(Massive spoilers below if you’re a player in my game. Seriously, stop reading.)
Welcome to Session One of The Chronomancer’s Gambit.
Character creation is done. The table is full. Today, the story actually begins.
This campaign has been a long time coming. Chronomancer’s Gambit is built on a high-concept backbone: a collapsing reality, a repeating 24 hour loop, a final bastion city stacked like a collapsing ziggurat of magic and bureaucracy, and a crew of tragic NPCs backed by anti-villains to block the way. But this is the first time the players will actually get to walk in it. To feel it.
They’re starting with a funeral invitation. A mysterious wizard named Dalton Marius Pennison the 100th has personally summoned them to attend his own funeral. And if that premise wasn’t strange enough, things quickly get weirder.
They’ll meet a glass elf NPC named Syb’l (short for “Seven Years Bad Luck”), a wizardball relief pitcher and con man with an agenda and a serious talent for misdirection. Syb’l overhears them talking, poses as Dalton Marius’ contact and tricks the party into running an errand he would be spotted attempting; a simple job, or so it seems. Steal a “reality anchor.” Uncover a “mind goblin.” Deliver the goods.
What they’re actually doing is retrieving Sybil’s brother’s old wizard baseball. No, really. It’s sentimental. And when the truth comes out, he’s going to shout “Deez nuts!” and run.
Also, they’re at the Heroes’ Feast Inn, which I overdesigned like crazy. An angry Asimar fights a waffle machine. Family of singing orcs mage hand down their breakfast. A wanderer shows off his divine copilot. If nothing else, this inn slaps.
What happens next? I don’t know. I overprepped some things. Underprepped others. They might hit the loop tonight. They might not. They might kill Syb’l. Or maybe he just becomes a resource in the future. We’ll see.