Dragonfall 1 (Act 1, Arc 1)

This is an online level 1-20 Dungeons & Dragons 5e/5.5e campaign. Sessions are bi-weekly, and range from 3-4 hours long. The original party consisted of a druid, a cleric, a monk, a fighter, a paladin, and a rogue. After scheduling conflicts, we eventually settled into a consistent group of fighter, monk, paladin. See session reports for additional information. Find the math here (link coming soon). Find the narrative summaries that give these play reports context here (link coming soon).

To create characters, DM worked closely with each player to develop their character, in assisting with the lore, and making suggestions/brainstorming. When rolling stats, players chose whichever method they liked best. Each player then got an individual session 0, and were then sorted into two groups based on where that session 0 left them. The small groups then each had a small group session. Finally, everyone met for a full party session 0.

Session 0

All players came together. This was largely a safety session; we discussed players' preferred names and pronouns, years playing RPGs; favorite RPG; and one thing they were looking forward to in this campaign. We then discussed the VTT in use and went through a variety of features, discussed lines and veils and other safety tools, respectful play, table courtesy, and what constituted temporary and permanent kicks and bans. We discussed how to handle player absences. Finally, we had a group discussion about various aspects of RPGs that everyone enjoyed, disliked, and wished they could have more of.

These topics were grouped into topics of like subject. Between the subject groups, we had short scenes, where any loose ends from the small group sessions were resolved, and the party was slowly brought together so that by the end, everyone was in the starting area in a way that made sense. In this case, the starting location was a ship called the Seafang, which set sail at the end of the session.

At the very end, we did a short establishing scene consisting of a montage technique taken from 13th Age, to account for what every character had been up to since the journey began. The 13th Age method, briefly, is to choose a player who starts, and this player names a problem or obstacle the party or an individual has encountered. The player next in order describes the solution and outlines another problem, and on, until the first player who named a problem now describes a solution, and in this way play moves around the table until everyone has named a problem and a solution.

Notes

• This was an unfamiliar technique, and some players were more comfortable with it than others. However, with subsequent, occasional use, they will grow more confident. 

• This technique will work best to allow player agency while summarizing long stretches, i.e. downtime or travel, where not much meaningful mechanical gameplay takes place.

After this session, we lost Druid due to scheduling conflicts. We were now: Monk, Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Rogue.

Session 1

Party: 5 characters, level 1

The Seafang wrecked at the top of the session, and an 8-round countdown was initiated, at the end of which the ship sank. We were playing in an arctic environment, and the environmental rules for freezing water, swimming, and suffocation were on hand. The freezing water and swimming rules were used numerous times as characters failed their Wisdom saves and were lured into the water, only to be rescued by other party members, repeatedly. The countdown functioned both as a tension builder and as a way to keep the players efficient with their actions. 

Utilizing a DM tip from Sly Flourish’s podcast The Lazy RPG Podcast, “Not Like This” (9 February 2026), a flat scene DC of 11 was set. This worked very well as a way to free DM to say no when otherwise she might have said yes, and also allowed players to know on their own whether they succeeded or failed on a check, thus allowing the scene to remain fast-paced.

Sirens flew overhead, using the statblock of harpies, but were never intended to be engaged (though the statblock was there just in case). 

After finding themselves wrecked, the party was faced with a choice: climb an extremely high icy cliff, or shelter in the ice caves that emptied out onto the beach. They chose the beach, and in the night, an NPC follower was murdered by Rogue and Monk after they discovered the NPC was a vampire that was about to finish its transformation.

After a rest, the party started crawling through the icy dungeon and quickly discovered a room with an object that imposed Compelled Duel on a failed Wisdom save. Rogue failed, and the session ended with combat about to begin.

Notes:

• The countdown worked well, and 8 rounds turned out to be the perfect number of rounds. Any more, and the scene would have been needlessly extended. Any less, and several characters would have been in very bad situations

• Contrary to Sly Flourish’s commentary, I don’t think a flat DC would work in every situation. After utilzing it, I think it works better in fast-paced narrative scenes than it does in combat scenes.

• Sirens were mostly in the scene for environmental flavor, to explain how the shipwreck was caused and therefore make it feel less contrived, and to add to the sense of urgency.

• Rogue briefly tried to engage with the sirens, but the disaster and the countdown prevented most characters from giving the sirens more than a passing consideration.

• Vampire NPC was meant to tie together Rogue and Fighter’s backstories and help them dovetail off each other. With Rogue gone, the impact was significantly lessened, and that whole event is mostly an annoying and almost entirely pointless deprivation to Fighter’s backstory. If there was a way to bring the NPC back that made narrative sense, I would have.

• Each character had to make 1 initial save to ward off the effects of the statue. On a success, they did not have to save again; on a failure, they were allowed repeated saves at the end of the round. The save was DC 15, decently challenging for a 1st level party.

Session 2

Party: 5 characters, level 1

Combat with the statue resolved, leaving several characters in a rough state and exhausting the supply of healing spells. Making their way through the warrens, they saw worrying signs of kobolds quietly packing up their nesting area and leaving with their young. They long rested in an old crypt, and after the rest, made their way up through a latrine tunnel to the surface, hoping to travel cross-country to someplace with a boat so they could return to the mainland. Instead, they found they had emerged in the midst of a clash between the native dwarves and invading cultists. They were given the task of disabling the cultist’s trebuchet in order to help turn the tide of combat.

Once that was achieved, the party decided it was better to return to the the ice caves and make their way through beneath the battle lines. They ended the session looking for a place to rest. The party leveled up to 2nd level.

Notes

• Despite positive player feedback, DM retooled the battle scenes in case they were encountered again, to deliver the feel of tactics, danger, and tension that she wanted.

After this session, we unexpectedly lost Rogue (hopefully to nothing tragic, but we have no idea. Player did not respond to outreach). We were now: Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Cleric.

Session 3

Party: 4 characters, level 2

The party wandered back down into the kobold area of the caves and found a large family group of kobolds trying to evacuate ahead of the cultists, and a large group of cultists intent on stopping them. The party jumped to the kobolds’ defense and defeated the cultists. 

Then the party was in dire need of a safe rest location, so they continued deeper into the caves and found a cavern with a natural hot springs in which to rest. They discovered that taking a dip in the water gave them 1d6 Temporary Hit Points. They also found a Questgiver NPC with a very important campaign MacGuffin, who died after ensuring the MacGuffin was in safe hands. The party rested there, with a very somber ending to the session.

Notes

• The Questgiver and MacGuffin was a Quantum encounter (term borrowed from Sly Flourish; denotes an encounter that is inevitable, and is moved around as needed to cause it to occur). While DM doesn’t ordinarily do Quantum encounters, for things very important to the plot, she will. This was one of those encounters that needed to happen in order to kick off the main objective of the campaign.

• Temporary buffs from the environment seemed to be a welcome surprise amongst the players. It should be employed (sparingly) in the future.

After this session, we lost Cleric to scheduling conflicts. We were now: Fighter, Monk, Paladin. In subsequent encounter building, DM began to cross-check the encounters built with the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide with the Potential Deadliness calculation from Sly Flourish’s Lazy GM Resource Documents.

Session 4

Party: 3 characters, level 2

As they were preparing to leave the room with the dead Questgiver, the party was beset by a cultist named Skinner. A battle ensued, and after murdering Skinner handily, the party hastily departed. They entered Zone 3 of the dungeon, and DM began employing tension dice to help encourage the party to keep moving forward and to simulate increasing danger. The part of the dungeon that the party was now in was the most dangerous, but also the most important to the plot and potentially the most dramatic. They encountered a group of cultists in a feast hall, and after some tense dialogue, managed to bluff their way past. A second and final Quantam Encounter occurred, in which the party happened upon the ruler of Zone 3 of the dungeon, who was being held hostage. Battle ensued, and in the end, the ruler was freed and the captors were killed. The ruler then gave the party writs of safe passage through dwarven territory to carry with them on their travels, and also asked them to search for the lost heir to the royal line, known only by the name of Aleks.

Notes

• The party ended the session with 5 dice in the Tension Pool, and had yet to roll a single encounter from the Tension Pool Encounter Table.

• The party, already fairly efficient, didn’t seem particularly bothered by the addition of Tension Dice.

We leveled up to Level 3.

• Fighter: Champion

• Paladin: Oath of the Noble Genies

• Monk: Warrior of the Mystic Arts

Session 5 (End of Arc)

Party: 3, level 3

At the top of the session, the roar of a dragon was heard, accompanied by the quaking of the walls and ceiling of the warrens as the dragon rushed forward. A 4-round countdown ensued, during which the dragon got progressively closer. At the end of the countdown, the party rushed into a side room as the dragon crashed by and began burrowing its way out through the ice. The party found themselves in an old treasure room and found some gold and a few healing potions. They explored for a way out, and in the process, discovered that a large, organic frost creature was carpeting the entire floor of the room like moss on the forest floor. Everywhere they stepped, they were stepping on something alive. They made their way out of the room as quickly and carefully as possible so as not to disturb the creature. 1 die was added to the Tension Pool, bringing the total to 6, and the pool was rolled. No encounter resulted. 

The party snuck their way through the caverns in search of the boat that the ruler had directed them to. They encountered a small group of cultists guarding an exit, and managed to intimidate/murder their way past, but a few cultists still escaped. The party had interrogated one of the cultists and knew their plan. The party decided time was of the essence, so they pressed on. Upon finding the boat that the ruler had indicated, they set sail, moving very carefully out of the harbor so as not to attract attention. After much deliberation, they chose to take a different route from the cultists, hoping to keep the MacGuffin out of the cultists’ reach as long as possible, and then loop back around using terrain and surprise them in a set of ruins the cultists were going to. Thus settled, the sailed for the nearest city. On the way, Fighter had a disturbing dream about a shadow in a netherworld that mirrored the Ice Reaches, except it was made of stone and blood instead of icy snow and water. The party reached the city of Kopraltik and, after taking sink baths in an inn there, went to sleep for the night.

Art used for backdrops and maps

Shipwreck Lobby Seastorm, Animated Battlemaps

Shipwreck Scene Harpy Cove (No Stack Rain Night) Czepuku

Ice Reaches Lobby Arctic Tundra, Czepuku

Ice Reaches Alt Lobby Into the Wilds: Fire & Ice, Andreas Rocha

Sea Cave Scene Frozen Cavern, Animated Battlemaps

Zone 1 (Kobold Zone) scene Ice Cave, James’ RPG Art

Area K3 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area K4 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area K5 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area K7 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area K8 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area K11 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Zone 2 (Neutral Zone) scene Ice Cavern, James’ RPG Art

Area Z2 Healing Cave Spring (Original Day) Czepuku

Area Z4 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area Z5 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Area Z7 (Drawn by DM in Dungeondraft)

Zone 3 (Dwarf Zone) scene Hollowglint, Animated Battlemaps

Area D1 (Drawn by DM in Dungeon Alchemist)

Area D2 Yeti Lair, Tom Cartos

Area D4 Underground Dwarven City Centre (massacre) Czepuku

Area D8 Ruined Courtyard (Ice Temple) Czepuku

Area D10 Hanging Gardens (Guardians of the Night) Czepuku

Area D12 The Ice Cavern, Tom Cartos

Battle on the Ice: Kobold Front drag-and-drop map from Froundry VTT

Battle on the Ice: Neutral Front Arctic Expedition (snowfield) Czepuku

Battle on the Ice: Dwarf Front Shatterstone Expanse, Battle Scar Maps

Battle on the Ice: Dwarf Wharf Secret Cove (winter) Czepuku

Orc Village: Scene Remote Ice Village (Original Night) Czepuku

Orc Village: Map Remote Ice Village (Igloo Village Fire Night) Czepuku

Random Encounter: Map 1: Blue Dragon Lair (Ice Temple) Czepuku

Random Encounter: Map 2: Elder Brain Sacrum Shrine (Natural) Czepuku

Random Encounter: Map 3: Yeti Lair, Two Minute Tabletop

Esmer’s Dream scene: Writhing Fleshwood Forest, Animated Battlemaps