D&D: Something Meaty

So, yes, I'm running a campaign of D&D5e. Here we go!

The game takes place in the nation of Abhaile, a roughly heart-shaped country consisting mostly of rolling plains, gentle hills and valleys, and sporadic villages and farms. The nation is surrounded by natural barriers. In the north, we have the mountain range, blocking travel. The mountains are inhabited by dwarves, and they rarely come south into Abhaile proper. Meeting a dwarf would be rare and exotic.

In the east, the climate gets wetter until the land becomes a vast peat bog, making travel all but impossible. Going south, the forests begin, growing thicker and darker, until one reaches the Enclave of Thorns, a druid society that prevents travel in or out of Abhaile. The Thorn Druids aren't cruel, but they are strict. The only elves in Abhaile live here in the forests.

To the west, the land becomes arid and dry until it gives way to the badlands. Nothing lives there, and no one who goes there ever returns. 

But why leave? Abhaile is lovely. It's temperate and lush. The capital city, Cian, boasts the only real large population center, and if you want luxury goods like jewelry or you want to train as a wizard, that's where you go. The biggest town in the north, Cnoc, sits in the foothills of the mountains and boasts a proud musical tradition - everyone in Cnoc grows up learning an instrument or how to sing. Going south, we find the town of Fiadh. The people here hunt, fish, and grow berries and nuts. They are also expert wood-workers and whittlers, and in Fiadh if someone calls you "smooth-hands" they're either saying you're a tourist or you're all talk and no action. 

Abhaile also has a rich tradition of adventuring. Anyone can be an adventurer; all it takes is the courage to strap on a sword (or, more likely, string a bow or grab a club - swords are rare and they tend to be family heirlooms) and go out into the world looking to do good. Every village and town in Abhaile will give food and shelter to a party of adventurers, but the trade-off is that adventurers are expected to risk their lives to defend such villages from monsters. And monsters there are - goblins, kobolds, and even bigger and uglier things sometimes emerge to threaten the citizenry. Everyone has a story about their favorite adventurer, some from the mists of time and some from living memory, that went out into the world, slew beasts and protected the weak, and ultimately retired to some out of the way place far from their home. 

This is Abhaile, and a new band of adventurers has come together, as such bands often do, quite by accident. They are:

• Aisling Madadhon: Aisling is human bard from a town near Cnoc. It's the only town that plays the harp-lute, a very complicated stringed instrument. Aisling is also proficient with the bodhan drum, but as a player of harp-lute, she's expected to go out into the world when she comes of age and learn new songs (and as sometimes happens, she's become an adventurer). 
• Clara Greenridge: Clara is a halfling, trained as a monk in a hidden monastery in the northern mountains. The monks herd goats and sheep and act as guides, but Clara has a bit of the old wanderlust and has given in to those urges. 
• Zook Timber: Zook is a gnome, the son of famed adventurer Zeb Timber. Zook found a dying wizard near his village in central Abhaile and, unable to save him, took his spellbook and taught himself some magic. He used it to drive off bandits attacking people near the village, and the villagers pooled resources to help him go to Cian to study wizardry. 
• Dara Thorne: Dara is an elf of the Thorn Druids, but left because of a messy love triangle. She is guided by compassion and empathy for all living things, and intends to ease the suffering of anyone she can.

These four folks come together in the village of Scal Dearg, about 40 miles west of the city of Cian. They all have their reasons for being here - Clara and Aisling met up traveling south and have enjoyed each other's company, and wound up in Scal Dearg quite by accident. Zook is here on purpose - his father sent him a message from this village many years ago, and it was the last message he received from him. Dara has heard that the village is losing livestock, and assumes it must be a sickness.

It's not a sickness. The adventurers, having been given lodging in a barn, are shown to a stable that stinks of blood and carnage. Something torn apart the two horses that were stabled here, and whatever did it dragged the carcasses away. The owner of the stable tells Dara that he heard his dog, Gorm, barking an alarm and he went out to see, but heard the violence and lost his nerve. Dara tells him that he did the right thing by falling back - otherwise he might have shared his horses' fate.

Dara casts a spell and speaks to Gorm. Gorm is a "dearg hound," a short, nimble dog bred to herd cattle and horses and native to the area. He walks with a limp and whimpers to Dara that he failed - he tried to protect the "big ones" but he was unable to save them. Dara reassures him that he did all he could, and asks what it was that did this. Gorm tells her that the creatures were small, about the size of Zook or Clara, but scaly with tufts of hair on their heads. They smelled not like people, or dogs or cats or horses or sheep, but maybe like lizards? Dara relays all of this, and Zook nods - he knows what kind of creature fits this description. Reptilian, small, hungry enough to slaughter and eat horses? Kobolds. There must be a nest nearby.

The party tell the villagers to stay indoors, and they follow the blood trail out to a ridge overlooking a valley. At the bottom, near a stream, they see two kobolds, loathsome little things, chewing on a horse's head. The monsters don't notice them, and so they spread out, and ready an attack.

Aisling plays her drum and the kobolds don't notice, but they certainly do when Dara casts an Entangle spell and the very grass around them grows up and winds about their legs! One of the kobolds pulls free and scampers away along the stream, but the other is held fast. Clara races down the hill and strikes with her quarterstaff, dropping the kobold in one deadly strike. 

Zook spots the fleeing kobold wriggling into a hole in the side of the valley, and the party approaches and finds a narrow tunnel. Aisling suggests maybe they should come back in the morning, as it's getting dark, but Zook points out that it's going to be dark in the tunnels no matter what, and they should press their advantage! The others agreed, and they squeeze into the dirt, pushing their way into the kobolds' den.

The tunnel winds and twists, and leads into a small room. Two piles of dirt sit on either side of the room, and Zook spots kobolds behind them. They enter the room and the kobolds pop up and fling rocks at Clara (who's in the lead), while another leaps out from behind a dirt-pile and spreads its arms, revealing wings! 

Aisling casts a spell and throws popping, glimmering lights into the air, and the kobolds recoil. Clara rolls into the room and kills two in seconds, and Zook lets loose a barrage of magic missiles, felling the others. Clara rubs the goose egg on her head from the kobold's rock, but Aisling casts a quick healing spell for her - there's more to come!

They follow the tunnel and Clara spots tilled earth in front of her. She pokes it with her staff and a kobold pops out and lunges, but she knocks it dead with a well-placed palm. They move along and find more of the same - a bigger room with several more of the creatures. They try to rush the heroes, but Clara is quick and deadly, Dara lashes out with a thorn-whip spell, Zook throws fire, and Aisling inspires them all with her playing. 

Down the tunnels, and up ahead, they hear murmurs. Aisling quickly and gracefully sneaks up to the room's entrance and then realizes she can't see; Dara, realizing this too, follows and peers into the room. Her elf eyes see a bunch of kobolds, ten in all, and a huge clutch of eggs. One of the creatures is rubbing the eggs with a bloodied horse leg, while another kobold splashes water on itself from a small pond in the corner. Dara doesn't see another exit - this must be the main nest.

Aisling casts a spell on Clara, bolstering her strength and health, and the heroes burst into the room! Zook hurls a fire-bolt and singes a kobold, and Clara follows up, leaping to battle and felling two more. Aisling enters the room and hurls a rock into the eggs. One of them cracks, and the kobolds turn on her. She draws her sword (a family possession, given to Madadhons who go out adventuring), but too slowly, and the kobolds knock her down and lick their chops.

Zook hurls a firebolt at one of them, and burns it to a crisp! The kobolds turn and fire rocks at him, and he falls, dazed, and his torch goes out. Clara, now completely in the dark, has no target, so she does the next best thing - she runs in the direction of the eggs and starts smashing them. 

The kobolds howl in rage and attack, hurling rocks! Dara casts a spell and revives Zook, and he staggers to his feet and throws fire (and relights his torch)! Now able to see again, Clara runs, somewhat sticky, to the last couple of kobolds and strikes them down.

Dara helps Aisling to her feet ("I'd like to go home now", she murmurs). The heroes search the cave and smash the last of the eggs, and find the treasures that the kobolds have found and scattered around - some gold, a potion with a fingernail floating it in, a thick glass orb, and a jaunty little cap. Zook also finds a bit of churned earth and realizes that some kobolds must still remain; they will have to figure out where they went, but that's a tomorrow project.

The heroes return to Scal Dearg to find the villages waiting for them with mulled wine, cheese, bread, and meat. They are made comfortable in the barn and given clean water to wash off the blood (and kobold albumen, in Clara's case), and the villages applaud and thank them. The man who owned the unfortunate horses also takes Zook aside and asks if his name is "Timber," and if he's related to someone named "Zeb." When Zook confirms that Zeb was his father, the man points to an old, old woman he calls Maggan, and says that when she saw Zook earlier she assumed he was Zeb. Maybe he could talk with her in the morning, when she tends to be more coherent? 

The heroes' work is not done in Scal Dearg, but they have unquestionably achieved their first victory as adventurers! We'll see what tomorrow brings.