#22: Yet another sidequest
Mar. 10th, 2019 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkPacing of my D&D campaign, that was originally meant to last only 5-10 sessions, so far:
1-4: Quest 1: The Green Giant (failed)
5-6: Quest 2: Debt Collection (successful)
7-9: Sidequest 1: The Dwarven Tomb
10: Quest 3 – The Kidnapped Professor – begins
11-12: Sidequest 2: The Dinosaur Canyon
16-18: Sidequest 3: The Island of Ghosts
22: Sidequest 4: The Bunny Caves
Projected length: ??? (Less than 30, I'm almost certain. Almost.)
For anyone who's counting, 9 of the 22 sessions so far have been sidequests that I added just because my players like combat encounters and loot and I thought they would be fun. And they were :) (I did try to connect them to the main plot somewhat – both the dwarven tomb and the ghost castle had an artifact of the kind one important group of NPCs is collecting, the dinosaur canyon was a trap by people peripherally involved, and the excuse to visit the bunny caves is to collect an ally.)
The only "problem" is that my party was getting a little frustrated with how long it takes to solve the kidnapping case – they know now who took him and probably where, but it took a while. There was an excursion to a temple of hippie death cultists in the middle there, and the next and final step will be a bank heist. (Which I thought would be quick, but I accidentally made the security measures challenging enough that they don't dare to rob it on their own.)
During their investigation they found out – because I was nice and had them meet an important NPC who was too trusting and talkative, though I did NOT anticipate them simply kidnapping him and reading his mind – about the group from another universe/dimension who accidentally landed in this one and is now collecting powerful magical artifacts to build a portal to go home. They also know that a Valkyrie of Asgard called Scrapper is part of that group, as well as a red-headed female human spy called Natalie, a very strong male human teenager called Peter (whose equipment they did not examine), and a black-haired human male with a beard who is building the portal. They have also met a very strong angry green giant, and a human scientist at magic university named Jane who is studying the dimensional accident and has a big secret. They have not made any further connections, and I very much look forward to when they do xD Though they are worried that the unknown monster who destroyed Asgard might be the person the evil ex-cultists are trying to summon, and that Loki might be around creating mischief (he's not. Probably.)
Last session I knew I wanted to start a very short sidequest, again for combat encounters and loot and fun (and also because I knew I would be very tired and didn't want to run a bank heist), and it would probably be in a cave, so I just needed monsters. I made a small mountain spirit chapel with gargoyle statues, and decided there would be a Gelatinous Cube down there, and then I asked LB for further ideas. That's how the caves became a warren of omnivorous cave rabbits. Pink sparkling eyes, and pale fur with green moss growing in it.
LB also said to have them fight a butterfly. So near the entrance of the cave I had them find a butterfly caught in a spider net, and as expected half the party immediately wanted to save it. Except others wanted to examine the butterfly first, so I had to hurry up the Charm effect and now they all wanted to save the butterfly and killed the poor spider. The butterfly proceeded to hypnotize all of them except one person who made the save and managed to prevent himself from looking at its colorful, shiny, beautiful wings. The butterfly got frustrated because it couldn't attack anyone without them coming out of their fascination, and the artificer got frustrated because attacking the butterfly proved more difficult than anticipated because I gave it a butterfly version of Wings of Cover. (The player actually punched the wall at one point o.o) But in the end they did all snap out of it (some got caught again in between) and managed to kill it (because I was nice and had it decide not to escape as fast as it could.) Overall the Hypnotic Butterfly, which I made up from basically scratch, was a big success :)
Originally the sidequest was meant to last for one session only and they've only encountered the butterfly and the gargoyles (which was a short battle), and they've met the bunnies but so far not been attacked by them. So next time I could either continue with the caves, have them fight the Gelatinous Cube and the bunnies and finally escape with the help of Scrapper, or have Scrapper meet them outside the destroyed chapel and return to the city pretty much straight away. I'll see what I'm in the mood for.
Meanwhile when I'm procrastinating on session prep I'm thinking about my character for the next campaign. A swordfighter, this time! Warblade, probably; pretty much anything else is still undecided. I'm more focused on trying to figure out what kind of personality/backstory/personal quest I want, which is fun and more difficult than the mere mechanics. (Our next DM already sent us notes with the important countries and players, the important events of the past 500 years etc. - I'm so glad that that's optional.)
1-4: Quest 1: The Green Giant (failed)
5-6: Quest 2: Debt Collection (successful)
7-9: Sidequest 1: The Dwarven Tomb
10: Quest 3 – The Kidnapped Professor – begins
11-12: Sidequest 2: The Dinosaur Canyon
16-18: Sidequest 3: The Island of Ghosts
22: Sidequest 4: The Bunny Caves
Projected length: ??? (Less than 30, I'm almost certain. Almost.)
For anyone who's counting, 9 of the 22 sessions so far have been sidequests that I added just because my players like combat encounters and loot and I thought they would be fun. And they were :) (I did try to connect them to the main plot somewhat – both the dwarven tomb and the ghost castle had an artifact of the kind one important group of NPCs is collecting, the dinosaur canyon was a trap by people peripherally involved, and the excuse to visit the bunny caves is to collect an ally.)
The only "problem" is that my party was getting a little frustrated with how long it takes to solve the kidnapping case – they know now who took him and probably where, but it took a while. There was an excursion to a temple of hippie death cultists in the middle there, and the next and final step will be a bank heist. (Which I thought would be quick, but I accidentally made the security measures challenging enough that they don't dare to rob it on their own.)
During their investigation they found out – because I was nice and had them meet an important NPC who was too trusting and talkative, though I did NOT anticipate them simply kidnapping him and reading his mind – about the group from another universe/dimension who accidentally landed in this one and is now collecting powerful magical artifacts to build a portal to go home. They also know that a Valkyrie of Asgard called Scrapper is part of that group, as well as a red-headed female human spy called Natalie, a very strong male human teenager called Peter (whose equipment they did not examine), and a black-haired human male with a beard who is building the portal. They have also met a very strong angry green giant, and a human scientist at magic university named Jane who is studying the dimensional accident and has a big secret. They have not made any further connections, and I very much look forward to when they do xD Though they are worried that the unknown monster who destroyed Asgard might be the person the evil ex-cultists are trying to summon, and that Loki might be around creating mischief (he's not. Probably.)
Last session I knew I wanted to start a very short sidequest, again for combat encounters and loot and fun (and also because I knew I would be very tired and didn't want to run a bank heist), and it would probably be in a cave, so I just needed monsters. I made a small mountain spirit chapel with gargoyle statues, and decided there would be a Gelatinous Cube down there, and then I asked LB for further ideas. That's how the caves became a warren of omnivorous cave rabbits. Pink sparkling eyes, and pale fur with green moss growing in it.
LB also said to have them fight a butterfly. So near the entrance of the cave I had them find a butterfly caught in a spider net, and as expected half the party immediately wanted to save it. Except others wanted to examine the butterfly first, so I had to hurry up the Charm effect and now they all wanted to save the butterfly and killed the poor spider. The butterfly proceeded to hypnotize all of them except one person who made the save and managed to prevent himself from looking at its colorful, shiny, beautiful wings. The butterfly got frustrated because it couldn't attack anyone without them coming out of their fascination, and the artificer got frustrated because attacking the butterfly proved more difficult than anticipated because I gave it a butterfly version of Wings of Cover. (The player actually punched the wall at one point o.o) But in the end they did all snap out of it (some got caught again in between) and managed to kill it (because I was nice and had it decide not to escape as fast as it could.) Overall the Hypnotic Butterfly, which I made up from basically scratch, was a big success :)
Originally the sidequest was meant to last for one session only and they've only encountered the butterfly and the gargoyles (which was a short battle), and they've met the bunnies but so far not been attacked by them. So next time I could either continue with the caves, have them fight the Gelatinous Cube and the bunnies and finally escape with the help of Scrapper, or have Scrapper meet them outside the destroyed chapel and return to the city pretty much straight away. I'll see what I'm in the mood for.
Meanwhile when I'm procrastinating on session prep I'm thinking about my character for the next campaign. A swordfighter, this time! Warblade, probably; pretty much anything else is still undecided. I'm more focused on trying to figure out what kind of personality/backstory/personal quest I want, which is fun and more difficult than the mere mechanics. (Our next DM already sent us notes with the important countries and players, the important events of the past 500 years etc. - I'm so glad that that's optional.)
