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. But 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 48 (Day 40)
In … The Temple of the Black Earth!

1. 

   The party interrogated the four freed prisoners: Orna, Droth, Wulgreda, Gervor. In the end, they escorted them to the far side of the Water Temple and gave instructions on how to get out of the Air Temple and up to the surface, thence to Red Larch. In return, Orna gave them information about the leadership structure in the Temple of Black Earth, and a few of the locations they would pass on their way to finding Marlos Urnrayle.

2. The party stopped for a short rest in the Gargoyle Fountain Chamber, and discovered that its waters actually provided a Short Rest.
3. The party, wanting to use her forge to destroy the Orb of Red Larch, decided to tackle Xharva Deem. A brief but bloody battle ensued, cut off when Faith used a Banish spell to send Xharva back to the Elemental Plane of Earth, her home.
4. After another short rest, the party continued up the corridor in the direction where Orna had said Marlos Urnrayle was. At an intersection with two arrow slits, an inopportune clatter from Theren looked to be drawing an attack from those at the guard post.

Player Recap

Where the weal takes us, part 2

After they release the prisoners, they each have a different idea of what should happen.

• Orna (Angry Human – Former Earth Cultist): One of the fancy ass priests wanted a grope. I broke his hand and ended up here. She offers to tell the group where Marlos Urnrayle is in exchange for her armor and a sword.
• Wulgreda (Quiet Dwarf): Quietly she states that she is from XX and was captured and forced to work below. 
• Droth (Blind Human Air Cultist): I won’t do nothing. I’ve been here for a while and I think (his voice trails off). He turns and stumbles towards Faith and professes his undying devotion and willingness to kill anything she requires.
• Gervor (Snobbish Elf): Came with a band of adventurers to loot the temples. He was the last of the band when he got caught.

William casts Augury and the raven shakes his head and claims Weal. However, he knows that the spell becomes less reliable if used frequently. After further discussion they escort the former prisoners to the entrance to the Air Temple. Faith has included a note for the priest serving at the All Faiths shrine in Red Larch. It requests that they give some gold to the group if they arrive together. It also lays out a penance for Droth.

When they return to the Gargoyle room for a rest. Moony notices that the gargoyle fountain looks like the gargoyle on the defaced mural in the healing area. (The religious motif is in the alcove along the southern wall by the door to B14). It is of a Dwarvish woman (her face has been obliterated), towering over smaller creatures — dwarves, apparently injured, being blessed. On the left are priests tending to the injured. On the right, magical creatures — an elemental, a dragon made from gems, a gargoyle — from whose mouths water flows. The words “LADY OF MERCY AND” in Dwarvish script can be made out by her head.) William decides to take a drink from the gargoyle fountain. It is cool and slightly minerally. He feels well rested. The others also partake and gain the benefit of a Short Rest. 

The party decides to return to the forge to destroy the orb in the forge. Xharva Deem is there and senses Nala near. Xharva says in her head “I smell it; you have no reason not to negotiate with me. You dishonor me””

Faith enters first casting silence over much of the room. William comes next and transform into the starry form of the archer. He sends a radiant bolt at her. Xharva attacks Faith with her maul and knocks her to the ground. Moony and Theren attack from their respective doorways. Nala joins the battle and gets a great hit on Xharva. Xharva returns the damage with interest. After William heals Nala, he asks What do you want. “This one knows! But now I will tear the sand from her dead body!” As the battle continues Faith tries to banish the earth elemental but Xharva makes her save. But on the next round Faith succeeds and Xharva disappears with a pop. 

After much discussion, they decide to destroy the orb in the forge. The group exits the room and Ko pushes the orb into the forge. There is no boom. After a while they return to the room to find the broken orb sizzling in the fire. They then take a Short Rest in the forge room and attune to the wand and the rod from Heldorm and his treasure chest. The wand is a wand of magic missiles. Nala can not discern the purpose of the rod. William decides that the spiked club that Xharva was forging is very nasty but not magic.

To the West where the guttural sounds are contains ogres guarding the gate to the fire temple. They they head up the north passage. 

Directions to Marlos: North up the hall past the forge. Continue past a place on the left where you can go down to the Fane of the Eye, brr, further north, then to the right, and the door with stone faces on it. 

Game Notes

Various family, personal, medical, and other events led to a six week gap between session, so it took a bit for folk to settle down from chit-chat, recall what was going on, and get back into the swing.

The Prisoners

We chewed up easily 90 minutes dealing with the prisoners — more, arguably, than it was worth. I’m not sure sending them back on their own was the wisest of moves, but there weren’t any very good answers. 

(The party was getting a bit tired of freeing prisoners — and, to be fair, I was, too, but it’s not only a good trope to convey information and remind about stakes, but the whole “but what do we do with them now?” thing can be an interesting challenge, not just a grind.)

Orna gave them some info about the Temple, including how to get to Marlos, but didn’t have an opening to mention what his nature is. She did get to mention the stairs down to the Fane of the Eye, hopefully with sufficient apprehension to give them pause. Her info will be added to their working map of the level.

I had a lot of fun with Droth, the thug/cut-throat Howling Hatred prisoner, feeling tremendous gratitude toward Faith and perceiving the power of Windvane on her. He did the whole fawning, “I’ve killed whomever you wanted killed, milady! I can kill more for you, as you want!” This came complete with supportive whispers from Windvane in Faith’s head. I need to start leaning on her a bit more.

That damned fountain

I finally — through some Passive Investigation — got the party to realize the Short Rest healing power of the Gargoyle Fountain. I thought it should be of some minor help, though they hadn’t yet learned that it only helped them once a day.

That said, this marked one of the last times they marched past it. Ah, well.

That damned Dao

The Xharva Deem stuff had taken on somewhat farcical qualities. She was hot after Nala at this point for the trinket “A metal can that has no opening but sounds as if it is filled with … sand” that Nala took on character generation, just a something she picked up in her career — that turns out to be the equivalent of cocaine/love potions for the Dao. Xharva hadn’t actually named it (because she assumed everyone knew that was the most valuable thing the party had),  so Nala was originally thinking it was her enchanted greatsword, and then “figured out” that it must be the Devastation Orb from Red Larch that she has in her Bag of Holding.

William’s player had a clue, though, and tried to get Xharva to explain it. I talked around it a bit, but actually did end up saying it out as part of a threat against Nala — “I will tear the sand from her dead body!”  … and everyone just read it as a Dao metaphor.

Sigh.

This was all something I added into the campaign, because I thought it would be fun, and in fact it was, but it also ended up slowing things down. Still, finding things to do with some of trinkets the characters have is a nice way to add flavor to a campaign. And, honestly, it made Xharva a much more interesting character than Just Another Monster to Slay.

It was very, very cool that Faith, the cleric, finally managed to Banish her. It put an abrupt end to the battle. Banish is a high-level spell for her, so burning it is costly, and hadn’t always worked in the past. This time it did exactly what they wanted.

Of course, Xharva had Plane Shift, so she’d be back. Nobody had really voiced that concern as of yet.

Destroying the Devastation Orb in the forge was probably a terrible idea, but since I allowed Dispel Magic to break its charge, I let the party do it without setting off Earthquake in the Earth Temple and do more map-distorting damage. Yay.

Planning ahead

So at this point my son was just settling down in his out-of-state apartment with a new job. It occurred to me that if I wanted to reintroduce Aldrik to the campaign, I had an upcoming hook: Marlos’ cavern. I’d been envisioning Aldrik as captive of Gar Shatterkeel at the altar/temple down in the Fane, but that was too far way. Marlos had to have him.

Why all the interest in this dwarf from the north?  Maybe, I’d been increasingly thinking, because Aldrik (in my head) has some nascent power over the Tyar-Besil complex (being either descendent or reincarnation of Torhild Flametongue), which is why everyone has been wanting to get hold of him — maybe Marlos decided to steal him for himself. And, until he could figure out how make use of him, he petrified him. As one does as a medusa.

But how, you might ask, would they un-petrify him (without going back to Waterdeep)?  Two ideas popped to mind:

1. Maybe there was a Basilisk Fountain somewhere that corresponded with the Gargoyle Fountain, and has similar recuperative policies re Petrification (Basilisk, got it?)
2. Xharva Deem the Dao could, if pressed, do Wishes. Of course, that depended on they not attacking her as soon as she appeared …

Exploration Progress

So a bit more information on here — the stuff in green that was intel passed on by Orna. Just a bit of movement up the map to the intersection, though.

So much fun here (from my fevered imagination), including that some dwarf had inscribed “WOE” over the stairs to the New Diggings … as the Fane is where the invasion that threw down the city started from, after the dwarves delved too greedily and too deep and broke into the ancient Underdark there …

It’s not clear why the Cave of Wonders (Marlos’ hang-out) would be marked “DEATH” since these markings far pre-date the Prophets moving in. Perhaps something else sinister moved in there for a time, which would explain why Marlos has a demonic majordomo …

And then there’s the marred set of runes that look like they say “Trumpet” (but most certainly don’t).

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