First Session on 6 June 2019

Valldel Amakiir - 1st Level Male Elven Rogue
Akadum Ironbeard - 1st Level Male Dwarf Fighter
Dolin Stoneflare - 1st Level Male Dwarf Light Cleric
Shiso Shinjitsu - 1st Level Male Human Fighter
Junior Lubbins - 1st Level Female Human Fighter

23 May 981, Monday
Drigbolton

It is evening in Drigbolton.  Junior and some of the town folk are in the King Deer which is run by the King family.  A bunch of people from out of town arrive.  Dolin notes that Akadum is wearing armor like he has never seen before and wonders where he is from.  Perhaps a Dwarven clan from the western side of the Tasprian Penninsula?  The King's are officious to the strangers offering them Fullmead beer, and goat stew.  Valldel tries the local ale and finds it is terrible and passes it on to Dolin, who thinks it is OK.  Akadum tries the goat stew and finds that it is delicious.  He tries to pay with a Platinum Piece and the King's have trouble making change.  Dolin is fixated on watching the skies with his spy glass.  All note Shiso's unusual dress and curved sword.  He is clearly from the far east from beyond even Koda.

Junior introduces herself to the strangers as Hellraiser and tells them that there is a Hellmouth north of town where the Clooneys live.  They are imp spawn from hell and make it dangerous to be out at night.  The Kings impart that some folks in town say something fall from the sky to the north.  They are only repeating what they have heard and cannot provide any details even under Dolin's earnest interogation.  They decide to investigate to the north, and Junior heads to her home, just across the road, finds her father drunk as usual, and puts on his old leather armor.

Suddenly they hear a roaring sound from outside, and many take cover.  There is a loud crash, and the night is suddenly lit by a red glow.  They venture outside and see that the town Temple is in ruins and on fire.  Those with sharp eyes note that skeletons and zombies have risen out of the temple grave yard and are advancing on the blacksmith's house just to the north of the ruined Temple.  One of the zombies is burning and looks like the town priest Bran.

Shiso leads one group to the west of the burning temple hiding among the hovels of the hamlet.  Dolin leads the others straight towards the temple from the south.  They have been joined by Bea Miglin, a halfing hunter.  Shiso sees the Blacksmith and one of his sons out of their house with improvised weapons preparing to meet the advancing undead.  He shouts to them to flee as Valldel, Akadum, and Bea begin bow shots at the undead, and Dolin calls down Holy Fire on them.

The Blacksmith and family flee as Shiso and Junior/Hellraiser begin fighting with the advancing skeletons with the slower zombies trailing behind.  Two skeletons confront Shiso and he is badly hurt by their attacks with improvised weapons, apparently wooden boards from their coffins.  He is healed by Dolin as the party closes in and takes out the undead horrors.  There were five skeletons, three zombies, and one burning zombie.  The blacksmith, Breag, and his family are safe having fled and then saved from further pursuit by Shisoo and Junior/Hellraiser.

As the party sighs in relief they note that some of them saw two more things falling from the sky north of Drigbolton.  Talking with Junior/Hellraiser and Bea one seems to have fallen in Nob's Spinney a bit of woods with especially good hunting to the north and west but south of the main road, while the other fell north of the road near the cross roads where the Manor House of Laird Spinnewith and the Hellmouth of the Clooneys are.

The temple is nothing more than a large bonfire, and scattered around it they can see things that are smoking and have burned away the vegetation near them, things that are surrounded by frost covered vegetation and are steaming, and glowing red hot things.  Valldel gets some water from the nearby town well and cools some of the red glowing things and sees chunks of worked metal that look like high quality steel.  He and Dolin gather a few chunks of what they dub Star Metal.  Dolin notes that it looks as if they were part of some big thing constructed thing that was smashed to pieces.

Dolin detects magic and sees that the smoking and steaming things are magic.  Junior/Hellraiser tries to put one of the smoking things in a bucket, but it is evidently very hot and melts its way through the bucket.  They decide that this stuff is not going any where and to think about what to do with it in the morning.

The townsfolk are gathering around thanking them all for saving them from the horrible undead.  The Kings offer them free lodging and meals in the King Deer, which all including Junior/Hellraiser take advantage of.  The Blacksmith Breag is especially thankful to Shisoo who warned him to flee rather than fight.  He will refurbish a suit of Ring Mail he has for him.  He will work on it all night and it should be ready in the morning.

Commentary:  Drigbolton and the locals are taken from Necrotic Gnome's The Weird That Befell Drigbolton:  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207631/The-Weird-That-Befell-Drigbolton.  I used the setting and characters but twisted the adventure for my own campaign.  Some of the material from Necrotic Gnome's Dolmenwood setting are salted into my Dragon Fall campaign.  That setting is rather too weird for me, but there are many great ideas that I took and mashed into The Midderlands:  https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/The-Midderlands/ to make my own Midlands.

At the table were two experienced players and three who were at their first fact-to-face RPG session.  Immense thanks to the two experienced who helped with character creation and gave lots of helpful advice during play.  One player showed up without being in touch before hand.  Fortunately I had prepared a couple of extra NPC's, Drigbolton locals, and she took up Junior and did a spectacularly good job.  One online contact, playing a Wizard, did not show up.  I thought it really went well.  The players seemed to have a great time.