WotBS MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)

[Mrpereira]

Ok, I am back again from vacation and it is time to continue the story from where we left off.

The party:
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 4
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 4
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor (renamed to Church Templar – just to avoid confusion)

NPCs
Haddin
Crystin
Torrent
(Tiljann – in a short while)

January 4 continued
The party left the temple and started to discuss what to do now. Shaith wanted to explore up river, to find what the priest had mentioned, but in the end he lost the vote as both Galion and Killian wanted to go downriver to fulfil their part of the bargain/contract that they had agreed to.

Leaving the village they watch as a fey (Tiljann) is assaulted by other fey. Shaith, being from the Inennotdar Forest originally recognize the race as Seela. They decide to help Tiljann, and are a bit surprised that she doesn’t want to kill them. The luck however is not with the party, as they kill four of the assailants and two of them run off. She is not too happy with the outcome, but does realize that the wanted spare the Seela.

Tiljann is very taken with the party as, Vuhl’s promise of something beautiful clearly has come true. She tells them about the situation in her village, and that there are two groups; one who believe that singing is all that saves the forest and the other that believe that the singing is keeping the forest unnaturally alive. If the singing stops, the forest fire will burn out and the forest will be able to start over.

DM Note: I deliberately used a rhetoric that made it sound like the forest was kept in a state of unnatural life, so that the players would be in a real dilemma – was the forest kept in some kind of undead state? Were the singing Seela hurting the forest, while trying to do a good deed?

Tiljann is clearly in favor of keeping the song going. She believes that the fire can be put out if someone were to kill the stag at the bottom of the lake. This gives the players a new dilemma – they had promised to save the creature at the bottom of the lake, but now someone wanted to kill it.

Their dilemma did not get easier as they reached the edge of the lake. Here Kazyk reappeared to hear their decision. He told them again, that he would help them stop the singing and then have the papers – they could copy them all they would like (within a reasonable time limit of a day or two), as long as he got them when this was over. They told him that they wanted to kill the creature, and that ought to stop the fire as well. He told them that he would help them with that task, if they gave him the papers now. Not after the fight, not after copying them – but right now. They clearly sensed that the devil was nervous

DM Note: The adventure states that he fears Indomitability, so I played it along that line. He would like the papers and he wouldn’t mind helping the players. However, should things start to go awry, he would have the papers and could teleport away safely with them. He would, no care if the players would be left in dire trouble. He would of course be bound to return after being healed to see if he could still help.

The players discussed this shortly and decided that they wanted to kill the creature, but did not want to hand over the papers. Kazyk told them that he was sorry to hear that, and asked them to reconsider, as he would have to return at a time, that would not be advantageous to the players and take the papers by force, if they didn’t change their minds. They decided that they would take that chance, rather than part with the papers.

As they arrive to the Seela village, they are confronted by Papuvin, who bids them welcome after a short conversation. He tells them to behave themselves and that as long as Tiljann says they are ok, then they ae welcome at his village and cave.

After the confrontation Killian and Galion walk over to Vuhl to have a talk, as they had noticed him watching them. Shaith stays a little longer and talks with Papuvin. Papuvin tells that from his perspective it seems like most Seela have given up hope. Those who still sang were those with the hope intact, and with hope there is always a chance for change – with despair there is nothing
In the meanwhile Vuhl bids Killian and Galion to come to his cave and is a good host.

He tells them that his view is that the forest lives in a state that is unnatural, and by maintaining this state they are hurting not only the forest but all the creatures in it. He asks them if they have encountered some of the burning creatures in their travels, and if that would be considered a natural and peaceful state of life? They cannot say that they do. He also tells them that the Seela are among those kept in an unnatural state, they spend their lives in despair and singing. He honestly believes that if the song ends so will the Seela and all other creatures kept in the unnatural state of the forest. It will however restore balance and allow for a new beginning, and he for one would gladly lay down his life for that. He tells the players that the song needs to be stopped for the forest to get a new beginning. One way of doing that would be to kill the Dryad Timbre, another creature kept in a burning state of madness. To get to Timbre they will need to go to the Nymph Gwenvere, who might be able to help them. They are welcome to bring her to Vuhl if they cannot convince her themselves.

Shaith arrived at some point during the conversation and seems a bit worried about what Vuhl says, while Killan and Galion both seem to see his point.

DM Note: I am not really sure how I managed to pull this off, but they left the meetings with the feeling that Vuhl was the more reasonable and caring person. His views would lead to genocide, but that the sacrifice was worth considering, as the forest and all the creatures seemed to be caught in a state of non-life. They seemed to believe that while Papuvin meant good, he was actually doing some harm. They told me after the adventure that they had never been suspicious of Vuhl being a bad guy.

After the meeting they are found by Tiljann, who shows them the village. It soon becomes clear to them, that she is the only one in the village that shows some joy and happiness. Everyone else seems caught in a despairing mood, whether they are singing or not. She tells them that a bit about the triangle love story of Anyariel, Timbre and Gwenvere. One thing is clear to the player’s; Timbre and Gwenvere are not the best of friends.

They return to Papuvin for a more in depth talk with him. To him it is clear that killing the stag is the only solution to the problem of the burning forest. They also spend a little time talking to the other Seela and find that if one wants to talk to Gwenhere, one ought to bring some meat.

January 5

On the way to the pond, they hunt down a burning boar and get some fresh/smoked meat. They use it to lure out Gwenhere, who of course is no longer a Nymph but a Water Hag. They tell that they want to go to Timbre and ask her if she can help. She tells them that the only thing that would probably get them an audience is her severed head or the lock of hair from Anyariel, and she is not willing to part with either of them. In the end she agrees to go with them to Vuhl and have a talk with him.
They bring her to Vuhl who smiles and bid them welcome. He offers them food and drinks again, and then asks their permission to talk with Gwenhere alone. He will go to the bedroom, and they are of course welcome to stay in the main room.

DM Note: They believed in Vuhl so completely that they didn’t even try to listen in on the conversation, so I let them hear some low muffled voices talking, and then a wet sound followed by a gasp.

They rush into the bedroom and see Vuhl staring in horror at the now dead hag, who has taken her own life. Vuhl is clearly shaken and tells them that he was telling her of his version of how everything was kept in a state of unnatural life, and that his vision for a new chance meant the old forest had to die. She had started to cry saying that she too was unnatural and would have to die, and then she killed herself. Her last words were: Make use of my head to make everything beautiful again.

DM Note: In DMG a DC 43 challenge is ‘Track a goblin that passed over hard rocks a week ago, and it snowed yesterday’ – I decided that a bluff skill of +53 ought to be more than enough to trick an NPC to commit suicide. The players were, once again, a bit shocked… they had not expected that. And it was clear as day, that it was suicide.

They take the head of the Water hag and decide to go find the lock of hair, so they have both bargaining chips. They find the hair and Galion tries to take it. He activates the curse and that scares the party. At first Shaith tries to convince Galion that he is now safe, as he cannot be hit twice by the curse. However, after saying this he reconsiders and adds… maybe. He then consults his notes and then changes his statement. They all look at each other no one wanting to be the one taking the chance of being cursed. The stalemate breaks when Haddin mumbles something degrading about the party and just takes the hair. He also tells them, that the hair is not cursed, the mirror is.

DM Note: It was a pleasure knowing that he actually saved them from a difficult challenge, they really loathe him

After this they return to the Seela village to prepare for the meeting with Timbre.

January 6

After a good night’s sleep they go to Timbres grove, planning to kill her. They have decided that this is the best course of action. As they arrive at the grove and see the threatening creatures it all seemed to come to the inevitable fight with the Nymph. But for some reason the players stayed their hands at the last moment, and presented Gwenhere’s head. This turned Timbre positive and she invited them in and told them the story of the forest and how it is all connected to her and the first tree

DM Note: I was sure that they had turned to the dark path at this point. I must admit, I hadn’t expected Vuhl to be so convincing with his understated compassion and apparent honesty. They told me after the adventure that they had been extremely close to killing her and stopping the song. At the last moment, something made them change their mind. I don’t know what it was, but it made our experience of chapter 2 quite the tale of changing the PCs minds.

Timbre tells them about the living blade that was bound to her lover. She will unbind the sword so one of the PCs can be bound instead and save the forest. When the creature dies, Timbre knows that she and the forest will die. But, the Living blade is made from the first tree, and as long as it is bound to a living creature, so will the forest be bound to the world of the living and in time it will regrow.

At this point they all agree and decide to kill the stag. This makes Indomitability angry, and they hear his voice in their heads again. He swears to kill them and make them burn forever. He also take back his boon.

They return to the village and announce that they have decided to kill the stag. Vuhl shakes his head in disappointment and goes to his cave. Papuvin applauds their decision. They send Galion out in the water to pull out the sword.

DM Note: This challenge was actually pretty tough. Strength DC 26 actually requires a Strength score of 22 and then a roll of 20. I decided that if they beat the DC 21, then the following check would be easier as the blade was loosened.

His first tries are not successful, but on his third try he manages to wriggle the sword a bit, freeing the stag. As the stag jumps out of the water with Galion hanging on its side the others jump in to try and help him pull the sword out. They manage on the first try and the fight is on. A few rounds into the fight Kazyk appears and start killing off/disrupting the singing Seela.
They manage to kill Indomitability before Kazyk kills off all the singers, and they turn their attention to him, including the remaining Seela. It comes as a surprise that indomitability rise from the dead, and as no one is singing he is now incorporeal. He tries to flee, but is brought down by a spiritual weapon and is finally killed

DM note: I made a mistake; I forgot that he could not be killed without the song of forms. So I decided that the song of form lingered, echoing over the lake. It was not enough to keep him in his solid form, but enough to kill him.

As the stag dies Kazyk realizes that he is now fighting a losing battle. He decides to live to fight another day and teleports away. At the outskirts of the battle they see a strange incorporeal creature leaving the dead body of Vuhl. The creature tells the players that they will meet again, and it flies away into the forest.

January 7

The forest finally stops burning in the afternoon and the Seela are free for the first time in 50 years. The forest is dead, but a tiny green sprout can be seen on the Living Blade (that has transformed into a longbow overnight). The PC’s travel back to the village and put the lock of hair back on the pedestal in the shrine.

January 8

They decide that they have wasted enough time in Inenotdar and it is time to travel on. Tiljann asks if she can go with them. She wants to see the world, and maybe see if she can find the Longstrider, her legendary hero of the Seela.

End of chapter musings:
The chapter got some added depth as one of the players originated from Inenotdar. I can really recommend this, especially with a bit of effort to giving the PC a good backstory and ties to specific areas in the forest. It gives the backdrop setting a much more nuanced life and gives the whole setting an even more tragic note.

One of the reasons that this chapter worked so well for me was that I managed to present all the wrong choices in the adventure as being very attractive, and the right choice as being not so attractive. None of the bad guys were stupid, and they actually really wanted to get the PC’s to help them. That meant that they actually had to be believable and have valid reasons that the players would be able to relate to.

I made Kazyk the reluctant devil, that wanted to piss off his summoner, and wanted to get the players to help him achieve this, within the letter of the deal. Vuhl I made a softspoken Seela, with a lot of compassion for the balance and the good of the forest. I had him being very adamant in mentioning the unnatural state of the forest and how it made everyone suffer.

The party never went upstream. In their point of view there was little to none valid reasons for taking that detour, especially since they had a priority mission. I think that maybe a few more hints at was what upstream combined with the journal being upstream could give them some reason to go there, maybe. I also regret that they never did take the dreamseeds. With two elves in the party I had planned that the Human would have a real trip, ending with the encounter, while the elves experienced nothing but a bitter taste.

The secret below the shrine also ended up giving the game a new edge – after a long while, as I wrote earlier. Galion is now very outspoken against the Shahalesti, which is going to be nice when it comes to the roleplaying scenes in the later chapters, and deciding who to ally with.

I must admit that this chapter really did go very well too. The many changes of hearts and the many dilemmas that they managed to have during the chapter made it quite the story to watch. No one, even I had any idea how this would end up, right until the very end. I hope everyone else will have the same great experience, but it will take making the PC’s see as a Vuhl a credible ally.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Chapter 2 was what sold me on the campaign, I see you really liked it, too. I literally laughed when I read the campaign suggesting Kazyk attacking during the Indomitability encounter, such incredible overkill to make a CR 7 encounter even harder. But you actually did it... When I ran it, I did as suggested and had Indom. immediately rush for the coast to murder Seela. Caught the PCs totally off guard. I did also ease up on the stength DC to pull out the sword and made subsequent attempts lower DC, not higher, for the same reasoning as you. The listed DC is just unreasonable.

As for Vuhl...your party is a lot more trusting than mine, heh. In my game, I even had him go so far as to not care if they killed Indom. or let him go free (since Vuhl has no interest in him if he can't crush weaklings like the party anyway), but...they were suspicious all along. You play in person, maybe you don't use images of the NPCs (I do for tokens on Maptools, playing online), but Vuhl's image...wtf were they thinking. True Story: I searched for images of a "friendly gentleman" and settled on a picture of a smiling Norman-freaking-Bates....because even that looked a thousand times less blatantly evil than Vuhl's campaign picture.

And yeah...Haddin was the highlight of the chapter for me, I loved roleplaying him. There were a few occasions where he knew what to do and intentionally kept mum and let the PCs embarrass themselves before just doing it for them (and insulting them as he did so). Never has a character been so useful yet so hated, it was glorious.

 

[Mrpereira]

Chapter 2 really was very good, and with two very good chapters it got the campaign of to a very good start. The players are really looking forward to seeing the story develop and they also love that they don't know what to expect.

I am pretty sure that you are right regarding the difference between online and in person gaming. It is much easier in real life, where you can deliver the messages with the right intonation and body language. And since the players took my introduction to Heart about not focusing on good and evil, but on friends and foes, they are much more open to all NPCs then they would have been otherwise. No matter who they encounter, it might be a friend in the given situation, like Vuhl. And since he also had some very valid points and perspectives they accepted his point of view as a valid solution.

One thing that I forgot to mention is a thing I did not like that much.I dislike the fact that they went from level 1 to level 5 in 7 days. However, the story was very good and it made sense for them to have all these encounters in a short timespan. I am glad that the next chapters takes place some time later. from my point of view, it would have been nice if the story could take place over 3-5 years or longer in-game. I decided not to try and rewrite the timeline, as it might end up screwing some in-game timeline in the stories. Has anyone changed the timeline?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I intentionally space out the travel times between places to make up for some of the time, as I'm fearful of departing from roughly the month-per-chapter time flow, unsure if it'll matter later. It's also super easy when the players ask "what time of year is it?" for me to just look at the chapter number and instantly know. The game gives downtime to do crafting, but I don't use xp (you don't either, right?) and dislike the power imbalance that item crafting causes between casters and noncasters, so I just let them buy stuff. Normal people would want to take some days off to relax after a grueling end-chapter gauntlet (most of them seem to have one), but since the characters are not the players...they of course see no issue with being on the clock every day. Giving them free time IME just leads to the players looking for stuff to do to fill the time.

As far as quick-leveling...it gets even more ridiculous in some upcoming chapters. Goes back to that end-chapter gauntlet thing again.
[sblock]Chapter 3 is the worst of both worlds... it starts off w/ literally weeks of wandering through the wilderness and facing random encounters you need to include just to keep them leveling up on schedule (and the one-sentence sidequest "hooks" offered are just pitifully unhelpful), then has a big train of encounters at the end. But, I'm getting ahead of your campaign notes now.[/sblock]

 

[Mrpereira]

No, I don't use the XP for anything really. No one in this current campaign is a crafter anyway, so I don't have to worry about that issue either. I have decided to go by the adventures timeframes within the written adventures - but I am also letting time go by while they are travelling. So far it has been fitting nicely into 1 month per adventure, but they are getting a Little ahead of time, so I might need to stall them soon. We have a date corresponding to april 29th and they have arrived at the village at the foot of the monastary in chapter 5.

 

[Mrpereira]

Chapter 3

The party
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 5
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 1

NPC
Torrent
Katrina

The journey from the forest was long and mostly uneventful. The party did have a few encounters that gave them a little more information as to how the war was having an effect on the world.

DM note: The party calculated that they basically had so much loot, that they hardly could carry it, so I threw in a lot of tiny villages along the way so they could sell some of their stuff. I spread it out, so they had a slower movement than if they had sold it all in the beginning, just to make sure some time went by. I also threw in a few encounters from the one-line ideas in the campaign, just to let them feel that the world was alive, but also so they knew that they had gotten away from Gate Pass clean, none of the encounters had any links to the party. It also gave them a good idea of what kind of country Dassen is, with few larger settlements and a lot of tiny hamlets, villages, and open spaces.

The party did also have the feeling that nothing really interesting happened, the first entry ion their journal since leaving Inenotdar was: “We arrived in Vidor after 33 days of travel, the last week it has been raining constantly”. No mention whatsoever of the journey.

February 11
The party arrived in Vidor feeling miserable from the constant rain. They had taken to cast endure elements shortly after leaving the forest, so the cold was not bothering them. They soon realize that this is a bigger village than those they passed on the way and it is the last inhabited stop before Seaquen. They arrived in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day selling off their remaining loot. They had no intention of paying overprice for spending the night anywhere, so they just camped with the rest of the refugees.

February 12
They soon realize that the town is getting extremely rich onm abusing the refugees charging overprice for everything, leaving a lot of people stranded.
DM Note: It is an interesting observation with my PCs (or maybe Pc’s in general), they are very upset with how people were treated, but they didn’t really offer to help anyone, by bringing them along or donating money to those who needed it. I guess they didn’t really care that much after all 

In Vidor they hear some stories about a redheaded woman, who fits the description of Rantle’s sister. They find out that she travelled to Seaquen through the swamp. When they hear the prices for the rowboats and the help they started to balk. That was completely unreasonable prices. As to that the shopkeeper mere smiled and said it was a matter of supply and demand and they were welcome to see if they could find other boats in the town. Luckily for them they had Haddin, who went in and had a chat with the shopkeeper alone. Suddenly the boats were for free…

DM Note: Once again, just rubbing Haddin in their faces  They had been very unhappy with him for a while, since his spells had been mostly useless with the opponents they had been facing. Suddenly he had a role to play and I had him fill it with pleasure. He isn’t really the sort with any qualms about dominating people that annoy him.

They set out though the swamp, with an eerie feeling. They didn’t like being in a swamp

DM note: In my experience, no players like being in swamps, it just gives them the creeps

During the night they suddenly hear some strange singing, and before they know what really happened they were in a fight with the three Tieflings. The fight was a very tough one for them, and they barely got through without casualties.

DM note: The dice roll had the encounter happen during Shaith’s watch, meaning that none of the others had their armors on. That made a difference by making them much more vulnerable. Also on top of this, Shaith positioned himself at the back of the group, with his back turned to the druid/barbarian. Haddin also barely survived the fight, but luckily he did and survived the trip to Seaquen.

February 13
The following morning, they decide to see if they can find the Tiefling camp. They decided against looking for it during the night. They find the camp and they find the prisoner, who turns out to be Rantle’s sister. They give her the scroll, which she is grateful for, but also seems a bit disappointed in. She is grateful for their help and asks if they mind if she travels with them. They agree and from the first minute there is love in the air between Katrina and Shaith, which leaves Gallion feeling a bit jealous.

DM note: I decided that Katrina would be very naturally drawn towards a fire elf fire domain wizard, with her background and love for fire spells. This also made the party accept her much easier, and made her job as a spy much easier. It also makes the confrontation and changing of allegiance in the future much more interesting.

They travel the rest of the way through the swamp, but decide that they would rather arrive in daylight than late evening, so they make camp at the edge of the water, 6 miles or so outside Seaquen.

February 14
As the party arrives in Seaquen hasty farewells are said to Haddin and Crystin. They have no real bad feelings, nor opinions about Crystin, bad Haddin is basically the most hated individual in the universe. There is absolutely no love lost between them and they are happy to have seen the last of him

DM note: Or so they thought…

Once the farewells are said, they look at each other and start to figure out what to do now. They end up deciding that approaching Torrent’s old mentor, a member of the council, ought to be the fastest way to get an audience.

They arrive at Lee’s seaside residence and are greeted by Lee. He asks them to wait in the sitting room for a short while, as he has some other guests he needs to take care of. He is decidedly happy to see them and is looking forward to hearing about Torrent’s travels. A short while later they see Lee saying goodbye to three persons. Two of them are half-orcs and they are escorting a third person, who looks quite strange. He is clearly a bit mutated and has an eye at the back of one hand.

DM note: I really thought I made them sound interesting, specially Paradim, but they forgot about all three characters in no time. They only recalled the half-orcs when they met them again and the Wayfarer’s ship. Paradim they forgot about completely until I gave them a narrative recap of the events after the chapter. I guess they simply suffered from information/NPC overload in this chapter and lost track of some of them.

Lee is of course very pleased to meet the party and to hear about their travels. He promises to do his best to help them get an audience. They agree to let Lee know where they will be staying so he knows where to contact them with the news.

After the audience they wander around the town for a bit. For the first time in 6 weeks they really have no incentive to travel somewhere, making them feel a little lost for what to do. They are greeted by a young man who offers his services as a guide and messenger while they are in town. They agree to pay him the wage of 1 gp / day that he asks them for. He presents himself as Judson.
Judson soon after proves his worth, as he is able to convince an innkeeper to let the party have some rooms, despite them being full already. They have to pay a premium price, but at least they have a place to stay. They get a message from Lee which says that they have a date for an audience on February 18. . They also meet a citizen who recognizes them. A friend of theirs has been looking for them. They have no idea who that friend is, but decide to try and find out the next day.

They never got that far, as they are attacked by en Erinyes in the middle of the night. She wants the papers, as all the devils have wanted so far. During the fight, they manage to blind it. The fight is not going their way even so. Shaith decides to try and bluff the devil. She offers to give it the papers if she will let the party live. The Erinyes agrees and Shaith hand her the spellbook of one of the tieflings from the swamp. The party then hurries to the academy for help, and are safe when the Erineyes realize it has been tricked. The wizards defend the party when she comes from them again, and they banish her, thereby ending the threat.

DM note: Fast thinking by Shaith, and we all had the general idea, that the papers had been bound in a book to make them easier and safer to travel, thus making it reasonable that the Erinyes would be expecting to get a book.
They ask if they can have Lyceum to safeguard the papers until the audience, which they agree too.

February 15 – 17
The party takes a few days off and relaxes. They wander around the town a bit with Judson to show them around and get the lay of the land. They do meet a few of the named NPCs but don’t really interact with them.

DM Note: the NPC reference sheet in the download section is a great tool for this chapter, it made it so easy to make Seaquen seem alive. Where ever they went there is practically and NPC you can use, and with the short description it makes them easy to play. I built upon this material later in the chapter for both the council meeting and for the unification of the churches.

February 18
The day the party has been waiting for has finally come. They go to Lyceum expecting to give their report to the people in charge and are a bit surprised to see such a large gathering of people. They get a quick informal greeting, where they are told that their story is important to the people at the meeting and that they will get to deliver their report after the meeting.

DM Note: This scene has every potential of becoming a real pain for the DM and it is easy for the players to lose important details and for them to lose track during the event. I decided to handle it a bit alternatively.

First of all I took the NPC material from the download section and expanded it. I added the few people that were missing, including Haddin, and then I made sure that all spoilers were eliminated from the text. I then added a section where each person’s major points in their speech was written, and another section where it was noted when and where this person would speak up during the other speeches. Adding Haddin to the mix would turn out to be a very good decision, and very fun. He has been present at all meetings at Lyceum since, just to rub their noses in it.
For instance under Lord Votbeard it stated that he would become more and more agitated during Laurabecs speech, making noises in protest and finally disrupt her speech with complaints when she would mention allocating resources to the refugees.

I then made an agenda that included a welcome by the headmaster and an introduction of Kiernan who would be in charge of handling the process of going through the agenda. The agenda had more points than was needed, so the players were surprised when the session was interrupted by the elves.

I also made name tags to be used so everyone knew who was speaking at a given time.

What I did to make sure that the players felt that they were a part of the scene was to make them part of the scene, but not as the pc’s but as the npc’s. In the scene the players were spectators and not present as active players for most of the scene.

I divided all the speakers in four groups, making sure that the players did not have any (except at the end) person who would be objecting to a speech given by themselves. The players each got four persons to play and I gave them some time to read them through and have an idea about what the different people were going to say. I took the Headmaster as the only person to play, but made sure he had comments for all speeches.

The result was even better than I had hoped for. The players had so much fun, and they all gave some very good performances. Giorgio was amazing to watch, he was portrayed as a Jack Sparrow clone and Haddin was also very masterfully played. Haddin delivered quite a few barbs towards the players, like pointing out that they had quite the tendency to make deals with devils and breaking deals whenever it suited them. Not saying they weren’t trustworthy… as such..., but maybe Katrina was leaving out some relevant points 

All in all it went brilliantly, and in the end each player ended up having some in detail knowledge of some of the npc’s making it easier for them to remember them later on.

The council meeting did not go quite as the PCs expected, after the first round of speeches the agenda had a point where the headmaster would recap different points and line up different ideas and solutions for handling the situation. The meeting never got that far as the Shahalesti elves suddenly appeared. The encounter went basically as per the book. The players were left standing feeling even less positive towards the elves, and were pretty sure that main opponent in the chapter was the elves and breaking the siege.

DM Note: I just love how the adventure keeps throwing them off their feet when it comes to being able to guessing the plot. They were really sold on the plot with the elves, and were taken by surprise later on as the fleet just got dispersed.

They were also pretty sure that something would happen at the play. Just a few days before playing the session Inglorious Basterds had been on TV and Killian had a vision of a lot of dignitaries and a big bomb. I decided to prepare a little for the next session, with having posters all over the town, with a lot of dates on it, and a special header for the Grand Finale with extra high ticket prices, to throw them a little off the track.

The session ended with the players finally giving the report to the leadership at Lyceum and getting a little information as to what the information contained.

DM Note: While they were in the burning forest I had Galion sense a word in the wind just as the forest fire died. The word was Trillith.
As the headmaster also mentioned the word he spoke up and they had the first hint regarding this race, and of what to come. They did not become paranoid and actually didn’t think more of them until late in chapter four when they met Madness.

End of session 4

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Heh, these are finally getting me motivated to post about my game. I might start a thread soon, it's just a bit...verbose right now.

I also provided towns to buy/sell stuff at along the way. It's really crazy when you think about it otherwise... they get level 1 gear, whatever loot they find through chapters 1 and 2, and then have to wait till they hit level 5 and spend several more weeks fighting random encounters in the wilderness before they can finally reach another shop! (Well, my group had level 3 wealth to start with, but still).

So you tried to make something out of those ridiculous one line "adventure hooks"... I gave up on that idea pretty fast. Glad Haddin continued to be annoyingly helpful, that's what makes him so fun. How did he get invited to the War Council after separating from the party, anyway? The romance is an interesting angle... Katrina ended up sleeping w/ a PC in my group, but that was all it lead to; the PC basically tried to hook up w/ everyone.
I'd be surprised if any group *didn't* expect something to happen at the play. That's part of the problem w/ this chapter's plot, it's just so....telegraphed. I did my best to point out that all the leaders were also assembled for the war council and that there would be another meeting in the coming weeks to resolve tensions (basically, "it's not like the play's the only chance for bad stuff to go down"), but...my players saw right through it.

DM Note: I just love how the adventure keeps throwing them off their feet when it comes to being able to guessing the plot. They were really sold on the plot with the elves, and were taken by surprise later on as the fleet just got dispersed.

I've enjoyed that, too. My current favorite past time is faking the party out on what the boss battle for the chapter is and watching the casters blow all their resources on the sub-boss. In my group's case, they HATE the Ragesians by far the most and automatically assume if there's Ragesians around, that they're the ones behind anything nefarious. And...I like the idea of at least the Inquisitor corps to be black-and-white evil, so I haven't done much to dissuade them of their hatred. That being said, I've begun to notice, and jokingly point out to them in some cases (spoilers for the next few chapters included):
[sblock]Chapter 1: Ok, yeah. This one the Ragesians are presented as the main threat and they indeed are.
Chapter 2: The whole reason they're there is to flee Ragesia and get the intel about them to the Resistance in Seaquen, and a Ragesian-called devil hounds them for it throughout the chapter. But then, the true boss of the chapter is a Trillith keeping them from leaving.
Chapter 3: They spend the whole chapter suspecting a Ragesian spy network and infiltrators looking to cause ruin for everyone. And they find such a network! ...Only to realize they were pawns of their supposed friend, Lee Sidoneth, the true antagonist behind the storm.
Chapter 4: How much more clear-cut is it than this? Ragesians are in Dassen, getting the king to form an alliance over Seaquen's corpse, are found to have begun advancing towards Gallo's fort, and are then found in league w/ traitorous Dassen soldiers. Of course they're the big bad this time! ....Except, wait...it's actually Madness using both the king AND the Ragesians as pawns to sew chaos.
Chapter 5: Ragesian army. Attacking a small, rural town and a monastery of meditating monks. Finally, jackpot! ...Until the wind elementals turn on them and they fight Caela in a biomancy lab filled with kidnapped victims turned into monsters.

It's almost like every single chapter, the campaign pulls a switcheroo on their expectations, and the Ragesians end up either being pawns of someone else or a distraction from the true threat. [/sblock]
And...I'll stop there, because any further would be getting ahead of where BOTH our games are. Let me know if you want any of that removed.

 

[Mrpereira]

There are some things that made it reasonable to me, that Haddin ought to be in the council:

I had allowed the players a knowledge check to know Haddin's story, meaning that in wizard circles he was known person. That gives him some leverage and also the fact that with a new spellbook he would actually be a nice addition to Lyceum. He also had first hand experience from fighting the Ragesians under Leeska and has a burning rage and hatred against the Ragesians. Lyceum wants the other countries to realize how evil and bad Ragesians are, so Haddins experience of being hunted and having his home burned down adds to this. And if all else failed, I am sure he could have dominated someone to get a position at the table

In any case, the players wondered about that as well, but came to the conclusion that he was well known and from Gate Pass, so he was a justified in being there along the same line as Katrina.

As a DM I liked the fact that he would provide a counter to Katrina in the session, underlining the fact that there would not be many in agreement with anything at the meeting. And because he was such a pain to the players, I had him become a permanent addition to any meeting where Katrina is invited as well

 

[Mrpereira]

Chapter 3 continued (Session 5)

The party:
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 6
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 6
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 2

NPC:
Torrent
Katrina

February 19 & 20
DM Note: The session started as the meeting from last session was concluded. Since it had been about a moth since our last session and we had ended at a late hour, I started by giving them a short recap of what they had learned about teleportation.

Kiernan asked the players to try and help out in the town while they were there. A lot of people had some problems that needed handling, and with all the tension building, it would be nice if someone would try and do something to keep the tension down.
DM Note: At one point they met Commander Foebane, and he invited them to a game of conquest. They would love for their characters to play the game, in-game, but the real life players had no interest in playing a kind of board game / simulated board game. We ended up rolling some dice and that resolved it. I will have to think of something later in the campaign when he wants to play again.

The party went about the town listening to rumors and tried to figure out what to do. The first thing that really caught their attention was the dragon and they story about the dragon’s egg. They spend most of the first day trying to figure out how to solve the problem.

DM Note: I am pretty sure that they were picturing a not so big dragon, that they could beat down if need be – and of course loot the treasure. I decided that their course of action would need to change, as I had a very bad feeling as how it would end. I decided to pull them a bit by their noses by having Laurabec meeting them while they were walking around the tent camp.

She was just leaving a tent visibly annoyed when she spotted them. Having met them at the council meeting she had a positive opinion of them and asked if they were free, as she could use a little help with a big problem she had. She told them about the project of uniting the faiths in a single place of worship, and that she was coming nowhere with any of them.

DM Note: I expanded the NPC material for the eight leaders of the faiths in much the same way as I had with the council meeting. Only instead of preparing speeches I prepared knowledge checks and gather information checks, so they could figure out how to solve the individual cases. It ended up being a kind of mini game or tiny puzzles if you want, in which they had to figure out how to soften up the leader and then figure out how to do it. It was a lot more fun than I had expected, and they spent quite a lot of time on this quest. It ended up being quite a long almost pure roleplaying scene, with only the few dice rolls to solve the knowledge checks – they mostly role-played through the gather information parts. They really enjoyed the diversity in the individual puzzles.

The party ended up spending almost two days with solving the problem of getting the leaders to accept the new common place of worship. In the end they managed to convince six of the eight leaders, and fortunately the last two caved in and accepted the common solution.

February 21
After getting the acceptance of all the leaders Laurabec had invited the leaders and the PCs to join her at the site of the new place of worship. But as one could have expected the alliance among the faiths was not very solid and the meeting soon turned into a big discussion about who would do what, and mostly who would pay.

The meeting seemed to be going nowhere and Laurabec was getting distraught again. Galion ended up cutting through the big discussion and getting everyone’s attention. He confronted them about their fears and ended up asking, what could be done to help solving the problem. The leader of the Seaquen faith told them that he had heard that the dragon had a Lyre of Building, and if someone could get a hold on that item, there would not be any problems whatsoever.

DM Note: With their big interest in going to the dragon they accepted without batting an eyelash

The party started by going Lyceum and asked Kiernan if he could get someone to try and locate the egg, while they went into the swamp to have a nice chat with the dragon.
Kiernan said he would see what he could do. He told them not to hurt or kill the dragon. The party looked at each other a bit surprised; in their eyes a Green Dragon usually is a problem to be solved. Kiernan told them that Seaquen’s location was its best defense, and a swamp with a dragon is an even better natural defense than just a swamp. That argument made sense to the players.

DM Note: I decided that she must have some kind of accord with Lyceum for them to tolerate each other. And with dragons being quite territorial it made sense to me, that she would take offense towards any kind of army marching right through her homeland. And from the dragon’s perspective she would be more likely to ally with Seaquen than Ragesia, as she clearly fear the mages at Lyceum. Better the devil you know…

February 22 – 24
The journey to the dragon’s lair and back again through swamp took three days. By now they had a different approach than it seemed like they had originally. The called out to the dragon and asked to parlay. The dragon arrived and was a lot bigger than the party had hoped for. She told them that she wanted them to bring her egg back. They asked her about the lyre, and she told them that if they brought the egg and the thief, she would lend them the lyre for 30 days, while keeping the thief for the same amount of time as collateral… or dinner.

DM Note: I couldn’t help myself – I wanted to see what they said to that. They were actually appropriately cowed so they didn’t dare argue with her

February 25
They talk with Kiernan who has deduced who the culprit is, but not where the egg is. They confront the thief, who is not really interested in wasting his time on the PCs. Killian ask him what it would take to get the egg from him.

DM Note: I had him play a very cautious guy when it came to dealing his stolen goods. He never at one point acknowledged that he had the egg, but kept talking about the egg in ‘if – terms’. “I have heard that dragon eggs are worth quite a lot to the right buyer… IF one were to get one’s hands on one of those”…

In the end they settled on a price for the egg and went to Lyceum to talk with Kiernan. They did not have the kind of money needed and actually they were doing this for the town, as he had asked – and actually solving two problems at once. He was not really happy, but ended up paying for the egg.

DM Note: They party already were finally in a town. They had spent all their loot money on new items, bringing them up to level with their equipment. It didn’t really make sense to expect them to dish out that amount of cash for something that they in the end could live with not doing. So I had Lyceum cave in, as Kiernan probably could not live with riots in the town and an angry green dragon.

February 26-27
They travel back to the dragon with the egg and the thief, and she happily gives them the lyre as promised. She is very happy to have her egg back. The trip back is eventless.

February 28
After delivering the Lyre the building the building begins. The players having done their part resume their wandering around town to help out. This time they stumble upon another burning house, and track the culprits, two flaming rat swarms.

March 1
Kiernan sends a message for them to come to Lyceum, he has another task for them. Feeling that they do owe him a little goodwill after paying 10.000 gp for the egg, they decide to go up and meet him and help him

DM Note: I had the thief asking a lot, and they forgot to negotiate I guess they were just too taken back about the price that they never did. I suppose they thought that no matter what kind of negotiation they were to make, they would never be willing to pay that price anyway.

Kiernan wants them to have a chat with another of Seaquens natural defenses; the goblins in the swamp. He wants the players to arrange for a save passage through the swamp for all refugees, and to ask the goblins what that would take.

They travel out in the swamp, once again, and at nightfall make their camp at the outskirts of the goblin territory, where they meet the wife of the goblin king, who talks to them about what they are doing there. They tell her the wishes of Seaquen and ask what it would take. She tells them that any paths through their territory would have to be a path marked with poles on each side making it a safe zone to travel through. Any travelers moving off the path would be fair game. Also, she wanted to have a real chef come and cook for the king, to have the three tieflings killed, some magical trinkets and finally having a safe conduct agreement for the goblins to go to Seaquen and Lyceum to trade without being attacked.

Having already killed witches, that part was easy. As to the other demands they had to go home and deliver them. They didn’t think that the marked path would be a problem, but the goblins in town might be. Also, they would be surprised if a chef was given to the goblins, but if they were to hire and pay one, they ought to have a chance. She agreed to the latter part.

March 2
They return to Seaquen and tell Kiernan the demands. He finds them very reasonable and thanks the players for their effort. He will see if there is a chef among the refugees who would like a job and send a message to the goblins accepting their demands.

DM Note: I could sense that the players were not in a mood for hunting down the goblin king in the swamp. They had a lot of fun talking to his wife, but the many tiny missions were wearing thin, so I cut it short here.

March 3-7
The players take a deserved break. They try a bit half-heartedly to find the missing girls. They look around a bit and then decide to talk to Cernaban about it. He changes from friendly and nice to a real mob boss, which results in the players backing down. They never did find out exactly what happened.

DM Note: They walked around town and showed only cursory interest in the Tattoo parlour and none in the Biomancy shop. They didn’t even look inside and see Paradim again – he will return later in the story instead. They also spend an afternoon at the rehearsals, and I had them watch the fourth act of the show as the part they were rehearsing that day. Tiljann of course joined the auditions and got a part in the show earlier in the chapter, so they also spend some time visiting her.
I had an old bard from Lyceum look them up one evening; he wanted to see if it was true that there was a Seela in town. He had met Etinifi long ago when he came through. This makes Tiljann very happy, and the party made no real note of it.

March 8
Today is the Day of the premiere of the big show. The party goes to the harbor with their tickets and they are feeling a bit nervous. They have a feeling that something is up.

DM Note: I decided that Giorgio had given out vouchers and not tickets and the council meeting. The players went to the harbor one of the other days to convert the vouchers to tickets. I did this as there was limited space up front in the theater and the real dignitaries would of course get a front row seat. The players along with the other special guests, Katrina and Haddin, would not be given these first class tickets, but instead got tickets for seats further back.

At the dock they meet Katrina and Crystin, much to their surprise. She tells them that her father had no intention of using his ticket, so she took it. She can see from her ticket that she is placed right next to the players, Torrent and Katrina.

As they enter the theater they notice that the weather is taking a turn for the worse, and are quite relieved that the inside of the theater is quite calm and even, not swaying with the sea.

DM Note: I wrote up the story of the show so it would be easier to deliver in a dramatic way, filling in some more things and happenings. I also added some different special effects and told them when the light went up and down, when the music rose and fell. It had them quite captivated. I think they had expected a few lines of the show is about this and that.
Sadly I am not sure how much help my notes on the play would be to anyone, as I wrote them up in Danish Anyway, back to the story.

The party watched the show and act one and two passed by having the full attention of everyone in the theatre.

DM Note: I did change the story a bit at this point; I had act three begin as well as I had something special in mind. For that reason I had written the story about the elemental mages fighting the dragon, and presented it to the players.

The third act started with elemental mages gathering at the mountain mourning the death of their friend. They then decide to kill the dragon and to avenge Toteth Topec. They finally track down the dragon and the fight beings.

First the Earth elemental mage tried and failed to kill the dragon. Second was the fire elemental wizard. He used his powers to gather a gigantic ball of flame, which I then had exploding in the theater killing everyone in a gigantic blast of fire.

DM Note: Since they were in a extradimensional space, enhanced with a lot of special effects I thought that it would be natural that these environments had an influence on Crystin’s gift. This time the entire party took part in the premonition and saw their death in a big ball of fire.

The party blinks their eyes stunned at what just happened. Act three is just beginning and the mages are mourning at mountain. Crystin gasps “Stop him” and point at a figure about to climb the stairs and leave the theater.They of course follow him, and in the process recognize him as Giogio. Once outside the fight begins and they recognize the two henchmen from Lee’s place.

DM Note: They did not connect the dots at this point, only now remembering the initial encounter with these guys.

The fight starts out bad for the party but soon the tables are turned. The half-orcs die and the rogue suffers an embarrassing capture. She is blinded by a glitterdust going blind. She drinks her water breathing potion and jumps overboard. As she does not know the spell she thinks she is safe sitting still at the bottom of the harbor.

DM Note: I almost felt sorry for the poor girl.

Giorgio teleports off the ship and escaped, just as the rest of the guests started to come up through the hatch. Outside the weather had taken a turn to the worse, and everyone hurried to the shore. The players went with the mages to Lyceum to talk with the captive.

DM Note: Giorgio might have escaped the ship, but he had nowhere to go. He tried to find some shelter from the storm, but sadly it was not his night. He was killed by the raging storm only to be found afterwards with a broken neck and back.

While trying to get answers from the captured thief they watch the doomed attempt of the Lyceum fisherman fleet trying to break the blockade. The meaningless deaths of the fleet make them quite sad. They do not get many answers from their captive, who is quite willing to talk. She just doesn’t know much.
The storm grows stronger and just as the players are convinced that it is a part of an elven plot to subjugate Seaquen they watch the storm breaking the blockade, sinking quite a few ships of the elven fleet.

DM Note: They did not see that coming

The storm grows stronger and Simeon deduces where the eye of the storm is, asking the players to try and stop the madness.

DM Note: I thought they might need the help, so I let Lyceum lend another tear to Katrina, so she could join the party.

The trip to the prison and first part of the prison doesn’t really take much effort for the party. The first real hindrance is the portal to the other plane, which stop them for a while. They do not feel safe and don’t really feel like going through. In the end, they do go through, though.

DM Note: It might have been me misunderstanding something when I read about the portal, but I did manage to put a big fear in them. They were pretty sure it was a one-way trip to Ragesia. At this point they were sure it was Ragesia who was behind the plot.

They go through the portal and are greeted by bow wielding Ragesians who enjoy shooting at the sitting ducks. After the players reached the ground, the situation changed and the Ragesians died fast.

DM Note: The look in Shaith’s face as he realized that his firespells worked a lot better AND the opponents weren’t immune to fire was priceless. He had felt it was a tough trip through the Inenotdar forest.

They notice the entrance to the tomb, but decide to let it be for now, as they expect more resistance down here, and have other doors to check first. At the end of the dungeon they face another inquisitor, underlining their suspicion, Ragesia are behind this plot.

DM Note: The inquisitor did manage to hurt them a little, first with his fire wall, and then by dispelling Killian, who was pretty buffed up. That more or less took him out of the fight, and actually also put him at a major disadvantage at the final fight, as his boon was dispelled as well.

After the fight they find two survivors, who can tell them a bit about the situation. They describe another person in league with the Ragesians, and from their descriptions the players deduce it is Lee. Torrent is really upset, and feels betrayed. The prisoners also tell that Lee took some kind of control device. They head back out of the prison ready to head back to town to tell Simeon and Kiernan about Lee’s involvement. As they leave the front door they are surprised by Lee who is waiting for them

DM note: With Killian dispelled he had trouble leaving the entrance, as the waters kept him there. It made the fight a little harder for the others, as they were one man down. He eventually got the tear from Katrina, who stayed inside.

Lee manages to hurt them a little but in the end he is rather easily killed, thanks to Gillions bow shooting, crowned by a critical that killed him. As he is slain he turns his face to the heavens and shouts: ”Master let your winds destroy them”. The winds then tear him apart.

DM Note: At that point they did not take much note of the phrase, so I let it slip for now. Later in chapter four when they had a little time to think I had them have a conversation about this encounter, as something seemed to be a little off. I had them recall this moment and slowly it dawned on them what had annoyed them in the back of their head. Every time they had med an inquisitor, they had been in charge, and it was also what they had learned about Ragesia in general. However, it seemed that in this case it hadn’t been the Inquisitor, or at least he had shared that position with Lee. Also, I had them recall the shout to the heavens; the wording of ‘Master’ had been clearly male and not Mistress as it ought to have been if it had been Leeska. But that was as I said only later that they realized this. At this point they were sure that the Ragesians did this all by themselves.

As the party head back to town victoriously they see Laurabec’s mount fly in their direction. It lands and tells with a voice filled with sorrow, that his mistress is dead. She died helping those in need in the storm. He also tells them that his mistress respected them a lot and was very grateful for their help with uniting the leaders. He tells them that he is sure that his mistress would have wanted them to have her weapon as a memento. He then bids them goodbye and flies off.

DM Note: They sold the Ranseur first chance they got – no one used a weapon like that. So much for sentimentality After the fight I paraphrased a little about what happened in the town after the storm, as a week would pass until next time. I had Paradim arrested for kidnapping the girls, and experimenting on them. This is important as the jail has burned down the next time they arrive in Seaquen.

End of chapter musings: This chapter was very different from the others with much larger focus on roleplaying and having a massive NPC gallery. It worked out well for us, but mostly because I did a lot of preparation before playing the chapter. The Unity through Diversity mission, for instance, worked very well, but mostly because I had given NPCs a more detailed background.
The council meeting was the highlight in this chapter, but I can easily see it being a flat and quite boring experience if handled the wrong way.

I am pretty sure that the way I did it, was the only way that scene could be as great as it ended being with my party. That’s not to say that it is the best solution for everyone, as it puts quite a big pressure on the players and their performance.

Another high point was again that the players had no idea as to whom or what was the bad guy, changing several times throughout the chapter. Keeping the party guessing and never knowing what to expect is part of what has made it a great experience so far. It also has the players wanting to know more; they are still in the dark and eagerly wait for the next session in the hope of getting enlightened.

The chapter also has some weak points, at least if the party is not up to the challenge. There are some long stretches where nothing really happens unless the players seek things out. That can kill the momentum of the story. Also the many side missions that add a lot to make Seaquen a thriving and living town were a good thing in my campaign, but can be a killer in other campaigns, as they don’t drive the story forward.

The amount of NPCs is a thing I like a lot, but also see as a weak point. The players all but drown in names and NPCs in this chapter. They end up losing track of somethings, in my campaign it was the two half-orcs and Paradim. One could add, though, that it simulates real life quite well .

In this chapter I really felt the lack of good handouts and pictures for the NPCs. It would have been nice if the entire council had been on a picture that could have been given as handout. I hate to have a scene like that, where half the people have a portrait in the art work of the adventure, and the rest don’t. Also, a poster for the show would have been a nice touch. From what I have seen of Zeitgeist, that is something that has been improved upon, which is good, and makes me want to run the AP after this one.

A final thing is the way the encounters have been placed in the chapter. If you play with XP, you will have a bit of a challenge to get the players to level up at the right point in the story (not just in this chapter), so I will recommend to anyone planning on plying this AP to consider keeping XP out of the equation (except for Item creators, that will need a little adjustment), it makes things easier to run as a DM

All in all, we had a lot of fun roleplaying through the adventure and despite having some periods that could have been a little “dead” the players did not feel that way, luckily. The first two chapters were in my opinion better, but this was in no way a bad chapter, and our council meeting is still remembered and referenced.

 

[RangerWickett]

Man, that's thorough. Thanks for the combination story hour and review.

With ZEITGEIST, we've tried to get portraits for every NPC with a major speaking role, and in one case had something like 17 NPC portraits in one adventure.