The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 6 - Stormfront

The prep...

"About time we show up!"

We finally get to the orcs invading the ruins. I had their stat blocks cooked up for a few weeks now. For this session, I did want to give the players some additional loot. So I pulled out the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and used the Individual Treasure: Challenge 0-4 table (p: 136). Orcs are challenge rating 1/2, so I rolled on the table. One orc rolled a ridiculous amount of platinum, so I took that amount and shifted it to an equivalent gemstone from the 50gp Gemstones table (p: 134).

I also gave each orc a visual identity, so it would be easy for the party to identify targets. This is very important when you aren't playing with miniatures. It adds to the storytelling and allows the players to pick which target they want. I didn't do this with the ochre jellies, (and I probably should have). But since I had three orcs swarming the party here, it might come into play.

I figured that the group was going to chat with the dwarves some more after the battle, and maybe even take a short rest. They may make it back to Phandalin, but I had my doubts. With that in mind, I didn't prep too much else. I pulled the new quest cards out (three more). I reviewed the stats for Inverna and made sure I had all the notes ready. We dove right in.

The story...

Speak up! I can't hear you!

As we started I brought up the fact that the trio hadn't received the Sending Stones magic item that they were promised. These are essentially fantasy walkie talkies that have one use per day. I told them we could do a little retcon and they could ask the dwarves about these. Instead this turned into a full blown discussion about how to split loot with the dwarves. The Druid thought giving the dwarves a few of the gems would be a good idea, in case they wanted to meet up with them later. The Rogue wanted to take all the gems and just pretend they didn't find anything of value (nice role playing there). They asked Inverna, and she just said she didn't care, as long as they didn't cut her out from her fair share.

Eventually they didn't really make a solid decision. But slept on it. So we jumped forward to the next morning with the orcs hurrying ahead of the storm toward the ruins. The Druid rolled a high perception check and got a good description of the figures. When she got back to the group with the description, Inverna confirmed they were orcs, and was ready to fight. I pulled up the map of the ruins and showed them the approach. The Druid player looked it over and asked about the thick wall in front of the temple. Was that a 5 foot opening with a door? Sure was. She suggested they bottleneck the orcs into that area. Inverna loved it and volunteered to be bait. She can't wait to kick some orc ass. The Druid and the Rogue would be on either side of the doorway and use ranged attacks. Since the Rogue's crossbow string snapped in the previous battle, she was going to throw daggers and large rubble. The Druid had her spells ready. The dwarves retreated into the temple and would hold the door open if the characters wanted to retreat.

So the plan proceeded. The characters tried to be stealthy but one of them failed the roll and the orcs heard them, and started creeping forward. But once they saw Inverna, the leader (one with a necklace of elf ears around his neck [ewwww said the players]) cries out "Death to Knife Ears!" Yeah I borrowed that from Dragone Age but I always liked that epithet for elves. As the orc hurtled forward, javelin ready, The Druid cast Entanglement in the area where the orcs were rushing. This caused the roots and plants to erupt from the ground and wrap around the orcs. Two were immediately ensnared. The one at the back with a broken tusk rolled a natural 1 and started shrieking like a baby which cracked the players up. But the leader with the gory necklace was strong enough to power through. He hurled his javelin yelling "TALOS!" He missed Inverna, but kept rushing toward her.

The battle continued, and the Entanglement  spell worked great. Combined with the bottleneck, the orcs were unable to swarm into the area. With three players working on them with attacks and spells, they fell one by one. Broken Tusk rolled a natural 1 two more times, and I described that his efforts to escape only further entangled him, until he was prone, covered in vines and screaming like a baby. But he got fierce enough when Inverna walked over to him to finish him off.

That strategy worked so well that none of the player characters were injured! Only Inverna took a hit from a javelin, and she was tough enough to keep fighting after that. The party pulled the loot, and decided to give the healthy amount of coins to the dwarves, instead of the more valuable gems. It was a good compromise that the players felt pretty good about. I did make them sweat a little bit when the dwarves mentioned an empty stone box in an pillar (where the gem hoard was hidden) and how it was odd that it was empty. The dwarves suspect the players are holding out on them, but they also just watched the players slaughter three very strong orcs, so they aren't in any mood to pick a fight.

The storm hit the ruins just as the players started on their way to Phandalin via Umbrage Hill, which is on the way. The Druid used her Detect Magic spell to see if necklace they found on the dwarf skeleton was magical. It wasn't. But here mechanical Goldfish WAS! I have plans for that little guy if they ever got to visit the gnomes.

The Rogue is always looking for these.

At Umbrage Hill they met with Adabra again. She could sell them potions of healing, but they were 50 gold pieces. Really damn pricy. The characters couldn't afford those at this time. But they chatted with Adabra, enjoyed some tea. They asked Adabra about the wandering druid Paellia, and told her about the message Paellia left. Adabra felt that meant that Paellia was going to be in Conyberry in five days time. I also had Adabra hint that she and Harbin had a previous relationship, and may still like each other. So the players had a bit of fun teasing Adabra.

It was still raining as they headed back to Phandalin. Now here I ran into a bit of trouble, because I had thought a little bit about what happened in the town while the party was away, but I didn't really plan it out fully. I didn't think they'd get here during this session. So once again, I had to improvise a little... and very soon a lot.

So I described how the town square had a huge series of massive claw marks torn into it. One nearby building was partially destroyed. The town was deathly quiet, only the pounding rain could be heard. I figured the players would head to the inn or directly to Harbin to find out what happened. Instead they decided to visit the Coster - the only option I didn't really plan for.

So I panicked a little bit. I ended up pulling out the adventure book (I was so flustered I didn't even use my tablet which would have been faster). I try very hard not to pull any books out during the game, because it slows things down. But yeah I goofed here. I eventually pulled up the name of the owner of the Coster and her inventory. Of course she has one of those elaborate Forgotten Realms names, so I adjusted it too Lillian. Luckily the players liked her immediately. She volunteered to send a message to Neverwinter for them (they discussed a dwarves archeologist who may know and pay to learn more about the ruins). She also grumbled about Haylia, who the characters already don't like or trust. She sold them replacement bow strings and a few more arrows for the Rogue.

"No, I don't trust Haylia."

Lillian also told them about the dragon attack. It wasn't so much an attack as it was a demand for tribute and adoration. This is a young white dragon. I'm playing him like a bully who isn't all that bright. White dragons are notoriously dim witted, but quick to anger. This one was forced out of his home to the east by cultists. So he is grumpy already. But he sees the town as easy pickings and feels he can bully them into getting free food and loot. Which he can.

Lillian explained how he made his demands, and was going to take the local goat as a snack. But Donnabella, the aspiring magician who thinks she is a unicorn attacked the dragon with a simple fire spell and ran away with the goat. The dragon was angry and smashed a building on top of Donnabella, crushing her legs. The goat got away. The dragon laughed and said that they see what happens to those who defy him. He said he'd come back soon and expect a cow, or horse or willing victim - or some treasure to add to his horde. If they failed him, he would destroy the village a building at a time.

After hearing that story, the characters headed to visit Harbin. Once again I had quite a bit of fun playing the blustering town master hidden behind the door. He paid them for the job well done. They teased him about Adabra. He told them of the dragon attack in his own blowhard way. "And lo, upon wings of death, there came a white dragon, and he did smite the earth with terrible force!" They reviewed the new quests on the job board. They decided to head to Butterskull Ranch by way of Conyberry, so they could meet up with Paellia. We ended with the group heading to the Inn to check in on Donnabella and get some rest before their next adventure.

The post...

Peanut Butter Skull Ranch Cookies!

This was another very fun session. The money talk at the start went on a bit longer than I would have liked. But the Druid and the Rogue are learning more about how different their characters are. The Druid wants to play fairly straight with everyone. The Rogue is greedy and now needs money to pay off Haylia, so she is willing to bend any rules to get her hands on money.

I have to say I'm really proud of the players for taking the time to come up with a plan using the map, and really working it over on the orcs. It showed them that good planning can make or break a battle. They used the rest of the session for some solid roleplaying, and information gathering.

My big lesson is to be a little more prepared with those NPCs, if possible. I had come up with a little bit about Lillian over at the Coster's a few sessions back. But they characters start out so well equipped they didn't need to visit her. It would have probably taken me a little less time to dig through my notes to find what I had for her (which looking at it now, wasn't all that much different from how I played her). I think I got more flustered than I should have, and could have played it off a bit better. In other words, it annoyed me more than it annoyed the players.

I've not dropped hints about Talos the storm god (which The Druid was able to recall with a very high History roll). I had mentioned Butterskull Ranch early on in the adventure, when the characters first entered the inn and ordered bread and cheese. They saw Tobin the Innkeeper carving out a piece of cheese from a skull shaped lump of cheddar. He told them all about this special Skull cheese (the players dubbed it head cheese), and how he hadn't seen anyone from Butterskull ranch in a while and his stock of the cheese was getting low. So it was nice to see the payoff kick in here.

So Coneyberry has an adventure tied to it, and I think that and meeting with Paellia will take up the next session. So I won't have to dive into Butterskull Ranch yet. But I should be prepared for both, just in case the Coneyberry adventure doesn't pull them in. In either case, this was a fun one, and a little bit of a break from the darkness of the dungeon delving in the previous session.

Up next...

Session 7: Along the Triboar Trail