Session 18
we-a-sel. the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
I knew this session was coming so I was eminently prepared, the only difficulty was of a floating bust where the description didn't make clear to me that it couldn't be moved except for magic, so I had to spend a minute or two reding the key and the item description to be sure.
Had a laughing fit when they were planning to "yoo-hoo boys" the Phlebotomas bandits and realised Lykourga would be 8 feet tall, stark naked, coming into the room to act shy and nervous. Gilberto Freyre's wet dream.
I also had to retcon a moment where they went inside a room before I realised guys would have warned them off from it. That's D&Ds baby.
An interesting thing to me is that, as I've mentioned in the play report for session 28 of Hearts Aglow, I've been steadily getting into HârnMaster and HârnWorld this past month or so, and I find interesting how that interacts with each of my active campaigns, because with Hearts Aglow I feel a niggling thought at the back of my mind, but not with Arden Vul, despite being way closer to Hârn. I suspect it's because AV is just so easy for me to run. It's a very laidback experience, especially this session which was basically finding dead-ends.
Which isn't to say that I dislike Hearts Aglow, far from it, just that if it hadn't an ending in sight, I would likely look for one right about now. But it does, so I'm chilling. Whereas with Arden Vul, it's just so much more interesting to see where the players will want to go from here, and they get wins much more often. Plus the setting doesn't bother me as much because I didn't make it, so there isn't a list of petty grievances and minor inconveniences that, on their own, are stupid and unmentionable, but over 9 months weighs more and more.
But anyway, that's just a matter of player agency and planning autonomy, and I've already said my thoughts on that. I'm excited for both, but I can't lie, I'm a little bit more excited for where Arden Vul will go than Hearts Aglow at the moment.
