You might say you want to start a session at 7 pm, but what’s likely to happen is a lot of catching up first. Or waiting for Roll20 to load its images. (My internet connection is not the best). So, starting the session at about 7:20 pm was pretty good going!

We began the second session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen with the players waking up from their sleep after the exertion (and betrayals) of yesterday. Everyone was now level 3, and soon the characters were with the leaders of the town planning their next move. The mayor asked the heroes if they wanted to go on a scouting mission – they were happy to do so.

We thus got a short sequence with them going to the woods where they’d learnt the strange man in armour had bribed the mercenaries. They followed tracks to the north, saw a small army of at least 1,000 men encamped, and went back home to report. They did not choose to attack the army by themselves, which is just as well. The adventure actually suggests encounters if the party do choose to attack – mostly with an eye to dissuading them. My players aren’t that foolish!

The Threat Is Real

Back in Vogler, they let everyone know what they found. The commander of the mercenaries, Cudgel, also returned, telling the mayor that the traitors amongst them had been dealt with, but before any plans could be made, a delegation from the enemy army arrived.

The delegation told the villagers that they were representatives of the Red Dragonarmy, that the army was moving in, and that the villagers would provide quarters for them that night. The old knight of Solamnia, Becklin, was very wary of this, explaining to all the twon leaders that the soldiers would likely not treat the village well. A debate ensued about what to do next, with the heroes finally persuading the mayor and her advisors that they’d have to evacuate the village. (No rolls were required, as the players did a good job of phrasing their arguments).

However, there was still the small matter of four Dragonarmy soldiers on the cliffs above Vogler keeping watch. Vermin, the kender druid, proclaimed that there was no way she was climbing up there. However, Tordek, the dwarf fighter, had already spotted the tinker gnome device on top of the ruined keep – a gnomeflinger! He happily led the characters to it, and got Than, the tinker gnome who built it, to explain how it would get them to the top of the cliff. Vermin, quite unusually for a kender, proclaimed she’d rather climb, but eventually was persuaded to use the device work. Which, very surprisingly, worked, allowing them to surprise the enemy.

(Yes, this is the first big break from established canon. A tinker gnome device that works? Inconceivable!)

So, time for the first battle: four player characters (druid, fighter, monk, wizard) against four dragon army soldiers. We rolled initiative against 8:05 pm. Initiative rolls were amusingly low: 2, 4, 4, and 12. As Josh mentioned, it was lucky the players had surprise!

But it wasn’t the easiest of battles. The soldiers had ACs of 16, which was a 50% chance of hitting for most of the characters – quite low compared to most 5E combats. And the soldiers got a few good hits in – mostly on Tordek. At least he had second wind, which would allow him to recover some of the damage. (Remember, healing is very limited in this campaign). Combat ended at 8:17 pm – the soldiers had only been able to attack once, but that had still inflicted 28 damage on Tordek, severely wounding him.

Back down the cliff – climbing this time – and they helped the mayor quiet the village crowd before she addressed them. At least Tordek did, with a stentorian roar. (21 on the Intimidation check!)

Preparing for Evacuation

Now the villagers knew what they were facing, and they prepared to evacuate. Becklin talked to Vermin, telling her that she’d left a gift for her squire in her chambers, and the heroes were to give it to him after they’d escaped. She then gave her farewells and left with Cudgel to join the mercenaries that hoped to delay the Dragonarmy.

The party did their final preparations, including a short rest to heal Tordek, and helped the villagers find extra transport – which they did incredibly effectively. A lone scout from the mercenaries rushed through the River Gate to warn the villagers, but he was ambushed by a baaz draconian floating down from the cliffs above. The first draconian of the campaign! But… baaz draconians aren’t like they once were. Instead of turning to stone and trapping the slayer’s weapon, they turn to stone and might turn nearby characters into stone as well!

I’m a bit conflicted about this. Honestly, I don’t like it that much. It’s just too punishing if a character rolls poorly. Yes, it’s two failed saves, but I’ve seen my players. I know how they roll. And it isn’t well.

The mercenary scout then gave his warning: While the mercenaries had engaged some of the solders, the rest were now approaching the village! They had to start the evacuation.

The Dragonarmy Attacks!

The adventure now has three random encounters during the evacuation, followed by two set encounters. I rolled the random ones instead of selecting them. It was 8:50 pm. (You can tell from that I skimmed over a lot of the preparations and intra-party discussion).

The first encounter was with a family of four who were confused and didn’t know what to do. There’s possibly the chance for a lot of role-playing here, but we kept it pretty short, instead having the second encounter a continuation of the first: the attack of five baaz draconians. This meant that the heroes were protecting the family.

Parren the wizard won the initiative and led with a shatter spell – which only one the draconians failed their save against. Sigh. Draconians don’t have the best ACs, nor do they do a lot of damage, but the rolling of the characters was pretty terrible. The combat lasted four rounds, with Tordek hitting only once. No-one quite turned to stone, but it was close. At the end of the combat, it was 9:10 pm.

With the family safely aboard a vessel, and more and more villagers escaping down the river towards the city of Kalaman, the party returned into the town to delay the soldiers. The third of the random encounters was another five draconians, this time engaging a pair of overmatched militia members. (Two of the surviving ones after the massacre last session).

This was a big, long combat, lasting until 9:40 pm, and about six rounds. Qinh got himself turned to stone during the battle, but the players did their best to protect the soldiers while the draconians obliged by rolling minimum damage most of the time. (Roll20 dice rolling is occasionally weird!) Thankfully, Qinh waited until the combat was almost over to become petrified, so the heroes were able to mop up the last couple of draconians.

Once, a long time ago, I played the SSI Dragonlance computer games, and killing one or two of the Bozak draconians would cause a chain reaction that would take them all out. This time around, the dying Baaz draconians were turning their fellows to stone!

The party were hurt a little, but they’d taken surprisingly little damage for such a long combat. I did give them the chance to spend hit dice before the two set encounters, however. Would they have had an hour? Likely not, but in a narrative adventure like this, it’s important to give the heroes a chance to recover. I’m drawing more on the 4E experience here, and it’s also worth noting that there’s no healing magic.

The Final Stand

The penultimate encounter (starting at 9:40 pm) was against a big mechanical flamethrower looking a little like a dragon (and, of course, a gnomish invention), operated by four Baaz draconians. The blasted thing does 5d10 fire damage in a 60-foot-cone! While it takes three actions to activate, and the first round it’s employed against a building, any hit from that thing would end the campaign.

I chose not to use it in that manner, having the draconians concentrating more of the characters than flaming them. I was, however, amenable to Tordek manuevering it around to point at the draconians and then Qinh activate it as he skipped merrily around the slow-moving draconians!

That blasted the final two draconians from the map, so it was time for the final encounter – Fewmaster Gholcag, a less-than-happy ogre. (9:55 pm). At least none of the characters were stone!

The Fewmaster approached from the top of the map, and everyone could see her except Qinh, leading to a confused exchange where he began to set up in entirely the wrong place, before Tordek called him back into position. One ogre, two baaz draconians. How would it go?

Well, something fun happened: Parren rushed up to the front and thunderwaved both the ogre and one of the draconians into the fray on the edge of the map. The fray is where, in these big battlefield encounters, there are enemy forces fighting. It’s bad to be there, as you take damage when you enter it and when you start your turn there. If you can succeed at a Dexterity save, you can sustain less damage. Ogres are not known for their high Dexterity saves. They are known for good Constitution saves, but the Fewmaster failed this one and was pushed back!

Upon seeing this, both Tordek and Qinh realised they also could push their opponents back.

Due to the reconfiguration of their forces, the ogre realised she couldn’t reach the party – both the draconians were in front of her. So, she threw a javelin instead at Parren. With the draconians also concentrating on him, soon the White Robe Wizard was done to one hit point.

Cheering from the villagers on the wharf spurred on the party. (That’s a random battlefield event, which I finally remembered to roll), and the Fewmaster managed to resist Qinh’s attempt to push her into the fray again, while he also inflicted heavy damage on her. But, incredibly, she failed to resist Parren’s second thunderwave spell, and it was back into the fray for her.

She was able to get out – though, by now, badly wounded – and struck Tordek with her greatclub for 10 damage. Tordek tripped a draconian, while Vermin used her crossbow to take down the ogre. (Yes, she has a hoopak, but she prefers the crossbow) She taunted the last draconian, but it never got a chance to attack as the rest of the heroes took it down.

It had been a three-round combat, aided greatly by the timely thunderwave spells, and it was now 10:12 pm.

With that, the last of the villagers and the heroes jumped on the final boat and escaped, the town of Vogler burning behind them.

And that was it for the second session! Everyone could take a long rest, and I instructed them to gain a level. Which meant they were now level 4 and gained the second bonus feat of this campaign. Which was a welcome surprise to them all. Josh had realised that there was a bonus feat for everyone during character creation, but he hadn’t spotted that a second one was coming.

Two of them took the Divinely Favoured feat – and, as a result, the gods will begin to make themselves known next session.

Kalaman awaits! Will they find safety there? I guess we’ll find out next week!