I have been remiss
in my duties as chronicler for this campaign, which I have started
posting some stuff for over on Obsidian Portal too, but I'll try and
give a recap of the last two sessions to the best of my ability to
remember the details. Session 2 had our intrepid PCs leading their
troops across the island to the village in the south, then back to
the north, with a native guide and porters, all the way to the
central plateau region. Along the way they encountered the Phanatons,
stayed the night with them and revictualed some, then had a Phanaton
guide, “Screamy”, take them to the edge of the mountains. I wish
I'd had Screamy stay on, but I couldn't think of a good excuse to do
so at the time. They made it through the mountains to the central
plateau with little trouble- I do not remember if they had any
encounters along the way, if they did, the encounters were of little
consequence. On the central plateau they traveled pretty directly to
the village in the middle, and made the (friendly) aquantance of the
villagers there, had a bit of a party, then agreed to help them with
their renegade problem, since it coincided with their desire to
investigate/loot the temple there anyway.
As a side note- I
hadn't remembered, and perhaps never ran, the temple itself. I was
surprised to see that there were encounters that were unavoidable,
much to the consternation of the players, who had taken great pains
to avoid conflict up til that point. Later on, in session 3, I would
be unsurprised, but a little disappointed, to see there were
encounters that made absolutely no sense- the Mako shark room and the
Giant Piranha encounter being the best/worst examples. Bad dungeon
ecology and poor adventure design, in my opinion.
Entering the temple
was a bloodbath, the party wiped out the tribe, with only the women,
children and a few adult males escaping, but were seriously bloodied
in the attempt. Several of the NPCs, Armin, Aiantes, and Urrialdo,
died that day, either there in the temple fighting the tribe, or in
other encounters I do not recall.
For the next Isle of
Dread session, some two or three weeks later, Mike's son Mason came
to play too. He had joined us for Mike's Savage Worlds game the week
before and had a good time, so he wanted to try my D&D game. He
rolled up a character 3d6 in order and ended up with a Magic-User he
named Mason. That took up a bit of time and I was a little concerned
that the first time he played he was playing a Magic-User, but he
seemed to have fun. The party cleared the first 2 levels of the
temple (having cleared most of the 1st level the last
time) and Berangaria died in the room with the Mako sharks, then Mona
rolled up a new character, Lorelei, a part Merfolk, mostly Human
Fighter, who I had the party find, inexplicably, in the prison cells
they came across shortly after Berangaria died. Lorelei,
conveniently, has no real memory of how she got there, my thought is
that she's been there for centuries, possibly millennia, in some sort
of magical stasis.
All told, the 2nd
and 3rd sessions were less satisfying for me to DM than
the 1st was, but it was still a good time. I find I do not
particularly enjoy the set-piece battles or dungeon exploration as
much as I used to. I seem to enjoy more plot driven adventures, and
NPC interaction. I like the roleplaying aspect of D&D more than I
remember it happening in the old days. I enjoy portraying the
individual NPCs as people with their own motivations and
personalities, I like the “living” world, where things happen
whether the PCs are involved or not. Less reactive, more proactive.
The other stuff-
Mike ran Savage Worlds and Star Wars d6 since the last time I posted
here. We decided, despite strong nostalgia, to convert our Star Wars
game to Savage Worlds. I played a pretty epic amount of Panzer Corps
with my brother Jon, he beat me more than I beat him, kudos, I really
mean it. It seems to be over now, he hasn't played his turns in over
a week now, but it was fun while it lasted. I also note that my
Obsidian Portal Ascendant membership has lapsed. I am disappointed,
but not sure if I'll re-up for it. I never really used it, despite my
grand plans.
