{"id":3224,"date":"2023-12-10T16:51:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T23:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2024-02-04T22:45:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T05:45:42","slug":"princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-4-stormy-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2023\/12\/princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-4-stormy-weather.html","title":{"rendered":"Princes of the Apocalypse, Session 4: “Stormy Weather”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Princes<\/a><\/p>\n

This is part of a series about <\/span>my DMing\u00a0Princes of the Apocalypse,<\/em> a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/a>. The Party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There will be\u00a0SPOILERS<\/strong>. If you are playing in a PotA game,\u00a0please don\u2019t read this.<\/em> If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like \u2026 read on!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

GM Recap<\/h1>\n

Session 4<\/b> (Day 13): <\/b>\u00a0The party camped overnight, ignoring \/ coddling \/ threatening <\/span>Oreioth<\/span>; the next day they dealt with final exploration (and experimentation with light and shadows) of the traps and threats of his cave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to <\/span>Red Larch<\/span> under an increasing stormy weather, they turned the necromancer over to the Constable. <\/span>Faith <\/b>inquired with <\/span>Lymmura Auldarhk<\/span> about the mysterious sigil they’d seen. <\/span>Theron <\/b>and <\/span>Nala <\/b>reported to <\/span>Kaylessa Irkell<\/span> about how her predictions of “fell magic” had come true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moony <\/b>and <\/span>William <\/b>enjoyed a hot bath at <\/span>Haeleeya Hanadroum<\/span>‘s establishment (where the proprietress mentioned something about a “fancy boys club” of local notables including <\/span>Elak Dornen<\/span>,<\/span> Ilmeth Waelver<\/span>, and<\/span> Albaeri Mellikho<\/span> as both elders of the town but also part of a secretive midnight group that meets up at<\/span> Waelvur’s Wagonworks<\/span>). They then went on to <\/span>Gaelkur’s<\/span> establishment, told stories, and drank a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Theren<\/b>, <\/span>Faith<\/b>, and <\/span>Nala <\/b>eventually headed to dinner at the Helm. They noted <\/span>Ghileeda, the servant girl at the Sword,<\/span> chatting with <\/span>Justran Daehl, the Cellerer<\/span>, and then a table of <\/span>Elak Dornen<\/span>, <\/span>Albaeri Mellikho<\/span>, <\/span>Aerego Bethendur<\/span>, and <\/span>Ilmeth Waelver<\/span>. Dornen came over to the party, bought them a fine bottle of dessert wine for their efforts at <\/span>Lance Rock<\/span>, and then tried to find out when they were leaving town. <\/span>Theren <\/b>suggested he might hire them to clear out trouble along the Larch Path into the <\/span>Sumber Hills<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone eventually staggered back to the Inn for a good night’s sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Player Recap<\/h1>\n

Camping at lance rock:<\/b> Mr. Crazy Pants [Oreioth] is causing a fuss and Nala wakes Faith, who just threatens to bonk him on the head with a rock. William asks some questions and determines that he does not have any specific concerns and leaves him to Nala. William spends some time watching the stars and heads back to sleep. The next morning the Moony ties up the\u00a0 necromancer to the wagon and they head into the cave. Nala sneaks in, the lead in front has the Driftglobe and Faith casts light on her shield taking up the rear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the new dynamic lighting [Roll20!], they probe the remaining unexplored areas of the cave. Open path ends in a room with two large empty chests. Faith picks up a jug of alcohol from the large room with the slab and the stairs in case we need to clean anything. Moony inspect the door at the top of the stair. There is a small hole with a small round chamber with two large chests in it. He pulls a lever and a large quantity of rock fall on the chest from the first room that we explored. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, there is no new treasure in the cave and no ripe berries near Lance Rock.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the trip back to town, Oreioth pleads to return to his cave and the protection of his “army”. The group does not pay much attention. He goes on about the [Elemental Eye] sigil. Theren puts together pieces Oreioth ravings and wracks his brain for any arcana trivia, but comes up empty. Moony asks questions about unicorns and William’s goddess Mielikki. Faith notices that thunder and lightning is rolling in quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Distribution of loot and leveling up:<\/b> Nala will take the Driftglobe and Theren gets the wand of magic missiles. The group then discussed the new skills that they acquired.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in town:<\/b> The group brings back Oreioth to the Harburk and the constable and let’s him know about the events of the cave and Orieoth’s raving. It is late afternoon\/evening. Faith heads to the temple to pray to both of her gods and then talks to Lymmura. She brings up the topic of the missing farmers and their symbol of Chauntea. They discuss the possibilities. The farmers were practically devout, but not overly so. When pressed, she doesn’t have a specific ask for Faith or any rumors to pursue. “I think then tomorrow, I will go to the ‘person’ that you have turned over to constable to see if a friendly face will encourage more information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Haeleeya<\/a>
Haeleeya Hanadroum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Bath and Booze:<\/b> Moony and William drop off Buttercup at the stables. Iraun takes the horse and wagon with little interest in the details. Moony asks about unicorns and Mielikki, He doesn’t have much to add. Later on they wander into Haeleeya Hanadroum’s bath house. It is late, but she is happy to heat the water for the men’s bath and adds some manly scents. Moony enjoys the bath, dries himself and tells Haeleeya about zombies and unicorns. She states if a unicorn was going to come to Red Larch, the “Elder Boys” would like to hear about it. They are a club of influential people in town that\u00a0 includes Albeiri the stone works owner and her competitor and Waelver the wagon works guy. They thinks that they are so clever, gathering in the night, but we who are alert notice them.<\/em> They gather at Waelver’s wagon works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moony and William enjoy their time in the baths and eventually head to Gaelkur’s after a proper soak. They acquire some drinks and Moony tells them about the unicorn and the captive. William asks for “Milk Piss”. Gaelkur comes up with a clay jug and says, “I think this is something that may be like what you want”. William takes a swing of questionable liquid. The fermented goat’s milk is not what William expects, but it is boozy and not completely inconsumable. Though it smells like rancid milk with some interesting notes. Moony takes the questionable wine instead. He goes on about the necromancer and Faith’s need for manacles. William sits back and enjoys his rotten milk. <\/span><\/p>\n

The folk drinking at Gaelkur’s are hanging on every word and debate visiting the constable to view the evil man. He is completely crazy.<\/em> William agrees, “crazy pants.”<\/em>\u00a0The audience is mixed on the plans to visit the constable. Mooney pulls forth the needle and draws additional attention. Getting back to Faith’s need for manacles, everyone agrees that the smith is the most likely source. Mooney implies that the smithy is part of the cabal that runs the city behind the scenes. Finally, Gaelkur sets him straight, that the smith doesn’t have time to be part of boys club that Haeleeya was talks about. They spend the rest of the evening drinking and talking about unicorns and such. They are welcome any time. (More people have filled place but few have left.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Responsible Ones:<\/b> Nala and Theren return to the inn and fill Kaylessa Irkell in on the adventure. She returns the room payment and promises a fine dessert wine for the group to celebrate. She is excited about the news, but doesn’t press too much about details, Nala gives her a full account. <\/span><\/p>\n

The rain has stopped, Faith and the others have decided not to wait for Moony and William. They head for the Helm for dinner. The place is full and several parties are looking for a place to\u00a0 sit. Theren notices the parlor maid chatting with the wine steward Justran. They head for a table on the first floor that will accommodate the full group, if they ever appear. Theren attempts to overhear the conversation between Justran and the maid. Theren remembers that the maid had previous said she never takes hard spirits.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The group looks around and notes some familiar faces. Shortly they notice Elak Dornen who was at the table with his stoneworks competitor, Albeiri Nellikho. He offers the group drinks or some wine, noting the benefit the group has given the town. Nala accepts, with the caveat that Dornen join them. He orders some wine and sits at the table. He is the other quarry owner, who registered the complaint with the constable and the shenanigans. The<\/em> <\/span>Constable is sometimes too hard working of a man. Do take care not offend him with your meddling with the town.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Happy Faith is not happy. She thinks that he is not happy with the party’s activities. Nala mentions the missing caravan and Elak has nothing to add. Dornen leaves politely. Justran arrives with the wine and says “There are not many who come away from a conversation with Master Dornen with a smile.”<\/em> The wine is good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Game Notes<\/h1>\n

So after a rollicking adventure the previous episode, things this time turned into \u2026 kind of a wandering dialog-fest, catching up with new acquaintances and making newer ones. Not necessarily bad conversations, but feeling a bit like players searching for what to do next and my not finding (or pushing) hooks to make it happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>
Something is rotten in the little burg of Red Larch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Largely my bad, though I did manage to get some clues building about the Believers<\/strong> (a.k.a. The Old Boys Network, or the “Fancy Boys” and the players started calling them) who run the town behind the scenes and have covert meetings at night). That sort of thing is impossible to keep secret in a small town, so it makes sense that various folk know about it, though not necessarily about what they are up to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also did some setup of the link between Ghileeda and Justran, and between them and the Believers. I also helped establish Dornen as the likely main man and tacit opposition they face in town. So that was good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And we’re starting to get some special relationships being built. People like Haeleeya, the bath house owner, and that would give her a bigger role in later episodes. Gaelkur never played off quite as well as I liked, but he did recur further down the line, so that was good.<\/p>\n

Still … too much dialog. Maybe I should have had a masked gang of thugs try and take out Moony and William on their way back from the dubious digs of Gaelkur’s, but it’s still just a bit too early for the bad guys to panic that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

We did play around a bit (both GM and players) with the new Dynamic Lighting<\/strong> setup in Roll20. Despite some technical issues in its early implementation (and some still around), it is truly an awesome tool for someone who grew up on pencils and graph paper for game maps.<\/p>\n

This is not a heavily Darkvisioned party (only two of the five), so figuring out light sources and sight lines turned out to be somewhat important early days.<\/p>\n

Oh, and we got some unexpected heavy rain. Weird.<\/p>\n

Ah, well. Things get more exciting next time.<\/p>\n

\n

<< Session 3<\/a> | Session 5<\/a> >><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the DM talks too much. Sometimes it’s the DM’s NPCs who do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,76],"tags":[45,63],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-princes-of-the-apocalypse","category-roll20","tag-dnd","tag-pota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3627,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}