DM Thoughts - Session 03

This week's session was a bit of a change of pace, in more ways than one.

Firstly, it was one of those combat-free roleplaying sessions that our group has done so well, these past few years (ever since we started placing a bit more effort into characterizations and creating both meaningful PCs and NPCs, basically). I recall back in Shackled City, when early on we went through two entire sessions over the course of the "Party at House Rhiavadi", which primarily consisted of the characters getting to know some of the major NPCs of the campaign (many of which turned out to be evil), while also trying to spy and gather information on the mayor and the "Blue Duke". In the end, bearing such fruit as Scatterspells falling for Celeste, Embril/Uzuki asking for the chance to "analyze/activate" Xenogear, Eadfrid working both on creating a shelter for the homeless AND uniting the churches of Cauldron (the early beginnings of the Amalgamation), and the party growing more and more under the influence of Lord Vhalantru... those two sessions truly ended up being for me as DM, one of the highlights of the campaign.

And so, we followed in those footsteps this past week, with another one of those sessions where much was accomplished, without the need for any fighting. Indeed, hardly a die roll was needed, except for Bakura and his constant super-bluff checks! :)

So that was a very nice change of pace, after a first couple of sessions that featured a fair amount of big fights (through the Trials of the Dragon God).

But perhaps even more interesting was the fact that it ended up being a split-session, with only half of it devoted to the Olman characters. Prior to that, we spent nearly half the session roleplaying a mix of our Shackled City and Age of Worms characters, in the form of a meeting to help foreshadow some of the things to come, mostly in the post-campaign "bonus chapters". The characters who took part in this were Pellegri (played by Bob), Eadfrid (played by Eric), Scatterspells (played by Chris), and two NPCs for myself - Jenya and Meerthan. And while the meeting ended up being quite the rocky one, with Scatterspells and Eadfrid showing little respect for Pellegri and her warnings, it did however progress the storyline in interesting ways - linking the information on Demon Lords gained by one side, with the intriguing commune answers discovered by the other side. With many more such meetings and roleplaying mini-sessions in the future, it also got people back into the feel of some of their old characters (in addition to the numerous roleplaying e-mail and Ahead of the Storm entries I've been getting).

Secondly came the actual Olman session, which focused on the aftermath of the first Savage Tide attack, in which the characters of Meleeki, Bakura and Immortal reunited and struggled to rebuild the remnants of their society - by uniting the outcast tribes and researching the nature of the attack... and its horrible effects upon those who survived it. Their path also led them to an identity for their enemy - alien sea creatures known as aboleths - as well as a potential means of retaliation, by using Tlaloc's Tear to create a massive air bubble centered in Golismorga, the aboleth city on the underside of the Isle of Dread. As the sea creatures were believed to be unable to survive without water, such an effect would succeed in killing most of them, and likely causing those few survivors to flee for their lives. If this suicide mission were successful, it might guarantee a chance of survival for the Olman people. If it failed, the aboleths would likely attempt to kill off those remaining Olmans, wiping out their entire race.

The stage was set, the newly-named Elements of Vengeance ready for their counterattack...

And the stakes of the final session (or two) of the pre-campaign were now clear.

All without any combat needed in the entire session.

That's what I call a job well done, for myself and all the players.