The Nature GM

Welcome back from a long hiatus of mundane life getting in the way of the fantastical reality that we live in. It is again time to don our cloaks, belt on our swords, and wrap up a four-year campaign that has been languishing for many months.

This is my Smoldering Isles campaign that I have referenced a few times elsewhere. Which means that if Magah, Jack, Kyuriam, or Radman stumble across this, I must ask you to stop reading now and not return until the campaign is over.

But as for you, fellow game master, I invite you to step closer to the parchment I have unrolled on this table and to inspect the combatants that are poised to strike. The only thing that is certain now is victory, and the only question is whose standard will remain flying when the dragon fire clears.

Too Many Bosses & Factions

The campaign is simply too big, with too many factions that only one player is really invested in, and with no fewer than three final bosses queued up.

The first final boss is the great red dragon Ulekihonuhonu, tyrannical overlord of the Smoldering Isles, whose shadow has kept the realm in fear for many years. Second is Kahuna Mikala, the drakona chief priest, who is plotting to raise a powerful demon on the Day of New Skies and take control of the land. Third is drakona Emperor Denu Ra, whose name no one can remember, who the player characters dislike on principle but are not certain if he is in on the kahuna’s plot (he is not, and in fact has his own private quest to gain eternal life that has not managed to come up yet).

The factions include the drakona Haahoa, son of the rightful king and leader of the Red Sky resistance group; Ripgut the Hungry, king of the sea orcs who has recently formed a treaty with the emperor; King Cloud Forest of the jungle elves, who is politically allied with the emperor but sympathetic towards Red Sky; Margerita the beach dwarf who is trying unsuccessfully to unite her people; and a small posse of demigods who have placed bets on the outcome of our heroes’ journey.

You can see why the players lose track of who the enemy is and what they are actually trying to accomplish.

The PCs Have Plot Armor

This is in part due to the nature of Fifth Edition, in which the player characters are heroically overstuffed with magical abilities. This is also in part due to the way I have set up the campaign to be an epic narrative, and if a player character falls, it damn well better be part of the Hero’s Journey and not because they rolled poorly against a random monster.

When facing the Creatures of the Land, Sky, and Sea, I believe one player character dropped to zero HP each time, and of course they easily recovered. Since that last battle, the characters have hardly been challenged.

We had a “capture the flag” type combat encounter, in which the threat was not to the characters’ lives but rather their ability to stop a villain before he killed their allies. The time spent on the actual encounter was about half the time spent discussing whether to execute or imprison the captured warlock girl.

We also had a spike-trap dungeon, but I misunderstood that traps like that are not an obstacle in and of themselves but rather a complication to another obstacle. So after saying “Ow!” a few times, the players made it through the traps with no real problem.

It is time to raise the stakes.

Here’s the spike dungeon, since it looks cool but was not a good enough session to post about:

I Forced the Party on a Side Quest

The party is currently travelling in secret with Haahoa and his companions. They know of several lost arcane items that they wish to recover before slaying Ulekihonuhonu and confronting the emperor.

Haahoa insisted that the party journey to the land of Dusk (the name of which only I borrowed from Matt Colville), searching for the legendary sword Cometfell the Vengeful, which is hidden in the labyrinth of the Rat King. Because we did not already have enough bosses to contend with. And because the best way to have the player characters engage with the world’s political drama is to…have them leave the world?

The current tension level is zero. They do not remember that they have travelled to Dusk or why. The party is nervous about fighting Ulekihonuhonu, but they believe they can leisurely stroll into the great red dragon’s lair any time they wish. They further believe that they have a comfortable two months to putter about collecting magic items before the Day of New Skies when the Kahuna will reveal his demon-summoning plan.

They will be mistaken.

Re-Introducing Tension

The party travelled to Dusk, which exists on another plane, through a poorly thought out magic item they purchased several campaign arcs ago. They will be navigating the labyrinth, trying to find the Rat King and win his sword, when their wizard friend who is loyal to the emperor will send them a message.

He will tell them that in three days there will be a grand funeral for Opio, the kahuna’s right-hand man who the heroes recently slayed, that dignitaries from the neighboring kingdoms will attend, that Opio’s death is being blamed (accurately) on the heroes, and that the kahuna has taken over the palace and refuses to let anyone in or out until the day of the funeral.

The kahuna’s plan which was set for two months away is now happening in three days.

The party will have to choose between leaving without Cometfell the Vengeful to have a chance at stopping the kahuna before he acts or gaining a powerful weapon at the risk of allowing a demon to be summoned into this world.

Which leads us to the next point…

Just One Boss Battle

Whatever the players decide in Dusk, and regardless of what they find when they face the kahuna at the palace, the great red dragon Ulekihonuhonu will make an appearance that day.

The kahuna will reveal his true ambitions to the world. He may or may not summon a demon. The player characters will face off against their most hated villain, almost certainly slaying Kahuna Mikala and putting an end to his evil machinations forever.

But even as they are celebrating their victory, a winged shadow will appear on the horizon, growing closer with the second. A dragon shadow.

I am not a monster; I will give them a chance to heal up. If they defeat the kahuna, slay or banish whatever demon he might have summoned, and figure out what to do about the emperor, there might even be a grateful cleric around who can toss them a few hit points.

They will have mere minutes to prepare themselves before Ulekihonuhonu strikes.

If They All Die

Each player will be running their own character and a retainer in Haahoa’s party. Even so, there is a decent possibility that one or more of them will fall.

This is the type of game in which death by the hands of anything less than the final boss(es) or a god would feel cheap. And even death by dragon fire might feel a little disappointing, to have survived so much together only to perish at the end.

I have a plan.

Towards the beginning of the campaign, the party was lost in the wilderness for several days. During this time they stumbled across a barren clearing with a tree in the center, a tree blackened with death and oozing blood. The tree whispered into their hearts and offered them unimaginable powers if they would release it.

Trapped in the tree is the demigod Glok, the primordial. If and when a player character dies, they will enter a nothing space between planes, and the black tree will be there. Glok will offer them a return to life in exchange for his freedom and their servitude.

One of the characters would certainly refuse. One would likely accept. And the other two I cannot predict.

If they all die, they each get to choose individually. And if they choose life, they will return physically stronger and also bound by a terrible curse. The details of which I will determine before the session. Suggestions are welcome.

Final Thoughts

For the first time in ages, I am excited about this campaign and am ready to give my players the epic ending they deserve. My only regret now is that I have to come up with a labyrinth and a rat king that will be satisfying without being too time consuming. I think the rat king will be a variety of behir.

Has anyone else had a campaign become too unwieldly, and were you able to save it? Please share your stories.

And join me as we return to what we always must, and keep exploring.

Post cover image by Enrique.