GM Commentary: Scions of Punjar continued

We've completed the Scions of Punjar module and will take a break from Saturday games until the Friday group wraps up their adventure as well. It sounds like Kat, Chris, and Heidi want to check out the Carnival next. I'm hoping some of the Friday players will want to join them.

The last session was fun. I had hoped it would feel climactic even though they had already dealt with Cadavra. The final fight was pretty tough, but I feel like I could have done a better job of pacing it. The whole thing took place in the first few squares of the building. If I'd tempted them into the room further before springing zombies on them it would have felt more dramatic as they all got surrounded.

Once again I didn't feel very prepared for this session, but we managed to have fun anyway. We took extra time to role-play the NPC encounters which helped fill out the evening. Some of the encounters I had pseudo planned turned into suggested quests for later like the dragon horde, the Orcus cult, the slum plague, and the left-over devices of Illserves.

I was glad the group was excited about their new property. I'm hoping to have them flesh out the plans for their new headquarters complete with secret doors, arcane locks and magic circle protections in place. I'm also happy that they hired on Marie as a housekeeper, since every organization needs a few NPC allies to keep things interesting.