"You've all been hired by the trader Basko to escort a wagon of trade goods to the village of Greenest."
And so begins an Actual Play log of the D&D 5th
edition centerpiece campaign. As an
Actual Play thread, the spoilers for the campaign will be flying fast and
furious. All the usual warnings for
those who may play the campaign in the future apply from here on out.
The new gaming group started off the long-term campaign, A Tyranny of Dragons, this past Friday
with a classic kick start to the campaign – five strangers thrown together as guards for a shipment of supplies through bandit infested lands. Things have been heating up in the north of Faerun lately, with all sorts of unsavory types doing all manner of unsavory things, even along the most well traveled routes.
Our cast of characters:
- Raane Inontani, sickly half-elven
illusionist/diplomat, my own character
- Gilgamesh, pale teifling necromancer in dark
robes who tends to target opponent’s eyes with awide range of death bolt and
death touch spells
- Karren, beefy dragonborn fighter carrying a big
old sword
- Aramis, human tank style cleric of Helm
- Grim, an appropriately named human rogue/archer
|
Tiefling wizard with pale white
skin and jet black dreadlocks. |
Basko, the trader who hired the sausage party to run interference
for his driver – a friendly Halfling named Jeppo – clearly wanted a group that
covers all the bases. His guards include
one each of the four major roles, plus an added ‘faceman’ whose talents lie outside
of combat.
What should have been a routine wagon run quickly turned into the running of a kobold
gauntlet. While passing through a small farmstead
on the outskirts of their destination, a village called Greenest, the party’s
casual conversation was interrupted by a farmwife banging out the front door of
her home with several kobolds and a mastiff sized lizard-beast in hot pursuit. The plucky heroes saved the woman in short
order only to be ambushed from behind by more kobolds, this band led by a
purple robed maniac. The maniac warned the party that if they didn’t lay down
their arms and join in the glorious people’s future they would forever burn in
the fires of all dragonkind. The party put their arms down, right down through the center of the dragon's head symbol on the crazed cultist's chest.
For their part, the kobolds attempted to recruit the one
dragonborn member of the part, Karren.
What? Just because he’s
dragonborn he’s the only one worth recruiting?
Racist little bastards. At this point it isn’t entirely clear whether
or not they succeeded.
So. Cleanup. The housewife Shelley was quickly bundled
into the wagon, given the loot dropped by the kobolds – the least the party
could do to help the now widowed, childless, and farmless victim. Topping the next rise, the party spotted the
village of Greenest under attack. Purple
robed cultists and hordes of kobolds running around scaring the citizens,
burning homes, and engaging in wanton plunder, death, and destruction. A large blue dragon circled overhead,
blasting the central stone tower with lightning.
After a quick consult, the party elected to take the direct
route into town. The illusionist quickly
cast
alter self to appear as a purple
robed, order barking, maniac. This plan
worked well until the party entered the main square of the village, at which
point they blundered into a squad of kobolds chasing down several children and
an old man protected only by an injured peasant woman. Too much for the cleric of Helm, Aramis
charged into battle, scattering the kobolds and buying time for the civilians
to hop aboard the wagon. As a side note,
while bluffing the kobolds, Raane learned that the scaly little buggers were
under orders to capture as many children as possible. As a main note, the party wiped another
handful of kobolds off the face of Faerun.
High points of the fight:
- Grim has a deadly way with a bow, firing
repeated shots into crowded spaces and only hitting enemies each time
- Karren’s dragonbreath works just as well on
dragonkin as it does on humans
- Raane doesn’t seem too concerned about standing
on the front lines of a fight despite being the not-so-proud owner of a measly
4 HP
- Aramis might just be a cleric of Saint
Ineffective, missing on every attack role – on the other side of the coin, his
healing touch saved two party members from certain death
- Gilgamesh the mage is already dealing more
damage than the front line fighters, his chill
touch and witch bolt devastating
opposing spellcasters left and right
- Karren (whose player is the youngest member of
the group, it’s worth noting) was the only one with the presence of mind to
capture a kobold alive for later questioning
Openly running now (slowly what with all the civilians in tow),
the party found itself in a foot race for the still open gates of the main keep. Their opponent in the race consisted of a large
body of well-trained troops headed in from the opposite direction with a
handful of skirmishers out front. The party arrived at the gates at the same
time as the skirmishers, and engaged in a quick fight for control of the gates. Crossbow wielding enemies - humans this time - set up a withering
fire; their bolts put both the dragonborn and the half-elf on the ground. The leader of the villains, a spellcaster,
never got a shot off – the party’s own spellcaster choked the life out of him
by way of a well placed
chill touch. Good old Grim managed to lay down effective
covering fire from the interior of the keep, staving off the crossbowmen long enough to allow the wagon to enter and the
party to drag their wounded comrades into the keep.
BOOM! the front gate slammed down right in the face of a
troop of fifty enemy warriors. Thanks to
Grim’s insistence on fulfilling the letter of the contract despite the dragon
circling overhead and obviously changing nature of the situation, the supply wagon
was delivered and signed for by Tamil and Escobar, a human and dwarf charged
with managing and protecting the keep.
The two expressed gratitude not just for the supplies but for the five
extra defenders.
While the locals brought the rest of the party up to speed
on the situation, Gilgamesh dragged the captured kobold off to a quiet corner
for a little private discussion. During
the interrogation, the following three names bubbled to the surface:
- Bogluk, the guardian of the hatchery
- Rezmir, a mighty warrior and chief hero of the revolution
- Frulim, the great overboss of the whole evil
shooting match
Following the interrogation, the nameless kobold was
re-introduced to his fallen comrades in the next life.
End Chapter One