AD&D – DL1 Dragons of Despair Actual Play, Part 2/4

Join DLSaga and players with this second of five actual play sessions of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dragonlance Official Game Adventure DL1 Dragons of Despair by Tracy Hickman. This is the first adventure set in Dragonlance, and the first of four adventures that makes up the first Dragonlance Chronicles novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight. You can buy DL1 Dragons of Despair here: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16880/dl1-dragons-of-despair-1e?affiliate_id=50797

Cast of Characters

  • Tanis | 5th Level Half-Elf Fighter | Kyle
  • Tasslehoff Burrfoot | 4th Level Kender Thief | Lauren
  • Caramon | 6th Level Human Fighter | John
  • Raistlin | 3rd Level Human Magic-User | Chris
  • Goldmoon | 5th Level Human Cleric |
  • Riverwind | 5th Level Human Ranger | Gabriel
  • Sturm Brightblade | 6th Level Human Fighter | Mike
  • Flint Fireforge | 4th Level Dwarf Fighter | Austin

Game Setup:

Last time on Dragons of Despair: Our heroes were returning home from their travels and on their way to Solace, they were stopped by a brute squad made up of hobgoblins led by Fewmaster Toede. They were searching for a Blue Crystal Staff, and after defeating them, the heroes learned of an army amassing in the north. They came across two Que-Shu plainsmen and one was carrying the Blue Crystal Staff which healed Caramon. They traveled to Solace together and while they were in the Inn of the Last Home, they heard rumors of armies in the north and south, a White Stag near Prayers Eye Peak, and that the Seekers and army was looking for the Blue Crystal Staff which may have been crafted in Darken Wood or was stolen from a ruined metropolis in the east called Xak Tsaroth. Looking to minimize local suffering, they left Solace to Crystalmire lake where they killed and smoked a boar before resuming their journey to Haven. They came across robed clerics searching for the staff but refused to help them, and then when they arrived on the outskirts of Haven, they presented the staff to the Haven Seeker Guardleader. This is where we pick up today’s session.

About DL1 Dragons of Despair

You stand on the road east of Solace, tired from five years of adventuring, from a fruitless search for lost clerical magic. You know the old proverb that claims “You must return to find what you left to seek,” but the saying never really made sense. Soon, however, it will.

For the world of Krynn is not the same: refugees stream out of the northernmost human lands, telling horrible tales. An invading army has burned their villages and put their families and friends to the sword. Among these stories you hear even darker rumors-that older evils, the dragons themselves, have returned to the world, for new and more terrible purposes.

“Dragon of Despair” is the first in TSR’s series of Dragonlance adventures for use with the AD&D game system. Your players will adventure in the world of Krynn, visit strange places such as Haven or ruined Xak Tsaroth, and encounter the bizarre draconians and spectral minions. They can play the modules as a set of separate adventures or as a great quest that spans the entire Dragonlance story.

An adventure for characters Level 4-6.

Written by Tracy Hickman.

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