Howdy folks!
My apologies for the delay between updates, I am writing these articles as I prep each chunk of campaign for my players, and they ended up leaving the city for a while! I'm back, and should hopefully be finishing running Spoken on the Song Wind by February or March of next year, and should therefore have this series done shortly before then.
What kind of chaos caused my party to flee the city, and what the hell happened while they were away? Well!
Making Bacon
The party were hot on the trail of Abeo in the Suspicious Alchemy quest! The party rogue, an Anadi trickster, successfully followed him back to his house. As I was describing the scene, I mentioned rather off-handedly that he lived near the Carniverous Gardens (as the book mentioned on page 23). I meant it as some cool flavor, with the soon-to-set sun casting long shadows on the writhing plants within, but the rogue decided that it would be more fun to investigate the gardens than wait for the rest of the party (they were using the status spell to follow from a distance, as the rogue was by far the stealthiest). The party head into the garden, believing Abeo must be there, and just to keep things interesting I ran Oozing Intro Trouble - the party was attacked by agitated carniverous plants and some gross oozes!
While this was definitely an in-the-moment improvisation based on the pacing of the session, I ended up justifying it by having Abeo be the one who was sourcing the oozes that Natofo fed the plants with, and intentionally set it up as a distraction in case he needed to flee through the gardens at any point. When Froglegs's Grippli agents alerted Abeo that the party was investigating him (the rogue rolled really well on Stealth, but the rest rolled very poorly), he had one of them trigger the attack with a special food additive. The party spent the better part of an hour finishing this side quest, in which time Abeo packed his things and fled!
The party still elected to search the empty house for clues, leaving the least stealthy member of the party (the Oracle) outside as a lookout. Unfortunately, Captain Vassiriki and some goons showed up (alerted by those same Grippli) and, recognizing the Oracle based on the description, began to take her in for questioning. The rest of the party caught wind of this and rushed to her aid, slaying all 5 Bell-Ringers in dramatic fashion. As several citizens poked their heads out their windows to see if the fighting was over, the party fled the scene, and then the city, running to the rogue's hometown a few weeks to the North.
Strings-on-the-River
The party had known for a while that the Anadi village was being taken exploited by the Aspis Corporation, and figured they could kill two birds with one stone - leave the city, wait for the heat to die down, and help kick out the colonialist bastards at the same time. Along the journey, they met up with the Ranger's dad, and Ekujae elf who was keeping an eye on the situation, and the Oracle found an injured Bebaki in an Aspis Corp snare trap and began rehabilitating them, ultimately bonding with them as a new familiar.
In typical fashion, the party immediately insulted the leader of the local Aspis band, and was banished from the surrounding area, except that is for the Anadi rogue who was able to stay with her village. The party began a program of terror from the outside, feeding into the corporation's racist superstition and ambushing several guards. Meanwhile, the rogue worked on bolstering the town's morale and lessening the weight of their exploitation to give them time and space to resist! Ultimately, the party's efforts proved extremely successful! So much that the descendants of Thrice-Damned Cheliax attempted to summon a powerful devil to save them from the "primitive dark spirits" that besieged them. In a climactic final battle that lasted slightly more than an entire session, the party lured a nearby Mamlambo to the corporate bridge base, disrupted the ritual, and rallied the townsfolk to drive out their oppressors!
Back In Nantambu...
Things are very complicated indeed! Froglegs is on the backfoot, the Party are still wanted criminals (though less actively hunted than they had been), and Salathiss's plot is in motion... I wrote these three documents from High Sun-Mage Oyamba, their fellow students, and Teacher Ot to help orient them and seed initial clues, but honestly I have no idea what they're going to do next! It seems like every time I try to predict their actions, I'm wrong lol, which is why I find this situation-based design approach so important.
That's all from me tonight folks! Expect the next part over the next few weeks, though I'm not sure yet whether that will be "Salathiss Response Teams" or "What's Up with the Stone Ghost?" - it depends on whether it seems likely the party will get on the Serpentfolk's bad side in the immediate future, or whether they'll focus on the enemies they know. See y'all then!
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