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!

GM Recap

Session 6 (Day 14): An inspection of the chamber found the dwarf statue to be the broken-and-reassembled remains of a petrified dwarf, with a note. A thin circle of gravel seemed to hold offerings to the statue–coins, gems, and a dagger (Reszur), the last of which Moony picked up.

Cries for water led the team to the room to the west, where they found a room with an imposing black monolith of stone (with a “Displease Not the Delvers” inscription). They also found their pickle-making friend Grund, who insisted they had to leave and was willing to attack them to make it happen.

Grund was subdued, and under a pile of rocks, an 11yo boy, Braelen Hatherhand. Moments after freeing Braelen, who told them about the Believers, they were attacked by the fierce Bringers of Woe, dudes in leather armor, Symbol of the Black Earth on their chest, cloaks, and stone masks. 

Choosing to press on, the party encountered the elderly Baragustas Harbuckler, a Believer standing guard at the Chamber of Moving Stones. He begged them not to disturb or anger the Delvers.

In the massive chamber, the party found stone tables with skeletons on them, a room full rocks that floated when you stomp hard on the ground next to them, and an Earth Priest named Larrakh that nearly killed everyone before he fled.

The party recovered for a couple of hours, took a tunnel from the chamber to Waelvur’s Wagonworks, then backtracked to Mellikho Stoneworks, where they were greeted with wonderment and open arms.

Player Recap

Stepping into the large room with the statue of a Dwarf. There is a wooden frame supporting the statue and it looks like some parts have broken off. There is a circle of gravel around the statue. Within it there are coins, a dagger, and other items. There is a piece of paper stuck to the wooden frame. It says “Petrified Ironstar(?) dwarf, found 1459 DR in Red Larch West Quarry in broken condition.”

It is currently 1491. The tributes look newer, though the statue is more dusty. Ironstar is a tribe of dwarves. On closer examination, the dwarf looks like it was turned to stone and later pieced together. William and Faith both toss a copper inside the circle. Other than a gentle clink, nothing happens. Moony, reaches in and attempts to remove the dagger. The dagger comes free easily and Moony examines it further. The name (?) “Reszur” is graven on the dagger’s pommel. It is decorated with star motifs and a grip of night-blue leather. Moony notices dried blood coating the blade.

While investigating the left-hand door, Moony and William hear a noise. There are sounds coming from the opposite door. “Water please,” After checking for traps, Moony opens the door and moves in. There is a pillar in the room, it is engraved with the “Displease Not the Delvers”.

Grund steps out from behind the pillar. He recognizes Moony and tells him that he does not belong. Moony tries to bluff, but misses on the password. William tries “pickles” but also is incorrect. Grund grabs a club and rushes forward. The group decides to take Grund but not kill the simple giant. The group quickly subdues Grund and Nala manacles him. 

From the pile of rubble, is a young boy, Braelen, about 11 years old. He asks for water which Faith gives him. I disobeyed my father and I didn’t deliver the message to Ilmeth the wagon master, so I am being punished. He talks about the Believers. Those that believe in the Delvers, the ones who came before. They make the stones move and my dad and the others elders interpret them. They keep us safe.

William notices some levers and chains beside the door. Moony goes to investigate. After some more questions, the child asks if he can leave. The group agrees and Moony asks about the way out. It is just down the tunnel off of the main cavern. William asks Braelen for the password: “A believer approaches.” They send him off with the other cloak, a waterskin, and some crumblecake. 

There is a high pitched scream coming from the doorway the kid had just gone down. “We are the bringers of woe. We are here to satisfy your curiosity.” Faith raises her hands and thunder rolls from her, killing several and pushing their bodies back. Moony calls out as more come from the other door. The cultists are grunting and makes angry sounds.  The group splits taking on the two groups. The neo-experimental religionists are focusing on the lightly armored party members, while the group takes down all comers. The cultists all have stone masks, leather armor and dark cloaks. 

The party patches themselves up as best they can and moves to the unexplored door leaving the room with the Dwarf statue. Moony and William add a few things to their pockets. Moony hears a whistle on the other side. There is a passage illuminated by a lantern. Moony surprises an old man, Baragustas, whittling. He quakes in fear of Moony. The old man is a “Believer” watching the chamber. Faith enters and convinces him that they are not going to hurt him. Moony ties him up while he natters on about the Delvers. They move the stones when no one is not around. The Earth Priest interprets the movements. There have been dire portents of late. William asks if there is anyone in the chamber. He is uncertain. The priest may be in the chamber or others may have enter from the other entrance. 

Going through to the “Chamber” they discover a large room with sarcophagus and many large stones. There are a couple of more floating stones. As Moony passes between two floating stones, they settle gently to the ground. The first sarcophagus turns out to be a stone table and has a skeleton resting on top of it. The chest has been crushed. Faith sees a figure rushing towards a stone table on the south side of the room and racing up the wall. He is wearing what appears to be stone armor and crystal glaive.

Faith and Nala go down. William moves up to stabilize Faith. Larrakh comes down off the wall and yells “Silly fools, Ogremoch will consume your souls and drag you to the depths of the earth.” Then he smacks William unconscious. Theran and Moony bravely continue the fight. After a large hit from the magic missile wand, “Black Earth take you!” and starts to run away. There is a large burst of speed and he leaves through a door on the far side. Theran stabilizes William. An hour later Faith and William regain consciousness. Faith heals Nala and the wounded party members take a short rest to regain some hit points. 

Looking around the party discovers that the stones elevate when you stomp your foot near them. They also note that the stones tables are worn and the skeletons all have blunt trauma injuries. Moony discovers the hidden door the Larrakh left through. The door leads to a rough hewn tunnel that winds around. There is a choke point in the tunnel with debris and a canvas stretched across the tunnel. Past that debris looking back, the painting on the canvas and the fallen rock, make it look like a total cave-in. Past there, the party emerges into a shed in the wheel-wright’s yard. Someone across the yard spots them and calls out for the Master Waelver.

The party pulls back into the tunnels and heads towards the other exit to the North. This brings them back to the Mellikho Stoneworks. The passage ends in a wooden door and a container of sand holding a few torches. There is the sound of activity around the door, while there is no one in the immediate vicinity. Moony chooses to come out of the door and exclaims we are out of the hole at last. Nala joins him and also shields her eyes from the sun. The others follow them out into the sun. Albaeri Mellikho comes across the quarry, greeting them warmly. 

Game Notes

Whoosh. A lot happens here. If “The Cave of the Necromancer” was an intro to dungeoning, “The Tomb of Moving Stones” is the next grade up, with traps, drama, multiple combats, and an opponent who outclasses the group (but who loses to Action Economy, as one does, every time).

I ended up rushing through the very ending, because the session ran long. That just sometimes happens. I started off the following game with some details I should have established at the end of this one.

I created a handout for the inscription on the statue, just because I wanted them to be able to easily reference it. That was probably overkill, especially as the players started making noises about how they might want to start investigating the West Quarry, which would be quite the dead end. I decided that the West Quarry had flooded a while back, so as to forestall any further investigation in that area, since it really didn’t matter overall.

Well, it matters to the extent that it (and the whole Tomb) all ties into the history of the Besilmer Kingdom of Dwarves five thousand years ago — but that really doesn’t get played up yet. The DM here, though, should read the background notes for the campaign and around this dungeon carefully to be aware of, and hint at, those multiple layers of history, which will pay off later.

The kid being punished, Braelen, was kind of a weird one-off — look how awful the cultists are! — but I played with him in a couple of ways. First, I decided to spook the party into thinking they’d sent him off into the hands of cultists who’d killed him immediately (the scream) (Actually, they just cuffed him hard).  Then when the party followed up later back in town, I was able to turn his home into the deeply abusive atmosphere that some of the party members decided to do something about in later episodes, with Faith eventually arranging for the kid to be fostered off in Waterdeep, resonating with her own life experience.

Did all this advance the overall campaign plot? Nope. But it was good character time, something that some of the players decided to care about, and I find that sort of thing is the mortar that holds the walls of the story together.

Ditto, in its own way, for Grund. You can play him as a looming menace, but I’d made the half-witted guy likable, with his pickle business and fascination for the Tabaxi in the group. So when they met him again in the Tomb, he was clearly torn between Important Job he’d been given and not wanting to hurt “Mister Kitty.”

As a result, he survived … and would circle back into the campaign later.

The attack by the Believer thug squad spanned two rooms, which gave the party some lessons on both splitting forces and line of sight. Learning occurred!

Between the Kid and the Old Dude standing guard (Baragustas — whom I think had not been mentioned elsewhere, so, hey, yet another denizen for Red Larch and another journal entry to build!), the party by this time had a pretty good idea of the conspiracy.

They were not ready for the Earth Priest, Larrakh, who was smart enough to (a) ambush them, and (b) do it spider-climbed up on the wall so that they couldn’t stab him.  The party was also split up, searching the room, and the Roll20 dynamic lighting made it much easier for people to be unsure what was going on elsewhere in the room.

Being only 2nd Level, we had a couple of party members go down pretty hard (I like the 5e Death Save mechanic, which folk were introduced to here, much to their shock), at which point Larrakh got cocky and came down from the wall. Some lucky attacks from the rest of the party, and it was Dash + Expeditious Retreat time for Larrakh.

Which on one level was a bit of as problem, as the book mentions the possibility of his escape, but not what it means, story-wise (an issue that comes up with other villains all the way down the line). But it was also an opportunity for some shenanigans to be inserted later on, so, um, yay?

Being so man-handled by Larrakh came as something of trauma to the party. It made them a bit gun-shy for some time to come.

Larrakh also gave a shout-out to “Ogremoch,” someone they hadn’t heard of before … and so began building the lore of the Black Earth.

(Side note:  the module, includes a bunch of imagery for various bad guy classes, but it also frames those drawings as “extreme” versions that were discussed and kinda-sorta rejected, without giving more reasonable alternatives.)

By the end of the scenario, the secrets of the Believers have been torn off the hinges. It’s all over, right?

By no means.

Resting

So, in the Real World, (a) injuries can take days, weeks, months to heal, and (2) we don’t have healing magic so who knows how that works?

D&D 5e’s current rules on Short Rests (1 hour, spend hit dice to regain HP) and Long Rests (6/8 hours, spells regained, all HP regained) are weird on one level (The Real World Doesn’t Work That Way!), but also convenient. HP are, of course, about more than bodily integrity — morale, exhaustion, mental fatigue, all of these play a role (which is why HP goes up when you level). The problem with accurate healing times is that they are simply Not Fun, unless you want to take weeks-long time outs in the campaign. Does 5e make it too easy to heal up? Mmmmaybe, but it also keeps the healing process from getting too much in the way of the story.

The problem is, players want to do it at the darnedest times.

Granted that they didn’t know this was the final chamber, and that they also wanted to wait for a couple of party members to regain consciousness. If they decided to then Rest, would they really really do it in the Spooky Chamber of Moving Stones? Even if they hunkered off to one side in case Larrakh came back?

Seems unlikely, but “when and where and how do we Short/Long Rest?” is a constant issue. Allowing people to rest willy-nilly makes resource consumption meaningless, and is narratively irritating. But restricting rest can be frustrating unless the players agree that it’s reasonable.  The game in general tries to discourage people from resting in dangerous places (like the Keeps, the Temples, etc.), but generally does so by throwing Random Encounters at them, which is the worst (most time-consuming) way of doing so. I struggled with this the whole game.

Passwords

All through this campaign, there is the possibility of the party getting past guards and getting access to places by use of passwords and hand signs.

Which is cool and awesome and provides a way to advance that doesn’t involve steel and bloodletting.

Two problems:

First, there’s really no opportunity for the party to figure this out — to learn what the passwords are or even to reasonably suss them out.   Even being a somewhat liberal DM who would have been happy for folk to do such a thing, and be willing to stretch it to reasonable pass-phrase alternatives … there was really nothing for the players to work from.

Which meant, second, that the party felt little motivation to take that approach (not helped by not really having a Face Man character). And, honestly, the advantage the module provides for knowing the Secret Words is relatively minimal.

It just feels like a lost opportunity in storytelling.

Bits and Bobs

The party leaned into crumblecake. That I made up some images of it, and that NPCs talked about it all the time, got people bringing it up at every drop of a hat — including giving some to the half-starved Braelen.

My biggest regret from all this was that this dungeon has a lovely hallway trap setup that the party completely bypassed. I eventually had them discover it when they went back into the complex to search out the northern exit.

Why is Albaeri — one of the more nervous of the Believer leadership — greeting them with open arms as they exit the Tomb into her ? Ah, we will see next time.

<< Sessions 5 | Session 7 >>

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!

GM Recap

Session 3 (Day 11-13) “The Lord of Lance Rock”

The party attacked and quickly subdued the brigands in the woods, with rapid, deadly exchanges of arrow fire. Faith killed her first person, and did not feel good about it. One of the bandits got away. They also freed a bear that had been caged by them. The goods in the brigand’s cave were put in their (?) wagon and brought back to town.

Constable Harburk Tuthmarillar was happy to see them, and the results, but upset that there had been another disappearance, a young couple from an outlying farm.  He also warned Nala and Theren that Elak Dornen, an Important Man, had filed a complaint about their shenanigans at Mellikho Stoneworks.

Moony and William saw their new horse put away under the care of Iraun Thelder, the stable master at the inn.

Theren and Nala interviewed Tandelle Ethburk, a merchant traveling south from Mirabar. She knew something about the The Mirabar Delegation, and rumors of their working to strengthen or expand the Lords Alliance. She’s trying to get to Waterdeep before them; she says they should be just a few days behind her.

Kaylessa Irkell offered to William to hire the party to seek out the fell magics, dire circumstances, and darksome influences up at Lance Rock. 

The next day the party journeyed to the farm the Constable spoke of, the home of Joen Endrath and his wife, Mira. There were no signs of foul play, but the dinner meal had been interrupted, and a clay holy symbol to Chauntea was missing. The horse in the stable was also gone. Joen’s father came by, and milked and left with the cows.

The party continue to journey to Lance Rock, where they found a sign warning of plague, signed by the “Lord of Lance Rock.” Ignoring the warning, they entered a cave complex, fighting a variety of skeletons and zombies, and ultimately confronting the “Lord,” Oreioth, whom they defeated amongst his warnings about the blurry Necromancer’s Sigil and an Eye that was watching their every move.

They exited the caves to camp out overnight and regain their rest and health. Ding! Level 2!

Player Recap

Looking for Bandits Down the Cairn Road: Following the road out of town we find two sites that have been abandoned for a while. Approaching the third site, we small meat cooking. The party pauses and Moony moves ahead quietly to check things out. There are 5 brigands and a cart with a bear in a cage. A mighty battle ensues where the group learns all about cover and difficult terrain. One brigand runs off and the bear remains alive in the cage.

William gives the bear some crumble cake and calms it down enough to be released safely. In a cave near by the group finds some money, goods, cheap weapons, and a worn down draft horse to pull the cart. We head back to the constables office with the loot and bodies.

Theren and Nala head to the constable/butcher’s office to report. The shop is closed, but the constable is at his house next door. Harburk applauds their success. He doesn’t recognize any of the brigands bodies and calls his “boys” to take care of them. He does note that more strange things are happening. Out of town of Cairn road, a farmer and his wife have been reported missing. The ground tremors have the whole town spooked. There is also a general discussion of increase in strangers passing through that don’t look like merchants. Finally, he tells them that a complaint was lodged about the shenanigans at the quarry. It wasn’t Mellikho, but came from Dornen the other quarry owner.

Faith visits the temple and contemplates the life she took today. She feels the weight of her actions. Lymmora, the acolyte of Chauntea, comes out from the back room and asks if there is anything she needs. Faith turns her down. Lymmora continues and asks if Faith might stop by tomorrow to discuss something and then leaves Faith in peace with a blessing. 

William and Moony head to the Swinging Sword to see about stabling the horse, Buttercup, and storing the cart. The one-eyed stable man, Iraun Thelder, says they have room and will fix up a stall. There are a couple of horses belonging to guests and one at the end, Daisy, that looks like it belongs to the inn. Moony strikes up a conversation with Iraun who turns out to be a retired sell-sword. They chat about the customers, a hobbit merchant and a lady travelling with a caravan from the North. William chats with Kaylessa about their adventure and asks for some water to be heated for baths. The conversation moves onto the “Fell Magic” of Lance Rock. 

Theran and Nala join the woman travelling from the North in hopes of getting information on the delegation. They exchange introductions. Tandelle is a merchant from Mirabar and looks to profit from the upcoming negotiations. When she left Triboar the delegation had recently arrived. She is hoping to make it to Waterdeep before the delegation arrived. Since they will likely stay a few days in Triboar, she expects the delegation to arrive at Red Larch in a few days.  

Down on the Farm: William takes an opportunity at breakfast to talk with  Kaylessa about looking into the “Fell Magic” coming from Lance Rock, South West of town. The “dark influences” are causing the bad thing and making everyone nervous. She is willing to pay. It has been several years that she has felt the danger rising.

Faith returns to the temple and Lymmora offers her support and words of wisdom about the trauma of the day before. She also asks if Faith is intending to stay in town long. Lymmora says that there might be someone in town who could use the group’s help. They can talk again later.

The group picks up Faith on their way out of town. With Buttercup pulling the wagon, they follow the constable’s direction to Jowen and Mirra Endrath’s farm. The farm is quiet. The cows in the barn have not been milked in at least a day. The house is closed and the fireplace cold. There is an interrupted meal on the table. Nala notices that it looks like the evening meal and the lamps have burned down. Jowen’s father shows up and demands to know what is going on. Faith is the Power of Not Helping. 

William steps up and explains that the constable sent them and that it looks like they up and left in the middle of dinner. Jowen Senior eventually agrees and notes that a clay holy symbol to Chauntea, (Goddess of agriculture) is missing from above the fireplace. We don’t see any tracks going anywhere but the field and road. The saddle is still in the barn, so they didn’t ride away. In the end Dad wants to milk the cows and get them back to his farm. Before he leaves, we ask him for directions to Lance Rock.

Lance Rock!: The group parts ways with the farmer and heads South. They find the path from the road that leads towards Lance Rock. The ride is pleasant with slight hills through mostly grassland. The occasional copse of trees breaks up the scenery. Soon they can see the rock about 6 miles away. Lance rock is a single pillar that juts out at a sharp angle. The stone is different from the surrounding limestone. As they approach the rock, Faith suddenly realizes what the farmer meant by folks coming here for picking berries – wink wink – nudge nudge.

Beyond the rock, there is a ravine with a sign that says “Come no closer lest you catch the disfiguring plague that afflicts me! The Lord of Lance Rock” Ignoring the sign, the party heads down the path single file. Moony stealthily goes ahead. Followed at a distance by Nala, William, Theren and Faith. The trail opens and Moony comes back to the group with the layout. There is a cave ahead with another sign warning of the plague. There are putrid smells coming from the cave. Before entering, Faith casts light on Nala’s sword. Moving closer and Nala yells announcing their presence, but not in an intimidating way. Again Moony scouts ahead, the air is thick, dank and cool with almost of feeling of fog. 

A ways inside the cave there is a dead body. It’s probably been dead for four days and looks like he might have been disemboweled. William goes back to the cave entrance and gets the sign post to poke the body. As he rolls the body over, it reaches for William. Faith strikes first with Guiding Bolt doing significant radiant damage. Moony steps up with a sneak attack with his rapier. The body dies again. Nothing of interest on the body. To make Faith feel better, Theren sends a fire bolt at the zombie. The smoke of rotting flesh follows the party as the path opens into an open space. 

There is a flat rock in the middle of the cavern. It looks like an altar with dried blood on the surface. As Moony enters into the space, he nimbly sidesteps around a falling box of rocks. The rocks are followed by two zombies jumping off of a ledge. The battle is joined and damage is exchanged. In the end the heroes are victorious. Theren confirms that the alter was used for necromancy. 

There are two exits from the cavern. The group chooses to go left. Creeping down the narrow passage, Moony spies a zombie in a frilly dress and heavy makeup. Nala moves to steps to the front, but Faith passes her to check it out. The zombie lady is accompanied by a zombie man wearing a bearskin and a zombie hobbit in clown makeup. This zombie circus is a disturbing and ridiculous sight. The group is hampered by the narrow passage, but eventually fells the lady and the bear. They struggle to hit the zombie clown, either because of his small stature or absurd visage. 

A warren of tunnels lead from the room. Moony eventually works his way to a room that looks like it has more alters. Returning to the group, they decide to go slowly forward with Faith in the lead. There are three flattened boulders inside the opening serving as tables that hold a variety of body parts. A hooded figure stands at the farthest slab. They appear to be drawing a long needle with thread through the flesh in front of it. Moony opens the battle with a sneak attack on the hooded figure. Several creeping hands with jagged claws are moving towards the group. Faith and William each take out a claw. Theren takes out the remaining three claws with magic missile.

Suddenly a UNICORN appears in the room. (DM: Don’t do anything yet, I need to deal with the unicorn!) [Note: the Sorcerer summoned a Unicorn via his Wild Magic, one of three times it happened in the entire adventure.] It descends in a kaleidoscope of color, rainbow colored sparks dance from it’s hooves as it touches down. The magnificent beast turns and glares at Theren. Nala continues to attack hooded figure. Faith resists the urge to pet the unicorn, but misses with her mace. William moves forward and throws himself at the ground before the unicorn and calls out “Mielikki, my goddess, how may I serve you?”

Theren runs past the unicorn to attack the zombie. The unicorn is a bit confused, first turning towards William and raises an eyebrow and then tracks offending sorcerer passing by and raises it’s other eyebrow. Glancing around the room, they eventually faces William. Through the unbelievable chiming tones he hears “Get to your feet, child”. Seeing the glittering unicorn, Moony is enchanted. “Pretty horsey” Moony says and he moves toward it.

Faith smashes the zombie’s head but it remains standing. William stands before his goddess and says “Thank you for coming and saving us from this great evil.” Theren gets another hit in but the zombie won’t die. The unicorn looks at William, it’s eyes are dark and filled with starry depths. “You are hurt, child,” It lowers it’s horn to touch William and heals him. Moony remains enchanted by the pretty horsey and asks it he can pet it. Nala gets another hit on the zombie; it remains stubbornly animated. Faith finally delivers the killing blow. She then move towards the unicorn, also wanting to pet it. Eventually, the unicorn give a soft snort at the group and with a final glare at Theren disappears. 

Traveling further into the large cavern they come upon another workspace. There are stairs going up the right side of the wall towards the ceiling and a stone protrusion leveled into a rough table on the left. Saws, knives and other tools litter the surprisingly clean table. Just beyond the circle of magic light Theren and Moony see a group of skeletons. A voice yells from the darkness beyond, “Leave now or feel the wrath of the Lord of Lance Rock”. As the sound of footsteps recedes, the voice screams “Obey your master! Kill Them!”

The attack begins, blows are exchanged and Nala goes down while holding off three undead. Theren takes out one of the attackers. William jumps up on the table yelling to draw their attention. Unfortunately his bow shot misses. Faith says a short prayer to stabilizes Nala and jumps in front of the remaining two skeletons. Moony attacks and moves to Nala’s side. The skeletons attempt to hit Faith, but miss. Theren, Faith and Moony take the battle to the skeletons. William does not fall off of the table.  Finally Theren and William finish them off.

After a short rest, everyone is back on their feet, ready to take on the “Lord of Lance Rock”. Faith leads the way on through the tunnels beyond the skeleton. They come upon a cavern. Purple tapestries line the walls and a pillar made from bones supports a glowing sphere in the center of the room. There is a blurry sigil hovering above the globe.

Faith sees a figure step into view from behind a tapestry. He is an attractive young man, Oreioth. “Can’t you see it? It’s the Eye! It sees your every move! Don’t you fear it?” Faith has no patience left and smites the lord of crazy. He grabs at her with something in his hand. Three darts shoot out from a wand and strike Faith. Her eyes flash with mystical light and injurious radiance hits Oreioth. The rest of the party joins in fight. As Nala passes the globe the sigil disappears. In the end, Faith pulls her final blow and drops the “Lord of Lance Rock” unconscious. 

With Oreioth tied up, they investigate the room. Behind the tapestry there are niches for food, clothes, and treasure. The loot ranges from rare delicacies to stale crumble cake or worse. The glowing globe in the center is a Driftglobe. It produces light (Daylight spell) when activated and it will float after you. Oreioth’s weapon is a Wand of Magic Missiles.

The party decides to rest and recover before exploring further. They set up camp near Lance Rock for the night away from the cave. When they awaken in the morning they are Level 2.

Game Notes

This was really the first episode where I felt everything was firing on all cylinders. We had action and adventure. We had dialog. We had investigation. We had some interesting characters and some things that would become touchstones in later episodes. 

Faith’s experience — her first kill — was a great little character bit. I can’t remember now if it was something I prompted for or something she raised, but it’s sort of a landmark experience, especially for such a naif. It’s always good to look for those “first time” experiences, good and bad. Characters are not just character sheets. 

Side Quests

There are a slew of side quests around Red Larch, many more than you need (but I had to prep for all of them, depending on what the players might do). The party had gotten clues to all of them from the locals, some of which eventually paid off many, many episodes down the line (almost certainly better than they would have here).

The Bears & Bows fight against the guys in the woods with the bear is a great intro to D&D combat, including ranged and melee, concepts of Cover, Hiding, etc. It was also an encounter that, for some reason, I was expected to build my own map, complete with cave (or arrow point to where the cave was off-stage), cart, etc. (There’s also no mention in the section about a horse, which I had to add in back at the cave.)

 Dear WotC: If you describe an encounter, provide a map. It’s not bad exercise for the GM to find the resources and do it, but it’s also something that should be covered in the $50 dropped for the book (or VTT campaign).

(Note: There were a lot of maps missing from this game. I made them all up. After the fact, I discovered that enterprising folk on Etsy and other places had done the same.  I prefer my own efforts, but allocate your resources as you find most valuable.)

The Necromancer’s Cave at Lance Rock is also a cool little dungeon crawl (though, again, a picture of Lance Rock would have been nice), and was a fine intro to both me and the players of how Dynamic Lighting works in Roll20. It’s not an easy encounter for Level 1 characters, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t turn into a TPK. The party was beginning to learn their SOPs for dungeoneering and combat, which was nice to see. 

Oreioth the Necromancer is presumably intended to be killed here. Instead, in one of those weird twists with this party, they decided to capture him and bring him to justice back in Red Larch. Which was awesome because it was fun to play him as the crazy-pants egomaniac he was (intermixed with moments of existential dread because of What He’s Seen Coming — the Elemental Evil Eye thing).

The fact he was captured also meant that he could later escape and show up later on in the story at an appropriate or amusing moment. Again, setting up those threads is an important part of the GM’s job, and a bit of schtick that the players loved.

I actually created a visual effect for the final scene here. It’s supposed to be, on re-reading, just the image of the Elemental Evil Eye, but I took all the parts, blurred and twisted it, and set that up as a puzzle image for the party as they would be progressing against the various elemental cults.

The neat thing is that the players actually remembered this symbol, and it made the eventual revelation of its in-focus instance, way down the line, much more exciting.

Two magic items from this encounter — the Driftglobe and the Wand of Magic Missiles — were useful for the rest of the campaign.  Both of them, actually, ended up in the possession of Nala, the Dragonborn Fighter, who didn’t have Darkvision, and who didn’t have a decent ranged weapon. It’s a great example of how something the players pick up early can have an influence way down the line — and so how the DM should be mindful of same.

Night at the Improv

So there are all sorts of scary things going on around town. The party has already experienced the weird weather, and everyone talks about that (as townsfolk would) as well as the strangers passing through town, raids and disappearances of people, etc.

I mentioned to some party members about a couple who had apparently been kidnapped from their outlying farm. That’s a bit of “Oooh, scary things going on” that the module just throws out there. But the players  asked where, and I told them the farm was (random numbers in my head) to the west …

“Oh, hey, that’s kind of on our way to Lance Rock. Let’s investigate.”

So in the middle of all of this, I had an unexpected / unplotted / unprepped visit to a improvised farmhouse where undefined people had been kidnapped. None of that’s in the book. And since they players were showing an active interest, I didn’t want to just do a “You visit the farm, but find no clues” handwave.

So I had to improv a farmhouse, and farm, and names, and what the scene looked like, etc. As they were being kidnapped by folk from town, the Believers, for fell purposes, I figured that there would be no sign of forced entry or even much of a struggle (“Oh, Mistress Mellikho, please, come in!”), but that the cultists would also nick the holy symbol at the fireplace. I  needed to come up with names off the top of my head, how long ago it had all happened (and how that would affect the milk cows), and even add a dad to come along and take over the scene so that they could get a move on.

I mean, that could (and does) happen at any time in any campaign, but it’s a cautionary note to new DMs that, even if you have a big thick book full of campaign stuff, the players will still find a seam to peel back and explore through.

That said … it let me do something a bit creepy in a few episodes … 

The other big improv moment this session was the Sorcerer rolling a 1 on his Wild Magic in the middle of the battle of Oreioth’s zombies, and summoning a Unicorn. Which, it turned out, I did not have an icon for, let alone any knowledge of what its stat block was like until I pulled it up, etc. Pay no attention to the GM tap-dancing behind the curtain!

It turned out to be a very fun encounter, since the unicorn was unamused about being summoned, but half the players broke off from the melee with zombies to pet or bow down to the unicorn. Hilarity ensued.

Leveling

It’s not strictly Rules As Written, but I prefer to level up after a Long Rest. The “I’m walking along and there’s a huge ‘Ding’ and I’ve gained new spell slots and abilities” has always been a bit too computer game for my taste.

So the party leveled after their Long Rest having cleared the Lance Rock complex. That milestone wasn’t clearly defined, but it seemed a good opportunity … and a way to escalate things with the goings-on at Red Larch.

Another Favorite Moment

The campaign mentions that Red Larch is somewhat famous for a somewhat superior version of crumblecake, a meat-bits-protein-loaf kind of food that can be used as a provision or something you order at a tavern.

Add lots of jokes about crumblecake, but it became a fun little bit about people eating it, comparing it to crumblecake from other towns, the party taking it as provisions, even using it as feed for the bear they rescue.

It’s a small thing, but something entertaining and non-threatening to lean into.

<< Session 2 | Session 4 >>

This is part of an a series 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!

So two recaps were kept per session. I had a short GM Recap — “When Last We Left Our Heroes” — available as a hypertexted Journal entry in Roll20 for the players to consult (I always started each session reading from it). There was also for much of the campaign a Player Recap kept by my lovely wife, which usually included a lot of color text. It was kept in the Roll20 forum for the campaign. I’m going to include both.

GM Recap

The party was summoned as individuals by Gemvocs Leofhyrn, an oracle of Waterdeep, and given the task of stopping some great evil arising in the Desserin Valley by saving The Mirabar Delegation.

Player Recap

The Invitation

Theren: Comes to town for reagents. The halfling shop keeper hands him an envelope. Inside is a note on fine vellum, in a good hand, offering an invitation from Gemvocs Leofhyrn.

Faith: During her exit interview from the temple orphanage with Edgrid bids Faith farewell and wishes her solace and peace. A donor, one Gemvocs Leofhyrn, has made a small endowment for Faith and they send her off with travel goods and some spending money. There is also a note that arrived when you endowment was made. Faith shares the contents with Edgrid. 

Nala: In the mercenary hall, there is a steady flow of people in the hiring hall and the main hall is a swirl of merchants, runners, and members. An urchin comes in from the street and runs up to Nala. He delivers a high-quality envelope with a note in fine vellum, an invitation from Gemvocs Leofhyrn. Nala thinks they might know the name, but she can’t pull it from her memory, until she passes an apothecary. Early after their departure from the clan, her parents were very sick. The innkeeper brought medicine for them. What is odd is that the innkeeper had received the bottle before the Dragonborns had even arrived.

Moony: Wandering the markets and thinking of where to bed down, when an ornate carriage draped in white catches his eye. Random passerby points out the funereal nature of the carriage. Moony jumps onto the back of the carriage and slowly rides to the funeral until a guard shouts at him to get off. After he disembarks the carriage continues on. A slender man hands him an envelope from Gemvocs Leofhyrn. After some comedy Moony reads the note.

William: A women in peasant dress steps up and engages with William and similarly gives him an envelope. William knows the name Gemvocs Leofhyrn. At one point his father received a note from a stranger suggesting that he plant a different grain and included some money to purchase it. The next year the new plants thrived and the ordinary crop failed. It saved the homestead from a very hard winter. 

Rumors:

Theren – Blue dragons have seen. (“Not again!”)

Nala – River levels are not what they should be. Either too high or too low. Also, a fortune teller has left town for Baldur’s Gate because it is safer.

William: Castle is buying a lot of supplies in preparation for a big treaty negotiation.

The House on the Street of the Groves

Valkh the half-orc majordomo for the late Gemvocs Leofhyrn

Richly appointed, the walls and shelves lined with odd curios from distant lands and books whose spines are often illegible with age, or with foreign script. Magical lighting above illuminates the room dimly. Plush chairs are on either side of a fireplace and a central table, where a small cask sits, an incense burner placed atop it it.

Smoky Ghost Host.  Speech [below].

Game Notes

The Party

The party, starting out, was five:

• Moony – the Tabaxi rogue, constantly looking for shiny things and distractions. Having left his homeland for adventure, he’d sailed on merchant vessels before, getting bored, he’d just arrived in Waterdeep.
• Nala – the Dragonborn fighter from a disgraced clan, a former Waterdeep city guard (leaving that group because of political and criminal corruption), searching for a noble cause but reluctant to become a leader. 
• William – the Human druid from a rural community, seeking knowledge and growth, as well as the soothing balm of the forests (which he would get none of this campaign).
• Theren – the Half-Elf sorcerer, a hermit afraid of the fire powers that nearly killed everyone around him. Anti-social but charismatic.
• Faith – the Human cleric, a newly emancipated orphan in the midst of a crisis of faith between LG and LN.

In Session 11, a new occasional (between college terms) party member joined:

• Aldrik — the Dwarf Barbarian, gruff and taciturn, and of odd interest to a number of the bad guys.

The Characters and Session 0

Prior to the above game log stuff, we did the standard Session 0 business. Everyone had been building, in light collaboration, their characters, prior to our get-together (virtual get-together, through Discord and Roll20). As mentioned previously, we’d not gamed together (TTRPG) as a group together before, but I’d gamed with all of them. Four of us had only just gotten back into D&D over the previous year during the Tyranny of Dragons campaign (including the GM of that saga). The other couple included someone who’d been out of D&D since the 3.5 days, and his wife, who’d done a lot of TTRPG in the college and post-college days, but not with D&D specifically and not for quite a few years.

My son, who also wanted to play, was dealing with that inconvenience of college, which meant I’d need to deal with his character on again and off again — which, in a sandbox environment like PotA, shouldn’t be a lot of trouble, right?

(It was, in fact, a lot of trouble, but it also let me add some additional layers and flavors into the campaign. I’ll talk about them later.)

We also spent some time touring Roll20, our VTT for the game. It’s what we’d used in Tyranny of Dragons, so most of us were familiar with it, but even there I’d discovered a few tweaks and wanted to establish some defaults as we got started. That included the main Roll20 screen, character sheets, token, and macros. 

I’d previously created in the Roll20 forum for the campaign separate threads for 

• Character Builds (not much used after the initial activities)
• Scheduling and Logistics (also not used much after early discussions)
• Rules (house rulings on how things worked, and simplified explanation of 5e rules, often added in following a session where a question came up)
• Fun (usually an excuse to post D&D memes)
• Game Logs

We also decided who was taking notes for the game log (William’s player, my wife) and who was tracking treasure (Faith’s player).

Then I rolled into the session stuff described above and below, and we were off to the races.

Starting a PotA Campaign

Princes of the Apocalypse can be started  (per the book) in two ways.

1. Players can begin as gathered, experienced adventurers in the town of Red Larch starting at Level 3, ready to head out into the Dessarin Valley and see what’s going on there. 
2. Or they can begin as Level 1 characters and go through some preliminary adventures in and about Red Larch first before setting out.

I made the decision to go with the latter — I wanted people to get used to their characters, and the system, and, frankly, I wanted the padding of time and experience to make it all work and get back into the DM swing of things. Also, Red Larch as a setting, and some of the side quests off it, were fun (for me, at least). I think it was the right decision.

Oddly enough, the book sort of presumes you’ll do the Level 3 start. Chapters 1-2 are setting the strategic and tactical situation, including a bunch of info about Red Larch and other places in the Dessarin Valley. Then Chapter 3 starts you off at Level 3 going to the Keeps, Chapter 4 has you going through the Temples, Chapter 6 has the final fights in the Fane and the Nodes … then Chapter 7 has the Level 1 adventures in the Red Larch area, as well as side quests that can pop up anywhere. It’s definitely not how I would organize such things in a book, and it made the original distribution of material within Roll20 even awkward to use. I was already starting to reorganize things within those Roll20 journal entries.

(As a side note, the book clearly states on the back cover that this is an adventure for Levels 1-15. In Chapter 1, it clearly says, “This adventure is designed for 3rd-level characters.” And the last node is noted as being designed for Level 14 characters, presumably dinging up to 15 at the end.)

But all of that begs the question of how our party got together in the first place. The book offers two choices.

First, the campaign provides a number of hooks (mostly focused on those 3rd level sorts). There are a couple of pages of individual ties and hook suggestions — some friends of yours were kidnapped, one of the named NPCs killed your friend, someone hires you to break a loved one free of a cult, etc. These were pretty ho-hum once I looked at them, and all to a degree just hand-wavingly assume that after you succeed, you’ll be sucked into the great battle against Elemental Evil. Maybe.

Second, there’s some somewhat heavy-handed influence from the Factions, the groups in Faerun that run things behind the scenes (something that was sort of new in the 5e books and still sort of being worked on). But none of the players opted into any of the Factions in their character creation (though I suggested it was available), and much of the Factional material involves …

The Mirabar Delegation

This is a group that was traveling down from Mirabar (a dward/elf enclave away up north) down the Long Road to Waterdeep — three representatives from up there, plus a Waterdhavian noble (whose name is Deseyna Majarra in some campaign material, and Deseyna Norvael in other places, he said, rolling his editor eyes), plus some other hangers-on (a librarian, the body of a Knight of Samular being sent home for burial, etc.). 

The ambush of the delegation, and the kidnapping of their members by various cult factions, is supposedly the thing that really draws the attention of the powerful to the goings-on in the Dessarin Valley, and kicks off the proceedings.

But there are three problems with the whole Mirabar Delegation storyline:

1. The map-drawing around the kidnapping of the Delegation just makes no sense. I had to layer a lot of extra story to explain why these kidnappers went way over here to be attacked by those cultists rather than just going to this other place and being safe.
2. A lot of GMs writing about this campaign have said that the Delegation is just not that engaging, as written, to their players. In part, I think that’s due to those GMs not being engaged by it, but part of that may derive from the third problem.
3. The Mirabar Delegation are MacGuffins (definitions here and here). I mean, there’s the mysterious coded message, and the important books, and the secret seeds, and there’s the undying gratitude of certain Factions if they get rescued. But ultimately the Delegation members themselves aren’t a dependent part of the story. If you never mentioned them, if they vanished without a trace, it would impact nothing. They are purely there to (a) attract the Factions’ attention, and (b) give the party something concrete to pursue before learning about the Real Menace.

I wanted something more — or at least I wanted to make more effective use of the Delegation.

The Ghost Host with the Most

Enter Gemvocs Leofhyrn, the greatest Oracle of Faerun you’ve never heard of,  spoken of only in shadows and among the very powerful (and only in my campaign).

The first name was a play on “GM vox” or voice, and the last name an Old English version on my own name. Gemvocs was literally the voice of the GM, me, laying out the stakes and getting the action into play. 

So …

All the characters were starting in Waterdeep on the same day, doing business in accord with their characters’ story, and hearing various rumors about rising water levels, weird phenomena up north, a big meeting being scheduled by the Lords Alliance, etc.

All of them received, in various mysterious ways, an invitation to the home of Gemvocs — a figure who has in the past played a role in their lives (Gemvocs sent some seeds to the farm of one player’s family when a child, which saved them from famine; Gemvocs paid for a young orphaned girl’s education as a cleric, which she discovers as she leaves the orphanage today; etc.).

When they arrive, separately, at the person’s house at the appointed hour, they discover the gathering is a wake — Gemvocs died mysteriously a few days earlier (burned to death in his bathtub), and his half-orc majordomo, Valkh, had distributed the invitations as previously instructed. It’s good to be  the employee of an amazing Oracle.

It becomes clear, during all this, that Gemvocs has known about the approaching moment of crisis for decades, including observing / protecting / supporting / recruiting the individual party members, to bring them all there at that time. (That orphan girl discovered the invitation, addressed to her, was included with the endowment when she entered the orphanage years ago.)

They all get a big incense-driven vision presented to them — the equivalent of the videotape during the reading of the will:

Greetings, my friends.

It has been an honor to be of service, directly or indirectly, to each of you. I must confess, it has not been selfless of me. I knew that I would need to call on your service some day, though I had not expected under such belated circumstances.

I wish to hire you to a purpose. To the north of this city, in the Vale of the Dessarin River, a group of people — a delegation traveling from the great mining city of Mirabar — is lost. They were due here a week ago. I knew of their coming but … they fell into darkness, somewhere in the Dessarin River valley.

Over the last year or so, my vision of the future for that region has grown clouded. I have caught … glimpses, unfathomable, of ruin and light, of destruction and cleansing, of events that could shake the world — and destroy it.

I know it sounds alarming. Believe me, you get used to it.

I have arranged for you to travel to the town of Red Larch on a caravan that leaves on the morrow at Noon. Seek the caravan of Mistress Lela Linber. Your presence will be of assistance.

When you arrive, — I don’t know what you will do, which is an odd circumstance for me. You might speak to the constable, Harburk Tuthmarillar — an honest man who has been of service in the past. But … there are so many voices, some of fear, some of care, some of deceit, some of madness — it has all gotten very confusing.

Regardless, I beg you: find the delegation. I do not know what has happened to it, but I do know that finding it is essential to stopping the evil. And I do know yours — each of yours — presence there can do it, if it can be done. It is your fate, one way or another, just as this is mine.

You will be provided with 25 gold pieces for any last-minute supplies you need. And, once the threat has been resolved, there will be — (smile) — 30,000 gp for the survivors to divide amongst themselves. I’m not sure how many that will be, so I’ve picked a neatly divisible number.

Heh. Oracular Humor.

Be well, my friends. But be vigilant. I jest, but I can afford to do so, for I am dead now. You, amongst the living, face a far greater, more fraught challenge. Find the evil that lurks in the Dessarin Valley. Find those who are … who are lost … but do not delve too deeply … too quickly … Something, something is awakening — an Eye is about to open, and when it does, all will be cast to ruin!

(Shudders.) Ah, well. (Smiles sadly.) Time for my bath. Fare you well.

And it was in that bath that he died horribly, presumably from Fire Cultist jiggery-pokery.

What I tried to do with all this:

1. Set up the party as a party. Give them a reason to be together, even as each has their own motivations for doing so.
2. Convince them that Something Big Is Afoot. After all, Gemvocs said so. And has been preparing for this for decades. And his discussion is all laden with doomsaying and references to the Elemental Evil Eye,. 
3. Provide that focus on the Delegation. But note that Gemvocs never says that the Delegation itself is all that important, just that “finding it is essential to stopping the evil.” Find the delegate members, and in doing so you’ll perforce be thwarting the real threat.
4. Provide them with significant information and initial resources, but not give them someone they can run back to. They are on their own.

The players seemed to like it, enough to willingly step into the trope of “we are in this together” and not fight against it, which is all any GM can hope for.

And that was the first session, which, for being all-talk and no-combat, worked out pretty well.

<< Pre-Campaign Thoughts | Session 1 >>