Drink Talk Roll Extended #19: There’s Something About Robin

Session Recap

After failing to get a meeting with Calvyn Silvergard, the Dean of the School of Continued Progress last session, the party started this session plotting how to get closer to him. Jedah and Amra decided to go find lodgings for them while Ulrich and Khorr waited for Dean Silvergard to leave his office.  

They waited in the campus plaza until the end of the workday when they noticed a gnome man with a big mustache and two automaton guards leaving the administrative building. They followed him through the streets of Meridan for a few minutes until he arrived at the Hotel Camellia. After he remained in their for a few minutes, Khorr and Ulrich decided Khorr should go alert the others though he did also stop at a cheese monger on the way there to pick up some wheels for the rest of the party. 

Ulrich stayed behind to scout and found Dean Silvergard dining in the hotel’s restaurant sitting alone in a corner flanked by his two automata. When the rest of the party arrived at the hotel, he let them know of the situation. Amra decided the best way to make contact with him would be to go in. He tried to book a table for four but the maître d told him that they were a reservation only place…but for a small bribe, he was willing to make an exception. Lucky for him, Talliyah and (a?) Robin happened to be in the area at the time and so, he ditched Khorr and Ulrich for them.  (Sorry, guys.)

Inside the restaurant, Amra quickly made contact with Calvyn using the cheese as an in.  He also tried to continue the deception from the last session that Jedah is actually the sausage king Abe Froman but to his detriment, Calvyn actually knows the real Abe so the party quickly moved on to making Jedah one of Abe’s illegitimate sons with the same name. Eventually, all of them barring Robin who hadn’t been officially invited over, sat around the table enjoying wine until they were good and drunk. At that time, Calvyn decided he should head home for the night but Jedah and Amra convinced him that they should accompany him for his safety so they all left the restaurant with Ulrich and Khorr following behind.

As they got closer to his house, all the drinking caught up to Jedah who vomited over the steps of Calvyn’s house. They used this as an excuse to get inside Calvyn’s house. Amra tried to leave the door unlocked for Khorr and Ulrich but he misjudged his on strength in his drunkenness. Inside the house, Jedah was escorted to the bathroom with one of Slivergard’s automata and the others moved into the den to wait for him to freshen up. After a few minutes, Amra “accidentally” stuck the automaton in the den. Jedah did the same to the one accompanying him not long after. 

This began a tough interrogation of Calvyn Silvergard.  Calvyn was still in disbelief at what had happened when Amra grabbed him from behind. Amra tried slipping the ring with the other SCP researcher’s soul trapped inside it onto his finger and knocking him out but Calvyn recovered much more quickly than expected. Calvyn tried to deescalate the situation offering to sweep everything under the rug if they just left him uninjured. Amra kept up the threats and so Calvyn shouted at Robin, “Execute Dragon Protocol!” Amra was too slow to cover Calvyn’s mouth before he spoke the words. Robin immediately dropped to the floor and started convulsing. At the same time, a rumbling started beneath the build and soon, a giant mechanical dragon emerged from the basement breaking most of the house in the process. 

Before combat started, Amra furthered his threats against Calvyn. He said he would slice Calvyn’s throat if he didn’t stand down but a shouting match with Khorr led to him only cutting off his hand*. This causes Calvyn to pass out from shock and means there’s nothing else to do but run or fight. Amra considers running but the rest of the party is resolved to destroy this thing.  

The mechanical dragon burns through the wooden walls of the house creating a much more open battlefield as the party moves around trying to find a good position from which everyone can attack him.  Amra tries to call upon his divine features granted to him by Favel but finds that his actions seem to have displeased his deity causing his action to fail. He continues to fight channeling his rage at Favel into his attacks.  

Khorr soon figures out that the dragon does its best to avoid hitting Robin with its attacks and soon grabs her to keep himself safe. Ulrich and Jedah also keep up with the long-ranged assault with their magic and guns respectively but it’s ultimately Amra who slew the dragon and it let out one last flame breath letting the rain pour over the head of the broken harbinger. And so ended the session.

*Manuel will say Amra only meant to cut off a finger but drunkenly missed. Believe him if you want but none of us do.

Talking is a Free Action

​I’ve often talked about communicating with your fellow players when you feel there is a problem whether that’s as a player or as a game master. Maybe you don’t like the way another player or their character is behaving or maybe you think some feature of yours is underpowered and would like a buff. The best way to reach a point where everyone is satisfied is to talk with the people who can best remedy this problem. Usually, that’s the game master and any directly involved players. Open communication will hopefully help you find what’s best for the group even if that sometimes means that your views of the game don’t align and someone has to leave.

These changes could be things that happen immediately like a buff to a class feature or weapon or a sudden change in a character’s behavior that is never commented on and maybe treated as the way they always acted. Or it could be a change that plays out in game, like a smith you’ve helped out before offering to craft a new weapon for you that gives you some bonus or new ability or the character going character development through outside stimuli or some soul search telling them they should change. There won’t be one right way that applies to every problem for every group so when you talk about a problem, make sure to talk about how it gets fixed as well.

Drink Talk Roll has been no stranger to that in this campaign or the ones that came before it and the most recent example is Amra’s behavior. It started with going along with Jedah’s despicable idea to maybe kill Mr. and Mrs. Jaffe (which thankfully, they never followed through with) just because they became a little too attached to Neil and Clover. Then, if it wasn’t his minor misbehaviors in Shunil, it was trying to play both sides in Jaran with absolutely no plan.  Then, it was desecrating the body of the dark herald in front of an audience. And finally, it was taking a guy hostage, threatening to slicing his throat and then, “settling” for cutting off his hand which only caused more trouble for himself and the party. We’ve spoken outside of the game about this and have a plan for how it’s going to play out. I think we’ve seen the last of it and I hope you’ll stick around to see it.

Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.