Of Gods and Dragons: Session Two

Last time, we played a brief session one which was cut short by technical difficulties; the player characters were approached/kidnapped by Thomas, a cantankerous dwarf who explained that a barrier between the gods and the physical world was weakened, and he wanted them to destroy that barrier to allow the gods access to their world. But then Aurix, an awkward human/kobold rescued/kidnapped them and explained that Thomas was in fact a red dragon who couldn't be trusted. Aurix let slip that they were a gold dragon and that the other good dragons were divided, asking for help bringing the others together. Aurix also suggested that the group, who seemed to be designated by fate as those who would decide the outcome of the situation, leave the barrier damaged, which would empower the good people of the world to be strengthened by leaking divine power (even though this would also means that evil people would be empowered too). Tired of strange people directing them, Aururoa teleported herself, Brokk, and Lethanin to the realm of the silver dragon, believing that the silver dragon would be the close ally of Aurix's they mentioned, and arrived in Talon Gorge. This was a surprise, as they knew that Aurix's ally, Wing, was to be found in Vestry, a city to the east of Talon Gorge. Nevertheless, the group decided to investigate Talon Gorge and search for the silver dragon. 

When we picked up this session, the group pressed on into Talon Gorge, seeing lots of destruction and marks of conflict; they also saw a concerted effort amongst the citizens and guards of the city to rebuild and begin again. Curious, the group asked a nearby ranking guard, Amber, about what had happened in the city. Amber explained that the city had seen a complicated civil war--fearing an assassination plot, the former king of Talon Gorge had invited many new guards into his official entourage of palace guards. But some of the new guards were infiltrators who assassinated a few members of the royal administration and later killed the king. Unable to permanently resurrect the king, the city fell into chaos. Some of the guard and citizens fought to defend the old kingdom and raise the queen to power, and others fought to bring down the monarchy in favor of an anarchist city. In the end, a massive battle raged that destroyed a great deal of the city, and the eventual compromise was a representative democratic council and a great purging of corrupt guards from the government. She also mentioned that during the battle, which happened largely around a clocktower at the center of the city, a great silver dragon had appeared and fought in the battle. [These events were the outcome of my first serious campaign, and my players at the time divided over what to do, leading the royal supporters and anarchists who fought.] Amber asked the group to help in any way they could with the rebuilding of the city. The group asked about the dragon and the clocktower, requesting access to investigate the clocktower; Amber was willing to give her name in support of their investigation, especially after Aurora cast a spell that magically restored a great stretch of the area's roads and buildings. Along the way to the clocktower, Brokk helped several people who were struggling to help rebuild parts of the city, impressing a decent number of people they encountered. Aurora grew wary of the situation, and she and the others asked what was really going on with the situation they'd become embroiled in.

They arrived at the clocktower and used Amber's name to get access; Brokk also had to do some smooth-talking to get the guards positioned at the clocktower to allow them past without too many questions. Brokk acknowledged that they were looking for signs of the silver dragon, and one of the guards requested that if the group found the dragon that they punish it for the damage done to the city. At the top of the tower, little was to be seen apart from a panoramic view of the city and its surroundings. Seeking a direction, Lethanin began to play a magical song that helped him to spot chips in the stonework that suggested a melee took place at the top of the tower, which corroborated Amber's report that some members of the civil war fought there. Lethanin also noticed that the top of the tower was not maintained and thereby wasn't frequently used, but also found a spot where the shape of a bedroll had been laid out for a long time, though the bedroll itself was missing. Lethanin turned his attention to the countryside around Talon Gorge. The sea to the west, the ocean to the north, and the broader continent to the south were not helpful in terms of information, but he did spot a large walled estate in the middle of farmland to the east. Hoping to confirm that this strange estate could be worth investigating, Aurora cast a spell to track the silver dragon's location, and her spell indicated that the estate to the east was related to the dragon. Lethanin, looking to further investigate the tower, detected magic on the tower and saw a powerful magical aura where the bedroll had been, a mixture of bardic arcane energy with a bit of divine magic mixed in. Aurora and Brokk discussed the possibility that a member of the new council may be the dragon, given that powerful people tend to seek more power. 

The group left the clocktower and was immediately approached by a young half-elven woman who introduced herself as Ollie. Ollie asked how they'd gotten access to the clocktower and what information they'd been seeking. Brokk was suspicious of her but could not tell one way or another whether she was being manipulative, so he suggested trading questions back and forth. Ollie called this a game and grew very excited to play. After a few questions, Brokk said that their reasons for investigating the tower were a secret, and Ollie grew even more excited, demanding to know the secret. Brokk insisted on privacy, so Ollie led the group to a quiet inn to talk. At the inn, the group paid for rooms and asked for access to the attic for privacy, which the innkeeper granted. In the attic, Brokk explained what Aurix and Thomas had told them--there is a leak in the barrier between the gods' realm and the physical realm, and they were seeking dragons to help deal with it. Ollie asked why they wouldn't just let the fissure in the barrier remain, suggesting that some of the more good-inclined gods could balance out the more evil gods. Brokk asked if she wanted Hextor, god of oppression and tyranny, around, and she called Hextor "an asshole." Aurora grew suspicious of this answer, asking about this strange way of talking about a god; Ollie said she knew Hextor followers who were assholes, but Brokk could tell she was being indirect. When the group became more direct and almost aggressive with their questions about her, Ollie said she felt threatened and asked to leave without their attacking her. Both the group and Ollie threw around some accusations--they claiming that she was playing games with them, and she suggesting that they meant to harm her and would seek help if they tried to attack her--and eventually, Ollie did slip out of the attic and disappeared into the city. The group discussed this strange encounter and considered the information they had at their disposal, coming to the conclusion that getting eyewitness accounts of the silver dragon's attack could be helpful. Aurora was very tense, believing that Ollie was up to something and couldn't be trusted, and Aurora instructed her cat familiar, Pumpkin, to stay at the inn and watch to see how many people came and went over the course of the day. The group resolved to return to Amber to get direction on finding a witness to the dragon attack. 

They crossed the city and returned to Amber, who was directing the finishing touches on a clinic that Aurora and Brokk had helped to reconstruct. She thanked them heartily for their help. Aurora asked Amber to identify Ollie by presenting a magical image of Ollie, and Amber said she'd never seen anyone like that, which seemed odd given that Ollie had described herself as a concerned citizen--why would a citizen involved in the city's reconstruction be unknown to a major player in the rebuilding effort? Amber asked about what the group had learned, and they explained that there had been indications of a fight at the clocktower's top and then asked about the estate to the east they'd seen. Amber said it was just a shut-in, a hermit who the city couldn't contact. The group also asked Amber about eyewitnesses to the dragon attack, and she became deeply unsettled, explaining that she had seen the attacks in-person. Horrified by the memory, she described seeing scores of guards killed with precision by the dragon, and her shock at later piecing together that the guards killed had all been corrupt and violent towards citizens. The group asked more about the new system of government--she told them that each of the city's seven districts elects a representative to the council, who makes decisions for the city collectively. The group was in the dark about how royalists and anarchists fighting resulted in a democratic council, and Amber said it was a compromise that actually served the city's population. She mentioned Tru'usk, the key figure on the council who had led the city from toppled kingdom into rebuilding democracy, and that he was a former adventurer who'd become a philanthropist after retiring in Talon Gorge. The group decided to speak to Tru'usk, and Amber directed them to the new seat of government just further into the city. On the way there, Aurora tried to magically locate Ollie, and the spell indicated that Ollie did not exist, which she conveyed to the group, making everyone wary that someone or something was watching them. 

The group arrived at the government seat. Tru'usk was hearing individual cases, helping an apartment building owner with rebuilding measures and directing a poor mother of two to community resources for food--Brokk also gave the mother a gold piece to help her get the food she needed for her children. Tru'usk then spoke to the group. Aurora gave a very silly introduction, which irritated Tru'usk, who was intent on helping people in an efficient manner and asked for what he could do to help the group. All three members of the party gave strange or evasive answers about their aims, and Tru'usk grew more frustrated. Lethanin asked about Tru'usk's commitment to the city, and Tru'usk gave a curt answer, clearly upset that his loyalty was being questioned. Tru'usk acknowledged that he had personally helped some of the guards who would go on to try to overthrow the kingdom and took personal responsibility, considering it his duty to help where he had done wrong. When Tru'usk patience wore thin, the group finally asked if he knew Nasimar, the name of the dragon they suspected they were chasing, and he said he'd never heard the name. Just as Tru'usk was losing his temper, Brokk and Aurora revealed that they'd helped with the rebuilding efforts, and Tru'usk apologized for being harsh but did insist on being allowed to help people with real issues. When asked, Tru'usk said that the hermit in the estate to the east was communicated with via notes on their gate. The group decided to leave, and Tru'usk attended to the now-long line behind them. 

Still concerned about Ollie, Aurora tried again to track her, this time by determining her identity through a spell. The spell simply said that Ollie was a supernatural phenomenon, leading Aurora to conclude that Ollie was a god, a dragon, or a fey. The group ultimately decided to follow up on the hermit and drafted a note to them which read, “Greetings. We are an interested party hoping to obtain an in-person audience with you. What assurances would you need to facilitate this? Cordially, Twinkles, Strings, and Muscles." (Twinkles is a nickname Lethanin gave to Aurora, Strings is a nickname that Brokk gave to Lethanin, and Muscles is a nickname that Lethanin gave to Brokk.) The group decided to split up, with Brokk leaving the note at the hermit's estate and watching to see what happened while Aurora and Lethanin were to further investigate Ollie and the city. Brokk went to the hermit's estate and tacked the note to the gate, then hid across the road and settled in to watch for what would happen, planning to be there for 24 hours. But within minutes, a half-elven woman smoking a cigarette appeared and read the note, chuckling. She turned and faced Brokk despite his effective hiding in bushes and called him over to talk, saying she assumed he must be muscles. She agreed to speak with the group the following day on the condition that the group come alone. She identified herself as Jarvia, and she and Brokk spoke about the giving and receiving of chosen and given names. Brokk headed back to the city, seeking a smith to get a new weapon since he'd left his home without his trusty battleaxe. 

Meanwhile, Lethanin and Aurora asked the innkeeper where they were staying about Ollie--when did she leave, and where did she go? The innkeeper insisted that they'd come in alone, gone to the attic, and that no one had left until they did so. When Aurora asked Pumpkin about who he'd seen come through the door, Pumpkin confirmed that Ollie had gone out and that only a few other people had passed in or out while the group was gone. Lethanin suggested that Ollie had been a projection or illusion of some sort and tried to trace the source of the projection, but he learned that Ollie had had a corporeal body when she'd been around them and was not a projection. Aurora admitted to Lethanin that Ollie could be a fey and was seeking Aurora, or perhaps was connected to a group of people who were looking for her, discussing parts of her backstory in relation to her knowledge that people are after her. Unsure of how to proceed, Lethanin and Aurora decided to go to a bar and grab some mead; Lethanin played a song to determine where to go and saw a vision of a tavern called The Ripe Peach next to a smithy called The Forged Hammer. They set out to find the tavern. 

At the same time, Brokk reentered Talon Gorge looking for a smithy. He found a district that had been a whole row of smithies, though many had been destroyed, and one promising smithy was run by a racist Daltoner who was harassing non-human customers. Brokk decided that his best option was to go to a smithy run by a young dwarven girl named Moira, who waved him down. Brokk asked for a custom orcish-styled battleaxe, which Moira immediately began working on. The two talked while Moira quickly made the battleaxe with expert skill; Moira worried that creating weaponry did not help as much as it hurt, and Brokk worried that he, as someone made as a living weapon, was only able to do so much with intention, but Moira pointed out that the metaphor was flawed, as tools have purposes they cannot help but fulfill, and people have intention, which will always grant them choices. As Moira worked quickly and expertly, speaking all the while with comforting wisdom, Brokk began to grow suspicious that she was more than she appeared to be--Moira simply said that she could see her was uncomfortable and told me to keep doing the right thing since good surprises exist as much as the bad ones he was worried about do. Brokk paid Moira the very small sum she asked for in return for the battleaxe, which came out beautifully, and anxiously left. As he did, he saw that the smithy's name was The Forged Hammer, and Lethanin and Aurora ran into him on their way to The Ripe Peach. 

And that's where we left off. We agreed that the characters catching each other up on what they'd learned in their time apart would be a good way to bring the players themselves back up to speed at the beginning of their next session, which it looks like may involve some shenanigans in the city and likely the meeting with Jarvia, the hermit outside the city. One thing that doesn't come across in this recounting of events is the mood of the session and the player reactions to NPCs. At the beginning, there was a kind of excited nervousness at the digital table--the players were itching to get going, learn things, and find the silver dragon. When Ollie wanted to know their business, they shared basically everything they knew. But after Ollie seemed strange and unpredictable, and as they learned she was more than meets the eye, things started to change. The player characters would scarcely share any details about their aims and knowledge with anyone. They grew nervous, suspicious, sometimes outright panicked. Aurora's player remained anxious out-of-game for over an hour after the session ended. The atmosphere was really tense in-game, and the players did a lot of nervous laughing and shaking their heads. 

This was absolutely intentional. I've been dreaming this campaign up for a long time. Years, really. I have gotten so used to these games where the players are far more powerful and capable of anyone they meet, except potentially for a big bad who'd precisely matched to their level and capabilities. One thing I hadn't run, and haven't really seen a game run that has the players wildly outclassed. The idea for me stems from the notion that I like roleplaying as a style and dislike running combat. So how do you incentivize players to roleplay and investigate and avoid combat? You can talk to them out-of-game, sure. You can choose players who you know prefer roleplaying and dislike pure combat. But I dreamed of a campaign where talking and thinking were the only options, where combat was basically off-limits. And having a campaign where it's obvious that even though the player characters are very powerful (they're level 12 as of this session) but are still scarcely powerful at all compared to the people they're up against means that the players have to engage in a different way. 

And let me be clear here--at no point in this campaign has a single NPC tried to overpower the player characters. Last session, Thomas was threatening, but he didn't take any actions that actually would have hurt the player characters. It's not that the player characters have been given reason to fear people around them. (And again, they're level 12--they shouldn't really be afraid of anyone in normal circumstances.) It's just the knowledge that things are weird and foreboding. They know that they're dealing with dragons. They suspect that the gods are involved. They don't really have any information on what's happening with concrete details. I mean, even just having Ollie defy explanation and the knowledge that supernatural things are afoot made the players pretty panicky. What I'm getting at is this: 

This was our first full session. No combat happened. No threats were made. And by the end, a 7-foot orc-demon was terrified because a smith was really talented and kind. This is the kind of thing that's possible with the right campaign setup. With some creative engineering of the stakes and the storytelling, you can get genuine and strong emotional reactions out of your players without being overtly scary or over-the-top. I've argued that you can do it in the past while throwing in occasional combat and genuine threats, but this session has proved you can do it without anything but storytelling alone. We all know that most GMs get a thrill from getting a big reaction from players, from making the player characters have strong feelings about things--imagine the thrill I got to have watching three level-12 characters shaking in their boots because a couple strange people talked to them. This, to me, is what tabletop games are all about. We did some intro sessions to make the players see that their characters are powerful, and I dropped them into something that's a bit confusing and very hard to pin down, and they're in it. These players, all of whom are experienced, capable gamers, are freaked out in a way we all dream of achieving. 

So what am I getting at? If you are a roleplaying-focused GM like me, don't discount the power of a good situational stressor. Aurora's player has been playing D&D for over a decade, and an NPC who she can't explain with the threat of the supernatural looming overhead made her freaked out out-of-game for an hour after the session. Brokk's player, a longtime player and DM, was reduced to nervous laughter when someone helped Brokk. And this is only the beginning. I can't wait to see where it goes from here. Just put your faith in your story and invite your players to meet you where you are, and you may be surprised by what comes out of it. 

Next time on Of Gods and Dragons, the party will discuss options and meet with Jarvia, and who knows what else? I planned the very first session, but I went into this session with zero preparation. It's impossible to know what comes next. I know who Jarvia is as a character and what her motivations are, but everything else will be as improvised as this session was. I really can't wait. Until next time, happy gaming!

"That's Not Fair"

 This short story takes place during You Changed Too. You can read the first chapter here!

 

Of Gods and Dragons: Session One

Last time, we covered our final intro session for my newest campaign by introducing Lethanin, a curious gnomish musician and spellcaster who spent his introduction delving into lore and causing chaos. Together with Brokk, whose intro session involved saving a young dissident elf from being captured and forced into military service, and Aurora, whose intro session spanned several years after her discovery of a distinctive style of magic and included forming a surrogate family and joining the crew of a sailing ship, Lethanin will be embarking on what I believe to be my most ambitious D&D campaign ever. We all got a chance to sit down and play our first session, and while there were difficulties from outside of the game, and some disappointments for me as DM, I'd say it was overall a great first step which will serve us well in going forward. So let's get into it! 

To get started, I needed to bring the party together. If you've read the intro sessions, then you know that Brokk and Aurora were on exact opposite ends of my main continent, Evanoch, and Lethanin had unknowingly left the city where Aurora was based to go to a completely different city altogether. As I mentioned in her introduction, Aurora is played by my fiancée, so we've had the opportunity to chat about the campaign's non-secret information as it's developed, and her number one question going into this session was, "How are we all going to meet up? We're scattered across the map--how do we get together?" This was something I've had a plan for for almost two years, and I delighted in not answering the question beyond, "I have it covered." So to begin, I rolled a d3 (aka a d6 divided by two with rounding) to determine who would be first. It came up as Lethanin, and so we joined him just before he entered the city of Ringsdale, where he planned to search for information about the copper dragon who'd gone missing here centuries ago, presumed dead. 

Lethanin was walking towards the gates of Ringsdale, and a handsome and intense dwarf approached him. The dwarf identified himself as Thomas and said he needed to speak to Lethanin privately. Lethanin was disinterested and walked directly past Thomas. But Thomas called out, using Lethanin's name without being given it, and demanded an audience for something he promised was important. Lethanin grew curious and agreed to come with Thomas, expecting the dwarf to take him to a nearby house or quiet place. But Thomas instead grabbed Lethanin's hand and teleported to somewhere where the buildings were all of dwarven construction instead. Thomas led Lethanin inside a grand house, through a beautiful parlor, and to a massive dining table covered in a feast. Lethanin began to complain about being teleported without his consent, and Thomas talked over him, declaring he needed to bring a few more people for the conversation, and teleported away, while Lethanin continued to complain to himself about Thomas's rudeness. 

Meanwhile, Aurora was in her surrogate mother, Heather's, backyard in Torga, enjoying a calm and peaceful day and thinking to herself. Heather came to her, saying that a dwarf had come looking for her, and Aurora tentatively agreed to speak to him in a few minutes, relieved that he was not a human like the Daltoner who'd come looking for her at the end of her intro session. But Thomas did not wait a few minutes; instead, he barged through Heather's apothecary shop and told Aurora that he had urgent business and needed to speak to her privately immediately. Aurora agreed, unsure of what he was up to, and Thomas once again teleported with her to the same house and left her with Lethanin. Aurora and Lethanin spoke together about how rude and strange Thomas was, and he once again excused himself and teleported away. 

Finally, Brokk was helping his friend and employer, Marque, to unload a boatfull of fish from the docks of the small town of Drumchapel. Thomas said he needed to speak to Brokk immediately, and Brokk said he needed a few more minutes to finish unloading. But Thomas would not wait, and he demanded that Brokk come with him now. Brokk and Marque covertly mocked Thomas for being so demanding, but Brokk agreed, and Thomas brought him to the same house and brought Brokk to Lethanin and Aurora, who were discussing how odd it was that Thomas was doing what he was doing. Brokk too was perturbed by Thomas's approach, and the three of them asked why Thomas had brought them together. 

As far as introductions go, being teleported one by one from opposite ends of the world is a bold start. I knew before the session that it would have benefits and drawbacks. On the negative side, it's very unsubtle. But I reasoned that Thomas as a character is very unsubtle, so that was fine by me. Also on the negative side, it makes the players feel a bit not in control of the situation--being forcibly teleported somewhere unknown without warning or explanation takes some comfort from the players. But again, this is how Thomas is, and I also wanted to make an impression. These characters are beginning the campaign at level 12. They're powerful people, and in their intro sessions, each of them was distinctly in control of the situations they found themselves in. This campaign is called "Of Gods and Dragons" for a reason--the people and situation they're dealing with is the big leagues, and I wanted to start them off with the impression that they weren't the strongest, most powerful people in the world. 

I was okay with the drawbacks because I felt they were appropriate, but I also felt there were benefits. On the one hand, I let the players build their own little worlds in their intro sessions and be anywhere in the world they wanted to be; having someone teleport them all to the same place let me have an easy opportunity to let them have the backgrounds they wanted while still getting to easily shove them together. And as bold and potentially divisive a move as it is, it definitely makes an impression. In the moments that followed, as Thomas began to actually talk, all of the players noted that someone who can comfortably teleport themself and others across the world six times in a few minutes without issue or concern is a powerful person, and this again reinforces what I was looking to do. Honestly, Thomas is a brusque and unpleasant man, and this was established, but also, he was certainly intending to intimidate them a bit with him magical prowess. So while I don't think every campaign should begin with something like this--it feels a little railroad-y to me--it served some important purposes and didn't present any meaningfully detrimental effects to the building campaign. 

So there in Thomas's fine house, he began to explain. He gave the party a few basic facts about why he'd brought them together. Namely, he explained some lore of my gameworld that set up the main story. First, he explained that prophecies appear in the night sky as constellations, telling them that a prophecy was on the verge of being enacted, and that an astronomer friend of his knows how to read such prophecies. According to this friend, people matching the party's descriptions--a demonic orc, a musician of the spheres, and a Fae-driven scientist--are the key figures in the prophecy. Thomas said he felt it was only right to bring them together and explain the situation so that they could be aware of their roles in their own destinies and that of the world they live in. Further, the prophecy must have something to do with a weakened magical barrier that separates the gods in their realm from the physical world where the party lives. He noted that some gods had recently broken through that barrier and been rebuffed, which he believed to be a threat. His suggestion and request of the party was to destroy the barrier--he reasoned that interacting directly with the gods was a valuable thing and that having all the gods able to descend to the physical realm would keep the balance of good and evil gods, whereas mostly evil gods had made the effort to break through. 

Tangent time. Years ago, when I was doing Listen Check, one of the first-ever D&D podcasts, I faced an interesting scenario. On our first game day, which was to be broadcast live over the radio and recorded for the podcast, one of our three party members could not play for health reasons. We had advertised the show and set up our first session/episode long in advance, and it could not be cancelled or postponed. We had to play with a full third of our main characters. This meant that for me as a DM, I couldn't really introduce anything super important to the game quite yet. But our episodes were three hours long (the medium hadn't been cemented into one-hour slots yet), and I wasn't exactly sure how to fill that sizable time slot without getting into anything that would be vitally important to the long-term game. So I made a snap decision, having found out only minutes before we were supposed to play that our third player was unavailable, and the episode was devoted to establishing the world and characters. I encouraged the other two players to explore the city where the game was to take place, speak with the allies they were working with in-game, and learn more about the lore of the city and the gang they were a part of. 

It felt like a disaster. To this day, when I tell people about the show, I recommend skipping the first episode. A lot of it was me monologuing as NPCs and narrating things about the show that would be valuable later on. Don't get me wrong--there were good outcomes. The two players present had a great sense of the gameworld, and given that their characters were supposed to have lived in the city for many years, it allowed them to have a real knowledge of the city, whereas the player who was sick played someone new to town, so the other two characters could actually show the third character around and explain things to him. And while I would have preferred to have introduced all that lore bit by bit over time in a more subtle way, getting it all out of the way meant that the campaign could roll on without slowing down later on. But it felt bad. I felt like I was giving a seminar on the gameworld rather than letting them play. I resolved to never do anything like that again. 

That was almost fifteen years ago now. When I was building Of Gods and Dragons, I realized that there was substantial lore that needed to be shared for the players to understand the stakes of the game. Even the very brief summary of the lore a few paragraphs up is pretty substantial to take in in the opening minutes of a campaign. I decided that I wouldn't introduce it all at once, and I would instead portion out different parts of it out over the first several sessions. But as you can see in that paragraph, that didn't happen. I ended up lore-dumping in the first few minutes of the campaign. I did not want to do that. But I did, and I had reasons for doing so. 

Mostly, the players more or less requested it. I had intended to keep Thomas secretive and have him refuse to give too much away for reasons that will become clear below. I had plans, which my session outline showed, to have him give just a bit of the info and have other NPCs fill the rest in over time. My intentions were good, and I didn't want to make that same mistake again. But as Thomas spoke, the player characters had questions. Lots of questions. He explained the prophecy concept, and they wanted to know how they fit into it. So he hemmed and hawed, but they kept pushing. Eventually, he explained their role in things. I intended to stop there. But the party asked about what he wanted them to do, and that meant explaining the barrier concept so that he could ask them to destroy it, which led to more questions--which gods came through? Why? What did they do? I'll admit, I created my own problem here, but I've been building this campaign for almost two years, and I never came up with a satisfying way around just explaining some things, especially since that is what the characters would do. Thomas would give answers, even if they weren't true. 

And Brokk noticed that in fact, Thomas's answers weren't entirely true. He got the sense through an Insight check that Thomas was both withholding the full truth and lying directly about other things. So Brokk did what would make sense in almost any other situation--he tried to intimidate Thomas. Thomas had been getting more and more pushy about getting the party to do what he wanted, and they didn't like the idea of opening the world up to the gods, so they started to dig in. Brokk's intimidation attempt was strong--a 22--but Thomas only grew angry, threatening Brokk for trying to play him. The party refused to do what Thomas asked, so Thomas lost his temper and said he'd show them something that would change their minds, storming from the room to bring them evidence that might change their minds. 

Once Thomas was out of the room, there was a tapping on the window. A meek human man stood outside, trying to get the party's attention. They went to the window, and the man explained in a panic that Thomas was purely evil, and he could help them and explain more, pleading with them to leave. The party quickly agreed, and the man introduced himself as Aurix as they hurried away from the house. Aurix asked permission to teleport them all to somewhere safe, and gratified that Aurix had actually asked them, they agreed. Aurix teleported them all to a fine dining hall within a system of foreboding tunnels. 

The party began to ask questions of Aurix, looking for answers that Thomas had been unwilling to give. Aurix explained that they were indeed part of a prophecy which involved dealing with the barrier to the gods. They also divulged that the gods really had come through the barrier, and that they and others had fought Gruumsh to keep him from harming the city of Torga, which they were beneath (this is how Listen Check ends, and Aurix was a key figure in that campaign). But Aurix also explained that Thomas had lied about which gods emerged from the heavens and that Thomas was making a power play. The party asked more questions, and Aurix told them that the barrier to the gods' realm was not broken--they'd partially repaired it, and the crack in the barrier meant that powerful magic was leaking into the physical world, where it empowered the most powerful people in the world. They noted that the party themselves were empowered by this, as were Thomas and Aurix. Thomas, they said, was a dragon--a red one, purely evil. 

This led to Aurix explaining some of my world's rules about dragons. They explained that there are not families of dragons as the legends say, but only one of each dragon. Dragonhood is a title and position rather than a genetic trait, and Thomas had been the red dragon for 3,000 years, the longest time any of the contemporary dragons had served. While explaining the rules of dragons, Aurix slipped and used the word "we" in place of "they," and the party got them to admit that they were in fact the gold dragon. The party had gotten them to acknowledge, minutes before, that they were not a human but a gold-scaled kobold, and Aurix was quick to say that they were not a mindless monster, but a kind person. But the admission that Aurix was a dragon opened a whole new line of questions. The party wanted to know what Aurix wanted, and Aurix explained that the leaking divine power meant that Aurix, and all the dragons, for that matter, were stronger. But Aurix did not know if the other dragons knew this, and if all the good dragons were made aware of their increased power, they could use that power to do more good. The party was skeptical about this, but they continued speaking with Aurix about their plans. 

Again, you may note that this is even further lore-dumping. Originally, my plans for the session indicated that Aurix should appear only at the very end of the session and even then would not explain all of this. Aurix's appearance would have been the end of the session, and the next session would have begun with more information, gradually given. I had not planned on the party disregarding Thomas so quickly, and I had to improvise and throw Aurix into the mix quicker than anticipated. Genuinely, between Thomas and Aurix, more lore-dumping happened in this session than I'd planned to do in three sessions. In an ideal world, that might have happened. But as any DM knows, we do not play in an ideal world. I have always said to give your players what they want, and this party wanted answers. So I gave them the info they were asking for. I like to think that my players wanted all this information, and I did a good thing by giving it to them. Time will tell, and I do plan to acknowledge that more lore-dumping happened than I strictly wanted. But in the moment, Aurix wanted to be honest, as is their wont, and they weren't going to evade their questions, and so it happened as it happened. 

The party indicated that they weren't entirely fans of the idea of leaving the barrier to the gods' realm open, and Aurix perked up, suggesting that they speak to the other good dragons. Aurix reasoned that if they wanted different approaches, the other good dragons might have them, and Aurix needed the other good dragons on board to do anything with the advantage granted by increased power. Aurix explained that the evil dragons were fairly divided, but sadly noted that the good dragons were too. They said to find the other good dragons, Nasimar (who went missing 800 years ago and hasn't been seen since), Versvesh (who's been too depressed for 300 years to do much), and Rachaurach (who became a dragon only days ago and was freaking out and had to be found). Aurora pointed out that one dragon was missing, and Aurix happily explained that Wing, the last good dragon, was their close friend, and they knew exactly where she was and how to find her. Aurix said that Wing was very good with people and would know more about the other good dragons, and the party agreed to go and find her in Vestry, the gnomish capital, where she lived. 

What happened next was classic D&D at its finest. Aurora's spellcasting allows her to combine different words and ideas into spells, and Aurora, eager to teleport without being ushered around by dragons, decided to teleport the party to Vestry to speak with Wing. But in the design of Aurora's teleportation spell, she did not indicate Vestry specifically or a gnomish place or anything specific to Wing. The party also did not ask any further questions about Wing. Perhaps they were growing tired of talking and were ready for action; perhaps it was just D&D giving rise to unpredictable things as it does. Aurora's player assumed that the best friend of the gold dragon would be the silver dragon, and she indicated in her spell that the spell should take them to the territory of the silver dragon. The spell took effect, and the party went spinning magically through space to the territory of the silver dragon: Talon Gorge. 

Seeing the sign outside the city indicating it was Talon Gorge and not Vestry, Lethanin perked up. He had no excitement about returning to the city of his birth and youth. Aurora was crestfallen that the spell had not worked as intended, eager to prove to the rest of the party that she was a valuable asset to the team. Brokk was almost entirely unaffected, simply content to be free of all the powerful people trying to control him. Rather than trying to teleport to Vestry with a second spell, the party agreed to seek out the silver dragon and find him as Aurix had asked. 

We ended up calling the session there. In retrospect, this was not a bad stopping point. Beginning the search for the silver dragon was a nice place to stop, and I do want them to start fresh from that point moving forward. But that's not really why I called the session at that point. My internet, which I was sharing with Aurora's player since we live together, is notoriously unstable. It was especially bad for me, since my computer is in a bad wifi reception area in the house. Had we been playing in person, which I do think is ideal for gaming, we probably would have plowed forward and started the search for the silver dragon. But I had already dropped out of the video call four or five times, and upon arriving at Talon Gorge, I dropped out yet again. My players were being patient and understanding about this, but it was frustrating for me to develop a rhythm and momentum and have it interrupted by technical issues. Looking ahead, I'm going to do what I can to stabilize my connection, especially since we only got to play for about an hour and a half (whereas I prefer to play for three or four hours at a time). But I'm not dissatisfied that we left off at a good stopping point; I only wish that the whole first session hadn't been spent establishing the plot. A little more open choice for the players would have been ideal, but I am very excited to say that it's all open choice from here. Every single session for the rest of the campaign will be directed by the players, and I'm eager to find out what happens next. 

So, reflections on our first session? The drawbacks were frustrating, as I've said. Technical issues are a real bummer, and lore-dumping is something I hate doing and try to avoid as much as possible. But neither were avoidable here, so it is what it is. The party dynamic is obviously still developing; the group only interacted together in response to NPC input. But what I saw was promising. Brokk is easily frustrated and highly practical and moral. Aurora is erratic and impulsive, but stubbornly helpful. Lethanin is temperamental and somewhat passive yet certainly capable of mixing things up. In one way or another, each of them is hard to predict, and each of them wants what's best for everyone, and that's a wonderful composition for a party. They seemed interested in the hook for the story, and once they figured out their angle on it (going to Wing), they were quick to act, and did so decisively. And the fact that Aurora's spell took them to the wrong place is fun, but even more fun is the fact that they just ran with it. Nobody suggested backtracking and going to Vestry--they just nodded and agreed to move forward with the hand they dealt themselves. And as much information as they took in, they obviously still have a lot more to learn. The backdrop for this campaign is the most elaborate I've ever attempted, with dozens of NPCs and lots of important mythology, so mistakes like going to the wrong city in search of someone might be a commonplace affair in this campaign, and I personally am thrilled to see what else goes wrong and right for the party. 

In the immediate future, I'm thrilled to see the party track down the silver dragon, who is among my very favorite NPCs in the whole campaign. I can't wait to see the party make some real decisions together, and watching their dynamic develop will be riveting. And as I told them at the beginning of the session, just getting to play with all of them is a huge thrill. Aurora's player is my partner in life, and Brokk and Lethanin are played by my two closest friends. So every time we play, I'll be with my three favorite people, and that's one of the true beauties of tabletop games. Getting to spend quality time with your closest friends, engaging in imagination and creativity with them, and telling a story all together--this is what D&D is really about at its core level. 

That's all for now. Next time in Of Gods and Dragons, the party will explore Talon Gorge and try to track down the silver dragon. Or not! Who knows? With this party, I can't be sure of anything, which is exactly how I want it. Until next time, happy gaming!

"New Mistakes"

 This short story takes place during You Changed Too. You can read the first chapter here!

 

"A Blessing I Never Thought to Ask For"

This short story takes place during You Changed Too. You can read the first chapter here!

 

Chapter Twenty: Hopes and Dreams

You can read the previous chapter here!

 

Chapter Nineteen: Ray of Hope

You can read the previous chapter here!