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Session 3 recap final

Session 3 Recap - 30 Mar 2025

Principal Characters

Chapter 3: Riddermound

The session opened with the party already inside Riddermound, standing in the antechamber beneath the ancient burial mound. From there, they advanced cautiously, discovering two tunnels leading in opposite directions and a guardroom ahead. It quickly became apparent that sound carried unnaturally far within the mound, and careless movement risked drawing unwanted attention.

In the servants’ crypt, the party encountered Grub, a miserable goblin hiding among the dead. Dirty, panicked, and barely holding himself together, Grub begged for his life and offered to help the group if they spared him. Though clearly more trouble than he was worth, the party allowed him to follow them. Throughout the exploration, Grub proved to be a constant liability—frequently panicking, provoking danger, and narrowly avoiding being the cause of everyone’s death.

The group continued into the family crypt, where they found several stone sarcophagi. They looted the tombs and recovered coins, but doing so disturbed the mound further. Not long after, their noise drew the attention of Riddermound’s true horror: a ghostly knight bound to the burial mound.

The ghostly knight was a towering figure clad in ancient plate armor and a horned great helm. Its skeletal face stared from an open visor as it moved slowly but inexorably through the mound, passing through walls and closed doors alike. Its presence was always announced by the dreadful sound of scraping metal. Whenever the party grew careless or loud, the knight appeared again, relentless and impossible to predict.

As they pressed deeper, the party eventually found a way past a locked portcullis into The Lady’s Hall. The chamber contained an oak table, burning wall torches, and a mummified woman seated at the far end, still clad in gilded chainmail. When the group attempted to strip her armor, her spirit rose in fury, forcing a tense confrontation. After defeating her ghost, the party claimed the Fiendcrusher warhammer and her ornate chainmail as spoils.

Throughout the exploration, the ghostly knight continued to hunt them. The party resorted to improvised fire attacks, preparing them in advance before entering rooms. These tactics proved effective enough to slow the knight and buy time, but never enough to truly stop it. The group quickly realized the creature was far stronger than anything they could defeat head-on.

Despite this, they eventually reached the tomb of the Dragon Knight itself. In the burial chamber stood an ornate stone sarcophagus on a raised podium, with a painted image of a dragon and rider looming over the far wall. Inside the sarcophagus, the party discovered a gilded crown inscribed with ancient runes. Those able to read them learned of its enchantment: the crown halves all damage taken from demonic attacks. Alongside the crown, they also found a single piece of a carved statuette, clearly part of a larger key they had been collecting elsewhere.

By this point, the party understood the truth of Riddermound. The ghostly knight was bound to the mound by ancient draconic magic and could not be destroyed within it. Even if brought low, it would rise again and continue the hunt.

The session ended in a desperate retreat. Accepting that the enemy was too powerful, the party made a frantic run for the exit. The ghostly knight pursued them relentlessly through the tunnels as they fled. Grim stayed behind to hold the knight back, buying the others enough time to escape. When it became clear the creature could not pass beyond the outer cave, Grim even had time to taunt it before climbing the escape rope to safety.

All of them emerged from Riddermound alive. They carried gold, powerful artifacts, and another fragment of the key they sought—but more importantly, the hard-earned lesson that survival sometimes means knowing when to run.