We began our campaign of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, May 22nd, 2023. In what was a 2½-hour session, we played through the first half of Chapter 3, with the characters advancing from level 2 to level 3.
And we also had a lot of fun.
This campaign is being played on Roll20. I’ve purchased the adventure on Roll20 (which has the nice feature of dynamically lit maps), in addition to having a physical copy of the adventure and a D&D Beyond copy of the adventure. Sigh.
The utility of the maps and tokens already created on Roll20 was well worth the extra price, though. Believe me!
Playing this campaign with me are my regular Monday-night players of Indea, Josh, and Zane. Each has their own character, and there’s a fourth character accompanying them, which I’ll mostly control until the combat becomes too brutal, when I expect Josh will start using it.
The characters they have:
- “Vermin”, the Kender Ranger (Indea). She has a fascination with field mice.
- Tordek, the Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Josh)
- Qinh, the Kagonesti Monk (Zane)
- Parren, the Human Wizard (NPC)
As with all good party NPCs, we mostly forget about Parren until combat. Except occasionally!
From this point onwards, there will be SPOILERS aplenty! So, beware!
The Adventure Begins
The adventure begins in the peaceful fishing village of Vogler. Despite the despair of the age, and its slightly perilous location, Vogler is a good-hearted town with protection from an old Knight of Solamnia (and an inexperienced village militia). The nearest big city is Kalaman, but the citizens of Vogler are content to catch their fish, tend their fields, and live their lives. Unbeknownst to most of the folk in town – and the characters – the mayor has heard rumblings of trouble and has begun to prepare.
Our heroes are brought to the village because they once adventured with an old rogue named Ispin Greenshield, and it is now the sad occasion of his funeral. I presented them with the map of the village to begin with and narrated their entrance to the town through the northern gates – which haven’t been closed in ages – and down past the village square towards the harbour market and the inn where they’d farewell Ispin. This was all in aid of giving them a better view of the place where they started the adventure.
Once they got into the market, they bought a few minor supplies, and Vermin got into some banter with a kender woman named Froswin selling puppets made of fishbone. Of course, Vermin asked if she had any that were mice. As a kind-hearted DM, I said yes.
Froswin is named in the adventure. Having an NPC the characters connect to is incredibly valuable. I expect to use her later on.
My players didn’t have much more they needed to do, so off to the funeral they went. Some players will spend hours dodging the main plot, doing stuff in-character. Which is great when the entire table is participating. Just be aware of any players who are silent and resentful and want the story to start. Or a battle. You want to provide enjoyment for everyone at your table, not just a couple.
As the heroes proceeded to the inn, they were met by Becklin Uth Viharin (who I would consistently mispronounce as “Vilharin”), the aforementioned Knight of Solamnia whom had also once been a companion of Ispin. She was glad to see the characters, and showed them the way to the funeral, which took place at the dock at the rear of the Brass Crab, an unusually shaped inn.
(Indea was incredibly happy when she identified the Brass Crab on the town map immediately just from its shape. It’s not exactly a crab, just close enough, and the other players didn’t spot it).
The Funeral
The funeral included the chance for players to tell stories of some of Ispin’s mad adventures. This is a clever move, as it allows players who enjoy role-playing and tale-spinning to shine. It also includes little prompts to help inspire them. My group didn’t get too far into it; there were a couple of minor stories, more for the feel of the funeral rather than become a great display of thespianship.
As the second of the characters finished telling his story, he was heckled by an unpleasant minor noble in the crowd, Bakaris the Younger. I slightly altered his portrayal in this adventure – making him something of a spoilt child. I was hearkening back to a character a friend of mine used in a Star Wars game thirty years ago. That character’s catchphrase, “My father’s a Grand Moff”, stays with me to this day. (He was such an endearing twit he became a recurring minor villain in that game). So, my depiction of Bakaris the Younger drew from that.
While my players weren’t really drawn into the storytelling, they were really excited to put Bakaris in his place. Their words were extremely well chosen. They didn’t even need to roll. By the end of it, Bakaris slunk from the inn. That’s the last they’ll see of him!
And soon the funeral came to an end. Becklin told the party before departing that Ispin had left something for them, and they could visit her in the nearby ruined keep to collect it the next morning. And soon everyone was in bed.
I have a note here that we finished this section at 8:04 pm, after beginning at around 7:30 pm. I tend to be rather light on the role-play, and often am much faster to play through the adventure than most people. (I may be moving at double speed).
Meeting Darrett
The next day, as they went to meet Becklin, they were greeted by a young man named Darrett, Becklin’s pupil. He was on a mission to buy pies for their breakfast, and offered to show them around as he did so. They accepted and found themselves walking through the village square towards the Fishbowl, purveyor of hand pies! They also observed the town’s preparations for the Kingfisher Festival that afternoon.
Darrett cheerfully told them about the festival. Characters like Darrett are a real gift to the DM, as they provide a good way of giving out information the characters need, while also promising to be memorable later. With a bag of pies in hand, soon he led them to the Keep and Becklin.
Becklin revealed that the bequest was Ispin’s signature shield – a +1 shield painted green. I looked around the characters and was quite glad to see that Tordek could use it. The kender would probably use it as a sled!
There was one requirement of the bequest: They had to fight in the reenactment of an old battle that would take place that afternoon at the climax of the Kingfisher Festival. As my players are used to playing published adventures, they realised this was a hook for more adventure, and they gladly accepted.
(Honestly, if your players refuse that invitation, they probably don’t want to be playing a published adventure. Go find something else!)
The Kingfisher Festival
One of the nice things about how the festival is constructed is that there’s only really two events: a fishing contest and the mock-battle. You want to keep things moving, giving the players a chance to experience normal life, but not delaying too long before introducing the main plot. Players who enjoy role-playing can interact with other characters in the village, of course. (It was now 8:16, so it was less than a quarter hour spent with Darrett and Becklin. I can see that going a lot longer with some groups).
Could the players resist the chance to participate in a fishing contest and roll some dice? Of course they couldn’t! It would be the first dice-rolling of the night.
It played out over three rounds. You roll a d20 to discover the size of your potential catch, and then make a Survival check to see if you catch it. There’s a special prize if you end up catching the legendary Benebog the Line Breaker.
I had my NPC party member, Parren, roll first to show the others how it was done.
First roll: a 20! He was trying to catch Benebog. Second roll (with a +3 survival check), a 20! He’d landed the fish!
We laughed a lot at that. Yes, he ended up winning the competition handily. The town’s mayor came second, followed by Qinh in third place.
I neglected to include Lord Bakaris as suggested in the adventure. That’s actually because I missed that section, but he probably would have stayed away in any case – he was owned hard by the characters the previous night!
As you might expect, that didn’t take that long to play. It was now just past 8:30 pm. (15 minutes, give or take).
The Battle of High Hill
It was finally time for the plot to kick into high gear. The village militia were taking the roles of the heroes of Vogler who held off an attack from the Empire of Istar many years ago (pre-Cataclysm), and the heroes were to fight at their side, using wooden swords. Yes, even the mage.
Meanwhile, they’d be opposed by a few mercenaries that were in the area. The mercenaries were led by an old dwarf friend of Ispin and Becklin’s named Cudgel. The players had heard rumours in town – okay, from Darrett – that the town’s mayor had hired the mercenaries due to rumours of trouble to the east, but nothing more. They’d also met Cudgel at the funeral, though only fleetingly. Cudgel wouldn’t be taking part, nor would Becklin, instead staying with the mayor to watch the reenactment. All the villagers were on the hill, happily expecting the start. And soon the mercenaries began charging up the hill.
Vermin’s keen kender eyes soon recognised something was wrong. There they were standing with wooden weapons, and the mercenaries were armed with metal weapons! She sounded the alarm, but it was too late – the mounted mercenaries were upon them.
At this point, one of the players brought up a salient point: Were the characters armed only with wooden weapons? I assured them that they had their regular weapons as well. The adventure doesn’t say, but it would be very poor if I wiped out the characters in the first session because of an oversight!
The initial forces attacking the characters were three guards on warhorses.
One thing that’s important here: the players had no ability to heal. I’d deliberately taken away the choice of taking classes with healing magic, except for the ranger – and in that case Indea had chosen not to take healing spells. Both Josh and Indea had read the Dragonlance Chronicles many years ago, and they were familiar with the world. So, we all got to experience the world without gods or healing.
I am not sure if the intention is to have the warhorses attack the characters as well. I made a deliberate choice to not have this happen. Warhorse hooves deal an average of 11 damage on a hit, which is far too many for this set-up, where there would be two waves of attackers.
Parren looked for an opportunity to cast his colour spray spell, but there wasn’t a good time as the mercenaries moved up and engaged Qinh and Tordek. Vermin hung back and used her light crossbow to take pot shots. Yes, she had a hoopak, but she was better with the crossbow.
The first round or two was full of terrible rolling from the party, but they started improving, though they suffered a few nasty hits. At 2nd level, almost every hit is nasty.
I also started dropping battlefield events, a great inclusion in the adventure. A wounded villager crawled beside Vermin and begged for her aid, but Vermin had no aid to give her. The next round, a wave of arrows crashed around Vermin, slightly wounding her and killing the villager. It was getting real!
Vermin used a hail of thorns spell, but couldn’t land the hit. Tordek pulled one of the mercenaries off his horse (an opposed Athletics check of 22 versus 7), and Qinh finished him off with his quarterstaff.
Finally, the first wave was defeated. (Time: 9:10 pm. Around 35 minutes from the first roll of initiative).
Attack of the Half-Ogre
The leader of the mercenaries now broke out of the wave of fighting all around them and came towards our heroes. He was followed by four more mercenaries armed with spears. I called for more initiative rolls. Tordek and Qinh were damaged badly, but only Tordek could heal himself (through second wind).
Vermin won the initiative, taunted the leader while slightly wounding him with a crossbow bolt (“You hit less than I do!”), and ran away. The mercenaries followed after, running up to engage Parren, Tordek and Qinh, though they had to dash to do so. Parren finally got a chance to use his colour spray spell and rolled a 35 on the number of hit points affected. I looked at the half-ogre’s hit points, which had been reduced by Vermin, to exactly 24, which meant that both he and the mercenary beside him were blinded. Incredible! Parren risked an attack of opportunity as he then fled back. (The non-blinded mercenary missed).
A blind half-ogre? Tordek and Qinh took full advantage of that, with Qinh starting with a critical hit for 9 damage, then flurrying for a further 11 damage. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, a roll of natural 20 gives inspiration to another character. In this case, Tordek, but he didn’t need it to finish off the half-ogre – although he was careful to leave him conscious.
The rest of the mercenaries fought on, and landed a blow on Qinh that knocked him down. Qinh immediately followed this with a roll of natural 1 on his Death Save! Would we lose a character in the very first session?
Tordek bent down and used First Aid to stabilize Qinh (a roll of 18 on the die, nice!) I had decided to use the playtest rule that Qinh was now on 1 hit point and unconscious. Tordek then used Action Surge to attack again – although he missed. Vermin didn’t, and her bolt immediately slew the unfortunate mercenary (11 damage!)
The fight continued with Tordek finally getting his aim right, while Vermin missed. Parren failed to affect a wounded mercenary with Toll the Dead, then ran up to Qinh and used Medicine to revive him. Qinh could act again! (Another of the new playtest rules, which worked really well in this circumstance).
Qinh took advantage of being conscious to strike a mercenary with his quarterstaff. Tordek then finished the last mercenary off, and the combat was over.
(I had actually made a morale roll for the mercenaries once their leader was down, but they kept morale and chose to fight on).
The time? 9:29 pm. A further 20 minutes for the second fight.
The Aftermath
Cudgel was furious – her mercenaries had betrayed her! Why? The mayor, Raven, was hardly less happy, as many of the village militia were now wounded or dead.
Cudgel attempted to interrogate the half-ogre the heroes had captured, but she was too furious and ceded the job to the heroes.
It turned out that Vermin was too cute to be intimidating (roll of 5), but Tordek was a different matter. Soon enough the leader of the rebel band revealed that he’d taken money from a hooded figure in red and black armour to betray the village. Becklin sent scouts out to determine if there was another enemy force nearby, but for the characters, it was time to sleep. A long rest was what they needed to heal their wounds.
I gave them their story-based advancement (they were now 3rd level!), and we ended the session there. It was 9:45 pm.
A Few Thoughts
I thought that was an excellent start to the campaign. The players were very happy not to be playing Pathfinder 2 anymore, which really hadn’t clicked with them, and to have Josh back (who had been absent for three months due to the birth of his son). And I was happy to be running a game in the world of Krynn.
The adventure ran on at a good pace, giving the players a good introduction to the town before putting it in peril. The players always had clear goals, and the combat – while difficult – wasn’t overwhelming. I was worried it might be with my “no healing” rule, but it turned out fine – especially with the new rules for characters who are dying or unconscious.
We’ll be playing this campaign weekly (I hope), so I hope to also report on it in a timely manner.
My plan is to complete the rest of this chapter next session and advance the characters to level 4. We typically get through 2½-3 hours of play a session, with a little more on occasion. We all have jobs to get to! Though we start at 7 pm, some time is spent in catching up before the session starts properly. Until next time!