ZEITGEIST Crispy's Zeitgeist Campaign


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Crispy120286

Explorer
3 out of 4 of my players absolutely love this campaign and always tell me so. The last is extremely difficult to please and will pick apart everything he encounters for flaws so I have learned not to take anything he says too personally. However most of my group thinks this campaign is engaging and are really looking forward to seeing how things progress. I get a lot of compliments on how cinematic things feel and how well the pace is. Thank you @RangerWickett for writing such a fantastic campaign.
 

Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
I did the large write ups mainly so I had a record of what happened in case of interruptions, I knew we were taking a break at the end of book 1 and my experience of the year or so before that lead me to consider the possibilities of me being unable to run a game for several months. I missed nearly 6 months 3 sessions before the end of our previous campaign, then I got into the habit of it. Even then a lot of details escaped each write up so write up what you feel like its all appreciated
 

Crispy120286

Explorer
Last night we completed Cauldron Borne. It only took us 11 Sessions. My table splits weeks with myself and another DM who is currently running Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Here's the breakdown of all of Act 1.
Season 1- 5 Episodes. Adventure began on Oct 10, 2019.
Season 2- 7 Episodes.
Season 3- 8 Episodes.
Season 4- 9 Episodes.
Season 5- 11 Episodes. Adventure concluded on May 27th, 2021.

Overall this was a great adventure. I will admit that my players felt very overwhelmed with the many plot threads. they didn't particularly like the fact that some of them felt like they could get through them all. But they made it. They killed Ekossigan, They captured Grundun Zubov and his Prophet (Who doesn't shut up and constantly preaches in his cell), But Kell murdered Team B and got away. That REALLY Pissed them off.

Once again, the most difficult player at my table left again, We're left with the main 3 which really isn't a problem at all.

They enjoyed the Peace Talk. One of my players had a revelation then that this campaign expected that sort of political talk with your enemies. Once that was realized they had a very engaging conversation with Lya Jierre which was very fun.

Here's an image of the Bleak Gate encounter. I got screams all around the table once I revealed this thing. That was super satisfying.
Borne Fight.jpg


The Technologist was screaming NOOO! when the Steelshaper tore apart Grappa again. "I spent MONTHS putting him back together!"
Then there was the jokes as the Steelshaper fell to his death. "Oh no, we shall never see him again. Nope, Not ever." Overall it was good Bond Villain fun.

During the final encounter I decided to have ol' Cillian Creed manifest from the witchoil oozes. He escaped into the witchoil during the climax of season 2 and was out for revenge on Amethyst. No it doesn't Make sense but my party hates when a villain gets away so they were happy to take him down again.

They absolutely loved the Knighting Ceremony. Everyone said they had goosebumps. I played the Zeitgeist theme right as he started saying their names and played a crowd cheering track behind it for effect and it got the exact reaction I was hoping for.

The people of Flint line the shore, cheering and applauding for the heroes that drove away the monster that attacked their city. As the party sails close enough to be clearly viewed by the citizens, the king stands, draws his sword, and asks the party to kneel. With just a simple proclamation that no one will ever hear but them, he touches his sword to their shoulders. The crowd grows quiet at the scene.

King: “Amethyst Ironforged, Kieran Oddcog, I’Sheng Liuxing, you have been deemed fit for this high estate by your peers, and have indicated your willingness to accept this honor from Our hands. Do you now swear by all that you hold sacred, true, and holy that you will honor and defend the Crown and Kingdom of the Risur?

Candidate: I will.

King: That you will honor, defend, and protect all citizens, and those weaker than yourself?

Candidate: I will.

King: That you will conduct yourself in all matters as befits a Peer, drawing your sword only for just cause? That you will enshrine in your heart the noble ideals of Chivalry to the benefit of your own good name and the greater glory of the Risur?

Candidate: I will.

King: Then having sworn these solemn oaths, know now that I, Aodhan Lesterman, by right of arms, King of Risur, do dub thee with my sword, and by all that you hold sacred, true, and holy... Once for Honor... Twice for Duty... Thrice for Chivalry... Arise, Sir Amethyst Ironforged of Flint, Sir Kieran Oddcog of Flint, Sir I’Sheng Liuxing of Flint! Knights of Risur!

As you stand, the magic of the land rises with you: healing your wounds and wrapping you in its warm embrace. The king gestures to the city.

You look to Flint, and applause can be hard across the city.

All in all, Zeitgeist is a fantastic adventure. I am really looking forward to continuing to run this adventure. I wont be running Act 2 for a while however, a couple of months at least. My Wife is pregnant and we're due on July 4th so right now is a great time to begin a small break.
 

Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
I brought Creed back as well and on several other occassions after all the Butler did it.
The only visual prop I used in the campaign (I lack talant) was for Borne. I stood at the edge of the Battlemap and that was to scale with the little cardboard miniatures.

Good luck with the new baby and in my experience a planned gap works much better than a sudden unplanned gap in a campaign,
 


Crispy120286

Explorer
Hello everyone! I find it easier to give smaller updates after each module as I can't keep up with individual session logs.

When I started up the campaign again after my son was born, we had about 8 months off. We finished up another campaign my friend was running, Curse of the Crimson Throne.

We began immediately after the constables became Knighted to get us back into the game. We tried (and failed) to run in Fate Core for a while but after a few sessions we gave up and went back to Pathfinder.

Amethyst was promoted to assistant chief inspector of the RHC and given leadership over the Obscurati Task Force. Kieran was promoted to Royal Technologist and he acquired Pembertons old laboratory in Pardwright University. I’Sheng was promoted to Royal Skyseer and was given the observatory in the Cloudwood which was rebuilt.

During the interim session before we kicked off Season 6, our knights investigated Cauldron Hill and arrested all of the Obscurati scientists and engineers there. They also took Linus, Hunting, and Colin and put them to work in Kieran’s lab. Lorcan Kell was publicly executed in front of the Theater of Scoundrels which was demolished soon afterwards. Amethyst stops more Obscurati activities in Flint and Patriotism is high in Risur. They’re not sure what to do with being celebrities.

Amethyst and Delft scout and recruit a new team of constables. They become the new B-Team.

They’re called into Delfts office on the 1st and are sent off to Slate and given the mission to go to Ber to retrieve Tinker Oddcog. They meet with Melissa Amerie and ask her about the article she wrote when they’re attacked by Rush. Glaucia arrives and Rush disappears into the Bleak Gate. (they hate it when they do that). Glaucis brings them to her Court and they begin the trial of Brakken. Amethyst does a great job defending him and he just gets a wrap upon his knuckles. Glaucia decided to join them to the Summer Court.

On Monument Road they’re set upon by a huge stampede and massive Tyrannosaurus’! Kieran is very excited by this. They manage to get Merton to escape and they themselves escape the Tyrannosaurus’.

They make it to the Summer Court and are greeted by an unhappy Bruse. He puts them into the adulthood challenge. They take an entire session just getting through the maze and are allowed to meet with the Bruse. He sends them and Lya’s team to do the two challenges. I’Sheng does a bit of espionage by turning himself into a small cat and overhears what Lya’s team is up too. They realize this might be too much to handle on their own and call in support from B-Team.

For Cavallo they did meet with him and his daughter Corta. They investigated the dragon worm and went to look for the “Risuri” who was taken in by the goblins. Not impressed to find Wolfgang captured, they just teleported all of them out of there. Wolfgang cures Cavallos grandson and the others of Dragon Worm. It was at this point the RHC B-Team showed up. The B-Team stays in Citaldo Cavallo to look for clues to this potential attack on Risur. They took the party's ship and went after a ship that set sail without permission and was attacked. They managed to take the commodore in and he was stripped of his rank by Cavallo.

Normally I don't like them missing out on plot but I've been telling them they have resources at their disposal and they don't have to do everything on their own. Also this was the point we switched back to Pathfinder.

First of all, they hated the train minigame. It was so incredibly dull that I just automated it for them with what was the most efficient for them and guided them to do things that are needed for it. They petitioned to work with Griento and also got a front on their stipend to get the steam-men from Pemberton. I particularly enjoy their interactions with Pemberton, I always knew what he would do in my mind but he always greeted Kieran with a thick southern drawl “Kieran my boy! How are ya?” and Kieran, who is ever the technologist would always talk to him about his inventions and Fanboy's out hard with the Steam-Men. Amethyst declared that Distilled Water with a celery stick was the greatest drink ever invented.

Melissa meets up with the party and wants to sponsor them and write stories about the Risuri Diplomats who’ve come to help Ber expand its infrastructure. They spoke in Renza, Ursalina, and Seobriga and they were able to earn 1 money in each city towards the train. They now have Populist Prestige as Melissa’s stories spread around the country and the world in her circles.

They easily rescued Griento and his people from the bandit attack and soon after fought off the Keepers of Cheshimox. That battle was tedious and kinda boring. One thing I noticed about Pathfinder is that there are way too many encounters where the enemies are too weak to be able to hit the party without rolling a Nat 20 but just strong enough to be able to take 2-3 hits before dropping. This encounter was one of those. From this point onward I turned anything that was too weak to matter in combat into a Minion. With the Gnoll Archers in the volcano they became minions, I increased their attack from +7 to +15 but dropped their HP from 41 to 1. With the Cultists i made them Troops and made them bunches of many Gnolls. They had 100HP and dealt 2d6+6 just being near them from many pointy spears.

They finished the Train Minigame (It was on autopilot) and was called back to the Summer Court. Kieran had a brief reunion with his brother Tinker before he decided to blow up the summer court. That was another challenging encounter with so many pieces. Bruse Shantus didn’t make it. As I’Sheng’s healing couldn't outpace the damage that Kenna was doing to him. They did some research on the duplicants and went back to Risur briefly to speak to HQ about what happened. It was there that Harkover Lee told them the true identity of Gradiax. Cue shocked expressions around the entire table. He told them about the Pact of Boyle and the history of dragons but kept his own history out of it.

Before they set sail towards the volcano lair, Amethyst tried to have a conversation with Lya Jierre and only really accomplished annoying her because her Geas stops her from talking to him about what’s really going on. She wants him to understand that what she’s doing will be better for the world in the long run but Amethyst has just been keeping a tally of everything bad the Obscurati have been doing that he knows about. She stormed off after she was unable to refute anything he said.

The volcano lair and the gnoll fights took the better part of a whole session and they rescued Kenna and the rest of the kidnapped people. Glaucia joined them and was nearly killed but she was healed. Glaucia looked after everyone while the party continued after Tinker.

They had one last conversation with Pemberton before the final fight kicked off. It almost never happened because Tinker's second line was mocking them and calling them fools for walking into a trap and Amethyst pulled the head off the train cart. The entire villainous monologue was almost ruined! But Kieran didn’t let him toss it over the cart.

They were pretty shocked to meet another live dragon down there. Lyas team was sneaking about the room avoiding combat and letting the RHC fight Tera and Tinker and not get involved. They nearly killed her and brought Tinker in his Steamsuit down to under 30hp. It was at this point that Pemberton told them to stand down or he’ll slit Tinkers throat. Amethyst says that he’ll Take care of Tera under the Pact of Boyle and put her under the protection of Risur. Lya stops Amethyst from entering the room and with tears in her eyes she tells him that she must do what she’s about to do. They duel 1v1 and Amethyst just barely wins while they constantly talk to each other between each swing. It was a pretty epic little duel. Lya agrees to cease all Obscurati activities. They take Tinker, all his schematics, the Eye of Yerev and anything else they can. Xambria, who has been hitching a ride with Kieran this whole time, asks him to take a fresh duplicant body so they could hopefully find a way to transfer her consciousness into it someday. She really hopes to be her own self again.

And that’s where we ended it! We’re going to have one session of decompression before we get right into the swing of Zeitgeist Season 7, Schism.

As usual, here's a link to our Campaign document to see all the notes my players have taken: Campaign Document
 

I really appreciate you finding time for the write-ups. And I love a good swordfight with a recurring antagonist. I'm glad it worked out.

(Sorry for the less than ideal Pathfinder conversion.)
 

Crispy120286

Explorer
Zeitgeist has to be one of the best written adventure paths i have ever read. As for the pathfinder conversion, We're all 20 year veterains of tabletop RPGs, starting with 3.5e and then Pathfinder for the past 10 years. My players and myself included can break the system without really trying to. The encounters are great for the average party but i just need to beef them up to be any bit of challenge for my players. I found that using minions and troops fixed it quite nicely.

The swordfight with Lya was technically a draw as Amethyst used his Yerasol Veterain canon barrage to knock them both out. But Lya will no longer do Obscurati activities. I'm going to replace her in the future modules with Amethysts twin brother for a more personal fight. I had him working under Catherine Romana as a politician but i think for it to work he'll have left her party and vote against the colossus congress. I'll need to have him get in Nicodemus' good graces sometime during the night. Then he can dramatically show up on the ship during adventure 9. I'm very excited to see where this adventure takes my group!
 

I feel you on the 'players are too good at this game' thing. I played in a friend's Iron Gods campaign, and when it came time for the 17th level party to face the cyber-god at the climax, we thrashed him. The party's oracle dimension doored us (my brawler and a friend's magus) within reach, and we pumped something like 400 damage with two full attacks. It honestly wasn't even that fun.

Published adventures just can't deal with optimization.

On the other hand, I ran a game that went to 17th level where the party were all paladins, and I figured, what the hell, let them fight Rovagug, god of destruction, as he tries to crawl out of the cage. I made what was allegedly supposed to be a CR 30 monster by the guidance in their monster book, and they handled him pretty well.
 

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