[Official] Loch Varn

[tamsyn]

Well done on your first session! It gets easier. Sounds like you handled it well.

[Valenae]

Gratz Dragonslav!
I plan to run this scenario again when I get my book.

[Clovis]

Yep, good job, Dragoslav! Looks like you were able to balance things very well between following the scenario without improvising wildly, and being capable of making things up on the fly according to the reactions of your PCs.

Likewise, it seems like the Players were really (or at the very least, reasonably) into it, and that you really managed to instill feelings of panic, urgency and confusion into the beginning of the adventure. For someone who has had "almost 0 GM experience before", it was truly impressive... looks like you're a natural!

Ah well, what else can I say except that I am looking forward to seeing how the second half of the scenario plays out?

And of course, as usual, if you (or any other GM, for that matter) have any questions to ask or require any sort of advice, don't hesitate to mention it on this here forum!

[Dragoslav]

The thrilling conclusion...

The party left the chapel and arrived at Varn. The whole vale was cloaked in a thick fog from the lake. They were confused to find that the villagers recognized them, and while the crowd was pestering them, Nesa noticed the man she killed in her dream lurking in an alley. Predictably, she went to investigate and found that he had vanished. The PCs went to the council meeting...

The PCs gave their conflicting stories to the council, but when Nesa saw Deorn in the back and recognized him, she insisted on pestering him. That's the problem with my players -- once they've put their minds on something, they never drop it and let things flow. I RP'ed Deorn answering her questions without hinting that they've met. However, when the council suggested sending the PCs back to the ruins with Deorn to purify it, everything went crazy. The priest, Father Harn, refused to work with a Demorthen and claimed that he could purify it himself, and Nesa refused to go with him because she believed that her dream where she met Deorn was a premonition about what would happen if they went back.

I resolved the argument by having the Ansaleir dismiss everyone and say that they would discuss it further in the morning, after the PCs have had a chance to rest. (Since they weren't actually going out with Deorn, I knew I just needed to end the scene and not get them to agree).

During the night, Nesa dreamed about her brother Terent and realized that she had killed him in her dream. The whole scene was very intense, and her player was excellent at capturing Nesa's desperation at losing her brother. Additionally, I used this scene to create a hook with Nesa's backstory: Terent revealed that he was an agent working with a Magientist lodge trying to find out who was behind their grandfather's disappearance, and he had to hide his true profession to protect her.

The next morning, I was worried that the players were going to want to actually head back to the factory, but Nesa and Saeth figured out Verzal's puzzle. Saeth, the paranoid occultist, hired a young lad with a rusty sword to be his bodyguard while they traveled out to the island (The boy chuckled to himself, "Easiest 4 embers I ever made!"). They found the inscription but couldn't make the Travel check, so the boy suggested they see this old man in town. He pointed them to the right spot, so they went there, despite Father Harn's constant insistence that they wouldn't find anything.

After they found Verzal's will, I narrated the transition into Act III: The fog became so thick that they couldn't see farther than 10 feet, and the trees nearby crashed into the ground, their bark petrified into wood and collapsed into rubble, exposing long metal girders inside. The grass burned away leaving a cold cement and metal floor. They blacked out for a moment and found themselves repeating the events of the first scene... (I drew heavy inspiration from the Otherworld transitions from the Silent Hill series for this effect)

Nesa was horrified over having killed her brother. After they returned to the real world, I told the PCs from Reizh that they each had a tonic that was given to them for the expedition. Nesa used it to try to revive her brother, even though she knew it was too late for him (I had to give her full XP just for that act alone). They found out about Deorn and Jearon and went through the refinery, expecting to be attacked at any moment.

After they reached Gluta's sanctuary, all Hell broke loose. I had barely finished reading the dialogue between Deorn and Jearon/Verzal when the players started announcing that they were going to try shooting Jearon, or running between them, and Father Harn began throwing Divine Cold at Jearon.

Needless to say, I was completely caught off guard. The players completely jumped the gun, and I was worried that they were going to miss this excellent scene by killing one or both of the antagonists. The whole scene that followed was a complete brawl as Father Harn tried to exorcise Verzal's spirit by blasting him with Divine Cold; Saeth, Nesa, and Ninel tried to stop Father Harn by tackling him to the ground; and Ned tried to protect Father Harn by interrupting those three.

I had to get the players under control by mixing in Deorn's and Verzal's arguments as the battle was going on. Ultimately, Father Harn decided to give the spirit one chance to explain itself, and in that time Verzal was able to speak his peace. Meanwhile, people were trying to sneak into the secret lab, the PCs were attacking one another... True chaos. The Reizhites, as I predicted, wanted to help Verzal, but Father Harn was extremely difficult to rein in. Ultimately, though, he was willing to make a vow to Verzal that he would reveal Deorn's crimes if Verzal vowed to leave. Meaning that the tide turned against Deorn...

Deorn summoned the swamp creatures (although I had to shoot down Harn's player who objected that Deorn shouldn't be able to summon such a power without everyone having a chance to interrupt ). Fortunately, with Verzal's help and Nesa's powerful energetic gauntlets Artifact, the party survived without any PCs going into Agony. However, Father Harn did make a point to cast Divine Cold on the last swamp creature AND Deorn, despite the fact that he was exhausted from the summoning and practically helpless. Instead of figuring out how much HP Deorn had, I just ruled that he was put into Agony.

After the battle, a lucky roll by Saeth saved Deorn's life, since Verzal wanted him alive to face punishment. Verzal led them into the laboratory, where they argued even longer about what to do with the fossil Flux. Father Harn thought it was a Cursed Stone and should be destroyed, Saeth thought it was Amber and wanted to study it, and the Magientists wanted to take it back to Reizh to use as fuel and to experiment on. Verzal told them that they could do whatever they wanted with the fossil Flux as long as they revealed Deorn's crimes. He left Jearon's body, and the PCs explained everything to Jearon after he woke up.

I gave the PCs two extra documents from searching Verzal's lab: A clue leading them ultimately to a very powerful, ancient Artifact, and a second document containing schematics for the Arbaflux (for my players to craft for themselves at a later point).

They returned to Varn with Deorn and Jearon, but instead of causing a riot in public, they met with the Ansaleir and his council in private. They failed to convince him to reveal Deorn's crimes publicly, but Jearon -- a trusted figure in Melwan -- was able to corroborate their story. The Ansaleir insisted that Deorn would be punished by the other Demorthen when they convened the next year -- refusing to announce the crime publicly. As for the fossil Flux, the Magientists tried to convince him to allow more Magientists to come in and drain the pockets of fossil Flux, because at this point he was so frustrated that he refused to look at the documents that they had found. The Ansaleir saw a flash of Verzal's agonized face in the crystal, which made some of the players realize that his spirit was still bound to the world. There was another massive argument as all the PCs were arguing at cross-purposes, and the Ansaleir eventually threatened to throw them out until he ultimately stormed out and told them all to leave.

However, on the way out, Ninel shouted out the nature of Deorn's crimes to the crowd that had gathered outside the assembly hall... She would have been torn apart by the mob had Jearon not stepped in to support her and to call for Deorn to confess in front of everyone.

Meanwhile, Ned and Father Harn were walking off with the fossil Flux. However, Ned, who was holding the crystal, suddenly had a flash of memory wherein he saw Verzal's gruesome murder at the hands of Deorn and his co-conspirators. He failed a Mental Resistance check and dropped the Flux, standing there in a stupor for 1 minute.

I had someone in the crowd approach Deorn in disbelief and say, "It's not true, is it?" In a barely audible whisper, he said, "It is." The rowdy crowd turned riotous, and the PCs quickly left.

Upon returning to Saint Nyline's chapel, Father Harn found that he had, in fact, been there with two other Templars, Jaber and Urvan. Jaber tried to allay everyone's anger by coming up with a compromise: He and Harn would pray over the crystal and determine whether any demonic influence was within it, and, if not, then the Reizhites could keep it for study. Harn was highly upset when no evil forces were detected and Jaber gave the crystal to the Reizhites, but Harn was willing to trust him and only asked him to venture to the ruined factory and make sure that that place was clear of evil influence.

Phew! What a session. Fortunately, it seems like everyone enjoys the game, and everyone loved the Loch Varn scenario itself, especially the "dream within a dream" (which forced them to work together when they might not normally) and the parts in which each PC had different information or memories.

Next stop: Return to Melwan and give a report, then on to Dearg, and then to Reizh...

My personal favorite part as GM:
I really enjoyed this session. One of my personal highlights was creating the village of Varn on the fly. I told the players exactly where their PCs were staying and used that to add flavor. For example, Nesa was accommodated by a young couple that had just lost a child to sickness and was put in the child's old room. The boy that Saeth hired was a nameless NPC at first, but I gave him a name when they asked and had him interject comments in response to events. The old fisherman who helped them figure out the cartographic coordinates was only supposed to exist long enough to help them find Verzal's will, but after they asked him who's gone out to the island in the past, he began telling a raunchy story about how he went out there with a girl named Becca in his youth; Father Harn asked, "Is Becca your wife?" and the man replied, "She was." Harn asked, "You divorced her?!" to which the fisherman replied, sadly, "No, sir -- fever took her." Harn apologized and gave the man his condolences and blessing.

[Iris]

Excellent !

Thanck you for you complete report !

[Clovis]

Ah, very good! Very, very good! Seems like it was a thrilling session indeed, and the combination of your inventiveness and of the PCs' (sometimes impulsive) resourcefulness must have indeed made Loch Varn a memorable scenario. Can't wait to hear about Poison!

[Ocule]

Sorry for reposting this from the other forum didnt see this is where we should post after session stuff for those interested in hearing back. Wish i wouldve read the thread before running it but here is.

So my first real game of the esteren universe figured what better day than hallow's eve and what better scenario than Loch Varn. It is one adventure ive really been wanting to run and it turned out to be the most difficult but also one of the best stories ive ever seen in a pre written scenarios. Some of the layout was a bit confusing particularly the bits around Urvan if hes a PC. The lack of flavor text took some improvising but we had three players embodying Liam, Urvan and Arven (confusing names the latter) i mistakenly thought urvan was necessary but just Liam was and I was oh so nervous because it was a new game to my party i had been talking so well about it and really wanted to do it justice.

So a series of events

Act I:
They are outside the magientist factory and under fire i didnt really make them roll for combat just put pressure on them story wise and was only going to actually take shots at them if they stayed and fought breaking the D&D mentality. They opted to flee from any ambushing "brigands" and when Liam confronted his brother he didnt know it at the time but Arven shot Tenet. Both Liam and Urvan were struck by arrows before entering. Inside the ruins they essentially just got massacred, one got swallowed by the giant plant monster and the other by centipedes. Arven was the only one to survive until waking up in the camp but this definitely set the tone they are NOT heroes and they definitely can die.

Act II:
This is where things got a bit tricky to run mostly just on what to do with Urvan who was not there and giving them all varying bits of information. First Inguard left them leery, the mismatched stories of what happened made it even worse. Plus the two missing characters of Urvan and the other guy who no one can remember. I think Urvan was supposed to be met at the chapel but accidentally introduced him on the road but they found all the documents on visiting the chapel, hearing of the giant centipedes dragging people underground made them pretty worried. They reached the town incredibly confused as there was definitely something they couldn't figure out they talked to the townsfolk and shared their story. The look of horror on my players faces when they found out the person who was killed was Liam's brother was priceless.

The puzzle here with the rocks and invisible ink took them much longer than it should have, they couldnt make the connection to the islet so it took a bit of prompting. I did feel alot of checks here were a bit unnecessary other than practice on how to make them considering they cannot continue if they fail and they will miss alot of vital information if it is skipped.

Act III:
Well this part really screwed with their heads returning to the magientist factory i returned any damage they sustained prior to meeting Liam's brother and chose not to introduce new monsters inside the ruins. But the familiar music of silent hill - betrayal made them terrified. The tripping over the vine while i contemplated introducing more monsters here we were short on time by this point so i just let them atmosphere ramp up. They believed they were still dreaming at this point i was wondering if they were going to try to force themselves to wake up as per suicide sidebar it sounded like it would be hilarious if they did. They met Jearon and Deon and sided of course with the spirit when the demorthen summoned 2 swamp creatures, one of them killed Urvan the temple guy but the players were victorious. They discovered the geode, avenged the magientist and told the townsfolk of what actually happened.

The mood music helped alot it really added another dimension to the game, and left them wanting to play more so i think before running the other scenarios i might actually have them do it with characters they created instead of the pregens provided. But they are all sold on the game now

[Clovis]

That's cool! Looks like the session went well; I'm glad your Players liked it!

If you do run an actual campaign, make sure to tell us about it!

[Ocule]

So I ran this a second time, with a different group on youtube. You guys can check out the entire video its in two parts and like 5 or 6 hours long between the both of them. In short it was really interesting although again the puzzle at the dock was incredibly difficult and took some prompting for the players to realize it was a puzzle. Also I realized how important it is that the players actually play through the events that occurred and not just go back to Melwan.

The ending of this second one we had urvan and he survived. They sided with the Demorthen then threw him under the bus but combat was dragging on and the tides turned completely against them burning survival points left and right as Verzal summoned two giant centipedes. Against a two person party it was a very difficult fight but after felling Jearon, Urvan got possessed. I let him keep some semblance of his mind and when all looked lost, and they thought they were going to die Urvan prayed for help. So I granted him the purification miracle on a successful prayer roll and finished cracking the damaged stone liam brought back to the surface and expelled the spirit of Verzal. So all survived and I didn't think a TPK was a good note to end on. The players all had a ton of fun so that is what matters.

[Iris]

Great !

And happy your players had fun (and also that the PC survived )