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 33 (Day 34) 

1. 

   The party fought the two priests in the stone wheel room — as well as the commoner captives who all seemed devoted to the cause of Aerisi Kalinoth and Yan-C-Bin. Aldrik, who was there, broke his golden shackles and joined in the melee. Afterward, he determined after examination and odd insight that the wheels were controls for … water level? Faith armed Aldrik with the Hammer of the Azer.

2. They went through a series of quarters — one of which had a kenku — before running into a large band of Initiates, who were quickly dispatched. In that southeast quarter of the complex, they found a passage labeled with the Crushing Wave symbol sandblasted in the floor.

3. 

   They encountered the great blue figure (a djinn?) Ahtayir, who spoke of being tied to the endless task of maintaining, recovering, expanding the city of Tyar-Besil, at the command of one long ago, as well as its present “usurper” Aerisi Kalinoth. He seemed interested in their intent to overthrow Aerisi, and encouraged them to do so.

4. On a causeway over an underground river, going toward the step pyramid in the center of the Temple of Howling Hatred, they were confronted by a wyvern and rider, both of whom they slew.
5. They prepared to enter the pyramid, where Ahtayir had assured them Aerisi dwelt.

Player Recap

Where The Party Finds Their Wayward Dwarf

Aldrik looks down at his manacles and the bar that he is pushing. His vision clears slightly and he can now see that the chains are made of gold. reality returns and Aldrik doesn’t like it. He enters into a rage and breaks his chains. The commoners charge the group and yell, “Yan-C-bin comes”. When the room is cleared, Faith heals Aldrik and hands him her new war hammer. They remove the gold shackles and chains from Aldrick. Faith notes that golden shackles are most often used on royalty. 

The group explores the rooms around the stone wheel room. It is mostly empty accommodation with nothing much of interest. A group of guards attack as they are leaving a room. The party members pull back and make the guards come through the doorway. The battle is short and the party victorious.

Continuing through the halls Moony spies an impressive air being working on destroying the wall and stacking the rubble. While they discuss what is to do, Ahtayir of the Third Wind calls out and invites them to join him. He is a Djinn who is bound to the service of the temple. He has been given the endless task of maintaining, recovering, expanding the city of Tyar-Besil, at the command of one long ago, as well as its present “usurper” Aerisi Kalinoth. He seemed interested in their intent to overthrow Aerisi, and encouraged them to do so. He waves and creates food and drink for the group. If you are going after Aerisi Kalinoth, you must attack her and cause her to react to her.

Ko walks up to the genie. “You are not a squirrel. How do you do that?” “You are a curious little one, but until you can ride the winds you are of little interest to me. The food and water is bland. They thank the djinn. He promises a great reward if they can free him. 

Stone pillars line like majestic trees. Names of ancient dwarves engraved on the pillars. It crosses a deep moat that leads towards the pyramid. There is a figure at the top of the pyramid that is riding a draconic creature. When it takes off and approaches, the group can see that it is a Wyvern. The figure on the back of the Wyvern says, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Who is your master?” Faith replies, Tyr. That was not the answer that she was looking for.

Kax Hanar yells “Intruders!” Theren drops a fireball on them and Moony makes a sneak attack. Ko roars and Kax drops from the saddle. Heavy fighting ensues. Kax is defeated and William tries to get the Wyvern to run away. When he doesn’t leave, they have to destroy him. While some of the group does a quick survey of Kax and William and Moony remove the poison sack from the Wyvern.

Game Notes

On a roll

It’s becoming clear to the party that low level mooks aren’t much of a threat and, unless in huge numbers (in which case they become AoE fodder), that’s true. The story continues sending them, though, as part of the window dressing — evil priests, fanatical cult initiates, commoners who have been corrupted, etc. In most case, it’s color text, but important color text, and I didn’t want to tweak the threat and have it turn out unbalanced and killing someone in the party.

(That said, I’m also aware the party was benefitting here by (a) having six members in it, and (b) with being a level up from what the dungeon was designed for. So I was also willing in a given battle to maybe throw in a few extra baddies, or tweak a few rolls for dramatic effect.)

Mooks create a perception of risk, and an actuality of cost (spell slots and other abilities that need to be renewed). They aren’t designed, narratively, to stop the party — just to wear it down so that the conflict with the boss will be that much more hazardous.

Wending paths

The quarters area allows a couple of paths through it, which meant the party bypassed the temple room where there are honest-to-gosh hostages, including a halfling farmer whose wife was taken “below” with some other prisoners. Two things here: one of missing is Deseyna, one of the Mirabar Delegation, which remains a weak motivator narratively, but our party has bought into it. Second, it was not until I was doing much later review of the Howling Caverns (the Air node) and had come up with a picture and token for the missing wife that I realized I’d create a mixed-species marriage, halfling and human. Vive le difference and all that. I wondered if anyone would notice or make note of it.

(When the party eventually got there, they did in fact remember this dude, for a variety of reasons we’ll get to shortly.)

I’ll say it again: add life to NPCs, especially ones who will connect the tissue of the campaign together. They make it become about so much more than capturing / preventing capture of the Mystical MacGuffin, and give the players people to root for and serve on behalf of.

Anyway, they missed these guys, though I blacked out that area of the map when I gave them a review of what they’d explored so far, and Ahtayir spoke of other “slaves,” so there was a decent chance they’d be back through again.

I Dream of Genie

(I picked an alternative image for Ahtayir than the out-of-the-box djinn image the game provides. In part it was because I didn’t want to be that completely obvious. In part it was because I liked this image.)

I was worried about Ahtayir for quite some time. He’s tremendously powerful, and can be used as a weapon against the players that might end up killing one or more of them.

I did have him snarl at Aldrik (since it was the king of dwarves here that enslaved and failed to free him, and that’s one of Aldrik’s ancestors, though the party including Aldrik doesn’t know that). 

That said, Aerisi, by refusing to blow the horn and give him another order, has perpetuated his slavery. Ahtayir’s smart enough to realize that the party can upend the situation here, so he’s happy to give them info as to where Aerisi is, since nobody has commanded him not to.

Ultimately, I decided that while Ahtayir had a serious mad-on for Aerisi, he wasn’t going to be too fond of the PCs. In part, that’s because of whatever jiggery-pokery was going on with Aldrik. In bigger part, though, he was a djinn, an angry djinn, and the concerns of mortal-kind were going to be pretty low on his list. I was sure, though a creature of Elemental Air, he was no fan of Yan-C-Bin, and would be happy to see that Prince get a metaphysical bloody nose, but if the whole party died in the process, that would be little not-actually-skin off of his nose.

Some dialog I worked up for Ahtayir:

To the others: The Endless Task Continues. She Who Orders It must be obeyed, as was he before her. To maintain the city, to free it from the crushing rock, to repair that which passes and craft that which was planned. So he spoke the words, never rescinding them, so she continues to speak them, so I obey.

To Aldrik: You! You, son of the foulest slime, smoking flame, weakest of gravel! You dare to — oh … ah … not you. Apologies. You are of his blood, but not him. Ha. Of course. Your race is like fireflies on a summer day.

In general: If you speak to She Who Orders It, perhaps you could persuade her to free me from my toils, I would richly repay any such a favor.

Ahtayir is actually a fascinating character. Imagine being a djinn of nearly unlimited power. He has the option, if pressed, to bargain with Wish spells, though the players were daunted enough not to try that. But because of the rules of summoned djinni, he must serve. And the service he was placed under by the King of Besilmer, thousands of years ago, was to keep Tyar-Besil under repair.

Honestly, he’s kind of slacking off, some, given the disrepair of some areas. But the only one giving him guidance these days is Aerisi, so his remit isn’t going to expand beyond the Air Temple area, and she’s not going to be focused enough to realize that he could theoretically have the whole place covered in gold and shining in the blink of an eye.

Ultimately, the relationship between Ahtayir and the party was, and could only be, transactional. You promise to help free me, I’ll tell you where to go. Anything more than that would get into dangerous territory for the players, and I was just as glad that they didn’t press the matter.

(The players were actually pretty smart in being nicely deferential to him. It made a nice contrast to their increasing contempt for cultist mooks.)

At least that’s how I played it. I could see a deeply embittered and mistrusting djinn who might not treat the party well. Or one who felt himself a loyalist to his current master, Aerisi. My Ahtayir was, effectively, helpful (out of self-interest). Figuring out, in advance, the motivation of such a creature can send the game in a variety of directions.

Bits and Bobs

Part of peeling back the onion-like layers of elemental evil in this campaign is learning about names. They had already heard of Aerisi (though only some dreamscapes had given them any hints as to who that was), and now they started hearing about Yan-C-Bin, the Prince of Evil Elemental Air (and there’s a business card for you).

As this kind of information was slowly revealed, it helped create an atmosphere where the players felt like they knew more about what was coming — but also had more to worry about. Win-win.

It took me going through this temple four or five times to realize that the water level controls that Aldrik was hooked to let the party hypothetically drain the river and get to the treasure (stone golem notwithstanding). It will be interesting to see if anyone remembers that. I might have to nudge them a bit if they pass by.

(They never do, and I never really give it further consideration.)

We were a little early in the evening, ending at the door of the pyramid (after the party not only quickly dispatched the wyvern and its spell-casting rider — the latter before her turn in the initiative even came up, and former quickly harvested for its poison sac), but that seemed the best spot to wrap with the combats coming up inside the pyramid.

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