D&D 5E Princes of the Apocalypse campaign recaps

Yeah, like it!!
I might well nick that idea.

If they refuse the offer, which I expect, I'll just have Merroska look crestfallen, but he'll still politely offer them a room for the night.

Nailen said:

Not sure what I will do if they accept the invite - probably have Theroska encourage them to explore Sacred Stone Monastery.

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That's exactly what happened with the group I DM'd. The group agreed to join but Theroska wanted to test their commitment/mettle, and tasked them with infiltrating the Stone Monastery and return with Hellenrae's head. They did (2 chars stealthed into her room, got surprise. One was a rogue assassin, so her hit was an autocrit. Then they had first attacks due to higher init, and Hellenrae was down to single digits before she ever got a chance to attack), and as they returned to Feathergale Spire, I had the earth cult attack the spire out of revenge, resulting in an epic battle in which bulettes caused the tower to collapse. Most of the party escaped, except for the druid who failed a couple dex saves while attempting to escape. It was so much fun. Best session ever.

Last night's session:
The did the manticore hunt. We had a bit of a discussion about whether it is the PC who attacks, the hippogriff or both. A player read out the mounted combat rules and I decided that the hippogriff just does the flying and the PC have to attack, ranged or otherwise.
They split into two groups and went searching separate from the Feathergale Knights. There was some talk of it being a trap, but as they weren't outnumbered there seemed happy to proceed.
Thy found the manticore and had killed it before the knights could join them.
On returning to the Spire with the head, Marroska was very pleased and told them a bit more about their role as watchers for the Cult of Howling Hatred. He also talked a bit of his distrust of the Earth cult and of the grand plan of Aerisi. He then offered them membership of the Feathergale Society - they accepted. (I wasn't expecting this but went with it). He said that was wonderful and the initiation would take place after breakfast tomorrow.
They were then given beds on the floor below and left to sleep. There was more discussion and their general plan is to go along with Merroska and use him to help them defeat the Sacred Stone Monastery, then find the Fire Cult and ally with them to bump off Merroska (or similar).
During the night they snuck out and had a scout around. The book doesn't say anything about any nighttime guards, so I quickly decided the only guard was next to the drawbridge, everyone else is in bed asleep.
The druid wild-shaped into a rat and was able to squeeze under doors to bedrooms. This was when I realised there are way more Knights bedrooms than there are knights, so I had to stop the rat from seeing two people asleep in each room!! (There are only 6 knights in total)
The infiltrated Merroska's bedroom and the rat dragged out letters and pieces of paper for the others to read, so they've got the info I wanted them to find. The rat then took the papers back so as not to arouse suspicion. That was the end.


So, the initiation will follow the suggestion of [MENTION=6813788]sim-h[/MENTION].
They'll meet up on the Pinnacle and Merroska will give a hearty speech (I must be RPing him well - they can't decide if he is a genuine idiot or a very good actor) and then say that to complete their membership they need to honour Yan C Bin. And we do honour to Yan C Bin with sacrifices.
Then they will wheel out Larmon Greenboot the shepherd, and Thedorm and Therek - the two guys who they'd recruited to sail Quanderil's boat for them that they left in Womford. And Merroska will suddenly have a wicked grin on his face...
I've honestly no idea how the players will react.
If it comes to a battle I will have the Aaracockra come to help them after a few rounds.
I also need to think how Merroska will fight. Which spells he'll cast...
I reckon the druid will wild shape into a bear and attempt to throw people off the pinnacle, which is cool - they all have feather fall. I guess they would then either run off to Knifepoint Gully or attempt to climb back up.

What has anyone done about parties returning to cleared keeps? One player keeps talking about going back to Rivergard Keep as they didn't check the kitchens for concealed magic items...

Also, I want them to go back to Red Larch and speak to their faction contacts.

I want to seed them with more info
- about Knights of Samular and the legend of Renwick Caradoon
- about the Iceshield Orcs threatening homesteads
- to give them general faction orders to further investigate the cults and stop them (the players have already been told that two of the cults are attempting to call forth the respective Prince of Elemental Evil - so they need reminding that this needs to be stopped)

Feathergale Society Initiation..
They went up to the pinnacle after breakfast to be greeted by Thurl, a Howling Hatred Priest and 4 knights. Thurl gave a speech about how exciting it was for the Society to be expanding and that tribute must be paid to Yan C Bin.
Three Initiates then appeared with the 3 NPCs I mentioned and the party were told they must sacrifice them.
This put the players into a tizzy while they tried to work out how to manage it.

In the end, they walked up to the victims and whispered reassurances. Then the druid walked over to Thurl and bluffed him to draw his attention from the others. She then cast Thunderwave while he was looking at his own cloak. Thurl and the priest both made their saves, but the three initiates failed badly and dropped dead. The monk then cast a Silence spell centred on the priest.
It took a round of combat for the Priest and Thurl (and others) to notice the silence. By this point,the druid had wildshaped into a Lion and managed to push the priest off the side. He featherfalled down and snuck away to Knifepoint Gully. Thurl got a critical hit on the lion with his Vicious Greatword and did a huge chunk of damage which worried them a bit.
Thurl was eventually pushed off, but he used Levitate to prevent falling too far and was able to grab the side of the tower and climb in through a window.
The rest of the battle went relatively smoothly. The Aaracockra flew in to offer assistance, but everything was under control when they arrived.
Thurl ran back up the stairs, emerging with a shout of "I'm back lads, let's sort 'em out. Oh dear, they're all dead!!" A combination of lion pounce and wand of magic missiles saw him killed. The final two Knights who were rushing up behind him surrendered.

The party are now considering their next steps:
- finish off the rest of the Initiates
- check on their ship
- obtain flying mounts
- head to Red Larch

I need to ponder on the precise moment for them to level up - now? On clearing the tower? On reaching Red Larch?

So, we finally managed to meet and have another session.

The party, despite not really being into genocide, felt they needed to clear out the rest of the tower. They headed downstairs to the ground floor and went into the kitchen.
Conversation with the initiates was short and resulted in the initiates attacking. it was a short battle but I did get them to throw kitchen knives using the guided wind ability. Just as the battle finished, the Hurricane from the Solar/Greenhouse burst through the door and cast Thunderwave for MAX DAMAGE!!!!1OMG
This garnered a suitable response from the two players who failed their save.

They went down to the stables, dressed in Feathergale Knight cloaks and took the hippogriffs they'd ridden for the manticore hunt.

On return to Red Larch they caught up with faction contacts and levelled up to 5th.
Plot hooks given
- go to Summit Hall to learn about a link to Sacred Stone Monastery
- trouble in the north west at Dellmon Ranch- Iceshield Orcs side quest.
- keep investigating the cults, we your faction contacts will investigate from our end
- they also learned about Tyar-Besil and that the ancient dwarven fortress may be the base of the cult activity

They elected to stop off at Summit Hall on the way to Dellmon Ranch.
They learnt the story of Samular and Renwich Caradoon. At the mention of being a Lich they figured Renwich must be evil, but were calmed by the talk of Ushien Stormbanner. Hopefully this will lead them to attempt to find Renwick and possibly get his aid to clear the monastery.

Next session is on Monday and should be them getting to Dellmon Ranch and helping out. I will probably give the Eye of Gruumsh a decent magical war-axe (or maybe a ring of protection) as a prize.

[MENTION=6896493]Nailen[/MENTION] at some point your the PCs will need to learn how to close the gates to the nodes. I've found this information transaction to be clunky. There is no clear way to communicate that message because, in my case, the PCs stayed in the temples or went from the temple to the Fane of the Eye. In one case, I used Theluna in the water temple to convey the information. In another case, I used the mud sorcerer to convey the message. It sounds like your PCs have contacts with their faction which should help with passing that information along.

One additional thing to consider regarding experience is to consider if the group no longer considers the PCs a threat. In my case the PCs are still working for the Feathergale Society and decimating the earth cult and water cult all the way to the Fane of the Eye. Now if they return to the Feathergale tower they will receive XP for all NPCs in the tower because they are no longer considered a threat, but considered an ally. If the PCs kill any of those NPCs they do not receive any XP.

It sounds like your players are having a fun time.

Thanks for the tip.
I might let then find some notes somewhere about the closing of the nodes. Or let someone have a dream/vision...
I am trying out event-based levelling. So they level up for clearing the cult keeps. It's working so far. They won't level up for doing the Iceshield Orcs quest but will when they've done sacred stone monastery.
I don't think they will meta-game to the extent that they don't do any other side quests after this.. I certainly hope not.

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The party headed up to Dellmon Ranch to help out the farmsteaders.
We had the first attack by the orcs - 4 groups of five ran out. The range of the bows meant that the defenders got a load of shots off and took down a couple of orcs quite easily.
A volley of 5 javelins certainly has an effect though!!
In total, 9 orcs died and the rest retreated.
I will send another set out to harry the defences shortly.

Just wondering - before they use the smoke trick there will be enough time for a short rest for the party. I think the orcs should be able to have a short rest as well. So they get maybe 1d8 hp back...

My party are 5th level and I get the feeling they're slightly overpowered for this fight. When a cantrip (Firebolt) does 2d10 damage I start thinking that orcs aren't a tough enough challenge. I guess there is strength in numbers though.

[MENTION=6896493]Nailen[/MENTION], I'm not that familiar with the encounter at Dellmon Ranch, but with respect to character power level and the encounter you should consider this a game of resource management. Does the encounter at Dellmon ranch expend about 70% to 80% of the resources of the party? If so, then it's about the right difficulty to keep the game interesting in the form of combat. Keep in mind that resources include HP, spell slots, rages, maneuver dice, inspiration dice, etc. Also keep in mind that the resource expenditure will not be evenly distributed between all PCs.

Another topic came up with my players last week about pacing of the story. The players base line is the pacing of Red Hand of Doom. I'm considering to add a completion date of the summoning rather than let the encounters at the nodes and Fane of the Eye be a response to PC actions. I'll also have to convey this time line in some way to the PCs to keep the pressure on the players and put them in several cross roads to decide what is sacrificed to achieve their goal.