and the session STILL runs itself!
As foretold I rather unceremoniously dropped half a dozen plot hooks at the start of the session. The hook for the primary and secondary story lines was dropped first along with a cryptic poem (emailed to them at the start of the session as my printer decided it no longer had ink!) and an item in a box (presented via the picture affixed to this post.) The rest of the hooks were tertiary and to at least some degree class/race/character specific. But the party latched on to one and clamped down like grim death. "A heretical sect has produced a new translation of the book of the cleric's faith and must be hunted and captured. Those that do not recant are to be exterminated."
So off they went with our diminutive halfling Twilight Cleric in the fore. So it took a while to get there. A clearing in the woods. The stone outline of the beginnings of as worship site. A rough altar. And a dozen followers. The first hour or so of our session was spent talking to NPC's and weighing their options. The NEXT hour was spent at the site with our cleric discussing theology with the leader of the sect. I had done NO research on the topic. I knew damned little about the deity worshiped by the cleric. But I knew enough to respond to his questions and to present enough of a difference between what the cleric believed and what the sect was proposing as to make a difference. The whole thing had a distinct "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" feel to it. Is the sacrament the ACTUAL blood and body of Christ or is it symbolic? The other two players and I engaged in some pleasant meta banter while the cleric feverishly read everything he could find on the interwebs, thinking I'd dug up some theological dilemma in the lore of some other setting.
And he found one!
And it was DAMNED close to the bushwa I had been slinging about to keep the session moving. After about an hour of THAT I realized I needed to do something to move the session along or else the entire evening would be filled the cleric and I sitting on tree stumps discussing philosophy. NOT the stuff of legendary fantasy. So I put it to the cleric - recant or exterminate? He tried a persuasion check (high CR and with disadvantage) and failed. At which point all hell broke lose.
Six PC's and a dozen religious zealots. How long would it take to fight out at YOUR table? Twenty five minutes. Considering that half the party had just advanced a level and included four spell casters was not bad IMHO. Each party member succeeded in plinking off 1-2 opponents quickly. The cleric then strode the battlefield dealing the death blows to the remaining heretics.
About a hundred coins, a ceremonial dagger, and eight uncut stones. The stones are "interesting" because it marks the first time I've given uncut stones as treasure. They'll need to find a lapidary to turn them into gemstones. I'll see how that goes. About 1/5 of a level in XP with an additional 1/10 to the cleric. I'll use the travel back to let the two wizards discuss the item that they were given at the beginning of the session and see if I might rekindle interest.
One last concept introduced: I'm going to allow each PC to declare their own quest or goal and we'll agree how much XP it's worth. Our ranger was quick to take the bait - "hit ten targets in a row during combat or competition, for XP worth 1/10 of a level." Done! Keep in mind he's 5th level with his father's +1 bow and a quiver which bestows an additional +1 so he's looking at +11 to hit. We're looking at almost a 60% chance of success. That'll be fun. Looking fwd to seeing what the others come up with.
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