Way Off-Topic: Question for RPGamers

[honorentheos]

The message below was shared with someone whose insight was invaluable to me in figuring out how to do character creation with largely new players. Seriously in your debt, friend. Thought I'd pass it along for others benefit as well.

...

We had our character creation night for the work one-shot. I decided to take a lesson from what you experienced and, rather than go back into the character sheets, I had pre-gens set up so we could go into an encounter right away. Three of the players had started PCs enough they could use them and three others used pre-gens. I had set up an encounter with a map of a road leading into the edge of a light woods. The party had been tasked to track down a small band of bandits who had murdered a local baron in order to steal a dangerous artifact. I had them start after having followed the bandits' trail for over four hours as dusk began to turn to night. I then told them about a few things someone might do in that situation and had them all give me three checks: A stealth check to be quiet as they searched, a survival check to be able to follow the tracks of the bandits, and a perception check to look and listen. I used it to explain how ability scores affected skills, how proficiency worked, how expertise worked.

Then I explained how the stealth check is a contested challenge where their stealth is compared to other creature's perception. I explained passive perception (radar that is always on) and that the bad guys have passive perception, too, so if they don't say they are being sneaky I assume they aren't. I also explained how I do group checks for averages such as group stealth so one bad roll doesn't ruin it for everyone else.

This helped set up explaining difficulty challenge levels where the skill check is against a DC set by the DM based on how difficult something might be. Tracking fresh tracks on dirt has a set DC in the DMG of 15, and it helped make it clear how that worked differently from a contest.

Finally the perception check was something I explained could be either a contest or a DC. If someone is trying to stealth, then the perception check result would need to equal or exceed the other person's stealth, etc., etc. But it could also be against a DC set by the DM to hear or see something that its possible to miss which isn't actively trying to be stealthy. Basic stuff people who haven't played D&D don't know but is fundamental.

They responded really well and I'm planning on using that if I ever do this for new players again.

I then told them the people with the high survival rolls of 15 or higher were able to avoid losing the tracks, and the bard who beat it by over 5 was also able to tell they had passed by within the last half hour so they were close. With their group stealth they were able to advance unnoticed when they heard the sounds of people talking in normal voices in an area they couldn't see up over a 10-ft ridge to the right of where the road climbed up the slope. I then told them this is a good time to ask if they can do things and offered suggestions. They picked up on it well and I gave them a few more skill checks with results. They discovered the four bandits around a fire with the apparent leader holding a dark wooden box. He had opened it and one of the other bandits was expressing their concern about only being told to retrieve it. The leader told him to shut up and that he was just wanting to know what it was they were carrying was all, but started to read the parchment with some interest. I explained my personal approach to this kind of thing is to describe things and then pause. If they want to do something its a good idea to recognize those pauses and ask questions/act. But if they don't want to do anything or wait too long I'll take it as a cue I should move the story.

I also used this to explain how bright light, dim light, and darkness work in D&D, and how darkvision works since it was relevant. I drew out 20 feet around the fire to represent the area of bright light, another ring at 40 feet from the fire for the edge of dim light, and explained the rest would be darkness so those with darkvision would be limited to 60 feet of vision outside of the rings of light.

So we then talked through things they might want to do, and I explained how they would work. One new player asked about building a ladder to climb the ridge? I suggested that they could do that, and that it would require them either having the items needed or giving me a survival check to scavenge the wood to do so. I also suggested it would be a high DC to build a ladder quietly. And also how climbing the rocky but sloped embankment would work. (Strength Athletics, DC 8). They caught the hint and chose to scout around the edge of a shrub hedge. The person playing a tabaxi rogue snuck around and climbed a tree. The halfling rogue (lots of rogues) snaked up the slope quietly and easily, and hid in the bushes. The Tortle wizard and bard snuck up to the hedge to listen.

As they were all doing this, the bandits had a small argument about what the leader was doing. I had planned that the leader would then command the most vocal objector to hold the box if he was so concerned. But it would be a ploy as he had read the parchment and it included an incantation that would rend the soul out of the body of anyone holding the Orphic Shard when it was pronounced, turning them into a shadow under the command of whomever read the incantation. The idea was to make what started out as a fight with four bandits turn into a fight with three bandits and a shadow. Much tougher fight. But the tortle accidentally prevented this by failing to climb the embankment and having a low stealth check that even a bandit passive of 10 could hear. Hearing the rock slide he caused, the bandits got serious and started to investigate. Cue the artificer who cast entangle and trapped three of the four right away. The halfling rogue had readied her action to throw a dagger at a bandit that wasn't entangled and almost killed the only one not trapped. He shot a wild arrow in her direction, missing badly, before attempting to run away but getting sniped by the tabaxi rogue in the tree. The bard snuck up and cast Tasha's Hideous Laugh on the leader who had the box and was already entangled in vines. Then she slipped back into the hedge and hid. The Tortle wizard managed to climb up the embankment and hit one of the entanged bandits with ice knife which splashed two others as well. The party finished off the two bandits as the bard took the box away from the disabled leader who couldn't stop laughing at the cosmic joke that was the end of his life. Which the tabaxi rogue brought about ruthlessly by shooting him in the throat. I have murderous party for sure.

The tortle wizard took the box and was able to use his knowledge of the arcane (arcana check) to determine the language on the box was abyssal while the parchment could be read. He passed his wisdom save to avoid the Orphic Shard influencing him to use it but the player wants to keep it because that is the kind of party they are going to be. I told him sure and will make up a magic item for DnDBeyond to add to his sheet.

I then spilled the beans about how they had interrupted the leader being able to summon a shadow, and how the game is meant to be responsive to their choices like that. They liked that as it felt like as much of a reward as any of the loot taken off the bodies. Yep, looting bodies already. Brings a tear to the ol' eye.

They said it was very helpful. Those who still had characters to finish said they felt much more able to finish building or modifying their builds. All around I think it was a big success.

[Bret Ripley]

I decided to take a lesson from what you experienced and, rather than go back into the character sheets, I had pre-gens set up so we could go into an encounter right away.

Based on my recent experience with helping new players try to wrap their heads around creating their first characters, I think this is an excellent idea. We started by rolling up basic stats, choosing classes (etc.) but when we began discussing various other options, bonuses, etc. I could see some eyes start to glaze over. Rather than finish character creation, we walked their unfinished characters through a simple practice combat so they could gain an appreciation of some of the game mechanics and how proficiency (and other) bonuses can affect outcomes. Things seemed to start clicking after that.

I also benefitted from the presence an experience player who could help address questions and offer guidance for those who were new to RPGs -- since I am new to 5e and had to look things up to answer various questions her help was definitely an asset.

(One thing that complicated matters a bit was that the new players were spread over 3 character classes, each requiring information and instructions that were largely irrelevant to the others.)

I think it would have been much better to take your route, so the new players would have had at least a rudimentary grasp of how character attributes work in-game before starting to generate characters.

I haven't sat on either side of a DM screen for 30-ish years, and the help you have given me here and off-board have been invaluable. Thanks, amigo.

[Some Schmo]

Back in the late 80's I bought myself a Nintendo, and one of the first games I got was the first Final Fantasy. It was awesome in that all the minutia of playing the table top version of D&D was taken care of by the computer. Dice rolls, adjusting your health, applying bonuses, etc. I loved that you just went in and did the fun stuff, and a part of my brain was telling me, "This is so much better."

I played dozens of CRPGs over the years, and if I particularly liked one, I would play it multiple times with different classes. Picking up a new character in a CRPG was usually pretty straightforward. I have also gotten used to games where you're controlling a whole party, managing each class's abilities on their turn.

Now that I've gotten back into the table top version again, I find that just running two characters in a campaign is overwhelming. That is likely due to the biggest difference between a CRPG and a table top RPG being that you can't really roleplay a CRPG. In a computer game, you are confined to limited options. In table top, you can literally react any way you want (keeping to what your character would do, of course). I find that the act of roleplaying a character is a way more involved activity in table top, and trying to think as more than one character at a time is too much.

A lot of it just has to do with thinking so much about your character's background and personality that you try to play within that mindset. I find it difficult switching between more than one personality as quickly as necessary.

But a lot of it, too, is that character creation for the table top version is pretty complicated and requires a lot of knowledge to get the best out of your class (unless you don't mind playing a somewhat gimped character).

I swear, there is enough material and ideas in D&D 5e to create several college courses. DMing could easily be a fulltime job.

[honorentheos]

I think it would have been much better to take your route, so the new players would have had at least a rudimentary grasp of how character attributes work in-game before starting to generate characters.

I haven't sat on either side of a DM screen for 30-ish years, and the help you have given me here and off-board have been invaluable. Thanks, amigo.

Likewise. The creative ideas and suggestions you've offered elsewhere have been invaluable. And frankly you are at minimum a co-creator of the approach suggested above.

I haven't had time but plan on summarizing the outcome of the work one-shot we played this week. Turns out it will have at least one follow up session by popular vote.

[honorentheos]

The Work One-Shot Summary for @Bret Ripley and anyone else interested.

The party had spent the better part of a tenday making the journey between the city of Purevault and the frontier village of Duskwich. Merchants and other travelers that had passed through Duskwich gave reports of a mysterious devastation that had occurred there and strange events that followed. The rumors varied wildly, with some claiming something had come crashing down from the sky into the fields outside the village, while others claimed something had erupted up out of the ground and blighted the land around it. The only consistent information the party had gleaned before leaving is that whatever happened, anyone who witnessed it had not survived.

The weather during the trip had been mild if marked by the chill gusts of wind typical of mid-Autumn, lifting up and tossing recently fallen leaves in vortexes and loops frequently during the days of the march. One such gust blew past them just as they made a bend in the road that gave them their first glimpse of few dozen timber and lath buildings of Duskwich. The village had been claimed from the forest, and acres of fields dotted with farmsteads spread out around the clustered structures of village center which had been built so close together it gives the impression they are huddled together for protection...

Gameplay itself began with the party being narrated to the village where they entered the small square center left between the otherwise claustrophobic alleys and streets. There they were greeted the mayor of Duskwich, Ciara Gilden, and the head of the village watch, Mane. Ciara asked their business, and the new players did what I expected them to do...look big eyed and unsure what to do. She remarked to Mane that perhaps this was a good omen as the village had enough troubles so having two groups of armed adventurers show up the same day may not be a concern if one is much quieter than the other had proven to be.

The players warmed up at that, began to ask questions. They learned Ciara was busy almost all day now organizing performers to sing in the square without pause, that the devastation had occurred about a month before and wiped out all of the crops in a quarter mile radius just west of the village except for one farmstead which seemed to not only have survived, but its corn was growing greener and taller than ever. But nothing had been heard from the family that owned it, and the one person who went to check on them never returned. The party learned a dozen or so people had been found dead after the loud explosion had occurred, and when members of the watch had attempted to investigate it they had all been killed except for Mane. Mane doesn't remember what happened, but he had found himself out in the woods the day after they had went to investigate stumbling around as if he was looking for something. They learned the other party had arrived only a couple of hours before and had set up in the Busted Keg which was the only tavern in town, and the bard volunteered to spend an hour performing since Ciara asked if any of them could play musical instruments. A 22 on a performance check later, the bard was so good, and such a relief to the people who had been hearing the same songs and people day in and day out for weeks, that she began to attract a small crowd who also began dropping a few coins in a donated straw hat.

The party ditched the bard in order to check out this other party. That party was loudly proclaiming themselves to be a group from the Grinning Sinners, a broadly recognized syndicate of mercenary tomb raiders, and they had turned the loft over the tavern main floor into a sort of VIP area from which free ale flowed and good times appeared to be had. The party wondered why the Grinning Sinners (GS) weren't out investigating, so they began to look for others in the tavern to question. They caught sight of someone who was giving them regular glances, and after a few bad attempts to warm him over the rogue halfling finally got him to warm to her. He shared that he had heard the GS say they were in the village chasing after a band that had left Purevault about six months ago. He didn't know much more than that.

The party decided to go check out the bard, who had made a tidy sum performing, and then they realized that Ciara was needing people to perform day and night, non-stop. This finally got them to ask for more details where they learned that the devastation not only had killed people outside of the village and blighted the fields, but soon thereafter people in the village and surroundings began to experience an affliction. They called it the tremors, which began with the sensation something like what one experiences before a storm sets in. Headaches and nausea followed by an increasing feeling of dread descend which had begun to cause people to leave until they discovered that the sounds of pleasant music stave off the tremors. So for over two tendays they have had anyone and everyone in the village that can play an instrument or sing performing while they worked to figure out how to resolve the problem. This is now a puzzle the party is mulling over.

While talking with Ciara, they ask her if anyone came through the village six months ago, which gives her a laugh as before the devastation Duskwich had been a stopping point between Autumnguard and Purevault so many, many people had come through. Once they narrowed the question to what may have happened in the village that spring the only things that jumped out to her was that ol' Jenkins the baker had finally given the business over to his daughter Jenny, and the Jessel family had bought the pawn shop. This led the party to the pawn shop where they met Kavala, the owner. When they asked her why the GS may be looking for them if they had just came from Purevault? She told them they hadn't come from Purevault but instead from Autumnguard (she passed her deception against their passive insight and no one asked) and offered the party a gold piece each if they would go find out what the GS wanted? She offered to pay them half up front which they accepted, chatting out of game about trying to cheat her out of her money because players are players. Then they headed back to the Busted Keg.

At the Busted Keg they had a few incidents that included chatting up one of the thug-types of the GS who had come downstairs to piss, and being able to get one of the barmaids to really spill the tea, so to speak. She gave them insight enough that the GS were saying the people they were after were thieves. Their leader had been killed by the main GS affiliates in Purevault and apparently they had only recently realized that members of the group had survived and been able to get away with something of value the GS wanted back. They claimed what they were there to find would be so valuable it would set them up for a long time and elevate them in the GS organization, so of course they were celebrating. An arm wrestle contest with another thug and a brief exchange with the leader of the GS later, the party asked if they could join the Sinners? The leader asked what they had to offer, and the halfling rogue said she was sneaky. He had her prove it by stealing the cake in the window of the bakery opposite the tavern. Hijinks ensued as she easily made every stealth check to get up the back, into a window, sneak down the stairs and hide. The rogue winter eladrin went over to cause a distraction, asking for something special from the back, and managed to persuade her to bring out the quiche she had prepared for dinner since it was for a "special occasion". The halfling then totally failed her final stealth check as she ran to grab the cake from her hiding place and run out the door. She managed to grab the cake, but knocked over the cake stand it was on and causing a loud commotion. The winter eladrin managed a ruse that someone dressed in rags had come running in and grabbed it so fast she hadn't had time to react, and poor Jenny was brought to tears over the loss of such a valuable cake she had hoped would bring her a good profit and impress her father who had only recently left her the family business to attend. The eladrin paid for both the cake and the quiche, saying she felt responsible and rolling high on a persuasion ability check, so Jenny accepted it. This had a lot of laughs over the course of it from the party.

Finally the party earned enough respect from the leader of the Grinning Sinners that he offered them a contract - the terms of which include a clause saying any attempt to leave the GS once a member is cause for being put to death. They signed. Apparently the plan is to kill the sinners and burn the contract. Players.

The leader of the GS then let them in on his strategy. He had bought all the ale and thrown the big party, telling extravagant stories to any who would listen in order to get people in the village talking to him. The combination of free ale and the desire to match his stories loosened lips and he had learned all about the Jessel family, where they lived, and all kinds of village gossip that may or may not come in handy at some point. Then he let the party know that the Jessel's aren't just a normal family, but they are a pack of jackalweres whose Lamia leader had been killed six months ago by the GS, and all of her magic items and wealth taken. Or so they thought. Only recently they had discovered that the Lamia had been in the possession the notorious Mallus Deus, a grimoire of sorts that contained such powerful forbidden knowledge that it would certainly fetch such a great sum it would guarantee both advancement in the GS, and his 5% cut of what he brought back would still be a fortune...as would the 2% cut split between the rest of those with him including the party.

Since the party now worked for him, he sent them to check out the pawn shop again and attempt to capture the jackalwere they had talked with. When they got there, it was empty. Searching the building, they were amazed to discover the Mallus Deus on a shelf among other books. They also found a few papers in a hidden compartment that included a ritual spell to create a Gingwatzim, a sort of mimic creation that could exactly replicate a thing that was in possession and present in the ritual such as, well, a book. DUM DUM DUM. Turned out the book was not the Mallus Deus but the Gingwatzim, and we rolled initiative for the first time. The gingwatzim did a ton of damage to the bard that had been holding it when it transformed form book into its true shape of a 3-ft diameter sphere of ectoplasym. Then each member of they party got an attack in that cumulatively managed to kill it. Six PCs in a party can be like that, even as level 2 against a CR 2 monster.

They then discovered signs that things had been hurriedly removed from the shop, and they went out to find the mayor again to find out what she could tell them. She helped them figure out that Jessels had bought the subsistence farmstead of the former pawnshop owners as well, and they then went out to confront the jackalweres.

I asked the players at this point if they wanted to wrap the one-shot up on time after four hours of play? or play another session? Because it would affect what happened next. I had about 30 minutes to the time I had said we should be done, so if they wanted to call it good with the session I had planned to make it two jackalweres left behind while the others had disappeared, and the Mallus Deus being in the possession of there two jackalweres. That would allow for a short fight and resolution using the Mallus Deus to end the tremors and the party in possession of the book.

They opted to play another session, so it is going to be as I had fully planned with five jackalweres and a jackal at the hovel. And the Mallus Deus at the farmstead where it is causing trouble to be discovered by the party later.

The bard has proficiency with the war gong, and she wanted to use a war gong to draw out the jackalweres from their hovel after the party had stealthed up and scoped things out. One of the folks playing googled it on their phone and this got a big laugh as the gong is a huge instrument. I invented a toy version that can be enlarged/reduced with a command word and said she had it. So she set up in the woods and the session ended with her striking the war gong as the other party members lay in waiting around the building in which the jackalweres are hidden.

Overall, it was a blast. Everyone was laughing and getting into the game as we played, and afterward they all said they really liked it. I've heard since they are excited to play again. Due to logistics that won't be for another week but it should be fun.

Lessons learned: We started a half hour late due to my needing time to fix/work through residual character creation issues. For example, the paladin had taken a shield and a great sword. I suggested he decide if he wanted the AC or to do the damage since the great sword is two handed so he can't use a sword with one. I suggested he may prefer a longsword since he said he wanted to have a shield and we got that worked out. Another player had not added their racial bonuses to their ability scores, so we fixed that. And we had a few other housekeeping items. Not bad, but when playing a one shot with a set amount of time that mattered.

Anyway, I'm working out more ideas on how to help the party deal with the jackalwere fight since they didn't really "take the time to investigate jackalweres. So they didn't learn or know they can't be hurt by non-magical or non-silvered weapons. Three of the six have magic abilities. The other three won't, but I'm planning on helping them explore other things they could do with their action beside "ATTACK!" It will be critical to keep it fun, so I'm glad to have time to keep refining my thoughts on how to handle that. Any suggestions are of course more than welcome!

[Bret Ripley]

Appreciate the write-up, Honor. It sounds like it was a great time.

The players were sent to the pawnshop by the GS, but did the players report to the GS what they had discovered? Or did they head to the farm without checking in? You had mentioned the possibility of a 3-way standoff involving the jackalweres and the GS -- is that still under consideration even though the players actually joined the GS? (I got a chuckle out of them joining the rival gang, by the way. Players gonna play.) If the players left for the Jessel's farmstead without checking in with the GS, and the GS become aware that the pawnshop has been vacated, they may or may not suspect the players had 'gone rogue' but it seems reasonable they may at least send someone to check on things at the farm to see what the Jessels were up to -- they may suspect the Jessels have been alerted that the jig is up and may be in the process of pulling up stakes.

Spitballing: if the players find themselves holding the short end of the stick in their fight with the jackalweres, what if rather than finishing off the players the Jessels offer them a deal to turn coat on the rest of the GS? Maybe get them to agree to lure the GS into a trap in return for some shiny objects? The jackalweres would benefit by having the GS put off their scent (though they would be even safer if they also offed the players), and it would offer the players a way out of their contract with the GS. You could potentially end up with a fight in which the players fight first one group and then the other, or possibly be tempted into switching sides mid-battle. Of course, there is always the possibility that the players could accept a deal from the jackalweres and then try to double-cross them by tipping off the GS ... hmmm. Could get pretty messy. Anyway, as I said -- just spitballing.

[honorentheos]

The PCs didn't check in with the Grinning Sinners, though someone brought it up. The majority of discussion was whether or not to go checkout the farm with thriving corn despite being in the middle of the area of devastation. That had me worried as it was an entire hook for the night, so going that way would have been impossible to wrap up in the allotted time if they wanted that. Fortunately, someone recalled that the timelines didn't match up as the Jessels had been in Duskwich for six months while the devastation had happened a month before, so it wasn't essential that they be related. This led to their going and talking with the mayor again who went and checked the records of sale for the pawn shop which included the smaller subsistence farm and then told them where to find the subsistence farm.

Ferin, the leader of the Sinners group, also has no intention of actually sharing with the party. He saw an opportunity to use them to do some dirty work so his main folk didn't have to risk their lives. He happens to have the Spy stats from the Monster Manual and had slipped out to follow after the party to keep an eye on them when they went to the pawn shop. Turns out he didn't actually know where the jackalweres lived, and he is concerned about the relationship between the devastation and the Mallus Deus. His group has silvered weapons because "prepared" which he intentionally didn't offer or bring up with the PCs. His motivation, then, is to see the party do as much of the investigating and fighting as possible until the Mallus Deus is recovered, and also be as beat up as possible so they can either finish the party off or the jackalweres off depending on who survives.

I like the idea of the jackalwere's offering to help the party take down the GS in exchange for being let free. It aligns with my initial thoughts on how talking with Kavala would reveal the actual relationship between the Mallus Deus and the Farm hook, providing the information that Richard Fox had been the name of the person who had bought the Mallus Deus. Kavala wouldn't know where he went, but the party is almost certain to head to the farm next. The jackalweres were not aware that the copy of the Mallus Deus they had still was actually the gingwatzim as it just sat on the shelf since then. I'm leaning towards having Kavala attempt to end the fighting as soon as it looks like the party aren't going to be pushovers. Now, if the party is getting beat and she believes they can win without losing any of her people...well, jackalweres gotta eat, too. But being CR 1/2 and the party having the means to do damage, that is unlikely to happen unless the party does dumb stuff and also rolls terrible. On the table, but unlikely.

I am anticipating the party will discover the damage immunity the good old-fashioned way of the first attack with a normal weapon not working. Something like one of the rogues shooting one with an arrow which it pulls out of the wound with a grin, leaving no mark behind. Something like that. This will likely trigger a huge at-the-table blow up discussion about what that even means, do they run, do they fight, lots of what!??? ideas being tossed out. If no one askes, The party knows they are lycanthope-like, so hopefully this will trigger someone raising the question of if the weapons nee to be silvered which I'll suggest an Arcana check could be made by anyone who wants to. DC 12, anyone rolling over that number will recall other lycanthropes are immune weapons unless they are magical or silvered so the jackaleweres must be the same way. If no one brings it up, I'll find a way to suggest the check, too.

I'm also thinking of ways to suggest they get clever with things the party members might do that aren't attacks. Just because a jackalwere can't be hurt by an sword or arrow doesn't mean it can't be grappled or a party member with magic could be given advantage with a Help action. I am hoping this proves a chance to get them thinking early about combat as more than a "DRAW SWORD, ROARRRR!" event. So I'm planning on being helpful early, then seeing what they all come up with.

Or, cut scene to the jackalweres having a BBQ of GS and the party. Just kidding. I like to joke about the evil DM tropes but I genuinely enjoy seeing people do fun things and being wild with their ideas that I will almost certainly reward.

[honorentheos]

More off-topic than normal, I'm geeking out over my ancient black dragon mini that came this week. Got it fitted, glued, and just started filling gaps with green stuff but I still feel like posting a pic, just because. Fun painting project ahead...

Black_Dragon.jpg

[honorentheos]

Hey Bret,

Spitballing: if the players find themselves holding the short end of the stick in their fight with the jackalweres, what if rather than finishing off the players the Jessels offer them a deal to turn coat on the rest of the GS? Maybe get them to agree to lure the GS into a trap in return for some shiny objects? The jackalweres would benefit by having the GS put off their scent (though they would be even safer if they also offed the players), and it would offer the players a way out of their contract with the GS. You could potentially end up with a fight in which the players fight first one group and then the other, or possibly be tempted into switching sides mid-battle. Of course, there is always the possibility that the players could accept a deal from the jackalweres and then try to double-cross them by tipping off the GS ... hmmm. Could get pretty messy. Anyway, as I said -- just spitballing.

So...in the end, the party ended up doing what you suggested in that they asked the Jessels to team with them to both find the Mallus Deus and also take on the Grinning Sinners.

To back up slightly, the party opted to take the shoot first, talk never approach in kicking off combat. The artificer was first in initiative which gave her the chance to attack one that came running out with her +1 crossbow she has as part of her class option. She crit, doing almost lethal amounts of damage to one right out of the gate, so the party started out thinking they were about to steamroll them.

The eladrin rogue jumped into a window, grabber a backpack she assumed contained the book, and jumped back out. Kovala had stayed inside with another jackalwere, so she jumped out the window after her and told her there was nothing of value in it. They spent the better part of the encounter playing cat and mouse with the backpack, as the rogue kept attempting to look through it to see if the book was in it while they dodged back and forth through windows.

The rest of the party soon discovered that normal weapons didn't do damage, though, when the paladin threw a javalin at one, hitting with a high roll, only to see it bounce off it. They consulted and realized the need for silver or magic weapons, and changed strategies. The jackalwere pack initially attempted to protect their severely wounded member, with one grabbing him and carrying him while two others attempts to put the artificer and fighter to sleep. Of course, that doesn't work on elves, but the half orc fighter found himself unconscious on the ground where the nearby pack member started to tie him up.

At this point the paladin charged in and killed one with the use of a smite after his longsword bit following the bard having used vicious mockery on it. The wounded jackalwere took off into the forest as the remaining two outside stopped attempting to use nonlethal means of ending the combat and began attempting to avenge their fallen member.

Out of game, multiple players started questioning if they should have tried talking, and maybe not keep fighting. But the player of the paladin who is the only one who has played before kept saying it was just the DM being nice. I figure folks get to think what they want and didn't hint either way so they kept pushing the fight until one other jackalwere had fled due to injuries, the rogue discovering the book wasn't in the backpack, and Korvala along with the other jackalwere inside the hovel obviously guarding the area where their furs lay on the ground.

At this point they found themselves in a tense standoff in the hovel where they accused Kovala of leaving the gingwatzim as a trap. Her surprise that the book was in fact a gingwatzim and not the real book reoriented the encounter to dialogue. The party learned the Jessels were the group being pursued by the GS, that they knowingly were making counterfeit books and selling them, but stating the books only change if someone were to attempt magic on them which they party had done. She further revealed they had been seeking to protect the body of their slain lamia leader whose coffin was under a trapdoor in the floor under the sleeping furs. And that they were selling the counterfeit books as a means of earning the gold needed to have her resurrected. The party then shared what they knew about the GS.
The party asked about how the original Mallus Deus might have become lost and if they remembered who they thought had bought the copy? She told them she remembered what he looked like but not his name. But she had that information at the pawn shop.

When Kovala found out a member of her family had been killed, she became emotionally hostile though not seeking to keep fighting to protect the rest of her family. But she became less cooperative and asserted the party was indebted to them now. The party now suggested they work together to take down the GS, which Kovala countered by telling them they should retrieve her book and take on the sinners to repay their family for the death they caused. They eventually came to the agreement that the party would do this with the Jessels backing the party up against the sinners.

There was a short excursion to the pawn shop to get the name, then the party headed out to the farmhouse as it seemed suspicious given what happened with the devastation by it coincides with the timeline of the book being sold. They also discovered the GS were tailing them and managed to lose them.

They briefly investigated the weirdness associated with the blighted fields, but wisely realized the fact the insects within the devastation appeared trapped like flies attempting to fly out a window likely meant the same would occur to them if they went into it themselves. So they skirted around it and went on to the farmhouse. There they found the road to the farmhouse cut through some of the most robust,thriving corn stalks any of them had ever seen. The fighter cut some down with his sword and their suspicions were rewards with seeing it begin immediately to grow back. But seeing the answers lay inward they headed for the farmhouse. They had heard a piano playing on the way in towards the farmhouse so the bard started playing her instrument as a precaution. It now being just about nightfall, they say a figure in the dark outside who, on seeing their approach, rushed into the farmhouse. They went right up to it, knocked, and were greeted by a twenty-something male named Kingsley who introduced them to his ma and pop.

That's where we ended.

They all said it was really fun and want to keep playing asking questions about leveling up and such. And now it's a campaign.

As a coda: the guy who played before asked me if it all tied together, essentially asking if this would make sense to them eventually. I told him no, I was pulling a Stephan King so at the end they were going to end up fighting s killer extra dimensional clown and win with just their imaginations, courage, and the power of friendship.

[honorentheos]

Switching campaigns, my daughter's friends game last night may be the funniest I've ever participated in. One person started to literally laugh themselves to tears after a badly timed bad deception roll.

It was a good week for gaming.