This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 33 (Day 34) 

1. 

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

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

3. 

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

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

Player Recap

Where The Party Finds Their Wayward Dwarf

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game Notes

On a roll

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

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

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

Wending paths

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

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

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

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

I Dream of Genie

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

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

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

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

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

Some dialog I worked up for Ahtayir:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bits and Bobs

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

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

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

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

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

<< Session 32 | Session 34 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 32 (Days 33-34)

1. 

   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.

2. 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.

3. 

   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.

4. 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.
5. 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.”

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

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.)

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. 

“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.

A Brief Side Trip to Red Larch

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).

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

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

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.

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).

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. 🙄

<< Session 31 | Session 33 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 31 (Day 32) 

1. 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.
2. They found Grund upstairs in the giant-bat-ridden belfry of the hall. He’d been defended by Flix, the sprite.
3. 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. 
4. 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.
5. 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

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.

(All of this laid out on my own map of the Hall, as previously described, harrumph.)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 …

<< Session 30 | Session 32 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 30 (Day 32) 

1. The party assuaged the suspicions of the Cranky Druids, even as Urshnora and the Young Druids joined them at the hilltop.
2. 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.
3. Moony was attacked by a giant bat on the rooftop, where there was gap being repaired.
4. 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. 
5. 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.

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.

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.

And, that said, I couldn’t believe the party was still at this “dungeon.”

<< Session 29 | Session 31 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 29 (Day 32) 

1. Hell Hounds and a guard! Spiky Growth! More guards on the scaffolds with crossbows! Alarums!
2. Druid Attendants invoking something and/or hurling fireballs. Huh. Hit Point problems.

3. 

   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!

4. 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!
5. 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.
6. Heals! Many, many heals!
7. 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

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 …

… 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 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 elephant Scarlet Moon Hall in the room hilltop.  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 ….

<< Session 28 | Session 30 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 28 (Day 31-32)

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.”
4. 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. 
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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

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!

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, 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.

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).

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.

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.

And, okay, it was fun doing so.

<< Session 27 | Session 29 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 27 (Day 31) 

1. Dreams!
2. It was a frigidly cold day at Scarlet Moon Hall. Not just the smoke, but ground effect fog made vision no better than at night.
3. Moony and William scouted up the hill. At the first camp, they run across old, scruffy acquaintances, Storol and Wiglaf, whom they met shortly after their departure from Sacred Stone Monastery (S.17). The pair were apparently really bored here, waiting for something to happen, and grew increasingly belligerent, eventually revealing themselves as werewolves and attacking the two heroes. Moony ran for help, while William tried to fend them off. The rest of the party caught up, and eventually killed the werewolves (made a bit easier by their having their hybrid form ripped from them by William’s Moonbeam.
4. The violence did not sit well with the quartet of cranky druids the next camp over, who seemed ready to defend themselves if attacked. The party quietly backed down, and returned downhill.
5. They then visited (all together!) the camp immediately east, Faith determined to raise, then free, the dead bear. This plan outraged the “druids” there (Ingulf and Aylbrith), who then attacked. Ingulf was taken down quickly, but Aylbrith let loose two fireballs — the second killing himself and, nearly, Faith.
6. All this took place under the watchful eyes of that already-defensive quartet of grumpy druids. 
7. Individual and group heals, along with a Short Rest, left the party with the question of what to do next.
   • Can they just take over the camp of the last pair they killed defended themselves from?
   • Are the remaining camps druids or fakes?
   • Can/should they get a group of allies from the other camps to go with them to the top?
   • Should they stroll in the front opening, or sneak in from the broken walls around the side?

Player Recap

Moony and William get into trouble and then Faith makes it worse

That night, the watch is uneventful but the groups dreams

William … It’s dark. It’s stuffy. It’s everything you don’t get, walking upon the earth, feeling the breeze, smelling the rich smells of loam and wood and water. Instead, you’re constrained, not bound, but in a tight space, stone-edged, standing upright, the air almost gone, barely able to … <<what do you do>> [William shifts into star form] The stone door before you swings wide — and you’re battered by hard, round objects … falling on you from above, flooding the space, clattering lightly, each a bit of weight, a slight of hardness, but in aggregate … Skulls! You’re buried alive under hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of skulls, all of them grinning at you, all of them laughing. “The last laugh,” says a man’s voice, cool, deep, dry. “Where is he, the Lord of the Stone? Where are they, of Stone and Earth and the breaking of the highest laws of life and death?”

Another man’s voice, aggrieved. “She took him, not me. Him, not me!” But there’s light! Beyond the skulls, you capture a glimpse of light, then more, then still more, as men in leather garb and masks shovel away the skulls, and beyond them a woman, pale as death, slender as a reed, wrapped in silks and silver and her ears and face show her to be of the elves, and she laughs, and says, “Ah. A new prize. I shall collect the set, even if this one is but a bishop to my king.”

And a cold wind whips up and blows away the remaining skulls, clattering and rolling like crockery before it, and a madwoman laughs somewhere, and the wind is chill and biting and … very real.

Theren: You’re sitting at a table in a tavern. It’s quite warm, perhaps because of the roaring fire in the fireplace. Perhaps because the tables around you are ablaze. Perhaps because of the massive figure sitting opposite of you, himself ablaze and smoking a pipe the billows sparks and smoke. “We’ve been waiting for you,” the figure says. [Theren asks “Who are you?] The temperature continues to rise. “You look tense. You’ve not had much of a chance to let go of late, have you?” 

It’s becoming difficult to breathe. “You’re among friends here. Go ahead. Let go. Release that which you keep pent up in yourself all day, and all night. BRING THE FIRE.” All all around, the flames rising from the tables look at you with as fierce a gaze as the burning man opposite.

Moony: You don’t remember much of your dreams, except that there are huge dogs chasing you and they have William’s eyes.

Nala: You are standing on a barren plain, upon sand that ripples and moves in the flickers of cold breeze about you. You see no hills, no rivers, no trees … only endless sand under a pale blue sky. The wind whispers to you, in a deep, aged voice … “Those of the Eternal Flame are full of pride. They see only their own glory. They bathe in violence, wear it as a ruddy glow. They are useful tools, the best of a bad lot, sometimes creative in intuitive leaps, and firm in their intent once their fury takes them. You can trust them to do what they say they will do, and trust them to turn on you once that time is past. Trust your cold heart to defeat their burning ones.” And it occurs to you that you are, in fact, damned cold …

Faith: For once Faith has a dreamless sleep.

It is a very cold morning and the smoke and smoke. The young druids are up. Muldoon and Varigo are tending the elk. Fariya outside Iniri’s tent arguing about how cold it is. Varigo is optimistic that today will be the day that Elizar will begin the ritual. The two group pool their resource for breakfast. Hope step slightly outside the camp circle to do her morning prayers. William and Moony as the druids about the ceremony and camp. Urshnora suggests that the couple with the bear are evil and need to be dealt with. The Elk interrupt Hope, probably looking for a treat. 

Moony and William take a torch and explore the camp some. At the first camp up from the druids they come across Wiglaf and Storol. William, “Ah, the strangers from the road, I see you found your way.” Storol, “You said that you didn’t know the way but here you are” William, “But we didn’t know until we went to Red Larch.” The conversation gets confusing and Storol is contrary on all avenues. Moony indicates that it is time to move on and Storol says, “Hey the cat is rabbiting” and begins to change. They are both werewolves, taking on hybrid form. A bloody battle ensues and William takes the brunt of the damage. He calls up Moonbeam, which forces the lycanthropes to return to their original form. Moony and the rest of the group takes care of them while Faith heals William. 

There are some druids from a nearby camp that are watching the group. A Dwarf (Comnall) demands “What is your intention” William explains that they were just trying to find out more about the ceremony and the werewolves attached as they left their camp. I was just fighting for my life.”  Sauruki comments “We have been here a while but we don’t know what the schedule, so you are visitors? William answers “I have heard that there is a great druid ceremony that will restore balance” Murcadh says “Violence like this does not help restore balance.” They all agree, but point out that there was no other choice. The druids are uneasy and watch them carefully as the group goes back down the hill.

After getting cleaned up Faith insists that they all go to the camp with the bear. Ingulf and Aylbrith stand to meet them. Faith offers to resurrect the bear but requests that he be set free. Ingulf begins to protest and then Aylbrith says “Ingulf, enough, take her.” Aylbrith open things out with a fireball on the party. Ingulf goes down quickly and in the end Aylbrith kills himself with a second fireball, trying to take the party with him.

Moony explains to the druids from up the hill that Faith had a disagreement with the campers about resurrecting the bear. Theren tells the young druids that “The priest we travel with is crazy.” The young druids appear to mostly accept the description of the battle but are concerned.

The group takes a short rest to recover hit points and then discuss plans. They also discuss the other camps on the hill and what the young druids know about the wicker man and the main hall.

Game Notes

Pacing at Scarlet Moon Hall

The book sort of assumes that the party will engage the whole campsite (or bypass it) in one concerted set of activity. There’s no provision made for “we took out some bad guys, and now we’re going to rest until nightfall, and we took out some more, and now we Long Rest and get ready for the morrow, and …”

Which is what the players ended up doing, tackling the hill bit by bit, with full evenings in-between. And, honestly, short of Elizar sending his (not numerous) troops down to deal with the problem, and breaking all the fun at the top of the hill, I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I suppose I could have had more druids show up, or more covert troops, or something, until they felt they needed to tackle things more directly.

Anyway, that’s on me, though it would have been nice for the campaign to consider it, as they did in other locations.

Dreams

Yes, back to the dream channel.

In William’s case, I’ve got the Valklondar bits from the Last Laugh tying in (as they should have) to Oreioth, with a bit of mysterious Aerisi thrown in.

Theren gets more temptation by the spirit of Fire present in this place.

And Nala, a Silver Dragonborn, sort of gets the opposite, her unconscious affinity for cold coming to the fore.

Unhappy Campers

By the end of the session, the party is full of doubts whether there are any real druids on hillside at all except for their William, and (maybe?) the Young Druids.

We’d already met Wiglaf and Storol back right after the party took down Sacred Stone Monastery, with their thinking that William was the druid they had heard tell of.

That intro not only started the sequence of “ne’er-do-wells are being drawn to the Sumber Hills” bit for the players, but introduced some new folk for here at Scarlet Moon Hall. Which meant a little more meaningful interaction, at least until they discovered the pair were werewolves.

Which would have been a scosh dire, except for William’s favorite damned spell, Moonbeam, which is not only a kickass attack, but forces shapeshifters back to their human form.

Sigh.

And then there were the Cranky Druids. Not everyone on the hill is a bad guy, and Comnall, Murcadh, Ragnad, and Sauruki were actual druids (well, Sauruki was a Water Cult spy, but that aside), interested in seeing the Rite performed and “restoring balance.” They’re suspicious (not without cause) of some of the folk in the camp, which means discovering, multiple times, that Our Heroes are actually attacking and killing people … doesn’t go over well.

This builds off the the brief descriptions in the book, which is fine. It created some competent antagonists for the party who weren’t actually bad guys, included some complications for Urshnora (also from the Water Cult), and overall made the situation that much more rich.

They aren’t referred to as the Cranky Druids by the campaign, but that’s the title that stuck by the end, particularly when they kept yelling for the party to stop all that (combat-related) racket.

Bits and Bobs

The book doesn’t say anything about ground effect fog, but I figured the smoke needed some reinforcement during the daylight hours. Or maybe it was an added reaction to some unexpectedly frigid weather that blew through.

The party was in fact trying to figure out what to do, but could come to no consensus, and I refused to put my thumb on the scales through the NPCs they were with. Part of me didn’t want them to bypass the various conflicts and discoveries on the hill. Part of me wanted them to get on with it.

<< Session 26 | Session 28 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 26 (Day 30) 

1. Faith dreamed of flying, of a city under assault by a great wind, of Deneir whispering to her that she had lost something, of howls of Aldrik’s rage, the laughter of a madwoman, and the crashing of a wave of rain.
2. Faith invited Urshnora to the chapel; she demurred, but … politely. The party also offered her a chance to part ways; she seemed surprised they would let her go, but offered to accompany them to their next destination.
3. The party traveled out the Larch Path to find the passing clues they’d been given back in S.2–3 … a Cave of Treasure (which turned out to be full only of stirges), and a mysterious Skull Pinned To A Tree By A Black Arrow Wrapped In A Human Skin Scroll With A Mysterious Message (The Last Laugh Parchment) on it (which would have seemed just trivial, if not for a mysterious vision William had when he first touched it).
4. They turned at the described point and climbed into the hills, eventually finding, as night descended, Scarlet Moon Hall and the smoke-shrouded encampments about it. They chatted, at the first encampment, with the young druids they’d met in S.20 at Summit Hall, who mostly seemed greatly enthused about the prospects of Elizar leading the Ritual of the Wicker Giant.
5. They decided to camp out with their druid friends, which gave Moony a chance to scout out to the west up the hill (rangers (?) sitting around a campfire; another campfire with a fiddler, someone clapping, and faeries (?) flitting about). He came back down and scouted east (a camp with a couple of figures and a chained bear which sensed his passage; a camp with some hooded and indistinct figures …)
6. … And a pair of Worgs, which chased him down the hill, snapping at him the entire way … and followed by (apparently) that camp’s denizens, a trio of Bugbears. Things were looking grim for Moony until he was saved by both his own friends plunging into the darkness to save him (Theren Fireball for the win!), and the druids of the nearest camp (Ingulf and Aylbrith) who attacked the “abominations.”
7. That celebration was cut short by the chained bear breaking free and attacking one of the druids with a singleness of purpose, until it was killed. Faith offered to raise it to life the next day, and the party had a series of … suspicious but not conclusive discussions with those neighboring “druids.” After which they returned to their camp and went to sleep.
8. What you know of the area: Scarlet Moon Hall (Map) [See below]

Player Recap

Nobody Likes Worgs

Faith Dream: You’re flying again, a sky of dark clouds behind you. Your hear the roar of wind, buffeting you, making it hard to stay on course. <what do you do?> Below is a great city. Everyone is inside, hiding from the winds. Torches are flickering, going out in the gale. Dirt and sand are whipped into the air, to fall back, and even the stones of the walls you can see seem to sway in the gale. “You have lost something,” Deneir whispers in your ear. Below is a great pyramid, from which you can hear two things: a deep male voice roaring with rage, and a woman laughing with madness. Then the clouds crash down with rain, and you can see or hear nothing except the light creeping through the window at the Swinging Sword … and the bitterly cold wind outside battering at the shutters..

Breakfast is Ham and porridge cooked in house, so there is no question of poisoning.

They leave town via the Larch Path. It is less than a road, but more than a trail. About 7 miles out of town, there is a pile of stones that they recall is reported to lead to a cave full of treasure. Turns out is is full of Stirges. After they clear the cave of pests, they recall, Albaeri Mellikho and Elak Dornen told them about the cave.

As they continue along, William notices that there is a giant vulture struggling in a against the chill wind. It doesn’t have a rider.

After about 10 miles there is a tree that looks like a large chicken reaching up into the air. There is a decaying skull with a large black arrow through it’s eye socket. William decides to recover the parchment that’s attached to the arrow. As he goes to dislodge the arrow his mind is filled with an image of a skull rushing toward him. The others gather closer to try and determine what is might be. Eventually Moony determines that it is likely human skin. After some discussion, Moony removes the scroll from the arrow. Inside the scroll is a more natural tone  “The Last Laugh – You’ll be next! Valklondar.” Theran crushes the skull with a rock and William casts a Bonfire to burn the skull and scroll. 

A few more miles along the wind begins to die down. They pass the old abandoned quarry and at mile 16 there is a short stone plinth that is charred.  This is the marker to indicate where to turn east to find the circle of the red moon. The trail quickly opens up into a path that is wide enough for a cart to pass. Moony notices that the entrance to the path is disguised to look smaller. Moony and William both notice that there has been traffic other than goats along the path.

About four miles along the path the group starts looking for a place to camp. There is the scent of smoke hangs in the air. The group decides to continue along towards the site. A steep hill rises up in the darkness. Visible through a smoky haze that covers the hill is a square tower ringed by ruined walls. In front of the tower burns a bonfire shaped like a fiery giant. Scattered on the slope below the tower are several bonfires with tents clustered around them. Indistinct humanoid figures, obscured by smoke, huddle near these closer fires. A trail leads up to these hillside encampments.

Standing before the bonfire at the bottom of the hill, four robed humans—two male, two female—chant and laugh. On the periphery of the firelight are two massive elk, placidly chewing. The chanter are the Muldoon, Varigo, Inir, and Fariya. William approaches the druids and greets them. They are happy to see him and glad that he has come to the red circle druids. Your timing is great, the wicker giant burns but is not consumed. The ceremony shall begin the next night or the next day. It looks like they have been celebrating. They talk of Elizar who has inspired them (Inari more than Fariya) 

After talking some more the heroes drift off to “sleep”. William chats some more Fariya. She is less certain than the other druids, but is hopeful.

Urshnora is very unhappy. She dislikes the fire and oppressive magic. Faith agrees and promises to keep a sharp watch through the night.

Moony heads off to skulk around the camp. Swinging wide and creeping in to check out each fire circle. He takes a misstep at the far northeast camp. Two Worgs spot Moony and give chase. When he gets closer to the camp the ruckus draws the rest of the group and they go rushing off into the dark. The Worgs have caught up to Moony and several Bugbears are running after them. With a blind shot, William dropped a bonfire on one of the Worgs and Theran followed up with a spectacular Fireball. A couple of followers came from a nearby camp site and joined the battle. In the end, the remaining Bugbear runs off.

After the fight, the bear chained near the campsite breaks loose and attacks Ingulf. Nala and William move to protect her, but not kill the bear. After the initial attack, Ingulf throws scorching rays at the bear, killing it. It is right about then that Inari and the other druids arrive at the campfire.

In the end, none of the followers had seen the Worg before and they assumed that they had come from outside the encampment. Ingulf sheds crocodile tears for the dead bear, but the party can’t quite decipher her motivation. Faith casts Gentle Repose on the bear and William heals Ingulf. She flirts with William in a distracting and not entirely pleasant way. When the conversation dies down, the group goes back to the campsite with Inari and the druids. Everyone agrees that killing the bear was very undruidic.

Game Notes

Old Red Herring Week

There’s a ton of side quests along the Larch Road, which get brought up when the party first arrives at Red Larch and talks to various people. The party had wildly outleveled them at this point, which meant that when they went into the stirge cavern  (which I’d had to create and populate myself some months prior, dagnabbit) it was no threat to them — but they remembered the Believers still back at Red Larch who had suggested they check it out when they were still 1st level.

The Last Laugh scroll thing was a weird, one-off thing that would give the person affected by it a partial protection from (more like an aversion by) the undead for a tenday.

That’s awesome … but the only undead in this campaign are at Lance Rock. It would have been very cool then, not so much now.

It did give me an idea this Valklondar (undefined in the campaign) being some sort of undead adventurer, himself hunting the undead, and haunting William while he’s still under the influence of the “blessing.”

The Return of the Young Druids

Back in the late 60s/early 70s, there was a minor herd of “Young” TV shows, trying to merge the standard TV series formulae with a “young” cast to grab the attention of “young” (late teens, early 20s) audience with “hip” characters who wore their hair slightly longer. So you had The Young Lawyers and The Young Doctors and The Rookies, etc.

Every time I referred to the Young Druids, I flashed back on those TV shows.

The book simply gives their number, gender, their elk, the fact that they are partying, and that they are “good” enough that Elizar has decided that they will eventually be sacrifices. But I’d already teed them up as individual characters back in Session 20, at Summit Hall, as they followed (one of their member’s) dreams to come to Scarlet Moon Hall.

That meant the players had folk they could talk with more freely, felt the stakes for their friends more deeply, and tied together the saga as a whole.  It also gave them a campsite they could doss down at.

The Madness of Scarlet Moon Hall

One thing I will say for Princes of the Apocalypse: the four Haunted Keeps are all very different sorts of “dungeons.”  Feathergale Spire is a narrow circular tower, with nearby stuff to investigate if you choose. Rivergard Keep is a standard castle. Sacred Stone Monastery is a more traditional dungeon, above (the monastery) and below (the caves).

Scarlet Moon Hall is just … weird. That’s both good and bad. There’s the hall at the top, proper, which has its own interesting issues we’ll explore when appropriate. But the hill up to the hall consists of several interlocking campsites of various groups that have been drawn here for their own reasons. They’re all outdoors, but all shrouded by the smoke from the bonfires and ever-burning wicker giant. And they are all close enough by each other that a disturbance at one draws the attention of others (as carefully laid out in the book.

That takes up the front of the hill. The back of the hill? As you can see, it’s (a) not really on the map, and (b) described in the book as pretty featureless, but a possible approach to things. Oooookay.

A party that comes here could, if they chose, and just march up to the front “gate” and confront Elizar, his troops, and, possibly, a bunch of other folk from the campground, not happy about their Circle and Rite being threatened. Or they could circle around and do it from behind, and avoid most of the unhappy campers.

Or they could spend a lot of time, and multiple sessions, engaging with each camp and trying to figure out what was going on. Which is what this group did.

It’s a weird situation, and I had not expected the atmospherics to actually make the various campfires into quasi-separate “rooms.”

I also had not expected, for some unknown reason, that the Rogue would scout out a bunch of the camps — hampered by (a) Dark Vision only gives dim light with Disadvantage on Perception Rolls, especially when (b) people are sitting around big bonfires and (c) the hillside is covered in smoke, further hampering vision.

Anyway, in his scouting, the Tabaxi Rogue was able to at least see what the camps were presenting themselves as, but not what each of their Deep, Dark Secrets were. Until he failed his Stealth roll against some highly Perceptive Worgs.

After the session (i.e., as prep for the next session), I crafted the map below to show what they could see and where things were, based on what he saw / encountered.

What the map doesn’t give an idea is that smoke and haze (and, at night, darkness) over everything. I believe that, from a Roll20 perspective, I turned all the lighting off, just having the bonfires visible and, as they explored, the terrain slowly revealed.

Exit, Pursued by Worgs

So one of the camps is inhabited by some Bugbears and Worgs, who took over the site from some druids who were sacrificed by Elizar & Co. Why are the Bugbears there? What do they want? How do they hope to avoid being found out? What happens if they are found out by Elizar & Co.? Who knows? Certainly not the campaign book.

Ah well. It made for some excitement, especially in the smoky darkness, which hampered the party from knowing what was going on, whether Moony was actually in trouble, where he was, what they could see getting there, etc., especially if they weren’t going to haul light sources along and make themselves targets of those in the other campsites.

All’s well that eventually ended well, but it did give an introduction-in-battle to a neighboring camp that was actually a pair of Fire Cultists pretending to be druids and subtly grilling any newcomers. That then provided a chance for their chained (!) bear (named ohmygoshwedidn’tthinktoname him “Bear-Bear”) to break free and attack, requiring the bear to be killed, raising even deeper suspicions …

Can you actually do a Quiet Repose and then a raising of the dead … on a bear?  Or does it require an ensouled / sapient creature? I decided to go along with the cleric’s impulse.

Bits and Bobs

Faith dreams of Aerisi, the Air Temple, Aldrik, etc. No real clues here, but a reminder of an outstanding major plot thread or two.

The NPC Urshnora is offered a chance to go free — kind of a big deal from the party, and unexpected. That she chooses to come along is a surprise to them — but, no matter how she’s feeling more kindly about the party, she’s also out to get vengeance on the Fire Cult, and that’s right where they’re going.

<< Session 25 | Session 27 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 25 (Day 28-29) 

1. 

   As the party approached Red Larch, an unexpected cold snap and snow hit … followed, on the outskirts, by an attack by Hell Hounds which the party barely fended off; Urshnora nearly died, but was saved by Faith, much to her apparent surprise.

2. In town they stayed at the Swinging Sword, where they learned from discussions with Kaylessa Irkell and Harburk Tuthmarillar and Imdarr Relvaunder …
   • The Believers had been socially hurt, but, with no bodies, nothing legal had been done to them.

   • 

     All sorts of folk had vanished — Marlandro Gaelkur (which the party already knew, having run into him in Beliard; Grund the Half-Orc (on whom some blamed any violence that had occurred); Baragustas Harbuckler (who had apparently fled town for a variety of speculated-upon reasons); Braelen Hatherhand (who had been recovered by Imdarr, and who would be given an opportunity for an education down in Waterdeep).

   • People were acting strange.

   • 

     A recruiter for the “Rite of the Wicker Giant” to be held by Circle of the Scarlet Moon had been in town, though any local impulse to join up had been fought by Imdarr. They also learned that a merchant had been through town recently headed there with supplies marked with the Eternal Flame symbol.

3. Cart and horse were sold; armor and caltrops (but not ball bearings) were bought.
4. Theren figured out all the magic items they had picked up, including the Greatsword of Thurl Merosska.
5. Nala got a message from Imdarr that Brex Gelvain had contacted him, and he offered her any help he could provide, or to bring a message back to Waterdeep.
6. Nala broke the news to Haeleeya Hanadroum about Savra Hanadroum’s fate. Tears were shed.

7. 

   Endrith Vallivoe provided Theren with a dwarvish genealogical book that he’d bought from a peddler, who had in turn bought it from a shady keelboat skipper in Womford, who had several others. This looked to be part of Bruldenthar’s lost library.

8. Nala was poisoned by Justran Daehl, who apparently was the person who had fed Jolliver Grimjaw info about the party and goings-on in Red Larch. Theren had braced him at the Helm at Highsun about it earlier that evening, causing him to flee. But the previous night Justran had given Kaylessa’s maid, Ghileeda (who fed Justran information from visitors at the Sword) some (ineptly) poisoned ale for the party, after Ghileeda passed on what the party had told Kaylessa about their exploits.
9. The party got a good night sleep before heading out early the next morning to the Circle of the Scarlet Moon’s ceremony.

Player Recap

Hell Hounds Bite

As the group approaches Red Larch, the clouds thicken and the temperatures drop. Soon the snow starts falling and a chill wind blows through the explorers. By the time they reach the outlying farms the road is deserted and the snow has started accumulating in the shady areas. Suddenly Urshnora screams as a large group of hell hounds come from behind. A terrifying battle ensues where Urshnora is incapacitated and several party members dip into single digits, before pulling through.

On arriving in Red Larch, the streets are deserted. Kaylessa greats them at the Swinging Sword. She cares for them well and sends Ghileeda to prepare their room and start a bath. When they are fed and warmed by the fire, Kaylessa sits down for a good chat.

Since the left town, the “Believers” are not showing there face much and Baragustas, Grund, Braelen Hatherhand, and Marlandro have all left town. The party tells the tale of their adventures as a fireside story, not dwelling on the larger elemental plot. when fires burn low and the yawns start, they head to there room.

They wake up after a long rest. The storm has blown through, but there is about 3 feet of snow on the ground. The sun is already melting the snow. Nala and William visit Haeleeya Hanadroum to tell her about Savra’s death. She is obviously distressed. The pair leaves her to her sorrow. Faith visits the All-Faiths Shrine and visits Imdarr. He has fostered Braelen with an outlying farmer and plans to take him to Waterdeep when his replacement arrives. When she returns to the Inn, Urshnora begs to be interrogated. Faith declines and suggest that they head outside and walk through town. Moony picks up Buttercup and the cart and heads to the Thelorn’s Safe Journeys to try and sell them. When that is done, he continues shopping around town. Theren stays at the Inn deciphering scrolls and tasting potions. William and Nala go to the butcher to talk to Harburk the Constable. They give his the good news and bad news of their travels. Harburk doesn’t have much useful to add to their intelligence, but does mention that a druid had been through town trying to talk the town’s folk into joining the Circle of the Red Moon.

They all head to the Helm at Highsun for a meal and gossip.

Urshnora is surprised when Moony asks about Rivergard keep. Theren interrogates Justran and ends up intimidating him. Justran tries to flee, but Theren grapples him. There is a commotion and it becomes obvious that Justran is likely the informant. Theren returns to the party’s table and Garlen the proprietor

Overheard in the bar: The Rite of the Wicker Giant. Haunted Keep, Quarry in the hills that was abandoned because of the haunts. Some merchant was planning on going up in the hills to sell trinkets. “Weird thing too, the crates were all marked with the symbol the Eternal Flame. People believing they could fly, kids playing with fire, farmer walked into town naked, covered in mud.

Vallivoe stops Theren and conveys to him that he has a rare book for him. It is a beautiful book written in Dwarvish. Vallivoe says he got it from a trader who got it from a shady keelboat captain from Womford. Nala reads it and discovers that it is the Clans of Mirabar, a genealogy.

Nala is poisoned and the remainder of the group arrives in time to help her battle the poison. After the crisis passes, it is the determined that the poison was in the wine. The group interrogates Ghileeda who confesses that the wine came from Justran last night when she reported the group’s arrival. With Justran on the run, the group cuts Ghileeda some slack, as it is obvious that she did not know the wine was poisoned.

Game Notes

Hell Hounds

The campaign as written has some fun, escalating bits that occur as the party progresses (generally speaking, when they defeat a keep, a temple, or a node). This is usually along the line of “MOAR MONSTERS!” and so we get the Hell Hounds attacking this time in revenge for the defeat of Feathergale Spire (the retributions do not have to align with the elemental faction being hurt).

The battle was a lot closer than expected, which gave the party something to think about. Urshnora, their Crushing Wave companion / informant / fifth columnist also got something to think about when Faith, the cleric, saved her life. That act of kindness, of good, would start to turn her life around.

Tales of the Town

The campaign also gives some advice as to what sorts of things go on in Red Larch after the original brouhaha, and they lay a pretty good foundation of what to work with, especially combined with what stories I had set up before.

The Believers are still around, though no longer nearly as dominant over the town as they had been, their credibility having taken a serious dip after it turned out they’d been screwing around with hidden shrines and a Black Earth priest.

But, as noted, there were no bodies in the aftermath. The party’s Long Rest and over-eagerness to hand over Baragustas to one of the lead conspirators had tied up loose ends. Some folk, like Marlandro and Grund, had fled. Others had hunkered down a bit. Most of the Believers are still (relative to the town) rich and powerful; they can play the long game.

Justran Daehl is the loose end here. As originally set up, most of the cults have a spy in Red Larch, reporting back to them on goings-on there and along the Long Road’s trade routes. The Black Earth has the biggest presence, but Justran makes some extra money by reporting back to Jolliver at Rivergard Keep, as the note they found there hinted at.

Between learning of the fall of the Keep, as well as the return of the trouble-makers who have learned his secret, Justran uses his (already established) relationship with the young housekeeper at the Inn to try and poison the party. It’s ineptly done (Justran is not a super-spy), and he’s now foiled, to the everlasting thanks of the guy who runs the tavern.

Things are going a bit cray-cray in the Dessarin Valley. There’s the escalating weather problems, of course. There’s wild elemental magic being manifested. Some locals are leaning into weird, cultish behavior … and into the middle of this comes a “druid,” recruiting for some magical goings-on up in the Sumber Hillls. Strange times.

On a more tender note, some of the party had actually developed something of a relationship with Haeleeya Hanadroum, keeper of a dress shop and public baths. So they got the responsibility of telling her that her estranged daughter, Savra, was dead, and at their hands.

It was an emotional moment, and, to my mind, some great story pay-off.  People get into D&D for a variety of reasons, and for some this kind of story element is what they are after. For others … well, there was a nasty Hell Hound fight at the beginning.

Custom Magic

As a DM, I try to look for gaps in the party’s repertoire, places where they are struggling a bit, and magic items that will make them happy. Why give a party a +2 Whip of Nifty Magical SFX when nobody in the party can use a whip?

As written, Thurl’s sword is just a sword. But I thought he needed a little boost against the party and the party’s lead fighter needed a combat boost as well (and a magic weapon to replace her bog-standard one).  Thus she took from his body the Greatsword of Thurl Merosska, generally a +1 weapon, but no bonus against creatures of Elemental Air, and +2 vs creatures of Elemental Earth (as seemed very thematically fitting).

Our fighter was happy (and that much more effective), and, not being a fan of Thurl, redubbed it the Greatsword of Savra Hanadroum, as a tribute to her tragic loyalty. Nice!

(For that matter, if I have a player with a weapon that means a lot to them — picked up in the campaign, or pre-dating it — I would much rather find a way of enhancing it on the fly than just hand out new magical stuff. It’s not good story-writing when forcing a player to give up their family’s heirloom blade in order to pick up a generic +1 longsword. Better to give them a ring of +1 Attacks and let them keep the weapon that is part of their tale.)

Elementary Approaches

Each of the cults has its own personality, its own way of doing things. That’s well-established (if a bit scattered, of course) in the campaign book.

That applies to recruitment, too.

• Air (Feathergale Spire):  We only recruit frat bros as the top dogs. You want to join? You start at the bottom as silent pledges, taking care of the frat bros as part of a multi-year initiation.
• Water (Rivergard Keep):  We’ll take anyone looking for profit, preferably with some bloodshed involved. Share and share alike, except the boss gets the biggest cut.
• Earth (Sacred Stone Monastery):  Seekers find us. Then they learn what we teach them. We have no need to recruit.
• Fire (Scarlet Moon Hall):  Interested in “restoring the balance?” Come on up to join the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, a bunch of zany druids about to cast the Rite of the Wicker Giant. One night only! Come one, come all! If we think you’re good material, you can join the festivities! If we think you’re not, you’ll be the festivities!

As you can imagine, I loved that the party kept encountering word of “recruiters” advertising for the Rite.

Bits and Bobs

Bruldenthar‘s chests of books were taken by the Black Earth raiders that attacked the Mirabar Delegation.  A good chunk of them were used to pay Shoalar Quanderil, the genasi pirate, to get the raiders across the river. He, in turn, went down to Womford and sold some of his stock (you can’t eat books), and a trader who bought some traveled up to Red Larch and sold one to Endrith, who mentioned it to the party sorcerer. It’s all connected.

The Rogue desperately wanted another package of 1000 Ball Bearings, after their great effect at Feathergale Spire. I deemed it utterly unlikely that he would find ball bearings in a farming town (pre-technology). Sorry, Moony.

Imdarr was one of the two clerics established in the book as being on rotation at the All-Faiths Shrine. He had established himself on the previous visit as a stand-up ally, passing on information, hiding the abused kid from the tunnels from his parents, etc. He’s about to be (I decided) rotated back to Waterdeep, so it was a good time to have him get in touch with the party about any messages they wanted to send.

I really liked being able to draw on previously established relationships for the party, as well as backstory that had not yet been revealed. It makes the mutually-told tale that much stronger.

<< Session 24 | Session 26 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 24 (Day 28) 

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

4. 

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

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

Player Recap

Revelations

Wee hours of the morning …

Theren and Faith have watches left. 

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

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

(what do you do?) run

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

… wake up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Merosska,

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

Your beloved queen,
Aerisi Kalinoth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game Notes

It’s Infodump Time!

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

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

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

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

They’re not called the Howling Hatred for nothing

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

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

Dream Time Is The Meme Time

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

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

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

Bits and Bobs

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

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

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

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

<< Session 23 | Session 25 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents ● The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 23 (Day 28) 

1. The massed forces of Feathergale Spire attempted to storm the room where the party was sleeping. A bloody, intimate, and AoE battle later, the party was thoroughly victorious. Savra Hanadroum died trying to protect Thurl Merosska, who in turn was cut down.

2. 

   Thurl seemed to be revived by some sort of Air Magic, muttering about proving himself and defying fear. Faith put an end to that by Dispelling Magic. On searching him, getting past the cultic self-cutting and scarification (in Yet Another Symbol), they found an interesting ring and the Necklace of Thurl Merosska.

3. The party investigated the tower in a cursory fashion to confirm who might still be about. An Initiate on the rooftop leapt to his death. Heading downward, they encountered The Captive that William (and Moony) had encountered. They shortly recognized her as a figure from Rivergard Keep, a member of Jolliver Grimjaw‘s band of pirates, a magic-user named Urshnora.
4. The party hunkered down on the first floor of the Spire for the rest of the night, hoping desperately for an uninterrupted Long Rest.

Player Recap

Epic Battles and Power Outages

During Moony’s watch he hears movement outside the room’s door. He wakes William up before the noise escalates into a bounding at the door. Thurl bashes open the door. “It’s morning” he bellow.

An epic battle occurs. The Feathergale Knights have numbers on their side, but the party is more skilled, has a good position, and makes use of area of affect spells and weapons to their advantage. There were thorn spikes, ball bearings, fire balls and ice breath creating destruction outside the room and heals, air/storm magic, smiting and thwacking inside the room. Multiple crits and some truly awful DEX saves assured the party’s victory.

More of the battle would be written down and sung by the bards, but the power went out and the notes were not saved. 

Game Notes

It’s the Action Economy, stupid. Except when it’s not.

In an open field, the party would have been in big trouble. The FKs had them by sheer numbers, with some contender-worthy opponents as well (Thurl, Savra, the Ascetics). The sheer number of attacks they could have managed would have been overwhelming.

So, really, Thurl’s best opportunity would have been to wait until everyone was sitting down for breakfast, then launch an attack from all sides.

Thurl wasn’t really thinking straight on this one.

Instead, the party was concentrated in the quarters they had been given (and in just one of the two rooms), guarding the doorway, dealing with any individuals who slipped in (or teleported in, like Thurl), and the rest of the outside could become an AoE killing ground.

Which is essentially what happened. The druid dropped a Spike Growth that slowed and did steady damage to the (relatively low-level) bad guys. The rogue threw down their ball bearings, to further great effect. And a Fireball from the Sorcerer and a breath weapon from the dragonborn fighter both did their jobs, too.

Basically, 80-90% of the foes were defeated without ever being able to bring weapons to bear on the player characters.

Amazing.

The End of the Triangle

Poor Savra. She charged into the room and gave her life to save a guy who really didn’t care for her. The party tried, even in mid-battle, to talk her down, but when it came to it, the party cleric chose (rightly) between friends and foes.

Thurl’s “clever” tactic to breach their lines from inside turned the Action Economy upside down for him, letting party members concentrate on him. Bad idea.

Thurl’s mini-resurrection was something I’d come up with (an enchantment to pump AIR into his lungs) to let him say a few final words … which were cut short by the cleric Dispelling Magic. So be it.

Urshnora

1. Urshnora is a Fathomer, one of the named baddies at Rivergard Keep, and Jolliver’s top lieutenant (in her own mind, at least). She was there when the party first arrived and fast-talked their way with Jolliver, and was on the periphery when Drosnin called out an all-out attack on the party, driving them to escape.
2. Drosnin took her along with the ambush party, knowing the characters were planning on going to Sacred Stone Monastery. Seeing the plan go pear-shaped before she even had a chance to get involved in the attack, she stayed invisible and slipped away.
3. By the time she made it back to Rivergard Keep, it had been wiped out by the Fire Cult.
4. Heading for Scarlet Moon Hall to take her revenge on the Eternal Flame cult, she’d been captured in the Sumber Hills by the Feathergale Knights … and tortured by those Howling Hatred cultists to reveal the secrets of the Crushing Wave. She was willing to play the long game to get back at Thurl — but guessing the player characters will have things well in hand, kills her guard (which she could have done a while back) and lets herself be “captured” by them. Her interest will be further piqued as she learns more about them.

The only part that didn’t go according to her plan was the party recognizing where they had encountered her before. She offered her help in return for them having freed her (or, at least, taken down Thurl), and, for reasons I don’t really recall, they didn’t just kill her, but invited her along (perhaps because she said she had info about the Necklace of Thurl Merosska, et al.).

Urshnora’s role in all of this was completely my own doing. I hadn’t yet made up my mind what her story arc would be, but I thought she might make for useful complications down the line, and someone who could occasionally voice things for the DM.

Favorite Moments

I shared these with the players later.

• Moony – The Keystone Kops scene that nobody could see outside the door after he threw down his ball bearings.
• Theren – Shooting a Fireball through a narrow corner of the door and trusting that it was a target-rich environment outside … which it was, but not afterward.
• Faith – Using Dispel Magic to “pull the plug” on Thurl.
• William – Best. Thorny. Floor. Thing. Ever. Not only screwed up the bad guys’ tactics, but weakened, trapped, or (in one case) killed people.
• Nala – Inadvertently stepping on the Thorny Floor thing (and taking damage), before taking out the Knight there with a puff of cold air.
• Savra – Charging in like an avenging angel to save Thurl. And refusing to be talked down while people were still stabbing him.
• Thurl – Deciding, “screw it, I’m not gonna walk through this Spike Growth thing I’m in the center of” and Wind Walking / teleporting into the room.
• Urshnora – Watching the whole battle through her scrying pool and planning how best to Running into everyone on the stairs.

Bits and Bobs

The boffo success of the ball bearings had the rogue jonesing for more. Alas, it’s not something you’re going to find at the five-and-dime in little rural Dessarin Valley towns. The player never quite forgave me for that one.

The battle actually took most of the session, which worked out fine in terms of the party finding a place to hole up and rest (down in the ground floor barracks). Enough time to ransack things tomorrow …

<< Session 22 | Session 24 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 22 (Days 27-28) 

1. After the vanishment of the Air Elemental (and Aldrik), Thurl Merosska intoned, pale and shocked, “Her voice. She spoke to you …” and stomped downstairs. A Featherfalling Savra Hanadroum was rescued back up to the top, was rather dismayed herself, but more so that Thurl had been upset.
2. The party was shown down to rooms — except to Moony, who had stealthily followed Thurl, and overhead him going “Why, why,” and screaming with pain, and then sobbing.
3. Dinner was a tense affair. William told (most of) the story of taking the Sacred Stone Monastery, which drew cheers, but in talking about Aldrik’s origin, Thurl demanded more details, then stormed out when they were not forthcoming. “We will speak of this in the morning.” 
4. The party huddled in one room of the two they were offered, planning plans.
5. Moony (turned invis) along with William (turned into a spider) snuck through the tower. The roof had the normal vulture guards, plus someone monitoring the telescope, which was trained on a small vale across the Sighing Valley. Down a level, a guard stood outside Thurl’s quarters. Down at the kitchen level, William tried to find something to mask Moony’s scent (which it seemed a vulture on the top level had spotted).
6. Down at the stables level, bypassing a knight training his hippogriff, they determined that a closed stall with a guard was suspicious. William managed to (mis)communicate his intent to Moony, and dashed past the spider-stomping guard. Inside, he found The Captive, transformed back to human, told her they would rescue her on the morrow, Turning back into a spider, William realized he hadn’t asked her her name. He and Moony returned to their room before the Invis spell wore out.
7. Savra came to them, and urged them to leave. Theren insighted that (a) she was quite … involved with Thurl, and (b) she was frightened (of him?). The party grilled her about the female voice, about Thurl and his devotions, etc. In the end, she fled.
8. It occurred to the party (Faith) that elementals should speak Auran, not Elvish, and (Theren) it actually sounded like an actual elvish woman speaking stilted noble elvish.
9. Hunkering down for the evening, setting watches … and Moony, sometime after midnight, heard sounds outside, and then, as he listened, the bar on the door lifted up, and the door was pushed open, and, behind a mass of Feathergale Knights, Thurl shouted, “It’s morning …!”

Player Recap

Feathers

As the group stands up and dusts themselves off, William and Faith heal the wounded. The others look to where the elemental took Aldrik. Thurl shakes himself and says in annoyance and wonder, “Her voice. She talked to you.” He then storms towards the stairs and heads down.

Sir Carele returns on his vulture with Savra unharmed. She dismounts and bows to him. She looks around and asks where Thurl is. Nala lets her know that he headed down the tower steps. Clearly flustered, Savra greets the group and invites them to stay as guests. She leads them down to the banquet room and guest chambers that they occupied previously.

Meanwhile, Moony sneaks after Thurl and overhears his monologue behind one of the doors on the floor between the roof and the banquet hall, amidst the sound of breaking furniture. “Why? Why?” “Why wouldn’t she take me? Doesn’t she know my devotion? My loyalty? How can I –?” Followed shortly by a loud, tormented scream from Thurl.

The party gathers in one room to discuss the events. Moony joins them shortly. The group can not determine why Thurl was disconcerted by the elemental. An initiate comes and invites the party to dinner. As they join the table, they are welcomed by Savra. Thurl is missing, but joins them a bit later.

Savra and the knights are looking at Thurl with concern, especially Savra. Savra politely asks William about the group’s journey and battle against the Black Earth monastery. When William gets to the part of finding Aldrik and rescuing the captives, Thurl burst out “But who is he?” William tries to explain again. Thurl is disbelieving. He shortly leaves in a huff, vowing that they will continue the discussion in the morning.

Nala questions the hospitality of the Feathergale knights and the group’s safety. Savra gets snarky and follows after Thurl. Moony stokes the flames of discourse and discontent. Eventually, Nala and William join the verbal fray in defending Aldrik. Finally, one of the knights takes enough offense and leaves. Faith calls out after her “Thanks for the inhospitality.” The dinner quickly breaks up and the party retires to their room.

After the group gets settled in and begin discussing the plans for the night and the morning, Savra comes to the room. She tries to get us to leave, then and there. William lights into her about the larger impact of what they are doing. He asks her directly about the missing delegation. She denies knowledge, but William is certain that she knows more. He pushes and asks her directly about Deseyna Majarra, the Waterdeep delegate who was stolen by vulture riders, and describes her. He tries to convince her that what they are doing is not something to be taken lightly and that all of the elements are gathering to bring forth a great evil. He comes close, but she shakes herself and digs deep into her faith.

In the end she again tries to convince the party to leave tonight and get away. That Sir Thurl is not himself and may be dangerous. William asks as she leaves, ” So why does your lady speak Elvish and not Auran?” She gapes and leaves without a word.

Theren shares his insight on Savra. She is deeply attracted to Thurl but is also afraid of him. Moony agrees and gives the group a summary of the tower from his previous exploration. The groups decides that a Long Rest is the best course … but not yet.

Theren turns Moony invisible and William turns into a spider. The two head out to explore. They start on the roof. After a scare with a guard, Moony takes a look through the telescope. It is trained on the mouth a gorge across the Sighing Valley from the tower, though it’s difficult to make out in the fog. He makes a note of the location. As they head towards the stairs, one of the vultures takes note.

As they head towards the aerie on the bottom floor, William pulls Moony towards the kitchen to find an herb to mask his scent. They continue down the stairs.

One of the knights is in the stables but is paying attention to his hippogriff and doesn’t hear Moony. There is an initiate standing guard over a locked door. William tries to signal Moony to wait but he doesn’t really understand. William races down his leg and under the door; the guard spots the spider but his stomp misses William.

Inside there is a captive. When William is safely on the far side he returns to human form. She does not appear to be Deseyna, at least not as described to them. He tells her that they will come and rescue her soon. When asked what she needs she requests a dagger. William says goodbye, resumes his spider form and leaves by the top of the door and the wall to avoid the boot. They make it back to the room and share all of their investigations. 

They set up watches and figure out where each person is to sleep in the crowded chamber. Some time after midnight, Moony, on watch, hears something. He goes to the door to listen, and realizes the bar they have lowered is rising upward. Before he can do anything, the door is kicked open, the hall outside full of Feathergale Knights and Initiates, weapons drawn. Thurl shouts out, from beyond the crowd, “It’s morning!”

Game Notes

“As the Spire Turns”

So, to summarize:

Aerisi Kalinoth is the Prophet of Evil Elemental Air, worshipping Yan-C-Bin. We’ll meet her in person later on, but she’s a beautiful winged elf-queen (that’s her up there on the book cover) with a few screws loose. All she asks is that you worship her, as she deserves.

Thurl Merosska is the Keeper of Feathergale Spire, in service to Aerisi.  He has his backstory as a Gryphon Racer jock and a terrible accident, but suffice it to say that he worships two things:  power, and Aerisi. Indeed, his long-term goal is to take Aerisi as his own, at which point, of course, he would assume the power of the Prophet and she his dutiful, beautiful wife. He clearly has a few screws loose, too.

(To the extent that she notices Thurl as more than another of her servitors, she probably thinks his adoration is both cute and fitting, and would laugh for several minutes if you told her about his dream, and then kill you, and maybe him, for even suggesting it.)

Savra Hanadroum (more on her name here) is a rebellious teenager from Red Larch, smitten by the handsome Gryphon-rider Thurl, and ran away from home with him to be near him, in the process becoming his chief lieutenant. She’s still deeply smitten, but is still a cultist with a heart of gold.

Now … Aerisi just intervened in everything, yoinking via Air Elemental the party’s dwarvish barbarian, Aldrik, from the top of Feathergale Spire, and showing in a few short words that she’s far more interested in him than she’s ever seemed interested in Thurl. (That it’s not necessarily interested in a better way is beside the point for him.)

Thurl, as a result, is furious, jealous, and won’t take “We don’t know much about his background” as an answer.

Savra is appalled at how Thurl is taking this, but feels badly for him, but wants to do the right thing by getting the party out of there, but remains in unrequited love with Thurl, certain if he would just listen to her, everything would be all right.

Hilarity (and, apparently, a big battle) ensues.

Did the players get all of this? As noted, they were getting parts of it, and I think they got enough to feel like there were actual motivations going on, not just mustache-twirling mad cultists. Not that it made the situation any less dangerous.,

Some of this (the fundamentals of the Thurl-Aerisi thing) are from the campaign book. Other parts of it (most of Savra, and her play here, as well as, of course, the whole Aldrik additional bit) were from my own fevered imagination. But it worked beautifully in my mind and it finally appeared to be about to bring the big battle between the party and all the Feathergale Knights that has been hanging since Session 9.

Thurl’s histrionics behind close doors, as overheard by Moony, is part and parcel of his obsession with Aerisi, obviously. He’s also literally hurting himself, cutting open the cult symbol scars on his chest with a dagger, in a desperate bid to either show Aerisi he’s worthy of her devotion, or to distract himself from his emotional anguish.

Kids, don’t try this at home.

Sneak, sneak, sneak

The party had much of Feathergale Spire mapped out by now, and they decided to finish the job under cover of night. Moony checked out the floor with the chambers of the top leadership, including Thurl. Then he and William did some Invisible / Spider creeping about.

They (finally!) looked through the telescope on the top floor, which is used to monitor the entrance to Knifepoint Gully, where the path down to the Temple of Air in  Tyar-Besil lies. (Remember that the keeps were originally built to monitor the entrances to the constructions below, both to raid them for loot and to keep monsters from getting out.)

(Smaller hand-held telescopes are used by the lookouts to watch south into the flatlands.)

After a brief scare when one of the Giant Vultures perceived Moony (followed by a clever bid to mask his scent), they went down to the lowest floor, where the paddocks for the Gryphons and Giant Vultures were. There they found a battered woman being kept captive, dressed only in a wet slip.

Now, I knew who the woman was. I was expecting them to think it might be Deseyna, one of the Mirabar Delegates, and the thought did occur to the players, but she didn’t match the description they’d received.

No, the identity of the captive (whom they left there to be “safe”) would be a far more interesting (and non-canonical) sub-plot in the campaign to come.

Bits and Bobs

This was very much a talky-talky episode, the first in a while without any sort of combat. Sorry, guys — we’ll make up for it next week.

A lot of plans were hatched by the party, including (a) yes, running away in the middle of the night, and (b) pre-emptively attacking the Knights. A number of the plans involved, “Well, we have until morning,” not realizing that Thurl was waiting for 12:01 a.m. to act on his promise/threat …

I picture Thurl’s “It’s morning!” (when he told the party they would discuss all of this further) to seem a lot like Jack Nicholson’s “Heeeere’s Johnny!” in The Shining. Thurl’s basically lost it.

I really enjoyed this episode, and my favorite part was William (and Faith, from what I recall) trying to talk Savra into turning on Thurl, or at least helping them. I actually did some Persuasion die rolling behind the DM Screen in there, and it’s possible that, given a few more days, things might have turned out very differnetly.

But … it’s morning.

<< Session 21 | Session 23 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 21 (Days 26-27) 

1. Jolliver Grimjaw railed at them for the misfortune of Rivergard Keep, then offered them jobs. They offered not to kill him, and battle was joined. He turned out to be a wereboar and, in hybrid form, fought the team until finally taken down. He had on him the Necklace of Jolliver Grimjaw to match the Necklace of Hellenrae.
2. An inspection of the castle found various bodies (both bandit and civilian) and charred destruction. They also found a secret door that led to a landing on an underground river, that flowed from the darkness into the castle’s harbor.
3. There was concern, esp. after a dream he had, that Moony had become cursed with lycanthropy, being the only one to have taken a personal attack from Jolliver. Fortunately, Faith had Remove Curse.
4. After an uneventful night (other than a dire dream for Faith), the party tried the boats at the underground landing, only to be attacked by ghouls rising up out of the water. After getting very wet, they defeated them and proceeded upstream, William as a shark. The stream was blocked by an impassable door Crushing Wave symbol on it. The twin necklaces definitely resonated with the door but … not completely.
5. The party set forth for Feathergale Spire to “report in.” They were greeted with open arms by Savra Hanadroum and Thurl Merosska, who offered them a place in the Feathergale Knights. He was then introduced to the new member of the group, Aldrik — at which point an Air Elemental landed atop the spire, in the middle of the group, battering them and throwing them all twenty feet distant, Savra over the railing, and Thurl crashing into a Giant Vulture. A woman’s voice said in elvish, “Now the prize is mine!” and the elemental carried Aldrik off to the east and out of sight …

Player Recap

Swoop There He Goes

Jolliver first blames the party for the destruction of Rivergard and then asks us to join him. When the party stops laughing. Moony suggest that Jolliver surrender and show them around the keep. There is more to Jolliver Grimjaw than initially meets the eye. He appears in a were-boar hybrid shape. The group soon discovers that he only takes damage when attacked with magic (or silver), but manage to do a number on him anyways. As the tide turns against Jolliver, he leaps from the balcony as he tries to escape. This does not end well for him. 

Jolliver has the Necklace with the Water Symbol, which a match to the Earth Necklace of Hellenrae. There is also a small carved stone shaped into a tiger. Nala finds a semi-hidden door leading out of the main hall. A quick search of the main hall reveals only dead bodies and stacks of papers. There is a staircase down to a dock alone on an underground river.

Theren and Faith stay in the keep to investigate the papers. The other explore the rest of the keep. 

Paper Chase: There are a lot of reports about loot acquired and gang movements. There is one note in distinctive handwriting about a “Group of Troublemakers” in Red Larch. It sounds a lot like the party. 

Room Rumpus: These rooms were previously locked, but are all broken into. There is a small library with charred furniture and a few burned scrolls. Moony collects the books together and William puts them in the duffle Bag of Holding. William looks around the rest of the library and discovers what looks like a hidden door in the corner, which leads into Jolliver’s room, which had been spiked but blown apart. There are multiple chests there, but all have been largely emptied out.

The remaining rooms have little else of notice. A guard barracks, a raided kitchen, servants quarters with wash tubs. A number of bodies, both guards and in civilian drudgery wear.

The chapel is in ruins. The barracks and wooden towers are mostly destroyed. It is getting towards late afternoon. The groups explores the keep for about an hour and a half. They find more destruction, dead bodies, and not much else. When it’s dark they have dinner and hunker down in Jolliver’s room. William reads some of the books from the library. They do not appear to be Bruldenthar’s books. They are mostly nautical in nature and include logs from the Savage Tusk.

Faith has a dream: She is walking through a storm wind whipping up all around her and grit striking. She can see the eye of the storm above her, but in the center of the eye is a triangular iris. Deneir.”Heads. Trophies. Do you know that in some faiths (wink), humanoids take the heads of their enemies and keep them as trophies? In other faiths (wink), they build stone heads of their heroes — their gods — their demons — and bow down in worship to them. In either case, to steal such a head is to gain power. Finding it will be most urgent, lest that power tip a very delicate balance, where an errant gust of wind can spell ruin for all.”

Moony has a dream: He is used to dreaming of hunting but there is something wrong about this dream. There is a puddle ahead of him. When Moony looks into it he see Jolliver.

In the morning Faith collects the heads of Reash and Jolliver. William insists on putting them in a chest or pot before they go into the bag of holding. William is attuned to the tiger fetish has a one use a day Jump spell on it. He gives it to Nala. Moony attunes to the water and earth pendants and determines that they still the other pieces. Faith casts a Remove Curse on Moony, just in case he was infected by lycanthropy, as he’s the only one who took physical (tusk) damage from Jolliver.

Going down the stairs to the underground river again, they take two of the row boats. Moony, Theren, William in one and Nala, Faith, Aldrik in the other. Nala spots a creature in the water near her boat. Faith casts Spirit Guardian calling forth angelic forms to protect the party. The ghouls tip over the boats, dumping everyone into the dark water. Despite that, the fight ends quickly with only minor damage to the party.

William changes into a reef shark and accompanies the boats up stream. The water ends in a stone wall with the Crushing Wave symbol on it. The water is flowing through the stone. The necklaces from Helenrae and Jolliver seem to resonate with the wall, with a sense that something more is needed. 

It is late morning when they head out to Feathergale Spire. They soon see a giant vulture tracking them from high above. Shortly before they arrive, the vulture leaves and heads toward the spire. 

The Feathergale Knight Savra Hanadroum greets them warmly. William introduces Aldrik and explain that he was a captive of the monastery. She is thrilled that the group has succeeded in destroying the cultist in the monastery. She leads them into the castle and up to the roof to see Thurl Merosska.

“My friend you have accomplished so much in less than a ten day. What should I offer you as a reward. I offer you freedom … and membership in the Feathergale Knights.” Nala demurs because she has not fulfilled her original task of finding the delegation. Thurl asks after the new party member and when introduced he says, “Aldrik, Aldrik, that name sounds familiar.”

There is an abrupt, sudden, sheer force of air, a whirlwind lands centered on the group. Everyone on the roof get thrown back. Savra tumbles off of the parapet. Aldrik is swooped up by the air elemental and a female voice says in Elvish “Now the prize is mine!“ The air elemental heads towards the East / South-East, leaving everyone stunned.

Game Notes

Bon voyage, Jolliver

After a chance to vent his considerable spleen over the setup of a lifetime — being the pirate king of the Dessarin River while seeming to be its protector — he takes a very pragmatic, piratical approach: Would y’care t’join me crew? When they say no, he gets Action Economied to death …

… but not before wounding Moony, and, by gosh, I rolled all the right stuff to infect the Tabaxi as a were-boar … and then discovered how freaking easy it was for the party cleric to cast a Remove Curse. Darn.

The keep had already been ransacked by the Eternal Flame attackers — no big treasure windfall for the party, since they didn’t take the place down. But they got a few good things out of the mix, and that Jump trinket would be tactically helpful almost all the way to the end of the campaign.

The Underwater River

The whole setup with the underground river heading into the Water Temple portion of Tyar-Besil was kind of cool. Alas, the water ghouls didn’t turn out to be very much of a threat, in part due to level, in part due to that ridonculous Spirit Guardians spell (or “The Fairy Buzz Saw of Death,” as I tended to call it), which the cleric used to great effect for the rest of the campaign.

It was also my first real opportunity to dive (see what I did there) into how kind of goofy the 5e water combat rules are.

The river — which fits into the keep very neatly once you get to it — is supposed to lead into the Water Temple — which would have been a very dangerous adventure for the party at this point. As mentioned previously, I’d blocked all these entrances until all the “key” necklaces were collected — including the one they picked up this session, the Necklace of Jolliver Grimjaw.

Up, up, and away!

What the hell is going on with Aldrik at the very end?

Well, for one, thing, my son was headed back to college, so I had to do something with his character while he was away. Having him kidnapped by an Air Elemental, and having everyone hear Aerisi Kalinoth’s voice say something ambiguous but threatening, seemed perfect.

(Nobody knows it’s Aerisi, of course, except for Thurl … which will have implications next time.)

But the idea that there was more mystery to Aldrik, such that Aerisi would want to kidnap him … started to build some campaign lore and plotting on my part that would play off in several ways in future sessions. Once the son was back, of course.

Bits and Bobs

The letter in Jolliver’s office (information about which letter is scattered in multiple places in the book) is from Justran Daehl, the cellarkeeper of the Highsun Tavern back in Red Larch. Yes, it is referring to the party; Justran is Jolliver’s spy in Red Larch and on the Long Road.

Strangely enough, it’s one of the few documents of that sort which is not actually spelled out, so I never did a facsimile of it as a hand-out.

In retrospect, I have no idea what Faith’s dream was about. I’m sure it was very clever and foreshadowing. It might be a warning to about finding Aldrik after gets kidnapped later, but I’m afraid Deneir is smarter and more cryptic than I am.

I actually played the knockback from the Air Elemental’s landing Whirlwind attack completely legit. All the players legitimately ran into stuff along the Spire’s parapet (or made a save and didn’t get thrown back). Thurl really did get knocked into a Giant Vulture, and Savra really did get knocked over the edge …

<< Session 20 | Session 22 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 20 (Day 25-26) 

1. The party looted the bodies, which included a Bag of Holding with 3750gp of loot, and a water-element person’s head. They interrogated the prisoner Ven Delaar, learned about Fire/Water rivalry, and his devotion to his high priestess, Vanifer, the servant of  Imix. Theren gacked  him once all the questioning was done.
2. Bruldenthar was very unhappy there was no sign of his books. 
3. They arrived at Summit Hall, where Narl Elrok was whisked away for interment in a private ceremony overnight, and Oreioth was put in gaol, awaiting either word from Red Larch or the order’s leader, Ushien Stormbanner, deciding his fate.
4. They brought Ushien up on their adventures. She was dismayed to learn that Renwick was operating out of Sacred Stone Monastery, and skeptical of what he had told them of Samular Caradoon‘s role in his metamorphosis.
5. They Spoke with Dead to the head, one Reash the Fathomer. He spoke of the conflict against Fire, of the attack on Rivergard Keep where he died, and of the goals of the Crushing Wave to envelop all. He also mentioned following someone/thing named “Shatterkeel“.
6. A quartet of young druids — Varigo, Muldoon, Iniri, and Fariya  were at Summit Hall, traveling to the mysterious Circle of the Scarlet Moon rite in the Sumber Hills, inspired by a vision of Iniri’s. They didn’t take well to the suggestion that it was some sort of evil magical gathering.
7. The next day, the party decided their next stop should be Rivergard Keep, which it seemed the Eternal Flame forces had attacked (Ushien mentioned smoke from its direction a day or two before). They traveled overland to where they had stashed their boat, which, remarkably, was still there, hidden. They traveled upriver to the keep, which they finding it a smouldering wreck. They slowly entered, made their way to gutted Great Hall, and encountered both the headless body of Reash … and the very much alive Jolliver Grimjaw. “So. You’re back,”

Player Recap

Of bodies and questions

The group ties up the hostage and begins searching the bodies. All of them have a burns on them in various states of healing. The leader also has a large fire symbol on his chest. It looks like there are multiple layers of scars on his chest.

There is a stack of leather bag to one side that contain ration, camping supplies, and small travel items. There is one larger duffle bag the is different from the others. Moony checks it over and when he opens it up it is very odd. It is very cold in the bag. there appears to be a wooden chest inside that doesn’t match the shape outside. Moony brings it over to Theren who sizes it up. He immediately identifies it as a Bag of Holding. As they empty it they find two chests and bundle wrapped in cloth. Moony investigates the bundle. It has a green stain on the side. It is a green head. Probably dead for about a day. Faith casts Gentle Repose. It looks aquatic, but is different from the Genasi captain Shoanderil Quanderil. They return it to the bag of holding.

Moony moves onto the two chests. The smaller chest has a gold chain with a platinum disc that looks like the crushing wave water symbol, some gems and a stash of coins. The larger chest has about 2000 gold pieces. William will hold onto the bag. 

When Bruldenthar sees that the larger chest contains gold, he speaks a harsh curse in Dwarvish and goes to the two remaining crates. When he finds them empty, he is clearly upset. “Where are my books?” Faith heals the captive to allow Theren to interrogate him. The fire and the flame, the great war — they seek to pull us down into the cold depths … Vanifer and her weapon Tinderstrike. Imix, the prince of evil fire, himself offers his power to her as he engulf the world in flames. Moony shows him the head. It is a prize for Vanifer. We got it from the dark and fetid pit. “I know that you will kill me. It is okay. I would do the same.” 

William determines that they came up the ancient road from the direction of the river. Faith recognizes the name Imix. Imix – evil destructive, but prefers to destroy that which is crafted or cherished by others. 

The group returns to the main road and arrives at the Summit Hall before night fall. Lady Ushien Stormbanner welcomes them but is surprised to see them so soon. She looks at the coffin with concern. She relaxes slightly when learns that it is Narl. The order will celebrate his life tonight and stand watch over him that night. There will be a private ceremony in the morning. 

Nala explains the presence of Oreioth the necromancer and their dilemma of what to do with him. Lady Stormbanner agrees to keep him and if required judge him. Over dinner they share their story. Ushien knows that Renwick is a lich, but bristles at the suggestion that their founder Samular had anything to do with his creation. The remainder of the conversation continues the story of their travels. Ushien is also troubled by the rise of the elemental cultists. When William mentions the ceremony of the Scarlet Moon, she let out that there are some guests staying in one of the cottages who are heading to the event. 

After dinner, the group is at loose ends. Nala examines a small shrine to Samular is in the hall with relics of the knight’s founder. William and Faith spend some time in the library while others relax in their room before they all retire for a long rest. Faith enjoys the first dreamless rest since the left Summit Hall. 

Moony and William going down to the other guests in the morning when the hall brings breakfast down to the cottage. There are some caravan wagons within the palisade. Sitting on some wooden benches outside one of the cottages is a quartet of individuals. Varigo, Muldoon, Fariya, and Iniri are all druids. They have travelled from the South Woods. Iniri heard of the ceremony and was called in a dream. Was told to come to the North to the great hill to control and end the elemental energy 

Interview with a dead man

Who are you? I am Reash the Fathomer 

Who did this to you? So fleeting, so unsubtle. Ones of the Fflame.

Why did they seek you out? Fire hates waters. We quench it and smother it. They struck in our weakness, which you know of. His eye’s flicker to Nala. 

What are you trying to accomplish? We seek to arouse the wellspring of life to cover all things. We serve the Shatterkeel and will bring all down into the darkness. 

Where were you murdered? In the hall I’d sworn to defend. In the hall of Jolliver. 

Bruldenthar bids the group farewell and plans to continue to Waterdeep to tell of the delegation. Leave going south on the road from Summit Keep and back towards the river where their boat is amazingly still there. Travel up river to Rivergard Keep.

The once partially-repaired keep is a smoking ruin again. The chain across the harbor is fused tight. Pulling up on the riverside south of the dock-harbor they head to the Western entrance. The iron bound wooden gate is burned through. Some dead bodies. The chapel is rubble. Boat sunk in the harbor. The doors to the hall are also burned away. In Jolliver’s hall there are more bodies and roof is destroyed. As we walk towards the headless body belonging to Reash.

Jolliver Grimjaw: “So, you are back.”

Game Notes

Sic transit gloria Rivergard Keep

Since the party had sort of gone the long way around with the Haunted Keeps — leaving Feathergale Spire intact, leaving Rivergard Keep intact, then taking out Sacred Stone Monastery — I needed to figure out how they would work backwards, especially as it was clear they were headed back that way.

I mean, I could let them try to sneak in — something the party was rarely good about trying. Or I could try a full frontal assault, which seemed a bit much even for this group, as the Keep is, literally, a fortress.

Or …

I considered what I’d done to Rivergard. The party had some small amount of damage on their way through the first time. But subsequent to that, Drosin, the Easily Offended Crushing Wave Priestess, had taken most of the keep’s forces with her to an ambush of the party later, on the road to Sacred Stone Monastery. That had gone … poorly, meaning most of the Keep’s defenders had been wiped out.

And given the internecine warfare between the different elements, it makes perfect sense that the Eternal Flame would have launched a preemptive strike on the Crushing Wave’s surface fortification. And so they had,  wiping it out nearly to a man.

Jolliver Grimjaw is, of course, a survivor. And just the sort of guy to hold a grudge. His grumpy greeting is meant to mirror his grumpy greeting when the party first arrived.

Planting the seeds of what happened with Reash’s head / war trophy that the Fire Cultists were carrying (ew), suitable for Speak with Dead extraction, was icing on the cake.

Encumbrance and the Bag of Holding

I hate Encumbrance rules. I really do. They are emblematic of everything wrong and dull and boring and grindy about D&D and, usually, any other game. Don’t get me started on LotRO …

From my perspective as either DM or Player, Encumbrance rules add nothing to the story and everything to annoying paperwork.

They are of value only in two occasions:

1. Things have gotten desperate, and the party sheds all but its weapons to make the final push across the wilderness.
2. The party has hit the jackpot and is seriously trying to think of how they can transport that twenty-foot-tall, ten ton golden statue of Asmodeus back to town.

Anything besides that should depend on the DM saying, “You’re beginning to be weighed down quite a bit — might be time to head back to town.”

Or, you can just give them a Bag of Holding. Like I did.

And, honestly, I was not a hard-ass about the Bag of Holding, and didn’t get picky about its rules. I did eventually say, at one point, “You know, that Bag of Holding is beginning to get a bit full — might be time to head back to town.”

And that was it. The players didn’t abuse it. It got rid of a bunch of record keeping. Win-win for everyone.

The Young Druids

I loved the conceit that Elizar was actually recruiting people to come to Scarlet Moon Hall to participate in (as worshippers or, um, kindling) the Rite of the Wicker Giant. It’s one thing to recruit ne’er-do-wells and the psychotic who are drawn to the darkness of the Evil Elemental Eye; it’s another to put up hand-bills in pubs and the like.

The four druids named –Varigo, Muldoon, Iniri, and Fariya — are actually in the game, as one of the camps at Scarlet Moon Hall, with a couple of elk companions. They’re noted as good guys that Elizar has already decided can’t be recruited and so will be sacrificed.

But that’s it. And, as recall, they just had generic druid tokens. Bah. So, when I decided that I would have some folks who had heard (in a dream) about this big gathering show up at Summit Hall at the same time as the party, they seemed a good set to flesh out as, kinda-sorta flower children, devoted to their causes, and each other, but both too trusting and too rebellious for their own good.

• 

  Varigo – human, ostensible leader, protective of “his people,” romantically involved with Muldoon.

• Muldoon – elf, quiet, friendly, romantically involved with Varigo.
• Iniri – human, passionate, saw the visions that sent them questing for the Circle of the Scarlet Moon.
• Fariya – human, practical, a bit less idealistic than her friends, but deeply supportive of them.

(Their elk had names, too, but I didn’t write them down for some reason.)

Anyway, these guys became recurring characters, introduced here, early, showing up at Scarlet Moon Hall, and being referenced after that. I liked them a lot, certainly more than just some generic plot bait as they were drawn up. I have no idea how the players liked them, but they made things more fun for me.

Bits and Bobs

The party had actually encountered  Reash in the past, before his severed head was discovered here. The Fathomer had morphed into the giant white water snake that attacked their boat when last they fled Rivergard.

Oreioth didn’t get a lot of great lines this time around, either because the party had gagged him, or at the very least threatened to. The former, I think, because it was impossible for Oreioth not to make crazy pronouncements.

How did the Fire Cultists who attacked Rivergard Keep end up (at least in part) back over the river at the Ambush Site? Hush.

(Oh, fine. Just because they’re Fire Cultists doesn’t mean they can’t use a boat to cross the river. Or that they can’t use magic to fly across in some fashion. I wave my hand at you.)

So I decided all the cults had their own way of marking themselves. The ascetic jocks of the Feathergale Knights / Howling Hatred, scarrified themselves with their cult symbol. The watery Crushing Wave sorts used tattoos (some of which moved magically, as if flowing in water under the skin). The Sacred Stone folk used external symbols, necklaces, rings, that sort of thing, stone and metal drawn from the earth. And the Eternal Flame cultists sort of imitated the Howling Hatred, except they used fire for their scars, not blades.

I was mildly disturbed by the party (well, to be fair, the Neutral Neutral Sorcerer) gacking the prisoner after questioning. It was a fully pragmatic act — there were a number of reasons why not to let him go, and he had just been trying to kill them — but, on the other hand, they were already taking one murderous prisoner down to Summit Hall for safekeeping; one more wouldn’t have been a big deal.

Still surprised it didn’t engender more debate.

And exeunt Bruldenthar, at least for now. His quest southward to Womford will overlap with some other cataclysmic events coming up soon. For the moment, though, his veering off was appropriate for the game.

<< Session 19 | Session 21 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 19 (Day 24-25) 

1. The party awoke to unusually cold and blustery weather. 
2. Faith raised the dead sailor, to the interest of Feffel Quintex.
3. Moony and William bought a cart and mules. Later on, there was a flurry of pricing and armor/weapon and healing potion upgrades.
4. The rest of the party interrogated Oreioth, who seemed peculiarly rational in the morning. He wanted his books, he wanted to know more about the druidic ritual in the hills, and he seemed both attracted and repulsed by the power growing up there.
5. The lawkeeper, Halrud Ponden, tried to recruit the party to help settle the disorder in and around Beliard. He also noted that, if they wanted Oreioth confined, they needed to take him with them.
6. The barkeep, Neshor Fleurdin, granted that a recruiter for the Circle of the Scarlet Moon ritual in the hills had provided him with directions to pass on to those who asked about them, and he gave them to the party.
7. The next day they headed south toward Summit Hall. Bruldenthar expressed an interest in visiting the site where the Mirabar Delegation was ambushed. When they reached the site, it was being investigated by (presumed) Fire element soldiers and a priest. A battle ensued, which the party was ultimately successful in.

Player Recap

Fire and Lightening

Disturbed by the nights events, the group decides to post a watch overnight. Faith takes the opportunity to read more of Marlos Urnrayle texts. She comes across some notes on the Temple of Black Earth that might have been useful a few days previous, but nothing surprising.

The winds pick up and rattle the windows waking the remaining party.

William joins Faith at the temple of all gods for morning prayer. They are greeted by Feffel Quintex with a nod and continues his own prayers. Faith manages to not bump into Feffel as she completes her own prayers. Moving to the back room, Feffel asks if he may observe. Faith invites him in and she begins her prayers. Sailor sits up and screams in terror. He is disoriented and his throat parched (and at 1hp). William can’t find anything stronger than water in the room, so brings the sailor a cup. Eventually, they manage to calm him, but he is clearly disturbed by their presence. Feffel offers to look after him and suggest that Faith get in touch with his companion. 

The remaining campaigners head down for breakfast. The bar has been restored to order. The rescued refugees once again offer their thanks and gratitude. They plan on staying in Beliard for a few days before seeking a caravan heading home. The locals are quiet and glance at the party nervously. As the group enjoys their full English breakfast they listen to the buzz around the room.

Other strangers have previously come to town. Rumors of a Druid ritual that will occur in the hills. The barkeep Neshor’s name comes up occasionally. 

Some are looking at Aldrik and are obviously wondering if he is the same dwarf that was here earlier.

Faith and William fight against the wind to return to the Watchful Knight Inn. The sailor’s friend is just coming down the stairs as they step through the door. He walks straight up to Faith and asks after his friend. Faith is able to reassure him that the victim is recovering in the temple and would like to see him.

William grabs some breakfast and goes with Moony to look for a mule and cart. They get a reasonable deal and take Bruno and Bonny to the stable at the inn.

Faith, Nala, Theren and Aldrik leave to check on Oreioth. The constable greets them at the jail and says that Oreioth has been no trouble. Oreioth greets them politely and apologizes for the previous evening. “Things got a bit out of hand.” He asks for his books. He indicates that they are not necromantic books.

They discuss the purpose of reading and what he is currently pursuing. He finally admits that he is looking for the source of the power in the Sumber Hills. “They say that they have managed to join the power of the elements and necromancy.” “Your friend the druid, has he joined them? No I suppose not.” “If you do go into the hills, take me with you. That kind of power should not be with them and the living. It’s so messy.”

They continue on to the Lawkeeper’s house. The servant shows them in to the study. There are several well ordered stacks on the desk and other surfaces. Halrud welcomes them and after giving Theren a slight look, he invites them to tell of their adventures.

He pauses them when they mention the delegation. He is disappointed the hear that his important mail has probably gone astray. He is very concerned about the lack of order and offers that there are certain matters that the town elders would like the party to undertake. Large increases of drifters and ne’er do wells coming through town, fortunately drifting out of town towards the South or West.

He also requested that they take Oreioth with them, if they want him confined, as he has not broken any laws in Beliard. 

Theren and Aldrik go shopping for armor, but don’t find any Dwarf Scale. Aldrik decides to trade in the Duergar armor for a shield and battle axe. Moony finds some studded leather armor behind some barrels. He also gets some arrows. Nala amazingly finds a +1 sword. Reequipped the group returns to the inn.

The bar is slowly returning to normal. Moony spends time to telling tells to the bar tender, the local drunk, and the bar maid. He is surprised when Senya swirls and throws a punch at Moony. He ducks and finds the whole thing terribly funny. Faith finds a small stone outside, casts a light spell on it and tosses it in front of Moony for distraction.

A humble man approaches the tables and I need to tell you something. The story comes out haltingly.  “When he –” He points to Aldrik. “– and the other fancy folks came through. Just after, these folk, they were in the sky riding on big birds all in blue and white. Flew overhead and then south (Translation: The Feathergale Knights were seen following the delegates leaving Beliard.) William gives him an ale and praises his bravery and strength of observation.

Faith goes to the temple for evening prays through the blustery night. She discerns that it, like most of the other weather events they’ve experienced are not natural.

In the temple, Feffel wants to know if Faith had inquired of the sailor and sees it as an important opportunity to learn more about death. He then shifts to his studies of the elemental manifestations and trying to determine an equation for their appearances. He is sure he can figure it out if only he had his equipment and books from the great library in Yartar. The rise in energy has been uneven in this area and the South. “If one could measure such things I am sure that it would be an amazing publication.”

He is also interested in Faith’s travels through the hills and the manifestations. He won’t speak to the weather because field studies are not all that accurate. “In the time I’ve been keeping my records that in the last 2-5 years there has been a rise in the elemental activities.” Natter Natter … Need Equipment … Research … Bugger …

[Side note: Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat was 3 years ago,  1489 DRl. In 1491 DR Princes of the Apocalypse adventure takes place.]

Faith maintains her plastic smile until she can politely leave. Just outside the inn door, a gust tosses Faith into a puddle. She goes straight up to the rooms for a bath.

Back at the table William starts carving on his mug. He asks Senya about the ritual in the hills. She says it’s just lots of big talk about heading into the hills, especially after that druid visited town a moon or so ago. She doesn’t know more, but points out Neshor as having more info.

When the barkeep stops by, William asks about the “druid.” He is evasive or absent-minded. “Oh, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon — he asked that I give directions to folks who are looking to join.” More delaying but eventually he come back with a small scroll with written instructions.

William orders more beer to make him and Aldrik feel better. When the rock goes out Moony leaves it on the table and heads up stairs. Later Nala adds a coin under the rock and goes upstairs. When William heads up he leaves behind a beautifully carved mug with flowers and vines.

During the watch that night, they look over the books from Oreioth: 1) Large tome of the anatomy of humanoid creatures from 1000 years ago. 2) Hard-bound brochure encouraging people to move to the valley from ~500 years ago and the (un-haunted) Keeps. 3) The poetry of some goth poet – very bleak.

Next next morning Faith starts early with prayers. The party breakfasts at the inn, picks up Oreioth and Bruldenthar, then heads out of town. 

A winding road departs southward from Beliard, rising into the sere eastern end of the Sumber Hills. At length it descends again, passing the keep of Summit Hall, dropping down in parallel to the Dessarin River, eventually reaching Womford at the southern end of the valley. The road is moderately well traveled, as footprints and mule droppings testify, but is also dangerous.

The party found the site where it appeared the Mirabar Delegation was ambushed, about 8 miles south of Beliard.

Bruldenthar says “I would wish to see the site of the ambush.” They turn off the road towards the site.

William (eventually) notices something red and yellow ahead just off the past. He calls out to the party and as the crest the ridge they see a group of people in red at the old ambush site.

A mighty battle ensues with dueling fireballs and flaming swords. Lightning from Faith and Theren decimated the fire “guardians”. Chaos struck Theren, causing a Confusion spell to land on Moony and himself. Faith saved them from self-harm and the battle progresses to the inevitable victory for the adventurers. One remaining fire guardian was left alive but incapacitated.

NEXT SESSION:

Loot the bodies, interrogate the prisoner, explore the site, rest, ask Bruldenthar why he really wanted to come here and what the fire folk might want to look for.

Game Notes

Bring Out Your Dead!

So raising folk from the dead is not common in 5e, but it’s not that improbable, and any party worth its salt will have a cleric who can do it by 5th level (or paladins, druids, etc., at other variances). It’s not cheap (the lowest, Revivify, costs a 300gp diamond), but I still would expect that good clerics would be begged and bothered wherever they went for that service.

Regardless, having accidentally killed a townie yesterday, the party felt obliged to make good, which in turn made for some interesting scenes, most of them driven by the players, which is a good thing.

It also let me flesh out the gnomish cleric I’d (made up and) assigned on rotation to the local All-Faiths Shrine in Beliard. I’d already established back in Red Larch that the holy folk at those shrines in small town around the valley were staffed by agreement between the temples of the surrounding larger cities — Waterdeep, Yartar, Triboar. I’d also established that many of these folk weren’t necessarily spell-casting clerics, or, if so, were 1st to 3rd level, tops — enough for some light healing, etc., but mostly chosen for their pastoral abilities. So no rezzes for the locals without going to the Big City (and selling a several really nice horses to pay for it).

I saw Feffel Quintex, the gnome, as being as much an academic as a priest — enjoying his rotations to the hinterland as a chance to work on his manuscripts, even as he longed to get back to being in easy reach of his library at home. This gave me a chance to add some additional information and speculation about the growing rise of elemental events and energies around the Sumber Hills over the past few years.

As a side note, I loved how the players dealt with getting side-eyes from the locals after one of their own got fried in a combat — and what the party did to try and make up for that, from raising the poor dude who got made collateral damage, to leaving tips and treats for the bar staff and owner.

No local Walmart

The Forgotten Realms, especially under 5e, is a relatively low-wealth proposition, especially when it comes to magic items. If the party were adventuring in Waterdeep or Neverwinter, they would have access to a variety of armorers and smithies and magic shoppes to spend their hard-earned cash on.

But out in the middle of the rural Dessarin Valley? There’s not a lot of call for armor, or swords, let alone Rods of Lordly Might in the middle of Nowhere, South Dakota, or some little burg in the San Joaquin Valley, California, especially with quasi-medieval trade routes such as they are. Indeed, if there’s anything there, it’s usually been sold as treasure or as “well, if I’m buying my +1 Plate, might as well sell my +1 Chain.”

The problem is, the cost of high-end, magic, and/or powerful stuff is way too high for Bob’s Local Feed Store to carry. Indeed, a +2 Longsword might cost as much as the entire store, and the land it’s on, and the adjoining shops as well (consider Gandalf’s comment about Bilbo’s mithril chain shirt being worth more than the Shire). A shop in Beliard simply doesn’t have the capital to buy such a thing, second-hand or not, let alone hold onto it for any length of time.

I used (and highly recommend) the shop/item/availability table explained here. It did a really nice job of helping me figure out … well, is there likely to be a set of +1 Chain in the local market?

Rule of Cool does dictate that the players should be able to do some upgrades. But my preference was, unless they were willing to take several weeks off to travel back to Waterdeep, most of their upgrades would come from dungeon loot.

The mules and cart, by the way, were for the carrying of Narl’s body.

Beliard and Bureaucracy

So back in Red Larch we had sort of a “Council of Important Folk” and a part-time constable.

Beliard is richer and more sophisticated than that. It has a Mayor / “Lawkeeper,” who has a nice house on the town square, and a city council,  and a full-time constable with his own constabulary (nothing much, but better than being shut up in a root cellar).

The party sort of runs full tilt into that this time. There’s the, um, embarrassing aspects of having killed a local, but the party’s making good on that, and get a certain amount of lee-way for having rescued folk from the Monastery.

But Oreioth is a different matter. The necromancer hasn’t committed any crimes in Beliard, and, to be honest, hadn’t really done so back in Red Larch, aside from necromancy (which, since it’s real, is probably illegal in most neighborhoods). I mean, sure those bodies came from somewhere … But that is a Red Larch concern, nothing to do with the good people of Beliard. We have laws and rules, don’t you know? Sure you must appreciate that.

Buuut … if you feel strongly enough about it … you’re welcome to take him into custody and take him back to Red Larch … and, unspoken, get him out of their fair town.

And that, kids, is how you avoid spending a lot of money feeding prisoners in your constabulary cell.

Bits and Bobs

The episode title was meant to be a blend of “The Hills Have Eyes” and the threat of the Evil Elemental Eye. Meh. They can’t all be winners, folks (esp. since I was coming up with titles before the episode in most cases).

I would eventually move on to something more pedestrian (promise!), but for the time being I was okay with the puns and pastiches.

More bad weather, to the point where it knocked a player down.

Since the core of this campaign involved people who had played in a previous Rise of Tiamat game, knowing this took place a few years after that was a useful question.

Beliard is meant to be a repository of clues. Since they spent a few days there, it gave me plenty of organic opportunity to bring them up, including the seemingly innocuous recruitment of folk, through “druids” sent down by Elizar Dryflagon, to come join the Ritual of the Wicker Giant and restore “balance” to the Sumber Hills.

Yes, of course, the wicker man clues did not at all worry the players …

That Oreioth is a remarkably well-read guy. Wonder who he stole those reading materials from?

Theren, our Sorcerer, suffered from the possibility of Wild Chaos Magic every time he cast a spell. This session it cropped up again, casting Confusion on a couple of the party during the battle with the Fire Cultists. Which wasn’t enough to save the out-of-their-league Fire Cultists.

(One thing I learned early: I was, myself, no match for the combined tactical imagination of the whole party. Ah, well.)

<< Session 18 | Session 20 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 18 (Day 23) 

1. 

   The party fought the three Hell Hounds, taking substantial flame damage before Theren Lightning Bolted them (and a patron of the Watchful Knight) to death. This put a bit of a chill on the proceedings. The Hell Hounds had iron collars with Another Symbol on them, which the party speculated had to do with Fire.

2. Faith took the dead man to the chapel, and met the priest-in-residence Feffel Quintex. She promised to raise the dead man the next day.
3. The party adjourned (with encouragement from barkeep Neshor Fleurdin) to their rooms — at which point it was realized that one of the patrons in the bar had been the escaped necromancer, Oreioth.
4. … Who was gone by the time they raced downstairs. The party inquired of bystanders (who were gathered, still talking about what they’d done), and were directed down toward the Teal Weasel and the town graveyard (conveniently enough).
5. Theren and William intimidated the barkeep there, who didn’t actually seem to know much, but was able to finally serve Aldrik an ale. Meanwhile, Nala spotted Marlandro Gaelkur, who had relocated from Red Larch for reasons unknown, and was very nervous about her and the rest of the party being there.

6. 

   Outside, Moony sniped down Oreioth and took him prisoner. The party brought him to the constabulary and interrogated him. Oreioth revealed that there was a power rising in the Sumber Hills, and the smell of Necromancy in the area. That power had detected the party and was turning against them. He confirmed that the various symbols the party had run across (the Black Earth symbol, the Crushing Wave symbol, and Another Symbol were all part of the Necromancer’s Sigil in his cave.

7. Leaving Oreioth with the constable, they headed to bed at the Watchful Knight, considering what they would do on the morrow.

Player Recap

Bad Dog? Bad Wolf? 

The Hell hound leap through the inn’s front window. A stunned party drops their drinks to react. 

**Margie is so engrossed in the action that she forgets to start journaling.**

In the end Theren takes out the remaining hounds and an unfortunately-located sailor. The hounds smolder for a while and then burst into flames and disintegrate leaving only iron collars behind. Theren hands the collars to the bartender as a souvenir. [Though someone in there notes a strange symbol on them — something fire-related, maybe? – Ed.]

Faith makes her way to the All-Faiths chapel with the body of the sailor. The main chapel is empty and sparsely decorated. Faith kneels at the altar with the body held close, waiting to see if anyone comes out from the back. Soon a Gnomish priest of Rill Cleverthrush comes out. He is shocked to see the dead body. “How did this happen” “What a terrible shame! Hellhounds killing a gentle visitor to our fair town.” Directed by the gnome, Faith brings the body to the back quarters of the chapel. The priest will watch over him until Faith returns in the morning to attempt a resurrection. 

The bar remains mostly empty with a few dazed or unconscious patrons. After a pointed look from the bar keep and a refill of drinks, the group retires upstairs to discuss the situation, and what they know about the Mirabar Delegation. 

Suddenly Faith and Moony suddenly realize that the reader in the corner of the bar is Oreioth the necromancer, from Lance Rock. Everyone races down stairs and he is gone from the bar. The barkeep says that he is a quiet sort and has been here for a ten-day or so. Racing outside, William tries to look for prints, but there are too many footsteps in and around the door. William steps apart from the party and approaches the well where several villagers are gossiping. After some forced small talk, he asks the group if they know where Oreioth might be staying. A townsman suggests the “Teazle.”

The Teal Weasel, a small, non-descript building to the southeast of Beliard’s central square, with a brilliant blue-green weasel hanging over the door. Moony stays hidden outside, in case someone chooses to leave by a window. The group enters, Theren, Aldric, and William head towards the barkeep. Nala glares from the door and Faith looks around at the patrons. William asks the barkeep politely about his patrons. He declines and suggest that he only talks to customers. Aldric asks for a beer. William suggests that the town would not appreciate it if they knew he was harboring a necromancer. At that point Theren lights a flame on his finger. Barkeep denies knowing anyone who reads. Suggests that they try Madame Zelda’s boarding house / brothel next door. 

Meanwhile, Nala spots Marlandro Gaelkur, the barber of questionable repute from Red Larch. She signals Faith and approaches. Just before Nala arrives at the table he looks up and gives her a friendly greeting. Faith comes up and they question him. He dissembles in terror but does not reveal anything. Before they leave Faith asks how long he has been in town. Marlandro stutters and replies 10 days.

Outside the Teal Weasel, Moony sights Oreioth leaving a building near the bar. He is is looking around and moving down the street towards the bar or graveyard. Moony melts into the shadows tracking his prey. When the necromancer comes into range Moony pulls his short bow and drops Oreioth in his tracks. He yowls in pride.

As the adventures leave the bar they join Moony. They bring the body to the lawmakers house. The servant eventually gathers that they want to leave a prisoner and directs them to the jail. In the jail, Faith heals Oreioth just enough to bring him around. He rants some about trying to get away from the Great Eye. He left Red Larch and has traveled and studied. He says that there is a great power person in town trying to recruit people to join the Circle of the Moon in the hills to perform a ritual to restore balance. A few additional points are picked up.

Faith – Oreioth is scared of more than just the party. He is scared about whatever power is growing in the hills

Theren – The power in the hills is aware of us 

William – He escaped because the minds of the villagers are weak. He does not even know who Marlandro is.

Moony – Tries to get him to tell us more about the element symbols. He breaks down an cries, It is the eye, the eye…

Game Notes

Old Home Week

Not one, but two repeat appearances this session.

Marlandro was the owner of a shady barbershop and jackleg bar and information brokerage and stolen goods pawn shop back in Red Larch. He was a member of the Believers, but not a (if you will) True Believer, and when that whole thing went south (complete with actual murders involved), he blew town before he ended up taking any heat.

Which brought him as far as Beliard, which seemed like a good place to maybe set himself back up again … until the party blew into town.

Marlandro was fun to play with, but not nearly as fun as Oreioth.

In my campaign, at least, Oreioth was brought alive from his necromancer’s cave at Lance Rock, and tossed into what passes for jail cells in Red Larch (a chamber for hanging meat at the constable/butcher’s shop). But Oreioth was no push-over and managed to escape pretty easily …

But we’d already seen his mind had gotten caught in the power of the Evil Elemental Eye, and rather than hightailing it as far away from Red Larch and the danger as he could, he’s been circling it like a moth, ending up here in Beliard, just in time for our players to encounter him and pump him for information (and, maybe, get him put in a better jail cell).

Every time Oreioth came on stage, I had more and more fun playing him — clever, egotistical, terrified, and quite a bit unstable — and the players got into the fun, too.

Building Out Beliard

As mentioned last time, Beliard comes in the game with no map, a few people with rumors they know or things they saw when the Delegation came through town … and that’s it.

The rest I got to make up, and while it was a pain, I had fun. I loved the idea of The Bar The Locals Go To,  because who wants to pay the jacked-up prices at the Whispering Knight, which caters to the traders that come to/through town.  The Teal Weasel, on the other hand (or, as it’s lovingly called by the locals, the Teazle) made for a nice locale for the party to feel a bit more out of place and be a bit more intimidating.

The other thing that I kind of played into is that, while their Red Larch is run by an impromptu town council made up of influential folk, and has a butcher as their part-time constable, Beliard is a bit wealthier (per the book) and a bit more organized. They’ve got a Head Guy, and an actual full-time constable. Probably pay more in taxes, too, but the local ranches can afford it.

This difference in governance will come into play next time.

Bits and Bobs

Well, one way to end a party — even one that’s been crashed by Hell Hounds — is to kill an innocent bystander in dealing with them. A bit of a yikes moment there.

The fact that the party cleric made it very clear that she would do a Raise Dead on the poor guy in the morning, and that the party caught the hint from the bar keep and headed up to their rooms, kept it from developing into a bit more of a problem.

That meant, of course, fleshing out the local All-Faiths Shrine, figuring out a gnomish priest, etc., all on the fly.

The new elemental symbol that was on the Hell Hounds’ collars is, of course, that of the Eternal Flame. That makes three of the four cult symbols they’ve seen (ironically, as it was their first stopping point, they never actually saw a Howling Hatred symbol at Feathergale Spire).

Overall, the evening was a good mix of combat, action, and talking, largely driven by the party, who ended up knowing a lot more than before they came to town.  Which is a good thing.

<< Session 17 | Session 19 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 17 (Days 22-23) 

1. The two scruffy strangers, Wiglaf and Storol. were from the Lurkwoods, far to the north. They had heard tell of druids, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, here in the Sumber Hills for “some sort of ceremony with a giant something to fix all the magic going crazy.” When the William made it clear he wasn’t the “Elzar/Ebeneez’r/Eriazar” who was in charge of that circle, they backed off.
2. They found a camp, and set up watches with the freed prisoners. During the night, each of the characters had portentous dreams (see Margie’s log).Also, DING! Level 6!
3. The weather was again overcast and rumbling. As they walked, Bruldenthar was searching for possible hidden paths to the Vale of Dancing Waters, an ancient Dwarvish site. Also, they could occasionally see a giant bird flying overhead they assumed was associated with the Feathergale Knights.
4. At a junction, four of the freed prisoners turned left to make their own way to Red Larch.
5. Four ogres thought the party would be a tasty lunch. They were sorely mistaken.
6. The party reached the Stone Road and turned left toward Beliard. They crossed the famous Stone Bridge.
7. They reached Beliard amongst much fanfare. and gratefulness of the ex-prisoners and the locals who had relatives among them. Lawkeeper Halrud Ponden put the party and the ex-prisoners who weren’t from the town up at the Watchful Knight Inn, and wanted to talk with the party on the morrow.
8. The party sat down to food and drink, which they were enjoying until three Hell Hounds burst through a window into the tavern, charging straight for their table …

Player Recap

Traveling

“Are you the Druid? Yeah, I think he is.” They head towards William. The other says, “We have been looking for you.” Wiglaf and Storol ask about the Scarlet Circle of the moon planning on joining the impending ceremony. They describe the Circle folks wanting to fix all the magic stuff going wonky led by “Ebenezer” and the “Rite of Wicker Giant.” It appears that said ceremony might include human sacrifice. Seeing William’s horror, they decide that they don’t want to tangle with the group and quickly head back into the scrub. 

Late afternoon the significantly larger party finds a place to camp that is near a small creek. The perimeter is secured. Over the course of the night each member has odd dreams of impending doom. 

Theren: You’re walking through a shadowy valley. It’s hard to see around you, even though your gaze usually pieces the dark. You hold up your hand to peer through the darkness, and suddenly it lights up like a torch. Strangely enough, there’s no pain, but you can see, littered around you, the bodies of your companions, flesh charred and bloodied, the smoke from their bodies obscuring the air around you. A voice flickers through your head … “The opportunity will be presented to gain some measure of control over your talents.” It’s Gemvocs voices, and you can almost see him in the whorls of choking smoke around you. But another light cuts through the gloom, on the hilltop above you, a giant, burning figure, massive, flames wreathing its form, as its eyes seem to catch the light from your burning hand, and it turns to look at you with … interest … What do you do? Fireball. Eats it, blows it back.

Faith: (The old man with the triangular irises and beard like smoke … you have finished a chapter, or have you just started one. The young man’s story can be completed now, but Tyr demands a reckoning, and he gets soooo incensed about such things. Ah, incense, and the smoke rises further from his beard, wreathing him, hiding him from sight, even as — he pulls open a space in the smoke. “Did you have something you wanted to say?”: Endings, beginnings, new chapters always …

Nala: You’re back in the City Guard, walking the parapets (a poncy job, one you never actually got, but, hey, here you are). The weather over the city has been terrible — storms, great winds, tides going crazy. People claiming it’s the end of the world. Capt. Brex Gelvain is beside you. “Dire tidings. Ill portents. We strike against the enemy. When will they strike back?” … (response) … “Huh. Well, there’s that.” And along the horizon is a wall of fire, hundreds of feet tall, like a great sand storm … and it is headed directly for the city and your parapet and … 

Aldrik: You remember this moment. A year ago, maybe two, A cavern in the north, where you and your fellow troops struck back at orcish raiders who were holed up there, befouling the caves with their filth. You remember the battle, wiping out the forces on the ice field above, descending into the cavern, fighting their pet ogre, more battles, freeing the prisoners … and then everyone else climbed back to the surface, you the last of them, on rear guard … when you realize you hear laughter … orcish laughter … taunting you … that’s not how this happened … but you can hear them, jeering at you, escaped from your clutches, deep, deep inside the earth, pillaging and plotting … Evacuate anyway, duty … eyes open, orcish laughter in the deeps.

William: <forest, then fire! figure in the flames, directing it all like an orchestra conductor. Looks a bit like Renwick, hooded, emaciated.  Rush forward, throw back the hood, and it’s YOU. What do you do? Slap myself.

Moony: running. running in the light, then the cool of trees, then into the darkness, down and down, a winding path, something ahead you’re trying to find, something nobody has ever seen, until … a door. turn back … another door. and to the sides, four doors, one on each side, no room to run, no sun to warm, no air to breathe, only the doors, against which you scratch, with futility. What do you do? Scratching, picking lock, wolf howls, look through keyhole, gray wolf eye

The rest of the night passes quietly. On the road in the morning, Moony pulls out his compass and the arrow is swerving around about, not pointing to due North. Shrugging they continue on. 

Aldrik walks with the dwarf Bruldenthar for a while. Bruldenthar has been looking around the surrounding hills. He is looking for the Veils of the Dancing Waters shrine. It should be in the hills near here. The path is hidden, but they may have passed it already.

The clouds are low as they walk. There is a rumble of thunder and William catches a glimpse of something in the clouds. He let’s the others know and the larger group keeps an eye out too. A bit later a couple of folks see the same thing. William asks if they saw a rider and talks of the riders from Feathergale Spire. 

Soon they reach the cross-road. Some of the captive want to go to Red Larch. The adventurers are firm that they can not accompany them to Red Larch. The group insures that they have supplies and 4 ex-captives set out South. 

A few hours later an Ogre steps out on the road and starts talking about lunch. Two more step out and remind him that he was suppose to wait for the group to be closer. As they bicker, William transforms into Star form, informs the Ogres that the group is not lunch and fires a Guiding Bolt at Ghary. Theran launches a Fireball at Thom and Deck. Moony follows up with a sneak attack on Ghary. Faith calls lightening down on Deck, raising the fur on Moony. Aldrick puts his new great axe to good use and finishes off Ghary. A fourth ogre comes out of the bushes. Nala steps up to Deck and with two big swings fells the Ogre. The remaining ogres are quickly killed, but not before Samm knocks out one of the captives. William heals him and the remaining refugees are rounded up. After the battle, Faith realizes that the lightening she called was wanting? trying? to jump to other targets. 

Moving onward the group reaches the Stone Roadafter lunch. The few of the prisoners are from Westbridge choose to remain with the larger group. Soon they reach the Stone Bridge. It is an engineering/magic wonder, but really could use some railing. As they reach the span of the bridge there is a caravan come towards us on the bridge. The party decides back down the bridge and let the caravan pass. It cost them about an hour of travel time, but they are able to cross the two mile bridge without incident. 

Just at twilight the travelers arrive in Belliald. It is a pleasant town with mature trees and prosperous establishments. A townsman spots a friend in the refuge group and calls out. A crowd quickly forms around the travelers. Soon a well-dressed man, the Chief Lawkeeper and Townmaster of Beliard arrives and greets them. Halrud Ponden welcomes them and insists that they stay at the inn as a guest of the town. He excuses himself and requests that they talk with him in the morning.

The bulk of the group heads towards the Watchful Knight. A few locals are rejoined with their families. There are six remaining refugees. The group decides to give them each 10 silver in the morning to help them make it home. Moony follows Halrud home to see what is so important that he won’t join them now. Apparently Halrud was in the middle of his book-keeping.

At the Watchful Knight, the bar maid Senya greets them and shows them to a large table. She brings their drinks and lets them settle in. Some of the refugees filter in, but head up to their rooms exhausted. Moony rejoins the group and is just waving down Senya, when three Hell Hounds crash through the window.

Game Notes

Druids and Seekers Thereof

The various cults in the Sumber Hills have been attracting nogoodniks for years, increasing the crime rate along with the bad weather rate. Nothing was written up for Wiglaf and Storol to show up yet — they appear in the Scarlet Moon stuff, still to come — but it made some sense to have them, as well as other possible miscreants, encounter the party, and give some hints as to problems to come.

As a note, Wiglaf is (as I crafted the token) a woman. Because why the hell not?

Dreams

I would expect a lot of the ex-prisoners to be having nightmares tonight, but instead we get the party.

• Theren had early on expressed a concern about losing control of his fire magic — thus his being a hermit. It was a regular theme in the dreams I sent him, and their proximity to Scarlet Moon Hall gave it all a bit more immediacy.
• Faith gets a head pat from her god for rescuing Narl’s body.
• Nala gets a bit more generic dream about bigger problems than thunderstorms, having been crawling around down in a place under the influence of the Black Earth.
• Aldrik gets a dream about his past, with a bit of Black Earth taint to it as well.
• William has to worry about being turned into a druid working for the Eternal Flame, even if he doesn’t realize it.
• Moony is having a bad time from having been stuck underground the past day or two, and from subconsciously recognizing something (were)wolfy about their recent visitors.

Innocents Abroad

Dealing with the freed prisoners was something of a PitA for the party, and was meant to be. I mean, they were sort of their responsibility now, and the party was overall Good and Lawful enough in sufficient places to not just leave them all in the lurch.

That said, a handful going off on their own down the Larch Road to Red Larch … made their lives that much easier, even if I suspect they never got there …

It did all pay off in the end, with the party rightfully treated as heroes when they brought the rest of the ex-prisoners to Beliard, including some who actually lived there.

Welcome to Beliard

Even though there is a (brief) description of Beliard and there are clues planted that the Mirabar Delegation visited here, making it highly likely that a party of players in PotA will visit the place … there is no map given for the quaint little town. There are some people described by name, but no real tokens. No particular buildings.  Just mention of a few NPCs who might have info, the name of the local pub (the Watchful Knight), and that it’s a bit wealthier and ranching-oriented down than Red Larch.

So I ended up making up a lot of shit for Beliard when the party arrived.

Fortunately, I found a map someone had created. Unfortunately, it had no key, but it was large enough for me to blow up to a notional map for Roll20 and label everything, from the Street of Horse Dealers to the Tannery, the Caravansary, the Lawkeeper’s House, as well as a central well and two taverns (the one for visitors, and the “Teal Weasel,” where locals gathered).

I mean, somewhat fun, but also an irritating gap. Leaving that kind of info and material out turns Beliard into a theater-of-the-mind prop for dispensing clues, not a town that anyone would care about. And, if nothing else, remember eventually that all these little towns are going to get threatened with destruction, and it would kinda be nice if the players cared about that.

We’ll get lots more town action next session.

On the bright side, I was able to recycle the tavern I had all set up for a Water Cult fight in Womford into the tavern for a Hell Hound fight in Beliard. It’s magic!

I don’t recall why a Hell Hound fight — it’s not called out in the book for Beliard. Did it felt like it was time for a fight (after a day of mostly travelogue), and I always bear in mind Raymond Chandler’s advice for writing detective stories: “When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.”

Or Hell Hounds.

Oh, wait — on consideration, it’s one of the “Hey, when you defeat a Cult location, bad things happen” encounter.

Questions from the Gallery

I fielded a question about where they had seen the Crushing Wave symbol (which was tattooed on the dead cultists at the ambush site they passed by the previous session) (except, since it’s a Water Cult, the tattoos sort of shifted like sea weed under their skins).

I noted that they had seen it on those bodies, on the walls of the shrine at Rivergard Keep, and on the crates of supplies in Shoalar’s boat that they had taken passage on.

Bits and Bobs

Yes, the party is now handily taking out ogres. Dinging to 6th Level (for taking out the Earth keep) certainly helps, though I was beginning to worry about their being way overpowered when they got back to Feathergale Spire (a keep for 3rd Level characters).

In keeping with Tolkien’s naming his trolls in the Hobbit some nice English names (Tom, Bert, and William), I named the Random Monster Ogres as  Thom, Deck, and Ghary. Also a Samm.

I didn’t want to get into the Vale of Dancing Waters just yet, so there was never any question of anyone spotting the path that Bruldenthar (the inveterate tourist of the late, great Besilmer kingdom) was looking for. The subject would come up later, however.

That being said, let me just add that the other tourist spot actually visited this session — the Stone Bridge — is ridonculous. Of all the architectural marvels (other than an underground city) for the Besilmer dwarves to have put up, a 2-mile long, rail-less bridge, barely wide enough for two carts to pass each other, is just plain silly.

But it’s pretty cool. And it offered the opportunity for some conflict, which the party remarkably declined.

<< Session 16 | Session 18 >>

This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

Table of Contents. The Party.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 16 (Days 21-22) 

1. The party fought a room of orcs and an ogre who apparently ran things down on the lower level. The ogre provided some serious bonks, but all ended well.
2. They found cells with sixteen prisoners within, various folk swept up by the Black Earth cult and enslaved to dig in the mines on the lower level. One was Bruldenthar, a dwarf scholar who had been part of the Mirabar Delegation. His story echoed that of Aldrik, whom he had thought had been killed. He pointed to where various members of the delegation had been taken, to the best of his knowledge. 
   1. Teresiel, the moon elf, was captured by the raiders on flying mounts and taken away.
   2. Rhundorth and Deseyna Majarra were brought here, but taken somewhere else.
3. Stashing the freed prisoners up in the kitchen, the party further explored the mining area below. They battled a Grick, found a collapsed tunnel through air was flowing, found a battered door with an ape-beetle monster behind it (quickly shut).
4. They also found stairs leading down to a magical stone door that seemed paired with the Necklace of Hellenrae in some fashion, but there was still more that was needed to open it. That necklace, btw, reminded some folk of that hazy Necromancer’s Sigil that they saw in Oreioth’s lair.
5. They found a large crypt full of zombies and (after the zombies were dispatched), a large sarcophagus labeled for Samular Caradoon, founder of the Knights of Samular. Inside it was the body of Narl Elrok, which Faith insisted they take with them.
6. The collapsed tunnel turned out to link to the outside, a quarter mile away.
7. As the morning started, the party gathered up the freed prisoners, the body of Narl, supplies, and headed out. They encountered an illusionary presence of Renwick, who wanted to know what they were doing with the body, and seemed pleased they were returning it to the Knights of Samular. He discussed his relationship with and origin from his brother, Samular, and said he would keep the monastery clear from other disturbances, though he advised them to not return and bother him in his studies, opining that other interesting things were going to be happening soon.
8. As they found the path northwest out of the depths of the Sumber Hills, the party encountered two scruffy individuals who asked William if he was “the Druid,” then said, “We’ve been looking for you …”

Player Recap

Who knows what evil lurks below?

They walk quietly through the dark monastery. On the stairs to the well room, Moony scouts ahead and lets the party know that there are several orcs and some larger humanoid. Aldrik enters first and sees Drool the Ogre, two orcs and Jerl? He steps up to Jerl and … begins the combat. Nala and Moony join in with the remaining heroes blocked on the stairs by one of the Orcs. After Orc One goes down, Drool and the others fall quickly. Aldrik finds a bag of coins under a loose paver by one of the bunks. He complains about the craftsmanship. There are doors out to the north (where one of the orcs tried to flee before being cut down) and south.

Moony scouts ahead south. The passage is rough hewn with passages branching left and right. There is the smell of damp earth and death. A chill breeze blows towards group. Moony hears some soft voices down the passage to the left towards the Lich quarters. The group finds several cells with 15 prisoners. One of their prisoners is a Dwarf, Bruldenthar, from the Mirabar Delegation. He tells them of their capture and the passage across the river. Several of his valuable tomes were given as payment to a green-skinned captain, possibly Shoalar.

After freeing them, the group escorts them to the kitchen and wash house to hole up until we can return and escort them out. 

The group returns to the tunnels below the monastery. There is a lot of excavation twisted around but no clear pattern. Occasionally they find an old paver, but the excavation doesn’t follow their path. The continue to follow Moony through the tunnels. 

A tentacle reaches out to try and grab Moony. He stabs at the Grick and then backpeddles. Aldrik moves towards the disturbance, but can’t reach it to attack. William creates a bonfire down the hall to light the area. Nala steps up and throws an axe at it. The fight gets a little more difficult when the Grick hides and most of the party can’t see it. But the fight is still short. 

Moving on Moony finds a cave-in that is less solid than the previous examples. There is a breeze coming through the debris. Moony tries to climb through, but is not quite nimble enough. The team decides to finish exploring and area before attempting to move the rubble.

Continuing on there is a room with a large door beaten out from the other side. One of our keys fits the lock and Moony takes a quick peek. It is a monstrous beetle ape with metal claws. Dodging out, he closes and locks the door again. They decide to leave it there any move on.

The end of the hall is sealed with a iron gate and there are ancient dwarf stairs leading down. The stairs continue down several levels. At the bottom there is a wall with the Black Earth Symbol. Moony determines that it is a door, but that he can not pass. They try the amulet from Hellenrae. The door/portal appears to recognize the amulet but it is only part of the key. After racking their brains, William finally realizes that Hellenrae’s amulet looks like a portion of the sigil that they saw back in the Necromancer’s cave outside of Red Larch.

The passages start heading back towards the well room and they come across a ancient bronze covered door. The door is stuck, but Faith is able to push it open and enters the large barrel-vaulted chamber. There are several sarcophagi in the room. When the group enters the room, they hear some rustling from the alcoves. Zombies converge on the heroes. The alphabet zombies are easily defeated. There is a large sarcophagus on the eastern wall. It is dedicated to Samular Caradoon. Samular co-founded the Knights of Samular with his bother Renwick Caradoon … the Lich! Faith respectfully opens the lid and finds the body of Narl Elrok, the dead member of Knights of Samular that Faith has seen in her dream. Faith casts Gentle Repose on the corpse and readies it to bring back to the monastery.

There are doors to the south that are locked and sealed. None of the keys fit. When Mooney picks the lock it is still magically sealed. It feels like the garden door into the Lich’s stairs. The group decides to leave it alone. They think it likely that the door will lead to the other stairs to Renwick’s domain. The door to the west appears to be the other door into the beetle ape iron claw monster. Faith, Aldrik, and William take a cot from the well room and move the body of Narl to it. They will bring it with them when they return to the main floor.

They return to the collapsed corridor that had the breeze coming from it. On consideration, Moony realizes that the breeze travelled all the way to the door in the lower level. After some work on moving the rubble Moony wiggles through to the other side. With him working on the far side, they are able to move enough rubble for the others to pass through. The path continues for about a half a mile to the west. When it ends it opens on a ledge above the monastery looking down on the valley.

After returning to the monastery kitchen, the group and the refugees discuss what path to take out. They decide to head for the path north through the mountains that meets up with the Larch Path. They raid the stores for food and weapons. They make it to the path through the crevice. A vision of Renwick appears and asks “What are you doing?” Faith: “I need to bring this body back to Samular Knights. My dreams insist that I take him.” Renwick “Oh, good! That is where he wanted to go, but I don’t get out much.” The conversation continues until Renwick promises he will keep the Black Earth from reoccupying the building, and bids us farewell. “For I have eternity and nothing but hope.”

Continue down the trail to where they battled with Drosnin and the assailants from Rivergard. Here they turn away from the river heading deeper into the Sumber Hills. As the evening approaches and the group contemplates finding a place to camp for the night, there are a pair of figures ahead. “Are you the Druid? Yeah, I think he is.” They head towards William. The other says, “We have been looking for you.”

Game Notes

The Mirabar Delegation Returns!

As has been noted earlier, the Delegation is sort of the MacGuffin of the campaign … they tee it up, they show up now and again, the party has an interest in them … but they are almost utterly unimportant in the context of the Real Threat and What Must Be Done About It.

In this instance, we find Bruldenthar, the dwarvish librarian who isn’t actually part of the Delegation, but was traveling with them to Waterdeep with his chests of books. We already saw what happened to some of those chests a few episodes back, at the Ambush Site. And we learn here that some of the books, at least, were used by the Black Earth cultists to pay Shoalar the Genasi pirate captain and Crushing Wave merc to pay to get them across the Dessarin River.

We also get clues as to the actual Delegation members and their fates. Teresiel was captured by Howling Hatred fliers out of Feathergale Spire (at the Shallow Graves site), but the other two members (Deseyna PickALastName and Rhundorth) were (eventually!) brought here — but have since been taken away. They will all show up waaaay toward the end of the campaign.

Aldrik

There’s also some handwaving going in about Aldrik’s story — Bruldenthar thought he was dead. What I think happened (or what I was thinking at this point) was that he resisted when the other two delegates were hauled off, was beaten soundly and dragged off himself, never to return to the cells. He was tossed out of the Monastery to the trash heap out back, but his amazing constitution eventually let him get back to his feet … memory gone … to wander down the road to meet our party.

That doesn’t quite line up with what eventually comes to pass, but I could tack the pieces together well enough to make sense.

Narl-y, dude!

And we settle some other outstanding lore and backstory here, too. Renwick Caradoon was one of the founding brothers of the Knights of Samular. How he came to become a lich is not terribly clear, but here he is. And when the Black Earth cult hauls in the body of a Knight of Samular, Narl Elrok, which was being taken down to Summit Hall for burial in the same party as the delegation … 

(Wait, why did the Black Earth folk bring a dead body with them, all the way cross-country, even after being attacked? Um … as an offering / bribe / peace token to their co-tenant at the Monastery, Renwick? “Hey, look, Mr. Lich! Dude here was being carried in a fancy sarcophagus. That must be of some interest to you!”  Uh, sure.)

… he took the body, but rather than experimenting on him, instead offered up a sarcophagus he had crafted (!) for his younger brother, Samular, which was sort of the highest honor he could give Narl.

That said, he was happy enough to hand off the body to the party to take to Summit Hall, where it could lay in the tombs of the Knights of Samular.

The Passage Below

So like all the Haunted Keeps, Sacred Stone Monastery has a passageway that leads down to the Temple of Black Earth (Front Gate quadrant of Tyar-Besil. And this would have been the perfect opportunity to … kill the party, sitting at 5th Level, I believe, and about to descend into a 10th Level setup (and one that starts off with mooks, so it might not be immediately obvious).

Fortunately, as previously explained, I had sealed off the Temples until all the Keeps were dealt with. They had the Necklace of Hellenrae, which basically magically hinted at what they needed to do, once they finished trying to get down the stairs.

And either through a forced “Roll in INTelligence to see if you remember something,” or because a player really did remember it (I don’t recall), the party ended up realizing that this all tied into that blurry image in Oreioth’s Lance Rock abode. Which … continues building brick of information on brick of information …

The Path Above

The party now found itself saddled with a dozen civilians (including Bruldenthar), most of them 0th Level fodder. They agreed to bring them back to civilization, especially since the cleric was insisting on bringing Narl’s body back to Summit Hall, per her dreams.

That would have a few interesting implications in the coming session or two.

It also meant a hike through some new areas of the Sumber Hills —  — and a session-wrap encounter with two mysterious gents looking for “the druid” …

Bits and Bobs

What is the point of the twisty-turny tunnels under the Monastery that the cultists have the prisoners excavating / digging through? Absolutely no idea. Never explained. A bit silly.

But it did give give me a chance to have some weird Underdark critters, like Violet Fungi and the Grick show up, so that made me happy.

The tortured ape-beetle monstrosity in the cage was a mutilated Umber Hulk which, for some unknown reason, was being kept in a cage (which could be turned to a death trap with the ramp from the main temple).  Alas, no good drawing was provided with the campaign (I believe the token was a text one that read “Maimed Umber Hulk” or something dorky like that). Never really well-explained, either. Because they’re eeeeviiillll, I guess.

The reference to alphabet zombies has to do with the my usual propensity to number the faceless mooks (“Okay, Cultist 3 is coming at you waving a dagger …”), but occasionally shake things up. In this case, there were enough zombies that I decided to label them A-Z.

<< Session 15 | Session 17 >>