A quick little report of the fist session of my new Dolmenwood campaign played online via discord and Roll20. The house rules for the campaign can be found here. Included below are a complete action report and some GM thoughts, happy reading!
Characters
- Modestus Ursus - Level 1 Human Cleric
- Moggy "Mog" Cottonsocks - Level 1 Grimalkin Fighter
- Pansy Strongboned - Level 1 Human Fighter
Action Report
Modestus Ursus, cleric of the one true god and general do-gooder; Moggy "Mog" Cottonsocks, grimalkin stuck in the mortal world; and Pansy Strongboned, disgraced noble turned outlaw; all meet on the road looking for work.
Traveling on their way to the city of Castle Brackenwold the group are accosted by a family of farmers asking for assistance in helping locate their missing son Arda. The youth is tracked to a long abandoned keep known as Droomen Knoll, from which an enchanting melody can be heard.
As the group approach, the sounds of revelry mix with the music as a group of wicked crookhorns make merry in the old courtyard. Taking out a sentry with a critical shot, the group surprise and nearly slaughter the crookhorns as only one of them manages to flee into the old dungeons below.
Following the crookhorn the group take out a mutated rooster acting as a sentry. They then square off against the leader of the corrupted breggle. Even though he is a formidable opponent he is no match against three skilled warriors.
Finding both treasure and the captive youth the group decide to keep exploring the dungeons. They find a strange imprisoned elf matching a mural in a nearby room. The elf introduces himself as Thinwistle, he is the one who has been playing the enchanting music that attracted Arda to the keep. The party take pity and release him as he runs laughing into the night.
Clearing the dungeon the group pilfer the corpse of dead drune cottager and find a strange frozen pool through a secret door. Although Pansy takes some damage from the extreme cold, she manages to retrieve a chalice from the bottom of the pool.
After returning Arda to his family the group are given shelter for the night, receiving a modest reward for their help in the morning. The day is uneventful as the group travel through the Tithelands, eventually arriving in the great city of Castle Brackenwold.
The group make a stop at the magicians of the Shadow House who offer to identify the chalice for a fee. In addition group are offered the location of some standing stones seen in a vision—something which happened when the group touched a crystal carried by the dead drune—in return for the magicians receiving a cut of any magic items found there.
As the identification will take a day, the group then spend some time selling off their other treasures and getting cured from any diseases contracted from the crookhorns. As Mog spends the night carousing she finds herself accidentally offending some noble, who then sees to it that the grimalkin is thrown in prison on trumped up charges. Mog is given a 1,000 gp debt to work off before she can be released. The rest of the group is left scratching their heads for how to best release their new acquaintance...
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| A tower on a hill in a deep dark wood... |
GM Thoughts
If there's anything to be learned from this session it's that party composition matters! Having two fighters and a cleric combined with some really good rolls—Pansy rolled three whole critical hits this session—made the encounters nearly trivial for the PCs to overcome with violence.
I did not realize how much treasure was actually in this supposed starter adventure. Since the party found pretty much all of it they all reached at least second level once they arrived in Castle Brackenwold. Ursus especially has an eighteen wisdom and so receives 20% extra experience!
Combined with his bonus spells and praying at the cathedral of St. Signis (which also happens to be his new order of choice), Ursus will start the second session with access to three 1st rank and two 2nd rank spells. It should also be mentioned that Pansy has a mighty 20 hit points at second level due to rolling the maximum possible when leveling up. I take this all as a feature rather than a bug, as it just means I can throw scarier stuff at the party earlier.
All in all I'm really happy to take the dive into Dolmenwood. I've been a fan since the Wormskin days, and so finally getting to see it in play will certainly be a joy.
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