It’s happening! The two parties of the campaign I play in are finally going to meet—no extraplanar shenanigans, no dream situations, they’re actually meeting in the Material Plane.

I don’t usually make posts like this after the Underdark group/evil squad session, but that was the session where their trajectories have been aligned. Both parties are set on a collision course. And I’m very excited about it!

The Campaign

SBotLL is the campaign I’ve been playing in for over 5 years now. One group (mostly good-aligned) started on the surface; the other group (mostly evil-aligned) began in the Underdark.

The good squad features my sun elf bard Finnith, the tiefling ranger Allora, and the dragonborn rogue Nala as player characters (PCs). Also accompanying us at the moment are two non-player characters (NPCs): the dragonborn warlock Amuulqalo and the human rogue Rupert.

The evil squad features the drow ranger Eliera, the tiefling monk Baala’rug, and the changeling rogue Cipher as PCs. Their current NPCs include the firbolg fighter Naivara, the drow rogue Ivellios, and the drow bard Daear (who I also play).

An Anticipated Moment

The reason why this meeting is so highly anticipated is because of the parties’ connections to each other. Notably, the PCs have each been selected as “chosen” of a mysterious power known as the Host. The Host was the one who introduced the parties to each other in a short, highly controlled setting in a dream of sorts.

This is when the secret came out: Eliera’s motivation to reach the surface is to find the person responsible for her mother’s murder. She believes that Adren Fëanor, her and Finnith’s father, is the culprit. Her plan is to kill Adren, his wife Thia (Finnith’s mother), and her half-brother Finnith as part of her revenge.

There are other connections between the parties—for example, the NPC Rupert and PC Cipher are both part of the same crime family, though Cipher has been missing from the surface for 6 years… and Finnith’s mysterious mentor, Neroth, has been an antagonist to the evil squad for most of the campaign.

But the reason the two are meeting is because after their “meeting,” Finnith began contacting the evil squad with sending and dream. He uncovered the truth behind his and Eliera’s situation—it wasn’t their father, but their grandfather who is responsible for Eliera’s mother’s death, and he still lives as a revenant.

Eliera doesn’t believe Finnith. But Baala’rug does, so he and Finnith have worked together to ensure that the groups will meet. Past that, no one knows what will happen… will they be able to talk things out? Or will the meeting devolve into conflict? A tenuous balance, indeed.

Next Campaign Diary

The next campaign diary post will cover the session with everyone in it. We left off each group at the moment right before they’ll run into each other.

I am so excited to see what will happen! Our groups are both at around 15th level and, thus, are pretty powerful. Out-of-character, we know that something will happen to force the groups to work together (a “greater evil,” so to speak) but no idea if that will show up now or later. But once the evil squad reached the surface, the only thing standing between Eliera and her revenge is Finnith and the good squad.

I just have to wait until the end of this month for the session!