About 3-4 times a year our table meets up in person to slog through 3 sessions over a weekend. We cook food together, have drinks, and hang out as friends for a few days and play our favorite table top game Dungeons and Dragons. This session recap is the first part of our 3 part adventure as our campaign’s story continues to evolve. We usually play a one shot to get warmed up and we invite a guest or two to join in on the fun. This weekend we invited our good friend and original party member from our first campaign who played Grandma Grettle for us, while we invited a first time DND player and friend to introduce the game to, who played Leonid for us. This tradition has become stable for our table and we look forward to continuing it for years to come and sharing our adventures with all of you!
After Baelon the Elderly Tiefling was arrested by the Boulder Town Gaurd for question on the use of magic, Raul the Dragonborn, Argento the Goliath, and Muk the Grung headed off toward the barracks jail to inquire about Baelon’s arrest. While being checked into the Jail Lieutenant Amarra confronted the old caster and brought in the towns mages to continue questioning. After the mages found that Baelon had a permit/pass to cast magic they marked his permit with a warning sigil and left remaining punishment up to the Lieutenant, who was gleeful to throw Baelon into a jail cell for the night, in hopes of teaching him a lesson for casting magic in public. By the time Baelon’s cell door shut, Argento had came into the barracks in hopes to release Baelon from his imprisonment. His experience as a Gaurd Sergeant pulled little weight with Amarra who was unyielding. After a bit of time an elderly Fairy and a hafling entered the barracks. These unfamiliar faces proved to be of help to Baelon’s predicament. The Fairy introduced herself to Amarra as Grandma Grettle and her hiring mercenary Leonid. She explained that during the parade her bakery stand was damaged and that she had seen the gnome escape the parade and the next day had seen Baelon chasing after a similar looking figure. She bailed Baelon out in hopes he would help her solve this mystery of who ruined her bakers stand. She even brought a capable ranger mercenary, Leonid to aid them. Grateful Baelon agreed to have her join them as they continued their investigation for Lord Mendes. The Elderly Fairy proved to be a fine baker, her cookies held healing powers of some kind after Baelon ate one he felt rejuvenated, Baelon introduced her and Leonid to the group insisting she come with them and that despite her age she could prove to be very useful.
As the group of investigators began to plan their next move Bertold the Great came back as they were walking to the Belly Up Inn. Bertold the Great informed the party that he learned that the fragments from the explosion were made up of a material called Fragmentium, which when combined with explosive material it too becomes very combustible. The party agrees that the best course of action is to investigate the hatch on the outside of the city that Grig the goblin told them about. This, they believed was their best lead into finding those responsible for the explosion. As they made their way to the edge of town to find this hatch the party caught up with one another discussing the strange events from the day and the mysterious gnome who escaped. After finally reaching the hatch Bertold began to descend with Baelon and Argento when they triggered a wire explosive trap causing the tunnel to collapse. Dividing the party on either side, they spend the next few hours trying to move rock so they could go forth together. After the cleared the tunnel they pressed forward for what seemed like hours. As hours passed it became evident to the group that this cavern was enchanted preventing Argento from using his exceptional memory to turn back. After awhile the party decided it would be best to attempt to get some shut eye. However these caverns took a toll on the party, all but Muk and Grandma Grettle suffered from the exhaustion that came with a poor nights sleep in a dark deep cavern.
The party decided despite their weariness they would press on. After a few hours this proved to be wise as they found a huge metal lined cavern, though the hall was lined with traps at the end of the hall they could see a massive steel door. Managing to avoid traps as best as possible the group reached the door. It was locked. Bertold the Great did what he could to pick the lock but the tumblers didn’t fall as his focus was hard to maintain on little to no sleep. Baelon decided to empty out his waterskin and use arcane power to shape the water into the lock and freeze it. After the lock froze Argento maul in hand smashed in the lock, opening the door to a huge metal lined warehouse of some kind. At the end of the room, a gnome mixing potions and doing some type of explosive alchemy. Their target had been found, they were sure of it. Though this Gnome warned the group to turn back they would have none of it as Baelon conjured a mass of lighting and hurled it toward the gnome, who managed to shield himself from the effects and activate his defenses. Six war forged constructs came to life and attacked the party. As the skirmish came to an end, he set off a massive explosion knocking the entire party on out except old Baelon who managed to somehow survive it. Baelon immediately ran to Grandma Grettle’s bag and stabilize the old fairy with one of her cookies. As Granma Grettle came to, she began one by one healing the party…accept Leonid her small merc. For him she required a special hard candy deep in her bag of holding. She popped the candy in his mouth and as the sugar dissolved he came to.
As everyone regained their berings, they began investigating the site more. Unfortunately in the onslaught the gnome perished. Argento managed to find a key to the big door, a letter which explained “the explosive test at the parade worked wonderfully and that the gnome would continue to make the explosive boxes more potent and that he should stop contacting his master until told otherwise.” Along with the letter Argento found 500gp. The party also found a box of Fragmentium half destroyed, destoryed schematics to the explosive boxes, and on the corpse of the gnome Raul found a mysterious crown of black steel…with little hesitation…Raul the Dragon placed the crown upon his head…