In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :
I don't think it's hewing closely to RAW that I have an issue with. It's the idea that there is a "right" way to play that irks me. That if you're not playing to the letter of the rules, you're playing the game wrong.
Chapter 1 has wrapped up, after spending some time exploring the ruined city and dealing with the raiders based there.
Now I'm planning second big adventure/Chapter 2. Looking for ideas/suggestions.
I want the serious Big Bad to start encroaching on the field of play. They were hinted at in session 1, but have remained far off. They are a magically adept cult/military with an insect theme - dubbed "The Creeping Cult" or "The Creeping Doom". Think of a cross between Thulsa Doom (movie version), the Zerg, and Caesar's Legion from Fallout New Vegas.
I want a solid scenario to have them strike hard at the valley and make clear that THIS is the big problem. But not so hard as to wipe everything out.
They basically believe "Humans had their chance and brought about an apocalypse. It is time for human civilization to be wiped out completely and replaced with insectoid life."
They are fairly magically adept, specializing in magically guided bio-engineering. They built/grew the giant bug ship from session 1. They take people as slaves and transform many of them into insectoid forms to specialize in tasks.
In session one, a family had stolen a Bug Ship and escaped. It was damaged and crashed in the valley. The cult is likely to want to recover these people. They are of a magical race that is easy for them to transform. The mother is pregnant and about to give birth. The cult wants that newborn to experiment on/transform.
So...
The town the PC's are in has surprisingly good defenses. It could actually repel a larger attack than a town of its size aught to be able to. An NPC family who the PC's dislike because the patriarch thinks he knows better... actually knows better and has been looking to amass personal power to be able to deal with the eventuality of an invading force. But not enough to hold off this entire army.
After two sessions exploring a cave, half chasing an NPC they are rightly nervous about, they stumbled right into my trap. That is, an ancient "high court". A place once used as a last resort for the most heinous crimes, international disputes, and for the sentencing of lesser-gods who had transgressed. As you might suspect, this place must be secure and on neutral ground. Deep in the mountains, this NPC led them into the back door which sealed behind them, leaving only the transportation circles (into two major, and somewhat hostile, cities and the ruins of another across the sea. They found a hidden door and a sending stone (for later) and decided to take the fourth circle and try their luck. We closed with the party finding themselves somewhere in the underdark, and the portal needing some time to recharge.
I think the next session will probably be a desperate fight for survival. The "judge" whose personal portal they used is an acolyte of the god of death and would deserve a mighty fortress deep in the underdark. Such a place would likely be fought over since the judge disappeared along with the other immortals... either they find the fortress the current scene of a big battle between two large forces, or it has been torn apart by such and is now riddled with traps and dangers left from centuries of siege and death.. Or possibly it is now the lair of some lich or a beholder, something they would think twice about staying near.
They're about halfway through the campaign by level. I need to speed up the story I'm unfolding so they have a better idea of the long term goal. The end is planned as a pitched battle between and ancient wizard who controls several elemental dragons, but who has been stuck in stasis. I think a few good fetch quests to find the clues leading to that place. They also have a side quest I want to give them soon which should solidly plant them as prominent figures and leaders in the most powerful city on the continent. If they decide to escape the underdark by another means than how they arrived I think that'll be the next chapter. I also have ideas brewing with another land that I want to flesh out. Basically my take on neverland, inhabited only by children. What better setting for them to learn about ancient history... I need to sleep. My brain is not tracking straight right now.
Last session got cut a bit short when the player who's backstory was central to the plot hooks got called away from his wife. So I accelerated some plot reveals.
Still haven't decided on the precise bad situation in the town they're about to travel to. I also want to come up with an interesting challenge to travel between the two villages.
In session:
PC (who had to leave) had it revealed to him why his sister is chronically ill. It turns out she's only his HALF sister. She's actually probably about 1/4 Ethmer, the mystical race in the setting. Ethmer undergo Naming rituals - shortly after birth, and when hitting puberty. If an Ethmer child is not named, it grows sick and dies. The sister is mostly human, so she didn't die, but is Ethmer enough that going UnNamed has made her sick and frail.
Then as they were talking, the mother of the refugees they'd saved went into labor and giant ants attacked searching for them. Their family is Ethmer, so the child will need to be named in a week.
The largest group of Ethmer, including the only cleric sufficiently learned to potentially Name a child many years too late, is in another village. So they're going to head there.
But the advenced forces Insect Cult of the BBEG has arrived in the valley and gained a foothold in this village already. Haven't decided on the precise nature of the problem.
I want them to have effectively shut off travel out of the village. I considered a large enough force to effectively surround and besiege it. I'm kind of leaning towards a smaller, occupying force. Set up inside the walls of the village. Using mind influencing powers and terror tactics to pacify people. Then a scouting contingent that murders anyone who tries to leave.
Possibly a cadre of skilled warriors snuck out of the village to some defensible caves in the hills.
Ultimately, make it a big problem for the PC's to solve.
Oh yeah... and I think they want to bring the refugee family AND the sister to this village instead of going to the village and bringing the Wise Woman back.
My party found themselves transported into the under dark, in the shadow of what is basically a temple of death. Not technically a temple, but the domain of an immortal acolyte to the god of death. Nasty stuff inside, but the rewards should be worth it.
The place has a reputation and is stuff of legend to all the inhabitants of the underdark. Even after all this time, it commands enough fear that nothing willingly will even get close. I may have leaned into that a bit hard because the party almost wouldn't go in. A pyramid, smooth and black, with programmed illusions at all entrances and a weird shrine casting an extended range Weird attack on anyone within 30' of the walls. It's a nasty psychic fear attack that hits hard.
Inside are four levels, the bottom two with the most dangerous things. A Behir, and a couple Beholders. The third level is what they're after, containing a library and an undead historian who can be convinced to give them a big chunk of the full story. Hopefully enough to give them a good idea of the long term goals. The fourth level is a trap. The shrine is there, a statue of a demon that wards the surrounding area with Weird. They can take it, but if they do there's a 50% chance the pyramid collapses with them inside. Even if they manage to bring it out, I don't think it's the kind of protection they'd want even if they had a base. And it's the main thing keeping the temple protected, so we'll see what they do.
The next session should see a level up, and hopefully get the end goals in sight. Or at least understood.
Pretty soon they'll need to start actively trying to build a reputation, as they'll need to raise something of an army. They'll also need a base. They have one, sort of, but it isn't where they left it and getting it back and moved should be fun. I'm excited to see what they think up for that.
On a side note, we bought the D&D Movie on Amazon last night. Started it and 5 mins later the wife says it's bedtime. We'll watch it tonight, but it looks good.
In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :
It was surprisingly good.
preach (dudeist priest) said:On a side note, we bought the D&D Movie on Amazon last night. Started it and 5 mins later the wife says it's bedtime.
This makes it sound like the opening scene is particularly sexy...
Haven't watched it yet. Plan to. Just dunno if it's worth seeing in theatre vs. streaming at home. I'm feeling more at home with a stiff drink.
Scheduling and finals mean what I'd hoped would be one session turned into two short ones.
Last notes saw the party staring up at a pyramid temple of sorts. Protected my illusions and powerful psychic spells, not to mention the owner/builders reputation, this was a place too frightening for even the worst things in the underdark to venture close to. One player nearly died just trying to escape the horrors he was faced with when they got too close. Then he almost died once they got in and we're faced with a behir. Some quick thinking saved the day, as the wizard successfully polymorphic the thing into a salamander and they stuffed that into their bag of devouring. Their resourcefulness catches me off guard. On the first level they figured out the trick behind most of the illusions, and found a flying rug they plan to snag on the way out. The second floor was particularly nasty with a beholder and a drider. They ran from first and killed the second, finding a silver dragon egg it was tending. More on that later. The third floor was the most beneficial, finding something of an undead historian and millennia of records. They asked some good questions and learned a bunch of things about the state of the world and major events of the past. That sets the larger stage for the end of this story. They also have a couple different paths forward depending on what they want and how they decide to approach things. The fourth floor contained a figurine that they discovered is the source of the psychic protection (augmented Weird spell) and as they were deciding whether or not to take it with them, saw the reawakened immortal who's lair this is come through the same portal they used and begin to approach the temple. Cut scene, total cliffhanger.
They know there is more information behind that portal they didn't find yet, but they also know this guy is in league with the main protagonist, and that they directly caused his return. im eager to see how they handle that encounter or if they try to sneak out another way. They have a pretty clear understanding that anything like an attack will not go well.
The dragon egg is a big thing. in my setting, this egg will not hatch without certain criteria (I haven't decided on yet) but must be tended and maintained properly for hatching to even be possible. Should they take it with them and figure out how to hatch it they will be ... notable. Both legendary and public enemy No 1. Dragons have been extinct for millennia. Should it become known they even have an egg, they will be hunted and unsafe.
Other than that, they now also know a way to basically become lords of one of the biggest and most powerful port cities.
In any case, the near future brings much in the way of exploring and clue gathering. They know what happened, but not how, or what it really means. They'll need to leave Storea, which is the land they've spent all their time in. I'm excited to flesh out more of the exotic lands and see what they do to surprise me. If they decide to go after the main guy, will it be to undo what he started and return the old ways and restore the draconic dieti, or will they attempt to finish the work and rule the world themselves? Will they be content to leave that battle in stasis, hoping it doesn't break out and burn the world? Will they be diplomatic and try to gather nations and power in the aid of one of those goals? Will they be content to be the nameless and thankless heroes just doing the right thing?
I've decided to start a second long term campaign. My main group is about halfway through by level, and we're going to keep that a priority, but I've had several folks request to play and I've decided to let them help me figure out the history of my world. Seems easier than doing it myself.
So main group is playing after a big event changed the world. They know what happened, and who did it, but not why. New group will be long before said event. I have several NPCs already in my story, long term highly influential characters, that have little history. So this will be a fun way to do a lot of world building and get a lot of detail. Session zero is next Thursday.
The basic picture of this world is fairly simple. There are 4 draconic deity, serving under them are 10 immortal acolytes. Their immortality is a gift/calling, and can be taken back or given up willingly. The world at large is fairly divided, made up of independent states usually with a fair amount of unclaimed land between. Pretty standard medieval/fantasy setting as far as tech and creatures.
At one point, one of the immortals carried out a plan to overthrow/kill the dragons. In doing so he trapped himself and the 4 in a stasis plane. Frozen. There was an unintended side effect: ALL the dragons disappeared. This is the world where my current group is adventuring. Post "Dragonfall". in the end, should they survive, they'll have to choose the fate of the world to try to claim the power at stake, or return the world to its former state likely earning places among the immortals, to watch and protect.
The new campaign is going to be far in the past. The world is similar: independent states/people/tribes all warring over power and territory. The difference is this is going to be before the immortals we're instated. The deity are the same, and there are dragons aplenty, but the 4 have only just begun to consider naming underlings to help settle disputes and generally serve to bring about a more unified and productive world. Of course that isn't exactly how events pan out, but all things change.
That's where this new party is going to help me. We're going to shape the world. Politics, peoples, nations. We're going to glimpse the characters who will earn the gift, and interact with them and shape their history.
The best part is there's a ton to cover and it doesn't need to flow like the current campaign, so players coming and going matters less and I can have the odd group play a session or short campaign in this forming world and it all helps to build a more cohesive overall story.
Im super excited. I do intend to turn these adventures into books at some point. I think this method will let me take my basic plot idea and watch the wider world evolve naturally.
Sorry to ramble.
barefootcyborg5000 said:I've decided to start a second long term campaign. My main group is about halfway through by level, and we're going to keep that a priority, but I've had several folks request to play and I've decided to let them help me figure out the history of my world. Seems easier than doing it myself.
I support this plan. I've pretty well shifted to building campaign worlds with my players.
It is easier. They come up with ideas you wouldn't have thought of on your own. The players are far more invested in the world the characters exist in.
It's also more okay to have gaps in the lore. The players aren't going to judge you for overlooking something they have overlooked.
I've actually found it to become a *fun* part of play in a session when a point of history or lore comes up and we as a group figure out the answer together of how things work. "What do the Ethmer call their spiritual leader?" and "What do the Ethmer call mundane humans?" both came up last session, and were fun to figure out.
barefootcyborg5000 said:That's where this new party is going to help me. We're going to shape the world. Politics, peoples, nations. We're going to glimpse the characters who will earn the gift, and interact with them and shape their history.
The best part is there's a ton to cover and it doesn't need to flow like the current campaign, so players coming and going matters less and I can have the odd group play a session or short campaign in this forming world and it all helps to build a more cohesive overall story.
This sounds like a lot of fun. I would love to be a part of a game like that.
Things are taking a serious dramatic twist in my campaign. Events are folding in unexpected ways, and player decisions are going to have major consequences. I'm barely preparing "adventures" now, because what happens next is really in the players' hands.
So... they learned that one PC's sister is sick because she's actually his *half* sister and is part Ethmer. The Ethmer are a mystical race. They practice Naming magic. If an Ethmer child is not Named, they grow sick and die. His sister's Ethmer lineage was a secret (obviously), so she was never Named. Being only about 1/4 Ethmer, this didn't kill her, but she remained sickly.
The PC's traveled to a neighboring village seeking out the Ethmer spiritual leader who could perform a postponed Naming. They decided to bring the sister along.
The village was occupied by members of the evil, insectoid cult that is starting to encroach on the valley. The Ethmer Lorekeeper had escaped into hiding in the hills.
Escaping the village to get to the Lorekeeper, the PC's sister was snatched up and carried off. That PC was on the verge of death by the end of that fight.
They met up with the Lorekeeper and some other escapees. The next morning, they all received word that the situation in the city was growing dire, and the cultists were separating families and rounding up Ethmer children. The PC's shared what they'd learned about the cult likely having figured out ways to pervert Ethmer Naming among those not fully Named.
The PC's had enough force to launch a raid, rescue, or assassination, but not to drive out the cult forces in the village entirely. If they returned home, they could raise forces quickly, but it would still give the cultists a couple days. I gave the PC whose sister had been taken a potion that would give him enough stamina to launch a daring rescue, but at the cost of immediately losing a bunch of health when the effects wore off. With the strong possibility of him dying once his task was complete.
Basically - is he prepared to risk his life to save his sister? Would he be willing to go out in a blaze of glory for her sake?
They decided to retreat home to gather enough forces to drive the cult out of the village.
But this leaves the sister in the cults hands. She hasn't been Named. They will have time to complete the ceremony to Name her in that time.
Now, to decide what steps the cult is liable to take in the 2-4 days until the PC's return. They have time to put things in motion. They could:
My gut says - they know the village will be lost to them, but they're fanatics. They will have sent back word to the cult. Holding the village will buy time for the main body to arrive and deplete the ability of the forces in the valley to resist. They'll Name some of the adolescents they can, and send back others who are not yet ready.
New party had a fun first session. A couple of the players are really new and the group as a whole is new, so I had to nudge them into action a bit, but once we got rolling it was a lot of fun.
Classic trope, the Lords daughter has gone missing shortly before her arranged political marriage. Believed to be the work of pirates who would benefit from as much international instability as possible, we left in hot pursuit. Stopping at a small fishing village they learned that a boat had come through only hours before and in a hurry, but there was some disagreement and two of the "pirates" split off and went into the mountains. This is the path they followed. To close the session, a bad survival roll meant a wolf pack attacked the part. They scraped through and we'll see if they move fast enough to catch their target. I've planned for three different possibilities going forward and we will see what choices they make.
Related, but for the future: I want to bait the players with legendary prizes. One of which is the gift of immortality, but I don't know how the 4 deity in this world would introduce such a challenge/reward.
one idea I've had is a public decree, open to all, of "great treasure" at the end of a series of clues and challenges. Ten such things. Something along the lines of partially-sentient equipment or artifacts. These things would "level up" if used in a particular manner, and grow more awake eventually permanently bonding to whoever holds the thing, granting some power and eventually the gift of eternal life. Something like the oaths from the stormlight books.
But as always, open to ideas. I've told the players that this world is young and wild and they have real opportunity to shape the events that occur. That said, I think to buy real interest and involvement, I need to paint at least a few big goals for them to aim/dream. Blessed weapons or artifacts straight from the Gods seems like a good hook.
barefootcyborg5000 said:Related, but for the future: I want to bait the players with legendary prizes. One of which is the gift of immortality, but I don't know how the 4 deity in this world would introduce such a challenge/reward.
one idea I've had is a public decree, open to all, of "great treasure" at the end of a series of clues and challenges. Ten such things. Something along the lines of partially-sentient equipment or artifacts.
I don't know your deities or world. I can only suggest based on how I craft my worlds.
I'd start with your Session-0 type info and get a sense of what your players would be interested in, what their characters' motivations are, and then tie that to what the motivations of the deities would be.
For the deities, I can imagine - being a god is busy work. EVERYONE wants to bend your ear. But you've got big picture things to worry about. So you want chosen representatives that actually understand this mortal realm who can serve in your stead and lead by example of what kind of acts you want your followers to do.
So, the gods are setting out to enlist their first champions. This is going to be a tough process.
I'd pre-plant hooks - ideally based on PC motivation - on why characters would want to become the champions of a god. To help a sick family member, to defeat a tyrant, uphold a belief, selfish power, whatever. It just has to align with the god. A good-aligned god of healing doesn't want to attract followers who want decadent palaces where the peasants grovel and obey in fear.
I'd have the dragon-gods or some mystical representatives show up in major town centers and announce, "Behold the glory of The Radiant God! The Radiant God seeks champions to carry the gleaming torch of his power to the far corners of... etc. etc. etc... Any who believe they are worthy should make their way to the Well of Majesty at the highest peak of the Great Mountains way over there on the horizon. Get to it losers!"
Of course teasing that it would give their players the power to achieve their characters' goals.
Make it what everyone in the town is talking about. Have a rival who annoys the PC's bragging loudly about how he's going to do it because he's totally the bestest person in town. "No ones slick as Gaston! No one's quick as Gaston!" And rile up the players that way.
Then put challenges in their path to test them and prove the characters are worthy.
In reply to Beer Baron :
I think you're right as to needing character based motivation. 100%. Maybe this challenge is a recurring thing, every century or so until the prizes are found. That would enable me to build up a fair amount of lore as well as the NPC range of responses from "they don't exist, if they did someone would have found them by now" to "those were found long ago by X who is keeping them secreted away" to "only fools waste their time hunting treasure when there are real problems to be solved in the world"
In any case, I have time. Maybe I'll drop that "announcement" when they make it to a big city.
I've decided to really pursue writing this world into a full scale fantasy novel. I'll start small, but I'm starting to get really passionate about it, and I think that's enough reason to devote real time to the project. But enough of that. For now.
Second adventure with what I'll call the building party. They successfully caught up with the runaway princess. She was fleeing to the ocean with a close friend/lookalike. The party stopped their escape and there was a bit of a scene on the beach. The runaway was fleeing an arranged political wedding, and her loyal friend was a willing fallback plan. "Look, pretend she's me, take her back and collect your reward then skip town before anyone realizes." The deceit didn't sit well with the paladin, so they hatched another plan. Similar, but less dishonest and no chance of being anywhere near when plan was discovered. Some decent rollplay, and great dice, and the plan went off without a hiccup. The decoy went back, ahead of the party and Princess to establish her alibi. The party took the rescued princess back and bathed in the fanfare that accompanied the saved day. The next day, the lordling from across the sea arrived with his entourage and they had a sort of pre-wedding ceremony before they sailed west to his homeland and the actual wedding. Except the whole ceremony was done with the decoy wearing a wedding veil. She would play the part until a rescue could be performed across the sea, hopefully leaving the new trade agreements in place and no harm done while the princess was free to live her life as she wished and sail the open seas as she'd always dreamt of. Sorry for the rambling. I really liked the plan they came up with. seemed a win-win and I thought it was very creative. And truly dramatic, a great way for the players to bond with the world and it's events. Got them hooked now.
We closed with the real Princess dropping them in the neighboring kingdom before finding passage west to save her friend. Next meeting is in three weeks. I have lots to prep.
My othe campaign continues this weekend. That party is on a quest to find a lost tower. They actually own the thing, but due to disagreements with powerful people it was magicked into flight and pushed off to go wherever the wind blew. Now they're tracking it down in the southern desert wastes with enough rigging and sails to outfit the thing as a sort of ship and sail it back to restore it home. See, it's a sort of lighthouse, and in removing it the city leaders unwittingly cursed the city. Many sailors died before a replacement could be erected, and their ghosts have been tormenting the city ever since. There was a ... time dilation... and it's been about 50 years since the tower was lost. Not the party is going to try to put things right and put those souls to rest in an effort to gain some sway and influence. It's a good plan. I hope they can pull it off. They'll need plenty of influence in the future.
Long campaign is go for tomorrow. They're heading into the southern desert waste to recover a floating tower. I have a few random encounters prepared. One of which is a swarm of either dust or magma mephits. One thing they did to prepare for the journey was to buy a portable hole and use it as a well. Fill the space with water and there it is whenever they need. So that's fun. Our monk is a mycanid, so moisture is crucial. Getting to their goal should be quick depending how the session goes, and the dice.
Once they get there, things get interesting. the tower is something of a lighthouse with an eternal flame on top. It would have attracted... things. The basic plan is they'll run into a party of scavengers trying to figure how to get close enough to loot the tower. The scavengers don't present a real threat, but won't be friendly either. Then the tower will be surrounded by something with a low CR, but in large numbers. Moths to flame. THEN, the tower has become partially buried in a dune, and once they figure out a way to unbury it, they'll find it has crashed into an ancient temple of death complete with a mummy lord. That's a nasty baddy for a level ten party.
Im hoping to keep excitement up for the whole session. This tower is a gift twice over. It comes with a LOT of political and social influence. They need to earn it. And the temple will provide a lot of loot and I'll imbed several good magic items. Should be fun.
They were able to find their target easily enough and caution kept them safe from the bandit party that was there to loot. Then a thing happened.
My wizard is frightening. He was a bit early and was telling me about changes in prepared spells. I don't know if he planned the scene or if it was on the spot, but here it is.
The party reached the tower before the looters, and hid off to the side a bit. The watched these bandits set their plan in motion and weighed their options. Then wizard decided to disperse the bandits in high fashion. He conjured a fire elemental and told it to follow him, then ran into the bandit camp screaming "Help! It's going to kill me!" with this elemental hot on his tail. Three bandits were frightened and ran, then just at the last second, wizard turns and commands the thing to "MURDER THEM!" It was cold and calculated. And effective. And hilarious.
So with that threat gone, they proceed into the lost tower and discover it has become lodged against another structure and partially buried in a sand dune. The monk is a mycanid, and uses spore servant to turn the bandit corpses into laborers to dig the place out while the party explores the other structure. It's a lost temple turned mummy lords lair. They fought a couple mummies and we paused because it got late. I think they're sufficiently scared, not knowing what's ahead but knowing the mummies are just the appetizer. I'm confident they'll do fine, since all but the rogue can deal direct fire damage, not to mention the ability to conjure another fire elemental. It should be fun. Hopefully we'll finish that and set sail back north next weekend.
Sometimes the guy playing our wizard scares me. He has a way of finding the most creative synergies or unconventional spell uses. And he is careful and calculating. Frightening in some settings.
The players made huge progress tonight. They made some good roles and had very good chances intuition. They got their tower free and successfully sailed it through the mountains back towards where it came from. They discovered some plans of one of their enemies and stole the blueprints for a military base under construction. And they knew enough to not attack a large workforce building the thing (they're just folks doing a job, and part of the citizenry they're trying to save) just because they're working for the bad guy.
Wizard used dreamwalk to learn a few key plot points and discovered a secret I hadn't planned to let them in on for some time. He also unleashed a pretty bad nightmare/psychic attack on the bad guy.
Next session will land back in Valport to restore the lighthouse tower and release the ghosts that have plagued the city for decades. It's going to be an action packed session, what with ghosts and a very hostile ruler with extremely zealous assassins. And they know that word travels faster than their floating castle, so I've told them to be ready to be the talk of the town, the center of attention, and the target for all things friendly and hostile. I'm excited.
I hope they decide to reinstate the previous system of rule, rather than take that role themselves. Valport was a guild city. The unions ruled, and it was prosperous for everyone honest and dishonest. For the last while, it's been run by a cult leader who got into power very sneakily and has used the position to do some very nasty things.
They floated the idea of trying to dreamwalk with a familiar NPC, but they (rightly) are scared, knowing that he's a very high level spellcaster and rumored to be off his rocker. Their experience traveling with him didn't give them any reason to doubt his insanity. If they decide to try and restore the dragons to this world, they'll need to track down old Nesfiz again. I really look forward to that adventure.
Short but sweet session yesterday.
Opened with some good roleplay. Everyone recognized how dire the situation with the village captured by evil cultists is. That even if they drive them out and retake the town with minimal loss of life, the baddies are likely to sabotage the valley's ability to produce lumber and wipe out food stores around harvest time.
Then one of the PC's decided he needed to talk with his family about what happened to his sister - who the bug cult captured. How his mother hid the fact that the sister was half Ethmer (mystical race), and this is what led to her illness. Tense family drama. Good RP scene.
Then they marched back to the city to retake it, and the battle will be next session.
Got a great scene of body horror in. One Cultist they were fighting decided to stab himself in the heart rather than be taken prisoner. His body started to convulse and bulge on the ground and two softball-sized bugs crawled out of his chest.
New group is starting to figure out their direction. They made it to the city to hear "The Call" which is a sacred treasure hunt basically. The Call is a rather cryptic puzzle leading to ten treasures that will eventually name acolytes to the gods and grant immortality. There's a secret society of Seekers (think a characature of cliched Hollywood Freemasons) devoted to the study and protection of these treasures. They decided to ask the seekers for pointers and figured to start at the local temple in search of guidance. That was the right order of operations to be let in on the secret to one of the treasures. Or, it gave a memory that will help them identify the path and opportunity to find one. It actually happened very organically and couldn't have gone smoother. They decided to pursue the avenue of becoming Seeker pledges to learn more of their secrets and hopefully get more clues. Becoming a pledge means completing a task for another one of the temples, in this case it means finding out and stopping whatever is out desecrating graveyards and tombs in the south lands bordering the pirate kingdoms.
So in this party we have a paladin and cleric both in service of Bamuth, god of life, doing a cleanse-quest for the temple of Mortisse, god of death. So that's a bit poetic.
My higher level party (same world, different timeline) just reinstated the lost tower they recovered and should be able to rid the city of the ghost plague. The ruler of the city is a bad dude called Parlan, and they're actually carrying a court summons for this guy to answer for international crimes, but at the first opportunity they decided to just attack. The wizard said "I've let dictators live in the past and always regret it." We stopped that session with the battle cleared and they have Parlan in custody but I didn't let them kill him yet. He's going to beg and bribe and do everything he can to try and talk out of it. I don't suspect they'll have any mercy but I want to use it as a bad guy monologue to give them some more world lore to consider. Should be good.
Im having so much fun watching this world and story come to life. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much time I spend thinking about this creation of mine. It's not what I set out to do when I got into the game, but here we are. I really think it could be a great long form story or series of novels.
Things have happened. High level party has been making big waves. They revealed the existence of a hidden and immortal dragon in an unlikely place. In doing so the accidentally helped the anti-dragon cult gain power and influence in the most fortified city in the world. And just after they had chased the cult out of another big city. Shame.
They now know the big event that happened and reshaped the world, and who did it. They've mostly committed to reversing that change. They're level 13 and about 75% through the campaign I think. They basically have two more large tasks before they'll be able to take on the big baddy. I'm excited for the next couple sessions. Action packed.
The "origins" party is throwing me for a spin. This is set in the same world, but well in the past and still being shaped. Tonight they reported back from their first real quest, successful. Level 3, and my paladin (lawful good) decided to multiclass as a warlock, specifically to a chaotic-evil patron. I'm excited for that character to develop. He serves the god of life, but just swore service to one of the "old gods" who was supplanted and sealed away. The party also came far to face with the god of death in the temple. I hadn't planned that, but I wanted to give them something special and exciting. Their quest was a right of passage to be able to join a secret society, two of the players anyway, and so they learned some bigger secrets and clues. They found out what was behind the widespread desecration of graves and tombs in the south, a coven of hags that may be part of the Dissent (secret-er society seeking to restore the old gods). Then decided they want to return and destroy the hags. Hired a ship to get back south faster, and almost made it through a series of pirate encounters (have to say the right things and grease the palms) and ended the session with an encounter that should have been a challenge. Instead the dice decided that I wasn't to harm the players while they mowed through my pirates. So now they have their own ship because of course they do. And two pirate hostages. And Bobo. I like Bobo, he started as a random bandit that tried to rob the party, and now he's their story telling patsy, and very loyal. Gives me an opportunity to build on the lore of the world and tell Grimm style fairytales within my world. Which is fun.
Soon, I promise, I'm going to start writing this world and some of its stories long-form. Infinitenexus has inspired me to try the novel thing, and I think I have some good stuff. Stay tuned.
In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :
Fun times. Be warned Level 13 is where things really went off the rails for me as a DM and I got burned out on 5e. That high level, prepping encounters became a lot more work, way more enemy abilities to keep track of, lots more plates to keep spinning during combat. Tracking HP in combat became ponderously large numbers. Combats took the same amount of time though, just all the numbers were inflated. I managed a couple good combats, but it took as much work to prep those as it previously took for me to prep an entire session or even adventure.
I hope your experience goes better than mine.
I'm starting up a new group. We had our first session last week. Previous group started to dissolve, we got to a good stopping point - basically the finale of "Season 1" - and then things dissolved except for me and the original player who started pulling the group together.
We decided to start something brand new and enlisted new players.
We're doing 2 sessions with a game I backed a while back called "Stealing Stories for the Devil". It's heists with a supernatural element where PC's can bend reality. It's got options for 10-episode campaigns, but we're just going to do two one-shots. We have two knew gamers, so getting them used to RPG's. The system is more narrative and player driven, and getting everyone used to thinking that way. I figure it's also a good test run to be sure everyone likes playing with this group and wants to move forward, and to feel out the dynamic.
After the two one-shots, we'll be doing my thing of group creating a campaign together. I'm looking forward to seeing that. I'd really love to do something Shadowrun-esque, but it's going to be what the whole group gets excited about. The campaigns I've made this way have all been really cool settings, so I'm excited to see what happens.
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