Dragonfall 2 (Act 1, Arc 1)

This is an online level 1-20 Dungeons & Dragons 5e/5.5e campaign. Sessions are bi-weekly, and range from 2.5-3 hours long. The party consists of a wizard, sorcerer, cleric, and 2 warlocks. Find the math 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.

Act 1, Arc 1

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, this is a group that seems to enjoy roleplay, and many initiated their own scenes within the montage.

• 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.

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, or found themselves in wrecked and flooded portions of the ship, 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. The party took almost as long as possible to leave the ship, and so made land with about two dozen crew members with them. They all decided to shelter in the cave, and the session ended there.

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 utilizing 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.

Session 2

Throughout this dungeon, a number of events triggered on countdowns that ran continuously behind the scenes.

Party: 5 characters, level 1

After a long rest, the party decided to explore the back of the caves to see where it went. They encountered a door, and almost immediately Roguelock (one Warlock will later multiclass into Rogue) narrowly avoided swinging blades after triggering a tripwire trap. (After this, Wizard scouted ahead with Familiar at every opportunity, allowing the party to avoid every single other trap in the entire dungeon, as well as a number of dangerous encounters.)

Arriving at a T-intersection, the party went right, toward the sound of the sea, and eventually found themselves in a “larder” of live animals that some entity was keeping as a food source (Kobolds stole them from the dwarves in the Dwarf Zone). This made the party nervous, as it told them that something actively inhabited this portion of the caves, but they had no idea what. They theorized most likely kobolds, or maybe some sort of goblin, but were spurred on by the necessity to know more so they could prepare accordingly.

After lingering for a short while, the sound of voices coming from behind a small wooden door spooked them, and the party continued onward down a different corridor. (This was the rushing of kobolds evacuating ahead of an invading force of cultists, an event triggered by a countdown.) Had the party remained, they would have found themselves in the middle of a battle between a dozen kobold warriors trying to cover the retreat of their families, and the cultists in pursuit.

The party continued onward, and experienced the usual D&D tribulations at the presence of doors. Eventually, they made it to an icy corridor that they thought looped around and behind the footsteps they’d heard, and were heading in that direction for safety. The corridor was icy, and the party almost didn’t go down, due to the risk of fall damage (clumsy spellcasters). Wizard sent Familiar ahead to scout, and Familiar found a dead dwarf at the bottom of the corridor, near another door. The party almost turned around at this point to find another route, but Cleric (ancestry: dwarf), was determined to do their Clerical duty to the dwarf. The party determined it was best to stick together, so they all made their way carefully down. 

At the dead dwarf’s side, Cleric knelt to perform last rites, and only the fact that she was kneeling and a dwarf (kneeling dwarves are short) saved her from another swinging trap, which was triggered by the pressure plate the dwarf’s body had been covering, and which Cleric moved in the process of performing the rites. (This is the only trap that Familiar did not discover for the party).

On the other side of the door, the party heard whispering, and not wishing to be detected, the party chose a different route, and found themselves in an old crypt, where they decided to take a long rest. (The voices heard was a second group of kobolds, a nesting group, that were quietly gathering their young and eggs and making their way out of the ice caves; another countdown-triggered event.) Familiar was sent forward one more time to see what lay around the crypt, and discovered a temple with a life-like dragon mural and a small altar holding an icon. The temple was guarded by a number of kobolds. Party decided to leave it be for now and long rest instead.

In the crypt, during their long rest, the party levels up (one Warlock takes a level in Rogue, making them Roguelock).

Notes

• DM allowed the Familiar to be so successful for 2 reasons: the safety of the party (all level 1 spellcasters) and rewarding tactical thinking. The party already felt how low-powered they were and how little HP they had; allowing a successful Familiar gambit gave them a sense of control, without lessening the sense of danger.

Session 3

Party: 5 characters, level 2

Watch rotation began. On Sorcerer’s watch, she was tempted by her Dark Gift, a Symbiote she’d acquired back in her small group session 0. The Symbiote told her it could understand Draconic, and if she could get close enough to the temple to see what was inside, it could explain it to her.

Sorcerer snuck up to the temple and got just close enough to make out the important bits. The Symiote told her that the icon was one of a draconic deity, but without getting closer, it couldn’t tell which one. The Symbiote also informed Sorcerer that the “mural” was actually a thin layer of ice that had formed up behind the enormous (and living) white dragon that was slumbering in its den, and that the presence of the dragon is likely what prompted kobolds to create a temple here.

After learning this, Sorcerer snuck back toward the party. Her route took her through the now-abandoned nesting area, where she encountered a pair of cultists doing a sweep. Sorcerer hid in one of the empty nests, being just the right size (Halfling), and waited there to see what the cultists would do, hoping they would pass her by, unnoticed.

Meanwhile, at watch change, the party started to suspect that something was wrong, because Sorcerer hadn’t come back. Through clever use of utility spells, the party determined that Sorcerer was in imminent danger, or about to be, and rushed to her rescue.

As it turned out, Sorcerer rolled poorly to hide from the cultists, but well enough to hide from her own party. The party arrived, with no idea where Sorcerer was, and began attacking the cultists, trying to drive the cultists away so they could find Sorcerer. There was a lot of fire, and the room full of dry nests lit readily and burned quickly, which was bad since Sorcerer was inside one. Smoke soon obscured the area, and all ranged attacks were at disadvantage, causing Wizard to hit Sorcerer with friendly fire. Sorcerer collapsed. Party dragged Sorcerer out and fled the room, since everyone was making Constitution saves to avoid succumbing to the smoke.

Cleric was out of spells, but NPC was able to stabilize Sorcerer. Party finished their long rest. In the morning, they went back to examine the bodies of the cultists, and found a note detailing the cultists’s general plan in these caves, as well as the timeline for that plan. Then the party went to examine the temple Sorcerer had scouted, interested and concerned by the idol and feeling as though they should discover more. Upon approaching the idol, one of the party members fell under the influence of Compelled Duel. The session ended with initiative imminent.

Notes

• The encounter with the cultists was entirely improvised, utilizing only the “Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating” chart found in Forge of Foes by Sly Flourish to determine appropriate damage, HP, and AC. The encounter was necessary; up until now, the party had not engaged in combat, and DM needed a sense of the party’s power level for the balance of future combats.

• Finding the cultist information felt needed, as at this point DM felt the party had not experienced enough up-beats in the dungeon, and friendly fire seemed to need a counterpoint for the game to remain fun. Also, the party had voiced, in and out of character, that they were confused and a little lost on what to do in the dungeon, and needed a little direction to drive them onward.

Session 4

Party: 5 characters, level 2

Under the influence of Compelled Duel, the party fought each other but managed to not only survive but vanquish the kobolds that got caught in the crossfire. Further exploration led them to finding a room of crude murals detailing the kobolds' history there. They nearly went into a room with a large serpent that could have swallowed a dwarf or halfling whole, and decided to try another route instead.

The party was in 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. The party dares not examine the MacGuffin. They suspect it is tied to the dragon statue that caused them to fight each other.

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 occasionally in the future to lend the party some situational resilience, being all spellcasters.

Session 5

Party: 5 characters, level 2

A number of backstory elements were resolved in this session, which was mostly roleplay. Cleric and NPC had a discussion which drew Cleric’s 1-on-1 session 0 into further clarity and also heightened the stakes for her. Wizard and Warlock realized that their backstories (1-on-1 session 0s) were related as well. 

At the end of the watch, cultists appeared (location-triggered event) and battled the party for the MacGuffin. The party was successful, and at the end of combat, Warlock discovered that their book of shadows could absorb magic items--and wanted to. 

Notes

• The environmental Temp HP worked as intended; without it, the fight could have been much worse for the party

Session 6

Party: 5 characters, level 2

The session began with a whisper scene with Roguelock. When the whisper scene ended, Roguelock appeared to be drowning themself in a pool of water, and had to be rescued by the party. The party journeyed onward, immediately triggering the use of Tension Dice (explained further in the math breakdown) and a custom Inspiration Economy mechanic (found here) meant to help keep them on their feet in long dungeons, like this one. 

The party journeyed onward and encountered cultists in a dwarven temple, whom they fought. Cleric prayed at the altar of the prime dwarven deity, and was rewarded by having one 1st-level spell slot replenished. They moved onward and found more cultists and found it adequately challenging to keep these enemies locked down long enough to flee into a nearby boat. They were eventually successful, and were about to cast off when the rumbling and roaring of an approaching dragon (count-down triggered event) caused them to choose to flee on foot. The session ended with the dragon’s approach imminent. The session ended with 5 dice in the Tension Pool.

Notes

• The party seemed both delighted by and uncomfortable with secrets and whisper scenes. This is good, because this is a party that will have a lot of whisper scenes.

• The Inspiration Economy mechanics seem to be working as intended so far, though another large dungeon is required to stress test them fully. In the interim, it is another tool that helps the party feel less vulnerable than they are.

• The Tension Pool worked exactly as intended insofar as it heightened tension and prevented the party from dallying where they most certainly would have chosen to do so otherwise.

Session 7

Party: 5 characters, level 2

The party fled the oncoming dragon. A 4-round countdown was employed, and the party fled the room in good time, finding their way into a storeroom, where they picked up a few magic items. After taking stock, Wizard sent Familiar ahead to scout and discovered that cultists were patrolling the corridor outside the storage room, and also that a dwarven woman on a dais was surrounded by armed men in a nearby room that looked like a throne room.

Party deliberated, and then, with clever thinking, managed to dispatch both the guard cultists in the corridors with minimal fuss. They were also able to lure most of the armed men in the throne room out, where they, too, were killed. Wizard then sent Familiar forward into the throne room to scout, the party believing that the dwarf woman was important, and it being important to Cleric to save the dwarf if possible. Familiar was able to determine that the room had been broken by recent icefalls from a caved-in ceiling, but the perimeter of the room was still intact. At that point, opposed Steath-Perception rolls occurred, and the cultists that still remained in the room discovered that Familiar was a Familiar. Alerted that a spellcaster was nearby, the cultists went into high alert, and initiative was rolled.

An extremely difficult battle ensued. Wizard and Roguelock both went down relatively quickly; Wizard was hit with a high-damage ranged attack, and Roguelock was the bulwark in a bottleneck. Both subsequently rolled natural 1s on their death saves and Cleric, unable to reach them, focused on keeping NPC follower up so they could continue to do damage. Sorcerer managed to bring Roguelock back with 1 HP with clever use of Shocking Grasp, using it as a defibrillator. Roguelock then focused on harry-and-run tactics, and with the help of some ranged attacks from Sorcerer, Cleric, and NPC, was able to take out the melee enemy.

The ranged enemy was extremely difficult for the party to pin down, and the terrain prevented kiting attacks and made maneuvering generally difficult. Eventually, though, this enemy too was defeated, Wizard was revived, and the party escaped by the skin of their teeth. They then fled with the dwarf, whom they freed, to a sheltered part of the dungeon, where they acquired some magic items, leveled up, and took a short rest. The session ended with 7 dice in the Tension Pool.

Notes

• Shocking Grasp to stabilize? Absolutely! As always, DM tries to reward creative thinking, and the party was in dire straits. Allowing revival with 1 HP (pending successful Medicine check and timeliness) will not break the game, and will likely save the party more times than this--and will come back to haunt them if anyone is ever unable to perform it.

• Encounter difficulty: even with the minions dealt with separately in the corridor, this was still a deadly fight. DM dumped the ranged enemy’s HP by 20 immediately after Wizard was taken out, and planned to do the same a few rounds later to the melee enemy if things were still going poorly, but by then the tide of battle had turned.

• This was another Quantum Encounter

Session 8

Party: 5 characters, level 3

After resting, and resolving a few backstory and main plot roleplaying scenes, the party headed out, now cloaked in the safety of Pass Without Trace, which Cleric gained from her subclass. The party snuck through the corridors of the dungeon, and were nearly fooled by an illusory dwarf, a trap set by cultists to alert them to intruders. Hearing cultists pursuing them, the party fled and found themselves in a disused storage room, where they acquired a good amount of gold and some healing potions.

After some deliberation and some clever trickery to make the door they were behind seem locked, the cultists passed by and the party escaped, sneaking their way to a place where they’d been told they could find a small boat hidden away, and sneak away with the MacGuffin.

At the shore, they were nearly cornered by a group of crewmembers who had wrecked with them on the Seafang, who were still alive and seeking both an escape and revenge on the party for (to the sailors) abandoning them. Mold Earth from Cleric managed to delay the sailors just long enough for the party to shove off and row away, completing the area and the arc.

Art Used for Backdrops and Scenes

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: Mushroom Infested Mines (Frozen) Czepuku

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

Ylfa Level-up Scene: Rootvault, Animated Battlemaps

Roselle Level-up Scene: Obsidian Core, Animated Battlemaps

Cuill Level-up Scene: The Brinevault, Animated Battlemaps

Atreus Level-up Scene: The Gravepath, Animated Battlemaps

Morwen Level-up Scene: Cosmic Hollow, Animated Battlemaps

Roselle Whisper Scene: scene from CoS Berez Swamps, Beneos Battlemaps

Atreus Whisper Scene: The Watching Dark, Animated Battlemaps

Morwen Whisper Scene: Celestial Arena, Animated Battlemaps

Cuill Whisper Scene: The Brinevault, Animated Battlemaps

Ylfa Whisper Scene: Yggdrasil Village (Natural, day) Czepuku

Morwen Premonition scene 1: Collapsed Bridge Battlemap (handout) Battle Scar Maps

Morwen Premonition scene 2: Winter’s End Battlemap (handout) Battle Scar Maps