Well. Wellity wellity wellity. I’m struggling to think of something to say other than well. So… well?
Today, I DM’ed for my first ever D&D campaign session. I have DM’ed once before, for a one-shot, but it was a very different beast. For starters, one-shots, at least in my experience, are in an entirely different realm of being from campaigns. And for seconds, for that one-shot I had only two players; for this session, I had six (which reduced to five partway through – through no fault of my own, as far as I’m aware). But given that, I feel like I acquitted myself adequately.
Let’s begin with a brief explanation of the world, shall we? Brightwind is a desolate wastleland, having been ravaged by arcano-nuclear war some 150 years ago (think magic nuclear holocaust). At the time, the world was populated by humans alone, but in the immediate aftermath all survivors not protected by massive underground bunkers or far less reliable smaller vaults were mutated into what we know as the rest of the D&D races and monsters. What few humans that are left now run those massive bunkers as cities.
One of the major industries in Brightwind is the mining of arcanite, magically-empowered meteorite that fell long before the war and is the fuel used in the arcano-nuclear bombs and many others fusions of magic and technology. And we just so happened to begin this campaign in a small mining town, one of the few yet standing in its almost-original, pre-war state, and one of the many that is long past its heyday. A town called Foot.
Foot was named for the fact that it sat at the foot of the Wailing Mountain, an incredibly arcanite-rich mountain thanks to it have been perforated by hundreds of thousands of meteorite shards. Those perforations, when the wind blows across them, create the sounds of wailing voices, giving the mountain its name. Wails that will eventually send any miners working upon it crazy, because you can’t have everything, can you?
Each member of the party found themselves privately summoned to Foot by letter. I actually contacted each player separately, so none realised the others also received letters, and each letter was specifically personalised to relate to the characters’ goals. The letters also contained a pin, each unique, that was the first indicator to the characters (and players) of this shared summoning, since most chose to wear theirs openly.
The first character we met was Brakken, a burly half-orc fighter played by the DM for every other campaign I’ve written about on this blog. He was the first to awaken in the morning in the hotel where everyone was staying (due to it being the only hotel in town) and was greeted by the hobgoblin sheriff of Foot and his dragonborn deputy. The sheriff mentioned that he was expecting six, so Brakken sat down to breakfast to wait for the rest.
Of note, Brakken is the only party member to wear heavy armour this time – and with the way he rolls, it is entirely possible that stealth will be a serious option for this party, as you’ll soon see – and has a helmet with bull’s horns. His pin was an adamantine bull.
Next to rise was the Monk With No Name (yes, really) who we’ll call Monk from now on. A Mark of Healing halfling monk, his pin was a ruby phoenix. Oh, and by the way, that halfling re-roll did some serious work this game. He also has an AC of 18 already, because he rolled well for stats.
Third to join them was Borfel, the long-lost (and probably inter-dimensional, since this is technically a different world) brother of last campaign’s Korfel. Again, a wood elf rogue, he is pretty much the same character, since when you only get to play a character a couple of times sometimes it’s easier to carry them through to the next campaign.
By a similar vein, we also have Clourc back. Same deal, aarakocra barbarian. His pin is a grey opal serpent similar in style to a Chinese dragon, while Borfel, the only one not to reveal his pin yet (since he is a very private character who seems to fear attention) so if you’re reading this, my players, look away now, has an amber creature that looks something like a cross between a tortoise and a crocodile.
The last two party members are the ladies of the team. First, we have the Blue Fern (yes, really), a human fighter played by our newest returning player, whom you will know (if you’ve been reading this blog for a while) as most recently having played Airina. Her pin was a mithral dragon.
And finally, we have Poppy, a little nymph druid. Basically a plant creature, she was cute and awkward and off-putting in all the best ways, throwing everyone off by doing things like inviting them ‘to her garden to share the dream’. Maybe I’m just biased towards plant creatures, but I am very excited to see what her player does with her. Her pin was an amethyst unicorn.
But all of them I’m excited about. Especially considering some of the things that happened in this session. But we’ll get to that. What I find interesting is that it’s a very punchy party, with Poppy the only magic user (and even then, a druid, a class that more than can hold its own in combat where necessary). I’m quite looking forward to seeing what I can throw at them.
Once everyone was introduced and had breakfasted on meat pies (which will be important later) the sheriff explained that the town had had an incident the week before where nine miners went missing. The bottom level of the Wailing Mine was now closed off, and without the manpower, the sheriff wasn’t able to investigate further. However, he had received a letter explaining that he should expect six individuals, and that they would help. Lo and behold, a few days later and here they were.
After the sheriff explained the situation, the party met the foreman of the mine and one of the miners, the last person to see the missing men. They brought the party up to the mountain (with Borfel, in his quest to remain unseen by as many as possible, clinging to the undercarriage of their cart while the others rode in it the ‘proper’ way), explaining a little about the mine and what happened the day the men went missing. Upon arriving, the miner brought the party to the lowest level via a disturbingly rickety elevator, dropping them off in the absolute black before heading back up to pick them up when they were done.
Unfortunately, it was shortly after this moment that the Blue Fern had to bow out due to those horrible things called real life responsibilities, so she didn’t feature any more in the rest of the session. She’s kind of a bitch anyway – the character, I mean – so it was entirely feasible for her to ditch the party and leave them to deal with things on their own.
With Brakken taking the lead, the party quickly discovered a sort of rest/staging area just by the elevator shaft, which looked like it had been ransacked of anything that had been there previously. They then began down one pathway, where they found an old collapsed tunnel with a skeleton buried within. Further along a branching tunnel, Borfel and Poppy both perked up to the sound of gnashing voices – not an easy thing to hear in the first place, thanks to the ever-present wailing.
Unfortunately for the party, their disregard for moving stealthily meant that the three kobolds that had been arguing a moment ago knew they were coming too. Borfel shot the first dead, before the second ran in and stabbed Brakken with a solid hit. Clourc moved up and hit it, but didn’t roll high enough on his damage, leaving it with just one hit point left. Then, while the third kobold ran away down another tunnel, Brakken attempted a non-lethal hit with the flat of his greataxe on the injured one.
And rolled a natural 20. Considering that translated to about 35 points of (well-rolled) damage, I ruled that it wasn’t so much a non-lethal hit as it was a fly-swatter hitting a fly. There was no kobold left, just kobold paste.
Rather than running off in pursuit of the third kobold (which, let’s be fair, is what I probably would have done) the party took stock for a moment, allowing Poppy to give Brakken a couple of goodberries to heal him a little. They then took off after the kobold at a more careful, considered pace.
They found the kobold just past another, more recently collapsed tunnel, cowering in a small, open area. Monk approached and attempted to speak to the creature, with Borfel stepping forward to back him up while the others remained in the tunnel. However, it was a ruse, and the kobold attempted (and failed) to stab Monk before seven more dropped from the various holes in the rock, surrounding him and Borfel.
The first proper, earnest fight of the campaign began with Monk dodging as he was surrounded by three kobolds. The rest went for the others, with a couple attacking – and downing – Borfel in a single turn, and the rest going for Brakken. He and Clourc managed to kill a couple of them each, while Poppy did a little damage but kept rolling just a little too low to kill on cantrip damage. Meanwhile, Monk managed to tank for three rounds, taking one hit in about nine thanks to his high AC and dodging countering their pack tactics, before Brakken made it to him to back him up. And the cherry on top: on his second death save, Borfel rolled a natural 20, sprang to his feet, and killed the kobold that was blocking the way, allowing for that to happen.
Of course, then two of the kobolds turned on Brakken and both stabbed him, his Relentless Endurance the only thing keeping him from getting knocked unconscious. And while they were confused by that, Clourc made it in to kill one of them and Borfel I think killed the other. That left one, whom Monk finally hit, knocking him unconscious for later interrogation.
And then, bloodied but alive, the party realised they had almost made a loop all the way back to the entrance, so they took their prisoner to the staging area to take a short rest. Once that was complete, they interrogated the kobold, but the most they got were some threats about ‘Ma-Ma’ before it peed on Poppy. Ignoring Borfel’s suggestion to try waterboarding, they knocked the kobold out again and began heading down the remaining, unexplored tunnel, in the opposite direction to where they had just been.
This time, they decided to move stealthily. It was wise. Especially when Brakken, in heavy armour, rolled a natural 20 for his disadvantage stealth roll. Yes, he rolled 20 on both. Yes, this is why he killed us all the time as a DM. Because the dice gods love him.
I mean, seriously, in a party with a rogue, a monk, a barbarian, and a druid, he had the highest stealth. While wearing heavy armour. Explain that.
The party was stealthy enough that when they came upon three patrolling/guarding kobolds, they demolished them in their surprise round. Bang, bang, bang. All dead.
The next kobolds they came upon were a little different. There were four, sitting around a table and playing cards… and completely un-moving. It took the wary party a moment, but when they finally approached they discovered them to be wax figures. Weird.
Deciding to press on, Brakken and Borfel determined the tracks from where these figures had been brought from led down another tunnel. However, the moment Borfel took a step down it, he triggered a tripwire that he had failed to see and the room filled with a noxious green gas.
Monk was the only one to pass the very high DC for the subsequent Constitution saving throw, so he was the only one to remain conscious as his new allies passed out around him. Before he could find a way to help them, he heard the approach of many footsteps and hid before a large group of kobolds collected the unconscious members of the party and carried them off. Stealthily, Monk pursued, keeping his distance as he followed them to the next level down…
However, Monk soon had to halt his pursuit as the kobolds carried the others into a larger, more populated, and better lit area of tunnels. After watching patiently for a bit of time, he finally saw an opportunity to delve in, knocking out one patrolling guard (Monk definitely went to the school of trying not to kill people) but accidentally snapping a second’s neck with a critical hit. He kept going to the end of the tunnel, where he arrived at an exit to a large chamber. Within stood a massive, bubbling cauldron and a set of three tables covered in meat and bones and the like, along with a handful of crates against both walls and three other exits. And people, which we’ll get to.
Meanwhile, Brakken, Borfel and Poppy awoke in cages, their armour and weapons taken from them but conveniently placed in a chest nearby. Without anything to attempt to pick the lock of the cage, Brakken resorted to brute strength. He managed to tear the gate off his and Borfel’s cage without making enough noise to wake the sleeping kobold guard in the room, and then ensured that guard would not be waking any time soon with a solid fist to the jaw. He and Borfel then helped get Poppy out of her cage and put on a degree of armour. Borfel got his armour on quickly, but Brakken, in heavy armour, had to resort to a few key pieces to bump his AC just a little. Grabbing their weapons, they made their way along the tunnel leading from the cell, where they happened to reach an exit to the large chamber on exactly the opposite side as Monk.
Meanwhile meanwhile, Clourc came to due to a searing pain in his left hand. He was standing by the cauldron in the big chamber, and like the others, his weapons were gone. The pain was caused by a kindly-looking old lady snipping his little finger off with a pair of shears… before she ate it, bones and all. Yep.
As the kobolds holding him dragged Clourc towards the cells, Monk and the others attacked from their tunnels, surprising the kobolds. They killed all five in the large room, including the two holding Clourc, but in the same time the old lady booked it down a tunnel and disappeared. Brakken tried to pursue her, but she was gone by the time he got close, seemingly unnaturally so.
But there was no time to ponder it, as eight more kobolds poured from the fourth and final exit in the chamber. They swarmed Clourc, who had strayed just a little too close, and brought him down to unconsciousness. As soon as he was down, they started slinging rocks at the others, to little effect.
On Clourc’s next turn, he rolled his first death saving throw… and got a natural 1. Two fails. Unfortunately, neither of the party members with healing – Poppy and Monk – realised he was in as dire a situation as he was. They, along with Brakken and Borfel, began hewing into the kobolds instead.
The kobolds did manage to bring Brakken down, but he rolled a natural 20 on his first death saving throw and sprang back to his feet. Unfortunately, on Clourc’s next turn, he rolled a 2. And died. Technically.
First of all, I never intended to kill any players this session, or ever. I believe in high stakes in D&D, and high risk, high reward, but I also feel that it is a game and doesn’t need to be absolutely bloodthirsty to be enjoyable. Second, I did and do have contingencies, which we’ll get to in a moment. Third, and quite interestingly, in my very first session of D&D at all, as a player, I joined the existing party at the time as they delved into a mine (which I intentionally mirrored, because it also is very fitting for Brightwind) but in that session the same player’s character died. So I don’t know, maybe he should just keep away from mines.
But back to the point, as Clourc died I had him roll a d10, the reasons for which I won’t explain as it is a situation that could very likely come up again, if anyone else dies. But based on his result, Clourc felt a great pressure on his chest, as if a hand was clutching his heart. A voice whispered in his head, ‘I’m not done with you yet, but there’s only so much I can do right now’ and the pressure intensified.
At the same time, the rest of the party finished off the kobolds. Immediately after they were dead, Monk checked on Clourc and saw that his eyes were open and he was alive. However, something was off, and in that moment they both came to the shocking realisation that Clourc had no heartbeat.
At this point, Poppy cast Goodberry again and did her best to spread the healing among those that needed it. The party then checked the rest of the tunnels, but any more kobolds that might have been there, including the miners that Monk saw earlier, were gone. Fled.
The party did find many crates of Ma-Ma’s pies, which they realised were the most popular pies in Brightwind. The very same pies they had had for breakfast that day. They also found what was left of the missing miners. Evidently, they were now in the pies.
Tying up the kobolds that Monk had knocked unconscious and leaving them in the cells, the party returned to the surface and got a lift back into town, where they explained the situation to the sheriff. A job well done, they received their reward, went back to their hotel for a rest, and we ended the session there.
All in all, I was very pleased with how the session turned out. I can only hope my players feel the same. A couple of interesting things happened, of course, Clourc’s interesting development being the most obviously intriguing. I’m also very keen to see what the party makes of the pins and being gathered as they were.
I did very much enjoy DM’ing though and look forward to more of it. Be sure to tune in next week to see what new mischief the party gets up to in Brightwind, whether they get any answers to the many questions (I hope) they have, and just how much more I can screw with them and their heads.