Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Apr 2025 P1)

Ah, scheduling a Dungeons and Dragons game – it’s often the curse of our beloved hobby. DM Ben gets to book an office campaign with his coworkers and then an additional sesh with his family. Never a dull moment in finalizing a date, which is why it feels like forever since we’ve done a Game Day post. Lots to share so let’s dive in!

A lot of folks have weekly game days, and we can’t even fathom how you all manage to successfully navigate that calendar nightmare. We have a hard enough time getting everyone to agree on one session a month. First world problems, right?!

Anyway, let’s see what’s in store for our family campaign and how DM Ben hopes the story will unfold.

A quick recap of their progress since the last time we played.:

• Area 6: Goblin (made him an ally).
• Area 6: Carrion Crawler (defeated easily).
• Area 7 Stomp: Deactivated (well played).
• Area 8: Tentacle (took some hits | success).

It’s fascinating to compare our two game groups. The family game has a younger set of players who are all die-hard video gamers, so they’re pretty thorough with their tactics and rarely skip a beat, leaving no stone unturned. On the flip side, our work campaign players are older, get pretty impatient, and just thirst for combat. Do you see different dynamics like this if you’re in multiple game groups?

So, where is the party likely headed this weekend? DM Ben likes to prep each encounter by placing all the key miniatures and scatter terrain on Dwarven Forge Terrain Trays, in old Celly boxes, and in discarded filament boxes. Then he places everything inside his beloved Wyrmwood Gaming Table for a big picture view.

Side note: Some of these area labels in the pic above reference home-brewed encounters, so they won’t match the free D&D Beyond Acquisitions Incorporated 5e module encounter numbering.

The party will resume the game by running into, believe it or not, an actual dragon in a D&D game (especially at these lower character levels). DM Ben upped its HP to 27 as he’s hoping the wyrmling brass dragon will join the party and help them exit the Fissure in exchange for saving him against those annoying Dark Mantles.

Next, the group will proceed to the big Fissure finale and The Shrine of Destruction. If successful, the players will have completed their first big mission quest and can proceed to get the heck out of this underground danger zone. DM Ben will give the guys a chance to get in a Short Rest before the big fight.

DM Ben will have a violent earthquake go off shortly after the conclusion of this encounter, triggering cave-ins that ultimately block the way from which they came. He’s also going to slip in the Green Mist trap encounter, as he forgot to introduce it earlier in the module, and it’s just too good to pass up.

With all their objectives completed, it’s time to find a way out of here and cash in on their recent success! The module has the party simply backtracking to the original entry point. We thought that was rather ho-hum, so we made a fun home-brewed encounter we’re playfully calling Dig Dug (P1 and P2). Our random d20 table is a mix of the good (treasure), the bad (monsters), and the way out (on a lucky number thirteen dice roll). So, this encounter can go any number of ways.

From here, the group will have broken through to a shared cellar wall and a path to daylight. That fishy cellar belongs to legendary angler and boat builder, Ewan McHook. The players will meet his young son, Shamus, who ultimately gets captured by the Night Hag.

The group will likely head to the Charlotte’s Web Tavern or straight to Omin Dran to collect their gold reward. The players are ripe for a ransack as a few will be covered in that Green Mist or competing AI Franchise spies have picked up their trail (and want to nab the treasure they collected in the Fissure).

Once they finally get to Omin Dran’s HQ, DM Ben will bring the home-brewed Night Hag series into full view.

• The town crier will announce more missing kiddos.
• Visits to some of the stores will introduce the first rescue mission.

Thanks to the local job board, several other opportunities will also be available here. The group can answer Huckle Riverstone and Rishardo Montalwand’s calls for help and pick up a couple of homebrewed sidequests.

With Omin Dran’s reward money in hand (200 gold per player), the party will undoubtedly want to do some shopping. That means DM Ben gets to try out the slick Worlds at a Glance Kickstarter shop cards!

Lastly, if the group somehow gets through all of that in a single session, then we’ll kick off the Pumpkins that Ain’t Pumpkins Huckle Riverstone encounter!

Until next time!