Want to help? Consider becoming a Patreon.

• Arhian Vos – Human Monk
  • Pet: Pabu (Young Red Panda)
• Hartmut Helmsworth – Elf Monk
  • Pet: Kalistia (Young Blink Dog)
• Sindri Waggletop – (Forest) Gnome Wizard 
• Rettniss Kulvith – Water Genasi Druid
• Avacyn “Jolyne” Uloth the Merciless – Half-Orc Paladin
• Twilight Skybane – Tiefling Bard – Not Present This Session
  • Pet: Gem (Sailor Parrot With A Mouth)
  • Pet: C.C. (Copy Cat, Mimic Bag Of Holding)

• The party relaxes in High Ridge for a few days, enjoying their time and staying at the comfortable Anzenna.” (Arhian and Hartmut recognize it as the word ‘safe haven’ from Eibrikku – also called Ka’larian in some areas – the native tongue of the Seven Kingdoms of Utsukkuen – which makes sense, since Heima had mentioned that he was a native from there as well, and as such would have connections to other businesses in High Ridge who are natives from the seven kingdoms as well).
• Arhian heads to The Sunforge where he meets the human merchant Sten Sunforge and she purchases a regular 50′ hempen rope for 1 gold before meeting back with her companions
• They’re enjoying tea inside the inn’s small, quaint tavern when the mages, Borivian Stormcaller (male Aasimar) and the female human Delliana Thorne (party first saw them in Session 22, though unnamed at the time – learning their names in Session 23 after the fire incident) enter and bring the Lyre of Charm strings, now with the curse removed and the Charm Enchantment still imbued but slightly weakened due to the Dispelling required to remove the curse. (The Lyre of Charm was acquired after defeating Lord Rapture in Session 19).
• Twilight takes the strings and thanks them and explains to her party members that she will be up in her room re-stringing and tuning and attuning to the Hurdy Gurdy. (DM Note – Twilight was not able to make this session so this turned out to be a very easy way to write her out of this session to explain why she would not be present for today’s session)
• Borivian and Delliana explain to the others that Heima has requested their presence back at the Great Library. The party follows the two mages back to the Great Library of High Ridge where they meet with Heima
• Heima escorts them into a private room where he turns and faces the party; explaining that he hopes that they’ve been enjoying their stay at the Anzenna and enjoying their time exploring High Ridge. After a brief moment Heima becomes more serious and explains shortly after they had come back from beneath the tower – a human monk by the name of Bram Kessler (DM Note – the character was actually a character that the player Arhian in this game played in another game I ran that ended a few years ago) had come to the Great Library to report that they’d seen a large Hobgoblin encampment – and more pressing was seeing what appeared to be a young white dragon with this encampment.
• Heima explains that Bram said he wanted to go back out towards the encampment to see if he could determine what their plan was – and if they were intending to march towards Ridgecrest. That was five days ago – Heima explains that he’d hoped to hear back from Bram by now and fears that he may have been captured or worse.
• Heima asks to see if the party can either locate Bram, ideally; if not, investigate the encampment themselves (though not to put themselves at too much risk), and if possible confirm the white dragon sighting
• Arhian points out that they just helped an “old friend” with some trouble up at Frost Peak – and mentions that according to what they’d learned – an adult or ancient white dragon was responsible for bestowing a curse on the small town of Frost Peak. Arhian adds that she’s not certain where that white dragon is – but she’d heard it was somewhere “slumbering” according to what she’d learned. (See Session 26)
• Arhian reflects back on the notion when the dragon wars had happened several hundred years ago, that the five headed dragon goddess, Tyhamat had hobgoblins in her army due to their strategic knowledge; and goblins as foot soldiers commanded by the hobgoblins
• Sindri asks why the hobgoblins would align with the chromatic dragons
• Heima explains that often times, people will join such armies, because these dragons are often ancient and have great wisdom on many things… so these hobgoblins may have joined the forces of these dragons in hopes for some kind of information
• Arhian believes that the hobgoblins are looking for the way to unlock the secrets and discover the burial of an ancient hobgoblin Samurai named Grath Honorbound, who they believe can be resurrected and lead the hobgoblins to glory again
• The party agrees that time is of essence and they’re handed a map that notes the path that Bram said he would use to return to the hobgoblin encampment

• After the first night’s march – Avacyn tries to make camp in a wide open field, however Hartmut and Rettniss find a nice, secluded area, with a small opening, trees above it, and rocks behind it that would provide far more cover

• Sindri agrees on the nice spot and explains he can cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut
• Avacyn and Rettniss go searching for fruits and meat to have for dinner, rather than feeding off rations – and Rettniss finds some good berries that are edible while Avacyn comes across large bull-like creatures grazing out in the field. Avacyn counts how many are out there – and counts 6 (had him roll a d12 to see how many there might be). Avacyn throws a javelin into one for a surprise round – and attempts to intimidate the beast – but it’s furious and charges Avacyn

• Rettniss having watched Avacyn and expecting she was about to do something like this is more than ready when combat starts (Natural 20!)

• Rettniss blasts the charging beast with Frostbite then throws down her Staff of the Serpent and activates it
• The serpent tries to strike but misses, and the Aurochs, despite being disadvantaged from the Frost Bite hit, still manages to ram its horns into Avacyn’s armor

• Avacyn, though tough, feels the hit as the beasts horns pound and bend her breast plate armor with its powerful hit; but Avacyn is thankfully not knocked off her feet
• Not to be outdone – both of Avacyn’s hits on the beast land – one of them a critical strike (Natural 20!)

• The others are alerted to the sounds of combat (metal being hit as the Aurochs slammed into Avacyn’s breastplate, Avacyn letting out her battle cry, Rettniss’ spell going off) and rush over to see what’s happening – they observe Avacyn attacking the beast and getting hit and truly looking worse for the wear
• When she and Rettniss finally kill it; they see the rest of the herd, suddenly alerted that one of their own has been downed, and begins rushing towards them
• Rettniss lets loose a Flaming Sphere burning the land as the ball of fire moves across the field; these beasts moving with quickness, reach Avacyn and being slamming into her; Hartmut seeing the situation escalating casts Darkness centered on them (just after Sindri has cast a Minor Illusion to create a wall). Avacyn manages to find the one she’d slain in the darkness but isn’t able to pull it with her; so she decapitates it and takes the head of the beast and runs out of the darkness, leaving the confused beasts in the magical darkness. The party retreats to their camp and Sindri casts Leomund’s Tiny Hut as he’d originally planned
• At the camp, during their rest, Avacyn spends time recovering (expending Hit Dice – see my House Rules about recovering health in the wild). After she carves out the skull and uses it as a helmet to wear
• Arhian takes watch from inside the hut – and notices that as nightfall comes, there’s goblins that seem to come out and rummage through the field – and when some notice the dead Aurochs and become excited – some begin cutting off pieces of the dead creature for their own meat. Some, however, seem alarmed that the beast is not only dead – but they’re examining the beast – and noticing that it didn’t die of natural causes – and all seem to point at the fact that the beast’s head has been severed.
• The rest of Arhian’s shift, nothing else catches her eye; Arhian informs Rettniss she had counted at least twelve goblins wandering around within 60′ feet of the hut. Rettniss exits the hut and climbs a tree and begins making a voodoo doll of Sindri.

• However, because Rettniss is so focused on the voodoo doll creation, her perception of things around her are … distracted (disadvantage)… and she doesn’t see anything because she’s not paying attention… however, just as she gets near to completing the voodoo doll – she is overcome with a sense of odd fear that she can’t describe – her heart beats faster, her palms grow cold and sweaty (even if she is a water genasi!) It stays with her for ten minutes before the sensation is gone. The rest of the night is uneventful.
• The following morning she talks about the weird feeling she had and Arhian begins looking around outside the hut and sees more goblin tracks – but more alarming, the corpse of the Aurochs has moved slightly – and been picked fairly clean. More than what goblins could have possibly done. Making her way over there, Arhian notices four large reptilian tracks and realizes the young white dragon must have done this. Arhian walks back quickly and points out that it looks as if the white dragon picked the Aurochs corpse
• Sindri points out the fear that Rettniss felt could have been connected to the dragon and presses Rettniss to ask how she could have possibly missed a large white winged creature such as a dragon
• Rettniss lies about how she believes it was invisible when it was there; Sindri insights her and knows she’s lying but choses not to say anything – instead, simply keeping an eye on Rettniss
• Though last time, Hartmut and Rettniss had found a good place to camp after the second day of marching; this time Hartmut is too exhausted and it’s Rettniss and Avacyn who find a nice place to set up camp

• At the second camp they make, Arhian spots more goblin tracks; however, here – these seem to be marching in order – and not as scattered as they were at the first camp. This, Arhian knows, is definitely unusual behavior for goblins; so someone must be telling them how to hide themselves getting this close to the encampment – and there must be a goblin encampment
• Sindri decides that they should think about what they know about White Dragons from the stories that have been told. Arhian and Hartmut share the information they have – because the monastery had records of dragon activity – and it’s not a surprise now – after discovering that Shujin Gorudo, Master of Enlightenment was actually a gold dragon. So the two share what they know about white dragons.
• As the party sets up for the second night, Sindri casts Leomund’s Tiny Hut again
• Sindri takes first watch – and with a Natural 20 Perception – spots a young white dragon high in the sky, circling – as if watching down below. Sindri notes that roughly every 30 minutes the white dragon circles above their camp – and that it seems to be coming from further west – the same direction they’re heading, which means it may be simply circling above the encampment to the west, which would make sense – that’s what Bram Kessler had reported as well. When Hartmut takes on the second shift, he too (another Natural 20 Perception) spots the circling dragon.
• The following morning, Sindri and Hartmut share how they both spotted the young white dragon circling above, and both noted that it seemed to be flying from the west – which is the general direction of the encampment – and that it seemed to fly over every 30 minutes, so it was making a wide circle. Sindri also questions Rettniss about why the White Dragon wasn’t invisible when both he and Hartmut saw it.
• The party marches on towards the third day – and just before they enter a clearing – Hartmut suddenly spots figures (yet another Natural 20 Percetion!) moving across the field – three of the hobgoblin archers, two of them appear to be fighters of some kind, with swords at their side; the third appears to be a man in all leather, adorned in throwing weapons of every variety strapped to their leather armor – from throwing knives to shuriken

• Hartmut quickly casts Pass Without Trace and the party, successfully and stealthfully, moving 70 feet closer, closing the distance between them
• Knowing they can surprise them – Sindri starts the surprise round with Fireball

• One of the archers, not keen on being fireball’ed fires back at Rettniss – Natural 20!

• But they use Archer’s Eye to increase the damage adding more damage!

• The next archer fires at Avacyn, but it bounces off her damaged armor
• Rettniss casts Faerie Fire and manages to land it on one of the archers as well as the Master Thief
• The next archer fires at Arhian – but she uses reaction to deflect the missile and she smiles at the the archer
• The Master Thief begins moving towards the party
• Sindri seeing the Master Thief charging the party uses his wand to Hold Person – and the Master Thief fails!
• Hartmut uses a Ki point and extends the blade of his cestus and rushes one of the swashbucklers that charged them; one of his hits lands a solid hit while the other misses
• Arhian rushes the swashbuckler as well, though having kept her eye on the archers she swings and misses and also misses with her unarmed strike
• Avacyn whole critical failed in the Initiative, swings her axe around her head, forgetting about her ornate new helmet knocks it over her eyes and curses Hartmut for casting Darkness again, before realizing she’d knocked her own helmet over her eyes (Natural 1)
• One of the archers fires and manages to hit Avacyn in one of the holes in her armor that she earned while hunting the Aurochs
• The next archer fires at Hartmut who also bats the arrow away
• Rettniss, who is bleeding casts Cure Wounds on herself
• The next archer seeing her cast a familiar healing spell targets her (DM Note – I actually randomly roll to see who they are targeting it just so happened to land on Rettniss again) and once again hits delivering hard hitting arrows (doing more damage than she’d healed herself for!)
• The swashbuckler, having seen Arhian bat away arrows, slashes at her across her chest
• Arhian tries to hit the swashbuckler with her first hit and misses then tries to fury of blows – unfortunately Hartmut gets in the way and gets hit (Natural 1)

• Arhian tries another Flurry of Blows, and this time hits, despite the Stunning Strike the Swashbuckler resists the stun
• The Master Thief at the end of their turn fails the Save against the Hold Person and remains held
• The next swashbuckler swings at Arhian and hits, also cutting her deep
• Sindri uses his animated spell book in the form of a squirrel (see in Session 22) runs next to the Master Thief – and unleashes three scorching rays – all hit, and doing Critical Damage – and does an extraordinary amount of damage!
• Hartmut meanwhile is having too much of a difficult time hitting the Swashbuckler, but manages to hit with one of the Flurry of Blows
• Avacyn knowing that the Master Thief is faerie fired and all hits are critical – and Sindri shouting, “Someone! Please kill him before he breaks that hold!” – rushes up – and manages to hit – landing massive hits and and a critical strike – and seeing that she’s killed the Master Thief, tries to decapitate and bat the Master Thief’s head – but she only manages to decapitate the Master Thief’s head
• Avacyn then shakes her enchanted snowglobe which knocks one of the Swashbucklers down and does some additional cold damage
• One of the archers, furious to see all of this happening, fires at Sindri, but Sindri as a reaction casts Shield to deflect the arrow
• Another archer fires at Avacyn and hits her for some solid damage after seeing Avacyn decapitate the Master Thief
• Rettniss quaffs a healing potion and gets a good amount of health back and fires a Frostbite at one of the archers – who fails to save against it
• One of the archers hits Hartmut – but before making impact, Hartmut once again bats the arrow away
• As the battle continues, the swashbucklers are eventually downed and the archers begin to retreat and fire as they retreat
• However, Rettniss manages to entangle one while Arhian uses Step of the Wind to reach another; the third continues to bolt and fire
• Hartmut moves to the one that’s entangled and begins attacking
• As Avacyn moves to the same one Hartmut is attacking and in her haste to strike him, misjudges and strikes Hartmut instead

• The archer engaged with Arhian cuts into her twice, shredding her robes, and cutting her flesh, as he growls, “Deflect this!”

• Avacyn who had just moved in to also help Arhian, seeing her get cut up so badly ends up being punched in the side of the head for her effort (Natural 1 by Arhian)… but no worries… her next strike is a Critical Hit (Natural 20!)

• The party eventually defeats and kills all but one of the archers, deciding to render him unconscious for questioning.

Gold: 350 gold total

Weapons: 14 throwing daggers, 30 shuriken (they’re just darts, flavored), 2 ornate daggers (+1 Dagger each), 2 long swords

Poison: 12 vials of poison that do 2d6 poison damage (1 use per vial).

Map: Base that details an encampment.