Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 8654630" data-attributes="member: 7031495">Session 34: The End of the Steppengard LineThe party helps the refugees on their way, with Mishka giving them 10 rations to continue their journey. Travel remains swift, and Balan gives them a crash course on Dasseni politics.“We’re on good terms with Lady Timor, because we train her mages. Lord Dashgoban has an eye for artifacts, and Simeon has maintained a healthy trading program revolving around such items.Things are complicated with Iztorun, as he has voiced sentiments for Seaquen before, but he is Steppengard’s brother-in-law. Lady Dene used to be friendly, but the refugees moving through her land have stressed that somewhat. We have had next to no dealings with Duke Gallo, so I can’t say one way or another our relationship.Finally, there is Lord Rego, who currently blames Seaquen for his many troubles, Lady Magda wants us out of what she claims as her fishing territory, and Lady Namin wishes to redirect the magical trade to her ports.”He also explains the Book of the Eight Lands, a magical artifact that protects Dassen's nobility, as well as providing a clear line of succession for the throne. "Though," Balan notes, "Steppengard was still able to take it by force. It is not a perfect thing."The day they are to arrive in Bresk, they come across a contingent of soldiers in Steppengard’s livery ransacking a caravan of halflings, searching for something. As they near, a woman is pulled out of a secret compartment, and the soldiers move to execute her. The party intervenes, asking her crime, and the leader, Commander Falk, says that she was seen in the company of an accused assassin.The woman pleads her innocence, but Capain Falk spits. “The innocent do not run.” Mishka steps in and says, “Wouldn’t it be best to return her to Bresk, and question her? She may be able to provide information.”Falk looks as if he has no desire to bring the woman back alive, but one of the soldiers clears his throat, and reminds the commander that “the king’s advisor said she would question the suspects.” With a sour face, Commander Falk chops off the woman’s hand, and leads her back to Bresk.On their way back, Falk asks after Gruz’s old unit. “I served with Brenhanna during the wars. She was tough.” Gruz says he’s the only one who survived, as far as he knows.“You said she was seen with an assassin? So Queen Izabella was assassinated then?” Gruz asks.Falk frowns, a dark shadow crosses over his face. “I’m afraid your information is a bit late. In the days since the Queen’s death, the five eldest were killed in a gathering after her funeral, and the young were poisoned, along with their caretakers. The king was emptying his coffers for the priests to bring them back, but all of their hearts were burned. The same with her majesty.”When Mishka pries for more information, Falk doesn’t offer any. Balan looks like he could throw up.The walled city of Bresk rises above the hills around it, with the castle perched on a rocky protrusion called the Great Hill. It overlooks the wide river and the Toraest Steppes to the east. The twin statues of Snorri and Rollo, the founders of Dassen, stand guard over the main gates. Guards walk up and down the entrance, checking bags and eyeing foreigners with distrust. Papers from Balan allow the party through with ease however.Separating from the soldiers, Balan leads them to the Golden Griffon, a very fine establishment, where he drops a bag of gold and leads them to a grand suite, with its own common room, and six bedrooms adjoining. There, he immediately begins pacing, thinking out loud to himself how terrible this is. “There’s no saying how this will affect our standing. I must speak go about and learn information.” He leaves with his bodyguard Touka, and tells the party to eat to their fill, “with moderation.”The party descends downstairs, and eats from a wide variety of meats, cheeses, breads, and greens. Orwin grills Jineer about his intentions with Crystin. The inn is somber, and the innkeeper asks the bard to play something upbeat. The bard says the best he can do is bittersweet, and sings a song of the heroes who saved Barovia. Mishka tips him a gold.They go out onto the streets, where there seem to be guards everywhere. Gruz introduces them to wurstbrats, a Dasseni sausage that is quite hearty. Walking the streets, they attempt to learn more of the assassinations, but only learn that while the Queen’s funeral was a great procession, the children’s funerals have been held in the castle, privately. As they walk back to the inn, they discover a shop that looks suspiciously like Madame Xendros’, and when they step inside, they discover that the tiefling is here as well. They are unable to determine how she got to Dassen before them, but buy a few items anyway: a Periapt of Health, and a Broom of Flying.They return to the inn, and fall asleep, waiting for Balan to return with news.Post-Session ThoughtsAnother fun session, with lots of questions and learning about the world. Gruz as a PC is one of the more grounded ones, so it's fun to feed the player info that isn't in the Player's Handbook, and let him explain his homeland. Mishka's player, once again asked a lot of good questions. At one point, in the meandering politics conversation, she asked about the line of succession. Balan assured her that Steppengard had too many children for that to be an issue. The suprise in the player's voices when I revealed their deaths 20 minutes later was great.Another fun roleplay in the inn and in Bresk as well. I can already tell the players are getting more comfortable getting into the storyteller chair and taking over for a bit to flesh out the world. The wurstbrats were about 10 minutes of everyone just having fun.Changes to the moduleThe book seems to treat the police brutality situation as though the players should obviously fight. With Gruz, a former Dasseni soldier, in the group, I wanted to play it more as a RP situation, and it worked out well. The group was actually torn on whether or not to stick their necks out for the woman, with Gruz and Orwin wanting to stay out of it ("She was hiding in a secret compartment," Gruz said), and Eluriah and Mishka wanting to help. In the end, she lived, but lost a hand, and will be in the dungeons for who knows how long.With the Elk Totem from Mishka speeding them along, I wondered how I could "reward" that, and I think it's going to be that they have time to meet with a lot of the proxies before going to the court. Technically, this is reverting a change I made in my notes to be more like the module, but it still is a change. They'll have a couple of days to schmooze around, make connections, and then when Steppengard is "done grieving," he will hold court. I foresee this taking all of next session. I'll be surprised if we even finish up in court at this rate. It's looking more and more likely that I will cut down the various quests later on, to try and keep up a decent pace. I think I can be a little too focused on the timeline of the campaign. I can't help but extrapolate how long its taken to get here, and think "We'll probably be playing this same campaign two years from now." I think this would be less of an issue if I had another game going on, or another system after being in 5e for five solid years now. I love the group, I'm really enjoying the modules, but I'm a bit restless. One of our players just Next week, wining and dining!</blockquote>

Verification