5e Game - Part 11

The party had already vanquished the BBEG of the dungeon, but still needed to find 2 more pieces of McGuffin to prevent the bad guys from summoning more demons through the dire portal. They ground forward, searching out and clearing every dimly lit corridor and room. They came to the last room, defeated the derro that were busy making the final piece to power said dire portal, and stood around congratulating each other on a job well done. That's when the fire elemental that was powering the forge burst forth, roaring in Ignan ("can we talk to it?" "do you speak Ignan?" "um... no" "go ahead, see if it responds to you... and it continues to roar at you and advance menacingly"), for the party had just slain its little derro buddies. Doing a quick canvas around the party, 4 of the 5 members decided it was the better part of valor to, as they put it, RUN THE F$^& AWAY! The paladin, the 16 year old (character, not player) with an Oath of Vengeance, decided it was time to swing sharp chunks of metal at the living embodiment of flame.

The party defeats the fire elemental and the paladin does not die, surprising everyone including the player of said paladin. It's amazing how well a Minor Illusion of a waterfall works on a 6 INT elemental, at least in keeping the elemental from moving down one flank of the party. Not bad for the wizard who was being run by someone other than his original player, said person not being utterly familiar with spellcasters in particular. The ranger attempted a Fog Cloud spell, which went off successfully, but didn't put enough water in the air to do a fire elemental much damage, and finally just shot it to death with arrows from his magical bow (amazing, since the ranger is specced specifically as an archer and to deal ridiculous amounts of damage with arrows). No, the party does not have a cleric, and the paladin is not high enough level yet to cast Create Food and Water, which would have done some damage with its 30 gallons spread on the ground in between the party and the elemental.

This by far was not the highlight of the game, however, as the reward for cleaning out all of the dungeons in this arc was for the country they were in (The Valley of the Obelisks, from Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde) to join with the country they were from/working for (made up like the rest of the world). I fight "murder hobo-ism" by involving my PCs with a LEO/paramilitary organization in the queendom they're in, think the Musketeers from France's history - they get some basic support from their home country as they're traveling with a mission from them, but also a purpose beyond "kill the bad guys". Because they had performed so well in helping the people of the Valley of the Obelisks with their local problems, the party had managed those folks to join up with the PC's home country, and their home organization then tasked/rewarded the party with setting up a chapterhouse in the new territory. Since 5e doesn't have much in the way of downtime activities, I've let the party loose in Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign (chapter 2 - Downtime) and tasked them with designing a fortified manor house from it. One of the party has also gone so far as to design an inn that will be built from his own portion of the group's delving rewards. The party's druid liked that idea so much that he built his own "herb" shop as well. I'll let your imagine loose on what "herbs" the druid is selling.

Oh, I'm not giving them everything they want, of course, the manor won't be finished before the next arc of the campaign kicks off, and they will be out of the Valley of the Obelisks on that mission (and the next arc beyond that, and the one beyond that). Yet the tasking engaged the whole party - one member started drawing plans, another created a spreadsheet to track costs and days of construction, the rogue inserted his plan to continue his growing smuggling empire with a secret smuggling dock in the manor, and the last player continued to putter with his plans for an inn, now to be adjacent (and earning more business from) the chapterhouse. They'll enjoy the thought of it as a homebase, but really, won't get to do more than put up their feet after completing one mission before getting sent off on the next adventure. Proof yet again that you don't have to line out and detail every corner of your game world. Let your players fill in some blanks, they will rarely completely suborn your grand creation and will feel more connected and invested in your campaign because of it.