D&D Enc Hoard of the Dragon Queen Session 3-4

Our second table has had to miss a few sessions recently with a spate of illness and other commitments, but my table played our next fortnightly double session last night at our FLGS (Tabletop Tyrant).

Where we had left off we had 4 out of 7 pc’s unconscious and waiting to recover. This left 2 of the warlocks and 1 fighter on their feet, how could this ever go badly (insert maniacal laughter). I had asked the players to make notes of what they needed when or of they reached the end of the chapter during the session so they could level up and then continue on to chapter 2 rather than cut the session short.

• Matt – human warlock
• Jack – human fighter
• Patrick – human warlock
• Jon – dwarf cleric (unconscious)
• Lee – dwarf paladin (unconscious)
• Daniel – dwarf fighter (unconscious)
• Sarah – tiefling warlock (unconscious)/rebuilt to wood elf rogue upon level up

While their companions recovered, Escobar the castellan calls upon the conscious pc’s to come and man the battlements where they see one of the cultists commanding the dragon to attack the keep again, they notice that the dragon doesn’t really look like it’s relishing this task, though this doesn’t stop it blasting the wall and defenders with its lightning breath. Thankfully the 3 of them blast away with eldritch bolts and thrown spears/javelins and manage to do enough damage to drive the reluctant beast off. (During this time I had the other players roll for the attacks of the keeps militia).

Escobar was suitably impressed with this and gave the heroes his own potion of healing in thanks. Using this and the recovered paladin’s lay on hands they soon had everyone back on their (albeit unsteady) feet, Nighthill came to them and asked if they could capture prisoners so they could be questioned. They took a short rest and spent their hit dice before they saw a handful of militia charging into a doorway close to the main gate, investigating they found that enemies had breached the sally port and the defenders were trying to hold them back. They immediately took charge of the situation and commanded the militia men to focus on the drake while the warlocks and cleric blasted the kobolds. The fighters and paladin attempted to attack the acolyte but thanks to his Sanctuary they switched to the last few kobolds before one of them finally overcame the spell and knocked him out.

A brief discussion on how to secure the broken entrance resulted in Lee suggesting they pile the dead bodies (especially the drake in the doorway as the militia could use their halberds to fight over it until a more permanent solution could be made (I gave Lee an inspiration point for this).

They handed their prisoner over and asked that a work team be sent to seal the entrance. It was then that a huge cheer went up from the attackers outside. Taking to the battlements again they saw the invaders gather in a semi-circle around the main entrance and a draconic figure strode forward as a handful of townsfolk prisoners were pushed forward and to their knees. The figure offered to release the prisoners if a champion would face him in single combat, it didn’t take a lot for Jack to decide to step up to the plate. The rest of the heroes were ready to join in with boost spells etc should the enemies be lying and not release the prisoners, Matt even used his Scale of Bahamut to cast the Bless spell, but as Jack strode out the draconic figure ordered the prisoners released.

The 2 combatants circled each other until Jack made the first move, throwing his hammer (and missing) only to have the draconic warrior weighed in with its greatsword and cut the human down, then use an action surge before the body even hit the floor to blast its breath weapon into the body and fry it to a crisp.

With the cultists and kobolds cheering loudly the draconic figure simply walked away, his entire force following.

Recovering Jacks corpse (he was fully dead at this point – the players we suitably shocked at the brutality) Governor Nighthill announced that he had a way to revive their fallen ally should they wish (we gave Jack the choice of being revived or bringing in a new character – he chose revive) and did so.

This ended chapter 1, the players leveled up (Sarah rebuilt her character as a wood elf rogue) and we got chapter 2 under way.

Following the questioning of the prisoner Nighthill had found out that the invaders had a camp nearby and asked the party to seek it out, find out their numbers, and the motivation for the attacks as well as next targets. The cash reward offered was enough to entice them and they commandeered an extra pony for the journey, as they prepared to leave a ragged figure approached and begged them to find his missing master (a scholar who specialised in Dragon Cults that had been investigating the rumours of cult activity in the area) – the party realised that this guy might have more information on the invaders so said they would try.

Easily picking up the trail they follow for a few hours before spotting a campfire in a dell ahead. the rogue scouted and spots a handful of kobolds and a few cultists and reported to the others. The rogue and the fey warlock attempt to sneak around to the opposite side of the dell to try and catch the foes with a sleep spell – unfortunately the warlock was a clutz and the kobolds heard his approach. Calling for initiative proved even more bad news as he then rolled lowest of everyone.

The rogue shot a kobold before ducking back into cover, the dark pact warlock waited for the expected sleep spell, then the kobolds unleashed their slings at the fey warlock – and my dice were on fire (again) – out of 8 shots, 2 missed and 3 were crits! The warlock dropped faster than the sling stones that pelted him. The other warlock realised that the sleep spell was no longer an option and used his hex and bolt combo to drop a kobold. The human fighter charged in to the cultists, failed to hit them but they failed to strike back either. The dwarf fighter charged into the kobolds taking 1 down, the dwarf paladin smacked both the ponies and made them charge through the dell in hopes of at least distracting the kobolds, the remaining little reptiles used their opportunity attacks to slash at the dashing ponies (much to the chagrin of the dwarf fighter).

The rogue began to fire at the cultists, the kobolds (thanks to pack tactics) battered the dwarf fighter to the floor, and then to everyone’s surprise the dark pact warlock charged into the kobolds, black inky tentacles of power reaching out at them as he did so – and all of them failed their Strength saves (unsurprisingly) – I gave Matt inspiration for this.

The remaining cultists were soon dealt with and the fallen pc’s stabilised, thankfully they were only out for an hour and the party took the opportunity to take a short rest  before continuing on the trail.

By late afternoon the trail led into the foothills and the sharp-eyed rogue spotted enemies atop a rise overlooking a narrow pass the trail led through. While some traded ranged attacks, the fighters and paladin raced to the rise and began climbing – well, apart from the paladin who struggled to climb.

Eventually the 2 fighters engaged the small group of cultists and with their allies continuing to add ranged firepower tried to fight them – Jack chose to grapple one and try to throw him off, failed and so the cultist returned the favour. Despite the setbacks the heroes still killed the cultists without taking any casualties, and then spotted another figure racing up the trail on horseback – probably going to warn the main camp!

Matt leapt on to Daniels pony (the cultists bow fire had killed the other on the approach) and gave chase, blasting the fleeing cultist with eldritch blasts as they went. He was rewarded with seeing the figure slump forward onto his mounts neck before slipping from the saddle and under the thundering hooves. While the horse continued riderless, Matt recovered the body and returned to his companions.

That was where we left it for this week. Before our next gathering we have the 2nd of our Expeditions coming up so that should be interesting. I can honestly say that 5e is capturing the imaginations and being well received here. I’m loving it.