Eville-Sentials: Session 4

Game Date: 7/27/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 4

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Breena (Whitney) - Gnome Druid

Keg (Whitney) - Half-Orc Barbarian

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: 

Last week the party finished two jobs, picked up some rumors, and befriended a couple of giant rats. Today we only had three players, so the party was especially selective about which jobs they took. First they accepted the Logger's Camp Quest. But first, they stopped by Falcon's Lodge in the Neverwinter Woods. Falcon told them about a nearby mansion - the Woodland Manse - that had been taken over by orcs.

 

The party proceeded to the Logger's Camp. It was eerily quiet, and no loggers were to be seen. They investigated a hole and a partially-collapsed cabin. Then a pair of ankhegs burst from the ground and attacked. The first couple of rounds went okay, but then a third ankheg joined the fight.

 

The party then experienced one of the worst runs of bad dice rolls I've ever seen. Keg and Lilly both went down a couple of times, while Lucy survived by hiding after every attack. The party's giant rats joined the fight. They were also quickly defeated, but at least they gave the ankhegs something else to attack for a couple of rounds.

 

Then Falcon arrived to help out. He'd been investigating some strange activities in the woods, and his curiosity had caused him to shadow the party. He and Lucy managed to finish off the ankhegs. Then they revived Lilly and the rats. Keg, however, was beyond saving. 

 

The surviving party members returned to Falcon's lodge and gave Keg a proper burial. Another one of the lodge's guests, a gnome druid named Breena, joined the party. Everyone leveled up to 4.

 

The party agreed to check out the Woodland Manse, accompanied by Falcon. He went ahead and gave the party their reward in advance, a pair of Boots of Elvenkind.

 

The mansion was surrounded by wild boars, who happily munched on pumpkins outside the building. The party snuck into the mansion, tiptoed through the hallway, and attempted to climb the stairs to the second level. Unfortunately the stairs were trapped, and Lilly fell onto some spikes.

 

The noise alerted some half-orcs, some of whom transformed into boars before attacking. A few rounds into the fight, Lilly attempted diplomacy. Rolling high, she convinced the half-orcs to take her to their leader.

 

The lead half-orc was angry at their presence at first, but Lilly was on a roll. She persuaded the leader to hear her out. The half-orc identified herself as Grannoc, High Priestess of Talos. She told them her tribe had been driven from the mountains by the white dragon. After a bit more discussion, they struck a deal. Grannoc's tribe would be allowed to remain in the Woodland Manse until the dragon was defeated. She even gave the party two Cloaks of Warmth and a packet of Dust of Disappearance.

 

The party returned to Falcon's Hunting Lodge and took a long rest. They now know the approximate location of the dragon's rest, though they'll still want to save that quest for last if they want to survive it.

 

That's where we ended the session. There are still two more quests on the job board, and a handful of rumors to check out. 

 

Afterthoughts: I love it when a problem can be solved through diplomacy. It doesn't happen nearly enough in D&D, and I applaud the players for finding a peaceful alternative. They probably shouldn't try it with the dragon, though. 

Eville-sentials: Session 3

Game Date: 7/20/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 3

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Bartholomew (Peter) - Half-Elf Wizard

Keg (Whitney) - Half-Orc Barbarian

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: 

Last week the party finished two quests. Today they returned to the job board to find that three more jobs had been posted.

The first one they picked was the Butterskull Ranch Quest. They went to the ranch to check up on "Big Al" Kalazorn. Along the way they found three of Al's horses and a cow. When they reached the ranch, they found Al's house was occupied by orcs, and Al himself was tied up in the basement.

The PCs rescued Al first, then taunted the orcs into fighting them in the basement. The PCs managed to bottleneck the orcs at the basement entrance so that they only had to fight two or three at the time. Using this strategy, as well as some ball bearings on the stairs, they managed to kill ten orcs with hardly any issues.

Big Al was so thankful that he let them hang onto the horses. The party returned to town and collected their reward, then leveled up and bought a wagon.

Next they took on the Mountain's Toe Quest, in which they had to escort a man named Don-Jon Raskin to his mine. When they reached the mine, they found that it had been taken over by wererats. They convinced the guard to let them talk to the wererat king. The king arrived with some guards and giant rats. There was a bit of talking at first, but a fight was inevitable. Once again the party arranged things so that they fought on their own terms - at the entrance of the mine instead of in the tunnels.

This fight lasted a good while, but eventually they took out the guards and captured the rat king alive. Then they found the missing miners and returned to town.

They also picked up a few rumors on their adventures. Something has driven the orcs down from the mountains, which in turn drove the wererats out of their former home in the Shrine of Savras, which is rumored to contain a cache of gold. They also heard about some potential treasure in some shipwrecks beneath a lighthouse to the west. There's also Falcon's Hunting Lodge, which is a safe place to stay if they find themselves wandering the nearby forest. And of course, there was more talk of the white dragon - the party even came across some orcs it had killed.

And that's where we left things for the week.

Afterthoughts:

When this campaign started, I picked Essentials again because it didn't require any prep time. But the more I run it, the more I realize that it's my favorite module to run. It's really cool that things turn out so differently each time. My last two groups fully explored Big Al's house and the wererat-occupied mines, but this group brought the fights to them.

I've always had a thing for short stories. The first Stephen King book I read was Skeleton Crew, and ever since then I've preferred short story collections to novels. My own novels are basically collections of short stories, though sometimes those stories work together to further an over-arching plot. The point is, I like quick resolutions. My attention span just isn't good for long, drawn-out plots.

Once we finish the Essentials book, unless someone else wants to DM for a while, I'm going to continue to look for similar campaigns - ones that are basically collections of smaller missions. So if anybody has any suggestions, let me know. If it involves buying another box like the Essentials Kit, I'm good with that, especially if it includes a lot of helpful cards and maps like Essentials.

Eville-sentials: Session 2

Game Date: 7/13/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 2

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Bartholomew (Peter) - Half-Elf Wizard

Fry (Steph) - Tabaxi Monk 

Keg (Whitney) - Half-Orc Barbarian

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: 

So, last session the party helped some Dwarven excavators, then returned to Phandalin to look for more jobs. Today they added Fry to their party, and teamed up to finish two more quests.  

 

Gnomengarde Quest - The party visited a Gnome compound so they could ask for magic items to use against the dragon. But when they arrived, the king had locked himself in his room, and the rest of the Gnomes were hunting for a shapeshifting monster. The party found the mimic hiding out in the wine room, disguised as a keg.

 

Bartholomew found that casting spells had interesting side effects in Gnomengarde, and he temporarily grew fairy wings during his visit. Once the mimic was dead, they spoke to the Gnome king and he gave them some magic items. They returned two of the items to Phandalin, but they kept two others: a Clockwork Amulet and a Pole of Collapsing. Then they advanced to level 2.

 

Umbrage Hill Quest - This one was quick and simple. They went to check in on one of Phandalin's locals, and found that her windmill was under attack from a manticore. The party got its attention and attacked it. The manticore hit hard and had a lot of hit points, but the party persevered and brought it down. The woman rewarded them with three potions of healing, and a coupon for one common or uncommon potion they can redeem in the future.

 

This is where we ended things for the week. 

Eville-sentials: Session 1

Game Date: 7/6/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 1

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Bartholomew (Peter) - Half-Elf Wizard

Keg (Whitney) - Half-Orc Barbarian

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: So, I started a new campaign with some new friends today. I don't have a lot of free time lately to ready a campaign, so I'm running them through the Essentials kit, which I've already run two other parties through. It's an easy-to-run campaign that doesn't require a whole lot of prep time.

 

We spent a good portion of the session building characters, so we only had time for one of the jobs: The Dwarven Excavation Quest. Their mission was to warn a couple of Dwarven prospectors about a White Dragon, but once they arrived, the Dwarves asked them to kill an Ochre Jelly.

 

The first attack roll of the campaign was a crit. They fought two Ochre Jellies in the temple's main hall. Bart and Lilly got knocked out, but Keg and Lucy finished off the Jellies. Then the Dwarven prospectors returned with a couple of healing potions for the downed adventurers.

 

The Dwarves thanked them and rewarded them with a pair of Sending Stones. The party found a secret door and went to explore it. Down another hallway, Lucy opened a door and found herself face-to-face with a Stirge. Once it was dealt with, the party found three red gems (worth 15 gp each) under some old stone beds.

 

The party took a long rest. During the night, they overheard the Dwarves discover something, which turned out to be seven more gems. The Dwarves split their find, and everyone ended up with a gem. With no other passages to explore, the party headed back to town, but they intend to return later to check up on the excavation progress (and see if there's more treasure).

 

The party returned to town, collected the 50 gp reward, and bought some supplies. We ended the session there, and hopefully we'll play again next week.