Fat Rat Games

See what’s become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities

—from A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon & Garfunkel

D&D and time has always had a bit of an odd relationship. There is the old joke about thirty seconds of combat taking three hours to play through while a three hour hike is covered in thirty seconds of game play. Fifteen minute work days followed by 23.75 hours of rest. Spell durations. Days for crafting items or training or what have you. Lots of things about how long it takes to do things or how long things last…mostly in terms of the players characters. None of that is the subject of this post. Instead, below the break, let’s talk about time in terms of the flow of time in a game, the possibilities it engenders, and what may become of a campaign because of it.

To help everyone with keeping track of the things going on in the campaign, I’ve pulled together the various “plot hooks” or events that have occurred to date…just in case they’ve been forgotten. It is pretty typically for multiple hooks or “story lines” to develop during our campaigns and to continue to develop even if the player characters are not actively involved. So let’s summarize what’s been going on below the break…in no particular chronological or importance order…based on what the player characters already know (even if the players don’t remember).

In their mission to put a stop to an invasion of Winter Fey, the party got themselves caught up in yet another fine mess. Mostly friendly kobolds, hobgoblin slavers, clearly insane Orcus fanatics, lost evil temples, a dig site excavating some undead thing, human bandit slavers, sheep out after dark, pillar of the community shopkeeper secretly an Orcus cultist, and even more cultists tunneling under Winterhaven and into the Padraig family crypt. Sheesh…what’s next? Oh, let’s find out after the break.

Oh my…the party has stepped in some deep…snow. Embroiled in a fey invasion and, more to the point, preventing it. How minor and yet how important can a single letter…u vs o…be? In this case, very. Travel through the Feydark, a visit (conjugal for one) to everyone’s favorite Auntie, transported to the far west of the Vale, and then hobgoblins and a fugitive kobold, and finally a kobold clan to save from said hobgoblins and evil “fleshy” (human). There are multiple plot lines going on at this point and I have a sneaking suspicion that another one might be about to hook the party.

Let’s go find out.

Fire and ice. That kind of sums a bit of the last few sessions. As the party was heading to Nenlast (to both check on the village and to inform the villagers of the loss of their friends previously abducted by gnolls), they came across scorched and charred ground. This got them involved with the activities of the Mages of Saruun and an introduction to the Seven-Pillared Hall, a settlement under Thunderspire where surface and Underdark individuals meet. An encounter with a Shadar-kai and then gnolls followed a couple of days after leaving the Hall. And then the ice. Winter had come preternaturally to the lands around Nenlast. Wintery enemies were fought and an ally was gained, the frost giant Drufi. Finally, the party made it to Nenlast.

We’ll pick things up with the party’s arrival at Nenlast.

In the prior sessions, the party faced way too many gnolls, found a possible remnant of the Necropolis of Andok Sur, magically returned to Fallcrest, and acquired a few magic weapons. Meeting with the Lord Warden and Bejik, they turned over a token from Jheri’s Tomb and learned that the serpentine dragonborn may be a follower of Zehir. After Bejik’s escape, further investigation turned up very little. And so, the party agreed to travel to Nenlast to see what might be going on there AND let the inhabitants know of the deaths of those that Aljuzae’s gnolls and abducted. On the road, they met a minstrel, Brandwick, and found an odd occurrence…the lands south of the Trade Road were burned and scorched. Following a set of tracks in the charred land, they learned of the involvement of the Mages of Saruun and found a charred stone tower. Let’s continue the recaps as the party approaches this stone tower.