D&D 5E Another Princes of the Apocalypse Recap - Eberron styles, but later.

[Rabbitbait]

Hi all,

I know I like reading through other people's runthroughs so I thought I'd post my own. This time I am trying to be more organised with my campaign and am keeping a wiki and adventure log through obsidian portal.

I am running Princes of the Apocalypse, but have set it in Eberron 30 years after the completion of my last campaign. My last campaign turned into 'The Walking Dead' with the release of Bal-Shalor resulting in the recent dead rising and terrorising the living. In the last campaign the heroes managed to eventually retrap Bal-Shalor, but it has taken 30 years for Khorvaire to return to some sort of equilibrium. Technology is still good, but many areas have now been severely depopulated.

Anyhow, I ran the first part of the adventure in 'The Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle' and now that they have completed the abandoned temple I am moving into PoTA.

I note that in the appendix at the end of PoTA they recommend using the town of Xandrar as a base. I am, but that's just co-incidence. I had already started using that place before I knew. What are the chances huh?

Disclaimers: While I am using the module as a source, my campaigns have a habit of going off in their own direction. So don't trust that what I write is what is in the module.

Here's the front page: https://deathgrind.obsidianportal.com/

Here's the adventure log starting from where they start in PoTA: https://deathgrind.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/feathergale-knights

The Cast:

Aimn Lu - A barbarian who was captured by fey in the faerie realm as a child. He has escaped back to the world but has no memory of his previous life.
Layna - A member of house Deneith, but in exile from the house. Now works for Sir Isteval.
Kleris - A Warlock from Xandrar who is bonded to BELASHYRRA, THE LORD OF EYES.
Bitey - Kleris' pet black dragon. he's just a baby, tends to not be good in a fight as he will stop to eat anyone who falls -friend or foe.
Morythas - A dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut and a follower of the example of Galerius Ka’Mazka
Tito - A halfling monk, trained by the gatekeepers but without the temperment needed to watch and guard.


21 - 26 Aryth, 1036

MAY/15
​

The heroes trudge back to Xandrar though the swamp. They stop briefly as an earthquake occurs, to ambush a patrol of lizardmen and when they come across another crashed skyship. Tito identifies that this is the one he was in.

They return to Xandrar late on the 22nd and immediately report to Sir Isteval, rousing him from his bed. He is happy to see them and surprised at all they have to report. He tells them he will think on it and asks them to return late tomorrow morning. He provides them with a token for Regalmanor and the heroes spend the night in complete luxury.

The next day, the party reports to Sir Isteval, and he tells them that he is very happy with what they accomplished. He sees potential in them and says he would like to quietly employ them to investigate sensitive issues. He also agrees to send to Sharn for Tito’s parents.

He asks them to stay around so they can be called upon as needed. They ask if they can investigate the Featherspire and he agrees to write a letter of introduction, asking the knights for any suspicious activities they may have noticed. He puts Layna in charge of the group and sends them on their way.

It takes Sir Isteval some days to sign the letter to the Feathergale Knights (that Layna ends up writing for him), but also tells them that he would like them to also see if they can find any clues as to the whereabouts of an important delegation that had recently passed through Xandrar from Greenheart, on the way to Wroat. Wroat had reported that the delegation had never arrived. He leaves to their discretion which path they follow and which leads they take but tells them that both of their goals are important.

By now the rain that has persisted for weeks finally stops.

GOALS:
1) Find the missing Greenheart delegation
2) Investigate the Feathergale knights.


27th of Aryth - 1st of Vult, 1036

The next morning the heroes ride out to Drum Keep, staying at an inn along the way and arriving late the next day. They stay the night and then start asking questions.

They had already ascertained the makeup of the Greenheart delegation through Sir Isteval:

• Bruldenthar – a renowned dwarven scholar from the Byeshk Mountains. He had a large number of precious books and manuscripts with him
• Tereseil – An elven druid from Greenheart
• Rhundorth – An orcish Gatekeeper
• Desyna ir’ Mejarra – a diplomat from Wroat

The delegation were also transporting a body and had a number of House Deneith guards with them.

The keep has a small village inside the walls, and questioning shopkeepers reveals a book at a local tinker that the heroes suspect belongs to Bruldenthar. The tinker says that he was sold the book from a lake dweller at the small village of Womford, which can be found just off the main road going south and by the lake.

The heroes decide that investigating the knights takes priority, so ask Countess Yassiv to assign some knights to look for the delegation down the south road. She agrees, so the party head into the hills. They are warned to walk, so they leave their horses at the keep and follow a small path that leads to the Featherspire. They camp on the trail overnight and in the afternoon of the 1st day of Winter arrive at the featherspire.

They are welcomed with open arms and taken to the leader of the knights, Thurl Merosska. He explains their noble traditions at length. When asked if he has seen anything suspicious he suggests that they investigate a nearby monastery, The Sacred Stone Monastery.

When asked if he knows anything about airships that have been getting attacked, and whether he knows where his men are at all times he begins getting evasive, but at that moment a hippogriff rider arrives reporting sightings of a Manticore. Thurl invites the party to join a squad and hunt down and dispatch the beast and they agree.

Clues:

• A book of ancient dwarvish history from a tinker in drum keep. He says he got it from a lakeman in Womford
• The Sacred Stone Monastery has been identified as suspicious by Thrul Merosska, the leader of the Feathergale Knights.
• A telescope mounted at the top of the featherspire appears to be set to watch a large crevasse in the side of the valley.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I feel that this is going to be an interesting module to play. It is very much a sandbox to play in, and as such I feel that the players could go off in any direction - including away from what is available in the module.

The hardest bit so far has been working out the best way to hook the characters into the action - how to connect them in a meaningful way to the missions. To do this, I have really encouraged players to come up with deep backgrounds for their characters. This included the reason that the character is in Xandrar. I have then used that to hook all the characters to their future patron - Sir Isteval. This will give me a backup to send characters on missions if the trail goes dry, or if I feel that this module is getting boring (there is a lot of dungeons in this, but they all seem to have something interesting about them).

This also means that from their backgrounds I am able to patch together overall character arcs for each character over the course of the campaign. This will bring each character in the spotlight occasionally - some more than others depending on how interesting their arc is. Again, these will change depending on the decisions made by the players.

My general rules for setting a campaign.

* Start off with a general campaign arc in mind. (This one started as the Swords of Liberty - I won't go into too much detail as my players might read this)

* Think of a backup arc. (I stole from Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, and I have now changed over to PoTA) - Note that my backup arc has become my main arc as it was just easier. It might slip back to the Swords of Liberty at any time and I will continue to seed small pieces of information about the swords while PoTA progresses.

* Have good character backgrounds and think up rough character story arcs that I might pursue. I generally get the players to write a background and then adjust it back and forth with them to fit the story. I generally end up fleshing out who their contacts and family are, and this gives more opportunities for roleplaying, seeding adventures and changing things up when needed.

* Get started. It always feels a bit stilted trying to get a group of totally different people from totally different backgrounds together for a common cause. So it will be a bit stilted and it is best at this stage to have a clear goal for the group.

* Start putting in decision points. These are moments where the group needs to make a choice that will change the direction of the campaign (or at least feel like it). I like to have three choices, but two will do. In this case, the first decision point was to hunt down the missing delegation or to investigate the Feathergale Knights.

* Keep putting in decision points throughout the entire campaign

* Be willing to scrap all of your careful preparation if something cooler comes along. This is shared storytelling - if the group suddenly decides to establish a keep rather than follow your plan of long distance travel, just go with it and bring in further decision points. There is nothing worse than forcing a direction. In the past I have lost an entire arc (The Pirate Isles), because the party unexpectedly escaped from the slavers that had captured them and went inland. But them escaping was so unlikely and fun and they did it fair and square.

* Don't be scared of killing characters (but don't kill players, that is considered bad manners at a gaming table). My players know well that I let the dice lie where they fall and I will allow a TPK to happen. I've not had a TPK yet, but it has come down to one dice roll in the past. However it means that my players really think hard about their choices as they know there will be consequences for a dumb decision. They also run away when the odds are stacked against them. It's just more fun when there is a risk of death.

Whoops, how did this turn into an advice column. I was just writing about my process. Do whatever works for you, this is what works for me.

 

[Rabbitbait]

The hidden city
1st - 3rd of Vult, 1036


The heroes are given a quick lesson in Manticore riding and then head off with a group of 4 Feathergale Knights who are riding giant vultures. The knights allow the heroes to take the lead, but are obviously nervous when the heroes immediately head off westward toward the crevase.

The party find a rocky area where a large number of shattered bones lie. They investigate and realise that whoever these people are they were dropped from a great height. The Knights warn them not to go any closer to the crevase:

“A dragon lairs in that crevase. it is beyond yours our our ability to defeat. I strongly suggest you stay well clear.”

The knights are obviously distressed at the idea of the heroes going near the crevasse, so the party decide to concentrate on the task at hand and hunt down the manticore. After a short time they find the beast and set up an ambush for it. This gives them a good element of surprise and they dispatch it quickly.

They arrive back at the tower and are invited to share in a feast. Many tales are told of the heroes bravery in dispatching the manticore. At one point Layna is taken quietly aside and asked by a knight if she would be interested in joining with a group who are trying to harness the power of elemental air. The knight explains that with the power of air, the knights would be able to defend Breeland from all it’s enemies.

However at the feast, the heroes ask too many questions, and the leader, Thurl Marroska starts to become uncomfortable. He gives the heroes a tour of the tower and then assigns them bedchambers.

Later that night, Layna and Tito leave the room and sneak up to Thurl’s chambers. They are able to quietly unlock the door, sneak into the chamber, search, and then leave. They find this note, which they return before they leave:

Merosska,
We are pleased to hear about the outcome of
your altercation with the Black Earth cult, and
we praise you for the capture of one of their
prisoners. This noblewoman from Sharn
has an interesting tale to tell, and we shall enjoy
interrogating her further. Keep a close watch on
the Sacred Stone Monastery. I want to know what
our enemy is planning next.
Your beloved queen,
Aerisi Kalinoth

In the morning, the wake to find that the sky has clouded over and snow is starting to fall. Despite the risk of travelling through the hills in snow, Thurl is insistent that the party must return to Drum Keep – "We have a sensitive mission that we need to accomplish. We cannot afford to accomodate you. My apologies, but you must return to the keep. I am happy to assign a man to take you back to Drum Keep on Hippogriff if you wish.

The party insist on walking, but notice as they leave that they are being tracked by a giant vulture flying high above them. As the snow gets thicker, they are able to slip their tracker and head back to the entrance of the Featherspire. They hide, wait and watch for the activity they expect to see on top of the spire as the knights leave for their ‘sensitive mission’ but this never eventuates.

The snow is getting thicker again, and some of the party are feeling the cold badly. They are forced to find an overhanging ledge to shelter under for the night, but no-one is able to sleep in the cold.

In the morning they know that if they do not move they are facing death, and a couple of the party are starting to have difficulty functioning. They realise that it would not be a wise move to return to the spire, and that they are now unlikely to survive the journey to Drum Keep, so they decide their best chance is to head to the crevasse and see where it leads.

After an hour of clumisly crossing the valley through the thick snow, they make their way across and into the crevasse. The crevasse leads underground. After several miles they find themselves outside an ancient and destroyed dwarvish city, dimly lit through gaps in the cavernous space above.



From the city echos screams of agony. The group tentatively approach the gates and find that the area is being watched by a group of Kenku. The screams are coming from these. The group, though weakened, fight and dispatch the Kenku. But during the battle Layna is seperated from the rest of the party and pushes her way through an old stone door. On the other side she finds a plaza where a group of what appear to be cultists are playing recorders around a small pool.

They look up in surprise as she enters…..

 

[Rabbitbait]

Flight from the Wind Cultists

Dungeon Master notes:

It's been a while since the last session in this game. We were having a burst in the ongoing adventure on the Isle of Dread of which I am a player. But this week we were back into it. And how...

This time I was pretty sure the party were in over their heads and that there was possibly a chance of a TPK. I tried to counter this by changing the encounter with Windharrow so that he could warn them. Then I thought the Wyvern attack might give them pause. Neither stopped them, so they burst straight into a situation they had no chance of winning. It came very close to being a TPK, with once PC dead, an NPC dead and another PC captured and helpless. The others only just got away.

I think the near TPK has taught them a healthy respect for the fact that they can't just expect to win - they need to be smart. It'll be interesting to see how the behaviour changes as a result.

The Cast

Aimn Lu - A barbarian who was captured by fey in the faerie realm as a child. He has escaped back to the world but has no memory of his previous life.
Layna - A member of house Deneith, but in exile from the house. Now works for Sir Isteval.
Kleris - A Warlock from Xandrar who is bonded to BELASHYRRA, THE LORD OF EYES.
Bitey - Kleris' pet black dragon. he's just a baby, tends to not be good in a fight as he will stop to eat anyone who falls -friend or foe.
Morythas - A dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut and a follower of the example of Galerius Ka’Mazka
Tito - A halfling monk, trained by the gatekeepers but without the temperment needed to watch and guard.

Continued from last time...


Leading the cultists in their musical endeavours is what appears to be a bard. He watches Layna enter, sees the dead Kenku behind her (which the other cultists are not in a position to see) and attempts to bluff that Layna is another Bard called Susan who has come to help them with their training.

They leave the plaza and enter the corridor where the rest of the heroes are through a secret door. The bard (Windharrow) tells the heroes that they must leave, that these people are more dangerous than they look and that the heroes have stumbled into something that will kill them if they don’t walk away now.

He explains that he was a friend of the leader of cult before she started going down this path, but he feels that she has lost most of who she was. He is in fear for his life if he displeases her and asks the heroes to take him with them when they leave. The heroes decide to head onwards, but promise to take Windharrow with them when they depart.

They wander further into the dwarven city, hearing sounds of grinding machinery and tortured screams over the constant sound of falling water. Eventually they find themselves in the most beautiful room they have ever seen, where a Djinni is slowly and painstakingly carefully carving the most intricate and beautiful patterns they have ever seen. They question him and he explains that the Dwarven King a long time ago summoned him through a magic horn and made a wish that the Djinni restore the city to it’s former glory by making it the most beautiful city that ever existed. However the Djinni has not been using magic to do so as (he says) he did not like the demanding nature of the king and was never set a time to do the task in. So he is fulfilling his task, he just expects that it may take a few thousand years.

The heroes head over a bridge towards a pyramid, when a cultist riding a Wyvern fly down and attack them. The heroes duck back into the Djinni room for cover, but the Wyvern and rider nearly kill two of the party with spells and sting. The party win the battle, but the Djinni is furious about blood on his perfect floor. The party quickly get to work cleaning and soon appease the Djinni, and actually impress him with their industriousness.

The party cross the bridge and open the doors at the base of the pyramid. Inside are another group of cultists who also immediately attack at the sight of the party. Many of the cultist throw lightning darts, one casts a gust of wind forcing them out of the room, and then one casts a lightning bolt which hits most of the heroes, immediately killing Kleris and Bitey, and badly injuring 3 others. Only Layna is left unscathed. The party scatter, Aimn grabbing Kleris in a firemans lift and fleeing back to the Djinni room, the others running around the other side of the pyramid.



Aimn manages to convince the Djinni to cover their escape and he continues back the way they came. Meanwhile Layna, Morythas and Tito find that the route they take is actually a quicker way out of the complex. However they are forced to hide briefly as they see the flute playing cultists leaving the plaza. They wait for them to pass, and exit the dwarven city - collecting Windharrow along the way. They find a hiding place to watch for Aimn and Kleris and to patch their wounds.

However Aimn has run round a corner and directly into the path of the cultists. He tries to convince them that he is meant to be there, but fails badly. They attack, quickly knocking him unconscious.

Layna, Morythas and Tito wait, but eventually Layna decides that they can wait no more, and that she needs to report what she has found to Sir Isteval. They head back up the cravasse to the sighing valley. When they get to the entrance to the sighing valley they see that it is beginning to get dark. It is no longer snowing, but snow has fallen heavily. There is no way they can go through the valley without leaving tracks. They look across and see lights in the Feathergale Spire. They look back and see many lights moving up the crevasse towards them. They are being chased! They climb up the sides of the cravasse and begin to follow the cliff line. They spend hours in the dark, trudging through the snow. Exhausted they look back and see the lights following their trail along the cliffs edge. At this point 4 birdmen (Aarokcra) land in front of them and challange them, accusing them of being cultists of elemental evil.

The group manage to convice the aarokcra of their good intentions, and the are taken to an old Manticore lair that the aarokcra have converted into a base. They are able to rest the night and recover while telling the birdmen of their experiences so far.

The next morning, one of the aarokcra tells the group that he has decided to aid them in their quest. He is Aur Keer (Ben J, replacing the fallen Kleris).

The group follow the river as they are fairly sure it will lead to the lake, and thus the road back to Drum Keep and Xandrar.

 

[Rabbitbait]

For those who are looking at setting this in Eberron - this is the map so far where I have placed everything.



Note that as shown, the underground compounds don't quite work together properly - I've decided not to worry about that - easy enough to fluff away if I have to but I doubt the players will notice.

Also - the swamp is added and the things in there were from before we started playing PoTA. This campaign started off with Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle for the first 3 levels. I shifted over to PoTA when it came out.

It is pure co-incidence that I had set my campaign in Xandrar as recommended in the PoTA Eberron notes.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Call in the King
4th to 13th of Vult, 1036

The heroes follow the river down through the frozen and snowy valley. As they walk, they notice the sky above takes on a pinkish tinge. They are pondering this when they hear a splashing, crunching sound.

They see a halfling wearing Feathergale Knight regalia struggling to control a large rowboat. The fact the river is starting to freeze over also doesn’t help. They confront the knight and eventually realise that he is a deserter.

His name is Tur Turro (Simon, replacing his character Aimn Lu) and his family had bought him a position with the knights in the hope of elevating their status in Sharn. However he found himself bullied and belittled and eventually realised that the knights were a front for something more sinister. He never discovered the detail of it other than it was something to do with harnessing the elemental power of air, but decided to escape at the first opportunity. This thought was hastened when he overheard some of the knights talking about ‘It looks like the squirt is on the road to be sacrificed’.

Last night, some cultists had arrived at the tower, talking about an invasion of the temple and how they needed help to track the culprits down. It was getting too dark to mount a search, but the tower went into a frenzy of preparation. Tur Turro saw his chance to escape and climbed down the cliff at the side of the tower. He knew where a boat was kept and thought that would prevent him leaving a trail in the snow. However the boat was too big for him to easily handle and the river had iced over in places. As the night ended he hadn’t gotten far. The sun coming up revealed the spire still in sight. However he saw a group trudging through the snow. Knowing that it was likely to be those being hunted he rowed toward them to warn them and to seek their protection.

As Tur Turro expained this to the group, Layna spotted shapes in the sky flying towards them – 5 vultures with riders. The group scrambled to hide, but too late – they had already been spotted. 2 of the vultures veered off, one to the east and one to the west, but the other 3 vultures flew directly toward the group.

As the vultures got closer, the group saw that the middle figure was Thurl himself, the leader of the Featherspire Knights. Thurl shouted down to the heroes that there had obviously been a misunderstanding, and that the party should return to the spire. He would then explain what was going on, and how they had made a terrible mistake.



However the heroes were suspicious and did not buy his story. He cast a spell on himself and then began moving at an unnatural speed. A major battle ensued, with Thurl and a knight killed, and the other knight captured. Windharrow and Tur Turro both prove their worth during this battle. The heroes then force the captured knight to row them all down the river in the captured boat.

As the day moves on, the sky turns blood red and lightning flashes between the clouds. A warm rain starts to fall, washing the snow away and making the water move more swiftly in the river. They make good time, and by the time the day ends they have made good time and are well away from the spire.

The next morning the sky is clear, and it is a fine cold day. They continue down the river, passing a keep on the northern shore. Something about it, and it’s proximity to the Featherspire and the town of Womford makes them suspicious so they decide they will return to check it at a later date. They find their way to the Xandrar road, and sleep under a bridge for the night. There are a few minor earthquakes. It takes another day of walking to drum keep and then a day of riding to return to Xandrar.



On the way they see (normal sized) vultures circling over a point nearby. They check it out and find four shallow graves that have been recently created and have been disturbed by animals. They check it out and find the dwarven scholar from the delegation they had been searching for. They then dig up the other graves and find a house Deneith guard, a cultist from the temple they had just fled, and someone wearing armour that appeared to be made of a thin and strong stone. Very interesting.

When they return to Xandrar they report to Sir Isteval and tell them of all they have found. They try and convince Sir Isteval to send troups to attack the Featherspire and the hidden temple. However Sir Isteval tells them that as the Featherspire Knights are beholden to the king, he needs to report their findings to the king before taking any action. He decides to take Mythorus (as a delegate of the heroes), Windharrow (as someone who knows about the cultists) and the captured cultists. They leave the following morning.

The heroes stay in town for another day to recover and then return to keep they found (the Rivergard keep). They accost some mercenaries leaving the keep on the trail to try and find out information, but with no luck, so Tito and Aur Keer approach the front gate, while Layna and Tur Turro sneak round the side…..

DM's notes

I was off my game in this session (too tired), and since I actually had not much idea what would happen it made it tricky. I felt I missed a lot of opportunities. Never mind - at least they are at Rivergard Keep. However the plan to send in the troops to take down the spire and the air cultists is a logical conclusion from the characters. I'm not sure if it will advance the plot to let it happen and there are lots of ways of stopping it.

What do you think? Send in an army, or have complications happen that makes the message ineffective?

I had Morythus join Sir Isteval on the journey to the king as the player will be away next week, and this gives me an opportunity to do some playing with him via e-mail only. Windharrow is an NPC with all sorts of opportunities attached so I could do lots with him.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Meanwhile - A Side Note to the Main Action

A small group heads off to Wroat, to petition the king to allow the Xandrar and Drum Keep forces to take on the Featherspire and the nearby cult. The group consists of:

Morythas (PC dragonborn paladin)
Sir Isteval
Windharrow (the bard rescued from the Dwarvish city)
The cultist (as a prisoner)
2 guards.

They all have horses – the cultist being chained to his saddle, so make good time.Morythas and Windharrow surprisingly get on very well and Morythas learns that Windharrow has spent quite a bit of time in the Feywild, after he accidentally stumbled through a weak point in the world. When he came back, the world had changed. However he had come back (accidentally) with Aerisi Kalinoth, an elvish princess he had been having a dalliance with, they spent some time wandering together. On one of their adventures they discovered a spear, obviously highly magical. Aerisi took it, and then her personality slowly began to change. Since then she has slowly built up the cult, working with the Feathergale Knights to find recruits.

However Windharrow began to worry, Aerisi was becoming more capricious, killing her followers for the slightest infraction, real or imagined. She began treating Windharrow with disdain and he was beginning to worry about his chances of survival. Luckily for him, that was when the heroes arrived and rescued him.

After 3 days travel, the group are bedded down for the night, with guards on watch. Suddenly something wakes Morythas up. He opens his eyes and sees the cultist looming above him, a sword in hand. Nearby the guards are lying in pools of their own blood, throats slit. Windharrow is standing above Sir Isteval, sword in hand.

Morythas breathes fire at the cultist, instantly killing him - as he falls he realises that the cultist already had quite serious sword wounds on him.


He looks back at Windharrow, and realise that he is actually standing in a defensive stance over Sir Isteval. Sir Isteval groans, and opens his eyes.


"What, what's going on. Is there trouble afoot?"
"Yes, my lord" answers Windharrow, "the Cultist escaped somehow. He killed both the guards, but Morthas and I managed to defend you sir."
"Er, good, good. Well done both of you," says Sir Isteval.


But Morythas is suspicious - he feels that the cultist could not have escaped alone and must have had help from outside sources. He decides that urgent action needs to be taken against the Featherspire Knights and their best chance is now, before a new leader becomes firmly established.


Sir Isteval and Windharrow continue to the king though to try and get permission to attack the spire with an army if needed. He reminds Morythas that the heroes are not officially working for him, and that if they take any action that is not officially approved he will not be able to protect them.


With that in mind Morythas, grabs a horse and starts heading back north.

DMs notes:

The player of Morythas is on holiday so I sent him this breakdown via e-mail. It ended up being 3 sections with each one ending with "What do you do?" Often in my campaigns I have periods where players are on downtime and I find that e-mail can be a good way of progressing the game and the individual characters plotlines without bogging down everyone else, and also potentially keeping the plotline secret from other players.

It shortcuts things a bit, but I find that used sparingly it works well.

I was worried that Morythas would travel all the way to Wroat and get entangled in politics, but luckily it didn't work out that way. With Windharrow travelling alone with Sir Isteval, that gives room for some behind the scenes occurances which will grow the depth of the campaign. All good.

 

[Rabbitbait]

The Heroes are Routed (Again)

13th of Vult, 1036

As dusk falls, the heroes sneak around to the south side of the keep. They see guards on the walls, but they also see that one of the towers had a decent hole in the upper part of the wall in a spot where the guards cannot see. As Morythas is not with them, all the members of the group are able to move silently and remain hidden.



Auk Keer flies up into the hole and sees a small group of ruffians preparing for bed. The upper inside levels of the tower appear to have collapsed some time ago, so the floor is 40 feet below, but Aur Keer realises that this tower is completely open to the elements. This confirms their suspicions (in their mind) that this keep is the location of water cultists.

The group had been discussing the air cult for some time, but also the strange weather and earthquakes. This, coupled with the mention of the Sacred Stone Monastery has convinced the group that they are dealing with some sort of followers of elemental evil.

They decide that the best way to sneak into the keep is to eliminate the ruffians below them, and then explore from the tower. They draw their bows and begin shooting. The leader of the ruffians is killed immediately, but his underlings flee, running out the door and shouting.

Within seconds, a bell is ringing and a lot of shouting is heard from within the keep. The heroes decide that discretion may be the better part of valour and lower a rope down the outside of the tower.

However they are panicking at this stage, and three of the four heroes go down the rope too fast, slip, and injure themselves in the water and rocks below. As they flee, they are spotted from the wall. A shout goes up, and crossbow bolts start firing towards them. More and more bolts fly their way as guards crowd onto the wall, and some of the heroes are quite injured by the time they escape.

They make their way a little down the road, and then off into the wild so that they can rest. However they soon realise that they are being chased. The pursuers pass by them, but the heroes realise that they will probably return. They decide to set up an ambush. It is easy to hide as the only light is from the moon, and an hour later the pursuers do indeed return.

The ambush goes well, but the pursuers are more numerous than the heroes realised and they include a bugbear. The bugbear moves in for single combat with Layna. Layna is confident that she is fairly safe, with her plate armour and a shield spell in reserve, but the Bugbear wields his mace with fury and hits her hard – twice (2 crits in a row). Layna is down, blood seeping in a pool around her from her head. The bugbear is then taken down by missile weapons, and Tito just manages to scabble to Layna in time before she is dead, forces her mouth open and pours a magical potion of healing, acquired for exactly this occurance.



By this time all pursuers have been defeated, and the heroes decide that possibly the sneaky approach regarding Rivergard Keep had not served them well. They realise that there is no way that they can approach the keep now, so decide that they will rest the night and then head towards Womford to follow up on their clues regarding that town.

DM's notes:

Well, that didn't go so well. The players now are convinced that both the Keep and Spire are beyond their abilities and that leaves only two clues for them - the Monastery and Womford. So they are heading for Womford. At the same time, they are hoping that Morythas' mission to the King is successful and they will be able to send in an army to take on the Featherspire knights.

I feel that the party need a win at this point, so I am going to mix Red Larch into Womford and put the sinkhole encounter into that. I'll need to toughen it up a bit, but I think it'll provide a good side-mission and hopefully a win.

The players haven't played particularly tactically up to this point, so it will be interesting to see if there are any changes now that they have had to flee twice. They really should have blocked or protected the door to the tower before they started shooting. Ah well.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Adventures in Womford

14th to 15th of Vult, 1036

The heroes spend the day travelling away from the Rivergard Keep without incident. They find another place to camp the night out of sight and spend another cold but uneventful night.

The next morning they reach the main Xandrar road and start heading South towards the Womford turnoff. As they travel, a rider approaches from the south. It is Morythas. The friends tell their stories and then decide what to do.

They are keen to return to the feathergale keep and see whether they can convince the knights that they are following an evil cause, and to shut down operations pending an investigation. Tur Turro is pretty sure that the knights are well indoctrinated though and that it won’t be that easy.

In the meantime, since they are close, they decide to travel to Womford and follow up the book that they found in Drum Keep that was bought from a merchant here. The book was the property of one of the missing delegations members. They travel through the day and arrive in Womford hungry and ready for dinner.



As they walk into this ramshackle town they are approached by a portly fellow who says “I haven’t seen you before strangers. I think I should give you some friendly advice”. Upon questioning he tells them to avoid a tavern called the Broken Helm. He says that there are a group of traders who frequent the town, and one of them – Shoalar Quanderil is drinking there now. He says that the traders spend a lot of money in the town and don’t like newcomers. Upon further questioning the man reveals that the ‘traders’ are actually pirates that prey on the Silver Lake and Lake Galifar, and that he believes their base is at Rivergard keep. He also warns the group not to go out at night as the ‘Womford Bat’ is the cause of many disappearances.

The heroes decide to listen to this mans advice and visit a few other locations (a shrine to The Seven, a bakery, a smithy and a butchery where they also meet the local constable) before they head to another inn, ‘The Swinging Sword’.



The innkeeper is very pleased to have such a formidable group visit her establishment and ensures they are well fed and well stocked with ales. The group are beginning to relax when the room begins to rattle. Suddenly screams can be heard outside and the group run to see what is happening. 3 ankhegs have suddenly appeared out from the ground and are killing the townsfolk indiscriminately. Most of the part climb up to the roof of the inn (or in Aur Keers case fly up), which being the tallest building in town gives good vantage for ranged attacks. Morythas does a frontal attack while the rest pepper the beasts with missile fire. They manage to kill two of the horrors while the constable and a group of four others defeat the third.

Now the group are very popular with the innkeeper and other locals. While there is much despair over the deaths of the locals, the group are feted as heroes, their bill is wiped and many people want to talk to them. They try and find names of anyone who has been acting suspiciously. They are quietly told by the innkeeper that Ulhro Luruth the local tanner and Albaeri Mellikho the stonemerchant are not the same people they used to be and that they may be worth talking to.

The group retire for the night, but a few hours later Layna and Tito head out again in the moonlight to check out the establishments of the two leads they have been given. As they are walking around the stonemerchants building, Layna finds a hidden tunnel in the nearby quarry. They return to the inn, rouse the others and return.

Aur Keer is very scared of entering such an enclosed space, but swallows his nerves and follows the heroes. The narrow passage goes on some way before ending at the back end of a secret door. Talking can be heard from the other side, so the group quickly open the door and rush inside. The space opens up into a large chamber full of stone monoliths, and slabs with humanoid bones around the outside. A lantern sits on the middle of the floor and they see two scholarly types who turn to face them.

“Who are you”, one of them says, “you shouldn’t be here – this is private property”.
“Yes, please leave”, says the other, “You are not welcome here, you might disturb the stones”.

However the party move further in, causing the scholars to move further back in nervousness. They question the scholars aggressively about what this place is.

“This is an archeological study”, one of the scholars says, moving back towards a nearby door, “it is most unusual to have dwarven ruins so close to goblin ruins and away from the hills or mountains. The university will be interested in what we find”

Tito tells the scholars to stop moving towards the door, but the scholars continue to back away. The tension continues to ramp up, and then Layna noticed one of them quietly muttering mystic words – He is beginning to cast a spell.

The group pull out their weapons and attack. The scholars cast spells that shake the earth but it is fairly obvious that they are outmatched. One casts a spell on himself that makes his legs blur and he runs unnaturally fast towards the tunnel they entered from, but he is cut down. The other surrenders and is tied up.

Then the group notices that the stones in the chamber are now floating slightly above the ground….



The Cast:

Tur Turro - A halfling from House Jorasco, but he has no dragonmark. His father paid a lot of money to encourage the feathergale knights to take him on, but Tur Turro found himself ridiculed for his race. He also discovered that the knights were involved in some sort of cult so decided he needed to escape.
Layna - A member of house Deneith, but in exile from the house. Now works for Sir Isteval.
Aur Keer - An Aarockra, part of a group searching for an artifact called the Rod of Seven Parts. However he has changed his goals based on the apparent emergence of elemental evil in the area and joined the group.
Morythas - A dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut and a follower of the example of Galerius Ka’Mazka
Tito - A halfling monk, trained by the gatekeepers but without the temperment needed to watch and guard.

DM's notes:

Very interesting - the group never followed up on the big dangling clues right in front of them - Schoalar Qaunderil in The Broken Helm, and going to shops that might be selling plunder to follow up on the book. They didn't even ask anyone about the book.

I think their previous experiences have made them worried about jumping into situations, so when they were warned to stay away from the Broken Helm they paid heed to the warnings.

They also found the back entrance to the tomb before I even really reached a point where the earthquake and collapse needed to occur.

This is now a mashup of two towns in the module - Womford with Schoalar Quanderil, and Red Larch with the other locations. I wanted to do this because Red Larch is cool, but the party started this module at level 3 and pretty much went straight to Feathergale Keep - they never got to explore Red Larch. This gives me an excuse to use it.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Bar Brawl In Womford

16th of Vult, 1036

Layna interrogates the archaeologist and after some questioning it emerges that he is not from the University at all, but is Larrakh, a servant of the earth cult.

Layna fools Larrakh into giving more information about the cult, using the little knowledge she already has as well as some good guesses. It is confirmed that:

The earth cult is based at the Sacred Stone monastery
The earth cult desires to return everything to the earth, and stop the chaos that currently exists
The leader of the earth cult is a Medusa called Marlos Urnrayle who comes from Droam.
Marlos follows a powerful earth entity known as Ogremoch
This area is an unusual dwarven outpost. The floating stones are caused by some sort of magical effect that Larrkh had not figured out yet. They were using its power to influence some of the townfolk.

The group explore the rest of the complex, finding two more members of the cult (one a young boy) and 3 corpses. Larrkh explains that these three were too close to finding out what was going on, so he got townsfolk to remove them. These disappearances were blamed on the Womford Bat.

As they are exploring, another earthquake occurs, causing the roof of one cavern to collapse. When the group emerges they find many townfolk including the constable congregating around the hole. They pass their prisoners onto the constable and head back to their inn, The Swinging Sword.

The innkeeper is very pleased to see them in one piece, and locks the place up tight while they rest and recover. Before long there is a knock at the door. They here her talking loudly with someone before she shuts the door again.

“It was Scholar Quanderal”, she says, “He wanted to talk to you, but he had violence in his eyes. I told him that you had left and not returned. I fear that he will be back”

The party decide to set up an ambush for him. They wait through the night and no-one comes, but the next morning there is a knock at the door again. Scholar enters with a group of thugs and asks to talk.

Several of the group are hidden (in the rafters, down a stairwell) so Layna and Mythoras do the talking.

They confirm that Scholar is based at Rivergard keep, and he appears to only be interested in good times and profit.

Scholar is surprised to find that an earth cult were operating ‘in his town’ without his knowledge. But he asks the heroes what does it matter to them?

“The earth cult are OK anyway. If you are looking for trouble, I suggest you find the fire cult. Apparently they are getting in touch with all the druids right now. They want to burn everything, so if you want to make thing better then you should be hunting them down”

He asks the group what their motive is in being in this town. When he finds that the group are working for the common good he is disgusted in their answer and tells them that they need to get out of his town before they meet an unfortunate end.

The tension ramps up until Scholar throws a glass of water at Layna, which expands to a massive wave, sweeping over both heroes and destroying furniture. The battle is on, but the heroes find they are able to defeat Scholar and his thugs without too much trouble.



After this, the group are exhausted. It’s been a long time without sleep. They tidy up the corpses and then retire to bed.

DM's notes

It seems that the party are going to use Scholar Quanderil's boat next session, and try and get back into Rivergard Keep - so that's good, it's feels like it is getting back on track. Womford turned out to be a good diversion that was information rich for the group.

Apologies for the notes above - I don't feel I've captured the mood of the evening above, which was one of intrigue, tension and mystery solving. I am hoping that these notes are useful or interesting to someone for their game - I am enjoying the breakdowns that two other members are providing, but I certainly don't have their writing skills.