See part 1 here.
A History Lesson from Beyond the Grave
The PCs got their info-dump dose from the Dwarf Lich. The city’s founder explained that the recent discovery of the techniques to manipulate the energies of the Dungeon and the Nexus would enable the PCs to take the fight directly to the Dungeon and resolve the prolonged conflict once and for all.
The Lich recounted the City’s foundation. He explained how 10 Angels gave their astral lives away to follow Erathis on this world as she wove the defeated primordial’s Eternal Prison and bound most of her divine essence to it, creating the Nexus. Of these 10 newly formed Devas, 5 turned and joined the primordial and founded the Dungeon. The remaining 5, Jaiel among them, remain to this day, the steadfast guardians of the City and the Goddess trapped within it.
The Lich then gave Jaiel a bundle of 5 feathers, each containing a sliver of the souls of the 5 Deva guardians. The bundle could be used to infuse up to 5 creatures with the souls of the founding Devas (That’s what triggered the Drow sacrifice debate).
As I write this, I can’t help but notice just how many story elements I infused into that adventure. While I initially planned this to be a story-light-crap-hits-the-fan kind of thing, I now realize that I’ve been developing all kinds of setting concepts including the city’s creation-myth.
Yeah, I guess I am a story-driven DM after all.
Following questions from the PCs, the founder said that the Zombie plague was likely being caused by some sort of artifact and that it must lay at the center of the current outbreak.
Since Jaiel wanted to go and visit one of the 5 original Devas who lived at the University campus, the PCs decided to head for Unviversity Burg.
We don’t need no stinkin’ Challenge.
I then told the players that they needed to navigate through a Zombie-plagued neighborhood and that this would be a Skill challenge (taken directly from the Open Graves sourcebook).
While I said that I was watching Mike who didn’t know I was looking at him. He flashed this look of annoyance that gave me a strong cue to change tactics.
Chatty: Why do I get the feeling that you guys aren’t all that interested about this skill challenge?
Players: Enough story and Fluff, we wanna kill stuff, not dodge it (I may be paraphrasing a bit here).
Chatty (Flipping through the pages of his notes to the ‘failed skill challenge’ part): Okay okay, hacking zombies here and there you make it to the Burg center square and see this humongous Zombie monster yielding a meat cleaver and a large Butcher’s Fork, surrounded by pestilential zombies, roll initiative.
The fight involved a Slavering Maw, an Elite Zombie with 2 high damage attacks, 2 Zombie Lashers whose entrails slash and grab foes (both from Dragon Magazine) and about 12 or so Pestilence Zombie Minions.
As is often the case the fight was never really in contention. While the Lashers managed to grab a few players and the Slavering Maw seriously damaged some players, the party made judicious use of forced movement, Dazing, slow effects and healing to keep things well in hand.
What was really interesting was when the Invoker’s Summoned angel killed a Zombie Minion.
Chatty DM: As the Angel kills the Zombie, all the pent up plague gas trapped in its body explodes violently, making a Close Burst 5 Necrotic attack.
Math: Close Burst 5! WTF!
Yan: I suppose that the other minions have Resist Necrotic.
Chatty (Checking): Hmmm, no actually, they do not.
10 minutes later, the chain reaction ended with a few players having taken from 7 to 21 points of damage.
After the fight, I had a near-hallucination. For a second, I pictured my players sitting back on their chairs, sighing in contentment and smoking a cigarette.
Yan: Okay, we’re ready for another dose of fluff now!
Hmm, do you think that’s a clue?
The players made their way to the Deva’s apartment and found him slain (by weapons) and the place completely trashed. On the floor of the apartment was a piece of torn tunic showing the very recognizable Wand of Orcus, indicating that the apartment had been ransacked by Cultist of the Demon Lord of Undeath.
In the Deva’s hands was a note saying ” Find me, make me remember”. I told Yan that Jaiel had seen a confused Deva wandering in the Park earlier in the day. The players made their way to the park and found the newly resurrected Deva.
I ruled that given the nature of the role the Devas of the City Within played, resurrection was near instantaneous. It did not, however, guarantee recalling past events or retaining class levels, it all depended on the needs of Erathis).
The PCs managed to make the Deva remember. He told the PCs that he had sent a group of adventurers into the Dungeon shortly before the Nexus shifted to the Shadowfell to recuperate a Relic of Orcus. Sadly the relic had the effect of spreading a plague that turned people into Zombies. The Adventurers were last seen staying at the isolated tavern.
The Perfect Evil DM Scheme.
The Deva was killed by some cultists of Orcus and one of its death priests and they stole the Relic. The Deva told the PCs about a ritual to trace it to the Cultists’ hideout. He also said that the relic could only be destroyed by a strong source of energy.
Player: Dude, that’s like the dragon right! Guys, let’s go get the dragon and send him to deal with the Cultists, the relic is what it needs to break its curse.
Chatty DM: So you get the dragon and make your way to the Hideout?
Players: Yes!
So the players got the dragon and arrived at an abandonned Temple full of Zombies. The Dragon charged into the temple, tearing zombies apart. The Dragon then fell on the Relic and ate it.
Chatty DM: You hear an horrible roar of pain and you see the Dragon’s scale crack and fall to the floor. The Dragon’s skin melts away in places as a gruesome greenlight pulses from within the beast. You hear the Death priest’s evil laugh. A few moments after the Dragon’s stomach distends, bursts and the relic falls to the floor.
Death Priest: Kill them Slave!
Yan: You (bleep)ing set us up Phil!
Did I? I guess I did to a certain extent. As Yan just put it on Gtalk: “We had little to go by and you dangled this huge ‘The Dragon could destroy the Relic’ plot point, of course we were going to grab it. I don’t know if it was the hour (it was 15 past 10 at this point) or the need to resolve another quest, but the players did grab onto this situation and pushed forward without hesitation or discussion.
Seeing how cool having an Undead Dragon would be (I had planned for the possibility), I too grabbed onto that and pushed the scene forward. Hence the feeling of being setup of some players.
Lessons Learned
- If you are offended by some social situations like Torture, Religous Debates and sacrifice of NPCs , don’t put them in your adventures.
- If you find yourself saying no to things PCs want to try, stop and take a few minutes to make sure you feel all right. Try to find that sweet spot where saying ‘yes’ is easier. It always leads to better games.
- Be on the lookout for your player’s mood and be ready to change the type of encounter to meet the majority’s needs. (i.e. put a fight for butt kickers)
- If you plan to pull a major surprise on Players based on the choice they make, make sure that you aren’t steering them to the slaugther house. Use numerous Red Herrings and conflicting clues so that the surprise doesn’t feel like a setu but more like a bad choice on the part of players.
“He also said that the relic could only be destroyed by a strong source of energy”
You also said that one such source was coming back every 200 years and that the lava was not fast enough to really destroy an artifact. Which really left no ambiguity to discuss about whether it meant the dragon or not…
😛
I guess I’m just not much for clues and mysteries, because the idea of red herrings and conflicting clues bothers me. In my limited experience with mysteries, throwing a red herring at a player will make them overanalyze everything from then on, to try to beat or outsmart the DM and his fake clues. To the point where they might be checking every well in town or upturning every rock (metaphorically) and generally wasting time.
.-= Wyatt´s last blog ..A Punishment Ill Fit (III) =-.
There’s your sacrifice substitute… cultists! (If there are 5 of them to be captured anyhow.)
Source of energy… hmm… the Nexus is going to come back on at some point. Just place the artifact there and ZAP!
I should shut up. Now I KNOW this hasn’t been played out yet. But then again, I’m just guessing… I just know that I have to be wrong. lol
@Yan: Again, I said no too many times. I was semi-panicking because there were just so many holes in the whole thing that I was thinking ‘Oh my god they’re just going to chuck everything in the Lava and bee done with it and the adventure will be done for”. That being said, they’re enough ‘story space’ left to have elbow room and finish this in a satisfying way.
@Wyatt: I would much rather have to gently prod a group stuck in planning paralysis than leaving out there with not enough to play with. What this exercise in light-scripted adventure thought me is that more is better. If I repeat the exercise, I’ll probably have a table of clues both true and false that I’ll pick randomly and sprinkle in scenes once PCs look for info.
@Tiorn: Guess as much as you like. There’s one more session to go and the whole story should have played itself. Then I’ll take a few weeks off for Vacation and Gen Con and I’ll be ready to start the next mini-campaign in the City Within.
Dang, son, that IS almost pure evil ^_^
.-= Ron Bailey´s last blog ..Emily Osment Signs With Wind-Up Records =-.
@Ron: Should I take that as a compliment or as a warning? 🙂
Sounds like a wonderfully crafted plot, Chatty! Even though the players may be a little bitter at facing an undead dragon, and you did move the story forward, it will still be an epic battle that the players will enjoy. And taking down an undead dragon will be the stuff of story around the table. So I’m sure they’ll forgive you:)
.-= wrathofzombie´s last blog ..Having a Newsletter Really Does Help. =-.
@Wyatt:
Depends on how you use “red herrings”. To my sense there is no such things.
One thing that I like to do (not too often – if any of my players are reading), is push in “fake clues” and let the players “over analyze it”.
The trick is in using the player’s analysis to affect the plot. The players will often make links that I could not have come up with – or even come up with explanations that are way more creative than what I had planned.
Having my players talk amongst themselves to try and understand the motivations of an NPC for doing something has often yielded nice plot line inspirations and even shifted the course of a session dramatically.
I love that kind of stuff 🙂
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..Meta != Crunch =-.
@wrathofzombie: Well the option we have is, either get over it or have Phil as a player… The first one is a lot easier… 😛
@Wrathofzombies: As soon as the shock of the Dragon turning undead passed. Some players said “At least we’ll get to fight a Dracolich now, that ought to be cool”. So I will of course try to make sure that the fight is epic in feel and enjoyable.
@Eric: Yes, I hope to one day be able to do so transparently. That’s why we have those summer ‘practice’ adventures.
@Yan: Yeah, I was wondering why all my tires were slashed when I came back to my car. 🙂
I can totally sympathize with the “you set us up” moment. I’ve said it as a player, and I’ve heard it as a DM. I think the truth of the matter is simply that, despite how simple a DM may think a puzzle or series of clues s/he’s given is, since the players aren’t privy to everything they know, there will undoubtedly be times where the players latch onto something untrue and wind up screwing themselves over, all the while THINKING it was their only option.
You make a very good point about introducing a large number of red herrings and questions to the players. With that approach, the players will take a step back and say “Wow, we’re getting a lot of imput from a lot of different people. None of which we know to be true. Lets dig a little further.” Even that little push can make players take the time to plan and to dig for the truth. If not, it can at least cover the DM’s butt should things go south. (Even though undead dragons are awesome).
Something else I’ve noticed that is generally bad to do, following that point, is to mention afterwards to the players “Well, that wouldn’t have happened if you’d done ____” or “Maybe if you guys had listened you could have had _____ happen.” Despite how much work a DM puts into creating possible outcomes and wants to share them all with the players, I’ve noticed that presenting “better” possible choices the players could have made only leads to them REGRETTING choices they did make.
I find it’s much better to let players ponder what might have been and usually that gives enough incentive to think out options in the future. Telling them what might of been more often then not leads to the blame game amogst players and a general bad time.
.-= Storyteller´s last blog ..Party Time: the encounter you’ve been waiting for! =-.
@ChattyDM:
We’re supposed to do this transparently? Oh, darn!
PS: From what I’ve seen and read, you’re already pretty good at “rolling with the punches” and improving on ideas given or sparked by your players.
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..Meta != Crunch =-.
@Storyteller: I don’t think I could have pulled off my current adventure with lots of clues and herrings as I had too many plots to take into account. Howeverm were I to create a 2-3 plot thing, I would definitively add lots of clues (true and false) to confuse players.
You also bring an incredibly good point about DM bragging/talking about alternatives… this is a huge killjoy that many geeks, myself included, have a hard time avoiding. Keeping impassive (but empathic) about a negative turn of event is a hard trick to master.
@Eric: I am getting better, but I have never played a full adventures with such limited notes before. I’m satisfied with the experience and I’m learning a lot about how to do it the next time around. We’ll see what inspirations strike me when September rolls and we start our 11th season.
Understandable! It sounds like everything and anything is happening for your adventurers. Incidentally, I think I kind of ran a campaign like this once without even realizing it.
When the players are just eager to get one of their many tasks done they’re usually ready and raring to latch on to any plot hooks they see, so a lot of red herrings and dead ends can slow gameplay to a grinding halt.
Yeah, I have a horribly hard time with DM bragging, and it’s gotten me in trouble on more then one occasion! Hmm, I’m feeling a potential post might be in order on this topic, it’s kind of ringing true for me. I’ll keep you updated 🙂
.-= Storyteller´s last blog ..Holidays in D&D: Part Six – Party Time! =-.
Putting myself in the players shoes, I would be euphoric that such a plot twist occurred. The feeling of being set up would only add to my enjoyment when coupled with the fact that now we have an epic battle on our hands.