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 24 (Day 28) 

1. Each of the party members (and Urshnora) had very interesting dreams of an elemental and threatening nature.
2. The party searched the Spire, garnering treasure, some magical gewgaws from Thurl’s room, and an amulet that Savra Hanadroum wore.
3. The party found a secret passage from the stables level of Feathergale Spire down to the ground level of the Sighing Valley.

4. 

   Giant Vultures there were worrying away at human remains — one the body of the Initiate who threw himself off the spire the previous evening. The other were the older remains — among many in the area — of the Black Earth captives who had turned back to Red Larch. Further down the path to Knifepoint Gulley (the focus of the telescope atop the Spire), they found the body of the Feathergale Knight Sir Bale, killed by a gnoll arrow (another of which was fired at them).

5. In the gulley, past where the Lost River issued, the party found a camp occupied by Howling Hatred Ascetics guarding a tunnel entrance. The Ascetics were dispatched, and the well-dressed tunnel explored, ending in yet another impassable barrier marked with the Howling Hatred symbol.
6. The party questioned Urshnora at length about the Elemental Cults and the gates, and were told about the Fifth Key.
7. They decided that they would travel to Red Larch to deal with Savra’s death and resupply (probably with ball bearings), before pursuing the Circle of the Scarlet Moon.

Player Recap

Revelations

Wee hours of the morning …

Theren and Faith have watches left. 

During his watch Theren attunes to the ring while standing guard. It is a Ring of Climbing. The others are not sleeping peacefully.

Nala – [vengeance of Earth.] Walking across a featureless plain, all about you jagged black stones, dull in the heat beating down from overhead. Suddenly, the ground begins to tremble, and shake, hard to stand, and chasms opening up, fissures in the earth, but they look more like mouths, gaping, trying to swallow you, and talking … YOU KILLED US … WE KILL YOU … ALL DEAD … DEAD NOT DEAD … WE KILL YOU …

(what do you do?) run

A gap opens up under you and your feet give way.  You pull the sword from your back, stabbing and the rock, and the mouth screams at the wounds you are inflicting on it, which begin to bleed, black and fetid … but you’re sinking faster, pain in your feet and legs as you’re consumed,  and your roars and screams mingle with those of the bleeding earth as you …

… wake up.

Faith – [vengeance of Air.] Floating on the fog outside, supported by great, glittering wings on your back, slowly beating, beating … diving into the  and suddenly all is light … looking out on a plaza, in the center of which is a pyramid, columns around it, strange lights, water … but you can’t fly up any higher because the fog above you has turned to jagged stone, and your wings, your wings brush against it and shatter in thousand shards of light. And from the pyramid you hear a voice … a woman’s voice, foreign, lilting. “I have taken something from you, and you have from me. I think I have the better of the bargain, when the master calls. And since you can’t give me back what you’ve stolen, NEITHER SHALL I. (Laughs) and you wake up …

… even as Urshnora starts awake, shouting “Aerisi!”

William – [vengeance of Water] You’re back down on the underground river landing at Rivergard, as your friends get into the boats without you. You know what’s going to happen next, but you can’t speak, only watch, as the boats are overturned, and undead arms pull your friends down into the water … from which rises Urshnora, as you first saw her in her outfit in Rivergard on the first visit. She smiles and gestures you forward, which is a horrible, horrible idea, because you don’t want to be pulled under, but you can fix that, you can turn into a fish, but you’re still on the landing, on dry land, flipping and thrashing about, and you realize you never finished your studies and don’t know how to change back, but Urshinora is turning into a great white snake made of water and her maw opens wide and …

Theren – It’s your dream again from the other night … a giant, massive, burning figure, flames wreathing its form, looking at you with interest. You fireball it, and it eats the flames and blows them back at you. Your skin blisters, your lungs are flame — but you don’t die. “Come,” says the figure. “We can use such as you, those who are not afraid to BURN … 

what do you do?  Wait to see if he says anything else.

Moony – Running … running … always running … but it knows you’re there. You are not the hunter, but the hunted. You hurl yourself into a small cave, hoping to escape the gaze, but you can see the eye in the darkness, watching.  You flee there, dive into a pool of water below crashing falls, but patterns in the water, in the sand at the bottom of the pool, the rocks, the fish — eyes, all of them, watching you. You break the surface again, gasping for air, and the air itself is eyes, narrow and slit, formed in the clouds again, the leaves blown by the wind, you realize you will never escape, that you, yourself, are eyes, in the patterns of fur, the buttons of your clothing, a thousand eyes, a million eyes, …

… and one who watches, as you stumble not away, but toward them …

That morning, William volunteers to fix breakfast and replenish supplies. Faith agrees to keep an eye on Urshnora. They and the others go to the roof to begin a more thorough search.

On the roof, Moony look to see if the telescope from the mount. It is still pointed to the crevice in the wall of the valley. Nala takes a closer look and thinks that it may be part of the original tower. They look over the parapets and see some large vultures 

There is a rather torn and bedraggled dress (Urshnora’s) She would prefer to leave it there. When asked, she declines to talk about it.

On the desk, there are some papers for supplies and other office items. The most interesting item is a leather cylindrical case. It is a not to Thurl.

Merosska,

We are pleased to hear about the outcome of your altercation with the Black Earth cult, and we praise you for the capture of one of their prisoners. This noblewoman from Waterdeep has an interesting tale to tell, and we shall enjoy interrogating her further. Keep a close watch on the Sacred Stone Monastery. I want to know what our enemy is planning next.

Your beloved queen,
Aerisi Kalinoth

When asked Urshnora says “You cannot trust one of the Cult of the Howling Hatred. They are impulsive, unreliable, and mad. They are subject to flights of fancy, claiming to seek freedom while binding themselves to their horrid cult, claiming to be liberated from the world while still surrounding themselves with illusion and cruelty. They are led by a mad prophet, Aerisi Kalinoth, an elf princess whose insanity led her into the arms of Yan-C-Bin, the Evil God of the Air. She bears the spear Windvane. Fear it.”

(Moon elves are the most common of the elves. More tolerant of humans than other elves, moon elves were the ancestors of most half-elves. They were considered high elves, sometimes also called Eladrin.)

They finish with Thurl’s room and continue to the other rooms on the floor. There is not much of interest in these rooms. One half room belonged to Savra. There is nothing personal to bring back to her family.

The dinning room has not improved overnight. Urshnora steps over to Thurl’s body. Her eyes narrow and she gives his neck a good boot stump. Nala searches Savra’s body. Of interest is a small silver locket, darkly tarnished. Inside is a small note that says “Please come home”. Nala carefully replaces the note and puts the locket into her pouch for safe keeping. 

On the first floor, they meet William in the kitchen. He greets them with breakfast and supplies for their packs. The kitchen, solarium, armory and entry have nothing of interest. 

The stable floor in no different that before with the exception of a dead body in the cell that held Urshnora. It takes a while to go through the stalls, but they are all unremarkable. Moony does find is what looks like a door at the base of the stairs. It looks very old and unused. There is a switch near by that releases the catch. They gather there gear and supply Urshnora with basic gear, then head down the dark stairs. A short while later, the group emerges onto the floor of the Sighing Valley.

The vultures are still near the Spire with their meal. The group debates where to set out next. They decide to quickly explore the cavern across the ravine. The first vulture is definitely feeding on something. The bones are definitely from a humanoid creature with scraps of cloth. One looks like the shawl from the trio who went south to Red Larch. Moony notices that there are a lot of bones here. It is not a pleasant sight. They continue on and approach the lost river. There is a noticeable trail for the group to follow. As they pass through the meadow near the river, they come across another body. It looks like one of the Feathergale Knights. It is Bale who was fleeing the battle. His feet and ankles are bloody from the spike thorn spell. His death, however, was caused by the arrow in his skull. The arrow is likely from a Gnoll. As they realize this, another arrow lands near Moony’s feet. There is a high laughter from across the river. Bale’s pouch and sword are missing.

The reach Knife Point Gully. They find the spot where the Lost River emerges from a spring. The gully beyond is dry. Moony stealth’s ahead and signals the group when he sees a group of miner. The nine ascetics each yells, “Unclean” and do a thunder attack when they first strike. 

Dressed stone, like an entrance to an underground space. When they explore the path is blocked by a stone with an air cult symbol on the surface. Moony investigates and tells the group that it feels like the other elemental doors. 

To Urshnora: What do you know about the history of this area. Several thousand years ago, the Dwarvish kingdom of Besilmer was created across the area of the Dessarin Valley.  Its capital was the underground stronghold of Tyar-Besil, delved under the Sumber Hills. The Dwarves created many great works, shrines and temples and other efforts such as the Stone Bridge. In far too short a time, though, Besilmer fell to the ogres and giants after only a century or two, weakened from within.

600-odd years ago, a group of adventurers calling themselves the Knights of the Silver Horn discovered the ruins of Tyar-Besil, and over time made many raids into them, encountering both the abandoned treasures of the Dwarves and the monsters that had taken up residence there. At length, wealthy and powerful, they established a realm of their own, building fortresses at each of the known entrances to the underground realm. After a few generations, they were wiped out by an Orc horde invasion, and those fortresses were abandoned and became known as the Haunted Keeps. 

The prophet of each element took up residence in the ruins of Tyar-Besil and each had a key for the soul gates. There is a fifth key that was broken in to four pieces and the were given to each of the elemental cults. 

Game Notes

It’s Infodump Time!

I honestly had no idea if or when the party was going to cut Urshnora‘s throat — and, to be fair, neither did Urshnora. As a water cultist, she’s used to playing the long game, and right the party’s interests kinda-sorta aligned with hers (learn more about what’s going on; take vengeance on the Howling Hatred; take even more vengeance on the Eternal Flame).

So I had her play things fairly straight with the party — providing useful information as need be, even participating in the battle against the air ascetics by the passageway to Tyar-Besil.

That useful information include telling all about the Fifth Key, and backstory about Besilmer and the Sumber Hills. They’d heard some of this before, and gleaned other parts, enough that doing a level set on their knowledge made sense to me.

(The note from Aerisi to Thurl also added a few more pieces, especially about the Mirabar Delegation member the Air Cult had stolen.)

They’re not called the Howling Hatred for nothing

I mean, the party already knew Thurl and his gang of frat boys weren’t up for any humanitarian awards, nor very tightly strung. That said, learning that they indulged in human sacrifice (or at least disposing of bodies, alive or dead, over the top of the spire), as well as the implication that Urshnora had been tortured and likely raped by Thurl (something I did not dwell on) made the hospitality offered to the party previously seem even skeevy. Indeed, that prisoners they had freed from the Earth Cult were then captured and killed by the Air Cult was … not pleasant to contemplate.

Some of this (dumping bodies down to the rocks below to serve as Vulture Chow) came from the game. The other bits just extended naturally from the story as I saw it. Bottom line: this was not just a theological dispute, or a matter of which powers one chose to go to church and worship. Innocents were at stake here.

Dream Time Is The Meme Time

Yeah, yeah, I spend a lot of time on dreams.

In this case, though, I ironically picked well, as Faith, the Cleric, would tie in to Aerisi‘s tale in some unexpected ways. So giving her a winged-elf’s-eyed view of the Royal Quarter of Tyar-Besil, where the Air Cult hangs out, made for a nice moment, especially with Urshnora somehow impacted by the same dream.

(Note that the book notes big dreams happening if folk stay overnight in the Keeps, so I have a certain amount of cover there, especially if the Air influence is greater here in Feathergale Spire. I did choose, though, not to get bogged down with more cultists coming to the keep and attacking them.)

Bits and Bobs

I liked that the party felt bad about Savra, and wanted to bring her mother something. I realized afterward that I’d already played the “I kept a piece of a note I was sent from home” card back at Sacred Stone Monastery, but it works even better for Savra and her estranged mother.

The party had outleveled the Gnolls in the Sighing Valley, but no need to tell them that. Just an occasional arrow lobbed their direction to keep them honest.

Fun Fact: the Lost River that starts up in the Sighing Valley (and is, in fact, a major driver of the landscape there) lives up to its name, as it shows up on no map once you pull back to the Dessarin Valley as a whole. (Mutter mutter.)

So the party is going to head back to Red Larch? Time for a lot of prep work to discuss what’s been going on there …

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