D&D 5E Princes of the Apocalypse campaign recaps

[Nebulous]

Sounds good. So how does the party prevent this? Or is it impossible to stop? Is the only option to confront and destroy the prince when it enters the world?

The reason I ask is one way of stopping it is setting the requirement that the summoning of a prince requires three of the nodes to be closed. One prophet + one weapon + one node (all of the same element) and all other nodes closed = a prince being able to enter the world. The problem there is that if you go with opposite weapons (or prophets) close nodes, it becomes impossible for that situation to arise. So now I'm rethinking it...(but I don't probably not, see below)

As for the Elder Eye...I think I am going to go with some of the powerful cultists (not prophets) are actually followers of the Eye and working to bring about the end of the world. They are there to make sure that the above situation occurs and will manipulate prophets, PCs or whoever to accomplish that.

(For my game) the Elder Eye itself does not need to be summoned. It _is_ the fane...or the fane is part of Tharizdun...the gods didn't imprison Tharizdun, they shattered him and parts of him scattered throughout the multiverse. Most just are floating harmlessly in the voids between worlds but sometimes one lands on a world (like the Loc nar from the Heavy Metal movie). His will lives on and occasionally he is able to will one of his shards to grow and influence the creation of cults and elemental nodes. It is limited in that it can only create all four at the same time but he needs them to grow in power then destroy each other so that only one survives to summon it's prince. One prince in a world will create an imbalance that will quickly destabilize that world and destroy it, freeing that shard of Tharizdun back into the void so it can land on another world and repeat...More than one prince would just result in them destroying each other.

So back to my question...maybe it is not possible to prevent it. Once there is only one cult that has all three components, that cult can summon it's prince. Either the heroes will rush this process along or the cults will eventually go to war with themselves and make it happen under the subtle guidance of the Elder Eye cultists. So the last two prophets go to their node hoping the party will follow the other remaining prophet and unknowingly sacrifice him/her. When confronted they will fight because they want their prince to enter the world so they hope to drive the party back (of course they expect to be well rewarded by their prince for summoning it...but it will just eat them).

Closing the node while the corresponding prince is in the prime material plane will banish that prince. So a clever party will try to get past the prince with the right weapon and close the node rather than fight it.

As far as level progression goes...I'm letting my group level to 8th (three sessions at 7th and killing off two minor villains is enough, I think). Once they kill a prophet, that will get them to 9th. Second prophet 10th. Third prophet 11th. So they well be 11th to fight the prince...will that be enough? Deadly encounter for four 11th level characters is 14,400 XP. 18,000 for an elemental prince should be all right if they are not too drained from earlier fights...

I guess we'll see.

Dang. I LOVE that idea of the Fane being a shard of Tharizdun. Only the Cult of the Eye would know that. Yeah, I think this will work, good ideas there, and it meshes with the other stuff too. This all gets rather complicated, doesn't it?

 

[Nebulous]

I copied this from my Session #12 recap, where I was working out plot stuff before I really had an ending fully formed and hoped to fill it in later.

The delegation actually had a SECRET mission known to very, very people, not even Leelya. The four members, the dwarves Brudlenor and Rhundarth, the moon elf Teresial, and the male elf Talbok, were special scholar/sage/druids on a specific mission to unearth the mystery of the elemental chaos in the Sumber Hills, under the suspicion (and perhaps divinely guided?) that it was much, much more dangerous than anyone expected. These four individuals has a special plan to deal with whatever they found in the hills, but they never made it there.

Bold mine. Guidance from the Elemental Princes of Good to root around and find out if this possible intrusion is actually happening. I imagine that the elemental princes have VERY little interest in mortal realms, or if they do, on a case by case basis, as there are countless worlds, Toril being only one. Rumors of their enemies, the Elemental Evil Princes, might warrant dreams and portents to a few special folks to dig around and find out more info. That was the Mirabar delegation secret mission.

They didn't make it far.

 

[Uller]

Yeah, I've stolen your idea for the delegation. But unfortunately my group had already rescued Bruldenthar so he's in the dark about what the others were up to. I'm just trying to figure out why they might still be alive. In the end, I think one of them will be my late game info dump. I want a kind of "The Ring" moment. "You closed the portals? You weren't supposed to close the portals!" But why would that person still be alive?

Unfortunately we won't get to play again for 3 or 4 weeks and we'll only be able to play once or twice per month for the next several months...my kids play travel ice hockey. My older son (who is one of my players) works on top of school and hockey so it's tough to arrange games. Might have to suggest a PbP format just to keep the campaign moving...

 

[Nebulous]

From Uller: (For my game) the Elder Eye itself does not need to be summoned. It _is_ the fane...or the fane is part of Tharizdun...the gods didn't imprison Tharizdun, they shattered him and parts of him scattered throughout the multiverse. Most just are floating harmlessly in the voids between worlds but sometimes one lands on a world (like the Loc nar from the Heavy Metal movie). His will lives on and occasionally he is able to will one of his shards to grow and influence the creation of cults and elemental nodes. It is limited in that it can only create all four at the same time but he needs them to grow in power then destroy each other so that only one survives to summon it's prince. One prince in a world will create an imbalance that will quickly destabilize that world and destroy it, freeing that shard of Tharizdun back into the void so it can land on another world and repeat...More than one prince would just result in them destroying each other.

TO THAT, for even more fun and why the hell not, i'd like to add the machinations of the 4 Princes of Elemental Good who also might wander the cosmos and might have seen what is happening on Toril, and one or two might have sent a dream vision to a Mirabar delegate to go "check that **** out"

How to actually close the nodes goes back to the cross elemental weapons, not really using the Prophets themselves who will most likely die in combat.

What we WANT here, and what we are changing somewhat from the adventure as written (IMC), are 2 cults sorely hateful, 2 at least compatible so long as it serves them, a 5th cult not part of the book that the other 4 don't really know about.

If Tharzidun needs just one Prince to survive, the PCs could sit on their haunches and wait for that to happen, BUT...they'd be far too low level to deal with the aftermath of waiting. Hmm.

And I will bring again another monkeywrench...detonating the stolen superorb in Yartar into the Fane of the Eye like a nuclear bomb to close it. That's where it was created, the 4 Prophets left a lesser orb and the 5th cult crafted it into the superorb that ruined Beliard. SOMEHOW the second one was stolen and it's now a bartering device used by the nefarious factions of the region)

 

[Uller]

Yeah...that could be something. Just got home from a very long day of driving all over the state for my daughter's hockey games. I'll have to think about it.

I gave my group the info dump on the 4 cults, nodes and needing to use the opposing weapons to close them. Now one of them wants to go back after the Earth cult and another wants to go after the air cult instead (because the Earth cult is threatening another devastation orb). The most amusing part is they have a dwarf cleric with them that wants to make a pilgrimage to the Vale of Dancing Waters. He said he is going to the Vale no matter what to warn the other dwarves there. Yarsha from the earth temple has defected to their side but no longer has any powers and is 'cursed' (she has a bullette 'larval' inside her that will consumer her alive while it grows...so they want the dwarf to take her with him to get the curse removed and said they will meet them at the Vale later...no...they have not gone to the vale yet so they don't know what is going on there....It never occurred to me they would try to help Yarsha after she helped murder so many people...this should be interesting.

<insert evil grin here>

 

[Nebulous]

Have I just overcomplicated my campaign by telling the PCs this?

Teresiel says that she and the other four members of the delegation from Mirabar were led by esoteric dreams over a period of months that they came to believe were from a distant realm far beyond this one - and from beings of great power - The Elemental Princes of Good.

Ben Hadar (Water)
Chan (Air)
Entemoch (Earth)
Zaaman Rul (Fire)

There appears to have been a disturbance in the Cosmic Force, a great evil that had slumbered was stirring again, and somewhere in the multiverses it was trying to break through via elemental chaos and disruption. These mere mortals, Teresiel among them, were tasked to find out if this small place in the Realms was such a target. They failed.

 

[Nebulous]

Dammit. It made sense in my head, the opposing forces, but the 6th level PCs are such peons in this mess. Which of course is why they rise to high level and kick even more ass yay D&D

 

[Creamsteak]

That seems fine to me. I'm sending visions of Chan and Yan-c-bin "playing games" in the air elemental plane against each other. It doesn't really overcomplicate the story. "So there are princes of good" isn't a ton of exposition.

A full crew of 6th level characters are NOT small fries in this particular adventure. Aerisi is barely above that in power. They are individually just under prophet strength. The prophets would LOVE to have more minions at that level. The characters are also united, and can focus their strength. The cults are split between trying to deal with each other, whatever regular business they try to do to strengthen the cults... and now a meddling group of people that can actually challenge them.

 

[Nebulous]

good points.

 

[Nebulous]

Session #16 - Queen Aerisi

https://app.box.com/s/sb0v46opst186uf772gba1c863al3zoq