The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 13 - Of Rewards and Reminders

The prep...

How emerald is your enclave?

In the previous session, the duo of the Druid and Rogue (along with Inverna the cowgirl elf) dealt with traps and magic in the Shrine of Savras. This session, it was time for some town based encounters in Phandalin. It felt like I had been giving the Druid a lot to do with her backstory. Paellia was her contact and link to the Emerald Enclave, if she wants to pursue it. The dragon disrupting the natural order plays directly into her character. But for the Rogue we didn’t really have anything going on. 

It was time to change that. I decided to have a bounty hunter arrive in town looking for her. I planned on adding a bit of intrigue, as Haylia's goons will being spying on them. And if they don’t directly go to talk to Haylia (they’ve been avoiding her each time they return to town), then she will make a point of inviting them. 

I also determined that her thugs will learn about the Rogue’s bounty and figure they can take it themselves, so I will have them attempt to ambush the party, but only after they have gotten rid of Inverna. I added a new thug to the group, and rolled for some loot on them. I also rolled up stats for the Bounty Hunter. I based her off the Dark Elf princess from Record of Lodoss War, a fantasy anime series from 1990 which was based on an AD&D campaign diary. My Druid player will certain pick up on the reference, but it will make for a great new nemesis for the Rogue. I used the Elite Drow from the Monster Manual as a starting point and made some tweaks from there.

Other than that, I just have to prep all my townie voices. They will be interacting with Harbin for sure, and probably Barthen. That means a new item for the treasure barrel. I’ll also see if I can work in one more NPC I’ve been wanting to bring into the game, Pickled Pete. So with all that lined up I figured I was ready for the session in Phandalin.

The story...

Obvious halfling spy is obvious.

I started the party just arrriving in the little town early in the morning. They decided to head over to Barthen’s first, to see what was in the treasure barrel of course. As they moved toward the shop, I asked what their passive perception was, and rolled behind the screen… a 3. So the spy, one of Haylia's goons was watching them, very poorly. He is super obvious as he catches sight of them and then hurries away. The Rogue tries to intercept him, but he rolls well on stealth and she loses sight of him. They glimpse the caught was of a short statured figured in a cloak. They didn’t recognize him at all.

At Barthan’s they chat a bit with the shop keeper (me doing my best John Candy, imitation) and he talks a bit about the upcoming feast day, and how excited he is. He also talk a bit about the Loggers Camp provisions, which tie to an upcoming adventure. The pair reaches into the treasure barrel and finds the warm dagger scabbard again (still their from the first session). They also find a petrified mouse. Yeah that is right from the Trinkets Table in the Player’s Handbook. Like everything else in the treasure barrel, this mouse has a one time use magical effect. If held like a gun he will shoot a fireball out of his mouth. If thrown, he will transform into a Giant Rat that will fight with the party. Yeah it’s silly, but this game hasn’t been all that serious. And the petrified mouse is actually pretty damn hilarious because it is an unintentional call back to the old Star Wars game that both players played with me back in the 90s. Seriously, one of them played a little kid character who had a petrified rat as a pet, and she would pretend to shoot stormtroopers with it.

The ultimate treasure barrel!

Anyway, the players were grossed out by the mouse, but finally pulled out the dagger sheath. I said it had some runes inscribed on it in a glowing red writing neither recognized. The Druid rolled a very high History check and I told her that she suspected that it might be Primordial, but she couldn’t be sure without further research at the library in Neverwinter. They paid for the sheath (1 gold piece) and the Rogue kept it. They decided to visit the Coster and see if Lillian had a dagger that might fit. 

They chatted a bit with Lillian and she mentioned the feast day as well, and how the whole town was excited about it. Unfortunately she didn’t have a dagger that fit perfectly, but the Rogue bought one that was a close fit. But they were still nervous about putting a dagger into the sheath. How did I traumatize them so much already? 

They headed over to Harbin to get paid (and be very annoyed by his antics). The Druid tried to be funny and pretend to be a cat scratching at the door. She forgot that Harbin had a cat as well (I had him talking to “Mr. Whiskers” in a previous interaction). So the cat came to the door and purred and scratched back. The players were delighted and had some fun with that for a bit. Eventually Harbin arrived. Read the letter from Big Al, and then slid the 100 gold pieces under the door, a piece at a time. The cat helping sometimes. 

Harbin also mentioned the festival as well as the arrival of a dwarven scholar celebrity. Fargrim Rakenkrak - No I didn’t make that up. I rolled it up from the Dwarven Names table at the back of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. And I love it. And so did the players. Harbin mentioned that Haylia had arranged it. The players didn’t catch this (or if they did, they didn’t mention it). But they had mentioned seeking out a scholar in a previous session. Haylia has been spying on them.

Based on Piccolo Pete, or
based upon Pile-on Pete
of MST3K fame?

The players discussed what adventure they wanted to try next. Because they wanted to be around for the Feast Day in five days, they decided to take the shortest quest - the trip to Gnomengarde.  There they needed to talk with the local gnomes and see if any of their inventions or magic could help with the dragon. It was the closest and they figured it would be the easiest to complete. They headed to the Inn to pay Inverna her share of the fee. At the Inn the met Pickled Pete, another hireable NPC. I used my grizzled old prospector voice and played up his love of drink. I had fun bantering with the players and having him chat with the Innkeeper Tobin (but man switching from Grizzled prospector to Irish accent was tough). I also dropped that Pete can speak the orcish language, something that may come in handy if the ladies want to have more dealings with the cultists of Talos. 

Tobin showed off his new glowing mugs, of gnomish design. He knew a little bit about the gnomes, and told the players about the difference between Rock gnomes and Forest gnomes. He also told them that the gnomes in the area were bit isolated and eccentric (but nearly everyone in this adventure has been eccentric, so that isn’t saying much). After the players bid farewell to Inverna (she was going to gather some strong hands to head back to Butterskull Ranch to help out Al). The duo decided that they wanted to bring Donnabella the magical unicorn with them to Gnomengarde. Tobin said she was helping with preparations for the feast day in the main square.

The Rogue was not going to play gently
with the spy.

So the players went there to seek her out… and saw the spy again (seriously he was rolling so badly. Worst SPY EVER). This time the Rogue got the jump on him and chased the man down. Up close she was able to see that he was a halfling. He tried to bluff his way out of it, but the Rogue wasn’t having any of that. She use Thaumaturgy to make her eyes glow with an infernal light (being a Tiefling she is already pretty scary), and she rolled great on an Intimdation check with advantage). He revealed that Haylia wanted to know when they got back and wanted to know what they were doing in town. He said that a messenger came from Neverwinter, and that message made Haylia realize that she needed to talk to the Rogue as soon as possible. The message of course is the Bounty Hunter, but the halfling didn’t say that. The Rogue literally kicked his butt and told him to go away or she would gut him next time. The Rogue then returned to the Druid and updated her on the meeting. 

At this point I thought they would go to Haylia and find out what was going on… but no! They are determined to avoid her! Now I don’t want to force them to do anything they don’t want to do. But I’m trying to work an element of the Rogue’s backstory into this. I’m going to have them meet with Haylia one more time. If they really seem resistant to her offers, then I’ll just drop the whole plot line. I mean, the Bounty Hunter might still come after them, but I’ll wait to see how they react to that.

"And he's not slimy at all."

So instead of going to see Haylia they find Donnabella and ask her to come with them to Gnomengarde. I played her like a bit of a fan girl, she looks up to these two fearsome adventuring ladies, and now they want her to come along. And to visit magical gnomes! It was like the cool kids inviting you to sit at their table during lunch! That is like the greatest day ever for her. The players really like Donnabella and seemed really pleased to have her coming along with them. She also offers a nice contrast to the no-nonsense Inverna too. 

After that, they did some more shopping. Chatted a bit more with Tobin about the feast day (and Pickled Pete about adventuring). Then they headed up to the room - again, no visit to Haylia. But I had one last trick up my sleeve. As they got ready to turn in, a winged serpent arrived at the window. I had it open its mouth wide and Haylia’s voice come out (that uncanny moment disturbed the players). She wondered why they were so rude as to ignore her invitation. She has very important information for them, and will still be at the Exchange for an hour. If they don’t come, “then I can’t guarantee your safety.” We ended with the ominous phrase from the snake’s mouth, and then it turned and flew out into the night.

The post...

Oh come now darlings, I'm not all that
sinister, am I?

So it was a fun role playing heavy session. Lots of information thrown into the mix here. I’m building up the feast day, so I need to come up with some fun stuff to make it worth the build up. I have a few ideas I’m bouncing around. 

I think that the players are really enjoying all the personalities in the village. As much as they groan and roll their eyes when dealing with Harbin, I can tell they do get a kick out of his antics (and his stuffy British naval officer voice). But they have really taken to Tobin, Donnabella and even Barthen. The fact that they are avoiding Haylia like the plague tells me that I made her just slippery and sinister enough - maybe too much. 

And while the session did feel a bit fluffy, it was also a nice break from some of the intense stuff they were dealing with at Butterskull and the Shrine. Originally I was going to have Haylia’s thugs attempt to capture the Rogue, but the players had Inverna with them for so long, it thwarted them. I might have them give it a try after the meeting with Haylia, but we’ll see how that goes. 

So next session is one more meeting with Haylia, maybe a fight with the thugs, and then off to Gnomengarde. I’ve been looking forward (and dreading) that adventure. It has some murder mystery elements to it, and I’m not sure how they players will handle it. The Druid player is a HUGE fan of true crime, so she might be up for that, but we’ll see.

Up next

Session 14: Scum and Villainy