D&D 5E Princes of the Apocalypse campaign recaps

[Nebulous]

Session #72 - Escape From the Fane of the Eye!

https://app.box.com/s/qirpkzalhqrdsgjnvkvhen3x19whp1gk

 

[Nebulous]

It will be 2 weeks before the next game, I'm on vacation. This campaign would have been done by now but we have had people missing, and we don't usually play with anyone out.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

Session #72 - Escape From the Fane of the Eye!

https://app.box.com/s/qirpkzalhqrdsgjnvkvhen3x19whp1gk

Yikes! This is turning into one long scrap - and not looking good for the heroes! Looking forward to the next episode.

 

[Nebulous]

Yikes! This is turning into one long scrap - and not looking good for the heroes! Looking forward to the next episode.

I MIGHT have the bad guys make an unexpected retreat if it looks too much like a TPK, I'd hate to kill them all here so close to the end.

 

[Nebulous]

We didn't get to play this week as expected, and personal vacations are sapping up the next few weeks as well, so the story is still stuck on the stairwell, with the PCs nearly sapped of all resources, and the bad guys are still charging after them.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

The suspense is killing me.

 

[Nebulous]

The suspense is killing me.

And here's the next part!!! Although it ends in even more suspense


Session #73 - Symbol of the Fiery Throat

https://app.box.com/s/a7ssumutrsd5t4xr8kd7la67kmsf9uzx

 

[Nailen]

Hey Everyone!
I'm DMing PotA - we started from 1st level. The PCs are now up to 3rd and are exploring the Sumber Hills. They've investigated the Shallow Graves and now want to head to Womford. We finished our session last night with them spending the night in the Bargewright Inn.
I've read the first ten or so pages in this thread to get some ideas for starting the campaign. Changes I made were:
Making Larrakh of the Air Cult to try to funnel the players in that direction
Moving the Shallow Graves and the Sacred Stone Monastery to make more sense of the battle between Earth and Air.
Added an idea (not come to pass yet) that there are gates that protect the temples. The heads of the Haunted Keeps only have a quarter of the key - so the PCs need to clear all the Keeps before heading down into the temples.
I'll also add a lot of background notes on the prophets as part of the possessions in the Keeps.

A couple of questions-
Is there a bridge at Womford? Or a ferry? It's not at all clear in the book.
For the player hooks, how much does the player really know? e.g. for the hook around infiltrating the river pirates. Would the PC know that the pirates are based at a place called Rivergard Keep? And that the chief pirate is called Shoalar Quanderil?? I'm not sure how much info to give away....

Thanks for reading!
Nailen

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

Hey Everyone!
I'm DMing PotA - we started from 1st level. The PCs are now up to 3rd and are exploring the Sumber Hills. They've investigated the Shallow Graves and now want to head to Womford. We finished our session last night with them spending the night in the Bargewright Inn.
I've read the first ten or so pages in this thread to get some ideas for starting the campaign. Changes I made were:
Making Larrakh of the Air Cult to try to funnel the players in that direction
Moving the Shallow Graves and the Sacred Stone Monastery to make more sense of the battle between Earth and Air.
Added an idea (not come to pass yet) that there are gates that protect the temples. The heads of the Haunted Keeps only have a quarter of the key - so the PCs need to clear all the Keeps before heading down into the temples.
I'll also add a lot of background notes on the prophets as part of the possessions in the Keeps.

A couple of questions-
Is there a bridge at Womford? Or a ferry? It's not at all clear in the book.
For the player hooks, how much does the player really know? e.g. for the hook around infiltrating the river pirates. Would the PC know that the pirates are based at a place called Rivergard Keep? And that the chief pirate is called Shoalar Quanderil?? I'm not sure how much info to give away....

Thanks for reading!
Nailen

I'm at a similar stage of PotA to you. My PCs are at 3rd level (not far off 4th), have just defeated the knights at Feathergale Spire and are off to Rivergard Keep next. I've been fairly liberal with pretty blatant clues, so they have a fair idea now that there are four elemental cults - they know the earth cult is based at Sacred Stone Monastery because they went there and got their arses kicked, and they have correctly guessed that Rivergard Keep is home to the water cult, but as yet have no idea about the fire cult (they're just guessing that there must be one).

As to your questions, my take on the "undercover" hook is that it's intended that the PC has been told at least about one or other of the keep or Quanderil, and quite probably both. If they're off to Womford, I'd be tempted to just give then Quanderil's name and let them trace him back to the keep, but as I say I think it might be intended that the hook lets the PC in on both parts.

As to what's at Womford - as you say, it isn't at all clear. The name obviously implies a ford, but it would also seem that the Dessarin river is fully navigable. Maybe there's a seasonal ford - only there when the river is running low? Or maybe the river is navigable above and below the ford, but not at Womford itself, so cargoes have to be switched between boats? Maybe there was originally a ford, but the river was made fully navigable by magic or dwarven engineering, so now there's a bridge or a ferry. I'm also unclear as to Womford's relationship with Ironford which is marked on the map and mentioned on page 29, but seems otherwise to be ignored. Like quite a lot of the book there is plenty of room for DM elaboration.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm at a similar stage of PotA to you. My PCs are at 3rd level (not far off 4th), have just defeated the knights at Feathergale Spire and are off to Rivergard Keep next. I've been fairly liberal with pretty blatant clues, so they have a fair idea now that there are four elemental cults - they know the earth cult is based at Sacred Stone Monastery because they went there and got their arses kicked, and they have correctly guessed that Rivergard Keep is home to the water cult, but as yet have no idea about the fire cult (they're just guessing that there must be one).

As to your questions, my take on the "undercover" hook is that it's intended that the PC has been told at least about one or other of the keep or Quanderil, and quite probably both. If they're off to Womford, I'd be tempted to just give then Quanderil's name and let them trace him back to the keep, but as I say I think it might be intended that the hook lets the PC in on both parts.

As to what's at Womford - as you say, it isn't at all clear. The name obviously implies a ford, but it would also seem that the Dessarin river is fully navigable. Maybe there's a seasonal ford - only there when the river is running low? Or maybe the river is navigable above and below the ford, but not at Womford itself, so cargoes have to be switched between boats? Maybe there was originally a ford, but the river was made fully navigable by magic or dwarven engineering, so now there's a bridge or a ferry. I'm also unclear as to Womford's relationship with Ironford which is marked on the map and mentioned on page 29, but seems otherwise to be ignored. Like quite a lot of the book there is plenty of room for DM elaboration.

My players never went that far south, so Womford and Goldenfields and Bargewright Inn, those are all potential story threads that will never materialize in my campaign!

As for "clues", when the party was around 4th level, maybe 5th, they were taking on the Feathergale Knights, I drew a map that was in possession of Thurl, and it laid out the rough positions of the 4 Temples, the names of 3 Prophets, and hinted at the existence of 2 devastation orbs. They used that map for a LONG time to help navigate their next choices. I personally felt they really needed some visual tie in to keep them more invested, and I was ultimately correct.

As far as side quests from the campaign book, there's quite a few we will never use, like the Iceshield orcs, or the Dragon one, or the halfling one. However, I did use the Necromancer cave to great effect, and the Lost Tomb of King Torild I really enjoyed fleshing out into an Indiana Jones adventure.