D&D proceeds; they get to the edge of the desert, where some cultists decide they're at risk of fulfilling a prophecy they don't want fulfilled and start harrying them.

That's a really interesting situation, because they get to investigate all of: how plausible the prophecy seems, how well they actually fit it, and whether it's the sort of prophecy they want fulfilled regardless of what the cultists think. Margaret gets into a lively debate/speculation session with Brenda about it.

"I think if the cultists are trying to avert it, it can't be the kind of prophecy that's really worth much, and except for fighting cultists who started it anyway we can just ignore it, Xavier isn't railroading us," says Brenda.

"Why would people trying to avert it make it less likely to be true? Or do you just mean that it's probably a prophecy that something bad will happen?"

"I mean if they're trying to avert it they think they can."

"Oh, I see. And if it was important enough to matter then it would happen whatever they or we did about it. I'm trying not to think about it in terms of whether Xavier finds this plot interesting or just wanted to give these guys an excuse to attack us . . ."

"I've played with him before, if we're not out to troll him he'll roll with anything we do."

"It's nice that he's willing to improvise like that. I think we should try to find out what the prophecy says instead of just chasing the cultists off."

"I guess that makes sense, then we'll know what they might try besides just trying to kill us."

"Yeah, definitely." They try to convince the rest of the party to track the cultists back to their hideout and investigate.

Xavier ends the session before they get there.

Then they'll have to wait a week to find out.

"I'm pretty excited to find out what it is," she says to Brenda on the way out. "I bet it has something to do with those emblems they were wearing."

"You don't think those are just their culty holy symbols?"

"Oh, I bet they are their culty holy symbols. But if you're founding a cult and you're picking your new holy symbol, why not base it on the prophecy you're building the cult around? I guess it depends how important this prophecy is to them whether that follows or not."

"It might not be that important. Although I guess they did jump on us pretty quick..."

"If it's not that important, they're probably up to something else nefarious too, so it's just as well we're investigating."

"They might be secretly the good guys somehow, that's the kind of thing Xavier might pull. Last campaign, we were trying to get this treasure from this dragon, only it turned out the treasure was the dragon's tribute from its worshipers, and we'd been hired by somebody who wanted to, what was it, oh, wanted to frame one of the dragon's enemies for the theft and get them to take each other out."

"Wow, that's a cool twist! I'll try not to make too many assumptions about these guys, then."

"I mean, don't metagame, if your character thinks they're bad news that's all part of the whole deal, yeah?"

"Definitely. She's going to go in expecting at least one nefarious plot. Which she will then try to talk them out of before anyone attacks anyone else, because paladin."

Kendra laughs. "You took it real well when Cole beat you to being the wizard."

"He was here first. And paladins get to do magic too, at higher levels. So I've got a lot to look forward too, if the campaign goes on long enough."

"It might not, sometimes Xavier packs his whole plot into four levels and then we're done. One time he did a sequel campaign though and we got all the way to twelve."

"Well, I can start doing healing as early as level 2, so it's cool either way. Sequel campaigns are a neat concept; you get to wrap things up and then also keep going."

"Yeah, exactly. He doesn't like to do anything in the really high levels though, he thinks people go too cheesy when they're expecting to have seventeen or eighteen levels to play with."