Community

Valdrax wrote:

How did the Warlock Keth join the party, and what is his(?) adventure hook?

Keth is played by Steve Montano, a WotC employee in the finance department. He had a to miss a few sessions because of work, errands, and a few other things.

Keth is a tiefling warlock and a spy in service to Furyondy. He was sent to investigate Lord Geldon, and infiltrated the bandit gang in an attempt to figure out what is in the caravan that is so important to the Lord.

When the PCs attacked the towers, he betrayed the bandits and joined the group. He's the voice of reason in the party, in that he'd rather not stick his head into dangerous, monster-filled rooms.

Here's a quick recap of yesterday's session:

Having cleared the temple beneath the towers, the characters headed back upstairs for some well-deserved rest. As the hours rolled by, the rain outside grew heavier and heavier. Dark clouds gathered above, smothering the light of both moon and star. Finally, the caravan Lord Geldon sent them to protect came into view.

(At this point, without telling the players, I started a skill challenge.)

The caravan consisted of three wagons. Only two soldiers mounted on horses guarded it. A tiefling clad in thick robes rode on the lead wagon. He introduced himself as Xarn, and thanked the PCs for slaying the bandits.

At this point, Xarn managed to pique the characters' suspicions. The caravan was at best poorly guarded (successful Int check by the fighters backed this up). Xarn was seemingly irate at the characters' questions particularly when it came to the contents of the wagons (successful Insight checks), while the guards were clearly eager to recruit the PCs' help (more Insight checks).

The PCs talked Xarn into allowing them to help guard the caravan, mainly by indirectly applying pressure on him through the guards (successful Diplomacy checks) to complete the challenge. The interesting thing to me was that everything flowed through roleplay, with the occasional skill check. The players never knew I was running a skill challenge, but from my side of the screen the mechancis worked out fine to determine if Xarn would let them come along.

As the caravan headed to Hommlett, the characters tried to figure out what was in the wagons, but poor rolling (and the always... scattered... Corenlius) prevented them from learning too much. They did notice that the middle wagon was heavily laden with gear, moreso than the other two wagons.

Saman rode point as the group came to a small ruin at the side of the road. He paused for a moment, felt a strange, shrieking noise in his head, and cried in pain as he came under a psychic assault. Five whispy motes of psionic energy swarmed around him, battering his body and mind.

The party raced forward and swiftly dispatched the strange spirits, yet as they were engaged in the fight they heard the horrible scream of the two mounted guards. Some strange being of darkness and claws emerged from the night, killed the pair, and made a beeline for Xarn.

The PCs turned to attack the thing, but arrived too late to save poor Xarn. The creature hissed and howled at them as they fought, and when Kot landed the killing spell it shrieked in pain, turned into a sphere of grey mist, and rocketed away in the direction of Hommlett.

While the characters caught their breath, Saman realized that the thing they fought was a soul eater, a creature of shadow summoned by a mage to track and slay a specific creature. Worse yet, the soul eater tears secrets from its victim. Whoever sent it targeted Xarn and whatever he knew. However, the party does have one useful lead - a "slain" soul eater is not actually killed, but merely forced back to the Shadowfell for a time. Before it returns to its home, it tracks its summoner master to exact its revenge. If someone in Hommlett summoned the soul eater, the characters need only look for the signs of a recent battle.

That's where we ended the session.

The really interesting thing, to me, is how nice the one hour format is for planning ahead. I had no idea if the party would save Xarn or if they could even link up with the caravan. In a four hour session, I'd have to think on my feet to adjust things or have some ideas of the possible outcomes.

With only an hour, we play through a scene or two, and the results of that speak directly to my planning for the next session. I'm never doing more than a scene or two of planning ahead, which makes the story more coherent while also allowing the PCs' actions to be the real drivers of things.