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Dwarf paladin Brottor arrived in the humble village of Opal Town, located in the southwestern region of Iounin. He was looking for information, but very tight-lipped about the nature of that information, speaking with a dwarf bard who had recently arrived in the area named Benhum.

The tavern’s lively activities were cut short when a flaming crossbow bolt set the tavern ablaze. Goblins burst in and began cutting down patrons. Shelby, a tortle monk, and Shump, a half-orc barbarian, jumped into action, joined by Brottor and Shadyboi, a kenku sorcerer. The four adventurers defeated two waves of the invasion with the aid of Benhum and local strongman Uther, allowing most of the patrons to escape.

Battered and exhausted but victorious, they spotted another force of goblin troops marching toward them. As they braced themselves for yet another encounter, which would likely end in their demise, the goblins were suddenly ambushed by a troop of armed townsfolk fighting back with whatever farming equipment or weapons they had lying around. Benhum and Uther joined the townsfolk to provide the four adventurers a chance to escape.

The party eventually found an abandoned shop which the goblins had already ransacked. After checking for traps and hidden assailants, the group holed up to recover from their battles. Brottor settled in to meditate and was shocked when his holy symbol began to glow and Pelor spoke in his mind. Pelor offered to assist the group, helping them unlock some of their hidden potential.

Everyone experienced warmth and comfort and felt their abilities suddenly expand and improve — except Shadyboi, that is. As the warming presence entered Shadyboi’s heart, Pelor’s warm voice was drowned out by a darker, colder voice. The warmth was pushed out as quickly as it arrived, replaced with an icy emptiness, but he soon felt himself more even more powerful than before.

Once this was over, with everyone restored to full health and vitality, the party decided to venture out and help the town try to fend off these goblin invaders. They followed the sounds of screams and found several prisoners held by goblins, including a green-skinned eladrin woman, a pink-skinned tiefling woman, and a human Shump had befriended when he arrived in town–Drake.

During the fight, the party freed the prisoners. The tiefling and the eladrin joined in the fight, helping defeat the goblins and their reinforcements. Drake, who was not a fighter, hid until it was over, but provided them a healing potion as a gesture of gratitude.

The eladrin woman thanked them for their assistance and parted ways, but the tiefling woman volunteered to continue with the group and help put an end to this invasion.

Finally, the party came across a central command where a goblin boss, several goblin troops, and several goblin acolytes held many town prisoners hostage as they waited for someone to make parlay with them. The party struck quickly, trying to take as many goblins out as fast as they could. They were horrified when the goblins began cutting down prisoners, killing them on the spot.

After a tough fight, the party defeated the lead goblin. It was then they heard goblin horns triggering a full retreat. The party stood in the blazing aftermath of this goblin raid and pondered what their next steps would be…

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After our first game, I actually met up with Justin’s wife, Danae, and her friend Lyndsey, to help them create characters. I was excited both because I like parties of big groups, but also because I really wanted more women in our group.

Danae decided to be a Levistus Tiefling Bard. That was my suggestion as she had never played either, and I figured bards aren’t a super difficult class starting out–they’re a support class, so they mostly just stand back and beef the rest of the party, but they can also be handy in a scrap.

Lyndsey decided she wanted to play an Eladrin Hexblade. I thought that sounded bad ass, so I helped her roll her character and helped her come up with a little bit of backstory.

I briefly touched on it last time, but I wanted everyone to start the campaign at level one because, for one thing, I like starting an adventure from the very beginning. For another, level one characters are a great way to get someone who has never played D&D to dip into what it’s is like without overwhelming them with options since they only have super basic class abilities.

That said, most people don’t like playing level one, and that’s because you are SUPER SQUISHY and everything is dangerous, so I didn’t want them to be level one for very long. That’s where I figured Divine Intervention came into play well. I’ve been using XP to have everyone level up, but they didn’t have nearly enough and I really wanted them to start getting their cool shit, so having a paladin in the party was an easy way to in-game explain how everyone suddenly levels up in the middle of an adventure when they don’t have time for a long rest.

This time I did NOT leave my brother out of the initiative order. This came from a brilliant idea that my wife had – she said I needed a dry-erase way to keep track of initiative order. So we went to the store and bought one of those hard-plastic certificate displays–the flat kind meant for mounting with sticky pads–and printed out an initiative sheet we found online. Now I can easily add people to the initiative and erase them, and I won’t go through tons of paper like I was.

Although the game seemed to go pretty well, there was one hitch. When it came time to introduce Danae’s and Lyndsey’s characters, Lyndsey wasn’t there. I had one of our players play her character while we texted her to find out what’s up. She, unfortunately, got too nervous to play and decided to back out of the game. It was very early and easy to address in story, but still a bummer. She’d been really excited to play when I talked to her over the weekend, so I’m hoping I didn’t overwhelm her, but I also know D&D isn’t for everyone. Danae, on the plus side, had a blast.

Playing at Justin’s place was a much better idea–there was way more room for us all to spread out and put our stuff in easy reach, and his kids were pretty good at staying occupied in the other room watching TV or playing video games.

This was another combat heavy game, and I don’t want that to be most of my game, so I’m planning on this next leg having more chances for roleplay and interaction with the villagers. I don’t want things to get stale. Plus, I have to come up with a reason for the goblins to have invaded.

Who knows what our intrepid adventurers will be up to next?

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