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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2813893" data-attributes="member: 11">Commentary on Sessions #73 thru #76The last two installments I put up are the perfect example of PCs just ignoring adventure hooks.  Well, not really ignoring because I must commend them on their role-playing the discussion of the moral ramifications and the physical consequenes of their just going along doing what they have to do, but I did dangle bait in front of them several times with Anarie's strange behavior and the hints the pixies were dropping, and the players knew it.  But they also knew that I am more than willing to play out the consequences of any of their choices and if they are late arriving at the valley it may play it very badly for them. . . So, just like in real life, they could not know what would happen one way or another, they just had to make the best choice they could.  There will be many more hard choices before the campaign ends.As I knew that at this point we were heading to the end of the campaign, this adventure they skipped was an attempt to give some kind of resolution to the drow witch sub-plot - nowhere near perfect and ultimate resolution, but something satisfying they could take with them into the final sessions of the game - but that was not to happen.  Again, I totally understand why the PCs/players made the decisions they did - you can't get something for nothing in Aquerra - and I will always run this setting that way.But I can't reveal any of the secrets they may have learned if they had sought out the captured elf-lord or followed Anarie or questioned her more closely, or were taken before the fir-bolg chieftain, as these will remain undiscovered for some future campaign, perhaps. . .Other things I can reveal.In session #73, the ruined giant houses on the bluff revealed a group of inbred giants of incredible stupidity and great ferocity.  The site was the ruins of an ancient fire giant kingdom that once stretched over large portion of Derome-Delem in the Second Age - and the party would have found some interesting old artifacts from that culture that would have been very valuable and some lore carved in walls that Martin might have liked - but in terms of the overarching plot of the campaign - there was nothing there.The wyvern lair would have been an interesting encounter as well, there was a nest of baby wyverns there that would have been a nasty fight.  If the wyvern had spotted someone it would have scooped him up and brought him back to the lair for the young precipitating the PCs going after him (I assume).  I always love rescues.  Luck and quick-thinking got them past that without confrontation.The gathering of orcs of Ratchis' (in sessions #73 and #74), however, did have something to do with the overall plot, and was meant to do two things: 1) remind the PCs about the dragon, and 2) foreshadow something that will occur in another eight sessions or so.  Again, this was an opportunity to learn something, but also an opportunity to be delayed or even killed - so there was a choice there for the PCs and they continued to make the same one.The troll in session #74 was just there to break up the monotony of the trip, but the dead gnomes and the things found in the troll lair was meant as a clue to the nearby gnome community (called Grozny), which is where the party discovered they were being scried by not one, but three people.  One of those orbs was from the gnomes, but the other two?  Well, let's just say one was Richard the Red. . .the other I will leave a mystery.  And the hallucinatory terrain was theirs as well.The gnome community was supposed to be a place for the PCs to rest, gain information about the area and pick up some young dwarven followers for Kazrack.  Orphans who had been raised by the gnomes but were ready to go out in the world.  Obviously, this never happened - but the campaign would certainly be different at this point if it had.The dwarven fortress was to serve several purposes.  It was a place Kazrack could drop off those dwarven orphans (if he had picked them up), or cull them so he only had those followers he wanted. It was to show that the dwarves the party had once traveled with had arrived safely to Abarrane-Abaruch, and to introduce another political component to the overarching plot - i.e. the benefits/dangers of having a gathering legion of dwarves just west of Greenreed Valley.  Interestingly, Kazrack never mentioned this aspect of the fortress' function to the rest of the PCs.  To this day they have no idea of the lingering threat to the peace that is nearby.Oh, and I nearly forgot Roland. Since Roland's player went missing for three or four sessions in a row and I was not sure if he would be coming back I had him disappear, and when we finally straightened out his attendance problem and was going to come back, the dwarven fortress provided the perfect place for that to happen.  Sure, there was a chance the party might not want him back and then the player would have needed to make a new character, I guess.When Logan attacked Gunthar in session #76, he caught him flat-footed (i.e. sneak attack damage) and scored a crit.  Gunthar went from full hit points to being critically injured in two hits.  It is unlikely that he would have prevailed over Logan if the others had not broken up the fight.  In the next session or so, Gunthar will go off on his own (at least temporarily), which I did because he needed to deal with his powder for his Can-On, but also from a meta-game point of view I did not want Logan's player to be stuck in this tense situation all the time that strained his relationship with the other PCs - so I figured a break (perhaps even a permanent one) was in order - esp. since PCs should get the benefit over NPCs in these kinds of situations.Happy New Year Everybody!I think in this coming year I plan to write more of these commentaries every few installments or so. . and may go back and do some overviews of the whole campaign, or at least sets of sessions.</blockquote>

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