Pumpkin and Spice and Things Not So Nice

Saturday night, Dean ran another session of his 5E Eberron game. One of the regulars, Brad, couldn't make it last week, so Dean scheduled this session for Brad and anyone else who could come. Michael and I were free, so we all joined in.

Rather than move the main story line forward, we all played alternate characters. Brad (normally playing Rhea the Witch) played is Human Fighter/Battle Master, Jackal. Michael played an Eladrin Rogue/Arcane Trickster, Cyara. I had my previous character, the Githzerai Fighter/Eldritch Knight Ryuden.

Cookie Gnomes (I missed the sessions where they were introduced, but that sort of thing is par for the course in Dean's world) sent us on a mission to the surface of the mountain (the main group is deep below) to investigate who or what had been waylaying travelers at night. We set out with a hammerheaded albatross and a giant smiley-face praying mantis as flying mounts, and started searching the mountains.

After a brief (thankfully!) encounter with mountain goat satyrs in a hot spring who gave us a bit of information but not a lot of help, we decided to set a trap for whoever. We made a false camp, with a pair of dummies by a fire, using mage hand occasionally to move them slightly. After a while, some snow-cats (as in mountain lions made of snow) attacked the camp, but we slew the first easily (a critical hit fire bolt spell from yours truly) and wounded the second enough that it fled for its life.

Still not sure that that was it, we set up a vantage point high up on a mountain top to see what we might see, as we suspected the thing was flying after investigating a decimated camp of halflings. And sure enough, we saw something flying out of the mountains that night. Hopping on our flying mounts, we sped after it, only to discover it was a pumpkin dragon.

Dean used this picture. Nice, isn't it? Art by Stanley Morrison

Cyara sent it a message, asking if it was friend or foe, and it replied something along the lines of "I'll make you serve my master." And that's how the fight started.

It wasn't easy. The pumpkin dragon's breath weapon was a steaming pile of goo that did damage and caused sleep (not sure if this was supposed to be Halloween, or Thanksgiving!). Yet somehow, we managed to come out on top and bested the creature.

It was a bit of a short session, but since we'd had a full (over time!) session the week before, that wasn't such a bad thing. And now we've got an extra layer of mystery to add to the current story line. Who is the pumpkin dragon's master?