Everyone’s back! Last time, we were a player short, but this session had the whole crew and some good energy—everyone was excited to play, and it really showed!

In these Campaign Diary posts, I talk about the campaign I play in and how our latest session turned out!

What’s SBotLL again?

SBotLL is the campaign I play in! It’s been running for over three years now. There are two parties: one on the surface and the other in the Underdark. I play on the surface squad as the elf bard Finnith, with my two friends playing the dragonborn rogue Nala and the tiefling ranger Allora.

Recap

Last time, Allora and Finnith took a long rest. That’s about it.

I mean, while they took their long rest, stuff happened. Allora met up with her mirror self (a being who represents a suppressed part of the PC) in a dream, who advised her to hold her cards close to her chest and to keep her guard up even around friends. Finnith also met his mirror self, and they had a fight. Finnith wanted things to stay as they were, while his mirror self pushed hard for Finnith to be honest with himself and his friends about his past.

This fight caused Finnith to fall into a deep slumber, only waking when he and his mirror self came to an agreement.

During this session…

That morning, Nala considered what she would do. As the successor to leadership of her clan, she had recently learned a dark secret: the dragonborn clan leaders had each pacted with a different demon lord long ago, and those pacts are kept secret still today. She hesitated to tell Allora and Finnith about this, causing a rift between them.

Now, she thinks over whether she’ll entrust them with that information, considering both the value of their friendship and her responsibilities as a rising leader. This information is only known by the dragonborn leaders and their close council.

As she ponders this, she calls on Vindus, wind deity and patron to the good squad. She tells Vindus what she is worried about. Vindus tells Nala that the choice is hers, but there can be no growth between friends without shouldering each other’s burdens. Being honest—truly honest—is a difficult but worthwhile endeavor.

While this goes on, Finnith wakes up. Allora is there—having discovered Finnith dead asleep—and is glad to see that he’s up. He discovers a silver chain mark around his neck, possibly signifying his agreement with his mirror self.

Finnith and Allora talk over some of the recent events. They decide they have to settle things with Nala before proceeding, so they go to find her.

Allora, Finnith, and Nala meet up and have a talk. Nala explains why she became distant and was hesitant to trust Finnith and Allora with her new information, and she explains the dragonborn’s secret. This surprises the other two, but Finnith offers to use the dream spell to help Nala get in contact with her father when it becomes nighttime, so she can get some more answers.

After that, they continue talking some, and Finnith eventually follows through on his agreement with his mirror self (with some prodding from Nala). He tells the two about his past and why he adopted the personality he has now. Nala has a sort of mixed reaction to this, but Allora rescues the situation, and the party has a nice Feelings Jam™.

The party is then ready to return to the Moon’s Eye* base at the Amastacia manor. They ask if Vindus can use the power of the wind to transport them (as he’s done before). Ordinarily, Vindus could, but there’s a change coming in the wind—a powerful winter storm that will make travel dangerous.

The party agrees to try and reach the Amastacia manor before the storm hits. But, when they leave Vindus’s realm, Allora takes stock of the situation and learns that the storm is hitting sooner than the time it takes to get to the manor. They’ll also need to get better gear to deal with the cold.

Finnith remembers a town between them and the manor, so they spend the day travelling there. They make arrangements for accommodations at the small inn in the town. Then, Finnith casts dream so that Nala can talk to her father.

Through their conversation, Nala learns that her family, the Turnuroths, have a pact with the demon lord Graz’zt, master of manipulation. The power struggle going on within her family is most likely related to their pact. As long as Nala still holds the ring, then her uncle doesn’t have what he needs to call on the demon lord’s power.

They will have to somehow transfer ownership of the pact and the ring to Nala to ensure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. She and her father decide to get back into contact once Nala has finished what she’s doing in the elven lands. They may have to leverage alliances with other clans to resolve this situation.

And that’s where the session ended!

History between characters

The longer a campaign goes on, the more history the player characters have with each other. The characters establish a dynamic that changes over time as new events happen and the characters grow in power. The PCs go from strangers to travelling companions to close friends.

I really like what we have going on in the campaign. Our characters are all from different backgrounds, and they have to learn to trust each other to progress forward. Each of them struggles with different things, but they grow together as characters and as a party. Character development is one of my favorite parts of a long-running story!

History between players

Of course, a long-running campaign also establishes a rapport between the players. I’ve been lucky to be really good friends with my play group. So, I feel comfortable exploring my character and his relationship to the other characters in the campaign without fear of judgment.

At the same time, the nature of D&D helped me be confident enough to jump into roleplay right out of the gate in this campaign, even if I didn’t know my fellow players that well at the time.

I’m curious to hear about your thoughts, though. How long have you been with your group? How do you feel about the group(s) you’ve played in? How does that affect the way you play the game?

Thank you for reading! See you next time!

*The Moon’s Eye: A secretive organization that opposes the Coven of Eternal Light and the Sidus Council. They’re allies of the party and are currently coordinating with them to fight the Coven.