Last night was the first session of a new D&D5e campaign. Unfortunately we started out short one player (who was dealing with a dog emergency and post-dog-emergency-emergency).

Since we did a session 0 at the last session, this week we started in the thick of it. Like, quite in the thick of it.

“Alright, let’s get started. Everyone, roll for initiative.”

With no memory of why they were there, the party started in a long arched chamber facing a massive construct of clocks of many types – hourglasses, waterclocks, cuckoo clocks, traditional ticking clocks, etc.

With every attack that they landed against the clockwork machinery they regained some memories of what lead them here, and with each blow it landed against them they lost other memories (such as their cousins’ names, their home address, what their mother looked like, etc) as well as taking (light) damage.

Some of the memories I relayed to them directly, others I asked for their input on – such as “so, why would you be exploring the undercity canals today anyways – was it honourable and good, greedy, or base skulduggery?” and so on.

While they never quite figured out the whole story, they remember that they were among several groups looking for the lost dog of a noble family, but once they got underground they were distracted by discovering that when two of the team clasped hands, they could see a map in the air over their hands. Not 100% sure of what the map depicted, they tried to follow it and found themselves in secret passages under the city, and eventually in the chamber where they met the Chronovore that was eating their memories.

As they started to retreat from the clockwork monstrosity, the chronovore fell upon them and their next memories start in a small dry sewer tunnel that is not currently in use. Behind them they could hear the ticking and ringing and sandy falling sounds of the Chronovore, so they hauled ass further into the depths to avoid it.

In their rush to escape they dealt with a small swarm of carnivorous beetles (leftovers from the old elven breeding pits), and then found a secret passage connecting to the old elven ruins in the centre of town – however via a small locked chamber along the way (that they couldn’t resist breaking into) that contained a demon and the skins & outfits of three people of obvious noble dress hanging on the wall. They evacuated the chamber quickly when nicely requested to do so by the demon, but recognized two of the skins between them – one being the head of the Beardsmith dwarven clan and the other being a young playboy noble.

So now they are back in town, wondering what was going on with those skins (Edgar Suits we called them, after the term used in Men in Black), selling off some minor loot, and with a feel for what each character is like and what their capabilities are.

Except for the one missing character. Who might still be trapped in the undercity.

It might be time to go look for him.