Last year running the Humblewood campaign setting for my kids was the experience that really leveled up my skills as game master / dungeon master. I previously made a commentary post after the first session This post collects the session notes as well as my commentary on those session notes. Spoilers ahead if you plan to be a player in a Humblewood campaign (rather than GM/DM).

Session 1

Meadowfen

Player Character backstories

Minla

Minla was a normal Jerbeen in a big, happy family. Until a band of vulpin raiders came and, while plundering Minla’s family, killed her entire family.

Since Minla was a small creature, she joined the Bandit Coalition in an attempt to exact revenge. Minla eventually left the coalition over their vulpin membership.

Minla settled in Meadowfen looking for a quieter life and to hide from the bandit coalition, who does not take kindly to those who leave their ranks. Those who looked up to her in the coalition feel extra betrayed by her abandonment.

When the story begins, Minla’s past is unknown to the residents of Meadowfen. But they do know she has martial training.

Iris

Iris grew up in Meadowfen. When Iris was 8 she joined the Community Domain as a Cleric. After 12 years, she is respected as a healer in Meadowfen.

Iris and Gibus sometimes meet as part of their clerical duties, but do not hang out outside of work.

Gibus

Gibus was born in Marshview. Some bandit Galluses attacked the town, so Gibus’ family moved to Meadowfen. When Gibus grew up, he chose to become a cleric, but his childhood trauma led him to join the Night Domain.

The characters learn about the expanding of the Scorched Grove and the burning of Ashbarrow. The mayor asks them to head towards the capital city and they agree.

His reasoning:

• although he knows nothing of Minla’s background he does know she has great martial prowess.
• Iris and Gibus have proven themselves to be adept clerics and should be able to use their knowledge to help supplement Minla’s strength.

The Road to Winnowing Reach

The party find someone being attacked by mapach bandits and their leader hanging back. They successfully kill the bandits and the bandit leader runs away. They help Eliza Pennygleam out and Eliza joins them on their journey towards the capital city (she was headed there anyway). On the way there they are attacked by, and defeat, Emberbats.

Winnowing Reach

The party arrives in Winnowing Reach and immediately go to the inn. They argue over who will pay and Gibus ends up paying 1GP to cover room and board.

Party decides after their long rest to listen to Roland, a mapach bard, play banjo while the party (and others at the tavern) eat dinner. There they meet a few residents of Winnowing Reach. Minla and Iris meet Illiana and Indus. Gibus meets Jeero, a fellow strig. Jeero tells Gibus he loves working in Winnowing Reach since it’s easy work without much to do. Gibus commits a faux pas by trying to order fried jerbeen.

Swamp/Caves

Magistrate Krane asks the party to save Kenna, appealing to the fact that Iris is from Winnowing Reach. Also asks them to kill slimes in exchange for 5GP to each party member.

Gibus convinces the party to try the closest mine entrance. During their trek through the swamp they fight a swarm of insects. While fighting slimes at the entrance to the caves, they learn that slimes only attack the closest enemy.

Gibus recklessly runs inside and almost ends up causing a mine collapse on top of himself. The team decides to attack the struts to collapse them. Gibus pulls a strut to do a controlled collapse.

Eventually the team splits up when they get to a chamber with 3 exits. Gibus goes into a dead end. The girls go into the middle path and end up in the next area. When pursued by slimes, Gibus throws a rock and the slimes follow it. He uses the distraction to rejoin the party.

Then they go into the next chamber and find Kenna, 3 smaller slimes, and one large slime. Minla ends up being the savior of the fight because, despite what they’ve learned, Gibus and Iris go up close to the slimes to attack them and become the targets of the slimes. Part of what eventually helps save things is Gibus casting sleep on the slimes; it affects the smaller ones. Eventually Gibus and Iris are surrounded. Minla stays back and shoots them with her arrows.

They rescue Kenna and she discovers a nest charm in the shifting slime (the large slime). She gives it to Minla as a reward for doing the most during the fight.

They make it back to the town uneventfully and get their 5GP each. The magistrate mentions he’ll give them a letter of introduction for the Birdfolk council if they will do something for him.

The slimes had exploded during the fight whenever they died so Iris and Gibus are covered in smelly slime. They head to the inn to bath and enjoy Kenna’s free round of drinks. After having a drink, Minla heads to the library to find out how the nest charm works. She learns what it does and how it works. Consultation in the ancient tomes reveals that the keyword for activating the nest charm is “guacamole”. Indus attempts to buy it off her for a ridiculously low price. She declines.

Swamp Witch

The party agreed to kill the witch when Magistrate Krane asked them to.

Gibus snuck in and waited to see what would happen. Minla decided to just knock at the door and they spoke with the witch. Minla was happy to hear that the hedge witch has the power of divination. Upon hearing that the vision was about the destruction of the forest, Minla wanted to help Susan summon the creature to ask more questions.

They easily gather the herbs and toads for the hedge witch. The witch summons a demon and tries to ask questions. It ignores her and then attacks. The party dispatches the demon without too much trouble.

They tell Susan that Magistrate Krane wanted her killed. She thanks the party for the information and tells them she will make potions for them if needed. She gives them her ocarina (which Magistrate Kane had claimed was an evil amulet).

They go back to town and get the letter from the Magistrate after showing him the ocarina and convincing him they killed the witch. They prepare to depart town with Eliza.

Session Commentary

The biggest thing I brought to the table at this point in my GM experience was trying to think of valid reasons that the characters would be brought together and sent on an adventure. I hadn’t yet read the advie about having the players come up with a reason to know each other ahead of time. So I was still in the “meet in the tavern” mode of GMing. Although I’m not 100% sure what would have happened with adult players, I liked that the swamp witch storyline immediately sets up that not all NPCs (not even the mayor) are necessarily honest or working from a complete set of facts.

Session 2

The adventurers had an uneventful journey from Winnowing Reach to Alderheart.

Once they arrived, Eliza departed to the pulleys to get her cart raised up to her shop’s level.

The party split up. Minla went to the lowest level, Iris went to the trunk market, and Gibus went to the council square.

Minla meets a jerbeen orphan who asks her to inspire other jerbeens at the orphanage that a jerbeen could become a great adventurer. Afterwards she questions other humblefolk in the slums and finds out they feel ignored by the birdfolk.

Iris is pickpocketed by a jerbeen thief. She chases the thief through Alderheart.

Gibus wanted to see the Birdfolk council on his own, but he remembers that Minla has the letter of introduction from Magistrate Krane. He begins to glide down to the lower levels.

Gibus finds Minla in the slums and before he can say anything, the jerbeen thief passes by and Iris yells that he robbed her. Gibus declines to join in the fight, while Minla joins Iris in pursuit. They follow the thief to a building in the slums. Minla tries to stealthily enter, but the door hasn’t been oiled and it creaks open to reveal 2 jerbeen thieves and a vulpin captain. They fight and Iris is knocked unconscious. Not wanting to attract too much attention, they find an inn in slums to clean off and rest.

The next day Eliza finds them as they are climbing up to see the council. She ushers them to her shop and lets them know about the 10% discount and 10% extra for buying stuff. While they peruse her shop they see that she has:

• an old spell book (useless because no wizards)
• feather token (bird) - magical
• feather token (tree) - magical

Minla gives the report to the council. Not only does she mention the fires at Ashbarrow, etc, but also what she learned in the slums. Responses:

Benji Bitterbloom - Corvum - focuses on the banditry

Ophelia Sundapple - Luma - says we can’t take too many refuges

Corrie Ghaddi - Strig - says they will send resources if the bandits are dealt with

During the overnight bandit strike, Minla recognizes the Vulpin captain as having led her squad. In death, he recognizes her. He cannot say anything as he was slashed in his lungs. No other party members realize Minla’s past.

When they go tot he bandit camp they fight and Riffin joins because Minla and Iris were unconscious. They kill Frey who recognized Minla and talks about it. Now the characters know Minla was a former bandit coalition member.

After the fight, the council interrogates the party. Minla reports that humblefolk have joined the bandit coalition because they are upset with bird council does not have humblefolk

Benji Bitterbloom - Corvum - would like to make sure they can end the bandit coalition once and for all. Wants to figure out where they are. Dismisses the party.

Session Commentary

From a GM point of view, this is where the players dynamics started to become apparent. My players were my kids (12, 8, and 8 years old at the time). My son, one of the eight-year-olds was playing Gibus. This session was the start of his character often wanting to go on his own or refusing to join in some fights with the girls.

I added the jerbeen orphanage as a tie in for Minla and also as potential setup for later in the campaign when they are at the fort.

Now that Humblewood Tales is out, I highly recommend the DM/GM running this campaign buy that supplement along with the main book. It provides a ton more details about the city of Alderheart, Humblewood culture, and a bunch of extra one shots (more about that later). Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making that stuff up yourself, but if you’re going to get it eventually anyway, it would be awesome to have it at this point. I didn’t and I wish I did.

Session 3

The heroes were celebrated after their performance at the bandit camp and got a free night at an inn. After they came out from the in they went to visit Eliza. They sold some of their spoils from the battle and afterwards they went outside. They saw a performing troupe. Gibus recognizes the gallus performer as involved in the attack on his family. So he attacks the performer. He prevents Minla and Iris from joining in and refuses to answer their questions. Since no one knows what’s going on, another performer calls the city guard. They are going to arrest Gibus, but he convinces them to take the performer in for questioning.

After this, Iris and Minla decide to participate in the tournament going on. They enter a battle challenge for a bracers of archery. Iris is KO’d in one round by a gallus druid. Minla wins her bout against a very flamboyant jerbeen swashbuckler and wins the prize.

After the tournament a jerbeen orphan comes to find Minla and brings her down to the lower levels. There is a giant Jerbeen celebration, including a giant banner in which one of the kids has crudely drawn a portait of Minla. (Iris is also there) There is much celebration and everyone passes out drunk.

The next day the entire adventuring part meets Riffin at a tavern and learn his backstory of adventuring with Odwald, a corvum who knows how to do magic. They offer to help him find Odwald, but Riffin declines, saying it’s his responsibility to his friend. A messenger comes into the tavern with a summons to the birdfolk council.

The council asks the party to go to the bandit stronghold and defeat Benna. After a pretty easy climb (thanks to Iris and Gibus’ survival skills), they arrive at the fortress. They are contemplating how to get in when a jerbeen orphan helps them sneak in by giving them bandit coalition uniforms and givem them the idea to pretend Gibus is a prisoner. Gibus gets put in jail and Minla and Iris hear more about the good the coalition is doing. Minla made a bit deal about Gibus as well as his armor so they are escorted to see Benna.

At first they are being deceptive, but eventually reveal who they are. Convince Benna to treat with the council. They convince the council to hear Benna out. The Bandit Coalition becomes an aid organization. Benna remains in charge of the stronghold. She gives the party her sword. Supplies are finally sent to Meadowfen.

Session Commentary

I remember after this session my oldest realizing that a lot of the first half of the main Humblewood campaign involves politics. I liked the way they resolved things - without necessarily resorting to combat and convincing the council to be more open. Also this was the session where I was able to make use of the orphan I planted earlier.

Session 4

The adventurers met with Susan the Hedge witch in her fortune telling booth at the trunk market. After catching up with Susan and buying some potions, the group received a summons to show up at the council the following day.

While wandering around they met Tevor and Havel, Tenders. The group learned a bit about the Tenders from Tevor and Havel. The following day they heard about how the fires were expanding and there were more fire creatures endangering the Humblewood. The group was tasked to find out what is doing on in the embers and Tevor will be their guide.

The adventures’ fame has spread so far that while they are making their way to their final destination they come across a bard who has heard of their many deeds. He sings a very long song about all their deeds and heads in the opposite direction as the group, very excited to have met them.

The group finally arrives and fights an ash snake. It’s a hard battle, but they make it. However, afterward they are chased by a gigantic fire creature. When they report back to the council, they find out it’s the fabled element of fire. They are asked to go to the Avium to speak with the Dean about the Element of Fire to see if they can learn how to stop it.

The party was also given a parchment that allows them to buy 500GP worth of equipment so they can be ready to fight the Element of Fire.

Session Commentary

The bard was my addition to add to the flavor of the world. Otherwise things went pretty by-the-book.

Session 5

The adventurers began the session by traveling to the Avium. On the way there they ran into a mapach named Krell who rejected Benna’s decision to work with the Birdfolk Council and disband the Bandit Coalition. In a battle with the adventurers, they discovered that the Cervan Priestess with Krell was responsible for the murder of Minla’s family. The group killed the cervan, jerbeen, and mapach bandits that were with Krell, but Krell escaped into the woods.

When the group arrived at the Avium, they began to research about the Aspect of Fire. They reported missing pages to the librarian who seemed very disappointed that the pages were ripped out of the books. While researching, they were attacked by their shadows.

After meeting with the different professors at the Avium, they began to suspect the necromancy professor because of the professor’s odd answers to their questions. Eventually they also interviewed the students who had reported strange sightings to the dean. Using intimidation, they confronted the scared Jerbeen. Later they found Jelil and got her testimony about the strange servitors.

While walking around the Avium, the party found a note to meet at the museum. There, they were attacked by bone elks. When the fight begins, they see a cloaked person running away.

On the second visit to the divination professor, they saw the servitors acting strangely and followed them to the library where Iris found a hidden door. After entering the door they found the real Mordane in a closet. He was surrounded by a gooey bit of magic. When they touched the amulet and were seen by the others as Mordane, the librarian, they knew what was up.

They continued in the secret passage and found Oddwald in his upper lab. They recognized him from their conversation with Riffin. This surprised Oddwald and he ran to his lower lab. There Minla reasoned with/yelled at Oddwald and he decided to turn himself in. But then he lost control of his Cobblefright and ran away.

After the team destroyed the Cobblefright, Oddwald turned himself in. The team got the special amulets from the Dean and agreed to take Oddwald to Alderheart. Minla was more of a mind that they were escorting him to perhaps face justice.

Session Commentary

This was a mystery session, which my oldest liked. However, it was perhaps a failing of mine that I was unable to convincingly roleplay as the dean trying to sweep the bad things under the rug. Or maybe my daughter was too young to recognize that it was a valid move for someone who wants to be willfully blind in order to avoid dealing with trouble. (Kids can be bluntly unaccepting of adult rationalizations)

Session 6

The adventurers are summoned to the Dean’s office and introduced to Odwald’s anti-magic bangles. They’re asked told that he’s to stay in their custody and will face a trial for his work with the Cobblefright after the Aspect of Fire is dealt with.

Oddwald mentions that they should find his old adventuring buddy, Riffin. Everyone’s happy since they remember fighting alongside Riffin earlier in the adventure. They find Riffin at the Silken Worm and he learns about what Oddwald has done. Riffin agrees to help, although he’s distant and doesn’t interact much with his old friend. As they head back to Alderheart, Oddwald tells the party about his dream and also the family prophecy and why that motivated him to do what he did.

Once they reach Alderheart, Oswald reveals that his other adventuring partner, Susan the Hedge Witch, might be able to help them find the artifact they will need to stop the Aspect of Fire. They visit Susan and she makes a divination potion. It reveals that they need to find the sprigleaf.

Before heading out to get the Sprigleaf, the party goes to speak to the Tenders and learn about where to find the Borealis. Armed with all this knowledge, the party heads out to get the sprigleaf. After retrieving it, they defeat an ashworm that had tried to ambush them. Then they head into the Scorched Grove to try and find the Borealis.

Once the team, which includes Oddwald and Riffin get to the location indicated by the Tenders they trigger the entrance challenge. The party misinterpreted the clues and triggered the wind trap. First Gibus was trapped in there. Then Minla activated her nest charm to try and save him. She also became trapped. Before Iris could figure out how to help, the trap released Gibus and Minla.

Once they correctly figured out how to get in, they descended and fought the animated eagle statues. After that they descended to the magma island. Minla went across first and, in an incredible bout of luck, did not take too much damage from the lava traps. Before she could find the lever to deactivate the traps, Gibus impulsively got onto the bridge. He took so much damage that he was knocked unconscious. Minla then discovered the lever and deactivated the trap.

Finally the team presented themselves to Oakheart. They party proved themselves capable in combat (mostly due to Minla, as usual) and Minla received the Borealis. Minla, thus, gained the ability to do cold cantrips and also blast ice out of her mouth

They headed back to Alderheart and the Council asked them to defeat the aspect of fire. They defeat the aspect of fire by very strategically moving away from the aspect of fire after Gibus sets a ward ice trap. Minla is impervious to fire damage and stays close. The others move far enough away to attack with magic.

Once they petrified the Aspect of Fire Susan and Oddwald finished the incantation, with Odwald sacrificing himself.

Job completed, the team went back to Alderheart and got lots of praise and some prizes. Everyone went back to their hometown. Minla had a dream in which Odwald was trying to warn her about something.

Session Commentary

This was the final session from the main campaign. The kids were really happy to have solved the main mystery and stopped the fire carnage. They also still wanted to play with these characters. So we started playing adventures from the Humblewood Tales.

Humblewood Tales

When I asked on Reddit, it was recommended that these be woven into the main narrative so they don’t feel too “adventure of the week”. Having only bought the book after we finished the main campaign, I’m inclined to agree. Not only does the book add tons more Humblewood flavor (as I mentioned above), but the adventures are scaled for different player levels so it works well to work them into the main story at that level (especially if you’re using milestone leveling instead of XP leveling). I’ll also say, the way the story is written, if you don’t want to modify the encounters too much, this campaign benefits from milestone leveling over XP leveling.

Panic at the Golden Gala

The team was back in town for the Golden Gala, invited since they are the heroes of Alderheart. Selene met with the party and asked for help since her father wasn’t listening to anyone about the danger he was in. Since her dad is head of the merchant’s guild, she gave the adventurers a token that let them get free clothing at local stores. The team went shopping. At Gerald’s Jerbeen Gentry Minla bought a dress. At the Tinker’s Tact Iris bought a dress. Gibus just wanted to go in his armor so Minla went to New Heights of Fashion and bought a bow tie for Gibus.

As soon as they arrived at the ball they split up and Gibus headed to the room. Minla and Iris headed to the dining room. On the way there they met Thomas Pricklythorn and Sasha Pricklythorn of The Wrangler’s Rest at Winnowing Reach who had saved up for a long time to be able to afford to come to the gala, a life-long ambition of theirs. They also saw the council members and Susan the Hedge Witch, but didn’t interact with them. After speaking with Thomas and Sasha, they save an altercation at the bar where the alcohol was, apparently, bad.

Minla and Iris finally arrived at the dining room to see the chandelier fall and almost hit Ferroux (Selen’s father) and Fanno. Minla tries to intimidate Fanno into telling her what knows, but he doesn’t respond to that. Irius persuades him to admit that he was paid to get Ferroux to stand there and that he needs the money for his star-crossed love issue. He doesn’t know anything else about the plot against Ferroux.

Minla and Iris go upstairs and see the argument between Ferroux and Selene. They follow Celene downstairs and find out that the fight is because Ferroux doesn’t want Celene to join the Avium. Then they go to the balcony and see Herb and a red-furred mapach. At this point the party already suspects Herb. When he tries to dodge their questions, Gibus charges Herb and tackles him. They fall down the stairs and to the ballroom. The bug device falls out of his pocket. Panicking, Herb calls for Oakley’s help and the party fights Oakley and her gang. They win the battle, although Iris is knocked unconscious. Herb goes to jail, swearing revenge.

Session Commentary

As can always happen with any adventure, especially a mystery, the players can always end up short-circuiting things. In this one when my son tackled Herb and I did the dice rolls as I suspected they should go for that, he ended up dropping the device and outing himself. As the GM/DM I always live for these surprise moments.

The Wind-touched

The story starts with the characters at Alderheart after the events of the Galas. Gibus receives a letter from his uncle mentioning that there were too many people in Marshview and asks Gibus to assist and bring his friends along. Minla and Iris find his concerns with his potatoes getting squished to be a bit silly and need quite a bit of convincing in order to go help Gibus’ uncle. On the way to Marshview they run into some pilgrims who talk about the Wind-touched at Marshview and how they hope to get blessings. They are attacked by an ampiphere. The battle isn’t touch, but it goes on for a while because the the creature is hard to hit as it spirals through the air.

When they finally arrive at Marshview, they come across Gibus’ uncle’s friend Orn who insults them until he finds out they are there to help, not pilgrims. Eventually the group moves on into town and see more jerbeens than anywhere since they were in the slums of Alderheart. Lots of the signs in the town are both in humblescratch as well as in jerbeen and all the stores have doors that can accommodate the jerbeens’ smaller size.

When they get to the town square they see the statue of Gaspard, the jerbeen amaranthine. There are little jerbeen figurines at the statue’s base. The characters buy a couple of the nicer figurines for themselves.

They go to the inn for information and meet Sergeant Burlywhirl who is quite drunk. The following scene happens:

He sees Gibus. “Hey…issa fellow strug….a fellow strog…..another of my kind!” Looks at Minla. “You’re … a lil one…” he leans over and falls off the stool.

They then get information from the proprietor as well as an offer to buy information. She is, indeed, shady as Orn warned. From there they go to the Greenkeeper farm and fight off some overly violent pilgrims who won’t take “no” for an answer when they ask for the wind-touched. After they knock them unconscious the local constabulary arrives and arrests them. The characters find out that Tempa is the wind-touched and her grandfather wishes she would stop all this nonsense that’s attracting so much attention.

The team goes to Gibus’ uncle’s farm to sleep until the next day when Tempa is supposed to make an incredible appearance. The jerbeen does indeed make quite a show, including shedding her leaf-based wings and flying without support. Then the adult ampiphere appears and chases her into the woods.

The team joins up and helps defeat the mother because the baby ampiphere has bonded to Tempa. She explains that she got flying powers from touching the baby ampiphere and was using the offerings to feed the baby. The team helped her (using their teleportation amulets) get to the Avium. There they met Selene (who they helped at the gala) who said she would help make sure the expertise at the Avium would be used to help the baby ampiphere.

Session Commentary

This adventure has a crotchety old person meet you as you come in and complain about crops being trampled. My kids had NO sympathy/empathy for this person. It was pretty hilarious vs how the writers expected the players to react. They were just incredulous.

The Wakewyrm

Around a year after the events of The Wind-Touched, Minla and Iris are in Marshview for the summer celebrations for the amaranthine Gaspard. Gibus comes along to help his uncle plant summer crops. They wanted to check on Tempa, but instead of teleporting, they decide to walk to Saltar’s Port, which they’ve never seen before. As they walk there, they meet a mapach bard who recommends visiting The Crimson Rose.

They arrive at a shop that consists of a ship that has been set on its side. When they entire they meet various humblefolk who work at the shop as well as the proprietor, a raptor named Petra. Petra tells them about the 500GP bounty the coast guard has on Skopps - dead or alive. Lorno offers to walk them to the Rose Hip Tea house to see if any rumors can lead them to Skopps.

While they walk to the Rose Hip Tea House, Lorno tells them they should visit the Jerbeen at the temple of Tyton should they need any healing. The jerbeen that works there apprenticed under the lighthouse keeper, one of the best mages in town. At the tea house they find out about some vulpin sailors who were dragged out by a jerbeen.

They go to the dockmaster to see if he saw the vulins or Skopps at the docks. The dockmaster, a hedge, mentions that the pirate wouldn’t have docked there, but might have tried to go to the nearby caves. The party rents a boat to go check the caves, arriving at high tide.

A series of fights ensue, but the party has learned to work well together and they are able to make it through without anyone getting knocked unconscious. They fail at a wheel puzzle to guess how to open the gate to release a baby wake wyrm, so they keep going.

When they arrive at the final chamber the party splits up. At first Minla goes to try and open the main gate to let in the adult wake wyrm while Gibus stealthily board the ships with Skopps. Eventually Iris decides to help Minla try and open the gate. Once they get it open, the adult wake wyrm enters the chamber and swallows the various pirates whole. The part collects Skopps’ hat and pendant as proof of death. They collect the bounty.

On their way back to The Crimson Rose (to sell some old equipment) they come across a dead vulpin and bloody priest clothes. They find a letter on the vulpin asking the birdfolk council for help. They will try and figure out what to do next time!

Session Commentary

Once again, the players decided to split up based on just disagreeing in real life on what they wanted to do. It was funny for me trying to run a split campaign in wich what should have been an easy battle was potentially deadly because the party wasn’t working together. Luckily, they were leveled up enough and lucky enough with the dice to not die.

The Seahawk

The party takes the note from the corpse which was meant for the council at Alderheart and decide to head to the Hip Rose Teahouse to investigate. It rains as they make their way there. Christoph recognizes them from their help in dealing with the Wakewyrm and motions them to a table and pours some tea for them. They choose to talk to Velma and learn that Arlowene was distant the last time that Velma saw her and also that she’s mostly been out of sight for the past two weeks. They also learn about Heady Crest having lost a week of her memory.

Arlowene arrives, offers a brisk explanation and announces that someone has triggered her magic alarm on the lighthouse. The party races to the lighthouse and is attacked by various members of the Cult of Kren (although the party doesn’t know this yet). In the second battle, one of the cultists charms Gibus and, at first, Gibus merely chooses not to attack her. But eventually he feels bad that his “friend” is getting hurt and moves to get close enough to heal her. However, Iris is quick on her feet and tackles him before he can reach the enemy. Minla finishes off the enemy and they continue to the lighthouse.

Once the party arrives at the lighthouse they learn about Arlowene saving Arrevis Fleet (The Seahawk). The party agrees to enter his mind to try and get him out of his coma. They go through a series of dream sequences - a shipwreck, a bit of footprint tracking through the snow, and a fight at his cottage. They defeat all the nightmares and Arrevis is able to wake up. He explains about the fact that he joined the cult and he and Chimdry, his jerbeen friend, used their newfound status and powers to steal from the public. When Arrevis got so cocky that he stopped paying his dues and respect to Kren, they stole all of Chimdry’s food and left him to die in the forest.

The party heads outside and finds 5 cultists trying using a manifestation of Kren (a spell) to knock over the Lighthouse. Minla picks off the cultists one-by-one while Gibus (eventually helped by Iris) chuck one of the cultists off the cliff on which the lighthouse stands. The party receives Arrevis’ sword.

Session Commentary

This was the session that led me to write this blog post which makes me excited about continuing to play TTRPGs with the kids as they keep getting older and more complex in their roleplay.

Overall Conclusions and Next Steps

First off, I think this is a well-written campaign setting that can work from older kids all the way up to adults. It all depends on how much you lean on the politics side vs the roleplaying and/or the potential cuteness of the animal situation. It was more or less perfect for my 12 year old. The twins (who are now 9, but were 8 for all of the first campaign) were able to successfully roleplay most of the campaign. The probably would have struggled a little with the politics and some of the mystery elements without their older sister there. But I think it will depend on your GM skills and the maturity level of your kids. There are definitely ways that a GM experienced with younger players could simplify the mystery and/or political aspects without removing the gameplay elements.

I bought the book (the misprint version that was cheaper) and then bought it again on dndbeyond. I think the book is beautiful and the illustrations on the web don’t do justice to the printed book. That said, the reason I bought it twice was for the integration with the virtual aspects of gameplay. As a very new DM/GM at the time, I felt a bit intimidated with player creation (up until then we’d played with pre-generated players from DnD Adventure Club) as well as leveling up the characters. If you buy the campaign on dndbeyond, Foundry, or another VTT - you get that part done for you. When it came to combat, I would connect my laptop to the TV in the living room and the kids would narrate what they wanted to do on the map. This allowed then to see where they were relative to the enemies and how far they could reach for any given attack. This game doesn’t require it, but given the fact that you’re fighting militias, etc, I thought it would benefit from the military tactics of it all. Also, for the final boss fight, area of effect is an important aspect. So we mostly played theatre of the mind, the kids rolled physical dice, and I would print out the PDF of their character sheets from DnD Beyond, but we would use the website to set up the characters, weapons, spells, etc. (Buying the game on dndbeyond meant I didn’t have to homebrew the species, their abilities, or the special items that were unique to Humblewood). I would say that, perusing their Foundry VTT product page that I like their Foundry tokens more than I like the dndbeyond tokens - partially because they are breaking out of the little circles that contain them. Knowing what I know now, it’s possible that I would have bought it on Foundry and chosen that as my VTT for more flexibility with different game systems compared with dndbeyond being just for partnered content with Wizards of the Coast. This brings me to 2 related points:

1. Humblewood Tales is not on dndbeyond as of the time that I write this blog post. This meant that, although I had gained a lot of benefit from using dndbeyond for the main campaign, I had to homebrew any weapons, creatures, etc from Humblewood Tales, slightly negating the benefit.

2. If you and/or your table have migrated to the 2024 5e D&D (also sometimes called 5.5e), Hit Point Press will give you a PDF supplement to modify the classes for 2024 5e. The biggest different is that all classes now get their subclasses at level 3. But there may be some stuff in there about weapon mastery. I got the PDF, but since we were basically done with the main campaign, I didn’t do much with it.

Of the currently published adventures I haven’t yet run, there’s only one more at the current players’ levels. Humblewood 2, which will be Kickstarted this year, starts off where Humblewood 1 ended, with players at level 5. So, other than this one other adventure, I’m planning on waiting for the next campaign setting (which will be a South American animal setting) before tying in the other standalone adventures I have.

I’m excited to get more of an idea of the overall Humblewood story that Hit Point Press is telling. I can’t wait to see how my kids continue to solve problems with these characters.

• Humblewood
• DnD
• Dungeons-and-Dragons
• Hit-Point-Press