Cadriel
First Post
I ran the second session in my Princes of the Apocalypse game today. In the previous session the PCs had gone through the Haunted Tomb and Necromancer's Cave adventures. This gave them a view of the dangers in Red Larch and they killed the "Lord of Lance Rock," Oreioth. They had leads on the quarry and the suspicious activities of the town elders. (I had set Necromancer's Cave and Tomb of Moving Rocks as the milestones for gaining levels.)
PCs: Dwarf Druid, Human Bard, Fire Genasi Sorcerer, Half-Orc Barbarian, Human Rogue, Earth Genasi Druid.
Today they started out in Red Larch and tracked down Constable Harburk to talk about the necromancer. Harburk was sincere and grateful for what they were doing, and asked them to look into bandits to the south. This led them to the Bears and Bows mini-trek. (There's a bandit camp and a bear in a cage on a wagon.)
It plays heavily on range. The PCs had the rogue going in stealth mode to get a jump on the bandits, who began firing on the main group (bard, barbarian and sorcerer) as soon as they could. This turned out to be a bad tactic, as they had disadvantage and constantly missed. The rogue and the two druids (who had also tried for stealth but failed) attacked from behind the bandits. One druid used Entangle, which messed with two of the bandits wonderfully. Meanwhile the barbarian, bard and sorcerer kept trying to close the distance.
At that point the bear burst out of its cage and started mauling the nearest character - who happened to be a druid, because of their angle of attack. This was really nasty damage. Rather than try an Animal Friendship, he rolled a critical on the bear and nearly took it out. The rogue finished the bear with its crossbow, and the druids managed to do some ranged attacks on the bandits.
By the time the sorcerer got up to range he was able to take a bandit out with Fire Bolt, then the rogue and druids killed two others, and the last one surrendered. The barbarian never actually got to close and kill anybody. That was okay, though, he was effective. The party let the last bandit go, and told him to find an honest living. They still took his weapons, of course.
The party went back to town as the sorcerer was determined to sell the bear's pelt, which was sold to the tanner. The tanner drove a hard bargain since the damage to the head (from the quarterstaff critical) would make it difficult to do a proper bearskin rug. Then they sold the wagon for a bit of change. (The adventure isn't super generous with wealth, and the party is not exactly rich at this point.)
After they sold the wagon, an earthquake hit and a sinkhole opened in the middle of the street, with some kids falling in. I want to say, this is a really great bit of scenario writing, because I'd planned to have it happen once the PCs were in down time and it came at a really effective moment, before they'd totally gotten their bearings and started going about "normal". The bard rushed right over to the scene and started helping children, which was generally popular but the town elders were screaming at people and making a very weird scene as most of the townsfolk were going about saving the kids. It was a really fun scene to play out, particularly the reactions that the town elders had and the PCs having been there in the nick of time to be the big damn heroes.
Once the kids were all safe, the PCs got into a big fight with the elders, that ended in both the rogue and barbarian making successful Intimidate checks and the 18 Charisma bard botching a Persuade check. The elders told them to get out of town, but the barbarian and rogue went back to the inn and roused a bunch of the younger locals (primarily Harburk and his companions) who made sure the elders didn't bother the PCs as they investigated.
Down they went into the Tomb of Moving Stones. They looked down the north tunnel first, which leads up to Waelvur's Wagonworks that they had just come from. The dwarf druid's Stonecunning let him figure out by dead reckoning that they were under there. The barbarian set up a hunting trap by the exit, which became important later.
After that they moved on, and the dwarf recognized the stonework and the dwarven bas-relief doors in the tomb. He also realized (his Stonecunning / Intelligence (History) rolls were on fire) that the east corridor didn't look right, which tipped them off to a fairly big trap. They wound up picking north, which led them to discover three bodies. They scared the Giant Rats off with the driftglobe they had picked up in Lance Rock, and examined the bodies to see the Earth Cult symbol for the first time in the game. They spent some time playing with the floating stone in the next chamber, which let them totally figure out the mechanism in the room of the moving rocks.
In the chamber with the petrified dwarf, they were ambushed by six cultists (bandits). This would've been a really tough encounter with fewer than six PCs, even at level 2. As it was they took care of them pretty well, one going down to a Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell from the bard that I thought was nicely done. The genasi druid was totally murder on the cultists. The one with Laughter on him refused to talk and was promptly killed.
Afterward, they went back west and rescued Braelen, who got all the sympathy points. It was an interesting roleplaying encounter, because the kid was legitimately afraid of pretty much everybody, but realized that the PCs were on his side. They actually gave him a hand axe to defend himself, which was a nice touch.
Then they went toward the moving stones, and ran into Baragustas. He begged for them to spare him and not disturb the Delvers, and ran off toward the exit. Once past they went to the big room.
Inside, the PCs were quickly surprise attacked by Larrakh. (The names in the module are mostly awful, frequently difficult to pronounce, and I have to spell most of them several times.) He managed to hit them twice with area effects, which would have been devastating if I hadn't rolled a 1 on one of the damage dice for Shatter, for a total of 9 from 3d8. But PC damage output was really high, and they took him down fairly quickly. Larrakh plus the cultists would've been death on wheels. They failed to find the secret door, though.
Afterward, they began doing the cleanup things. They got Braelen out and in the custody of Constable Harburk, with strict orders not to send him to his father. Then they checked the privy area, which was empty, and then the trap that the barbarian had set (I told you that would come up later). Of course, that had Baragustas in it. They interrogated him, and he confessed everything. They also showed him how the stones moved and broke his whole worldview. They also showed Harburk the bodies and gave Baragustas over to him.
In the wrap up, I had Waelvur and Mellikho get caught by Harburk's men, and the town in an uproar over these pillars of the community having been murderers. The PCs hit third level and we're going to take a break of at least a week of in-game time before heading on to the main adventure.
We play long sessions (session 1 was 7 hours and session 2 ran 6 hours), somewhat infrequently, so it was like 3 or 4 shorter sessions crammed into 2. Trouble in Red Larch is a terrific introduction, and creates a really interesting set of hooks into the main Princes of the Apocalypse story line. With 6 characters, it's not super hard but it's not on easy mode either; some encounters could probably use 1 extra opponent, but much more would be overkill.
Trouble in Red Larch sets up some really good roleplaying, and some great reactions. It makes Red Larch feel more like a place for the players, I think, and creates some buy-in into defending it. It also lets the PCs make meaningful choices. If they had gone straight instead of turning down the side passage in Tomb of the Moving Stones, it could've been really quite deadly. The whole structure is very open and lets you go through a bunch of side quests, and then has a big event happen that makes the big dungeon the logical next place to go. I like this style of writing, where there's a definite plot but it's allowed to grow organically and interact with the setting as the PCs have interacted with it. The dungeon designs are fine, and have good choice points with a nice encounter balance.
By the end of Trouble..., the PCs are a pretty big deal in the town. It's going to be interesting where things proceed in the next few sessions through Rumors of Evil, but overall it's definitely been everything I hoped it would be when I first read it: encouraging good play from the players both in terms of tactics and of roleplaying, with solid support for each of the "three pillars" of D&D. The dungeons really feel like exploration, while I need to look into beefing up some of the weaker encounters for the size of my current group, those are still good encounters.
I'm curious how long the various Keeps will take; I think they might be a bit longer than one session each, slowing up the pace (since I'm planning to give a level per keep). But this was an enjoyable way to spend the first two levels, and I've found I actually don't mind the milestone system of levelling up. There's no feeling like it's unearned; killing Larrakh and saving the day in Red Larch was a big deal. I definitely would suggest starting Princes with fresh characters for these purposes, and I'd definitely recommend running the module as a general idea.
PCs: Dwarf Druid, Human Bard, Fire Genasi Sorcerer, Half-Orc Barbarian, Human Rogue, Earth Genasi Druid.
Today they started out in Red Larch and tracked down Constable Harburk to talk about the necromancer. Harburk was sincere and grateful for what they were doing, and asked them to look into bandits to the south. This led them to the Bears and Bows mini-trek. (There's a bandit camp and a bear in a cage on a wagon.)
It plays heavily on range. The PCs had the rogue going in stealth mode to get a jump on the bandits, who began firing on the main group (bard, barbarian and sorcerer) as soon as they could. This turned out to be a bad tactic, as they had disadvantage and constantly missed. The rogue and the two druids (who had also tried for stealth but failed) attacked from behind the bandits. One druid used Entangle, which messed with two of the bandits wonderfully. Meanwhile the barbarian, bard and sorcerer kept trying to close the distance.
At that point the bear burst out of its cage and started mauling the nearest character - who happened to be a druid, because of their angle of attack. This was really nasty damage. Rather than try an Animal Friendship, he rolled a critical on the bear and nearly took it out. The rogue finished the bear with its crossbow, and the druids managed to do some ranged attacks on the bandits.
By the time the sorcerer got up to range he was able to take a bandit out with Fire Bolt, then the rogue and druids killed two others, and the last one surrendered. The barbarian never actually got to close and kill anybody. That was okay, though, he was effective. The party let the last bandit go, and told him to find an honest living. They still took his weapons, of course.
The party went back to town as the sorcerer was determined to sell the bear's pelt, which was sold to the tanner. The tanner drove a hard bargain since the damage to the head (from the quarterstaff critical) would make it difficult to do a proper bearskin rug. Then they sold the wagon for a bit of change. (The adventure isn't super generous with wealth, and the party is not exactly rich at this point.)
After they sold the wagon, an earthquake hit and a sinkhole opened in the middle of the street, with some kids falling in. I want to say, this is a really great bit of scenario writing, because I'd planned to have it happen once the PCs were in down time and it came at a really effective moment, before they'd totally gotten their bearings and started going about "normal". The bard rushed right over to the scene and started helping children, which was generally popular but the town elders were screaming at people and making a very weird scene as most of the townsfolk were going about saving the kids. It was a really fun scene to play out, particularly the reactions that the town elders had and the PCs having been there in the nick of time to be the big damn heroes.
Once the kids were all safe, the PCs got into a big fight with the elders, that ended in both the rogue and barbarian making successful Intimidate checks and the 18 Charisma bard botching a Persuade check. The elders told them to get out of town, but the barbarian and rogue went back to the inn and roused a bunch of the younger locals (primarily Harburk and his companions) who made sure the elders didn't bother the PCs as they investigated.
Down they went into the Tomb of Moving Stones. They looked down the north tunnel first, which leads up to Waelvur's Wagonworks that they had just come from. The dwarf druid's Stonecunning let him figure out by dead reckoning that they were under there. The barbarian set up a hunting trap by the exit, which became important later.
After that they moved on, and the dwarf recognized the stonework and the dwarven bas-relief doors in the tomb. He also realized (his Stonecunning / Intelligence (History) rolls were on fire) that the east corridor didn't look right, which tipped them off to a fairly big trap. They wound up picking north, which led them to discover three bodies. They scared the Giant Rats off with the driftglobe they had picked up in Lance Rock, and examined the bodies to see the Earth Cult symbol for the first time in the game. They spent some time playing with the floating stone in the next chamber, which let them totally figure out the mechanism in the room of the moving rocks.
In the chamber with the petrified dwarf, they were ambushed by six cultists (bandits). This would've been a really tough encounter with fewer than six PCs, even at level 2. As it was they took care of them pretty well, one going down to a Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell from the bard that I thought was nicely done. The genasi druid was totally murder on the cultists. The one with Laughter on him refused to talk and was promptly killed.
Afterward, they went back west and rescued Braelen, who got all the sympathy points. It was an interesting roleplaying encounter, because the kid was legitimately afraid of pretty much everybody, but realized that the PCs were on his side. They actually gave him a hand axe to defend himself, which was a nice touch.
Then they went toward the moving stones, and ran into Baragustas. He begged for them to spare him and not disturb the Delvers, and ran off toward the exit. Once past they went to the big room.
Inside, the PCs were quickly surprise attacked by Larrakh. (The names in the module are mostly awful, frequently difficult to pronounce, and I have to spell most of them several times.) He managed to hit them twice with area effects, which would have been devastating if I hadn't rolled a 1 on one of the damage dice for Shatter, for a total of 9 from 3d8. But PC damage output was really high, and they took him down fairly quickly. Larrakh plus the cultists would've been death on wheels. They failed to find the secret door, though.
Afterward, they began doing the cleanup things. They got Braelen out and in the custody of Constable Harburk, with strict orders not to send him to his father. Then they checked the privy area, which was empty, and then the trap that the barbarian had set (I told you that would come up later). Of course, that had Baragustas in it. They interrogated him, and he confessed everything. They also showed him how the stones moved and broke his whole worldview. They also showed Harburk the bodies and gave Baragustas over to him.
In the wrap up, I had Waelvur and Mellikho get caught by Harburk's men, and the town in an uproar over these pillars of the community having been murderers. The PCs hit third level and we're going to take a break of at least a week of in-game time before heading on to the main adventure.
We play long sessions (session 1 was 7 hours and session 2 ran 6 hours), somewhat infrequently, so it was like 3 or 4 shorter sessions crammed into 2. Trouble in Red Larch is a terrific introduction, and creates a really interesting set of hooks into the main Princes of the Apocalypse story line. With 6 characters, it's not super hard but it's not on easy mode either; some encounters could probably use 1 extra opponent, but much more would be overkill.
Trouble in Red Larch sets up some really good roleplaying, and some great reactions. It makes Red Larch feel more like a place for the players, I think, and creates some buy-in into defending it. It also lets the PCs make meaningful choices. If they had gone straight instead of turning down the side passage in Tomb of the Moving Stones, it could've been really quite deadly. The whole structure is very open and lets you go through a bunch of side quests, and then has a big event happen that makes the big dungeon the logical next place to go. I like this style of writing, where there's a definite plot but it's allowed to grow organically and interact with the setting as the PCs have interacted with it. The dungeon designs are fine, and have good choice points with a nice encounter balance.
By the end of Trouble..., the PCs are a pretty big deal in the town. It's going to be interesting where things proceed in the next few sessions through Rumors of Evil, but overall it's definitely been everything I hoped it would be when I first read it: encouraging good play from the players both in terms of tactics and of roleplaying, with solid support for each of the "three pillars" of D&D. The dungeons really feel like exploration, while I need to look into beefing up some of the weaker encounters for the size of my current group, those are still good encounters.
I'm curious how long the various Keeps will take; I think they might be a bit longer than one session each, slowing up the pace (since I'm planning to give a level per keep). But this was an enjoyable way to spend the first two levels, and I've found I actually don't mind the milestone system of levelling up. There's no feeling like it's unearned; killing Larrakh and saving the day in Red Larch was a big deal. I definitely would suggest starting Princes with fresh characters for these purposes, and I'd definitely recommend running the module as a general idea.
