storyline

The players are nearly all 20th level and the last steps of the current story line are coming to a close.

With the death of the king of the Frost Fire, the clan will be thrown into chaos, and Ivor has expressed genocide as the next step.

Faramore Barl is already addressing the council to achieve this as the 'plan' moves forward.

Merry Fuckmas.

So the players don't like Christmas? I say too fucking bad, but I'll move on with the main line then.

This means no toy factory fight. Also, it means I don't get to use the Santa mini this session. I don't know if we're playing on Christmas Eve (Monday game), but if so you can bet your ass I'll be making more Christmas magic occur.

T'would seem though that Friday would rather not deck the halls and carol the night away. Fine.

Next level.

Wheezehards is hinting at something very SpellJammery. With this, I'm thinking it's about time to either take influence by way of Eddard, or my new adversary. The new adversary will incur upon the CloudSpires for locational convenience.

The question is, how do I want to ease into it as a climax for 2018, given I'm not doing the toy factory. I've got today, and the 28th.

Politicking.

Every NPC has their motivation.

Every sperm is sacred.

The Ardritiche folks are securing their walls, hiring mages and locking things down. They're still filling and shipping orders, but all labour hiring is at a stand still and all deliveries are made by inhouse providers. Tursq has been sighted training harder then ever amidst his people, inspiring the Ardritiche house soldiers to new levels of duty. Members of all guilds have been denied entry and those who would keep a clandestine eye upon the compound have found it virtually impossible to learn anything from within the keep.

The Keterogs are doing providing troops, and special support, but Lucretia has a campaign concerning Daed at this point, not that that's on the books, but it's something that Ivor will learn about during session, and Thunders people will have an ear to.
While Berholdt has secured the Keterog compound akin to the Ardritiche house, they are still open to visitations and have been entertaining guests from within and outside the state nearly every night.

The Vogons are aiding the Saxburgs as they're taking influence from Faramore. Faramore agrees to the genocide with Ivor, however it's Harrison and Pahrns brainchild in action as each brings their spy net to bear on the country side.

The Summerhills are in retreat pending their patriarchs recovery. Provided Cecil pulls through, they can expect some legal actions against them throught the council.

The Lagos family has been open, and outspoken about the skirmishes. While they have suffered losses, they do not make ceremony of their fallen, taking them in stride with humble funerals and then sending more of their people to serve in whatever capacity is needed. Their ships are in a constant state of flux with new ships being built, old ships being repaired and soldiers of theiir house in nearly every squadron and platoon being marched to whatever objective. Carboh has been quoted of late as saying that "she would not want me to sit idly while our countrymen suffered. I'll not suffer as a babe while others need our hands."
Esther has been quoted to say (with a saddened expression) she is concerned that Carbhon seems to have lost value in life and is throwing his family at the states problems.

The Esquee house is largely untouched, although they've suffered losses as they typically do when the families start to quarrel and lose focus. Riccarrum has taken this in stride and made head way with hiring in people from out of town. It's rumoured that he's paid quite a bit out, and it's hard to deny that with his recent influx, his compound is beginning to appear as a gypsy stop over.
He and Carbohn have been seen swilling mead on his front stoop overlooking the city while attendants take and deliver reams of papers.

The Church Oghmites and Sid specifically, are backing up Faramores efforts, and the Pelorite side is shifting.

As rumour carries of Vanes doings, the SunWalkers are seeing an odd surge in membership as more and more paladins find themselves carrying Thaladriels sash.

Needless to say, Lillian has kept her efforts up and managed to recruit in several bodies of worshippers from passing airships. Much as Riccarrum has sponsored so many, so too has Lillian filled the Churches residences with new blood to bring about Pelors glory.

An open agreement has been made between Faramores people and the Church to train new blood into new fighters and subsequently new Paladins.

Northern Lights.

Ever played the old X-Com? The one that didn't run on a goddamn if statement, and a bi weekly schedule (what a crock of shit).

The old X-Com had a facet of the design in the aliens behaviour that is important to note. Aliens would arrive by way of the north pole. Yes, I am basing the arrival of my other worldly antagonists on my child hood experiences with an old strategy game.

We've already seen the lights, and the question is whether I want to leave Daed alone or include him. Part of me says to leave him like a Hallister Blackcloak, off to the side, biding his own business for a spell. He can either return as assistant or antagonist at a later date.

Making dreams a reality.

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Here I'm able to take a moment from the festivities to write about how I feel Friday went.

For starters, while the session was a bit stunted for the seasonal effects, the overall objective was achieved.

Lack luster? Maybe, but let's dive right into it.

Mitch is back and Mitch is smart.

For starters, we have Helbrim, the Mitch controlled druid with all the smarts and capabilities he left off with and then some.

Let's talk about my elves. They didn't do a small amount of damage, and they were ferocious little bastards. However, they are vulnerable to fire, and ...dumb. They were based on the Critters from ..Critters.

So when Helbrim produced a viable target for my elves, it only made sense that they targeted the boar and the goat as easy protein, as any carnivorous little bastards would.

Dirk Gently, the retroactive influence.

Having just finished consuming the second season of Dirk Gently I just want to say that while I've alwys been a huge fan of the show I am not writing my story based on anything they've been doing there.

I had no idea about the direction that that show was going and I have no explanation for some of the similarities in storyline, however, given the inspiration that it provides, I can honestly say it is not only an amazing show and wonderful inspiration, but an uncanny sign that no matter the corner it may seem like I'm writing myself into, there's always a way out.

I don't have a challenge in tying things together, my challenge resides in deciding the direction to take the story in.

Perhaps the most difficult thing about it all is writing a story that doesn't make me scoff at how far fetched it is, despite having just finished watching Dirk Gently (which as anyone who has watched it can tell you, is really out there).

Political Shift

With each passing session we attempt to tell the story of a magical city caught up in the plays of many powers, while attempting to grow into its own entity. For the first time in this campaign, we have a conflict between two houses. Not player controlled houses, but large political powers.

The question of retaliation is in the air, and whether or not the Ketterrogs will see the support of any other houses for their moves upon the Brightwood house.

This could easily go a number of ways, but one of the obvious routes would be to put the Ketterrog house on the defensive; however, I am not interested in something too boring. Especially not when I have as much at stake. Yes, me, the Dungeon Master, has to consider what they have at stake, and Joe was right in stating his concern. While I may not be as capable a writer as the Dirk Gently crew, I'm confident that for a D&D game, I can provide an experience cohesive enough between 7 people.

New Season. Same Plot.

So what happened on Friday? The players escaped the cocoons they were placed in and Vane was confronted with a vestige of himself, spawned from the fluids of the cocoons they were ..cocooned within.

This sets a lot of precedent and the question that a lot of folks may ask, or assume, is that I let the players walk away just because it was late.

The answer to this is a resounding no. The story could have been either way. It could have been a case of them being trapped within the cocoon world for another session or two, but I can always revisit that. Maybe if Thunder had been captured from the get go I wouldn't have worried about the release of the players, and kept everyone in the dark; as it stands, I felt it would be just as interesting to make the objective of the session to escape, even if leaving ultimately was a scripted occurence.

Now that the players Have experienced what the Brightwoods are capable of they have to ask themselves if they are prepared to deal with the 'threat' or if the Brightwoods are in fact even a threat.

What is the story with that family and what are they attempting to achieve?

Meanwhile of course, the highway construction awaits the return of its civil defense. Despite the routing of the barbarians, the highway construction is anything but safe as the barbarians are hardly the only predators in the valleys of the West Cloud Spires.

This Friday

We will be examining the relationships of the peoples of the Royals Peak with the introduction of a veiled, ever present threat that may or may not be a threat.

The Brightwood influence is not yet understood, or truly experienced. The only portion of the Brightwood threat that has even been experienced is their retaliation in the face of a house attack.

OMG, 7 people.

It doesn't matter how many people are at the table so long as everyone gets a chance to be involved.

The challenge for me is giving everyone a meaningful role in the sessions, and providing enough combat and story momentum for everyone to have a piece.

These last few sessions have been crummy for pacing and this last one was especially bad for multiple reasons.

While it could be argued that an hour was lost, I feel like the things achieved in the span of time we had were terrible.

Being more mindful of achievements, objectives, etc is one thing. having a simpler plan, I think is paramount.

OMG, 3 storylines.

I've got three branches to the story running at the moment. The focus of the story evolves with each session but the three branches are the West Cloud Spires Highway, another is the Brightwoods influence and finally there's the mines at the head of the highway. To refer to each of these as a 'separate storyline' is a bit of a misnomer, because "everything is connected."