In this session, the party takes a breather before they set out on the next part of their quest.

These campaign diary posts are where I talk about the campaign I play in and what happened in the most recent session!

What’s SBotLL?

That’s the name of the campaign I play in! It’s been running for over four years now. There are two parties, one on the surface and one in the Underdark. I play in the surface squad as the elf bard Finnith, and my two friends play the dragonborn rogue Nala and the tiefling ranger Allora. The Underdark group is made of the changeling rogue “Wethryn,” the tiefling monk Baala’rug, and the drow ranger Eliera.

Recap

Last session, Allora and the other co-leaders of the Awoken Flame made some plans in preparation for the upcoming battle with the Coven of Eternal Light. Entropy and Verge will take care of matters at the base, while the party will go to the Gray Crescent Mountains. There, the party will find a safe location for the Awoken Flame tieflings to stay if the current base is compromised. They also need to place Vindus’s sigil somewhere in the mountains.

Finnith spoke with his half-sister Eliera using his new powers granted by the mirror selves. This was technically covered in a separate session.

The party then began their journey. At the end of the weeklong trip, they arrived at the foot of the mountains, only to find Antonio there. Antonio was trying to reunite with Finnith using the Fëanor blod stone. But it was giving a reading to someone other than Finnith. The group followed the reading only to find Finnith’s long lost uncle, Lucan Fëanor, at a hidden shrine to Tymora, the goddess of luck. But Lucan seemed more surprised to see Allora, and the truth is revealed— Allora isn’t Beshaba’s daughter, she’s Tymora and Lucan’s.

In this session…

The party has dinner with Lucan and Tymora. Allora gets to know her parents, and the party discusses most everything that’s happened to them since they met Allora. Finnith also shares some of what he found out about Eliera and her previous connection to Beshaba. Tymora believes that Beshaba was trying to bring further complications to the Fëanor family’s situation by helping Eliera. Tymora also thinks that Beshaba was trying to disrupt Allora’s connection with her, and would have succeeded if Allora had continued working with Beshaba.

After dinner, the party is invited to stay the night at the shrine, which is a beautiful manor with hot springs behind it. The party relaxes and reflects on recent events.

Allora and Nala perceive that something is on Finnith’s mind. After some pressing, he admits that he has feelings for Antonio and wants to confess that to him, but he’s also a coward and doesn’t have experience in these matters. Since Antonio is gone for long periods of time to perform his duties as a spy on the Coven, he’s absent more often than not, and the Coven battle is approaching. Finnith isn’t sure when he’s going to get another opportunity to tell him.

After a long conversation, some reassurance from Allora, and some less-than-gentle prodding from Nala, Finnith decides to just go for it and leaves to do just that.

Allora and Nala’s conversation takes a turn towards Amuulqalo. Allora correctly identifies that the two dragonborn’s friendship is pretty complicated and that there may be different feelings than friendship underneath it all. Nala isn’t so sure and needs more time to think about it.

Meanwhile, Finnith finds Antonio’s room and is invited in. He and Antonio talk about many different things before Finnith can get to the point. But he does get there, and his feelings are reciprocated. (hooray!)

Players’ preferences

As the dungeon master, you can get a pretty good idea of what sort of content your players are interested in after a while of DMing for the same group. Our group likes a mix of combat and exploration with more free-form role playing sessions, and we enjoy exploring the bonds between party members and with NPCs.

But it’s always a good idea to be proactive about determining what your players like, and tools like the Consent Checklist are designed to help you avoid topics that would cause discomfort in your players. And once you know, you can focus on preparing content that excites and challenges your group!