The following blog post is Part 12 of the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign, Dreadstorms Lost. These blogs are intended for other game masters who might want to use this campaign setting and the scenarios to inspire their own role playing games. (Free for noncommercial reuse.)

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Notes:

Nothing to see here. Move along!

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Tasks for Heroes

Mayor Cobblekeep stays with the relative safety of the party (hopefully he survived) until morning. The mayor heads back into town to organize the rest of the protectors into cleaning the riff-raff out off his town, repairing the damage, and dealing with the dead. He also needs to gather the council together to discuss their next course of action.

There are two tasks the mayor asks of the party:

1. The most pressing task is escorting the Council Members who live on farms outside the city walls back to Berlstrum, Amagoste and Hammond. The mayor informs the party that, “There are patrols along the top of the city wall. Since the gates are down, signal one of the patrols and they’ll lower the rope ladder for you to leave.” (If they discovered the secret doors in the champions’ manor, the mayor will emphasize how important it is not to reveal the locations of the secret doors to anyone!)
2. He also requests that the players to find the champions and bring them back or try to figure out what happened to the champions. Once they have all the council gathered, the group can let the council know what they’ve learned.

Heading to the Farms

Amagoste’s Farm House

The path to the Amagoste Farm is several hours through the forest. As you get closer to the farmhouse, the trees becoming more sparse and spread out. Behind the house is the open pole barn and flat farmland usually filled growing crops. There are several orcs on guard outside the farmhouse. (See image above. Feel free to adjust orc numbers based on the level of challenge appropriate for the party.)

The faded tan farmhouse has a large porch spreading 60 feet across the entire front of the house, overhung by a sloping roof. The porch has wooden railings and 3 steps up. A smaller 15 ft x  8 ft porch with steeper steps leads to the backdoor.

Inside the house two ogres are loudly arguing in the living room. They are blaming each other for not finding the people that live here. They were told these people are important to the town and they’d know where the treasure was. Orcs are rifling through the other rooms, looking for loot and trying on the clothes.

The players can choose to fight the orcs and ogres or stealth around to try to find the Amagoste family.

4 ORCS outside, and inside the house 4 more ORCS & 2 OGRES (See 5th Edition Monster Manual page 246 for general orc stats and 237 for ogres)

Finding the Amagoste’s

The pole barn contains several piles of hay, the largest pile in the upper left corner. No animals are currently inside. A successful search [Investigation 15] will find the trap door hidden under the hay. Opening the hatch reveals a small underground bunker with the two Amagoste tiefling adults and their 2 small children. Agosta Amagoste (one of the council members you’ve been sent to escort back) will not leave the safety of the bunker with her children and husband until the invaders are no longer a threat.

Not wanting to spend money buying figures for the game, I printed out the image of the ogre and taped it to a pill bottle that took up 2×2 square space.

Onto Gwantomo’s Farm

As the group approaches through the woods, they can hear the sounds of battle coming from Gwantomo’s home. It is unlikely that anyone will notice them in the trees since everyone is in the midst of fighting (don’t roll a 1 on stealth).

The group spots Tomo (Gwantomo) and Hammond (the other 2 Council members that need escorted back to town) are on the roof of the farmhouse, fending off ogres, orcs, and thugs. They look exhausted and barely keeping the attackers at bay. They are suffering severe exhaustion and will take a break from fighting as soon as the attackers focus their energy on someone else, ie the players.

There are many dead bodies around the house, friends and foe alike. Behind the farmhouse, the barn (closed walls, unlike the pole barn at Amagoste’s place) is on fire. Same layout at Amagoste’s Farm.

Note:

For this encounter, the number of Orcs, Ogres, and Thugs still standing really depends on the game masters perception of what the party can handle at this point. If the party needs some extra muscle, the info for the dwarf fighter, Moregore, is below. As a suggestion, the encounter might have:

• 1 Ogres

• 3 Orcs

• 2 Thugs

If the party survives the encounter, there is a potentially a lot of great (starter) loot to be found amidst all the dead. Loot for this encounter is in the next installment.

Tomo (Gwantomo) – is forest druid who’s primary occupation is farming. He’s a 1/2 Elf male and a member of the Berlsturm city council. He has a wolf companion named Oscar. When the group arrives Oscar is trapped in the (burning) barn.

Hammond, a human male, is a farmer and a retired fighter. He sometimes mentors protectors in training interested in becoming fighters. He is serves as a stand-in council member.

Moregore, dwarf fighter [optional NPC melee fighter; originally mentioned as an NPC at the beginning of Guard Tower duty, but can be used here instead or in addition to] – Moregore was heading to Berlstrum to visit his cousin, Caemtar-the Tanner (included on NPC list) when he spotted the group of Ogres and Orcs heading towards the farmhouse. He followed them to find out what they were up to. Saw the ogres and orcs join their buddies in battle against Tomo and Hammond and decided to jumped in to help.

Battle at Amagoste’s Farmhome – To save money, I use whatever cheap toys I have available to represent the monsters, like figures from the Zombies!!! and pirate actions figures.

MOREGORE GRAYFIST IRONBREAKER

Moregore grew up in  and has a large, extended family in Berlstrum. Morgorn and Mortengort are his cousins and also good fighters who would go looking for Moregore if he disappeared.

FIGHTER 2 ♦ Dwarf, Medium humanoid (mountain dwarf), neutral

STR 20 (+5) ♦ DEX 18 (+4) ♦ CON 16 (+3) ♦ INT 10 (+0) ♦ WIS 10 (+0) ♦ CHA 8 (-1)

Armor Class 17
Hit Points 24
Speed 25 ft.
Passive Perception 14
Initiative +4

Languages Common, Dwarvish, Orc

Proficiencies Saving Throws Str +7, Dex +4, Con +5
Skills Acrobatics +6, Athletics +7, Perception +2, Survival +2
Darkvision 60 ft, Resistance poison

ACTIONS

Battleaxe: +7 to hit, 1d8+5 slashing, versatile (1d10)

Longbow: +6 range to hit, range 150/600, 1d8+4 piercing, ammunition, heavy, two-handed

FIGHTER TRAITS
Fighting Style (Protection), Action Surge (One Use)

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Up next: Loot from the farm houses #13 – Loot from Gwantomo’s & from Amagoste’s Farms