Catch up through Session 5
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6 published recaps through Session 5.
Session 0 · Apr 27, 2026
Session Zero
Characters finalized, house rules set: no Neverwinter, no ammo or weight tracking, level cap 6.
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The table and house rules
The table gathered to get the campaign off the ground.
Answered group-relevant questions regarding gameplay, scheduling, etc. Finalized most character information. House rules Owen implemented: not using the Neverwinter location; not tracking ammunition or weight (unless special ammunition or ridiculous weight). Setting: Forgotten Realms, Phandalin region — Dragon of Icespire Peak, D&D 5e (2014 rules), level cap 6.
Read this scene in the recap →Session 1 · Apr 27, 2026
The Road to Phandalin
The party forms on the road, takes the Gnomengarde quest, hears the first dragon rumors, and kills a boar at midnight.
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The road, the contract, and the boar
The players met on the road to Phandalin, where Thom made a "friend" named "Friend."
In town, the party talked to a townsperson, checked the quest board, spoke with the Quest Master, and visited the inn. Choosing the Gnomengarde Quest — warn the gnomes about the dragon, with a bonus for bringing back any magical objects — earned them the Quest Master's first mention of dragon rumors. The innkeeper offered limited intel on the gnomes (tinkerers, reclusive), and the party noticed a strange person watching them at the inn. Nothing further at the time — but remember him.
They traveled toward Gnomengarde and camped overnight a few miles out. Sage took first shift; Bean was out like a light; Thom and "Friend" enjoyed their mulled earth. On second shift, Hamish noticed a wild boar, attacked, and missed. The boar ran into camp, where Bean tried attacking, missed, and took damage for her trouble. Barnaby hit it with Dragon's Breath for substantial damage; Sage tried to soothe the boar for a close-up attack (failed), then reluctantly landed the killing blow with an arrow.
The party preserved the boar for food and finished their long rest.
Play resumes the next morning.
Read this scene in the recap →Session 2 · May 15, 2026
Dax Joins
A wounded fighter amid five dead orcs joins the party, Gnomengarde is explored, and Facktoré opens fire.
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Dax joins and Facktoré fires
The party woke and prepared bacon for breakfast. Rut seemed interested in Barnaby and got in his face.
After burying the boar, the party met Dax, a wounded fighter on a similar quest toward Gnomengarde, surrounded by five dead orcs and carrying orc rumors of a dragon in the area. Given food, he cautiously joined the party toward their shared destination — unsure whether joining the group was actually the fastest way to complete his quest.
Inside Gnomengarde, Hamish took an interest in mushrooms growing in the pond and discovered they were being farmed. The party wandered the passageways and found crab-like contraptions sized perfectly for Rut and Bean, then reached the kitchen, where gnomes were preparing mushrooms into oil, bread, and wine. Rut stole a piece of bread; Hamish learned how to harvest mushrooms. The baker told Dax to find the king to complete his quest, kicked Thom in the shins for asking too many questions (a busy woman, after all), and offered a tip to reach the king faster — which the party didn't trust.
Then the party met Facktoré, a crazed gnome eager to test her heavy crossbow ballista on new targets. She immediately shot Thom. Sage and Hamish partially disabled the machine, Thom cast Sleep on the gnome, and Dax tied her up. Bean found her bag of 10 gold — her favorite!
Barnaby carried Facktoré and Bean to the entrance they'd been directed to and were met by several gnomes, less concerned about Thom's bleeding and more worried about their crazy friend all tied up. Poor Facktoré! During a heated argument about letting a lunatic operate heavy weaponry, Rut freed her — and she promptly screeched and ran away.
Read this scene in the recap →Session 3 · May 18, 2026
The Mimics
A paranoid king, a bound queen, a goopy rope bridge, and two very real mimics. The contract is delivered.
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The mimics and the king's reply
Deeper into Gnomengarde:
Slime found on the throne room floor, headed toward a door. A hidden passageway in the throne room, and a peephole into the King's chambers — where the Queen was tied up and the King was touching everything, paranoid about a mimic. Disabled a blade trap. Exited to a cave opening and a rope bridge with goop hanging from the ropes. Encountered some guards; Thom reassured them that mimics can't turn into people. Entered a storage room — chandelier, tables, barrels, and two side paths — and fought two mimics. The party won.
Business concluded: the contract from the Guildmaster was delivered to King Korboz, and a sealed envelope from the King was given to Dax — proof of the completed trade.
Read this scene in the recap →Session 4 · Jun 22, 2026
Back to Phandalin, and a Squeeze
Harbin pays out and posts two contracts, Thornton reveals a Zhentarim pin and crossbows, and two manticores meet the party at Umbrage Hill.
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Payment, crossbows, and manticores
After wrapping up business at Gnomengarde, the party headed back to Phandalin to collect their reward and figure out next steps.
First stop: Harbin Wester's house. After a comical series of unlocking sounds, the nervous, portly townmaster cracked open the door, scanned the sky, and hurried the party inside. He paid out 135 gold total (19 each) for the Gnomengarde job, returned the wand, and offered two new contracts:
Umbrage Hill — convince the midwife Adabra Gwynn, a Colletite of Chauntea, to leave her stone windmill and return to town for safety (25 gp). Dwarven Excavation — warn dwarf prospectors southwest of town that a white dragon has moved into the area (50 gp).
Next, the Miner's Exchange. Dax delivered the King's sealed letter to Guildmaster Holia Thornton — proof of the completed trade — and the letter's mention of the dragon prompted her questions about the threat. Then she drew back her cloak to reveal a pin bearing a dragon symbol, which Hamish recognized as the mark of the Zhentarim, a shadow organization with fingers in organized crime and politics. The guard posted outside — the same strange figure who'd watched the party at the inn back in Session 1 — was one of her people. What started as a conversation turned into a strong-arm: Thornton had crossbows trained on the party and pressed everyone into an information-sharing agreement, demanding to be kept informed of any dragon intelligence and offering payment for updates. With his original contract discharged, Dax stayed pragmatic — happy to keep working with her so long as coin stayed on the table. Thornton also let slip a lead: a ruined temple south along the Trivial Trail, where locals stash their gold.
While most of the party went shopping, a few members made an unauthorized visit back to Harbin's place. Bean turned up some of his personal notes on Thornton. Dax and Rut sat this one out.
The party then set out for Umbrage Hill — and found two manticores actively trying to tear the stone windmill apart. A long, scrappy fight followed: fog cloud, magic missiles, handaxes, sneak attacks, and an Action Surge from Dax, with Barnaby burning a reaction to shield Dax mid-fight. Bean landed the kill on the first manticore, and Sage put an arrow through the second one's eye to close it out.
Adabra's windmill survives. Mostly.
Read this scene in the recap →Session 5 · Jul 14, 2026
Adabra, Orcs, and the Temple of Abbathor
Adabra refuses to leave, an orc camp is bypassed, and the party splits jellies (literally) in a ruined temple to the god of greed.
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Adabra and the first temple rooms
The session picked up in the immediate aftermath of the manticore fight at the Umbrage Hill windmill, with most of the party badly wounded. Rut spent his last spell slot on Goodberry and Barnaby used Lay on Hands to get everyone back on their feet. Rut also ripped a tail spike from one of the manticore corpses and kept it, offering no explanation.
The woman the party rescued introduced herself as Adabra Gwynn, the midwife and apothecary who brews the healing potions supplied to Phandalin. The party delivered Harbin's warning, but she refused to relocate — she insists she can't brew anywhere but her windmill. She gave the party a free healing potion (handed to Dax, who tossed it to a still-bleeding Thom), mentioned to Sage that she knows Harbin well and that her potion supply matters to the town, and noted that orcs have grown more common in the area lately. Before the party left, she handed Sage a note for Harbin confirming she's staying put. The party agreed to check on her on the return trip.
After a short rest and a home-cooked meal from Adabra, the party set out for the dwarven excavation and soon found day-old orc tracks — a sizable band, most scattering off-road. Sage and Hamish scouted ahead, confirmed a large orc encampment a few miles down a split trail, and confirmed the path to the excavation was clear. Dax attempted a strategic read of the orc movements from his military days and came up with nothing ("Wasn't in the military very long anyway"), while Barnaby's assessment gave the party confidence to push on. They made the rest of the trek in the dark.
At the excavation — a ruined settlement behind a broken black-stone gate in a canyon — Bean crept in to scout, kicked a pebble, stayed unseen anyway, and then announced herself: "I'm Bean!" The camp belonged to two dwarf prospectors from Phandalin, Norbus Ithermel and Dazlyn Grayshard. The party delivered Harbin's dragon warning and shared news of the orc band nearby, which clearly rattled the dwarves — but they refused to abandon their site. Dax offered a formal introduction in Dwarvish, earning appreciative nods. The dwarves explained the site is a ruined temple of Abbathor, god of greed, which they believe holds treasure — but ochre jellies inside have stopped their dig, and they're miners, not fighters. Thom negotiated a 60/40 treasure split in the party's favor, plus food and lodging for the night.
Over the evening the party learned the temple's history: Abbathor, displeased with his priests' sacrifices, buried the settlement in an avalanche — and transformed the surviving priests into the ochre jellies. There is no known way to change them back. The dwarves also warned of secret doors.
In the morning, Thom lit the way with Dancing Lights into the main chamber, where one jelly clung to the ceiling and another to the wall. Highlights from the fight:
Dax's thrown handaxe caused a jelly to split in two (axe embedded in the process), and his follow-up longsword slash did nothing — slashing only makes more jellies. Rut absorbed a nasty acid hit with Absorb Elements, then Wild Shaped into a boar to tank. Thom's Magic Missile triggered a Wild Magic Surge that aged him several years — actual stubble now. Bean landed a natural 20 with sneak attack. Barnaby blessed the front line, Sage went in close with dual daggers to finish a split jelly, and Hamish — after pouring longbow fire into the original wall jelly all fight — leaped in with his shortsword for the final kill.
After the fight, Dax discovered a hidden door in a pillar base concealing a coffer of gemstones — rubies, emeralds, topaz — which went to Thom, with the empty coffer quietly returned behind the door. The dwarves don't know about the find. Hamish located two secret doors in the chamber. Rut spotted a gold chain inside a dead jelly's acidic remains and fished it out with the Pole of Collapsing: a gold necklace, its nameplate illegible, overwritten in ancient Dwarvish. Sage read the inscription aloud: "This is what happens to those who displease me." Rut pocketed it.
One secret door revealed a dark bending hallway with something glinting in the rubble; the other, a short passage to a closed door. Rut Wild Shaped into a rat, while Hamish went in to investigate the glint — which turned out to be not gold, but one more ochre jelly lurking in the rubble.
Session 6 likely opens mid-fight.
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