# Return to the Known Lands - The Dolm River
# Session #24 (3/14/21)

## PCs:

* Louis (FM 3)
* Osan (Elf F/MU 3/1)
* Omes (Half FM 3)
* Arro (MU 1)
* Habru (Cleric 3)

## NPCs:

* Habru's war dog, named Dog
* Horace - Habru's retainer - Cleric 1
* Bunco - Omes' Knave 1

## Hirelings:

* Samtik - porter
* Durdoon - meatshield

For this series of adventures, and in keeping with the setting, I
drew on the old Brave Halfling (now Soapbox Games) module CLA2 "Dolm
River" [0]. It's a straightforward adventure and reads as a bit of a
railroad, but I thought the river setting might make a welcome
change from the dungeon, and the players seemed to agree. In any
case, as is normal for when I use modules, I use them as a loose
framework and add or change things as play progresses.

## Session notes:

Mayor Caius Rusticus of Larm enlisted the aid of the party in
accompanying his daughter Claudia on a river voyage to Dolmvay. She
was to meet her fiancé there and needed protection on the 10-day
journey. There were rumors of trouble along the road to Dolmvay, so
the river Dolm was thought to be safer, but in any case the Mayor
wanted to ensure his daughter's safety. They were each offered a
hefty payment, half now and half on safe arrival at the Dolmvay
docks, where they were to meet the Harbormaster.

They loaded up on supplies and met the captain of the barge
Dragonfly, Captain Sook, the next morning at dawn. Claudia was
present as well, with a pile of belongings, including a large
mirror. She bid the captain to place her supplies in the quarters
next to hers (taking up both passenger cabins on the small barge)
and climbed aboard. She scarcely gave the party notice, even as Osan
tried his best to be nice. Not looking forward to the next 10 days
with their charge, the party boarded and they were soon floating
downstream.

The first day was uneventful and the weather pleasant. That night,
the party was forced to sleep on the deck with both passenger cabins
occupied. Osan, always the chivalrous Elf, slept on the roof of
Claudia's cabin. Claudia gave no hint of concern about the party
being inconvenienced.

On day two, things changed. The quiet voyage was interrupted by the
splash of a large rock which landed close to the hull. It was thrown
by a giant who had waded into the river and was now demanding gold
for safe passage. While the party consulted with Captain Sook,
another rock hit the hull and they realized they had to act
quickly. Omes, Osan and Durdoon fired bows, striking the giant. Arro
fired off a magic missile, then threw a water barrel downstream into
the river, telling the giant it was full of gold. As the giant moved
towards the barrel warily, Habru cast a light spell into the giant's
eyes, and that was enough for it to break morale. The now-blind
giant fled to shore and stumbled away into the woods.

Captain Sook thanked the party, and after sailing downstream a ways,
stopped for a few hours to repair the hull. He swore that nothing
like this had ever happened to him before, and he had made the trip
to Dolmvay many times. The rest of the day was quiet, and the barge
made good progress after the repairs. They did not hear or see any
more of the giant.

Day three dawned with more decent weather. The river widened and
became more shallow, with swampland on either bank. Navigation was
slow in the shallow water, and made harder by having to avoid clumps
of weeds and small islands with gnarled, tiny trees on them. Captain
Sook seemed to be unfazed, however, as accustomed to the river as he
was. All was quiet until ahead, the party could see a rope of
braided vines strung across the river between two small
islands. There was no avoiding it, so Captain Sook ordered the barge
to anchor and as he did so, six frog-men with spears leaped aboard
the barge and attacked! Omes was wounded in the ensuing battle, but
the party killed the frog-men in short order and unceremoniously
dumped them overboard. Again Captain Sook swore to the party that
this was unusual and that no, he had never been attacked by frog-men
before today. The party considered this, but had no explanation for
their string of bad luck – two encounters in three days.

To be continued...

## LL Notes:

I mentioned above that this module is a bit of a railroad. It also
stretches believability by having all sorts of deadly encounters on
a supposedly safe river trade route. I had an idea for this, which
was made clear to the players a bit later, but for now I handled it
by letting the party know that yes, it was a bit unbelievable, even
to the experienced ship captain. I think that helped and made the
players wonder just what was going on.

I was impressed by how the party handled the stone giant, which
could have ended much worse. The module portrays the giant as
somewhat of a coward, which was why I ruled he would flee after
being blinded. It was clever to both distract him with a fake barrel
of gold, and to cast light in his eyes.

The module describes Claudia as a vain and spoiled teen who spends
hours in front of her mirror, and I played her this way. This led to
some amusing situations, starting with her taking up all of the
passenger space and forcing the party to sleep on deck. The player
who played Osan (a lawful Elf), did a good job of role-playing a
frustrated guardian.

[0]: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59584/Dolm-River