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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 6248250" data-attributes="member: 79141">I can't pretend not to be gratified by not one, but two positive responses from fellow DMs.  Feels like I've won an award.Secondary characters can be useful, but (unless dealt with as simply as the adventure suggests) they present certain difficulties: specifically, what am I going to do with unit B now? Anyway, to return to the Cruel Variant? encounter for a moment, it is worth noting that the combat took place at 5am, just a few hours after unit A’s defeat at the hands of Ekossigan, which followed hard on the heels of their hit-and-run encounter with Gale. They had also gone up against Grundon Zubov in the subrail tunnel earlier that day, so they had had four major encounters in a row, with each of the end-of-thread baddies.  That's got to be some kind of record for our Zeitgeist campaign.I'm very pleased with the way each of these threads turned out.  My campaign recap from the start of the session pretty much sums them all up:"Previously on Zeitgeist:Over the course of the last five days, several threads of investigation have come to head:The golem eye required by Alexander Grappa was discovered in the possession of the Clockwork King, who has handed it to the unit on the promise that they will give him Godmind Urn possessed by the Gearbuilder, Tinker Oddcog (whom he says they will find in the Bleak Gate).Radical eschatologists led by Grundon Zubov were prevented from blowing up Hotel Aurum, and their hostages – including Governor Roland Stanfield – were released. Both Grundon Zubov and the treacherous Azon the Stoneforger were killed in the process.After a slow start, thanks to additional help from a grateful Stanfield, the Get Kell initiative became a rout.  In a coup de grace, unit leader Baldrey Korrigan marched a small army on the Theatre of Scoundrels*, scattering Kell’s remaining forces and destroying his power base once and for all.Finally, accompanied by eladrin dreadnought Asrabey Varal, the unit managed to locate renegade fey lord Ekossigan at Gallo’s School for Boys, deep in the Cloudwood. It turned out that his target was not the Peace Conference after all, but the same Obscurati complex the unit was trying to get to, but his means were wholly different: he planned to sacrifice thirty orphaned children to open a portal into the Bleak Gate.  Before the unit could stop him, he revealed that Kasvarina, Asrabey’s wife, was being held in the complex and this news caused Asrabey to change sides.  Aided by a dominated Gale, Ekossigan and Asrabey proved too powerful for the officers who were forced to retreat.  The orphans were sacrificed and Ekossigan led his ragtag fey army into the resulting portal.Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Unit B ambushed Vander Lepage during an illegal cash transfer.  This turned out to be a trap.  The unit were themselves surprised by none other than vengeful crime boss Lorcan Kell…"I almost always began a session like this, unless we're in media res. *This happened off-screen.  Victory was a foregone conclusion so I hand-waved it.</blockquote>

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