The final resumption of the continuation of the story continuing... (Rett part 8)

Talos sends us to Parnast, and we run into Auric. We take a beautiful 5 mile walk and we just get really refreshed by it, since we have been in bogs and the like. We come to a logging camp in a rabine and we can see an ice tower. Some villagers ignore us and the like. We find a well and meet Mikeas, a 'humble villager' (Wearing armor under his clothing). He leads us to Ocelot, who is immediatly stabbed by Vadania, who disengages and gets back in line with the rest of the group. After a pause, Auric uses flame hands to burn three of the guards, killing them. Oghren smashes the veteran in the face, and Vadania stabs Ocelot again. He shouts "release the castle" and the group runs out, trying to jump on the castle. Unfortunately the castle lifts off quickly, and they can't quite get on.
       Unable to do so, the group turns and Osthen manages to stab Vadania. Ohgren smacks him and we kill Ocelot. He has some sort of second wind, however, and stabs Vadania. A guard who was hurt earlier by the fire runs over to open some stables, revealing two Wyvrens. The adventurers go on the wyvrens and

Cuisses de Grenouille, anyone?

FINALLY THE FLAMES ARE ALIGHT.

This will be brief, but I had to share my glory.

I felt like a dragon today. In a glorious assault in a castle, I crisped upwards of fifty ugly bullywugs (giant frog things for those of you not in the know).

Later, in the dungeon, I turned invisible.

It was a good day, all told. My scales are coming nicely, as well.

After a brief respite, the story resumes continuing... (Rett part 7)

       Auric goes through the portal before everyone else, and upon following him we find ourselves surrounded by pine trees, two stones and a large house nearby. A patrol of two trolls and two drakes are circling the house. Vedania and Kerri sneak into the house, and upon seeing no one, grab their friends. Exploring the house, the group finds nothing until Vadania enters a room where there are some enemies. They ask what up and Vadania makes up a story about how she is a starving traveler and they tell her to get out quick. She backs up and they explore around upstairs a bit
       Upon exiting the room they see two heavily armored men. We briefly engage the group, but realize that we should meet with Talos, the owner of the house. As it turns out, our views on Rezmir align and we get help from her in leading us to Rezmir at Skyreach castle. 

Kerri's Continued Adventures

I love DMing for this thing. But playing Kerri, the absolutely RIDONKULOUS barbarian, is my favorite part.

In Episode 5, she responded to a guy's negative comment in a bar by picking him up with one hand (remember, Gauntlets of Ogre Power(ed)), punching the daylights out of him, and throwing him out of the bar.

Later, we found out that all the jobs for caravan guards were taken. She walked up to the caravan master and told him to fire all his guards and hire her instead. Why? Well, because she could easily take on three of his men - unarmed, which she quickly demonstrated.

Finally, the caravan was ambushed by a troll, which started ripping through some wagons. Kerri chased it down, grappled it, hauled it away from the wagons, pinned it down, and worked together with the other characters to finish it off. She then held it down and pummeled it to prevent it from regenerating as the other characters built a bonfire.

Kerri is the best. I'm really looking forward to playing her in Rise of Tiamat and grappling some real dragons.

-Sidney

The continuation of the story (Rett part 6)

       Upon exiting the tunnel we hear loud creatures speaking in draconic, far far ahead. We run into Auric, who flew with magic to find us. We go down a mucky side trail, covered in claw marks of possibly the lizard men the cultists were mentioning. We reach a small campsite with a campfire and canoes on a swamp. Hearing some draconic coming closer, Oghren alerts everyone and we retreat and lay in wait to ambush them. They land, and Auric hears them talking about leaving, signaling us to move back. As this happens, they hear Zashier, and one lizardman moves to check out the noise.
       The Group launches a group surprise attack; Auric launches a cone of  fire and Vadania mostly kills one lizard folk. A fierce battle ensues and most draconic are dead. As soon as they have an opportunity to attack they surrender, and we begin to talk to them. Auric approaches in a friendly manner, which completely freaks them out even more. He changes moods to interrogate them. We find out that two are talking to Snapjaw, a more intelligent lizardfolk, who reveals that he is coming from castle Naerytar, to transport treasure. Snapjaw hides a message in his speech, asking Auric to speak alone with him. Auric, understanding, has Vadania, Oghren and Zashier move away, and it is revealed that Vadania asks everyone to remember her name because she has difficulty remembering it herself.
       Auric finds out from Snapjaw that the lizardmen were being oppressed by the cultists and bullywugs, and he holds resentment towards them. As they continue creating a plan, a man runs up the trail, huffing and puffing. Huor is his name, he is a human paladin we met back Elutral when we met Orthar Thruum. We greet him with happiness and joy. We take a long rest and hop into the canoes, Vadania disguised as a cult leader.
       About halfway there we run into a bunch of lizard folk, who Snapjaw recognizes as cult loyalists. Vadania acts as if she wouldn't deign to talk to them and they pass by without much diffiCULTy. We approach the castle and meet some lizardmen who are loyal to Snapjaw. Snapjaw informs them of our group's prowess and convinces them to come with us. Snapjaw leads us into the castle and shows us some water that is super deep and some crocodiles. As we are lead into the castle we are greeted by A large procession of Bullywugs, cultists, Dralmorrer (A high ranked half elf dude), a Red Wizard, and Rezmir (a black half dragon). Rezmir immediately recognizes the cloak that Vadania is wearing and begins to retreat into a tower. Auric creates a fireball incinerating the bullywugs closest to the adventurers, and they retreat to the opening of the hallway. The adventurers break into formation where Huor and Oghden defend against a gnarly flurry of blows. Dralmorrer jumps and teleports over to Auric and attacks, dealing a blow and follows up with thunder wave, pushing Huor back into the courtyard. A bullywug shaman creates spikes on the ground,  and bullywug warriors shower the group with javalins. The heroes dodge the javalins.
       After an incredibly dexterous display of dodging, Oghren mauls Dralmorrer, destroying his shield and breaking his arm. Huor calls attention to himself, taunting the bullywugs and Auric Dralmorrer calls for the shaman to dispell the spikes, to which the shaman responds in a deep voice "No" and hops away. The elf promptly surrenders to the group and Snapjaw marshalls up a group of lizardmen who clear the first and second floor of the keep. On the third floor, the group finds Rezmir's room. Looking out of the window, Vadania sees an adult black dragon.
       The adventurers run down to the basement but Huor stays and combats the dragon, landing a nasty blow before being killed by a tail whip acid breath combo. In the dungeon lizardmen lead us to a room with a teleportation portal, which the adventurers  run onto.

And nothing happens
The lizardmen reveal that Rezmir usually uses a keyword to activate the portal. We enter another room which has a chest and some mud. Vadania opens the chest, finding nothing of importance, but is ambushed by the frog sorcerer from before, taking much damage. Oghren smashed him to bits, and stole his crocodile hat. They learn the secret word, and Kerri barrels in excited to see everyone. The adventurers go through the portal. 

Oh, you want to make a plot-finding check? Ok, fine

Not in character this time.

I DM'd episode 5. In it, the characters had to travel farther up the road, easily dispatching a troll on the way.

This ended up being about 80% of the whole thing.

It was SUPPOSED to be an awesome series of stealthy, sneaky, information-gathering missions performed by the characters to figure out where the cultist supplies were being sent. It also potentially involved a couple awesome duels for Kerri or Oghren to take care of in epic ways.

Sadly, the characters essentially rolled natural 20s on their "plot-finding" checks, and somehow took the SHORTEST POSSIBLE ROUTE TO THE END OF THE ADVENTURE. It was unstoppable. It was amazing. It was even sadder than the instant-kill of the boss that Vadania performed in my previous stint as DM.

The Story begins to continue on again (Rett part 5)

The caravan rolls into waterdeep (Heh, roll). The cultists split off from the rest of the caravan, and we follow them. After finding out where the cultists decided to sleep, we go to a tavern. Vadania discovers that a black, lizard/snake man was in town last week, and they were heading north. Kerri got into a crazy bar fight, picking up a man by the shoulder and throwing them out the door, into the street.

We need to head north, so we ask around and learn about the Highroad Charter company, lead by Ardred Briferhew. In order to persuade him that he needs us as guards, Kerri takes on three guards while Vadania does a quadruple backflip. Kerri incapacitates the first with a heavy blow. Undaunted, the men attack, but Kerri does not let up, and cripples another with an epic blow. Grappling the last, of the men, Kerri asserts her dominance. Ardred hires the group, and they embark on the caravan

      Nothing happens for the first five days, until on the fifth day the group hears a loud gurgling noise. It is a giant troll, who barrells towards the center wagon. Kerri punches the troll and proceeds to grapple with it. At this point the guards begin to wail on the troll, Zashier firing a guiding bolt, Vadania slicing its face with a rapier, and Oghren slamming it with his maul. Kerri is attacked twice by the troll, but she manages to drag it over away from the caravan and knocks the creature prone. The group swarms onto the troll and Oghren smashes its face in with a maul.

      The rest of the trip goes off with a hitch, and the group arrives at the Carnath Roadhouse, halfway between Neverwinter and Waterdeep. In town, Vadania listens in on the cultists and hears the words Strongroom, tunnel, lizard folk, and Bogluck. Vadania searched for traps in the town, and finds none! They enter the warehouse and see a locked door, which is quickly picked by Vadania. The group scours the room, and discovers a secret tunnel underneath an empty chest. They enter the tunnel and journey into the dark.

We Made A Video!

As promised, we hit $50 (actually, we've made it to $685 as of now), and we're sharing a video detailing the first 12 hours of our 24-hour D&D session. Check it out!

My power! I can feel it returning. I am getting closer to transcending this pitiful vessel...

I felt it one day. A surge of energy that went through me and reminded me of clouds, and the glorious sun shining radiant in the heavens. On our trip, I traveled with a caravan... and the bandits that found it learned to FEAR MY PRESENCE.

The first sign of bandits, my blood began to flow through my veins as if it were liquid flame. I felt energy like never before, and I leapt out of the caravan...

And flew.

For the first time since I was stuck in this pitiful vessel, I flew. Reveling in this newly recovered feeling, I gazed with contempt upon the group of bandits below me. With a roar the like of which I haven't produced in decades, I called down a ball of fire upon these creatures, and watched as they burned.

All evil on this earth will remember to fear my name.

The story resumes... (Rett part 4)

When we ambushed Mandeth we discovered the treasure from various raids is heading north to the town of Elturel. Nighthill had got us horses for the ride to Elturel, which we arrive at in 2 days.
       The city is pretty standard, but has one distinguishing feature, a large sphere of light hovering above the town. Ontharr Frum, Zasheir's mentor meets us in the town, and we quickly befriend him. We ride horses together, and exchange war stories. Afterwards Frum asks us to join the organization the Order of the Gauntlet. Leosin is with us and is part of the Harpers, a less organized group.
       Zashier, Auric, and Oghren join the Order, whereas Vadania joins the Harpers. Onthar makes sure that everyone changes clothing and general appearance. The group is asked to head to Baulder's gate, where they would get on a caravan and ride to chase the cultists.
      Upon arrival to Baulder's gate we find work on the caravan,but also notice that several cultists from before also join the caravan. We embark, meeting several new people. Auric won a charisma contest against Zashier, to her disdain, and meets more people than her. For six days the caravan travels along without incident, but the sixth day a one of the cultist caravan turns over and breaks a wheel. Zashier mends the wheel and the caravan continues on.
       The next day a nobel tries to kill his horse but Vadanania stealthily cuts her free.
       The day after the group sees a head in the road, with "Oathbreaker" written on his head. We find out that he was supposed to marry this girl, but her father and brother were bandits, and he was supposed to join. We dig him up and fill the hole, continuing on.
       The next day we try to set up camp, but screaming mushrooms start growing. We have to cut them down and Vadania and Zashier cannot continue, and are overwhelmed by emotion.
       We stop at an inn and run into several other adventurers, who claim they have been on adventures even greater than ours.  Knowing this couldn't possibly be true we check their armor, and discover that it is made out of wood. Aurin lights the armor on fire, and the 'adventurers' are revealed for what they are. We also encounter a Red Wizard of Thay, who does not talk much.
        The next few days Oghren notices one of the cultists is watching Vadania intently. At night, she awakens to a man holding a knife above her. She springs into action and disarms the man, before holding a knife to his neck. He already knows her name and tries to run, but she kicks him down, and slits his throat.
       The next day we see this gnome named Gleamsilver. She plucks out an object from all of our oatmeals, claiming the cult put them in. Should we have eaten them, they would unfold and puncture our guts with needles, slowly and painfully killing us. We meet with her at night and she asks us for information on the cultists and on the Red Wizard of Thay. The last day of the journey Vadania is accused of killing a cultist. The Red Wizard of Thay dispells the situation, however, and the Cultists give nothing more than cruel looks. We arrive to the town of Waterdeep and meet up with Kerri, who had ridden a different way. 

Playing Kerri

During the episode that Ben DMs, I've been playing a Barbarian character named Kerri. Her grandmother was a famous dragonslayer, and she's ready to carry on that legacy. Thanks (again!) to Holly Slang, Kerri has been consistently one level higher than the rest of the party, and her randomly generated (with a really lucky roll) Gauntlets of Ogre Power let her attack with impunity. Kerri's real strength is in grappling, however - with a level in Rogue (for Expertise on grapple checks) and the Tavern Brawler ability to grapple a character for free after hitting them with an unarmed strike, she's able to hold an enemy down while she pounds on it.

During the first episode ("Greenest in Flames"), Kerri accepted the half-dragon Langdedrosa Cyanwrath's challenge to single combat in order to protect some villagers. She went into a Barbarian rage and attempted to grapple the creature into submission, but his superior attacks won the day - thankfully, he kept his word and released the prisoners.

During our exploration of the Dragon Hatchery caves, Kerri encountered Cyanwrath again and challenged him to a rematch - after all, how would she claim honor in battle if she was unable to defeat a half-dragon, let alone a real one! The battle was fierce, and Kerri endured multiple hits of Cyanwrath's lightning breath, but all appeared lost when the half-dragon managed a critical hit on Kerri, breaking through her defenses and striking her down - but wait! Thanks to the Second Chance at Life donation power,  Kerri recovered and counterattacked, driving the half-dragon to his knees. He surrendered with honor, and the battle was won with no lives lost by either side.

Playing Kerri has been a very different experience from the calculating and resourceful characters I usually play, but nevertheless I've greatly enjoyed it. Thank you all again for following along...

... now it's my turn to kill the party. Episode 4, here we come!

-Sidney

The Journey continues. (Rett part 3)

The adventurers return to Greenest with Leoric the monk and reunite with Kerri. After receiving the reward for the initial quest, they are asked by Loric to return to the camp in order to see what else the raiders want. Auric remains in Greenest to train, and meet up with Nighthill. The adventurers return to the camp, only to find it mostly abandoned.  They see 4 men dressed in leather, but other than that no one is visible. They don't seem too interested, however, and the group explores the camp, not finding anything of interest.
        Discovering not much, the group goes down to the caves and is ambushed by two cultists. Kerri grapples one and Vadania makes short work of the other. Upon being interrogated, the cultist reveals that he is guarding his master, and nothing else. The Adventurers kill him and continue into the cave finding a cavern with a roof lined with bats. The group attempts to sneak through the cave but is not quiet enough and the bats startle, flying throughout the cave. 10 sturges awaken and the adventurers begin to take on some damage. The adventurers are able to fight them off, and continue on through the dungeon.
       They trigger a trap on a set of stairs and release large boulders. They hear some kobolds and quickly make friends with them, whose names are: Zook, Alustin, Avin Boodyknock, Frug, Gurbo, Auren, Seabo, Waren, Filchbatter, Stumbleduck, and Pock. As Zashir and Kerri head down the stairs, Vadania decides to "hide in the showers".  After pausing for a game of dice, Kerri pays each Kolbold 1 gold and the group leaves the room. They head down the stairs and run into the blue half dragon, who is excited to see Kerri alive. The immediatly engage in combat, Kerri grappling with the large creature. The battle is close but Kerri manages to defeat the blue half dragon. We find a chest that contains 1500 gold worth of items, and the group continues on. They find a wooden ladder which they climb up and find that at the top it is covered by a rug, and scribbling can be heard from above. Vadania stealthily pulls up from underneath the rug and finds the scribbling to be coming from none other than Frulan Mondath, the commander of the raiders. Having been subdued by her before, Vadania is overcome by a powerful bloodlust and kills Frulan Mondath before she can even respond. Having dismantled the raider leadership, the adventurers return to Greenest, bringing news of their triumph, and of the intel on shipments of gold being sent north. 

Zasheir is too happy

Zasheir was fairly upset to be assigned to the job of shit sweeper at the cultist camp. He made the best of it however and after failing to procure food for the prisoners he worked with managed to obtain at least some water for the poor souls. Zasheir met many lovely people on this trip including Boris the supervisor. Everyone kept saying they were going to write him up for something, but he was just happy to meet them. 

Donation Benefits Recieved So Far

Hi everyone,

Thanks to your generous donations, we've raised $425 for Extra Life so far! We all appreciate your help, but we though it'd be interesting to show what each person has raised so far and how they've used it.

• Leah Sturman has raised $50, enough for A Second Chance At Life. Unfortunately, she recieved this benefit right after her first character's untimely death by bleeding out. Better luck next time, Leah!
• Garrett ("Rett") Anderson has raised $100, putting his Rogue character at level 3. He chose the Assassin path in or
• Ben Campbell has raised $75, giving him A Second Chance At Life and the ability to make one of the DM's rolls a "1." He has 
• Sidney Parham gained the $200 Jackpot early on, giving his Barbarian character Kerri an extra level, a randomly rolled pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a Second Chance At Life, a Critical Success, a Critical Failure (for the DM), and a healing potion. He used his Critical Success to fight the Half-Dragon champion early on, and has taken 64 points of damage over the first episode of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Thank you, Holly!

Thank you again for all your support. It means so much to us! Also, if you're wavering, a Potion of Healing is only $5 and each of us could really use one. Donate here!

Finally, since we're doing so well so far we've added a stretch goal at $500. If we make it, we will play the sequel adventure to this one, Rise of Tiamat, at a later date.

Ben (Auric)'s Flame of Loss

I seem to have lost my fire.

I remember the days when I could incinerate an army of zombies with a single breath. When I soared sky high over the Sword Mountains.

This pitiful body depresses me. I might still be able to breath flames from my mouth, but after a few brief flames, I feel exhausted... and the dragon fire refuses to come. Having this tiny knife instead of my great claws would be hilarious if it weren't so pitiful. What kind of world would fear a tiny golden man with a knife? I would've laughed at such a man...

And I even failed in my pledge to preserve lives! Even that orc-woman, who seemed so tough, perished before I could even look her in the eyes.

I. Need. My. Power. Back.

These cultists will fall beneath my wrath. I will see it done. THE POWER OF GOOD MUST PREVAIL!

I Killed My First Character

I'm DMing for Episode 2, and we have our first fatality! Leah's half-orc Fighter Sharakaka, who bravely shot down the blue dragon attacking Greenest, fell to a cult ambush as the group tracked down the raiders. The rest of the group survived (barely) and now Leah is playing one of my backup characters.

Hopefully his Cleric abilities will help the group survive their upcoming challenges...

... but why leave it to chance? Donate to help Leah's new character (or really, any of us) not suffer the same fate. And to support a local hospital. Thanks so much to everyone who's already donated!

-Sidney

The story goes on (Rett part 2)

       Morning dawns in Greenest and Vadania (Rett) and Sharakaka (Leah) are summoned by the governor. They meet Auric (Ben), a cleric who looks like a half-elf. The governor offers 250 gold to scout out the raider's camp to find out who they are, why they want to attack and where they will attack next.
       Leaving the town, we run into a man with a bandaged leg. His name is Nesim and he tells us that the raiders are probably about to head out. We follow the tracks of the raiders across the plains of Greenrest and eventually come to the raiders camp in a rugged area. The camp contains several humans and kolbolds, and the human weapons are resting off to the side. The adventurers sneak through the camp and manage to steal the human cultist's weapons as the raiders argue.
       Sharakaka walks into the camp and greets the cultists and kobolds. As this is happening, Auric covers her in a warm red light and casts dancing lights around the camp. The raiders run away in fear as Auric reveals himself. The adventurers make short work of the cultists and interrogate one, finding out that the camp is full of around 100 cultists and 50 mercenaries. The adventurers kill the cultist, explore the camp and leave, heading south. They are walking along a path when boulders fall, that Auric and Vadania. It was an ambush of 9 cultists, with two acolytes and a guard. The battle was fierce, and Sharakaka was slain in the heat of it. After this battle Vadania and Auric take a long rest, waiting for a reinforcement sent from Greenest.
       This reinforcement comes in the form of Zashir (Leah), a Noble Human Cleric who was after similar targets as Sharakaka. That morning, the three head out to the camp, and gaze at it across a clearing.  The group decide to infiltrate the camp, posing as initiates to the Dragon Queen Tiamat. They meet Frulam Mondath, the commander of the raiders, a purple cape wearer. She decides to have the adventurers work menial jobs, with Auric and Vadania in the kitchen, and Zashir cleaning drake feces. Zashir runs into several prisoners from Greenest and attempts to grab some food for them. When Auric steps out with the head chef, Vadania is recognized by the blue half dragon walking through the camp. She is taken and tied up in the middle of the camp with a monk named Leosin, who has been in the camp for several days. Vadania unties herself and meets up with Auric and Zashir, who were at a religious gathering. The adventurers return to Leosin and escape the camp without any further difficulties.

Death....Mourn for Sharakaka

With Kerri in hospital, we set out with a new companion Auric. He's ridiculously optimistic. The mayor of this town promises us money if we go scout out places.We follow the raiders. some guy asks us to look for his master who is probably dead.

We come across a camp with some cultists and kobolds. We steal the cultists weapons while they all argue. The kobolds angrily go to eat their lunch in a different location than the cultists. Food is quite the touchy subject.

Sharakaka wanders into the camp and is exceedingly friendly. Arric makes her glow red. We terrify the cultists and kobolds until they attack us.
We capture one cultist. Sidney,"you don't have to roll to slit someone's throat; you just do it."

A voice sings "we're off to see the raiding camp" to the tune of we're off to see the wizard.

AMBUSH! Rocks fall and smash Sharakaka on the head. she is badly wounded. It's a bloody battle. Sharakaka is stabbed to the point of death, holds on through some feat of endurance, but is then knocked unconscious. The others bravely fight on. Sharakaka bleeds out and dies. ;-; It is tragic. 

Leah's take on some of the beginning things.

A  dragon is attacking the keep! We foolishly head to the top of the battlements and watch it fry three guards. Apparently dragons don't like crossbow bolts to the armpit though. It flies away. (shakarakaka shot it real good).

We run off to keep cultists from burning down a mill.

Sidney yells, "I'm a reckless kind of girl" as Kerri punches the penultimate cultist in the face. the last cultist runs away. 

Sidney wins a guessing game and so invokes one on one combat with the dragonborn commander. Kerri's first move is to rage and grapple. She draws her flail, drops it, and goes in for the unarmed strike. A hit to the groin!

Dragonborn breaks free of the grapple. He attacks twice, but misses on both attempts. 

Kerri attempts another punch-grapple combo. The punch is a resounding success. The grapple not so much.
Patterns continue as the Dragonborn attacks twice, hitting once. 

Punch&shield&grapple power. Punch success. Grapple fail.

Two swords attack Kerri. One hits. Kerri is down. The dragonborn stabs her in the throat and steps back. Clerics run out to stabilize her. The cultists trickle out of the town center. The Mayor-of-this-Town rewards kerri with two potions of healing.

LEVEL UP!

The Story So Far... (Rett part 1)

This is the Story of a group of adventurers who seek the destruction of the Cult of the dragon Queen. The Group consists of Kerri (Sydney) a human barbarian, Vadania (Rett) an elf rogue, and Sharakaka (Leah) a half orc fighter.

The journey begins as the group was peacefully traveling along the road when they come upon the burning image of the town of Greenest. A dragon is flying above the town, and screaming can be heard. The adventurers run up to the town and see a small family crossing the road, being chased by kobolds. The group fights off the kobolds, and proceeds to sneak through town towards the keep.  Running into a group of purple cloaked figures, Vadania, the rogue of the group, pulls the family to the shadows and creeped back another direction.
       Meanwhile, Kerri, the barbarian, and Sharakaka, a fighter, hold off the purple hooded figures, before disengaging and spilling barrels full of perfectly preserved bananas, covering the street in a slippery layer of delicious fruit. The group runs into the keep and meets the mayor of the town, Nighthill Maayor of This Town. He explains that a dragon ravaged the town and that groups of purple hooded figures are running rampant. Escobert the Red, a dwarf explains a way to get out of the keep without going through the front gate. We go down through the keep out of a (not) sewer.
       Once out of the (not) sewer, we find a small group of cultists and manage to capture one after a brief struggle, killing the rest. We take him back to Nighthill, Maayor of This Town, who proceeds to interrogate the prisoner. We find that he is a member of the Cult of the Dragon Queen, whose goal is to usher in the reign of the queen of dragons. We find out that they have a camp nearby, and they have dragon eggs. After the interrogation, Nighthill drags the prisoner down to the dungeon.
       At that moment, Escobert frantically rushes into the room, alerting the adventurers that the dragon has returned to the town.

       On the Keep walls, the adventurers debate a plan of action as the dragon takes two swoops killing 9 guards. As the dragon swoops back around Sharakaka manages to pierce it in the armpit, annoying the dragon enough to have it seemingly leave, not to come back again. The guards breathe a sigh of relief. We find out a new threat has appeared
       The cultists are trying to burn down a mill outside of town. Attempting to help out, we run over to the mill and engage the cultists. In the fight, Kerri (Sydney) goes into a a rage, and rerolling with reckless strike, shouting,"Im a reckless kind of girl!" Having successfully defended the mill, the adventurers return to the keep. Nighthill brings the group to the top of the keep and shows the group a small circle of cultists surrounding  a blue scaled humanoid dragon like being. This creature reveals 4 prisoners and asks to face the strongest warrior in the keep.
       Kerri accepts the challenge, charging in flail ready. At the last moment Kerri drops her flail and lands a punch in the warrior's groin. The warrior swings twice but Kerri manages to dodge the first two. Another heavy punch by Kerri manages to land, but the warrior still fights on, landing a blow on Kerri. Kerri lands one more punch but is finally hit hard by another greatsword slash, incapacitating her. The dragon creature stabs her with a dagger, but is satisfied and leaves with his group. Nightville Maayor of This Town brings out some clerics and manages to stabilize Kerri, allowing her to live. Nighthill presents Kerri with two health potions. The group goes to sleep, and Kerri is in the process of being healed.
     

Sidney: The Night Before

Hi everyone,

This is Sidney, one of the two Dungeon Masters for the Bates Extra Life Challenge (and a player for the other half of the event). It's currently half an hour past midnight - I've spent the evening so far getting ready for the adventure the next morning.

Being a Dungeon Master for an event like this is mostly going to be a test of stamina. I've signed up for the even-numbered episodes of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and my co-DM Ben Campbell recently noted that they're a lot longer than their odd-numbered counterparts. I've prepared for an extensive infiltration scene, a long road journey, and a raid on not one but two fully-garrisoned castles. I think I'm ready for this.

Being a player for the event, however, will require a mixture of cunning and luck. Reports abound of groups of six or seven player characters getting decimated in the first episode (note: not one that I'm running), and with only two other players in our group our ability to breeze through fights is extremely questionable. Now, do I have an advantage because I've read the adventure? Of a sort. I know exactly how dismal our odds are. In preparation, I've created a survival-focused character:

• Zasheir Khalid is a human noble who serves the god of bravery, carefully crafted to help the party (and himself) survive many tough fights.

But what if "something happens" to Zashier? Well, I've created a backup.

• Kerri Windreaver is a barbarian outlander. Her grandmother was a famous dragon slayer, and she's following in her familial footsteps, focusing on a grappling fighting style.

After some thought, I decided that wasn't enough. After all, these guys are both front-liners, and if they get mobbed I'll lose them. So I rolled up:

• Thamior Nightbreeze, a Wood Elf archer with a shady past. He's on the lookout for a childhood friend kidnapped by dragon-worshipping cultists.
• Kellen "Badger" Timbers, a gnomish potter who studies magic in his spare time. He's having apocalyptic dreams and travels to the small town of Greenest looking for answers.

... I hope I don't have to use all of these characters.