WSS Summary: World 7, You Have Boarded an "Icarus" - Session 3 (FINAL)

Present Party: Aria, Claudia, Emori, and Steve

World Setting: Sci-fi, aboard what is known as a “galactic starship” which is essentially a space cruise ship. This ship is called Icarus.

The party, now in near complete darkness save for Steve's Light spell and Claudia's awakened spellbook, start making their way down the stairs to meet with King in the lowest decks of the ship. When they arrive, they find the humanoid-eating alien king sitting on a crate in a storage area. On another, larger crate in front of him, Confidence Milton is bound and gagged. There are four chairs, one for each party member, around this "table."

The party takes their seats, and King greets Aria and Steve as old friends. He met them 18 years ago in this world, while they were on a short side-mission in the same world for Hacker. Oddly enough, they haven't aged, but a careful deception check regarding skin care routines made perfect sense to King. For their help all those years ago, King owed them a favor. Steve asked if King knew about a "small, white, glow-y thing" that might have been around the ship.

"Sounds like the life support system," King mentioned. "That officer Daedonis guy unplugged it. That's why all the food is dead. We have it down here still." He smiled. "But that information was your favor... so if you want it... we're going to have to work out a separate arrangement."

King wanted to eat Confidence, but after some debate amongst the party about whether or not they should offer one of themselves, a piece of them, or one of the survivors upstairs, they opted for the last option. King assured them that he would not bother Confidence again as long as they provided him with different food for this dinner. They also offered to help steer the ship to a new planet, after hearing that the entire IMP population in Polus was essentially dead, save for a few clusters, much like this one, scattered throughout the galaxy. In return for that, King would give them the Shard.

Claudia and Emori freed Confidence, who struck out on his own, but not before Emori, using her kalashtar mind link, said something to him. Jack Daedonis, the mastermind behind this massacre, left a message for Confidence saying that nobody would mourn him if he died.

Emori told him, "Just for the record, if you died, I would miss you."

She received no reply.

Aria and Steve walked with King, up to the base of survivors on the UR Deck. King devoured Evie Allard, Daedonis's ex-wife with whom they'd argued before. The other seven survivors scattered, running and screaming for their lives.

The four of them regrouped and made their way up to the Bridge again, where they charted a new course for the ship. Instead of flying to Faerun, which would take about 8 years, they changed course to a planet called "Cemos 17." King assured the party that he and his people would be able to survive there. The journey only took 3 years instead. When they finished, King told them they were free to take the Shard and leave at their leisure.

Emori wanted to say goodbye to Confidence before she left, so she and Claudia went looking for him. In the mean time, Aria and Steve traveled back to the Lower Decks to learn the IMP language (or at least the basics.) 

The girls found Confidence on E deck, playing his guitar. Emori spoke to him, and found that he was surprisingly willing to talk to her despite the fact that he'd been particularly stand-off-ish this time around. He played a song that a previous iteration claimed to know. Emori confessed that she'd heard him play that song before. Confidence seemed confused as to how or where. She asked what the song was about.

"It's not so much what it's about," he said. "It's... what it means."

Emoria asked, "And what does it mean?"

"It's... the song I play when... when I feel like nobody cares and I need to remind myself that I matter."

"Well... you matter to me."

She learned more about his career in this world as a musician. She and Claudia both listened to his music on his phone, including his personal favorite song: "Venus." It was about a beautiful woman who lived in a beautiful place. She had a smile that lit up the world and she loved strawberries. According to Confidence, there was no specific person that inspired the song. It just... struck him. "Venus" was also the name of his new album.

Before they left, Emori left her dagger with him to protect himself, in case he needed it.

The whole party also raided the storage room for merchandise of his before they left. However, when they took the Shard and returned to the System Space, only Steve kept his items - a copy of the album and a player to listen to it - because he put them in a Secret Chest. Emori's dagger also returned to her possession.

They successfully collected their seventh Shard of twenty, and watched a vision of the future where the IMPs and survivors created a colony together on Cemos 17.

Then, they left for their next world.

~~~~~

Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!

Credit to @bandcat5313, for the creation of the character: Venus Milton.

NPC Concept: The Veteran Adventuring Party

Overview:

This is another concept that I actively use in my Tri-Panthonic War (TPW) Campaign. I like the trope of the "veteran adventurers" a lot. I think it gives the players something to aspire to, and those NPCs can actually serve a much larger purpose - dead or alive. In my campaign, they're living, and they exist in the form of a group known as the "Chroma Conquerors." They received that name because in the 15 years that they spent adventuring together, they killed over 100 chromatic dragons, including ancient ones. I'll be referring to them here pretty consistently, so I want to put their names, races, and classes here as a reference.

*Please note that I do reuse NPCs across campaigns as a Dungeon Master, especially when I have two different groups playing two different games. Those who are familiar with my "Welcome to the System Space" Campaign will note that Confidence Milton also appears there. This iteration of him is entirely different and separate from that one even though they share similarities. When these campaigns are over, I'll have to make posts about them and truly distinguish between them.*

- Confidence Milton: Tiefling Eldritch Knight Fighter

- Celorfin "Finn" Lihtaur: High Elf Archfey Warlock of The Summer Queen, Pact of the Chain

- Ianlin Jorsif: Forest Gnome Horizon Walker Ranger

- Irienne Yauda: Firbolg Oath of the Ancients Paladin of Artemis

- Helena Cassius: Human College of Glamour Bard

- Simon Cleves: Protector Aasimar of Oghma Conjuration Wizard

Let's dive into the possibilities of having NPCs like these guys!

Function and Motivations:

Depending on your setting, these types of NPCs can serve several functions and have varying motivations.

The Chroma Conquerors serve several roles. If you look at the list of PCs in this campaign (which can be found under "Characters in My Campaigns") you'll notice that some characters share last names with some of the Conquerors. Venus is Confidence Milton's granddaughter. Yera was adopted by Finn and his husband, Caldor, during the campaign. Finn also travels as a diplomat alongside the party, as the voice of their cause against cults. In those cases, the Conquerors take on familial and mentorship roles. Venus even refers to Confidence as "grandpa" and the other Conquerors as "auntie" or "uncle." Yera calls Finn "Dad" or "Dad-Finn" when "Dad-Cal" is also around.

The veteran party can also serve other functions, some of which are far more indirect. Some examples:

- Have this veteran party be the patron of this new party's adventure. Let them fund it. Let them be the quest-givers for once.

- Have this beloved veteran party that has risen to fame and power suddenly go missing. Now the new party has to try and find them.

- Does the veteran party mirror the PC party? Is it maybe just a little creepy? If so, is there a reason why? Let the PCs find it. Maybe the veteran party is dead in this case, and there's some reincarnation stuff happening.

- Always a classic: make this veteran party into the BBEGs of the campaign. Give them a reason to have turned evil. Maybe they were evil all along, and nobody realized it until just now. Make that reveal the plot hook of the game.

- Turn the veteran party into mentors for the new party (much like I did) and then do the classic "kill the mentor" trope. Now the party is super invested in avenging their deaths.

Additionally, I should mention, don't make this veteran party well-liked everywhere or by everyone. Give them a specific region where they have considerable sway. Maybe the world knows their names and has a rough idea of their deeds, but that region knows the specifics. That region has the literature, the artifacts, the soldiers and mages who fought alongside them, etc. In TPW, the Conquerors have the northern continent: Iparnord, but specifically, the country of Midtia. That continent was largely where the dragon problem was. Midtia was the country that gave them an army and eventually knighted them. The rest of the world knows them but has varying opinions about how "heroic" they really are, especially after it came to light that the Chroma Conquerors were the cause of the dragon problem in the first place. In that same vein, there's an air of mystery about a veteran adventuring party, in a way. Much of their story can be played up or down for wider audiences. Some of it may not be true. That was the case with the Conquerors. If this group of NPCs is going to be integral to your story, then this is another angle to look at it from.

Adventuring in D&D is often played as morally gray. Play that up here. Maybe this veteran party wants to help the PCs but they have a completely different way of doing it that doesn't quite fit the PCs' morals. That creates conflict. Maybe this becomes an example of the "new guard replacing the old guard." How do the veterans feel about that? Do they consider themselves "too old for this" at this point in their lives? Are they supportive of the "changing of the guard" or do they oppose it?

Conflict within the veteran party is also an interesting avenue for the PCs to explore. Maybe the PCs' goal is to, for lack of a better phrase, "get the band back together" but there was a falling out. Why? How do the party members feel about each other after that?

If your veteran party has a close relationship with the PCs, give them trauma and stories to tell of their adventuring days. Each of the Chroma Conquerors have stories from their "glory days" that evoke happiness, grief, regret, bliss, camaraderie, and other emotions. 

- Confidence had a daughter (Lydia, Venus's mother) who he left with her mother and pretty much neglected for the first fifteen years of her life so he could fight dragons. 

- Finn had a fiancée who was part of the Conquerors' larger army. She was killed. Finn found out later that she was scheduled to leave the army after that mission due to the fact that she was pregnant. 

- Helena was horribly scarred and blinded in their very last fight against an ancient black dragon. Her injuries ultimately led the Conquerors to make the choice to retire.

These are only some of the stories my players know about. There are several more that they don't know about and I can't recount them all because my players do, in fact, read this blog. Stories like these foster a connection between players and NPCs. They also provide warnings in a more serious campaign setting: sometimes adventuring can lead you to "bad endings." Behind every great victory, there could also be a great loss. The rewards from adventuring are great, but so are the risks.

Why Should I Include This?

I like mentor figures in fantasy settings. I know they're clichéd, but there's something about them and the relationships that come out of them that appeal to me. The "mentor death" trope, in my opinion, is optional, but can be very compelling and emotional if done correctly.

Even so, there's so much other potential with a group like this. There are multiple avenues that you can traverse as a DM. Work with whatever fits into your setting. The Chroma Conquerors are currently serving the purposes that I needed and wanted them to. They've become an integral part of the story and my players joke in-character about them. A veteran party can be a great starting point for a campaign, both from a roleplay perspective and a plot perspective. 

PC Concept: Dream Walker

Overview

I've been developing this idea for a while, but a particularly excellent tweet by Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) inspired me to finish the idea and post about it here.

The tweet was about the Horizon Walker Ranger, and the story potential that the class alone holds and I can't help but agree. Today, I want to create a Horizon Walker with ties to the Plane of Dreams because... what's cooler than a character that can walk through dreams and nightmares? An adventure stuck in a dream or nightmare? Sounds super fun to me!

Race, Class, Stats, and Background:

Obviously, we're going with Horizon Walker Ranger (Xanathar's Guide) for this build because that's the inspiration. These guys are plane-walkers or plane-guardians. Todd Kenereck's tweet, and other tweets in that same thread, give some excellent ideas and concepts. 

I want to focus on a Horizon Walker whose plane-walking knowledge is mainly about the Plane of Dreams. Now, this doesn't mean that Ranger is the only class we have to pick either. A "dream walker" could be any class affiliated with dreams. Multiclassing is part of what makes D&D so fun and customizable, and that's an additional route we could take. I could totally see a Circle of Dreams Druid (Xanathar's Guide) or even, if your DM allows Unearthed Arcana, a Seeker Patron Warlock. Both of those, to me, scream "dream walker."

Depending on what route you decided to take, your highest stat will probably be different. This is what I'd recommend:

- Just Horizon Walker, no multiclass: Dexterity is your highest stat, followed by Wisdom.

- Horizon Walker / Dreams Druid: Wisdom is your highest stat, followed by Dexterity.

- Horizon Walker / Seeker Warlock: Depends on what you want your main attack class and mode to be: Ranger or Warlock, weapon or spellcaster. If it's Warlock, highest stat should be Charisma, followed either by Wisdom or Dexterity. If it's Ranger, highest stat should be Dexterity followed by either Charisma or Wisdom. 

For me, race is an easy choice. Whenever I want to create a character with connections to a certain realm, I try to match their race and aesthetic to that realm. I'd make this character a kalashtar (Eberron - Rising from the Last War) because of their spiritual connection to the dream realm. According to the race description, kalashtar are a hybrid race - a combination of humans and spirits from the Plane of Dreams. Additionally, they get a +2 to Wisdom and +1 to Charisma, so those would be helpful for any of the classes I mentioned above. This could be something worth exploring in the game.

Background choice is a little harder. It could be anything really and I think that depends on the campaign setting and how exactly the player wants this character to be played. The Far Traveler Background (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide) is one of my personal favorites because of its ability to be used in so many different ways. It's one of the few backgrounds that's really up for interpretation, and it allows for the player to choose why their character is leaving home. My other, personal choice, would be the Sage Background (Player's Handbook) but only if you really want this character to be actively learning about the Plane of Dreams. Maybe that was their area of study. I think this background also works better if you're also taking the Seeker Warlock route.

Roleplay / Story Potential:

There's so much here, I'm just going to do a bulleted list to show you what I mean. The amount of internal and external conflict that's available to you and your DM is endless.

- Let there be some kind of conflict between the kalashtar themselves and the dream spirit that makes up half of their entire being. There could be some roleplay between the two halves that make up the whole. And what does the rest of the party think about this conflict?

 - Better yet, take the dream spirit away for a while. Where'd it go? What happened? How do you get it back?

- Send this player and their party to the literal Plane of Dreams for some reason. Let this character shine with their knowledge about the realm.

- Also, semi-related to the last one, send this player and their party to some kind of nightmare-dimension within the Plane of Dreams. If you're a really cruel DM like me, you'll also make the characters face their literal worst fears in order to leave.

- Hear me out: BBEG or mini-BBEG who also has dream powers of some kind... give them a conflict with this character.

Planar travel in D&D can be a total blast, and DMs can make the planes appear however they want, really. The Plane of Dreams also isn't a realm I feel like many players would expect to travel to in a game. It's one of those planes of existence that is written about in the general lore, but it's never a place PCs get to go, which is kind of unfortunate. I say, change that up. Players, use this character to have a new spin on this really cool Ranger subclass. DMs, if your player is playing this character or a character like it, go crazy with the dream plot ideas. I think it could be so interesting. 

Short Story: "I Am A Good Person, pt. 2"

 (Based on my PC, Carter Shannon. You can read about him under "My PCs")

They all wanted to be there for him, and that was the best thing Carter could have asked for. He sat in the chair, and Addison rushed to his side, holding his right hand. He held it tightly, just so he could get the shaking to stop. Lumi walked behind Carter and placed a hand on his left shoulder. Annie was standing beside Ki, trying to be supportive, despite the fact that Carter knew she was going through hell right now after Makoto. But she was here. And that was all that he could have asked for from her. He looked at Ki, their proverbial father, who, even behind his mask, Carter could tell was staunch in his stance from the other night.

Abraxas won’t hurt you, Carter. I won’t let him.

Void stepped up to him, her bracer out, ready to take the payment. Carter closed his eyes, paid, and leaned back as Void stepped forward. There was a sharp pain.

And there he was.

He was huge - tall and broad with hands that could honestly probably crush Carter in a split second. The purple and black skin around his eyes was cracked, like Carter’s was, but his cracks were a pinkish-white, like Carter’s skin.

They stared at each other. Carter’s mouth felt dry. There were so many things he could have said. So many things he wanted to say, but couldn’t have said because he didn’t know how… Because he was scared. Abraxas was the only thing that ever really scared him, and here he was.

So, Carter stood up. “I… only have one thing… to say. I have people… who love me… and I am a good… fucking person…”

Abraxas’s jaw worked, like he too was wondering what to say. “I’ll give you one thing… You’re not a coward.”

And then he was gone, swept up in Ki’s shadows.

Carter collapsed back in his chair, near sobbing, and turned into Addison, holding her like she was the last thing keeping his head above water.

 After he had a moment to calm himself, a moment to hug his friends who had become more like his family, they took the elevator back down to the lobby of The Company, and…

There was a party.

The room was filled with people Carter knew, people he’d called friends for years now. Every eye in the room swung to meet Carter’s and they were all beaming, and they shouted “SURPRISE!” with such a force of joy, it nearly knocked Carter backwards.

Kor stood there, holding a cake that read, “Congrats on Getting Your Demon Out of Your Head!”

I have people who love me…

Carter felt new tears pressing at his eyes and they rolled down his cheeks as he laughed in disbelief at this - all of this, for him. All because they cared enough about him.

I have friends...

Short Story: "I Am A Good Person, pt. 1"

 (Based on my PC, Carter Shannon. You can read about him under "My PCs")

“I want you to say it,” Annie declared.

Carter sighed and closed his eyes. “I… But it’s not true.”

“It is, you just… you need to say it until you believe that it is.” She smiled. “Carter, you’re a good person. Take a minute, but… don’t leave her waiting.”

Annie left the kitchen, walking back towards the dining room where their very large extended family was chatting away.

Where Addison would be sitting, right beside him, waiting. Allegedly harboring the same feelings for him as he did for her.

Allegedly.

Carter leaned against the wall, tilting his head back against it.

It’s not true… It can’t be. A lanky, awkward guy like you? C’mon…

Even though he couldn’t hear him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Abraxas would be laughing at him right now. Would just pile on with that same mindset - call him pathetic or a coward.

And worse, Carter knew that he would have been right.

He covered his face, and took a few deep breaths.

You can’t let him be right… Even if you can’t hear him, and you’re just guessing at what he’d say, you can’t let him be right.

He screwed his eyes shut, and gulped.

“Addison likes me... and I’m a good person.”

The quiet was deafening. The sarcastic response he expected from… someone, anyone, it never came. There was just the chatter in the other room, and even that sounded so far away at the moment.

The tension in his shoulders faded, but only a little.

Carter repeated, “Addison likes me, and I’m a good person.”

“Hell yeah!” Lumiset shouted from the dining room.

Carter slapped a hand over his mouth, at first thinking (mortified) that Lumi had heard him. But he hadn’t, so he used the hand to hide his amused chuckle at the timing.

Hell yeah! Lumi’s voice echoed in Carter’s mind.

Tears pressed at his eyes, but he pushed them back for now. The tension melted. Carter felt a jolt through his body, something that propelled him to take those steps back to the dining room and to sit himself right next to Addison with a smile - a smile that certainly wasn’t confident, but was genuine. Briefly, he cast a glance at Lumi, who was utterly distracted by Sly. He was completely unaware of what he’d done for Carter tonight.

On brand, Carter noted.

When Carter talked to Addison, he could still feel it - that jolt - running through him. He felt something else too, a sense of… severe longing. He looked at Addison, and held onto her every word because there was something in him that was begging to learn more about her. There was something so lovely in the way that she smiled. Every time, Carter felt like the room got brighter, like his heart - his heart weighed down by his own self-doubt - got just a little lighter.

Annie caught Carter’s attention again at the end of the night, as Addison was leaving. She shoved - literally shoved - him over to her.

His heart pounded. The Hell Yeah! jolt was wearing off faster and faster.

“I uh… I was wondering…” Carter started, trying to find the words, trying desperately to hold onto those last sparks of that moment. “I… I was wondering if you would like to… maybe do this again sometime? Like… a dinner… but just… with me, you and me…”

It was gone. Carter closed his mouth, hoping she wouldn’t ask any clarifying questions because if Addison had tried to, Carter knew he’d just laugh it away like it was a slip of the tongue.

But she didn’t. She agreed.

She kissed his cheek after he walked her home.

He painted her that night, painted her exactly how she’d been - gorgeous in that dress, smiling like she could outshine the sun - but walking in a garden of flowers.

“Addison likes me, and I’m a good person,” he said when he finished.

His heart felt just a little lighter.

My PC: Carter Shannon

Who's This?

Carter Shannon is the first PC I ever played in a campaign that finished, straight from level 1 to 20. We started this campaign in March of 2020 and finished it in July of 2020. This campaign was special, and I think you'll be able to tell why from the character descriptions. This campaign was run by a close personal friend of mine, and done entirely online. There were three players.

Our PCs:

1. Carter Shannon: Human, Fiend Warlock, Pact of the Tome - He was from a world similar to ours, but with some fantasy races and some present magic, though it was limited. He died in 1977, in his college dorm room during his last semester of art school, due to complications with the fact that he was possessed by a demon.

2. Antoinette "Annie" Johanna: Protector Aasimar of the Catholic God, Light Domain Cleric - She was from France, and actually a French princess. Her family ruled during the 18th century, with the one exception that the French Revolution had never happened. She died due to an illness she'd been suffering from her whole life.

3. Lumiset "Lumi" Love: Tiefling, Monster Hunter Ranger - He was from a typical D&D fantasy era world, filled with adventure and fantastic monsters. He had been an adventurer until he died when he'd accidentally stumbled into a dragon's lair.

The game was a "world-hopping" campaign, so our characters didn't necessarily have to be from "medieval fantasy D&D era." As you can see, our worlds of origin were really different. It's also special because our characters started this campaign dead. The whole campaign took place after our characters had died, and this was about their adventures in a particularly strange afterlife called "The Beyond." 

The Beyond was filled with people like us, from all different kinds of world with one common denominator: we had died tragic deaths. We were known as "Players" because The Beyond was based around this economy of "playing through quests" to gain points, which were essentially currency. Originally, our goal was to go back and prevent our own deaths (which wasn't what it sounds like, as we learned.) As we played, our goals changed, and all that we really wanted was a comfortable afterlife, surrounded by a found family.

We were also not the only inhabitants of The Beyond. Some "Quest-Worlders" also lived in The Beyond. These were people who were from these quests that Players played though. These quests were "re-playable" and essentially created multiple timelines within that quest. If you took someone out of a quest, which cost points depending on the "difficulty" of the quest, it didn't matter because a different "them" would appear in the new timeline whenever you or someone else "played" it again. At least, this was the usual case; we did have one instance where that wasn't true and the removal of certain characters actually broke the cycle. Because of this, quest-worlders could actually live alongside different versions of themselves in The Beyond. For example, we met five very different iterations of one quest-worlder, Orion Saintimore. One was the Orion that we had actually taken out of his quest when we played it, three were other older Orions who had lived in The Beyond for a few years, and the last was actually one of the final bosses of the campaign. All of them were the same person, technically, but they were also remarkably different people and some had even changed their names.

The campaign took place over the course of nine years. Carter died when he was 22, and remained 22 for the duration of the campaign because... he was dead and couldn't age. He was built like a string bean, had red hair, and blue eyes. Additionally, all Players had "death marks" which indicated how they died. Carter's was a series of purple cracks surrounding his eyes.

Backstory

Carter's backstory has a lot to do with the acquisition of his Warlock abilities, which were tied to a demon by the name of Abraxas.

Carter met Abraxas at his local library, in a rural Kansas town, when he was 13. He didn't do anything except pick up a book. Abraxas happened to be trapped inside, and when Carter picked it up, Abraxas possessed him and effectively trapped Carter inside his own body for about two weeks. Carter's parents noticed the change in their son's behavior and brought him to their local church, where they asked the priest to perform an exorcism.

The exorcism took an additional two weeks, during which Carter was kept in the basement of the church and his parents were told not to worry and not to ask to see him. Doing that would only make the possession worse. Carter was starved, beaten, drowned, and had crosses carved into his back and chest. Abraxas gave up control of the body, pushing Carter forward, during the worst of this torture. One of the rituals the priests performed actually "worked." It didn't expel Abraxas, like the priests had thought, but it sealed him in the back of Carter's mind. Finally, the church let Carter go, believing that they'd "cured" him.

Even before the exorcism, Carter didn't have many friends. He was a nerdy bookworm who liked to paint, skinny, and had no confidence in himself (which he always attributed to general "awkwardness.") The exorcism only made it worse, and in a small town, the gossip was hard to get away from. Carter's parents also insisted on bringing him to church every Sunday, which only served as a constant reminder that he, being demon-possessed, was evil and had to atone for his sins.

The best day of his life was when he finally got to go to school in New England for art. He escaped the small town life that had brought him so much pain, but Abraxas came with him. Throughout his life, but even during college, Carter never drank or did drugs, knowing that the impairment of his mind may allow Abraxas to take over again. That was, by far, his worst fear. He didn't make very many friends either. He didn't want to be close to people because he didn't want Abraxas to hurt them, in case he ever came back.

Carter died, but he wouldn't really know how until the very last session: Abraxas had done something he'd done a hundred times - poke the barrier that separated his consciousness from Carter's - and this particular time, it had killed them both.

Carter and Abraxas were both Players in The Beyond, trapped in Carter's body. The only difference was that Abraxas couldn't speak, or rather, Carter could no longer hear him.

Character Development

In my mind, there were two major facets in Carter's development over the course of the campaign. The first was his relationship with Abraxas and the second was his own self-loathing.

The self-loathing was the hardest, in my opinion. Carter had grown up in an environment where he had been told that the fact that he had been demon-possessed made him a bad person. If he were good, it never would have happened. Abraxas, too, enforced this idea while Carter was alive; that he was pathetic, weak, stupid, boring, etc. He always considered himself awkward, but he learned that he wasn't; he just lacked confidence. Working on himself really helped him build that up.

There was a moment when the party was hosting a dinner for everyone in their lives that they had come to know as family. Addison, an elven woman who Carter really liked, was attending. Annie pushed Carter to talk to her more, to try and ask her out. Carter had insisted that no, she couldn't possibly like him and even if she did, that was a poor choice because he was a bad person. Eventually, Annie told him to repeat this phrase until he believed it: "Addison likes me, and I'm a good person."

And he did. And he continued to every time he needed that reassurance - variations on the "I'm a good person" mantra. That and continued love from friends and going to therapy (yes, our characters had therapy in D&D) really helped him come into his own by the end of the campaign.

Carter had the option to have Abraxas removed from his head and still keep his Warlock powers. It would cost him points, but that was irrelevant to him. He wanted nothing more than that, even when he didn't know what that meant. He was so afraid of being possessed again, and losing the people who loved him and who were helping him. Now, he had so much to lose. Luckily, when he had played through enough quests to get the points he needed, he had met people who could tell him what that meant. This afterlife was Abraxas's too. He'd appear in The Beyond, in his own body. They would just be... separate people. While that thought definitely scared Carter at the time, he had a very large support system at that point. His friends rallied around him, and assured him that Abraxas would never be able to hurt him again.

Abraxas was removed about three years into the nine years of the campaign. When Carter finally saw him, the only thing he said was: "I have people who love me, and I am a good fucking person."

Carter never saw Abraxas again until the final session, after six years of being without him, where they had a conversation about their death. And that is what it was: a conversation. A very professional, adult conversation without any fighting or malice or even terror. There was some nervousness on Carter's part, but he was no longer afraid after six years of healing and working on how he viewed himself. They even laughed together, for a moment. They left that conversation with the sentiment that although they probably would never be friends, that they could tolerate each other.

Post-Campaign

The campaign ended with the "quests" being effectively destroyed as The Beyond knew them. They were no longer "quests." They were worlds of their own with timelines that could be visited and revisited by anyone, even quest-worlders.

During the campaign, the party had created an "adopted family" of fifteen young boys from quests who had nowhere else to go. All of them grew up, and all of them led their own lives and they visited Carter, Annie, and Lumi frequently (some more frequently than others, but still.) The three of them had also been formally adopted (with paperwork and everything) by their manager who sent them on quests, Ki, and his husband, Kor. That whole, huge family has dinner every Saturday night.

Carter dated Addison for a very long time during the campaign, and I think that after a while, he would have married her.

Carter never goes on another quest again. The quests that we did go on, although fun, also had some great emotional impact and I don't think he would ever do one again. Instead, he stays in The Beyond and studies every humanities subject he ever could at the university there. He also teaches some of the art classes. The Beyond mostly knows Carter as one of their most prolific painters, and much of his work is displayed in The Beyond's museum. The rest of it resides in his and Addison's home, or in various demiplanes.

This was a campaign about death and coping with death and (I think our DM will agree with me when I say this) we turned into a romantic / family sitcom. But if we hadn't, I don't think that the story would have been as impactful as it was. I'm really happy with the direction it took. It started with three traumatized characters looking at a young Orion Saintimore, alone beside the burning ruins of his home. It ended with a found family who, despite all they'd been through, loved each other so much that they would do pretty much anything for each other. This is a game that's going to stick with me forever, and so will Carter.

WSS Summary: World 7, You Have Boarded an "Icarus"... - Session 2

Present Party: Aria, Claudia, Emori, and Steve

World Setting: Sci-fi, aboard what is known as a “galactic starship” which is essentially a space cruise ship. This ship is called Icarus.

Emori’s player had missed the first session of this world. She and Claudia’s player also missed the session before that one, so I decided that Steve and Aria would go on their own duo adventure during that time. Claudia got a short adventure to herself before the first formal session of the world, and this past week, Emori got one too.

Emori found herself in a strange black void, being constricted by an invisible pressure around her chest. She managed to escape with the help of… an odd tugging feeling in her chest that led her from this black void, through a doorway, and out into the white void that she knew as the System Space. A very odd occurrence, considering she was meant to be in a world by now. She walked for some time, following the sound of footsteps.

She met Savaxis - otherwise known as Savvy - a green dragonborn. He was wandering the System Space, allegedly because he and his party had messed up and hadn’t gotten the System’s Shard in the world they were sent to. Savvy was trapped in what he described as a dangerous place, filled with his worst fears - fears he didn’t even know he had. Right now, he had a short bit of respite so he offered to walk Emori to Mod’s office, knowing that they could help her. On the way, he also confessed that he’d been trapped in this “punishment” for about two years. He was almost sure that the System forgot about him.

Emori reached The System Moderator’s office, and they were able to teleport her to the world where her friends were. When Emori mentioned something about being trapped in a black void, Mod explicitly told her not to go near it again.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, aboard Icarus, the other three party members searched for a way to enter the hospital and get the vaccine that would save Aria from the IMPs' infectious bite. They also wanted to find more of these logs that the nine other survivors of the apparent mass-unplugging-of-life-support had found, explaining why they, specifically were not allowed to die quickly. These logs were created by one Jack Daedonis, who some of the survivors knew and some did not. Apparently, all of them had slighted him in some way. So far, they'd found three logs.

They decided to investigate the school on the ship, where they pilfered some laptops for later use. They found another log there after they met up with Mod and Emori. Mod let them know for sure what they'd been suspecting: the crew and all the other passengers are dead, save for the nine survivors and 15 humanoid-eating IMPs on board, who were concentrated in the lowest decks of the starship. They also took the liberty of healing Aria and letting the party know that the decks further down probably held the crew cards they needed to get into restricted areas.

The party explored further down and ran, once again, into Confidence Milton. They'd already met him in that first session, and this was the seventh time they'd seen him across the worlds they'd been to. This was the first iteration they'd met that was... not quite as kind as they'd known him to be. He was egotistical, indifferent, uncaring, and also younger. Typically, Confidence appears as a tiefling man in his mid-20s but here, he appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties. The only other instance of his age changing was in the third world, where he was nine. This was Emori's first encounter with him in this world, and being that she has had arguably the best relationship with him across several worlds, she was quite shocked to see this change in his demeanor.

After finding a crew pass and several other logs, they made their way to the Crew Deck to try and get into the Bridge. They found an officer's pass to let them in, and made a startling discovery. Jack Daedonis had been teasing a slow and painful death for the people who'd wronged him, and the party finally figured out how: by flying the ship into a sun named "Apollo's Chariot." Steve, with his background in space piracy and work with computers, was able to rechart a course to another planet. Their ETA was about 6 years.

Additionally, in their travels, they found Jack Daedonis's body and a suicide note, in which he expressed that the only things he regretted were the deaths of the innocents and that he couldn't be alive to watch his enemies' agony. However, it didn't appear as though he killed himself; his throat had been ripped out. His blaster was on the other side of the room. They also came across his room on the Crew Deck, where they found many of his personal effects, but not his officer's pass.

On their way back to the survivor base, they ran into one of the IMPs in the stairwell who invited them to dinner with the IMP King, who Steve and Aria had met on their duo mission. They were told not to keep King waiting. He was hungry. When they asked if they would be dinner, they were assured that no, they would not be. King already had dinner.

They went back to the base to listen to their logs, and noticed that everyone was accounted for... except Confidence, who was last seen on the Commercial Deck. They also confronted some of the survivors about their wrongdoings towards Daedonis, including Evie (his elven ex-wife) and her divorce lawyer, a kobold named Zik. Zik allowed Evie to keep the house during their divorce while Daedonis raised their young daughter under his older brother's roof.

"So the custody of the child went to the parent who no longer had a house? How could you do that? Don't you have morals?" Emori had asked Zik.

He only shrugged. "Morals don't matter. She was paying. I got her what she wanted."

Overall, their altercation did not end well, and Evie expressed that she hoped they died while they were out exploring.

Cautiously, they began to make their way to the Lower Decks for dinner with King. All the lights suddenly went out, throwing the party into total darkness.

~~~~~

Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!

Campaign Concept: Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

What Are We Making?

I'm going to share a concept of mine that I've actually tested out before as an adventure within a larger campaign (my Tri-Panthonic War Campaign, actually.) This concept can work as a part of a campaign, or as a roleplay-heavy political-intrigue campaign. I'm actually in the process of re-working this concept a little to make it friendlier as a larger campaign so I can hopefully run it with a group of four to five players.

This is the concept: the crown prince of the kingdom has just turned 18, and it is time for him to venture out on the Royal Selection. It's a long and storied process, during which a member of the royal family (the prince, in this case) embarks on a journey to find a spouse (a wife, in this case.) He must travel the country and meet every bachelorette of noble birth in his kingdom. The king doesn't want him to go alone and without protection. That's where the party comes in.

The Setting:

Broadly, this campaign would take place in the borders of a prosperous kingdom, ruled by at least one monarch, if not a monarch and their partner. There should be a great number of noble houses as well who have received their titles for various reasons. Examples are listed below, but feel free to think of any others:

- They're old money. Nobody's really sure how they got their money anymore, but they still have it, and they've always been around.

- Adventuring. Well-known adventurers are typically very rich.

- Being a war hero or having an ancestor who was a war hero.

- Criminal activities (that may or may not be known.)

These noble houses should also have differing reputations and renown based on their locations in a certain city, town, or village, based on their deeds, and based on their overall relationship with the king.

Narrowing in a little, the campaign setting is largely in the walls of the manors and estates of the upper class. An adventuring party would likely find a place like this to be unfamiliar territory, and would need help with navigating it. Much of their time would likely be spent interacting with the prince, his dates, and their families.

The Plot:

The number of directions that this plot can take are infinite, and there's so much room for side quests.

The first thing worth discussing are the two (yes, two - but technically one is optional) NPCs that will travel with the party: the crown prince and the royal advisor. The advisor is the optional NPC, but may be a helpful character to have around to inform the adventuring party of the reputations of the different families or their histories with the royal family. They can also be part of the "interview process" which we'll discuss later.

The crown prince has so many possibilities in terms of character and how he can completely change the plot. Here are just a few ideas, and some of them can absolutely be combined:

- The prince is a kind, humble, and nice young man. His family is very loving and supportive of him.

- The prince is so happy to be on this journey because he feels trapped in a household that barely pays any attention to him. How does the party feel when they get to know him and find out about his family?

- The prince is on this journey to find a wife, but secretly he's gay and attempting to seduce the brothers of the bachelorettes when he can. He's not out to his family because there's pressure on him (as the heir to the throne) or because he doesn't know if his family will be supportive. In this case, the monarch's partner should be of the opposite sex. Now, the party (if they want to support him) can help the prince arrange secret dates with willing young men.

- The prince is completely asexual and/or aromantic and just wants to get this over with, PLEASE! Same relationship with his family as the last point.

- The prince is a bit of a stuck-up jerk, but over time, with experience and some help from the party, he actually develops into a nice young man.

- Also, as a side note: give the prince a journal and/or a hobby of some kind that he can do in his spare time. You could even give him a few levels in a PC class. It gives him more characterization, and try to keep "session summaries" in the form of journal entries by the prince. I think that could be cute. 

The advisor character can also take on different characterizations, depending on the type of country you want this to be: a scholarly one, a war-mongering one, a kingdom based in arcana, etc. They also don't have to have good intentions. Maybe they want the prince to make a poor choice. Maybe they want him dead for one reason or another.

- Typical wizard-y mentor who is very calm and wise.

- Uptight scholarly type. Perfect example would be Chi-Fu from the 1998 Mulan film.

- Powerful general and/or war strategist.

During the process of dating, where the prince spends time with the bachelorettes one-on-one, have the players who go with the prince on "guard detail" make perception checks and insight checks. Perception is for danger or potential prying eyes. Insight is for how the date itself is going. 

I'd also recommend including an interview phase, where the players are able to talk to bachelorettes who are not currently on a date with the prince. Have them make persuasion or general Charisma checks to see how much information they get. Let them insight check these women; not all of them are going to have good intentions. Why would they? The advisor can serve this function as well, or perform an interview with them outside of the party's. Again, the advisor's role is totally optional. The biggest advantage they would provide is reputation history of the noble families. Information about these women can also be obtained via eavesdropping or spying. That's a more dangerous route because there could be consequences for getting caught, but it will almost always guarantee honest information.

To keep track of information about each of the bachelorettes, I'd give players "dating profiles" that they can fill in for the women they interact with. So if a bachelorette is, say, attempting to marry the prince to commit treason and they uncover it, they can write it down. They can also make note of any suspicious activity, or any sweet gestures these bachelorettes make.

Beyond that, there are the side quest opportunities:

- Have some of the nobles hire this party out for jobs in town while the prince is busy.  

- Some of the noblemen's sons have gone missing recently. Why? And who's behind it?

- Let them stumble upon dungeons in their travels.  

- Festival shenanigans. We all know how much D&D players love a good festival.

- Maybe there's a pirate problem in the bay city, and they kidnap or threaten the prince. 

- Have a rivalry between two noble families spiral out of control and lead to violence and death. 

- Assassins have been hired to try and kill the prince on this journey, so protect him at all costs and maybe try to find out who hired them and why.

Sure, this is a political intrigue campaign, but that's not all it has to be. Have fun with it, play around, and make it fit to your table or group.