CoS 1
CoS 1 is a roleplaying campaign set in Forgotten Realms (Faerûn/Demiplanes of Dread), run by Gunnar Petzäll as DM and the Epsilon group as players and using the DnD 5e system.
The campaign follows a group of Forgotten Realms characters who end up in in a forgotten realm, with varying motivations to mostly make the world a better place.
For this campaign, not much house rules are used, mainly just the concept of Lingering Injuries that occur if a character receives exceptional and one feat.
House Rules
Session prep
Start
2022-09-06 The introduction starts near Waterdeep, the largest city on the Sword Coast and possibly the largest in the world (at least that you know of). Starting out as small fish in a big pond, you heed a call from Sir Isteval, a noted paladin of Amaunator (formerly Lathander) for adventurers and mercenaries to aid Daggerford in dealing with goblins, gnolls, and orcs who’ve been raiding the countryside, destroying homes and causing an influx of refugees to head to Daggerford.
A militia guards Dagggerford. Service is mandatory for all able-bodied adults, and lasts for twenty years. All citizens living within the town receive instruction from the duchess's own soldiers in the use of spears and other weapons, and must spend at least one day a month in defense of the town, standing sentry on its walls, or patrolling the nearby roads. Their training means that the common citizens of Daggerford aren't easily cowed by armed folk demanding goods, coin, or passage, and are slightly more likely to take up work as mercenaries, caravan guards, or adventurers. In this case, the troubles have been so large and such an influx of refugees that help is needed!
You heeded the call to arms coming from Waterdeep, but only came at the end of the crisis, assisting with a few minor erradications and to housing refugees, etc. Nevertheless, your help was greatly appreciated and you have been given a small reward of 25gp each and invited to dine in the Duchess Morwen's manor.
The largest and oldest building in Daggerford is the ducal castle, a three-level keep enclosed by a two-story wall that contains its own smithy, parad ground, and stabling. The dukes of Daggerford have always kept a well-stocked larder, capable of feeding the castle's inhabitants and any citizens that it might shelter inside during a siege.
The feast is lavish by any commoner's standard and is mostly attened by local militia, mercenaries and intrepid adventurers. The local nobility, including Duchess Morwen mingle among the common folk (some nobles seem to have been told to attend). (Passive society 14 informs you that though luxurious for commoners, this is a budget ordeal compared to a proper nobility feast, albeit accomodated for many times the amount of guests)
During the dinner you share stories with others and also have the luck to be seated fairly near Duchess Morwen and got some time to socialise in addition to regular mingling. She shows appreciation and while not heavy on the wine, not timid either. During the evening you convey regret you arrived too late to really make a difference defending Daggerford and Morwen politely acknowledges the sentiment and implies the time may yet come.
We'll start three days after this; you may assist with rebuilding, refugee assistance or some downtime activity.
The cast of characters include: Luna, the firbolg moon-attuned, Kev (Kevavor) the playwright, Jack, the sword-slinging magician, Bigwig, the barbarian bunny, and Garth, the champion of vengeance.
Chapter 1: The Wolves at Mud Creek
2022-09-06 Much of the dinner guests dissipates from Daggerford during the next few days and many are allowed free housing either as guests at locals or at an inn while refugees are still catered for and repair work is in order. You spend time helping for free food and lodging and can do some downtime activity or simply help out with the work. On the third day, you receive a letter from Duchess Morwen asking you to report to Sherlen Miller, Captain of the Constabulary, for an opportunity "to make that difference after all".
Mud Creek village council is having severe problems with wolves, possibly related to the goblin attacks, offering a 800gp reward to anyone who can wipe them out. The rest of the guard are too busy and if you elect to not go, there are others they can ask.
The travel to Mud Creek you do on foot and is uneventful for half a day's worth of travel. Nearing the town, a few miles up you see six wolves attacking two shepherds and a flock of sheep, seemingly herding the sheep into the woods with precision similar to a sheepdog. You intervene and though Bigwig puts himself in harms way and is nearly injured, the wolves are killed or schased off and the shepherds and sheep are saved.
You get some odd stories from the shepherds in regards to the wolf attacks, and something is clearly amiss. Someone or thing is obviously controlling the wolves.
In town you're invited to a council meeting where they debade if it's worth the risk to continue to export foodstuff while the wolves attack (risking either starvation in the coming winter or a lack of money to re-stock in spring). It turns out the town guardian (and sorcerer) Alexi, brother of the town priest, Father Merricksson, has been missing about three weeks and this is when the troubles started. There has been more disturbing reports like sheep stolen out of locked barns and when the village sent out a hunting party, several died and of the missing people only the halfling Willen Featherock turned up alive - but only barely.
Talking to Featherock who claims the wolves SPOKE and Alexi's town house that seemed like he had not planned to leave for "one of his long trips", the party decided to rest for the night and track or use some kind of ruse on the wolves tomorrow.
2022-09-13
In the morning, the ruse idea was discussed and the party had a good time, but got one or two sceptical looks from other tavern patrons as well as the owner Leanor Slatebeard. Eventually they took some advice from Corel, the wiry fleecer/shepherd/farmer, and decided to track ther wolves from the point of attack from yesterday.
The slain wolves (sans their heads that Bigwig hade taken the previous day) were still there, prompting Kev to assume the thing controlling the wolves don't care to take care of their dead but the tracks were also fairly easy to find, at first. Following that, Luna's superior tracking skill did the rest. Well, it would have if she had not turned invisible, prompting Bigwig to having to track Luna into the forest.
Encountering an owlbear two hours of tracking later, Luna simply circumvented it and headed on after the track, leaving the rest of the party to deal with it, which was done in a couple of heartbeats.
Eventually the party reached a clearing and a wolf den that was guarded by oddly behaving wolves, among other things they had dressed themselves in strips of cloth and had made a campfire. Apparently they also made noise traps as when the party were approaching the clearing, it was set off and all the wolves went to high alert. Kev tried to talk with them but Bigwig charged in and killing one of them in one fell swoop. The party ran in and massacred most of the guarding wolves in the blink of an eye, after which two enormous wolves, one with faint glowing orange streaks as if by lava and one with a blueish hue, sparkling with energy as well as four makeshift armoured wolves ran out. The first, fiery one, blasted the party as well as the last remaining guard wolf with fire and the other shouted for the violence to stop. The first reluctantly halted and Kev again tried to speak with the wolves.
There was clearly some conflict between the wolves and the inhabitants of Mud Creek but they had, in fact, attacked and chased off the owlbear and the blue hue one seemed very keen on a non-violent solution to the conflict. As the party had managed to talk the wolves down a notch, the fire-breathing wolf had slowly become more and more agitated, muttering things like "we shouldn't talk to the killers, they should die" and the like. The apparent turn into all-out diplomacy simply turned her over the edge and draw a deep breath, preparing to once again spweing a cloud of fire.
Which is where the session ended.