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.
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