D&D 5E D&D AL Play reports: Princes of the Apocalypse, sessions 1-23

It was now time for the adventurers to return to Feathergale Spire and deal with the cultists there. They were welcomed warmly, once again, and given rooms for the night. However, by now the cultists were well aware of what their true plans were, and they did two things: first, they tried to lure Thumbalina away to make her join the cult properly and betray her fellows, and to kill the rest of the adventurers.

It could have gone better for the cultists.

The attack on the party during the night was particularly unsuccessful. It turns out that knights who fight mainly from griffon- or vulture-back aren’t so good on the ground, and the adventurers were rather wary that night. The battle of the bedrooms went entirely in the adventurers’ favour, and then they went up to the roof to see what Thumbalina was up to with Thurl, leader of the Knights. They found Thurl pleading with the dwarf – I’m sorry, giant – barbarian for her support, but she’d gone entirely cold to the idea. In the pitched battle that followed, she threw Thurl off the roof, while the rest of the Knights were slain by the adventurers.

Running to the side of the tower, the group were not particularly surprised to discover that Thurl was wearing a device that allow him to fall from great distances without being hurt. It did not, however, protect him against fire, a lack that Zed pointed out to him in the most direct means possible: a fireball spell. Thurl discovered that not only was he not proof against the spell, but neither was his device. At least the remainder of his life was short before it came to an end with a thump at the bottom of the canyon.

The adventurers then did what adventurers do best – looted the tower – although they were disappointed to find little of true worth but a few handfuls of coin.

More interesting proved the nearby canyon, where a hidden entrance led to a great stair that led down – and down – and down – to a great ruined dwarven city. Standing on the stair and overlooking the great cavern in which it lay, they could see a great step pyramid in its heart, but first they would have to make their way through the gatehouse into the city proper.

Getting through the gatehouse was difficult. To begin with, the adventurers were assaulted by screams of people in torment, coming from the walls on either side of the entrance. Then they discovered that snipers were lying in wait, opening fire through concealed arrows slits on the party. The adventurers ran through as quickly as they could, the tormented screams following as they did. Then more doors opened and kenku, bird-men, boiled out, throwing themselves on the adventurers with sharp swords. Thumbalina and Krovis were in the front rank, laying waste to the kenku, until finally none remained.

At this point, it was quiet, except for the noise of flutes from the old dwarven building to the north.

Investigating revealed a flute ensemble, various humans dressed in odd clothing being conducted by a grumpy cultist, who grew grumpier by the second at the lack of musical abilities possessed by his group. He brightened up when the adventurers arrived, obviously mistaking them for fellow souls, and inquired if any of them were flautists. Indeed, two were, and he dismissed his old ensemble and attempted to recruit the adventurers.

They discovered his name was Windharrow and promised to return later for practice; Windharrow gave them flutes and robes so they’d be properly equipped. The adventurers thanked him and moved off, changing into the robes to infiltrate the outpost better

The group then discovered a large chamber where various humans were chained to great wheels and were pushing them around under the direction of a couple of priests. The party abandoned their disguises to gleefully kill the priests and rescue the prisoners, only to find that the prisoners were, themselves, cultists – and attacked the party along with the priests! After they were all dealt with, the group pushed around the wheels a bit – they’d rotate one way for one turn, or back the way they came, but no further. They were heavy things, and Thumbalina was required to do most of the pushing. Eventually they left and looked for more areas of interest.

Not that they found them immediately; the next set of houses that the adventurers entered were abandoned with only the detritus of the long-ago dwarves littering the floor. An odd feather or two hinted at who had been there before – and had looted the place most thoroughly.

However, not all the buildings were empty. The adventurers finally discovered an old shrine to Moradin where kenku were guarding a number of human prisoners. The kenku were defeated and the prisoners freed. Four were travellers kidnapped from nearby roads, the fifth was Bero Gladham, a local farmer. He told them that his wife Nerise had been taken below – although he didn’t know exactly where.

The adventurers then escorted the party above, to Feathergale Spire – only to discover that cultists were waiting for them! The adventurers had not healed fully after their previous fights, with the result that – by the end of the combat – two of them had been slain! The adventurers who remained knew contacts who would be able to perform the necessary magic to raise them, but the funds were a little lacking. Gimble arranged a loan from the Zhentarim, but they wanted a favour in exchange…

DM Notes

Still in catch-up mode with these reports (I’m a long way behind). This one is about two sessions worth, although the split isn’t exact. I may need to go back and renumber them at some point…

With these sessions, we moved finally into Chapter 4 and the exploration of the temples beneath the Haunted Keeps. Although – as you can see from the end of the report – it wasn’t going to be that easy! Running a reprisal at the end rather surprised my group. I was rather surprised to discover they weren’t all healed after their last encounters… one of the PCs went in on one hit point.

This battle was really, really close: it ended with two players conscious, and one of those only because he’d rolled a natural 20 on his death save. It was very close to a TPK, and – though I knew it was going to be tough – I really didn’t expect it to work that way. Here’s a tip for all you players out there: when you hit 5th level, it’s a very bad idea to stand together once combat begins. It makes it really easy to hit you all with fireball spells. And if you’re hit with a fireball, staying together later? Yes, you’re asking for it!

The play of the Air Temple was not quite as dynamic as it should have been; I think I could have done a lot more with the temple reacting to the players’ movements around it. We’ll see if I can improve that going forward!

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

This is great Merric! Thanks for this, it's great seeing another DMs take on this. Me personally I have a different idea, because of how deceptive the air cult is I was thinking of making things a bit more... interesting. I'm having the air cult try and parley with the adventurers to beg for them to help in taking out their worst enemy the earth cult and they are the last line of defense against this evil being released throughout the Dessarin Valley. The black earth has impersonated them and their queen can tell you the whole story and trying to get them into the palace so Aerisi can talk to them and offer money for the body of her worst enemy and most evil medusa, Marlos... Then when they return Aerisi shall strike!

Two of the adventurers had died in an ambush by the air cult as they had returned from the dwarven city below, and so the group had become indebted to the Zhentarim. This mean that they were obligated to travel down to Bargewright Inn to meet the local Zhentarim contact, Nalaskur Thaelond.

The amount of money they owed wasn’t too large, so the job they were given wasn’t tremendously onerous: all they had to do was accompany a caravan of goods up to Triboar. Of course, the reason they needed to accompany it was because of increased bandit activity on the roads.

It is to be certain that the bandits were not expecting such a well-defended caravan. The spell-casters of the party were key to the adventurers’ victory, with fireball spells and other area-effect magics doing horrible things to the bandits as they attempted to keep hidden and snipe from cover. Yes, they might have the numbers, but when the adventurers were now attacking twice per round (in the case of the fighters) or using superior spells, not much can stand in their way.

An attack by air cultists mounted on giant vultures was thwarted on the third day by the group’s superior alertness – they just saw them far away. And you know what the range of the fireball spell is? It’s significant. And that was that for the air cultists.

The caravan reached Triboar, finished its business there, and returned to Womford. The adventurers were thanked, and their debt was discharged. The Zhentarim were pleased with them… should the adventurers feel pleased? (Jandar was happy, however!)

With all the party resurrected and debt-free, they returned to the dwarf city near Feathergale Spire. A couple of the adventurers moved ahead stealthily, and were able to neutralise the guards before the alarm was raised. The group then proceeded north, where a number of air cultists tried to stop them from approaching the great pyramid. More and more cultists arrived, their leader riding a great wyvern. It was a hard-fought battle, with spells, missiles and swords all employed. Thumbalina was knocked off into the moat that surrounded the pyramid and was swept towards a great waterfall that plummeted to unknown depths, only to be saved by Krovis, using winged boots to fly and pull her from the current – and just before a great, underwater stone golem smote her!

Zed was kept busy alongside Diablo using their magic to keep the wyvern at bay, while Jandar protected them both with his axe and sword. Once rescued, Thumbalina returned to the fray with a vengeance, and Gimble continued to snipe from the shadows, cultists falling one after the other, unaware from where the deadly missiles were emanating.

Eventually, all fell quiet – the party triumphant – and they entered the pyramid. Within the grand half of the temple, more cultists attempted to stop their advance, but the cultists’ spells were resisted with Krovis’ divine aura working well to protect his friends, while more missiles and weapons – Jandar running to the front and engaging the foes – kept the battle short, if bloody. Up the stairs the party proceeded, to the Great Temple of Elemental Air, where the Prophet of Air waited for them, whiling away the time by torturing Windharrow, the musician they had met a tenday or so ago.

The Prophet, Aerisi, attempted to summon aid with a great horn, but she was unable to reach it with the party using weapon and spell against her to slay her before she could do anything of note, save cast a single lightning bolt spell that severely hurt man of the adventurers A great shaft led down from the temple into immeasurable depths, but the adventurers ignored it as they went in search of plunder.

Krovis took the great spear of the Prophet from her, lightning crackling around its tip, and claimed it for his own. The others made do with gold and gems.

However, as the group was now hurt, bloodied and exhausted, it was time for them to leave. They were able to do so unmolested. Finally, they could get some much-needed rest.

With the prophet of the air cult now slain, the group were able to return to the Air Temple and explore mostly unmolested. A few kenku remained in the ruined underground city, but they scattered and fled from the adventurers – the few that did not quickly learnt the error of their ways, probably from a fireball spell exploding nearby!

It was certain that the section the adventurers now explored was in less good repair than what came before, and had mostly been ignored by the cultists, leaving only their kenku allies to live amongst its fallen glamour – or as much glamour as could have existed in a dwarven merchant quarter. There were a few places that the kenku had not looted and that still retained items of value, but the adventurers soon learnt that the neglect of the kenku was due to the presence of creatures the kenku feared.

One of those creatures, an ancient terror known as a Cloaker, ambushed the adventurers as they entered its lair, although Gimble was alert enough to cry out a warning before it totally overwhelmed them. His shout gave them enough time to react, and their fire and steel combined to slay the beast. It had gathered a tidy pile of gold and silver that the adventurers now claimed for themselves.

However, it was the corpse of a great worm that really caught their attention – dead in the process of tunnelling through the deep earth and now, it seemed, converted into a stairway for the cultists to enter the lower caverns. The adventurers investigated it cautiously, climbing down into the depths. No-one marked their passing; the air temple now lay abandoned and it seemed the elemental cultists had no further use for those who had failed.

The adventurers emerged into a set of rough, natural caverns. A great pit, descending even further below, yawned before them, gusts of wind blowing erratically around the chamber. The adventurers skirted it uneasily, and pressed forward to a chamber where three harpies perched on a ledge high above the floor, and sang a song of great beauty – enough to charm some of the adventurers and lure them upwards. The harpies took great delight in the fumbling attempts of the adventurers to climb the cavern wall, their song interrupted by peals of great laughter as one would almost make it to them before being dislodged and falling. Unfortunately for the harpies, the warlocks of the group were skilled at firing their eldritch blasts at distant targets, even ones obscured by gloom or seeking cover behind the ledge: if any of the harpies became visible at all, they were blasted by Drakul and Zed. The harpies were eventually slain, and the adventurers return upstairs to tend to their wounds.

The next day, their investigation continued. Investigation further northwards was blocked by a strange dark mist that filled the passageway, and no-one was brave (or foolish) enough to enter it. Instead they sought easier passage. I might not call jumping from giant fungus to giant fungus (the better to avoid the floor) the safest way of crossing a chamber, but it was the one they chose. Zed found himself being attacked, once more, by a grell, but a quick shot from Gimble slew the monster. Thinking better of that path, the adventurers returned the way they came and chose another of the branching pathways that led through the caverns.

The next chamber held three captives – unattended but manacled against the wall. One was a riverboat crewmen who told the group about how water cultists had captured him and dragged him to Rivergard Keep and from there down below. The adventurers remembered the Keep, from which they had been barred after some unfortunate discussions, and resolved to return there in future. The other two captives proved to be members of the fire cult who had been captured by the water cult. They proved full of scorn towards the adventurers, and were left there whilst the crewman accompanied the adventurers a little further.

The great torrent that ran beside the next cavern flowed from the Water Temple above, or so their new companion informed them. It proved to be guarded by water weirds, who attacked the adventurers when they ventured too close. It was an entertaining combat, distinguished by how long the adventurers could hold their breath, but they were eventually successful. Fearing for the safety of their companion, they once more returned above, settling him in Feathergale Spire. The explorations could continue on the next day.

The adventurers were now deep in the depth of the Temple of Elemental Evil, in that mysterious area known as the Fane of the Eye, although not, admittedly, to them. In the previous sessions they’d explored those areas accessible from the Air Temple and the Water Temple, now they headed north to that area under the Earth Temple.

They didn’t actually stay that long there – passing through the Tomb of Foebreaker before finding the great Earth Obelisk and the stairs that wound their way around it to the top. Ignoring the doors that would take them further into the Fane, they climbed up the long stair and thus discovered another entrance to the Earth Temple – the first they’d discovered some time ago under the Sacred Stone Monastery.

The way was guarded, with the nearby guards alerted by an alarm spell that triggered as the adventurers reached the top of the stair. Unfortunately, only four guards and a priest were set to guard this way into the Temple, and they weren’t a great threat to the party. However, one escaped and soon after the adventurers began to hear a great drum-beat echoing down the subterranean corridors. BOOM! BOOM! DOOM! DOOM!

These adventurers have many flaws, but being cowardly isn’t one of them. They pressed onwards, chasing the escaped guards deeper into the temple. They came to a room with a great statue of Ogrémoch, the Prince of Evil Earth Elementals, and there found another wave of guards and priests coming towards them. Fireball spells were followed by the charges of Thumbalina and Krovis; the guards stood little chance against such an assault.

The drums continued, and the adventurers had a choice of pathways. They chose to go away from the drumbeats, heading north along the corridor. The passageway looped away back towards where they’d entered the Temple, and they continued to follow it, ignoring the side corridors. A pair of double-doors attracted their attention, and they entered it to find a priest and four cultists attempting to sacrifice a gnome. Of course, they charged in to save her.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t counted on the instrument of sacrifice – a great Black Pudding which seeped out of the altar and devoured the poor gnome before moving on towards the adventurers. Their charge was hampered (briefly) by the cultists and a little more substantially by the slow spells cast by the priest, but facing the black pudding was something that the warriors really didn’t want to do. It was fortunate that the warlocks were able to burn it into oblivion before it split and destroyed everyone.

However, the battle wasn’t that simple, because even as they fought the priest and the ooze, they were being attacked from behind by the guards the drums had summoned: cultists, more priests and great ogres. Thumbalina was holding off the ogres from getting to the warlocks as the battle raged on and more and more reinforcements flooded in. Eventually, the adventurers were successful, but it had been a hard fight, and they all needed rest and healing. So they retraced their steps – down to the Fane, through the Fane, and up to the Air Temple and then the surface!

The group were now needing to resupply – especially their stock of healing potions – and so they made their way to Red Larch. There they discovered troubling reports of missing caravans and traders: no-one had approached from the North Road for some time.

The adventures headed out to discover the reason. And it was a terrifying one: Westbridge was devastated, the centre of the town gone, and only a few of the townsfolk trying to survive in the rubble or in a nearby camp. The adventurers learnt that earth cultists had brought a great chest into the centre of town, which had then detonated and laid waste the surrounding area in a massive explosion.

The group conferred, and began to organise the survivors; seeing that they had food and healing, and that they could make their way to Red Larch for shelter. That night, as the adventurers worked, a pack of hellhounds from the fire cult attacked. They were driven off, but it wasn’t an easy fight. The adventurers pledged to follow the retreating cultists while the refugees made for Red Larch.

Their journey took them towards the Stone Bridge, where more minions of the stone cult – Ogres – attacked, in an ambush that almost slew several of the party, with the adventurers caught between fighting the ogres and controlling their panicked mounts. Eventually the ogres and the priest commanding them were slain, and the adventurers had a new goal: to wreak revenge of the Earth Elemental Cult. Their destination: the Sacred Stone Monastery.

DM Notes
I’m still terribly behind on these reports (about 2 months, I think), but these were a couple of terribly significant sessions. The first – the attack on the “west” of the Earth Temple – displays one of the things that DMs need to do that aren’t always explained in the adventure: organising a reactive defense.

The great alarm drums aren’t in the published adventure, but they provide a sense of urgency and tension to the game. They are – as you might guess – drawn from the orc drums in The Fellowship of the Ring, which accompany the fellowship’s journey through Moria, and especially their flight from the Balrog out of the mines. It’s my second-favourite passage in The Lord of the Rings, with only the charge of the Rohirrim and the slaying of the Witch King by Éowyn being superior in my opinion. They allow the party to know that yes, they have been noticed, and that there will be consequences. All of which my party basically ignored – which led to a fantastic fight with them engaged with one foe while more foes came from behind!

That’s the sort of thing you need to do in Princes of the Apocalypse to keep it entertaining. There are a lot of dungeons, but if the inhabitants are clever and react to the players, then the adventure remains interesting.

The second session, with the destruction of Westbridge, brings the threat posed by the cult into sharp relief. One of the problems with the cults is that they can be entirely too passive: lurking in their temples without having a big effect on the outside world. It’s utterly imperative that you use these sorts of events to really drive home the point that the cults of Elemental Evil mean business, and that leaving them along will be very, very bad for the world.

The ogre fight actually almost ended in a TPK (Total Party Kill). I think we were missing a couple of players and the ogres did a lot of damage to those remaining, with the priest likewise making things very difficult for the players. The group actually had gone the wrong way, with Thumbalina not properly tracking the cultists to their origin, but the group was going to end up at the right location, the Sacred Stone Monastery, in after all.

And what happened there was hilarious. But that story will have to wait for another time…

[MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION] what do you think of Princes compared to the other two adventure books?

Merricb, thanks again for the write ups (even catch up ones).

My home group that I DM for has spent a few nights with the Feathergale Knights. All was going well until the party fighter called out 3 of the knights who had not helped rescue the PCs a few days earlier when the PCs fought against Earth cultists on the Feathergale knights' side, a wandering encounter I added had the Feathergale Knights on Hippogriffs fighting 2 earth cult warriors and a Burrowshark on a Bullette. Back story: The party entered the fray after the knights had injured the earth cult warriors and burrowshark, and when it looked bad for the earth cult, the burrowshark urged his bullete to burrow and try to escape. Of course, the party dove down the burrow hole and gave chase. Hundreds of feet away, the party actually killed the bullette who was just burrowing to escape, but they took a lot of wounds from the burrowshark. All three of the PCs were reduced to 0 hp and the burrowshark ran back up the tunnel where the Feathergale Knights ganged up on him and killed him. One PC ended up failing 3 death saves and died. One stabilized. The third, the half-orc fighter, rolled a 20 and gained 1 hp so he could carry the other two out of the burrowed tunnel. He was pissed that the Knights didn't dive in the hole to help them, but they did take the party back to the tower where a cleric (another NPC I added to the tower) revivified the dead PC (and also got the gnome rogue to think about worshiping Yan-C-Bin in the process...the gnome had no idea who Yan-C-Bin was).

Well..the night after the half-orc fighter called out the other Knights and fought with them without weapons, the group was asked to accompany the Knights and some initiates to the Pinnacle to face judgment. The party didn't want that so they tried to fight, non-lethally, to just subdue the Feathergales. I was so sure that I'd be able to overpower them (I even added 2 Hurricanes to the fight) and then take them to the Pinnacle, but the party actually prevailed and escaped the tower under cover of the night. (At this point in our adventure there were 5 PCs because 2 others made it to the session).

That night, they avoided some hunting Gnolls, and they found a small group of Aarakocra scouts in a camp. They befriended the Aarakocra (mostly because one of the PCs is an Aarakocra) and they found out that the Aarakocra were suspicious of the Feathergale Knights and Thurl Merroska. They had seen humanoid bodies fall from the tower, left as food for scavangers and they thought that the Knights were influenced or up to some great evil. At this point, the group was pretty sure that the "judgment" they were invited to would have had one or more of them falling from the spire.

We haven't played in a few months due to busy lives and scheduling issues, but I look forward to seeing which direction the PCs go now. They did see through the looking glass at the top of the spire, so I'm not sure if they will go back to the spire to confront the Knights or if they will go to the gully where they saw some robed figures guarding an opening in the cavern.

In any case, your session summaries are great inspiration. Cheers.