Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

Since it's been a while between Game Session posts, you may want to refresh yourself with the last session, here , or review all previous Game Sessions, here . As mentioned in the previous session recap, our small party of heroes had been tasked with journeying to the Shrine of Sir Arden Brightheart to look for a group of pilgrims who had apparently gone missing recently. In the shrine, they found some of the pilgrims under a magical compulsion. Since these pilgrims posed no threat, the party left them alone and journeyed further into the shrine... Continuing down the well crafted hall, the party turned a corner and found a door along one wall and huge, ornate double doors at the end of the hall. Checking out the single side door, they found it locked, but could hear noises coming from within. After "picking the lock" forcefully with a dagger, they opened the door. Inside was a room dedicated to Sir Arden Brightheart's greatest achievement, the defeat of the nec...

Some time after the events of the previous game session , Duncan is given a task by Lady Miranda, his superior in the Church of Kiri-Jolith. It seems a group of lay followers of the church have recently gone missing during a pilgrimage to the shrine of Arden Brightheart. The party is several days overdue, and Lady Miranda would like Duncan and his friends to quietly check out the shrine and its caretaker, Jarson Tender, and find what happened to the missing people. At this point, the party consists of: Duncan - Cleric of Kiri-Jolith Ataraxia - Monk Rainos - Apprentice mage Arden Brightheart was a legendary Knight of Solamnia around the time of Huma Dragonbane. His shrine sits on the sight of his greatest battle, destroying the necro-lich Dread Watcher. The site also serves as his tomb, as the brave knight did not survive the battle. To aid the party, she acquired the services of Rainos, a local apprentice mage. Rainos' mentor, Santos, is a powerful and well respected mem...

After the events of the last session , the PCs made their way back to the town of Saltmarsh. As an extra reward for rescuing and returning Oswald and Humbert Fastralli, their father, Conte Fastralli, held a private dinner in their honor at The Silver Raven, one of the nicest restaurants and gentelmen's clubs in the city. Also at the dinner was Pinch, a private agent of the Fastralli family who also had done the family great service, though neither Pinch, nor the Fastralli clan were willing to elaborate on just what Pinch had done for the Fastralli's. Before the dessert course, Conte Fastralli and his sons were called away on business by one of his attendants, but bid everyone else to stay and enjoy to restaurant's hospitality on him Later, while everyone was enjoying a creme pastry dish with a heated chocolate drink, there was a mild commotion from one of the upstairs rooms. Hoskin Lashti, the owner of The Silver Raven, went to investigate. A short time afterward, he sh...

After the last session , Duncan and Ataraxia found themselves in an empty cave, having cleared out the bat swarm that lived here. In a small make-shift cell, they found a young human male, who had been gagged and his hands and fingers tightly bound. After freeing the thankful young man, he said that his name was Embreth, that he was a young apprentice wizard, and had been taken prisoner recently by the kobolds while in route to Saltmarsh (he was on the same road carriage that Erik Frause was on). In addition to the kobolds here, the leaders of the tribe were actually a nasty hobgoblin called Crookneck, and a few other hobgoblins who served as his lieutenants. Embreth also mentions that two other humans he had been traveling with were somewhere else in the cavern. Embreth was isolated as Crookneck clearly discerned that the young man was a mage. Though Crookneck took the mage's spell book, and most of his spell components, Embreth still had enough components to cast a few of hi...

After the events of the last adventure , Duncan and Ataraxia decided to follow up on the rumors they had previously hear about even more kobold activity in the area. Traveling northward in the Southern Dargaard Mountains, the duo came across a lone man hanging upside down from a tree calling out for help. The man appeared exhausted and weakened from being out in the elements for days. After being rescued, the old man explained that he was a passenger on a road carriage heading for Saltmarsh. The man, who identified himself as Erik Frause, was in route to the city on behalf of his employee, Diam uth Wathor. He traveled with several other people, including a young boy, a pair of men he recognized as Oswald and Hubert Fastralli (sons of a wealthy gem merchant from Saltmarsh), and the carriage driver. When the carriage was attacked, Erik was thrown from the vehicle and beaten by a group of kobolds. They then stripped him and hung him upside down from the tree. Erik was able to see so...

So, after the finale of the Dragon Island saga, our gaming group had some changes in real life. One of the players was moving out of town, one seemed to be more interested in running a Mage campaign, and so on. That put me back to the unenviable position of having to rebuild the group. Luckily, I did have one player still around (Mike), and after a couple of months of searching I had one more. I was hoping to get at least three to restart the game, but rather than keep the two I did have waiting around (and potentially dropping out before I even got started), I decided to start with just two PCs (along with an NPC character I would run as needed). Even though Mike already had a character in the game (Hunter, a 7th level ranger), I didn't want to start this game at such a high level, so I asked Mike if he would bring in a new 1st level character for the time being. The idea was that when this new party (along with any new players) reached a high enough level, we could have th...

If you've been following along with the various game sessions and specifically the last Dragon Island session ( here ), then the start of this entry may seem a little jarring. Here's the real world story. In real life, one of the players, Eric (who played the kender thief Theo) was leaving town. He was starting law school out of state and would be leaving on a fixed date. I had planned for this adventure to be the capstone for the first campaign arc, and I was eager to wrap the adventure and the arc in the available time left. It seemed right that Eric, who had been a long time player (second only to Mike in seniority) should see the end of all the hard work they and their characters had put in to the game. Unfortunately, more real world events got in the way and I ended up not having the number of sessions that I thought I would. Still wanting to make this finale take place before Eric left for law school, I borrow the trope of the black-out time jump that would take the P...

After leaving Darsov at the basecamp last session , the party returned to the mountain lair of the black dragon Scourge. At the end of one of the crude hallways, they found a secret passage that lead into another shifting hallway, this one ending in large cavern with a pool of still water taking up much of the room. In the center of the pool was a old chest that looked like it had been dragged through the Maelstrom to end up here in the room, sitting on a ledge just underneath the water line. After Jes climbs into the water, which is up toward his shoulders. He starts making his way toward the submerged chest, but before he reaches the object, a hideous water naga rises to confront him. Theo, in an attempt to protect the party on the shore, pours oil on the water and sets it on fire. Three other naga rise from the water depths of the lake, but none of them move to attack. The naga soon reveal that they are the protectors of the "greatest treasure of the Stone Hammer clan....

It's been a while since I wrote up a game session post. You may want to refresh yourself with the current story line by checking out these past posts . After meeting with Marzena, the dragon sage , and securing passage to the rumored island where the Black Scourge once made it's lair, the party set off... The ship's captain was heading for trade on several islands around the Maelstrom, putting the ship close to the Elian Wilds. The island, home to several jungle barbarian tribes wasn't one of the stops on the trading tour, so the party had to swim ashore on their own. If the party was alive in three week's time when the ship passed by again, they would be picked up, otherwise, there was a small trading outpost on the far side of the island where they could get passage back to the main land. The party heading to the island consisted of: Theo (kender thief) Hunter (half-elven ranger) Adow (human mage) Jessriel (human monk) Everyone had been previously ...

Several days after returning to Blackwater Keep , when Marzena was feeling better, the party got to talk with the wizard about the Black Scourge and the bone shards still embedded in their bodies. Marzena told them what little she knew. It seems there were various mentions of this elder dragon, a piece here, a paragraph there, in various documents and journals she'd come across. Interestingly, one of the most detailed accounts of the Black Scourge came from one of the most unreliable--a kender tale. Note: 'kender tales' is a krynish euphemism for a story where the veracity of the details is highly suspect. It seems that Brother Eglin, a librarian at the Temple of Gilean in Flotsam, had been corresponding with Marzena on the subject of dragons, along with all the official documents and papers he could find, he sent along a collection of children's stories, all featuring a young kender girl who gets into one mischief after another. In one fragment of a story, the...

As the party listened to the offer put forth by the jarak-sinn shaman, Jesswin asked the question everyone was thinking. "Why do you want this?" "His pride threatens all the 'folk. I want our tribe to live, Shukak only wants power for himself," the shaman confessed. Jesswin talked quietly with the other party members before speaking again. "We may be able to make a deal, but we need one other thing from you?" "What do you need 'soft-skin'?" "You must leave the area and never return." After some time mulling it over, the shaman replied, "We will leave." As the party moved to free the prisoners in this room, they could see no female, let alone a wizard among them. The shaman added, "Shukak keeps the female in his chamber." The party continued to tend the prisoners in this room as as Jesswin continued speaking with the jarak-sinn. "Where is his chambers?" "Jus...

Artwork by aaronsimscompany on deviantART As the jarak-sinn made his threat , the party watched the sleeping, helpless form of Adow prone under the large sharp claws of this brutish leader. "You move; he dies!" the lizardman repeated. The blood from his earlier wounds covered his body in an inky sheen and left the creature weakened. Unsure if they could subdue the jarak-sinn before he attacked the mage, they kept talking; stalling. "What do you want?" "Leave here," the lizardman rasped. As he spoke, the party could see Adow had awakened but was unable to move from under the claws of the beast looming above him. "Ok... let us just take our friend and we'll leave..." After a few tense moments, the hulking jarak-sinn took a tentative step back. The party, in response, relaxed and began to sheath their weapons. Soon the jarak-sinn had retreated and the party was able to help Adow up. They quickly made for the exit and out for the lizard folk la...

I know I'm late to the game, but I've recently been listening to the D&D Podcast episodes that are recordings of a game Chris Perkins ran for a couple of well known people. I resisted downloading these episodes as I once tried listening to a podcast of another group's game session. The podcast (that should not be named) was difficult to listen to as there were 8 players, all talking over each other, the sound quality was subpar with plenty of background noise and different volume levels, resulting in a well-intentioned, but unlistenable experience. I'm glad to say, the D&D podcast is completely the opposite. With only a few players, great audio, and very distinctive voices from Chris and Wil Wheaton (one of the players), this is great to listen to and easy to know who is talking. If you haven't heard it yet, check on the wizards website. There's two previous games currently available, and they are in the middle of posting parts of the third game session ...

The battle with the jarak-sinn who had confronted the party right after the Harpy attack , didn't last long. While the party defeated most of the attackers, one had managed to get away, escaping deeper into the lair of the jarak-sinn. Between the two recent fights, everyone was a little bloody and bruised and decided to take refuge in the nearby alcove in the tree-lair, considering it an easily defensible position. The first few hours were uneventful and the party starting thinking the night might go by without incident, that was not to be... The jarak-sinn, noticing that the most recent patrol hadn't returned and several other tribesmen had gone missing, started to worry about intruders. DM Note: (Behind the Scenes) Incidentally, the one lizardfolk who had gotten away died before being able to tell the others what exactly had happened, but the dead body was clearly an indication that it wasn't good. Later that night, Jes and Hunter, while on watch, heard the faint sounds o...

After leaving Blackwater Keep , the party journeyed into the Blackwater Swamp in search of Marzena and the soldiers kidnapped earlier by the jarak-sinn. artwork by scott2753 on deviantART In the swamp, the trails were hard to follow, but Hunter found enough tracks to keep the party moving in the general direction. The party sloshed through dirty water and damp high-ground for most of the day. As they looked for a camping location for the night, they came upon a stream. At first glance it appeared to be a safe place for rest and get fresh water, but looking around they noticed a bunch of small woodland creatures, all petrified into stone; they promptly found another place to camp. The night was damp, and as darkness descended, all manner of strange noise rose from the swamplands. Luckily for them, noise was the only thing they had to contend with. The next morning, the group continued their journey into the forest and arrived at the site of a huge cluster of inter-grown mangaroo trees...

After using the Gem of Amara to shatter the bones of the Black Scourge and disperse his ghostly form, the party spent some time with Greybear and the local druid circle resting and healing from their adventure. After a few days, they bid farewell to their druid friends and journeyed back to Dun Eamon for training and to seek out Elinda Bannon 's aid. The mage in residence for the town had helped the party in the past, and hopefully she could shed light on how to deal with the dragon's bone shrapnel still embedded in their bodies. While it didn't hurt, everyone, except for Jesriel, felt a slight sensation where the fragment was. By the time they returned to Dun Eamon, they found that Elinda was out of town for the next few weeks. The party used that time to get supplies and train in their various skills. At the same time, Adow was summoned by the Wizards of High Sorcery to take his Test, the results of which were sometimes fatal . When Elinda returned, Hunter, Theo and Jesr...