WARNING: SPOILERS for both Waterdeep: Dragon Heist the module in general and the story arc for this campaign in particular. If you just want to follow along the campaign but don’t want to have the plot spoiled for you, read no further.
Link to this episode’s podcast.
Spoilers for The Walking Dead, I guess. So, I have this vision for Jarlaxle in this portion of the adventure. He’s a little bit like Neegan from The Walking Dead. He’s still a little bit charming but he gets a lot darker. The point is that if you don’t absolutely hate him by the end of the adventure, then I haven’t done my job right. He’s a rogue. He’s a loveable rogue. But he has a tendency to take things too far. That’s the path he’s started down in this episode. Taking things too far. He’s kidnapped the twins, Kip and Pip. It doesn’t matter who Kip and Pip are. They are innocents who are linked to the party. They don’t deserve this and they should be protected at all costs. Pip and Kip were abducted using a Rod of Rulership (Jarlaxle loves magic items) to charm them into playing along. They believe that they are playing important parts in the play that Jarlaxle is producing. And they won’t know that they were in danger until the danger is passed. But still this is a horrible thing to do and it is probably the point where Jarlaxle goes from somebody the party could possibly work with to somebody they must defeat at all costs.
As much as I wanted the players to like Jarlaxle earlier (something that didn’t really happen) I want them to hate him going forward. If your players really hate the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) then you don’t have to create drama. They will create their own drama and rejoice when the BBEG is dead, or defeated.
It was so great to see the party work out their differences from a few sessions ago. Drex stood up for himself and his beliefs, and the party acquiesced somewhat. This is part of the role playing process and they are working through it. As a DM one of the best things you can do is put your mic on mute and just let them talk for tens of minutes at a time. That’s when you know that you are doing something special.
No new articles appeared in the High Road Herald this episode, since the last episode ended in the middle of the night.
DougieDM 