[Old Gods Dead Gods] Interlude

As a GM, seeing your campaign taking a life of its own is both the most satisfying and most frightening thing that can happen. It’s frightening because you suddenly don’t know if you can keep up with the direction your players are going. But it’s immensely satisfying when the campaign’s new direction is infinitely more awesome than anything you had originally planned. This is what’s happening with the campaign right now.

I figured that I’d take a little break to put into perspective some of the events that will be unfolding in the next couple of weeks. So far we’ve had 7 game sessions, and in these 7 sessions more characters have died than in all of the other campaigns I’ve GM’ed combined.

Originally, the game was envisioned as an exploration game inspired by the West Marches concept – players are in a frontier world where they go out and explore what’s out there. As a group, we played a game of Microscope to define the world, and added a few other characteristics such as the absence of resurrection and magic items being limited to a finite list of 20.

However, now the game has transformed itself into one where the party is in charge of a frontier town and are working their best to expand and manage it. Instead of the West Marches, we’re playing SimCity the RPG… and it’s kind of awesome.

[Old Gods Dead Gods] Exposing the Plot

Last time, the party was ambushed and captured by the Black Hills clansmen. This time, they attempt to turn the situation to their advantage.

The Mining Men showed up at dawn with a cart full of items as payment for the clansmen. After a short discussion, the Mining Men took possession of the party and the four Air cultists and departed.

Roughly halfway back to Lumbeek, Hannah, using her magic, managed to convince their captors that they would move more quickly if the group was smaller. The leader, a greedy man, agreed and left half his force behind as they began marching again on anew day.

The party took advantage of the situation to break out of their bonds and overpower their captors. They then immediately headed south towards Neubourg, the Imperial provincial capital in order to report the events to the governor.

[Old Gods Dead Gods] The Black Hills Clans

Last time, the party recovered Castien’s body from the charred clearing and were given access to Liam’s map. After a good night’s rest in the Observatory, the party decided to go meet Maximillian, the settlement administrator before Darelik’s arrival.

Upon arriving to the Guild Hall, the party was quickly escorted to Maximillian’s office. The administrator thanked them profusely for their help with the fire and asked for their help. He said that his cousin, Duke Philip, is doing a poor job as provincial governor. If the party would be willing to help him expand the imperial borders, he’d reward them handsomely. The party agree, and as a preliminary reward, Maximillian offered them the Crematorium as a base of operations. The party picked up the key from Maximillian’s assistant and went to examine their new abode.

[Old Gods Dead Gods] The Charred Clearing

Last time, the party followed an man wreathed in flame into the forest north of Lumbeek. Their ultimate destination: the site of a tornado of flame. This time, they reach the charred clearing and must investigate what happened.