The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - No-Creature's-Land

Welcome

In the last post, the party started the session as captives of the kobolds, and ended up cutting a deal with them. Their primary goal is to deal with the goblins who had been raiding the village of Oakhurst, and the kobolds had similar issues within the Sunken Citadel, so the two groups had an enemy in common. Always a good starting point for negotiations !

I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !

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Our heroes were led by their new kobold allies to the edge of the area they controlled. Yusdrayl, the kobold shamaness, explained that there was an area of no-creature's-land between her people and the territory claimed by the goblins, but that the boundaries were fairly fluid.

Moving into the new area, the party were almost immediately confronted by a chamber with a dried-up fountain on the right, a door to the left, and a passage directly opposite the door they came in by.

On close inspection, the fountain detected as magical, and had a worn inscription in a language none of them recognised. Not a problem for Garnet, the party's aasimar sorcerer ! She was able to cast Read Languages as a ritual spell. In 5th edition D&D, quite a few spells can be cast as rituals; it is too time consuming to be useful in combat, but is a good way to cast a spell without using up a spell slot when there's plenty of time.

The only problem was Reaswe and Gorwin suffering an acute attack of boredom while the lengthy ritual was underway. They decided to investigate the door opposite the fountain. The instant reward was a scythe, swinging down from the ceiling with great force, striking Gorwin a nice solid blow.

With that out of the way, they forced the door open and were rewarded with the sight of a chamber with five stone sarcophagi in. Rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of loot, they rushed to open them. Yep, it was a trap. Undead skeletal warriors rose from them and attacked.

The fight was harder than it needed to have been, because Garnet was most of the way through her ritual and decided it was best to finish it and let her comrades enjoy the fruits of their idiocy without her help. But it was won eventually, and the three who had fought were able to pick up some minor loot from the tomb.

When the ritual was completed, Garnet read the inscription aloud; it was in Draconic, and said "Let there be fire". This was the trigger for the fountain's magic. It didn't incinerate them, instead it filled with a red liquid which turned out to be a Potion of Fire Breathing. Very useful !

Moving on the party entered the passageway and found themselves in a short corridor with several doors on each side. Each was ajar, and it was clear from the design that this had once been a cell block.

Gorwin, still suffering from an outbreak of heroism, decided to rush in an investigate even while his companions were dressing their wounds from the previous encounter. He didn't wait for Reaswe to do his rogue job and check for traps, listen for hostile monsters or anything like that.

The consequence was no great surprise. He was attacked by the giant rats who had made the cells their home. Already wounded, he was rapidly surrounded by furry critters. Despite fighting bravely, he was overwhelmed before his comrades could reach him.

As they battled to get to their fallen comrade, round after round passed, and Gorwin started rolling death saves (a 5th Edition mechanism which determines if a fallen and unconscious character lives or dies). He failed one, passed one, and then failed two more. Thus, he died. Rest in pieces, Gorwin.

The death of Gowin illustrates two points. First, that second level characters in 5th Edition D&D are squishy and die easily. Second, that when I tell my players that more characters die from stupidity than bad luck, I really mean it. If a DM says "Are you sure you want to do that ?", it is a kind of last-ditch attempt to save characters from their own stupidity. It's amazing how rarely it works !

Next time..... the party works through a couple more obstacles before reaching Goblin Central.

Previous posts in this series;
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-introduction
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-lets-meet-our-characters-
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-arrival-at-oakhurst
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-to-the-sunless-citadel
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-into-the-citadel
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-kobolds-are-people-too-
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-a-deal-with-kobolds