We’re back with Session 3!

As a reminder, I am running the 5e version found in Tales from the Yawning Portal. This book contains 7 adventures throughout the history of D&D. In character level order these are

• The Sunless Citadel
• The Forge of Fury
• The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• White Plume Mountain
• Dead in Thay
• Against the Giants
• Tomb of Horrors

This session took place around December but, due to work, I just finished writing this recap. My lovely players decided they would clear every single room of the first floor of the keep. I kinda get it, since they hadn’t found any way to move up or down yet. So they basically checked the map for doors that hadn’t been opened yet and decided to sweep the keep’s floor from top to bottom (aka south to north). Without them knowing, that meant they would clear every single room before reaching the room that got them to the floor below.

Luckily for the group, there are 3 characters who know Draconic, so they knew what the inscription meant on the fountain of room 29 but decided not to read it aloud. Furthermore, one of the clerics even cast Detect Magic sensing some sort of evocation magic. But this doesn’t mean they debated a lot about it. Also, this doesn’t mean they have made a note to return later to mess with it. I hope they don’t forget about it.

This feels a bit of a video game behaviour of touching anything that can be touched, and I don’t blame them. We all come from a video gaming background so we really like messing with everything. I am not sure if it’s better for them to mess with the trap and learn they don’t have to mess with everything, or just leave it alone. I am proud of them for not messing with the orb in room 7. They just decided to leave behind a weird magical thing that is not moving and therefore can’t hurt them.

In this session, they also found the entrance to the Underdark in room 23. I wonder if they will decide to explore further down that tunnel when (or if ) they manage to rescue the missing party.

Due to the sound of a lot of goblins, the group decided not to enter room 40 and went around it towards room 41. There, they had a nice fight with some hobgoblins. I still feel the fights aren’t that hard but as plan has started to form in my mind. The goblins in room 40 were easily scared by being shown the hobgoblin leader’s head, along with some Thaumaturgy shenanigans from 2 clerics, and cleared the area promptly.

At that point, I was feeling the energy slowly dropping a bit but decided to take them to one room below before finishing the session. I believe it was a good choice, because the encounter there was really nice. I had the Bugbear of room 43 arrive at room 42 so the combat ran a bit longer, but not in a bad way. At some point, one of the characters dropped to 0, but with 2 clerics (and one being a life cleric), that wasn’t much of an issue, especially since the battle was under control.

And that’s where we ended the session. I think we will need 2 more sessions to finish the adventure. We could probably finish it in one but I don’t want to rush it. It’s not a curriculum that needs to be finished. We play to spend time together and have fun. I need to be quick, though, and try arranging those sessions because work picks up around Spring.

And until next time, have fun!

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