spectator, a giant floating eye with 4 eyestalks. This being spoke to the group telling them that they would not pass it. It was summoned by a wizard that used to operate in the cave, and set to guard the forge of spells. The players tried to convince this being that that mine was no longer in operation. However, the being would not believe the group, ignoring all evidence that did not agree with its story. At this point Nefresil and Gareth decided that maybe bringing Gundren in would help to convince both of these beings to not attack.

Gundren attempted to convince the flaming skull that he was now the rightful owner of the mine, but the skull did not believe him. In the end they made a deal, that if Gundren re-opened the mine and forge of spells the skull would work for Gundren and protect the mine. Once that was taken care of, they moved on to the spectator. This was harder as the spectator refused to accept any evidence that the mine was not operational and that its previous master no longer lived. However after some more talking and persuasion by the group, the spectator disappeared and left the group alone. Nefresil suggested looking into the next room before escorting Gundren back out of the cave. Upon entering that room a wraith appeared and named itself Mormesk. It threatened the group, and after a bit of talk it attacked the group. Nefresil had the party fan out and begin attacking the wraith. Gundren backed out of the room to avoid the fight. The group soon found that while arrows could harm the wraith, they were not as effective as they could be. The wraith hit Nefresil with a life drain attack and dropped him to negative HP. He failed the subsequent CON saving throw, but Gareth used his wild magic to give him a re-roll, which he succeeded on. Cale, the bar, stabilized Nefresil, but was the recipient of the next life drain attack by the wraith. This attack dropped Cale to 0 HP, and Cale failed his save, causing his max HP to drop to 0, and thus cause an instant death. Gareth used magic missile twice, and a few more bowshots from the rest of the group eventually brought down the wraith.

The group decided to rest long enough for Nefresil to regain consciousness, at which point he healed himself with his magic. During this time the rest of the group searched the room for anything of value. They found some coins, a couple of gems, a spell scroll, and a very nice pipe. They moved back to the room that the spectator inhabited, and searched it. After some time, they came away with a war hammer, short sword, metal rod, and a wand. With all of this gear in hand, they left the cave to rest back at the base camp for rest.

DM Recap
The session seemed to go well, though we got started a little late. The players made good decisions throughout the session, and attempted to talk instead of fighting everything that moved. They were successful a couple of times. The fight with the wraith was pretty tense especially with a PC going down during the fight. When an NPC was killed with a single hit of the life drain, everyone was shocked. It was a pretty memorable moment in the game.

Loot and XP
The party picked up 1100 cp, 160 sp, and 50 ep as far as coins. They also found 2 diamonds and a wooden pipe with platinum filigree. The spell scroll was a scroll of Greater Invisibility. The war hammer was magical, and Gundren claimed it for himself as it was clearly made for Dwarves. The iron rod is an immovable rod that can be placed anywhere and when a button is pressed it stays there and will hold up to 8000 pounds. The wand is a wand of Lightning Bolt with 7 charges. Finally the short sword is a Short Sword +1. Gundren looked at it and told Nefresil that it is one of the mirror swords that were wielded by Ilthuryn Urilar, an Elf famous for his fighting prowess, but dead now for hundreds years. It is part of a matched set, however, the swords were never known to be separated from each other, and were thought to be buried with the Elf, somewhere far to the East. No XP was awarded for this session. I will award it when the group finishes with Wave Echo Cave.

Lost Mines of Phandelver - Session 4

The session started with Nefresil and Gareth making sure they were properly geared up before heading into the mountains for Wave Echo Cave. Nefresil had copied Gundren’s map, so there was little chance they would get lost. The party made it to Gundren’s base camp in the early afternoon. The base camp had sharpened stakes on the outside and walls around it to ward off anything that may wander by. Nefresil suggested the go ahead and go into the cave. They filed into the opening single file, and after a short walk there was an open cavern with a pit in the northeast. Here the party came across the dead body of a Dwarf. There were no physical signs to explain the death. The body was taken back to the base camp while Nefresil made his way down into the pit to explore.

The pit contained a tunnel to the East, and another to the Northwest. After conferring with Gareth the decision was made to follow the path to the Northwest. They followed the path until it hit some hallways that were clearly carved by the Dwarves that previously lived here. These did not immediately lead anywhere, so the party decided to continue heading Northwest. They finally came to a room with a still pool of water in the Northwest part of the room. There was a stairway to the East that led to a hallway and a door. There was also a river flowing out of the pool to the Northeast, that could be followed, but would required walking/crawling in the water. The group decided to listen at the door, where gruff voices were heard, but no words could be understood. They could also tell there was a flickering light in the room.

The party continued down the hallway, and up another flight of steps. Nefresil looked around the corner and saw a tall bipedal creature that was occasionally looking down into a pit. He hurried back to the rest of the party, and relayed what he saw. He then stealthily went back up the stairs, and fired an arrow at the creature. It turned on him and as it began to walk over, yelled into the pit. in Goblin, “Get up here!” As it got closer the party recognized the creature as a doppelganger. They surrounded the creature, and slaughtered it. While this happened Nefresil went around the doppelganger, and over to the pit where a rope was tied off. He cut the rope as a bugbear was climbing up it. Once the party finished off the doppelganger, they made their way to the pit, and killed the bugbear before it was able to climb out.

They then made their way back to the door, and set a trap. Four people were on one side of the door with bows and crossbows ready. The other two party members were on the other side of the door ready with swords. The sword wielding adventurers threw rocks at the door until a pair of bugbears emerged. As the first got into the intersection. it was fired upon by 2 longbows and 2 hand crossbows. At the same time it was hit with 2 swords. This bug bear went down quickly, and the second bugbear then became the target and did not fare any better. A third bugbear was in the room, but thought better of running out. Instead it went to the other door in the room, and began to move the various wood and objects that were blocking it. However, the party got to it, and swiftly ended its life. At this point, they decided to take a short rest in this room as it was relatively defensible.

With health returned, the group continued exploring, and near where the doppelganger was killed, they found an ornate set of double doors. They heard a voice inside speaking as if to a pet. They threw open the doors and entered but quickly spread out. A single Drow was in the room, and he looked up and began to speak. Nefresil cut it off with an arrow, and the party took to its task with brutal efficiency. The Drow was mercilessly killed along with a giant spider that lurked in the room. The party found an iron key on the Drow’s body and it worked the lock to the next room over. Inside that room was a bound and unconscious Dwarf. This turned out to be Gundren’s other brother Nundro. He was helped out of the cave, and back to the base camp, where the group chose to rest for the night.

DM Recap

I felt like the session went well. Once again the players made good tactical decisions, and that proved to be a big deal. Each player controlled 1 of the level 0 Fighters, while I controlled the Classed NPCs. I felt like this went well except that the NPCs I controlled were not able to shine because I tried not to hog the spotlight. During 2 of the battles, I stopped them with a single bugbear alive, but with nowhere for it to escape. I felt like the party was going to kill it anyway, so there was no point in playing out another round or 2. I tried to only do it where it made sense. The Drow was supposed to be a harder fight, but 5 of the PCs/NPCs went first in initiative and focus fired on the Drow. If it were not for a bad damage roll on a Critical Hit, the Drow may not have even gotten a turn. The players will be going back in to the cave in the next session, but we are pretty close to wrapping up The Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Loot and XP

The group found a total of 15 pp, 130 gp, 203 ep, and 15 cp in their adventures. They also have a potion of healing (2d4+2), a potion of vitality (removes exhausted, cures poison and disease, maximizes Hit Dice for 1 day), and Nezznar’s staff. The staff is a black adamantine staff with a black spider at the top of it. A stack of papers showing where Nezznar had already explored and what he had found was also recovered by the party. The papers show that there are undead forces in the cave, and that thus far Nezznar had not been able to defeat them to find what he had been seeking. The XP will be broken down into 3 equal shares. That is 1 share for Gareth, 1 share for Nefresil, and 1 share split by Cale, Anlow, Daylen, and Feck. Each group gets 800 XP. The breakdown is:

4 Bugbears @ 200 XP - 800 XP

Doppelganger - 700 XP

Giant Spider - 200 XP

Nezznar the Black Spider (Drow) - 450 XP

Rescuing Nundro - 250 XP

Nefresil and Gareth have now attained 3rd level. They must spend 24 hours in the base camp for this to take effect, though this can be considered to have happened between sessions. Players should spend some time considering the options for this.

Lost Mines of Phandelver - Session 3

We picked back up about half a day outside of Phandalin after clearing out the Cragmaw Cave. The party awoke in the morning and decided that they needed to discuss the plan going forward with Gundren. The 3 went off on their own to discuss. Gareth and Nefresil wanted to know what Gundren's plans were for the mine, and if he was going to need them for anything. Gundren told them that he and his brothers would need help clearing the cave out based on their last venture into the cave. Gundren's two brothers are supposed to be at the cave guarding it, lest someone else discover it and attempt to claim it. Gundren offered the Nefresil and Gareth a 10% share of the wealth produced by the cave (5% each) in perpetuity. The party decided that they would need help to go into the cave and sweep it clean, based on observations from Gundren's previous ventures into the cave. Gundren offered to fully fund a base camp outside of the cave, and to fund the provisions they needed, but insisted that the party pay anyone they were going to hire to help with the cave. Nefresil and Gareth agreed to this after some discussion.

The party made its way back to Phandalin with no troubles. Connal, Dhugal, and Nigel left the party and went their own way. Gareth and Nefresil made their way to Barthen's Provisions to collect payment for taking Gundren's goods to the town. They then moved on to the Lionshield Coster to sell a jade statue they recovered from the Cragmaw Cave. The owner, Linene Graywind, told them it was worth 40gp. Gareth was able to persuade her to pay 50gp for him, and the party left happy. Upon returning to the inn, Gundren gave each party member 25gp for rescuing him. By the evening they noticed that the people in town that know Gundren, had a lot more respect for the PCs.

The party decided to recruit some fighters, and, in addition, see if anyone approached them hoping to gain some renown by helping. During this time they were approached by Anlow, a woodsman in the area that was willing to help in order to help remove any threats from the area. The bard, Cale, that was in the Stonehill Inn performing approached the party saying he wished to join the venture as it would make a good story. Finally, a young woman approached the party, sneaking up on them, and expressed an interest in joining. Nefresil expressed his interest in not hiring her. She was unwilling to give a reason for wanting to join the party other than for gold, and that did not sit well with him. Gareth agreed and they politely declined her services. In addition to Anlow and Cale, the players were able to hire 2 fighters; Daylen and Feck.

DM Recap

This session started out with a discussion about the world change that I sprung on the players last session. I won't get into that, see the previous post entitled Change and New Worlds for more information. Once it was decided to move back to Forgotten Realms and retcon the previous session away things went smoothly. I was not really prepared to run anything, but since it was mostly planning that occurred, I decided to go ahead and wing it. Once again the players have decided to employ hirelings to help them clear out Wave Echo Cave. After some discussion, we decided to have the players each run 1 of the hirelings, specifically the 2 fighters. This was to prevent my as the DM monopolizing the combat.

Loot and XP

No loot or XP was awarded for this session. The players were awarded some loot in game for clearing out the cave. The received 600cp, 110sp, and a Jade statue.

Change and New Worlds

Well, things seem to have changed in the game yesterday. I had a discussion with my players prior to the session, and I found out that changing the world on them was not received very well. They felt that the move was jarring and severing their backgrounds and taking them away from everything they knew took them out of the game. We talked about what could be done to salvage the game so that it does not just fall apart. There were a couple of solutions.

First, we could just keep going forward and hope that things got better. While the easiest of the solutions, it had the most potential to go wrong. What happens if they players are not able to get invested again? What if they do not feel that they belong in the world? While this would be the easiest for me in that I had material ready, and had been doing some world building, it was not the best solution.

Second, we could take a step back out of game, and make slight changes to the characters so they were no longer strangers in a strange land. This was a better solution than the first option, as it would allow me to continue to use the material I had, and would allow the players to make the necessary connections for their characters.

Third, we could hand wave the previous session away, and pick back up in he Forgotten Realms with the players and their group on their way back to Phandalin. This would render all of my world preparation worthless, but would allow the players original character ideas to continue to be used.

After much discussion we decided on the third option. The players leaned towards wanting to go back to Forgotten Realms with their characters. Did this make some of my preparation material worthless? Sure. Was I upset by the decision? Not in the slightest. I want everyone to have fun, and if this is what helps the players to have fun, then I am 100% on board with it.

The Harrowing of Duranth I

The session started with the party leaving the Cragmaw Hideout after having been victorious over the goblins and rescuing Sildar Hallwinter. Sildar was in bad shape, but he would live. Since it was late at night the party decided to make camp for the night a few miles away from the cave. The party setup watches, and began resting for the night. During the second watch, Nefresil heard a voice in his head. It said, "My lords, I am glad I have finally found you. Time is running short, and I need your help. Seek Kilburn." During this, Nefresil noticed no reaction from Nigel that he heard anything. After the message Nefresil fell unconscious.

Nefresil and Gareth awoke in a field of grass about a 100 yards from a road. No one was with them and the landscape appeared completely changed. There was a road that was paved with stones that ran east to west. There was a city to their west that was barely visible. To their southwest there was a massive purple dome, that appeared to be magical in nature. If it was truly magical, then this was an arcane working larger than the party had ever even heard of, let alone witnessed.

A caravan was making its way along the road towards the city. The party decided to meet with the cart and see if they could learn any information. The merchants, while not forthcoming with much valuable information, were at least helpful. The party rode towards the city which they learned was named Duranth. They also learned that the merchant had been selling Fade Berries to a neighboring city. There was a small mercenary group guarding the caravan as it travelled. Upon entering the city, the merchant handing a pouch to the guards, and the guards removed an emblem from each of the wagons. Upon entering the city, the merchant bid farewell to the party, and suggested an inn named The Wooden Raven.

Since it was around mid-day, Nefresil suggested they walk around the city a bit to get the lay of the land. They made their way around the city and found a variety of shops and businesses in the city. The saw where the castle was located. The found that the city was divided in half by a river, but that it spanned to both sides of the river. They were a little surprised that there was no bridge, but instead ferries across the river. Even more surprising was that the ferries appeared to be free. They ventured to the other side of the city, and found much the same on the western side of the city, minus a castle. Upon finding the docks, they noticed many ships sitting just outside of the port sporting the same banner that flew at the castle and on the city walls, a rampant lion on a field of clover. Upon inspection Nefresil noted that the ships with the lion banner were warships, and strategically placed in the harbor to prevent any ship from coming or going if necessary.

The party made their way to The Wooden Raven and upon attempting to get a meal found that the coins they had were not going to be accepted. The innkeeper showed them that in Duranth the coins were triangular, and that he would not accept foreign coins. He suggested the party find a money changer. They went back into the city to a building that had a sign showing a set of scales and a pair of coins. The man inside looked closely at the gold and silver pieces that Gareth produced, and said they were worth 1 and a half of the triangular pieces, of the same kind, each. He would change over any of the coins for 10%. The party agreed and changed 220 silver into 33 gold triangles. The money changer took 3 of the triangles and left the party with 30. Satisfied the party left the establishment.

Not long after leaving Gareth noticed that they were being followed, and a little later two men came into view in from of them in an alley. The man behind told the party to give up their money and they would not be harmed. Nefresil refused, and turned himself to be back to back with Gareth. Nefresil hit the first man in the stomach with an arrow, while Gareth hit one of the others with a crossbow bolt in the thigh. The three men advanced upon the party and took swings with their short swords. Nefresil took 1 hit to the arm, and Gareth took two hits, one to each side of his torso. Nefresil dropped his bow, and unsheathed is short swords. He hit the man in front of him with a swing, pulling it at the last minute to ensure the man lived. He then swung himself around to be between Gareth and the other two men, and hit the one that had a crossbow bolt sticking out of his thigh. At this point two more men entered the alley from each side and converged upon the party. These were liveried in clover with a rampant lion on the chest. They quickly dispatched the other two men, keeping them alive, as a well-trained group of guards would.

The party explained what happened to the guards. The squad leader understood and apologized for taking so long to get to the fight. Upon having his men left the man that Nefresil laid low, and fine dagger fell from the man's body. The squad leaded inspected it and informed the party that the man was in fact a guard squad leader himself. He thanked the party for stopping the man, and had his team haul away the 3 bodies. Nefresil cast Cure Wounds on Gareth, and they made their way back to The Wooden Raven.

With some of the local coins in hand, the innkeeper brought meals and drink for the party. The meal consisted of mutton covered in an electric blue sauce. Nefresil has Fade Berry Ale and Gareth had the Fade Berry Wine. Neither had ever had anything quite so exquisite as that meal. They noticed that everyone was having the Fade Berry food and drink and were surprised. They expected this to be something that only nobles ate.

They invited the innkeeper to sit with them, and asked him about the magical dome in the southwest. They were told that it has been there for as long as the innkeeper could remember. Behind the dome is a desert known by a couple of names such as The Anvil of the Gods or The Lifeless Expanse. The innkeeper told them that while he was not certain if a person could pass through the dome, he has never heard of anything coming out of the dome. The also learned that to the east along the road lies the city of Ormskirk, which is part of the Duchy of Duranth. An unpaved merchant's trail leads south from the Duranth Road to the city of Gilamore, which is also in the Duchy of Duranth. The Duranth Road leads west to the city of Caelkirk, which is the capital of the kingdom.

The party also learned a little more about the politics of the local region. Duke William Pyder is loved by his people, and takes the time to understand the needs of the commoners. They learned that even though he is human, he is married to an Elf named Elora Qimaer. They have a son named Brenden, who is a priest of the Goddess Tekoh. The Duchy lies in the kingdom of Karthang, which is ruled by King Tholan.

The party decided to rest for the night, and were awoken by the innkeeper in the morning. He said that the Duke was downstairs asking to speak with them. The party went downstairs where the met the Duke. He apologized for the attack and offered them rooms in his castle in redress. The party quickly accepted, but while packing their bags decided they may not want to tell the Duke about how they are not from around here. They travelled, on foot, back to the castle where the Duke left them with his Seneschal, who showed them to their rooms. The Duke requested that they dine with him and his wife that evening.

After putting their belongings in their new rooms, the party decided to head down to the Ducal library to research Kilburn. They spent some time looking through scrolls and texts and found that the word Kilburn was Dwarven. Upon some further research they found a passage that mentioned Kilburn. They learned that Kilburn is an item that was created by the Dwarves long ago, and blessed by the 8 Goddesses of the world. What its intended purpose was, is unclear, but death and destruction followed this item around. The party was unable to find any information about its current whereabouts.

DM Recap

I felt like the session went well. The players had no idea where they were, and so were being careful to mask this. I feel like they made some good decisions, but by the end realized that what they are trying to do may not be as straight forward as they initially thought. I also began to use rolled damage instead of static damage this session. While there was not much combat the difference was certainly felt with Nefresil taking minimum damage on the 1 attack that hit him, and Gareth taking maximum damage both of the times he was hit. This caused him to drop to 1 HP, and caused Nefresil to turn and help.

Loot and XP

No loot was gained during this session. I will wait to award any XP for the fight with the ruffians until a better spot in the story.

Static Damage vs Rolled Damage

After session 2, I discussed with my players my use of static damage for creatures. They asked if that was how 5e did damage. I explained that I opted to use static damage for the first level or two as a way to aid survivability for the PCs. While I don't mind if PCs die to their own poor choices, I don't want a TPK due to variance.

As an example a goblin does 1d6+2 damage on a hit with a Scimitar. Using static damage that is 5 damage on a hit. If the damage were rolled it would be 3-8 damage on a hit. At first level the PCs have about 13 HP, so they are able to take 3 hits with static damage. With rolled damage they could take 2-5 hits.

I read a lot of articles and forum posts about this before making the decision to use static damage in my campaign. After the discussion with my players, I will move to rolled damage starting in session 3. They felt that it was easier to meta-game the static damage, and that the rolled damage would prevent that type of meta-gaming, in addition to bring more suspense to combat.