S05E04
Being invited to dinner directly put everyone in a highly uncomfortable place. The past week had seen a high octane series of events with crime guilds, explosions, renegade fey schemes, so having to go to a fancy dinner with the top brass of two nations with the explicit instructions to be diplomatic was quite a bit of tone whiplash, but they were relieved they had time to clean up after what felt like an entire week of being in a Die Hard movie.
Throughout the dinner, the party tried their best to keep quiet and mind their manners. In their minds, they were still street level officers, and the fact that lately they've been involved with more international events hasn't quite sank in. I've read versions of this campaign ran by other people who enjoyed the idea that their protagonists start off as involved in international events making them a pretty big deal. In talking with my players, they never felt that at all, instead roleplaying as street level operators who are in over their heads.
So, much of the dinner passed with only some minor roleplaying and renewing connections. They enjoyed it, but from an in character perspective there was the permeating feeling of "Oh man what are we even doing here".
It came as a massive relief when things escalated and now they had to raid Cauldron Hill's secret facility ASAP. Having readied for this moment for quite a while, the party made sure to pay for Gale's healing after the vicious cudgelling she received, went to retrieve the mechanical Grappa, and convinced Asrabey to be of aid.
I did however, change one thing. Namely that Tinker Oddcog had been already missing from the Cauldron Hill facility for some time. His loyalty was contingent that he gets to build this enormous masterwork machine, and the
geas spell put on him was just to ensure silence. However, working conditions worsened after Grappa's messy departure. Kasvarina was out of commission, and Leone is probably one of
those bosses that'll micromanage everything. Oddcog's paranoia got the better of him sooner than later and if someone like that wanted to leave, he had more than enough ways to do so. Didn't change much of the course of events other than meaning Oddcog landed in Ber a while ago.
I won't get into the details of how the epic battle went, because combats to me are some of the least memorable parts of gaming. But, here's some highlights.
Diagram A: A handy prop donated by a friend who manages a suit store.
- The Borne reveal was pretty fantastic. The current working party theory about the Obscurati's plans was "building a giant warship, with this lantern acting as some kind of planar rail run cannon thing".
- The petty bickering and finger pointing between Leone and Grappa gave relief to the party that for sure the Obscurati is less of a cult with a singular goal like they thought, but instead like a massive corporation where information is constantly withheld from other departments, and that meant instigating office politics and blame-games would be a viable tactic in the future
- The party offered some level of leniency to most of the non-combatant workers of the facility, since misinformation meant they did not know the true nature of the project and why
- Asrabey running off in search of Kasvarina brought a round of "of course he did that" groans. After Borne's escape, the players liked the reversal of events. When they first met Asrabey, he was a terrifying force to witnesses and the party felt like they had to delicately plead and make strange eldritch pacts with him on Axis Island. However over the course of the adventure, a lot of that mystique faded and they saw him as a concerned husband acting desperately, and he's the one asking them for the favour to help if he needs them in restoring her. The party walked away from that with a similar feeling to Rock Rackus, in that these are like characters with their own series happening, and storylines just happened to intersect.
I also chose not to run the naval battle, in order to keep events focused on the players and what they would know and see for themselves. Leaving Cauldron Hill and seeing the state of Flint and the devastation that occurred... the first thing half the party did was break from the group to check on their families. They heard rumours of the colossus suddenly vanishing, but that was it until the next briefing.
There was always talks about the king's "powers" and what they could do... but to have heard it in action only made him more terrifying, although the party speculation about an impending war between Risur, Danor, and now the Dreaming feels just so certain.
Here's how the players/characters are at the end of Act 1 of this enormous drama.
1. Constable Reginold Dixion: With the demise of his last character, Dr. Brinolt, the player decided that the party needed a bit more combat skill. He was under the impression this campaign would see a lot less combat than it has been, but feels he can fix that now. To him, he's playing everything from a rookie perspective. Not new to the RHC specifically, but peering behind the veil and seeing these international machinations that is being covered up, he felt he'd want to play a character that just feels constantly out of their depths.
2. Det. Goodwyne: The player is also in the camp of "didn't expect there to be so much combat", but after some discussion we realized that part of his dissatisfaction comes from two points. First, Pathfinder at 8th/9th level gets confusing if you're playing classes that drown you in tricks and options (such as Investigator), so he feels he's understanding less and less of the game mechanics. Two of the other players have offered to help him condense his character options into a shorter list of preferences he can rely on. The other issue is one of Leadership, as by this time so many other characters have their own motivations they aren't likely to take instructions from him. Which made the player feel kind of shut out a bit. By expressing this, the other players have agreed to support him as party leader more and ask for his opinion/insight on things.
3. Cysgold Awyr: At the opposite end of the spectrum, this player feels there could stand to be a bit more combat as he designed a really specialized sneak-attack ninja machine and wants opportunities to show off his massive dice pool. As far as his character goes, his time in "that heretical crypt place" still haunts his mind, and he wants to start digging up more on his own aasimar heritage, in addition to maybe keeping closer to Governor Stanfield who himself is something of a racial anomaly.
4. Mikkel Oren: Also in the camp of "could stand to be more combat", since he is enjoying the heck out of gunslinger rules. In the wake of a colossus rampage, Mikkel spends his time making sure that the union he helped organized is okay, ensuring his family made it out alright and maybe moving them to another city for protection. His planned vengeance against Lya Jierre is all the more complicated that her reaction at the banquet indicates that she herself is just a pawn in the Ob's schemes... which terrifies him just that bit more.
5. Dr. Basch: The player feels that the campaign is doing just fine so don't go messing with the combat amounts, and if the party isn't designed to be The Expendables, the GM should recognize that they aren't all musclebound combat machines and adjust the story accordingly. The character himself felt like he needed a vacation, so is going to visit his family in Ber. At the start of season 6, I'm going to use his character in Ber as the lead that Oddcog is there instead of getting told so, since it's too good of an opportunity not to use.
Out of game, it's been a couple of months since we had a session. My school course load went all weird, and now we are all trying to adapt to moving to online gaming. The last time I had done so was during my Cretaceous period of playing in the text based java chats of New Bremen/Rookhausen/Fangsfall on the White Wolf sites. It'll be a weird transition for everyone, but if the options are this or no gaming at all.... we'll definitely move our butts online and cram new knowledge into our elderly brains.