Of Gods and Dragons: Session Six

Last time, the group moved through the swamps to the west of Mishara toward the observatory where they believed the black dragon Vuthiejir to be hiding. On the way, they encountered a traveler with pet fox who offered to guide them along the strange roads to the observatory, which they agreed to. Brokk spotted a dead orc off the road, recognizing that they had been killed because of the feud between the orcs and elves but did not take action; the traveler, Rhodes, discussed his perspective on life, which is to gain experience and wisdom and trust that that experience will serve you; Aurora was approached by a faerie who made her remember more of her past, once again seeing a violent prison camp and the people who run it; and Lethanin was contacted by a messenger who conveyed that his mother, Dodira, suspected he was up to something. They arrived at the observatory and spoke with an elven woman who admitted she was Vuthiejir. Vuthiejir had the party lock her in an enormous cage to protect them in case she was forced by the leaking divine magic to become aggressive, and they all talked for a while. Vuthiejir explained that she wanted the rift repaired so that she could regain her choices in things, gave information on the other dragons and the gods, offered help in killing Thomas (who she said has extorted her for her help), and suggested approaching potentially helpful gods to see if they would assist the party in reaching Boccob. Finishing their conversation with Vuthiejir, who said her real name was Niela, they returned to Jarvia's estate to process things. Brokk struggled with his identity as an orcish weapon of war, Aurora wrote a letter to her adopted mother, and Lethanin told his mother that he was turning to religion. 

This time, I had a major difference in moving forward. In session one, I knew going in that Thomas and Aurix would speak to the party, providing different perspectives on what to do about the rift. For session two, I knew that the party would be seeking the silver dragon and exploring Talon Gorge; I also knew this was an opportunity to introduce a god to the mix. In session three, I knew that they would have a conversation with Jarvia and that she'd introduce the third major argument about the rift. Session four also had a clear major focus: speaking with Wing and hearing her ideas, which would back up Jarvia's even if for different reasons. And as stated above, session five would clearly center on talking to Vuthiejir, the party's first chromatic dragon after the quick conversation with Thomas (and obviously, Vuthiejir and Thomas have wildly different personalities, ideas, and goals). But for this session, things were very different. Previous sessions have all ended with clear directions for what's next--either the party explicitly stated a plan or had them about to complete a plan. This session had no such situation. Session five ended with a kind of resolution--the party had completed the goal of finding and talking to Vuthiejir, and they needed to recover before planning something new. That meant that this session would be our first entirely improvised session. As you may see below, I think it went well. Last time, I wrote about the conscious decision to allow the party some time and space to rest and process things, so I did make a deliberate effort to slow down and provide them that, but what the party threw at me was a collection of things I did not and could not anticipate. Here's what happened:

The party was at Jarvia's estate. Brokk does not require sleep, so he had spent the night sitting on the back porch and reading one of his romance novels. Lethanin's player said that Lethanin would sleep in, so we waited a bit to get to him. But Aurora rose fairly early and approached Jarvia on the front porch, where she was making an effort to give Brokk some privacy. Aurora asked Jarvia for help finding some alchemical ingredients, specifically butterfly wings, mountain flowers, and mare urine. Aurora's player messaged me at this time in a private channel (the discord server where we play has a private channel for each player so I can have discreet conversations with each of them) to explain that the mare urine was a very specific item. We established in Aurora's character building phases that Aurora is a transwoman who has been alchemically treating herself with a medieval kind of hormone therapy. Aurora's player explained in the private channel that in the real world, early hormone therapy did in fact use mare urine, specifically from a pregnant or recent mother mare, because of the abundance of estrogen in the urine. As was only hinted at in previous sessions, Jarvia is also a transwoman, and Aurora's player thought it was important that I am DM knew that Jarvia would recognize the request for mare urine as a pretty big hint that Aurora was a transwoman as well. I took note of this and decided to work Jarvia's reaction into the session later, but that Jarvia recognized Aurora's discomfort and allowed her to avoid a direct discussion. (Oftentimes, an immediate big moment after a very personal character moment is less impactful than one that comes later on.) So Jarvia gave Aurora directions around town to find a good stable and alchemist's shop and left it that--for now. Aurora asked Jarvia to say she'd gone to get breakfast foods and set off for town. 

In town, Aurora found the stable that Jarvia had indicated and paid the stablehand, a young gnome named Grigor, to collect the required mare urine. Grigor was confused and slightly resistant--he didn't understand the purpose of the task and argued it would be hard to do--but he agreed to do it after Aurora offered him a platinum piece. We switched back to the estate, where Brokk and Jarvia drank coffee together; they discussed their reading habits and tastes, their perspectives on what makes them who they are, and what it means to be able to make meaningful choices. Sensing that Brokk was taking the weight of the latter conversation heavily, she switched to small talk, at which point Lethanin rose and joined them before deciding to whip up some hashbrowns for breakfast. We switched back to Aurora, now at the alchemist's shop where she purchased the butterfly wings and mountain flowers as well as a few find, otla needles, which come from a special type of fir tree in the area around Talon Gorge--the shopkeep explained that these needles can help to extend the duration of an alchemical product by a substantial amount, and Aurora purchased some of these as well. She also made a quick stop at a butcher shop and purchased some sausages to rationalize her trip to the city. Back at the estate, Lethanin raided Jarvia's pantry to improve the hashbrowns, and Brokk sat and simply thought, not quite reading the book before him, and he thought hard about conversations he may need to have in the near future. We switched again to Aurora, who picked up the samples of mare urine she'd requested and bade farewell to Grigor before hurrying back to the estate. Upon arriving there, she summoned a magical servant to cook the sausages and prepare biscuits, and the servant alarmed Lethanin when it appeared in the kitchen. 

As a somewhat brief but important aside, I highly recommend using as short of segments as possible when switching between members of a split party. A long segment that covers all the time apart between split party members may seem appealing, but there are a few reasons to stick with shorter segments no longer than five minutes. Firstly, sitting quietly and doing nothing for up to half an hour or more is boring for your players. Several short bursts keeps them engaged with the game. I would also argue that we don't ever really know when the party is reconvening, especially if we're trying to avoid railroading, so your long segments may not even be the end of things. And thirdly, there's a kind of energy that builds in a group when you switch quickly between characters, a kind of one-upmanship  where the players try to make the most of their time and keep the pacing faster, which helps to remind them that their turns are coming again soon. In this last paragraph, I described a shopping trip with no real complications, sitting and chatting, and making hashbrowns, but the mood in the group was high and energetic when we played because the quick segments kept us moving. I would also argue that the faster pace allowed me to subtly indicate that getting the group back together was a priority, which helped us bring everyone back together. 

Before Aurora went into the house, Jarvia quietly mentioned that she could help her not need the mare urine anymore if Aurora wanted. This was an indirect way of saying that Jarvia was offering to magically transform Aurora's body so that she no longer required alchemical means to become more biologically female. Aurora resisted this, making excuses about handling it herself and making the best of what she had; Jarvia continually said, "It doesn't have to hard" and "You don't have to work this much." Out of game, Aurora's player, who is a transwoman, was pretty emotionally hit hard by this. We've discussed the idea of a "magic button" that makes you just have the body you want, and it's something that really appeals to her. So I thought I would offer Aurora that same idea in-game, and it really affected Aurora's player and Aurora alike. Eventually, Aurora agreed, and Jarvia, whose magic comes through bardic performance, played a song on the fiddle to cast the transformation. The song began with a mournful sound which then became determined, then hopeful, and finally joyful. The magic transformed Aurora, and overcome with emotion, she simply sat down and cried. Jarvia sat with her and comforted her, then left her with some privacy to process things and helped with breakfast. While Brokk and Lethanin were able to hear Jarvia's song, every other detail of this scene played out with only Jarvia and Aurora. 

I want to make a note here. What I did by offering this moment to Aurora and her player was a big risk, one I wouldn't recommend in almost all situations. What made it work in this instance is that (1) Aurora's player and I are remarkably close--we are, in fact, getting married today. I knew that Aurora's player would be touched by this in a very positive way because we're emotionally intimate and she's told me how she would feel about it. (2) I am also a transwoman, so my understanding on a deep and personal level of what a spell like Jarvia's would mean to someone in Aurora's situation. Had a different person with different experiences offered what Jarvia did, it's likely that they would mishandle some of the delicate parts of the scene, and it would come off as pandering or insincere. And (3) the entire session went by without an explicit mention of Aurora's gender. When the spell happened, I sent a message in the private channel to explain the effects explicitly, but Brokk, Brokk's player, Lethanin, and Lethanin's player never had any real hint as to what was happening. This was a massively personal and emotional moment, and having it take place in any public way would have been inappropriate, and had Brokk or Lethanin entered the scene, Jarvia would have immediately stopped to protect Aurora's privacy. Had I botched a single one of these factors, the scene would not have worked and would actually have done more harm than good. Be responsible with your players' emotions and their characters' emotions--D&D may be a game, but a person's feelings are not.

The group came together for breakfast. Jarvia asked about their plans, and they discussed going to contact another metallic dragon, saying that the new copper dragon seemed the best next step. Aurora discussed emergency plans like teleporting to safety should things get dicey; Lethanin said that things had gone well so far and he intended to keep "trusting the song"; Brokk argued that luck seemed to be on their side in things and hoped it would carry them further. Brokk went further to say that he was willing to accept whatever happened as a result of the prophecy when Jarvia mentioned being unsure of what came after the rift, but Lethanin voiced a distinct interest in staying alive and doing more. The party decided to travel to Kallett City, a small mountain town where Vuthiejir had told them the copper dragon was waiting, but before they could leave, Wing contacted them to say that she had spoken with Aurix about repairing the rift but that he'd seemed unconvinced. The party agreed that they would wait to talk to the copper dragon and would instead go to see Aurix and shore up his support for the plan. They also asked Wing about Hriskin, the brass dragon, and Wing explained that Hriskin had been a lively and passionate arena fighter, but after her immortality as a dragon meant that she had to watch her husband grow old and die, she'd become deeply depressed and scarcely left her bed, choosing not to speak to anyone if she could. Content that they had a direction (Aurix, then the copper dragon, then Hriskin), Aurora transported the party to Aurix's chambers under the city of Torga. 

A minute after their appearance in his home, Aurix came to join the party. The group immediately set to discussing the plan and the need to have Aurix's support. Initially, Aurix uncomfortably but calmly restated and expanded on their position that the good need to be empowered to do their best, and the group solidly argued that choice was more important. The party said that Wing, Jarvia, and Vuthiejir all supported repairing the rift, as did they, and Aurix grew more animated, arguing that the world was fundamentally broken, that good people stand by while evil people do as they wish, and that this meant evil prevailed--good people needed to be held to their convictions. The party countered this with the idea that good and evil do not truly exist; instead, there is a spectrum of morality where most things fall in the middle somewhere. Aurix grew increasingly upset, explaining the largest population centers in Evanoch were watched over by evil dragons and that they personally were cut off from the other good dragons, surrounded by threats--Lethanin asked if Aurix was pitying themself. Aurix grew desperate, saying that good rules protect people, and there is not better rule than one that makes people act on good. But Lethanin argued that there is no such thing as a good rule--instead, Brokk said, change must come from within, not without. At this, Aurix grew quiet. Aurix said that growing up as a kobold, they were disgusted by the violence and mindless cruelty they were surrounded by and had tried to make the other kobolds see their perspective--it had never worked. 

Seeing things the party's way, Aurix acknowledged that they had made a mistake, and choosing good is in the fact the most important part of being good. Brokk told Aurix that their example as a principled and passionate advocate of good had convinced him not to walk away from the prophecy and its responsibilities, instead choosing the right thing. Aurix apologized for not being able to close the rift; Brokk politely told Aurix to "shut the fuck up" and that Aurix had done the best they could with what they knew. The party asked Aurix about the copper dragon, and Aurix explained that they had met a man named Rupert who was tormented by a twisted incarnation of Gruumsh, and Aurix had recently discovered the means to reinstate the copper dragon title, deciding to award it to someone powerful, principled, and fundamentally good like Rupert. The party explained their plans, and Aurix offered to brainstorm ideas about how to attack Thomas, and then later Horton, the blue dragon. Brokk insisted that Aurix be clear when speaking with Jarvia that the attacks on chromatic dragons were not a first priority--closing the rift was priority number one. Aurora hugged Aurix, telling them, "it doesn't have to be hard." Aurix agreed to meet with the party again later that day so that Aurora could go to see her mother, Heather, and Aurix teleported the group to outside the gates into Torga, not far from Aurora's statue to ABC. 

That's where we wrapped up for this session. As I noted above, this session was entirely improvised--I had a few small notes: have Wing update the group on talking to Aurix, and I hadn't actually decided which way that would go and made the choice in the moment to say Aurix was unconvinced; have a return letter to Aurora from Heather, but Aurora never sent her letter, so this return letter could not happen; and remember time and space to process for the party, which I encouraged by leaving most of the session (more than two hours of our three hour session) spent relaxing and accomplishing individual goals at Jarvia's. I didn't throw anything big but Jarvia's spell at the players, and that really only happened because knowing who Jarvia is, there was no way she'd say or do nothing when Aurora came back to make her hormone therapy treatment. Brokk spent essentially one half of the session sitting and thinking, Lethanin mostly made hashbrowns, and Aurora had intended to simply do a shopping trip. I mean this genuinely--I was a little sad to see the party decide to pursue more conversations with dragons towards the end. Seeking out the copper dragon and speaking with Aurix were things I gave them because they sought them out, but I would have been more than happy to just have them spend more time getting themselves centered. In fact, I have three very brief notes for next session, and one of them is a reminder to let the players know out of game that they don't have to hurry through the adventure or even listen to what the dragons say. I feel like the dragons have pushed the party to rush, which is in character for them--they see this as an emergency--but I as the DM don't need or even want that. So next session will start with an explicit statement that they can relax a bit more and make things a little less frantic. I want the players to have fun, and if that means an out of game direction, that's what I'll give them. 

My other two notes are in-game notes, one of which was actually requested by Aurora's player. I find, as a DM, it's incredibly useful to check in with your players. Questions like, "are you having fun?" and "what would be rewarding for your character?" and "what's missing?" and "are you getting enough time and space in-game" and even just "how are you feeling?" are all massively important. Last night, after our session, I was chatting about the campaign with Aurora's player (in between conversations about our wedding today, of course), and I asked if she felt like things were going well, if she was having fun. And she said that yes, she is having fun, but also, Aurora is level 13 and yet feels very underpowered. Dealing with dragons who are more than twice Aurora's level and gods who are even more advanced makes Aurora feel somewhat weak. And this was not my intention as the DM. I wanted to make combat solutions to dragon problems difficult and complicated to encourage roleplaying, but I never wanted the party to feel useless. So I asked Aurora's player what might help. She said that a combat encounter with average people (who would of course be well below the party's level) would be really interesting as a way to flex the party's abilities and remind them that they're actually quite powerful. This led to my second note for next session: on the march into Torga from the countryside beyond, I'm going to throw a very normal group of bandits or highwaymen at the party. This will be a fairly unpredictable situation. Brokk is immensely strong and literally built for combat, but has strong feelings about violence and death. Aurora's array of powers are massive and varied, and she could deal with the opposition in basically infinite ways, but she too is not necessarily comfortable with violence and might have complicated feelings about combating some thugs. And Lethanin has proven himself to be capable but not very violent either; in his intro session and our first six sessions of play, Lethanin hasn't even shown a hint of aggression. Putting them in a situation like being robbed will push all three members of the party in an interesting direction that I can't predict, and I would reckon that the players couldn't predict it either. (You might be asking how gratifying a bandit attack will be for Aurora's player given that she suggested/requested it--that's why I'm going to spend the two weeks before our next session brainstorming ways to complicate it, spice it up, and make it surprising. Giving a player what they want is a good idea even when it eliminates complete surprise if you can tweak some details of it to make it more than what they asked for.)

My final bullet point for next session is more devious. Aurora is being tracked and hunted by people in her past--we know this from the appearance of Hyrum in her intro session. They knew she was a sailor onboard the ship she lived on, and of course that would mean they also know where that ship is based out of. That ship is based out of Torga, the city the party is currently in. It's been months since Aurora dispatched Hyrum, and I think it makes perfect narrative sense for them to send someone else after her to the city where the ship is stationed, so the next session will be a perfect opportunity to pull a little bit more at Aurora's backstory via the appearance of a second person coming to find her. This leads me to another important idea--Brokk and Lethanin don't necessarily have Aurora's depth of background, at least in terms of built-in conflict. I'm planning to put some spotlight on Aurora's backstory next session, so I also plan to ask Brokk and Lethanin's players to consider developing their characters a bit more so that I can give them similar spotlight moments. It's entirely up to them to do so or not do so--I'm not assigning homework or requiring them to delve into it. But I do want to invite them to engage with the game the way Aurora's player is and at least let them know I don't mean to make the campaign about Aurora and not them. Again, explicit out of game communication is very important, and I promise that it doesn't take the magic out of the game if it's meant to improve everybody's time in game. 

Next time, the party will be in Torga and checking out whatever they choose to investigate--I am pretty certain that we'll pay a visit to Heather, but beyond that, it's all up in the air. I'm looking forward to finding out what's going to happen and to continuing to refine and improve the experiences I'm offering to the players. 

Until next time, happy gaming!

General Mapmaking Tips

I have a passion for making maps for my homebrew setting. But I'm not an artist--I can't draw a beautiful map by my own hand. Instead, I've learned to use photoshop to create maps that achieve the look I'm going for. This does have its own challenges. I've described the general process before in my guide to making campaign maps. That guide, my most popular article on this site as of the writing of this, covers the step-by-step process of how to start with some reference images and end up with a cohesive map. But recently, I grew frustrated with the world map I've been using for the last fifteen years. I decided to revamp that map, and I'm happy with the outcome. 

This map is a recreation of my main continent, Evanoch. When I first started DMing in a serious capacity a decade and a half ago, I had created a very basic map of the continent which I was almost immediately unhappy with: 

The thing is, this older map achieves what I needed at the time. It's functional. It was easy to make. It allowed me to (1) know how to picture my world in a concrete way, and (2) communicate the basics of the location to my players. I don't regret making this map, but it made me sad because I conceived of Evanoch as a beautiful, thriving, diverse place, and the map doesn't show that. It only shows outlines. I wanted something that would capture the feel of my setting, hence the updated map. 

So in celebration of creating this new map, I thought I would share a few general tips on how to make maps like it, things I learned in the process of making this one in particular. I would say that the original region/campaign map article is still the best place to start for learning how to use photoshop to make a map, but this guide will help you take things further and offer some insights on how to focus on a continent map. 

One thing I am very pleased with is the borders of the continent. In the old map, I used just smooth lines to outline the continent, but real coastlines don't look like this. Real coastlines are rough and choppy. When I created a continent map for my wild west setting, I used a real island map and rotated it around to give me a basic shape: 

But Evanoch already had determined boundaries, and I was never going to be able to find a map that looked enough like it to really have a map that looked like Evanoch. So I improvised. I took a coastline map I found online (I searched for "coastline map") and made many duplicates, editing the copies into the shape of Evanoch and erasing overlapping segments. Here's what the process looks like: 

A single fragment of the coastline reference.

An edited addition to created a peninsula on the map.

A mirrored addition to continue the coastline south.

I continued this process for all the map landmasses until I had duplicated the approximate shape of Evanoch as I had already designed it. This is basically an extension of the process I used to create the tree shapes in the campaign map, copying and rotating the reference image until I had the shape I wanted. 

My favorite thing about this is that this new map makes Evanoch look a lot more like a real place. The wavering coastline gives the appearance of a realistic location, and the coastline process was genuinely one of the easiest parts of making this map. I would argue that hand-drawing a realistic coast is difficult, frustrating, and not terribly rewarding for people without the gift of being artistic; duplicating real coastlines to create the borders of your continent is relatively simple, easily customizable, and has a lovely finished look. 

Perhaps my favorite part of the new map is the forest appearance, particularly that of the Liggen Forest in the northeast of the continent. I took a very different approach than I did with the region map because this map's intention is not accurate depiction of geographical features--instead, it's meant to give a sense of the actual appearance of the land there in terms of plant life. So you may notice that each of the several forests in the map have different looks--that's to reflect the different types of trees in each location. Let's talk about the forest appearance. 

 

 

To start, I searched for "forest silhouette" and found this set of similarly-styled depictions of an evergreen forest skyline. I separated each into different layers so that I could work with them individually. This was done so that the look of the trees would be varied and not a repeating pattern that would be visually repetitive or bland. I then selected the pixels of each layer, created a new layer, filled the new layer (still the original's pixels) with black paint, used the "select->modify->contract-> 3 pixels" option, made sure I was selecting the new layer, and deleted the smaller shape. I then deleted the original layer and erased the bottom of the resulting shape, leading to just an outline like this:

This was the process to create individual treelines. But obviously the entire forest had much more, so I repeated the process again and again, adding more treelines on top of the existing one so that the layers together would create the impression of a dense forest. Here are several treelines together to show the collective effect of even just a few:

This is the process I used for all the forests. The northeast for this sprawling evergreen forest, there are rainforest silhouettes in the southwest, the northwest got deciduous forests, and the elven islands of Mishara are signified with mangrove trees, which are genuine to their location.

One thing I did in the map for Ramsey, my wild west location, was created different color schemes for what was land and what was water. In the first large chunks of time I spent on the new Evanoch map, I hadn't done that, and as a result, the map did not look very good. I wasn't sure that I would differentiate the water from the land with a color scheme--I wanted the map to look like a sketch. But this was something I realized needed to be done. Take a look at the difference between the flat one-color map and the water-darkened design: 

As you can see, this is a big difference. In order to create this effect, I did some steps which were simple and others which were more difficult. For starters, I used the eyedropper tool to select the color of the land and then chose a darker color in the same palette (simply picking another color in the same field without moving the color spectrum slider), creating a new layer to hold the darker color and using the paint bucket to fill in the new layer. This was simple. The harder part was getting the actual oceans, rivers, and lakes to look darker than the land. Had I created a design where the rivers attached directly to the other geographical features (like connecting the mouths of the rivers right to mountain ranges, I would have been able to use the magic wand tool to select just the connected water areas. Honestly, if I had created a layer cutting the rivers off (using a copy of the rivers, not the original) with a brush line, I could have achieved that effect. But I was enjoying the detail work process and chose instead to hand-erase all of the water areas from the land color layer, which was labor-intensive and time-consuming, but it allowed me a lot of control over the look of the water borders. Either approach would work and be valid, so it's all about what you prefer. 

One thing I had forgotten about the mapmaking process was how much time is spent re-doing some things. It had been a while since I went for a hand-drawn look with a map, and I had never created a map like that starting from an established design like my original ugly world map, but this map meant lots of finessing. I stretched river and forest boundaries well past the edge of the continent's edges in order to give myself leeway to create borders later on, and that meant that once my coastlines were in place, I needed to do a lot of erasing to make the lines all meet up. With a passion project like this, that's part and parcel of the game. It's better to have to erase a too-long line than to have to extend it later in the process, so know going in that you'll be revising throughout the process. 

One decision I really labored over was showing the lake and river lines. My first draft of this map prioritized forests, which meant that I would draw river lines up to the base of tree shapes and then have the river disappear, reappearing beyond the treeline. But as I continued, I realized this was (1) not realistic since the trees would not grow in the rivers, and (2) fairly ugly because it looked so busy. I ended up redoing most of the rivers in forested areas to address this, and I'm happy with how it came out. But this is another way that revising will enter the equation. I spent about an hour and a half redoing something I spent two hours doing that I decided I did like. I mention this because committing to the finished project, even if it's frustrating, it a part of the process. 

As I did with the campaign map article, I drew up little city icons for each of the ten most important cities in my setting so that the cities weren't just dots on the map. With the campaign map, I was still developing the Eastweald, and the look and feel of cities wasn't already established. This meant I could just use interesting designs that looked good and rationalize that that's what those cities look like. But with this map, I've been building and playing in these big cities for fifteen years. There's a determined character to each one. So I wanted to do something that really fit the city individually. Here are a few examples:

This is Talon Gorge. In my world, Talon Gorge is notable because it was the site of the first serious campaign I ever ran. Talon Gorge is characterized by a high clocktower at the center of seven independent districts. So for the image representing Talon Gorge, I found an image that had a tower, and I added a little clockface while tracing it like I explained in the campaign/region map article. The original image only had two other buildings, so I pulled up another reference image on medieval buildings and traced five more in to represent the seven districts. 

This is Vestry. Vestry is the gnomish capital and the most populated single city in my setting. To represent this, I wanted a really bustling, dense city image. I scoured references for fantasy cities until I found one that looked really populated and architecturally diverse, and I was pleased with this result. I really like the look of this massive city in the middle of the Liggen Forest, suggesting how much space it really takes up. 

This is Torga, another city very important to me--it was the site of Listen Check, the podcast I did in 2010, back when D&D actual play wasn't really a thing yet. Torga is a thriving port city, so I made sure to find an image that had a dock (which I expanded from the reference) and a ship that I could have in the ocean beyond the city. Seeing this simplified dock system and ship with the little city reminds me of all the time spent in Torga's waterfront, not to mention Aurora, a character in my now-current campaign who spent time as a sailor stationed there.

Finally, here's Kruush, the orcish capital. It's worth noting that Kruush is not one of the biggest cities in the world. Even smaller cities which lie between the major cities on the map have more people than Kruush. In my world, a massive elven-orcish war decimated two-thirds of the orcish population, after which a huge diaspora sent most remaining orcs away from the homeland to seek a more peaceful life elsewhere. But Kruush is still the most politically important orcish city and the only real major city in the southwest of Evanoch, so I wanted to include it. You'll notice that the city design is basically just huts and shacks around a campfire to represent the continued tribal tradition of the orcs who remained. 

The finished product of this mapmaking process makes me happy. I spent a decade and a half using a rough, unrealistic, and ugly map whenever my players wanted a sense of the world, and I really hated seeing it whenever I would need to reference it for some geographical issue. Taking the time to really nail down a better version will serve me for a long time, and I'm glad I committed to making this map. Here's the finished version with city labels (they obscure some of the land features, but it's the sort of thing that adventurers might use to get settled in Evanoch):

As always, my big advice here is that spending time working on your homebrew setting always yields rewards. I know that having a visual reference for geography and city feel has helped me connect more with my world, and there's some worldbuilding I got to do as a result. I also realized how dense populated the eastern half of Evanoch is compared to the west--I had kind of vaguely known this, but seeing how tightly packed the east is and then the huge stretches of no cities in the west has cemented that and given me some ideas about how to run things in my world. In any case, having a pretty map to share with my players will make me happy for years to come, and I'm proud of the product of this work. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: guides to clans amongst the Faninites, dwarves, and orcs. Until next time, happy gaming!

Of Gods and Dragons: Session Five

Last time, the players laid plans and headed to Lethanin's parents' house to meet with Wing, the bronze dragon. Before they could arrive, they ran into Ollie again, this time posing as Oliver, a tuba player, and Aurora determined that Ollie places her hand on her hip when lying. At Lethanin's parents' house, they tried to create a network of lies about why they were there, and Lethanin's mother, Dodira, grew suspicious of what they were up to. Wing arrived, and they discussed the situation--the rift between the gods' realm and the physical plane, the state of the other dragons, bringing Aurix around to repairing the rift, and Wing's adopted children, one of whom was murdered by Thomas. Wing offered help by means of bringing Aurix around, supporting their cover story with Dodira, and helping to kill Thomas if the opportunity presented itself. Wing also suggested talking to Vuthiejir, the black dragon, to learn more about the prophecy and other matters. The group caught up with Jarvia, who transformed Brokk into an elf for his protection in Mishara, the elven capital, and Aurora teleported the group to near the observatory where they hoped to find Vuthiejir. 

This time, the group was faced with navigating a confusing series of paths to get to the observatory and tried to plan. Aurora suggested that Vuthiejir would know they were coming, so any kind of planning would ultimately not be incredibly useful, while Brokk believed that Vuthiejir wouldn't necessarily know everything and that being less than straightforward could be a valuable strategy, instead playing things close to the chest. When they discussed priorities, Aurora said that asking Vuthiejir would to get to the divine plane was very important and also suggested trying to learn how to kill a dragon, hoping for insight on how to overcome Thomas. Lethanin wanted to simply see where the conversation went and play things by ear. In general, the group was conflict and had little agreement about how to proceed. 

It was at this point that the group was approached by a traveler with a tamed fox--the man introduced himself as Rhodes and offered to guide them through the swampy marshland. The group agreed to let him guide them, saying that they had an interest in the stars and wanted to speak to the astronomer. Rhodes said he'd get them close to the observatory but wouldn't go all the way since the owner, a very private woman, had yelled at him in the past for being on her property. As they traveled, Brokk spotted a dead orc off the road and was unsettled by the implicit threat that it posed; he ultimately said nothing and suggested carrying on, and Aurora squeezed his hand reassuringly. Aurora asked Rhodes why an orc would be killed and dumped in the swamp, and Rhodes explained the grudge between the elves and orcs, saying that an orc alone in elven territory was likely to end in bloodshed. Lethanin asked what Rhodes's fascination with roads was, as Rhodes had previously stated his fixation on travel, seeing where paths lead, and learning through journeying--Rhodes explained that he never had the answers growing up and chose to find them, unlike his many siblings who felt purpose right away in life and sought to accomplish goals and "make families." Lethanin questioned this wording, and Rhodes explained that as a polyglot, he sometimes chose odd phrases that made sense in other languages. 

As they drew neared the observatory, Aurora spotted a faerie in the distance. Aurora subtly cast a spell to communicate with the faerie, telling her that she could see her, and the faerie replied, "I can see you too." Once the group was closer to the faerie, Aurora once again stealthily communicated with the faerie, asking if she needed to talk to her. The faerie flew over, now apparent to the whole group, and said that Aurora needed to remember more about herself, magically evoking memories in Aurora. Aurora saw a man screaming angrily (a man she had seen previously in visions commanding people); she saw defenseless people being beaten by uniformed people; she saw herself sneaking off to the woods as she had been when encountering the faerie in her intro session; and finally, she saw the angry leader from before furiously ordering the man who'd tracked and found her in her intro session, Hyrum, to beat a defenseless person. Aurora, incredibly jarred by the memories, dropped her unnerving wooden sword on the ground and insisted on continuing to the observatory. In the final stretch of the journey, Lethanin received a magical message from a professional messenger that Dodira suspected he was up to something, insisting that he drop any schemes. They arrived finally at the observatory, Rhodes wishing them luck and bidding them to keep traveling and learning, and Aurora explained her knowledge of her own past to Brokk and Lethanin--that she'd met a faerie she named ABC who'd traded her past and an unknown favor for magical powers and a fresh start, that she'd gone to Torga and begun a new life, that she'd become a privateer, and that Hyrum had tracked her down, which told her she was wanted somewhere she had no memory of. She called this second faerie DEF and tried to compose herself. Brokk promised to have Aurora's back if anything further did happen, and Lethanin asked what the favor Aurora owed the fae was, and he was surprised when Aurora did not know exactly--only that ABC had said Aurora would "remove a mutual thorn in our sides, and I think you'll want to." Focusing on the task at hand, they knocked on the door to the observatory. 

The door opened, and an elven woman with curly black hair opened it, telling them that if they wanted her services as an embalmer to come to her offices in Mishara. But the group said they were there to talk to Vuthiejir, and she poorly lied that she'd never heard that name. Once she figured out that they were the ones foretold by the prophecy, she rushed them inside and into a basement which was almost entirely a massive cage with incredibly thick bars. She asked them to lock her inside for their own protection, explaining that the divine magic from the gods' realm had made her bloodthirsty and violent against her own will. The group told her another dragon had a similar experience, and once safely locked in the cage, Vuthiejir relaxed a bit. The group questioned her intensely about a number of things. She explained that she wanted to repair the rift so that she could make decisions for herself again, despising the impairing of her decision-making--she said she was not explicitly evil, only opportunistic, and had lied to the previous black dragon about her intentions in order to be given his power. She was extremely surprised to learn that they agreed about repairing the rift and that they'd spoken to other dragon, having believed that they would either side with Thomas (destroying the barrier) or Aurix (leaving it leaking) without questioning the situation further. Vuthiejir was also surprised to hear that they had interest in killing Thomas, saying she didn't disagree with the aim since Thomas had been blackmailing her, threatening to reveal her identity if she did not provide him with the information she specialized in getting (Vuthiejir explained that knowledge was her strength--astronomy, religion, embalming, magic in the form of witchcraft, and more). In fact, she said she would willingly help to defeat Thomas by providing information on the chromatic dragons and how to overthrow Thomas. Emphasizing her understanding of the situation, she exhibited knowledge of what the other dragons would think and plan to do accurately, including information about the metallic dragons that even the other metallic dragons lacked, such as Jarvia's identity and the location of Raucharach, the new copper dragon who was missing. 

They also discussed the gods. The group told Vuthiejir that they had encountered Olidammara in the form of Ollie and suspected that others had come along as well, such as the dwarven smith in Talon Gorge, though they were unsure of who she was, and Rhodes, who they believed to be Fharlanghn, the god of travelers (Vuthiejir insisted that a traveler like Rhodes had never come to her observatory). Vuthiejir was not entirely surprised that gods were projecting themselves into the physical plane, and suggested that going to Boccob was more complicated than they realized. Sufficiently powerful casters such as herself, Wing, and Aurix could conceivably send the group to the divine realm, but they would be vulnerable and lost without the support of at least a few gods who could get them safely to Boccob's realm. Vuthiejir said that an important next step would be allying with gods they could trust for passage, guidance, and protection in the gods' realm. She suggested that some gods who may agree with their position on repairing the rift could be the enemies Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh (the gods of elves and orcs, respectively), Obad-Hai (the god of nature and balance), and Wee Jas (the goddess of death and magic as well as Vuthiejir's patron as a witch). The party was uncomfortable to some degree about this--the idea of Obad-Hai struck them all as reasonable, but Brokk did not like the idea of working with Corellon Larethian or Gruumsh, and Wee Jas was a figure they didn't know enough about to feel confident about. The group agreed to seek out gods to work with in time, focusing for now on bringing together as many dragons as possible to stabilize the situation in the physical realm. 

Aurora asked Vuthiejir a few specific questions, one about how to undermine Thomas. Vuthiejir suggested that cutting off support from the other chromatic dragons would be useful. Without her, Thomas would be blindsided by an attack; Horton, the blue dragon, was a racist Daltoner who was unlikely to help Thomas, a dwarf; Xavier and Regg, the green and white dragons respectively, could potentially be turned against Thomas if they believed he was scheming without or against them. This would still mean fighting Thomas directly, but with the support of the metallic dragons, it was a fight that could potentially go their way. Aurora also asked about the phrase "Pelor's Mercy," remembering it vaguely from her past. Vuthiejir grew solemn and explained that Daltoners believe in a corrupted version of the sun god Pelor who demands living sacrifices, and "Pelor's mercy" is a phrase generally used to forcibly convert prisoners to the cult--she also said it was a place she didn't know the location of, a terrible conversion camp where prisoners were tortured and used for the cult's benefit. 

Content that they had gathered as much information as could be expected, the group told Vuthiejir that they meant to move on. She asked to be released from the cage, which she had specifically built to protect them in case they visited her and the divine magic made her violent towards them, and said they could use her given name, Niela. They unlocked the cage and immediately teleported back to Jarvia's cottage, where they updated Jarvia on the situation. Jarvia was thoroughly surprised that Niela had wanted the same thing she wanted, and she was supportive of the idea of going to the gods' realm but admitted to having little idea about how to pursue that. Jarvia offered to transform Brokk back into his orc/demon self, but he resisted and chose not to be returned to his true form. The group further discussed gods to approach--Obad-Hai seemed a safe bet, and Wee Jas could be explored given Niela's confidence in her goddess. They also entertained the idea that they could challenge Olidammara to safely get them to Boccob. Jarvia noted that they seemed to want some space to decompress and excused herself to wander the grounds, and Brokk asked to accompany her for a silent tour. Jarvia guided him past fruit trees, a vegetable garden, flower patches, and a field of tobacco, and Brokk asked whether he deserved to be stuck as an elf. Jarvia grew sad and urged Brokk to remember that deserving requires judgment, and objective, fair judgment doesn't exist; only being true to ourselves matters, and denying ourselves that does not make sense. Brokk considered this and asked Jarvia to return him to his orc/demon self, which she did. They returned to the cottage, where Brokk smoked cigarettes from Jarvia on the porch. Back in the cottage, Lethanin re-contacted the messenger who had relayed his mother's message, asking the messenger to tell Dodira that he was avoiding trouble by turning to religion. Meanwhile, Aurora wrote her mother Heather a letter, apologizing for disappearing and telling her that she was safe as well as asking for a return letter. Everyone rested in their various ways, and our session came to a close. 

This session was a wild one. I knew going in that a lot would be laid out before the players, and I had no idea how it would go. For starters, I wanted a way to throw another god into the mix. Rhodes was in fact Fharlanghn, hoping to get the group to Niela safely since he knew her intentions with the rift and also hoping to get some time with the group to gauge their motivations and add his own perspective. I ended up putting less of him into the journey than I anticipated--the group was very wary of him, and I knew that my version of Fharlanghn would not push against that; he would simply be respectfully quiet and let them do their thing. Nevertheless, the fact that they suspected him of being a god was kind of perfect--the fact that he seemed otherworldly was something I was going for, and that's a success. He also established himself as wanting to help the group, which I'm not entirely sure they picked up on, but it's at least a seed that's been planted. I think a lot of DMs want to mention something and immediately have it pay off, but sometimes just mentioning something and let it be until it can pay off later is better. Should the party encounter Fharlanghn again, he can simply point out that he only helped them to gain some rapport and trust with them. 

I also set out to give each of the players a unique character moment. Aurora's was the biggest. Having the second faerie show up and give more memories was a really direct way to advance the backstory storyline that Aurora's player had requested, and I think the pacing of that storyline so far has been something I'm happy with. Rushing through it would feel inappropriate to Aurora's character, and going too long would also leave Aurora's storyline kind of stagnant--having this sort of gradual build (which I plan to accelerate as we continue on) will really help to push her character forward in a way that I think will be narratively fulfilling. Meanwhile, Brokk's player mentioned that Brokk has a big connection to the idea of death. I originally had hoped that Brokk would get more involved with the dead orc, perhaps giving them some kind of death rites or saying something for the deceased, but instead, Brokk was just deeply unnerved. At first, I worried that this was a failure on my part to provide Brokk with an interesting situation to respond to, but I suspect that Brokk's later crisis about deserving to be an elf was an extension of this moment. Brokk sees the conflict he was born for still alive in front of him, and he ends up questioning his identity and considering living as something he was always meant to hate--this is a rich character moment. I think with good roleplayers, this is something to be aware of: sometimes the storyline pays off after time has passed. And with Lethanin, the message from his mother was very intentional. Lethanin's player has always made a broad outline and figured out the character in the moment as we play, so I didn't have much for Lethanin until visiting Vestry and his parents' house. As it turned out, the message had a similar arc to Brokk's moment--Lethanin kind of shrugged off the message at the time, but once things were calmer, Lethanin did in fact return the message with a clever twist. This reminds me of another important thing: in-game downtime. Approaching the observatory, the characters were tense--here's the first chromatic dragon we're talking to on purpose, having a bad taste in their mouths from Thomas. There was little emotional space to really be in the moment with these prompts. But later on, at Jarvia's, things were calmer, and they had time and space to process and react. I want to consciously provide more time relaxing to let the characters breathe and respond to things.

And of course, there's Niela/Vuthiejir. I went in having the plan to have her ask to be locked in the cage as a dramatic way to show that she didn't want to hurt them and that she has a big reason to work with them. I think that worked. Brokk's player mentioned several times in and out of game that this was a huge sign about being able to trust her. In fact, he mentioned that he went into meeting Niela with a sort of combative attitude that was almost immediately dispelled by that cage. So my little gesture by adding the cage was something I thought would be fun and a touch dramatic, and it ended up paying off in a big way. I also deliberately made the dragon who had the most knowledge about things a chromatic dragon. Having a metallic dragon be the one who could answer all questions would mean the players could avoid the chromatic dragons altogether if they so chose, but making the most knowledgeable and potentially helpful dragon chromatic meant visiting one, which gave me an opportunity to sell the group on visiting more (in this case, Xavier and Regg). So this was a tactical choice on my part that I would say worked, and I think a lot of more narratively-focused DMs know that this is a rare thing. I treat this as an important lesson in writing for a campaign: it's not plotting the storyline so much as deciding what options are available. The good dragons so (Aurix, Jarvia, and Wing) far have given information on how to assemble the dragons and learn more. Thomas gave some broad expositional information, and Niela painted a broader picture. So basically, I've used the chromatic dragons to provide plot information and the metallic dragons to provide strategic information. This has meant that the players need to play both sides to both understand the situation and have the ability to progress. This is a very deliberate choice, since one of my goals in guiding this campaign is to have the players meet as many NPCs as I can manage, given that's the focus of my development and my strength as a DM. 

Looking forward, I don't have a real way to plan very much. The party discussed visiting the last two metallic dragons to bring the group together; they addressed visiting the green and white dragons to undermine Thomas; they talked about reaching out to gods; there's always a chance that inspiration will strike before we play again and a player will have some other potential strategy. Last session ended with a clear focus: get to Vuthiejir. This session ended with the opposite: everyone too exhausted to know what to do next. This happens. The DM doesn't always have the advantage of being able to plan clearly. Planning for this session led me to the main plot points that happened: Rhodes's appearance, the personalized character moments, Vuthiejir's cage and agenda. But I have none of that for next session. I'll be responding to what the characters give me. I mean, I could conceivably plan for all of the possibilities mentioned above, but that's not how I like to do things. Instead, I'll rely on the development I've already done to guide improvisation--my homebrew setting, dragons, and gods. I'm pretty confident that whatever the party throws at me will be something I at least have a solid understanding of how to react to in terms of the NPCs' motivations and goals and what the world will be like wherever they choose to go. That's really the heart of my DM style: prepare the foundation and let the players guide the rest. 

That's all for now. This was a good session for me and for the players, which is what we strive for, and we've built up some good momentum. The players are now turning an eye towards the gods' realm but still have work to do on the physical plane, and at this point, it's really all up to them to decide how to proceed. I've given them basically all the information they'll need for a good while (metaphorically teaching them the rules of chess), and now it's up to them to decide what to actually do (making the moves on the chessboard). So in a sense, this is really the end of part one of the campaign; the prologue is over. I won't really be taking the reins again until they reach the gods' realm. Whatever happens next time, we'll have to wait and see. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go from here!

Until next time, happy gaming!