Eville-Sentials: Session 6

Game Date: 9/7/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 6

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Breena (Whitney) - Gnome Druid

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: 

After a bit of an extended break, we finally got most of the party back together. They only completed one quest this session, but it was a long one. Today they cleared out Axeholm, an old Dwarven fortress filled with ghouls, giant spiders, stirges, and one very tough banshee.

 

The fortress had a lot of rooms to explore, and the party was probably sick of ghouls by the time it was empty. In the throne room, they encountered a ghoul that was once a Dwarven king, and they picked up a signet ring from his corpse.

 

On the second level, they were in the middle of a fight with four ghouls when the banshee found them. Lucy ended up being the MVP of the session when she critted on a sneak attack, taking off more than half the banshee's health with one hit.

 

The king's ring ended up opening a secret treasure chest, which contained a Dread Helm and some Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Once the fortress was completely clear, they returned to town to collect their 250 gp reward. Then they leveled up to 6.

 

That was the last job on the board. Coming up they have two more rumors to check out: There's a lighthouse that's been causing shipwrecks, and a shrine that's overcome with orcs and ogres. And once those have been completed, they can set a course for Icespire Peak.

 

 

 

Eville-Sentials: Session 5

Game Date: 8/3/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Eville-sentials, Session 5

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

Bartholomew (Peter) - Half-Elf Wizard

Breena (Whitney) - Gnome Druid

Lilly (Leah) - Dragonborn Paladin

Lucy (Genna) - Halfling Rogue

The Session: 

Last week the party lost one of their own, and accepted Breena into the party. Then they struck a deal with a Priestess of Talos, and learned the location of the white dragon.

 

Today they returned to the dwarven excavation site, where the dwarves had just broken through to a new room. The party saw a statue holding a glowing gem, but suspecting a trap, they tried to grab it from a distance. Touching the gem set off an explosive trap.

 

Then they traveled to the Shrine of Savras, but upon seeing too many orcs and ogres from the distance, they decided to save that quest for later. Then they picked up the Dragon Barrow quest.  

 

Upon arriving at the dragon-shaped hilltop, they found the secret entrance and climbed down to the dungeon level. Three will-o-wisps tried to lead them in different directions. Bart followed one of them south, where he fell into a pit trap.

 

In the various rooms of the dungeon, they fought will-o-wisps and found several sarcophagi. They triggered an acid trap, in another they acquired a Skeletal Horse mount, and in another they found the body of a bard carrying two magic items: a Lute of Illusions and a Necklace of Fireballs (with four charges).

 

In the final room they found the Dragon Slayer sword, but it was guarded by an Invisible Stalker. It was a difficult battle, given that they couldn't see their enemy, but they discovered that the stalker only wanted to attack the wielder of the sword. It spent most of the fight attacking Lilly, but later she passed it to Lucy, who ran to the surface with it. Then the rest of the party finished off the stalker.

 

This brought the party up to level five, and ended the session. Reminder: There will be no game next week. Our next session will be  8/17/2025. 

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.

 

 

Bensentials Session 6

Game Date: 3/29/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 6

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Tabaxi Rogue (Assassin), Tiefling Druid (Running for absent player)

The Session: When we left off last session, the town had been attacked by giants, and our heroes had accepted the mission to teach them a lesson. I used the version of Against the Giants that appears in Tales from the Yawning Portal, but mostly just for the map of the compound.

The PCs approached the giant compound from the south, listened at the door, and heard snoring on the other side. They sent the rogue in first, and managed to kill the first giant in his sleep. The other guard woke up but found himself surrounded, and was quickly dispatched shortly thereafter. They looted a couple of storage crates, then explored the staircase in the southwest corner.

In the original module, this staircase goes up to a guard tower, I believe. But I had it go down to a maze room. I got the maze layout (mostly) from an adventure in the book "One-Shot Wonders" by Roll-n-Play Press. This is a fantastic book for DMs who need a quick idea for an impromptu session, and they're not even paying me to say that.

The maze paths were only five feet wide, and the walls were electrified. The only light came from electricity sparking on the walls. Touching the walls produced the same effect as the Lightning Bolt spell: If a PC touched the wall, they would have to make a DC 15 Dex save or take 8d6 lightning damage (save for half). The players figured out not to touch them after seeing the walls spark, and experimented by throwing copper pieces at the wall and watching the sparks.

So, don't touch the walls. Easy enough, right? But some hallways also featured electrodes that fired bolts of electricity every five seconds. Getting their timing right to pass through these hallways also required a Dex roll to keep from getting shocked.

The whole thing gave us something of a Pac-Man vibe. The maze was populated by some creatures I made up, which I haven't really named. For the sake of this blog, we'll call them Orbies. They looked like beach balls with rubbery skin. They had feet and eyes, but no mouths or arms. Behold my MS Paint skills:

Of course, they don't look like they present much of a challenge. No teeth, no claws, no weapons.. what harm could they possibly present? Here's the stat block I came up with, in case you want to use them:

Orbie

AC 15, 20 hit points, Speed 30, Initiative 5

Immunities: Lightning

Resistances: Bludgeoning

Weaknesses: Piercing

Attack: +8

On hit, 0 damage, but the target is knocked into the nearest wall within 10 feet.

The PCs learned pretty quickly to defeat these monsters fast, lest they get pushed into the shocking walls. The creatures popped like balloons when reduced to 0 (originally I was going to have them explode on death, but the encounter turned out to be hard enough without that).

Getting past the electrodes was difficult for the party. The sorcerer managed to block one off with his immovable rod. But later he left the party to backtrack and retrieve it, and he got shocked to death. He failed his three death saves while the rest of the party worked their way to the center of the maze.

They found that the Orbies themselves could help them get past some of the electrodes. If they kept an Orbie between the electrode and the party, the electric jolts would be blocked by the Orbie, allowing the party to pass through the tunnel harmlessly. So they had to think tactically to keep the Orbies where they wanted them.

They finally reached the center of the maze, where three large treasure chests lay in the center. I let them draw Treasure Trove cards from Nord Games to determine the loot. That's my second product plug in this blog and I'm still not getting paid, I promise. Each card has the players roll a d12 to pick the treasure.

They also found a control box down there that allowed them to turn off the electricity in the maze. Then they found the sorcerer's body and took him back to town.

There were three churches in town with resurrection services, and they paid to have the sorcerer brought back to life. Then they stayed in town a couple of days so he could recuperate. When they were well-rested, they returned up the mountain to take another crack at the giant compound.

Along the way, they came across a druid grove being attacked by a couple of hill giants. The party joined the fight and the druid priestess thanked them by leveling up their pet wolf (he's now dire) and blessing each member of the party with an inspiration die. She also informed them that the giants were on an angry rampage now, due to the party's earlier intrusion into their compound.

The rest of the session featured a lot of exploration, taking out giants one at a time as they traversed the compound. They rarely had to fight more than two giants at a time. The sorcerer managed to befriend three wolves that were being held at the compound - they'd been taken from the druid's grove and they'd been mistreated by the giants.

As they cleared out room after room, they liberated several human slaves. Some fled the compound, but others joined the party, though they were too weak to be of much help.

The party took a counter-clockwise route through the giant compound, saving the main hall for last. This is where they finally fought the leader and his closest allies. The sorcerer, who is a changeling, enlarged himself and made himself look like a giant. He was still quite short for a giant, but it was close enough to cause the confusion he needed.

The disguised sorcerer burst into the main hall and shouted, "There's been a rebellion! The slaves are escaping!" The leader pushed past him into the hallway, and the sorcerer braced the doors closed with his immovable rod. Then the rest of the party rushed in through the other doors on the opposite side of the hallway.

The giant leader banged on the doors while the party, the wolves, and the freed prisoners took out the giant's minions. After a few rounds the leader burst through the doors, only to find half his allies had been wiped out. The party had saved all their best moves and resources for this fight, and they took the leader out a few rounds later.

We wrapped up pretty quickly after that. The party looted what they could, then returned the wolves to the grove and began to lead the ex-prisoners back to town.

I ignored a large portion of the Against the Giants adventure, but we might revisit it at a higher level.

Bensentials Session 5

Game Date: 3/1/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 5

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Baileigh - Tiefling Druid (Circle of the Moon - 2024 rules)

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Tabaxi Rogue (Assassin)

The Session: Happy new year... Oh, it's March. Well, it's been a busy few months. Last October we ended the session one-third of the way through White Plume Mountain from Tales from the Yawning Portal. Today we picked up right where we left off.

This time they took the north path. The kelpies tried to lure them into the water, but the party wouldn't fall for their ploys. It wasn't a long fight. The party continued to follow the hallways until they fought the giant crab, retrieving the legendary item Wave, which the party Sorcerer claimed (after changing their religion).

They returned to the central junction and took the east path. They - somehow - correctly solved the Golem's puzzle (which number doesn't belong - 5, 7, 9, 11, or 13), so they didn't have to fight the golems, and one golem joined the party. Then they backtracked to the room with all the glass orbs. Even when they found the correct key, they continued smashing orbs to collect all the treasure in the room.

Heading back north again, they went through the one-way turnstile and entered the room with the hanging platforms and boiling mud. By utilizing a potion of flying and all the rope the party carried, they managed to make the puzzle a little easier.

Finally they faced the vampire in the magically darkened room. This was a difficult battle for obvious reasons, but they hacked away until they won. They probably couldn't have done it without the other two legendary weapons, Blackrazor and Wave. With the vampire now killed, they aquired the final weapon, Whelm. None of the party can weild it, but they're going to hang onto it for a while instead of collecting the reward money.

On their way out, they encountered the owner of the dungeon, an evil wizard who invited them to join his cult. The party refused, and fought the wizard along with his guards. The Sphynx joined the fight on the side of the party. This battle wasn't quite as difficult, and soon the party made their way back to town.

After a few days in town selling items and spending money, the city was attacked by hill giants. The party helped the town guard fend off the attackers. Shortly thereafter, the party was summoned to a town meeting, and hired to investigate a hill giant compound located on a nearby mountain.

Next session is scheduled for 3/29, where we will be starting the module Against the Giants, also from Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Bensentials Session 4

Game Date: 10/12/2024

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 4

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Baileigh - Tiefling Druid (Circle of the Moon - 2024 rules)

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Shifter Monk (Way of Shadow), Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Assimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance), Tabaxi Rogue (Assassin)

The Session: When we left off last week, they were finally ready to face the dragon. Today they bought a few things in town to get ready, then climbed up the mountain on horseback. They fought a few ice mephits while on the chasm-lined path (this encounter isn't in the book but it felt interesting), and then they made their way into the guardhouse.

They knew they weren't alone when they saw that there were already other horses in the stables. They listened at one door and heard four bandits talking about how they knew a party had arrived. They bandits agreed that they would con the PCs into helping them defeat the dragon, and then they would betray the PCs while they were still recovering from the battle.

So the PCs decided to pull the same con - they befriended the bandits, with the understanding that they would kill them after the dragon fight. The group continued to explore the guardhouse, then they crossed a bridge over a chasm, and searched the keep. They fought a few more ice mephits (they were stirges in the module, but I wanted something a little tougher), then finally made their way up to the roof where the dragon slept.

The module called for a young white dragon, but I've had my adult white dragon mini for 15 years and I've never used it. So that's what we used. I still used the young dragon stats, though... mostly.

They spent several minutes deciding on how they would approach the fight. Finally they decided to sneak into positions around the edges of the roof. The paladin's opening move took off a huge chunk of the dragon's health. Then the dragon turned around and used his frost breath on the paladin, taking him down to 0 hit points. 

Some of the others tried to help the paladin, but the icy roof meant people kept falling down when running to his aid. He failed three consecutive death saves over the next few rounds.

The dragon took to the skies for a round, then landed and knocked a bandit off the roof with a swipe of its tail. Everyone converged on the great beast and finished it off with no further lives lost. Then the PC and the bandits turned on each other. This proved to be harder than the dragon fight, but the PCs prevailed in the end. They gathered up the treasure and returned to town.

Then everyone leveled up, except the paladin, who remains dead. He replaced his character with a Tabaxi rogue. Next we discussed what to do next. It looks like we'll be trying out the Strixhaven module, though we're going to take a quick detour to White Plume Mountain (the version from Tales of the Yawning Portal) first.

The rogue solved the sphinx's riddle, and they started with the western path. They dealt with hallway that heats metal, fought some ghouls, and spent a while getting through the frictionless room. Finally they reached the "inverted ziggurat" room and spent the next hour or two fighting the multi-tiered menagerie. They managed to open the safe at the bottom without setting off the vibration trap, and convinced the oni to give them their prize: the legendary sword Blackrazor.

Afterthoughts: White Plume Mountain is a fun, wacky module, with a variety of encounters that don't really make sense when put together. I read the novel 11 years ago (yeesh time flies), and I've been wanting to run it ever since. Next session we will finish White Plume Mountain, and then possibly start the Strixhaven campaign if there's time. We also plan to update all the characters to the 2024 rules before next session. 

Unfortunately this group's days are numbered, as I will be moving out of state in a few months, but we're going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Bensenstials Session 3

 Game Date: 9/14/2024

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 3

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Baileigh - Tiefling Druid (Circle of the Moon - 2024 rules)

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Shifter Monk (Way of Shadow), Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Assimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)

TJ - Elf Ranger (Hunter - 2024 rules)

The Session: We left off halfway through the Woodland Manse quest. This time we added two new players. Note that the two new players are using 2024 character creation rules, while the three original players are still using the 2014 rules. Note that the new players had never played D&D before.

Woodland Manse: Last session had the players finding a secret room in the top floor of the mansion. Then they heard some orcs entering the room they'd come from. The two new players, a druid and a ranger, had been watching the mansion from the woods, and saw the party go in. This led to a very large battle between a bunch of orcs and the players.

Axeholm: This is the biggest dungeon they've conquered so far. It took a couple of hours, but the PCs eventually cleared out every room. The druid spent most of her time transformed into a rat, scouting ahead of the party in the inconspicuous form.

Shipwreck: This encounter killed the party's monk last session. Today it was much easier. The new druid turned into a shark and retrieved most of the treasure with no combat required.

Shrine of Savras: The party explored the ruins of an old church, where they fought some orcs. Then the Paladin received a vision showing him the location of the Dragon's nest. We had to end the session at this point.

Notes: All that's left is to fight the dragon.They know where it is, but reaching it won't be easy. Since this is likely to be a short session, I will try to find something to prepare to keep it going.

Afterthoughts: Using old and new characters together seems to work just fine. The druid seemed to be the most valuable charcter of the session. Her versatility made her useful in every situation.

Bensentials Session 2

 Game Date: 8/17/2024

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 2

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Shifter Monk (Way of Shadow), Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Assimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)

The Session: This was a continuation of a practice campaign we started in March.

Butterskull Ranch: The party went to the basement at first and rescued Big Al. He came with them and helped clear out the orcs.

Logger's Quest: The party only had to fight one ankheg. Then they found and destroyed the totem that causes the rest of the ankhegs to leave the camp.

Dragon Barrow: The party did not find all the treasure. Once they aquired the Dragon Slayer Sword and fought the invisible stalker, they left the rest of the tomb undisturbed. 

Tower of Storms: The party fought the boss and returned the conch shell to the banshee. Then they explored the shipwrecks. They only had one potion of water breathing, so they sent Bryan's monk. Unfortunately he was killed by the sharks before he could find any treasure, and he had to roll up a new character.

Woodland Manse: The party made their way through most of the mansion, found the secret room and aquired the removeable rod. They made a lot of noise and the orcs came to investigate, but they closed the secret door. We had to call the session short, so next month they will have just have the one final encounter to finish this quest.

 

Notes: The party is currently at level 4, but will level up to 5 after they finish the Woodland Manse quest.

Bensentials Session 1

Game Date: 3/23/2024

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 1

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Shifter Monk (Way of Shadow) 

Rick - Assimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)

The Session: A friend's daughter's boyfriend (...'s brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate) wanted to learn how to play D&D, so I ran the Essentials Kit again. We played for about four hours and got through the first three mini-quests. We spent about as much time building and leveling up characters as we did playing the actual game, but that's only because none of the players had played 5e before.

Dwarven Excavation Quest: The very first hit in combat brought the Monk down to zero hit points. I do think that the oozes in this quest are a little overpowered for level 1 characters, but at least we had three people in the party this time. The other two players were able to kill the monster and heal their fallen friend.

Ghomengarde Quest: Because it worked pretty well in the last Essentials campaign, I had them rescue a wolf whose pack had been killed by the white dragon. They healed the wolf's injuries and it joined the party as a DM-controlled NPC. This job had more exploration than actual fighting, and the battle against the mimic wasn't too difficult for them. 

Umbrage Hilll Quest: With three attacks per round, the manticore is pretty tough. The Monk and the Paladin both went down, but the monster only had a couple of hit points left at that point, so it turned out okay. The woman they rescued was a professional potion brewer, and she brought everyone back up to full health afterward.

Afterthoughts: I think it went well. The players seemed to have a good time. I don't know if we'll meet back for another session, but if we do, we're off to a good start.

Note: Everyone is now level three. They started the Butterskull Ranch quest but had to end the session shortly afterward, so if we do play again we'll start there.

Praktas Essentials - Mountain's Toe and Axeholm

 Game Date: 10/22/2023

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Praktas Essentials, Session 3

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Quosh (Alan): Half-Orc Barbarian

Rayna (Mandi): Half-Elf Bard

Nymeria (NPC): Wolf

The Session:

Today they managed to get through 2 quests.

Mountain's Toe Quest

They had to escort a man named Don-Jon Raskin to some mines, which ended up being overrun with wererats. Rayna attempted to talk to the wererat leader, but a fight was inevitable. The PCs slaughtered most of the wererats, including the leader, and made a deal with the final survivor. After this quest, the characters leveled up to level 4.

Axeholm

They were tasked with clearing out all the dangers from an old Dwarven fortress.

First they encountered two ghouls, which was pretty easy for them. Then they went upstairs and fought some spiders, which gave them more trouble, but they survived. After that they took a long rest, then spent more time exploring the two levels. A banshee scared them off at one point, and they involuntarily fled back to the lower level. The fought a few more ghouls and a stirge, then prepared to face the banshee again.

This time it was a little tougher because they ended up fighting the banshee and four ghouls at the same time. Quosh and Nymeria faced the ghouls while Rayna fought the banshee. First Nymeria went down, then Rayna, right as Quosh finished off the last ghoul.

It finally came down to Quosh - who was down to 3 hit points, versus the banshee, who was down to 4. The next hit from either side would determine the outcome. But Quosh prevailed, and saved the day. They still had to fight a pair of stirges before the quest was completely done, but after facing a banshee, that was nothing.

They returned to town and rested up.