The Nentir Vale is a campaign setting provided to new players of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It’s present in the Red Box and most of the starting materials. For a party almost all completely new to D&D and a DM re-familiarizing himself with the latest edition, it’s a great place to start a campaign. This will be an ongoing recollection of what happens to the party as they make their way through the Nentir Vale. Enjoy.
The disorienting teleportation effect faded from the foursome and they found themselves in a dark, underground room lit by sconces and populated with goblins. A half-dozen, to be exact, with a couple vicious drakes in cages. Before any of them could move, however, Melanie was already preparing a spell to doom the diminutive greenskins.
“She does critical damage to TIME and SPACE!” – Eric, on Melanie’s initiative roll of 30.
The goblin in charge was Snilvor, an emissary from Irontooth, and he did his utmost to hex the party into submission. As they tore into his minions, however, he ordered the drakes released. The beasts were far more dangerous than their goblin handlers, but were poorly trained and hungry, snapping at anything with meat on it that wandered too close. Lyria alighted onto one of the cages and stabbed one before it could grab hold of a teammate rather than a goblin. Snilvor’s attempts to dominate members of the party failed, with Andrasian taking the brunt of the damage in the form of a skull-splitting headache.
While the minions were easily dispatched, Snilvor turned out to be something of an annoyance, avoiding close range with the adventurers while flinging his spells. An area on the raised dias in the room caused damage to all who entered it, pushing Andrasian to his limits. However, there was only so much room for Snilvor to use in his attempts to escape, and Lyria’s knives finally silenced the emissary.
“We live to suck another day!” – Mike, having nearly dropped to 0 HP during the fight.
Beyond the doors from that room was the workshop proper, a converted reflection hall in which the undead mage Yisarn had laid out the bones of a dragon. A glimmerweb spider crouched in the corner, and skeletal minions turned towards the interlopers. Upon stepping into the room, however, a trap was triggered and Krillorien fell into a pit, barely avoiding getting impaled by the spikes waiting for him. As Lyria ran along the wall to reach the other side, Andrasian took a running leap while Melanie slipped into the pit after the cleric of Pelor.
“Crap, one of these deflated. I’m using Ghost Hand to hold it up!” – Eric, on the damage done to Melanie’s ‘girls’
Despite their weakened state, the foursome put up a valiant fight against the undead. Krillorien’s divine light tore through the defenses of Yisarn’s minions, and Andrasian’s axe did the rest. Yisarn himself proved a difficult foe, lightning leaping from his skeletal hand and ice blasting across the room in focused shards. The good news was that in the confusion, the spider was unable to ensnare anyone with its bright, blinding webs. Without the stealth upon which it usually relied, it was a marginalized threat.
The party focused on Yisarn, taking down the undead mage before it could either kill them or awaken its dark experiment. After the unlife had left the bones wrapped in robes, they turned to the spider and chased it around the room in a scene reminiscent of their fight with Snilvor. While dangerous, it was still only a beast at the mercy of the four seasoned adventurers. After it was over, they gathered up what items of interest they could find.
Krillorien found a half-burnt holy symbol of Pelor. It looked familiar, but he was unable to place where he’d seen it before. Perhaps Marla of Fallcrest would know. Meanwhile, Melanie found a sack of gold, Andrasian uncovered a small handful of gems, and Lyria plucked a ring from the finger of Yisarn. It was a platinum ring with an obsidian inlay of a lightning bolt, but neither Melanie the wizard nor Krillorien the eladrin were able to determine its purpose. Weighing it in her hand, Lyria estimated it was worth over three hundred gold.
“Wait! How does she know what it’s worth but we don’t know what it does?”
“I’m a fence! … I mean…” – Ben and Danielle on the failed Arcana rolls and Lyria’s ability to appraise
The party took time to rest. They needed to return to the Woodsingers to report on their success, and pray that they would not be too late to save the Harkenwold from the Iron Circle…
All locations, NPCs, spells and equipment copyright Wizards of the Coast unless otherwise noted.
