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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Daern" data-source="post: 5156826" data-attributes="member: 81800">Session 14: Traveling in the Kingdom of DassenToday's session was long on RP and long foreshadows.  We played through a loose narration of the heroes' travels through the various Duchies of Dassen.  They learned of how much the Lords differed from one to the other, both in policies and attitudes towards each other and towards the outside world.  Some were welcoming, while some merely wanted their hard won gold. Lady Timor is a sorceress.  Lord Rego is bitter, and a little naive.  Lady Namin is vain and fatuous.  Lord Iz is a serious and honorable highlander.  Lord Megadon is a fascist and a blowhard.  Lady Dene is pleasant but un mindful of suffering.  The met only Rego and Iz.  The others were unavailable even to big spending heroes.The players picked up on this and started asking questions, having been tipped that there is a war council coming in the spring.  Still, news of the war in the north is woeful weeks out of date.  No one knows if the City of Gate Pass still stands free.  This session should really bear fruition after the events in Seaquen unfold, when the party is sent back north.  I dig this because it means they will be looking forward to it for awhile.  But it also means I need to breeze through "Shelter" so it doesn't get too distant.  I'm realizing that because of real life, the ideal culmination of the campaign will be with "Banquet", so I want there to be momentum.The heroes reached Vidor and traded their horses for a rowboat.  They delved into the swamp and were accosted by the Three Witches.  One escaped and they tracked her back to her lair, where there was a battle royal with the restless dead.  Katrina was rescued and many bloody crystal globes were found along with incriminating papers.  Katrina warned them that the sisters' were waiting for the Ragesians to come to pick up the 'Tears' so they had better hurry.  Of course, this lead them right into the path of the Wyvern Riders.  We ended there, with the heroes tired and out of dailies, hearing the screech of a wyvern such as they had not heard since first level (they are now 8th)I ran the Witches encounters entirely by the book, and I was pretty stoked on it.  The monsters were interesting though maybe the witches were a little too complicated.  The undead boneswarms and skeletal husks were great.  So was having one witch left to direct the undead.My advice for this section is to play up the creepyness of the swamp and then have some theatrical introduction of the sisters.  Perhaps pre-write a short dialogue that the characters hear before they see light of the boat.  "Fire fire toil and trouble, the blood of innocents fills my bubbles... tears of blood, tears of the torrent, tears for storms and weather abhorrent..." I've been glossing over the skill challenges, mostly announcing them as a sort of invitation for my players to do some dice guided story-telling.  I want to the story to move along, not to get them lost in the swamp. Next session, they will FINALLY get to Seaquen, bearing precious cargo, and also hints of new, nefarious plots from the far-flung Ragesians!</blockquote>

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