Earlier in the week, I wrote about my first session of a new campaign. Last night, the group met online to do session 2 of that campaign.
Our Cast
- Ahsha: High Elf Sorcerer, a runaway from Sharn, still learning to control her magic, seeking adventure.
- Duke: Harengon Fighter, member of a criminal trio who smuggle arcane goods, currently separated from the other two members of the trio while they lay low
- Fillip: Warforged Rogue, forging his own path after the Last War by working as a private eye. Has a passion for justice after a friend was wrongfully executed.
- Jed: Orc Fighter, his farm was destroyed by raiders, has come out to Aundair to seek a new place to call home. No nonsense.
26 Rhaan, 998YK (Cont’d)
They began on the road in the Forgotten Prince’s realm, having previously walked past the detritus of the forgotten pets who’d become blink dogs. They’d even befriended a blink dog (we’ll call him Blinky like I started doing in the game). Blinky had been leading them toward the castle down the road.
As we begin, the party approaches a gate in a wall with forest on either side of the wall and forest between the wall and the castle. The gate is guarded by more of the shadow fey they’d encountered in the streets of Passage. (I used the Elf, Shadow Fey stat block from Tome of Beasts for these) The party speaks with the fey guards who tell them that they are not allowed to permit anyone to pass who is not on the list of invited guests put out by the Forgotten Prince himself. Ahsha tries a persuasion check asking how they can be sure that the party isn’t on the list. The dice declare this persuasion is not to be. The guards tell the party that they are sure they are not on the list because there is no list today.
I’d expected a little more encounter here, since I’d built it explicitly knowing that Ahsha had the friends spell. Later on in the session I learned that her player had thought that the Advantage on saves vs. the Charmed condition meant that they were immune to the condition.
The party, deciding that there is no sense dawdling with these guards because they need to get Rhaani out of the Prince’s Realm before the full moon wanes, heads into the woods to see if they can find a way around or over or through the wall. They notice some webbing around the trees based on a good Survival check by Jed, but then the dice decide they’ve had enough with being kind and the entire party rolls under 5 on Perception checks to notice the Ettercap hanging out above them.
The Ettercap takes advantage of being unseen to launch webs at Jed and trap him. We then roll initiative with Ahsha and Jed acting before the Ettercap, and Duke acting after. (Fillip’s player was late to the game, so we put Fillip last in initiate to give time)
Ahsha uses an arcane burst against the Ettercap, but rolls minimum damage, merely singing the creature. Jed pulls upon his internal strength to burst the bonds around him then surges into action to pin the Ettercap to the ground with his pitchfork. The Ettercap gets up and tries to bite Jed, missing, but rakes him with its claws. Blinky misses and Duke uses his long sword to sap the Ettercap and give it disadvantage on its next attack.
The fight continues into the second round with the party using heroic inspiration and hero points to deal with required saves to finish off the Ettercap. Duke deals the finishing blow with his rapier and the party begins to search the area around them for the Ettercap’s nest, discovering 7 gems (tourmaline and sapphires, worth 10gp each).
Better than the gems, the party discovers that the Ettercap had also breached the wall surrounding the Prince’s castle, the better to get at all the tasty fey within. They walk through the remnants of many spider dinners to get through the woods back to the road on this side of the gate.
They reach the front door of the castle which is guarded by three guards (Darklings, from Volo’s Guide to Monsters). They begin with negotiation again, telling the guards that “Hey, we’re caterers, we’re contracted with the kitchen staff so let us in.” At first the guards aren’t buying it, but Ahsha remembers at this point that elves only get Advantage toward Charmed not Immunity and casts Friends on the guards. They weren’t even elves, and didn’t have the advantage, and utterly fail the save. They helpfully usher the party into the castle.
Inside the castle, the party enters a great entrance hall with rooms off it along both sides and straight ahead. The castle is mostly dark and most surfaces are covered in dust like they’ve been left neglected for some time. The door closes behind them and disappears, they’ll need to find another way out of the castle. They hear crying from the room directly ahead, along with another voice that sounds like an attempt to reassure the person who’s crying.
The party heads straight ahead. In a room they find a fireplace with contents of the Prince’s library burning to provide light and warmth to this room.
Sitting around a table in the room are two human women and a gnome woman. The gnome is clutching her hands in her face and rocking. One human is doing measurements and pinning a dress that the other human is wearing. The bride to be is crying until she recognizes the Baker who came with the party and speaks with him.
The party has a discussion with the woman about how her former fiancé back in Passage likely made a deal with the prince to stick her here and they’re here to rescue her. They discuss the finer points of deals with the fey and decide that since she didn’t make a deal that they can probably get her out of here without bringing the penalties of a fey deal down upon her and them. Just maybe anger an archfey a teeny bit. But they’re still planning the rescue.
The gnome is hesitant at first to leave, saying she deserves to be here. She says that she was requested to kill someone back home by The Trust and carried out the instructions like she was told, like any Zil would. But she seems to be having a crisis of faith involving her worship of the Sovereign Arawei. As she speaks about the encounter, the fairy story field makes the bloodstains on her hands and clothes appear. Some therapy ensues, and the Party tells her they don’t need to take her home, but will help her get a new start wherever. This gets her to come along.
The group enlarged by three new rescues begins to look around the castle. Fillip discovers a room filled with lost and forgotten official records, including both the deal with the Prince that got Rhanni here, saying that she was traded for a small fortune and a dragonmark, and some correspondance proving that Fillip’s friend was set up by some important people back home. He pockets the correspondance for now, figuring out how best to wield it.
We end the session with the group gathered for their escape from the Castle of Forgotten Things. Using the session levelling rules, they level up to 3 and pick their new subclasses.
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