@nitsua60 So, they zoomed through the final water dungeon (can't remember the name of it).

I'm sure putting most of the tunnels underwater seemed like a really great idea to the writers, but it means a party using Water Walk basically gets an express route to the final room.

But I was kinda ok with that, anyway - it was long past time this campaign ended, and it's been so difficult to find times for sessions lately that I was worried we might not make it.

So they got to the final room, and of course Olhydra's been summoned and had plenty of time to prepare. So the room was flooded and the prophet was lurking underwater.

(That last is necessary because the most...uh...dominant, shall we say, of the players is somewhat obsessed with finding shortcuts.)

Like, in any given fight, they'll always look for an easy way to win without dealing damage. Which is fine, but it gets a little tiresome when it's every fight, especially since some of the other players are keen to fight properly.

Olhydra is an interesting boss - she's a bit underwhelming on her turn, but her lair and legendary actions make life really difficult for anyone she has grappled.

I do like that they made all 4 bosses work very differently, and sometime when I'm bored and have the books to hand I'd be interested to playtest the other 3 :)

@Miniman Like high-level banishments and polymorphs?

@nitsua60 That sort of thing, yeah, plus I was just typing out a perfect example - they played well except when that player I mentioned earlier got distracted by the prospect of finding the prophet so they could seal the node without having to kill Olhydra, and basically stopped fighting completely.

He used Control Water to part the water in the cavern, which was clever enough that I went with it, and they spotted the prophet.

So for him and the most passive player, who generally follow his lead, it became all about finding a way to get the weapon into the node.

Fortunately, the other players killed Olhydra first - I say fortunately because it was far more satisfying for them (and me) that way than if they'd just used Bigby's Hand to chuck the prophet into the node.

@Miniman Right. You want to actually fight some times.

@nitsua60 Plus, yanno, they'd struggled hard, and the 2 of them had done the vast majority of Olhydra's health, and taken the vast majority of their damage - I'd have felt pretty bad if after all that the whole thing was short-circuited.

@Miniman We could do something like a back-room round-robin tournament =)

@nitsua60 I wasn't thinking of playtesting them against each other, but now that you mention it that has a definite appeal...

@Miniman It's nice to have the BBEG with more-complex motivations than just "sit here and kill anything that comes your way""

Anyway, I basically wrapped it up there - all the creatures who had been working with the cult turned on them and each other, all of the cult's magic items which were made from the node were undone the world is saved, calloo callay, etc.

@nitsua60 True, and I did think about "her having time to prepare" translating into "when you get there she's already left and hidden herself somewhere else", but that would be a whole campaign, and I was ready for it to end. Plus I like boss fights, and at least 2 of my 4 players like boss fights :D

What happened next was interesting, though.

We (the group) talked about "what next" a long while back, and decided that the player I mentioned above would run something so I could take a break from DMing. With how difficult it's been to find session times lately, I'd decided to let the group quietly dissolve (if you see what I mean) and maybe start a new group without the more unreliable members (I'm a pretty awful person).

But they assumed him running something next was still the plan, and we didn't even talk about what comes next - just what he was going to run.

Which I'm pretty ok with. Once I'm not DMing, the onus isn't on me to find times and organise everyone, so I'll happily play and not worry too much about it.

So he's planning a Vikings-themed campaign, and while we haven't done session 0 yet, I'm thinking about a skald of some variety.

I'm also thinking about forming a new group and running something on the side, though - although I've been talking about wanting a break, the DMing itch is still there.

[sorry--some kids came for math-help... afk a bit]

@nitsua60 All good!

@nitsua60 I totally forgot, I mean to ask about this - am I reading it correctly? AL GMing is a pyramid scheme?

(I know you're afk, but I wanted to get it in writing while I still remembered.)

@Miniman YES! ANd when I finally realized it, what with me running a site (at the HS) and getting to claim XP for so many new players and GMs... I was sitting on, like, a quarter-million "GM" XP!

@nitsua60 o.O

(I'd only been tallying GM XP for sessions I ran.)

Time to make the level 40 GMPC you've always dreamed of...

In the end, it turns out that an artifact-level Mirror was used to trap a ludicrously powerful entity, and then smashed, because the entity would have escaped otherwise. So each piece contains part of said entity, and it's trying to reunite.

So, 1) is this corny, cliched, and obvious? And 2) any thoughts about what entity would work well?

@Miniman Eh, it's made me lazy about keeping a tally. Since I know I can just create an AL-legal L18 character from scratch, and I've got plenty of other, existing ones I'd be able to drop a 20 any time I needed to.

@Miniman I think it's not obvious, nor cliche, and it's ripe with ways that hints could come out over the course of months.

Mechanically, I wonder about what types of ability would scale well...?

How does the entity's desire to unite manifest itself?

@nitsua60 I like the idea that it gives the holder power and that's it. Because PCs (and NPCs too) will naturally be inclined to look for more shards.

So it's not actively doing anything, but anyone who has one will be on the lookout for others.

Power=some enhancement to what they've already got, or some new/PC inaccessible trait?

@nitsua60 Not sure, and it's something I've been thinking about a lot. Probably depends on the entity, too.

Is this in an existing setting?

Existing group?

@nitsua60 I was also thinking about "the benefits of having 2 shards are greater than the benefits of having 1 shard twice over", if you see what I mean.

@nitsua60 Maybe? I've been wanting to do a Planescape for a while, and this seems like it could work with that.

@Miniman Yeah. Go with n! =)

@nitsua60 Probably the more reliable half of the group I was talking about above, supplemented with some more players.

@Miniman I've never played nor run a PS adventure/campaign.

@nitsua60 Me neither! But it's a setting I really like.

@Miniman My instinct would be to pull from session-zero stuff. "Alright, you live in a world like what? How did it used to be? What made it change from that to this?" Somewhere in there is a seed of what Universe-level power might be out of whack =)

The other one I'm keen to do at some point is an Undermountain campaign, but this...hmmm...actually...this might work really well with that.

@Miniman Oh, yes!

(a) it turns out that to destroy the mirror someone had to drop a mountain on it.

(b) shards have over the eons been shaping the habits/nature of creatures in their areas.

(c) shards are not obviously in the posession of big-bad at the "end" of each sector. They're just a thing to be found in each sector.

(If found and taken from sector, stuff happens to sector denizens) (or is done by)

(a)(1) btw, mountain is from another plane, too.

This is screaming "megadungeon" to me.

(d) Halaster is trapped in the mirror, so shards provide Undermountain-specific benefits.

That would conflict with my (a), but that's no biggie: your adventure =)

And, actually, while a "missing Halaster" Undermountain campaign would be problematic (both of the players I know I'd have have played NWN:HotU), with the shards scattered throughout the dungeon it would explain why things haven't gotten out of control.

How is Halaster's desire to unite manifesting itself?

Are the shards behaving like sentient artifacts, as far as the players would guess?

By the time the party's proven themselves "worthy" (that is, are greedy enough that Halaster thinks 'e can get them to find all the pieces without wandering off and selling them) they'll start getting guidance to more shards?

Hmmm. Not sure, because I'd like to have it at least start with the shard seeming fairly innocuous - "hey, a piece of glass that gives me an extra level 1 spell slot" (purely an example).

@nitsua60 I think at the very least, helping them survive Undermountain.

Maybe as they get more shards, they start behaving more and more like sentient items?

@Miniman Sure, so 1 shard gives uncommon-level magical assistance. 2 gives some synergy. Three attuned and "they" (it?) start talking?

Ooh, he's hoarding their attunement =)

Some how he can vampire/draft off of them?

That's really clever, I like it a lot.

Seems like a minor curse--tax one LR-resource per day (at the 2-attuned level)

Or call it a "cost" of whatever the synergy-feature is.

But all that's feeding Halaster somehow =)

MWAAH-HA-HAH!!!

@nitsua60 Go for it! And if you do, let me know how it goes!

Also, thanks for the ideas and feedback!

Also also, talk to you later!

@Miniman thanks--I'll give you credit. (I'm one of those creative-types who has absolutely zero native creativity, but is perfectly happy/facile taking a few seeds and spinning them into 100pp.)

Also: you know how it's obviously-forced when a party keeps running across useful magic items? This time, it's because Halaster wants it that way!

The challenge is going to be how to give the PCs a fair shake. I mean, you can make something cost. You can even make something cursed. But how to give them a chance at figuring out that they're actually feeding BBEG?

(That's where Angry's strong bent toward story/exploration XP comes in, I suppose.)

@nitsua60 I was thinking of giving them an actual Mirror of Life Trapping at some point.

@Miniman any area-bosses they communicate with, rather than kill, might give them useful info?

@nitsua60 Possibly, yeah.

@nitsua60 I hadn't necessarily planned for the man in the mirror to be the BBEG - at the very least, I'd like it to be a bit more complicated than that.

@Miniman Fairy 'nuff.

It's just an orthogonal plot-line?

Not sure - it was a very undeveloped idea until the last hour :P

=D

Alright, I've got the bear-clear. Now I'm really heading home.