Lume Campaign Session 4 - “Friends in Low Places”

Between Sessions 3 and 4

I wanted to try getting more action in between sessions, so for certain of the downtime activities, I reached out to the players, presenting a choice point or new information, and allowing them a chance to act on the new information with the remaining downtime. I got sick almost immediately after initiating this, and it really threw me off from following up the way I had hoped to.

I set about addressing my underuse of the Arcana of the Ancients, by reading through a portion of the monsters, and sorting them into potential encounter tables. I was able to use what I learned from this during the session, to explain some loose threads which the players were currently investigating. The party’s current location should have a much higher chance of AotA activities, so keeping that in mind was a focus of mine for this session.

I also wanted to introduce one new rule to the campaign, which will be detailed below.

Going into Session 4

I reviewed the Session 3 writeup, and the downtime activities which had been pursued. I figured I could make the best of it by letting players finish resolving their downtime at the start of the session, so everyone could see and learn the sorts of options open to them during that time, as well as witness how I handle it in general.

Session 4, Resolving Downtime Activities

Starting with the easiest, the druid Serinde had spent 2 weeks training lock picking, and made a trophy from the head of a hobgoblin that she took down in the last session. All of this was easily accomplished. She probably could have done more in this time, but such is the nature of unoptimized downtime use. 9 more weeks of training will be needed to learn lock picking, but money is currently a limiter.

The next easiest was Ottmar the barbarian, who foraged for herbs, for his herbalism kit, which I had previously ruled that he could use as a makeshift healers kit, due to him being a barbarian. I ruled that he could find a d6 uses worth of herbs per week, as he was foraging in a suitable area.

Because the local druids were suitably superstitious, and because we're playing with 1:1 time, and because Ottmar was foraging outdoors at the time, the druids warned Ottmar about being outdoors on the night of February 24th… the night of a full moon.

Being outdoors for 5 weeks, in the midst of ruins, I rolled up the most interesting ruin the barbarian had spotted during that time. A lone mausoleum in a well groomed forest clearing, with a dozen metallic eyes floating in the air and actively circling around it. Asking the druids, it is explained to be “The Mausoleum of the Iron Gods”, and said that the eyes shoot fire at those who approach, but that they are otherwise quite passive as long as the mausoleum is not approached. This is likely a small dungeon or vault of some sort, but the players did not want to pursue it yet. The players suspect the eyes to be ancient technology, which is probably true.

Aridhel’s downtime is next. As a soldier of the kingdom, and finally having evidence of the growing hobgoblin presence (thanks to being ambushed by them in the previous session), Captain Galloway is finally able to start taking action and demanding reinforcements. A forward base is set up in the giant ruins, in a high spot to keep watch over the hobgoblins coming and going, especially from the known lair location. Aridhel helped with these efforts personally, which greatly sped up the timeline of activities. A total of 60 soldiers are now stationed there. No wizard is available, currently.

The cleric, Mol, is locally researching the tribe of hobgoblins and their motives. She learns some lore sourced from the Monster Manual, that they're ancient enemies of the Elves. For further information, Mol traveled to the City of Suul to meet an older Elf, and old friend of the grove, named Beiro Nilo. This elf shared what he remembered from 600 years prior, of Merkadian Soldiers (undying hobgoblins) being brought to the surface as allies of the “Redguard” hobgoblin tribe of the time. They had fought side by side, until the local druids completed a ritual, turning all of those hobgoblins to stone (sidestepping their “undying” by not technically killing them).

Merkadian Soldiers (AotA) are not strictly a single base race, but their alignment is Lawful Evil. Hobgoblins are also Lawful Evil, so it doubly makes sense that normal hobgoblins would want to resurrect and cooperate with Merkadian Soldier-hobgoblins.

Session 4, Mid-Session Feedback

As we finished resolving the downtime activities, as the first segment of our session, one of the players asked to put a pin in things so that they could “provide feedback”, (as they know I do write-ups and reviews of this campaign). We don’t record the sessions, but I wrote up the main statements at the time, near verbatim:

Thought would dislike time passing between sessions, but time passing between sessions has been really interesting.

Story gets to advance without me, but we get to catch up as a group; seeds so many other things you could do during the session.

Encourages doing things that take time.

This feedback was primarily from the player with several years of history playing in convention 5e campaigns. Regardless, it is of course great to hear positive feedback.

I was also asked “How much of it was planned? [it is] hard to tell”. I think mainly in reference to the stone hobgoblin thread, and how that information has all come together in a fairly coherent way, despite not being architected in advance. Players noted that they enjoyed to what degree they helped to shape the world as well, mainly in regards to their backgrounds and related factions, and that this campaign was “making a whole lot of order from chaos.” We discussed this a little bit, but I did not want to pull back the curtain and show the seams of what was planned vs what was random at the time, so not much more was said on that. I take this as mostly positive feedback? Let me know if you think otherwise.

At this point, 70 minutes had passed since we started playing.

Session 4, One New Rule

Before getting into the current session, I let the players know I wanted to try out one new rule in this session, and that we can review it or nix it going forward depending on how it goes:

1 hour of play time = at least 1 hour of in-game time

Meaning, if less time would have passed in game compared to real life (the players aren’t doing a lot in-game, but they spend a long time discussing something), then their characters are spending that much time as well, so that 1 real life hour means at least 1 hour has passed in game. But if game time goes faster, that’s perfectly fine, and there’s no need to wait in real time.

This is comparable to, but more generic, than Shadowdark’s real-time torches, which I find to be incredibly in line with 1e D&D’s mentality on time.

Session 4, Back into the Dungeon

Players decided they wanted to resume investigating the lair, starting from the forward base that had been set up in the giant ruins during downtime. A 1 in 6 random encounter check yielded nothing, so players started playing at the entrance to the lair. Aridhel is assigned 10 guards, 1 scout, and a sending stone (the match being in the hands of whoever is in command at the forward base). The druid grove provided no support for the party this time. Players determined their 10’-wide marching order, and set off exploring the lair.

They discovered a rusted metal door had been disturbed, though it was currently closed. They know there are rows of rooms beyond that door, according to their map from the sprites, but have not been there themselves. Ottmar uses a javelin to wedge this metal door shut.

They discovered the pit trap (in front of the burned-away door) was open, and contained a dead kobold and dagger.

As the party descended the stairs, I now had to break out 5e’s Appendix A for the first time. I called out aspects of the room as I rolled them up, while players took notes. I handled drawing the map, but I should delegate that to the players next time.

To the right, the players found an octagonal wine cellar with rotting floors, 3 exits on the far walls (one blocked by the rotted floor), and only 3 racks of wine still intact. The players ordered the guards to quietly empty one of those racks, and use it to construct a simple bridge for the pit trap, which they could use to be able to quickly but safely retreat if necessary. Small, slimy lizards scattered from this room as the party approached.

At this point there was some mix-up and clarification regarding the 1 hour game time : 1 hour actual time rule, as it would take 10~20 minutes for the guards to complete their assignment. I think the players are now clear on how it's supposed to work, and they’re on board with it.

They discover a shrine of the wraith at the end of a hall, made of demonstone. The players were immediately suspicious of it, even moreso after they made (and passed) wisdom saves to resist it from talking to them telepathically. The wraith harmlessly begged for help and company, but was ignored. The players are not aware that this is the resident, long-trapped wraith from upstairs, they just think the shrine itself is evil, which is fine.

In a large dining room, the players discover more of the slimy lizards, this time running towards a particular corner of the room, and Serinde immediately moves to intercept and capture one of these creatures. She succeeds, and casts Speak with Animals to try and communicate with it.

While neither a fan of being grabbed, nor of the smell of textiles, the reaction roll upon establishing verbal contact was still quite high, and so the druid was able to have a short conversation with these little reptiles. Due to its small size, CR, being a beast, and having only a basic movement speed, the druid is also able to add this creature to the list of forms she can take on with Wild Shape: a Laak, from Arcana of the Ancients.

From the limited communication abilities of the Laak, she learned that both big and small creatures had been seen about a week ago; that those creatures had been going up and down here, but not so much anymore; now those creatures go up and down in other places. She also stated outright that the party was not here to harm the Laaks.

At this point we are starting to run short on play time, so the party decides to start wrapping things up, 2 actual hours into the dungeon exploration process. The soldiers pack up the bridge, Ottmar retrieves his javelin, the party shares their findings with each other, and Aridhel reports on the shrine to his chain of command.

This is the state of the whiteboard in roll20 at the time of wrapping things up, including smells which the players had queried about, which did prove useful in deciding what direction they wanted to go. I pulled out the 1e DMG for the Odors table there, but after the session I realized that the 5e DMG has an Odors table as well. I must work on my Book Control!

The players were lucky this session, in that no wandering monster checks turned up positive, and the resident monster encounters were neutral or friendly in nature.

Session 4, Downtime Assignments

Mol will relay information about the shrine, researching the shrine and lizard motif.

Serinde downtime task is pending; To search for the Spring Court and socialize.

Ottmar, go to Suul to learn more about the time traveling wizard from the wizards who discovered a world.

Aridhel, staying at and aiding the forward base, mentions the shrine for possible investigation.

Session 4, Feedback and Retrospective

Took a short round of player thoughts at the end:

Liked talking with the lizard

Like how open ended it feels, things make sense

Fun being able to run two very different characters

Enjoy having a group of men to command - delegation

It was okay, kinda weird waiting in real time.

This last bit prompted more discussion about the intent of that rule, only being used to speed up in-game time, but not used to slow things down in actual time. I probably did a very poor job explaining this all up-front. The players are fine to keep using it for now. If it continues to cause misunderstandings I will nix it, but otherwise I think it served its purpose during the current session just fine: standing around discussing things as players has an in-game time cost. These players are the cautious/intellectual sorts, and so recognize and appreciate the check that this puts on having such discussions in the middle of a dungeon.

As a note to myself: I need to finish making the encounter tables for Arcana of the Ancients.

Later, assorted thoughts from the more experienced player:

Liked the randomized character generation, compared to all the options and classes in 5e. Explained that he doesn’t enjoy character generation in general.

(on Mars and lasers in OD&D) “Why didn’t that part stay in D&D?”

And from the other player:

It's a bit irritating to have to pause a dungeon crawl just when it's gotten going, because the session is out of time

So far, having to physically walk the characters back to camp for no discernable in-game reason is a bit tricky to RP

Like we all brought tents and bedrolls, and we're only leaving because our IRL time expired

"the third expedition, roll for complications, if there aren't any, you arrive with soldiers in tow at the entrance to the floor you were exploring last time"

I fully agree with the player that it has been frustrating how relatively little progress is being made through the dungeon during sessions, and that backtracking has attributed to that. I’m also very much feeling the limits of only having 3~4 hours of playtime per sessions. In the past, I played in weekly sessions as long as 6 to 8 hours on a regular basis, which is what I’d like to be able to do again. OTOH, I’d also like to learn how to maximize shorter (3-4 hour) sessions, as that will be a good skill for me to have in the future.

At this point I did note that while I had always intended for (resuming sessions the way the player described) to be an available option, I have obviously done a poor job in making that clear, so I will revisit that at the start of the next session as well. This is obviously an unfamiliar mode of play still, so I fully expect road bumps like this to exist which will need to be addressed.

I have been trying to not make assumptions about what actions the players want to commit to, which has certainly contributed to the slow starts at the beginning of each of these delves. Treating the player feedback as character intentions as well, I think next session can get off to a much quicker start that the players will be prefer.

I’ve added Path of the Planebreaker to the list of DM resources for this campaign. I don’t expect to need to use it any time soon, but being able to easily handle players deciding to jump through random portals is valuable to me as a DM. In an earlier session, it was mentioned that some wizards “had discovered a world”; if players decide to pursue this further, I will be able to use PotP to handle that on the fly.

In particular, Path of the Planebreaker includes lots of random tables for planes, tables of general extraplanar encounters, and encounter tables for many of these planes. These planes get especially weird and abstract, which is exactly the sort of thing I imagine the planar travel experience to be: Vancian. As a hard requirement for me, it works out of the box with 5e’s RAW plane traveling spells and magic items, and does not require session prep to be able to use it.