Praktas Essentials

Game Date: 9/10/2023

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Praktas Essentials, Session 1

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Quosh (Alan): Half-Orc Barbarian

Rayna (Mandi): Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

A couple of good friends have been wanting to give 5e a try lately, so I’m running them through 2019’s Essentials box set.

We spent the first hour getting all the equipment to work and building the characters. Later I realized I was doing character creation the hard way, filling out PDFs when I should have just used Roll20’s character creator. Next session should go a little smoother.

The session started in the town of Phandalin. The rumors in town centered around a white dragon that has been terrorizing Phandalin and the surrounding areas. The dragon has really upset the local ecology. For example, the dragon drove the orcs out of one area while making its lair, so the orcs invaded another monster community, and those misplaced creatures invaded another area, and so on.

The dragon obviously has to be stopped, but that’s not going to happen for a few sessions. In the meantime, the PCs have their hands full with smaller quests related to the dragon activity. They checked the job board and took the following jobs:

Umbrage Hill

The characters went to Umbrage Hill to do a wellness check on a woman who brews healing potions. When they arrived, they found a manticore attacking the brewer’s windmill. A manticore is a bit of a tough opponent for two level one characters, so when the battle started going downhill, I adjusted the monster’s stats a bit. I reduced its hit points by about a third, reasoning that the brewer had already damaged it a little bit. Also I reduced the number of attacks it could make in a round – Maybe the manticore was tired.

Gnomegarde

The PCs were sent to visit a local gnome community, to see if the gnomes had any magic items they could spare to defend Phandalin from the dragon. When they arrived, the found that the gnomes were in a state of chaos. One of their kings had gone mad, and a mimic was terrorizing their tunnels. The PCs found the mimic disguised as a wine cask, killed it, and calmed down the king. The gnomes awarded them with three magic items, two of which they got to keep.

Dwarven Excavation

They did not complete this one. They were sent to warn some dwarven miners about the dragon, but when they arrived, the dwarves asked them to kill some ochre jellies that infested the mines. The first jelly they fought split apart and took out both PCs, though they did get it down to 4 hit points. While they were unconscious, two dwarves came to their rescue, finishing off the jelly and reviving the characters. The dwarves then sent them back to Phandalin, where they collected their reward for warning the dwarves.