The Copper Piece Gang

D&D Session Summary

The session opened with the party looking back on the disaster they had just survived beneath Fallcrest and trying to decide what to do next. Their last delve into the crypts had revealed far more than a simple tomb-robbing problem. After crossing the chasm and following the strange body-temperature breeze deeper underground, they had found clear signs of heavy kobold traffic: shed scales, claw marks, discarded tools, and enough evidence to suggest not a handful of pests, but a full population using the tunnels. Zarnak had scouted ahead and found sarcophagi already being worked open, while the rest of the group blundered forward with less grace, making enough noise to alert the kobolds. Nucky spotted the trap-filled approach, but not before the group set off an acid pit and drew out a coordinated kobold response.

That earlier fight still hung over the whole table. The kobolds had moved through their own trap field like acrobats, while the party had paid for every careless step. A pursuing bandit from an earlier encounter had also chosen that exact moment to come back for revenge, turning the whole thing into a mess. Then things had gotten even worse when a kobold handler ordered a sarcophagus opened and released a grotesque ghoul-like horror with a long, feeding tongue. It slaughtered kobolds as easily as it attacked the party, dropped onto Rae, and nearly turned the retreat into a rout. The group barely escaped, but not before Selganth knocked the creature out instead of killing it outright, Zarnak grabbed the unconscious monster and used it like a grotesque improvised weapon against a rat swarm, and Rae set up a lightning-assisted rat massacre that ended with the acid pit smoking from all the melted bodies. They had gotten out alive, but only just.

Back in town, that near-disaster defined the party’s mood. Kobold Hall in Cloakwood had officially become a known problem, and Lord Warden Faren Markelhay had been informed that kobolds had found a way into the crypts through some hidden tunnel. The party had effectively confirmed one of the town’s fears: the threat in the woods was no longer staying in the woods. They were asked to eventually deal with Kobold Hall itself, but nobody felt eager to march into the “motherland” of a tribe whose advance party had already bloodied them so badly. Still, they did not waste the session by sitting on their hands. They started gathering information, comparing notes, and trying to decide whether the safer play was to return to the catacombs, investigate Cloakwood, or chase one of the other rumors developing around Fallcrest.

The roleplay portion of the session filled in a lot of the world around them. They revisited local contacts and got more detail on the growing strangeness in the region. Elara’s scouting in Cloakwood had revealed subtle but disturbing changes in the landscape: trees leaning just slightly wrong, plants growing with warped leaf patterns, and a general sense that nature itself had gone off-pattern. At first glance the changes were easy to miss, but to someone with a ranger’s eye they looked unnatural rather than regional. Rumors from around Fallcrest supported that impression. People were seeing more monsters in the countryside than usual, and not just more monsters, but stranger ones. Stories about attacks by oversized or altered creatures started to sound less like tavern exaggerations and more like frightened people trying to describe things they did not understand.

The party’s Arcana-minded members pieced together an important detail: whatever was affecting the area seemed to have a stronger effect on magical beasts and supernatural monsters than on ordinary animals. Wolves might have odd fur or frogs an extra toe, but the really wild rumors centered on creatures with magical traits already in their nature. That helped turn a pile of local gossip into a real clue. Something in or around this stretch of the Nentir Vale was twisting life, and magical creatures were showing the worst of it.

Other contacts added more practical warnings. Barstoman Strongbeard’s underworld sources had heard that kobolds were not merely raiding but abducting people, which was unusual enough to be alarming. Teldorthan also reminded the party to keep an eye out for a stolen green dragon skin that had been meant for armor. If they found it in Kobold Hall or among the kobolds’ loot, it could become either a reward or a useful crafting opportunity later. The conversation also drifted into nearby locations and dangers, especially Red Tower and the Old Hills, where tales of brutal, oversized owlbears suggested that whatever was wrong in the region did not stop at kobolds. The result of all this talking was not a single clear answer, but a better map of the danger. Cloakwood, the roads near Fallcrest, the Gray Downs, and the old ruins around Red Tower all seemed to sit inside the same widening circle of wrongness.

The group also spent some time navigating Fallcrest’s social scene. They traded notes about the Silver Unicorn and its stern owner, Wisara Osterman, whose rivalry with the newer Nentir Inn was personal and bitter. There was a lot of joking about acquiring stakes in every bar in the Vale, cornering the hospitality market, and solving business competition with fire, which never became an actual plan but absolutely became a memorable running joke. Beneath the jokes, though, they were slowly building a network of places, proprietors, and rivalries that may matter later.

Eventually they made a practical decision. Kobold Hall sounded too dangerous for now. Cloakwood and Red Tower sounded promising but risky and distant. The catacombs, by contrast, were nearby, already partly explored, and directly connected to the kobold threat under the city. If they wanted more money, more clues, and a little more experience before tackling the bigger nest, the crypts made sense. Before heading back down, though, they sought help from the Temple of Erathis.

That choice turned into the session’s biggest surprise. The party approached the temple asking for holy water and whatever aid Erathis might offer for an expedition meant to cleanse the undead and stop the growing threat below the city. Rather than simply handing over supplies, the temple’s proctor, Darina, saw an opportunity. She wanted a public send-off: part blessing, part fundraiser, part demonstration that the temple and these rising local adventurers stood together. What followed was a full-on social skill challenge, and the group absolutely crushed it.

Everyone found a way to contribute. Rae worked the room, drawing groups together and smoothing over awkward social divides. The bard and others helped keep conversation lively, promoted useful contacts, and turned the gathering into a real event instead of a stiff ceremony. One member used heal-based practical care to head off drunken mishaps before they became public embarrassments. Another drifted through the wealthier circles and noticed something more concerning: shady-looking “security” had somehow been hired for the event and were suspiciously interested in eavesdropping on wealthy or influential guests. Rather than causing a scene, the party quietly pressured at least one of them to back off, keeping the event on track without blowing it up.

In the end, the fundraiser was a huge success. The blessings landed. The temple’s profile rose. Attendance and goodwill increased. The Copperpiece gang even got folded into cleanup duty, giving the whole affair a civic, communal feel. Darina came away delighted, and the party gained access to temple support and rituals well beyond what they might have expected from a simple request for holy water. More importantly, they left feeling genuinely empowered. Whether divine, emotional, or just momentum, they had a sense that the city was behind them now.

With that boost, they headed back into the catacombs.

The return started badly. Zarnak took point, searched for traps, and still managed to plant himself directly onto a hidden pressure trigger at the stairs. The resulting titanium caltrop trap hit like a truck, bloodying him almost instantly and reminding everyone that the dungeon had not gotten any kinder since the last visit. The group did salvage something from the embarrassment: they gathered the caltrops afterward, turning a painful mistake into future equipment. They also patched Zarnak up enough to keep going, which became a theme for the rest of the expedition. Everyone wanted to push deeper, but they were doing it while already spending healing surges and burning resources fast.

Once they rounded the corner, they found what they had hoped and feared: kobolds actively robbing the tombs. The creatures were cracking open funerary chambers and clearly communicating with more allies further out of sight, which told the party this was another organized incursion, not random scavenging. Instead of charging blind, they used the information to set up a surprise round. What followed was a scrappy fight in close quarters, made more complicated by swarms of giant centipedes and a larger scuttling centipede threat working alongside or around the kobolds.

The battle had the same chaotic, slightly improvised energy that has already become normal for this party. There were marks, pulls, healing bursts, insults turned into actual attacks, and a lot of discussion about positioning because even one wrong square in a trap-filled crypt could get someone killed. The bard landed a vicious Cutting Words line on a swarm, mocking it as too stupid to open an already-open bag of holding. Rae cut a giant scuttler clean in half with Booming Blade in one of the session’s best finishing moves, splitting the creature so neatly that the body fell in two pieces around an ally. Nucky and the others kept pressure on the enemy line, and despite the danger of swarm damage and the party’s already thin resources, they managed to stabilize the fight instead of letting it spiral.

The loot made the risk feel worthwhile. In the centipede den they found a silver dagger, 316 gold pieces, and a magic ring hidden among the creature’s hoarded shinies. After some identification work, the ring turned out to be a Premonition Ring, a notably strong find for a party at this stage: a bonus to initiative and passive perception, plus a daily ability to negate surprise. It was exactly the sort of treasure that fits a group learning the hard way how deadly ambushes and hidden threats can be. The ring went to Zarnak, which made immediate sense given his role as scout and trap-finder.

As the night wound down, the group was clearly reaching the edge of its energy both in and out of character. Rather than force another major room clear, they started talking about packing it in and abstracting the last of the tomb-robbing cleanup. The GM offered a partial fast-forward through the rest of the searchable areas, with more small rewards waiting in the opened ossuaries, and the session ended on a strong note: the party had not solved the kobold problem, but they had learned more, survived another delve, strengthened ties in town, secured temple backing, and come away richer and better equipped than when they started.

By the end of the session, the big picture felt sharper. Kobold Hall remained a serious threat, but no longer a blind one. Cloakwood was showing signs of magical corruption. Monsters in the region were changing. People were being taken. The crypts beneath Fallcrest were active, profitable, and dangerous. And the party, while still fragile, was starting to become something real in the eyes of the city.

Quick Recap

• The party reviewed their previous escape from the crypts, including kobold traps, the acid pit, the ratomancer, and the ghoul-like creature released from a sarcophagus.
• Markelhay was informed that kobolds had found a route into the crypts, and the party was asked to eventually deal with Kobold Hall in Cloakwood.
• Elara’s scouting suggested that parts of Cloakwood are subtly warped, with plants and trees showing unnatural changes.
• Rumors around Fallcrest pointed to a broader regional problem: monsters are becoming stranger, more aggressive, and in some cases unnaturally empowered.
• Arcane insight suggested magical creatures are being affected more strongly than normal animals, hinting at a magical source behind the corruption.
• Barstoman’s contacts reported kobolds may be abducting people, not just raiding, which raised the stakes considerably.
• Teldorthan reminded the party to watch for a stolen green dragon skin that could become armor if recovered.
• The group considered several leads, including Red Tower, Cloakwood, and Kobold Hall, but decided they were not ready for a full assault on the kobold stronghold.
• They went to the Temple of Erathis for holy water and support, which turned into a public blessing and fundraiser organized by Darina.
• The temple event was a huge success, improved the party’s standing, strengthened ties with the temple, and secured ongoing ritual support.
• During the fundraiser, the party noticed suspicious ‘security’ types eavesdropping on wealthy guests and quietly discouraged them without causing a scene.
• The party returned to the catacombs, where Zarnak immediately triggered a brutal titanium caltrop trap but salvaged the caltrops afterward.
• They found kobolds robbing tombs again and won a hard-fought battle involving kobolds, centipede swarms, and a larger scuttling centipede.
• The delve paid off with a silver dagger, 316 gold, and a powerful Premonition Ring that went to Zarnak, plus the promise of more treasure from the remaining tombs.