The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - An Unexpected Offer

Welcome to the ongoing saga of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while back, using The Sunken Citadel module from the Tales From The Yawning Portal source book.

In the last post, the party fought and won the final encounter in the Sunless Citadel, destroying the Gulthias Tree and slaying the mad druid Belak.

I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !

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An Unexpected Offer

With the Gulthias Tree burned, the Sunless Citadel was notionally "solved". In reality, there were plenty of areas the party hadn't discovered (and looted...). Some were deliberately bypassed in the drive to push deeper into the dungeon, others were just missed by secret doors not spotted or passages not taken.

But the party decided they'd done their job, and in many respects they had. The goblins who had been raising Oakhurst had been all but wiped out. All their warriors and leaders were dead and all that remained were a handful of old, infants and females.

So it was time to return to Oakhurst.

It's fair to say that from here on, we went distinctly off script ! My original thought had been to run modules from the Tales From The Yawning Portal in succession. It's what the book is designed for.

But I decided to throw in a sort of random encounter on the spur of the moment, as a quick ethical dilemma I thought could be resolved one way or another relatively rapidly. It led to something entirely different and wonderful, and took on a life of it's own.

As they headed out of the dungeon, they were stopped by Yusdrayl. If you recall, she was the shaman and leader of the kobolds. Although they'd initially tangled and fought, they had then worked together. It may initially have been under compulsion but by the end of it the kobolds and adventurers were co-operating more like allies.

Yusdrayl had bad news for them. The remaining goblins had summoned help. A strong force of goblins and orcs was coming from the Ingrim Mountains. They were in such numbers that it was clear they were going to do more than just bolster the goblin tribe. Total control over the Sunken Citadel and the burning of Oakhurst were clearly their initial objective, followed most likely by gaining control of the whole area.

It was clear to the kobolds that the Sunken Citadel couldn't be defended by them against such overwhelming force. Yusdrayl made an unusual request. She begged the heroes to intercede with the people of Oakhurst. To let the kobolds join their community, so that the two could work together to defend against the orcs.

This was certainly a "big ask". Humans and kobolds hadn't lived side-by-side before in this part of the world (or any known part of it, for that matter). But the party agreed. They made no promises, but would send word as soon as they'd spoken with the mayor.

Back to Oakhurst

The rest of the journey back to Oakhurst was relatively uneventful.

Once back in town, the party rested up briefly, then went to see the mayor to present the kobolds' request.

In the book, Oakhurst is hardly detailed at all. It's intended as just a starting point for the adventure and all we get are a few names and adventure hooks but no map. All we're told is that the mayor is a human noble named Vurnor Leng.

So it was down to me what I did to flesh out the character of the mayor, now the characters had to interact with him more extensively.

I must have been in a strange mood when I did this ! I decided that since Oakhurst was a small backwater town, any noble who was sent to be it's mayor wasn't likely to be a serious go-getter.

Vurnor Leng became a washed up minor noble sent out here as a kind of career-ending punishment, a bit like the way retail chains send out of favour managers to the most minor, underfunded and understaffed branches as a way to get them to resign.

As such, he was casually snobbish and rude, blisteringly self-centred, and these characteristics made him a complete incompetent who would make decisions entirely based on his own self interest. I also decided, because it seemed to fit with his personality and I thought it would be amusing for me as Dungeon Master, that he would be a (barely) functional alcoholic.

With this in mind, the party's first meeting with him was the resounding success you'd expect.

He didn't believe there was an army of orcs coming, and turned the offer of allowing the kobolds to take refuge in Oakhurst down flat. The discussion devolved into what (in modern diplomatic parlance) could be called "a full and frank exchange of views".

The party had to be escorted out of the mayor's office by the commander of the watch, a half-elf by the name of Felosial. She was actually quite sympathetic once out of earshot of Vurnor Leng. She wasn't prepared to dispute his legitimate authority, but it was clear there was a mutual lack of respect.

Felosial was a retired veteran of several wars between the elves and orcs. She took the threat seriously, and mentioned that she'd start getting things in order behind the mayor's back so the town was better prepared to defend itself.

Next time... orcs ! orcs !