Dungeons & Flagons

A tiefling rogue, halfling druid farmer, half-orc barbarian, dwarven bard, and half-elf sorcerer make up a motley crew, adventuring in the lands of Olam.

6 minute read

The Mixed Nuts and Low Elves are still in the thralls of their battlelust from fighting each other over the Hero’s Wort, even though Ben has valiantly gotten them to pause momentarily. It’s fortunate that he’s done so because the chimera is upon them, and with a vengeance!

The fantastical beast lands with a loud crash on the wagon, emitting a deafening roar from the lion, a glimpse of fire within the dragon’s mouth, and a “baaaah” from the goat—it was meant to be threatening but came out in a mild-mannered tone, amusing the adventurers.

Grindlefoot becomes acutely aware of the chimera egg he’s holding and with his eyes wide, slowly backs up to hide in the tall stalks of Hero’s Wort surrounding them. The chimera doesn’t waste anytime, sizes up the parties in front of it and chooses the biggest target, Gven.

Fight choreography

  • Chimera - The dragon head breathes fire at Gven, causing 15 damage and knocking her to the ground. The flames hit Cabanna (the tiefling), Magnus (the nobleman), and Grak (the goblin), also dropping them to the ground in pain. Cindel and Ben are also singed by the dragon head’s fire, but are healthy enough to maintain their senses and mobility.
  • Gven is still raging and has enough strength to quickly down a healing potion, gaining 12 points of health before swinging her longsword at the lion’s head and hitting to cause 15 damage.
  • Dolor misses with an arrow from his shortbow.
  • Cindel yells “huzzah!” to draw the chimera’s attention while attacking with her bow, hitting the beast with her second arrow to cause 10 damage. As she’s firing her bow, she directs Ben and the Low Elves who are still standing to get their hurt comrades to safety. “This never should have happened,” she says with a look of despair on her face.
  • Xantic casts Cure Wounds on Gven for 8 health.
  • Grindlefoot lights a small fire underneath the wagon, where the chimera is still perched for battle.
  • Chimera - The dragon head attempts to bite Xantic and the lion head does the same to Gven, but they both miss their marks. The lion head bites Gven, causing 5 damage.
  • Gven takes a swing with her longsword and misses.
  • Dolor hits the chimera with his shortbow for 11 damage.
  • Cindel yells out at the chimera, trying once again to distract it from the others, while firing two arrows in quick succession. The second hits for 7 damage.
  • Xantic fires his crossbow at the chimera, but misses and instead kills a poor rabbit that was innocently passing by.
  • Grindlefoot’s fire underneath the wagon is beginning to grow, catching on to the frame and wheels. He casts goodberries and takes one for himself before giving the remaining 9 to the hurt Low Elves that have made it to his hiding spot in the stalks of Hero’s Wort.
  • Chimera - The dragon head breathes a torrent of fire at Cindel, who has been taunting it, and causes enough damage to make her sway in place and struggle for balance. But she continues standing, with a look of defiance directed at the monster, her cape billows out behind her and a ray of sunlight appears out of nowhere to emphasize the embers of her extra crispy armor.
  • Gven takes another swing with her longsword and misses, again.
  • Dolor moves out into the open from his hiding spot in the Hero’s Wort to fire an arrow, but misses.
  • Ben and the hurt Low Elves take Grindlefoot’s goodberries and feel a touch better.
  • Xantic casts Frostbite at the chimera, causing 6 damage and disadvantage for the rest of the battle.
  • The fire underneath the wagon is becoming a small blaze and getting closer to Gven and Xantic.
  • Grindlefoot frantically searches his pockets for something and then suddenly wild shapes into a boar (full size, not halfling-sized).
  • Chimera - Even though it’s attacking with disadvantage, the dragon and lion heads bite Xantic, causing 6 damage each, and the goat head-butts Gven, causing 6 damage.
  • Gven hurriedly swigs another healing potion, gaining 18 points of health, before attacking the chimera with her longsword and causing 12 damage.
  • Dolor’s arrow from his shortbow strikes true for 12 damage.
  • Cindel fires two more arrows at the chimera, with the second causing 23 damage, while her armor continues to smolder from the dragon head’s fiery breath.
  • Chimera is looking pretty haggard at this point, suffering from multiple wounds and the ever-growing fire beginning to consume the wagon and its contents. Standing so close to the burning Hero’s Wort, Xantic and Gven are feeling its invigorating effects.
  • Xantic disengages from melee combat with the chimera and begins moving towards Cindel, seeing that she is hurt so badly and barely able to stay upright, let alone fight.
  • Grindlefoot, as a boar, charges out of the field to attack the chimera with its tusks, causing 10 damage.
  • Chimera - Getting a surge of adrenaline from the Hero’s Wort smoke, the dragon’s head breathes fire at Dolor, causing 10 damage.
  • Gven is feeling better after two healing potions and takes a chunk out of the chimera with her longsword, causing 13 damage.
  • Dolor misses with his shortbow.
  • Cindel misses with both of her arrows, although that odd shaft of sunlight is still gleaming on her (and only her).
  • Xantic Cure Wounds on Cindel, giving her 11 in health.
  • Grindlefoot, as a boar, misses the chimera when trying to gore it with his tusks.
  • Chimera swipes at Gven with a foot and a claw connects, causing 7 damage.
  • Gven, seeing the chimera’s lion and goat heads hanging limply from its body, rears back to begin the full-bodied swing of her longsword. With the adrenaline from her barbarians rage still pumping through her body and the effects of inhaling the Hero’s Wort, she severs the dragon head cleanly from the body and calmly says “huzzah” as it hits the dirt.

With their foe defeated, Gven turns to a barely standing Cindel and says with all sincerity, “it’s a good thing you were here to save us.” For once, Cindel is left speechless, but her appreciation is evident in her eyes and demeanor as she drags herself over to check on the Low Elves with Ben. Various small bits of her still-sizzling armor fall off as she moves, some causing her to wince in pain from the scalding hot leather.

The group gets the wagon fire under control, saving the rest of Ben’s crop of Hero’s Wort from burning, then heads back to Wayside and the Buzzin Bee Inn. On the road there, Dolor tries to convince Ben of how to best profit from his crops, but Ben wants to understand how it works before embarking on a sales venture.

They reach the Buzzin Bee and before going in Dolor hugs Cindel tightly then quietly asks, “is the chimera’s bane real?” With a sly look on her face, Cindel says “it is a traditional preparation for battling chimera’s, but it’s also total bullshit.” Dolor shakes his head, appreciating the joke while also being slightly irrirated by it. Bonnie refuses them entry to the inn because of their retchid smell and forces them to bathe first. They agree that would be time well spent.

The group spends the rest of the day relaxing with each other and the townsfolk. Ben meets them at the Buzzin Bee, where he delivers on his promise to pay them 450 gold pieces for killing the chimera. They make a trip next door to Scribbles & Nibs to sell Halodreth the chimera’s egg, for which he gladly pays them 50 gold.

While talking with Halodreth, he mentions that the florist next door, Preva, is a widow whose husband and child went missing from their farm a couple seasons ago.

The adventurers advance to level 3.