{"id":4038,"date":"2024-04-17T16:05:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T23:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=4038"},"modified":"2024-04-21T14:20:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T21:20:53","slug":"princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-43-at-the-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2024\/04\/princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-43-at-the-crossroads.html","title":{"rendered":"Princes of the Apocalypse, Session 43: “At the Crossroads”"},"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 43<\/b> (Day 37-38)
\nIn … The Temple of the Crushing Wave<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Faced with a Bag of Holding starting to approach capacity, plus the prospect of spending some of their hard-earned loot, the party left the underground city of <\/span>Tyar-Besil<\/span>, back to <\/span>Feathergale Spire<\/span>, and thence to <\/span>Red Larch<\/strong>, returning to the town three days (!) after they’d left it.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. They found the town that night in something of a panic. A traveling merchant had just arrived from the southeast; immediately after his departure from Womford<\/strong>, there had been a brilliant flash of light and, when he turned, the town was devastated in flames.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Faith brought <\/span>Bruldenthar<\/strong>‘s books<\/strong> to the All-Faiths Shrine, which was doing good business because of the town’s alarm. <\/span>Brother Sand<\/span> offered to watch over them, though he was short-handed as the second rotational priest had not yet arrived. Faith offered to stay at the shrine and lend a hand.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. After enjoying good food and good beds (plus a few odd dreams<\/strong>), the party awoke to find the town seemingly under attack by a large group of Black Earth cultists<\/strong> — a priest, guards, and several monks. They were doing something with an odd mystical orb, which was rendered inert by Faith’s Dispel Magic<\/em>. A big melee ensued, leaving the party wounded and tired, but the Black Earth cultists all dead, their plan, which seemed to be some sort of threat to Red Larch, averted. For now.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Player Recap<\/h1>\n

    Emptying the Bag of Holding<\/h5>\n

    The group heads to town to empty their bag and lighten their load. They each have 2921 gold and 7 silver (Aldrik 2458 gold and 3 silver). When they arrive at the Swinging Sword Kaylessa greets them and tells them about the destruction of Womford. <\/span><\/p>\n

    They ask for rooms and drop off their backpacks, Faith and Nala head to the All-faiths Shrine to drop off Bruldenthar’s books. There are several town’s folks praying. Brother Sand greets them. Faith explains that they have found the books that Bruldenthar brought with the Mirabar Delegation. Brother Sand explains that everything is higgledy piggledy . Right now there is only one of me.<\/em> The other priest hasn’t rotated in. The second priest was coming down from Triboar to replace. Faith asks if Brother Sand can store the books and offers to stay and help caring for the flock. People continue to arrive until much later than expected. That night she has a vague dream about alarms being raised.<\/span><\/p>\n

    William, Moony and Theren head to the room and clean up. William takes a bath, Moony heads to the Helm to relax and tell tales of turtle dragons. Mr. Kitty does not make an impression when competing against the merchant from Womford. He tells the tale of leaving Womford early in the morning as a religious celebration was starting. There was a bright flash, looked back, and sees the town on fire. When Moony gets a chance Moony describes Imyx and asks him if it looked similar. He says that it didn’t look like there was a figure of fire, but there was so much fire, he did not see a face in the fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Theren, Nala, and William head to the Helm for dinner. Garlen treats them to dinner for their past help with Justran. The merchant from Womford leaves a bit later and Moony follows to confirm that he safely entered the Swinging Sword without anyone following. <\/span><\/p>\n

    After finishing dinner the group heads back to the Sword. Falling into their beds, the groups sleep well, except Theren. He dreams of a town in flames full of people dying that he can not help. William wakes up in the middle of the night and has an urge of going outside. He feels much better when he returns to the room. Later he dreams of the stars and being outside. He is at peace. He sees a large person carrying a third person. It is an old man who lifts his head and says “Everyone has forgotten me.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the morning, Faith wakes early as usual. The quarters are better than those in Tyar-Besil, but still not great. She plans for a targeted donation for improving the quarters. The rest of the party is also up when they hear, “Hey, what are you doing” followed by the sounds of an odd chant. Racing out of the temple and inn, the party sees an Earth priest with several guards and monks at the end of the road. He is chanting and holding a glowing orb. Faith casts a silence<\/em> spell on the cultists trying to interrupt the spell casting. Theren adds a fireball<\/em> to the chaos and the fight gets hot. A dispel magic<\/em> from Faith stops the eerie glow and humming from the orb. The rest is mostly clean-up.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Game Notes<\/h1>\n

    At the Cross-Roads<\/h2>\n

    As previously noted, I tend to make up cute titles for episodes, based on where I figured they would next go, or perhaps who they would next meet. No spoilers, but something that, if I did my job right, would lead to an “OOOOOH,\u00a0now<\/em> I see it …” reaction afterwards.<\/p>\n

    But for an episode where the party could go any direction they wanted, all I could do was lampshade the ambiguity.<\/p>\n

    Well, the session was more cross-roady than I was expecting, in a couple of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

    As also previously noted, there were always three ways for the party to be moving: laterally (to other Temples in the main level of Tyar-Besil), down (to the Fane or to the actual Nodes, which would be a serious level challenge), or out.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I was ready for the first two. For some reason, I was <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> ready for the last..<\/span><\/p>\n

    I should have been. And, to be sure, I wasn’t totally<\/em> unprepared. The game talks about what’s going on with Cult Retribution in the outside worlds as the Temples start falling. But as that’s a pretty dynamic thing, I only kept matters sketched out in my head. Plus “out” could mean anywhere, to any destination. I figured I’d have plenty of warning.<\/span><\/p>\n

    “Plenty of warning”
    \n<\/span>\u2260
    \n“Okay, it’s the start of the episode,
    \nlet’s go check in on the outside world.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    And the fact is, it was something I had been urging, wanting, dropping hints about. Dreams of disaster. Etc. Coming across Bruldenthar’s books, which took up over half the weight of the Bag of Holding was just icing on the cake.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"heavy<\/a>
    These require a Book Bag of Holding, of course<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    (Calculation: Weight and dimensions of “nearly 50 old tomes” vs the Bag of Holding. Each book is 0.5 cubic feet, and 6 lbs. (based on my wife’s Italia Cucina<\/em> tome). So 48 books = 12 cubic feet and 288 lbs. A BoH can hold 64 cubic feet, and 250 lbs.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    So the party decided they were going to return to Red Larch, drop off the books, spend some of their newfound wealth at Ye Olde Magick Shoppe, and generally take a bit of a breather.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Great.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sic transit <\/em>Womford<\/h2>\n

    It was a quick decision to make it that word of the destruction of Womford had occurred. Which, on later examination, I realized I had over-estimated in terms of destruction. The Fire-based Orb of Devastation (not Orb of Annihilation<\/em>, which I kept calling it in my head) only unleashes … a horrible heat wave, which a high chance of fires breaking out. It doesn’t act as a tactical nuke.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"T2<\/a>
    Not actually Womford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Oops. I’d already foreshadowed that kind of blast in people’s dreams. Oh, well. And, heck, it wasn’t like I was using Womford any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The party had brushed against Womford previously. They almost took their stolen boat from Rivergard Keep down there. They knew that the genasi pirate Shoalar Quanderil operated from there. And they knew that Bruldenthar the dwarvish librarian had headed down there from Summit Hall a few tendays back, with plans to head further down to Waterdeep to tell about his lost books. One of which had shown up in Red Larch last time the party was there.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So it seemed like a fine place to destroy — one they hadn’t touched yet, but one they knew about.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Who’s next?<\/h2>\n

    Red Larch was the obvious next target. Having been cued about the disaster in Womford, the second Cult Retaliation would hit at the place (and people) they knew so well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Red<\/a>
    Target: Red Larch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Womford had been hit by the Fire Cult. That was both a “Hey, the Apocalypse is coming, boo-yah” moment, but also an underhanded strike at the Water Cult, which was had been using Womford (along with Rivergard Keep) as a place of strength. A lot of chit-chat amongst NPCs in the Water Temple centered around that.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Black Earth, on the other hand, the next out the Devastation Chute, went for Red Larch — to strike back against the adventurers who were causing grief to the overall cause, and because the town had already been attacked, through influence, by the Earth cult (remember Larrakh and the Believers), and the effort had failed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Red<\/a>
    “Join me … or die!” “Wait, what?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    This association will get played up next time, I hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The other obvious locales for further Devastation shenanigans are Beliard to the NE (a place the party has also been to), and Westbridge to the NW. We’ll see how that goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Haste Makes Wasteland<\/h2>\n

    DMs have to make quick decisions, and I was making far too many for my comfort or efficiency. As soon as they said they were going to Red Larch, I knew I was going to have the Black Earth folk show up there, probably the next morning. That’s sort of hand-wavingly fast from the conquest of the previous temple, but the BBEGs work in mysterious ways, their plot elements to perform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    But \u2026 I didn’t have a detailed tactical map of downtown Red Larch (note: you can find these online, but I didn’t at the time). And none of the maps I had loaded in my Roll20 instance were a good match, given that they knew the town layout (so a generic town intersection didn’t seem like the right idea to me).<\/span><\/p>\n

    I ended up finding a basic crossroads map, then drew some buildings, and then realized people could see through the walls, so tried to add light barriers mid-battle and \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The melee, though, had a key moment where I <\/span>think<\/span><\/i> I made a RAW error.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Faith, the Cleric, saw the BE Priest holding up the Devastation Orb and decided to cast a Dispel Magic<\/em> to break whatever spell was being ritually cast.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Hrm. I never thought of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Devastation<\/a>
    I never created a Devastation Orb of Earth token, but I did whip up a Devastation Orb of Fire …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    So the Devastation Orb is not being cast\/invoked by the BE Priest. It’s something created<\/em> down in the Black Geode Node (where Marlos Urnrayle is currently hanging out). But \u2026 it’s got a limited duration (1d100 hours or something), so it’s not like a permanent enchantment on an item.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Can Dispel Magic<\/em> dispel an Orb?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Well \u2026 probably not. You could probably use it, or Counterspell<\/em>, to interrupt the casting (which is done by one of the Prophet Weapons). The Orb itself, though, is a “Wondrous Item<\/a>,” and you can’t dispel items<\/a>. Or so I determined\u00a0after\u00a0<\/em>the fact.
    \n<\/span><\/p>\n

    I did<\/em> say (erroneously, but raising daunting stakes), “Okay, this is a 9th<\/em> Level spell” \u2026 and the Cleric did<\/em> roll high enough to make it happen.\u00a0<\/span>I still wasn’t convinced it was correct, but decided the “Rule of Cool” meant that she succeeded. Which, given the player’s reaction made it worthwhile.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Windvane\"<\/a>
    See! It’s helpful carrying a bit of an Elemental Prince of Evil! Amirite?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    And, after the fact, I realized that she was also carrying \/ attuned Windvane — the Prophet Weapon of Air, which can, in fact, create<\/em> Orbs of Devastation itself. And, so, might have made it possible for <\/span>her<\/span><\/i> to dispel the same, especially against the “opposite” element. (No, not by the rules, but call it a one-off exciting success.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    Dreams<\/h2>\n