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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mumford" data-source="post: 6058035" data-attributes="member: 29722">Landing on Axis IslandWell, now that we're back, here's the notes and commentary from the second session.I had actually put this puzzle together using key rings, Legos (that’s right, Legos), and yarn. After a couple of attempts to build this up with other materials I was able to make it pretty quickly with those items. I dropped it on the table and after about 30 seconds Erik suggested they just hold some of the pieces up rather than just keeping them all on the table. They solved the puzzle pretty quickly after that. I was expecting at least some tinkering before they realized they couldn’t solve it without doing something quirky. Take that, DM.This little detail would come up again later. I’m not sure why it was recorded that Nathan was working with the workers. I’m guessing I mentioned Nathan doing work on the island, as well as mining operations that were occurring there and it was mashed together in the notes. This time it wasn’t that big a deal, but it comes up again in the second adventure where it becomes much more important that their information is consistent.We did a bit of chatting back and forth here. I posed them questions to try and get them to look at things from the Duchess’ point of view. What was she trying to do? What was she opposed to? Her methods may be deplorable, but doesn’t her goal justify her actions? I was concerned they were going to gut Smith after a few of the questions. I think the party was still getting used to the idea of having to question motivation in an RPG rather than having things being more black and white. One of my players will sometimes anticipate where the story is going to go, and I felt this would be one of those points where he’d call out that the infiltration team was going to get killed pretty quickly. Why would you introduce a squad of agents who are better than the characters and have them lead the way? So I came up with a plan to surprise them with the cave in.We meet every other week, so as I was preparing for this session I reskinned a handful of monsters so I’d have stats for these NPCs. I started dropping hints to a couple of my players that they’d be getting some NPCs they could us in encounters. I shot some of the powers I’d put together over to one of the guys I work with and really talked it up. When they met the group I handed out sheets with their stats and powers to each of the players, asked them to pick the one they wanted and told them they’d use the NPC as an ally in combat. Everyone was super excited with these powerful NPCs, and sheets were traded until everyone had the character they wanted.Then the moment of truth came. The infiltration team was going to go in the cave first. Nobody said anything, everything was cool. The water rippled, the rope was yanked several times. My players figured they’d just have to head in there and catch up to help them fight off an ambush, no problem.Nope, the rope was stuck under a huge boulder and Burton’s leg was pinned as well. They easily lifted the boulder only to find the infiltration team crushed underneath. At that point I asked for the sheets back, then crumpled them up and tossed them on the floor. Right at that moment my dog showed up and ripped the crumpled paper into shreds.Didn’t see it coming. Lorenzo’s player, who I was expecting would have called it, just started laughing. He got it.This is one of the things I really like about this Adventure Path, there are characters put in here that are pushing the players to ask questions and try to see things from another point of view. It’s not something I see in D&D that much, and it’s a huge change of pace from just killing all bad guys because they’re bad.Giant golem! I figured the players were going to kill it, because that’s what you do in D&D, right? Fortunately, I was able to convey the might of the creature well enough that they took off in the other direction. They did go back and investigate after it was gone and Quinn, who happens to be a spirit medium, got a good look at witchoil. That’ll be coming up again pretty soon.This was a pretty great session. There was a good mix of role playing and combat so everyone was happy. As the DM, I was extremely pleased to see all of the foreshadowing going on with things they ran into here. There will be some small pay offs coming up pretty soon in the campaign, and I’m wondering if they’ll recall where they first ran into it.</blockquote>

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