This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

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GM Recap

Session 32 (Days 33-34)

1. 

   The party the next day traveled to the Sighing Valley, passing the apparently deserted Feathergale Spire, to the passage in Knifepoint Gully. Moony took the four necklaces of the Fifth Key and, despite the vision of a terrible Eye watching him, caused the mystic barrier before them to become passable.

2. The party descended several miles to the edge of an underground dwarven city — Tyar-Besil — a place of ruined buildings, statues, a step pyramid, strange lights … and to what they came to realize was the Temple of Howling Hatred.

3. 

   The first barrier was a gatehouse, centered on a passage lined with arrow slits. Through them, the party was attacked by kenku — but that spread to an adjoining room where cultists were playing horrible music on humanoid bone flutes, led by a very handsome (but cranky at being interrupted) half-elf. Theren’s fireball took out the wind orchestra, and the half-elf magically transported himself away.

4. In an adjoining corridor, they found cultists starving to death, tied to great dwarvish obelisks. When questioned, they were apparently there to be taught how to survive on air alone — and insisted on their lessons. They party left the wretched creatures there.
5. A cracking whip and scream nearby brought the party to a room with two great stone capstans, one of which was manned by apparently enslaved commoners … and the chained form of their lost comrade, Aldrik Oakhide!

Player Recap

But They Were All Bad

The groups have dreams. Mostly prophetic and bad. 

As the party wakes and has breakfast, the other groups stop by to say goodbye. The young druids will be heading to Summit Hall and the cranky druids will stay here to bury the dead and purify the site and then explore the valley. Sauruki surprises Urshnora by asking to join the young druids. 

It is very warm and only gets hotter. Moony begins to pant and they break for a rest. William feels called to check out the tree with the arrow. William is being watched, there is a dark clad figure in a copse of trees he laughs and then disappears into the darkness of the trees. 

He feels a movement in his pocket. It is his raven token. It launches from his head and circles his head three times and flies off Northeast. He calls to the others and takes off after it. He comes upon a startling scene. There is another copse of trees. It looks like an animal has gotten caught in it. Small dog size but with bright colors with a bit of green smoke. 

Nala comes down the hill and talks to him in Draconic. Help Help! Stuck, squirrel! 

Smell something acrid. Nala introduces herself and asks it to not use its breath weapon. He shuffles a bit, but the smoke dies down. They move the logs and he is free. “Not Stuck” Other than a bit of bruised pride, he is unhurt. 

They make Red Larch hot and sticky. They check into the inn and then head to the bath house. Haeleeya greets them. She is in the midst of packing. With her daughter dead, there is nothing keeping her in Red Larch. Theren, Faith, and Moony check out a new store, Magister’s Market. It has taken over the old barbershop Gaelkur’s. They pick up some potions and Moony buys a new magic bow. Rations are purchased. Plans are made. Sleep is had.

Early in the morning, the party heads to the canyon near the Feathergale Spire. The air cultist’s camp is still abandoned. A short ways down the tunnel the group comes to a large boulder blocking the path. Like the entrances in the earth and water temples, there is an elemental mark on the  rock. Moony collects the keys from the party members and activates the entrance. The boulder is both there and not there, but the group can pass through. 

Faint sound of discordant flute music. Two large dwarf statues form an arch into the dwarven city below. After looking around, they set off down the path through the arc. The path is 10 feet wide and zig-zags towards a closed door at the other end. There are arrow slits along the wall. When the party is half way through, some of the arrow slits open up and the kenkus attack

William hops the wall to the left. Nala does the same on the right. Mooney follows Nala.

Theren opens the door at the end of the hall and sees a large group of initiates around a pool. A handsome elf stands and says, “What the hell are you doing here?” Theren’s immediate reaction is to drop a fireball on the group. The initiates are all dropped by the fireball and the elf is singed. “Well, shit!” he says and disappears.

William continues after the remaining kenku from the room and steps through the door. He is just in time to see the remains of Theren’s attack. Faith comes into the room from the middle door. The figures on the floor were wearing elaborate feathered costumes and bone flutes.

Moony and Nala come through the right hand door and notice an individual in initiate robes chained to an obelisk. It looks like they are starving to death. There are more obelisks that might also have people chained to them. The initiate explains that they are being trained to live on air. 

While they are deciding what to do next, there is a crack of a whip and a woman’s scream. They move down the hall and enter a larger room with two stone wheels with large spokes. Prisoners are pushing the wheel as air priests stand over them with whips. There is a loud grinding noise deep below.

Game Notes

The Mystery of Aldrik’s Return!

This episode was the first run after my son was back from college. The timing seemed really good — the party was most likely headed down to the Temple of Howling Hatred where, all the clues indicated, his character Aldrik had been taken when the party was last at Feathergale Spire (back in Session 21). 

Why had he been taken?

Bwah-ha-ha.

Initially, it was just kind of a hand-waving “I’ll think of a reason” why Aerisi Kalinoth’s voice was heard from within an air elemental, knocking everyone around (including the Feathergale Knight leader, Thurl) and claiming Aldrik as a “prize.”

Ultimately, I decided he was the last descendent of the royal line that ruled Besilmer and its capital, Tyar-Bessil — the underground Dwarvish fastness that represented the next level of the adventure. (There was also, at this point, the idea that he might actually be the reincarnation of the king of Besilmer, Torhild Flametongue.)  The idea was that, as heir / reincarnation, Aldrik would have certain powers over the city itself, which each prophet would want on their side in their internecine warfare to be the top dog and their master the top elemental prince.

Thus, by the way, the double pun in the episode title.

So it was really great having the son sit in as we started up the session …

Wrapping Up Scarlet Moon Hall

Leading into this episode, I went sort of hog-wild with dreams for the different characters. This was a tool I (probably over)used a lot to drop clues and hints in laps, both to guide the PCs and party, and to promote engagement as, hopefully, they would then either fret about what they’d seen or, when the dreams started gelling with reality, freak out.

(I also had handed Aldrik’s player two pages of fragmented memories of what had been going on with him for the last two weeks of game time. He rolled his eyes at me.)

A last word (ha!) on Urshnora

This wraps up Chapter 3 of the book (the four keeps) and begins the transition to Chapter 4 (the four temples). As such, I decided it was time for Urshnora to bow out, at least for the moment. She’d been a great prod, foil, and potential threat for the characters, and literally until the last moment in the previous episode I wasn’t sure if she was going to try for the four necklaces or not.

In the end, I decided to make it a bit of a redemption story, and have her decline the temptation. On the other hands, she was heading off with the Young Druids, who had sort of become her pets, and I could see her starting her own cult with them. 

(I also had some ideas about their returning to Summit Hall — their avowed destination to warn them about what had been going on — and her being slapped in irons as one of the Rivergard crew, something the players might have to deal with later.)

The Cranky Druids

Having lost their chance (lucky for them) for the Rite of the Wicker Giant, they make the decision to stick around for a few days and try to ritually purify the campground and hilltop of the death and destruction and evil fire magic that has seeped into it. Good on them!

(I liked coming up with wrap-ups for these folk — NPCs need an end to their story on stage, too.)

The only exception there was Sauruki, who volunteered to go with Urshnora and the Young Druids. That’s because he’s a spy there, sent by the Water Cult (presumably from Rivergard Keep, though he could have been down in the Temple). He’s recognized Urshnora (I don’t recall if she’d recognized him), and so it seems like a good chance for him to get out of the current spy business.

Some Druidic Amusement

As part of dinging to 7, William the Druid had taken on the Drakewarden subclass, which entitled him to a magic Drake Companion, which tied into a dream he had about a dragon-like creature in trouble. That allowed for a side trip to the “Last Laugh” location again. 

“Last Laugh” was, of course, supposed to be a Level 1-2 side adventure out of Red Larch, and if done in proper sequence, it would play nicely with the “Lord of Lance Rock” thing (featuring Oreioth the Necromancer). That they had come to it at Level 6 instead made it amusing and gave me the opportunity to play with the PCs a bit: in this case, William, who had taken on the blessing/curse of the arrow. He was having “Last Laugh” dreams each night, mostly hinting at Valklondar the Hunter of Undead wanting to (a) find Oreioth and hill him and, further, (b) find Renwick the Lich and kill him. 

Checking out the Last Laugh tree gave an opportunity to find and rescue the little Drake, who was very cute and fun and all fine, except it took up about 45 minutes of play time.

A Brief Side Trip to Red Larch

The party naturally headed back to Red Larch to sleep and restock, which was also fine, because I decided to set a proper magic store there for their supply needs — one operated by the minor deity Azuth, known here as the Shopkeeper. He’d been involved in the sorcerer’s origin story (as I realized I really hadn’t done a lot with that), and I saw this as an opportunity to give that character some plotty things to do. (Which didn’t really work out, but, hey, I tried.)

Plus, frankly, I wanted the party to be able to spend some of the massive amounts of loot they’d gotten, in a way that didn’t actually involve a trip back to Waterdeep. Yes, magic stuff was still rare and dear, but there’s a difference between that and inaccessible unless actually planted in a treasure chest.

The shop — located in Gaelkur’s now-unoccupied digs — was called “Magister’s Market” (a clue as to Azuth’s identity, as he’s also known as the First Magister).

It was also a moment for me to be inspired and give them a chance to follow up with Haeleeya Hamadroum — their friend from the bathhouse in Red Larch, and mother of Savra, who’d died kinda-tragically at Feathergale Spire protecting Thurl. They’d broken the news of Savra’s death last time in town, and, on returning this time, found Haeleeya packing up her shop to move back to the south where she still had family, with no ties keeping her in Red Larch.  Some nice little drama there.

The Temple of Howling Hatred

The next day was a quick (in real time) hike back to Feathergale Spire, the Sighing Valley, Knife Edge Gully, and the mystic door that would take them down to the Temple of Howling Hatred. Throw in some warning visions of the Evil Elemental Eye when the Rogue was using all four necklaces as the Fifth Key, and it was good stuff.

Okay, so here’s a problem I didn’t realize was a problem — even in working through this dungeon ahead of time.

Oh, say, can you see?

They are entering the underground Dwarvish city-fortress of Tyar-Besil, which has been divided into four parts, one for each of the cults. 

The part they were entering, under Feathergale Spire, was the Temple of Howling Hatred, the location of the Air Prophet Aerisi Kalinoth. All good enough.

While the Earth and Fire temples are very dungeonesque — tunnels through rock — and the Water temple, despite some open areas, is similar, the Air temple is kind of a weird mess. The flavor text speaks of being able to see the high vaulted ceiling and a dwarvish city built beneath it. There’s no real provision for the players to start sketching a map at this point, and you really don’t want them to, because it’s unclear in the extreme what they can actually see beyond the step pyramid of the central throne room. 

There are some areas (rooms, especially on the south and northeast) that are clearly meant to connect floor to roof, and other areas which are building under the open vault, and others which are open courtyards surrounded by walls. But what is what is not obvious, and the implications for non-linear PC movement (“We climb onto the wall — what do we see?”) are poorly considered or described.

A panorama of the interior might have been nice, but none is provided, dagnabbit.

The very first encounter is a good example of this. The party, descending a great underground ravine/cavern, along a dodgy path, catches a glimpse of the city in the distance (despite most of it being dark), the great pyramid, buildings … 

a lost dwarven city lays in ruins beneath the glittering cavern vault. Broken statues stand in the midst of empty plazas, staring sightlessly into the darkness. A huge step pyramid rises at the edge of the precipice, and from the moat that surrounds it a misty waterfall whispers over the chasm’s ledge.

… and then descend to a gatehouse anchored in the walls of the cavern on the right, a deep cleft to the left. 

(Description just given aside, there’s no indication once inside the quadrant’s rooms that any of that stuff off to the left, like the waterfall, or even some of the high views described, should be visible to the players coming in. I shooshed them quickly to the gate, and nobody seemed to mind.)

The cavern roof here is 15 feet high. The gatehouse — a weird octagonal building with a zig-zag passage down the middle full of arrow slits — rises up 12 feet. So clearly there’s a gap at the top of three whole feet, which is kinda weird because that’s easy for 6th level players to scale and so bypass the gatehouse.

But wait, does the gatehouse have a rooftop? If so, any rogue (heck, most characters) could climb up and crawl over it. But if it doesn’t have a rooftop, then while inside the PCs can confront the arrow slit traps by climbing over the interior walls and taking out the Kenku on the other side (or even stand on the wall and shoot down at them). 

It’s goofy and makes little sense, and made the initial encounter kind of weird and clumsy, though it did end up splitting the party into three pieces, which is always good for mischief-making.

A few more encounters

There’s also a fun set piece near the entrance, a room full of (very bad) flute players, training to entertain Aerisi, under the tutelage of the bard Windharrow. The text’s goal is some fun chit-chat, mistaken identities, perhaps the party using the situation to get a bunch of costumes/uniforms to further infiltrate the temple.

Instead, the sorcerer Fireballed the lot of them, killing all the Initiates and injuring Windharrow, who teleported away (per the book) to tell Aerisi about it. Why she doesn’t react isn’t spelled out … I assumed that she had some nefarious plan about using the party or sucking them in and taking vengeance for Thurl’s death or something.

A (cough) convenient scream at the end pulled the party over to the Water Level Capstan Room, where they found a pair of Air Priests overseeing a bunch of commoners pushing the Wheel of Pain … which included, in golden chains, Aldrik!

(Yup, the son had been in the game all night, and that’s how long it took them to find him. Sigh.)

Maps and maps and maps

I continued to refine the “what you’ve seen” maps for the players. I posted these in Roll20 on the Landing Page, and as part of the “Temple of Howling Hatred” hand-out (updated each session).

Yeah, that crazy guardhouse …

Bits and Bobs

It’s kind of weird that my GM Recap skipped over the whole first half of the game. I don’t recall why, unless it was one of those rare instances when I didn’t do my recap notes right after the game wrapped.

As of this episode I kind of changed how I was titling each session. Rather than come up with a new pun for each week (because, honestly, even I was starting to run low on elemental puns), I came up with a title for each of the Temples, and then (gilding the lily) a subtitle for the episode.

It’s a work in progress.

Worth noting in passing that, with the Haunted Keeps taken down, by definition the weather problems are accelerated. Indeed, they party had to deal with a brief Heat Wave going from Scarlet Moon Hall to Red Larch, leading to some Exhaustion being doled out.

Another brief encounter were some truly creepy initiates starving themselves to death whilst shackled to pillars. The cult stuff is all kind of weird (DMs should definitely play up the creepifying aspects), but the Air cultists (above and below) kind of take the cake. Which cake they then refuse to eat, wanting to learn to subsist only on air. 🙄

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