Epyllion, session 3

I ran Epyllion on Sunday for Dad, Mom, and Kiddo again.

Our second session of the game was over a month ago, and didn’t go so well. We had a problem with saying "no" a lot to the 8 year old, and I wasn’t super happy with the results.

For this session, we started out by me explaining that I wanted Kiddo to feel comfortable adding to the story, so we were going to rewrite the "visions" move so her dice would determine if I got to tell the vision or if she did– and in either case, the other one would be able to ask 3 questions. She agreed, rolled, and got a 9.

HEY, KIDDO’S MOM AND DAD! I KNOW YOU READ MY BLOG! SPOILERS AHEAD! GO AWAY!

And here’s a picture of some dragons, just to give them a visual break so they don’t "accidentally" read ahead….

Now, what you don’t know is that Kiddo wants to bring Voldemort into the game, and I have started to form a Front for this ongoing campaign. Last session, Samera had a vision of an ancient dragon, once a hero to the folk, in statue form, possibly near Basilisk Island! The dragons spent a lot of time researching in books and libraries to learn what they could about what could turn someone to stone, and how to turn them back. They decided that the Chalice of Angels would do the trick– and that the Chalice must be on or near the next island over from the Great Library, the island of Dragonville.

Places in this setting are named by an 8 year old and three tired adults. Deal with it.

The party had met Samsmelt, the teal dragon, who flirted heavily with Lydia before taking off for the Great Library (kind of tricking the party into following). Samsmelt wants to explore Dragonville alone– he’s looking for the Chalice for personal reasons.

The rest of the dragons– Trogdor in particular– are suspicious. In fact, Trogdor is almost openly hostile to Samsmelt!

This session, I started with Samera’s vision. In it, she sees cracks forming in the stone dragon’s hide, and the tip of its snout breaks off and falls into the sea!

Voldemort Voldemort Voldemort…. she’s too young to think about any alternative to "the dragon is in trouble," like the potential danger of this ancient dragon was given over to Darkness and the spell imprisoning him is now failing.

So, that’s where we start. There’s now a sense of urgency to the party to save the dragon, and they head towards Dragonville, following Samsmelt. They intend to trick him into searching elsewhere for the Chalice, but things come to a head.

They spend most of the session arguing with Samsmelt, trying to convince him of Samera’s visions and the reality of the Darkness. Eventually, Samera gets him to promise that, if she can provide proof of the Darkness, his family will aid them. But with Trogdor, they are at an impasse, and Samsmelt and the party go their separate ways, Samsmelt vowing to find the Chalice before they can.

Trogdor, however, sneaky dragon as he is, has a secret up his claw. He believes there’s a rift in the ocean’s floor that leads to the Chalice. He kept this information from Samsmelt, hoping they’ll be able to find the Chalice on their own!

I’m amused because my dragon party has just set themselves up for an underwater dungeon crawl to find the Chalice of Angels.

This session ended after about 3 hours and roughly 5 dice rolls, because you don’t have to roll very much when you spend most of the session arguing with an NPC. It was great, and one of the fun parts of RPGs, where the dice don’t have to hit the table to be a good game.