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.
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!
GM Recap
Session 7 (Day 14-15)
- The party was welcomed back by Albaeri Mellikho, who took Baragustas Harbuckler off their hands.
- Constable Harburk Tuthmarillar got a briefing, and a tour of the Tomb, including the Chamber of Moving Stones. The Brothers of Woe were IDed as transient workers in town. Harburk had words with Ilmeth Waelver about the tunnel in his back yard.
- Imdarr Relvaunder, the temple priest, gave Faith some history of the Dessarin Valley. He also identified Ogremoch as a great being of earth elemental evil, and IDed the Symbol of the Black Earth.
- Elak Dornen called a Town Hall to explain to the populace about the Believers, and the burden they’d taken on upon discovering the Chamber of Moving Stones, the Delvers, and how the Delvers could make the stones move to warn the town of impending problems. He, and the Believers who identified themselves (Albaeri Mellikho, Rotharr Hatherhand, Ilmeth Waelver) wanted only to protect the town, and were now concerned that “outsiders” (the party) had revealed their secrets, allowing others to possibly steal them. The Town Hall was broken up by Moony raising the issue of Larrakh and his curse upon the town.
- There were conversations overheard between Albaeri and Rotharr, and between Harburk and Elak.
- Faith tried to intervene to protect Braelen Hatherhand from his father’s wrath.
- While the others slept, William spotted some figures lurking around the Mellikho Stoneworks quarry, but was unable to pursue them.
- DING! Level 3!
- The next morning, the constable reported finding where someone had been hiding at Waelvur’s Wagonworks. Larmon Greenboot, a shepherd, reported finding some fresh graves on a hilltop a half-day’s travel east of Red Larch, near Feathergale Spire. The constable asked the party to check it out (and conveniently get way from the problems in town).
- Brother Earndon, staying at The Swinging Sword, passed on that he’d met the Mirabar Delegation in Beliard two tendays ago, with the impression they were traveling south from there, but expecting to be in Red Larch by now.
Player Recap
When we last left our heroes
The DM Said: Couple of follow-up notes, since we kind of rushed through the end there last game. You established you took the straight path out of the dungeon.
– What did you do with Baragustas, the manacled old man who had been guarding the door of the Tomb of Moving Stones? Released him and brought him with us to the quarry exit
– Did you stop to loot the area around the petrified dwarf? Yes (though neither Nala nor Faith took anything)
– Reszur – Moony spent some of the short rest to attune to the dagger and learn more about it’s powers. (+1, glow, silent)
– Were the spells that Larrakh was throwing clerical or magical? Not determined.
– Grund was gone when you passed through. The bodies of the folk you killed were all still there.
– You did not run across the body of the boy, Braelen Hatherhand, though there were a few small spatters of blood further down that hallway.
Emerging at the quarry
Albaeri races towards us and greets us warmly. She is very glad to see us and asks over the us and the Delvers. The couple of workmen give us sideways glances but also Albaeri. Rest of workmen have been sent to put stone barriers around the sinkhole for traffic. They do not appear to be Believers. Faith asks about Braelen’s father and is directed towards the cobbler. The party heads for the inn to get cleaned up an plan their next moves.
Kaylessa greets them, immediately orders warm water and thanks them for their bravery. They head to their room and put their heads together. Ghileeda and Iraun bring in a soaking tub and warm water. There are concerns about the party’s safety with the Believers / Fancy Boys Club.
The Butcher makes a house call
Harburk arrives and demands to know what the hell is going on in his town. The group shares their story with the exception of Larrakh the spider pig. After that they head back to Mellikho’s Stoneworks to show him and a deputy the underground chambers (Tomb of the Moving Stones). The bodies of the farmers are no longer there. They identify some of the cultists’ bodies as transient laborers that have been staying at Mother Yolantha’s boarding house. In the end Harburk is obviously not happy, but doesn’t necessarily blame the party. They all exit through the shed in Waelvur’s Wagonworks yard. They are spotted by a worker, who calls out to Ilmeth. When Ilmeth arrives the constable converses briefly with him. Ilmeth asks the party to leave.
Going to the Chapel
Faith and William head off to the temple, while the others return to the Swinging Sword. Light streams in through the chapel windows on the South. There is a candle on one side of the alter, but no one else in the main room. Faith and William leave a tithe. Faith pauses to say her daily prayers while William watches over her. Imdarr comes from the back room and waits for Faith to finish. Faith asks after Lymmura. She is off seeing to the pastoral needs of those involved in the incident this morning. Imdarr patiently waits for Faith to continue. He appears interested in the group, but not judging.
Faith asks about the Delvers and what is going on underground. He doesn’t recognize the name. She describes what they found. “We do live in the Forgotten Realms. It has been probably 5000 years since there were Dwarves around here. I think the last was the kingdom of Besilmer. A few ruins remain and of course the “Stone Bridge”.” Faith describes the spells and Imdarr suggests that it is likely earth magic and asks “Did you show bravery”. Faith describes the punishment of Braelen. They chat further and eventually, he asks after the child’s name, which Faith shares. They chat on the town meeting. Finally William asks about the Ogremoch. Imdarr throws a warding sign. “Ogremoch is an evil legend, a dark earth cult, the Mountain that Moves. That is very concerning. That symbol: The Cult of the Black Earth”
A word with the master of the house
Nala asks for a private word with Kaylessa. They step outside. Nala lets her know that we have been very pleased with her Inn and the service that she has provided. Then she lets her know that we might have to leave suddenly tonight, but asks her not to tell anyone.
At the Helm
Theren chooses a table near the kitchen. Garlen greets them and offers them a better table, but they decline. He calls to Justran to bring the table some wine. He arrives with a dusty old bottle from the back of the cellar. He joins the group is a glass and gossip. They feed him a line about artwork. As the sunset falls, the building fills up. The party receives a lot of looks but none too angry.
Elak enters: “Years ago we discovered the a chamber under the town, interpret the stones, Believers, secret to keep it safe and keep our town safe.” Albaeri, Ilmeth, a gentleman we don’t recognize stand. “Forgive us my friends. Were it not for the events of today with the sinkhole and the intervention of the outsiders.” Moony waves. “We’ve been bearing the burden of this secret.”
A town’s man asks about the safety of the hole. Albaeri assures them that they are looking into how to stabilize it. Watching Elak, the neo-experimental religionists, William thinks that Elak believes a lot of what he is saying, but his motivation is suspect. The crowd then peppers him with questions. They range from safety to keeping secrets.
The constable arrives a little late. Gaelkur is not there.
Faith “I’m sorry, did my falling in the hole in ground make it hard to keep your secret?” Albaeri tries to turn it against them. “Why didn’t you just rescue the people and come back up” William “Of course we needed to look around, we needed to make sure it was safe. If part of it has caved in other areas might be unsafe.” He further challenges Elak to explain how long they have kept the secret (“10 years”), and points out that humans have been down there 30 years ago. The constable takes a hard look at Elak.
After more back and forth where Elak questions the intent of the party and dodges the questions about the men who attacked us. Moony raises the question that all of the group wanted to ask. “So, why are you not talking about Larrakh the evil Black Earth cultist, who wishes to curse the town to sink into the earth.” Elak finally sputters, “I have no idea what you are talking about” turns and leaves. Harburk the constable follows him out and Moony slinks behind. Rotharr yells at the people in crowd and leaves loudly with Albaeri.
After the meeting
Faith overhears Rotharr and Albaeri talking about how poorly the meeting went and what to do about the strangers. “Don’t worry about the strangers, I’m sure that the High One will return and take care of them. You should see to your boy and make sure isn’t spreading any tales.” “Oh, I’ll see to my boy all right”
Faith turns and runs for the cobbler’s house. Passing the temple, she sees Imdarr and asks him to delay Rotharr. Faith knocks on the cobblers house calling for Braelen. The mother answers and says that Braelen is not there and has been out all day running errands for his father. Faith tries to explain that Braelen is in danger and the Rotharr is heading this way to “silence him forever.” “I don’t believe you,” the mother says and slams the door.
Moony finds a spot outside of Elak’s and tries to overhear his conversation with Harburk. All he hears is “Come clean, Elak.” When Harburk leaves he nods to Moony, “Hope you got an ear full.”
Theren and William leave out the back through the kitchen. The owner thanks them for the crowd they drew. Nala proudly walks out the front. Theren convinces William that it is not a good time to slink around the tombs. There is a traveling cleric enjoying a quiet drink in the main room. The three head back up in their room.
Moony catches sight of Rotharr storming to the butcher’s house. Jalessa sends him away with a bug in his ear. Returning to the swinging sword, Moony chats with Brother Earndon, a priest of Lathander (God of the Dawn). He is a pleasant older half-elf who travels from town to town. This draws Moony’s interest and he questions him about Larrakh, Ogremoch and the Black Earth. The priest is shocked. “I would never think such evil walks in this area.” Moony “There is an entire town of worshipers here. Good night!”
Morning has broken
There is a slight smell of damp earth around William as folks get up. The party is invigorated and empowered (Level 3). Faith gets up early and heads to the temple. While chatting with Imdarr, he mentions that the priest who is staying at the Swinging Sword has some news about the delegation that we were looking for. She gets back about the same time as a deputy arrives to request the come down to the constable.
The constable is looking more worn that usual. He’d been up all night, and had staged a search of Waelvur’s Wagonworks pre-dawn; they’d found signs that someone had been hiding there, but had fled suddenly, leaving behind a pack.
Gaelkur arrives with a shepherd, Larmon Greenboot. He is recently in town, but reports seeing four “shallow graves” on a hill top, covered with rocks, a dozen miles out to the East past Feathergale Spire. They weren’t there a month ago. It is too far from the “feather toppers” (rich folks from Water Deep have a tower out East and fly in vultures and other animals) for them to be burying folks there. The constable asks the party to check out the graves. It will probably be good for them to be out of town for a few days.
The party returns to the inn to pack. Moony heads out to buy spikes and checks on Buttercup and pays for her stabling.
Before the party leave, Brother Earndon comes down and Kaylessa lets him know that the group would like to talk with him. William describes the concerns that the delegation from Mirabar have been delayed. The priest is surprised. “I was in Beliard ten days ago and the delegation was there. They should have passed through Red Larch by now.” The delegation was planning on heading South before rejoining the Long Road in Red Larch. After thanking the priest for this time, they head out of town on the Cairn Road.
Game Notes
Yeah, it’s another talky-talky episode. Sorry.
It’s perfectly legit in PotA to have the Believers conspiracy just plain old collapse at this point — conspirators fleeing, others being arrested, chapter over, let’s move on. Indeed, that’s how the book sort of writes it up.
Because I’d invested so much in this story, though, I wanted to treat it with some respect.
The Believers Strike Back!
The Believers have taken a terrible blow — their hidden temple found, their “master” revealed, their less savory practices exposed — but they’re not idiots. They can, potentially, recover and take control of the new status quo. Indeed, with some judicious actions, they can even better their situation.
My speculation is that, with all else going on (the party gone for at least three hours, including the time they took resting in the Chamber, plus the time taken with giving the Constable a tour afterwards, and all of his actions), the Believers, especially the main conspirators among them, have had more than enough time to scramble frantically and figure out some plans.
First step is cleaning up. The burnt bodies of the sacrificed farmers get tossed into a corn field somewhere. The bodies of the Bringers of Woe are left — they’re some of the ugly riff-raff that the Elemental Evil Eye’s influence have been bringing this direction, and so don’t directly implicate any of the Believers; indeed, they help point up the danger of strangers in town.
Next step is getting rid of witnesses. I was surprised that the party so easily handed off Baragustas to Albaeri, but that was perfect. The garrulous old man is shortly thereafter killed, and his body buried that night near Albaeri’s stoneworks (William spots something of these goings-on while druidically communing with the stars, but doesn’t choose to follow up — a bit of evidence I held in my back pocket for whenever it might seem worthwhile bringing back up).
Grund, who’s been doing most of the heavy lifting of bodies above, and is just obeying orders from his “betters,” isn’t so easily done away with, so he’s told by said betters that the Constable is going to arrest him and throw him in irons, so he better get the heck out of Dodge. Grund, easily scared (and, likely, having been mistreated by the law before) does so. Which leaves me another character to bring into the narrative later.
The final step is town “leader” Elak Dornen trying to get in front of all this: calling a town hall himself, explaining to all his dear friends of our fair town about how the Believers have been working in the best interests of the town all the time (not completely untrue), but that the town is now menaced by their magic oracle (the Tomb) having been revealed, and it’s all the fault of these meddling kids outsiders!
I didn’t really expect torches and pitchforks, but the party did have to do some quick talking, and eventually left matters in disarray.
Poor Constable Harburk is in a mess: he knows there’s bad stuff going on, but a lot of evidence has already been covered up, it’s all way over his pay grade — and, for that matter, some of the of the folk accused of misdeeds are, themselves, the people who pay him. It’s easier for him to (1) tackle the less respectable folk implicated in all of this, the low-hanging fruit of people who have clearly done misdeeds (like Ilvur and Grund), and (2) come up with a way to get the “meddling outsiders” out of town.
Fortunately a report of “shallow graves” found on a hillside a half-day’s travel out of town is a great opportunity to do this — and a great opportunity for the DM to get the party moving on to the next challenge.
The saga of the Believers isn’t over … but it is going to go on the back burner for a while.
Bits and Bobs
Faith pursued the Braelen child abuse sitch. That was unexpected, unplanned for, mostly improvised, and very cool.
I’d introduced Brother Imdarr when they first arrived as one of the two visiting priests at the All Faiths Shrine. That gave Faith a place to dig out info about “Ogremoch” (mentioned by Larrakh last time) and that cryptic symbol (of the Black Earth) … and presented the perfect opportunity for some infodumping as to the history of the Dessarin Valley (which I also put into a journal entry for the players), with focus on the fallen Bessilmer Kingdom and the Haunted Keeps tale. Perfect timing as they headed out on a path that should take them to Feathergale Spire.
The party dinged to 3rd Level, having had a Long Rest after clearing out the Tomb. Just in time — and the last point where Milestone Leveling worked quite right for, well four more levels. This is, in theory, the point where the book’s main suggestion about starting the campaign begins. Bah. I regret nothing about the previous seven (eight) sessions.
As a reminder to the players about the campaign MacGuffin, hints and tips about the Mirabar Delegation were served up. This got them looking at a (redacted) version of the Dessarin Valley map, which again got them focused outwardly from Red Larch.
(We’ll have a discussion about the Delegation the next installment. Their behavior and movements are very poorly recorded in the campaign and not well explained and actually don’t make a hell of a lot of sense. In part, PotA gets away with that because they are a MacGuffin, but since that guides all the Haunted Keep stuff, it’s a bit annoying. If you’ve been confused in what you’ve read about it … it’s not just you.)
That’s Larrakh who’d been hiding out at Waelvur’s Wagonworks (all improvised, as he’s not really written to survive the battle in the Chamber). His mission in town blown, he’s headed back to the Sacred Stone Monastery to reporting on goings-on. We’ll see next time how that works for him.
I’d given the party a horse and cart some sessions back (obtained from “Bears and Bows” bandits), but the more experienced players realized that sort of equipment never goes well when it came time to dungeon-delve. Ah, well. Eventually they were both sold, when the party tired of paying for stable space.
The Shallow Graves report also let me give an intro to Feathergale Spire, the nearest Haunted Keep, and how it’s seen by the locals: fancy rich boys from the Big City riding around on flying mounts, but also arrogant SOBs who sometimes come into town for supplies — or, the constable hints darkly, raid local farms for livestock to feed their birds and themselves. Some of the locals think they are dashing and handsome, “those magnificent men in their flying machines” sort of thing, but the constable is far too no-nonsense for that.
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