We've been playing in my Primal Earth campaign setting over the past month and it has been a blast! Unfortunately, the progress has been slow and we will need to end the adventure in a about 2-3 sessions.
I'll either need to cut down on some of the events in the middle and somehow jump straight to the end, or come up with a new ending. I am having trouble with this and would like some ideas.
Party structure, schedule and play style.
My party consists of four level 4 PCs. They will most likely reach level 5 today. Currently we meet ever Wednesday evening and play for about 3 hours. Our final session will be on the 29th of August. We're all very busy, so we cannot change our game times.
So far this adventure has been very heavy on the roleplaying, very much to this GM's delight! Each PC has a number of homebrew traits that come into play whenever he or she is roleplaying, which helps create rich and interesting character dynamics and situations. We had 3 sessions, the first two were pure roleplaying and in the third the four PCs hunted down a couple of dimetrodons. This combat took up nearly the entire session, but it was mixed with a lot of roleplaying and strategy between the players. I do wish it would have gone faster though.
The party has some means to heal (1 oracle, 1 healing witch), but since we are using the Wound/Vigor system + called shots, they need to pace themselves with combat. Survival is a big part of this adventure.
Background
The party consists of a group of derelicts, who were given by their own tribes to the Skae as tribute. Before the adventure, they managed to escape the sacrifice ritual (a beheading on top of a pyramid -- Aztec style) and miraculously escaped into the jungle. Several months later, after gathering their strength and finding out that the Skae slaughtered their tribes anyway, they decided to delve back into the Skae lands, on a possible suicide mission, and take out as many Skae as they can.
- Party enters the jungle and gets caught in the middle of two warring hominid tribes. They must pick a side, or fight both tribes on their way to the Skae lands. <-- this is where we are at, they picked a side and we should be wrapping up this part of the adventure today.
ACT II
- Party chooses the best way to reach the Skae pyramids from here, they can either follow the red river, which goes straight through the Skae's homelands to the pyramids. Or, they can climb the jungle highlands where ape-men rule and negotiate safe passage.
- Party encounters a mysterious warrior with the body of a man, head of a wolf and antlers of a stag. If they play their cards right he will reveal a secret passage that leads into the inside of the pyramid. He will also recommend that it is PCs' best interest to slay the Skae Rex -- the head of all the local Skae tribes, as it will cause mass confusion in the Skae lands and the tribes will turn on each other.
ACT III
- Party reaches the pyramid. If they played it right with StagWulf, they will know about the secret passage way. This passage way will lead them straight to the center of the pyramid, where they could climb up and reach the top where the Rex and his minions are holding sacrificial ceremonies in front of a vast Skae crowd.
- If the PCs do not know about the secret passage, they will have to find a way to disguise themselves, walk through the Skae crowds, and scale the pyramid stairs in order to reach the top. I do not know how they will do this, but this is the kind of stuff my party loves to figure out.
FINAL ENCOUNTER
- The party is on top of the pyramid -- in a small flat open space. They must fight the Skae Rex, his battle lord and the high priest. While they do so, dozens of Skae warriors and civilians will be running up the steps trying to join the fight (only one or two can get through at a time, so the PCs have a good chance to keep them at bay and can even bull rush one of them, causing a massive domino effect across the steps -- our phalanx soldier will love this!). The battle ends when the Rex, battle lord and high priest are dead. Tales of the PCs' deeds become legends, as this is the first time a Rex was ever killed by a group of hominids, giving humanity and ape-kind a glimmer of hope against the reptilian race! The PCs likely died int the battle, but their legend will fuel the story of our long campaign next year.
As you can see there is a ton to cover, and since my group really likes to roleplay and make plans and combat is just slow, there is no way that we could go through all of this in three sessions. I need ideas as to how we could skip from Act I to Act III (possibly while including a minor encounter with a Skae troop, to give the PCs a taste of what's to come). Or to change it up completely.
The PCs haven't faced the Skae yet, so it goes without saying that they need to be included in the change.
Thank you for reading!
Don't put to much emphasis on the mysterious stranger. Put him in a similiar situaton as the PCs. Let him go along and show them the path to the pyramid.
He could be another escaped derelict. Let him join the fight the against the Rex. He knows he could never do it alone. It is a sign from the gods the PCs were sent to him. Hes prepared for this moment since his escape.
Just a thought.
Have the mysterious stranger be an escaped derelict like goatsticks said, but have them come upon him while he is outnumbered by the Skae. If they can save him, can convince him they wish to stop the Skae, and agree to save his mate from being sacrificed by the Skae he will take them to an ancient set of standing stones that he can activate that will teleport them to center of the pyramid.
This could condense Act II and III somewhat so you can slid into the final encounter.
Also. If you start emphasising time limits. Don't give them forever and a day to make descions. Let them know they don't have forever to RP this thing.
Mainly in combat. If its Player X's turn, he better be ready when it comes to his turn or he's getting skipped.
Any word on how this went?