ESCHATON Report #3
Welcome to the third play report for ESCHATON, my Campaign26 entry. This covers session 8, the end of our first "season".
Cast/Premise Reminder
Here's a brief reminder of what the game's about.
ESCHATON is a modern monster hunting campaign with the slightest of twists - the world at large knows all about monsters and the supernatural!
Four hunters - Valentin (hot catholic priest), Olga (monster-hunting legacy with a magic sword), Bridger (rugged mountain lesbian), and Marvin Grackle (conspiracy theorist/ghost hunter) - who initially met to investigate some missing hikers find themselves in a new world of horror...
Big Finish
Session 8 very firmly felt like the second episode in a 2-part season finale, so we called it out as such and treated it that way.
With the town of Columbia Falls under attack by the Locust King and his forces, and all but one hunter knocked down, things looked dire. The King's spear broke through the supermarket walls and planted itself into the floor, shooting tendrils of black ichor into the ground. Olga's player said this must be "an injection" and boy was he right...
The first half of the session was the hunters scrabbling to deal with a dozen problems at once. Everyone was hurt, everyone was running low on ammo and ideas, and though most monsters were in retreat, the Locust King was still an untouchable force on the battlefield.
As they readied to make a break for it, black flowers began sprouting from the floor all around the spear, and several of the panicking townsfolk (hundreds of whom are hiding out in the supermarket) started to seize, speak in tongues, and grow monstrous...
While Bridger and Valentin grabbed a few things for the road, Marvin dragged an injured Olga toward the embedded spear, hoping to cut it down with the Thorn of St. Catherine, her magic sword. A good strike for hefty damage resulted in...scoring the surface of the spear's shaft, with little overall effect. Olga and Marvin promptly decide it's time to go!
All this happened as someone outside the supermarket drove a fully-loaded semi truck into the Locust King's legs at about 70 mph.
The power cuts to the building, lights blow out, and the civilians transforming into monsters begin attacking the crowd. Valentin takes out two with gunfire at close range, just as more gunfire begins outside (reinforcements?!) and a familiar voice on a megaphone blares "THIS IS THE CONTAINMENT BUREAU. YOU ARE BEING RESCUED".
As the hunters retreat, they see an armored convoy has pulled up, replete with several federal agents, a dozen kitted national guard, and two more trucks loaded with livestock carriers...
The Locust King isn't amused. As the hunters board the rescue vehicles and the convoy begins to turn around, the Father of Monsters uses his wand to set the soldiers blood to flash-boil.
Inside, only Marvin remains, helping a returned Agent Maine break into the back office of the supermarket, where he introduces the last bit of aether (processed monster viscera, fuels magic) needed to activate a spell-
-Just as the Locust King takes a big hit and crashes through the walls of the supermarket-
-Tripping the temporary binding spell Maine prepared to keep him trapped here-
-ceiling is collapsing-
-Marvin and Maine book it-
-and escape with only minor injuries...
The convoy screeches off into the night!
Falling Action
The second half of the session was a comedown, and I think that was okay. The last several sessions have been action-packed wall-to-wall, with little time for exploring the PCs - though I do find their decisions in the midst of danger are revelatory about their character!
The hunters, after some nightmares (a Locust King motif), wake up in a federal black site near Cheyenne, being treated for various injuries by the Containment Bureau. After they rouse, they meet with Maine, who explains the facts of the situation:
The hunters were in what his superiors dub "the Night Zone" (the Locust King nightmare realm, with eternal night skies full of yellow eyes) for 2 weeks. Apparently, the Night Zone has a time-wibbling factor. Another week was spent in recovery...which means about 3 weeks have passed in-game since campaign start.
The Night Zone remains. It stretches from the Canadian border south to Missoula, and east across most of Montana. Hundreds of thousands of people are presumed trapped within it. Monster activity is up 2- or 3-fold nationwide. Nothing - cell, satellite, radio, aircraft - can penetrate the Night Zone.
And apparently, Olga's monster hunter parents went in there looking for her, without contacting the feds...
What follows is some fun roleplaying. The hunters generally agree to work with the feds, through Agent Maine, to help resolve this situation. Olga calls up her Uncle Jarda (sp?), the head of the ancient Novak family of monster hunters, convincing him to give her team access to some "relic-weapons from the vault". Valentin calls home to his fraternal monastic order of hunters in Puebla, getting a dressing down from the order's master, but again, the guy agrees to help research some phenomena surrounding the Locust King.
Finally, we get some leads on what comes next. Maine has a reported sighting of one of the Feasting Coven witches in North Dakota he wants to investigate, and he also has some prototype weapon he wants to test on the Locust King, which could pair with finding Olga's parents in the Night Zone...we'll see.
What I've Learned
I was worried the return of the feds (with bigger guns this time) might feel like a deus ex machina, but as it played out, it felt earned. The players HAD sent off Agent Maine in the hopes of reinforcements, and HAD been fighting a delaying action to play for time...so it was cathartic to be rescued, it seemed!
I need to find more hooks for certain characters, especially Marvin and Bridger. Marvin has such a deep hate for the feds, and his player has been serving me juicy backstory in bits and pieces about being a ghost hunter, and his dead friend/partner Jaime...I wanna honor those in season 2! Similarly for Bridger, she is a proper hunter and we've been doing more fighting than hunting in the first 8 sessions. I want to give her more to chew on, and maybe one or two meaningful NPC connections.
Lastly, unmentioned in the summary is the pyromancy grimoire. A Bureau magic researcher was encouraged by Maine to meet with Marvin, and hand him over some of his research. Specifically, a book of Ming Dynasty pyromancy spells. That was a fun note to end the session on, as I had printed 9 spell cards and bound them into a mini-grimoire, so near the end of the game I got to slap down the printout on the table and listen to a literal "OOOH AHHH" from the assembled players. The lesson there seems to be: PROPS! AH!
Thoughts on the Campaign
So far it's a blast. There's a clear antagonist, we're able to meet regularly, NPCs are weird and interesting to the players. We're going strong. Now we have a naturally built 2 week break between "seasons" while I go out of town for a wedding!
Re: Campaign 26
The goal of the Campaign 26 challenge, for me, is achieved. The campaign is up and running, it's got momentum and legs under it, players typically ask to schedule the game as we wrap the session without prompting...and even slower endings (I really prefer cliffhangers, but it's not always doable) usually draw a cheer as we close for the night.
Thank you to everyone who is and was participating in this challenge. Your collective efforts give me great enjoyment and even greater inspiration. Special shoutouts to the Lonely Star's entry, which introduced me to one of my new favorite blogs!
Have fun, good gaming to y'all.