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!

---

GM Recap

Session 54 (Day 41)
In … The Temple of Eternal Flame

1. Moony led a very cautious exploration of the hallway of dwarvish statues. Behind one he found the Crypt of Findon and Gitte, apparently never found by any cultists and undisturbed since the fall of Tyar-Besil. They left the sarcophagi undisturbed at Aldrik‘s insistence, though they did hide briefly in the crypt when a loud axe trap was poorly disarmed.

2. 

   An octagonal chamber beyond with lightly glowing obsidian pillars turned out to be a guardpost for three Razerblast fire cultists, as well as a flash-frying magma oven. The party prevailed, but not without Nala and William nearly perishing from vicious attacks and explosive deaths.

3. The party hid back in the crypt and took and enforced long rest. DING! Level 9!

Player Recap

Sleeping with the Dead and Liking it! 

After finishing off the ogres and finding their stash of coins, Moony sets off towards the hall leading out of the room. William and the others continue to look around the room or watch Moony explore the hall. Moony discovers a secret door behind the first statue. He enters the room with Aldrik close behind. It looks like a shrine with a couple of sarcophaguses’. Dust is thick on the ground. It doesn’t look like the cultists have found this room. There are Darvish rune on the sarcophagus “Rest well, Findon Stonemender. Dream of hammer and chisel echoing in your halls.” The second says “Beloved Gitte. Heavy are the hearts of all who knew ye.” Moony looks for traps on the first sarcophagus and asks if anyone would mind if he opens it. Aldrik eventually says that he would rather not have them disturbed.

Farther down the hall, Moony spots a trip wire between the last two statues. Unfortunately, he sets off the trap as he is disarming it. An axe drops across the hall. The group retreats to the crypts. They listen at the door and hear two people coming to the hallway. “I’m not surprised that one of them set off the trap.” “Surprised they aren’t here with an axe in their head.” Take more than that to damage them” “Should we check on them” “Nah” Then the voices retreat. Waiting a few minutes after the sounds stops, Moony creeps back out and explores further. 

In a large octagonal room with molten red pillars. Three razerblast fighters, with flaming spears and heavy armor. It is a tough fight, especially when the razerblasts explode upon death.

Game Notes

Check and double-check

The party has gotten high enough in level that the stock DCs on secret doors and traps are kind of getting laughable. I need to either up them, or just assume they will not be triggered. 

That said, I watched to see if the party was actually checking out the statues in detail. In anticipation of which, I came up with a description for each of the 8 statues in the “Hall of Remembrance,” because of course I did:  

• Male, war pick, shield, ringlet beard
• Male, axe and shield, long beard with glimpses of chain.
• Male, one-headed axe, chain, braided beard
• Female, plate armor, two-headed axe
• Male, great hammer, stylized beard.
• Female, shield and warhammer, hair in braids
• Male, great-hammer, ringlet beard
• Male, apron, hammer & chisel, plumb line from belt

Again, nothing I couldn’t have improvised … but why burn brain cycles mid-game when you can burn them during prep and not sound like you’re improvising? (“Hey, those descriptions are written down … they must mean something!”)

So the Rogue was able to see the hidden Secret Door to the crypt. Which, inadvertently, became their go-to hide-out for much of this part of the adventure. 

Kudos to the players (and a would’ve-been-Inspiration to the barbarian dwarf) that they asked before simply yoinking off the sarcophagus lids inside. And the Dwarf decided, y’know, these two deserve their rest. And the others (banter aside) went along with him. Good on them for not being mindless murder hoboes. This time, at least.

Giving the Players a break

So when the Rogue did poorly with the axe trap, the sound it made attracted guards from further in.

I could have had the guards (who assumed the trap was tripped by the ogre contingent up in the NE corner of the map) go and check things out there (“What are you dolts doing? We’ve shown you how to turn off the trap when you go off-shift!”).

Except (a) the guards probably wouldn’t have wanted to rile up the ogres. And (b) I didn’t want to suddenly turn this into another messy melee, with the guards discovering the massacred ogres and to start running and screaming for help. I mean, it could have happened, but I chose not to.

Beating up the Players

It is always important to remember that the DM and the Players are not competitors. The DM should not get into beating up the Players, or try to kill them. We are all here to create an intriguing and involved  fantasy tale that will be satisfying for all.

Of course, part of that fantasy tale should involve beating up the Players. 

Last game, after Aldrik rejoined into the party, I went around to the various encounters in the Temple of Eternal Flame and bumped them up a bit. An extra Hobgoblin here, a Guardian not asleep there. That sort of thing. No checking on CRs — I’m a professional! — just a slight bump.

This was not done as wisely as I intended.

First, the Party was a level below the recommendations for this dungeon (they had not Long Rested and dinged up yet). I was so used to them being a leg up on things that I simply forgot to check.

Second, the Razerblasts they were about to bump into are powerful foes, and adding an extra one didn’t help the Party’s calm. They lack effective ranged tactics (unless they want to throw away their weapons), but up close they combine high AC, very high (for this level) HP, and three attacks / turn. Plus I had them hold back a bit so that the party would come after them and they could trigger the heat trap. Once that was done and they closed to melee range, they were murder and, in fact, their saves and HP meant that the Party began to think the Razerblasts had resistance to Radiant as well as Fire damage.

And then there was the way they exploded when they died, which became very problematic for our heroes. Both the Fighter who charged in and the Druid who was at the edge of the trap (and, when a Razerblast engaged, he scored a hit and two crits) nearly died, and others in the party were bloodied — except the Barbarian, who, damn, is a killing and damage resistance machine.

(Indeed, I concluded I needed to look at the balance between the Fighter and the Barbarian. The former was having problems keeping up, melee-wise.)

It was, even if an ultimate Party success, a pretty wild melee, lots of maneuvering (and hiding), but also a huge bloody nose and reminder that not every opponent could be walked over. Which was not my intent, but … y’know, that’s not necessarily a bad reminder now and again. 

Especially since the session then ended with the party taking their Long Rest (in the crypt), and getting their ding up to 9, to then sleep with dreams of vengeance.

And, well, other dreams I had in mind …

As well as restocking the two rooms they just cleared …

Amusing moment of the evening

After the battle, the party spent a chunk of time trying to figure out how the heck to magically ignite the Razerblast spears for their own use, as the added damage was quite nice.  Alas, as with the rods of Stonemelders, their extra elemental damage is just an intrinsic part of Razerblasts being highly ranked / initiated fighters in the Fire cult. And none of the players, when they finally reached that conclusion, were that interested in it.

---

<< Session 53 | Session 55 >>

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!

---

GM Recap

Session 53 (Day 41)
In … the Temple of the Black Earth (one more time!)

1. 

   Xharva Deem insisted she did not want a fight, nor Nala‘s soul, but just what Nala was carrying on her. Which turned out to be the Sands of Broken Bonds, a trinket Nala was carrying as a  good luck charm. They negotiated an exchange, the can containing the Sands for Xharva reanimating the petrified form of Aldrik.

2. Aldrik didn’t speak much of his experience, except that he’d seen some sort of conflict between the Crushing Wave cult and the Black Earth cult, and had been petrified by the medusa, Marlos Urnrayle.
3. Nala recalled that she had been given a letter for Aldrik in Red Larch, but didn’t give it to him.

4. 

   After a short rest, and Aldrik nicking a crystal glaive from the dead Black Earth Priest in the room, the party headed for the Tyar-Besil – Manufactory Quarter, which they had every expectation would be the Temple of Eternal Flame. On their way, they had a sudden feeling like they were Being Observed from everywhere, the sensation passing after a few, brief moments.

5. The first room in the new zone they found a guard set against intruders from the Temple of Black Earth consisting of several half-ogres and ogres — who were little match for the party, bolstered by Aldrik.  

Player Recap

We traded a can of sand for Aldrik

Xharva Dreem requests that Moony let her negotiate with Nala. Eventually, Nala decides to bargain. After much back and forth it turns out that Xharva wants Nala’s trinket, the can with what sounds like sands in it.

They go back to Marlos’ room where the Aldrik statue stands. Xharva encircles the stone with her sandy form. When she withdraws, an unhappy Aldrik is standing in his loincloth. His manacles are strange stony substance, maybe coral. Once freed the group decides to quickly move out of Marlos’ room.

While taking a short rest, they get a very brief story from the Aldrik. Mostly that the water and earth temples aren’t working together and that he needed more beer before getting anything else out of him. They find some clothes and a glaive from a earth priests.

When the group decides to head towards the northwest door leading to the fire temple. Moony explores ahead down the hall and hears a group speaking in low guttural voices. The group decides to charge in. After a few tense moment against the large opponents, the group of 2 ogres and 4 half-ogres fall. 

Game Notes

A very fun pay-off session, with all sorts of things wrapping up neatly.

Unlike Anakin, Xharva loves sand

We finally got the Xharva Deem story resolved, with the mysterious Sands of Broken Bonds earning the party a Wish spell from the Dao to de-petrify Aldrik.

Yeah, with enough time I had neatly expanded the whole sands thing from a rando trinket (#47 “A metal can that has no opening but sounds as if it is filled with liquid, sand, spiders, or broken glass (your choice)”) to an artifact with its own journal write-up:

---

Sands of Broken Bonds

In the words of Xharva Deem:

The stuff that dreams are made of. In fleshling cultures, they speak of it as though alive, carrying them into the dream world, where all things are possible, all pleasures fulfilled. That is but a crude, meaty misinterpretation of the Dust, the Grit, the Sands of Broken Bonds, of which all creatures long for, even if they cannot use them, and even if their vision is blurred by the sands within their eyes.

As Xharva described it, any creature of the Plane of Elemental Earth would find the sands a combination of a mind-expanding hallucinogenic, an aphrodisiac, a reward pathway stimulant, a Nepenthe of forgetting sorrows, and a rich, powerful, mind-blowing experience. She did not mention any limitations of time or dosage, or any down side or harmful effects of using the substance.

It turned out that one of the party’s Trinkets, a can apparently filled with sand that Nala‘s old guard captain, Brex Gelvain had given her as a good luck charm, actually contained some of these Sands. Xharva, detecting that, sought to buy them from Nala when they met in the Temple of Black Earth, and could not believe that the Dragonborn warrior didn’t realize what she had, leading to multiple antagonistic encounters.

Xharva considered the sands beyond price, however, and, in a final, peaceful engagement, even deigned to cast a Wish spell to reanimate the petrified Aldrik in exchange for the can. 

---

Xharva, at least, had a “happy Gollum clutching the Ring as he falls into lava” look as she vanished from the campaign indefinitely. Normally Dao will only grant Wishes in exchange for personal service (slavery) of some value; in this case, a brief case full of uncut heroin did the trick.

Will she use the Sands herself? Or sell them to someone else for even more treasure? Let’s leave that as a mystery for another day, perhaps another campaign.

Freeing Aldrik

Besides the Dao Wish, I had figured three other ways to free Aldrik by the time the episode came around —

1. Wait for Faith to level and get Greater Restoration (imminent), or
2. Play around with the Basilisk Fountain I’d introduced, or

3. 

   (A new one) have Windvane pitch a fit about them abandoning a comrade in the Earth Temple (she has abandonment issues, not surprisingly, and is, from the Air perspective, utterly opposed to Earth) and wielding some sort of Wish-like magic from inside the Bag of Holding, which would burn her out for several episodes (and make her all the more fun when she came back).

But my wife figured out the “Oh, she offers to buy the can at any price? Can she do something for Aldrik?” move, as I was hoping, and some nifty negotiating later, everyone walked away from the deal happy.

Except Aldrik, who was near-naked (again) and unarmed (again) and without any ale.

Fortunately as a barbarian, Aldrik didn’t need armor (there was some Duergar scale mail elsewhere in the area, but the only thing worse than Duergar to the Dwarves are Duergar who have been a few days dead.

Instead, he armed himself with one of the crystal glaives of the Black Earth Priest in the barracks room where they Short Rested. It’s a fun-looking weapon, it will provoke reactions from anyone in the cults they meet, it counts as a magic weapon for attack purposes (even though it has no particular bonus), and it gave me a chance to learn more about how Reach Weapons work in 5e.

So what was going on with Aldrik?

I had already decided that the dwarf was somehow linked by blood and spirit with the old king of Tyar-Besil, such that he had some control over aspects of the city (or could be used for such control). This tied in some strange way to his first appearance as an apparent escapee from the Stone Circle Monastery.

1. Aerisi had detected it back at Feathergale Spire, and kidnapped him via Air Elemental to serve her (and, when he refused, stuck him into amnesiac slavery).
2. And then Gar Shatterkeel got wind of it and used a Water Elemental to nab him — and take him with him when he went to the ziggurat Temple of Elemental Evil in the Fane … convinced to either get him cooperating over control of the city, or using him as a sacrifice to the Elder Eye.
3. Marlos, also getting info about this, led his forces into the Fane, and managed to capture Aldrik for himself, then put him on ice (er, rock) while he figured out his next move.

It’s 2-3 that Aldrik remembers, with a fair amount of trauma (threats from Gar being less awful than witnessing the horrors of the rituals seen, not to mention being literally petrified).  Or so I guess: Aldrik’s player had been very intentional to be gruff and laconic, so a lot of the background I wrote up (or that he wrote up, for that matter) never got brought out at the table.

Which is fine.

None of this is in the campaign, of course. But working character stories into campaign is one of a DM’s main jobs. Plus, as structured, it helped him disappear as a player at various times (as Real Life interfered), which was also helpful.

The Purloined Letter

Way back on the last visit to Red Larch, I think it was, they were given a letter that Bruldenthar, the dwarvish librarian from Mirabar, had left for Aldrik. Nala had been holding onto it, but for whatever reason, didn’t see fit to share it with him (yet).

Which is … maybe okay (though intriguing), as it was a letter intended to drag him/them over to the Vale of Dancing Waters sidequest, which I think they had outleveled by this point, and didn’t actually need to do.

Now Leaving the Temple of the Black Earth

And praise Ogremoch for that!

Speaking of Whom, I finally gave the party that “Oh, Ogremoch is paying a fraction of their attention to me and what I’ve done and bring me my brown pants!” feeling of wiggins — late, but the party didn’t necessarily know that.

The rest of the evening was taken up heading into the Fire Temple (the Manufactory Quarter, better known as the Forge) and fighting several ogres/half-ogres. The bad guys never really had a chance, but, then, the guard posts aren’t supposed to be impenetrable, just wearing down and interesting. And if they back out of the Fire Temple, there are rules for how the room gets re-populated shortly.

And back out they might, because that’s the third Temple down, and the Cult Retaliation rules say they will get “Race to Destruction,” a warning that the someone (Fire Temple, most likely) is going to send more mad bombers against … their dear friends in Red Larch.  (They will find out they already missed out on the devastation of Westbridge, a town they’ve never been in.)

Presumably this will get them out of the dungeons for a bit. And, sometime shortly, they’ll Long Rest and ding up to Level 9 …

---

<< Session 52 | Session 54 >>

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!

---

GM Recap

Session 51 (Day 41)
In … the Temple of the Black Earth

1. Dreams and Visitations occurred for all the characters. Upon waking there was much discussion about how real dreams were, or, in Nala‘s case, could they be an actual communication? The final answer was indeterminate.

2. 

   The party went south to the laboratory of Miraj Vizann, which was filled with giant stone statues of dwarvish warriors and lab workbenches. Moony pretended to be delivering a message via Yarsha for Marlos Urnrayle, but Miraj was taken in only briefly. After some inconclusive dialog, the party eventually attacked Miraj, who activated one of the Stone Warrior statues to “protect.” It actually didn’t last long under the onslaught of the party’s spells and weapons, but Miraj, escaping, swore vengeance for the destruction of her plans and lab.

3. The party explored to the north, finding a dining hall full of Black Earth guards, who were quickly dispatched. In exploring further, the party found another partially-collapsed barracks — and the dead body of Yarsha, apparently killed by one of her Black Earth Guards. They took a Short Rest there, with an apparent inclination to follow a crevasse to the north.

Player Recap

Why we don’t like sleeping!

Dreams Dreams Dreams

William

Deeper, darker, every step more terrible. 

Once there was sunlight, bright, cleansing. But now, for far too long, it’s been gone, leaving just the chill and shadow.

Once there was air, fresh, brisk, invigorating. But all the wind and breezes have been stilled, the air sterile in your nose..

Once the air carried a dampness, allowed for growth, the sound of creeks tinkling in the air, the drip of moisture sustaining the green around you. But that, too has been cut off …

Now there is only stone, still and dry, sand and earth and the cool of the tomb …

… except ahead is heat, heat to melt stone, heat to dry any moisture, heat to whip up winds. 

And after that? Only darkness …

Faith

You are in a great stone palace, the place where you dwell. It’s a grand palace … no, not a palace, the Great Cathedral in Waterdeep, the high church of all gods, the temple complex of all the traditional gods of the great city, a pile of cold stone, distant, hostile to mortals save the wealthiest … the finest … powerful bishops and bombastic prophets and bejeweled hierophants, who sit at long tables, laden with food, gorging themselves, arguing amongst each other as to who is of the highest rank, who is of the greatest power, then purging themselves in gemmed buckets to start the cycle over. Gold and diamonds vie with filth and corruption for what catches most your eye, what turns most your stomach.

You realize you are merely a servant, a drab, bedraggled girl, mopping and sanding the floors, keeping the candles lit, and, most importantly, airing the room out by opening the great windows to let something fresh inside, even as the men and women at the table shout and yell against it, preferring their own reek to an invigorating breeze.

The servant girl next to you, her gray-blue hair barely tucked into the scarf across her hair. “Wouldn’t it be funny if we left all the windows open and wind just swept them out of the room?”

She pulls out an ornate spear from behind her back. “Wouldn’t it be funny if we just killed all of them?”

And … it would be kind of funny.

Moony

The ancient Tabaxi elder with the odd, triangular pupils puffs on his pipe.

“Dimensions. Dimensions and angles and the ways one leaps from branch to branch, or ground, or into the air. The Tabaxi understand dimensions, do we not?”

“Consider one dimension. The layers of an onion, growing in strength, growing in pungency, growing in sweetness as one bites inward.” [illustrated]

Or … The shell of a shellfish — the rough surface, ground down, to a pearlescent layer, and delve further to find the sweet and salty meat [taste!], and, in some cases, a pearl, itself a world of many layers.

“To find what is valuable, drill down, seek what lies within. Beware the sharpness of flavor, the hardness of the hidden gem, but know that what is of value, what must be found, lies deep inside.”

“Those of the Tabaxi know to clean their food well. Wash well. Be thorough. But … as all is cleaned, bite deeply.”

Nala

You are in the Port Market of Waterdeep, a place you patrolled regularly against petty thieves, pickpockets, drunks, disturbances of the peace …

But today it’s nothing but peace. Utterly deserted. Every shop, every wagon, every booth … everything is stocked — fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, spices, and other things — ironmongery, scrolls, toys, anything anyone would want to buy …

… but nobody is there to buy.

And nobody is there to sell. 

You hear a small bell, ringing, in the distance.

The breeze blows a hundred scents to your nose, whistles in the buildings about you. But, aside from the bell, you hear nothing. You make your way down Fishmonger Way, into another courtyard. Vegetables mostly here, as you recall, and as you see now.

In a small, not terribly clean booth in the back of the courtyard, its display tabletop covered in crates of multi-colored carrots, you can see, on the table at the back, a small brass bell, sitting atop a folded piece of cloth.

A throat clears behind you after you’ve gone around the table. 

Xharva Deem is there on the other side of the table. The customer side. 

“Now. I will buy. You will sell. I have traveled many, many leagues to be here. And now, what you have, I will buy ... YOUR SOUL.”

Theren

The walls press around you. Stone, some dressed, some rough and jagged, forces you to crouch down, scrape against the walls, scramble down and up and down the floor, as the air gets more and more warm, more stuffy, sweat across your body, salt in your eyes, taste of salt on your lips …

And ahead of you, a crackling sound, a roar of something consumed in flame, generating a hot wind.

“Theren …” you hear within that crackling, that roaring. “You have called to me. Now I call to you ….” as the air blasts into your face, hotter than a furnace, singing to the flames within your mind, the wild magic that burns so brightly, without control, unstoppable, and …

Back in the real world

Nala shares her dream and asks the magic users if Xharva could actually be in her dream. Faith, Theren and William offer suggestions for how it might be done. After the long rest the group heads back to the large hall and explore South towards the assumed location of the mud sorcerer. Half way down the hall their is a T intersection. About 20 feet down the West hall the walls and ceiling have collapsed and block the passage. To the East is a door with a scowling dwarf with maces for hands. 

Moony cracks open the door and sees a humanoid, her skin and hair seemingly earthen, though in places slick with moisture, dressed in earth-brown robes. There are statues around the walls all of dwarves’ with maces or clubs for hands. Some have been deformed. 

“Yes, what do you want?” “Yarsha sent me to tell you Marlo wants you right now.” She sighs and then looks more closely at Moony. “Marlos has other means of contacting me. What does Yarsha really want?” “She is not happy with your lack of progress on furthering Marlos’s vision” “I am not surprised, she wants to replace me. But you interest me, your accent is interesting, it might be something with your throat, step closer.” The conversation continues. Eventually, she invites Moony and the party to discourse. Moony asks what she will offer us to switch to her side. She only offers not to kill the group. 

About then, Faith gets bored and starts preparing a spell. Moony take a sneak attack against Miraj, who doubles over and calls to the statues to protect her. William casts Spike Growth inside the room and steps back around the corner. Faith casts Bless on the group. One Stone Warrior moves into action. Nala shoots magic missiles at it and Theren tosses off a fireball into the room. The warrior is quickly taking damage. Miraj gets off a shatter spell and then flees into the back wall. 

In exploring the room, they find golds, gems and a potion of water breathing. There is also the dwarvish runes for protect carved into the the tables. They appear in various location around the room. William uses his wood working tools to remove the runes while they take a short rest. 

After the rest they head back North towards Marlos. At the T intersection North of the Ogremoch statue they turn East. Four Black Earth Guards go down quickly. A cultist comes out from the back room to join the fray. When the room is clear and move on to the room beyond. The body of Yarsha is in the middle of the room. A guard who fled first room tries to ambush Moony and while he scores a hit, it’s not enough to take Moony out. The guard is severally out-classed. It looks like the guard killed Yarsha when she came back to the barracks to get her stuff. Maybe he overheard her selling them out. Either way, one less stone witch to worry about. A Short Rest and the party will be back on the hunt.

Game Notes

More churn and grind, to a certain degree.

Dreams

Since there was a long rest, I did another set of dreams for everyone (recorded by my wife in the player log above). William had basic druidic depression about being underground so long. Moony was told by his Tabaxan god that he should head downwards (while still cleaning the areas above). Theren was given a hint that his invoking the name of Imix (the Fire Elemental Prince) in vain was maybe not a good idea. [I don’t recall when he did it, but it had been recently.]

Nala, the fighter holding the thing that Xharva Deen wanted, was visited by her in a dream and, after appropriate prompting, when she asked what Xharva wanted, was responded with, Your soul!

This led to much discussion over breakfast as to the reliability of dreams — or, rather, the question of how much messages could be sent from another plane via dreams. The idea that this was a combination of maybe a bit of message and a bit of unreliable internal fear never occurred (which is fine). It shook folk up, and it laid the groundwork for some interesting discussion when Xharva reappears, so it’s all good.

Faith, meanwhile, had a dream that meant to suggest that all worship of the mainstream gods was futile and corrupt, and only a brisk wind (and maybe some stabbing with a spear) would clear things up. She was not happy about this.

The Mud Sorcerer

I’d added some lab tables to the map of Miraj Vizann because the color text mentions all the tables and the map itself had zilch. I mean, they had the statues set up in the room, but no tables. I had some Roll20 materials for tables and lab gear and tomes, so that made for a nice, complex room.

Miraj Vizann herself was an interesting bird. A magical researcher whose allegiance was to the Black Earth (kinda-mostly), but didn’t feel like she needed to restrict herself to just those magics. Call her Crushing Wave-Curious. Thus her disdainful moniker as the “Mud Sorcerer.”

(Yes, “her.” The character struck me that way, and I had this very nice image I found of a stone genasi that looked to be a great fit.)

Marlos still relied on her for her knowledge and power and, being Marlos, her lack of ambition. This didn’t sit well with the other important folk in the temple, thus Yarsha’s betrayal.

I saw her as smart, somewhat distracted into her research on the old magicks of Tyar-Besil (its stone warrior defenders, as an example), and happy to give orders efficiently so as to keep people out of her damp.

She was smart enough, I thought, to figure out the party’s bullshitting her, even if distracted, so I thought it would be an engaging, dialog-heavy encounter, at least to start.  But the encounter and discussion I anticipated never happened. Moony said many taunting things from the door, Miraj tried to engage in discussion (but not until everyone was willing to come into the room), the Stone Warrior was unleashed, the party quickly whittled it to size (action economy!), and Miraj swore vengeance for the disruption of her experiments before blending into the wall (something she had the spells to do, and which tied into her showing up later in the Black Geode — kinda-sorta). 

I always like it when old threats get teed up as future threats. It feels … efficient, and narrative. Miraj Vizann has a lot going for her as an intelligent foe.

Some good experience, then, all-around, but the most notable event was Windvane trying to influence Faith to attack with her, and Faith easily resisting, and then shoving the spear into the party’s Bag of Holding.

So, Inspiration for Faith, certainly. But that’s really not fun for me, so Windvane will still talk with her from behind the Bag (because it’s already in her head. And I need to come up with a situation where Windvane will be essential (or maybe have it be repentant and thus turn into a useful tool again).

(We are at session 51. I’ve been treating Windvane resistance as a Wisdom Save of 10+(episode-50), so it should be getting a bit rougher as we continue.)

Further clean-up

Cleaning out the refectory took a short bit of time (I handwaved the cooks down in the kitchen). The party was … surprised to find Yarsha dead in the back room.

Yarsha certainly had the possibility of causing trouble. But her forces were limited (if I wanted to make the level what it was), and I need to get moving onward. 

So the idea is that Yarsha, taking advantage of the ridiculously loose oath she was sworn to (that Faith would not see her for the next week) snuck back into the temple while the party was taking a Long Rest, and went for the barracks where her goods were. Maybe she was going to rally the troops, or maybe she was going to bug out with her treasure.

But the crossbow mook who was left in that room was able to hear through the arrow slit the things she said when she was surrendering to the party last session.  So at some point in time, while gathering her goods, he whopped her in the back of the head with his morningstar, game over.

(All her treasure was found on a mook that had been sitting in the refectory alone, saw the party, and ran off to the back room, only to be quickly taken down by the party. Fun.)

Not a lot of map left … but a lot of stuff in those unexplored areas.

---

<< Session 50 | Session 52 >>

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!

---

GM Recap

Session 47 (Day 40)
In … The Temple of the Black Earth! (Mostly)

1. In the Gargoyle Fountain chamber, the party attuned to various magical items, then took a Long Rest. Dreams were had by Nala, Moony, and Faith. William just enjoyed the tinkling fountain.

2. 

   In the morning, an Augury bade good fortune to destroying the Orb of Red Larch in the forge of Xharva Deem. The party traipsed back into the Temple of Black Earth, only to be ambushed by a bulette and rider, along with a trio of hobgoblins, who apparently had found the previously slain bulettes. The party triumphed, but William nearly died, and Moony and Nala both took major hits (while Theren got Large)..

3. The party headed for the forge, only to hear that someone was back at work inside, presumably Xharva Deem. Moony checked out the doors from the pool room; to the south, it sounded like a barracks (someone talking about rotating beds); to the east, something deep-throated and gutteral.
4. They chose the south, in an area on the map marked for “Healers,” to find the stonemelder Heldorm, who presided over the prisoners and torture chamber there. Moony kept him calm long enough to tee up the team attacking. The cultists went down quickly; Heldorm took longer (and did some damage along the way, not to mention exploding after he died and turned to stone), but was eventually vanquished.
5. The party freed the four prisoners:
   • Orna, angry human prisoner in rags, who laid claim to the Black Earth guard armor in Heldorm’s treasure chest.
   • Droth, tattooed human who was suffering from major head trauma; Faith fixed his dementia, but not his vision.
   • Wulgreda, dwarf, so far fairly quiet.
   • Gervor, elvish noble, grateful to the little people for freeing and healing him, now, can he have his nice armor and sword back?

Player Recap

Where the weal takes us

The group has retreated to the gargoyle fountain room. After they have dinner and some time attuning to the new magic. When sleep comes it is filled with ominous dreams for all but William. He enjoys the soothing sound of the tinkling fountain.

In the morning William case augury and asks “Should we destroy the orb in the forges of Xharva Deem.” The onyx raven hops out of the gargoyle fountain, shakes it’s wings off and says “Weal! Weal!” 

When they reach the hall where the bulette were, the group is surprised by the last bulette with Burrowshark, a human fighter, riding it. The bulette lands on Moony. A hobgoblin also joins the battle wielding a long bow and then two more hobgoblins. The group suffers from the attacks. William is gravely wounded, but the group fights on and finally takes down the bulette, hobgoblins, and fighter. 

They move onto the room outside of the forge. There is hammering within the forge. Stepping away Moony checks the East and South doors. At the Eastern door he hears guttural sounds and the other sounds like a guard’s quarters. The group decides not to leave potential enemies at their back and choose to start with the barracks.

Through the Southwest door there is a villain and several prison cells. Holderm: “I’ve told Mallow more than once that they, Yarsha, are not to be trusted.” Opening the door they shout “Drown yourselves water scum.” Mooney calmly explains that he is not a water cultist. They pause long enough for the group flows into the room and attack. They quickly take down the jailer. There are cages in the room occupied by gaunt humanoids. The prisoners include several humans and an elf. Faith and William race forward to heal the wounded while the other check out the rest of the room. The jailer has some gold and is holding a rod. While Moony is searching the body it begins to shake violently. Nala reaches for the rod and removes it from the corpse. Shortly after that the body turns to stone and explodes. Moony and Theren open a treasure chest in the corner. The prisoners claims several of the items in the chest. 

Game Notes

Not as much happened here as I expected, though some of that was because of my own actions.

All I have to do is (give) dreams

I had dreams set up for the players, which, of course, took some time. I continued my motif of Faith’s dreamscape with Windvane as a sulky chargirl. Nala had a dream where she was being pursued (Jesus in the “Lepers” scene in Superstar) by people who wanted various things from her (including Xharva Deem). Moony had a weird dream of being in a museum, being lectured by the grizzled Tabaxi (the Library God, Denier) about the history of Tyar-Besil, hinting about the Dwarvish love/healing goddess, Sharindlar.

William the Druid just had pleasant dreams of the babbling Gargoyle Fountain he was sleeping beside.

The Gargoyle Fountain

I was playing here (and elsewhere) with trying to noodge the players into learning that the Gargoyle Fountain is actually a Short-Rest generator, something that there’s no non-trivial way for the players to figure out without, y’know, taking random drinks, which my naturally cautious group of adventurers was reluctant to do.

 One kinda-cool thing I did was play around with the nascent AI image generating tools out there to craft an image for the Gargoyle Fountain. It wasn’t great, but it still felt more interesting than just a verbal description. 

The Orb

The party has not forgotten they are still carrying a deactivated Orb of Devastation. They took an Augury to determine that, yeah, melting it down in Xharva’s forge would probably work.

I don’t recall precisely what my thinking was here — the Orb had been disabled by Faith’s Dispel Magic back in Red Larch (and, no, that shouldn’t have worked, but I’d ruled at the moment it did). On the other hand, it’s not necessary that I now, or then, had a coherent story — as far as the party was concerned, they were holding a nuke with the pin put back in the trigger, and making sure that the bad guys didn’t get it back was a fine idea.

And then they did something reckless

Wandering back into Earth Temple, I was surprised the party wasn’t more on-guard, having left a room-full of dead bulettes (that had clearly been under some sort of care) for the previous 8+ hours.

But, even with a couple of Passive Perception checks, they just sort of marched in to continue their explorations — and promptly got ambushed. Bingo!

The bad guys were taken down, eventually, but the party knew it had been hit.

(Most amusing moment of the night — the Sorcerer’s Wild Magic finally caught up with him, and he got basically stuck in the corridor coming in by growing too large.)

Exploration

Healing up, they returned to their course, and were disturbed to hear the sounds of Xharva Deem back in her forge. Rather than immediately attacking (the DM quietly applauds), they scoped out the rest of the room with the pool. I had added some decor, or expanded on what was suggested.

As the former dining hall, the walls were full of brag scenes of the bucolic wealth of King Torhild’s domain — echoing what Deneir had been lecturing Moony about that night in his dreams.

By one door were marred images of Sharindlar, the dwarvish goddess of mercy, healing, and love. That door led to what had been the infirmary (and was now the prison/torture chamber). I added in some symbology that tried to hint back to the gargoyle figure at the Gargoyle Fountain (healing!).

Kudos to the party for approaching the next encounter with something other than “We kick in the door and start fighting.” Being able to get everyone into the room before the balloon went up made for a much easier encounter.

That said, I wasn’t thrilled by how the encounter went with Heldorm and the prisoners. I felt like I rushed things, or had too many balls in the air, or something. As a result, I failed to have Heldorm explode when killed (it happened later). I hate it when that happens.

Also, throwing in four NPCs cause my brain to seize up a bit, and some of the reveals with them didn’t quite work right. I knew I’d need to practice a bit before the next game to make them come a bit more smoothly.

The NPC prisoners actually get reasonable write-ups in the book, enough to RP them. Of course, they also get generic tokens in the Roll20 instance, so I had to find/craft some for them. I additionally gave them their own journal entries — because, again, if someone doesn’t have a journal entry, the players know they aren’t important and can ignore them.

I also crafted custom tokens for each of the Stonemelders in the dungeon here, because they are high enough level to deserve them. Not finding anything through a simple search, I used Hero Forge to pull something together quickly, then with variations.

What will the party do with a mixed set of prisoners that wants help out — and likely won’t take “there’s the door, we don’t think there are any monsters over there” as an answer? We’ll see!

Not much added to the map this time around, but I was still enjoying how the marred and added inscriptions on the map they’d copied from Aerisi’s pyramid throne room were both informative and obscure.

---

<< Session 46 | Session 48 >>

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!

---

GM Recap

Session 46 (Day 39)

In … The Temple of the Black Earth!

1. The party fought two more previously chained bulettes, without further damage. The massive chamber they were in was split in half by a huge crevasse, which post-dated its construction.
2. To the west, the party found a large chamber apparently owned by an ettin named Broog-Norb. Moony, in Black Earth cult garb, avoided combat with him, er, them.
3. Going along a ledge on the crevasse, they found a hallway leading to a highly decorated chamber and a pool of water. To the north, they found a smithy. Theren fireballed a couple of duergar through the door, and then was confronted by the imposing figure of Xharva Deem, who said that she was forging weapons “under contract” for Marlos Urnrayle. The party moved in for the attack, and a lengthy melee ensued, with Xharva casting a number of spells (including summoning an Earth Elemental) as well as smiting mightily with her hammer. She was particularly interested in something Nala was carrying — “Lizard Fleshling! You dare possess such a thing? What is your price? I will meet it, to half of my fortune!” In the end, before the party could vanquish her, she walked through the stone wall and was gone.
4. The party retreated to the Water Cult room of the Gargoyle Fountain and spiked themselves in for a good Long Rest (and investigating some Magic Items they had picked up).

Player Recap

Two Fireballs No Waiting

A second Bulette races toward Moony and comes up short as its chain stretches tight. As the group attacks they hear a sounds of screeching metal. A third Bulette charges from the right. Faith notices that this one has some leather tack on it. Bulette Two breaks its chain. Nala steps up to attack it. The group is able to take down the Bulettes without getting bitten.

They explore the large room that the Bulette were chained. There is a corridor to the west and a large chasm to the North. It looks like the earth split open a long time ago they can see neither the ceiling or floor of the crevasse. There is a ledge along the west side of the crevasse. Some natural pillars form stepping stones across the chasm 

Moony goes ahead and encounters an Ettin arguing with itself. He talks his way out of it and returns to the group. They decide to take the ledge path. There is a hallway going west from the ledge. It leads to a beautiful courtyard. There are frescos along all of the walls and fountain in the middle. The sound of hammering comes through a door. Moony takes a peek and tells the group that they are in fireball formation. Theren lights them up and takes out the duergar guards. 

Unfortunately the smith Xharva Deem is not amused. She is a great stone-skinned figure in rich clothing and decorated with rings and gold. From the waist down, she is a swirl of sand. Her great hammer is massive, but strikes with incredible precision. After the initial flurry of attacks she calls forth an earth elemental. As she does, she stares at Nala. Speaking Auran in a very heavy elemental accent: “Lizard Fleshling! You dare possess such a thing? What is your price? I will meet it, to half of my fortune!” 

When the battle turns against her, she steps back says “Our bargaining has not ended” then walks through the wall.

Game Notes

So this was another of those schizophrenic episodes where the players acted unpredictably and inconsistently. Which makes me think I need to plan things more than I do.

Bulette Time

First off, yes, the party dealt with the two bulettes quite successfully. Part of that was due to some random factors in when they broken free from their chains, and Nala unexpected charging one of them (which meant it couldn’t do its leap attack). But a bigger part was that they were rolling like demons — great hits, amazing damage.

That would not be the case later in the evening.

Must have been something I Ettin

The encounter with Broog-Norb was not handled my best. Part of it was a deadly DM sin: falling in love with my own cleverness. I had written some additional dialog for the two of them, and really, really wanted to deliver it. So I did, beyond the extent that die rolls should have allowed, at which point the party kind of decided, y’know, we don’t really need to check this out, so we’ll back away. Which they did.

As self-punishment, I will leave my dialog in the bowels of my campaign notes, never to see the light again.

I did appreciate the rogue actually using a costume and pretending to be a cultist. Even if only an Ettin wouldn’t question a Tabaxi cultist.

I was curious to see if the party would ever circle back. In point of fact, they never did. Broog-Norb may be there still …

There are encounters, and there are encounters

The encounter with Xharva Deem was … again, not what I expected.

As written (and this is true for way too much of the campaign), the party politely knocks on the door, opens it, and engages the folk within in conversation.

What this party tended to do was either (a) sneak a peek and then back off, daunted by what they saw, or (b) charge in, spells blazing, and kill everything in their path. What decided (a) vs (b) surpasseth all understanding (at least mine).

So the party peeked in, and sees Duergar. Duergar are, they remember (from the Sacred Stone Monastery) Bad Guys. So, hey, perfect opportunity for a fireball!

Which killed the duergar assistants, but fortunately didn’t impact Xharva.

She, in turn, moved over to see the sorcerer, declared she works under contract for Marlos Unrrayle, decried his action in costing her assistants, and cast Phantasmal Killer on him as a punishment, then slammed the door.

Now, given that, the party might have given it up as a bad idea, or at least approached matters more carefully.

Nah. They kicked open the door and charged in.

Xharva, as a Dao, could probably kill multiple of them. But she’s a mercenary, and not interested in dying herself, so she retreated when her HP are getting down in the “I might die soon” range, even after she’d unleashed an Earth Elemental on them (which levelled out the Action Economy wonderfully).

Three things of note:

The Powerful Weapon That Wasn’t

First, the cleric wielding Windvane — which was begging to be used against a foul Earth creature — ended up rolling for crap during the melee, which did not do her relationship with the weapon any good.

(I mean, sure, it’s not fair to criticize the weapon when the player is doing the dice-rolling, but the player character was understandably put off by her failure to score a hit, which frustrated the scheming DM to no end.)

The One-Off Bad Guy That Wasn’t

Second, I decided that, in addition to the other canned motivation for Xharva, to give her one more bit of schtick to play with. And it would be, ahem, canned, too:

The players had rolled up trinkets at the beginning of the game. I’d found some fun stuff to do with the little silver raven the druid carried, making it the inspiration for some of the spells he’d used, or the preternational things that happened around him. This time, I played with the “metal can that sounds like it’s filled with sand” that the Dragonborn fighter had, which I decided was (for whatever happenstance reason) a incredibly valuable (and addictive) drug for those from the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Xharva, engaged in combat with the cleric and the fighter, basically turned to the fighter and said, “You have what on you? I will pay you up to half my fortune for it!” The fighter didn’t speak Auran (which the Dao used of surprise), but the cleric did — and promptly interpreted it aloud as the Dao wanting the fighter’s weapon: a magic sword taken from Thurl Merosska (the Feathergale Knight leader), renamed after his tragic assistant Savra, that (I decreed, to give the fighter a magical weapon) was a +1 Greatsword (+2 vs Earth Element creatures, +0 vs Air Element Creatures).

The fighter was very confused about this, since while it’s a good weapon, it’s not spectacular. It was only later that she considered that, relistening to the quote, it might not be the weapon she wanted …

Xharva Deem turned out to be a fun recurring character, motivated by that bit of improvisation to not be as nasty as Dao are, personality-wise. Not that she wouldn’t be interested in enslaving all of them and carrying them off as gifts or trade, but she’s also both bound by her contract here with Marlos and kind of bored with it.  Recurring characters — especially dangerous and mysterious frenemies — are a Good Thing.

The Grab Bag Marginally Useful Magic Item That Wasn’t

One of the objects in the Dao’s workshop is a set of Claws of the Umber Hulk.

I would come to regret that.

Dossing Down

That the party retreated for their Long Rest was no surprise.

There weren’t really any good places they’d found to camp, and, frankly, the map notes they had from the Pyramid Map were a bit scary, with added lines and text that had been etched in by others as Tyar-Besil began to fall.

That they decided to camp out in the Gargoyle Fountain room is a bit more surprising. And would lead to a couple of interesting results, in terms of what they would find there, and what they would find when they returned ….

---

<< Session 45 | Session 47 >>