DM Thoughts - Session 06
This session was the second part of chapter one, my introduction to the campaign which had as its centerpiece the Lavinia-Anzak wedding.
In the previous session, my end goal was to have the party maneuver things so that Anzak would be forced to turn informant against the Lotus Dragons, revealing Vanthus and Rowyn as its leaders and exchanging his freedom for theirs.
In this second session, while those two are behind bars, my end goal was to orchestrate their escape, to occur while the wedding served as a distraction.
All in all, I must confess that my planning for this session was minimal, by intention. Rather than charting out the session encounter by encounter, I simply had a list of things to accomplish, in point form, and trusted my ability to improvise and work my way around to getting those points accomplished.
Those exact points were these, only numbering five:
1 - Glaive learns that his brother has had the 1000 gp loan transfered to him.
This was set up by Eric after session 4, in which we ended the Olman pre-campaign and began (for one hour) the pirate campaign. There hadn't been a way to work it into the previous session, so I wanted to make sure it fit in somewhere in this one.
2 - Party gains information that Void Crystals were stolen.
The Void Crystals, the theft of which was the motivation for murdering Lux Seoni, were not really supposed to have been stolen in the first place - they originally were going to be part of the halted Anzak mission, in which the party would presumably stop him from killing Lux Seoni. But since that was changed completely (see my previous DM Thoughts for details), there was nothing to stop them from being taken (which would make a later development a lot easier for the bad guys). Therefore, I at least wanted the party to discover (through Lux doing an inventory, which they had asked her to do) that they were what was taken.
3 - Attack on Gustave and the dance school
This was something I had set up the previous session, with Dracktus making the mistake of naming Gustave as part of the investigation, thus making him a potential target for the Lotus Dragons. I wanted a small group of them to make a weak attack on the school as a way of trying to "send a message". The attack would not be all that powerful or well-organized, as it was self-motivated by the three attackers, and not organized by any of the groups real leaders. Thus, it was expected to be a fair fight for Gustave and Crimson alone to handle.
4 - The Wedding and Meerthan's disappearance
The wedding itself, funnily enough, was the least-prepared portion of the session - with the exception of its guest-list, which I wrote a long time ago. But the actual wedding, I wanted to be very free-flowing and open to improvisation, depending on what characters the players wanted to have fun with, and how they wanted to make use of them. This was because the wedding itself, was not supposed to be anything more than a distraction, while the more serious elements of the story were happening: the escape of the prisoners. Therefore, I simply wanted to have fun with it, giving each character a few chances to shine (particularly Gustave and Crimson with their dance), and having it simply be a role-playing event. In fact, the only thing that truly mattered about the actual wedding was a throw-away line on my part - a quick mention that Meerthan Eliothlorn had not shown up as expected. This was not to be a big deal, since Soulerio and Verodemocrium had not attended either... So it was my hope that none of the players would really latch onto the fact. Yet, Meerthan being missing was indeed a big plot development, so I wanted to make sure it was at least noticed by them (as something to be elaborated on more via e-mail, as it was of more concern to everyone's former characters, than the pirate group).
5 - The prisoner escape (Vanthus and Rowyn)
Of all the events of this second introductory session, this was the only one that TRULY mattered. Any of the other points I mentioned could have been reworked or changed, and it would be possible to adapt. Yet Vanthus and Rowyn could not remain prisoners past the wedding, as their involvement in upcoming storylines meant that they needed to be out there, free to do stuff.
The means of their escape was to be via the arrival of the beholder, Orbius Vhalantru, at the prison that night, in the company of his new Gauth minions. The number of guards would be rather minimal, as many of them would be out patrolling the streets on this important night with so many big names in town. Thus, when the beholder and his gang arrived at the prison, using a disintegration ray to make a hole into the prisoners' cells, they would meet only light resistance. My plan was to have about 7 or so guards be killed in the attack, leaving no living witnesses. Therefore, arriving at the crime scene, what would be discovered is the two prisoners being missing, two large holes in the walls of their cells, and seven bodies each appearing to have suffering quite different sets of magical wounds (Finger of Death, Disintegrate, Scorching Ray, Telekinesis...). The conclusion would be that they were broken free by a very powerful wizard of some sort.
Yet, if the party was to ask the right questions via Speak with Dead, they would instead discover that each dead guard claimed to have seen a large number of floating eyeball creatures within the cells. They were struck too quickly to realize the size difference, leading to investigators concluding that they were attacked by possibly up to 8 or so beholders.
HOWEVER, as with the previous session, things did not go at all as planned with that, as Garland unexpectedly decided that this session was the right time to offer his services to the Dawn Council as an investigator, asking to go speak with Vanthus himself - to ask that no attacks be made by the Lotus Dragons over the course of the week leading up to the wedding. I jumped on this opportunity to lure Garland into a trap, having Vanthus ask to be granted permission to be able to watch his sister's wedding from a secure location. Garland got clearance from Dracktus to allow this, and was advised to speak to Dracktus' assistant, Lothar, from this point on, to allow Dracktus to deny involvement with anything. Going back to Vanthus, he asked for an extra favor, that Rowyn be there with him. Sensing trouble, Garland was nonetheless stuck, and unable to get Dracktus' approval. So the agreement was reached, with Vanthus and Rowyn to be watching the wedding from the safety of a second-floor restaurant overlooking the wedding plaza. Their protection would be ensured by 12 guards and 12 sailors (Garland's crew from the whaler's guild) - in addition to Garland himself and Captain Shadwick.
Thus, the stakes were definitely raised, as now instead of having seven unknown guards die in the background, possibly without the party even discovering for a while that the rescuers were beholders... suddenly, one of the PCs would be directly in harm's way (though hopefully wouldn't do anything stupid).
So as the event progressed (full details in the upcoming summary), the rescue did occur - and actually with far less bloodshed than originally planned, as Garland succeeded in negociating with Vhalantru and guaranteeing the safety of the guards and sailors. The only casualty was Captain Shadwick, who tried to negociate an even better deal for themselves, earning himself a Finger of Death blast from Vhalantru (a heroic death, of sorts, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances - to underline how dangerous things could have potentially been). It would also give Garland an extra motive for revenge against the creature who killed his beloved captain and surrogate father figure.
And so, once again, the end results of the session were reached, though not in the way I expected. Still, I think a good time was had by all involved, and I consider it (and the entire introductory chapter) a success.
Afterward, we moved on to my final alteration of the pre-campaign: to have the murders of Verik and Larissa Vanderboren not be as vague as described in the original magazine version of the starting chapter of the campaign, but rather have all clues point to a single unexpected suspect: Anzak Guildenstern.
As to why I made this change, and whether Anzak truly is guilty - those mysteries will likely persist throughout a great portion of the Savage Tide campaign, so I can't speak more about it for fear of giving my players too much information. However, its short-term purpose was achieved: setting up the starting situation of the campaign, in which Lavinia is now alone without parents, brother or husband, in desperate need of help, seeking answers and eventually revenge - and calling upon trusted friends and adventurers to help her out.
All in all, I believe that the two introductory sessions pulled off what I intended, by making that starting point a lot more meaningful and emotional for those involved, as Lavinia would not be some unknown person, but a closer friend that the party might feel sorry for, giving her sad turn of events. Also, the victims now had more detail, as Verik and Larissa were real people the party had met, instead of just being victims. Similarly, the bad guys were known a bit better too, as the party had already met (and pissed off) Vanthus and Rowyn, instead of having them be unknowns at this point, too. Lastly, my plan to introduce Orbius Vhalantru into the mix went far better than expected, too - with him not just being a background figure involved in rescuing the prisoners, but actually coming face to face with a PC already, and being able to negociate a peaceful solution.
So now, with the set-up complete, everything is in place to begin - in session 07 - what the magazine version of the campaign would have begun in session 01. And all things considered, I'm pretty proud of what I have done with the Olman pre-campaign and the Wedding chapter - in taking an already awesome campaign, and putting my own spin on it, making it my own and hopefully even better for my players.
Can't wait for next week, when the real adventure begins!
In the previous session, my end goal was to have the party maneuver things so that Anzak would be forced to turn informant against the Lotus Dragons, revealing Vanthus and Rowyn as its leaders and exchanging his freedom for theirs.
In this second session, while those two are behind bars, my end goal was to orchestrate their escape, to occur while the wedding served as a distraction.
All in all, I must confess that my planning for this session was minimal, by intention. Rather than charting out the session encounter by encounter, I simply had a list of things to accomplish, in point form, and trusted my ability to improvise and work my way around to getting those points accomplished.
Those exact points were these, only numbering five:
1 - Glaive learns that his brother has had the 1000 gp loan transfered to him.
This was set up by Eric after session 4, in which we ended the Olman pre-campaign and began (for one hour) the pirate campaign. There hadn't been a way to work it into the previous session, so I wanted to make sure it fit in somewhere in this one.
2 - Party gains information that Void Crystals were stolen.
The Void Crystals, the theft of which was the motivation for murdering Lux Seoni, were not really supposed to have been stolen in the first place - they originally were going to be part of the halted Anzak mission, in which the party would presumably stop him from killing Lux Seoni. But since that was changed completely (see my previous DM Thoughts for details), there was nothing to stop them from being taken (which would make a later development a lot easier for the bad guys). Therefore, I at least wanted the party to discover (through Lux doing an inventory, which they had asked her to do) that they were what was taken.
3 - Attack on Gustave and the dance school
This was something I had set up the previous session, with Dracktus making the mistake of naming Gustave as part of the investigation, thus making him a potential target for the Lotus Dragons. I wanted a small group of them to make a weak attack on the school as a way of trying to "send a message". The attack would not be all that powerful or well-organized, as it was self-motivated by the three attackers, and not organized by any of the groups real leaders. Thus, it was expected to be a fair fight for Gustave and Crimson alone to handle.
4 - The Wedding and Meerthan's disappearance
The wedding itself, funnily enough, was the least-prepared portion of the session - with the exception of its guest-list, which I wrote a long time ago. But the actual wedding, I wanted to be very free-flowing and open to improvisation, depending on what characters the players wanted to have fun with, and how they wanted to make use of them. This was because the wedding itself, was not supposed to be anything more than a distraction, while the more serious elements of the story were happening: the escape of the prisoners. Therefore, I simply wanted to have fun with it, giving each character a few chances to shine (particularly Gustave and Crimson with their dance), and having it simply be a role-playing event. In fact, the only thing that truly mattered about the actual wedding was a throw-away line on my part - a quick mention that Meerthan Eliothlorn had not shown up as expected. This was not to be a big deal, since Soulerio and Verodemocrium had not attended either... So it was my hope that none of the players would really latch onto the fact. Yet, Meerthan being missing was indeed a big plot development, so I wanted to make sure it was at least noticed by them (as something to be elaborated on more via e-mail, as it was of more concern to everyone's former characters, than the pirate group).
5 - The prisoner escape (Vanthus and Rowyn)
Of all the events of this second introductory session, this was the only one that TRULY mattered. Any of the other points I mentioned could have been reworked or changed, and it would be possible to adapt. Yet Vanthus and Rowyn could not remain prisoners past the wedding, as their involvement in upcoming storylines meant that they needed to be out there, free to do stuff.
The means of their escape was to be via the arrival of the beholder, Orbius Vhalantru, at the prison that night, in the company of his new Gauth minions. The number of guards would be rather minimal, as many of them would be out patrolling the streets on this important night with so many big names in town. Thus, when the beholder and his gang arrived at the prison, using a disintegration ray to make a hole into the prisoners' cells, they would meet only light resistance. My plan was to have about 7 or so guards be killed in the attack, leaving no living witnesses. Therefore, arriving at the crime scene, what would be discovered is the two prisoners being missing, two large holes in the walls of their cells, and seven bodies each appearing to have suffering quite different sets of magical wounds (Finger of Death, Disintegrate, Scorching Ray, Telekinesis...). The conclusion would be that they were broken free by a very powerful wizard of some sort.
Yet, if the party was to ask the right questions via Speak with Dead, they would instead discover that each dead guard claimed to have seen a large number of floating eyeball creatures within the cells. They were struck too quickly to realize the size difference, leading to investigators concluding that they were attacked by possibly up to 8 or so beholders.
HOWEVER, as with the previous session, things did not go at all as planned with that, as Garland unexpectedly decided that this session was the right time to offer his services to the Dawn Council as an investigator, asking to go speak with Vanthus himself - to ask that no attacks be made by the Lotus Dragons over the course of the week leading up to the wedding. I jumped on this opportunity to lure Garland into a trap, having Vanthus ask to be granted permission to be able to watch his sister's wedding from a secure location. Garland got clearance from Dracktus to allow this, and was advised to speak to Dracktus' assistant, Lothar, from this point on, to allow Dracktus to deny involvement with anything. Going back to Vanthus, he asked for an extra favor, that Rowyn be there with him. Sensing trouble, Garland was nonetheless stuck, and unable to get Dracktus' approval. So the agreement was reached, with Vanthus and Rowyn to be watching the wedding from the safety of a second-floor restaurant overlooking the wedding plaza. Their protection would be ensured by 12 guards and 12 sailors (Garland's crew from the whaler's guild) - in addition to Garland himself and Captain Shadwick.
Thus, the stakes were definitely raised, as now instead of having seven unknown guards die in the background, possibly without the party even discovering for a while that the rescuers were beholders... suddenly, one of the PCs would be directly in harm's way (though hopefully wouldn't do anything stupid).
So as the event progressed (full details in the upcoming summary), the rescue did occur - and actually with far less bloodshed than originally planned, as Garland succeeded in negociating with Vhalantru and guaranteeing the safety of the guards and sailors. The only casualty was Captain Shadwick, who tried to negociate an even better deal for themselves, earning himself a Finger of Death blast from Vhalantru (a heroic death, of sorts, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances - to underline how dangerous things could have potentially been). It would also give Garland an extra motive for revenge against the creature who killed his beloved captain and surrogate father figure.
And so, once again, the end results of the session were reached, though not in the way I expected. Still, I think a good time was had by all involved, and I consider it (and the entire introductory chapter) a success.
Afterward, we moved on to my final alteration of the pre-campaign: to have the murders of Verik and Larissa Vanderboren not be as vague as described in the original magazine version of the starting chapter of the campaign, but rather have all clues point to a single unexpected suspect: Anzak Guildenstern.
As to why I made this change, and whether Anzak truly is guilty - those mysteries will likely persist throughout a great portion of the Savage Tide campaign, so I can't speak more about it for fear of giving my players too much information. However, its short-term purpose was achieved: setting up the starting situation of the campaign, in which Lavinia is now alone without parents, brother or husband, in desperate need of help, seeking answers and eventually revenge - and calling upon trusted friends and adventurers to help her out.
All in all, I believe that the two introductory sessions pulled off what I intended, by making that starting point a lot more meaningful and emotional for those involved, as Lavinia would not be some unknown person, but a closer friend that the party might feel sorry for, giving her sad turn of events. Also, the victims now had more detail, as Verik and Larissa were real people the party had met, instead of just being victims. Similarly, the bad guys were known a bit better too, as the party had already met (and pissed off) Vanthus and Rowyn, instead of having them be unknowns at this point, too. Lastly, my plan to introduce Orbius Vhalantru into the mix went far better than expected, too - with him not just being a background figure involved in rescuing the prisoners, but actually coming face to face with a PC already, and being able to negociate a peaceful solution.
So now, with the set-up complete, everything is in place to begin - in session 07 - what the magazine version of the campaign would have begun in session 01. And all things considered, I'm pretty proud of what I have done with the Olman pre-campaign and the Wedding chapter - in taking an already awesome campaign, and putting my own spin on it, making it my own and hopefully even better for my players.
Can't wait for next week, when the real adventure begins!
posted by Markus the Mad | 10:50 AM
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