Hello all, it’s been far too long since I’ve posted a session report (or anything on my main feed), and it’s a new year! 2022 may have been filled with financial chaos, couch surfing, and roommate troubles, but this year is shaping up to be secure, successful, and fun (with quite a bit to write about).

I’ve been running Chill Mist Valley since around October of last year. The campaign has gone through a number of sessions, roster changes, and world events since then. I’m not going through a full campaign history in this post; the first “arc” of the campaign will be summarized in a separate post for catching up.

Just to get everyone on board, here are the spark notes.

Campaign Background

Chill Mist Valley occurs in the valley of Samheide. Samheide underwent a terrible calamity around a thousand years ago, which drastically altered the topography of the surface world and the World Below.

Shortly thereafter, the valley was blessed by a now-forgotten deity of the sun. The sun rises and sets between two twin peaks at the region’s northern edge, rather than the east and west (in this valley). This completely changed the natural climate, led to the introduction of a massive fey population, and increased the local natural magic ten-fold at least. The valley repelled invasions, made pacts with the fey, and its inhabitants have enjoyed unparalleled prosperity in their quiet slice of paradise.

That is until now; the local fey have largely fled, and the wildlife are growing increasingly aggressive in this points of light region. The twin peaks, from which the sun rises and sets, have begun freezing over. Frost has begun spreading from the twin peaks, ruining the local environment. The players have discovered High King Zephain of the Hyboreal Court (the local collection of winter fey) has begun freezing over the valley to return Winter to its rightful place.

The players (and some NPCs have successfully stalled the frost by activating Sun Shrines, which banish the frost from their local region. It’s only able to spread slowly along the Valley’s flanks, letting the player roster focus on other tasks and adventures.

Arc 2, Session 1

The wizard Corrigan, who first tipped the party off about the sun shrines of Samheide, recently purchased a shipment of young white dragons (of the not-sentient variety). The frost is dangerous, and while he’s happy the frost has been stalled, he’s not taking time off to relax. A trustworthy party of adventurers could surely use the dragons as mounts, flying into the frost and bypassing a great number of challenges.

But alas, the shipment is late! Corrigan lost contact with the ferry carrying his shipment around three days ago, and is guessing the many lakes and deltas near the town of Oarton may have seen the ferry lost or worse. From the time Corrigan brought this to Perra (official cleric of all adventures in the realm), around two weeks passed in-game (thanks to 1-1 time). Still no word! Corrigan sends our adventurers (a cleric, a warlock, a monk, a bloodhunter, and a druid/barbarian multiclass) out to find his missing shipment of dragons. He lends the party a ferry, staffed entirely by Unseen Sailors.

Exploration Segment

We begin our session with the party buying a few supplies (rations and travel packs), as the party prepares for the exploration system. The party chose their exploration roles. These are specializations for character during travel and exploration, things the characters are in charge of during travel. Furthermore, all classes have unique benefits for selecting exploration rolls. Was developing 104 boons for 13 classes annoying? A little. But it was fun! When the cleric takes up the role of tracker, a star guides them to their target at night, whereas a moon on the horizon guides them during the day. It’s a less reliable GPS, with which weather (and the providing deity’s will) may interfere.

Thanks to their successes, the party has no encounters to worry about on the way (and net additional experience during travel).

Morgan the druid/barbarian is a ley keeper, a secondary class which allows the detection and manipulation of ley lines. While on the way, he detects a Forecast Line, which indicates the current weather, and is filled with signs of impending weather. The current weather is magical; an eerie calm, during which no animals may be found. On top of that, the Winds of Magic are approaching in 3 days. Morgan knows the violent, magical thunderstorms will cause any spell to be cast 2 levels higher, or fail completely. The party has their time limit!

Shipwreck

Splitting off the main river, the party travels through the various creeks of the local area. They discover a bunch of geysers, springs, and other sources of fresh water filling this area. About an hour of travel leads the party to discover the original ferry’s wreck. It’s over a short waterfall, only 10-15 feet high. A few rocks are keeping the wreck steady in the water. Two cages are sitting in shallow water, holding some (non-sentient) young white dragons. Zhianna investigates the wreck, and concludes it’s taken far more damage than its minor fall.

Zaibatsu and Morgan approach, calling out to anyone inside the wreck. To their surprise, the entire crew is alive, and has (apparently) just woken up. The party interviews the crashed ferry’s crew, who keep insisting the crash just happened. Zhianna continues investigating in response; several clams and mussels have wedged themselves into submerged portions of the hull, and algae has taken to the hull as well. She’s able to conclude the ship has definitely crashed earlier than the crew testified. Zaibatsu even takes to questioning the captain further, and concludes the captain isn’t lying.

To my surprise, the party filed this in their back pocket, and resolved to recover as many dragons as they could. I was quite happy with their decision! They recognized a more pressing, time-sensitive objective was in front of them. The party probably figures they can investigate additional leads later, during downtime, and that standing around wondering for too long will cut down on how much they accomplish. Excellent decision, and an example of good play. It’s a perfect counter to groups which waste time on randoms slices of dungeon dressing!

Dragon Hunting

10 dragons are missing. Two are within line of sight. There are 3 hours of session time remaining. How is the party going to fare?

One of the downtime actions available to the party is the Mini-Adventure. We do a condensed play-by-post to handle additional objectives in downtime (with reduced XP and treasure gain). I’ve had trouble clarifying exactly what’s possible in the context of mini-adventure, and without an explicit upper limit, players are likely to avoid the activity. It makes perfect sense; the upper limit might be far lower than your intended goal, or it might be so high as to make you feel like you’re getting away with something.

I improvised a rule in this session, and will maintain it going forward:
A mini-adventure may accomplish only what was accomplished in the prior session.

If the party manages to acquire 4 dragons in a given session, they can reasonably be expected to catch another 4 dragons in the mini adventure. While the rule can be interpreted in a variety of ways, I think it serves to narrow the downtime’s scope. The party sets their goal at catching 5 dragons during the sesh. They can devote enough time per dragon to ensure success, while ensuring their mini-adventure snags more dragons.

The party starts off by recovering the two dragons nearby. They’re basically a freebie; no special effort beyond pulling them via the ferry’s winch is required. Another star begins guiding the party north; they follow, and happen across a nearly-sunken cage. The dragon within has accidentally set itself afloat by way of its breath weapon, forming an awful lot of buoyant ice around the cage. The party correctly guesses its muzzle has been knocked off or removed since. Without skipping a beat, Jaster (the campaign’s bloodhunter) jumps into the water to try and rescue it. Seeing as though Jaster has been killed in a comparable manner (and later had to be resurrected) in his second session, the party elects to enjoy some popcorn and watch. Jaster deftly swims under the water, and removes the lock from the cage’s rear. The dragon takes a minute to notice before it lets itself sink, and swims out.

For situations like these, I like to use the mentzer reaction roll table.

I roll a 4! Possible attack, the dragon looks agitated. The party is in stiches at the thought of Jaster dying again to a dragon. I roll once more, and get a 7. The dragon leaves, and the party stops laughing.

“Maybe we should’ve helped him.”

There’s always next time. The party moves on, to the next spot of divine guidance on the horizon!

Medusa Cave

Arriving at a cave, the party sees animals for the first time in a day! Before the ferry, slithering through marsh and creek, are snakes. Lots and lots of snakes! Morgan casts animal friendship, then speak with animals on one of the snakes, making friends with it. The snake helpfully informs him (in the impression of Jerry Seinfeld) two white dragons were dragged in.

I make the players aware of a condition unique to this lair: any creatures attacking a surprised PC will hit automatically. I’m debating whether to put this in an update to Chill Mist Valley’s encounter manual, but broadly, I liked its results. It shaved the party’s hitpoints down to the danger zone a little faster than typical combats would. One other note; I didn’t reset the intiative order this entire session! I just maintained places and had the party keep going. I think it allowed us to move through combat faster, but the jury’s still out. I’m going to do a comparison with by-side initiative, and see how 5th handles it.

The party travels inwards; there is a large cage in the first room, along with a small horde of flying snakes (which were quickly dispatched). All of the harnesses and restraints are there, but there’s no dragon. Only a mess of piled blankets remains. The party thinks nothing of this, and moves on! They fight snakes, spawn a a small horde of secretary birds, and fight basilisks before they find a second cage. And look! There’s a white, reptilian creature within the cage! Alas, it’s a giant constrictor snake, and the party fights vs it (and yet another basilisk) before they finally discover the medusa. She’s standing before a white dragon, spread eagle and chained to the ground above a magical glyph. No words are exchanged, it’s initiative.

A fight with the medusa and her 5 gargoyles ensues! Morgan turns into a bear and begins raging, but the medusa uses wall of stone to keep him at bay. None of the enemies are terrifically effective. Their saves suck, their attack bonuses suck, and the gargoyles have no special abilities relevant to the fight. It mostly just takes awhile, and I’m ashamed to say the snake fights appeared to be more entertaining. Who knows if my internal compass for these things was in working order, though. We did have a few weeks of hiatus.

The medusa tries to flee, but a fireball and assault from Maia see the foul creature slain. Her head is taken, loot is counted, and the party prepares for their mini adventure. The mini-adventure sees them capture 2 white dragons, a stray cobalt dragon (also non-sentient), and 2 white dragons again. The last pair was severely wounded, having been attacked recently. Perra teleported them to a safe locale in Eshauraus, their primary base of operations, and all was well. No word on the reward from Corrigan as of yet.

Loot and Rewards

Loot was only recovered from the medusa’s lair this evening. It was a sizable amount of loot, far outstripping the proper amount for a medusa and some gargoyles. In fact, this entire session (and the resulting mini-adventure) has been all too easy.

Something’s going on in Oarton.

2k gold in jewelry.
Bloodhunter's Compass: Crimson Rite damage is changed to 10 for every die. This benefit extends to all bloodhunters within a mile.
The Operator's Crossbow: A self-loading +2 volley crossbow, can be wielded as a light weapon.
Hearthwand of Stone: Casts wall of stone, stone shape, erupting earth.
Petrichory Rapier: +3 rapier. Can turn misty weather, fog, or rain into pleasant weather.

Players and Settlements

Characters

Maia

Maia acted as caller for the exploration activity, organized everyone, and did great in combat! I loved running for Landie (Maia’s player) as always. One of Landie’s other characters spent this week’s downtime using Research to spy on some criminal activity in the map’s southern region.

Ancestry: Human
Class: Monk (Shadow) Rogue (No subclass yet)
Secondary Class: Minstrel
XP: (To be filled in)

Morgan

Morgan performed great as always, though I loved teasing him in combat. Druids are (turns out) vulnerable to the ever-reliable wall of stone spell.

Ancestry: Human
Class: Barbarian (Bear Totem) and Druid (Moon)
Secondary Class: Ley Keeper
XP: (To be filled in)

Jaster

Jaster had a rocky start to the campaign, but he made up for it this session. His exploration role was well chosen, he improvised in session, and did a great job in combat. I hope he enjoyed his loot!

Ancestry: Dhampir
Class: Bloodhunter
Secondary Class: Scholar
XP: (To be filled in)

Perra

Perra might have been MVP this session, on account of her exploration role. Additionally, restoration and healing spells restored both dragons and injured party members to fighting shape.

Ancestry: Kobold
Class: Cleric (Life, of Tweiflangr)
Secondary Class: Herbalist
XP: (To be filled in)

Zhianna

Zhianna has only played a few times as of yet, but I adored her willingness to tackle investigations for the party, as well as her combat participation. Whenever players step out of their shell a bit, I try to reward them quickly for doing so!

Ancestry: Half Elf (Dragonmark)
Class: Sorcerer (Divine Soul), Warlock (Celestial, Tome Pact)
Secondary Class: Scholar
XP: (To be filled in)

Settlements

Unnamed Keep
Level 1 Stronghold

Will have more details in the campaign catchup.

Owner: Sierra
Income: None
Resupply: 1 unit per season