Hehe, on my side of the screen there's a written document with every encounter including tactics, critters, awards, and treasure, a spreadsheet for every experience and treasure award, Hero Lab with all of the critters, NPCs, and PCs loaded... on their side is a notebook that I have to remind them to use. Great idea in theory. ;)
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Hey everyone! I'm continually impressed with this thread and your work on this campaign, Andrew--very well done! And MAJOR KUDOS to Rycaut for braving some PFS convention play--21 hours! That's some marathon session for which you deserve a frikkin' blue ribbon. Amazing. My playtest was over 48 hours of gameplay, and the fact that you got through what's meant to be a relatively extended mini-campaign in a weekend is very, very impressive. Great work, all!
Going to spoiler the following Drune stuff:
If you haven't already, I wouldn't reveal what your PCs missed regarding Drune just yet. They likely already realize Drune is pretty scheezy, and if they didn't catch that clue to his involvement, they didn't catch it. HOWEVER--they are going to have to learn they got played at one point or another, but I worry if you reveal what Drune's up to too early, they might divert their focus toward that and away from Nahum when the clock is ticking. Don't let that happen!
My advice would be to let the info lie for the time being and let them tackle Nahum. In my playtest, the Drune realization came in the epilogue/wrap-up to the campaign, with the PCs spotting the city's ships in the harbor recovering Moglathar, and the word that Drune's government post had been abandoned. There was kind of this wide-eyed "Oh S#*T" moment when they realized they were culpable for just shifting the power to another ne'er do well, I closed the book, and that was that. Good emotional impact, if you can preserve it.
But if you've already revealed it, or still want to go that route, Drune's actions are pretty straightforward. Once he's in possession of the membership rolls (your PCs have already delivered them) and the undersea sanctuary has collapsed (trapping the idol), he gets to work immediately. Before abandoning office, he has Cora round up and arrest as many cult members as she can find from the rolls, then Drune uses his influence in the courts to immediately exchange their freedom for loyalty and promises of immortality, building up a sizeable spider cult base within days of delivery of the membership rolls. He hires some of them as Korvosan Guard and immediately installs them under Captain Crandon, puts the rest of them to work in the city fleet, then starts working toward recovering the idol. He's going to be very, very scarce around the office during this time, so he's not going to just be sitting behind his desk waiting for a confrontation with the duped PCs. Cora, even, is going to get pretty busy with all this, and I'd start slowly withdrawing her interest in things. Their increasing absence will be the PCs' first clue something is up.
Drune, post-campaign:
I want to do a whole thread on my follow-up campaign, but Drune does play a role (this sequel starts over at first level with new characters, a few weeks after the events of House on Hook Street). With his new gang of followers, Drune heads up the coast to hide out in his home town--a former backwater fishing community-turned-factory-town, Hallam. The name is a nod to one of my inspirations for the campaign follow-up, which is the "Mysteries of Unland" storyline from the Witchfinder series, and which is itself a play on Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Check it out (along with the two other co-mingled inspirations, Greg Vaughan's Wake of the Watcher and my own From Shore to Sea)!
In Hallam, Drune tries to reestablish Moglathar's cult away from the busy city, but falls afoul of another rising power there, and is swept up in the power struggle between the local Poole and Marsh families, which are themselves having a big impact back in Bridgefront with an aggressive gentrification campaign in the wake of the Dream Plague.
In short, there's little room in Hallam for a third, recently-disabled-but-recovering power (the Poole family worships Dagon, and the Marsh family worships a corrupt version of Desna that's actually Ghlaundar--see my module Feast of Ravenmoor for a similar arrangement). This power struggle takes place off-screen, with the Marsh family seizing Moglathar and slowly grinding broken-off chunks of the still-living idol into powder as an additive for this famous snake oil elixir the town factory produces, in hopes of harnessing the idol's immortality-granting abilities. During this gruesome process, the backlash from the tortured idol curses all of its nearby worshipers and corrupts them into hybrid-form-only werespiders, just because that damned illustration in Bestiary 6 is so damned cool. They pretty much become an enslaved workforce in the town dominated by hybrids and Deep Ones.
My PCs have just uncovered this weirdness over the last couple of weeks, and I'm not yet sure what the end result will be. Drune is around there somewhere, possibly held captive himself in some half-submerged cavern or just just chained in the factory trapped in the sad form of a werespider--I'm still trying to figure it out--but it ain't good, one way or the other.
But I hope that gives you some idea of where I was going with Drune and Moglathar post-adventure. Not a glamorous end for the pair, but maybe the PCs will have an ally in the oppressed cult members and Drune will have a *third* chance to realize his dream of immortality after being robbed of it twice before. ;-)
All that, and don't sweat the small stuff on running lucid dreams. Sounds to me that it's fun and exciting for your PCs, which is all that matters! If they got away with something once, mark it up to the chaotic nature of the dreamscape and course-correct next time.
Brandon
While I did already reveal what the PCs missed, you've definitely given me ideas to chew on. Perhaps things won't be as cut and dry as I thought!
However, the PCs have been focused on other things, and it's simple enough to say the cultist roundup is already underway. Given their interactions with Crandon, I think it's reasonable for the Korvosan Guard to leave the PCs cultist "allies" alone until later. Drune's already started retrieving Mog-Lathar - the PCs got a glimpse of that a few days ago.
I think next session's opening might be some iteration of Crandon rounding up the PCs' cultist allies from the Thirteen Moons on Drune's orders; Drune, of course, is nowhere to be found.
I think the main question is how Crandon will react. I've been picturing her as "just following orders" mixed with some disdain for Bridgefront; I don't think she's in on all of Drune's machinations. But by now she's definitely suspicious of all the spooky dream stuff, given she and her guards helped fight off the dreamspawn blood golem.
Very cool stuff about the campaign continuation! Interesting that you mention Feast: Atticus's player is going to be running that for us once we finish Hook Street!
Thanks as always for the feedback and advice! I expect we've got 4-5 sessions left. My current homework assignment is making sure I know everything the BBEG is capable of and how he'll prepare. He's got a ton of options, and given the party makeup he'll probably last a good number of rounds. I want to make sure I stick the visuals and deliver an appropriate campaign climax!
Bit of an odd one - important goals reached and smart decisions made by the PCs, but I feel like I didn’t quite deliver on the experience this time around.
The Good:
- The game world (particularly Drune/Crandon) reacted to the PCs’ actions in what felt like real and narratively satisfying ways.
- ”Side stories” have been reasonably resolved so that we can focus on the PCs’s actions in the dream world.
- The breach the veil of dreams ritual scene went well: spooky music helps!
- PCs were a bit more tactical and thoughtful: didn’t sleep in Bridgefront, bought buff items, etc.
- Good environmental details and spooky dream stuff as they walked through nightmare Bridgefront to the eponymous house.
The Less Good:
- Continued awkwardness in how I roleplay Captain Crandon - I’ve had trouble settling on concrete motivations and goals given how the story’s changed with our party.
- Atticus and I didn’t get to do our cool paladin level revelation scene (thanks to PCs’ smart decisions, though!)
- First encounter in the dream house was kind of a dud.
- Didn’t get to speechify with Nahum’s portrait in the second room of the house - players slashed the picture up (and good on ‘em!)
- Flubbed the dream haunt in the same room.
Session Details:
Started with the PCs coming back to the Thirteen Moons, only to find Captain Crandon and four guards arresting the ex-cultists in the house. An ex-cultist’s shiver overdose brings a phantasmal web dream haunt into the world, and the assassins use that opportunity to attack the PCs. PCs defeat the assassins, dispel the web, and convince Captain Crandon that Drune’s a bad dude and that she should be wary of any orders and Do The Right Thing. Details on all that below.
PCs still had three days of ritual research to do, and wisely decided to sleep outside of Bridgefront. They hired the Bank of Abadar as a place of sanctuary, leaving Madame Carrington, Avigail, and Maynard Colville in the care of the clergy. (Not sure it’s rules legal, but I let Atticus use dispel magic on Nahum’s dream slave effect over Maynard - it was that or they paid to have the Abadarans maintain protection from evil on him.)
Atticus got his paladin level, though the scene was diminished by the in-world fiction not supporting the dramatic nightmare encounter with some shadow mastiffs that we'd planned. In any case, he’s now got a shiny new sword and a weird constellation tattoo on his temple (in lieu of a familiar he has to manage) that empathically does stuff when Desnan things are going on. I also let the PCs do knowledge checks on night hags and vulnudaemons, as they’d seen them and had research materials. Garvin successfully grokked the breach the veil of dreams ritual, and successfully implemented it that same night. The party stepped into nightmare Bridgefront, made their way to house, and entered.
I changed a few things, as we’re nearing the end and this isn’t a group that enjoys lots of combats back to back: no quickwood or assassin vines outside the house, and no stained glass golem in the first room. Given the PCs’ disastrous encounter with the dreamspawn blood golem, I didn’t want another enemy immune to magic to roadblock the party.
In place of the golem in H2, I added a dream haunt based on etheric shards[i] that dealt less damage and filled the foyer when the PCs entered; the spiders and butterflies on the stained glass windows shattered, leaving plain glass behind. At the same time, Sally Scrabblebones opened the door and fired off [i]rays of enfeeblement. Garvin got paralyzed, Atticus got dropped to 6 Str. I was hoping they’d chase after her, but instead Atticus used his lucid dreaming ability to drag her towards them. She took enough damage to go invisible and flee, which lead to the PCs kind of stumbling around taking damage from the etheric shards effect until someone realized what was up and told everyone to stand still. Ultimately, I think this was a cool haunt/trap, but not a fun one - had there been more opponents or a need to move more, maybe it would have been more exciting or interesting.
At this point it was getting late and folks were tired, which contributed to the underwhelming response to the Sally Scrabblebones situation. I probably should’ve called the game for the night, but wanted to get to a good cliffhanger. What’s a good cliffhanger? Why, Nahum speaking to them from the portrait in the next room! (H4)
Unfortunately, Atticus was having none of Nahum’s grandiosity. As soon as the portrait started moving, he walked up and cut it in half, and then proceeded to smash the instruments since he remembered what the real world versions did. That didn’t stop the dream haunt from triggering, causing Jezidar and Garvin to occasionally attack the party. Again, no other threats and players were tired, so it was basically just PCs whiffing against their allies AC as everyone waited for the haunt to wear off. Not very tense or dramatic :(
The PCs got a small introduction to the two smoking excommunicates in H5 and we called it for the night.
Implications for Future Sessions:
I think this might be future session, given our recent pace. I’m making notes for each room on my roll20 map, which should make it much easier to convey everything. I’m considering changing the dream haunt in H11 to more of an AoE damage burst type trap, but we’ll see how next session’s pacing goes. Nahum will definitely make another appearance since his portrait speech was thwarted, most likely using the repulsion or wall of force effects suggested in the model - much harder for Atticus to cut those in half!
Looking forward to the gibbering mouther corpse pile in H6, the vulnudaemon/zombie baku fight in H8/9, the Sally Scrabblebones/Madame Carrington standoff, and the Nahum fight most of all. Still going through his abilities to make the encounter a suiting end to the campaign. Truth be told, it’s feeling a little anticlimactic at the moment - the pace has picked up so much compared to our usual that it feels like the recent important events have been less impactful. That’s probably just an issue of contrast, though. Either way, I’m interested in seeing how the PCs handle Nahum.
The PCs confronted Crandon; a high Diplomacy check convinced her to listen to their information about Drune’s shady past. Remember that I’ve portrayed her as slightly sympathetic to their efforts, as she’s been confronted with irrefutable evidence that Something Is Up and all these recent events can’t just be blamed on hallucinations and shiver overdose.
As they speak to her, the overdosed ex-cultist expires, spewing dream webs over the assembled guards and ex-cultists. Real bad saves for all of them, and shortly thereafter they started vomiting spiders everywhere. 1 round afterwards, the excommunicate and hound materialized. A pretty satisfying combat, and the PCs were able to down the cultist and severely injure the hound of Tindalos before it fled (and won’t come back - I think its tentative alliance with Nahum is null and void now that it’s almost died)
The PCs’ info plus the assassin attack convinced Crandon something was up. She explained that Drune was not in the office as he was seeing to “administrative tasks,” and that she couldn’t just break all orders and move against him. PCs told her to wait until “the time was right to do the moral thing.” Not 100% sure how she’ll react to that, but she’s basically safely off-stage now. I expect that when Drune takes his cultists and crooked guardsmen and leaves, she may step up to be the new Magistrate.
Prepping for a potential encounter with Nahum this Thursay in case the PCs relentless pace keeps up!
Pre-encounter stuff: all of this assumes Nahum knows they're on the 2nd floor and knows they're coming, which may change based on PC actions.
Environmental:
- Symbol of striking near the stairwell in his chamber, threatens a 5ft. area and can make 7 attacks at a +17 for 1d6+7 damage; DC22 Will disbelieves
- Symbol of slowing just in front of where he'll stand by the door to the dreamstone room; DC19 Will save against the PCs and any shadow babaus he summons
- Both runes trigger when a PC walks over them, and Nahum has used his minor figment illusion implement power to create illusory copies mimicking the real runes; DC19 Will to disbelieve when stepped on
Defensive buffs:
- DR5/good or silver, regeneration 5 (good or silver); remember the regeneration will still go off if his DR prevents all damage
- Distortion illusion implement resonant power grants him a 15% miss chance on the first thing that hits him
- Stoneskin grants DR10/adamantine until 70 damage reduced
- Shocking image for 1d4+3 images that deal 2d6 electricity damage when destroyed
- Warding weapon to protect himself from attacks of opportunity from spellcasting
- Lesser talisman of freedom that grants freedom of movement for 3 rounds after he is grappled, paralyzed, or entangled.
- Lesser talisman of arrow protection that triggers when struck by 2 arrows in a round, granting DR10/magic against ranged attacks for 3 minutes, or until it prevents 30 damage
During the encounter:
Potential defensive buffs:
- SWIFT ACTION EVERY ROUND: activate the mind barrier abjuration focus power to prevent 20 points of damage during the next round; he can do this 4 times, after which his saves go down by 1
- Planar Ward focus power: PCs aren't from the Dimension of Dreams, so they take a -4 penalty on attacks against Nahum while he receives a +4 bonus to saves against their stuff; lasts 1 minute
- Displacement: 50% miss chance on all attacks for 10 rounds
- Quickness focus power: as haste, but +2 to AC and Reflex saves; he'll probably save this for when he's cornered, as Planar Ward and displacement give him more bang for his buck
Misc offensive effects:
- Nahum's fear aura, DC21 Will to prevent shaken
- The dreamstone'svisions of hell effect, DC20Will to prevent shaken and -2 penalty to saves against fear
- If the two effects above stack, the character is frightened and must flee the dreamstone
- Focus powers: energy ray +11 (5d6+3), energy blast 7d6+3 DC21 Reflex, telekinetic mastery
- Legacy weapon focus power: if he's cornered, this'll give him a +3 on attacks and 2d6+3 damage when striking the PCs
Spells and spell-like abilities:
- Shadow evocation from the nightmare lord template - I chose resilient sphere to potentially isolate a PC; DC25 Will save to disbelieve, DC25 Reflex to avoid. If they disbelieve, I'll let them treat that square as difficult terrain instead of dealing with the shadow spells' goofy 20% thing
- Shout - 30ft spread, deafened for 2d6 rounds and 5d6 sonic damage; DC20 Fort save halves damage and negates deafened
- Lightning bolt: 120ft line, 10d6 electricity damage; DC19 Reflex halves
- Dispel magic to neutralize PC stuff
- Mirror image or defensive shock (5d6->2d6->1d6) if he needs further defenses
Shadow babau: hp 15, AC 12/10/11, SR17, DR10/cold iron or good, standard demon energy stuff; DC25 Will save to disbelieve
Other prep:
- Quick-look "menu" of the myriad things Nahum can do, limited to what I think's the most interesting or cinematic
- Detailed description of Nahum's room: the symbols (real and illusionary) he's created on the floor, the visual impact of his various buffs, etc.
- Index cards for round-by-round considerations: Nahum's actions and detailed descriptions of the dreamstone's vision of hell reflect
- I want those visions to be a really dramatic backdrop; initially a twisting and burning Bridgefront with churning clouds, with the clouds slowly parting as pieces of the city break off and float skyward. If the fight lasts long enough, meteors will start to appear in the sky
- Writing down what all the PCs are capable of in a turn, as this is a complex fight and I want to help them remember all their cool tricks!
- Plus lotsa notes on the roll20 map's GM Info layer, otherwise I'm gonna forget a bunch
Phew!
Whoops, that's on my notecards but must've gotten left out of this particular write-up. Definitely something I'm keeping in mind, but since it's "pass a Charisma check, do whatever you want!" it lets me be a bit looser.
So far he hasn't used the ability, but certainly will when he confronts the PCs prior to the actual fight - especially if they keep destroying his likenesses so that he can't use enter image, which he finds particularly irritating.
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In my playtest, I used Nahum's dreamscape-warping abilities to set up a couple of contingencies that are triggered by certain events, thus saving his action economy. It's a little meta, but pretty cinematic. When he hits half hit points, for instance, the nearest wall could defensively reach out and swat his attacker. Fun stuff!
Ah ha, hadn't thought of that! Time to plot more.
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Well nuts, session postponed 'til Tuesday. Settled on some
When stoneskin breaks after absorbing its 70 damage, the shards'll stitch into his nightmare lord emanations to form an ectoplasmic hand, which may disarm a PC and start attacking them with their own weapon. Also gives him something to do with his swift actions, since he'll probably be out of mental focus for mind barrier by then!
When he drops to 50%, the chalk/blood/salt from his binding circles will erupt up and charge with psychic goodness, as mass daze. Most PCs have solid Will saves so it shouldn't be too debilitating, and will also give some breathing room for him to do further cinematic dream-altering stuff.
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The Good:
- Good creepy stuff: the “gibbering mouther” in the closet (H6), the awful tableau of the mutilated baku in the shrine (H9), vulnudaemons materializing next to PCs to stab ‘em
- PCs held a funeral/memorial service for the baku
- Fun enemies to run, though none of them successfully did their cool things
The Less Good:
- I provided fewer vivid descriptions, which is usually a strong point
- Cool monsters, but not cool effects: the belkers didn’t succeed at their smoke claws thing, the corpse pile didn’t engulf anyone, I ran the baku a bit too much like a mindless zombie and didn’t do much besides flyby attack and full attacks
- Lots of math issues: PCs either not remembering how their stuff works, or me thinking they didn’t and second guessing them - a bad habit I really need to break
- A low energy session despite what could’ve been some very exciting fights
- A few rules goofs: didn’t call for saves while in the smoky interior of H5, forgot the door to H6 was locked, forgot about the baku’s SR a few times
- I always have trouble keeping up enemy dialogue while in combat
Session Details:
PCs began in the doorway to the smoking parlor (H5), with the cultist inviting them in to partake after dropping the hint about the Korvosan Guard in the house. Some back and forth conversation, and since the excommunicates weren’t hostile, Atticus went to check the pounding at the door to H6. I forgot it was locked, so he opened it to encounter the “gibbering mouther” and the silver-haired half elf whose body they encountered in the real house. Initiative! Jezidar managed to take out an excommunicate before it could expel its belker. I reflavored the corpse pile’s spittle ability as a jet of caustic blood, which blinded her for a few rounds. The remaining belker got off a few attacks but couldn’t use its cool lung claws. Sally showed up and tried deep slumber followed by a ray of enfeeblement before turning the opening between H5 and H8 into a wall with a stoney maw that tried to suck in Mu’rok. PCs dispatched the bad guys after a few rounds. Not a bad combat, all in all.
PCs determined the half elf was dead, laid him to rest, and entered Nahum’s laboratory. Fun times describing the ephemeral alchemy supplies, which faded to mist when picked up before reforming in their original spot. Also, rows and rows of vials with gases that coalesced into leering faces!
They proceeded into the shrine (H8) and saw the grisly scene on the altar (H9). The baku’s entrails were draped like garlands around the proscenium, its tongue lolled across the altar, its rib cage exposed, all that good stuff. Garvin went to investigate it, the zombie baku rose, and the vulnudaemons attacked. Long story short, a lot of flubbed math in this combat, and a party that had no good way to deal with the baku’s DR. Debuffs meant it was doing minimal damage to the PCs as they did minimal damage to it round after round, and generally failed to overcome its SR. I eventually broke character to say “hey guys, y’all need to use better tactics or we’re gonna be here all night.” Setting up for flanking and Jezidar’s sneak attacks let them down it shortly thereafter. They took its body back to the altar and gave it some semblance of rest. I also added a custom magic item, a sphere dancer’s stole (see below), on the altar, which they draped over its corpse.
Folks went into the parlor in H10 (a good time describing the gross paintings) and were met with the thud, thud, thud of Madame Carrington’s head being dragged down the stairs by Sally Scrabblebones. She asked for the book and the key, Atticus tried to bluff to set up an ambush; she saw through it, putting her teeth to Madame Carrington’s throat and saying she’d put Carrington down like they did her children. Simultaneously, Mu’rok tried to cast command on her, failing his caster level check to overcome her SR. I ruled she was distracted by Atticus, so Mu’rok started off a surprise round. Next session starts with an initiative roll, and the results will probably determine whether or not Madame Carrington lives! She’s only got 15hp and a Con score of 4 after four days of drain, and a coup de grace from Sally’s bite deals 4d6+10…
This felt like a serious dud of a session immediately afterwards, but writing it up, I reckon it wasn’t so bad!
Implications for Future Sessions:
The fight with Sally, including the huge water elemental that spawns from the reflection of the real house’s elevator. If Carrington gets to act before her, she’ll use her lucid dreaming abilities to tear off the hag’s heartstone; should the PCs destroy that afterwards, I’ll prep some descriptions of souls streaming out.
I need to play up the creepiness when they hit the 2nd floor; floorboards slithering like snakes and other effects similar to what’s detailed at the top of page 47. I’m pretty sure the PCs are going to go straight for Nahum, who will have at least 1 appearance in a hallway to ask them for the book. Definitely want to play up his visual details, also on page 47.
Then there’s the actual fight with him, which is its own kind of beast! I’m honestly not sure how the PCs’ll do, since I think they’re pretty low on resources by now… Of particular note, Atticus has already burned his one use of smite evil for the day.
Other than that, prepping for the campaign’s end! I like to go around the table a few times asking the PCs for little vignettes of what their characters get up to after the campaign, with a few narrative details from me thrown in. Should be a good time.
This has been tweaked a few times and definitely needs another pricing/CL assessment - it originally provided a deflection bonus. Imperfections aside, I’m pleased with the item’s concept.
I also thought it'd be the perfect item for Garvin, him being a devout Desnan and all, but he apparently already has a mithril chain shirt :(
Sphere Dancer’s Stole
Aura moderate abjuration; CL 6th
Slot armor; Price 14,980 gp; Weight 4 lbs.
Description
Depictions of constellations and swallowtail butterflies cover the lustrous purple silks of these +1 Varisian dancing scarves. Three times per day on command the constellations spring forth and form a swirling barrier, granting the wearer concealment (50% miss chance) against attacks for 3 rounds.
Worshippers of Desna can draw on more of the stole’s power. Once per day as a swift action, they may imbue themselves with celestial grace; until the start of their next turn, they gain a 10 ft. enhancement bonus to all modes of movement, and their movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Construction Requirements
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, blurred movement, grace, creator must worship Desna; Cost 7,640 gp
Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, tonight's the last session!
The Good:
- After 9 months, the campaign is satisfactorily complete!
- Nahum fight was challenging, tense, and dynamic - didn’t drag on or get frustrating for the players
- Dreamstone’s vision of hell visuals: Bridgefront burning, portions of buildings and the Old Wall floating into the air, eventually meteor strikes while the PCs completed the breach the veil of dreams ritual
- Epilogue, glimpses of what the characters were up to afterwards
The Less Good:
- PCs were (understandably) focused on facing Nahum, so 99% of the 2nd floor went unexplored - felt a little rushed, but the end result more than made up for it
- Forgot about his talisman that made him immune to grapple for 3 rounds - that would’ve drastically changed the outcome
Session Details:
Started off with an initiative roll for the “will Sally Scrabblebones kill Madame Carrington?” cliffhanger. Garvin got to act first and buffed Madame Carrington, which kept her from getting one shot by the hag. Combat was entertaining, though I did switch some things up. We expected this to be the final session, so I expedited some stuff: switched the flooded elevator shaft from a water elemental to a 1d6 cold 1d6 negative energy damage trap (Mog-Lathar style shape bubbled up and exploded), and used Madame Carrington’s lucid dreaming abilities to suppress Sally Scrabblebones’s DR for a round. I was wary of things ending up like the zombie baku fight, as my PCs just weren’t properly equipped to deal with DR/cold iron. Managed to be dramatic despite the softball, so I don’t feel too bad about it. Mu’rok got the killing blow on the hag with gozreh’s trident, folks tended to Madame Carrington before she popped back to the material plane, and errbody headed upstairs. A bit of conversation with an enter image’d bust of Nahum on the fireplace mantle in H12, past the infamous G4/H16 taxidermy hallway of the near-disastrous osteomancy attempt (dozens ‘n dozens of animal heads dripping blood in the dream realm), and the party trucked right up the spiral stairs to his chambers.
The stairs stretched up much, much longer than they should’ve before opening out into Nahum’s room. Runes (illusory or otherwise) scribed around the summoning circles. Described Nahum’s form: surrounded by shifting shadows, crackling with electricity from his shocking images, sickle slowly circling him from warding weapon. Tiny bit of speechifying, initiative! Round highlights:
- Round 1 - Nahum grinned wide, threw open the door to the dreamstone. The walls of the room (illusorily) tore away, revealing the party’s position on a pinnacle high above a burning Bridgefront with roiling nightmare clouds above. Nahum’s grin widened unnaturally, teeth splitting off in a manifestation of his mind barrier abjuration focus power. Finally, his cast of shadow evocation produced a resilient sphere that enclosed Jezidar (failed both saves). PCs triggered the symbol of striking set up near the entrance and got hit by a (more) shadowy Nahum wielding a sickle, and generally buffed up.
- Round 2 - Jezidar tried to smash her way out of the sphere, Mu’rok fought a shadow babau, Garvin’s mind thrust manifestations were torn apart by a cloud of teeth.
- Round 3 - Atticus busted Jezidar out of the sphere, and she promptly tore the babau apart. Nahum hit folks with a burst of acid from his energy blast transmutation focus power. Garvin’s spells again shredded by Nahum’s mind barrier.
- Round 4 - Folks closed on Nahum, who now had displacement active. Mu’rok’s bestow curse whiffed against a shocking image. Jezidar got in a few whacks (and a few blasts of electricity damage) and started cracking away at his stoneskin. Atticus transferred a previous enlarge person from himself to Jezidar using his lucid dreaming abilities.
- Rounds 5 to… 9? - Stuff went wild here. Atticus basically summoned an eidolon with lucid dreaming stuff, an angel with a greatsword. Nahum countered similarly, disintegrating it and flinging the greatsword back at Atticus. Garvin caught him in black tentacles (now imagine if I hadn’t forgotten his talisman) and Jezidar got in some really solid hits, triggering his two contingencies: an ectoplasmic hand formed from the broken shards of his mostly-depleted stoneskin managed to disarm Jezidar and crit her with her own scimitar. His HP dropped below half, and she was additionally dazed by an eruption of ritual circle materials; others saved. Next rounds were spent keeping Jezidar alive while she tore into Nahum, who almost dropped Mu’rok with an energy blast before failing on 3 lucid dreaming Charisma checks in a row to teleport out of the black tentacles. All the while, PCs struggled to get through the nightmare shadows of his defenses as the escalating apocalyptic visions of the dreamstone played out around them.
All in all, a fitting end to the campaign: challenging fight, but not frustrating. Lots of great visuals from both Nahum and the PCs.
PCs completed the breach the veil of dreams ritual as meteors rained around them - Garvin didn’t make more than 50% of his rolls, and almost got sucked into the void along with the dreamstone before his companions saved him. Atticus willed them out of the Dimension of Dreams back into the Thirteen Moons.
Epilogue:
Mu’rok gets the deed to the Thirteen Moons, which he turns into a hospital serving Bridgefront. Jezidar continues Atticus’s tea shop business (though it’s left uncertain what else she does.) Captain Crandon takes over as Magistrate of Civic Order in Drune’s absence. Atticus has the Caligaro manse torn down and starts having it rebuilt as a temple of Sarenrae.
Atticus, Garvin, and Avigail go off traveling, following in the footsteps of their adopted grandfather who used to own the Thirteen Moons.
[Side note: ‘ol granddad Lucian Paraga is unexpectedly one of favorite characters from this game, and it all started from Garvin’s player saying he wanted an animated portrait of their grandfather in the Moons. Real, real good scene when that portrait played back an unexpected message to the brothers when they were in a rough spot]
Years later, the travelers come back and are greeted on the cocks by a white-clad Mu’rok who no longer wears his plague doctor’s garb.
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Heck of a first campaign to run! Complex adventure, but the creative and narrative freedom it gave thanks to the dream elements and other occult stuff was a blast for me as a GM. Plenty of details to bring Bridgefront to life.
The Thirteen Moons was the emotional heart of the campaign in a really cool way - that space and the relationships between the characters it helped developed were a big font of creative energy for me.
Hard to sum up much else at the moment. Final tally? Great campaign!
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What a ride! NINE MONTHS! I greatly appreciate you sharing your experiences and feedback so thoroughly, and know this thread will be a great boon to future GMs running House on Hook Street. And what a first campaign to tackle--MAJOR KUDOS!
And to you for an excellent adventure and so much helpful feedback during my game!
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who wrote in this thread !
I have kept it bookmarked for the last 5 years or so, and re-reading it before (finally) running The House on Hook Street myself gave me some good insights.
I have posted a similar "homage" campaign journal thread, if anyone is interested.