Oh hey.
It went kind of meh.
I should learn my lesson by now and not try to shoehorn players into things. Wait, no some players like being shoehorned. So.
Well, I had a lot of plot ideas that didn't mesh out with the background one character wanted, so I had to dump a lot of plot and just go bare bones + action. But also, 2/4 players hadn't finished their character sheets. We were 30 min late, and then it took until Game time +3 H to get the character sheets done. Then we had a meal in the middle of that. So really, we had two back to back fights with no reason or explanation, roleplaying, or investigation.
Just as well, maybe. I made the whole scenario up on the quick, so it was just a heavy riff on classic fantasy tropes from sources like Wheel of Time / Hobbit & LotR.
The town is set up to be kind of like Rohan or Hrothgar's great hall in Beowulf, and orcs are raiding the town (trying to); the town's primary guardian was a powerful old wizard, but he's been murdered by his apprentice and orcs are pouring in through the portal in the Mage's Guild (with no small number outside trying to break down the gates and sack the town).
The plot element that had to get dropped was due to my game's Wizard not wanting to be an apprentice from this town and not wanting to be part of the guild (he's a multi-class rogue, and he wanted a mysterious past that he's on the run from); the apprentice that murdered the guildmaster was going to be a Doppleganger who took his character's form, setting up a skill challenge in the form of a trial / investigation.
The orcs are dressed like a local clan the villagers have made peace with, but they're actually from a mountain range far away. The idea was that the heroes would deal with the assault, shut down the portal, go investigate the local orc tribe, hopefully use diplomacy and insight to determine their innocence, possibly recruit their warchief to join them, then go through hostile territory to reach the lair of this orc tribe and kill its real leader (a Young Red Dragon). I figured that was enough material, and a simple enough plot, for a 6 hour one shot. The "Hobbit" part was that I was going to use some old Dwarven ruins as a lair, and include a hidden entrance into the dragon's lair (though really, it was the most practical way I could think of to skip through what would logically have to be a huge orc fortress in order to get to the boss and call it a night).
Now, as for this weekend... I'm not sure. I would love to do it, but I need to know what we're doing over here.
We're supposed to be playing my Eberron "Zombiegeddon" game today (kind of a misnomer now, as they fought off and destroyed the plague, and now the only ones carrying the plague, albeit in a latent form, are in the party). If one of our guys doesn't show up, we'll probably finish (continue?) my 4th Ed "Warcraft" campaign, but on Sunday, possibly freeing up today.
Spook e-mailed me last week and I e-mailed him back but he hasn't responded. I'll PM you his address and maybe we can work something out. Hang tight. Sorry I don't have anything more conclusive to tell you, but the situation is kind of in flux re: gaming this weekend since most of my group prefers playing on Sunday but one guy can't.