Our fifth session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen was played on Monday, June 26, 2023. The party consisted of:

• Parren, Human Wizard
• Tordek Steelfist, Dwarf Fighter
• Hrothkar, Human Barbarian
• Vermin, Kender Ranger

These events take place at the beginning of Chapter 5: The Northern Wastes.

Kalaman was in uproar. Their council had been slaughtered by Lord Soth and his undead knights, and some magic of great significance stolen from the Catacombs. The heroes were summoned before Marshal Vendri, who had just returned from the field. Unfortunately, Lord Bakaris had also survived, and held a grudge against the characters, blaming them for the events that had occurred. And especially for the death of his son.

Thankfully, Marshal Vendri was little inclined to listen to Bakaris’s ravings. Instead, the heroes and Darrett convinced her that Lord Soth was a danger and seeking something in the Northern Wastes – the City of No Names – which he needed to be prevented from finding. Vendri wasn’t sure what to do, but agreed that it would be wiser for the heroes to be out of time until Bakaris’s attempt to rouse the city against them was over.

Further private discussions between Vendri and Darrett led the Marshal to send Darrett and a small force of troops with the characters into the Wastes, to see if they could deny Lord Soth his prize – or at least discover what it was.

And so, the characters prepared for their journey to the Northern Wastes!

DM Notes:
This is by far the weakest link in the adventure. Everything up unto this point has flowed naturally, but the jump from “Soth has stolen the magical fire” to “We need to find what he’s searching for” isn’t handled well. It basically relies on a couple of statements the ghost of Salamir says in the previous battle – and those are easily missed. Lord Bakaris does a great job of making himself disliked, which is awesome. However, why are part of the army accompanying the characters? They never quite justify their existence in the sections to come, and quite likely could be viewed as a liability.

The Northern Wastes

To get the army and the characters to the Northern Wastes, the Marshal chartered boats, and soon the characters were stepping ashore on the broken lands that were the wastes. Great chasms split the ground, many of which would unpredictably fill with water at any time not convenient to the party. The gnome, Rookledust, provided both Darrett and the heroes with fargabs, gnomish devices that would allow them to keep in touch with each other. And so, the party set out to explore the wilderness, trying to find where the City of Lost Names stood.

DM Notes:
If you’ve read the adventure, you might be wondering where Dalamar is. Because, when the ship docks, they find an elvish party surveying the land, aided by the wizard Dalamar. Dalamar is the character who can find out where the City of Lost Names is. He gets them to visit three locations on the map, and then when all are dealt with, he points out the location of the City. Now, for some reason, I completely missed this on my readthrough – I was concentrating on later encounters – and so omitted him. Which led to a problem: There’s no way, in a section of the adventure that looks like a hexcrawl, to find the City except by stumbling upon it. I quickly came up with a solution, which in many ways I prefer, but this is one area where I diverge from the printed adventure. Instead of a directed quest, the party are undertaking a hexcrawl.

Studying the map of the area they had, they determined a few points of interest and set off towards them. On the way, they encountered a strange archway, broken and inscribed with eldritch signs. As Parren investigated, its guardian – a clay golem – roused and attacked the group. Three rounds – about 20 minutes – later, it was in pieces, with the barbarian and fighter combining well to greatly reduce its effectiveness. And while the archway was intriguing, Parren could determine nothing about how it worked. (Aided by a truly dreadful Arcana roll).

Their trek continued, and a few hours later it became apparent they certainly weren’t alone in the wastes – a Dragon Army patrol of three soldiers mounted on dragonnels spotted them and swooped down to attack.

This was not an easy battle, and Parren quickly deployed fireball to even the odds. Vermin was firing a shortbow augmented with hail of thorns spells to get both rider and dragonnel at once. The tactics of staying in the air greatly frustrated the melee fighters, and Parren then let loose a lightning bolt as he moved to a good angle. Eventually, the morale of the Dragonarmy officers failed and they fled from the party. Three rounds, 19 minutes to play through this random encounter.

The Sea Elves

After a couple days travel, the party finally reached their first destination – a convergence of many of the rifts and canyons in the area. There they found a party of sea elves in some distress. The party were sympathetic to the elves, and they learnt that the elves were on a pilgrimage that had been disrupted by the Dragon Army, with several of their members – including their leader – taken captive. Our heroes were more than willing to help any way they could.

The initial priority of the elves and their defacto leader, Ishvern, was to place an offering on the shrine found at the base of the canyon. The group were eager to see this structure, and Ishvern accompanied them as they made their way down to the Blue Phoenix Shrine. This is a small, six-area dungeon that could prove troublesome for the unwary party. I know, you expect my group to be unwary. So did I! However, they did an excellent job of being respectful to the elves that had built the shrine and their god. Nor did they loot the graves they found. They washed themselves in the purifying water, said prayers over the graves, and were admitted to the shrine where Ishvern made his offering.

All of which pleased the elves and – more importantly – Habbakuk, their god. The characters received the blessing of Habbakuk, which made their travel in the wastes far more efficient. They would basically travel at double speed from now on. (Well, ignoring difficult terrain, which is much the same thing).

DM Notes: I really like this encounter. It gives the opportunity for role-playing, and for things to go incredibly poorly if the party act as murder-hobos. Fight three black puddings at once? My inner Killer DM loves that idea. But it’s an easy experience if they’re respectful. Great design!

Ishvern was pleased they had completed the pilgrimage, but he was still worried about his captured companions. However, as they left the shrine, a sea elf returned from a scouting mission with news – he’d found where the elves had been taken. He marked the party’s map with the location of the Dragon Army camp – it was obvious where they should go. It was some distance away, and the party plotted a path through the wastes that seemed to avoid most of the chasms.

The Long Trek

To get to the Dragon Army camp would take several days, and so the party moved off through the harsh terrain, Ishvern wishing them well. A couple of days into their journey (strangely quick dure to the blessing), more Dragon Army soldiers found them – this time a Sivak draconian and five Dragon Army soldiers.

Parren rolled a better initiative than most of the soldiers, so you know what was coming: fireball! Alas, two of the soldiers saved! Still, it was a good chunk of their hit points down.

Vermin was accurate with her bow, Tordek less so with his longsword, and Hrothkar threw himself into a rage, hitting soldiers left and right with his axe while being hit himself. And – just like that – it was over. Under two rounds, and eight minutes of play for that encounter!

Some time later, the party observed a purple worm burrowing through the wastes in the distance. They did not approach and steered well clear of the monstrosity.

The Wanderer

As the party approached the chasms, having spent a few days on the more stable ground, they heard a cry for help and espied a young man in trouble. He had been travelling in the chasm, and one of the sudden floods was now rushing in, causing him some difficulty. To make things worse, he was being chased by giant spiders!

Never let it be said that this party would not be heroic! They leapt into the fray (with Hrothkar rolling a double-one on his first attack when he had advantage. Alas!). This was matched by the spider who tried to bite him. Roll20 was having fun with us!

Guess what Parren the evoker cast. Go on.

Sadly, all three spiders made their saving throws – and took nine damage apiece. A truly dreadful effort from the party’s mage!

Tordek showed Parren and Hrothkar how it was done, critically hitting a spider for 17 damage. Vermin stayed back, shooting arrows at the spiders. And while the young man had reached the surface, a spider bit him, reducing him to zero hit points. Parren attempted to bind his wounds and stabilize him, but Parren is not a mage-medic. Vermin, however, was now Favoured of the Gods, and was able to use cure wounds to aid the man.

Tordek and Hrothkar defeated the rest of the spiders, and the party greeted the young man – once the effects of the spider’s poison had worn off, and he could move again. He introduced himself as Clystran, and invited them back to his home village.

A village in the wastes? This the party had to see. But it was now 10 pm, and time for the session to close – we would continue the adventure in a week’s time.