Daggerford: Baby Don't Cry

Game Date: 6/26/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 17

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Last session left off with us traveling East, our eventual destination being Mount Illefarn to find the Elemental Key of Fire.  We made our way through the wilds, until we came upon some Elven hunters.  They were unhappy and suspicious due to the recent fires, but we persuaded them to hear us out.  They took us to their camp, where we met our newest party member, Nikolice Gomez.  

They told us that they had been hunting for a sneaky dragon who had been picking off their Elves.  We took a long rest and continued to Illefarn, traveling through heavy rain.  On our way, we found some dead Orcs and climbed some cliffs, taking refuge from the storms in a building.  We set out to explore the structure.

While examining a dragon statue, Nikolice set off a trap, causing Khemed to fall into a pit.  Nikolice used his psionic powers to levitate Khemed out of the pit.  While we attempted to deactivate the trap, we noticed three Dwarves in an adjoining room.  They turned towards us and accused us of being after their gold.  Combat ensued.

The Dwarves were actually "Stoneghosts".  They used an attack called "Calcifying Touch", which could cause both damage and exhaustion.  The fight began with Azul and Vanya on the wrong side of the pit.  Azul handily jumped over the pit, but Vanya remained and fought from a distance. 

The Stoneghosts also had the annoying ability to move through walls.  After the first two were killed, the third one phased through the floor, ending the encounter.  We fixed the trapdoor, and continued exploring.  While playing more with the dragon statue's tail, we found a secret compartment nearby with some goodies inside - a potion and a gold necklace with a warhammer pendant.

The next hallway split North and East, and we went East.  The next room contained a dead Ettin, and the ceiling looked like it was on the verge of collapse.  Nikolice walked around the edge of the room to check out a chest, which contained four 100gp gems and a Dwarven carving.  The next passage led North.

We found some more dead bodies - Orcs, Dwarves, and an Ogre.  We also found some little piles of sand, and noticed that some of the bodies were calcified.  In another room to the East, we found a workshop, which contained an iron safe.  The safe had a slot sized for a coin.  Depositing a gold coin had no effect.  

There were stairs to the North that led nowhere.  A hall to the West led to a four-way junction.  The North hall led to a small room used for sculpting.  We found some Dwarven script written on one wall.  None of our party speaks Dwarven, but Khemed cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual.  The words said "Gold Fever".  

There were three statues covered in tarps.  Uncovering the first tarp revealed a statue of a Dwarf in mid-leap, swinging a hammer.  The next statue unveiled depicted a female Dwarf cradling a baby in her arms.  The third statue was unfinished, but looked like it was going to be a tall, robed figure. 

We went West, filling in the map.  Down a South hallway we found a room with an anvil in the center.  As we approached the room, we noticed that our Stoneghost was back, accompanied by two Shadows.  Spider quickly finished off the Stoneghost, while the Shadows ganged up on Vanya.  

Fortunately, they weren't that tough, and we had them down pretty quickly.  We examined the anvil.  It was covered in arcane runes, a few of which had been defaced.  The runes translated to "Praise Moradin!"  It looked like the point of the runes were to prevent scrying, and to prevent the anvil from being moved.  Vanya used a Mending spell to repair the broken runes.  

To the North we found a room with a bathtub.  Then we heard from crying from the South, and went to investigate.  As we explored, a few more enemies phased through the walls.  Three more Stoneghosts, a couple of Stoneguards, an Orc Zombie, and a Specter - the ghost of a female Dwarf who kept asking about a lost child. 

The party members were fairly spread apart at the begin of the battle, with Spider and Nikolice facing the Stoneguards and Orc Zombie in the kitchen, and the rest of us facing the Stoneghosts in the North hallway.  Azul convinced the Specter that the child was elsewhere, but she returned after a couple of rounds.  Azul offered to lead her to the baby.  Meanwhile, Spider and Nikolice found a stone baby in the kitchen area, and began to deliver it to the rest of the party.

We reunited the Specter with the baby, but her hands kept passing through it.  She kept getting angrier and angrier, and we had to finish her off before she turned her ire back toward us.  Nikolice picked up the stone baby, and took it over to the statue of the mother with child - which was now missing the child.  He returned the baby to the mother's arms.

And that's where we ended the session.

Coming Soon: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

Finally. Wizards has officially announced the book that will (probably) include content from March's "Folk of the Feywild" Unearthed Arcana.  Releasing in late September (just in time for my birthday), "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure" sounds right up my alley.  

I know I've said this before, but my favorite splatbook for 4e was "Heroes of the Feywild", and I've always lamented that the book released shortly before I stopped playing 4e.  I'm not even slightly tempted to go back to 4e (*shudders*), but I do regret that I never got to play the Pixie race.

So I'm very happy right now, but my superstitious side is a little worried that this means we're close to the end of 5e's lifespan. It just seems like Murphy's Law that they release the book I want most right before I switch systems again.  But then, even if they were to announce 6e tomorrow, there's no law that says I can't keep playing 5e.  

According to the wizards website:

A wickedly whimsical adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is D&D's next big adventure storyline that brings the wicked whimsy of the Feywild to fifth edition for the first time. Tune into D&D Live 2021 presented by G4 on July 16 and 17 for details including new characters, monsters, mechanics, and story hooks suitable for players of all ages and experience levels.

From the description, I'm a little confused as to whether it's a full adventure along the lines of "The Curse of Strahd", more of an adventure sourcebook like "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft", or about 50/50 like "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist".  It sounds like a full adventure, but that could just be adspeak.  But it doesn't matter, I'm sold either way.  

My wishlist: 

1. I hope there's more fey races than were shown in the UA.  I played a Hamadryad in 4e, and really enjoyed it.  I'd love it if this upcoming book contained playable Dryads, as well as Satyrs, Nymphs, Nixies, Kelpies, Grigs, Sirens, and so on.  I mean, the UA's animal races were cute and all, but I want some real fey stuff.

2. I'm sorry, but I hope they limit Fairy flight.  Honestly, I don't like playing characters with unlimited flight.  It makes grid battles more complicated, and it means that some DMs won't let you play the character.  Argue all you want about whether those DMs should get over themselves, but personally I'd rather just pick a race that doesn't spark controversy.  I preferred the way 4e handled Pixie flight, where they would fall if they ended their turn higher than one square.

3. New Feywild-themed subclasses.  The nature themed classes - Druid, Ranger, and to some extent, Barbarian - could all benefit from a Fey makeover.  I could also see a Bard that specializes in fairy tales, or a Monk that communes with the Feywild to achieve inner peace.  Or how about a Wizard that works mechanically like the Necromancer, but instead of raising the dead, they summon an ever-growing swarm of fairies?

4. I hope the adventure isn't 90% of the book.  There's a lot I want from a book about the Feywild, so I hope it's not just 10 pages of options followed by the adventure.  I'd prefer something similar to "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist", which doesn't start the title adventure until almost 60 pages in.  That would give us more than enough room for some new races, classes, and general Feywild lore before diving into the campaign.  

5. The press release mentioned Story Hooks.  I hope that's not just their way of saying "different ways to start the adventure".  Van Richten's Guide had a ton of great writing prompts for DMs who want to create their own Ravenloft adventures, and I hope this book does something similar.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.  I'm sure the book is going to be fantastic regardless of how they do it.