My Esteren Campaign [Recap]

[Ocule]

So as I run my Esteren campaign I thought I would post updates here so hopefully other game masters or any others thinking of writing their own scenarios might draw inspiration for. For the sake of simplicity I will not be recapping events already written in the scenarios and just focusing on how the party reacted to the scenario and decisions they made throughout play and any issues that we ran across.

Party:
Seamus - Demorthen (also Maorn's son)- Guilt Narrative Arc - (Supposedly murdered his original teacher)
Archer - Tri-kazalian Spy - Adoption Narritive Arc (adopted by Dearg's Monk)
Maorn's Daughter (forgot her name right now) - Osag Warrior - Love Narrative Arc
Terent's Brother - Tri-Kazelian Occultist - Ethics Arc, Regret secondary arc

We may be getting an actor to play Finn, and no one else has selected a secondary arc.

Everyone is from Dearg's Vale and knows each other by lineage or they grew up together.


Loch Varn:
Old Factory: Party went through here as expected, the PC who embodied terrant's brother was a pacifist and a coward so he completely broke down when confronting his brother. Another party member was quick to execute Terrent. This part is always tricky without having his brother actually shooting first, I've run it 3 times and it always seems difficult to get the party to kill him. I'd suggest perhaps turning this into a full encounter and letting them defeat the mercenaries, and narrating the silver bracelet on them. This can also let him be any one of the defeated mercenaries so ensure the right party member will kill him. Just say that that member gets the killing blow.

The plant monster always kills someone.

Forest Scene: Use flashcards and just hand them to the players with what they know.

Ingard: Took a little bit of prompting to get them to investigate.

Nyline's Chapel: Took some prompting to remind them of Deorn's message to investigate the chapel. Make sure the player that embodies the character who joins the party here has a reason he is joining the party. Easiest way is he is traveling to Loch Varn for whatever reason you choose but this part tripped us up a little bit.

Loch Varn: The puzzle here was very difficult. If the party doesn't have an erudite or magientist then the puzzle cannot be solved. Once they decipher the puzzle and get the clue of the 3 times I have run this no one has come to the conclusion with the island in the middle of the lake and the invisible ink on their own. It always took heavy prompting and the scenario cannot continue without it. Advise allowing alternate means of discovery in this case, plan for no one figuring this out. They initially wanted to skip it all together and just wait until morning to figure it out. Natural environment or perception rolls can be used to get the clue, or you could have an npc point out the island if they can't make the connection between the boat ride and the island.

Back to the lab: Player embodying terrent's brother acted caring, but players are very disconnected with an npc they have no experience with. Played out fine.

Final showdown with Deorn and Verzal: Player's universally think Deorn is a tool and should be brought to justice. This fight is very deadly if you pick the supernatural elements (I usually do) regardless of who's side the pcs choose to be on. In my scenario they sided with Deorn, who died during the combat with Verzal and eventually broke the amber anchoring Verzal's ghost. Neither Verzal nor Deorn survived this conflict, they have not yet decided on a course of action whether to tell the folks at Loch Varn about Gluta's sanctuary. It is unlikely they will speak of this again.

They party now leaves for Melwan, next up scenario Poison. They will be directed to Dearg for medicine and using Dearg for setting material

[Iris]

Thank you for the recap !

You played Loch Varn, it may be interesting to put a direct link to your subject in the Loch Varn subject (viewtopic.php?f=50&t=824&p=45464#p45464 )