NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riley37" data-source="post: 6586925" data-attributes="member: 6786839">True dat. I will absolutely not have Elmarysue or Drizzle show up and save the day, grabbing the spotlight away from the PCs, for sure.On another hand: there is a ton of lore, and the stuff I *have* learned has improved the campaign, and let me deliver a richer setting for the enjoyment of the players. Sure, I could rule that Zhentil Keep, in this "instance" of Faerun, is a bustling metropolis and the major power center of the region. On another hand - the version in which Zhentil Keep is now a hunting ground for Shadowvar, and Phlan is independent because the Zhents are no longer in a position to give orders, is a *fine* story. It heightens the stakes for "Tales Trees Tell", because hey, look at what happened to Zhentil Keep when THEY fought shadovar and THEY didn't have allies in the Feywild. It could happen here! Unless you, the heroes, succeed! Your actions have meaning and consequence in a wider context!We had fun with the owlbear topic, last session. The ranger asked Seranolla the Whisperer, and I decided that she had a few ideas but she referred him to Mantor's Library. This advanced one of my goals: establishing a few locations in Phlan, such as the Library, which the PCs get to know as "that place in the city, where named, known NPCs hang out, and which we sometimes visit". Rather than "that arbitrary place where we once went, to get a mission from some dude, because the plot said so, because there was a glowing question mark hovering in the air over the front door."The ranger asked to talk with the Lord Sage. The Chief Librarian said that the Lord Sage was out, investigating a missing book. This is foreshadowing for "The Scroll Thief", which I might run later. The ranger got access to the "Bestiary and Monsters" bookshelf, and discovered books giving several different answers. Then I said, DM to player, that's what your PC can discover today... maybe, another session, I will have a more "canonical" answer for you.And now the Library is a place which doesn't ONLY have one NPC, the Lord Sage; there is another *named NPC* there, the chief scribe, who has her own voice, with the potential to expand in future stories.Meanwhile, the other players amused themselves some hilaristurbing speculations about the origin, mating and breeding of owlbears. The ranger's current working theory: owlbears are unnatural, but blameless; therefore, he will spay/neuter owlbears, as opportunity arises.This might get interesting, as the PCs are now halfway through "Iron Route". The ranger might end up capturing an owlbear, neutering it, and then delivering the neutered owlbear to its previous owner.So... yeah, I appreciate the encouragement to define my own "instance" of Faerun. I still want access to "canon" Faerun. I can deliver a better story to my table, if that story happens in a rich setting, a setting with more details and more history than I could generate single-handedly.</blockquote>

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