Introduction

When we got to this trilogy, we had already played every other trilogy in the DnD Adventure Club world. We’d mostly, but not entirely, gone through the adventures in order. DnD Adventure Club provides some very awesome, simplified, pre-created character sheets. Back when we played the introductory adventure (which is referenced in this trilogy) the GM guidance was to have one or more of the players be an orphan raised by Baba (I don’t remember if it’s explicitly mentioned before this trilogy that this is Baba Yaga of Russia lore, but we figured it out at some point). The kids looked at the backstories of the characters they chose, and it didn’t really fit with any of them, but they chose to have Sasha (Scarlett’s character) have spent some time in the orphanage that Baba runs at the outskirts of the Tumbledowns.

Book 25

As a former orphan, Sasha heads to Baba’s house for their customary Sunday treats, offered to all former orphans. Sasha has invited the other two to join her. The characters find that house was missing. They speak with townsfolk who mention hearing evil cackling (I like that they specify that it’s not nice cackling) and that there are gigantic chicken tracks nearby.

The adventurers take turns tracking the chicken tracks and end up in a clearing with the house, on giant chicken legs, cowering in the corner. They’re attacked by a giant frog, but make quick work of the frog. Then they are beset by frogs and the three witches that run a shot in town. After attacking the bats, Triss notices that they are an illusion. She works to get her friends to notice that all the battle combatants are just an illusion. Eventually she helps them break the illusion. They fight one of the witches and she becomes a frog. (Unclear why) Grumpy maintains a strong, almost choking force on the frog despite the protests of the girls.

The house settles down and it, magically, looks like it’s always been there. A garden grows. The plants in the garden ask for help.

DM Commentary

As we all know, Dungeons and Dragons is a game of dice. The dice represent whether the fates are with us. It’s what separates D&D play pretend from kiddie play pretend where they argue about whether a sword swipe hits and what that means. Sometimes the dice rolls just end up making your plans for naught. In this case, following the book instructions, the kids rolled perfectly for investigation, avoiding many forest perils. Later they rolled high on initiative and perfectly on the attacks, killing the frog in one round. As a counter example, Sam just kept rolling horribly on the illusion breaking so, in character, he kept wondering why the girls weren’t fighting the bats and/or witches.

Book 26

The adventurers, especially Sasha, investigate outside. Since Sasha hears the flowers saying “help me” she tries to talk to them. Eventually she asks them to lean one way for yes and another way for no.

They enter and see a cat. Sasha doesn’t remember seeing a cat at Baba’s, but isn’t sure. They attempt to go into the basement, but it’s locked and impervious to attacks. The girls go upstairs and trigger some mephits that Baba left behind to guard the room where the orphans sleep. Grumpy takes advantage of being away from the girls to toss the frog into the fire. (Baba has a cauldron with a fire on in the kitchen) After defeating the mephits, they investigate the room.

Grumpy wants to investigate the wardrobe. The others wonder if it’s a warded trap. Eventually they end up having Triss hold the door open as Sasha and Grumpy keep going into a never-ending wardrobe. Eventually they come out into a snowy clearing. They see a second witch working over a cauldron.

Grumpy wants to immediately attack, but Triss holds him back. Eventually they make too much noise during the struggle and alert the witch. The witch teleports between the characters during the fight as Triss runs to the cauldron to see what’s going on with it. Triss empties the cauldron. During the fight Grumpy gets charmed to fall in love with the pie lady from town for 24 hours. The defeated witch becomes a frog. This time Triss holds on to her. Also, the witch drops a key.

DM Commentary

My kids can be pretty creative and really think outside the box compared to what the writers expected. When Scarlett wanted to talk to the flowers, all I knew is that they didn’t say anything but “help me”. So I “yes, and”-ed when Scarlett asked them to lean one way or the other.

It was funny how Scarlett, who has read the requisite books, immediately said, “It’s a Narnia!” once the wardrobe seemed to go on for too long.

Scarlett was right to question the cat, but I didn’t remember if there had always been a cat there.

Book 27

The adventurers use the key to get into the basement. They’re attacked by a rat in a bathroom. After a couple rounds in which the rat seems to be praising their great skills, they decide to talk to him and find out that he’s been hired by Baba to train the orphans. Remembering the first time worked together to clear the basement for Baba, they go deeper into the basement.

The third witch appears and tries to convince them to join her. She tells them that Baba eats her orphans, which is pretty ludicrous to Sasha. She also gives them cheese. They get to the pickle room and fight pickled goblins. They grab pickles for the rat and a jar that the rat told them to get. When they get back to him, he explains the jar has a concoction to protect the drinker from witch poison.

They fight and defeat the third witch (who also turns into a frog) and use her adamantine scissors to cut a collar off the cat. The cat turns into Baba. (Which Sasha had guessed, but was uncertain about) They learn she is Baba Yaga, a powerful witch. The house will stay in this new location. Rewards are distributed. Baba says they have now truly graduated.

DM Commentary

The Baba Yaga reveal wasn’t a reveal for my kids. Scarlett was wearing a Baba Yaga shirt (it has a house with chicken legs and says “home body”) the whole time we were playing this trilogy. Also, my wife is into all the scary things like Baba Yaga and Krampus and so on. So my kids know what all these things are.

Since DnD Adventure Club is now printing mods for each adventure (how to make the baddies tough enough) to take your players up to level 5, I chose the in-universe explanation of them graduating to finally go up to level 3 (after playing on and off for 2ish years)

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