I fully intended to post more than once a quarter here, but through a heaping dose of slacking off coupled with a move and some other things, that appears to be where I've ended up.
Oh well. Back to it.
A campaign recap is actually a pretty good way to give some examples of a couple points I wanted to make.
After the group counted their losses to the Chardalyn Dragon they did the only thing they really could do for the people of the Ten Towns at that point. Avenge them.
Filled with righteous fury the party made their way back up the mountain passes to Sunblight Fortress and stormed the place.
An exploding chest Slaad, a well timed betrayal from within the Duergar and some Mushroom men rebelling later and the fortress had fallen, as had its leader Xardorok Sunblight.
With one major villain dealt with, the party decided it was time to see if there was something to be done about Auril and the never ending winter she'd cast over the Dale. Luckily an ally of theirs had a lead.
After making friends and adding a Druid to their group to replace the loss of their Haematurgist to the aforementioned exploding chest situation, the party called upon a sentient talking whale to serve as a submarine and carry them to a foreboding island said to be Auril's abode.
One judicious use of Under the Sea later and the party had arrived on the spine chilling (both figuratively and literally) island known as Solstice upon which sits Grimskalle. Formerly home to a tribe of frost giants, now to the Lady of Winter.
Several acts of good judgment, heroism and just a couple brutal murders later and the group managed to succeed in the Trials necessary to access the treasure vault beneath the keep where their ally said they could find things of use in dealing with the frosty goddess.
Beyond the treasure vault the party discovered an interesting place of power that seemed to be calling out to them.
First the party's Sorcerer stepped up and was offered a piece of the Frostmaiden's power if he could but survive the process. He did not and found himself joining the collection of ice statues littering the room.
The revelation that failure meant certain death caused most of the rest of the party to decide to cut their losses and leave, one however had been waiting for this exact moment.
Stomping forth into the frigid chamber, the group's Dark Knight smashed the statue of his once ally and called out to receive Auril's blessing, having heard her alluring words for months at this point.
Flooded with a newly found abundance of power and rising as the Frost Queen's Champion, the Dark Knight strode forth to deal with the gnats infesting his Lady's abode.
It's at this point the survivors of the group attempted to subdue their once friend and eventually flee when things turned very bad. Unfortunately none escaped Grimskalle alive.
If you're still with me, allow me to get to the points I was going to try to make. The first of which is colluding with a single party member.
When we first started this campaign, I had players roll for their Secrets the way the module suggests. With one player as an exception. He and I had decided what secret he would have instead of it being randomly determined. He wanted to play as a character loyal to Auril.
How he wanted that to play out was entirely up to him. He'd be free to act amongst the party however he chose and would have to deal with any consequences of his actions. Fortunately most of what the group had dealt with up to this point had been the machinations of the Duergar, the halting of which pleased Auril greatly meaning that this hidden agent did not have to be very subversive.
There were however enough moments throughout where this player got to feel that sense of being a double agent where his cover was almost blown, or he had some information that the party didn't question because he'd earned their trust that the concept didn't feel like something that was brushed under the rug.
Eventually when this place of power was approached it was time for him to make a decision. Would his character fully submit and become an overt servant, blowing his cover because a solid attempt to stop the heroes here was in his patron's best interest, or would he continue maintaining his cover for the time being? He chose the former. At this point this character became an NPC and I took control of his actions as combat broke out, for a very good reason.
The way the situation had played out thus far it was my assumption the group would be able to handle the sudden betrayal and at the very least escape. This being the case, I did not want the player who had controlled this Dark Knight to be the one trying to kill the party. Ideally he'd be making a new character to join the group so he continue on in the campaign. If you want the players' potential negative reaction leveled at anyone, you want it to be the DM. Thus why I took control.
A lot of people would call something like that pretty crazy but it actually worked out great. People were very upset at the character who'd betrayed them, but not the player which was the trickiest part of it all.
The fact that the group panicked and flubbed their escape wasn't expected, but if there ever was a time for death inducing chaos to break out, that was it. Ultimately this resulted in a TPK which leads me to my next point.
The end isn't necessarily the end.
A lot of groups would call a TPK in a place like that a good reason to end a campaign, but I would disagree. So too would my players as I gave them the option. They seemed super interested in making a new group of heroes to delve down into the Reghed Glacier (having gotten the knowledge how to from elsewhere in the set up for this new party) and onto the lost Netherese city beneath.
Given the option of ending things and starting fresh with something else, or trying to accomplish their original goal under different circumstances while dealing with the fallout of the choices of the recently deceased party they chose the latter. The knowledge (even if it's meta knowledge) of what came before lends weight to what comes next.
Long story short, try crazy things like letting a PC betray the party and maybe kill them all, and don't be afraid to make up ridiculous circumstances to continue the overarching narrative of a campaign with fresh characters. It's not like the problems went away on their own. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work and you'll do better next time.
P.S.: Posts should be coming a little more frequently now that I'm back into the swing of things.
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