Having ended 2018 with the closure of the first story arc of the War of The Triplet, we started 2019 with the party finding out where to go from here in a sandbox style game.
The games I ran in 2018 were, not railroads, but they were linear to keep a single focus. But starting 2019 I wanted to open up the decisions to the players themselves.
Having ended 2018 by killing the Necromancer Verona Stillborn, Daughter of the Unseeing Eye, her sister, the vampire Hortensia Everbleed tasked the party with tracking down the third sister who would have a weapon to kill their father, a creature yet unidentified.
But with no indication of where to find this third sister, I asked the players to go out and gather information in the Elven Omnitropolis they are currently in.
I created several storylines, encounters and characters to match where I thought the party would go including:
- Friendly locals, travlers and merchants. Stories from afar.
- Unsavoury characters, thieves and ambushes. Rumours.
- Posh people and sources of knowledge and legend.
- Sewers and undercity encounters (this was the only area the players did not explore)
- Encounter with the Masquerade (would happen if the players asked too many questions about this crime organisation)
- A couple of other encounters that didn’t happen so won’t liste them as I can use them later.
- I also wrote dow a list of random names I could pick up when players engaged with NPCs.
I think the best way to capture this game is by listning information gathered:
The Tavern “The White Robe”
- A friendly tavern full of races, locals, travelers etc.
- Mountain Dwarves from the Clan of the Iron Elk -> Rumours about the Mountain Vikings.
- Chaplain Charlotte -> Ended up not playing an important role, but later gave a magical hammer to the Dwarf of the party.
- Worn down adventurers -> Told of the killing of their evil-minded leader, Larsen Qu, who wanted to revisit a rich fortress he had seen in Everwind Desert, but never managed to enter.
- Upon investigating this further, it becomes clear a 500km area of the desert is invisible to magical scrying.
- Learned of an ongoing incident with an unknown beast throwing chunks of cow at a nearby village “Silkenheim”.
The Inn “Grime Reaper”
- Dodgy run down pub with all sorts of unsavoury characters.
- Party attacked on the way by robers. – > Learned of the ancient crime organisation “The Masquerade” .
- Learned of two Tiefling visitors talking about “The Soul Exchange”.
The posh tavern “Ten Bells”
- Mainly frequented by Elves and other posh folk.
- Had two visiting “Trueborn”.
The Imperial Library
- Learned of More details of “The Soul Exchange” and how it was a place to trade souls with the 9 hells.
- Learned the legend of the Mountain Vikings and how they were united by the Winter Jarl hundreds of years ago.
- Learned that Trueborn are a xenophobic and paranoid conclave of Dragonborn who believes they are meant to rule the world. They reside in “The Dragonspire” a huge fortress of immense knowledge.
The Masquerade
- Representative of “The Masquerade” asks players to retrieve the soul of “Larsen Qu” in exchange for helpful information for the party’s quest.
- High Elf King gives the players a scroll to capture an evil soul for the exchange.
Next time
- The party has decided to investigate the situation in Silkenheim in the hopes that whoever is throwing cow parts at the village is an evil enough soul.
Cast and crew
Dungeons & Dragons – Paladin Mother Morrigan (Hasslefree Miniatures)
Dungeons & Dragons – Villagers and bar staff (Fenryll Miniatures)
Dungeons & Dragons – Coscritti & Harlequin (Freebooter Miniatures)
Dungeons & Dragons – Male Wererat Rogue – Human and Were Form (Dark Sword Miniatures)
Dungeons & Dragons – Human Female Thief (Dark Sword Miniatures)
Dungeons & Dragons – Human Male Assassin (Dark Sword Miniatures)