Ducal House - Year Seven Begins

This is being written as we cruise up on the second child-related campaign hiatus - it is a good sign that the campaign has survived one so far and that interest exists to continue with it post-hiatus.

The stats are becoming quite impressive
Running March-2020 to present
149 sessions held (150 including session zero)
663 hours played
Averaging two sessions a month tempo.
Levelled up 10 times

Big things done this year was the closing down of one major threat to the world - the reemergence of the dead god of the undead - by tracking down a last extant artefact, slaying his last true believer with it and flinging the parts into the vauls of a mountain fortress. This puts paid to a plot running since session two, and the blow fell in session 138 so a mere 136 sessions to resolve it, with some detours along the way.

The big shift this past year was accelerating the in-world clock; getting more relaxed about time passing. This paid off in us getting nearly a whole month done in ~ 30 sessions roughly a session a day, twice as fast as in previous years. We all agreed to try this and it seems to be paying off.

The Sorcerer, as drawn by the Bard

As ever, XP is a flat 200 per session and then whatever comes from combat and risk-taking. There were a few big fights while questing around trying to find the artefact which pushed the total nicely but since then, apart from one ambush by rivals, there has been a lot of inteligence gathering and set up for a run on the next known hazard-to-all-life so a slower tick up of XP.

Statistics

Sessions per month varied over the year - quite a lot early in the year while bearing down on the artefact and then slower in the back half of the year - averaging the twice monthly tempo that was the initial target. I must once again recommend this sanity preserving technique for DMs - commit to a tempo that is slower than you would love, and then see if you can get a bonus session here or there. Those sessions will feel like treats as opposed to trying to keep a high tempo, having life-driven cancellations, and have the same number of sessions feel like thin gruel.

December last year was also the point where the actual hours and the theoretical plan finally crossed over. That plan - a pair of five hours sessions, ten hours of gaming, per month - was wildly ambitious for a sustained campaign but lo, we got six years in before we've fallen under that target. Admittedly, we have been burning down a massive pandemic-lock-in bank of hours played but still, we are only now falling behind where I might have hoped to be.

There was no level up this year - it was spent at 11th level throughout. They are creeping up on 12th level, one more good fight and they will probably get there. Average session length has ticked down this past year; 3.3 hrs versus 4.1 hrs the year before and 4.6 hrs for the campaign to date. We put in a fair few more evening sessions in person this last year which were good for keeping tempo up but those slots are just shorter by their nature.

As mentioned above after a wedge of combat XP while closing in on the artefact, things have been a lot lower risk of late. It needs one more significant fight - though one thing that is slowing things down a chunk is the inclusion of a fairly heavyweight high-CR follower in the party of late which has been diluting everyones combat XP gains.

As mentioned above, very happy to see the steepening of the time passing in-world; hopefully we can keep up this in-world tempo as it makes it more plausible for in-world consequences to propagate, both good and bad.

Plot progression

To recap the party's actual doings in world - things opened with a raid on an infernal ceremony, a desperate noble seeking to restore his families fortune, then progressed through repatriation of rescuees from a githyanki raid on the astral, and some setting the realm in order before they departed for a raid over the mountains into the chaotic warzone of their western neighbour, under invasion by their northern neighbout. Awakened ancient monsters, undead legions, wolf-riding hordes and local militias all clashed in the lands where a god had once died. After a side-trek to sneak into the lair of the stone giants lich-king for reconnaisance, the party scoured these war torn lands until they found the ruins of the ancient capital, snuck in, fought their way out past a swarm of demons and undead and fled with the blade of that long-dead god.

After a brief respite at the beach, the blade was used to slay that gods last true believer, then flung in the deepest, darkest vault in the family holdings. A diversion to the moon was followed by some house duties to supervise the removal of a deadly legacy from a buried temple of Bain beneath the capital, followed by an ambush by a third party in those same undercity catacombs. Finally, after tense discussions with their lieges court mage and realising they hunted the same foes, the year closed with a tour of the trouble spots, gathering the freshest of news by flexing the sorcerers teleportation capabilities.

The background goal to all this has been gearing up to put a stop to the second threat-to-all-life they are aware of, the stone-giants lich-king and whatever dread works he is up to.

Look ahead

We were to have a session tonight, before the campaign went on hiatus once more but now smallest householders enthusiasm for fresh air put paid to those plans. Last time it took us six months to get back to playing; we shall hope for similar this time around, so maybe some more sessions in August? We shall see.

Resolving the threat this lich-king poses is the main goal the players are aiming for at the moment, most likely that will carry us through to the end of the calendar year and after that there are a million loose threads lying around, up to them what they chose to prioritise but I think there is still enough meat on the bone for us to continue at least another year. For now, that is good enough, the year after I will deal with as we get to it!