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Comus 06-19-07, 02:17 PM

Alright. We've got a lot of threads about terrible sessions over on the Player's board. Once in a while we see a bit about good/bad sessions. How about a thread with reports from your last session, just average games? Here's some background on my game, and the events of the last game (from last night, in fact). I figure if people contribute, we can see the various ways people play the game, and get ideas and suggestions from other DMs. I apologize for the length of the post. I tend to write a lot. Background: Spelljammer game, two players. Cyan Moonsfeld (Warblade//Fighter+prestige) and Andromeda (Wizard//Scout). The players have been attempting to find the three parts of an artifact since game one, mostly because an enemy from one player's backstory has been looking for them, too. Two parts of the artifact have changed hands multiple times, and the players left them with some monks on Cyan's homeworld who had been taking care of one of the pieces for a long while. Last session, they finished some sidequests that took a few months, during which time the pirates found one of their allies, learned the location of two parts of the artifact, and raided Cyan's world to get them. The party has the last part of the artifact, though the enemy doesn't know that. The pirates are currently on the last planet the players haven't explored, the Necropolis, a planet that died because of a negative energy rift. Working with the pirate captain is Cyan's mysterious biological father. Cyan was adopted and knows little of his real family. He recently met and killed his twin, who was one of the mysterious BBEGs from the first game (who he also killed then, but was brought back to life). With Cyan and Andromeda is Lariel, an NPC that used to wait tables at the tavern that Cyan started the game working in. She has since received training in swordsmanship and wizardry from the PCs and Cyan proposed to her before they left the planet to track down the pirates. After Action Report: The players decided to put their ship down a bit away from Captain Bligh's. Cyan and Andromeda disguised themselves as Reinheit and Faust (Cyan's brother), two BBEGs they killed last game who they know have been working with Bligh. Lariel was disguised as a slave. Bligh's ship, the Executor, was at a state of readiness. He greeted them, didn't see through the disguise, and the two decided to go below decks and do a bit of scouting about. They meet some men in tan uniforms who seem to have been working with Cyan's father (whom they simply call 'the commander') and know Reinheit and Faust (whom they are afraid of). Andromeda and Cyan find the ship's spelljamming helm and kill the Astrogator (though not before he calls for help). With the helm disabled, the ship immediately crashes into the ground... though thankfully for everyone onboard, it was only a few feet off of it. The damage is still severe. Captain Bligh breaks down the door and enters with a fireteam (5 men) of troops. Fight ensues, Andromeda manages to catch the ship on fire and blow a few other holes through it. They decide to take some of the odd weapons (Mauser rifles) the fire team was using, and start leaving the ship. They kill Bligh, take his stuff (including one of the artifact parts). On the way out, they run into the squad's other fireteam. These guys have cover, though, and toss out a grenade. A fireball or two later, and they're toast. The commander, Cyan's father, is on the other side of a river at this time. The whole planet is covered in ruins, and there are massive tombs on the other side (and thus Bligh put the river between him and them). The whole planet is dusty and wrecked, with undead animals wandering around aimlessly. They cross the river on a launch and check the two tombs that are being excavated. First tomb was largely unworked, but had some pirates and a fireteam inside. Quick fight, they learn Cyan's dad is in the other one. So they go to tomb number two, and find it's been mostly excavated. There are undead awaiting orders from their lich kings, hundreds of them, in opened rooms. In the main gallery, they find Cyan's dad, an aging Adolf Hitler, and the last fireteam. Dramatic words are exchanged. Fight starts. Everyone takes a few hits. Cyan is brought to exactly zero HP. Just before he can be killed, Andromeda takes out Hitler with an Orb of Force. The last infantryman suicides with a grenade... and damages the big, ornate door that Hitler and a translator were arguing about when the party walks in. Everything starts to shake and glow. They nab Hitler's stuff (including artifact part number two) and bail, overrunning some awakening undead to make their escape. They return to their chartered ship as the sky fills with unearthly green lightning and the tombs glow with a terrible corpselight. Obviously, they decide to leave the planet. They take the translator with them. The party returns to Cyan's homeworld, along with all three parts of the artifact. They return to Cyan's home and have dinner with his adopted family. He tells them that he proposed to Lariel. His family doesn't approve. They've been arranging a marriage for him, with a noblewoman, to increase the position of their house. Cyan doesn't know how to handle this, and doesn't want to elope (he's big on honor). His enemies recently put his family in great danger, and so he feels a debt to them, and they ask him to repay it in this way. He goes to the woods to meditate and try to figure out what to do. Andromeda, meanwhile, leaves the three artifact parts, along with literature that describes a way to build a gate between alternate Prime Material Planes using an artifact as the power source (what Hitler was trying to do, to get back home), with the monks that originally had the second artifact part. Cyan decides that the best thing to do is to try and raise his family's position through another means - by doing a great, heroic deed for the Emperor so he will recognize Cyan and his family. Cyan travels into the city and asks around, and finds that the Emperor is most troubled by trouble from the Shadowlands, portals opening up and spreading the taint of that place throughout the land. If he can find out why it's happening and stop it, well, he'll be quite heroic. The session ended with the party in a tainted swamp, just after being attacked by Greater Shadows. Next they'll find the portal, and we'll see what happens from there.