Draven and Drift head north towards Crone’s Pass, evading the Young Storm and the dragon’s personal stormtroopers as best they can.

Making Young Storm a blue-ish dragon who spits lightning became an important detail as two characters made their way north to the rendezvous point at Crone’s Pass. As the dragon hunted them, I described a vicious storm that they knew from past experience was often a precursor to the Dragon’s son entering the fray. I’m using dice quickly and efficiently at the table. Rolling to see how the Young Storm is doing at hunting them down.

At one point I described the abandoned barn they took shelter in as having evidence of wayward war refugees and possibly AWOL soldiers making camp there. I thought to myself that perhaps they had left some kind of a weapons cache and rolled a d6, 6 being favorite to the players, 1 being unfavorable. Rolled a 6 and rolled again on the d6 gear chart from the chargen – a dragonknight and their retinue’s armor and clothing. Would 1 have been some kind of buried undead, arcane trap or an angry spirit? I’m not sure.

There were plenty of fights against smart foes but the characters ran when it was smart to run, hid when it was smart to hide and attacked when an enemy was separated from their battallion. And still, they could’ve easily died. The dice are falling their way. When a new human opponent arrives, I rolled them up quickly without missing a beat and write it down on a nearby dry-erase board. If the stats aren’t good, I take that as a sign of a NPC having damage and exhaustion at the end of a lengthy war. Stats don’t define a character.

I’m using the Valyrian dictionary for quick-to-generate dragonsworm names.

To travel during the night more efficiently, Drift used something he had rolled up on a chargen table called a War Owl Tattoo. I put things on those tables and did not explain them at all. I’m liking that decision more and more. Aaron had his own ideas about what a War Owl was – a regular owl but smart and loyal like a pet that came out of a tattoo of an owl rampant on his chest in a flurry of feathers.

When Drift passed out after running from dragonknights through the knight after being involved in several fights and having no time to rest, Draven looked for cook-fires of some kind. I rolled a d6 again. Rolled a 2. Yeah, there’s a village but it is dragonsworn. Luckily, they had dragonknight and squire armor from the above buried weapons cache but they were in the hornet’s nest, a town loyal to the Dragon.

I liked making the people in Pazavor village (Old Valyrian for loyal) human. Elder Quptenka had a chest with a duke’s ransom in silver as compensation for having lost her husband, 2 daughters and 2 sons in the war, having fought for the dragon. Draven only stole half of the silver, “I’m not a monster.” The smith’s apprentice asked them if they had fought in a prominent battle to the south that Drift had played a key role in because the prentice’s brother had died in that battle. I like illustrating the dread cost of war all over the landscape.

I’m thinking about what kind of tables I might want or need to generate things more effeciently. Maybe a d66 table with tidibts about people, little surprising details. I’ll think on that. The game is going well and moving quickly; I’m enjoying the heck out of it.