Of Gods and Dragons: Session Eighteen

Last time, the party had a momentous dinner party with Lethanin's parents, and notably, both of Lethanin's parents apologized for their lackluster parenting. Hriskin and Aurora discussed plans for Horton, and Brokk and Niela chatted and flirted before Brokk transformed into his dragon shape for the first time, prompting Niela to observe that he looked much different than Thomas had in his dragon form. Aurora conveyed visions of Lethanin's heroics to Lethanin's mother, who was overwhelmed by the heroics of her son. Brokk suggested that Aurora take up the blue dragon mantle, which Aurora refused on the grounds that she could not be associated with Daltoners. The following morning, Brokk, Lethanin, Aurora, Hriskin, Aurix, and Niela set a trap for Horton and sprang in when he appeared, leaving this session to begin with combat. 

This session turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought going in. In fact, this is the last full session with all three players of the campaign. So let's get into it. 

Brokk bull rushed Horton after Aurora's unsuccessful attack and bear hugged Horton from behind, heavily damaging him with a casting of Blight. Horton then broke free of Brokk and tried to speak with Aurora, who was unwilling to play games with Horton, so Horton cast Feeblemind on Aurora, dealing damage but failing to render Aurora useless. Lethanin also withdrew from his hiding place and blasted Horton with a burst from the bagpipes, replicating a Sonic Scream which sliced Horton severely. Hriskin hacked at Horton with her sword, scoring some nasty blows. Niela slipped Horton into a full nelson and held him for Aurora to finish him off. Over a few tense moments, Aurora repeatedly cast a spell that undid the binding force that held Horton together, and he eventually dissolved into component elements that blew across the clearing with a smell of lightning. Horton was dead. 

Out of game, this combat moved fast. We did exactly one round of combat that was slightly elongated by the fact that Horton was held helpless for a few seconds leading up to his death. It even got to the point that Aurora's player spoke to me after the session about it. She said that it seemed like I was unreasonably nice to the party, always granting advantages and boosts and underpowering enemies. I chuckled. I had to remind her that Horton was surrounded by five dragons and one of the most powerful spellcasters ever to live, and that Horton never really stood a chance. She did eventually agree that this has some solid logic to it, but I could see that she still had a sense that Horton had been too easy a fight. So I also pointed out that Horton was held motionless for half the half, and my wife did agree that in fact Horton hadn't been a surprising fight. 

I want to drill down on this for a second because it's been a theme in this campaign. My party started the campaign at level 12. At the beginning of this fight, Lethanin and Brokk and level 20 due to being promoted to dragonhood, and Aurora is level 16 with a class that allows for huge potential for destruction. Aurix is level 50, Niela is level 40, and Hriskin is level 30. Let's get technical with challenge rating for a second. Horton has a challenge rating of about 40. But what's the challenge rating of the party? 172. This is the same problem that came up with Thomas and Regg. With a high powered party who has high powered friends, few combat presences will pose a threat. So what do we do with imbalance in power? 

We may not need to do anything at all. What exactly is the source of power the party has? It's not their level. If the fight was Lethanin, Brokk, and Aurora against Horton, they differential in challenge ratings would be so much closer that a close fight was possible. But Aurix, Niela, and Hriskin were there too. That massively shifts the scales. So what's their real power? Working together. Most of this campaign was the party getting the dragons assembled before they really did anything. And everything after that fell into place easily. Fixing the fabric of reality, wiping out evil dragons--not a huge sutrggle after dealing with the metallics they needed to work together with. But the hard work is done--the party can call on these massively powerful allies for things that would be otherwise impossible. I plan to make that theme explicit in the epilogue sessions that will follow this. 

Brokk turned to Aurora, asking what came next. Aurora began to plan for attacks on Pelor's Mercy. Aurora suggested arming the prisoners of the camps in the city and having them revolt, but Niela countered that arming the prisoners was a quick way to get them killed. This shut down the conversation pretty thoroughly for a while, no one sure how to proceed. Everyone started the discussion over from scratch, working step by step on a new plan. They decided they would sweep through the town and deal damage to the city, fight the guards across town, and freeing the prisoners. Aurora suggested waiting until after sundown to attack so that the prisoners could safely evacuate their camps; Hriskin said the time was now, and waiting could complicate things. Niela added to this that Horton could be missed at his law offices, and after some debate, she forged a note claiming Horton was off fishing as he liked to do and sent it to his workplace. 

Meanwhile, Aurora messaged a dissident in one of the camps, Peggy, a halfling who had helped Aurora with basic apothecary work, telling her to get all prisoners out of the camps and into the woods beyond immediately. Peggy asked for ten minutes and set to work. After some final discussion and a quick map traced by Aurora in the dirt, Aurix announced it was time, and each member of the group partnered off and teleported to specific locations spread across Pelor's Mercy. 

Aurora's player requested a showdown at Pelor's Mercy before her first intro session, so I'd been imagining what the battle might look like. I could see the player characters charging across the fields of Pelor's Mercy and cutting down the horrible guards. I could visualize the licking flames foretold in Aurora's backstory, the frightened prisoners, the furious nobles. I didn't sit down to plan a real battle in full since it seemed far away and I wasn't sure how my players would go about it, but this session moved fast. The group was in Pelor's Mercy about a third of the way through our session time, and there hadn't been a lot of discussion confirming that Pelor's Mercy (what we'd established would be a final moment in the campaign) would immediately follow Horton. As DMs are, I was taken by surprise. But the levelling issue I mentioned above with combat? It came into greater effect here. 

Lethanin and Hriskin appeared at the southwest edge of town, and guards were immediately called on Lethanin, who was a non-Daltoner. Lethanin then transformed into his sound dragon form, taking off and spewing fire and ice down on the town below; Hriskin sent to fighting guards who approached. Meanwhiule, Brokk and Niela transformed into dragons and flew across town, burning the three bridges in the city and then joining Lethanin in destroying the city. Aurix set to helping destroy town, and Aurora took a place near the center of Pelor's Mercy and cast a spell calling for fire to rain down on the town. As she cast the spell, a brilliant and intense column of light shone down on Aurora, a blessing from Pelor who rejoiced to see a blow down to the mockery of them. The light allowed Aurora to increase the number of glyphs used in a spell, and she added one to focus the fire on the city. From the sky, flames, lava, and the occasional burning piece of debris fell. Pelor's Mercy was ignited and burning to the ground. 

This happened in about ten or fifteen minutes. Not a single die was rolled. If five dragons and a powerful, angry spellcaster descend on your town, you have few options. The guards from the camps couldn't help in the town because Brokk destroyed the bridges. The guards in town and the camps could do little to fight five swarming dragons hellbent on destroying everything. A dragon flying quickly over guards who are shocked to learn that dragons really exist is hardly vulnerable to a few guards on the ground. And what the group did made people from the prisoners to the prisoners' families to political groups to religious groups to literal gods very happy, and that final one meant Aurora could destroy Pelor's Mercy in one fell blow. Was it tense and exciting and satisfying in the way that good combat it? No, absolutely not. But Pelor's Mercy had been on the group's radar for a long time, and absolutely dominating it was a different kind of satisfying. 

Aurora wandered the short distance to what she now remembered was her childhood home. A few servants stumbled from the burning building, and then Aurora's parents followed. Her father did not recognize her at all, and her mother only figured it was her daughter after a long moment. A tense conversation followed in which Aurora's mother tore into Aurora for not following the strictures of the Dalton Church of Pelor and judging her for her gender. Her father simply grew agitated and confused, pushing Aurora to get away. But Aurora broke his arm and sent him sprawling. She yelled at her mother for judging her and watched as her parents left. The massive crest of Pelor atop the house burned and fell, and slowly, Aurora's wooden sword turned to ash and drifted away in the air, mingled with the ashes of Pelor's Mercy.

But it wasn't over for Aurora, for whom time stopped. ABC, the fae who'd given her her powers years before, appeared again to thank Aurora for doing as she had been asked. Aurora seemed distant and dissatisfied, which ABC inquired about. Aurora was coy and didn't commit to much but did suggest she was interested in the fae dragonhood. ABC happily offered it, and Aurora agreed and followed ABC to the fae realm, which was a mass of intersecting planes and stark colors that was confusing to see. Aurora followed ABC with tunnel vision until they arrived at a jagged crystalline stone with a draconic inscription that, when read, transformed Aurora into the fae dragon. ABC brought Aurora back to the mundane realm, where Aurora created a statue in the center of Pelor's Mercy of the Dalton Church of Pelor's deity kneeling to Aurora. 

This is where the panic set in. Pelor's Mercy was pretty much dealt with. I had nothing to add. Once the cleanup after the battle was done, I had no material to offer my players (without unnecessarily stringing the story along). So I just kept asking what else they did. Here's what they did: 

Lethanin made it a personal mission to see that town was destroyed, breathing flames and fury down on any standing building. Brokk saw to dealing with the last of the guards in the town and in the camps. Niela suggested to Brokk that they tend to the prisoners, and she and Brokk flew from camp to camp, sending the prisoners safely north. As the city lay burning to the ground, Lethanin perched atop an archway and played the violin as the embers smoldered. Once the dragons had reconvened, they headed north and met up with the traveled prisoners. The prisoners emphatically thanked the group and spoke with hope of a new life in Vestry and beyond, and for an hour, the long stream of thousands of freed prisoners marched past with thanks and smiles. Aurora, tired, tried to summon her wooden sword to lean on and couldn't, much to her delight. Brokk heard a familiar dwarven voice in his head--Moradin's--who thanked him for doing a good job. She said she'd originally wanted the rift left open, but she ended up agreeing with Brokk in the end. Brokk said he hoped to speak to her again soon, then said his goodbyes and said he planned to spend some time with Niela; Lethanin stated his interest in pursing other mysteries of the universe such as the globe possessed by Calies Tasselman during his intro session; Aurora simply wanted to spend some time with her mother, Heather, at the old apothecary shop. Content that their joint purpose was served and that Evanoch was a better place, they departed to enjoy their own pursuits. 

And so technically the bulk of this campaign is over. But it's actually not really over in any way that matters. Each of my players will now complete two more sessions with me one-on-one. Each of these sessions will cover two time periods for a total of four big moments. Those moments will take place immediately following the campaign, one year later, ten years after the campaign, and one hundred years after the campaign. This accomplishes two big goals:

1. Dragonhood is basically immortality, and I want a sense of how that impacts the players. How do they deal with staying the same as others age? As they lose people? As they really begin to see that the power of dragonhood comes with a sacrifice? As a one hundred years later moment really lets us see who the player characters become after the polish of dragonhood has worn off? 

2. I have vowed to leave D&D alone as a DM for a long time after this campaign. It's been the culmination of almost 20 years of DMing, it's made me immensely proud, and it's changed my world forever. I need some time to detox, and so does Evanoch. I'm breaking tradition--whereas every campaign I've run has happened immediately following the last (lots of massive world-changing things in a week and a half), my next campaign (whenever that happens) will take place one hundred years after this campaign. And so having an idea what my dragons are up to then will be especially important. 

I also want to spend some time just giving this trio real endings. I want their players to feel like their characters ended up where they should, and that means giving them more time to breathe. I want to see how Brokk and Niela's life together looks and see how the bullet points Brokk's player already gave me for the epilogues get played out. I want to see Lethanin interact with his family again after the dinner party and see what his music career is like now and what he does with all the strange information he collects. I want to see Aurora enjoy time with her mom and experiment with spells and hang out with the fae and her Edmund Fitzgerald friends. I don't want to just feel content imagining all that either. I want the players to share those moments with me so they know that their character really did get to be happy. 

The truth of it is, Of Gods and Dragons is my favorite thing I've ever run. Maybe it's because I'm playing with my two best friends and my wife. Maybe it's because this campaign puts together ideas from almost two decades of gaming. Maybe I'm more talented than last time I DMed. I don't know. But my players gave me the time of my life with these silly little gods and dragons, and I want to feel confident that they had a great time too, one they'll remember. I'm sure the epilogue sessions will be as radically different as the intro sessions, and I look forward to that. And that's because they'll be totally that character. These characters attained dragonhood--they should get to end on their own terms. 

So while Pelor's Mercy's destruction marks the end of the campaign, there is still more. Together, Brokk, Lethanin, and Aurora will write the history of my world for the next century and beyond, and so the three epilogue sessions that follow will give you a conclusion for these characters and a foundation for what eventually comes next. Stick around to see what endings our trio chooses for themselves, and so--until next time, happy gaming!

Brokk's Epilogue

Aurora's Epilogue

Lethanin's Epilogue

The Finale Session

Of Gods and Dragons: Session Seventeen

Last time we played, or rather last time I wrote, we covered two sessions. One was a brief session in which the party slayed Thomas, the red dragon and split up to deal with his troops. The next was a longer session where they defeated the armed men in Vestry, Torga, and Drumchapel, all in their own distinctive ways. Wing and Lethanin menaced the troops out of Vestry, Hriskin and Aurora defeated the troops in Talon Gorge, and Brokk and Niela terrified the troops and killed their leaders. Brokk assumed the red dragon mantle, pledging himself to helping other dragons. The group of dragons and Aurora then turned their attention to Horton, the blue dragon, deciding that most of the group would go to fight him while Jarvia and Wing covered their tracks. Brokk, Lethanin, Aurora, Hriskin, Aurix, and Niela all set out for Vestry, intending to depart for Horton the following day. The group took up with Lethanin's parents in Vestry. 

This time, I had no idea what to expect aside from knowing that there would be a dinner party of sorts. That did in fact happen, but there were lots of surprises along the way. Let's get into it. 

In the time before dinner was being cooked, the party had sprawled across Lethanin's parents' house and the city beyond, but everyone reconvened as Aurora finished her elaborate meal (chateaubriand, brussel sprouts, fresh bread, and more) and served dinner. The deliciousness of the meal and Aurora's graciousness as hostess frustrated Lethanin's mother, Dodira, who felt upstaged as a hostess in her home. She left dinner before everyone else finished, upset. 

When dinner did eventually die down, Lethanin's father, Larson, retired to his laboratory in the basement to tinker; Brokk followed behind a moment afterwards to speak with him. But Brokk could not easily fit through the especially tight doorway in the gnomish home, and he tried to transform himself into a smaller version of himself. Instead, he became a small dragon, which made Brokk panic, and he left the room. Meanwhile, Aurora tried to cheer up Dodira by feeding her a progression of broths, which worked more than Dodira wanted to admit. Lethanin watched in amusement as his family dealt with his new friends. Brokk returned to Larson, squeezing into the lab. They spoke about their work, Brokk describing the enjoyment of teamwork and hard labor, Larson talking about the satisfaction of learning and applying knowledge. When Brokk inquired, it became clear that Larson was working on converting some fertilizer technology into a process that would create explosives; Brokk forcefully guided Larson away from doing so on the grounds that people would get hurt. 

The group decided to unwind further. Aurora and Hriskin headed to the market to get after-dinner drinks. On the way, Hriskin asked Aurora how she felt about Horton. Aurora replied that Horton was a fundamentally dangerous individual who needed to be dealt with in a serious way. Hriskin acknowledged that she had negative feelings about Horton given his curse, but she was slow to commit to killing him. Aurora on the other hand was sure--Horton was a threat, and the greater good would be served by his death. 

Meanwhile, Lethanin spoke to his parents. First, he went to his father, who tiredly agreed to have a heart to heart. Larson explained that he doesn't have strong convictions, but Dodira does, and Dodira wanted a firm hand raising Lethanin with little outward affection. Larson relented to satisfy Dodira despite misgivings. Larson described a moment where he realized that Lethanin understood something about music in a way that Larson could never understand, and he respected Lethanin for it. Larson emphatically stated he was proud of Lethanin and regretted the long, cold silence between them, and he apologized for his shortcomings. Amazed, Lethanin went to speak to his mother. She was initially furious at Lethanin for creating a situation where she was upstaged in her own home, but eventually, she relented and apologized for losing her temper. But unlike Larson, Dodira did not go further, remaining bristly about the evening and Lethanin and his friends. 

And Brokk and Niela sat quietly, discussing things big and small about their situation and being dragons. Soon, they were flirting, and Niela placed a hand on Brokk's and outright hit on him. The topic of their conversation fell to them and sprawled into all manner of excited chatting about the future. Brokk invited Niela along on an adventure he meant to have when all this was over; she agreed in a joking manner, then apologized for hesitating to be vulnerable. They went to the forest nearby, and Brokk transformed into a dragon with Niela. She inspected him and explained that he looked totally different from Thomas, an orcish-looking blood-colored terrifying creature unlike any she'd seen. Brokk said he was grateful that Niela was the person he shared that moment with. They returned to the house in high spirits to join the others. 

Aurora and Hriskin returned with the drinks and dispensed them to the group, and Aurora slunk off with one glass to take to Dodira. Dodira answered her door irritated for being bothered but took the drink. Aurora magically gave Dodira all the memories she had of Lethanin's heroics and role in the stability of reality, which brough Dodira to her knees. Dodira knocked back her drink and went to Lethanin, apologizing for doubting him. She called him a hero, then said she needed time to think, and they would talk soon, heading back upstairs to bed. 

Content that they had privacy to speak, Brokk made a case that Aurora should pursue the blue dragonhood following Horton's death, reasoning that protecting the mantle would be imporant and that Aurora could reclaim the formerly Daltoner title and do something good with it. Aurora was resolute in opposing this. She said that if she became the blue dragon, she would feel obligated to answer for all Daltoners, putting her on a bloodbath tour through the worst parts of Daltoner society. Instead, she said, she would pursue the fae dragonhood since it would suit her better given her power from the fae. Aurix suggested that if blocking a dragon title was the goal, it was possible to seal away the stones, but the party was adamant that this was the highest order of hypocrisy, taking power and closing it off to everyone else. Content that the matter was settled, the group set to discussing a plan for Horton. 

It was decided that Aurora would be used as bait--the girl who had been so important to ranking Daltoners as to merit multiple trackers and a dragon would certainly be of some interest to Horton, they reasoned. Niela volunteered to tip Horton off to Aurora's location so that they could stage an ambush, which was added to the plan. Aurix recommended they adjourn for the night and reconvene in the morning, ready to depart for Horton. 

In the morning, Aurora teleported the group to a familiar location--the clearing where she had met ABC in her intro session, the statue of ABC still standing. It appeared to be in exacting detail and hadn't weathered at all. Aurora stood in the middle of the clearing, and the others all went to hide at its perimeter. Niela messaged Horton, and within a few moments, as Aurora studied the statue, Horton called out to see if Aurora was lost. Aurora turned, drew her wooden sword, and ran at Horton. Horton stepped out of the way of the attack, and initiative will be rolled next session. 

Now, ordinarily, I interrupt the narration of the session to point out various moments and strategies, but I decided that the flow and pacing of this session was so good that I just wanted to leave it intact and let you see how well this went. So let's now go back and review. 

The lead up to dinner was all fun. Brokk menacingly convincing Larson not to make bombs cracked up Lethanin's player, who loved to see his dad being naive and needing sheperding. There were a few small interactions that I didn't include in this summary that characterize the tone of this section: it was silly. Lethanin was living up weirding out his parents with his crazy friends, Aurora was in full-fledged party host mode, Brokk was as always trying to do well, and the other dragons were all doing their best to not be too wild. I think a good silly moment is a great way to start a session, and it really got the group in a great mode for this session. 

Then the party split up after dinner. I have a go-to strategy for this. I keep my parties small, generally, and this trick works best when you have three or less players. We went to Aurora, who was with Hriskin. The trick is to put a similar anchoring moment in all of our players' moments. So Hriskin asks a deep question, our anchor, about Horton. And Aurora has a big character moment talking about who Horton is and what she wants, and it was basically me throwing Aurora's player a softball. "How do you feel about this polarizing figure?" It got Aurora going, which got the group's momentum going. 

Then we switch to Lethanin. We need deep conversation, but he goes to his dad, so this is pretty easy. I had been planning to have Larson be so distant that this kind of conversation never would have happened, but in the moment, I liked how this came together. Lethanin asks the deep question, our anchor: is Larson proud of him? And it unfolds in this beautiful conversation. Larson gives what is probably the only thing explanation he could have where he's not inarguably an awful parent, and he says many kind things. It's a reconciliation. It's the most Lethanin could hope for, and now the momentum is really going as he heads to Dodira, who cannot possibly concede everything but does apologize. 

It's with the high momentum and high emotion of these scenes that we barrel into our third moment, Brokk and Niela in the garden outside the house. I've been building toward Niela flirting with Brokk for a while, and I figured that the deep question here is one that can be danced around: does Brokk have interest in Niela? So Niela calls Brokk charming, which isn't conclusively flirting, so Brokk goes a step further and says he likes being around her, and this still isn't conclusive, so they keep pushing until they've both called each other attractive and Niela is affectionately touching Brokk. The dragon form reveal moment (Niela's idea) ended up being really tender and specific to Brokk and Niela. And when Niela acknowledged her struggles with vulnerability, it felt like the relationship had already taken a step. 

The trick behind the trick--I claimed to randomly have picked the order of scenes, but I didn't. Aurora waxing poetic about morality and identity is a common thing, and it's not particularly emotionally charged compared to the other two situations. Lethanin is having BIG conversations with his parents, but Lethanin, Larson, and Dodira are all emotionally reserved people. Brokk is a big feeling guy, and sparking a romance with Niela (which Brokk's player had told me would be wish fulfillment) was as big a moment as we were going to get. So to build momentum, I had Aurora go first, then Lethanin, and then Brokk, building from lowest to highest energy (at least emotionally speaking). That was ideal for what happened next, which we needed high energy for: 

Aurora dispensed drinks, taking one to Dodira. She bestows visions of Lethanin's heroics on Dodira. Dodira is shaken. It's been well-established that Dodira is cold and judgmental to her son, that she has no faith in him, and that she will always blame him for being different from her. All of a sudden, she can't stand behind those things anymore. It was a much bigger moment than summary can do justice--Dodira just sputtering, Lethanin smiling defiantly, Lethanin's friends grinning from beside him. It was, in a way, the biggest victory that Lethanin could have had with his mother. The momentum of the split scenes came to a head with this scene, and the group fell on familiar methods. 

They set to planning. In the summary above, there are three sentences of plan (Aurora is bait, Niela messages Horton, get to bed). In-game, this was a lengthy conversation. They debated how to fight Horton, where to fight Horton, and why to fight Horton. The idea of luring Horton to Pelor's Mercy to kill two birds with one stone was floated, but resistance to being spread too thin kept that idea from gaining traction. In the end, Aurix's admonition to call it a night was as much from wanting to be prepared the next day as it was from ending a circular conversation. 

The final scene was really just set dressing for the battle. I had hoped that Aurora would speak to Horton, and Horton isn't done trying to speak yet, but we'll see. If you're a regular reader, you know that I prefer most outcomes to combat, so it's probably not a surprise that I'm angling to have Horton talk his way out of things. But I also don't forget the key to DMing: creating fun. So I'll have Horton try to talk a bit because he's a lawyer and that's what he'd do, but if the players think it would be fun to kill him, I will honestly run the combat. 

For a lot of people, I think that people would say I have this all wrong. They would say that the build up to combat was the only interesting thing that happened, and everything else was just talking. But for me, smacking a guy with a stick after luring him into the woods is just not that interesting. But Aurora defined herself by what she will and will not do. Lethanin connected with his parents in a way that he never has before. Brokk is finding a mentor and partner in Niela as he adjusts to being a dragon himself. There were silly shenanigans and serious roleplaying moments. Everyone got a moment in the spotlight. We got a break between slaying Thomas and Horton that the players and player characters badly needed. I think this session may stand out as one of the best of the campaign and possibly one of the best of my DMing career. I'm truly proud of it, and I know it wouldn't have been possible without my players. 

Next time will be an interesting mix. Where Thomas was a staggering blend of fighter, barbarian, and cleric classes--truly meant for up close combat--and he was juggled to death by the party, Horton is not a fighter. He's a mixture of rogue and bard, and in combat, he stands considerably less of a chance than Thomas did. If he can say the right things, it may be more complicated, and it might not matter--he could be toast no matter what. But that still leaves plenty of session for the party to focus their attention elsewhere--perhaps to Pelor's Mercy, perhaps to regrouping, perhaps to any manner of new or old goals. I don't know what will happen, but I trust that it will be a good time when we get to play next time. 

That's all for now. Until next time!