ESCHATON Report #2
Well, we've been playing the game! Last night was the 7th session of ESCHATON, my entry into Campaign 2026. It's been such a blast playing in-person again after 2 years of online games only that I just...kinda...forgot to post updates. So here they are!
Cast/Premise Reminder
Since it's been months, let me reintroduce the game.
ESCHATON is a modern monster hunting game with a slight twist. Normally in these types of campaigns, the existence of monsters, ghosts, witches, and magic are secret. Not so in ESCHATON! Since the dawn of time, everyone has been keenly aware that things go bump in the night. Our PCs are licensed and contracted to bump back!
Four intrepid hunters - Valentin (hot catholic priest), Olga (monster-hunting legacy with a magic sword), Bridger (rugged mountain lesbian), and Marvin Grackle (conspiracy theorist with a name so perfect you have to full name him every time) - are gathered to deal with a case of missing hikers in Glacier National Park.
Story So Far
If you just want the notes and lessons etc, skip to the next header!
After the 1st session - the only one I managed to log - the hunters fought a coven of witches who were midway through a ritual involving blood sacrifice, a cave that was once buried by a glacier, and a very large slumbering monster. Two of the nine witches bit the dust, the rest escaped cackling into the night, as the hunters were unable to stop the ritual in time. This led to a big problem...
The Locust King was awoken. Lord of darkness, father of all monsters, big bad of the campaign, you get the idea. The hunters scrammed from the park, dragging a badly hurt Marvin and a terrified park ranger intern NPC along for the ride, as unnatural darkness descended and baleful yellow eyes appeared in the night sky.
What follows is a blur of good times and poor note-taking. Over the course of the intervening five sessions, the hunters retreated to the nearby town of Columbia Falls, met several local personages (magical healer Rue, distressed alcoholic sheriff Buck, deranged waitress Payton, and agoraphobic wife-stalker Colt), fought and beat a monster held captive under a hotel by a cult, got pissy with a federal agent (and his golem partner), fortified a Smith's supermarket, helped a young goth, promptly failed to exorcise said young goth after a witch hexed her and her family, pried an old recording of a 19th century settler/monster hunter out of the wall of the historic Morrow House, interrogated then executed a witch who escaped the battle at the cave, and managed to cast a genuine spell to stop another witch from attacking the townsfolk hiding in the supermarket...
It's been a whirlwind. Part of the fun has been the time distorting effect of the unearthly eye-filled skies spreading outward from the Locust King's cave. The hunters - and their players - have little idea whether they've been in town for a single day or a whole week.
Last night, the 7th session began as the Locust King and a parade of minor monsters we've taken to calling "imps" marched off the highway and into town, attacking the supermarket.
The hunters prepared a defense in depth, replete with traps, home-made mustard gas, deputizing and arming townsfolk, setting pickup trucks on fire to act as beacons AND roadblocks...
The first several waves of the battle went well for our dear hunters. Armed with their wits, a smart little map of the battle area I sketched based on Google Maps, and some INSANE rolls by the armed posse of town residents, our guys killed a mid-sized dragon (don't imagine firebreathing, red scales, and reptilian stuff, think along the lines of a big vulture serpent with thirteen yellow eyes), beat up a Tsathoggua-esque bigboy so badly that it retreated, and cleaved through several dozen imps.
Unfortunately, the party became split when the Locust King arrived on the scene, seemingly uninterested in the warded killzone deathtrap supermarket, instead angling for the riverside park. Marvin and Valentin ran into the woods, got separated and attacked by a horse-centipede-thing, and tried to work a spell with their combined reserve of aether (processed monster viscera, used as fuel for magic).
The spell worked, and while Olga slaughtered imps with her cursed magic sword The Thorn of St. Catherine, and Bridger directed the townsfolk's gunfire while launching mustard gas-laden crossbow bolts, Valentin began a semi-hallucinatory combination with an old man only visible in the river's reflection. The old river man, not sure these hunters are up to the task of defeating the Locust King, bid them lure the Father of Monsters into the water, and he'd see what he could do.
Marvin and Valentin are able to distract the Locust King from whatever he's trying to do in the riverside park, get him to walk to the water's edge, and then things go south. The Locust King raises his spear, casts it, and knocks Valentin into the negatives. But the King of Monsters still goes into the water to fetch his spear...
Cue a fighting retreat as Marvin swims downriver, drags Valentin's body onto the banks, and the old river man spirit situation manifests in full as storm clouds suddenly accrete overhead, lightning flashes down on the Locust King, and a thundering voice in [reconstructed PIE] roars "Back to the shadows, monster! May you be killed, crushed, drowned, defeated, ground into dust!"
Meanwhile, Olga falls under the combined assault of dozens of imps, and is dragged back inside the supermarket. Imps beat at the reinforced garage door, climb the exterior walls. Marvin and Valentin, pursued by a horde of monstrosities, barely break into an abandoned house in time to throw up a temporary ward. Bridger, seeing the Locust King retrieve his spear and approach the supermarket, watches as her civilian posse breaks in fear and flees, leaving her and suddenly-beloved NPC Harvey to open fire...only for Bridger to eat a spear and get dropped as well.
So that's where the campaign stands after seven sessions. We're all dying on various floors as the Locust King stands near triumph, his evil spear planted in the Smith's supermarket, spreading tendrils of darkness like the roots of a tree...
Good times :)
Session Overview
Every session follows a very predictable schedule within itself. I'm falling in love with the consistency.
Around 7pm, everyone arrives. We usually make dinner for the other players, and during the day some of them usually reach out by text to offer a side, a salad, a desert, or beverages. So it's a full meal by the time their contributions turn up.
Around 8pm, we're done eating and chatting, and Valentin's player surreptitiously starts handing out people's character sheets and item/ability cards. I lead a quick (2 min) writing prompt to get us into character - a different prompt every time, usually something about the hunter's past experience. Then a tarot card is drawn, interpretations are pondered, and I do a little recap.
Then, gaming furiously with no break til 10pm, at which point we find a good cliffhanger line and call it.
Finally, we never part without scheduling the next game. We initially aimed at every 2 weeks, but player demand is such that we do every week unless there's a specific scheduling blackout.
This consistent schedule makes it feel like a (fun, very fun) part of my weekly routine. And it keeps the pace of the game fast, which we all like and I'm probably more suited to as a GM anyways.
How I Prep
By now, I have a prep template that doesn't vary much from session to session. Save for the odd exception (like a battlemap for last night's big showdown) it always goes like this:
I write the recap. I usually reference last session's prep for this, since I'm bad at taking notes mid-game. Players are encouraged to interrupt to add details I forgot, or correct me.
I write a list of potential scenes. This I do for most games, and the method is very much based on Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. These are 2-3 line ideas tops, and I try not to texture them much, as they are IDEAS to get on paper, only about half see play at any given session. But this does serve to give me a rough sketch of what the session's plot might be like. See also "bangs" from Sorcerer, I think.
I update "Ongoing Situations". I can't say a lot about these since at least one player reads the blog, but they are things like "Locust King's March" and "Coven Scheme" and "Government Response". These are medium-to-big picture happenings in the game (the really big picture, overview of the campaign type stuff sits in a hub document).
I write blurbs for NPCs that feature. Since we've been in the same disaster-struck town for six sessions, I copy paste them over in most cases, then update any notes about how they're doing, what they're up to, or player relationships that have changed since last time.
I detail any new locations. We have a sketched, pointcrawl-like map of town that I made all nice and pretty in Affinity and printed out, which has now been scrawled and noted and had extra spots added...just the way I like it.
Lastly, and if I have time, I stat up monsters I expect might feature. This I don't really need to do, and when I do I don't find it makes a huge difference. If I was playing a D&D-like, it might really matter! But in my weirdo ripoff SAVAGE WORLDS thing, it just doesn't have much impact.
Prepping a session is invariably done day-of during slow periods at work, and never took more than 1.5 hours.
What I've Learned
This has been a great experience so far. The first thing I've learned is that when this game finishes, all these players are invited to whatever I do next!
One of our players is more new to roleplaying than the rest, and I've found that to be way more refreshing and less nerve-wracking than I initially feared. This player is smart, witty, and attentive. The only friction is getting her to locate the d8, and differentiate that to from the d10. Otherwise, she's a tactical whiz with some great lines.
I've learned that I really prefer fast, light games that let me make rulings on the fly. No brainer? Sure. But here's the actual lesson: those rulings that we like so much need to be PROPERLY AND IMMEDIATELY RECORDED. I can't tell you the number of times, in seven sessions, we made a ruling then later had to remake it. It's got to be at least once per session! So I want to do a better job - here and in future games - recording and reminding us all of rulings we agree to at the table.
From returning to in-person, I've learned a lot about online roleplaying, despite that having been my only access for years. I've learned that many players AND MYSELF find online play more taxing to our attention, our emotions, and our eyes/posture. I've also learned that a handout or image drop online actually doesn't get the same impact as a piece of paper with stuff on it hitting the table. Lastly, I've learned that certain pacings - for scenes and sessions - work best in different mediums. Long scenes, for example, can feel engaging in-person but stultifying online. So...this is food for thought re: my current online game!
Lastly, to be corny, I've learned that making dinner for people I don't live with once a week is great for the soul.
Stay tuned, and see you around!