Season Finale

This Saturday I ran an intense season finale for my party to complete as many character arcs as I could while providing some neat hooks for the next season of our One-Shot-Verse. Villains, stolen magical artifacts, time travel, God interactions, and overly euphoric illithids. It was a weird day. And I killed 3 players, so I felt pretty good.

The plotlines that were sealed:

Carolina vs. the Embers sisters: Carolina Braxwell, de facto leader and captain of the group, completed her vengeance streak and finally killed the last of the three Embers sisters by shooting her in the face with a crossbow. It was a very emotional moment for the party. She also got a castle out of the deal and learned that all she really wanted in the world was a sky-ship full of treasure to park at her castle full of treasure.

Sam Mu’rye and the Nine-Fingered Mage: Sam Mu’rye, resident Bamboo Elf of the party, saved his master thanks to a little time travel but still wanted to bring justice to the nine-fingered dragonborn sorceress who tried to kill him. Turns out that the dragonborn had been working for Carissa Embers. Sam charged across the field, only to be severely wounded by another of his villains, Nyn Jha. A 12 second time jump to the past gave him the heads up he needed to prepare himself to charge across the room, keep himself safe, and end the life of the nine-fingered mage once and for all.

Of course Nyn Jha wasn’t finished with him. She flustered him with a flurry of blows and forced him to make a mistake. He cut off his own hand and fell, allowing her to steal one of his magical swords and disappear into the shadows. Sam rose from the dead shortly after, tasked by the God of Balance to continue his work within the world.

Sarven Sylmaris meets his match: Sarven is an interesting character that needs some serious therapy to work through his father issues and his narcissistic complex. He lives his life in constant search of glory, trying to make ‘Sarven Sylmaris’ a household name. He has made enemies along the way and had to eliminate an old friend.

But what truly shook Sarven to his core was the appearance of his twin sister, Varessa Sylmaris. She was raised by their father, who gave her all the opportunities she would need to succeed. Where Sarven is a rogue and a criminal, Varessa is a folk hero and a beloved star of song and tale. When she leaves her sigil behind, people are thrilled. She left without a fight, telling Sarven to speak to their father to learn more about his lot in life.

Zugg meets the God of Orcs: Zugg’s motivation is a strange one to explain. He likes to kill things. Certain things. Most things. Zugg rarely approaches death, though has been brought to the brink by a swordmaster before. On Saturday, he fell in battle for the first time, traveling beyond the Material Plane and into the eternal battleground of Gruumsh’s realm. But Zugg’s a good half-orc. He puts the Orc in Half-Orc and Gruumsh is impressed. Zugg was sent back into the world, compelled inexorably by his new god to bring the Elves under the heel of the Orcs.

It took about 6 hours and there was also an interaction with a time-controlling Elder God who just wanted a couple of sacrifices. They released a new villain from his magical prison and gained control of a truly powerful artifact. They befriended illithids, gave an imprisoned paladin an existential crisis, and managed to avoid fighting the two dogs that I really didn’t want them to kill.

I think it was a pretty successful season finale. This entire One-Shot-Verse process has taught me more about dungeon-mastering than any previous games I have run. Tabletop Gaming features a strange sort of social contract between small groups. One person crafts

and maintains a universe in their mind and offers opportunities for players to experience fantasy and wonder they never would in the modern world. And in return players should strive to act according to the character they have created to weave an interesting narrative that everyone takes part in.

At least that’s my opinion about Tabletop Gaming. Maybe I’m weird.

Anyway, these past few weeks have been article-light and I apologize for that. Life is busy. For upcoming weeks I will be posting articles about the new game I am running for Dungeons and Dragons 5, the new edition released recently. I am running a Friday game for new players and should be working them through the book starting at level 1. There should be some good articles in the future.

Thank you for reading thus far and I hope you enjoy what we’ll be cranking out in the future.

What's my one rule?

Farmane, Papa Dungeon Master.