In Which Strahd Must Die!

 Last Halloween I ran Death House for my party and some guests, including offspring.  Went VERY well.  I enjoyed it.  The party enjoyed it.  The kids enjoyed it.  So to continue the theme, THIS season I'm gonna run Strahd as a one-shot.  There is a SLEW of info out there to assist and I don't like ANY of it.  But I do like a little of ALL of it.  So I'm taking all of what I found and throwing it into my candy bowl, mixing it up and coming up with a fun, playable one night timed adventure.  I'm writing this BEFORE the session because I have the opportunity to.  I'll add the recap in the morning.

So what are my sources?  Let's start with The Count, The Castle and The Curse.  Trims the size of the facility.  Provides a good map.  And some interesting mechanics.  Stress level is AWSOME.  The escalating encounters seem like a good idea.  Time will tell.  The ticking real-time clock is perfect.  Not a fan of the "escape" goal, the start up nor the encroaching vampirism mechanic.  Trinkets might work out too.  We'll see.

Back in the Before Times Tim Bannock wrote some great notes for Strahd as a One-Shot.His goal posts are good.  His Ireena story is solid and playable.  His tomb descriptions are spot on.  And his resource citations are as well.  

Playing Curse of Strahd as a One Shot via James Introcaso’s Worldbuilder.  Step 3 and Step 4 are good, although I'm skipping the placement of an ally.

James Haeck’s articles at D&D Beyond: Strahd Must Die Tonight! and Strahd Must Die Again (And Again And Again)  These are both quite helpful, including the info on how party size and level.

Sly Flourish touched on it both in a video and in writing.  His approach includes an interesting "game" for the life of Ireena.  

Also using the three-step Strahd from Reddit

11/5 - Remember, remember!  It's been a week.  A week of Halloween, scary movies, football and session prep.  But I promised session notes so here we go.  

The party comprised Dakora (Wizard 9), Serynah (Sorceress 6), Thorn (Bard 6), Kaj (Paladin 6) and Rudolph van Richeten (Ranger 9.)

We started with the reading of the Tarroka during the carriage ride.  Unfortunately all three artifacts were to be located in the catacombs.  Strahd delivered his speech at the gate and the party entered the castle, suitably cautious and dare I say frightened.  Stone gargoyle's accompanied by REAL ones in the foyer kept them cautious and alert.  Down to the mess hall, through the larder (sighting a black cat which put them off their feed for a bit,) and into the cauldron room to which they assigned great weight.  Sarynah took the pointy hat.  It WAS Halloween after all.

Back to the larder.  Then down to the torture chamber.  Much caution in the flooded rooms.  And an encounter with Strahd.  He displayed his power, setting the stage for how bad the final battle would be without the artifacts.  Jail cell examined but the gargoyle at the end of the hallway was skipped.  Back up the trough the mess hall and into the organ room.  Another sighting/confrontation with Strahd.  Tension builds as the realization they're being toyed with sets in.

To the chapel.  Strahd watches from the balcony.  Party realizes they have only a little over an hour left and they pick up the pace, triggering encounters and missing clues.  Audience chamber.  The balcony. Up to the reception hall.  The study - which was, especially since van Richten was being played by a DM who'd run the entire campaign and was tickled with how the one-shot was bringing the legends together.  Serynah was finally recognized as Ireenah.  Sergei's story was shaping up.  Strahd was now more than just the BBG.  He'd "done things" that were brought home to the party.  The defaced paintings.  The hanged woman.  The aging child was discovered and presented quite a conundrum as the party was becoming quite flustered and pressed for time.  

They realized they needed to go down so I cut out the Hall of Heroes and allowed them to find the long spiral staircase down to the crypt.  Wanted to run the 30+ catacombs but instead went with a small eight tomb offering.  They found the three artifacts with two minutes to go and dashed to the chapel (which is where they'd been told they'd find Strahd.  BEST decision they'd made was to approach from the balcony.

(Note: they kept wanting to go back to the cauldron room and I meta'd them out of it.)

The two spell-casters stayed up whil the other three went down the stairs to face Strahd.  Battle took over an hour.  Lots of close rolls.  Very good use of feats and spells.  Well-timed healing.  Using the three-part Strahd I was changing him every 1/4 of his HP: physical changes and varied attacks.  My only regret was when he wnet into his final quarter I  opted for him to retreat to his casket (with his three wives.)  I changed him into a bat and he damned near made it until Serynah cast Web and he failed his ST.  My error in not allowing him to auto-save.  He then changed into a wolf but was unable to flee before the Paladin sued the Sun Sword to deal the final blow.  

"How do you want to do this?"  

"As I stab the blade into his heart I think of Sergie and whisper .... 'Good morning.'"

Thought it would take 4 hours.  Took 5.  And everyone left happy.  Will DEFINITELY run it again next year.  Stricter.

Questions?

 

In which we count to three

 Hercules' third task was to catch the hind of Artemis.  In OUR setting the hind has been wounded.  She must still be caught .... and healed ... and the miscreants made to pay.  This task involves a skill check which is a pleasant change of pace.  Survival and Nature checks are used to track/locate the beast.  Once found Stealth might lead to a successful apprehension or calming.  Failure leads to the skill challenge of a chase: five successes needed before three failures.  Failure means you've lost the trail and need to start over the next day.  

PC's lose hp on a failure albeit not many considering their level, and before each new round of skill checks they must make a CON check or suffer a level of exhaustion.  This seems kinda silly.  IF we assume most parties will comprise 3-6 PCs that means there would be, at MOST two rounds and most of the time only one.  My party scored one success and three failures, then retired for the day.  They rolled HORRIBLY.  Next day they scored the three successes right off the bat and the task continued.  

They have a druid skilled with an herbalist kit who has done some potion concocting work.  This, combined with our cleric's knowledge of wild beasts, including the ettercap, gave them the insight they needed to make the potion.  They'd been studiously avoiding them during their pursuit of the hind but knew where to find them now that they needed them.  This woulda been a medium difficulty encounter but the ettercaps got lucky.  TWO of them managed to restrain two party members, making it a hard fight.  One of the E'caps was quickly put to flight making it a 3 on two combat for a couple rounds until the druid and wizard got free of the webs.  Two more rounds of combat vanquished the foe with the Battle Master being reduced 50%.

Poison sack harvested (on second try - the party has a new appreciation for their missing Ranger) and anti-venom salve prepared.  Trained falcon earned as a reward, as well as all living expenses for the month being covered.  Party returns to the real world next session but will revisit the village of Kalogeros in a month when another party member steps away from the table for a few weeks.

All in all the party is enjoying these diversions and appreciates the variety provided so far.  Next task is another combat pillar with a little social interaction.  Task #5 will present some outstanding problem solving opportunities.  Still recommend if you need an interesting drop-in or wanna play a dozen or so session campaign running from 5th to 8th level. 

The Cycle of Cerberus

In which we do a tribute to T Rex

The second labor is facing the Hydra of the lake of the Naiads. Open at the Lounge Ambrosia. Our elven

You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you

fighter peppered Chyron with odd questions - again. "What does your bed look like? Have you ever been ridden? Why no pants? Who does your hooves?" Fisherman complaining about problems at Lake Naiads. Chyron offers a reward and off they go. Syrena contacts the Nyads to get some clues - a portal to hell below the surface, guarded by a large anial. After a bunch more futzing about and over-planning they FINALLY "set sail" and encountered the hydra. Battle took one round. The beast never had a chance. By dint of luck the spellcasters were using fire-based spells and rolling REALLY well. Four heads destroyed by fire. Fifth one lopped off but body took enough damage to kill the beast before it could regenerate. Beast killed. Door to hell closed. Giant mudcrab avoided completely. And a nice little tchotchka for a reward. And enchanted hydra tooth that protects the wearer from poison AND allows trhem to breath a cloud of poison once per day. Thought we MIGHT get to the third labor: the Hind of Artemis. But the initial encounter with Aclippe took longer than I thought it would. Shoulda known better. But the hook has been set. And a nice reward awaits. A falcon for our cleric who's been learning the skill from our ranger, and advantage on the next 30 survival/nature checks.

In which we go Greek

 The actor in our group got cast in an October show so we've lost 1/3 of our party.  By agreement we put

Heracles and the Nemea Lion Pieter Paul Rubens

the campaign on hold and I offered the party something ... different.  Instead of waking up in the deep forest, where they WERE, they find themselves on a beautiful beach with Cyprus and Olive trees in the distance.

They're visiting the island of Kalogeros, home to both Mount Olympus and the Gates of Hades.  Cerberus has become problematic and the gods have sent the party to the stewards of the island to assist with the mayhem.  You can find the whole thing here, including maps, music and VTT tokens.  It's a railroad but for a short term somebody-couldn't-make-it drip in it fills the bill.  And can be revisited whenever necessary.  Note: not thrilled with the music but I found some good usable stuff here and even here.  Lot's of folks don't like THIS source but I got a sweet 1-year deal so I'm using it while I can.  Some good music here but might be too much waste for too much money.  Film at 11.

Anyway.  We got in a good three hour session.  LOTS of role-playing.  My party spent a LOT of time talking to Chyron.  A LOT.  About stuff that had next to nothing to do with the game.  One hour gone.  Second hour was spent tracking down the BBG along with all of the encounters therein.  Third hour was a reasonably interesting combat.  Number of opponents increased nearly every round which was interesting.  Party used their AOE spells to good effect when the numbers got big.  And the BBG failed an important ST which made it a little easier.

Nothing new from most characters, the exception being our Scribe Wizard who finally uncorked her Manifest Mind feature to good effect.  An interesting magic item was the reward.  Don't think they've caught on to the whole Hercules thing.  Yet.  One player has a decent knowledge of the mythology but she still hasn't made the connections.  She will.  Eventually.  

Figured the first session would be intro and one task.  Nailed it.  So I'm thinking two tasks for the next level.  And the hydra is a water/underwater fight which this party has never done.  But they DO use a lot of fire-based spells so it might be easier than expected.  Hopefully the giant mud crab will grapple the flame throwers.

In which we wake "It" up.

 The following isn't session notes per se.  It's the Thought process that followed a specific action during a session, written out for two reasons.  First, so that I can follow it, add to it, and keep the world moving.  Second so the players can read about what REALLY happened when the campaign is over.  

I'm using Fronts from Dungeon World, with a little Night's Black Agents thrown in.  Players initially just wanted to be treasure/monster hunters but after about five levels of that they decided a little BBG action would help, so long as it wasn't too railroad-y.  So I set to work designing it.  And plopping it down in the world.  Realizing that nothing exists until the players brush up against it.  Which means I can add, delete, alter and amend to my heart's content until they're actually in media res.  Which is what I've done.  One over-arching BBG.  Four (was six) factions struggling for dominance.  I gave the PC's an artifact and some clues to figure out it's workings.  While they searched for that I brushed up the factions. LAST session they FINALLY figured it out and that sets the ball rolling.

The Five Great Prophecies.  Each foretells the rise and triumph on one of the factions.  

June 21.  A generic bard was contracted to journey with the party as the revisited an old battle field.  Our ranger had been hired to do away with some marauding bears, which he did.  Leaving the rotting carcasses of the large carnivores behind. Which attracted a LARGER carnivore.  A green dragon.  The dragon was soon dispatched.  The bard had his song.  AND knowledge of the artifact.  Five days journey found him back in the capitol city.  There he reached out to the House of Pellissi, patrons of entertainers known to pay for information.  A quick visit to the School of Illusion netted him a bit of a disguise to protect him from feared retribution.

House Pellissi ALWAYS seeks favor from House Lupine, and with the election only six months ago it was important to keep ties intact.  The School of Illusion took longer to pass on the news - always on the lookout for false news dontcha know. Eventually word filtered up to the Archmage.  It was going to be an interesting summer.

The Arcane Eye moved first.  Valen the Enchanter reached out to their contacts in the "knowledge" world: libraries, scholars, sages and artificers.  They were to be on the lookout for anyone seeking information regarding The Compass.  (Game-wise: this started the countdown clock to their first Grim Portent.  Time now became a growing issue for the party ,although they didn't know it yet.)

House Lupine sent word to Lady Elara who then presented it to the Counsel of Sovereigns.  The CoS is far reaching and slow moving.  Already mid-July and they have not yet reached a consensus on what action to take.  By the end of the month they will have opted to merely consolidate their holdings and grow:  More caravans.  More thieves.  Guildmaster Thaddeus and "The Whisperer" will have a busy summer.

The Circle of the Silver Moon has already made an unauthorized direct attack, sending an Invisible Stalker after Dakora the Enchantress of Fire & Ice.  And acid.  They need to SERIOUSLY re-evaluate.  

The Cult of the Shadow Moon is more circumspect, taking a "wait and see" attitude.

The party sits at July 13 just off the Southern Road, a few days from Crossroad #1.  Completely oblivious of ANY of this. 

Next Session:

gets us to July 15.  I've stripped out one of the factions.  No more Shadow Moon.  The Shadowmaster (an outlaw gang) has knowledge they'll pass on to The Whisperer.  And a stray half-elf ranger will pass word on to The Purple Rider.  Arcane Eye is seeking someone to obtain the prophesied grimoire.  Dawn's Nexus? They parties foil?  Circle of the Silver Moon changes their focus to Brethemney and the blight.  The Counsel begin placing new faces in ever higher places.

another few sessions have passed.  Today is June 19th, and it's July 25th in the game world.  Was NOT happy with the way things were flowing (and neither were the players.)  Prohecy's learned weren't sparking interest.  The "other stuff" was happening but PCs weren't learning about it since they've opted for a long (productive) trip in the wilderness.  So I've fallen back to another old source: "Creating Epic Campaigns" by Guy Sclanders.  Have stripped out another faction.  Currently have four: the BIG BBG and three "secondary" factions, two of which are functioning under/beside the BIG BBG and another which MAY turn out to be allies of the PC.  I've redesigned all of the factions to fit the CEC format.  Only one of the prophesies has been "learned" so I'm rewriting the rest to fit the CEC model.  Should be MUCH more actionable.  It's also helped to design the countdown clocks that will "run" the factions.  And taking a page from Gnome Stew to provide a war room for the party.  Need to design a polar area chart so the PCs can SEE the progress (at least graphically) and rework the countdown clock.  Every iteration makes things a bit clearer.  

 

In which we peek behind the screen

Recently had a lengthy after-action discussion at our table about how initiative and combat timing works.  You can read the basics of our procedure here.  In response I wrote the following and figured since I WROTE it I may as well post it.

Khari kneels before an unopened chest, hoping to find something useful therein. Behind her about 15' back in an arc are Kirkas, Dakora, Castellan and Serynah. Turn's out the chest is a mimic. Mimic takes a grab at Khari, fails, and I call for initiative.

I then go around the table asking for your result. Kirkas 17, Dakora 11, Serynah 12, Khari 12 and Castellan 9. I enter these in the appropriate field on the combat sheet. The monster's initiative is already there. The dice roller and modifier were input when I “built” the encounter. The sheet is formatted to indicate who goes first, second and third. In THIS case Kirkas is first, Serynah is second and Khari is third.

Kirkas tell's me he going to attack with his bow. He rolls 2d20 to determine if he hits, then rolls to determine damage done. I update the mimics HP according AND note that Kirkas has spent 1 AP AND note that the thing Kirkas did (fire his bow) takes 8 tics. Since he STARTED on 17 the spreadsheet then indicates that Kirkas will go again at 9.

Next up is Serynah. She opts for a 3^rd level sleep spell. She rolls a d20 to see if she successfully casts the spell. She'll need to roll 10 or better (10+spell level-charisma modifier.) She's successful but a Mimic has an average of 58 HP. Even if she rolled all 8's she'd only score a 56 and be unable to Sleep the Mimic, so no joy. I note that she has spent TWO AP (to cast a leveled spell) and that it took 3 tics (one per level.) Since she started on 12 she will next go on 9.

Khari is up next at 12, followed now by Dakora (11), Kirkas (9), Sareynah (9), and Castellan (9.) Khari opts to use her wild shape. This uses all three AP and takes the rest of this turn so she's done.

Dakora opts for Witch Bolt. She successfully casts the spell and the arc of energy connects to the mimic. Since she cast it at 4^th level she'll do 4d12 damage this turn and 1d12 for every turn hereafter so long as she concentrates and takes no further actions. Casting the spell costs her 2 AP and 4 tics. She'll be up again at 7.

Kirkas decides his archery isn't strong enough so he swaps out his bow for Swiftstrike. That's an action and takes a tic. He has 1 AP left and will be back up at 8.

Serynah is up next and has only one AP left. Move? Probably not. Fire bolt. No need to check success as cantrips are always successful. She DOES need to hit on a ranged attack. BOOM! She hits. And now that she's 5^th level it does 2d10 damage. But her AP are spent so she's done.

Castellan finally gets to step up. So to speak.. He summons Selune's Strike which takes one tick but costs no AP, but he has to wait for the next tic. As the cantrip takes effect Kirkas gets to go again.

But wait! Oh no! The mimic is ALSO in at 9. That wicked tongue lashes out at the now-wildshaped Khari. It hits, does 7 points of damage. Khari gets to try to avoid the grapple with STR vs DC 13. Let's say she doesn't. The mimic only has one attack so IT'S done but it'll be biting down NEXT turn.

Kirkas and Castellan go again at 8. Kirkas casts Hunters Mark (0 AP) for 1 tic, moving to 7. Castellan realizes he probably should have cast Moonbeam so he does it NOW … spending 2 AP. He succeeds at casting it, the mimic fails it's ST at disadvantage and begins to morph back into its gloppy shape. It takes radiant damage from the beam. Kirkas now has to move to get close enough to swing, using his final AP.

Dakora maintains her concentration hoping to finish the beast next round. And unless I've missed something above thus endeth the round. Six seconds. Roll again? Doubtful. I'd likely allow Dakora's Bolt and Castellan's Beam to finish the beast without playing it out.

The initial guideline for the whole shebang was Greyhawk Initiative. And I've used Tao for guidance. And a handful of other content creators. I keep tinkering with this table to make it better. Latest iteration (NOT used above – will use next session.)

Most stuff: 1

Move, per 10': 1

Spell: 1 per level

Grapple, Potion, poison: 5

Find something: 1d8+2

But the problem is weapons. How long should it take to use them? OLD system was 2 for light/finesse. 4 for versatile, 6 for heavy, 8 for bows and 10 for crossbows.

So I'm gonna try this next time: Light/finesse 1. Heavy/2-handed 3. And I'm still trying to come up with SOMETHING that makes sense for archery. Optimum real world rate of speed I've found was 12 arrows per minute which implies only 1.2 per melee round. By "rule" Kirkas could fire up to six. I need to do more research and do NOT wanna penalize Kirkas.

And after sleeping on this the long term solution becomes clear: ranged weapon attacks require 2 AP.  Suggestions welcome.

In which we get reacquainted

 My table's on its third campaign dating back to the Before Times.  SO hasn't played since previous campaign so while she knows the players her PC doesn't know THESE PCs.  And she's decided she'd like to take her place at the table again.  Good so far.

Party is in the middle of a dungeon.  We ended prior session having found a secret door.  What might be behind it?  Last night we began by opening the door.  A 15' diameter circular room.  In the center is a large opalescent bubble.  Visible inside is what appears to be the stature of a female spell caster, mid-spell.  After taking 2-3 minutes to THOROUGHLY examine the room the party notices that the statues hair is wafting VERY slightly, as a small bead of perspiration makes its way from her scalp down the side of her face.

Upon discovering this the party exit the room and use Mage Hand to manipulate the bubble into bursting.  The "statue" spring to life shouting "I'm here to help.  Have you found both keys?"  Kim was in the next room and I cued her to come in and sit down and away we went.  Turns out she was "rescued" at the conclusion of the prior campaign and placed here in temporal stasis to help the party.  

"New" character introduced mid-adventure.  A few story elements/hook planted with her.  Instantly accepted as helpful based on the info she exposited. 

In which we get swarmed by bees

 Yup.  Bees.  Party of 6.  Average of 5th level.  And a dozen swarms of bees.  Two each in fact.  Theater of

the mind.  Lot's of dropping below 0 and MED checks and heal spells and bad rulings and stuff.  But as is the case with many sessions we did a lot that we'd never done before so the virgin territory provided most of the problems.

First the new "hits not HP" system.  Most users recommend rounding down.  But nooooo.  I couldn't do THAT.  I rounded up.  "It's only 1 more hit" I thought.  Yes.  But one extra hit over a dozen beasties with an AC of 14 has quite an impact.  So rounding DOWN from now on.  Otherwise the system worked quite well.  Next - the tactical adjustments.  Party had been complaining that since everything was attacking from a distance they could usually pick it apart with the expert marksman ranger and a smattering of spells.  So this time they stumbled on a honey thief being absolutely DESTROYED by angry bees.  And the clouds of apian hell descended upon them with great fury.  Those little buggers went earlier in the initiative order than the plodding ogre's and giant spiders had been.  Throw in the fact that they have damage resistance to most weapons and this thing became a SLOG.  Glass cannon forgot he had a magic wand.  That didn't help.  When he DID go down (quite early) I noted that the bees were no longer attacking him.  But nobody in the party acknowledge this.  And nobody tried to run!  'Cause they're heroes, dontcha know.  This was attributed to the fact that they couldn't really SEE what was going on.  So retreating wasn't an option?  Well, OK.  No more TotM.  Haven't run one of those in months anyway.  

A few other mistakes. Too many swarms.  Nine or ten woulda been better than 12.  One to the "low" characters, two to the high ones.  Mike Mearls recently recommended managing the action economy by avoiding using monsters that have move total actions per round greater than three times the number of players.  That number would by 18 for this encounter.  The bees can move and attack.  So nine swarms woulda worked better.  Lesson learned.

The LAST mistake (?) I made was in my treatment of Temporary HP.  I was treating it as healing.  It isn't.  So we'll avoid the yo-yo effect that we saw last night.  

So I gave the party what they wanted.  And then they didn't want it any more.  The fighter was barely touched but had trouble dealing damage.  The cleric did some healing and utility work and had a BALL trying to figure out what the optimum action was every round.  Druid took a beating and did OK but her spores were less than effective.  Two wizards took too much damage early to be as effective as they'd like.  And the ranger?  Without his +11 archery ability he was more or less worthless and NOT happy about it.  Party worked well as a unit, found a few holes in their procedures, and now know what they need to add/improve.  Which will lead to meaningful decisions.  

Not bad for a two-hour slugfest that didn't HAVE to happen.

In which we end one test and begin another

 Hit points.  Been here a little bit before.  The XDM experiment was .... fun .... but kinda became wet

tissue paper at higher levels (5th and 6th.)  No problem with BBG's hanging around but the mooks became worthless and they were needed for BBG support.  Stuff was too easy.

So here's what we're (meaning "I'm") swinging to.  Kinda using Lazy DM's Forge of Foes to assemble combat encounters.  Some more development of the math.  Good starting points.  And I'm following Professor Dungeon Craft's suggestion of using Hits instead of Hit Points.  

In a nutshell: take creatures (average) HP, divide by 10 and round up.  A character hit is 1 hit.  A crit or sneak attack is 2 hits.  A spell attack is 1 hit per spell level, +1 if the caster is over 6th level.  MIGHT try rounding down instead of up if it gets too tough.  Will switch to MAX HP rounded down if it gets too easy.  This is only DM facing.  PCs still get the detailed treatment.  

Also.  A few weeks ago my table kinda swung into a thing of a meta-discussion after the session.  Been productive.  And I know exactly what they want - or at least what they think they want.  So they've been getting some "odd environmental" challenges in combat - mainly line of site stuff.  Which has de-buffed the ranger a tad.  They're outside most of the time so encounters are usually in the woods so 40-160 feet range.  And the party's picking them apart as they "close."  It's the edge of the razor.  Wanna scare them and push them but not kill them.  How does a hydra sneak up on a 6th level party in the woods?  Gotta get em back underground too. 

In which I don't get a nibble

 

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.

In which they get what they asked for

 Table's been going for over three years now.  Third campaign.  First two ended in TPKs.  After each did

an exit interview and tried to incorporate the responses into the next one.  They were pretty good with everything except the over-arching plots.  They didn't want one.  "We wanna be itinerant monster and treasure hunters."  And they wanted a little more political intrigue.  And one wanted some big military stuff.  Maybe.

So I plopped them onto a corner of the planet ruled by noble houses with a complex web of interrelationships and intrigue.  Lot's of one shots and exploring.  And it seemed well received.  Until last session.  We ALWAYS spend a bit of time discussing the meta-game but after our last session they lamented the lack of a BBG and big plot line!  I was throwing two or three plot hooks at them every session, tailored for their class and backstory.  They knew they could pass on any and do whatever they wanted.  I was usually able to riff off their decisions.  But now five levels in they've decided they want the thing they didn't want!

And.

In each of the prior two campaigns I had an "out" adventure.  Something to run if someone couldn't make it or if things went south early.  First one was a book of fairy tales that pulled PC's in.  They fought the big bad wolf and Rumpelstiltskin and encountered the Bremen town musicians.  They liked it.  Second one was a demi-plane in a tapestry (lifted from Pathfinder.)  They liked it too.  And they wanted another one.  So it's tough when good ideas fall in your lap and then you're called upon to duplicate the result.

Anyway.

Spending this weekend spinning up a BBEG, an overarching storyline and a recurring diversion.  And I have one.  IF YOU'RE AT MY TABLE STOP READING THIS NOW.  Recurring diversion is a compass that opens gates to small demi-planes where I'll drop small strange worlds or 5-room dungeons with ever increasing CR monsters.  AND there's an AI nested inside of it, which siphons off magic and event energy and decides to evolve.  Hence the BBEG.  And lots of factions want control of it.  Which is the adventure arc.  So I'm done.  After reviewing every Pathfinder Adventure Path, D&D published campaign, the twenty steppers designed by Sly Flourish, and a raft of tired ideas on Reddit and other sites.  

But.

The party will be happy (I hope.)  I've advised there will be a raft of plot hooks next week and one of them MIGHT be the Big Arc and one of them MIGHT be the Recurring Diversion.  So we'll see how it goes.

In which we playtest

 Welcome to 2024.

First session of the year went pretty well.  The relief column was played quickly with some nice flavor.  Our ranger who began as a bombastic embellisher has caught a lot of flak from our high elf fighter.  This column is partly mounted and our three heroes have been given horses for the task.  Only the ranger HAS horsemanship as a skill.  The wizard wisely led her animal or allowed it to be led but the steed of the haughty fighter kept wandering off the trail and onto the side of the road to graze, only to be retrieved by the ranger, who is now leading her like a kids pony ride.  Sweet.

Meanwhile back at the keep the newbies spent an hour trying to figure out how to get a lit torch through an arrow slit without being seen.  Was a GREAT example of the adage "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail."  They insisted on trying to physically relocating the torch then lighting it with magic (fire bolt.)  Eventually they realized they could LIGHT it first (with their tinder box) then transport it via Mage Hand.  Even then it didn't work as the bandits merely threw it back out, but it killed a fun hour.

So what got playtested?  I'm using the Open Multiple Files app again, which was helpful.  My magic and encumbrance sheet came in handy.  And I'm still learning the in's and out's of my own combat sheet and improving it's use.  Unbeknownst to the party I've been using Tracy & Curtis Hickman's combat damage table from XDM.  Mooks were going down with relative ease until the player rolled max damage but the table only gave them 50%.  They were shocked and panicked and they realized they were facing "Mongo" and not EVERY bandit was a pushover.  Nice moment.  The Players/DMs Handbooks I assembled worked as designed as well.

Which bring us to Nimble.  LOTS of good ideas but many aren't worth the walk: the solutions they offer to several problems are no more elegant than the problem they solve AND they're a step to far in some instances.  Attacking is FAR too simplified. Exhaustion is what many tables are already using.  Dying rules are too forgiving.  Our resting rules are better but they do have some interesting mechanics to use on the backside.  Mana is nice but our current spell slot system is "better."  And by better I mean my players like it, have bought into it and I don't wanna throw ANOTHER system at them.  

But their brew for Action Points is simple, elegant, makes sense, provides more player agency and got pretty quick buy in from my players.  Instead of move, action, bonus action and reaction you get three (or more) Action Points.  Almost everything costs 1 AP.  Exceptions are leveled spells that take 1 action to cast, which cost 2 AP, and special abilities or features that allow bonus actions (eg. step of the wind, action flurry) cost 0 and may only be done once per round.  Doing anything a second or third time adds stacking disadvantage (so you COULD attack three times but the second would be 2d20 and the third would be 3d20.)  The exception to THIS is ST spells.  The target would instead get advantage on the ST.  Done.  Almost.  High WIS gives a bonus to the #of AP's you have in the first round, improving not how EARLY you act but rather how OFTEN.  Might peel this one off.

And there's some "heroic" stuff as well.  PC may use 1 AP to block (reduce damage by your AC modifier.)  Opportunity attacks are now made at disadvantage and mooks don't have them.  Should make the battle field a little more fluid.  Also added a called shot critical.  On any attack you decide what a critical hit is (up to +10) (rolled with disadvantage) but a critical miss becomes just as big.  Essentially you can take a 50/50 shot with amplified failure.  This one needs more work.

 So how did all of this go in actual play?  Meh.  I had three casters fighting bowmen at range most of the time so a lot of this stuff didn't matter.  Until members of the party got close to 0 hp.  Blocking prevented a death.  There was a discussion while the party was pinned down about using the Called Shot Crit and the more I've thought about it the more I don't like it.  But here's a fix.  You can still do it BUT it's limited to 1 point (5%) per level AND there's a critical miss with multiple effects (ie roll twice on the critical hit table and double the results .... or triple .... etc.) 

A good session but further testing needed for the AP change.  AND the Called Shot Critical. 

<edit 1/12 to add> also got a chance to use "our new" fumble table.  Druid defending a section of keep wall.  Lizardfolk breeched the wall and melee ensued.  Druid Nat1's her first attack.  Rolled a 6 for a CHA ST - her penultimate state.  Failed ... and the free attack misses.  Was quite dramatic.  Player actually insisted on acting out her botched feint.  And the party agreed this (so far) was a GREAT mechanic!

In which we discover we're all SUPERHEROES!

     Two weeks ago we completed the "Omelas" quest.  Ending was a little mushy but it hit the players in

Why yes we ARE 1st Level.  Why do you ask?

that sweet spot of not liking, not disliking, discomfort.  An hour of discussion and table talk after the conclusion, which I think is a GOOD thing.  And it'll definitely impact their procedures in the future.  

    Next up was a two location adventure.  The henchlings party has been tasked with liberating a remote keep and then holding it for seven days until a relief column can arrive.  The A team will be leading the column.  This fulfills several goals.  The new kids get to learn to function as a team and earn some XP in a balanced setting.  The A team gets to earn some points for exploring, the players get to keep them involved, and they'll earn a few things to boost their inventory.  

    Sadly our post-Christmas session was cancelled.  As always the GOOD news is that I'm already prepped for NEXT week.  So here's what I'm doing:  I've put together a short (four page) Player's Handbook for my game setting out the (player facing) home brews we use.   Also made a spreadsheet workbook for tracking some stuff that I just am not happy with on almost every character sheet I've ever seen.  Our magic and encumbrance system are the main two.  We'll see how it works at the table soon enough.  Still wanna change up my music usage but I just can't get there.  Next step is to do a DM's Guide for a lot of my mechanics so rather than scurrying around for half a dozen different things as I need them at the table I can have them in one spot.  

    Now, let's talk about the title of this post.  Last session we introduced three new PC's: a half-orc wizard, a human Circle of Spores Druid and a halfling Twilight Cleric.  First level characters.  Had trouble climbing trees and jumping.  And then combat was joined.  The TC started slinging Toll the Dead from range, killing one opponent every round.  The wizards did the same with Fire Bolt.  Druid used healing word but was otherwise a staff swinging whirlwind.  Roughly 1/3 of the bandits holding the keep were slaughtered almost silently at night.  Once they figured out what was going on they stopped charging to their deaths so prying the remainder out of the shell will be tougher.  But the ability of two first level non-martial characters to dispatch over half a dozen bandits with relative ease?  They're all super heroes now.

    Recently blogger Taskerland, in the midst of an exploration of the use of random tables and philosophy did a nice little historical backtrack.  "...D&D had abandoned many of the practices that had emerged in the early years of the hobby and replaced them with a tendency towards writing that was horrible proscriptive in an effort to be a) idiot-proof and b) more epic in scope."

To make matters worse, support for the game aimed at players encouraged the creation of ever-more powerful PCs with ever-more elaborate powers. Meanwhile, support for the game aimed at GMs described these densely-layered and intensely rule-bound social worlds where the PCs spent their entire time being ordered about and manipulated.

    Character creation became a major part of the game.  When I was trying to put my table together I had several people tell me they'd played D&D and it consisted of two hour sitting around a table creating a character.  Not fun.  A Distant Chime touched on this recently as well.  

        Partly as an edition thing (with the increased focus on character-building as an aspect of gameplay), partly as a community thing (with the rise of character-optimization communities, especially on online forums), partly as a business thing (make sure everyone is playing with the published rules, in the published settings, using published adventures, so that they buy our books) the experience of the game for many players has shifted away from the experience of playing at a given table, characterized by a particular DM and players with their own faults and foibles and opinions and houserules, and towards the partly-imagined experience of playing a sort of platonic ideal D&D, where the rules always work as intended and the setting is exactly as published and the game is a regular progression of CR-appropriate combats atop masterful battlemaps. 

    Our friends over at Tao of D&D have written about this as well.  It saddens me.  The progressions seems to be pig farmer -> mage capable of killing people with the wiggle of a finger -> Master of the Universe.  The middle ground doesn't seem to have much to differentiate it.  The gravy might be a bit thicker, the meat a bit better seasoned, but it's still all a fine feast.  No scrambling after scraps, wondering where the next potato might be coming from or whether you might be able to snatch that rutabaga to make it to tomorrow.  

    Not sure where this is/was going but I felt the need to splooge it out.
 

 

 

 

In which we Enjoy the Funnel cakes!

 It went well.  Settled on the Crypt of Endless Agony (#681 from Elven Tower.)  Did a quick introduction of the characters.  Players started getting vested.  Then they entered the dungeon, encountered a ghoul and the slaughter began.  Shoulda been a two-round win but John kept rolling single digit attacks so it was an early bloodbath.  Set the tone.  

The players then settled in, absorbed the stats, possessions and prior occupation.  Range weapons were used as were makeshift range weapons (apples?!)  Some traps detected, some not.  Turning undead attempted - and failed spectacularly.  Slowly but surely the players did what they do best - gelled as a team.  And the BBG was vanquished and the dungeon was escaped and much coin and treasure was carted out.

Many (several?) fun stories were recounted and then the serious work of character creation began.  Roll 6d6 in order.  1-3 give +1 to the ability, 4-6 gives +2.  I also allowed players to swap one high for a low.  Also kept the requirement that an exceptional total must exist for at least two stats, with one being at least 15 and the other being at least 16. It’s enough if a player has one gifted stat, a minimum of 17, instead. Kris's charlatan had some crappy numbers but we bumped the two highest to meet the standard and she was good to go.  

John is already well on his way with Jutorious Bottomflagon his half orc wizard.  Kris's former charlatan is leaning toward rogue and I'm thinking would make a good Mastermind.  Charles?  Leaning toward druid or may take cleric.  Either way he'll be an asset to the party.  Not much muscle here but a lot of everything else.  I've run John through the background generator and it's provided several interesting backstory questions.  He had a fraternal twin die at 6.  How?  He has advantage vs poison.  Why?  He was given two potions.  One healing.  The other is his choice, as is who gave it to him and why.  He was "assigned" his three cantrips but selected one in the funnel.  His spellbook also has Magic Missile and he'll select the other one.  Will be interesting to see how he interacts with Dakora.  

Equipment?  Basic needs, PLUS the stuff picked up in the funnel, PLUS a 3d6 die roll here.

A nice inscription in the spell book - a gift from his mentor (provided by ChatGPS).  And John's well on his way.  I use my mechanics to make a good fit.  John gets a crap-ton of choices and meaningful questions to direct his backstory.  One down.  Two to go!

In Which We Munch on Crunch

 Recently started reading the posts from A Knight at the Opera.  They've had a couple pretty good posts on crunch lately.  Well, not lately.  This one was back in 2021.  And this one last month.  Both of reasonable length but both good treatments of the topic.  

Y'all know I likes me some crunch.  But I like crunch for a reason.  And I like crunch on MY side of the screen.  Player facing crunch adds to the cognitive load and detracts from overall game play.  So if I add a bit of crunch for the players it's gotta be worth the walk.*  If I can add it to MY work load and it improves the game then I'm usually not even gonna question it.  Players don't usually even hafta know it's there!

And so it is with my newest concoction.  A year or so ago I experimented with The Angry GM's Tension Pool.  It worked OK but we weren't spending enough time crawling for it to matter so it slipped silently into thecloud of good intentions.  Then last month I discovered The Underclock.  And THIS I will implement.  Started last week.  As the party entered the dungeon I meticulously placed a d20 on the map with the "20" facing up.  All action ceased.  Dakora gave me the side-eye and said, quietly, "I hate it when you do stuff like that."  They got it down to 14 before the end of the session.  We'll see how Tuesday night goes.  Don't think I like it for overland travel, nor for urban exploring but it has definitely seemed to sharpen up their attention underground.

Pile this on top of my insanity rules,  spell slot rules and focus vs component rules and the crunch is all easy on the players but adds to the gameplay and decision making.  Do I risk madness to get this spell off?  Do I upcast a spell at the risk of losing it for 24 hours or more?  Do we keep making progress or fall back to that nice spot on the trail that offered the promise of a long rest (which is quite a commodity in our game.)  Cheese that CRunch!

Side story from last session.  Party is trying to elicit help from a local noble.  Their selling point was "we like to travel village to village doing good deeds."  The Lady inquired "what was your last one?"  What followed was about two minutes of backtracking through previous of adventures, NONE of which really involved "good deeds."

*Lengthy aside.  Back when I worked as a summer camp counselor I was usually in charge of our "special programing": opening and closing ceremonies, vespers, flag raising and lowering.  That kind of thing.  I enjoyed finding alternative sights for these.  And our campers usually appreciated the variety IF it made sense.  Had an aide once recommend using a sight that was a 15 minute walk from our home base.  For a five minute ceremony.  I nixed it and said the location had to be "worth the walk."  It had to be worth the half hour of evening rec time the campers would be giving up to get there.  And after that "making it worth the walk" became sort of our mantra.

In which we experience FOMO

 For those of you closer to MY age FOMO is "Fear of Missing Out."  It's a thing.  Not going on a rant here (although I could) but rather sharing a bit of a table story.  Party has set off on the road "south" looking for adventure.  A few random encounters.  A few interesting sights/landmarks.  And one of the players sez "I wonder what's happening in Brethamney?"  They left the small town a couple months (IRL) ago (maybe a week in game time) with some unresolved issues, most notably the Wood Elf refugee problem and the growing blighted forest.  The expression of FOMO means I'm doing something right.  They cared about the village and the growing threat/problem.  Which means I can keep escalating the Fronts there and allow the PCs to hear rumors of what's going on as they're on the road.  And THAT makes this "garden game" work.   I feel like I can pull 'em back there any time I want without  railroading.

In other news, here's what I have going on outside of basic sesion prep:

1.  My NTME system crashed a couple weeks back so it's being rebuilt.  Personally I HATE working on just one aspect for a prolonged period of time.  I get cranky.  I start cutting corners, getting sloppy and resort to hand-waving.  So I just do one or two entries on a handful of things so as not to lose the edge.

2.  Do one step on my storefront table (calculating how many of each shop are in each market town (over 150 globally.)  

3.  Rebuild one storefront (which determines what's available from a merchant along with its cost.)  Last night I did fletchers, bowyers and armorers.  One issue here is that many of these are interdependent so I leave notes for things I need to add/re-evaluate.  Really need to hit the textiles chain: from raw material to thread, cloth, yarn, clothing.  Kinda important and far-reaching.

4.  Found a nice article on random generation of caravans.  Have been VERY disappointed with my random encounter tables in this regard.  They don't really reflect road travel well.  Rather than rebuild them for that purpose I've decided that unless my table gives me a GREAT encounter I'll make it a caravan, and use THIS generator to design it.  

5.  All of the above are related to the import/export question and I'm working on "designing" the math to determine what's coming in and going out of a given market.  So far so good but there's a LOT of "formula writing" issues.  

6.  I've had the hex crawl data for MOST of the trip the party is currently on but I need to do three-horizons prep for the new destination.  AND the new destination.  The city, layout, power structure, and the beginnings of Fronts.

7.  Also noticed I need to prep random encounters more.  Was very disappointed with my play of combat encounters on the road.  Solution?  Have one in my pocket!  So part of weekly prep is now spending some time to build a GOOD encounter at the deadly, easy and in-between level.  As an offshoot I need to prep the encounters suggested by the current encounter table so they're ready to go when they come up.  Viva la spreadsheet.

That's pretty much where we are.  PCs will be jumping to 4th level soon with all of the fun THAT entails.  Then at 5th they'll make "The Choice."  They create new characters.  We'll either do the traditional random roll, OR a Lvl 0 funnel OR maybe even a point crawl.  Old characters may be retired ("settle down") or kept active.  New characters may EITHER be tied to the existing party (the B team) OR plugged in to their own campaign somewhere else. 

In which the DM smiles

     Our last session was roughly the 10th in the new campaign.  Party had decided to hit the road.  After exploring a mysterious keep, with the aid of a mysterious stranger, they headed for "the crossroads," a caravanserai.  There they were hired as night watchmen to try to catch/kill an unidentified "monster in the woods."  I thought this was a one-night adventure but it turned into three.  PART of that is because 80% of us play in the same FFL and it's a busy time of year so a LOT of off-topic convos.  But still!  

    The OTHER reason it took so long was because of player agency.  On several occasions throughout the story they reached decision points and took .... creative paths.  They DID uncover the monster, reveal the twist, bring the true miscreants "to justice."  And then left town.  Had they been able to tie the wrong-doers to their higher-up the caravanserai would've rewarded them with a pony and a wagon - something they can definitely use and have been asking about (and can only just barely afford.)  <edit to add> I would note that there was some questionable writing in the otherwise good product I pulled the adventure from.  Too much RR and not enough SB.  Thankfully The Alexandrian has taught me well about the three clue rule, so I was able to "add" undiscovered clues in a couple more areas to smooth the road.  Better writing could have eliminated this necessity.   

    So why the smile?  At the session conclusion there was MUCH discussion over their new-found freedom and agency.  There was SOME last campaign but this time around I've listened, forced myself not to over-plot, and let them go.  They THINK they're being naughty murder hobos.  They DID kill two people on the way into the first village and the rest of the Night Watch given the opportunity.  In reality, ALL of the death sentences were meted out to the local equivalent of the Thieves Guild, unbeknownst to our heroes.  So THEY think they've been given a crap-ton of agency (which they have) and I've been able to to run fronts, short form adventures and random encounters that meet their needs.   There's a blighted forest spreading.  There's a green dragon keeping an eye on them.  They're learning of the Noble Houses which run the realm (and learning that perhaps there ARE no good guys.)  

    Also on the up-side I'm incorporating some of the journey techniques from Adventures in Middle Earth and using the hex crawl techniques from the good folks at Infinium to improve long travel and exploration.  "Lonely fun" as we used to call it.  And we're gonna try to bring back Skill Challenges from 4e!  ChatGPT is your FRIEND!  I'm currently using it to generate NPC's (using the GreatGameMaster's OGAS technique,) fix formula problems in my extensive spreadsheets, design the aforementioned Skill Challenges, select actions and grim portents for Fronts, write short adventures(!), and management of climate and weather. 

    On the DOWN side my hand has been forced on upgrading to NTME23.  I moved all three base files into the same folder and instantly fouled up/destroyed all of the links.  Think I have enough into to run Tuesday's session but there will be some intensive work to get it all reconnected.  ONE document.  Some new raw materials.  Storefront calculator incorporated.  Manufacturing pages cleaned up to be made a bit more uniform.  And an attempt at an "easily" updatable shopping list.

In which we make a dragon

 Haven't done session notes for a while but last night's was ... memorable.

Party was hired to pursue some poachers.  Poachers were going to reach target before the party could intervene.  Quick thinking was needed.  "Let's make a dragon" sez Dakora (the wizard) iirc.  I went for a beverage and by the time I got back the plan had been hatched.  Dakora would cast the minor illusion of a dragon's roar.  Terestan (sorcerer) and Aerialayna (elf) would each cast mage hand and use them to shake the top leaves of the trees.  Kirkus (ranger) would lead the charge, urging the poachers to run for their lives as there's a dragon attacking.  A handful of skill checks later and all were running for the city gate.  

Upon reaching the city gate our brave party reported to the watch captain that nothing happened and the other party (poachers) must have been drinking.  The ruse was successful.  Last night.  But it won't work again and they'll need a new, better plan since the poachers likely know the party is on to them.

Film at 11.

In other news I watched Luke's video on "Ten signs something is wrong with your game."  Over half of them apply to us but it's because we're friends who play D&D, not a D&D group who are friends.  Jus' sayin'.

In which we look back ... and start again.

Ok, we all know what railroads are.  There's a LOT of argument about  sandboxes.  And some folks use the term "amusement park."  And they're all kind of mobile plot points on a graph and fine if you like that kinda thing.  I was HOPING to move beyond that but I keep missing the mark.  We started with the Masks of Destiny campaign and a bunch of little side trips that were fun, when needed, to bump the party up a level.  It was good.  We all had fun.  Until they all died.  

And then we started over.  I wanted it to be more of a "garden" type game, but I couldn't resist the urge to throw in a through-line with a campaign-closing BBG.  So I planted my garden and sowed a bunch of seeds of plotlines that were interconnected.  And they traipsed through the garden for a while.  Then wandered off for a while.  Then came back adn started making progress.  Then they all died.  

So now we're starting over again.  No more over-arching BBG.  Yet.  Tried using a world balance mechanic last game.  Nice touch but surely better mechanics have been developed in the last 40+ years.  So THIS time around I'm trying (more) new things.  Players wanted a little more political intrigue and I have a "mechanic" to handle that.  AND I'm going to try using Dungeon World Fronts more.  After a session I'll review existing fronts, move them forward (or not) and review the session to see if perhaps there's a new front coming.  Party can address the front or not and we'll where that leads.  Already have one front in place.  Two more in development.  As the folks at DW say: 

"Fronts are built outside of active play. They’re the solo fun that you get to have between games—rubbing your hands and cackling evilly to yourself as you craft the foes with which to challenge your PCs. You may tweak or adjust your fronts during play (who knows when inspiration will strike?) but the meat of them comes from preparation between sessions."

Looking fwd to where next Tuesday takes us.

 

In which we kinda have a TPK

 or perhaps have a kinda TPK.  I'm delaying this post for a bit so the party can "move on" from these decisions.  

So .... The party was at the brink of a lost shrine seeking to retrieve a powerful artifact for the Cartographers Guild who would compensate them with some info they'd been seeking.  They enter the shrine, dispatch a few random encounters, move deeper into the complex, locate a hidden secret exit from the shrine. find the McGuffin, outwit the traps and obtain it. They're down to about 50% HP.  There's been a countdown die on the table.  It's gone from 10 to 1 while looking for the McGuffin.  Instead of leaving asap they opt to "explore the rest of the complex."  I keep the countdown die at 1 but their next encounter is with a modified Yuan-ti Night Talker who gives them a vision.  The Barbarian and the Champion see a panorama of the earth opening up, demons spewing across the earth as the party leads Yuan-ti, humans, elves and dwarves in an epic battle against the BBEG.  The Druid sees cultists pouring forth from this shrine, heading through the woods to locate the Druid's mentor in order to kill him.  And The Bard sees that this IS the McGuffin they've been sent to find but that it's also the 2nd part of the three-part weapon needed to slay the BBG.  A tough choice awaits.  

I figured seeing all this would result in them heading out to find the third part of the Dingus.  Nope.  "Let's explore more of the dungeon."  Turned the countdown clock to 0 and the resident BBG found them.  They coulda taken him at 75% but not at 50.  Rather than killing them blindly here I opted to capture them.  They found themselves stripped naked and tied together.  After freeing themselves they set about ... exploring the shrine - hoping to find weapons, clothing, equipment ... before setting out into the below freezing weather for the 5-8 day trek back to civilization.  And that's where we left it.

In the week off I reached out to each character and offered them safe passage to civilization IF they'd swear fealty to their dragon lich demon lord. leave the continent and never return.  None of them have accepted it .... yet.  We'll see what happens Tuesday night.