The gods are dead and their assassins continue to plot. Wars are fought out in open to hide the wars carried out in secrecy. The fragility of the nations’ borders doom Khorvaire to repeat history. Ancient legends of Arkhosia and Bael Turath threaten a new age and a war spanning continents, planes, and dimensions.

And in order to forge peace for all of Khorvaire, we'll be running a mash-up of several Hackmaster modules and every single Tomb of Horrors.

The enemies of our enemies die next. It’s good to be a dungeon master.

To the DMs of Eberron. Cheers.

-Lancar

PS. Oh, and today’s my birthday. Happy birthday, me.

So our most experienced adventurer was this dour old Dwarf named Baldin Thorgrim Fireforge. When we first met, I thought he was a typical, dour, keep-to-himself type of Dwarf. We exchanged a few words in Davek, had polite chitchat about his clan and about Moradin. We fought at each other’s backs, countless times, and I love and respect the man as a big, excessively hairy brute of a brother. But, sometimes, it was tough.

So we finished some work for this town councilor, a pretty well-off town called Chendl. Getting sent off someplace new, we know that we’re in good graces. “My liege,” I said to the broad, “if it would please you, our journey would be expedited greatly if the city could provide us with horses.”

*Above* A horse. Probably.

“But of course, my dearest, handsome and wonderful retainer,” she told me. “They shall be provided for you at once, the strongest, most fit, and beautiful horses we have to offer.”

My noble friend, the honorable and never-faltering Baldin stepped forward, then. To this day, I still haven’t forgotten the words that came out of his mouth at that time. “Yeah, uh… do those horses… come with condoms?”

We left Chendl without horses.

-Lancar

Character hooks that players establish are easily the most valuable. A player knows their own story, and will always keeps it close to heart. As a DM, take what they offer and use it to wrench their hearts into sad distorted mush. I suffered for a year and a half under a DM that ignored starting hooks. Hooks outside of the module just wasn’t his style (all DMs have their quirks and styles). But for that entire time, my warlock friend was searching for his kid sister. The campaign ended with him rich and retired in the city of Chendl, but sister-less.

I try my best to bring attention to unresolved hooks. I’ve written epilogues for finished campaigns. Sometimes, NPCs write letters to the party. The party revisiting cities makes for some interesting downtime, meeting with older NPCs. However, there are many hooks that are much more difficult to resolve.

The Vampire, Kosius, was the strongest officer of the Vampire Queen’s army. In life, he was a history teacher, and later, strategist. He strived to be practical and even-handed, and valued knowledge over everything. Romulus was an enemy dragon, responsible for sending hordes of dragonblood soldiers at a party led by The Wyrmslayer. Cool and calculating, he was secretly proud that his mate, who he opposed, had such staunch allies. Rojas was a veteran police detective, old and coming on retirement. He solved mysteries in eastern New Hampshire, while being seduced by the power of a lesser devil haunting his apartment.

This alternate dimension thing comes from ideas combined from a manga called Tsubasa Chronicles and the Jet Li movie, “The One.” There are hundreds of different dimensions/worlds, however, each dimension is a variation of one base world. And thus, each dimension has the same people, but a series of variables has been introduced… from a different set of choices, to a different victor in a major war, to a different time or planet. But because each person is essentially the same, their personality is similar, as is their face, and general quirks. Interesting, huh?

The three characters presented earlier are quite obviously from three different campaigns. I have re-used all of them, in my main Eberron campaign, also switching their allegiances in order for the players to see different sides of them.  Kosius, without him being a vampire, is an aging no-nonsense professor at a military academy. Rojas went from being a modern police detective to an old-world fantasy righteous rebel leader. Romulus died and went to Hell… where my current Hell campaign party became employed as gladiators, by him.

With this model, I can recycle NPCs that the PCs vaguely understand and can predict. Also, I can pursue interesting hooks that had previously been ignored with these already-established personalities. There is also much cross-dimensional tomfoolery. One of my favorites was the Elf, Southstar, finding the Eberron-born version of his girlfriend… except 100 years younger. Other examples are: an orphaned PC finds his parents alive, the other version of you has a criminal reputation, and the form of magic you practice is extremely rare in this world.

You know, I was really hoping that your Asakura wouldn't be trying to kill you, too.

Ah. Maybe the other you in that dimension is of the opposite gender. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

-Lancar

In my Hell Campaign, the list of characters the party can use is made up of characters that have died or been killed during the last 1.5 years of the campaign. It’s a side-campaign that has a goal that must somehow be accomplished for the main campaign to viably continue. There are three parts of this campaign that I wish to be different from the norm. The first is the foundation, the view of the world and of hell. The second is the subtle effects the world itself has on the characters. And lastly, but most interestingly, is the cruelty inherent to the world.

Some awaken, while others have been wandering for decades and centuries. It’s a world that mirrors their own, but somehow feels off, slightly wrong, or uncomfortable. Perhaps the sky is a hue too sickly, or the sounds of footsteps echoes too ominously. Blood runs from the eyes of the fountain statue in the middle of town and no one bats an eye. This is my world’s foundation.

Of the possibilities I plan to explore is how the actions of a powerful party affects certain parts of the Underworld. Allies and enemies long since defeated may have been changed drastically in unlife. Certain powerful fallen may have grown even stronger in the Shadowfell. One of the most powerful messages I wish to convey in this campaign is that though everything may seem the same, everything is different…

On the topic of the characters, each PC is vaguely aware that they have been killed, with their own opinions on the matter. This hell has been warping certain facets of their personalities in the shape of character flaws. These are roleplaying tools that should prove interesting. One flaw that I highly look forward to is a young Dwarven girl that was unfortunate enough to strangle her elderly father and clan leader to death. One of her character flaws is that in times of stress, she seeks to strangle a living creature. Further, it remains a flaw because such an action is ironic to her nature.

Body mutations, race changes, inability to use the abilities of their previous class, peronality changes… everything is permitted, as I am an advocate of character death able to change a character entirely. Further, going along with the subtlety of the setting, I think much will work out. For example, a character previously a Warforged has been brought to hell, but is succumbing to a curse of flesh. Another character has developed a fractured personality, one that is near-opposite of his normal one. Using the example in the previous paragraph, there is much offsetting about a sweet, young girl, tears running from her eyes, slowly and unwillingly twisting the neck of a small mammal.

Finally, each player knows of the campaign’s cruelty. The goal of the campaign, for each PC involved, is the chance to return to life. Each and every character have lost hooks, stories that could not be finished, because they could not fill the role. It pleases me greatly as a DM, because I would love to pick up some of these stories again and be able to finish them with a satisfying ending. It also pleases me to see players feel strongly about their happenings, with a desire to fulfill their goals. The creature that lives, I foresee, will be responsible to fulfill the wishes of his fallen comrades.

Because I am a humorous DM, all of the PCs involved are actually related to one actual player. So regardless of who will “win” and who will “lose” along the way, we will make that player cry. Oh, and the campaign will be epic.

How have you made your players cry, recently?

-Lancar

Well, the group I have been DMing is in mid-Paragon tier. Realizing this, I also found it necessary to make stuff up and to do it quickly. Like my last post, this is a list of extra features granted to certain PCs to further develop their PC’s feel and flavor. The following list is particular to the current party I’m DMing for:

1. Every one or two sessions, the Warforged Fighter finds an animate construct ally willing to join his cause. Sometimes, several. Many allies are blatant one-dimensional character rip-offs (which is why we can put so many in the story). Starscream is a Mimic that can turn into an airship.
2. The Tiefling Artificer has an ability simply called “Artifice Knowledge”. He knows just about everything about any famous artificer or scientist. Ever. Some stories of why he knows what he does are more interesting than others. Most reasons are just stupid, I’m sure.
3. Though the Warlord finds fewer and fewer allies, the ones she does find are more and more powerful. In two of the last major arcs, powerful, heavy-hitting skirmishers class enemies stopped in the middle of Combat Scenes with a something amounting to “hey, I recognize that opal ring!”
4. The Warlord has also found out that her half-sister is a Karrnathi general. Upon first meeting, her sister commissioned for her new armor and a weapon, similar to her own in style and quality.
5. The Elven Mage that lost his powers and became a Berserker can now use his Athletics score in place of Arcana. Unbeatable.
6. Awhile back, the party journeyed to the plane of Thelandira, where the Elven Mage’s family was originally from. They welcomed him back with open arms, celebrating his return, and forcing him to stay in his family’s ridiculously large Elven tower with his beautiful fiancee. The bed was humongous and there was a gigantic flat screen TV with a satellite subscription to just about everything. And a Playstation.
7. An NPC noblewoman joined the party temporarily. The Ranger is a princess. There was at least one pillow-fight and a sleepover.
8. What, that’s not a benefit? Uh. Well, two chapters ago, Princess was in charge of a small 200-man army of bloodthirsty, Baphomet-worshipping, rip-and-tear Minotaurs, loyal to her bloodline.
9. The Dragon Sorcerer is in a love triangle with two of the Knights in Bahamut’s Draconic Court. Three if you include another dragon that’s in love with one of the aforementioned. Four if he’s gay. No wait, five.
10. Oh, the Dream Mage got his character married. And I promised him I wouldn’t use his wife for character blackmail. That’s a pretty good benefit.

Well, that’s my creativity, summed up for the past few weeks. If you are inspired, good. I’ll write again. Sometime.

-Lancar

"If only I had a way to get both temporary and real HP as a minor action!"

Anyway, I’ve found that if a player enjoys a situational effect, they remember it more often. This includes both features of their character builds and roleplay benefits that they earn. Here’s a list of boons granted to my PCs that actually saw constant use.

The Fall Down the Stairs Spell

A quest reward from a powerful mage, its in-game effect was to nullify the ridiculous regeneration and damage reduction of a particular enemy. Its visual effect was to make the guy look like he fell down several flights of stairs. When the fated combat encounter began, the players were pleased to see that in the center of the game map… was a flight of stairs.

Dynamic Hair (Passive)

A power granted by an eleven master of wind magic, this spell allowed the Sorcerer’s hair to move dramatically, as if there was a perfectly-timed breeze, or they were walking through a door into an air conditioned room. I’d imagine that female PCs would be able to pull this off better and sexier.

Neverending Mug

While not really a feature, I believe this deserves a mention. I pulled this one from a 3e sourcebook. It’s a mug that generates a random amount of ale per day, usually good for one person. Could be a holy dwarven relic. At least one person in an average party will enjoy this thoroughly, if not more than one.

Wrestling Federation Championship Belt

This item didn’t even do anything. Really. But once the Warlord got his hands on  certain belt in a treasure hoard and declared it to be this, battles started including flying elbow drops, pins, and dropkicks. And of course, it also included quoting the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, the Rock, etc. It was awesome.

Ritual Assistant

The elves gathered by the fire, discussing what had to be done. Finally, they gathered the arcane components and asked all those having arcane knowledges to stay. All others were to depart, so not to disturb the ritual. The Orc said to the elven leader, “I’ll help too.” Matter of factly, the elf looked at the berserker and responded with, “how the hell are you going to do that?”

While dressed in nothing but a loincloth and ritual paint, the Orc Berserker had the ability to assist in rituals. Most of the time, it was by chanting “ooga-chaka” repeatedly and pumping his two-handed axe up and down in the air. Mechanically, I let him use his Athletics check, so he was frighteningly as good, in most cases better, than all the other ritual-assistants.

Closing

As a DM, when you understand a PC enough, you know what he can and can’t do easily. They develop certain traits, and soon, you start accepting them. Once the Warden rolled a 1 against that candelabra, everyone at the table accepted that he had a hard time hitting inanimate objects. The rogue that I play is a crossbow bolt magnet, and that fact is proved over and over again, every time enemies with that weapon type come into play.

Extra features make things more interesting, and gives the PC and the party something to talk/laugh/tease/complain about.

If you’re here, post a comment if you can think of a unique PC feature that isn’t in the rulebooks, but everyone at the gaming table accepted. Thanks for reading.

-Lancar

Corinne was born in servitude to the Amberguard family, a once wealthy and continually declining noble line. Luckily, her mistress was a naturally sweet and quiet noblewoman named Rie. Rie is also a static NPC with no character development, who is perfectly good as a storybook princess. Rie, being several years older, acted more as a doting older sister than as a master, which only caused a stubborn Corinne to insist that she do her job as a servant, or else “it would make her mother in heaven cry.”

Check out these gigantic scissors. Welcome to Paragon Tier, you freaks.

When Rie turned 16, the Amberguard family arranged Rie’s marriage to the wealthy rich suitor to offer. In order to stay with her mistress, Corinne hid in Rie’s carriage luggage. The moving and crying chest had to be opened after about 10 minutes leaving the house, due to Corinne’s motion sickness.

Anyway, after a mishap with some of the traps around the new Master’s house, it was found that Corinne had a special affinity for arcane automatons and construction, similar to a dragonmarked heir from House Cannith. She was blessed by the machine spirits.

As fortune turned out, the master of the house was a devil-worshipping sorceress who decided to summon demonic tinkerers and creators in order to teach Corinne to be her personal artificer. In exchange for her servitude, Corinne made the sorceress promise never to discard Lady Rie. Corinne, in turn, agreed to undergo the ritual to bind herself to the sorceress as her familiar.

In only a few years, the young artificer transformed what was once the mansion’s dungeon into a gigantic workshop, filled with cogs, steaming contraptions, and useless unreadable meters. As a familiar, she ages at the same rate as her master, who doesn’t age much at all. Sharing in her resistances, she can also work with volatile demonic materials, such as flesh and bile, without putting herself at risk.

Her demeanor depends on how Rie is treated, but it is likely that Corinne will try to befriend adventurers and try to help them in any way she can. She makes strange items with questionable usefulness. She can also repair weapons and armor (though a strange unreadable meter or a haphazard paint job may come with it). Any item she makes for the party, whether commissioned or not, has a biopunk/steampunk flair.

I play Corinne as a blindly loyal servant, always eager to help. She’s clumsy, hard-headed, and is often accidentally adorable. When roleplaying her, I speak for her in third person, because I, as a person, am not cute, nor am I adorable. She dresses like a boy servant, but because she doesn’t get out much and due to her young mental age, she doesn’t seem to mind when people mistake her for a boy. She is clingy, she cries easily, and is inexplicably athletic (pairs well with clumsy).

Her one exceptional trait is her affinity for machines. When she tinkers with machines, they always work, even if her methods seem unorthodox. If appropriate to your game, she yells, “WAAAAGH” at Orcs or half-orcs, trying to get them to yell back.

Here are some in-game examples of how Corinne interacted with the party in my game:

* Met with the party to deliver a message, using a hoverboard powered by an unholy combination of science and magic to cover the distance. Traded the hoverboard for a PC’s horse, because the hoverboard was more awesome.
* Repaired the Warforged after death. He now has some demonic chitin replacing certain armored plates.
* Offered to Arcane Lock a door in the manor. After the ritual was complete, six gigantic metallic locking mechanisms covered the back-side of the door. Corinne then crawled out of the window, fell into some dirt, then ran off. Ritual was successful in fending off the person intended.
* Came to a battle much too late, in the cockpit of a jury-rigged warforged juggernaut. One of its arms fell off and coup-de-graced an enemy. She was also stuck inside the machine and needed help getting out.
* When the Warforged Fighter was introduced to the party, Corinne was riding a tiny wagon that he was pulling, attached to a hook on his back. It was his idea, too.

If you need a lighthearted character, surrounded by demon-trust deals and attached to an NPC with a tragic past, or if you just want your PCs to fall in love with a little girl that looks like a boy, please use Corinne.

Either way, you’re as sick as I am.

-Lancar

1. I never thought I’d have a PC die an average of once a month.

And I never thought it would be the characters of just. one. player. Damn it. He’s on his 10th character. I had to trash so much  story, due to death, hahaha. But then again, I had the opportunity to  create and recycle much.

2. I never thought the party would look forward to fighting bears.

It was slightly disturbing to see the monk jumping up and down in  his seat, saying “oh boy, oh boy!”

3. The traveling beholder informational NPC was one of the most  interacted
with NPCs in the campaign.

The party traded a can of hobo beans to the beholder in exchange  for some rumors about the area. Switch one of your NPCs with the hobo  beholder today! Add a hobo knapsack floating mysteriously in the air approximate to where its shoulder would be.

4. Didn’t think the guy playing the dwarf didn’t know that tonics were meant to be applied and not consumed.

He drank the magical hair growth formula. The party went through a whole side-skill challenge in order to  save him from choking to death on hair. If I look at it much more  positively than I want to, the dwarf’s actions served as a teambuilding  exercise.

5. Didn’t think that the Sorceror’s tendency to appear and inhibit  females NPCs’ advances towards the Berserker would later on become an  actual power with frequent usage.

A memorable recent experience went something like this…

Scene: The Berserker and an Enemy General are talking, one-to-one  in an alleyway. The Berserker is extremely wounded.

General – “…You say you don’t serve evil. And you fight with  skill and honor. Tell me, why you oppose the Empire.”
Berserker – “I don’t oppose the Empire, I oppose its leader.”
Sorceror (OOC) – “OOH OOH! I want to use my ring of Brotherhood  to teleport in.”
DM – “What? No! This is a character development scene. And  besides, this isn’t a girl that’s hitting on him.”
Sorceror (OOC) – “But.. But.. Ring of Brotherhood!”

*2 minutes of story explanation and the General giving the  Berserker an item*

Berserker – “Nothing good will come from the one that leads your  Empire.”
General – “That’s to be seen… I am done here. I will go back to  the Empire and I will ask the questions that need to be answered.”
General – “…”
General – “And… if you’re not busy, do you want to go out and  get a cheeseburger someti-”
Sorceror (OOC) – “I TELEPORT IN WITH THE RING OF BROTHERHOOD!”

6. I never thought the Invoker would pick up the At-Will: Pimp Hand of Radiance.

It was later supplemented by an empowering reagent: Arcane Baby  Powder
that increased its damage substantially.

7. The cleric has a business degree.

I treat her as trained in any skill check involving business,  merchanting,
or money. Certain mercantile NPCs start off friendly with  her, if they can
tell her background. She can also get hired, pretty much  anywhere. Unlike
real life in the US, there’s no lack of jobs in Eberron.

8. Never would have guessed that a player character (the wizard) would eventually come to be described as an Eberron version of Morgan Freeman.

This comes up more often than I think it reasonably should,  especially
when the party’s introducing themselves to an NPC or NPC  group.

9. Other halfling badasses exist besides Belkar Bitterleaf.

Whenever a situation arose that separated normal halflings from  the most
interesting halfling in the world, the Bard never failed to  disappoint.

10. The party has underestimated all the dragons they have fought so far.

The campaign is called The Dragon’s Hand. They have fought and killed at least 5. In the Berserker’s words,  ”I am the Wyrmslayer! Underestimating dragons is what I do!”

…

Every campaign is different, introducing new standards and deviations with new characters and new situations. If you feel like sharing, I’d like to hear about things you’ve learned.

The more humorous, the better.

-Lancar

Here’s the story.

The Background

A confused out-of-shape halfling wererat NPC named Twitch ran away from the party after the Monk kept picking on him. Meeting with a mysterious villain, he was instructed to assassinate the party, and given one magical bolt, and a mundane crossbow.

Sniffling the whole way and being multiple shades of pathetic, rolling down rocky hills and underbrush, he takes a bush and uses it to hide himself in the middle of a well-worn path. Popping out and pointing his one single crossbow at the party, quivering in fear, his eyes closed, yelling gibberish, the party didn’t even bat an eye.

The Skill Challenge

Goal: Convincing Twitch not to shoot the magical bolt.

Diplomacy: Say something reasonable. Something along the lines of, “put that down you dumb rat and we won’t hurt you” should suffice.

Intimidate: Same deal. Though make sure you alert the party member using Intimidate that they should feel guilty about it.

If anyone cares, Twitch’s bolt is obviously a magical item, glowing. It also sparkles, if you’re into that stuff. I gave a knowledge bonus to the Monk, because he was the only one who would have before come into contact with this sort of magic.

If Twitch doesn’t fire at the party, chances are good that he’ll misfire on accident after everyone’s happy that they beat a skill challenge. In my group, the Monk took the bolt and crushed it in his hands. I gave him an instant check to identify the scent, magically spread by the broken bolt.

The Combat Encounter

Situation: Surrounded by 18 bears within a 5 square radius

The goal of the combat encounter should be player responses like:

“Holy crap, how many bears is that?!”
“…What do you mean, we’re surrounded?”
“What?! BEARS?!” and
“We’re surrounded by over a dozen god damn bears!”

In my group, I got…

“Oh boy, oh boy!”

Reskin appropriate (Level-2) skirmishers as bears. They should be skirmishers so they go down quickly, and they should be a bit lower leveled so the party doesn’t feel as threatened. Throw in some minion-bears if you’d like.

Go ahead and throw out enough bears for a (Average Level +2 or +3) fight. Or throw out enough minions to make the number of bears overwhelming. If you’re using all 2×2 square Large creatures, you can increase the amount of minions without awarding the PCs their full experience (don’t tell them this, though, it’s part of the encounter!). An overwhelming starting amount of bears is key to this combat encounter. I threw this out on a Paragon Tier party and they were bearly phased.

As a base, I used a monster called the Fleshtearer Shark. They were good level skirmishers with a speed of 8. And bears that have a movespeed of 8 are very intimidating. The main reason I chose them is they have a bonus to damage if they attack something without a swim speed.

To further up the ante in the fight, I changed this to, “if you are afraid of bears, you take additional damage”. However, the only one that was really afraid of bears was our Necromancer. My favorite response at the table was our Berserker with, “if the bears are afraid of me, can I get a damage bonus?”

If I were to retry this fight, I would change the bonus to something more general, but still humorous and arbitrary of normal game mechanics. Some examples include “does your character still have food rations?” and “do you look tasty?” (with free immediate interrupts to roll Constitution or Charisma, trying to look not-so-tasty). If a character has an appropriate established persona like the fat cleric, or a barbarian with an endless stomach, this encounter could show that the DM remembers stupid player traits.

…As another option, maybe it would be wise to include a druid casting “Fear of Bears” as a blast attack.

Maybe I just have a poor sense of humor.

-Lancar

The party’s allies are all a shade of evil. Honorable knights and good aligned planar creatures are all unfriendly with them. The possibility of NPC allies betraying the party is all too real. New ally NPCs have an above average mortality rate.

But I, as a DM, believe in a cause-and-effect model. And for the dark feel of this game, not-doing-something may have the same effect as damning them. This is the Paragon Tier, adventurers. At the level you are, your actions may decide if hundreds live or die.

So all the Empire guards were killed. You knew there was an unspeakable behemoth roaming around, which you avoided fighting. Did you warn them to be careful, or distract the creature so they could escape? So the bad guy got away after you lost her in the streets? Don’t complain; you didn’t pursue beyond that, didn’t make use of your streetwise checks or do something creative like jumping onto rooftops and using perception checks.

However, if a PC invests into something, I will try my best to note their investment in the world. Here are some of my DMing examples and what happened.

Example 1: Caelynna the Fallen Angel

An NPC joins the party. Another of the party’s NPCs complains greatly about her. Talking as the DM to the other PCs, the PCs agree that the angel is not to be trusted. The most untrusting of the party is a somber, gruff dwarf.

Situation: The angel invites the dwarf into a room, wishing to discuss the dwarf’s magic and his distrust of her. It so happened that the two were alike in power sources.

Character Result: The angel had combat advantage and a surprise round. The dwarf ended up failing his 3 Death Saves.

Player Result: In hindsight, the dwarf was not surprised. None of the other players were surprised.

DM Notes: Showing his extreme distrust, I wanted to put him on the spot, in a situation where his distrust would excel. Damn it. Okay, maybe that was a bad example.

Example 2: The Sacrifice

Situation: Jumping through a Warp Portal (which should not have been jumped into in the first place), I had planned for a PC’s wife to sacrifice herself and use up all her magic in order to ensure her lover’s safety.

Result: What ended up happening is that the character in question insisted on not leaving her behind. Instead of saying they all die, I allowed him to roll for it, increasing his chances based on his creativity. Eventually, he managed to survive AND save the girl, though his best friend was lost to the Warp.

DM Notes: He was insistent, and he rolled more than well enough. In the module, I wrote some new scenes that would not have been possible without the elven maiden Yuuya’s survival. I’m glad too; I would have missed her.

Example 3: Ibixian’s Curse

Situation: Agreeing to suffer a terrible curse in exchange for safe passage, the Sorceror’s Ibixian familiar falls deathly ill.

Result: The Sorceror sacrificed his greatest story weapon in order to reverse the curse and save his familiar. He’s had this sword in real-time for over 2 years. He sacrificed his bonuses to attack and damage. Several characters in the party also had direct links to the artifact sword. The sword was also a tool for binding dragons, which is indispensable in a campaign called “The Dragon’s Hand”

DM Notes: I couldn’t say no. I upgraded the little Ibixian a little bit, to about the strength of a medium magical item, which nowhere near compensates for the loss of the sword. But it loves the Sorceror with all of its little demon heart.

Closing

For every meaningful player choice, there should be a measurable effect. The greater their sacrifice, their investment, the greater the effect.

If a player has a goal, the DM’s job is to present the road, with the goal at the end. On that road, there are obstacles, many of them reflecting the hardships of attaining that goal.

If you want to protect the party from betrayal, cull the betrayers from the pack. If you promise to never forsake she who is closest to you, then never let her go. If you will sacrifice anything to save your friends, never forget that you’re one of the god damn heroes of the story. Your sacrifice was not in vain.

Live it up, gamers. Your PC has only one life to live.

-Lancar