This session was a shorter session than before – the big end-of-chapter series of battles is enough take a whole session, so this was handling the setup, with a little bit of combat.

The characters:

• Drystan Silverhart – Level 3 Aasamar Paladin (Knight of Solamnia)
• Yseult De Lorimar – Level 3 Human Warlock (Noble)
• “Fletch” Siannodel – Level 3 Kagonesti Elven Ranger (Folk Hero)
• Sidekicks: Hrigg Roundrook and Tem Temble

This session picked up the morning after the catastrophe with the mock-battle turned real-battle last session. We had the good news from Cudgel that her mercenary company had not sided with Gragonis. However, there was the bad news that Gragonis and the men who were loyal to him had fled to the campsite of a nearby army.

There was discussion of what this army was and what their goals are – whether they’d come to Vogler, and if so with what goal. Cudgel moved her men closer to town, just to be safe. Right around the time they’d put together their own plans for a scouting party and maybe a diplomatic mission, the army had sent their own envoy under a flag of truce. The army declared themselves as the Red Dragon Army, marching in the service of Takehis, and demanded the town quarter them when they arrived at night – and ordering no one in the town to leave. The army also left 4 soldiers on a bluff overlooking the town to enforce this.

Mayor Raven, Becklin, and Cudgel, along with the players, came to the decision that the town needed to be evacuated, with the question being how to deal with the scouts on the cliff. I was pleased to say that my players immediately came to the realization that the best course of action was to use the Gnomeflinger (possibly combined with a Narycrash) to fling themselves onto the cliff to take on the soldiers. “Fletch” remained on the tower, as he’s a ragned-focused Ranger and could provide covering fire.

Before the fight, Drystan received his “improved” armor – which I ruled worked like standard plate armor but had rings in it that the player could run a harness and strap potions and other pouches to, designed by Than – basically creating semi-impractical “tacti-cool” armor. It did get the appropriate response – of getting across more of the silliness of Tinker Gnomes.

The combat took about 3 rounds, with only one character (Hrigg) taking a real hit. The rest of the soldiers went down pretty quick. From there, I had the players work with the NPCs to put together how they were helping with the evacuation plan. I asked the players first to state how they were going to help with the plan, before would put forward prompts. Thankfully, the players pretty quickly put together on their own what they were going to do – which also meshed up well with the ways suggested in the adventure.

I gave Bakaris the Elder another opportunity to show up, this time taking too much stuff during the evacuation, with Yseult using her background and social skills to aggressively-passive-aggressively get him to dump his excess baggage. We wrapped up there, with the Red Dragon Army approaching, and at the cusp of the new battle, as the session ended.

Next Month: It’s not Dragonlance if a town doesn’t burn.

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays