Rise of the Runelords Recap # 113 [RPG]

[5 Gozran 4708 continued]

In the lair of the Hidden Beast, the adventurers discuss and finally settle on a plan of how to defeat the vampiric decapus and its minions.  As the others stand ready, Ava stoneshapes a “window” into the underground niches where the creatures are hiding.  She gets ready to step out of the way so the others can move in, but the decapus moves to quickly and wraps her up in its tentacles!  As it starts to drain her life away, she desperately tries to dimension door away—but the strange magicks permeating Xin-Shalast instead shunt her to the nightmare realm of Leng!  The uncanny, robed humanoid creatures there speak to Ava, but their words are cryptic and confusing—especially for someone raised in the

Mushfens!  They seem to want to enlist Ava in some sort of plot or agreement in exchange for helping her escape her current predicament, but her intuition tells her she can’t trust these creatures and she refuses.  When she appears back in the Hidden Beast’s lair, she’s still trapped by the decapus as if no time has passed!  Fortunately, Jinkatsyu’s swordplay and Kang’s bombs are enough to once again neutralize their foes.  And this time, the adventurers know to stake the vampires properly and solve the problem of the Hidden Beast permanently.

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Director's Commentary

This is the shortest recap of the campaign, in part because 3/5ths of the group walked out partway through!  I was completely unaware of the frustration that had been building over the decapus, and it almost derailed the campaign completely.  The only fortuitous thing was that this session was scheduled as the last one before several weeks' break over the holidays, and I was able to do damage control and get everyone back into the fold and keep it going afterwards.  Still, it was clear there were two factions within the players, hard feelings that didn't go away, and a lack of trust on both sides.  In something like 20 years of GMing, I had never seen anything like it, and it definitely affected the rest of the campaign even though we were able to make it to the end.  I learned just how precarious long campaigns are, how I wasn't as popular of a GM as I imagined, not to take any game for granted, and that it's a good idea to develop multiple options for gaming in case one falls through.