A DnD Tale: Keep on Shadowfell - The Return

Finally, after a 2 year hiatus

So after 2 years we're back in action. First a recap, the Dragonborn Paladin Sphinx, half-elven bard Kiera, the rouge tiefling Despair and the warlock high-elf Namiel all ended up in Fallcrest where Despair stole some artefacts that was stolen yet again by some Tiamat cult that have taken it to Winterhaven. Kiera is also asked to find Douven Stahl, an adventurer that found the artefacts during his travels and have gone missing. Sphinx follows the advice of the local Bahamut temple to find a statue they lost and to seek the seer in Winterhaven.  They fought of an invasion of goblins in the Harken Woods together with a local elvish army by disguising Sphinx as the fallen Paladin Wren that disrupts trade to the northwest. And before heading for Winterhaven they looked after Marcie of the Peanut-gang in the catacombs under Fallcrest picking up some magic items to make it an easier experience and they reached level 3. And that is where we left of... then 5th edition happened.

As that felt like a pilot episode, we retooled the characters for 5th edition and starting over from level 1, but they kept the sweet loot. Hopefully negating some of the problems of being newcomers and I believe not really appropriate challenges for level 1 5e. So it starts of on the caravan with 5 wagons on the way north. The gang gets to know 3 people. Murgeddin, the dwarf sergeant that is set up as the guard captain with 5 soldiers from Fallcrest, Selarund Halfmoon, the halfling merchant and Parle Cranewing, informal caravan leader and adventurer that are looking for some kind of keep around Winterhaven. But when they are around less than a day away the leading wagon falls into a hole in the ground and breaks the wheel and stopping the whole caravan since there is no way around it. The gang is sent onward to get help from Winterhaven, but some halfway between they get ambushed by kobolds. The battle goes descent I will say, Sphinx and Tyrell (my personal half-elven bard character) only gets knocked unconscious once. Helps that the kobolds suffer from light sensitivity and have disadvantage or no advantage here or there in using there pack tactics. Not so good for Argent (my other personal drow ranger  character) that suffers the same fate. But he at least got advantage using a bow and both my characters are level 3 to both show better as well as need to babysit the weaker characters. And it works. 

After the battle they enter Winterhaven and tell the guards about what happened so they send out a small militia force to help get the caravan to the village. Meanwhile our heroes enter the inn, arrange some rooms and starts to search for information. It's market day so they find some different shops and people, but they have been pointed by the guards to the elf selling flower who they finds next to the blind beggar elf (which they instantly recognises as the seer, fantasy branding 101). They ask around about the keep and such and are pointed north. Speaking with the seer they ask for the whereabout of Douven Stahl and learns that he is somewhere on a hill of bones where an ancient dragon lies and that they should be aware of a traitor. Asking about the Black Lady (which I substituted the campaigns "real" villain and changed it from a Orcus cult to a Tiamat cult) the seer have an interesting vision:

"I see a black hole, a hole formed by a snake... no, several snakes. They circle each other, five of them, there heads outside the hole. The snakes surround me. The hole... it fills with blood. All that is left is a black gap. It's an eye. It stares at me. The pupil pulls me in... a white light. A white horse with burning hoofs... no, a horned horse, a unicorn with wild starring eyes and flaming mane."

After that she lets out a scream and time seems to stop around them as they are enveloped by darkness. Her voice changes to the sound of thousand voices and they get a warning from an unknown entity about the lords of chaos that are at works and to seek the light and undo the mistakes of the past. They have been chosen as the champions of light and then the voice fades away and everything seems to go back to the ordinary state. They give some coins to the beggar and heads back to the inn to get more information. They find 3 guests at the inn that the innkeeper points toward. The magician Valthrun that Sphinx and Argent talk to (or Sphinx does, Argent isn't much for words) and ask about Douven Stahl that frequently talked to Valthrun about a dragon burial site. He doesn't have much information to give other than local heresies, but when they ask about the keep to the north he tells them what little he knows and writes them a map, but that they have peeked his curiosity and tells them that he will look into it himself. As they bring up the Tiamat cult he just laughs them off. 

Meanwhile Kiera and Despair talks to the other man, Eilian the Old who entered like Norm in Cheers and bribes him with a mug of bear that also points them to the dragon burial site and even write a map for them as well. They sit a bit longer and listens to his drunk ramblings while Tyrell and Namiel  got a pitcher of wine to try to get some information from an elven lady in a third corner. She didn't want to see them so Namiels player rolls a natural 20 on her intimidation rolls, slams the pitcher on the table spilling out the wine and says that, yes, we do want to sit down. Tyrell just grabs his hair in horror. Ninaran the elven hunter tries to dodge most of their questions, but as they begins asking about the Tiamat cult she begins to open up by telling them her suspicion of the town since none wants to talk about the cult and she mentions that she seen horrific displays out in the woods and she even followed to their hideout in the waterfall so she writes them a map as well. 

With all that information they get together and share information and compile the maps all to one large map. Meanwhile guests are streaming in, most from the newly arrived caravan. They find their friends again, but Parle has hurt his leg when he stumbled upon the slain kobolds after the groups fight and buys himself a flask of fine wine and goes to bed. Sphinx talks with the other two about the journey and such and later finds Lord Paidrig, the lord of the village, that hearing about their resourcefulness offers them a job to rid the village of the kobold infestation. Sphinx tells him he must first talk with his fellow travellers but they will tell him in the morning and then he heads to bed. Kiera pays for the rooms by entertaining the crowd while Namiel and Despair on their ends try to hear anything interesting before going to bed.

The next day they discuss the offer from the lord, accept it, goes and tell him and are on they way out when Despair spots some golden candle sticks and tries to pickpocket it, but gets caught by the lord and lady of the house. With a warning he lets her go, but any complaint could land her in the stocks outside. Getting the hint they go shopping. Sphinx sells of his old flail since he got a magic one instead and gets to know the dwarf smithy Thaig Coalstriker. They then head for the shop to pick up some healing potions, being 50 gold each and only four in stock they start haggling. Kiera pulls a fast one on Barwin the shopkeeper and gets all for 25 gold (I need to get back on them for this). After that they leave town and heads for the waterfall and the kobold lair. But walking on the road they once again gets attacked by a kobold patrol, but now we end on a cliffhanger.

They seemed to have a good time. One sister thinks the battles takes to long before they got to do things, but since there is 6 PC and somewhere between 1-15 enemies it can at times take a bit longer. Luckily I put up every encounter in an excel spreadsheet and pre-rolled all my characters initiative and given them the speed, AC and hit points as well as book and page for easy referencing this goes much faster than the last time. Question is when next time is, but we will see about that.