Of Gods and Dragons: Session Twelve

Last time, the players curated an eventful session for themselves, and I decided to sit back and let them take the reins a bit more. The result was some big progress for the group, as they each sat down to pray to a god to seek help reaching Boccob. Aurora prayed to Wee Jas and discovered that Wee Jas would help to a point in order to get her powers back but would not fight, and Lethanin got similar results with Obad-Hai; Brokk received full support for Gruumsh. Yondalla pitched a more complex solution to the problem, but the party rejected it on the grounds that it would violate free will. Then they leapt into action, called on the gods, and were sent to Boccob's realm, where they beheld a massive geometric tower and a daunting, huge furry reptilian creature they knew to be Boccob. 

So before we start with this session, let's address a few things that contribute to the stakes of this session. Firstly, they're starting by talking to Boccob. This necessarily means that the prophecy will be fulfilled somehow by the conversation's end, and that's a massive thing. The original end goal of the campaign was the speak to Boccob, and they've done that now. I think that shifts the tone in this session moving forward in that it means we're looking to narrow the story now rather than expand it (at least in most cases). And that starts here--I made a point of only adding things that really needed to be added and am otherwise focused on moving forward toward an ending. Second, when given the option to speak to more gods and explore that world, the players chose to just go to Boccob. That's something that is complicated for me since I wrote a lot of foundational material that may now be useless, but it's what the players chose, and I want to honor that. So moving forward, it's looking to the end, and really looking to let the players decide the scope. 

So, this session, Boccob began by trying to explain a problem. Boccob said that once many years ago, a woman of his species had lived a remarkable life and taken up magic as a retirement hobby, creating an entire little world. This world grew and changed over many years, the creation of physical realms, gods, people, and dragons a regular thing. Then this woman grew old, and she--Boccob--asked her son to care for the world for her. So he had become Boccob and watched over the world for far longer than his mother had overseen it. He wished to give their world away and be free to watching it but being helpless to change it. At this, the party asked what he meant, and he explained that Boccob's key for manipulating the world was to play the violin, and he could not. Quickly, the group hatched a plan that Lethanin would play his violin to magically manipulate the world and repair the barrier between the gods and the mundane world. 

Aurora cast a spell to recreate part of the Song, the grand musical experience that Lethanin has always sensed and which they suspected to be the original Boccob's song. Lethanin played along with the song, trying to tap into the exact melody that would work, and he eventually found it. He became ecstatic in the performance of the Song and managed to close the rift. Boccob asked about fixing other things while given the chance, and the party was unwilling to use their position of power to make unnecessary choices for people. Brokk asked Boccob about future concerns such as where the world would go, and Boccob could say only that he was working on a solution. Wild with the Song, Lethanin took a piggy back ride on Brokk. Aurora created a crystal which could play the Song in case another hero needed to play it in the future. Boccob confirmed that they were in fact successful and teleported them to Aurix's halls. 

With some time to come down from the dramatic moments at Boccob's, the group took time to try to rest. Aurora spoke to Pumpkin, her cat, about the disrepaired state of the world forlornly for a time while Brokk and Lethanin simply came down after dealing with a supreme deity and encountering a life's mission. Suddenly, the faerie who gave Aurora her powers (ABC), appeared to Aurora and asked her to destroy Pelor's Mercy, providing a vision that Aurora was the child of the head of the town, who regards Aurora as his son. At this point, Niela sent a message with important information. She said that there were not ten dragon titles as currently inhabited, but actually thirty--ten metallic, ten chromatic, and ten elemental--and the majority had been killed long ago. This meant that the group could appoint a large amount of dragons as they saw fit, but this led to a conversation in which the group questioned whether dragons should exist at all given the imbalance of power their existence creates. Brokk and Aurora voiced disappointment in the difficulty of finding a solution, but Lethanin said it was unavoidable: "I think this world just always needs saving." After resolving Niela's issues--agreeing to mostly leave it on the back burner but taking interest in the Sound dragon for Lethanin's sake--Brokk and Lethanin agreed they would help Aurora with Pelor's Mercy. 

In terms of more immediately strategy, the group hatched a plan in which Niela would contact Thomas looking for details on his planning. She would surveil him from up close while Aurix performed reconnaissance from afar. Together, they'd get a sense of Thomas's intentions and preparations, then turn on him when the time came. So while Niela and Aurix prepared to work on Thomas, the group decided to investigate the tome which would allow them to find access to the Sound dragon, which Aurora had determined was at the peak of the Kallett Mountains. And that's where we ended.

So, DMs, what really comes next? I said in an earlier session notes that narrowing towards an ending changes a lot in terms of pacing and content, so what does that look like in practice? Well, for starters, we need to remember what we have left. The party wants to deal with Thomas. That's not a small goal. They're interested in the Sound dragon now, which won't be as complicated as Thomas, but it will be more than minor. Aurora's Pelor's Mercy thing is now totally revealed, and that's gonna be at least a session or two. Brokk and Lethanin need some sweet send-off stuff. Beyond that, not much really comes to mind, save for one important thing: 

Consequences. 

The players just changed the shape of the universe. There will be consequences. I am not saying bad consequences per se. I'm just saying consequences. The fabric of time and space shifted, and there will be little ripple effects of that. Maybe it's just a fun side effect. Maybe it's the kind of thing that needs to be treated. I dunno. We'll figure that out as we continue. But it's something to consider. So Thomas, other dragons, Pelor's Mercy, epilogue stuff, and consequences. On the whole, a not inconsiderable list of things to get to. 

So we take them as the players get to them primarily, and if they drop something for a while, we pick those threads back up. Next time, they'll do the Sound dragon thing and check in with Aurix and Niela, I would bet, and maybe get distracted with something else for a bit. Just a guess. So we explore that, and all the while, I'm looking for opportunities to drop the other stuff in. We limit how much new stuff there is when the players aren't seeking it. It's just a simple way to start pushing towards an ending. 

I want to address Boccob's story a bit. Going into this session, I had a lot of options. Boccob could have been as I always imagined them: aloof, overly rational, quiet, emotionless. They could have been like a strange parent figure from a distance. They could have been a scientist in a lab experimenting on the people of the gameworld. But I didn't really like any of those. Boccob as an aloof figure felt one-note; everything would just be rationality. The parent figure would be nice but wouldn't explain why they're more or less abandoned the world. The scientist thing is funny and fits well, but the tone is wrong--the world isn't a dark joke, it's something tragic and real yet magical. So I came up with the talented musician who builds the world and passes on, leaving it to someone who can't do the same. It's sad and raw and very human without being silly, and I liked that. 

The players weren't interested in the narrative choice of it all. They didn't like it. The idea that after everything, Boccob was just some random guy who hadn't really made them, that everything was broken and Boccob couldn't fix it and didn't seem terribly interested in that--it was disheartening. Of course, I did this on purpose. Over the rest of the campaign, I wanted to push a new theme: creating one's own meaning and purpose. So by the end, hopefully we'll see the players responding to an emptiness in the universe by adding their own meaning to it. Repetition is our friend here, so you'll be seeing instances of me directly talking about making meaning as the campaign wraps up. 

One final note as we reflect on this session: one thing I am worried about is sticking the landing with the ending. Aurora's player gave me some specifics on character arc, but we're through those now, and I need to figure out how to move her from that point to a real point of progression. Lethanin needs some anchoring and some more emotional stuff, so we'll see his mom return and work on getting him situated in the world. Brokk will be the hardest. Brokk's player conceived of him as a very bleak person, and he's lightened a lot, but he still has a lot of weight he carries. I want to see absolution for him, and that's a delicate thing to give. So while the campaign has gone phenomenally so far, I also don't want to take success for granted as we begin the more delicate work of the ending. 

Next time, they players begin the third part of the adventure (part one being dragons and part two being gods), where they decide how to shape the world or not--their mission is done, but they have more to do. So next time, we'll see how they decide to forge fate, and I'll be here to tell you all about it. 

That's all for now. Until next time!

Of Gods and Dragons: Session Eleven

Last time, the party was variously thrown out of or stormed out of Hriskin's house after she proved less than amendable to their demands that she move on after losing her husband hundreds of years before. She mentioned a blue-suited man who'd appeared as she became especially depressed, leading Lethanin to believe she may have been cursed. Niela helped explain how to break the dragon's seal on the spell. They met with Cori, who came clean about being Corellon Larethian, suggesting that the group also look to Obad-Hai, Wee Jas, and Gruumsh for support; Brokk was shocked to learn that Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh seemed to be in a relationship. The group, Brokk especially, was overwhelmed and tried to be relaxed but productive, so Aurora obtained ingredients to cook Hriskin's favorite meal for her and create a personalized locket for her. The locket turned out to be rather ornate, with a magical image of Hriskin and her husband together and an inscription that celebrated past joy while still looking forward. The next morning, the group headed back to Hriskin's house, made her potato pancakes, and she finally agreed to let them try to remove a curse from her. Lethanin played a song to inspire Aurora to cast a spell to remove what they suspected to be a curse from Horton, the blue dragon, and Brokk cast remove curse on Hriskin. She immediately relaxed and began to act differently, now eager to help the party. She beat Brokk in a quick wrestling match, and the group carried on.

This time, I honestly don't have a lot for you, reader. Not in the way of notes. But I have a lot of commentary on this one, and I think that you learn more from some sessions, and that definitely happened here. 

I went into this session with the intention to be quiet. I felt that the narrative had captured enough bulk and momentum to have some real impact, and I hadn't allowed for a lot of room to breathe. So I wanted a low-pressure session. What the players did with it was at points decidedly not low-pressure, but I live to give them what they want. Let's talk broad strokes: the players had a long conversation about how to proceed which was not unanimous about dealing with Thomas. Specifically, they were disagreeing about what to do about him and when. This conversation took about an hour out of game. The session began with a serious tactical discussion of goals and methods almost immediately. This was a long time coming. Up to this point, the group has loosely defined goals and proposed solutions in a very informal way. There's been a kind of "we'll figure the rest out later" vibe to it all. Well, now they have six dragons behind them and Boccob to look towards, so there isn't really a later to it anymore. Suddenly, Aurora is unsure of when would be best to attack Thomas, and Brokk is growing frustrated at Aurora's uncertainty, and Lethanin is looking at them like they're both dopes for needing more of a plan, and the seams are pulling. Literally, I had given them to this point, "you're here, okay you're moving, now you're at Brokk's place," and the party was pulling itself apart. Thrilling but terrifying. 

A little party tension is good. You want to ride the line. Too much and it's toxic--not outright opposition, but something of interest. It's hard and arguably bad to engineer that kind of thing; players should be in charge of what they think and feel. But if you see tension, you can highlight it or foster it, or just let it fester. In this case, I felt festering was the right way to go. Especially since the next thing they meant to do was pray to gods looking for assistance, after which I had something planned. So divided, the party prayed. Lethanin spoke to Obad-Hai, who was slow and aloof but warm and who eventually agreed that they would help the party but would not outright attack another god. Similarly, Wee Jas told Aurora she was eager to help given that her powers are tapped by the rift and means to regain her power but held too many alliances to be able to attack anyone. But Gruumsh, who had a calm and fatherly demeanor appeared to Brokk and heard Brokk's various frustrations about the state of orckind. Gruumsh agreed that things were bad but focused on Brokk's wellbeing, talking a lot about self-forgiveness and the urgency of it. He agreed to serve the group's purpose "to the blood." 

The party returns from their prayers. I gave them a lot, but nothing unearned--they specifically sought out gods who would help them with someone eager to help and in the know. They should get a big benefit from that. They're all a little suspicious. Lethanin wants to know why Obad-Hai would pledge themself to help. Aurora is suspicious about trusting Wee Jas given her selfish motivations. Brokk is losing his mind over meeting Gruumsh and finding the god to be affable, wise, comfortable, and kind. I again leave them cueless. They are gathered in Brokk's house, they are fresh off a disagreement (and an urgent one at that), they're all feeling suspicious about things--let's leave them be. This atmosphere could lead to some interesting places. And they do start to argue again. It's the same fight with a new twist, just the same as it has been since the early game. It doesn't bother me--it delights me. I set out to call nuance into the picture, and here are like-minded people drawing themselves into positions against each other over details. It's success. And success in tabletop games is meant to be built upon, not simply enjoyed. So I threw something at them at a particularly sour moment in the conversation. 

Yondalla appeared at the their door. She did not play games. She announced herself as Yondalla and said she wanted a civil conversation. The party allowed her in. Yondalla admitted that her plan was complex. The leaking divine magic empowers those driven by good to be more sensitive to that motivation. Likewise with bad. But in the short time since the rift opened (only twelve days ago), dozens of settlements have had revolutions arcing towards representative government and the world had become safer via vigilante and militia patrols. Yondalla proposed preserving the tear for a year so that people become acclimated to goodness and its benefits, then return free will by repairing the rift in the future. Brokk was open to discussing this idea, and did so at good length. Aurora was skeptical, arguing that what Yondalla proposed was a long-shot. Lethanin was nearly outraged, asking what the limits are in terms of controlling someone's thoughts. Yondalla could see the conversation was not going in her favor, wished the group well, and dismissed herself. 

So the recipe so far has been let a good simmer develop with character arguments, confound the players with gods they can't understand, let them argue more, divide them on a more complicated issue, and then leave them. It was perfect. I knew that Brokk would never full stand by Yondalla's plan but that he would be intrigued by it, so as Aurora and Lethanin argued with Brokk about Yondalla's plan, I could see Brokk slowly turning. It was very well roleplayed and very satisfying to be a part of of. Ultimately, Brokk came around and everyone drew one final agreement: anything except repairing the veil is too big a risk to take with every life in the balance. Anything shy of repairing the veil cannot be a consideration. 

And again, the order of operations came up, and for one of the last times. The group quickly agreed that it was time to move forward. They summoned the dragons on their side, and as much as Niela's presence was uncomfortable for most everyone, especially her, the group explained the plan: send them to the gods' realm, and go from there to Boccob. This struck me utterly by surprise. I guess I had known in the back of my mind that they had the potential to approach Boccob, but it hadn't seemed entirely real. Suddenly, I was looking at meeting Boccob before the end of the session. I pulled myself together and began to describe the gods realm as the dragons teleported them there. They were in a quiet watering hole and prayed to the gods they'd prayed to earlier and Corellon Larethian. Accompanied by the four gods, who helped to open a great door to Boccob's realm, the party passed into the grand temple of Boccob. After a long march, they arrived before a massive, hairy creature with a reptilian face who they knew to be Boccob. 

I needed to leave my players be this session. There were conversations that couldn't keep coming up anymore and they needed space to deal with. I've controlled the pace of meeting the new dragons, and I needed to truly know that the players wanted to maintain this quick pace by leaving them to pace themselves. And speaking of pacing, as soon as they felt it was possible, they went headlong into Boccob's realm. They did not poke around in the gods' realm. I had loads of stuff conceived of for the gods' realm, and it all of it never gets used, I'll call it a victory because they got what they wanted in an interesting way. They called the shots this session, and they used all of it to move on. To move past the conversations that keep coming back, to move on from the slog of organizing supernatural beings, to move on from the last part of the adventure and their personal goals. It was really beautiful. 

Of course, I can't just sit back and watch them do things every session. I do need the world and the NPCs to be more active sometimes. But when pressure is high and especially at the ends of arcs, it's good to have a cool down session. Of course, with this session in particular, they did not so much cool down as hurtle forward, but they're doing it for closure, and I think that expresses a deep emotional release they're pursuing. But I really advise if you can to give as much of a session as the party needs just kind of recovering, talking, and regaining the energy to try again. 

Don't let me give the impression I'm doing some cold calculus about what story moments can best be impacted with which strategy. I'm going by feel. Stories are my thing, and I know how to shape one. But you can do a rough calculus if you don't feel it in your bones. I'd say three high-stress sessions should be followed by one cool down session, and perhaps every four or five mid-stress sessions and five low-stress sessions as a very rough estimate. If you're roleplaying, you don't just want to experience your character at their most stressed possible constantly. You want a range of emotions, and that means more than just freaking out. If the characters need to decompress, it can be a good idea to let them.

Of course, this also raises questions about endgame. I'd originally conceived as reaching Boccob and counseling a choice would be the end. But that lacked real closure, and the players have largely created storylines that demand playing after Boccob. So the endgame is actually the midgame now--whatever happens with Boccob is the middle of the game, and the sprawling adventures that the party has now are the endgame. I have big ideas, but I want to keep those under wraps until they're realized--even putting something in writing can make me feel too attached to a particular version of things. 

So next time, the players will speak with Boccob. I'm still working out Boccob's side of things, but given that Aurora's first dialogue with them was about their aesthetic similarity to dragons, it's bound to have a colorful start. Next session may be the most important session of the campaign, and then again it might not. It's a thrilling situation. 

That's all for now. Until next time!

Of Gods and Dragons: Session Ten

Last time, the party managed to convince Rupert to help in opposing the chromatic dragons when Lethanin suggested Rupert love himself and spend more time doing things that matter. While Aurora created a spell to teleport the group to Brokk's house in Drumchapel, Brokk encountered Moira again, and the discussed feeling like a spectator in life and serving the greater good. Aurora's spell brought the group to Drumchapel, where they rested for the night. In the morning, they discussed their plans, focusing on the ordering of the delicate steps to bring down Thomas the red dragon and speaking with Boccob. On the road to Finiel, where they planned to meet Hriskin, the brass dragon, they encountered an elven traveler named Cori who mused about siding with the known versus the unknown; Aurora requested an audience with Cori after her business in town was concluded. The group agreed that Cori was likely Corellon Larethian, the goddess of the elves. Arriving at the Finiel Arena, the group searched the hall of fame for information about Hriskin and learned she was the greatest legend of the fighting ring who was known for never killing a foe. Using a series of spells, the group found their way to Hriskin's cottage, and she reluctantly allowed them inside to talk. 

This time, we picked up at the beginning of that conversation. Out of game, a month had passed since our last session, and I had had time to mull over how I wanted that conversation to go. Initially, I had planned for Hriskin to be something of a counterpart to Rupert--Rupert was wild and manic, and he was hard to wrangle into helping with anything because his particular dysfunction came from paranoia and an excess of emotional energy, and Hriskin was the opposite--depressed about her life to the point of giving up on everything, giving no effort in any way because of a lack of emotional energy. But the extra time between sessions was a benefit. Talking to the metallic dragons, the party has joked, is about therapizing the dragons. They helped Aurix sees nuance more clearly. They helped Jarvia feel less like a forgotten outsider. They helped Wing to deal with her own demons. They helped Rupert past his complex. And I had originally conceived of Hriskin as another therapy session--how do they make Hriskin less depressed? 

But I had an idea a few days before the session. I'd established a pattern by making the conversations with the dragons about helping them with their issues, so the party was expecting Hriskin to be the same. That meant that I could offer a surprise here by altering the script. I decided that Hriskin's initial depression was made worse and more permanent by a curse, and who better to lay that curse than one of the chromatic dragons? So the party's first instinct would be to identify Hriskin's depression as conditional--based on her lived experience--when they needed to look deeper and see the curse. Knowing that they'd grow tired and even desperate with Rupert's refusal to listen, I knew this could go many ways, but I was eager to spring something new and more interesting on the group. So how'd it go? 

Hriskin sat sadly on her couch and barely followed the conversation. She spoke about her passed husband and how she hated having to see him suffer and die while she remained ageless, and when Brokk asked her about the value of marriage, she said it was worthless. Lethanin explained the prophecy in an effort to bring Hriskin into the know, but she was skeptical, bemoaning the notion that the party was crazy. Aurora asked about the last time Hriskin had cared about something after her insistence that she didn't care about anything; she said the day she'd been visited by a menacing man after her husband's death had changed her. Brokk grew frustrated with Hriskin's seeming unwillingness to focus on anything but her pain and left. Hriskin voiced her irritation at being forced to remember the menacing man, who she said had wolfish eyes and wore a blue suit. Lethanin suggested that the man had potentially cursed her, and when Hriskin snapped at Aurora's attempts to help, they argued, and Aurora ended up marching out of the cottage as well. Lethanin pressed on about the blue-suited man, and Hriskin said he was a lawyer from New Dalton and knew nothing else; Lethanin pressed her further and was also kicked out. 

This is to say, I seeded enough information about the blue-suited man to plant the idea of the curse, which Lethanin picked up on, but I maintained an honest representation of how little Hriskin would suffer the party's directness and lack of sympathy.  Fortunately (though the party could have proceeded without Hriskin if they so chose), they didn't entirely give up on her. Aurora in particular hinted at grand plans to make Hriskin feel better and pursue a cure for the curse. In fact, after updating Jarvia on finding Hriskin, Aurora began sending messages to the the allied dragons seeking information about breaking the curse. Niela explained that the magical seal of the dragon would need to be lifted before the curse could be targeted directly (an improvised detail that I thought complicated the situation without making it impossible), and Aurix provided a complicated glyph spell that could cure Hriskin--a spell which needed to be modified so that Aurora could cast it without Aurix's immense power. Brokk said he stood by his tactics and that challenging Hriskin to move on had been for the best, adding that he wasn't happy to say it, but the party didn't need her help. Lethanin countered that they were in a position to help her and therefore should, which Brokk agreed to, saying he had been unfair because he resented powerful people who choose to do nothing. 

Content that they had done all they could for now, Aurora checked in to see if Brokk was comfortable meeting with Cori, who they suspected was the elven goddess; Brokk was unwilling or unable to answer directly aside from the notion that it was happening either way he felt. They arrived at the Empty Stage, the tavern Cori had suggested. Cori said the play had been good--the ending had been inevitable and yet surprising, as the powerful characters in the play chose selfish ends while the underdogs chose what was right for everyone. Tired of the double-talk, the party began to explain their role in the prophecy to Cori. She immediately cut them off and suggested speaking more privately. She escorted them to an inn room from which she teleported them all to her temple in the gods' realm, a massive library overgrown with plants, and where she appeared in her true godly form as Corellon Larethian. She explained she was well aware of the prophecy and had sought them out to secure their assistance in repairing the veil, which she believed would uphold the balance of the world. The party asked which gods might also help them, and she suggested Wee Jas, who had lost power due to the rift; Obad-Hai, whose focus on balance would mean returning things to their natural state; and Gruumsh, who she explained was her partner--together, she and Gruumsh had parented the elven and orcish races. 

This sent Brokk into a panicked state. Discovering that the elves and orcs were in reality siblings, that Gruumsh and Corellon Larethian had fought long ago but patched things up millennia ago, and that the war he had been born to fight had been a product of people, not gods, was too much for him to handle in the moment. Brokk excused himself to a corner to do breathing exercises and lobbed flurries of questions about the nature of elves and orcs through the conversation. Corellon Larethian was patient with Brokk's meltdown and continued speaking with Aurora and Lethanin, ultimately agreeing to help remove the curse on Hriskin via prayer. When asked, Corellon Larethian also suggested using prayer to contact the other gods the party meant to work with. Once Brokk had calmed and Aurora and Lethanin's questions were answered, Corellon Larethian teleported the party back to the mundane world in the inn room in Finiel. 

Still worked up, Brokk insisted that he needed to sleep (despite his character build explicitly stating that he does not need to sleep--this was a cool choice by Brokk's player to roleplay his panic). Brokk got a room to try to sleep in, and Aurora and Lethanin went back to the arena's hall of fame to find more information on Hriskin. Aurora wanted to make a nice breakfast for Hriskin, and Lethanin learned that Hriskin's victory meal after fighting was potato cakes. Meanwhile, Aurora learned about Hriskin's husband, Chellin Plantil, the most famed announcer of the arena's history--she learned that he would end matches by announcing "That's how the blood spills," or in Hriskin's non-violent wins, "That's how the blood doesn't spill." Content with their findings, Lethanin and Aurora went to find ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast and commission a brass locket with "That's how the tears no longer fall" etched on it. Meanwhile, unable to sleep, Brokk went out and met up with Aurora and Lethanin, at which point Aurora and Lethanin collaborated on a spell to create an image of Hriskin and Chellin holding hands, which they planned to put into the locket with an enchantment so that only Hriskin could see the image. The group called it an early night, eager to see what the morning would bring. 

In the morning, the group picked up Hriskin's locket and added the created image to it, took the breakfast ingredients, and set off for Hriskin's. Hriskin let the party in even more reluctantly than the day before, but she softened a bit when she saw Aurora making potato cakes for her. Lethanin suggested that the group could try to remove the curse from her; Hriskin considered while devouring potato cakes and ultimately agreed to let them try assuming they'd leave her alone if there was no curse to fix. Lethanin played a rousing bagpipe song, inspiring Aurora to break the seal of the blue dragon they had suspected was affecting Hriskin, and Brokk removed the curse from her. Hriskin immediately felt better if a bit overwhelmed by the change in her emotional state. Brokk challenged her to a wrestling match to "shake off the dust," which Hriskin took him up on, swiftly and decisively pinning Brokk in a matter of moments. Hriskin said that she owed the party her life, and she offered to help in any way she could, eager to fight Thomas if that's what they needed from her. The party shared some kind words with Hriskin and left, which is where we ended this session. 

From a DM perspective, I'm really happy with the change of plans I had with Hriskin. The essence of what makes a story fun sometimes comes down to surprise. Discovering that the metallic dragons are actually all somewhat dysfunctional was a surprise. Learning the new ways that the dragons were dysfunctional became the new flavor of surprise as the campaign went. But Hriskin would have felt stale as just a hopelessly depressed widow, another way that a metallic dragon was emotionally at odds with their life. Shifting the cause to a curse broke that pattern up and created a new surprise, and having the conversation broken up into two separate scenes really underscored just how much they had to work at solving her problem. Speaking of surprise, the most animated moment of the session was learning that Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh were not only allies but lovers--Brokk really reacted to this reveal in a big way that had the whole group riveted and laughing. So I'm glad I twisted the Hriskin situation a bit to create more surprise. 

I talk about this particular strategy as a DM a lot, and I'm gonna talk about it again here: only write outlines. When we write fully orchestrated scenes, we're likely to decide how they go before the players ever get to them. That's prime territory for railroading. Instead, write a few big picture moments that you might use and pick a theme or two to return to as you go. I could honestly fit all my pre-writing for the entire campaign in a space shorter than this session recap. A week ago, I had exactly the following decided: 

Hriskin Geld is a lawful good former arena champion whose husband, the announcer at the arena, died, sending her into depressive turmoil. She would choose to undo dragonhood if given the opportunity. 

That's it! A few days before playing, I added the detail that the depression was cursed to stay indefinitely by Horton, the blue dragon, who would (1) have an interest in weakening the metallic dragons, and (2) be able to bestow such a curse. So basically three sentences are the only things that guided this session-long arc, and that allowed me to shift the encounter to be what would most enrich my players' experiences. Brokk lost his temper with Rupert and with Hriskin too for similar reasons, and seeing him (a normally calm and understanding guy) grow impatient with someone in pain cast Brokk in a new light. Aurora's big heart made her want to do whatever she could to help Hriskin, which she did in the end, but when Hriskin was dismissive of Aurora, Aurora grew frustrated and also conceded for a while--a very new side of her. Lethanin, as he had with Rupert, kept prodding and poking until he figured something out, leading to the breakthrough that got Hriskin on their side, and in the same session that Lethanin joked his main skill is "pissing people off." All of this to say, I came in with some very broad strokes and let the party fill in the rest, merely maintaining some consistency in how I felt Hriskin would act. I think that this ultimately achieved what I was hoping for--a situation that was interesting, surprising, and open to the players to guide. 

Let me also say that the final scene with Hriskin was truly heartwarming. Aurora led the charge to make Hriskin feel better; out of game, I've been fighting some demons of my own, and Aurora's player--my wife--has been helping me through it. And seeing Aurora make potato cakes and a thoughtful locket and offer nothing but compassion to Hriskin was genuinely touching. I could see my wife's sweetness coming through in Aurora, something that happens often (think of the monuments she makes to important emotional situations), and it was really beautiful to see. By the time that the party was talking to the real Hriskin, now free of her curse, it was a really nice conversation. 

One final note here now that you, the reader, and the party too have met all the metallic dragons--they are all very personal to me. Aurix sees the world in black and white terms, often struggling to see beyond the right and wrong he perceives; this is something I too struggle with, and I made him to be able to put some of my real life issues into the game so he'd seem more real in his struggles. Jarvia deals with complicated feelings about being transgender and outcast, just as I do. Wing can't let go of the voices she keeps with her from her past any more than I can. Rupert could get carried away and self-destructive and shortsighted just like I can. And Hriskin was hung up on grief she couldn't let go, sinking into a long and painful depression that immobilized her; this too is something I have fought with. I mention this because a few paragraphs ago I was talking about how little preparation I did going into these sessions--it wasn't all acting. It wasn't all improvised. I deliberately picked struggles I know about personally so I could make them real. And I think that having a real emotional experience with a vague collection of information about the situation will always be better than a fabricated emotional experience with loads of preplanning. Storytelling is seldom about a group of details; it's so often a portrayal of an experience, and an emotional understanding of that situation means more than you might think. Imagine two classes on archaeology, one taught by a tax attorney and one taught by an archaeologist--which one is more likely to give you something meaningful? The old writer's advice--write what you know--holds true in tabletop games too. 

This session marks a real turning point in the campaign. The metallic dragons--all five of them--are united at least in cause. The group even has Niela's help on the side of the chromatic dragons, and that means that they have six dragons as well as their own power to turn on Thomas and deal with the gods. Speaking of which, the group has now directly spoken to a god about how to proceed. They also have leads on three more gods to work with. That basically means that one phase of the campaign is over (gathering metallic dragons together) and now things are even more nebulous than before--what goal comes next? How do the players interact with the fickle gods? Will they take their time with the gods as they did with the dragons or race to Boccob? More than ever, I have no idea what will happen next time. 

That's all for now. Until next time, happy gaming!