You know what, I’m actually kinda proud of the M9 this week.

Like, when the plank king asked them why they chose to sail the seas, become pirates, and end up at his place, the honest answer would be “because we make horrible decisions, escalate the situation rather than face the consequences, and once we’re committed, we go all in and don’t know how to back down.” That… Is the story of how they basically got into and out of all story arcs so far. And the clusterfuck that was them getting into this whole pirate business by stealing the ship in the first place was probably the most egregious example.

Come to think of it, “because we’re idiots who make horrible life choices” would have been a great answer in pirate court.

Anyway, my point is, this is the first time in this campaign when they actually didn’t unnecessarily escalate the bad situation they were in. Well, except for Caleb, of course. They could probably have parted with the pirate city on better terms than they did if he’d just behaved, but hey, it’s just Liam doing Liam things at this point, and on the grand scale of things, it wasn’t even close to double-crossing an ancient dragon with 3 party members present without a rest after fighting another ancient dragon, so we should all really count our blessings.

But all in all, I’m really proud. They understood their limitations, somewhat, stuck to the decent part of their initial plan, mostly, and got the hell out of dodge of a situation that was completely beyond their control. And it worked! Nicely done, people.

It is kind of a shame about Avantika, that’s for sure, she was… Fascinating. Honestly, the most fascinating thing was how me and my friends were panicking about Beau lying in pirate court, and then Avantika just came in and lied more and worse. And the power play with Beau’s punches of truth… Rrrrr.

Also, her death felt a little like Lorenzo’s; kind of premature, definitely not what Matt had planned, but probably for the greater good. Girl was unhinged. I’m kinda glad we don’t have to wait for her to turn into PotC3 Calypso or something. The larger plot isn’t going away any time soon, either, so hey.

And much like Lorenzo, the party completely legitimately outplayed her in a way that made it impossible for Matt not to give them the ending they got. That’s another thing. They’re learning. And I’m looking forward to how Matt has to design future arc villains if he wants them to survive the first few encounters.