So Thunderwave (PHB 282-83) is a pretty cool spell, and usually ends up in a lot of parties’ repertoire (also in the repertoire of a lot of enemy parties). It does decent damage, an AoE, a push, and the CONstitution save it carries makes it most useful against spellcasters. It does make a godawful racket (carrying 300 feet away, which any DM should take advantage of), but it also scales damage by spell slot.
Overall, a nifty spell. But we’re not going to talk about any of that.
Thunderwave and its Area of Effect
This came up in a game, so afterwards I did some looking into the odd Area of Effect world that is Cubes and Thunderwave.
(There’s a lot about 5e that I respect, but their AoE stuff is kind of janky in general and then the fit onto a grid map — which 5e really sort of dislikes on principle but cannot ignore because a lot of tables really love it, like ours — is even more janky.)
Thunderwave has Range: Self (15-foot cube).“A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from you. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you …” blah blah effects.
So, what does that mean? How does the cube relate to the caster? You would think a Cube AoE would be easy. Yet some of the writing on it approaches being Talmudic in its intricacies to figure out what RAW means here. This is my current interpretation:
You select a cube’s point of origin, which lies anywhere on a face of the cubic effect. The cube’s size is expressed as the length of each side.
A cube’s point of origin is not included in the cube’s area of effect, unless you decide otherwise.
AoE and Grid Maps
DMG 251 notes the following on “Areas of Effect” in relation to grid maps:
The area of effect of a spell, monster ability, or other feature must be translated onto squares or hexes to determine which potential targets are in the area and which aren’t. Choose an intersection of squares or hexes as the point of origin of an area of effect, then follow its rules as normal.
And Xanathar’s echoes this, speaking of “Area of Effect on a Grid”:
Choose an intersection of squares as the point of origin of an area of effect, then follow the rules for that kind of area as normal (see the “Areas of Effect” section in chapter 10 of the Player’s Handbook).
This is one that drives me bats as DM, because everyone wants their spell to be centered in in the center of a square (in origin, in target, in range calculations), and the rule are very clear that is not the case: for where spells start from, land (if not targeting a creature), and calculating the range, it’s all about intersections.
So, standing in a 5×5 grid square, any of the four corners of the square / intersections of the grid are at a range of “self” and are corners that could be the face of the cube you are going to create (including a cube that you are part of, if you are touching the outside face from the inside). Here then would be the possible arrangements I can see:
Cube AoE arrangements
Any of the above can be rotated in increments of 90 degrees.
I.e., you can be on any of the squares outside of the cube, or on the inner squares of the cube, wherever one of the corners of your square touches (red blips) part of the perimeter (side) of the cube. But not in the very center, because you can’t reach that outer face from there.
I’ve not seen anyone actually include the bottom left “corner” example, but it seems to fit the rules to my eyes.
Insider Casting
There is some debate as whether being on the inside of the cube (bottom right-hand two examples) is allowed. I don’t read anything in the above, though, that says it isn’t. That might mean including yourself in the spell effect (but hold that thought for a moment).
Note that though you can be within the cube, for the Thunderwave spell, “the thunderous force sweeps out from you,” so you yourself are not affected when you cast it, even if you are in the area. (Which is a fancier way of saying that you, as the point of origin, are not affected by spells that have a point of origin; a point is not dimensionless, in this case.)
(But Dave, you might be saying, if the point of origin is the grid intersection you are casting from, then doesn’t the thunderous force emanate from that and, if you are inside the AoE, affect you, too? To which I say (1) remember how I said some of this stuff gets Talmudic? and (2) go away, boy, you bother me.)
When would you use a case, of being inside (not the center!) of the cube? Two use cases I can think of:
To reduce the effective effective range to 10 feet rather than 15 feet (potentially important in an indoor combat).
To include a tiny opponent in your own square (an edge case, but a potentially helpful one).
To sum up
So, unless anyone has any objections, that’s how I consider the area for Thunderwave to work.
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 39 (Day 36)
In the Temple of the Crushing Wave …
The party had a Short and Long Rest, refreshing all that stuff. Various Dreams and Visitations ensued. Faith learned far more about how awesome a weapon Windvane is.
They exited Morbeoth‘s stronghold. Ninetooth was not beneath the bridge, but they heard voices roaring the name of “Thuluna!” Which turned out to be the other two aquatic trolls, a pair of whom attacked them.
The party crossed the Bridge of Victory and dealt with a multiple groups of troops in various rooms and the embarkment point to the river back to the outside world. At the end, they had captured a final room, and Khalt, a frozen-eyed Crushing Wave mage.
Player Recap
“If You Wait by the River Long Enough, The Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By”
The vivid dreams return.
Ko returns. He indicates there was a conflict with people who yip and bark. He helped drive them off.
As they leave the brewery and cross the dragon bridge, Ninetooth isn’t there. The sounds echo around with all of the water and cave surfaces. Someone somewhere is calling out Thuluna’s name. As they move towards the market square, Nala senses that the sounds are getting louder and is ahead of them. A second voice joins in from the East. As they approach the second bridge an aquatic troll charges towards the group. The hall constricts the party’s movements but the troll quickly takes significant damage. Before they can finish Marrowsucker off, a second troll charges from behind. The next turn the oil Moony poured on Marrowsucker ignites and he perishes. The battle moves to Gorgebelly. Faith has been battling him with the Windvane. Doing damage and pushing him back. When the group focuses their attack on him the tide turns quickly in their favor.
They approach the Bridge of Victory. There is a door immediately east of the bridge.. Moony listens at the door. There is a corridor running east just north of the door. Some broken wall and another corridor South of the door.
There are people speaking Common on the other side of the door. They mention Shatterkeel, Thuluna, Morbeoth and other items less clear. The party takes their places and William opens the door with a thaumaturgy spell. The door opens on a barracks with several Reavers and a Priest. They pile out of the room from the now open door and another door to the south. A pitched battle ensues. Ko is brought down, but the rest of the party does well. While the others loot the room, Moony rolls the bodies into the canal. They float away.
The group travels south to clear the way behind them. There is a room that looks like it has been used as a jail with some cots and a water barrel. As Moony rounds the corner of the hallway, he runs into a group of guards coming the other way. Both groups are surprised. The attackers includes more Reavers, a Dark Tide Knight, and a Fathomer. Moony attacks and the encounter commences. Faith calls her fairy spirits at full strength. Along with William’s Moonbeam, they tear through the enemies.
Around the corner the path opens out and there is a boat tied up. There may be something in the canal, but nothing comes to the surface. They can see the opposite side of the lake where the first entered the water area.
After a short rest, the group moves on to explore the Northeast corridor. They pass two large granaries. Now empty except for the gaping storage holes. Next, they come to a door. Again Moony listens and hears voices speaking in Common. This time the group is surprised when the door slams open. Inside are yet more Reavers, a person that has a frosty white eye like Morbeoth. Approaches the door and frightens Theren and Moony. At the end, they had captured a final room, and Khalt, a frozen-eyed Crushing Wave mage.
… We win! They lose! Neener Neener Neener!
Game Notes
Kind of a grindy game, to be honest. Not bad, and some fun times, but not a lot of new stuff, mostly door-to-door clearing.
Time Marches On!
Even if the players didn’t get / take a chance to head back outside, the various Cult Reprisals / Retributions continue in the Real World. At this point, it involves the unleashing of Devastation Orbs.
Devastation Orb of Fire token I whipped up. Just in case I needed it, of course.
The orbs are basically elemental bombs. When I first read about them I overestimated their power, so the Fire Devastation Orb I unleashed on Womford basically acted as a nuke for the town. They’re powerful, but not that powerful.
There are four towns kind of surrounding the Sumber Hills: Red Larch, Westbridge, Beliard, and Womford. (Arguably, Summit Hall could also be a target, and, in retrospect it would have been a solid one, given the party’s ties there.)
Red Larch was out because I wasn’t going to have it destroyed whilst they were away. At least, not yet. I wanted to go back and play in Beliard, too. I decided on Womford because, well, it drew the short, highly flammable straw.
And, of course, this kind of thing is going to start happening on a semi-regular basis as they wipe out the Temples. So there’s still plenty of time to take down the other towns …
But how does the party learn about all of this? Simple: dreams and gossip!
Dreams!
Since it was Long Rest time, I wrote up Dreams for everyone:
The Fighter got some weird call-backs to Aldrik being taken by the water elemental a few sessions back. She’s the one who’d be likely to remember him.
The Druid, who got terrified by Thuluna Maah last time, had one of those dreams where his girlfriend at the harvest festival turned out to be her and tried to drown him in an irrigation ditch. Fun!
The Tabaxi Rogue, who’s brushed against Fear a couple of times recently got one of those the-hunter-hunted dreams.
The Cleric, now attuned to Windvane, got to overhear (through a dream as a child at the church orphanage) the Prophets arguing, some veiled references to Womford being obliterated, and some encouragement by her new best friend (Windvane) to break the rules and dare everyone else to do something about it.
The Sorcerer, whose background is causing terrible fire accidents as a kid, got to have a 1st Person PoV of the fire-based Orb of Devastation being brought into Womford and detonated. Glee!
Gossip!
I wrote up “gossip” items for the to potentially hear bits of when they listened at doors of rooms full of people:
Gar Shatterkeel is gone.
They say he had visions,
They say he has traveled to The Plunging Torrents to pray and consult with the Crushing Wave, the Dark Tide, the Well of Endless Anguish (Olhydra).
Who guides our course now?
Thuluna Maah. She is powerful and cunning. The ogres follow her.
Morbeoth is clever. He studies the water. He knows its secrets.
Gar still controls the flow. He has set guards over the temple. None shall pass.
The pirate town is gone (Womford)
The great war commences. The guttering flames must be quenched!
No, it’s a sign of the final struggle; Olhydra will soon rise and cleanse the world.
It all helped give some further texture to the tale, passed on some info they should have (misleading or not), and, by having it pre-written, it gave me an easy reference when someone says, “I listen at the door, what do I hear?”
Windvane!
Windvane
Windvane is a kick-ass weapon, and the Cleric had a lot of fun with it — especially since, as a Tempest Cleric, she gets an optional 10-foot knock-back if she does Lightning damage. Oops.
I decided to bend the rules slightly and not reveal quite all its powers. I gave her the normal combat features, but kept the language boost, Lighting resistance, Dominate Monster, Orb building, and (of course) Flaw secret, for now at least. Some of them would become clear when the circumstances triggered them.
I decided to make that Flaw — “I break my vows and plans. Duty and honor mean nothing to me.” — softer rather than harder. I don’t like dominating other players and, not having raised it as a Session Zero item, I was reluctant to just impose it on the character or player (especially as the player is … independent-minded, we will say).
So instead I approached it with a soft approach — the encouragement, the whispering in the character’s ear, etc. I also started from the get-go encouraging the suspicions of the other characters about whether Faith was acting funny.
In the end, Windvane was a great set piece, even if the Cleric tended to roll for crap with its attacks. I managed to get some zingers in on the character, and she literally carried the thing, attuned, for most of the rest of the campaign.
Bits and Bobs
Aquatic Troll
The infuriated aquatic trolls were kind of fun, especially with the characters being trapped in the corridors with them. I realized after the previous game that they would not take Thuluna Maah’s death well, and getting shouting “THU-LU-NAAAAAAH!” in their rage was a hoot.
A couple of the most-fun moments were both “I step around the corner and come face-to-face with an opponent.” One of those happened to the Rogue to kick off an encounter, the other to the Fighter
Ko
during a later battle. The Fighter could see a door on the far side of the room through the doorway they were fighting at, and went to flank around to it — only to discover that an enemy was doing the same thing to them. Hilarity ensues!
I don’t think the Druid’s summoning, Ko, could have accompanied the freed hostages so far away from the Druid, but it was enjoyable having him come back and preen over having helped them against the Gnolls up topside.
Ko could have been really annoying, but the player didn’t try to do anything cray-cray with him. Most often, once the party got into their cadence, he simply did Help actions for fighters on the front line, plus serving as an implicit “adjoining ally” for the Rogue’s Sneak Attacks.
The party eventually visits all parts of the shoreline around the “Harbor,” but refuses to take a boat out onto it, thereby missing both the creepy undead in the Customs House, and the Giant Octopus lurking in the depths. Sigh.
Prototype Crushing Wave Cultists, also the basis for all their art assets.
Action Economy remains the bad guys’ downfall, especially as the mooks are getting to be one-shot wonders, rapidly turning the tide in the players’ failure against their more powerful leaders. Of course, most encounters shouldn’t be life-or-death struggles, just a steady erosion of HP and spell slots, so that makes sense.
Where the players’ explorations had brought them by the end of session.
It’s the damaging, crowd-controlling, Area of Effect spell that keeps on giving. You thought Entanglement was a pain in the ass? Try something (if you are a Druid or Ranger) that doesn’t prevent you from moving, just slows you and damages you when you try to: Spike Growth!
So what does it say?
The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain for the duration. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
So we really have two effects here over the Concentration / 10 minutes of the spell:
The area of the spell is Difficult Terrain.
The area of the spell causes 2d4 piercing damage per 5 feet travelled.
This 2nd level spell would be somewhat effective at crowd control if all it did was slow the bad guys down. Causing 2d4 damage for every 5 feet (one square on a normal grid) traveled is murderous at early levels. A figure with a 30-foot move will be slowed to 15 feet (Difficult terrain), and take 6d4 (6-24) points of damage, with no AC or Save to mitigate it, each turn. And that applies to everyone within the spell area.
No, honestly, I have seem very large early mobs gutted by a well-positioned use of this spell.
Spike Growth
This spell is particularly deadly because, while most “this area causes you damage” spells affect someone once per turn (e.g., Moonbeam), Spike Growth will mess them up for every square they move through. Plus, there’s no save.
Plus, it’s Sneaky
The spell notes:
The transformation of the ground is camouflaged to look natural. Any creature that can’t see the area at the time the spell is cast must make a Wisdom (Perception) check against your spell save DC to recognize the terrain as hazardous before entering it.
So you can set it as a trap for pursuers. If they don’t see it cast, they require a save to spot it before they blunder in.
Pushing In
There are a variety of ways of pushing or dragging folk into a Spike Growth spell area, from a Shove attack to Thorn Whip to Thunderwave to Thunderous Smite. It’s not always clear with these effects whether a target is dragged at ground level (in which case they would take damage each square of Spike Growth they were moved through) or somehow hurled through the air (in which case only the target square would cause damage).
The DM will have adjudicate based on the specific spell / effect and the circumstances it occurs in, to see how much damage the target takes.
Getting Out
The old saying of “Getting out means going through” is a losing proposition with Spike Growth. Going through means taking more damage.
Tactics for those caught in the spell:
Wait it out. Yeah, that’s not likely over 10 minutes, but one of your comrades might disrupt the Concentration of the caster.
Remove Yourself (Usually Vertically). A long jump away, a high jump to grab something above, or, of course, some sort of teleport or flight can get you out of the area.
Enjoy the melee cover. If you are a spellcaster or ranged weapon person, being stuck in Spike Growth isn’t nearly as problematic. Stand there and ranged-attack your opponents (maybe particularly the caster), knowing that the opposition melee fighters will likely not be charging you.
Limits of Growth
Spike Growth does not scale. Even with no save, at some point in the leveling/CR equation, 2d4 damage per square does not daunt in quite the same way.
Sure, it creates Difficult Terrain (always a good thing), and 2d4 over enough squares starts to add up, but a 15th Level character will be a lot less worried over it (or have ways around it) than a 2nd Level character.
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 38 (Day 35)
In the Temple of the Crushing Wave …
Symbol of the Crushing Wave
Thuluna Maah‘s horrific appearance terrified William, though Moony was not as affected. The two of them, though, managed to dispatch her with surprising swiftness.
Thuluna’s room included a Dragonbone Sword, a couple of magic potions, and an Immovable Rod.
Checking out the two rooms off of the Market Hall, the party went to the room where folk were inside talking in Common. This turned out to be full of various cultists, as well as the fled Morbeoth. Regardless of various banter and offers of cooperation, all the opposition was killed, and the party spiked the doors for a Short Rest. During that time, the Dragonbone Sword was revealed to be able to detect dragons at 120 feet (leading to much triangulation around where it glowed, indicating a dragon (?) might be to the northwest of the city quadrant.
The room to the south end of the Market Hall turned out to be full of Lizardfolk, who actually sent out a flanking party. That still didn’t end well for them.
The party retreated to Morbeoth‘s old workshop to settle down for a Short and/or Long Rest.
Player Recap
“If I’m Stabbing People with Weapons, We Are Fucked.” — Theren
The hideous visage of Thuluna charges the door. She claws at William and Moony strikes back. The horrid brain twisting creature turns Williams’ bowels to jelly. He is frightened and steps back. He succeeds in moving the bonfire between Thuluna and the doorway. As the others race to join the battle, Moony strikes true with his arrow and defeats the monstrosity. Moony and William toss the room and the bodies. The room was once opulent, but the tapestry and furniture was severely scratched. In the far room by the remains of a once ornate bed is a wooden chest with gold and platinum. There is also a two headed rod with a button on one end and figures of horses. There is also a curved longsword leaning in the corner. It appears to be made of bone with glowing rubies in the hilt. There are also some potions on the body. They are a Potion of Hill Giant Strength and a Potion of Fire Resistance.
They decide to take a short rest but do not want to use Thuluna’s room. Moony listens at the door in the southeast corner of the market room. He hears multiple creatures hissing and growls.
Wanting rest they decide to try the northeast door. There are human voices talking about “Shatterkeel” … “torrents” … an angry voice and clattering noises. Inside are a number of people who turn around and look at Moony. “Hey, what are you doing here?” “Hi, I’m Moony, I wanted to talk to you about the Crushing Wave.” The cultists start to grab their weapons. Moony steps back and Theren tosses a Fireball into the center of the room. Morbeoth steps up and Moony says “Surrender and our cleric may have mercy on you.” “Your cleric is a cold bitch, but I may still make a deal with you.” Nala and Theren enter the room and confront the remaining Reaver. “You fools, I was probably your only hope against her.” He flees the room, only to run into Faith.
William asks “Which her? We have already defeated Thuluna” “I don’t believe anything you say.” he responds and blasts Faith with a blast from a gem inset into his eye. Proving his point, Moony, Faith, and Theren continue to pound on him. He has nothing more to add before he is defeated. The gem in his eye is actually a chunk of ice that is slowly melting as the body warms.
The group decides to hole up in the kitchen and take a Short Rest. They regain hit points and identify the magic items that they recovered. Feeling refreshed they decide to return to the southeastern door. Before they enter Moony notices that the creatures are speaking draconic. Nala can hear them and understands them. They sound like fighters bitching about their job. They hear the party outside and the battle begins.
Several lizardfolk sneak out the back door to come from the east. Moony calls out “I see you”. No one responds. It becomes a battle on two fronts one at the main door to the room and the other in the rubble along the canal.
When the battle is over they explore the barracks and find human remains on the fire spit. Disgusted, they move back into the market square to plan on a Long Rest.
Their walk back to the brewery section is mostly uneventful. The aqua troll Ninetooth appears at the dragon bridge scowling. He lets them pass when they again praise Olhydra.
Game Notes
Battles a-plenty
Sic transit Thuluna
Thuluna turned out to be a bust. Yes, horrifying creature, but a bit of a glass cannon. If they players aren’t Frightened by her (and DC 11 is not a huge barrier at 7th level), then she’s toast. In this case, the Rogue was able to plonk a couple of sneak attacks while the Druid shook the Fear off. She never even got to use her insta-kill Terrifying Glare or whatever it is. Sad.
Lesson Learned: critters like that need their backups. She should have gone after them while she had her ogres. Of course, the party bottled the ogres up nicely, so maybe that wouldn’t have worked.
Morbeoth
The folk in the galley were pretty easily handled by a Fireball from our running-on-fumes Sorcerer. That’s where I had stashed Morbeoth, figuring he had more of an in with the Human cultists (Thuluna being the one controlling the non-humans — the Trolls, Ogres, and Lizardfolk). It made sense, but, again, he couldn’t handle the party on his own, especially when his Fear didn’t work this time. There were attempts by him and the Druid to calm the battle down (which I appreciated), but the players generally just wanted to have done with.
Sure, enjoy your colorful modern Lizardfolk — I’ll stick with a 1e Lizard Man by David Trampier
The Lizardfolk were more of a challenge, especially when they went out the back door and started flanking the party through the ruins. The Druid’s Spike Growth locked down most of the Lizardfolk inside though, with the Fighter at the door holding them in so that the spell-casters and Rogue could snipe around them.
They weren’t in any great danger, but the margin was not as easy to overcome as with the previous … and it left everyone out of spell slots for the most part.
Leveling
Or maybe not. (via Scott Kurtz)
I realized that, at this point, they’d basically “won” this Temple — Morbeoth and Thuluna were dead, and Gar was fled to the Fane. In at least one point, that was described as the victory conditions, though another place (at least in my transmogrified notes) said that the temple/altar room also needed to be cleared.
Since “winning” the Temple was the Milestone for leveling, this was not just an academic matter.
I decided on the latter target — I wanted them to spot at least one more exit from this place — and so I skipped over their leveling to 8 during their Long Rest. I’d encourage another day of adventuring (or withdrawing) before they could Long Rest and ding to the new level for this milestone.
I’ve always tried to do leveling up as part of a Long Rest, as it seemed starting the new day at a new level made the most “sense.” I though I’d read this once, but it’s not Rules as Written. Which means that every DM is kind of on their own as to how they handle it — instant video-game level-up, level-up at end of session, level-up after a Long Rest, etc.
The most sensible answer I’ve seen is that (a) class features and ability increases and the like happen immediately, (b) intrinsic things like additional HPs/HP Max and spell slots get awarded immediately, but (c) no recovery occurs (i.e., if you are down 25 HP, you are still down 25 HP; if you have used all your 1st level spell slots, they are still gone, as is the new one you just got).
That makes sense, but it’s also full of tangles for each and every bit, especially for all the different spellcasting classes, which have their own variations of how spells are stored. Also, the Roll20 Charactermancer doesn’t really support it.
So I’ve stuck with the “Long Rest” approach, which not only gives the characters their abilities, but restocks all the shelves, so to speak. I will let them know when they are ready to level, but not until they Long Rest (which gives everyone a chance to pre-plan).
“… also, maybe I’ll level up!”
Treasure
The party found the “Dragonbone Sword” in Thuluna’s quarters, and after their Short Rest figured out the whole Dragon Detection thing. Which, as they’ve wandered around a bit, has let them triangulate that the putative dragon is somewhere in the direction of the shadowy end of the “Starry Lake.”
Will they actually go after the dragonturtle there? Hmmm.
Windvane
The Cleric took the first step toward attuning to Windvane, Aerisi’s prophet weapon. Everyone, as players, was deeply suspicious (and with good reason), and as GM I good-naturedly played along with that (“Don’t worry how everyone else is the next morning, they’ll all be dead with spear-shaped wounds in the heart”), but I was also quietly mentioning how good and liberating it felt to wield it, and I will doubtless begin whispering more clearly to her once she actually starts using it.
It’s nifty weapon … but it comes at a cost.
I added in one more reward item than was written out — the Immovable Rod, which was originally a treasure item in the “Villa” in the Air Temple sector. It’s just too useful an item (for spiking the door, if nothing else). They eventually found some good uses for it down the line.
Bits and Bobs
I mentioned before how this Temple does have more of a D&D Dungeon vibe in layout than previous locales visited in this campaign.
That said, the whole central zone of this map makes for a very maneuverable environment, with lots of side passages, back doors, etc. That made the combat with Morbeoth’s crew and with the Lizardfolk a lot more fluid than they were used to, with attempts to flank and split forces much more likely.
What they’d explored / seen by the end of this session.
As a DM, of course, the fact the opposition knows this place like the back of their hand should be exploited, tactically. On the other hand, splitting up too much rarely ends well.
Side note: I realized late in the game that the party was searching willy-nilly through the Market Hall without any Perception rolls from the groups in the adjoining rooms. I also forgot about the decoration on the Lizardfolk room. Ugh. I hate missing details like that.
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 37 (Day 35)
In the Temple of the Crushing Wave …
Symbol of the Crushing Wave
The party searched through the rooms Morbeoth had come from — an arcane workshop and adjacent living quarters. In the quarters they found an iron chest under the bed with both wealth and letters from Justran Daehl, the Cellerer and apparent Crushing Wave spy in Red Larch (Morbeoth’s Notes), including questions about evidence against Thuluna Maah that should be taken to Gar Shatterkeel.
In the workshop were pieces of some sort of apparatus being assembled from a glass bottle and copper fittings. The overall room was identified as something for creating artifacts powered by the magic of elemental water.
The next room was apparently the copper brewing vessels of the old brewery on their map. There were three of the completed bottle apparatuses against one wall. At least one of the tanks contained a Water Weird.
Traveling onward, they crossed a canal on the Bridge of Dragons, and encountered from under the bridge an Aquatic Troll. William invoked the name of “Olhydra,” which caused the troll to let them pass. A similar strategy worked in a further room where there were two more of them.
Passing the Court of the Merfolk they found a room with a richly decorated but desecrated door. Inside were two Ogres, who refused to let them pass and bother Thuluna Maah. The party ambushed the ogres at the doorway and eventually handled them, as Thuluna the Old Lady tottered out of a back chamber, frightened and bewildered by what was going on.
The sound of the battle attracted a group in the Market Hall to the north. Though the cultists there were easily handled, a Fathomer managed to Hex then Eldritch Blast Faith multiple times. Only the party’s last Fireball, and a charge by Faith and Theren and Moony, saved Faith from a grizzly necrotic death.
While the rest of the party searched the Market Hall, finding all sorts of trade goods and supplied, many of them most likely pirated from the Dessarin River traffic, William questioned Thuluna, spotting a terrifying, murderous gleam in her eye. He called to Moony, and after a few more questions, they quietly agreed to lock her into her room … but before they could, she dropped her illusory visage to become a creature of unspeakable hideousness …
Player Recap
That’s Not Beer!
Nala tries to persuade the magic user to come back and talk about his offer. She then peeks her head into the room he ran through. The room is empty. As the others move into the large chamber, Moony drags a bugbear body to block the door into the loft room. The focus of the room is a delicate looking device with a central large glass vessel and many copper tubes . Looks like it is powered by elemental water energy but the purpose remains a mystery. There is a room to the North that looks like it is being used as a bedroom. There is an area that looks like an arrow slit that has been filled with rubble. William notices a small iron chest under the bed. Moony examines the chest. It looks like it is latched but not locked. It contains silver and platinum pieces and some letters. Most of the letters are in a mix of block text and script. It looks like the writing of the spy letter we found in Feathergale Spire. There are also some fine notes in the margins of the letter.
The brewery room. Of the eight copper kettles, there are a few that are cold and have condensation on them. William decides to check out the content. Standing on a chair, he quickly opens and closes the hatch. He is not quick enough to prevent a Water Weird from escaping. Faith waits to see if it is hostile. William calls out to it in Primordial “We mean you no harm, depart and be free.” The others also hold off. When the Water Weird reacts he charges William and envelopes him. Moony and Theren respond with attacks. Nala tries to shove the hatch back down on the elemental. She succeeds on her second try and Faith climbs on an adjacent
Leaving through the north door of the brewery they come to the bridge of dragons. A blue troll stands up and demands something in a language that the group does not understand. Ninetooth the aquatic troll leaves the water and climbs the steps on the far side. William sets a bonfire in front of the troll and says “Olhydra says let us pass.” The rest of the group moves closer together and holds their actions. The troll pauses and questions “Olhydra?” and steps back down the steps about 15 feet. William says “Olhydra! Let us pass.” crosses the bridge and moves into the hall on the far side. The others repeat the phrase and pass to the corridor.
There is a door at the end of the hall and a corridor to the North that leads to a courtyard with a fountain. Moony listens and hears voices. It sounds like more trolls. The group decides to try their bluff again. They open the door and see two aquatic trolls. The first challenges Moony and William. They repeat the catch-phrase and the trolls stand aside. (It would have made more sense if there was another exit from the room.) They step back out and close the door.
Fountain shaped like a tree, with dancing merfolk. It is badly damaged. There are halls to the north, east, south (where they came from) There is also a door in the northwest. Moony listens at the door. It is covered with painted glyphs and aquatic images. They are very damaged.
Moony listens at the door and then peeks into the room. Ogre “Get out of here. Don’t bother Thuluna.” The group decides that it is best to take care of this now. While they are fighting the Ogres a wizened old crone steps out from behind a cloth curtain in the back of the room. When the ogres are defeated the crone begs for mercy. William believes her and worries that they have been hasty in their attack. As the Ogre battle is wrapping up several cultists come running down the North hallway to attack. The fighting ends in the large chamber North of the market hall.
Returning to Thuluna William questions her. “They were keeping me from leaving. They thought I knew about where the Shatterkeel was hidden or secrets about the temple. They were so cruel.” William can tell that she is lying and has a malicious gleam in her eyes. He calls Moony for healing help. After he arrives, they look to back out and spike the door. William decides to torch the drapes to see if there is another exit that way. This is when Thuluna turns on them and drops her illusion A visage so hideous and otherworldly that to look upon it is to know terror. Slimy scales covering her pallid skin, her hair a seaweed that covers her unnatural body, her glassy eyes as lifeless as a doll’s.
Game Notes
Searching Glances
The Temple of the Crushing Wave is a bit more traditional of a dungeon crawl. Though it has the water features, it’s also got a real “and now you move on to Room C12” vibe to it, with various rooms of bad guys, hints of underlying story, some politics, and various directions one can travel.
The group did the normal search through Morbeoth’s place, puzzling over the weird glass-and-copper tank under construction. I gave a noodge to have them find the chest under Morbeoth’s bed (to be fair, I’d forgotten it was there when folk were scattered about searching). I’d beefed up the payload there. Ordinarily there are notes from Justran Draehl, the cellerer at the Helm at Highsun tavern in Red Larch which, in case similar notes had been missed back at Rivergard Keep, would establish Justran as a Crushing Wave spy.
Well, the party had already resolved that mystery, so I decided to pay with it a bit — calling out particular notes about things Justran (and, after Justran had fled, some other mysterious hand), outlining things the party had done in Red Larch (and a few from elsewhere, also mysteriously) …
… plus some commentary in the margins by Morbeoth, trying to interpret the party’s actions, wondering why they hadn’t taken out Feathergale Spire or Rivergard Keep the first time around (who was influencing them?), mentioning that Urshnora (a Crushing Wave fugitive … or is she?) was hanging with them … and speculating that maybe this was evidence of Thuluna Maah’s treachery.
(The whole Morbeoth / Thuluna rivalry, plus Thuluna’s desire to usurp Gar’s place, create for some fun things to play with, but there just aren’t a lot of opportunities to do so in the game. By fleshing out the writings here, I could both make their previous actions come alive as part of the campaign, and maybe lead them to some fun times.
Weird!
Water Weird
William’s player decided that the kick-in-the-door-and-kill-everything bit might not be the most effective, given the somewhat dire battle last time vs the Bugbears and Reavers. So when they investigated the brewery and, ta-daaah, released a Water Weird, he decided to be diplomatic because he could speak Primordial to it.
Which would have gone great, except that he offered to let it escape from its tank, which, since Water Weirds can’t actually leave their pool of water, was taken amiss as an insult, and it attacked.
(The party actually had the bright idea of trying to close the hatch on the tank, which treated as an Athletics match, actually worked.)
Better than nothing
The whole idea that Morbeoth was trying to harness (or even enslave) elementals into weapons technology was kind of cool, even if it goes nowhere. Worse, though there is mention made both of glass tanks and of partially completed mechanisms, there are no visuals provided by the game, in the book or on the map.
I jiggered some visuals together from a bottled water image, and I thought that helped.
Talking with Monsters
This zone is full of canals (with kind of finicky sight lines, so that’s nice). When the party tried to cross the nearby bridge, there was, of course a troll underneath it (which appeared just as the players started joking about such a thing).
Ninetooth was an Aquatic Troll. Nobody in the party could speak Giant, but they could understand when William started talking about “Olhydra,” and the book text makes it clear that Ninetooth will go along with the flimsiest reason to let them pass. So they did. Encounter averted! Inspiration awarded!
(And, again, a great reason for Milestone Leveling — no incentive to kill everything.)
Aquatic Troll token
There is no token provided for an Aquatic Troll, just a normal troll one. Bah. I figured one out.
A similar tactic worked at the room where two other Aquatic Trolls hung up — the party was hesitant to go into the Court of the Merfolk because they were sure something awful was going to happen with the broken fountain there.
Nope, but they did end up in a big battle around Thuluna Maah.
Language
This was really the first place where there’d been multiple encounters where language was a barrier (or, looked at a different way, where the party actually wanted to understand, if not communicate with, the opposition). So I actually got around to looking at what people knew, and what languages they spoke, and what languages other groups of critters spoke, and created a Handout about it, for my easy reference, but also for the party.
(I also found a nifty, if not quite canonical, linguistic family tree, which can help cover some edge cases:)
Languages
Annoyingly (on both sides, to be honest), most of the conventional opponents spoke something that the party didn’t. They did have a sorcerer who could learn Tongues or Comprehend Language, but hadn’t figured out that might be a good idea.
Thuluna Maah
One of Thuluna’s ogre bodyguards.
So Thuluna is 2nd in Command in the Temple. She’s a Sea Hag, and lives in luxurious (if torn up) quarters in the center of the map, with two Ogres in her antechamber to keep her from being disturbed.
The Ogres, like the Lizard Folk, like the Trolls, all love Thuluna — or worship / are devoted to her — because she looks after them as part of her power base against the “normal” humanoids that cluster around Morbeoth. As such, they are determined and vocal in protecting her, which gave the battles this session and next a bit more oomph.
That said, the party was maybe lulled a bit by the very pliable Aquatic Trolls. The Ogres give them a bit of shit for disturbing them, and demanded they leave before Thuluna was awakened. (Moony could have actually snuck open the door and closed it again, except that everyone was standing around with light spells blaring and it was dark inside.)
Rather than leave things be, they decided to take the Ogres down, cleverly using the doorway as a choke point — a Bonfire plus Spirit Guardians plus the Ogres being constricted (and thus at Disadvantage) trying to get through the door. Clever.
Thuluna Maah, as a kindly (?) old lady
Mid-battle taking the Ogres down, three things happened:
Thuluna, in her “I am an innocent, if ugly, old crone, tottering along” guise tottered out and was “bewildered” and “horrified” by all the violence occurring.
The cultists in the Market Hall to the north (with no additional Random Encounter critters added to their number, thank Bog) harkened to the noise and came running toward the party.
William decided that they had been hasty in thinking that the Ogres were Water Cultists, and tried to calm things down.
The Cultists were quickly cut down (in fact, by being taken down in the corridor, they served to slow the party members trying to advance, actually keeping the team together for a time), but the Fathomer with them had a perfect opportunity because everyone else was occupied with the Ogres but the cleric Faith, who was quite visible down the corridor. The Fathomer managed to get off a Hex on her, then started peppering her with Eldritch Blasts. So not only was she taking a ton both Force and Necrotic damage, but her CON rolls were hampered, so her Concentration rolls were Disadvantaged, which eventually knocked down her Spirit Guardians.
She almost got taken down, which was both gratifying (not in a “I like to kill players” way but “Hey, I’ve been an actual threat” way) and is now the second session in a row when that had happened, which was illuminating for the player.
Thuluna (kindly old lady) token
Meanwhile, Thuluna and William were having a nice tête-à-tête, with Thuluna playing the “Woe is me” routine, trying to figure out when best to strike. The Sea Hag can drop her illusion and be revealed in her Fear-inducing self — but it only had a range of 30 feet, and unsupported by her Ogres, she wanted to have everyone there, but by now everyone had run off to deal with the cultists.
Stock 5e Sea Hag, which, frankly, isn’t very scary.
By the time couple of increasingly skeptical players had decided the thing to do was to slip from the room and spike the door (the skepticism enforced by a truly horrific disparity in an Insight vs Deception roll), Thuluna realized she wasn’t going to get a better shot. As they backed out, she dropped her illusion, revealed in her mind-boggling, terrifying self …
The stock picture for a Sea Hag is … kind of pathetic. Less “so hideous that it drives people mad with fear” and more “so hideous that all the kids in school make fun of her.” So instead I found this great pic by Frank Calico that looks like a Mike Mignola and has that very otherworldly Elder God “so unnatural it drives people mad with fear” vibe.
Sea Hag (Frank Calico)
Sea Hag token (Calico) – Thuluna once she drops her illusion
As previously mentioned, I subbed out a lot of tokens in the game for ones that I liked better. Usually it was for a named character that either didn’t have a token at all or had a generic monster type token (e.g., Morbeoth as a One-Eyed Shiver). Thuluna is a one-off (there are no other Sea Hags in the campaign), but this was another case where searching for a better image made me feel a lot better about the game I was presenting.
Where the party had explored by the time they were done.
Action Economy
Thuluna is another case of Action Economy dominating the game (as was the incident with the Fathomer). Spellcasters are very powerful — but also fragile.
Crushing Wave Fathomer
The Fathomer only was able to pull off the Hex+Eldritch Blast combo for a couple of rounds because Faith was a lone target (everyone else was around a corner, intentionally) and was at range. Once she got reinforcements, the Fathomer’s only hope was to take her down before he was (and that attempt failed).
Thuluna was in a similar quandary. She’s got an awesome “Anyone who sees her has to save vs Gut-Wrenching Fear” thing, plus a follow-up power to literally kill a person who is already afraid … but she either needs to do it when everyone is in the room (and scare them all), or else when there are just a couple of people in the room (to take them out quickly).
Thuluna was certainly doomed as soon as she dropped shields and attacked. The only question was … how many will she take with her?
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 36 (Day 35)
In the Temple of Howling Hatred …
Howling Hatred symbol
The party explored to the east from the Plaza of Moradin, trying to find supplies. They did that, in what looked to be the feast-hall of Tyar-Besil‘s royalty. They also found a flock of Kenku, whom they quickly dispatched. And they found a Purple Worm skeleton, rising out of the ground in the middle a room, presumably slain in an ancient battle with the Dwarves.
Walking back to the gatehouse, behind the pyramid, they were attacked by a Water Elemental from the river, who grabbed Aldrik and carried him away down the waterfall into the eternal darkness below. Bummer.
With supplies and arms and survival advice from Nala, the freed hostages were sent back up the tunnel path to Feathergale Spire and, they hoped, safe passage home. Ko went with them to keep them safe.
The party returned to the Plaza. Looking west there were what were possibly royal quarters or tombs, too crumbled to easily tell without more exploration. There was also a presumed graveyard/mausoleum, behind ornate doors … that had been spiked, recently, from the outside. The party demurred any further exploration.
Symbol of the Crushing Wave
Instead, they headed to the southeast, and, getting past a locked gate, found themselves in what they presumed was the area of Tyar-Besil occupied by the Crushing Wave cult. Turning away from the harbor (?), they checked out a door to the north, with multiple people examining it and listening through it. Thus, when they opened the door, the Bugbears inside were not surprised.
A long, pitched battle ensued, with the Bugbears augmented by a large group of Reavers attracted from the next room by the loud spellfire, as well as Morbeoth, a strange dwarf with a glowing white eye and powerful Fear magic. All that was countered by aggressive attacks, a well-placed fireball, and other AoE spells, leading to final victory party, though Morbeoth got away.
Player Recap
Aldrik Does Not Get Eaten By A Purple Worm
After clearing the batter, the group continues to the East. Moony takes point. When he gets to the first cross corridor there are screams and phrases that sound like Aerisi. Everyone assumes it is more Kenku. They locate the feasting hall where there are plenty of supplies for the refugees. William decides to leave via the far door since there is another area on the map labeled supplies. Unfortunately, there is a room full of Kenku across from the dining room. The Kenku are surprised by Ko and attack. They are quickly defeated. When William chases down one of Kenku he sees the skeleton of a purple worm that is embedded in the floor.
On the way back to the doors, the party is surprised by a large water creature. It surrounds the group and knocks several people prone. It then grapples Aldrik and flees. There is a rumble from the water “Not consort … not key … not plunder … SACRIFICE …”
With supplies and arms and survival advice from Nala, they sent the freed hostages back up the tunnel path to Feathergale Spire and, they hoped, safe passage home. Ko went with them to keep them safe. Back to the purple worm. William works his way down the cavern created by the purple worm. The bones provide enough grips to climb, but William also uses a rope. There is a sense that something is very wrong down there … watching.
Next they decide to explore the area labeled “Royalty”. It is basically rubble. There are doors in the North wall that lead to the area “The Sacred Dead”. The doors are spiked from the outside. The group decides to leave the dead and heads to the Southeast and the corridor with the water marking. A large chained gate blocks their path. Moony picks the lock and they continue onward.
The area opens up into an area with a lake shore directly in front of them. There are boats on the shore. A passage branches off to the north. Moony pauses at a door and listens. There is a conversation on the other side, but he doesn’t understand it. One by one the party members approach to listen. Eventually angry noises make the party realize that they have been heard. Faith bursts the door open to find a number of Bugbears in a room with bedrolls and supplies. There is a loft along one wall. Faith and Nala begin the battle … Theren fireball … Reavers arrive … Morbeoth enters the room with mirror image and casts a cone of fear catching Moony, Faith, and Nala
Morbeoth says, “You idiots, I can pay you twice what Thaluna is offering you. She is just using you” and flees through the door to the north.
Game Notes
A multi-faceted title
“Empty Nests.” Which subtitle referenced the general sense of birds/Air and the emptiness of the Temple of Howling Hatred, but also the Kenku who remained, and also that our son was headed back to school for spring semester.
Challenges
Walking into this game, I had two challenges. Well, it turned out I had three, but we’ll get there
1 – Mission-Driven Players
First, this set of players is very mission-driven. Though I joke about their being murder-hobos, they really aren’t. They all have their eyes on the prize. A lot of DMs complain their parties found the Mirabar Delegation driver for the campaign incredibly weak, but my players were definitely still actively inquiring about it. Either I’ve done a good job of building that narrative structure to feel important, or they have that dedication to a goal as an internalized thing, or they know that’s the sort of thing as a DM I like and are seeking to go with the flow.
In any case, this would usually be a good thing. Except it means that they are also hesitant sometimes to do things that don’t seem on-point, and at other times are very bold to dive in if they think that’s the way to further the mission. Which can make for headaches of their own.
In this evening’s case, there was still a fair amount of the northern Temple of Howling Hatred to explore. As far as they were concerned, though, their only goal was finding some supplies for the freed captives and then move on to the corridor with the Water symbol sand-blown on the floor (an addition I made to all the cult interfaces here in Tyar-Besil).
This also tied into their utter disinterest in returning to the surface any time soon. Which means the Cult Retaliation threads go by the wayside, as well as the other side quests up above. Is that a bad thing? I kinda feel like it is, but it may also just be what needs to happen, if that’s what makes the players happy. There’s cool stuff along the way, but that may not be enough reason to push it.
2 – What to do about Aldrik?
But … but … he just got armor and weapons again!
The second challenge was what to do about Aldrik, whose player was headed off to spring semester and whose Friday nights there were otherwise booked. This was complicated / enhanced by (a) need to have hooks to bring him back in at the end of the semester (but not make the campaign hinge on it, since there’s a finite possibility he could be away from home and similarly out of pocket over the summer), and (b) how to make it fit in with meta narrative that I’d already fit him with when he was previously away: his importance to the cults occupying Tyar-Besil because of his heritage (as the last of the bloodline of the Besilmer kings, which would give him — and thus them — access to additional powers and abilities and Lair Actions around the city).
I’d had an idea. Then I had another idea. Then my wife had an idea that would have been best of all in some ways, but Aldrik’s player wasn’t as interested in. More below.
It’s Kenku-hunting season!
I made up several different Kenku tokens
I had some fun with the Kenku lurking in northern area of the Air Temple map. In the campaign, they make haunted house noises to scare the players away. I decided to riff off that, but with a purpose. They did start with screams and cries, but then began to mock Aerisi with some of her catch phrases (cough things I didn’t get to have her say during the final battle cough), ending in mocking laughter. Then they hid.
Kenku
The message from the Kenku was, “Hey, we didn’t like Aerisi, either, so you do you and we’ll do us, and let’s not fight.”
The message the party heard was, “Hey, come over here and see what’s happening so that we can ambush you.”
Kenku
Which is why when Ko the Magic Dragonet stumbled into where the half-dozen of them were hiding in one of the back chambers, a slaughter party ensued. Sigh.
I mean, yeah, I’ve had the Kenku seem like murderous thugs in previous encounters, because that’s kind of their role here. But …
When is a map not a map?
As part of the continuing pet peeve of disconnects between text and illustration, room A13 is marked as an old dwarvish feasting chamber (Vergadin’s Hall), now used for meditation by the HH cultists. Per the description, wooden tables and chairs are scattered around the place, and three large casks are behind a bar (empty).
Which would be great, except the tables and chairs in the map are perfectly set up, like it was an ongoing tavern. And there are no large casks (which I then manually added in).
And it’s a writing change that or discrepancy from the art that looks bad but doesn’t mean anything. I think the idea was that, well, the self-starving HH cultists wouldn’t have a refectory, so they just go there to meditate. But there’s almost certainly some cause to eat, esp. among mercenaries like the Kenku.
Just a random irritation.
Fools plan to rush in …
Okay, I mentioned the players staying on task? I’d had Bero, the halfling captive from the shrine on the south end of the zone mention not just his wife being taken, but a “fancy human” and some other troublemakers. I’d intended that as a reference to Deseyna Majarra, the Mirabar Delegation noble who shows up with Bero’s wife, Nerise, about to be sacrificed in the Air Node in a later act.
Deseyna
One of the players caught it and this episode, while they were stocking up on the supplies they found in the feast hall, she interrogated the freed captives about the matter, confirming the woman in question resembled Deseyna as described to them way back when. The hounds begin to bay again …
So one cool element off at this corner of the map is a chamber with a desiccated Purple Worm head/skeleton sticking out of the ground, showing the dwarf axe injuries that killed it (with some dwarf skeletal remnants in its gullet). This is not only just a cool (and frightening) thing itself, but the skeleton is a vertical, climbable tunnel that goes down to the Fane of the Eye. Which will be very useful … later.
Purple Worm
(It’s actually a neat touch. This almost certainly happened in the era when Tyar-Besil was crumbling under repeated assaults. This Purple Worm breaks in frighteningly close to the palace, is defeated — but the Dwarves can’t do anything about it because they’re fully engaged in battle elsewhere. They just pull out all their supplies from the room and go on with their long, twilight struggle.)
I really wanted them to find it, but they really didn’t want to go that direction, until they got into the inadvertent battle with the Kenku and two of them fled down the corridor to it, which corridor they hadn’t even seen.
Exit, Stage Down
The dead purple worm (which dates back, by the way, about five thousand years old, so, whoa) was, by the way, my first exit point for Aldrik. I’d long joked about the situation of having to remove him from play for a while (as that part was no secret), and joked about having him be swallowed whole by a Purple Worm and carried off.
What if, I thought, I get him checking out something inside the worm skeleton, and the whole thing collapses, bearing him down into the Fane, the tunnel choked off behind him?
So I had this in my back pocket as they poked around at things here briefly — but too briefly, and Aldrik never went near the thing.
Cue Aldrik’s exit, as the party, escorting the freed hostages to the gatehouse, had to cross and march along the underground river, and chose to do so on the back side of the pyramid, by the waterfall.
And the Water Elemental swoops out, slams into the narrow causeway, tossing people aside, grappling Aldrik, dragging him off and over the waterfall.
And over the roar of the fall, the water thrums with vibrations, and you hear a voice [Gar Shatterkeel]: “Not consort … not key … not prize … sacrifice.”
Water Elemental
I had to tweak the Water Elemental a bit, giving him what I called a Whirlpool attack that mirrors the Whirlwind attack of Air Elementals, but keeps some of the grappling power of Whelm. I wanted to play it somewhat legit, even if I was going to railroad the result.
And, actually, playing fair with the initiative and surprise, and damage, the party landed some good blows on the Water Elemental. They could have defeated it in a stand-up fight (if they could have stood up), but with its hit-and-run nature, they never really stood a chance.
Given the spooky voice, and having seen something very much like this before at Feathergale Spire (and since folk realized what was happening in meta terms), the party took it with some aplomb. Aldrik’s player was LOLing in the chat channel to me — he knew he was going to be yoinked, and we’d even discussed the Water Elemental fight, but he’d been surprised at how relatively early it had happened in the game.
Still, he played it perfectly straight. Bravo.
Gar Shatterkeel and his current planned location
The idea with Gar’s voice is I’d decided since Aerisi’s death the distribution of the other Prophets, since they all get visions to retreat once the party has slain one of their number. Marlos and Vanifer were going to their nodes, respectively — both seemed like fun nodal battles to play, whichever way the party goes. Gar, more of a pirate-style villain, was instead going to the altar of Elemental Evil to try and get the Eye to assist him. And Aldrik would make a perfect sacrifice (and his captivity a great holding pen). And if the party could get to the Fane of the Eye in four play-months, the timing would be perfect.
And, if it took longer, as expected, then Aldrik escaped, or Aldrik got kidnapped by one of the other Prophet’s forces and taken to wherever he needed to be. It wouldn’t change the story much, and, honestly, changing movie scripts to shoot around schedule conflicts with the stars is not unknown.
Coming up with elegant or interesting ways to exit or re-enter a player character can really enhance the player experience — both for those whose characters are coming in and out, and for the rest of the party. Having a reason for those entries that plays into the campaign makes it all seem like everyone planned it that way from the beginning, which is kind of cool.
Farewell to the hostages
The freed hostages had been fully supplied with all the hard tack and jerky they could stuff in their pockets, and all the Kenku and cultist weapons they could carry without hurting themselves, so it was time to send them on their way. The Dragonborn fighter sketched out the tactical situation up above, and how best to deal with the Gnolls there. None of the hostages were happy about it, but given the laser-focus of the players on proceeding, they didn’t have much alternative about it.
Ko
At the last moment, William, the druid, sent his Drake Companion with them (though it was unclear at the moment how far away Ko could get from William, or how best/fastest to summon him back). It was actually a compassionate gesture, though, esp. as our party was now down to five bipeds.
The Purple Worm turns
The party knew of a few ways off this level — the corridor with the Water Cult symbol, the howling shaft in the pyramid that was a short-cut to the Air Node (eek!), the Purple Worm skeleton hold down to the Fane, and a passage noted on the map “to the Forges.”
To my surprise (and dismay), the plurality voted for the Purple Worm route.
Okay, I had just sent Aldrik down to the Fane. It was way too early for them to catch up with him. Also, the Fane was designed for Level 10, and these folk were Level 7. The possible scenarios:
They TPK in the Fane. Whoops.
They steamroll their way forward, skipping tons of content, successfully overcoming the obstacles through the rest of the campaign (with a few grudging group levels on the way).
More likely, they manage the Fane (which is not that high level), but then TPK in a node, because those places are nasty.
They are partially killed early, but unless it’s the cleric who can rez, they continue on until they TPK.
They are partially killed early enough that they can withdraw, go back up, do things in a more logical order (maybe even withdraw to the surface), and things hum along as the gods intended.
Yes, I know that as GM it’s my job to avoid poor TPKs, but also to let such a thing, if fully warranted by the players’ informed decisions, happen. But I really didn’t want to see the party wiped out.
Fortunately, I had figured out a way to straddle the line — the following added rule:
Descending into the Fane or a Node results in a psychic attack stemming from:
of the magic of each of the elements
the nature of the other dimensions leaking through into our reality
a foreboding sense of the Eye watching
Each character must make a WISdom Save versus DC 15 + (9 – player level) – (number of others who have made the save already)
If the save fails, the character simply feels it’s too terrifying to continue.
The idea is that as the players leveled, the attempt would get easier. Further if anyone made it, it would make it that much easier for the next person to get through (I wanted to play fair).
So, the first player to make the attempt got told:
You feel … the chill of the darkest depths of the sea … the heat of the most scorching desert … walls of earth closing in upon you … confusion, buffeted about you …
Something … watching … waiting for you to come to it … something … horrifying …
And it actually did as intended, and William (a decently high WIS character as a Druid) just failed.
Whew.
Room Numbers
I’ve mentioned this before, but another pet peeve of mine in this campaign (and with a lot of other D&D modules) reared up here: the “room” numbering was apparently done by a drunken idiot with a dart board.
Back in the day when I was homebrewing my own dungeons, the idea was to keep things relatively sequential based on likely order of travel. So if you are in room 1, the next room is room 2, and maybe there’s a branch so you go to rooms 3-6 in that direction and rooms 7-15 in that direction. Even if there are no rails on the floors, it just makes things tons easier for the GM to flip one page, or scroll down one entry, than hop back and forth.
Not here. From the Plaza of Moradin (A7), surrounded by shops (A5), you travel east to the Plaza of Vergadain (A6) — but that has the Feast Hall of Vergadain (A13) as its central point, and that goes to the adjoining room with the Purple Worm head (A20).
Nuts.
Roads not traveled
The party decided to poke around to the west of the Plaza of Moradin. This has two features.
There are the Villas Royal Chambers, which lie in complete ruins (in which lurks an Umber Hulk, but also some useful treasure). They took a look, peremptorily decided the Kenku would have raided any valuables (well, the Cultists tried, until too many were eaten by the Umber Hulk), and decided to skip that.
I would eventually fun with the Cloaker
There was also the graveyard, sealed up behind ornate solid gates that are spiked from this side. They party completely read the message that “There’s bad stuff in here” (a flock of Ghouls), and so decided to skip the pain (and so the treasure therein). They also checked out one shop (did not roll “successfully” for the Cloaker inside), and decided to skip the rest, losing out on that potential treasure.
Sigh.
I mean, I get it, and applaud it. They had a mission or two: find the Delegates, find Aldrik, defeat the rising Cults (this last is kind of vague, but, sure). Clearing out levels was not part of the mission.
And since we’re doing milestone leveling, and they’d done what was necessary for this temple, there’s no hit point harvesting needed.
On the other hand, it meant that if I wanted them to have some of the gewgaws and magic that they would otherwise have picked up, I had to shift it around to areas where they do go. Or find a reason to make them more interested in searching things more carefully.
That’s why they pay me the big bucks.
How far they had explored the Air Temple when they left.
The Temple of the Crushing Wave!
The party decided to head off for the Water symbol corridor. A new map! And the appropriate level. Huzzah!
I had discovered, you might recall, too late that I still had the party out of sync, level-wise. Clearing the Temple of the Howling Hatred should have dinged them from 6 to 7. Since they were already 7, it meant they were already of the recommended level for the Water Temple.
One of the interesting things about the whole Tyar-Besil / Underdark setup for this campaign is that the dungeons are not linear. You can enter from any direction. There’s a main entrance to each from the surface keeps, but you can move laterally to two other temples from any given temple, plus vertical paths that take you to the Fane or the Nodes.
This can be a bit hair-pulling for a DM (at least for me, and I don’t have much hair to spare), for reasons described above. But it’s also a challenge, especially on the lateral moves. There is no “the players will come in here, and first encounter this, and then encounter that. Each corner of the map is a potential entry point, each challenge something that could happen right up front or in final clearing-out activity.
So when I first went through the Temple of the Crushing Wave map and material, I assumed things came up along the river from Rivergard Keep. Fortunately, I’d realized a few meetings back that they were likely going to come in from this direction, so I reviewed this corner carefully to see how opponents here behaved. Which served me well.
I’d labeled this as the Trade Quarter on the throne room floor map, and the party had had a chance to review the notes they’d taken from there.
Temple of the Crushing Wave (Pyramid Map)
Coming in, they could just see the edge of the lake (labeled as the Great Harbor on the map — the Dwarves are just as self-aggrandizing as any other race), but Moony turned the party north to where there was corridor and door (the “Brewery” on the map). He could hear voices inside, but couldn’t make out what they were saying (as they were Bugbears, and talking in Goblin). For some reason, this got the whole party (well, at least two other folk) wanting to crowd up to the door to listen to see if it was a language they understood.
Which, given the Stealth rolls made, and the fact that there was an arrow slit just up the corridor that would convey sound, meant the party did not surprise the Bugbears when they charged in.
The party did not appreciate graduating from Kenku to Bugbears.
The battle was notable only because of its numbers; there are several Bugbears (who hit freaking hard — our cleric, who has been kind of cocky over her AC and her retaliatory boom when someone hit her, found herself quickly down to half HP and still on the pointy end of the stick) and because the sound of the battle (by the book, even if people aren’t casting Thunderwave) attracts another several Reavers from the next room (not as many as the party thought — I had intentionally given them high numbers for just that meta a reason), as well as a One-Eyed Shiver named Morbeoth — basically a mage with a glowing chunk of ice for one eyeball.
Morbeoth token
(I worked up a unique token and hand-out for him. If you’re going to name a guy and give him a backstory, he deserves at least that much.)
The numbers could have been telling, save that they came in waves, so nobody could be totally overwhelmed, and the party was able to use AoE spells very effectively — Theren’s Fireball took out or half-killed many of the Reavers, and William’s Moonbeam choked traffic at the door nicely.
Morbeoth was able to Misty Step into the room, and nail three party members (Moony, Faith, and Nala — the top melee folk) with a Fear cone. I did get the players to tell me their worst fears (the Fire Elemental at Scarlet Moon Hall, her gods being disappointed in her, and drowning-personified-as-a-Water-Elemental) before throwing down their weapons and fleeing.
Crushing Wave Reaver
But it was too little, too late at that point with only a few Reavers left to back Morbeoth up. After he (I) learned the limitations of Mirror Image (NFG against AoE, like the still-up Moonbeam), he accused them of being in the pay of “Thuluna” and escaped, letting the remaining Reavers pay the price for being his rear guard.
That seemed a good opportunity to call a pause for the evening, and so we did.
Cult Politics
Thuluna (as a kindly old lady)
There’s actually a fair amount of political intrigue going on at the Water Temple, per the campaign. Morbeoth thinks he should be in charge (or, at least, second in command to Gar Shatterkeel), and hates Thuluna. Thuluna, a sea hag, commands the loyalty of the monsters / creatures / non-PC-races here.
You don’t actually get too see how too much how all that plays out, which is a shame (in theory the players could forge double-crossing alliances, and infiltrate quite a ways, if they chose). Still, it was fun having Morbeoth accuse the players of being in Thuluna’s pay. It gave them a few things to think about.
The Dust Settles
I thought/hoped the melee was a wake up call for some characters. They’d been slightly overlevel for a while, and while they were able to defeat the foes here, they’d faced some bigger magic, and bigger hitters, than they had previously. That might make them more conflict-avoidant, or might make them more tactical in how they tackled things. The fact that they just lost a melee heavy hitter might play a role there, either …
I had no clear idea what was going to happen next time — there’s not really a grand saga in the Crushing Wave temple, just interesting set pieces and opponents. I’d have to think about where Morbeoth ran to, since his domain and power base and lab are all in that corner. Certainly he’s not going to run to Thuluna Maah …
In the most recent campaign I ran, this spell was a go-to for our Druid all the way up the level progression. It damages, it illumines (maybe), it pretty much does it all.
Let’s talk about Bonfire
Create Bonfire is a pretty straightforward spell, so much so that it can be easily overlooked, even as it’s accessible by Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, or Artificer players.
You create a bonfire on ground that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, the magic bonfire fills a 5-foot cube.
The bonfire ignites flammable objects in its area that aren’t being worn or carried.
The Bonfire does 1d8 damage to start with, scaling up by character level (not class level). The save for fire damage is a DEXterity roll, which is often easily made by enemies (resulting in no damage, as Cantrips usually do), but not always. Overall, damage is not amazing, but not for nothing.
The Movable Bonfire
Wait, you might say — a Bonfire can’t be moved.
True. Unlike, say, Moonbeam, there are no rules for Create Bonfire.
But they aren’t needed. This is a Cantrip. You can cast it every single turn. It’s a Concentration spell, but that doesn’t matter here. If your Bonfire is burning there, you can easily simply recast it on your turn to be there.
When does the damage occur?
Here’s the tricky part that makes Create Bonfire interesting.
Any creature in the bonfire’s space when you cast the spell must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d8 fire damage.
A creature must also make the saving throw when it moves into the bonfire’s space for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there.
So the check for damage takes place in three situations:
If the target is in the square where the Bonfire is cast.
If the target moves (or is moved) into the Bonfire square on a given turn.
If the target ends its turn in the Bonfire square.
This gives the spell a scosh more flexibility than, say, Moonbeam. It immediately attacks when cast.
Also, as noted, a target can be moved into the Bonfire and immediately have to check for damage. This could be with a Shove attack, a Thorn Whip, or some other means. This can actually be done to a target multiple times per round (the restriction is only once per given turn).
It burns!
While the damage done by the Bonfire is not tremendous, as a DM, I’d also factor in the psychological aspect — stepping into/through fire, or standing in fire, even if the damage being done isn’t overwhelming, is still not easy to do. I’d suggest that that most mooks will run around the Bonfire, or will try to step out of it if they can, rather than take the 1d8 each turn.
It’s a floor polish and a dessert topping!
While we tend to think of most spells in terms of combat effect, Create Bonfire can also do something as simple as it says outside of combat, too, as it will set any flammable material on fire. And, as a cantrip, there’s no effective cost to starting the party’s campfire each evening once someone has gathered some wood.
Looking at an alternate use, interestingly enough, there is some intense debate out there whether the Bonfire, which clearly emits heat, actually emits light. In the campaign I ran, the Druid often used the spell to illumine dark rooms for the darkvisionally challenged.
Why it might not create light: The spell itself does not list it as an effect, as some other fire-based spells do. Compare the text above for Create Bonfire to this for Flaming Sphere:
The sphere ignites flammable objects not being worn or carried, and it sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet.
Why it clearly creates light: It is a Conjuration of a bonfire, and that seems to be fairly clear in intent.
I leave it to the DM to make this particular ruling, though I find the idea of a non-light-emitting bonfire, even if magical, to be baffling.
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 35 (Day 34-35)
Howling Hatred symbol
The party entertained Victrid the sylph, who gave them a reward from Ahtayir: seven flasks of Bottled Breath.
The party camped out in the “dorms” to the southeast for a Long Rest, interrupted a couple of times by patrols, one of which was deterred by Moony’s deception.
Strangely enough, nobody remembers any of their dreams.
They explored further into the area, and found a dwarvish shrine to Moradin that was occupied by Kenku torturing a group of captives. After dispatching them, one, a halfling named Bero Gladham, talked about some prisoners — his wife Nerise Gladham, a fancy human, and some other cantankerous prisoners — had been taken “down below” where they would be “useful.”
The freed captives wanted to be escorted safely back to a town, but the party was split on what to do. There was a strong interest in forging forward into Tyar-Besil to thwart whatever plot was going on. But sending the freed captives back to the surface meant they might be attacked by the gnolls in Sighing Valley. Having them hole up in a room meant they might be recaptured, and they had no supplies. The majority of the adventurers still wanted to proceed toward the corridor marked with the Crushing Wave symbol.
Ultimately, they decided to send the freed captives back to the surface on their own, but with supplies. The party, with the captives following, circled around the back side of the pyramid, only to be faced by an encounter with Aerisi Kalinoth and her cultists, where she demanded that they surrender and serve her. They demurred, and an intense fight (featuring AoE attacks from both sides) ensued. In the end, Aerisi was slain (at Aldrik’s hands) and her troops with her, fanatically fighting to the end.
The party regrouped in the plaza dominated by a statue of Moradin. While none of the cultists had anything of much worth, Aerisi (whose wings vanished a moment before she did, her death transforming her to a briefly screaming gust of air) left behind both extensive jewelry, Aerisi’s spell book, and her spear, Windvane. The last was taken by Faith.
Player Recap
The Rewards of Victorid
The image of Tyar-Besil is etched on the floor of the pyramid temple. Parts are marred by gashes and chips.
Victrid the Sylph
The group is debating what to do next. Suddenly a loud knock sounds from the door to the pyramid. They assume combat positions and Moony slowly opens the door. There is a blue bag in front of him. It is attached to a small fey with dragonfly wings, Victrid. She greets the group including Ko. “And hi to you. Don’t worry your secret is safe with me.” She continues “Smells wrong dirty dirty dirty, I’m not supposed to say that word, but he can’t hear here.” “All hail master Atahyir …”
Moony: “go ahead and put down your bag and stay on this side of the pit.”
“With that I am away from this terrible terrible place.”
Bottled Breath potion
In the bag, there are 7 blue flasks. Bottled Breath Potion, “These bottles contain the most precious of all gifts, an hour of breath. With it you may blow a mighty gale, or else savor its sweet purity for that span. What mortal being has ever been given such a rare thing?”
The party leaves the pyramid and heads to the rooms south of the Djinn’s room. It is empty and the group decided to hole up for the evening. About 4 hours later, there is a rattle at the door and some conversation followed by banging. Moony listens at the door to try and figure out who is there. It sounds like Common. Moony chants “I am one with the air and the air is me.” There is a pause in the banging. A voice says ‘Who is that, what are you doing” “Aerisi sent me down here to practice being one with the air, otherwise I will join the chorus. Leave me be!” After a long moment, the voice says “Very well, be careful there are intruders in the temple.” Moony “That’s why I locked the door. Thank you.” Two hours later, there is another rattle at the door and a different voice says “Open this door at once” Moony goes back into the chanting routine, but it doesn’t fool the new combatant.
Crumblecake!
After a brief battle, the air priests are dispatched and the bodies are staged in the Djinn’s room. The remaining 2 hours of rest passed uneventfully. In the morning, the party eats some crumblecake and decides to explore the remaining room on the southern side of the temple of howling hatred. Down the hallway, there is a door with screams coming from behind it. Moony opens the door and commands them to stop. There is an altar on the far side. There are prisoners inside being tortured by a group of Kenku. Moony draws his bow and the action starts.
Theren casts fire bolt at the Kenku standing on the altar and kills him. The second Kenku attacks Moony and the third stabs at Aldrik as he comes through the door. Aldrik attacks back and then moves further into the room. Faith steps up and casts Word of Radiance and Nala wades in swinging. Kenku 2 goes down. The last Kenku is hanging on by a thread until Moony finishes him off.
This is an ancient dwarven shrine. The workmanship is stellar but the gems and valuables have been chipped from the walls. The hostages are mostly humans from Yartril and a hobbit from Westbridge.
The group decides that they don’t have time to take the hostages back to Red Larch. Nala insists that they get them supplies before sending them off. The hostages do not want to be left alone, so they follow the party.
Aerisi Kalinoth, commanding the armies of the Air.
As they move around the pyramid, Moony sees a group of ascetic and initiates are in a room ahead. He warns the followers and then sneaks ahead. A familiar voice calls out. Aerisi has returned and is not happy. Aerisi is hovering about a dwarven statue with minions around her.
Faith kicks things off with a hail storm. Pounding the attackers with large hailstones and turning the floor into difficult terrain. A wild battle ensues. Lightening flies and the earth shakes. In the end Aldrik races through a poisonous cloud and gets the final attack on Aerisi. She calls out to Yan-C-Bin and disappears, leaving her silken robes, jewelry, and the spear Windvane.
Four streets converge at this point with a statue of the dwarf lord Moradin. There are shops arranged around the square.
Game Notes
What to do, what to do?
A tip of the hat to Gary Larson and “The Far Side”
We resumed the player debate about which way they were going once the game started. Finish exploring? Short Rest? Long Rest? Where? Find the hinted-at Captives?
So I love being able to do remote gaming through a Virtual Tabletop. Even though all the players were in the same metro area, distance and travel time (and, ugh, Fridays) would make this a bigger lift if we were playing in person around the table.
But something that the VTT doesn’t do is sit everyone around the table and having to look at each other. Indeed, to save bandwidth for multiple players per household, nobody was running video (and even if they did, it would be buried in another window).
While that means folk can eat a sandwich or step away from the keyboard or pick their nose with nobody being aware of it, it also means that it’s really easy for contentious decisions to fall into a slough of silence, where most (?) folk have made their point, but nobody (especially in this group of friends) wants to be the bastard who insists on the party following their lead.
That’s a place where I, as the GM, need to step in, and I tend to be a bit slow at it, not wanting folk to feel I am railroading them into a particular decision or even making a decision …
For Victrid!
Victrid token
Fortunately, I had a distraction, a flighty little sylph named Victrid who arrived with the djinn Ahtayir’s reward to them for enabling him to get free: a flask of Bottled Breath for everyone.
(The reward is out of the book, the sylph was my own imagination — I felt it a nicer option than “you find some bottles tucked under the throne” or something.)
Everyone instantly got paranoid about when they might need Bottled Breath. Since at this point I was doing my first review of the Plunging Torrents (the water node), it seemed like a fabulous gift … if it lasted that long.
Developing a token for Victrid and everything probably took only slightly less time than she was on-stage, but I still think she as a fun, hyper, “magic pixie dream girl” character to trot in.
Camping out
Once Victrid had flitted off, the party gelled around the idea of taking a Long Rest, and doing so in one of the dorms in the southeast, which would let them clear the black spot they’d not explored. Since I’d prepped and set up for the big battle in the Square of Moradin (see below), I wasn’t thrilled, but, hey, player agency.
They trucked over to the spot, checked out the one dorm room they hadn’t previously investigated, and camped out.
Now … damn. The party should not be encouraged (indeed, the module specifically discourages) camping out inside one of the temples. It’s just dangerous. There are patrols and other threats, all the time.
I could do what the book says, and roll wandering monsters / patrols every ten minutes. On the other hand, nobody wants to play constant mook battles, least of all me.
I could send them all Bad Dreams. But that starts being a bit too pushy, unless I want to dictate effects. (Do the Bad Dreams disrupt their Long Rest? Harsh. Maybe when they get down lower.)
AoE 10ft radius – Dust Devil
In the end, I did random monster rolls every hour, which resulted in two encounters — some folk who Moony managed to talk into leaving (he was becoming our deceitful rogue, which was awesome), others who kicked in the door and got promptly taken down. (Though not before I got to cast Dust Devil and have my new DD AoE token show up. Fun!)
They decided to dump the bodies nearby, rather than bring them into the room. I could have cause them trouble, but decided not to. The patrols were pretty light because Aerisi was gathering her forces …
Freed captives are a pain in the ass
On rising, they found the shrine and the captives of the Kenku there. Pretty short order battle. But that left them with a new problem.
Nerise Gladham, human female peasant captive
Small digression: Not long before this session, I had been doing my first review of the Howling Caves (the Air Node). Toward the end, you run across a couple of people being teed up for sacrifice. One is the inconsistently-named Deseyna Majarra. The other is a peasant woman, Nerise Gladham, who expresses concern over her husband, from whom she was separated.
Bero Gladham, captive of the Air Cult, whose wife was taken “below”
I worked up a unique token and handout for her, because I suspected she’d be around for a while. (I mean, what do you do with captives you’ve freed inside the Air Node? You can’t exactly let them try and wander home. Hold that thought.) It was only after I had done all of that that a thought occurred to me that … well, heck, Nerise was the wife of Bero Gladham, the peasant they free here at the Shrine of Moradin in the Temple of Howling Hatred.
Except that I’d done up Bero as a halfling, and Nerise as a human.
And so what? First mixed-race marriage of the campaign, huzzah, vive la différence, and we’d see if anyone ever noticed. End of digression.
At any rate, we now have five freed Level 0 peasants/merchants. What is the party going to do with them?
And once again the game came to a screeching halt while the question was debated.
Arm them (hey, here are some short swords the kenku aren’t using any more) and escort them to the gatehouse … to let them ascend on their the several miles to the surface, ending up in the Sighing Valley that the party already knows has hungry gnolls with bows and arrows?
Go with them and get them to safety (maybe to the end of the valley, maybe to Feathergale Spire, maybe all the way to Red Larch)?
Tell them to lock themselves in a chamber and “we’ll be back for you real soon, we promise.” Except there are no supplies. And it’s not like this place is safe.
Have them trail along behind. How well is that going to work, and how safe will it really be for them?
And how do the peasants/merchants actually feel about these options? (Answer: only #2 garners any enthusiasm from them.)
Part of the issue here was that some of the players really didn’t want to deal with the problem. Short of killing them (nobody was quite there), any solution that got them out of sight and mind was fine, because it would be done with and/or let the party continue with its (important!) quest. Conversely, some of the players kind of took that whole Lawful and/or Good thing seriously, and wanted to be sure these folk were safe.
(Part of the issue as well is that the party really didn’t know how this is laid out ahead — if they leave this temple, they were likely not coming back any time soon.)
I probably let the debate go on too long (I probably should have done another Wandering Monster roll). I did try to summarize the options and make sure that everyone had spoken up if they wanted to.
In the end, the decision was to get some supplies for the peasants/merchants (since they were pretty starved), arm them up, and send them to the surface on their own. That meant a delay while the party searched the rest of this zone for said food and water (not wanting to give any of their own), with the freed captives in tow. Maybe at that place marked like it has supplies up in the NE corner of the map …
Which meant … (GM grins.)
The Return of the Aerisi
So I’d been unhappy with Aerisi fleeing the previous episode, both because it felt anticlimactic and because it left unresolved the whole disposition of prophets.
I’d been casually mentioning that, well, she hadn’t really been taken down, just driven away.
What, it occurred to me, if I ran with that? What if, while the party is lounging about for their Short Rest, then a Long Rest, Aerisi is busy gathering up all the troops she can in short order, and getting ready to confront them?
Initially, I thought I’d let them finish exploring (if they chose to) and then have her and company waiting when they got back from the Purple Worm room (“SUPPLIES” it says on the map). But … why not have her just set up in the Plaza of Moradin for a show down? Take care of most of the clearing (though leaving the various hazards around the plaza, as well as some mocking kenku), and give it a real blow-out.
I did some CR balancing, and …
The party circled around the back of the pyramid (scenic waterfall into the shadowy depths!), and up to the concourse to the north of the structure, where they encountered Aerisi and the various soldiers she had managed to pull together. Huzzah!
I’d gauged the combat difficulty carefully, not wanting to make it potentially fatal. In retrospect, I could have made it harder. Part of the problem was that it was mostly as distance fight — arrows and spells (and some AoE in the latter), which favored the party, mostly. Aerisi was the only significant spellcaster (and she did manage to get off a Chain Lightning, which was tons of fun, plus the weakest CloudKill ever, 10d8 poison damage and half of that was 1s being rolled). The party popped a Fireball and an Ice Storm, plus a Moonbeam and a very helpful Silence, the net of which was that half of Aerisi’s folks were taken down without getting into combat, the other half relegated to futile charges and doing some damage to one of the fighters who’d moved forward …
(For a brief moment, it looked like Aldrik might be Thunderwaved into the river, which opened the prospect that he would get swept away and over the waterfall … which would be an awesome way for his character to disappear off to the Spring Semester, albeit an episode early. Didn’t happen, but I could have forced it …)
The oppo all had lines written for them, half of which I forgot to deliver.
For the Winds!
We purify the world for Yan-C-Bin and his Prophet!
Breathe through me, my Queen!
We avenge your subjects, Great Lady!
We serve to our deaths!
Cultists are fun!
The columned causeway at A10 was interesting, because it was a choke point for attacks, allowed my own AoE (such as it was) to be more effective, and created some great visual blocking for the dynamic lighting in Roll20.
Aerisi Kalinoth by Balmet
Eventually, it came down to Aerisi, and even with her abilities and wielding Windvane, she couldn’t stand up to the Action Economy and went down. (Worse, a Skyweaver who had been hanging out toward the back, just outside the Silence, was lined up to do a spiffy Lightning Bolt that would catch three, maybe four players … and got gacked by the Moonbeam just before she was going to do it. Curses!)
When the dust settled, I was much happier with this being Aerisi’s exit moment than her flight from the Pyramid last time. She got some great monologuing at the start of the battle …
You! There you hide! You burnt, dirty, sweaty fleshlings! This is your fault! You’ve slaughtered my noble subjects! You’ve killed my lovers! You’ve stolen my djinn! You destroyed my beloved Whisper! And now my master, my teacher, the Shadow of the Four Winds, the Howling Hatred — he will not hear my words! You have taken EVERYTHING from me!
Bow! Bow down, swear allegiance, swear to fight and die for my cause, and I might show you mercy. Give me your love, and I will care for you in return. Refuse, and be scoured!
Yeah, Yan-C-Bin wasn’t thrilled when she high-tailed it back to the Air Node. And, of course, she sees it all as unfair treatment of her.
Aerisi
If the party had chosen to talk, rather than immediately fight, I had some conversational gambits where Aerisi once again offered (as in that second paragraph) to become their beloved queen.
FAITH – friend, besties, Sisters of the Storm.
WILLIAM – handsome enough, if sweaty. a decent consort.
THEREN – you shall be my ambassador to the Cult of the Eternal Flame, for as long as they’re around.
NALA – bodyguard, I suppose. I mean, what are you good for, really?
MOONY – you shall make a delightful pet. I will feed you fine food, and pet and stroke you upon my lap, and you will do tricks and kill things for me.
ALDRIK – you … need punishment. then you can be my … well, no king, prince, perhaps, or (ew) consort in name. master of the city, at any rate, its tricks and traps and powers. but, yes, punishment first.
Alas, on the list of could-have-beens. But I still think it was cool. Generic offers of “Follow me and live, spurn me and die” are a dime a dozen. Tailored appeals to character flaws, needs, wants (correct or not) make the story about the characters, not generic villains.
She also had a series of lines in combat (I was maybe overprepped for this, though some of this material was left over from her first appearance), half of which were cut off by that damned Silence spell. (Though that did have the effect of driving her toward the party and in reach of Aldrik, who, perfectly, as the guy she had kidnapped and enslaved, was the one who took her down).
I’m a queen! A queen, I tell you!
They laughed! They laughed at me! Now they laugh no more!
The Howling Hatred will love me! He will!
Mother and Father were wrong. Wrong!
Only I see clearly! Only my eyes penetrate the air!
(Dying) If only I could see the Pure Sky again …
All pure Aerisi — entitled, defiant, insecure, a few billows short of a cloud. A woman so delusional that her primary magic focus is an illusion of wings because she thinks she should beis an Avariel and she absolutely must be that incredibly cool.
Alas, sic transit gloria Aerisi. We shall not see her kind again (largely because the other Prophets don’t get nearly the onscreen role that she does — they’re all interesting characters, but with little opportunity to be so in front of the players).
Aerisi Kalinoth and her Invisible Stalker, in happier days
I’d have loved to have had someone in the party on the brink of death during the battle, but that just tells me I need to turn the amps up to 8.1 instead of just 8.
Explored areas of the Temple of Howling Hatred, post-session. I tried to indicate their visual perception of the edge of the great cavern that is this quadrant of the city.
Where to now?
That seemed like a great moment to wrap up for the evening, the battle complete, and a couple of additional complications:
First off, Aerisi dropped a shit-tonne of jewelry when she turned into a howling, dissipating, blast of air on her death. That could hopefully be a big temptation for the party to head back to town — Beliard and Red Larch both now have access to adventuring equipment, and getting some upgraded weapons/armor would be a good thing (and a good thing for the story).
Windvane
Aerisi also left behind Windvane, the first of the Prophet weapons, and it’s pretty damned kick-ass (and, of course, also cursed, containing a spark of Yan-C-Bin inside). Time to start whispering in the ear of whomever is carrying it (looks like Faith, who is perfect thematically as a tempest cleric and as someone trying to discover herself.
I did up a token, just to have it on the ground there, post-battle.
Really, I suppose, it should probably have gone to Nala as the actual fighter (and leadershippy sort) on the team. Next Prophet weapon, perhaps, though Prophet weapons will now be less available.
Aerisi was now dead, which triggered some storylines in the book:
The other Prophets would withdraw from their temples, so those temples will now be run by lieutenants and other threats. Two of the Prophets will go to their nodes to summon their Princes; the other one will be in the Fane, calling on the Elemental Evil Eye. I hadn’t decided how that would be divvied up.
On the outside, we would start getting Cult Reprisals (Devastation Orbs in the town square). I decided Womford is first on the list, because we needed to get some dramatic tension when Red Larch was targeted. But this all depended on the party stepping outside for some fresh air (so to speak).
Short term, there was still a bit more of the Air Temple to explore — Ghouls in the graveyard, an Umber Hulk in the old royal quarters, a Cloaker in the shops. To the north was a passage to the Temple of Eternal Flame portion of the city. To the east, there’s the feasting hall (which won’t have any people in it, having been stripped for the battle we just fought, though I did plan to have some Kenku over there being obnoxious). There’s also a chamber with the skeletal Purple Worm passageway down to the Fane of the Eye.
That makes four exits into further trouble here: the Water Temple, the Fire Temple, the Fane, and the Air Node. Which would be a lot to refresh myself on, given the party’s unconscious glee at going off in direction I was not expecting. I gave odds that they would go for the Water Temple, in part for meta reasons that they know that’s kinda-sorta the sequence intended. But who knew with this group?
Purple Worm
I also needed to deal with Aldrik’s player departing for Spring Semester. I’d been consistently joking about a Purple Worm suddenly swallowing him up … without considering that there’s that skeletal purple worm up in the supply rooms, so that might be a fun double-twist. We’d have to see how I get inspired before the next Friday. Maybe when they were in that room with the skeletal Purple Worm tunnel, the whole thing would collapse with Aldrik in it, trapping him down in the Fane, the rest of the party above …
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 34 (Day 34)
Howling Hatred symbol
The party entered the ground floor of the pyramid of the Temple of Howling Hatred, and with the distraction of Moony wearing the robes of the Skyweaver who they slew the previous session, they were able to get the jump on the Yan-C-Bin worshippers inside. Theren Fireballed a bunch of them to death. The others showed more advanced magic, but were soon put down.
A shaft of howling winds lay at the center of that ground floor, and a body rolled into it slowly descended into the darkness.
Moony scouted the upper level of the pyramid, which appeared to be a throne room. The group went up both stairs to that level.
Aerisi – “bored now”
Aerisi Kalinoth, the Prophet of Air, sat upon a throne there, her spear by her side. She attempted to engage the party in dialog, sensing their arrival, but they attacked instead, so she ordered them killed.
The party quickly dispatched the incense-drunken Initiates, and Theren’s vitriolic sphere took down Aerisi’s cohort Windharrow. Aerisi got a bit panicky and vanished.
Aldrik was blindsided (literally) by an Invisible Stalker under Aerisi’s orders. That distracted from attempts to spot Aerisi where she was recovering the horn used to summon the djinn Ahtayir.
Williams’s rain of water made the Invisible Stalker temporarily visible, letting folk whale upon it and defeat it.
When Ahtayir arrived, Aerisi commanded him to prevent the party from following her, then flew, invisible, out of the room. The djinn merely confirmed with the party that they would not pursue her while it was still meaningful; they, in turn, chose not to attack him.
Ahtayir
Ahtayir, freed from the previous command to maintain the city, returned to his home on the Elemental Plane of Air — alone, as nobody was willing to enter his service in return for such an adventure. He took the horn with him, freed from his previous service by the new order that Aerisi had given. He warned the party that the djinn had no love for Yan-C-Bin but that the other elemental princes were far worse.
The chamber floor bore a map of the city of Tyar-Besil.
The party debated whether to continue to sweep the city for opposition, or move onward. The djinn had suggested that there were slaves of the Air Cult in the city, though some of the commoners encountered had seemed actively allied with the Howling Hatred. There was also concern that Aerisi had only fled, not been captured or killed.
Player Recap
Step Up to the Pyramid!
They stand at the great doors of the step pyramid. After listening and checking for traps Moony, wearing the robes of the wyvern rider, opens the doors. There are a number of initiates, an Ascetic, and a Skyweaver levitating in a large open room. There is a pit with a howling wind coming from it in front of the worshipers. The Ascetic steps to the floor and calls out “Close the door, you are interrupting our prayers.” Moony’s bluff works and the Skyweaver only looks briefly before closing her eyes and resuming her prayers.
Moony prepares and attacks. Theren tosses off a Fireball from outside the door and removes the initiates from the fight. The group moves in and continues to attack the remaining air priests. They in turn damage the party with thunder and lightning. By the end of the round, the battle is done. Theren moves in and closes the doors. The air cultists are mostly armed with daggers and darts. Moony rolls the Skyweaver’s body into the shaft it slowly sinks down while the howling wind comes up through the well.
Moony begins sneaking up the stairs and sees a large group of initiates and named villains. The groups split to go up both stairs. (Moony, Nala, William, & Ko on the North and Theren, Faith, and Aldrik to the South) Theren casts Invisibility on himself and takes the lead on the South Stair.
Aerisi Kalinoth taunts the group, inviting them up to play. When Theren prepares to cast his spell, she says “Of for pity sake, kill them all”. Theren casts Vitriolic Sphere and moves back down the stairs. An initiate moves up to attack Moony and misses badly. Nala then takes him out and moves further into the room. Faith calls up an Ice Storm and pelts Windharrow and several initiates with rock-hard ice. Aldrik races towards Aerisi in a rage. He is struck from behind. Aerisi disappeared. William steps into the room and casts Faerie Fire on the throne and the niche behind, in an attempt to uncover Aerisi if she is invisible. (Notes cut off here.)
Game Notes
To Sneak or Not To Sneak
So I’ve commented on it before, but I’ll mention it again: this party has two modes:
Tentative sneaking and only engaging in combat if it cannot possibly be avoided.
Charging in and killing everything.
The third mode, which the book seems to assume will be a common one, is deception. Every complex has note about “If the party pretends it is bearing an important message for the head honcho” or “If the party pretends it’s here to join the cult” or “If the party is wearing the local cult costume” as a way to get past checkpoints and through doors and into deeper potential trouble.
One problem is that the one character with a high CHArisma — Theren — was also playing the hermit fire-thrower who is afraid of losing control, and has a crotchety and antisocial attitude. Not the one to pull off a clever deception.
I eventually commented upon this in passing enough times that a couple of things happened.
One, the Dragonborn fighter, taking the Banneret sub-build, got some leadership skills to help with social encounters. But second, our Tabaxi rogue, who’d been collecting costumes as souvenirs, finally decided to use one.
Which is why the party got the drop on the group in the ground floor of the pyramid. Fireball online and the rest was history.
Well, not quite. While the Initiate mooks went down like tenpins, the Skyweaver and the Hurricane (which I was still referencing as an “Ascetic” since I’d originally done so at Feathergale Spire) managed to demonstrate with a Thunderwave and a Lightning Bolt that the days of “Oh, we can take these guys, we’re the only ones with AoE spells” were quite over.
Always good to deflate player cockiness a bit, just to retain that element of tension.
The Madness of Queen Aerisi
Aerisi Kalinoth illo from the book. I used this series of pics of the Prophets for the tokens, but this one makes her look way too sane.
The party took quite some time scouting up the stairs to the throne room at the top of the pyramid, enough so that Aerisi was easily able to detect them. Which was great, because I had written, over the preceding weeks, close to a page of Aerisi dialog bits, and I was really eager to use them to (a) convey some interesting information, (b) muddy the waters, (c) drop some hints about Aldrik, and (d) demonstrate that Aerisi really was cray-cray. E.g.,
She smiles at Aldrik. “Good. You return. And you brought friends, good, good.”
“It is good to see all of you, come to play. What shall we play today? Queen of the World?”
“Do you like my wings? Aren’t they beautiful? All the avarielhave wings, but none so beautiful as mine.”
“He says I will be Queen of the World. He says I will scour all to the bedrock and beyond, and fly with my beautiful wings over the empty land, and all will worship my beauty and … and queenliness.” … “Who? Yan-C-Bin.” … “Hmmmm … yes, that doesn’t make any sense. No, you don’t make any sense.”
“They said I couldn’t play. They pretended they were my mother and father, but they were obviously imposters and kidnappers.”
“The djinn. He thinks he’s so great and mighty, but he serves me. As everyone will, someday. It will be so much fun!”
“Oh, those filthy, filthy foul Earthers. They soil everything they touch. They pretend to be my followers, play dress-up. But they aren’t. They try to trick people into thinking they are my subjects, but I rejected them. …. Would you be interested in going after them, be my brave knights against their fetid darkness?”
“Thurl … Merosska? Oh, yes, him. A sweet boy. He loved me, he did, back in the day. Worshipped me, like a goddess. But he wouldn’t let me play. He would want to be in charge. He’d lock me up in his tower and sit in my chair. I can’t let that happen, can I?” (Looks to Faith) “Well, between us girls, can I?”
“He’s dead? Oh. A pity. I was thinking of bringing him here, making long, languorous love to him, then sending him to fight against my enemies. Wouldn’t that be fun? Like … like … what is that game, with the checkerboard, but not checkers … right. He would be my … rook. That’s a kind of bird, you know.”
In the actuality of things, she only managed to get out that she wanted them to come up and play, and that they would get to see her bee-yoo-tee-ful wings. At which point, the party went with the “charge in and kill everyone” thing, slaughtering the drunken Initiates, taking down Windharrow the Bard pretty quickly (though he got a Discordant Whispers off that I enjoyed immensely), even before Aerisi’s Invisible Stalker got into play.
My players
Things got mildly confusing there for a while, because Aerisi was being charged by Aldrik (who remembered enough about his captivity to want to even the score), and he’d reached the dais by the time she’d realized she was in danger. So she went invisible, flipped herself over the top of the throne to get to the horn to summon Ahtayir … just as the Invisible Stalker went after Aldrik.
So people were looking for her, but also trying to figure out about what was attacking him. The druid’s Faerie Fire would have been perfect in pinpointing her (and would have meant her death, most likely), except that she made her save. The druid made up for it by next round casting a Create Water in the area over the Invisible Stalker, and the outlines of the rain made it visible for one round — which gave everyone a chance to beat the airy tar out of it (Action Economy!).
Horn of Ahtayir
Aerisi had, meantime, sounded the horn, and had to hang on one more round for Ahtayir to show up. He did (going into the initiative count directly after her, fully legit), and she ordered him to Prevent them from following me!
A-ha.
If she’d been smart, she’d have told him to kill the intruders, and he likely could have, some of them at least. I mean, CR 11 creature. But she was, understandably, in a panic, personally threatened for the first time in quite a while. She, too, could probably kill any one or two of the party herself, with Windvane the Spear, if not with just a good Chain Lightning and Cloudkill … but, again, that’s not her way of thinking. Her plan was to high-tail it out of there, and fly down the shaft to the Air Node where she had more powerful warriors and could do … things.
Ahtayir
And with Invis, and Fly, she could slip out of the room the same turn she tells the djinn what to do.
The party, wisely, decided not to duke it out with the djinn, when he made it clear that he would follow her command to the letter, and only prevent them from following her. He had some great restraint spells that would allow it (and could, if need be, kill anyone who escaped them). But as long as they stayed there until she’d fled this plane, he was copacetic about it.
They were more than happy to let his Large token hover over the throne until he said she was clear, and then engage in some quick dialog so he could depart back to the Plane of Air himself and catch up on e-mails after six thousand years.
Temple of Howling, with notes from the Pyramid Map (see below)
What to do after not quite defeating Aerisi
The players debated what to do next — it was late enough, though, that I basically wrapped things up and told them they could figure it out next time.
There were two meta problems left:
Yan-C-Bin, Elemental Evil Prince of Air, and a terrible host
First problem, the book is quite clear that hanging out in a Temple (just like in a Keep) is a Bad Idea, because, in this case, Yan-C-Bin would be torqued off and start summoning mooks to go after them. But, just as in the Keeps, I reaalllly didn’t feel like throwing wave attacks of mooks that would just get killed but chip away slowly at their defenses until they felt they had to flee. I mean, that’s what I should have done, but it sounded very much Not Fun, for me and for the players, which means it was out.
They didn’t seem inclined to a Long Rest (yet, though time-wise it was probably getting to be early evening), but even a Short Rest should have been problematic.
(A lot of parties seem to resolve this with the Tiny Hut. Which is an awesome spell … if you have a Wizard or Bard. Which we didn’t. Rope Trick would also work … if you have a Wizard or Artificer. Which I didn’t. I suppose I could have these artifacts for them to buy, or find. If that’s what I wanted.)
The meta goal from the book, of course, was to get them to leave the Temple back to the surface. This potentially let the Cult Retaliations start, as well as offer an opportunity for side quests. The party, I suspected, though, would want to head on to the Water Temple.
(I decided that I would mark the exits, at least to the other temples. First, the cultists would do so, marking their territory. Second, I didn’t feel like having the players stumble about. If they wanted Water — or Fire — they could do that. I did not mark the exits to the Fane or the Air Node.)
The module provided another prod to get folk topside: slaves/captives. In this case, they had managed to bypass the chapel with the various captives (including Bero the Halfling), who would clearly need an escort up (not only was the march dangerous, but up topside there’s a valley full of murderous gnolls). So one of my challenges, after the Short Rest, would be to encourage them to explore a bit. Ahtayir had spoken of “slaves,” so hopefully the homocidal maniac commoners in the capstan room wouldn’t discourage further exploration.
Second problem, I was dissatisfied with the resolution with Aerisi, for two reasons. First, it felt anti-climactic. BBEG, and she turns invisible and flees. Bah.
Second, even though the book actually offered that as a possibility, it left undefined what happened next. As written, when a prophet is “defeated,” the other three prophets retreat underground — one to the Fane, to summon the EEE, and the other two to their nodes, to summon their Princes.
A lovely rendition of Aerisi Kalinoth by John-Paul Balmet, who did a bunch of the PotA concept art during development.
While “defeated” is often a euphemism for “killed” — which made the most sense here — it could also mean this other “defeated” state (fled to the node). And while I prompted some FUD that she’d only been driven off, and might be back, it still didn’t sit well.
Besides, Aerisi was a fun character who still had more to say. Mad, vindictive, vain, delusional, a perfect Prophet for air. Better, I thought, if Aerisi was dealt with definitively, and in a way that would give the party a “W”.
Which suddenly gave me an idea …
Maps, Maps, and More Maps
So Aerisi’s throne room (actually the once-and-future throne room of the King of Tyar-Besil in Besilmer) has on “a map of the ancient kingdom.” Sort of like, I imagine now, this:
A cool player handout of Besilmer and Tyar-Besil (and the Keeps, and the Bridge, etc.) that someone created.
But at the time, I misread this as “a map of the city.”
Cool! Now the players have a map they can use! Except, of course, the game provides no such map. (They didn’t provide a map of the kingdom, either, though that was more just passing color text.)
I mean, there’s what shows up on the Pyramid throne room floor battle map:
Map on the Throne Room floor. With a few bodies.
Which is utterly useless for a variety of reasons, leading of which is that’s not how Tyar-Besil looks (or, for that matter, how Besilmir looks, and it does more resemble a city map, maybe of Paris, than a kingdom map).
Actually, the idea of a map of the city in the throne room makes a lot of sense. And the party latched onto it immediately. “Can you give us a copy of the map, Dave?” “Um … sure, next game.”
This actually made me start looking at what maps I did have — one for each Temple — and figure out how they fit.
Part of the problem is that the connections between the Temple maps aren’t immediately evident without some good reading and note taking. Another part is that each Temple has different sorts of exits to other maps. Here’s the list:
Air (Temple of Howling Hatred):
Surface: passage in the SW to Feathergale Spire (or nearby environs).
Temples: passage in the SE to Water; passage in NW to Fire.
Fane: passage in the NE to the Fane (Purple Worm).
Nodes: passage in W (inside the pyramid) to the Air Node.
Water (Temple of the Crushing Wave):
Surface: passage in the SE to Rivergard Keep.
Temples: passage in the NE to Earth; passage in the SW to Air.
Fane: passage in the NW (stairs).
Earth (Temple of the Black Earth):
Surface: passage in the NE to Sacred Stone Monastery.
Temples: passages in the NW and SW to Fire; passage in the SE to Water.
Fane: Passage in the W (huge stairs / mine).
Fire (Temple of Eternal Flame):
Surface: passage in the NW to Scarlet Moon Hall.
Temples: passages in NE and SE to Earth; passage in SW to Air.
Fane/Node: passage in E to both the Fane and the Fire Node (elevator).
Or, put together visually (by me) …
Elemental Temples – entrances and exits and connections
Which, once I’d drawn that, I realized that you could actually paste together the four Temple maps to create one huge map that (mostly) fit together perfectly.
Tyar-Besil map (joined together)
(I also came to realize how the Fane and Node maps fit together, as well as how the whole thing was kind of laid out under the Sumber Hills.)
Tyar Bessil location in the Sumber Hills
But obviously I didn’t want to hand out full maps to the players. And, of course, while the dwarves might have crafted a literalist Google Map of Tyar-Besil, they might have instead done more symbolic stuff, labels, nicknames, things that might not be easily translated through damage or through linguistic drift over the last five thousand years.
Thus I put together as “notes” they party made from the map of the city in the Pyramid …
Tyar-Besil Map in the Pyramid
Which was in turn crafted from these individual maps:
Temple of Howling Hatred (Pyramid Map)Temple of the Crushing Wave (Pyramid Map)Temple of the Black Earth (Pyramid Map)Temple of the Eternal Flame (Pyramid Map)
These became the basis for the players to try to understand this underground geography and, the cool part is, it was somewhat vague and evocative of the past kingdom that crafted them — complete with some Book of Mazarbul-like inscriptions on the portion of the map for the damaged portions of the Black Earth temple (and its slow fall against invading forces). These maps let me refer to the ancient city and its landmarks and quadrants (the Palace, the Gates, the Forges), such that the players could begin to “know” the city and even possibly anticipate what was ahead … without actually knowing what was ahead or how even to get there directly.
(When I started doing “revelation” maps of each Temple, as they explored more, I simply borrowed the labels and pasted them onto the big black areas I put in for unexplored territory. Nobody was concerned that the dimensions had changed.)
Was it a lot of effort? Kinda-sorta. And it all stemmed from a misreading of the book (though arguably it’s something that the campaign could and should have included). But it more than paid off for the time I put into it in giving the players some sense of the space and the history, rather than just having them going on an endless dungeon crawl.
(Permission given to borrow all this stuff for your campaign, by the way, if you include a shout-out link for the source.)
Bits and Bobs
Okay, I might have taken the episode naming (“Session X, Scenario Name, Part Y: Episode Name”) to extremes at this point, but I couldn’t pass up a name like “Pyramid Power.”
(At the time I bragged that I could do that because the directions the players would go were a bit more under control. It was still sort of silly.)
In theory, the party could have short-cut directly down to the Air Node from here. Given where that tunnel beneath the pyramid leaves, it would have been somewhat disastrous. I was already starting, though, to consider how I’d get the party to mostly focus on Tyar-Besil and their level-appropriate foes, rather than delving too deeply and unwisely …
I did congratulate the party on meeting the Cover Star of the Campaign.
Aerisi Kalinoth, commanding the armies of the Air.
Our party’s Druid (it’s also available for Artificer) had this spell and used it pretty constantly from the time it arrived to the time the campaign ended at Level 13.
The damage from Thorn Whip is okay, maybe a bit better in the early days when damage is hard to come by, though it scales nicely (something 5e has done well with cantrips). But its true utility comes with its ability to shove people around the battlefield.
You create a long, vine-like whip covered in thorns that lashes out at your command toward a creature in range [30 ft]. Make a melee spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the creature takes 1d6 piercing damage, and if the creature is Large or smaller, you pull the creature up to 10 feet closer to you.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
That’s actually pretty cool. A 30-foot range magical attack (requiring an actual attack roll) that does decent damage and lets you yoink people around the game map (at least closer across the game map) by up to 10 feet.
And it’s a cantrip, so you can be playing with this every single round, if you are so inclined.
Note also that, as a (30-foot reach) melee attack (not a ranged attack), the caster takes no Disadvantage using it while standing next to an opponent. The caster is still at Disadvantage vs prone targets over 5 feet away (the rules don’t differentiate between melee and ranged attacks there). Cover effects also still apply.
Finally, in visualizing this spell, most people imagine the caster holding the whip and swing it themselves. However, there’s nothing in the spell that actually says that — it could be floating in mid-air, erupting from the ground — whatever, and because it’s a spell attack, not a weapon attack — you don’t dexterously swing it, but “command it to lash out.” It’s magic!
Moving the target around
Those words “pull the creature up to 10 feet” are important, because they make it clear that the caster has a choice about whether to move the target at all or how much. It can be left just as a 1d6 damage attack, with the target still standing where they were, or they can be moved 5 feet or 10 feet (or whatever increments your battle grid has, within that 10 foot limit).
But what does closer mean here? Because of the limited distance being moved, I would (in lieu of a more informed reading) argue that each square needs to be toward the caster, reducing the overall distance each step.
x x x x x
x x T x x
x 5 5 5 x
10 10 10 10 10
- - - - -
- - C - -
So, in the case above, the (C)aster could move the (T)arget into each of the numbered points at 5 feet; if moving 10 feet, they would have to got to one of the 10 foot marks. They could not shift into a different 5 foot mark, and definitely not into any of the (x) squares because the move to those is further or the same distance from the Caster.
A lot of questions are raised by the pulling aspect of Thorn Whip (is the victim dragged? catapulted? floated through the air? teleported? and why is there no Strength Save?), but a main use for this power is dragging someone into a hazard — off a cliff, into a Bonfire spell, into a Moonbeam spell, into a Spike Growth spell, up to the immobilized Barbarian, etc.
Is this legit? And (when) does the victim take damage from those hazard areas? The answers are, “Yes” and “It depends.”
Let’s start off by noting that Opportunity Attacks will not be triggered by being yoinked away by a Thorn Whip. That’s pretty much straight out of the book:
You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your Movement, Action, or Reaction. For example, you don’t provoke an opportunity attack if an explosion hurls you out of a foe’s reach or if gravity causes you to fall past an enemy.
Since being yoinked by a Thorn Whip doesn’t use your Movement, Action, or Reaction, no OA is triggered.
Entering such an area of effect needn’t be voluntary, unless a spell says otherwise. You can, therefore, hurl a creature into the area with a spell like Thunderwave. We consider that clever play, not an imbalance, so hurl away!
The subject in that ruling is on spells creating …
… an area of effect that does something when a creature enters that area for the first time on a turn or when a creature starts its turn in that area.
That includes things like Blade Barrier, Cloudkill, Spirit Guardians, and Moonbeam. While “creating an area of effect on the creature or moving it onto the creature doesn’t count,” involuntarily entering the area does.
One caveat there:
Keep in mind, however, that a creature is subjected to such an area of effect only the first time it enters the area on a turn. You can’t move a creature in and out of it to damage it over and over again on the same turn.
So given a Moonbeam occupying four squares, you could not force an attack from the spell for each square you used Thorn Whip to drag the target through (i.e., if you dragged them through two squares of it, the 5 foot and 10 foot marks of the spell), just for the initial entry square on your turn.
An exception here (of course there is an exception) is something like Spike Growth. Unlike spells like Moonbeam that trigger “when a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn,” Spike Growth states:
When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
Within and every 5 feet it travels are the keys here. You can Thorn Whip someone through two squares (10 feet) of Spike Growth and it will take the 2d4 piercing for each of those squares.
Thorn Whip: It’s Magic!
The magical nature of the pulling done by Thorn Whip is interesting. As described:
If the creature is Large or smaller, you pull the creature up to 10 feet closer to you.
So, note first, this targets creatures. You cannot Thorn Whip over to you the idol sitting on the pedestal over there, or Thorn Whip away the sword in someone’s hand (or that they dropped on the floor).
Second, within the parameter of “Large or smaller,” the target gets no choice or control in the matter of being moved. Standing there slack-jawed or holding onto a support beam for dear life with a STRength of 20, the creature doesn’t even get a Save — they just come. It’s magic!
How does the targeted creature actually move? Fly through the air? Dragged along the ground? It’s not just a teleport because they can take damage from environmental and magical conditions each step of the way. But the spell also doesn’t tie into movement or movement obstacles — it stays nothing about being “slowed” by Difficult Terrain, for example.
I dunno. It’s magic!
Can you Thorn Whip someone through another creature’s square? If you have defeated the cover that other creature is providing, then the answer would seem to be yes, even if it’s an enemy of the target; the only things the rules don’t permit is leaving them in another creature’s square unless it fits other movement/size rules.
What about other obstacles? Assuming you can see past/around them, can you pull a Thorn Whipped person through an obstacle they couldn’t move through themselves? I’d say not, as a general rule; they’ll have to be pulled around. (But hold this thought for a moment …)
Showing Restraint vs Thorn Whip
What if the target is restrained in some way — grappled, or Entangled, or held by Black Tentacles, or even shackled to a wall? Can Thorn Whip just pull them over regardless? Remember, the individual creature is powerless to stop themselves from being pulled by the spell. But can outside forces prevent it?
Boy, can you find a lot of online argument about that!
General conclusions I’ve drawn on these questions:
Thorn Whip breaks a grapple, because the grapple rules literally allow for the grapple to be broken by some outside force.
Against spells that Restrain, like Entangle or Black Tentacles, two alternatives are suggested and, to be honest, I vacillate between them as I reductio ad absurdem each case:
Being Restrained should resist against Forced Movement. In which case, turn it into a spell contest by the Thorn Whip caster versus the Entangled caster — e.g., the Thorn Whip exerts a “Strength” for the Entangle spell’s Strength Save of d20 + proficiency + stat bonus. This makes logical sense, but (a) isn’t RAW, and, more importantly (b) starts implying that strength of some sort can counter Thorn Whip, and it’s clear (from lack of a Save against being yoinked) that’s simply not true.
Against actual physical restraints (being shackled to the wall) … well, it works like the spells mentioned above: either Thorn Whip just moves the target creature regardless of the shackles (because it’s magic!),or make the Thorn Whip save with the spell strength vs a DC 20 for the manacles.
In either case, no additional damage should be done to the target. It’s only a freaking cantrip, fergoshsakes.
This escalating conflict between the Thorn Whip‘s clear it’s magic! nature, which is baked into the language the spell, and the voice of reason as restraints become bigger and more powerful, can only end in things like “I try to Thorn Whip the target through the bars of the jail cell,” and what silliness that results in. At some point the DM has to step in and adjudicate something that feels right while fitting the Rule of Cool.
One final weird factor in all of this is that the duration for Thorn Whip is “instantaneous.”
Many spells are instantaneous. The spell harms, heals, creates, or alters a creature or an object in a way that can’t be dispelled, because its magic exists only for an instant.
That is, it’s not faster than the eye (you can see the whip, you can see it strike, you can see the yank, you could theoretically Counterspell it), but it happens faster than can be addressed or exploited by, for example, a Dispel Magic (or cutting the whip with your sword, or using the whip to make a gibbet, etc.).
Bearing in mind that D&D is not a tool for modeling physics, Thorn Whip is a spell whose nature and execution does not bear too close an examination. Take it as written. It’s magic!
Is Thorn Whip a magical weapon or not?
I keep saying “it’s magic,” but when does it count as magic? This question can come up in a number of circumstances — in my game, it was when the Druid used Thorn Whip on a Gargoyle, which is “resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons.” Does Thorn Whip qualify, or not? Is Thorn Whip a magical weapon?
YES: It’s created by a spell, it uses a melee spell attack to hit, and the spell damage increases with level.
NO: The spell description only mentions piercing damage, from an object created by the spell, not from the spell directly.
Arguments for Yes, it’s a magic attack
Because it’s a melee spell attack roll, not a normal melee weapon attack roll, the resistance to weapons doesn’t apply. Melee spell attacks follow the same rules as melee attacks; in this case, a melee attack with a 30 foot range. But it uses the spell attack modifier (spellcasting ability + proficiency) to hit, so, again, it’s a spell attack and ignores the resistance.
The Sage Advice Compendium notes (p. 21), in determining if something is magical, qualifying questions would include “Is it a spell? … Is it a spell attack?” This is a spell, and uses a melee spell attack.
Mike Mearls (one of the 5e designers) agrees that “any piercing, bludgeoning or slashing damage from spells count as magical in nature.”
The Monster Manual notes“Particular creatures are even resistant or immune to damage from non-magical attacks (a magical attack is an attack delivered by a spell, a magic item, or another magical source).” This attack is delivered by a spell.
The whip both magically appears and disappears. That indicates it’s not some sort of physical item being created, but a magic construct.
The whip not only does damage, it magically lets you pull something closer to you without any additional roll (or save). Thus the overall attack is magical.
Arguments for No, it’s a non-magical weapon attack
The spell itself doesn’t do the damage; the whip created by it does. Again, the spell doesn’t indicate it creates a magical whip, just a long, vine-like whip that the spell allows you to commend.
And it does piercing damage, like a weapon, not magical damage (force, radiance, necrotic, etc.).
That the damage increases with level doesn’t mean it’s additional magical damage, but could be additionally pointy / strong non-magical thorns.
Conclusion
Net-net, I am persuaded that Thorn Whip isa magical / spell attack (i.e., textualist arguments aside, the vine-like whip is an embodied spell, following the arguments around Spiritual Weapon), so it would defeat non-magical weapon resistance or immunity.
Of course, as an extension of that, something like an Antimagic Field would affect the vine reaching a target within it (even if the caster was outside of the field). It could also be countered, as noted, by a Counterspell.
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 33 (Day 34)
Howling Hatred symbol
The party fought the two priests in the stone wheel room — as well as the commoner captives who all seemed devoted to the cause of Aerisi Kalinoth and Yan-C-Bin. Aldrik, who was there, broke his golden shackles and joined in the melee. Afterward, he determined after examination and odd insight that the wheels were controls for … water level? Faith armed Aldrik with the Hammer of the Azer.
They went through a series of quarters — one of which had a kenku — before running into a large band of Initiates, who were quickly dispatched. In that southeast quarter of the complex, they found a passage labeled with the Crushing Wave symbol sandblasted in the floor.
Ahtayir
They encountered the great blue figure (a djinn?) Ahtayir, who spoke of being tied to the endless task of maintaining, recovering, expanding the city of Tyar-Besil, at the command of one long ago, as well as its present “usurper” Aerisi Kalinoth. He seemed interested in their intent to overthrow Aerisi, and encouraged them to do so.
On a causeway over an underground river, going toward the step pyramid in the center of the Temple of Howling Hatred, they were confronted by a wyvern and rider, both of whom they slew.
They prepared to enter the pyramid, where Ahtayir had assured them Aerisi dwelt.
Player Recap
Where The Party Finds Their Wayward Dwarf
Aldrik looks down at his manacles and the bar that he is pushing. His vision clears slightly and he can now see that the chains are made of gold. reality returns and Aldrik doesn’t like it. He enters into a rage and breaks his chains. The commoners charge the group and yell, “Yan-C-bin comes”. When the room is cleared, Faith heals Aldrik and hands him her new war hammer. They remove the gold shackles and chains from Aldrick. Faith notes that golden shackles are most often used on royalty.
The group explores the rooms around the stone wheel room. It is mostly empty accommodation with nothing much of interest. A group of guards attack as they are leaving a room. The party members pull back and make the guards come through the doorway. The battle is short and the party victorious.
Continuing through the halls Moony spies an impressive air being working on destroying the wall and stacking the rubble. While they discuss what is to do, Ahtayir of the Third Wind calls out and invites them to join him. He is a Djinn who is bound to the service of the temple. He has been given the endless task of maintaining, recovering, expanding the city of Tyar-Besil, at the command of one long ago, as well as its present “usurper” Aerisi Kalinoth. He seemed interested in their intent to overthrow Aerisi, and encouraged them to do so. He waves and creates food and drink for the group. If you are going after Aerisi Kalinoth, you must attack her and cause her to react to her.
Ko walks up to the genie. “You are not a squirrel. How do you do that?” “You are a curious little one, but until you can ride the winds you are of little interest to me. The food and water is bland. They thank the djinn. He promises a great reward if they can free him.
Stone pillars line like majestic trees. Names of ancient dwarves engraved on the pillars. It crosses a deep moat that leads towards the pyramid. There is a figure at the top of the pyramid that is riding a draconic creature. When it takes off and approaches, the group can see that it is a Wyvern. The figure on the back of the Wyvern says, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Who is your master?” Faith replies, Tyr. That was not the answer that she was looking for.
Kax Hanar yells “Intruders!” Theren drops a fireball on them and Moony makes a sneak attack. Ko roars and Kax drops from the saddle. Heavy fighting ensues. Kax is defeated and William tries to get the Wyvern to run away. When he doesn’t leave, they have to destroy him. While some of the group does a quick survey of Kax and William and Moony remove the poison sack from the Wyvern.
Game Notes
On a roll
Generic Cultist icon, used as mooks for all the different elemental cults.
It’s becoming clear to the party that low level mooks aren’t much of a threat and, unless in huge numbers (in which case they become AoE fodder), that’s true. The story continues sending them, though, as part of the window dressing — evil priests, fanatical cult initiates, commoners who have been corrupted, etc. In most case, it’s color text, but important color text, and I didn’t want to tweak the threat and have it turn out unbalanced and killing someone in the party.
(That said, I’m also aware the party was benefitting here by (a) having six members in it, and (b) with being a level up from what the dungeon was designed for. So I was also willing in a given battle to maybe throw in a few extra baddies, or tweak a few rolls for dramatic effect.)
Mooks create a perception of risk, and an actuality of cost (spell slots and other abilities that need to be renewed). They aren’t designed, narratively, to stop the party — just to wear it down so that the conflict with the boss will be that much more hazardous.
Wending paths
Area in the Air Temple cleared by the party by the end of the game, on a map I shared with them.Bero Gladham, captive of the Air Cult, whose wife was taken “below” (art source unknown)
The quarters area allows a couple of paths through it, which meant the party bypassed the temple room where there are honest-to-gosh hostages, including a halfling farmer whose wife was taken “below” with some other prisoners. Two things here: one of missing is Deseyna, one of the Mirabar Delegation, which remains a weak motivator narratively, but our party has bought into it. Second, it was not until I was doing much later review of the Howling Caverns (the Air node) and had come up with a picture and token for the missing wife that I realized I’d create a mixed-species marriage, halfling and human. Vive le difference and all that. I wondered if anyone would notice or make note of it.
(When the party eventually got there, they did in fact remember this dude, for a variety of reasons we’ll get to shortly.)
I’ll say it again: add life to NPCs, especially ones who will connect the tissue of the campaign together. They make it become about so much more than capturing / preventing capture of the Mystical MacGuffin, and give the players people to root for and serve on behalf of.
Anyway, they missed these guys, though I blacked out that area of the map when I gave them a review of what they’d explored so far, and Ahtayir spoke of other “slaves,” so there was a decent chance they’d be back through again.
I Dream of Genie
Ahtayir, as I portrayed him (source unknown)
(I picked an alternative image for Ahtayir than the out-of-the-box djinn image the game provides. In part it was because I didn’t want to be that completely obvious. In part it was because I liked this image.)
I was worried about Ahtayir for quite some time. He’s tremendously powerful, and can be used as a weapon against the players that might end up killing one or more of them.
I did have him snarl at Aldrik (since it was the king of dwarves here that enslaved and failed to free him, and that’s one of Aldrik’s ancestors, though the party including Aldrik doesn’t know that).
That said, Aerisi, by refusing to blow the horn and give him another order, has perpetuated his slavery. Ahtayir’s smart enough to realize that the party can upend the situation here, so he’s happy to give them info as to where Aerisi is, since nobody has commanded him not to.
Ultimately, I decided that while Ahtayir had a serious mad-on for Aerisi, he wasn’t going to be too fond of the PCs. In part, that’s because of whatever jiggery-pokery was going on with Aldrik. In bigger part, though, he was a djinn, an angry djinn, and the concerns of mortal-kind were going to be pretty low on his list. I was sure, though a creature of Elemental Air, he was no fan of Yan-C-Bin, and would be happy to see that Prince get a metaphysical bloody nose, but if the whole party died in the process, that would be little not-actually-skin off of his nose.
Some dialog I worked up for Ahtayir:
To the others: The Endless Task Continues. She Who Orders It must be obeyed, as was he before her. To maintain the city, to free it from the crushing rock, to repair that which passes and craft that which was planned. So he spoke the words, never rescinding them, so she continues to speak them, so I obey.
To Aldrik: You! You, son of the foulest slime, smoking flame, weakest of gravel! You dare to — oh … ah … not you. Apologies. You are of his blood, but not him. Ha. Of course. Your race is like fireflies on a summer day.
In general: If you speak to She Who Orders It, perhaps you could persuade her to free me from my toils, I would richly repay any such a favor.
Ahtayir token
Ahtayir is actually a fascinating character. Imagine being a djinn of nearly unlimited power. He has the option, if pressed, to bargain with Wish spells, though the players were daunted enough not to try that. But because of the rules of summoned djinni, he must serve. And the service he was placed under by the King of Besilmer, thousands of years ago, was to keep Tyar-Besil under repair.
Honestly, he’s kind of slacking off, some, given the disrepair of some areas. But the only one giving him guidance these days is Aerisi, so his remit isn’t going to expand beyond the Air Temple area, and she’s not going to be focused enough to realize that he could theoretically have the whole place covered in gold and shining in the blink of an eye.
Ultimately, the relationship between Ahtayir and the party was, and could only be, transactional. You promise to help free me, I’ll tell you where to go. Anything more than that would get into dangerous territory for the players, and I was just as glad that they didn’t press the matter.
(The players were actually pretty smart in being nicely deferential to him. It made a nice contrast to their increasing contempt for cultist mooks.)
At least that’s how I played it. I could see a deeply embittered and mistrusting djinn who might not treat the party well. Or one who felt himself a loyalist to his current master, Aerisi. My Ahtayir was, effectively, helpful (out of self-interest). Figuring out, in advance, the motivation of such a creature can send the game in a variety of directions.
Bits and Bobs
Yan-C-Bin
Part of peeling back the onion-like layers of elemental evil in this campaign is learning about names. They had already heard of Aerisi (though only some dreamscapes had given them any hints as to who that was), and now they started hearing about Yan-C-Bin, the Prince of Evil Elemental Air (and there’s a business card for you).
As this kind of information was slowly revealed, it helped create an atmosphere where the players felt like they knew more about what was coming — but also had more to worry about. Win-win.
It took me going through this temple four or five times to realize that the water level controls that Aldrik was hooked to let the party hypothetically drain the river and get to the treasure (stone golem notwithstanding). It will be interesting to see if anyone remembers that. I might have to nudge them a bit if they pass by.
(They never do, and I never really give it further consideration.)
We were a little early in the evening, ending at the door of the pyramid (after the party not only quickly dispatched the wyvern and its spell-casting rider — the latter before her turn in the initiative even came up, and former quickly harvested for its poison sac), but that seemed the best spot to wrap with the combats coming up inside the pyramid.
Each creature that is completely within the cloud at the start of its turn must make a Constitution saving throw against poison. On a failed save, the creature spends its Action that turn retching and reeling.
When I first played with this, I ruled that this still allowed Movement (since that isn’t mentioned), but, just as anything that takes away your Action also takes way your Bonus Action, the only thing you could do was retching and reeling.
But that’s not what it says. The Stinking Cloud doesn’t take away your Action, it dictates your action (retching and reeling). I.e., your Action is set, but you still have your Bonus Action (and Reaction, for that matter).
The stinking cloud spell says that a creature wastes its Action on a failed save. So can it still use a Move or a Bonus Action or a Reaction?
Correct. The gas doesn’t immobilize a creature or prevent it from acting altogether, but the effect of the spell does limit what it can accomplish while the cloud lingers.
Movement is a bit problematic, of course. The area covered by Stinking Cloud is Heavily Obscured.
A heavily obscured area–such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage–blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area.
Or, presumably, out of that area. Blinded, in turn:
A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any Ability check that requires sight.
Attack rolls against the creature have Advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have Disadvantage.
Note the offsetting penalties — trying to Attack someone inside the cloud has to deal with Heavily Obscured conditions, and so is at Disadvantage (as though blinded). But the target is, themselves, blind to the attack, putting them at a Disadvantage. That makes, even without all the loud retching sounds attacks on a figure within a Stinking Cloud even money. (A figure inside the cloud can’t Attack if they failure save, except through a Bonus Action, but with that Bonus Action, or if they make the save, theoretically they are also a wash to attack a target outside the cloud, unless that target is using stealth or a Dodge or something of that sort.)
I might House Rule that, combined with the Retching and Reeling, being blinded in such a circumstance would lead to disorientation — perhaps another Save (Intelligence?) to move in a desired direction?
As a final note, the rules say “completely within the cloud” for the nausea effect. So if you are playing on a grid, and are using a true circle for your template (physically or on a VTT), any one in a partially covered circle isn’t affected. Which is why I prefer to have a template that fills in full boxes on the grid, to avoid the ambiguity.
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 32 (Days 33-34)
Howling Hatred symbol
The party the next day traveled to the Sighing Valley, passing the apparently deserted Feathergale Spire, to the passage in Knifepoint Gully. Moony took the four necklaces of the Fifth Key and, despite the vision of a terrible Eye watching him, caused the mystic barrier before them to become passable.
The party descended several miles to the edge of an underground dwarven city — Tyar-Besil — a place of ruined buildings, statues, a step pyramid, strange lights … and to what they came to realize was the Temple of Howling Hatred.
Official Kenku Token
The first barrier was a gatehouse, centered on a passage lined with arrow slits. Through them, the party was attacked by kenku — but that spread to an adjoining room where cultists were playing horrible music on humanoid bone flutes, led by a very handsome (but cranky at being interrupted) half-elf. Theren’s fireball took out the wind orchestra, and the half-elf magically transported himself away.
In an adjoining corridor, they found cultists starving to death, tied to great dwarvish obelisks. When questioned, they were apparently there to be taught how to survive on air alone — and insisted on their lessons. They party left the wretched creatures there.
A cracking whip and scream nearby brought the party to a room with two great stone capstans, one of which was manned by apparently enslaved commoners … and the chained form of their lost comrade, Aldrik Oakhide!
Player Recap
But They Were All Bad
The groups have dreams. Mostly prophetic and bad.
As the party wakes and has breakfast, the other groups stop by to say goodbye. The young druids will be heading to Summit Hall and the cranky druids will stay here to bury the dead and purify the site and then explore the valley. Sauruki surprises Urshnora by asking to join the young druids.
It is very warm and only gets hotter. Moony begins to pant and they break for a rest. William feels called to check out the tree with the arrow. William is being watched, there is a dark clad figure in a copse of trees he laughs and then disappears into the darkness of the trees.
He feels a movement in his pocket. It is his raven token. It launches from his head and circles his head three times and flies off Northeast. He calls to the others and takes off after it. He comes upon a startling scene. There is another copse of trees. It looks like an animal has gotten caught in it. Small dog size but with bright colors with a bit of green smoke.
Nala comes down the hill and talks to him in Draconic. Help Help! Stuck, squirrel!
Smell something acrid. Nala introduces herself and asks it to not use its breath weapon. He shuffles a bit, but the smoke dies down. They move the logs and he is free. “Not Stuck” Other than a bit of bruised pride, he is unhurt.
They make Red Larch hot and sticky. They check into the inn and then head to the bath house. Haeleeya greets them. She is in the midst of packing. With her daughter dead, there is nothing keeping her in Red Larch. Theren, Faith, and Moony check out a new store, Magister’s Market. It has taken over the old barbershop Gaelkur’s. They pick up some potions and Moony buys a new magic bow. Rations are purchased. Plans are made. Sleep is had.
Early in the morning, the party heads to the canyon near the Feathergale Spire. The air cultist’s camp is still abandoned. A short ways down the tunnel the group comes to a large boulder blocking the path. Like the entrances in the earth and water temples, there is an elemental mark on the rock. Moony collects the keys from the party members and activates the entrance. The boulder is both there and not there, but the group can pass through.
Faint sound of discordant flute music. Two large dwarf statues form an arch into the dwarven city below. After looking around, they set off down the path through the arc. The path is 10 feet wide and zig-zags towards a closed door at the other end. There are arrow slits along the wall. When the party is half way through, some of the arrow slits open up and the kenkus attack
William hops the wall to the left. Nala does the same on the right. Mooney follows Nala.
Theren opens the door at the end of the hall and sees a large group of initiates around a pool. A handsome elf stands and says, “What the hell are you doing here?” Theren’s immediate reaction is to drop a fireball on the group. The initiates are all dropped by the fireball and the elf is singed. “Well, shit!” he says and disappears.
William continues after the remaining kenku from the room and steps through the door. He is just in time to see the remains of Theren’s attack. Faith comes into the room from the middle door. The figures on the floor were wearing elaborate feathered costumes and bone flutes.
Moony and Nala come through the right hand door and notice an individual in initiate robes chained to an obelisk. It looks like they are starving to death. There are more obelisks that might also have people chained to them. The initiate explains that they are being trained to live on air.
While they are deciding what to do next, there is a crack of a whip and a woman’s scream. They move down the hall and enter a larger room with two stone wheels with large spokes. Prisoners are pushing the wheel as air priests stand over them with whips. There is a loud grinding noise deep below.
Game Notes
The Mystery of Aldrik’s Return!
This episode was the first run after my son was back from college. The timing seemed really good — the party was most likely headed down to the Temple of Howling Hatred where, all the clues indicated, his character Aldrik had been taken when the party was last at Feathergale Spire (back in Session 21).
Why had he been taken?
Bwah-ha-ha.
Initially, it was just kind of a hand-waving “I’ll think of a reason” why Aerisi Kalinoth’s voice was heard from within an air elemental, knocking everyone around (including the Feathergale Knight leader, Thurl) and claiming Aldrik as a “prize.”
Aldrik, before he got snatched.
Ultimately, I decided he was the last descendent of the royal line that ruled Besilmer and its capital, Tyar-Bessil — the underground Dwarvish fastness that represented the next level of the adventure. (There was also, at this point, the idea that he might actually be the reincarnation of the king of Besilmer, Torhild Flametongue.) The idea was that, as heir / reincarnation, Aldrik would have certain powers over the city itself, which each prophet would want on their side in their internecine warfare to be the top dog and their master the top elemental prince.
Thus, by the way, the double pun in the episode title.
So it was really great having the son sit in as we started up the session …
Wrapping Up Scarlet Moon Hall
Leading into this episode, I went sort of hog-wild with dreams for the different characters. This was a tool I (probably over)used a lot to drop clues and hints in laps, both to guide the PCs and party, and to promote engagement as, hopefully, they would then either fret about what they’d seen or, when the dreams started gelling with reality, freak out.
(I also had handed Aldrik’s player two pages of fragmented memories of what had been going on with him for the last two weeks of game time. He rolled his eyes at me.)
A last word (ha!) on Urshnora
Urshnora
This wraps up Chapter 3 of the book (the four keeps) and begins the transition to Chapter 4 (the four temples). As such, I decided it was time for Urshnora to bow out, at least for the moment. She’d been a great prod, foil, and potential threat for the characters, and literally until the last moment in the previous episode I wasn’t sure if she was going to try for the four necklaces or not.
In the end, I decided to make it a bit of a redemption story, and have her decline the temptation. On the other hands, she was heading off with the Young Druids, who had sort of become her pets, and I could see her starting her own cult with them.
(I also had some ideas about their returning to Summit Hall — their avowed destination to warn them about what had been going on — and her being slapped in irons as one of the Rivergard crew, something the players might have to deal with later.)
The Cranky Druids
Having lost their chance (lucky for them) for the Rite of the Wicker Giant, they make the decision to stick around for a few days and try to ritually purify the campground and hilltop of the death and destruction and evil fire magic that has seeped into it. Good on them!
(I liked coming up with wrap-ups for these folk — NPCs need an end to their story on stage, too.)
Sauruki, of the Cranky Druids
The only exception there was Sauruki, who volunteered to go with Urshnora and the Young Druids. That’s because he’s a spy there, sent by the Water Cult (presumably from Rivergard Keep, though he could have been down in the Temple). He’s recognized Urshnora (I don’t recall if she’d recognized him), and so it seems like a good chance for him to get out of the current spy business.
Some Druidic Amusement
As part of dinging to 7, William the Druid had taken on the Drakewarden subclass, which entitled him to a magic Drake Companion, which tied into a dream he had about a dragon-like creature in trouble. That allowed for a side trip to the “Last Laugh” location again.
As a figure in dreams, and possibly in reality, I dug up a figure (and made a token, of course) for Valklondar.
“Last Laugh” was, of course, supposed to be a Level 1-2 side adventure out of Red Larch, and if done in proper sequence, it would play nicely with the “Lord of Lance Rock” thing (featuring Oreioth the Necromancer). That they had come to it at Level 6 instead made it amusing and gave me the opportunity to play with the PCs a bit: in this case, William, who had taken on the blessing/curse of the arrow. He was having “Last Laugh” dreams each night, mostly hinting at Valklondar the Hunter of Undead wanting to (a) find Oreioth and hill him and, further, (b) find Renwick the Lich and kill him.
Checking out the Last Laugh tree gave an opportunity to find and rescue the little Drake, who was very cute and fun and all fine, except it took up about 45 minutes of play time.
Lion Drake (by crazy-cat009)
A Brief Side Trip to Red Larch
The Mysterious Shopkeeper
The party naturally headed back to Red Larch to sleep and restock, which was also fine, because I decided to set a proper magic store there for their supply needs — one operated by the minor deity Azuth, known here as the Shopkeeper. He’d been involved in the sorcerer’s origin story (as I realized I really hadn’t done a lot with that), and I saw this as an opportunity to give that character some plotty things to do. (Which didn’t really work out, but, hey, I tried.)
Plus, frankly, I wanted the party to be able to spend some of the massive amounts of loot they’d gotten, in a way that didn’t actually involve a trip back to Waterdeep. Yes, magic stuff was still rare and dear, but there’s a difference between that and inaccessible unless actually planted in a treasure chest.
The shop — located in Gaelkur’s now-unoccupied digs — was called “Magister’s Market” (a clue as to Azuth’s identity, as he’s also known as the First Magister).
Haeleeya Hanadroum
It was also a moment for me to be inspired and give them a chance to follow up with Haeleeya Hamadroum — their friend from the bathhouse in Red Larch, and mother of Savra, who’d died kinda-tragically at Feathergale Spire protecting Thurl. They’d broken the news of Savra’s death last time in town, and, on returning this time, found Haeleeya packing up her shop to move back to the south where she still had family, with no ties keeping her in Red Larch. Some nice little drama there.
The Temple of Howling Hatred
Oreioth’s vision of the Evil Elemental Eye
The next day was a quick (in real time) hike back to Feathergale Spire, the Sighing Valley, Knife Edge Gully, and the mystic door that would take them down to the Temple of Howling Hatred. Throw in some warning visions of the Evil Elemental Eye when the Rogue was using all four necklaces as the Fifth Key, and it was good stuff.
Okay, so here’s a problem I didn’t realize was a problem — even in working through this dungeon ahead of time.
Oh, say, can you see?
They are entering the underground Dwarvish city-fortress of Tyar-Besil, which has been divided into four parts, one for each of the cults.
The part they were entering, under Feathergale Spire, was the Temple of Howling Hatred, the location of the Air Prophet Aerisi Kalinoth. All good enough.
While the Earth and Fire temples are very dungeonesque — tunnels through rock — and the Water temple, despite some open areas, is similar, the Air temple is kind of a weird mess. The flavor text speaks of being able to see the high vaulted ceiling and a dwarvish city built beneath it. There’s no real provision for the players to start sketching a map at this point, and you really don’t want them to, because it’s unclear in the extreme what they can actually see beyond the step pyramid of the central throne room.
There are some areas (rooms, especially on the south and northeast) that are clearly meant to connect floor to roof, and other areas which are building under the open vault, and others which are open courtyards surrounded by walls. But what is what is not obvious, and the implications for non-linear PC movement (“We climb onto the wall — what do we see?”) are poorly considered or described.
A panorama of the interior might have been nice, but none is provided, dagnabbit.
The very first encounter is a good example of this. The party, descending a great underground ravine/cavern, along a dodgy path, catches a glimpse of the city in the distance (despite most of it being dark), the great pyramid, buildings …
a lost dwarven city lays in ruins beneath the glittering cavern vault. Broken statues stand in the midst of empty plazas, staring sightlessly into the darkness. A huge step pyramid rises at the edge of the precipice, and from the moat that surrounds it a misty waterfall whispers over the chasm’s ledge.
… and then descend to a gatehouse anchored in the walls of the cavern on the right, a deep cleft to the left.
(Description just given aside, there’s no indication once inside the quadrant’s rooms that any of that stuff off to the left, like the waterfall, or even some of the high views described, should be visible to the players coming in. I shooshed them quickly to the gate, and nobody seemed to mind.)
The cavern roof here is 15 feet high. The gatehouse — a weird octagonal building with a zig-zag passage down the middle full of arrow slits — rises up 12 feet. So clearly there’s a gap at the top of three whole feet, which is kinda weird because that’s easy for 6th level players to scale and so bypass the gatehouse.
But wait, does the gatehouse have a rooftop? If so, any rogue (heck, most characters) could climb up and crawl over it. But if it doesn’t have a rooftop, then while inside the PCs can confront the arrow slit traps by climbing over the interior walls and taking out the Kenku on the other side (or even stand on the wall and shoot down at them).
It’s goofy and makes little sense, and made the initial encounter kind of weird and clumsy, though it did end up splitting the party into three pieces, which is always good for mischief-making.
A few more encounters
I gave Windharrow a picture token, because he just had a name token, which is goofy.
There’s also a fun set piece near the entrance, a room full of (very bad) flute players, training to entertain Aerisi, under the tutelage of the bard Windharrow. The text’s goal is some fun chit-chat, mistaken identities, perhaps the party using the situation to get a bunch of costumes/uniforms to further infiltrate the temple.
Instead, the sorcerer Fireballed the lot of them, killing all the Initiates and injuring Windharrow, who teleported away (per the book) to tell Aerisi about it. Why she doesn’t react isn’t spelled out … I assumed that she had some nefarious plan about using the party or sucking them in and taking vengeance for Thurl’s death or something.
Aldrik, back in his loincloth, having had all his armor and weapons taken.
A (cough) convenient scream at the end pulled the party over to the Water Level Capstan Room, where they found a pair of Air Priests overseeing a bunch of commoners pushing the Wheel of Pain … which included, in golden chains, Aldrik!
(Yup, the son had been in the game all night, and that’s how long it took them to find him. Sigh.)
Maps and maps and maps
I continued to refine the “what you’ve seen” maps for the players. I posted these in Roll20 on the Landing Page, and as part of the “Temple of Howling Hatred” hand-out (updated each session).
What the party had found by the end of the session (with distant glances of what’s further into the massive cavern).
Yeah, that crazy guardhouse …
Bits and Bobs
It’s kind of weird that my GM Recap skipped over the whole first half of the game. I don’t recall why, unless it was one of those rare instances when I didn’t do my recap notes right after the game wrapped.
As of this episode I kind of changed how I was titling each session. Rather than come up with a new pun for each week (because, honestly, even I was starting to run low on elemental puns), I came up with a title for each of the Temples, and then (gilding the lily) a subtitle for the episode.
It’s a work in progress.
Worth noting in passing that, with the Haunted Keeps taken down, by definition the weather problems are accelerated. Indeed, they party had to deal with a brief Heat Wave going from Scarlet Moon Hall to Red Larch, leading to some Exhaustion being doled out.
Another brief encounter were some truly creepy initiates starving themselves to death whilst shackled to pillars. The cult stuff is all kind of weird (DMs should definitely play up the creepifying aspects), but the Air cultists (above and below) kind of take the cake. Which cake they then refuse to eat, wanting to learn to subsist only on air. 🙄
Since I’ve had players pick this, because it sounds very cool (and it can be), I had to do some digging into some of the aspects of Spiritual Weapon that are not completely obvious.
Spiritual Weapon is weird
No, seriously. But that’s because people see “weapon” and try to (incorrectly) apply all sorts of melee combat weapon rules and assumptions to it. It’s not:
Spiritual Weapon is a multi-round melee attack spell that looks like a weapon because that’s really cool.
If you just keep that in mind, you can ignore the whole rest of this post.
You create a floating, spectral weapon within range that lasts for the Duration or until you cast this spell again. When you cast the spell, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 5 feet of the weapon. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to 1d8 + your Spellcasting Ability modifier.
As a Bonus Action on your turn, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet and repeat the attack against a creature within 5 feet of it.
The first confusion comes when wondering whether on Round 1 you simply cast it as your BA, and then need to take a regular Attack action to wield it, or not. The consensus wisdom out there is “or not”: the attack is also part of the Bonus Action (as it is in subsequent rounds), which means the following “what can you do with it when?”:
Round 1: As a Bonus Action: cast up to 60 feet away + attack.
Rounds 2ff: As a Bonus Action: move it up to 20 feet + attack.
And that lasts either until you dispel it or 1 minute (10 rounds).
These Are Not the Weapons You’re Looking For
“But! But!” people sputter, “It’s a weapon attacking! That has to happen during a normal Action as an attack! You can’t have a spell doing a weapon attack and then do a different weapon attack or even a spell-cast, on the same turn!”
Yes. Yes you can. Because what you see isn’t what’s really happening. It’s not actually a weapon, not matter what it says in the name.
Think of the Spiritual Weapon as a deconstructed magical attack spell. Nobody would question the ability to manifest a magical zap spelland attack with it that very same Bonus Action. Which is what you’re actually doing with Spiritual Weapon, but the magical zap spell looks and moves like a weapon, which confuses the heck out of people, because they want to treat it as a glowing animated physical weapon that does physical damage.
But it’s not. It is, quite literally “a floating, spectral weapon” that does “force damage” — and the likelihood of hitting with it has nothing to do with your physical melee abilities (Strength and Dexterity), but your melee spell abilities.
So while you’re doing Spiritual Weapon, what else can you do?
Well, on the round you cast it, that only burns your Bonus Action. So you have your full normal Movement and an Action to work with.
If you want to Cast a Spell that has a casting time of 1 Bonus Action, remember that you can’t cast any other Spells before or after it on the same turn, except for Cantrips with a Casting Time of 1 Action.
So on that initial round when you cast the Spiritual Weapon, you can’t do any other spells except a 1-Action casting time Cantrip. You can still move around, shoot your bow, swing your sword, Hide, etc.
On subsequent rounds, though, you can be casting spells during your normal Action, because the move-and-attack of the Spiritual Weapon is not a casting of a spell. As noted in the Sage Advice Compendium (p. 12)
Until Spiritual Weapon ends, it gives you the option of controlling its spectral weapon as a Bonus Action. That Bonus Action does not involve casting a spell, despite the fact that it’s granted by a spell, so you can control the weapon and cast whatever spell you like on the same turn.
In that same context, also note that Spiritual Weapon is not a Concentration spell. So even if the caster is attacked or otherwise distracted, that does not affect the spell, and casting the Spiritual Weapon does not interfere with other Concentration spells you already have up. (One could even argue that, should the caster go unconscious, the Spiritual Weapon would simply remain there, floating — it can’t attack without command — until the caster was revived if within the 1 minute spell duration.)
There Are No Stupid Questions About Spiritual Weapon
Well, maybe a few.
Does moving away from a Spiritual Weapon trigger an Opportunity Attack?
No. The Spiritual Weapon is not a creature of itself (it has no volition or reaction). And it only attacks during a Bonus Action: Opportunity Attacks are a Reaction.
Clerics of deities who are associated with a particular weapon (as St. Cuthbert is known for his mace and Thor for his hammer) make this spell’s effect resemble that weapon.
Another Spiritual Weapon token
“Effect resemble.” The shape and appearance of the SW is a “spell effect,” not actual substance.
Also, it’s an Evocation spell, one to “manipulate magical energy to produce a desired effect”; it is not a Conjuration which “involve the transportation of objects” or a Transmutation which can “change the properties of a … object.” Again, no object, just effect.
Remember that deconstruction mantra? If this was summoning a magical zap bolt that flitted about the field of combat, it would clearly not be thought of as a magical weapon. That’s basically what Spiritual Weapon is, a spell that resembles an actual weapon because that’s cool.
Can someone hold onto the Spiritual Weapon as it’s moved and essentially fly like Thor?
(People have actually asked this question.)
No. As just noted, the SW is a spectral weapon. It has no substance to grasp or hold onto. It invokes Force damage, but you can’t grab onto that.
Can a person move through the square occupied by a Spiritual Weapon?
Yes. The rules about moving through squares occupied by other creatures only apply to creatures. The Spiritual Weapon is not a creature. It has no substance to block someone, only doing Force damage when it attacks (which, to make it worse, it can’t do during the part of a round when someone would be moving through its square).
Now, that said, a lot of people would be naturally hesitant to do such a thing, even if they knew the spell. So there’s some role-playing involved here, and I’d suggest the average peasant / Kobold / etc. would just sort of naturally avoid running through a square occupied by a mystical floating weapon (or a spectral appearance of same) unless they had no other choice.
For that matter, there’s nothing to stop a person (friend or enemy) from ending or pausing movement in the same square as the weapon, nor from the caster from moving it into an occupied square (again, either by a friend or an enemy). It would not make attacks by the Spiritual Weapon any more likely or powerful, though it might be kind of distracting.
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 31 (Day 32)
The party charged upstairs — first Moony, then Faith — to face the defenses of Elizar Dryflagon. A Flame Wall, then a Stinking Cloud, plus smoke mephits from Elizar’s pipe — held the party in check for a while, but eventually they defeated Elizar and took from his body the Fifth Key.
They found Grund upstairs in the giant-bat-ridden belfry of the hall. He’d been defended by Flix, the sprite.
They rejoined the others down on ground level, where the Guardian who had been pushed off the scaffold had been being interrogated by Urshnora and the various druids.
They decided to take the rest of the afternoon off to clean up, research the items found, and relax. Urshnora approached Faith and said she was leaving the group, going with the young druids, rather than betraying the party and trying to steal the Fifth Key.
Long Rest. DING! Level 7!
Player Recap
Where there is smoke
Faith finds that the Azer had a finely crafted war hammer and claims it. Below on the ground floor are a couple of injured guards, previously on the third floor, and a handful of magmin. The guards are trying to stay out of site of the hole in the ceiling and the magmin are concentrated on the side near the tunnel, casually burn any wood around.
The voice we heard outside calls to the group. Are you sure you want to come up hear and beard the lion in his den. I’m sure that William knows the foolishness of that. Moony explores the next floor up. There are several bedrolls but it is otherwise empty. The floor creaks and feels very unstable. As he debates whether to continue up to the next floor, a figure appears at the top of the stairs leading up. Elizar is happy to see Moony and with a wave of his hand a wall of fire springs up between them on the stairs.
Moony comes racing back down the stairs, well-singed. Faith races up the stairs to confront Elizar. She dodges the wall of fire and then decides to charge through it. Elizar is surprised at her appearance and loses concentration of his spell when she attacks him. He back away from her, taking another hit from Faith. He puffs wildly on his pipe and 4 smoke mephits appear around Faith. The Spirit Guardians attack both Elizar and the imps. The imps attack back and blind Faith with burning embers. A Stinking Cloud fills the room and the stairway. The group slowly makes their way into the room and through the cloud. The only clear space is on top of the desk and book case. The group takes aim at Elizar from their elevated perch. The imps and Elizar take damage from the Spirit Guardians until eventually, Elizar dispels it the smoke. Once the bulk of the party can see Elizar, he goes down quickly.
Loot is recovered and the 5th key is found. A couple of thumps come from above. Faith moves up the ladder to see what is there. As she lifts the trap door a creature streaks bye. The sprite Flix says They’re here! They’re here! and rushes back up. Faith and William follows them back up the ladder. They find a damaged Grund in the corner. As Faith calls out to Grund, the giant bats attack. They are dealt with swiftly and come around unscathed except for the reek of guano.
Everyone returns to the courtyard. The other have captured the guard that was thrown off the scaffolding and questioned him extensively. Gariena has awakened and tell her tale of being kidnapped and imprisoned as sacrifice for the Wicker Man. There is some debate on what to do with the guard; when no one takes a firm stand, Urshnora steps up and kills him.
The questions wind down and the various groups leave the courtyard and returns to their camps. The party and the young druids celebrate for a while and have some quiet conversations. Urshnora tells Faith that she will travel with the young druids to keep them safe and see where life brings her.
The party awakes feeling much stronger!
Game Notes
The Battle of Scarlet Moon Hall
Scarlet Moon Hall
This started last session, of course, with the party turning a big chunk of the side of the tower into mud — fortunately (DM handwaves) not collapsing the tower itself (with the party on its scaffolding), just opening a big honking hole into the main room of the tower. In the ensuing battle, not only were the Eternal Flame mooks on the main floor taken out, but any strays sleeping on the floor above.
That left just Elizar up in his office, once the rogue had deftly avoided the fragile floor on the next level. I enjoyed playing Elizar as annoyingly self-confident, even after I realized I had not played him quite as well / deadly as I might have. Still, Action Economy would have doomed him sooner or later, so I enjoyed my little victories (Wall of Flames, blinding from Mephits, Stinking Cloud) where I could get them.
After that, it was pretty much just aftermath.
Elizar, in some ways, represents one of the bigger problems with PotA (and not just that campaign): cool characters that it would be fun to do more with, but aren’t written to easily do so without a lot of serious change to the plot.
It might have been interesting, in retrospect, to have him be the common “recruiter” that people mention having invited them to the Rite of the Wicker Giant (“A tall man, he was, with a pipe. To hear his voice, you’d follow him anywhere …”). It might also have been interesting (to maybe snitch a bit from Tolkien) to have a vision of him walking the campground at night, observing and picking and choosing (or rejecting) his new recruits.
Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle (in “The Wicker Man”)
Riffing off of Christopher Lee both as Saruman and Lord Summerisle works well, given the obvious borrows the module provides. A good DM should figure out ways to better use him while still leaving some mystery for the players.
The Return (and Departure) of the Guest Stars
This episode largely wrapped up (save for some farewells next time) a lot of the plot threads that had been hanging around. Part of that was ending an overly long dungeon, but part of it was realizing this was the last of the Haunted Keeps, which meant the party was about to do some actual dungeon-diving into Tyar-Besil. The only question would be where.
GarienaGrund
At any rate, we finally learned about how the Eternal Flame folk the night before had captured Gariena, her pixies, and Grund, then made it to look like she’s simply packed up and left the campground. One of the pixies, Flix, had escaped, and tried to warn the party, but hadn’t been understood; they couldn’t get to Gariena and the other pixie (who died of its injuries), so instead went up to the attic/belfrey of the Hall, and protected the injured Grund from the giant bats there.
Would you trust your Young Druids with this woman?
Urshnora, meanwhile, has been busy with the Young Druids, sufficient to bring her to a narrative decision point, choosing to go off with them as their mentor, continuing (one hopes) her redemption arc along the way. She announced it to Faith, the cleric who had been trying to sway her toward good (whilst dealing with her own alignment issues).
That she participates in the questioning of one of the fire cultist guards, and then offs him when he’s answered what he could — well, the party might have done that, too, and she did say she wanted to revenge herself on the Eternal Flame cult for the destruction of Rivergard Keep (and that whole water-vs-fire thing).
I enjoyed having Urshnora along, both as a potential threat (the casual way she mentions she had intended to steal the Fifth Key from the party) and as a voice for the DM. It was time for her to move on (I decided not to level her up with them, at least not overtly), but I’d miss her …
… until, of course, I brought her back again.
Bits and Bobs
Necklace of Elizar Dryflagon
So, yeah, the party picked up the Necklace of Elizar Dryflagon, and, presumably, the ability to use the four necklaces to form the Fifth Key.
We’ll see how — and where — that works out for them.
I used this as my “level-up” graphic in the game.
And, yes, I finally leveled the players again, to 7, and to bring them in milestone sync with having taken down all the Haunted Keeps. This represents a sea change in the campaign, as we’ll see, and one appropriate for a level.
Or so I thought. In reality, I’d bumped them a level high (The Temple of Howling Hatred, their probable next stop, was designed for Level 6). Ah, well …
You call forth spirits to protect you. They flit around you to a distance of 15 feet for the duration. If you are good or neutral, their spectral form appears angelic or fey (your choice). If you are evil, they appear fiendish.
Okay, that’s nice color text. I also played with it a bit in the campaign: when the player of the cleric started being affected by a magic item she was carrying, it had an impact on the appearance of her spectral spirits.
When you cast this spell, you can designate any number of creatures you can see to be unaffected by it. An affected creature’s speed is halved in the area, and when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Wisdom saving throw.
On a failed save, the creature takes 3d8 radiant damage (if you are good or neutral) or 3d8 necrotic damage (if you are evil).
So when does it actually do damage?
One question that immediately comes up about SG is when it actually attacks. It’s easy to mistakenly assume the answer is “right away,” but … nope.
You don’t take immediately damage if the spell is cast on you (with you in the area of its casting) or if it is moved over you (if the spellcaster runs up to you). As Crawford says, “creating an area of effect on a creature’s space isn’t the same as the creature entering it.”
But you do take damage if you enter the spell while it is in place, or are inside of it when your turn starts. And “entering the spell” does not have to be voluntary — a Shove or a Thunderwave can push you into the zone, and that’s considered not only legal, but, “We consider that clever play, not an imbalance, so hurl away!” Indeed, such a maneuver would lead to the target being hit twice by Spirit Guardians: once when pushed in, then again when their turn starts (unless someone yoinks them out again in the interim).
What about Line of Sight?
Spirit Guardians respects Line-of-Sight and Total Cover rule. I.e., if the circle extends through a wall, or any other cover, it is blocked.
Unlike Fireball or Stinking Cloud, which specifically call it out, Spirit Guardians will not go around a corner: they are not actual creatures flying around (which is why they can’t be attacked), but a magical effect emanating from a point (one of the corners the caster chooses). Anything not visible from that point is protected. If a potential target has only partial cover, though, they are affected (and the cover does not improve the saving throw).
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 30 (Day 32)
Scarlet Moon Hall
The party assuaged the suspicions of the Cranky Druids, even as Urshnora and the Young Druids joined them at the hilltop.
The voice of Elizar Dryflagon resonated from the hall, regretting that they had not chosen to use the power of fire to help cleanse the darksome forces arising over the Sumber Hills.
Moony was attacked by a giant bat on the rooftop, where there was gap being repaired.
While the main doors into the keep were blocked by rubble, there was an entrance along the western scaffolding, thirty feet up, that was apparently the way in … guarded by crossbowmen. The party used a Transmute Rock scroll from Sacred Stone Monastery to breach the walls on the south side, letting them attack the awaiting forces within. None of them had the Fifth Key component, but the fallen Azer had a beautiful war hammer that Faith took.
In the ground level below a hole in the floor, rubble, the odor of burned and rotting meat, and an assemblage of capering Magmin burning the fallen timbers was visible … as the party prepared to storm the upper levels of the Hall.
Player Recap
The unexpected approach
The Dwarf druid Comnall and his group appear at the gate and approach the party. They are clearly angry about the destruction of Wicker Man and the fire initiates. William steps forward to try and explain what happened. He presents it honestly and does a reasonable job of convincing them of his belief in the telling, if not exactly believing the tell. He also explains that Gariena is missing and we are trying to find here and her companions.
During the discussion with Comnall, the Young Druids approach along with their elk. They are concerned. The group gives them a short synopsis of what went down.
A voice fills the courtyard. “Oh, my friends. The fire and blood rise up, exerting their influence upon the darksome forces enshrouding the Dessarin Hills. If only you could have drawn on the power of the flames to empower such a thing. Now the effort must begin afresh … if anyone is left.“
While the discussion is paused, Urshnora notices an entrance into the tower on the West roof. William says “We are going into the tower. You may join us if you like, but we are going in.” Urshnora plans on staying outside of the tower. Hope asks her to keep watch over the Young Druids. Muldoon calls out. “Oh, look!” They have found in a tent a dead sprite and a bound and unconscious Gariena. She has been beaten but is not in danger of dying. The druids will take care of her.
The group moves to the West side to climb up the ladders to the scaffolding. On the top layer of scaffolding there is an opening into the tower, but something blocks their view. Moony explores the hole in the roof. It smells a lot like guano only worse. A giant bat attacks Moony, coming through the hole in the roof. After defeating the bat Moony climbs down and the party climbs up. Moony takes a peek behind the canvas that is serving as a door to the tower. He catches a glance of a single room filling this level of the tower. He doesn’t see much before a crossbow bolts slams into the canvas. Moony sees a few people including a guy with his face on fire.
Much discussion ensues about approaches. Giant Badger digging under the rubble. Using Stone to Mud scroll to collapse the roof, floor, wall, or other. Enter through the roof with the giant bats, or other route.
They decide to use the transmute rock to mud to create a new door on the south side. The villains are completely surprised. Faith uses her Spirit Guardian spell to good effect. William pulls a couple into the pit and Nala pushes one off of the scaffold. The advisories go down quickly. Some literally go down through a hole in the floor. When the dust settles, a somewhat hidden tunnel is revealed off the ground floor.
Game Notes
The Gang’s All Here
The defeat of the (open) forces atop the hill seemed an appropriate moment for the various surviving parties to come to the hilltop as well — the Cranky Druids, sincerely concerned over what the hell the party was doing, and the Young Druids, led by Urshnora (!), trying to figure out what was going on.
In the course of searching the tents on the hill, they found an unconscious Gariena — teed up to be a sacrifice to the Wicker Giant / Fire Elemental — and a dead pixie (which still left one pixie unaccounted for). The party was duly unhappy.
Breaching the Hall
Scarlet Moon Hall is surrounded by scaffolding as part of the reconstruction. Despite the ground floor being out of commission, there are a couple of ways in — into the roof (where, apparently, Giant Bats were an issue), and through an entrance on the third floor (where, apparently, Fire Cultists were an issue).
The party spend … an inordinate amount of time (I mean, really) trying to figure out what to do next.
The scenario seems to assume a frontal assault through one entrance or another. The party was in its depressive part of its manic-depressive approach to danger, so was reluctant to do such an assault. So they took (after much deliberation) a Stone to Mud scroll (which they’d picked up as loot along the way) and blew a hole in the wall of the third floor from an unexpected direction.
Which was … unexpected.
Both for the bad guys, and for the DM, who had to very quickly improvise a hole in the wall in Roll20, and how that impacted the combat inside. Yikes.
I mean, great out-of-the-box thinking, but … yikes.
Oh, About That Hall …
Okay, here’s one of my biggest bitches about Scarlet Moon Hall. More than that, my biggest bitches about Princes of the Apocalypse.
The game-provided map sucks.
No, really, this is what you are given to work with for the assault on Scarlet Moon Hall.
Scarlet Moon Hall (as provided by the module). Yup, that’s it.
What The Actual Frell are you supposed to do with that?
I mean, sure, if you are playing Theatre of the Mind, you will improvise something, right?
If you are playing on a tactical battle map, this is utterly worthless for figuring out how to deal with combat. Which, since the tower is full of Eternal Flame cultists, along with Elizar Dryflagon, the master of this Haunted Keep, is kinda problematic.
My eyes cannot roll hard enough.
Fine.
Instead, I crafted myself a level-by-level map of the tower.
Attic
Floors 3-4Floor 2 – note the block of wall that the party took out in their attack.Ground Level
Apologies for not-better copies — can’t find the originals. But, honestly, though a PitA, it took me only a couple of hours to kitbash this together with a drawing program and art I could find online.
This is the map (or something like it) that should come in the game, both on paper and virtually. That WotC did not do so is DM Malpractice.
Note: I have seen there are websites that sell their own battle maps for this scenario. I was quite happy with what I put together, which you are free to copy and use as you can. But that folk on Etsy and other locales are selling supplements like this should make WotC hang their heads in shame.
Bits and Bobs
I had a vision of Elizar speaking out to the folk who have essentially defeated him in finest Christopher Lee / Saruman voice, post-devastation of Isengard.
Which is oddly appropriate, given Christopher Lee’s roll in The Wicker Man.
Elizar Dryflagon and His Dancing Druidettes!
And, that said, I couldn’t believe the party was still at this “dungeon.”
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 29 (Day 32)
Hell Hounds and a guard! Spiky Growth! More guards on the scaffolds with crossbows! Alarums!
Druid Attendants invoking something and/or hurling fireballs. Huh. Hit Point problems.
Holy Crap!
Crap! Big Fire Elemental. Big Fire Elemental … is setting tents and scaffolding on fire and killing their own people. Oh, now coming over and killing us. Run!
Moony climbing walls! William orbital death laser! Theren grasping rock hand! Faith thunderwaving the elemental that was from the orbital death laser! Nala taking down guards and jumping around burning scaffolding!
Fire Elemental stomps on Theren and sets him on fire, then stalks after Faith. Theren stops, drops, rolls, metamagics, metamagics more, lightning bolts the Fire Elemental to death.
Heals! Many, many heals!
The cranky druids from down the hill show up. “What have you done?!”
Player Recap
Are you ready to rumble?
Two Hell Hounds and a guard race to attack the party. Moony opens the battle by spreading out and plunks the first Hell Hound. Nala moves up using her ice breath and sword. William casts Spike Growth on the area around them. Theren adds to the damage on a Hell Hound with Ray of Frost. The tide quickly turns and the Hell Hounds are rapidly defeated.
The guard flees south sounding the alarm. Before the group can react, a second guard appears on the scaffolding above William and fires a flaming crossbow bolt at him. William returns the favor by using Thorn Whip to pull him down from the top to the lower level of the scaffolding. He is damaged and prone. Bootsteps sound on the scaffolding on the far side of the manor. A second shooter takes a shot at Theren.
Insert Additional Fight Details Here
Guards come and are defeated. Eternal Flame initiates come and release the Fire Elemental contained in the Wicker Man and are defeated. Said Fire Elemental is defeated.
In the end the courtyard is devoid of enemies and the group debates their next move.
Game Notes
Big Battle
Scarlet Moon Hall
After multiple sessions of small battles and talkity-talkity, the big battle at Scarlet Moon Hall was quite a palate cleanser. The approach to the hilltop ended up spreading the bad guys a bit, but the complexity of the battlefield — walls, tents, building, scaffolding — still kept things pretty interesting, and the party scattered in different directions.
And then, of course, there was the Wicker Giant …
Elementary!
… who was, of course, an ever-burning Fire Elemental. Who managed to do a fair amount of damage amongst the various combatants until the Action Economy inevitably caught up with it.
Overall, it was one of the most fun battles to date in the campaign (from my perspective), with lots of complications, maneuvering, spell-casting, combat, and times when it wasn’t altogether clear who was going to win this thing.
So now what?
The Cranky Druids
The most immediate problem is that, as far as the Cranky Druids know, Our Heroes just disrupted and murder-hoboed the whole Rite of the Wicker Giant that would restore balance yadda-yadda. Will there be further conflict about that?
More importantly, there’s the elephantScarlet Moon Hall in the roomhilltop. Yes, it’s under partial reconstruction (with the scaffolding still on fire). But secrets definitely lie within … and an unexpected challenge that not only faces the players, but the DM of anyone running this particular campaign ….
In my most recent campaign, the Druid’s Moonbeam was colloquially known (well, at least by me) as the Orbital Death Laser of Doom.
It’s really not an exaggeration.
Let’s talk about Moonbeam
This is another one that has had some revising done on it since the original 5e release — so if you’re looking up material about it, make sure it’s referring to the “same” spell.
A silvery beam of pale light shines down in a 5-foot-radius, 40-foot-high Cylinder centered on a point within range [120 feet]. Until the spell ends, dim light fills the cylinder.
When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it is engulfed in ghostly flames that cause searing pain, and it must make a Constitution saving throw. It takes 2d10 radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
A Shapechanger makes its saving throw with disadvantage. If it fails, it also instantly reverts to its original form and can’t assume a different form until it leaves the spell’s light.
On each of your turns after you cast this spell, you can use an action to move the beam up to 60 feet in any direction.
Moonbeam, like Lightning …
This one has some similarities to Call Lightning, but some significant differences.
Moonbeam (5′ radius) AoE token for grid combat.
Like CL, the effect is a 5-foot radius centered on a grid intersection (i.e., 4 squares). The cylinder involved is 40 feet high, but there’s no verbiage (as in CL) to indicate that if you are not in a 40-foot tall room, you can’t cast it; the height seems primarily oriented toward cases of dealing flying creatures.
While CL allows the target radius to be moved anywhere under the cloud on the caster’s turn, Moonbeam‘s cylinder can be moved by the caster (as an Action) in any direction 60 feet, as long as it remains within the 120 foot range from the caster on that turn. So while someone can run out from under CL‘s cloud (which is immobile), the Moonbeam caster could run after someone who was trying to get outside of that 120 range and move the beam on top of them again.
When they enter the cylinder during their turn (if they did not already start there).
But targets do not take damage when:
The cylinder is cast or moved onto the area where they are standing.
The spell is moved across them on its way to a different location.
Looked at another way, you’d generally see Moonbeam’s use as such:
The caster drops the Moonbeam on an opponent. The opponent takes no damage at that time.
The opponent’s next turn begins … and they take their 2d10 radiant damage. They presumably move away …
The caster’s next turn starts — and they move the Moonbeam atop the same target. Who doesn’t take damage right then, but …
Note that victims can be involuntarily moved into the cylinder by some effect (a shove, a Thunderous Blast), and this does actually count as “enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn.”.
Entering such an area of effect needn’t be voluntary, unless a spell says otherwise.
This same arrangement holds true for a number of other AoE hazards, e.g., Blade Barrier. If it moves onto you, you don’t take immediate damage. If you move into it (even against your will), you do. And, in such a case, you’ll end up taking damage twice — when shoved in, and then at the beginning of your turn.
Note that this, too, is a Concentration spell. Between that and having to use your Action to move the Moonbeam, use of this spell is pretty much a full-time job. But the orbital death laser’s damage potential, especially against mooks, or round-over-round against bigger targets, makes all that worth it.
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 28 (Day 31-32)
The party debated the next best course. Circling the hill and ascending from the north side was a popular choice, but William’s Augury indicated woe for that course.
They ultimately decided to climb the hill up to the next camp on the left. They chatted with a druidess and her three ranger pals for a bit, with increasing tension. When the party passed through the camp toward the next, the people there attacked. The party succeeded but, again, taking two fireball attacks nearly killed Nala and sent everyone back down the hill for healing.
They tried it again, going to the fiddler’s camp on the left. There they met the halfling druid Gariena, her two sprites Flix and Afid, and her guest, the Red Larch pickle master and hapless tool, Grund. Grund was thrilled to see Mr Kitty again, but was afraid because he was told anyone from Red Larch would have him “put in irons.”
Another night down camp, noteworthy for (a) William dreaming of zombie and skeletal bears, and (b) Theren being nearly assaulted by one of the sprites, who then flew off north to one of the towers.
In the morning, the party explored Gariena’s campsite, finding it struck and empty. They did find strangers’ tracks leading toward the Scarlet Moon Hall at the hill’s summit.
The party tried to recruit the young druids to assist, but Urshnora, who has been spending time with them, discouraged the effort. On the other hand, they also, as a group, refused to leave, despite Faith’s attempt to persuade, then intimidate. Theren, though, told them to flee if the party didn’t return within four hours.
The party tracked the trail toward the front opening to the Hall’s boundary wall. They circled around to the north and northwest, before the wall was found to be in a relatively easily crossable state … and right where William had augered woe for attacking. They chose a position more northerly and crossed over, only to do so in an unstealthy fashion, which led the Hell Hounds to attack …
Player Recap
Moony and William get into trouble and then Faith makes it worse
Sauruki, of the Cranky Druids
A “druid” from another campsite comes to the group, keeping his distance from them. Sauriki asks their intentions and the group explains that they were attacked and have no ill will against the innocent. They are concerned that things are not what they appear. He heads back to his campsite warily.
After discussing the next steps, William cast Augury to see if circling east and approaching the keep from the north is a good idea – Woe!
Lytin (artist unknown)
After more discussion they decide to visit the other active camps up the road. They reach the first camp and are approached by the druid Lytin, with three rangers. She greets them and asks if they are fellow pilgrims. William returns the greeting and introduces himself, stating that they are there to here to witness the events. The sound of a fiddle wafts into the camp. Lytin rolls her eyes and complains of the noise. They briefly talk about the halflings and the other camp.
William has heard this type of music before, from a traveler, perhaps a bard. Faith senses that it might be magic.
“When the great rite is performed it will be the first step in the purification and will begin the rebalancing of nature,” Lytin assures them. She is a bit nervous or uncomfortable. She lets them know that Elizar doesn’t want people up near the site while they are preparing for the ritual.
They don’t look hungry and the party doesn’t see signs of hunting supplies. As the group moves through the camp, Lytin yells, “Take them”. Strong battle. Lytin cast Fireball twice on herself and her party.
Return to campsite with the young druids. Short rest. After healing up, Urshnora suggests that they visit the last camp before resting for the night. On reaching the camp, a large presence yells “Mr Kitty” and Grund races to hug Moony. He then races away in terror. The halfling Gariena invites the group to the camp. When things settle, the group convinces Grund that they wish him no ill will. Moony even offers him some of his dried fish. They have a peaceful talk, with the exception of the sprites filching some of Moony’s fish. The party says their goodnights and heads back to the young druids’ camp.
During Theren’s watch a sprite appears and yells at him before flying off north.
Next day the halfling’s camp is empty. William finds some tracks leading toward the Scarlet Moon Hall. The group walks towards the manor and then works their way around the wall.
Cross at the crumbled down wall. William and Faith make too much noise crossing the rubble. Two hell hounds and a guard race towards them.
Game Notes
A Long Holiday Weekend at the Campground
I can’t believe how many in-game days (or real-life game sessions) this all took. The problem was I was unwilling to upset the overall top-of-the-hill plans, which meant that no matter how much time the characters took, or how many group of undercover Fire Cultists were killed, there were no plot implications, even when the party would retreat back to camp to heal and sleep (again) overnight.
Probably my least-good DMing during the campaign.
At least the apparent kidnapping of Gariena by the Eternal Flame got them moving on the summit, albeit pretty much directly on the path that their own druid’s Augury indicated would lead to WOE.
Supporting Cast
Gariena
Gariena, the halfling druid with a pair of sprites as familiars / companions is very much part of the campaign-as-written. Her taking Grund under her wing is not, but she seemed like the kind of person who would both attract and help a half-witted half-orc on the lam from the law.
Grund
Of course, nobody’s actually after Grund — that’s just what the Believers back in Red Larch told him (that he would be captured and “put in irons” for what he had done for him), in order to get him to flee town and never come back. Easiest way to keep him quiet (easier than trying to kill him, at least).
The whole party, especially the Tabaxi rogue, had been quite taken by Grund, whose true happiness in life was brining pickles for sale on market day. So it was fun to bring him back in — and to add his disappearance to the stakes when the campsite was found empty the next day (despite one of the sprites trying to alert the party’s sorcerer in the middle of the night when it happened).
Urshnora
There was some discussion about recruiting the Young Druids on the presumed assault on Scarlet Moon Hall. Urshnora — who had actually sort of started taking them under her wing, as part of her redemption arc — thought that was a bad idea (and it probably would have been). On the other hand, the kids weren’t cowed by danger and refused to flee.
In the end, had the party gotten into real trouble (something I thought possible), the Young Druids would have come to the rescue, whatever Urshnora thought. Which would have been pretty cool.
Bits and Bobs
The Fire Cultists all seemed more than happy to cast point-blank Fireballs at the party, even though they themselves had fewer hit points and no fire resistance. That’s dedication. Also, it was the only decent offensive spell they had, and it really caused a lot of player consternation.
The Cranky Druids continue to be cranky, especially when every time they turn around, the party is busy killing another campsite full of druids. “But they were all bad” doesn’t seem to mollify them, strangely enough.
Lytin
The problem with coming up with tokens for all the important folk is that you end up having to come up with tokens for all the unimportant folk, so that the players can’t surmise that only the folk with tokens are important. So even though the “druid” and “three rangers” were disguised Fire Cultists who would die quickly after encounter, I still had to come up with tokens and names so that they would at least seem a bit interesting.
Part of an ongoing series of 5e Rules notes.
