The Journey to Respite

Darsulujth - Chromatic White Dragon (Wyrmling)

Campaign Information and Introduction

Recruitment Letter

Campaign Setting and Character Creation

Player Characters (Example character sheet for a level 1 wizard)

NPC Guides

NPCs: Respite

Campaign Log

12/26/15 - Session 1 - Journey to Respite

2/28/16 - Session 2 - The Road to Dul'Dumar

5/12/16 - Session 3 - The Fight for Dul'Dumar

Chapter 1: Respite

Module 1: A Weary Summons

Module 2: Striking The Path

Module 3: The Way Forward

Module 4: Fervent Pursuit

Chapter 2: Planechase

Module 5: A Change Of Pace

Module 6: Esoteric Cartography

Module 7: A Deal's A Deal

Module 8: Confrontation

Chapter 3: Freefall

Module 9: Home Is Where The Heart Is

Module 10: The Rising Storm

Module 11: Falling Ashes

Module 12: End Game

Campaign Summary

Hey past Respite campaign participants,

Since we'll unfortunately be unable to complete this campaign, I wanted to let you know some of the potential ways it could have ended, along with the official canon ending.

The Story So Far

• The story began with a bounty from the dwarf Hadrin Hailskorn of the town of Respite, looking for an adventuring band to clear a local mine of kobolds. The town had previously sent in their own sortie and had been repelled.
• The adventurers were waylaid by gibberlings on the road to the town as they were escorted by the wagon rider Stedd. The moon Selûne was shrouded by dark clouds during the attack.
• Ultimately, the adventurers cleared the mines of the kobold threat, including freeing a hybrid dragon wyrmling that was chained up. The lead kobold was able to control it with its staff, and it was clear that there was an experiment binding kobolds to young dragons by exchanging scales with them.
  • Using the Hailskorn Diadem to see through earth and stone, the party was also able to spot the missing innkeeper's husband, and brought him back to safety. They were good citizens and returned the Diadem to Hadrin Hailskorn. They also met his silent, humorless brother, Andrin. Gossip led them to learn that they were orphans, raised by Kriiador after their parents fell in their ancient underground home north of the Spine of the World -- to an army of medusa.
• A series of side quests followed, including:
  • Assisting the hag Two Winds with recovering a Phial of Endless Water that had been stolen from her, including witnessing her ascension to Three Winds.
  • Exploring the ruins of an observatory of elves who had turned themselves to silver and teleported onto the surface of Selûne in order to study the moon more closely.
  • Assisting the Uthgard Elk Tribe with setting their tribal spirits to rest. This adventure didn't turn out as planned and the lead quest giver was decapitated mid-exposition.
  • A one-shot adventure set in the continent of Maztica connected to this campaign by:
    • Revealing a location of one of the three fonts of power used for interplanar triangulation by the Fortress of Night (more on this later).
    • Exposing the Sword Coast to kaf, a bitter black beverage.
    • Showing where Nelu ran off to.
  • Through political intrigue in the town of Mirabar, including meeting a Harper half-elf and the blind seer Kriiador, ultimately discovering that the priestess Talindra was behind warning the kobolds of the first adventuring party.
• This led to a chase, where just on Talindra's heels the party stormed after her into a wizard's home, unknowingly triggering a portal to Avernus, starting the first foray into Planescape.
• The trip through Avernus was the party actually experiencing the first chapter of the Well of Worlds 2e Planescape adventure.
• After dealing with the Pillar of Skulls, wading through a river of blood, and avoiding a fight with a chain devil, the group successfully found a portal to Sigil, the City of Doors.
• As clueless primes, they were immediately ripped off by a tout and called berks and told to pike off a lot. A meeting with a rogue Modron led to them receiving some potions of Stone to Flesh.
• Eventually, after receiving some empowered tattoos from the fallen dabus Fell, they found their way to Talindra's destination via a portal and its corresponding key (biting a shard of obsidian until your tongue bled).
• The destination was the Fortress of Night in the Negative Energy Plane, where the party got some exposition to the fact that this fortress was a childhood home of Selûne and her sister Shar, that there have been invasions with the Fortress to other Prime Material worlds, resulting in the destruction of their moon.
• This was being planned for Faerûn, along with a coordinated alliance between Talindra, the priestesses of Shar, and the "Warrens of the North" (a collection of kobold, orc, and ogre tribes). Part of this agreement was granting the kobold tribe, led by Kurikkik, three dragon eggs with which to experiment.
• The party stole some overpowered items from the fortress (a Looking Glass of Scrying and an Atlas of the Planes, a living book that was being used to navigate the planes) and ultimately confronted and defeated Talindra.
• They found a chamber with two portals corresponding to attuned fonts of power -- one led to an underground cavern, and another had a roaring giant lizard (the font in Maztica). They chose the one without the lizard, ending up underground north of the Spine of the World -- not too far from Respite.
• Using the Looking Glass of Scrying to avoid an ambush with medusa (and noting their connection to a Beholder), they navigated through the ancient Hailskon underground mines, eventually coming to a battlefield with dozens of dwarves that had been turned to stone.
• Most of these dwarves had shattered, but two were still intact as stone statues -- a dwarf warrior and a dwarf priestess, back to back, as if in battle.
• Passing an intellect check, the party used the Flesh to Stone potions on these statues, reviving Hadrin and Andrin's lost parents, heroes from before the Time of Troubles (and the events of the Bhaalspawn in the Baldur's Gate series).
• Together, they fled the mines, only to find that the Warrens of the North were marching in their direction, heading toward Respite.
• Darsulujth, the red/white hybrid dragon that was rescued in the first session, landed dramatically, saying that he had been harrying their flanks in search of his brother and sister.
• Darsulujth refers to Vurt as "Chainbreaker".
• Clinging to the dragon's scales saddleless, the party and the Hailskorn parents barreled south toward Respite, to warn them of the impending battle.
• This is where we paused the campaign indefinitely.

The Canon Ending (What would have probably happened)

• On the way back to the town, adventurers spot a Storm Giant on the tallest peak of the Spine of the World. It drops its club in shock as they fly by, and it roars a hello in Terran.
• The dragon alternates between feeling very hot and very cold to the touch, reflecting his conflicting elemental nature.
• Landing within sight of the town, Darsulujth causes quite a commotion, which causes Hadrin and Andrin to see what it's all about.
• Hadrin exclaims as a jest that the party looks like it has been to the Nine Hells and back (in part due to the dried blood still visible waist down from wading through the river of blood in Avernus).
• Andrin is the first to spot his parents, leading to a very emotional reunion, including handing his mother the Diadem. She truly looks empowered and like a hero of old when she dons it. She plunges her fingers into the ground and her eyes begin to glow as she looks deep underground and scouts through the earth miles away. She asks if Kriiador lives as the town is updated on the situation, and relaxes when she learns that he does.
• The town begins to prepare for battle, which is estimated to start at sundown the next day. Palisades are put up, along with trenches dug and spikes. A rider is sent to Mirabar to ask for reinforcements.
• Darsulujth refers to Vurt as "Chainbreaker" again, informing the party that he'll continue to harry the army's flanks as they approach, hoping to draw out his brother and sister. He asks the party to free them as they did him by shattering the staves that control them.
• Townsfolk begin referring to Vurt as "Chainbreaker". Therai and Solal don't receive a similar honor since the dragon did not know them.
• The party finally gets a warm bath and some rest.
• The next day is quiet as some citizens evacuate. Many stay behind.
• The sound of war drums is heard well before the army is visible.
• Depending on choices made throughout the entire campaign, a multi-phase battle unfolds, including the following moments:
  • Vurt being able to lead and inspire and place the troops to defend specific directions.
  • The army waits to attack longer than expected. If the party thinks to scout with the looking glass, they would observe priestesses of Shar shouting at orcish leaders, and eventually fleeting the battle. Many of the orcs and kobolds are looking up at the moon Selûne expectantly.
  • If the party had failed to stop Talindra, the Fortress of Night would have appeared out of the moon, destroying it in the process, plunging the area in unnatural darkness, frightening all friendly combatants, emboldening the invading army, and ultimately creating a realm-shattering change that would have attracted the attention of every major power in Faerûn.
  • Waves of kobolds, orcs riding dire wolves, and ogres attacking from various directions. The encounters were designed to be difficult and to encourage falling back.
  • The party is aided by Four Winds (she killed her last sister offscreen) from the south when the battle starts to feel hopeless. As an eldritch creature, she reaches into the sky from a hilltop with impossibly long, spidery arms, at first instilling horror in the Respite troops until they see that she is creating storm clouds and directing lightning at the invaders.
  • The Uthgarde Elk Tribe does not assist from the east due to the side quest failure.
  • The stableboy Dorn, shooting with a bow and arrow from a rooftop, is almost slain by an orc climbing up behind him, but is saved by Slate (the tavern cat) clawing at the orc's face.
  • The four Hailskorns, fighting back to back in a rotating circle, look super rad. The father's orange and blue hammers get slammed together periodically to create bright flashes and a knockback, and they single-handedly can defend one side of the town.
  • The battle can be ended early -- if the party notes the army leaders observing and directing troops far from the battlelines (say, with the looking glass), they can charge through a fray and try to cut off the leadership. It's an elite squad of orcs, including a powerful sorcerer. Their defeat would have caused most troops to fall back.
  • Either way, however, Darsulujth eventually appears on scene, being attacked by his brother and sister, both being controlled by a mounted kobold spellcaster with a staff.
  • One dragon would be drawn toward Four Winds after she strikes at it with a lightning bolt, causing her to flee into the ground. It would then get intercepted by Darsulujth, who is focused on slaying the rider.
  • The other dragon would land dramatically to face the already worn out adventurers.
  • Most likely, the adventurers would have succeeded in saving the other two dragons by slaying their riders and destroying their staves.
  • After a moment of quiet, just as many more combatants would appear from the north, charging for the death stroke.
  • At that moment Kriiador the Blind Seer arrives with an army from Mirabar, having foreseen this moment. He's mounted on a goat that is also blind.
  • The tide quickly turns and the battle is ended, with the enemy army in retreat.
  • As designed, there would have been freedom for outside-the-box thinking: mount up Darsulujth to attack the orc leaders, mount up the other dragons after freeing them to chase the fleeing army, choose to flee the town if it's looking bad, and so on. Character deaths would have been possible.
• After the battle concludes, the three freed dragons wait outside of town. They kneel to the Chainbreaker and create the Vow of the Triumvirate, stating that Respite need only light three beacons in a time of need and that they will return to assist.
• They then fly off to the North to start their new lives and learn to deal with their conflicted elemental / dual colored natures -- or more likely, to kill as many kobolds that are still fleeing in that army.
• As the weeks go by, news spreads of the events that happened. Vurt the Chainbreaker is made the mayor of Respite as it continues to rapidly expand as more travelers arrive as the Mayor's house is rebuilt to his specification. The Hailskorn mother forms stone into a statue of a dragon having its chains broken by a dwarf adventurer for the town center. Kaf continues to be a controversial beverage from tavern to tavern.

The Next Plot Hook

• The campaign ends with everyone awakening to a brain-piercing screeching. Wind howls as you approach the source -- the living book, the Atlas of the Planes, has escaped your Bag of Holding and opened itself up, howling at the sky. From it, a dark beacon of purple light shoots straight into the sky, clearly visible and audible for miles. As you approach and move to close the book, you see it flipped to a page depicting Avernus, and a red mark begins to glow and change position with increasing speed.
• The campaign by design would have opened up here however, with a few possibilities:
  • Figuring out what to do about this living book. Is the DM trying to correct a serious error, or is it still possible to keep it -- at a cost?
  • Helping the Hailskorns reclaim their ancestral home of Dol'Dumar, dealing with the medusa and that beholder.
  • The discovery of mithril so close to Respite would see it transform into a major hub. This would lead to conflict with competitors and increase tensions with other nearby towns.
  • Plunging head-first back into the portal to Avernus to adventure in the planes without any reason at all.

The Theme

• The recurring theme of a conflict between siblings was an initial focus of the narrative, but it was muddied by a desire to introduce the planes, to keep the campaign exciting for new players, and ultimately having to rush to the ending due to my own scheduling issues.
• Future campaigns will have a stronger theme.

The Dark of It

• Talindra, under Shar's guidance, worked with priestesses around the world to ignite three fonts of power that, together, could be used to guide Fortress of Night to this specific Prime Material world. One of these was in Maztica.
  • The reason for Shar being so brazen reflects a larger plot point, which may be revealed in future campaigns as characters get high level. It spans the Planescape setting, touches on another major theme and narrative arc, and is an on-going event, with its impacts first being felt on the Prime Material Plane.

An Ending and Beginning

• Thanks for playing in the Respite campaign.
• Any future campaign would be set about six months later, in Faerûn but in a different part of the world.
• Darsulujth will return.
• Performers in remote taverns do sing of Vurt the Chainbreaker and his fellow two dragon riders (a bard and a warlock), although the extent to which the story has been distorted depends on its telling.