This time we meet up with another group of locals in the Wastes.

The characters (The Vingaardians):

• Drystan Silverhart – Level 6 Aasimar Paladin (Knight of Solamnia)
• Yseult De Lorimar – Level 6 Human Warlock (Noble)
• “Fletch” Siannodel – Level 6 Kagonesti Elven Ranger (Folk Hero)
• Sabelina – Level 6 Human Cleric of Gilean (Acolyte)
• Sidekicks: Hrigg Roundrook and Tem Temble

Last session, we went to the Sunward Fortress, rescued one of the Dimernesti and a hunter from a local settlement, Hearts Hollow. This session, the party was lead to that settlement. On the way there, they rescued a local boy, Clystran, who had been on the way to a local spire of rock where some Dragonnels roost. We fight off some giant spiders that are menacing him, and then come to Hearts Hollow.

The party gets to meet Nezrah (I accidentally used her real name, instead of her assumed name of “Ness” – particularly because, look, I’m running for a bunch of people with a passing familiarity with Earthbound). They discuss their goals thus far, and out of gratitude for saving some of her people, she offers to give the forces coming behind the party a safe route through The Maze. When Clystran puts forward that he’d been observing the Dragonnels that the Red Dragon Army have been using, and thinks he knows where they have a base nearby, Nezrah makes an offer to the party – if they can rescue any of their people who have been captured and held there, she thinks she might know a way the Vingaardians could get in to the City of Lost Names without having to go through the main body of the Red Dragon Army.

We were short one player this session, so this was me setting up few things. The first is, when the party brought Nezrah up to speed, they also showed her the journal from the Sunward Fortress – where I’d dropped a hint about where Draconians came from. I used this to have Nezrah slightly lose composure, and tease that maybe she was a dragon in disguise. Only Fletch picked this up due to his stupid good perception.

The second was providing the location of Camp Carrionclay. There isn’t actually a way in the adventure for that to be provided to the party, they have to kind of stumble across it in a hex-crawl way. Because I’m doing this more as a point crawl instead, because we run the game monthly, I had to provide another means to get that information, and this felt like the best way. In the adventure, Nezrah/Ness doesn’t actually know where Camp Carrionclay is, but the adventure notes that Clystran had been observing the Red Dragon Army flying Dragonells, so it felt reasonable for him to monitor their flight paths.

Finally, I had to set up the side entrance to the City. There really isn’t anything in the adventure to point the party towards that door – just a big pitched battle which kind of guides the party towards this little stable, with the opening further into the mountain in the back. However, the party has to go into the stables first – this provides some guidance to get them into those stables. Is it kind of railroady? Sure. However, when you’re only playing once a month, you need to be a little more gracefully railroady.

Next session, we have a rescue mission.

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