In which we breeze right up to third level where all the good stuff.

 First session. First level PCs awaken in a casket confronted by a skeleton (each carrying a small non-magical tchotchke that may or may not be relevant) outfitted like themselves. They have to kill it to exit the sepulcher. So we begin with a nice light combat to get everyone used to the initiative rules. To say nothing of the existential questions which may reappear throughout the campaign. The party comes together in the “common room” and are unable to piece together anything resembling a story … yet. They rest and have a “random encounter.” More role-playing. A final encounter blocks “the door out” and guards the loot. It was overcome successfully and the session ended. Everybody gets bumped to second level by virtue of surviving the first adventure. We use email to update character sheets and divide the loot.

Second session. Party exits the tomb and finds itself in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by forest and gently rolling hills, but with open grassland to the south. The hint of mountains to the west. I had assumed the open fields would be the most likely direction of travel since the could make good speed. Instead they opted to chose a random number and head off into the woods. No worries. This decision took about half an hour. We then discussed procedure for wilderness travel, exploration and foraging. Ranger managed to find food for the day right off the bat. Bard (!) managed to keep them on course. DM managed to throw a set piece short adventure at them cleverly disguised as a random discovery. The hook played into one character's back story and at least two other player's general tendencies. In last campaign's questionnaire they said they wanted some “stranger” monsters. So I gave them a quickling. More of a nuisance than anything else. One of them got shrunk, but the spider minions were defeated. And we ended the scene with the quandary of how to deal with the now-tiny fighter. The plan was to bump them all another level upon completion of this (or whatever encounters they had) heading into Session three but that didn't happen. Had one player absent session one and another (the now short guy!) session two. So after the NEXT session I'll move all but one to level three … and he'll go to level two. They'll have earned xp's to get them about 25% of the way to 4^th (I'm using UA Three Pillar advancement.) By the end of the next session they will have had several combats, several skill checks, wilderness travel, magic use and hopefully at least one social interaction. Pretty much covers it.

Third session. No idea. But I have a week. I do a “three horizons” kinda thing. I know what 2, 6 and 20 mile hex they're in. I'll prep the surrounding hexes for each level. Already have KIND of an idea of what's there. I'll live and die by my random encounters. I'll have a few placed encounters. Nothing major. They MIGHT finally get out of the woods. And when they come to “civilization” and realize they're living in a post-apocalyptic limited technology (even for a mideavil fantasy world) fantasy world the REAL fun begins.

Gotta get my campaign arch written. It's STARTED but little more than a germ. Gotta start thinking about fronts. Wanna try to design an adventure using a couple of the templates pushed by luminaries like Sly Flourish and Guy Scandlers. And the trade / econ system. But this graph is all long term stuff so no worries.