{"id":3875,"date":"2024-03-09T14:48:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T21:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2024-03-10T17:34:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T00:34:13","slug":"princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-34-air-apparent-part-3-pyramid-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2024\/03\/princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-34-air-apparent-part-3-pyramid-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Princes of the Apocalypse, Session 34: “Air Apparent, Part 3: Pyramid Power”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Princes<\/a>This is part of a series about 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> \u25cf The Party<\/a><\/p>\n

There will<\/em> be\u00a0SPOILERS<\/strong>. If you are playing in a PotA game,\u00a0please don\u2019t read this<\/strong>.<\/em> But 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 34<\/b> (Day 34)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    \"Howling<\/a>
    Howling Hatred symbol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The party entered the ground floor of the pyramid of the <\/span>Temple of Howling Hatred<\/span>, and with the distraction of Moony wearing the robes of the <\/span>Skyweaver<\/span> who they slew the previous session, they were able to get the jump on the <\/span>Yan-C-Bin<\/span> worshippers inside. Theren Fireballed<\/em> a bunch of them to death. The others showed more advanced magic, but were soon put down.<\/span><\/li>\n

  2. A shaft of howling winds lay at the center of that ground floor, and a body rolled into it slowly descended into the darkness.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Moony scouted the upper level of the pyramid, which appeared to be a throne room. The group went up both stairs to that level.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. \n
    \"Aerisi<\/a>
    Aerisi – “bored now”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Aerisi Kalinoth<\/strong>, the Prophet of Air, sat upon a throne there, her spear by her side. She attempted to engage the party in dialog, sensing their arrival, but they attacked instead, so she ordered them killed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n

  5. The party quickly dispatched the incense-drunken Initiates, and Theren’s vitriolic sphere took down Aerisi’s cohort <\/span>Windharrow<\/span>. Aerisi got a bit panicky and vanished.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Aldrik was blindsided (literally) by an <\/span>Invisible Stalker<\/span> under Aerisi’s orders. That distracted from attempts to spot Aerisi where she was recovering the horn used to summon the djinn <\/span>Ahtayir<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Williams’s rain of water made the Invisible Stalker temporarily visible, letting folk whale upon it and defeat it.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. When Ahtayir arrived, Aerisi commanded him to prevent the party from following her, then flew, invisible, out of the room. The djinn merely confirmed with the party that they would not pursue her while it was still meaningful; they, in turn, chose not to attack him.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. \n
    \"Ahtayir<\/a>
    Ahtayir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Ahtayir, freed from the previous command to maintain the city, returned to his home on the Elemental Plane of Air — alone, as nobody was willing to enter his service in return for such an adventure. He took the horn with him, freed from his previous service by the new order that Aerisi had given. He warned the party that the djinn had no love for <\/span>Yan-C-Bin<\/span> but that the other elemental princes were far worse.<\/span><\/li>\n

  10. The chamber floor bore a map of the city of <\/span>Tyar-Besil<\/span>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. The party debated whether to continue to sweep the city for opposition, or move onward. The djinn had suggested that there were slaves of the Air Cult in the city, though some of the commoners encountered had seemed actively allied with the Howling Hatred. There was also concern that Aerisi had only fled, not been captured or killed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Player Recap<\/h1>\n

    Step Up to the Pyramid!<\/h5>\n

    They stand at the great doors of the step pyramid. After listening and checking for traps Moony, wearing the robes of the wyvern rider, opens the doors. There are a number of initiates, an Ascetic, and a Skyweaver levitating in a large open room. There is a pit with a howling wind coming from it in front of the worshipers. The Ascetic steps to the floor and calls out “Close the door, you are interrupting our prayers.” Moony’s bluff works and the Skyweaver only looks briefly before closing her eyes and resuming her prayers. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Moony prepares and attacks. Theren tosses off a Fireball<\/em> from outside the door and removes the initiates from the fight. The group moves in and continues to attack the remaining air priests. They in turn damage the party with thunder and lightning. By the end of the round, the battle is done. Theren moves in and closes the doors. The air cultists are mostly armed with daggers and darts. Moony rolls the Skyweaver’s body into the shaft it slowly sinks down while the howling wind comes up through the well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Moony begins sneaking up the stairs and sees a large group of initiates and named villains. The groups split to go up both stairs. (Moony, Nala, William, & Ko on the North and Theren, Faith, and Aldrik to the South) Theren casts Invisibility<\/em> on himself and takes the lead on the South Stair. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Aerisi Kalinoth taunts the group, inviting them up to play. When Theren prepares to cast his spell, she says “Of for pity sake, kill them all”. Theren casts Vitriolic Sphere<\/em> and moves back down the stairs. An initiate moves up to attack Moony and misses badly. Nala then takes him out and moves further into the room. Faith calls up an Ice Storm<\/em> and pelts Windharrow and several initiates with rock-hard ice. Aldrik races towards Aerisi in a rage. He is struck from behind. Aerisi disappeared. William steps into the room and casts Faerie Fire on the throne and the niche behind, in an attempt to uncover Aerisi if she is invisible.\u00a0 (Notes cut off here.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    Game Notes<\/h1>\n

    To Sneak or Not To Sneak<\/h2>\n

    So I’ve commented on it before, but I’ll mention it again: this party has two modes:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Tentative sneaking and only engaging in combat if it cannot possibly be avoided.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Charging in and killing everything.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The third mode, which the book seems to assume will be a common one, is <\/span>deception<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Every complex has note about “If the party pretends it is bearing an important message for the head honcho” or “If the party pretends it’s here to join the cult” or “If the party is wearing the local cult costume” as a way to get past checkpoints and through doors and into deeper potential trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

      One problem is that the one character with a high CHArisma — Theren — was also playing the hermit fire-thrower who is afraid of losing control, and has a crotchety and antisocial attitude. Not the one to pull off a clever deception.<\/span><\/p>\n

      I eventually commented upon this in passing enough times that a couple of things happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

      One, the Dragonborn fighter, taking the Banneret sub-build, got some leadership skills to help with social encounters. But second, our Tabaxi rogue, who’d been collecting costumes as souvenirs, finally decided to use one.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Which is why the party got the drop on the group in the ground floor of the pyramid. Fireball online<\/em> and the rest was history.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Well, not quite. While the Initiate mooks went down like tenpins, the Skyweaver and the Hurricane (which I was still referencing as an “Ascetic” since I’d originally done so at Feathergale Spire) managed to demonstrate with a Thunderwave and a Lightning Bolt that the days of “Oh, we can take these guys, we’re the only ones with AoE spells” were quite over.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Always good to deflate player cockiness a bit, just to retain that element of tension.<\/p>\n

      The Madness of Queen Aerisi<\/h2>\n
      \"Aerisi<\/a>
      Aerisi Kalinoth illo from the book. I used this series of pics of the Prophets for the tokens, but this one makes her look way too sane.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      The party took quite some time scouting up the stairs to the throne room at the top of the pyramid, enough so that Aerisi was easily able to detect them. Which was great, because I had written, over the preceding weeks, close to a page of Aerisi dialog bits, and I was really eager to use them to (a) convey some interesting information, (b) muddy the waters, (c) drop some hints about Aldrik, and (d)\u00a0 demonstrate that Aerisi really was cray-cray. E.g.,<\/span><\/p>\n