{"id":3901,"date":"2024-03-10T17:32:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T00:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=3901"},"modified":"2024-04-09T15:22:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T22:22:29","slug":"princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-35-air-apparent-part-4-gone-with-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2024\/03\/princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-35-air-apparent-part-4-gone-with-the-wind.html","title":{"rendered":"Princes of the Apocalypse, Session 35: “Air Apparent, Part 4: Gone with the Wind”"},"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 35<\/b> (Day 34-35)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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

    The party entertained <\/span>Victrid<\/strong> the sylph, who gave them a reward from <\/span>Ahtayir<\/span>: seven flasks of <\/span>Bottled Breath<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n

  2. The party camped out in the “dorms” to the southeast for a Long Rest<\/strong>, interrupted a couple of times by patrols, one of which was deterred by Moony’s deception.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Strangely enough, <\/span>nobody remembers any of their dreams<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. They explored further into the area, and found a dwarvish shrine to <\/span>Moradin<\/span> that was occupied by Kenku torturing a group of captives. After dispatching them, one, a halfling named <\/span>Bero Gladham<\/strong>, talked about some prisoners — his wife <\/span>Nerise Gladham<\/span>, a fancy human, and some other cantankerous prisoners — had been taken “down below” where they would be “useful.”<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The freed captives<\/strong> wanted to be escorted safely back to a town, but the party was split on what to do. There was a strong interest in forging forward into Tyar-Besil to thwart whatever plot was going on. But sending the freed captives back to the surface meant they might be attacked by the gnolls in <\/span>Sighing Valley<\/span>. Having them hole up in a room meant they might be recaptured, and they had no supplies. The majority of the adventurers still wanted to proceed toward the corridor marked with the <\/span>Crushing Wave symbol<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Ultimately, they decided to send the freed captives back to the surface on their own, but with supplies. The party, with the captives following, circled around the back side of the pyramid, only to be faced by an encounter with <\/span>Aerisi Kalinoth<\/strong> and her cultists, where she demanded that they surrender and serve her. They demurred, and an intense fight (featuring AoE attacks from both sides) ensued. In the end, Aerisi was slain (at Aldrik’s hands) and her troops with her, fanatically fighting to the end.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The party regrouped in the plaza dominated by a statue of <\/span>Moradin<\/span>. While none of the cultists had anything of much worth, Aerisi (whose wings vanished a moment before she did, her death transforming her to a briefly screaming gust of air) left behind both extensive jewelry, <\/span>Aerisi’s spell book<\/span>, and her spear, <\/span>Windvane<\/strong>. The last was taken by Faith.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Player Recap<\/span><\/h2>\n
    The Rewards of Victorid<\/span><\/h5>\n

    The image of Tyar-Besil is etched on the floor of the pyramid temple. Parts are marred by gashes and chips.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Victrid\"<\/a>
    <\/span> Victrid the Sylph<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The group is debating what to do next. Suddenly a loud knock sounds from the door to the pyramid. They assume combat positions and Moony slowly opens the door. There is a blue bag in front of him. It is attached to a small fey with dragonfly wings, Victrid. She greets the group including Ko. “And hi to you. Don’t worry your secret is safe with me.” She continues “Smells wrong dirty dirty dirty, I’m not supposed to say that word, but he can’t hear here.” “All hail master Atahyir \u2026”<\/span><\/p>\n

    Moony: “go ahead and put down your bag and stay on this side of the pit.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    “With that I am away from this terrible terrible place.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Air<\/a>
    <\/span> Bottled Breath\u00a0 potion<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In the bag, there are 7 blue flasks. Bottled Breath Potion, “These bottles contain the most precious of all gifts, an hour of breath. With it you may blow a mighty gale, or else savor its sweet purity for that span. What mortal being has ever been given such a rare thing?”<\/span><\/p>\n

    The party leaves the pyramid and heads to the rooms south of the Djinn’s room. It is empty and the group decided to hole up for the evening. About 4 hours later, there is a rattle at the door and some conversation followed by banging. Moony listens at the door to try and figure out who is there. It sounds like Common. Moony chants “I am one with the air and the air is me.” There is a pause in the banging. A voice says ‘Who is that, what are you doing” “Aerisi sent me down here to practice being one with the air, otherwise I will join the chorus. Leave me be!” After a long moment, the voice says “Very well, be careful there are intruders in the temple.” Moony “That’s why I locked the door. Thank you.” Two hours later, there is another rattle at the door and a different voice says “Open this door at once” Moony goes back into the chanting routine, but it doesn’t fool the new combatant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Crumblecake\"<\/a>
    <\/span> Crumblecake!<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    After a brief battle, the air priests are dispatched and the bodies are staged in the Djinn’s room. The remaining 2 hours of rest passed uneventfully. In the morning, the party eats some crumblecake and decides to explore the remaining room on the southern side of the temple of howling hatred. Down the hallway, there is a door with screams coming from behind it. Moony opens the door and commands them to stop. There is an altar on the far side. There are prisoners inside being tortured by a group of Kenku. Moony draws his bow and the action starts. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Theren casts fire bolt at the Kenku standing on the altar and kills him. The second Kenku attacks Moony and the third stabs at Aldrik as he comes through the door. Aldrik attacks back and then moves further into the room. Faith steps up and casts Word of Radiance and Nala wades in swinging. Kenku 2 goes down. The last Kenku is hanging on by a thread until Moony finishes him off.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This is an ancient dwarven shrine. The workmanship is stellar but the gems and valuables have been chipped from the walls. The hostages are mostly humans from Yartril and a hobbit from Westbridge.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The group decides that they don’t have time to take the hostages back to Red Larch. Nala insists that they get them supplies before sending them off. The hostages do not want to be left alone, so they follow the party. <\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Aerisi<\/a>
    <\/span> Aerisi Kalinoth, commanding the armies of the Air.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    As they move around the pyramid, Moony sees a group of ascetic and initiates are in a room ahead. He warns the followers and then sneaks ahead. A familiar voice calls out. Aerisi has returned and is not happy. Aerisi is hovering about a dwarven statue with minions around her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Faith kicks things off with a hail storm. Pounding the attackers with large hailstones and turning the floor into difficult terrain. A wild battle ensues. Lightening flies and the earth shakes. In the end Aldrik races through a poisonous cloud and gets the final attack on Aerisi. She calls out to Yan-C-Bin and disappears, leaving her silken robes, jewelry, and the spear Windvane.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Four streets converge at this point with a statue of the dwarf lord Moradin. There are shops arranged around the square.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Game Notes<\/h1>\n

    What to do, what to do?<\/h2>\n
    \"Far<\/a>
    A tip of the hat to Gary Larson and “The Far Side”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    We resumed the player debate about which way they were going once the game started. Finish exploring? Short Rest? Long Rest? Where? Find the hinted-at Captives?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    So I love being able to do remote gaming through a Virtual Tabletop. Even though all the players were in the same metro area, distance and travel time (and, ugh, Fridays) would make this a bigger lift if we were playing in person around the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But something that the VTT doesn’t do is sit everyone around the table and having to look at each other. Indeed, to save bandwidth for multiple players per household, nobody was running video (and even if they did, it would be buried in another window).<\/span><\/p>\n

    While that means folk can eat a sandwich or step away from the keyboard or pick their nose with nobody being aware of it, it also means that it’s really easy for contentious decisions to fall into a slough of silence, where most (?) folk have made their point, but nobody (especially in this group of friends) wants to be the bastard who insists on the party following their lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

    That’s a place where I, as the GM, need to step in, and I tend to be a bit slow at it, not wanting folk to feel <\/span>I<\/span><\/i> am railroading them into a particular decision or even making a decision \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    For Victrid!<\/h2>\n
    \"Victrid<\/a>
    Victrid token<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Fortunately, I had a distraction, a flighty little sylph named Victrid who arrived with the djinn Ahtayir’s reward to them for enabling him to get free: a flask of <\/span>Bottled Breath<\/span><\/i> for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

    (The reward is out of the book, the sylph was my own imagination — I felt it a nicer option than “you find some bottles tucked under the throne” or something.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    Everyone instantly got paranoid about when they might need Bottled Breath. Since at this point I was doing my first review of the Plunging Torrents (the water node), it seemed like a fabulous gift \u2026 if it lasted that long.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Developing a token for Victrid and everything probably took only slightly less time than she was on-stage, but I still think she as a fun, hyper, “magic pixie dream girl” character to trot in.<\/p>\n

    Camping out<\/h2>\n

    Once Victrid had flitted off, the party gelled around the idea of taking a Long Rest, and doing so in one of the dorms in the southeast, which would let them clear the black spot they’d not explored. Since I’d prepped and set up for the big battle in the Square of Moradin (see below), I wasn’t thrilled, but, hey, player agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

    They trucked over\u00a0 to the spot, checked out the one dorm room they hadn’t previously investigated, and camped out.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now \u2026 damn. The party should not be encouraged (indeed, the module specifically discourages) camping out inside one of the temples. It’s just dangerous. There are patrols and other threats, all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I could do what the book says, and roll wandering monsters \/ patrols <\/span>every ten minutes.<\/span><\/i> On the other hand, nobody wants to play constant mook battles, least of all me.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I could send them all Bad Dreams. But that starts being a bit too pushy, unless I want to dictate effects. (Do the Bad Dreams disrupt their Long Rest? Harsh. Maybe when they get down lower.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"AoE<\/a>
    AoE 10ft radius – Dust Devil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In the end, I did random monster rolls every <\/span>hour,<\/span><\/i> which resulted in two encounters — some folk who Moony managed to talk into leaving (he was becoming our deceitful rogue, which was awesome), others who kicked in the door and got promptly taken down. (Though not before I got to cast Dust Devil<\/em> and have my new DD AoE token show up. Fun!)<\/span><\/p>\n

    They decided to dump the bodies nearby, rather than bring them into the room. I could have cause them trouble, but decided not to. The patrols were pretty light because Aerisi was gathering her forces \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    Freed captives are a pain in the ass<\/h2>\n

    On rising, they found the shrine and the captives of the Kenku there. Pretty short order battle. But that left them with a new problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Nerise<\/a>
    Nerise Gladham, human female peasant captive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Small digression: Not long before this session, I had been doing my first review of the Howling Caves (the Air Node). Toward the end, you run across a couple of people being teed up for sacrifice. One is the inconsistently-named Deseyna Majarra<\/a>. The other is a peasant woman, Nerise Gladham<\/strong>, who expresses concern over her husband, from whom she was separated.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Bero<\/a>
    Bero Gladham, captive of the Air Cult, whose wife was taken “below”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    I worked up a unique token and handout for her, because I suspected she’d be around for a while. (I mean, what do you do with captives you’ve freed inside the Air Node? You can’t exactly let them try and wander home. Hold that thought.) It was only after I had done all of that that a thought occurred to me that \u2026 well, heck, Nerise was the wife of Bero Gladham, the peasant they free here at the Shrine of Moradin in the Temple of Howling Hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Except that I’d done up Bero as a halfling, and Nerise as a human.<\/span><\/p>\n

    And so what? First mixed-race marriage of the campaign, huzzah, vive la diff\u00e9rence<\/em>, and we’d see if anyone ever noticed. End of digression.<\/span><\/p>\n

    At any rate, we now have five freed Level 0 peasants\/merchants<\/strong>. What is the party going to do with them?<\/span><\/p>\n

    And once again the game came to a screeching halt while the question was debated.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Arm them<\/em> (hey, here are some short swords the kenku aren’t using any more) and escort them to the gatehouse<\/em> \u2026 to let them ascend on their the several miles to the surface, ending up in the Sighing Valley that the party already knows has hungry gnolls with bows and arrows?<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Go with them and get them to safety<\/em> (maybe to the end of the valley, maybe to Feathergale Spire, maybe all the way to Red Larch)?<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Tell them to lock themselves in a chamber<\/em> and “<\/span>we’ll be back for you real soon, we promise.”<\/span> Except there are no supplies. And it’s not like <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> place is safe.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Have them trail along behind<\/em>. How well is <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> going to work, and how safe will it really be for them?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      And how do the peasants\/merchants actually feel about these options? (Answer: only #2 garners any enthusiasm from them.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Part of the issue here was that some of the players really didn’t want to deal with the problem. Short of killing them (nobody was quite there), any solution that got them out of sight and mind was fine, because it would be done with and\/or let the party continue with its (important!) quest. Conversely, some of the players kind of took that whole Lawful and\/or\u00a0 Good thing seriously, and wanted to be sure these folk were safe.<\/span><\/p>\n

      (Part of the issue as well is that the party really didn’t know how this is laid out ahead — if they leave this temple, they were likely not coming back any time soon.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      I probably let the debate go on too long (I probably should have done another Wandering Monster roll). I did try to summarize the options and make sure that everyone had spoken up if they wanted to.<\/span><\/p>\n

      In the end, the decision was to get some supplies for the peasants\/merchants (since they were pretty starved), arm them up, and send them to the surface on their own. That meant a delay while the party searched the rest of this zone for said food and water (not wanting to give any of their own), with the freed captives in tow. Maybe at that place marked like it has supplies up in the NE corner of the map …<\/span><\/p>\n

      Which meant \u2026 (GM grins.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      The Return of the Aerisi<\/h2>\n

      \"Aerisi\"<\/a>So I’d been unhappy with Aerisi fleeing the previous episode, both because it felt anticlimactic and because it left unresolved the whole disposition of prophets.<\/span><\/p>\n

      I’d been casually mentioning that, well, she hadn’t really been taken down, just driven away.<\/span><\/p>\n

      What, it occurred to me, if I ran with that? What if, while the party is lounging about for their Short Rest, then a Long Rest, Aerisi is busy gathering up all the troops she can in short order, and getting ready to confront them?<\/span><\/p>\n

      Initially, I thought I’d let them finish exploring (if they chose to) and then have her and company waiting when they got back from the Purple Worm room (“SUPPLIES” it says on the map). But \u2026 why not have her just set up in the Plaza of Moradin for a show down? Take care of most of the clearing (though leaving the various hazards around the plaza, as well as some mocking kenku), and give it a real blow-out.<\/span><\/p>\n

      I did some CR balancing, and \u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      The party circled around the back of the pyramid (scenic waterfall into the shadowy depths!), and up to the concourse to the north of the structure, where they encountered Aerisi and the various soldiers she had managed to pull together. Huzzah!<\/span><\/p>\n

      I’d gauged the combat difficulty carefully, not wanting to make it potentially fatal. In retrospect, I could have made it harder. Part of the problem was that it was mostly as distance fight — arrows and spells (and some AoE in the latter), which favored the party, mostly. Aerisi was the only significant spellcaster (and she did manage to get off a <\/span>Chain Lightning<\/span><\/i>, which was tons of fun, plus the weakest <\/span>CloudKill <\/span><\/i>ever, 10d8 poison damage and half of that was 1s being rolled). The party popped a <\/span>Fireball<\/span><\/i> and an <\/span>Ice Storm, <\/span><\/i>plus a <\/span>Moonbeam<\/span><\/i> and a very helpful <\/span>Silence<\/span><\/i>, the net of which was that half of Aerisi’s folks were taken down without getting into combat, the other half relegated to futile charges and doing some damage to one of the fighters who’d moved forward \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

      (For a brief moment, it looked like Aldrik might be <\/span>Thunderwave<\/span><\/i>d into the river, which opened the prospect that he would get swept away and over the waterfall \u2026 which would be an <\/span>awesome<\/span><\/i> way for his character to disappear off to the Spring Semester, albeit an episode early. Didn’t happen, but I could have forced it \u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

      The oppo all had lines written for them, half of which I forgot to deliver.<\/span><\/p>\n