Skyfell Campaign: Session 5

Skyfell Introduction

I started a once-per-month Dungeons and Dragons game in my Skyfell campaign setting. I wanted to provide my players with a log of their adventures and then realized that such a log might make for fun blog posts. See the Session Index for a complete listing.

The cast is:

Dan - Drekzhar - male minotaur, Bard (College of Swords)

Laura - Meribore Softwalker - female fitbolg, Druid (Circle of the Moon)

Jeff - Omagoshno - male rock gnome, Artificer (Artillerist)

Pat - Frit Nimbly - female goblin, Monk (Way of Shadow)

Rodney - Tauffae Twofeather Topshelf - male orc, Fighter (Champion)

Michelle - Bronte Whitewinter - male firbolg, Cleric (Tempest Domain)

Session 5: The Piruna Run, "Into the Burrow part 1"

Preparation

In my initial plans for The Piruna Run, I had developed four distinct encounter areas: the ship, the tree, the burrow, and another site. (I’m being purposefully vague about the fourth site because I still might use it depending on what my players do in subsequent sessions.) Given the flow of the game thus far however, I decided to merge the burrow and the encounter from the fourth site together into a single encounter at the burrow. It just made more sense to do so and promised to be more fun. This is the kind of decision every DM has to make once in a while: keep with your plans and plow forward OR adapt your plans to the current situation and table vibe. Generally, it’s best to adapt. 

As with the Cursed Guardian sub-arc, I developed mood music for this session too. My soundtrack included both an ambient playlist and a combat playlist. Both are on Spotify and public so that you can listen to them and use them in your own campaigns. I also created a third playlist just for ambient music during the character’s’ travels through the forest. (Truth be told, the list is just the Wandering Appalachia tracks from Fallout 76. These tracks are perfect for what I wanted.) I did this in the week leading up to the game.

Another part of my prep work this time involved setting up the battlefield for the encounter. If you’re following our sessions, you already know that I use Heroscape tiles for my maps. They work well and, to be honest, I really love building maps with them. It’s just fun. So, I spent the morning of the session building the map.

When I started setting up the camera for my remote player, I realized that the apparatus and placement I used in session 4 would not necessarily work for session 5. The angle of the camera combined with the 3D elevations of the map and its set pieces were obscuring portions of the map. I decided I needed to change the setup so that the camera was pointing straight down onto the map. The armature on the apparatus I was using wouldn’t allow for that. So, I had to improvise. I used a spatula to extend the armature and attached the camera to it.

The Map all Built with the Camera in Place

This worked surprisingly well and gave me the top-down view I thought would be more helpful.

View from the Camera

These shenanigans properly dealt with, I was ready for the game. 

Pre-game

Pat joined just before the session began and while he liked the battle-map view I had set up, he also wanted to be able to see the other players. Dungeons and Dragons is a social game after all; most of the fun is really about player interaction. I only have one camera though. So, I simply moved the apparatus away from the table far enough so that he could see the players with the intention of moving it back when combat began. This worked pretty well as I could angle the camera just right and get everyone in frame.

The Re-positioned Camera (Taken Later in the Game)

Everyone leveled up at the end of session 4. (Everyone was at level 3 now.) It was time for both Dan and Jeff to decide which specialty their characters would take. Dan settled on the College of Swords for Drekzhar. Jeff went with the Artillerist for Omagoshno. Everyone also took a look at their spells and read up on any new abilities their characters might be getting. After finishing this record keeping, I gave a quick summary of what happened during the last session and then we began.

In-game

We rolled back time just a little so that everyone, including Jeff who had been unable to attend session 4, had a chance talk to Sil-tsinia. In this revisited conversation, she explained that there were fourteen trees like hers spread across the Moss Creek. However, most of those were infected like her tree. Their spirits had either been murdered or had gone mad with the loss of their home. There was once a little over 100 dryads on the island. Now, she only sensed five remaining. She vowed to rescue those still living and hoped to discover others that might be in hiding. 

Sil-tsinia went on to say that though she had never left Moss Creek herself, she knows that other islands in the Piruna Fields had populations of dryads. Some islands had more than others. Unfortunately, the distance between the islands was too far to tree step between them. The dryads instead relied on both the gnomes and the firbolgs to carry messages whenever they island hopped.

She finished the evening telling stories about the dryads who had inhabited the tree with her. It was her memorial to spirits whom she considered family and would miss greatly.

The next morning, the party woke up to find that Sil-tsinia was gone but the tree was already looking much healthier. There were new sprouts growing and the infection did not look quite so strong. Meribore could also sense the natural energies of the wilderness were flowing once again through its roots, trunk, and branches. This might only be a small victory because the life pulse of the island remained in a precariously irregular state but she was more than willing to embrace the win and dared to hope the island could be saved. 

The Life Force of the Tree is Renewed
Source: Pixabay

Frit prepared breakfast while Bronte prayed to Hiatea. Omagoshno began plans for Bronte’s new arm. Drekzhar contemplated the efficacy of the magics he had at his disposal and refocused his concentration on those that would be most beneficial in the immediate future. Tauffae was eager to get going and spent much of the morning pacing the chamber throwing impatient frowns at everyone.

The morning routine (finally) completed, the party started out for the Moss Creek burrow. Frit knew vaguely which way to go; she had been to the burrow once since her arrival on the island. 

(Skyfell Cultural Note: The traditional goblin homeland is on the Teskos Islands which is also the homeland of orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, and the like. The traditional feral gnome homeland is The Piruna Fields. The traditional rock gnome homeland is Akima Prime though they are spread pretty evenly throughout all Skyfell. The point here is that the hatred between goblins and gnomes depicted in some of the Dungeons and Dragons reference material is not really present in Skyfell. Sure there is some distrust and suspicion but there is not the raw hatred. This is especially true of the feral gnomes who would have little to no contact with outsiders in general let alone goblins specifically. As such, while Frit’s general friendliness for the gnomes on Moss Creek might be unusual it is not abhorrent.)

The path was fairly well worn and easy to follow too in spite of the encroachment of undergrowth. The terrain gradually rose in elevation before giving way to rolling peaks. It also crisscrossed the creek three times. At each crossing was a bridge made from living trees.

A Bridge Grown from Living Trees
Source: Inhabitat.com

About an hour out, they found a makeshift shelter pieced together from branches and moss patches. Inside was the decaying skeleton of a single gnome with a portion of its rib cage missing. A quick medical assessment led Omagoshno to conclude that something large had taken a bite out of this person while they had still been alive. The party found only a pouch containing stones, bits of twig, and few bone shards. They also found a crude pocket portrait of a female gnome. They performed a proper burial for this unknown soul, leaving behind the portrait as a grave marker. They then kept moving. 

A few hours later, the party discovered a “box canyon” formation off the side of the path. It was littered with gnome bodies. Omagoshno made his way up the side of the formation to get a better look at the site. On the way, he found the remains of what was clearly a very unusual creature. The skull was mostly mouth and contained concentric rings of barbed teeth. A thick rib cage sat upon a pair of heavy legs that looked a lot like those of a raptor dinosaur. Broken arrows were scattered around the remains and a busted stone hatchet was stuck into its ribs. Noting this find, he continued to the top of the formation. From there he could see bodies scattered around the front of the “canyon” with many more near the back. It was easy enough to guess that these people had been trapped here and had put up a defense before being slaughtered. Omagoshno returned to the party and related all that he had seen. Everyone was very nervous to not fall to the same fate and left the scene behind.

A few more hours of walking passed when the party could clearly see the face of a sheer rock cliff directly ahead of them. There were a number of bones scattered around here along with the lingering odor of rotting flesh. Frit recognized that they had arrived at the burrow entrance, which was cut into the cliff face. 

The Party Travels to Moss Creek Burrow

Given all that they had seen so far, they sent Slinky to scout ahead. The construct returned indicating that it had found no readily apparent danger. Still, the party proceeded with caution. As they moved forward, they heard a low moan that was soon joined by a multitude of sobs. The keening struck an emotional cord with Tauffae who was immediately overwhelmed with the anger, fear, and grief from his childhood. The wailing also resonated with Frit, whose past as a slave to a group of trolls boiled up inside her. Both dropped to the ground, sobbing and moaning, utterly paralyzed with sadness. The rest of the party was not certain of what was happening but understood that they should comfort their comrades. Through a supreme effort of will, both Tauffae and Frit were able to pull themselves together enough to push forward despite the continued wailing that surrounded them.

The Party Pushes Forward

Slinky took the lead with Frit close behind. As she rounded a rocky ridge she could see the doorway into the burrow. The remains of a dozen gnomes were scattered around the door as though the victims had been fleeing from something from inside when they had been murdered. But before she could fully process the scene, a new threat appeared. Some of the bones to her left pulled together to form a large creature.

The Bone Monster Closes in on the Party
Miniature by: ScaryIsGood as posted on Reddit, Digital Manipulation by Me

Six gnomish phantoms materialized out of the bones scattered to Frit's right. They wailed and moaned as they clawed their way from their deepest grief into the Material plane.

The Phantom Vision Rises
Original images from Pixabay, Digital Manipulation by Me

Alert to the new danger, Meribore wild shaped into a deinonychus, dashed over the rocky ridge that Frit had circled around, and attacked the bone monster. Her foe suffered far less damage from her vicious assault than any living creature would have.

The Combat Begins

Tauffae was close behind and, realizing that a blunt attack would be more harmful than a slashing one, used the flat of his sword in a perfect “death-from-above” leap that did its fair share of harm. The bone monster, now working into a rage, let out a silent roar and struck back at its attackers.

Meanwhile, Omagoshno rushed up to the phantoms and hit them with a thunderwave spell. This did only angered the phantoms who immediately focused their attack on Omagoshno. He got off a shield spell, but the combined attack from all six spirits overwhelmed the defenses that spell could provide. They assault drained Omagoshno's life force and rotted his flesh until he collapsed, unconscious and so very near death. Slinky, seeing his master fall, burrowed under the spirits, popped up just beneath Omagoshno (lifting the artificer off the ground), and then let loose a lightning charge that swept through the ghosts.

As the rest of the party dispatched the bone monster, the spirits turned their hatred toward Slinky who had nothing like shield spell to fortify him. They ripped into the construct so viciously that he exploded. The force of the detonation threw Omogoshno, dragging him even closer to death. (The players became quite worried that one of their own was about to die.)

Oh My Gosh, No! Gnome down! Gnome down!

Fortunately, for him, Omagoshno’s friends rallied to his defense. They destroyed the spirits and spared him from dying with a few healing words. This returned him back to health, but he was left with a cog-shaped scar on his lower back that would not heal and likely never will.

Save Omagoshno!

With the immediate threat defeated, the party took a moment to examine their surroundings. Just a little to the west of the burrow entrance was an ancient ruin (not at all unusual for the Piruna Fields). Most of the ten-foot, circular base was intact though overgrown and difficult to examine without additional excavation. Evenly spaced around the edge of the platform were five stone plinths with only the barest hint of the columns that once sat upon them. A large, crumbling, stone bowl rested at the center of this base atop a raised platform. Parts of that platform bore inscriptions that were nearly worn away but Drekzhar was able to use comprehend languages to read them. In short, they spoke of making an offering to a god named Correllon Larethian but there was no indication as to who the god was or what an offering might be, let alone what might happen if the offering was accepted. 

The Ruins and Their Inscriptions

No one in the party knew this deity. It occurred to Drekzhar that the letters of the inscription were the same as those on the coins they had looted from the old woman in the heart of the tree.

Omagoshno was upset over the loss of Slinky but he had the presence of mind to realize that Slinky’s death could benefit Bronte. He channeled his sadness into his work and quickly salvaged what would be useful in constructing a new arm for his firbolg friend.

The entrance to the burrow was closed but not locked. It was clearly big enough for creatures much larger than gnomes to enter. Meribore used detect magic to investigate the entrance. As there seemed to be no magical danger to worry about, the party regrouped and entered Moss Creek. The passage inside was definitely intended for visitors larger than gnomes. It descended down through solid rock carved in the same style as was used for the underground chambers back at the tree. The stonework was competent enough but nowhere near as refined as what rock gnomes or dwarves were capable of doing.

Entering Moss Creek Burrow

At the other end of the passage, Meribore’s detect magic highlighted an illusion spell concealing a deadfall trap in the floor. This was easily avoided. And the party, with Frit out in front, pushed their way through the doors that were at the end of the passage. At this, the hallway plunged into darkness and spirits weaved in and out of the walls. Tauffae and Drekzhar were frightened by these apparitions but the rest were able to see them for what they were. They were just another illusion meant to frighten off folks. Frit moved forward. Those that could followed. Those that couldn't ran out of the passage as fast as they could.


End session 5.

Experience earned:

Bronte - 598 (1879 total)
Drekzhar - 556 (1868 total)
Frit - 538 (1807 total)
Meribore - 556 (1848 total)
Omagoshno - 553 (1820 total)
Tauffae - 628 (1943 total)

Supplemental Materials:

About two weeks after the session, Jeff sent me the following as a memorial to Slinky. He says it should be sung as an old-timey country-western song. This is brilliant. (And he will be getting some bonus XP for his work.) I love my players so much!

The Ballad of Bronze Slinky

A good friend he was,

though also a machine.

He had a big heart and

a body that gleamed.

Cared for the ones

that took care of him,

and when he was done,

he'd begin again.

Slinky, oh Slinky,

never quite gone.

You got pulled apart,

but still you live on.

It was awful that day

he burst into flame,

gears, cogs and whatnot

lay all over the plain.

But he wasn't done,

no, not by a bit.

His legend lives on,

no, he never quit.

Slinky, oh Slinky,

never quite gone.

You got pulled apart,

but still you live on.

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