Eberron Adventure: First Session

The adventure begins in Fal-Narah, a small town nestled in the foothills of some minor, unnamed mountains. The town is weary; exhausted and on edge. A few months ago, a smaller settlement to the north in the mountains, known as Fal-Hatet was massacred by a clan of mountain giants, and their swarms of kobold slaves. Fal-Hatet was home to a small order of clerics, known as Sealers of the Stone Maw.

Only two survivors made it out of Fal-Hatet; the cleric quartermaster, Brenda Halim, known as the “Mover of Pieces,” and her now grievously disfigured and mute assistant, known only as Harold. Kobolds harried the two as they made the trip south, and the draconic rabble was forced back by the local militia. Thankfully, none of the giants pursued. 

In the following weeks, Fal-Narah was militarized. The local militia was drilled into a proper city guard, and palisades and then walls were constructed to protect the town from the kobolds, who were marauding unchecked throughout the mountain passes north of the city.

Brenda was instrumental in organizing the manpower and materiel needed to facilitate these changes. She’s revered by Fal-Narah for her help, though pitied for her losses. Recently, as the northern defenses have improved, Brenda, the Mover of Pieces began to divert adventurers passing through to the north, to serve as counter-raiders against the kobolds. Little has come of these ventures, however.
It is in Fal-Narah that we first find our party, three persons who have caught the attention of Brenda...

The first is a human named Turnin, and while garbed as a monk, has proven more slothful than one would think. While earnest and eager to please, his actions tend to lag behind his intentions. His order sent him to Sealers, but he arrived at Fal-Narah after the massacre, and Brenda has had him doing odd jobs and errands around the town for the last few days, though has promised him that she’ll have a greater task for him soon… 

The second is a human conjuration wizard, Kyllar, who arrived in town the previous evening. His vocation has piqued the interest of the Mover of Pieces.

The two are chatting with Brenda in her makeshift headquarters – a floundering inn donated by the mayor to the Sealers of the Stone Maw (ie Brenda and Harold), for use in organizing the town, running the order’s affairs, and outfitting the local city guard and any adventurers Brenda appropriates from the road. They are joined by the third person of interest, a Halfling rogue, known as Shadowale. After brawling against some dwarves in a tavern last night, he woke up hungover, and under Brenda’s warden-like care. With a little prodding for the hungover and surly Halfling, Brenda convinces the trio to embark on a quest for her.

The trio learns that the Sealers of the Stone Maw were a communal order, bound by magic. Through ritual, they were linked, allowing one to sense where each other were, and their general physical and mental state. When one of the order would pass on, the body would be consecrated and the bond severed. Unfortunately, the swiftness of the massacre prevented this, and their dead souls torment Brenda and Harold unceasingly. She thinks that the party is competent enough to make their way to the ruins of Fal-Hatet, and consecrate the bodies of her slain brethren, at which point, Brenda will lead the city guard north, and reclaim Fal-Hatet from the kobolds and giants. The party will be the vanguard for a glorious counter attack! Brenda teaches the cleric the consecration spell, gives them provisions, and are sent on their way. The city watch nods solemnly as they pass the walls into the foothills…

Nervous small talk is soon disrupted by the sound of fighting ahead, the party sneaks up to a crest of a hill to see a dwarven druid fending off several kobolds. The trio of Kyllar, Turnin, and Shadowale charge in, and the kobolds are slain before they could even consider routing.

The party is introduced to Bearchief (another PC), a hill dwarf druid, who has been out exploring the world on a personal quest, and righting wrongs as he finds them. He informs the party that the kobolds have hewn a path underground, through the mountains. He was on his way to warn the nearby towns, like Fal-Hatet, that they might soon have a kobold problem. Bearchief was unaware of the current local situation, and was quickly educated by the party.

While Fal-Hatet could conceivably stand their ground, it was deemed a far better idea to try and collapse the kobold’s tunnels and stem the tide. Bearchief offered to lead the party to the entrance of the tunnels, and the party, now 4 strong, embarked on their first side-quest.

A little more small talk was attempted, which was again interrupted by the sound of battle ahead. The party peered around some trees to see a female mountain giant topple to the ground; felled by a menacing looking Drow (the 5^th PC). The Drow carved a dozen gashes into her face, ruining it as the party arrived. Before proper introductions could be made, her mate came charging out of the tunnel towards the party, enraged.

The giant’s club connected a few times, but the Halfling quickly got the advantage, climbing onto the giant’s shoulders while it was distracted by Turnin the monk’s twirling quarterstaff. Shadowale held on for dear life with one hand, while the other slit the giant’s throat, showering Turnin with a geyser of blood.

The quartet looked around, but Zyn had disappeared. A little unnerved, they ventured into the tunnel. A little ways in, Kyllar looked over his shoulder to see the Drow desecrating the face of the second giant before disappearing. The party was vigilant; Shadowale took up the rear to mitigate the chances of the Drow sneaking up behind them, and soon noted that the Drow was warily shadowing them, though at too far a distance to pose any immediate threat.

They continue onward, deeper into the mountain. It’s dark, and wet in places. Scores of tiny pick marks show where the kobolds have dug through the rock, connecting caves and caverns with tunnels. At each intersection, the druid Bearchief notices small druidic runes saying “Evil; Go; Dig” in varying orders, though always accompanied by a symbol indicating what direction to travel; toward the hole through which the party entered the labyrinth.

After passing a few crossroads without incident, the path opens to a large cavern. Some torches burn dimly, showing that the area is split into two sides; the party on one; a crude bridge molded like rough clay spanning a crevasse of unknown depth; and the other side, which has half a dozen tunnels leading two it, as well as a large number of kobolds, harassing a young lava elemental, it’s molten essence spilling onto the floor and melting parts away with every successful spear thrust and slung rock from the kobolds..

The party secured their position on their side of the bridge and chasm. A few kobolds noticed them, and slung a few rocks their direction. The party returned fire with a Firebolt from Kyllar, and a few arrows from Shadowale and Zyn, who had closed with the party, and decided to aid them in the fight. The elemental raged on the other side of the cavern, burning kobolds with immolated punches and smothering, smoldering hugs. As it turned to face the party, its last opponents, Bearchief readied a spell, summoning magical invisible stone spikes to litter the bridge.

The elemental raged on, the invisible barricades tearing into its glassy, obsidian armor. The wounds menacingly belched fire, in addition to spilling the elemental's molten essence across the bridge, partially dissolving the path as the elemental tried to traverse it.

Weakened, it reached the party on their side of the bridge, but Turnin, who had previously just been flexing, stretching, and encouraging his companions with kind words, was now ready. With a Ki-channeling whoop, a barrage of fists flew into the elemental, shattering more of the obsidian armor. With a groan, the elemental collapsed on itself, melting through the bridge, and badly injuring Turnin with the molten splash back, knocking him unconscious.

Turnin collapsed, but was saved from falling into the chasm by Kyllar and Bearchief. Shadowale regards Zyn, and with Turnin stabilized, and on secure ground, the party thanks Zyn for his aid, and wonders if Zyn might help the rest of the party with their task of consecration in Fal-Hatet. Zyn agrees, but only once he confirms that the task will allow him to face worthy prey, and slay the giants he reviles so much.

Turnin is healed, and mentions that his monastic companions were wrong; he can – and DID – punch fire! Wounded but a little more experienced, the party exits the tunnel to a nearby secluded copse of trees that Bearchief noticed. A watch order is established, and though uneasy, the party begins to set up camp for the evening, slowly swapping stories into the night, isolated in a menacing wilderness…

The Eberron Adventure Preparations..

So, for those reading that weren’t there, some nerds decided to play D&D. The twist? We’re grown-ass men (late twenties), and none of us had really played D&D before.  Fifth Edition and the Player Handbook had just been released, so we decided it was a great time to hop on.

I ended up DMing, and decided to launch right into a campaign, rather than a simple one-session introductory adventure. I chose Eberron as the setting, and built a loose story arc to follow.* It was a bit daunting building an original campaign for the first attempts at D&D, but knowing myself, it seemed like the best way for me to really learn how to DM. Other players picked up personal copies of the Handbook, and I think we put aside an entire session at the beginning dedicated to just character creation and learning the character sheet; the second session was gameplay I believe. We ended up with the following as the starting cast of player characters:

·         Turnin, who is a human monk. He’s earnest, socially inquisitive, and friendly but pretty naïve in the ways of the world.

·         A human conjuration wizard named Kyllar. Raised on the streets, so he’s got a slight case of sticky fingers. With a prodigious memory for everything but names, he’s generally been Mr. Utility and Mr. Encyclopedia for the group.

·         A dour Halfling rogue known only as Shadowale. He is impatient and prone to violence and drinking.

·         A hill dwarf druid named Bearchief. Well-traveled, and ever helpful to the group, though he has a penchant for having things blow up in his face.

·         A ruthless, mysterious and very competent Drow ranger named Zyn, whose “survival of the fittest” and “might makes right” ideologies tend to unnerve the rest of the party a bit.

So, a bit of an odd party composition, in that we don’t have a dedicated healer like a cleric (the Druid was doubling as a bearform tank), but it was important to me that everyone roll with a character they wanted to play. It was on me as DM to craft the sessions to work with how they wanted to play.

Since we were jumping right into a campaign, I sent the players each a set of tailored questions to consider after reading their backgrounds. It seemed like a good way for me to learn about the various classes (not to mention the actual characters), and to get the players thinking more in character. I think it was a good exercise. By making them nail down a few opinions/backstory things ahead of time, I was given a lot of potential hooks for future sessions.

So, with character sheets written up, a loose campaign arc in mind and a session sketch in hand, it was time to play. Next post… the Eberron Adventure begins!

*I could have used the Mines of Phandelver material, but I wanted to leave that low-hanging fruit on the tree in case someone else wanted to step up and try DMing at some point. As it turned out, someone did, they ran it, I got to play instead of DM for a bit, and it was good. So yay for foresight!

First Post!

Whew. First post. Welcome to this little nerdy corner of the internets!

I'm launching the blog primarily to chronicle an ongoing D&D campaign I'm DMing, but will almost certainly branch out into other nerdy pursuits at some point.

The campaign has been going on for over a year now. I'd like to keep it all chronological on the blog, so I'll start with the beginning sessions, and catch up as I am able. DM commentary, thought process, prep work, will be sprinkled in as I feel like it.

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