Rift Walker Luminvale Campaign Overview & Thoughts (15-16)
This week I discuss the next couple of Rift Walker sessions, including the special sessions that progress the story and a session that has been 3 months in the waiting. We did a special Chronicles of Narnia style adventure, had some touching character moments and took the first step in the new direction of the main campaign.
Treaty of the Iron Peaks
Letters of choice for the players in the Luminvale campaign.
After receiving some letters from some new potential allies, the group took to Iron Peaks to meet with The Under King. With Socko out, the group was joined by Dorak’s found cat, named fish and its curious robot companion that can project voices into people’s head and seems very curious. Here he was proud of their few adventures where they embraced the flame and told him of some powerful ways to fight back against the Maestro. He told of 6 temples that when the seals taken to them, in their rightful home, they could unlock powerful weapon traits. He also told them of a story where his people (Dwarves) were taken from their home, they sought refuge in the Iron Peaks with the Stone Giants. Here, they fought side by side against the Maestro many years ago, but now were at an impasse after a fight over the silver ore in the mines, he charged the group with making this fight end, and bring back Dwarf taken by the stone giants. They are offered many routes to get there but tale the quick route, to not waste time. They don’t try to go silently, but use high lights from DJ and Fish’s robot friend. They directly confront another King of the Stone Giants and explain that a treaty must be formed. In here some statues turn out to be giants also, and here they meet Dora’s brother Borak. They take a prisoner dwarf that is being stretched to death as a sign of goodwill, as the giants explain they eat silver and need it to survive, but are happy to share the holy place of the Dwarves with them. They tell the Under King and he agrees, giving his hammer in good faith. After this, they decide to travel to the Enduring Wastes to get a hold of the second-last seal.
Battle map and general exploration map, with camera setup.
Christmas Comes Early for Jadis
With sally and Socko returned, the group is told a tale pop Kris Kringle who brings all sorts of gifts to good children. His magic has be cut from the land by an evil ice witch. The group goes to her castle to investigate. Travelling through the Whimsy wood, the group has a tough time pushing through the snow and so takes some consequences. They find refuge in a small beaver damn, where they learn a little more about evil and might Jadis the witch who freezes people on sight. Barnaby helps them with a frozen lake and fish shortage issue, and Sally has a tender moment of clarity with the female Beaver. Trudging on, they find the castle and many broken statues of frozen woodland beings. They opt for the back entrance to avoid any magic, after finding out about some of her curses. There they find a stable and a greedy dwarf who gives them some advice and answers their questions for gold. They find out about her temper, and her destructive magic. They explore some of her castle before attacking her, and her guard Morgram the werewolf; in her throne room. There they slog t out as Socko gets bashed off a balcony, Barnaby holds his own against the wolf and the witch. DJ supports and uses plenty of their music power; Sally summons a massive zombie and takes down her morale. In a desperate moment the group summons forth an old Rift Walker Zadymka to fight along side them. Between them, they subdue the witch and make her very afraid. Zadymka hold back the wolf kin. The witch eventually allows the great wizard Kringle into Luminvale where he sends her off to the chaos realm Zadymka was. He grants them all a gift, where Sally says her goodby wanting to return with Zadymka to his Rift Plane Alpha realm. Socko wishes for a wonderful Christmas with her mum, and says her goodbye. DJ wishes for a new boost to their record collection and Barnaby wants to spend time with his fiancee Jolene.
Castle map and tokens for the Ice-witch game.
Thoughts
We got to have a touching goodbye to a player who needs to drop out of our games. We also have a player switching characters, so over the Christmas game, we got to have some nice moments of tenderness for the characters. It was good for Zadymka (our old campaign’s character) to get his justice in the end. It was weird going back to our 0.3 rules for our Christmas game, but it was better to do that than teach new rules for someone’s last game. It made me really enjoy the direction of 0.4’s rules. We had our first 0.4 rules game and I already noticed some of the niceties, like visual markers for enemies, just writing the game HP stats on the battle map; really gamey consequences and rewards (even having the players choose the ones that effect them); doom points so far are working; and the conditions work well. I am so excited to try more stuff with them. I was also psyched to try out my new preparation style of doing it all in a paper journal. Having it all in that way is nice for mindfulness, and makes me feel more creative. I have decided to scan in and include my prep notes below for you to review and see the format of. I hope you like them. I went back to using the webcam for the in person maps, instead of owlbear rodeo. I have really enjoyed using all of my cool ttrpg stuff, so I want to keep that up. I feel more energised when I am up and about moving around my minis, instead of locked at a computer. It is a small step towards in person play. Feeling great at the moment with the shape of the game, and the campaign. There is some good choices ahead for the players to decide what they want to do to go against the evil Maestro. I still need to figure out how his fronts will progress and move without them feeling scummy to the players. More to come.
