The Tarak D&D Campaign - The Forest Road to Filrath
Welcome to the next post in a series where I describe the adventures during a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while ago.
Last time around, the characters returned to Tuadun to a heroes welcome for driving the hags away. But in the midst of the festivities, Clovermeld the Dragon swooped down and attacked the town. Our heroes were able to kill him after a challenging battle.
Now they plan to travel to the neighbouring land of Filrath, re-opening the closed trade road and hopefully dealing with the brigand gang who rule in the woods.
Setting off for Filrath
The party have been gifted a wagon and some trade goods by Mayor Gerd of Tuadun. In this way, they can pose as merchants travelling the road and hopefully draw the brigands out.
Thinking that they might make a more convincing merchant caravan (and earn some extra cash by offering protection), they asked around to see if any other merchants would be willing to join them. The response was a fairly universal variety of "next time, if you can prove the road is safe". They rolled spectacularly poorly on the persuasion checks !
So, with their solitary wagon, and very crudely disguised as merchants, they set off along the dangerous forest path to Filrath.
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A Lucrative Detour
It didn't take the party long to remember a thing. Clovermeld the black dragon was dead. They'd killed him in Tuadun. But then they recalled that his lair was in the woods, and decide to take a short detour to see what they can find.
They rolled well on Wisdom (Survival) checks to see if they could remember the way, so they had no trouble finding the now abandoned murky pools where the monster had made it's home.
His hoard was in a hollow under the bank of the pool. There were 3 waterproof chests.
- 50 Thrakari bronze weights, each worth 5gp in metal, or 10gp to the right collector. They are hide-shaped, about 4 inches square and marked with a small stamped sigil of some kind.
- 5 Thrakari silver weights, worth 20gp in metal or 50gp each to a collector. Also a glass vial with 2 doses of Potion of Hill Giant Strength (DMG187 – Str 21 for 1 hour).
- 100 ancient Lymbrian gold pieces. 3 pearls worth 100gp, a bronze sword of Elasian type – it’s +1 (sharpness, non-magical) to hit and damage vs unarmoured / leather armoured opponents but bends and is useless until reshaped if you roll a 1 to hit, or a 1-2 to hit vs iron or steel armoured opponents.
For background information, the Thrakari were the ancient horse-nomad tribe that moved into these lands and eventually became the settled Tarak folk. Lymbrium Nomoth Klasmet was an incredibly ancient empire which existed until overwhelmed by an undead invasion which is still ongoing (and will feature later...). Elas was a bronze age ancient civilisation in the lands to the southwest of Tarak.
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Brigand Ambush !
After regaining the road, with ancient treasures added to their wagonload of goodies, they travelled on for a while before finding their way blocked by a fallen tree.
Our heroes correctly guessed that this was a brigand ambush. Waiting patiently, they tried to look like simple merchants as the bandits approached, clearly expecting them to surrender meekly. But instead they spent the time carefully searching out the archers hidden behind trees.
When the advancing bandits were close enough, the party sprang into action.
Those with missile weapons and ranged spells hit the archers with devastating and unexpected firepower (helped by some very good dice rolls).
The party members more suited to close-quarter combat threw off their disguises and charged the shocked brigands.
The fight didn't last long. The brigands' main advantage was when they had the element of surprise, and that had been turned on it's head. Within half a dozen turns of battle, the majority of the bandits lay dead on the road.
At that point, the party did something I hadn't expected, and which as a DM think was a brilliant bit of strategic thinking.
Rather than carrying on down the road, they followed the few fleeing survivors from the ambush at a discreet distance. They tried hard to remain quiet and hidden, hoping the panicked and leaderless brigands would lead the characters back to the brigand camp.
They weren't wrong.....
Next time..... storming the brigand camp....
Previous posts in this series;
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 1
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 2
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 3
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Player Creation and Briefing
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Arrival At Tuadun
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Mayor Gerd's Problems
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Saving Shepherd Mirag
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Mother White and Sister Raben
The Tarak D&D Campaign - The First Venture Into the Heimial Forest
The Tarak D&D Campaign - An Unpleasant Encounter
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Back to the Woods, and an Important Discovery
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Back Into The Bad Woods
The Tarak D&D Campaign - The Hags' Lair
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Tuadun Attacked !