D&D 5E Troubleshooting Princes of the Apocalypse

[Hereticus]

That was more than a little random. Did you post in the wrong thread?

Yep.

 

[HobbitFan]

Anyone else pick up the adventure hardback and want to chime in?

 

[SilverfireSage]

So I'm trying to get the new book ready to run. I like it but I'm finding there's a whole lot I have to fix.
One of the problems is how vague, undefined and unimportant the Elder Elemental eye is to the whole thing.

My question is this: Is there anything in the original Temple of Elemental Evil or the Return to the Temple of elemental Evil sequal that I might use to flesh out info on the Elder Elemental Eye?

Is there anything in the Abyssal Plague novels (and related 4E books) that might be of assistance?

Any help would be wonderful!

Thanks in advance,

HobbitFan aka Monty

The vagueness is on purpose. The characters are supposed to interact with the four cults. The Elder Elemental Eye is supposed to be this weird, ethereal being that not even the cultists really know much about. It's really the four princes that matter, and the EEE is more flavor than anything. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If that's one of your major problems, seems like you're fairly set for the rest of the campaign!

 

[Fildrigar]

I have a file in the upload area that includes some of my thoughts for making a few changes to PotA, mostly for a party coming to there from Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. It also specifically calls out all of the connections between the Temples/Fane/Elemental Nodes. ( With some specific ideas for trouble spots. )

I'm not personally worried much about fleshing out the EEE. The Princes are the current threat. I might expand the EEE stuff for afterwards, but that's a ways off. ( My party is only two sessions in. )

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1248

 

[HobbitFan]

I have a file in the upload area that includes some of my thoughts for making a few changes to PotA, mostly for a party coming to there from Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. It also specifically calls out all of the connections between the Temples/Fane/Elemental Nodes. ( With some specific ideas for trouble spots. )

I'm not personally worried much about fleshing out the EEE. The Princes are the current threat. I might expand the EEE stuff for afterwards, but that's a ways off. ( My party is only two sessions in. )

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1248

I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[Zelc]

I have a file in the upload area that includes some of my thoughts for making a few changes to PotA, mostly for a party coming to there from Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. It also specifically calls out all of the connections between the Temples/Fane/Elemental Nodes. ( With some specific ideas for trouble spots. )

That's a nice document! I was also thinking of starting the dungeons at the same difficulty and adding more difficulty over time, reflecting the cults gaining strength. This means removing some cultists from the later dungeons or adding cultists to the earlier dungeons. I haven't looked through it in detail though.

 

[Queer Venger]

Research update: I found a good post about the history of elemental Evil in D&D.
I'll include the link below for people like me frustrated with the lack of material on this in the PoTA hardback.

http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2015/01/dungeons-dragons-history-of-elemental.html

Power Score blog is one of my favorites, its very well researched into the history of D&D, a definite read.

 

[HobbitFan]

Some other little tidbits I changed/added:

1. I made Constable Harburk a veteran who fought recently against the Cult of the Dragon (assumed to be in Tyranny of Dragons).
2. Larrakh, the disgraced Earth cult priest in the Tomb of Moving Stones (Chapter 6) wears a "phantom of the Opera" style mask to hide a half-petrified face. His near-bumbling of the delegation ambush won him Earth prophet Marlos Urnrayle's ire and almost got him turned to stone! He been trying to collect ingredients to make a potion to try and turn his face back to flesh.
3. I will probably be using Tyranny of Dragons faction representatives or other of my creation, based upon some mentioned in the Chapter 6 side treks. Gotta build those pc-NPC relations to bring the region to life.
4. I am still working on where to move 3 of the temples to so that they are not all in the same mega-dungeon. I mentioned earlier moving fire to mt. Hotenow, which will work out great. I'm kinda torn on where the air and water need to be. I'm leaning towards using the Cloud Giant castle from HoDQ as the basis of the air and an underwwater portion for the water one. An option I'm considering for the water place is to think outside the box and set things in the location of a dry sea bed. The Water temple used to be in water but not anymore!

Thats it for now. I look forward to hearing what your guys (and gals) come up with!

Hobbitfan aka Monty

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Some other little tidbits I changed/added:

1. I made Constable Harburk a veteran who fought recently against the Cult of the Dragon (assumed to be in Tyranny of Dragons).
2. Larrakh, the disgraced Earth cult priest in the Tomb of Moving Stones (Chapter 6) wears a "phantom of the Opera" style mask to hide a half-petrified face. His near-bumbling of the delegation ambush won him Earth prophet Marlos Urnrayle's ire and almost got him turned to stone! He been trying to collect ingredients to make a potion to try and turn his face back to flesh.
3. I will probably be using Tyranny of Dragons faction representatives or other of my creation, based upon some mentioned in the Chapter 6 side treks. Gotta build those pc-NPC relations to bring the region to life.
4. I am still working on where to move 3 of the temples to so that they are not all in the same mega-dungeon. I mentioned earlier moving fire to mt. Hotenow, which will work out great. I'm kinda torn on where the air and water need to be. I'm leaning towards using the Cloud Giant castle from HoDQ as the basis of the air and an underwwater portion for the water one. An option I'm considering for the water place is to think outside the box and set things in the location of a dry sea bed. The Water temple used to be in water but not anymore!

Thats it for now. I look forward to hearing what your guys (and gals) come up with!

Hobbitfan aka Monty

I like them being part of the same Megadungeon. It allows you to stay in the same area and allows you to do it in any order. Just walk through a gate and your in a another cults temple this also makes it hard for the PC's to make it through the Temple in one go. Distancing them will just make the adventure more complicated and way too much travel time. Them all being under Sumber hill works the best and it prevents the Fane of the Eye and Nodes from being connected as well. It also ruins any chance of being able to try and play the fractions against one another because they are too far apart. You can't even have something as Simple as Aerisi trying to make you go after Marlos instead because he is too far away.

Moving the Temples to be far apart also ruins the bring the Region to life plan as putting the Fire cult under Mt. Hotenow will make you have to leave the reigon. It's also way too far away to even matter to the Reigon. It would take weeks to get to Mt. Hotenow from the Sumber Hills.

AKA I love the Megadungeon and view splitting them as a huge mistake. That will make the Adventure worse in the long run. I don't think you should split them apart on your first run through of the module.

 

[HobbitFan]

I like them being part of the same Megadungeon. It allows you to stay in the same area and allows you to do it in any order. Just walk through a gate and your in a another cults temple this also makes it hard for the PC's to make it through the Temple in one go. Distancing them will just make the adventure more complicated and way too much travel time. Them all being under Sumber hill works the best and it prevents the Fane of the Eye and Nodes from being connected as well. It also ruins any chance of being able to try and play the fractions against one another because they are too far apart. You can't even have something as Simple as Aerisi trying to make you go after Marlos instead because he is too far away.

Moving the Temples to be far apart also ruins the bring the Region to life plan as putting the Fire cult under Mt. Hotenow will make you have to leave the reigon. It's also way too far away to even matter to the Reigon. It would take weeks to get to Mt. Hotenow from the Sumber Hills.

AKA I love the Megadungeon and view splitting them as a huge mistake. That will make the Adventure worse in the long run. I don't think you should split them apart on your first run through of the module.

You raise some good points MonsterEnvy.
I'll consider your points.
I may run into structural problems if I move things around.
The fact remains that if I have several back and forth trips to complete each 4th of the megagdungeon and then doing that again 4 times....my players will rebel. Even using side treks and such from chapter 6 to provide variety...they will grumble.
What I may do is introduce idea that other adventuring parties may be making raids on other 3 temples too...