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!