D&D 5E Princes of the Apocalypse campaign recaps

[Kyvin]

Hello all,

So my group has been working through the fire temple still. They've been very very cautious and playing it safe. They encountered the chimera but decided to leave it alone for now. They used hypnotic pattern and web on a cultist and got the command words to travel up and down on that disc elevator. They also found out about Vanifer (who I've changed names to Caldera Nalar because I didn't like the other name) and tinderstrike and Imix.

They took out some more cultists and headed down to the fane of the eye. I'm kind of surprised because they didn't clear out the fire temple and haven't even found the passage to the earth temple. They encountered two of the minotaurs and stopped at the first dark fog barrier, not knowing what to do about it, haha.

 

[Nebulous]

Session #50 - Temple of the Crushing Wave, Part 5 - The Enemy Flees!

https://app.box.com/s/pzno7ylm0cyk2hce8062ltdm8rsh7cuw

 

[Nebulous]

Session #51 - Temple of the Crushing Wave, Part 6 - Copper Vat Sucker Punch!

https://app.box.com/s/8sxdj5uobot4o2ca5jskkbndwzkqbx41

 

[Nebulous]

Session #52 - Another Horrible Devil & a Lizardish Battle

https://app.box.com/s/svvlyifa6iotbz4mopib3qmgt3vf1hq9

 

[Nebulous]

Session #53 - Enter the Water Node!

https://app.box.com/s/srf7cqhjginl430p11zsu0gbt8fi8kfh


The party is churning through their opponents, and have finally entered the dreaded Water Node, a place that really scares them conceptually. If they can just get the elemental weapon from Shatterkeel, they might make their way straight to the Fire Node and shut it down!

 

[Nebulous]

So, the PCs are just ONE ROOM from Gar Shatterkeel at P20. I hadn't expected them to reach it so fast, So now I have to decide what enemies are actually here, what their defenses are, and if the elemental Prince OLHYDRA has been summoned yet??

Also, there's the other 2/3 of the complex that the PCs have not explored, what do I do with that? Do reinforcements come to Shatterkeel's aid, or do they wait there to be killed by the PCs?

Is this going to be another "Prince summoning foiled at the last minute?" What would happen if Olhydra DID enter the Realms? What are the repercussions of that? What if Imix and Olhydra are urged into a battle?

At 10th or 11th level, I don't think the PCs are equipped to kill a Prince by themselves. Does anyone have first hand experience fighting either Olhydra or Imix?

 

[Rabbitbait]

Yep, my characters were at about 11th level as well. That's why I had Imix a bit slow moving as he was recharging after his release and sucking up the energy from the lava.

The characters knew they could not beat him in a battle, so they had to choose whether to flee or to try and close the portal. They just managed to close the portal which banished Imix along with it.

In the most part I would say, let the princes be unbeatable but give the characters a chance to defeat them by other means or to flee once they realise that they are in way over their heads (ha. Olhyda, over their heads - geddit).

There is nothing wrong in D&D with losing, as long as one of the characters survives. That said a TPK can be great if it is a noble sacrifice. A straight TPK sucks, but the real threat of a TPK is fantastic. It's a very fine line.

With the following exception - if the characters are idiots and take on something they know they cannot beat then they deserve to die.

 

[Nebulous]

Yep, my characters were at about 11th level as well. That's why I had Imix a bit slow moving as he was recharging after his release and sucking up the energy from the lava.

The characters knew they could not beat him in a battle, so they had to choose whether to flee or to try and close the portal. They just managed to close the portal which banished Imix along with it.

In the most part I would say, let the princes be unbeatable but give the characters a chance to defeat them by other means or to flee once they realise that they are in way over their heads (ha. Olhyda, over their heads - geddit).

There is nothing wrong in D&D with losing, as long as one of the characters survives. That said a TPK can be great if it is a noble sacrifice. A straight TPK sucks, but the real threat of a TPK is fantastic. It's a very fine line.

With the following exception - if the characters are idiots and take on something they know they cannot beat then they deserve to die.

In over their heads, lol, yeah I geddit . I had the idea that once the PCs enter P20 and see all the dudes guarding Gar Shatterkeel (including a naga, the mud sorcerer from Black Earth Temple, a black earth wizard, a troll and some more underlings, and Gar's flying great white shark and maybe a water elemental) that once the fight starts, Gar will have 1d6+4 rounds to summon Olhydra through the portal. Any round that Gar is injured will probably delay the summoning, but he can pick it back up and keep trying, within a certain window of time. I can see tremendous tension being milked from this scenario, a literal fight of seconds to stop the Prophet while he has a VERY formidable array of minions to intercept and defend him.

 

[Nebulous]

Session #54 - The Water Node, Part 2

https://app.box.com/s/3nj9km9g0s3jctd1nxieww576531578g


So, are many people still following this thread? I'm just curious. Myself and my players are still really liking it.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

So, are many people still following this thread? I'm just curious. Myself and my players are still really liking it.

I haven't commented before, but I am following the thread - and enjoying it.

I've actually just started running PotA myself - literally just started; one session so far which just served to get to the PCs to Red larch - so I've been particularly interested in some of the discussion upthread about fleshing out and messing around a bit with the backstory - and with how to communicate some of it to the PCs.

I'm thinking about ignoring the Drow involvement (which seems pretty insignificant in terms of actual game play) and tying the original discovery/development of the elemental nodes to the fall of Belsimer. I like the idea of the four elemental prophets having arrived as an adventuring party - so when the PCs encounter one the elemental weapons I might give the PCs visions of the prophets-to-be being given the weapons by some sort of long undead dwarf, who has been sustained through the millenia by elemental power while he forged the weapons. Maybe also have the party having been more than the four prophets and show them killing their comrades in the struggle to take ownership of the weapons. I'm sure I'll have quite a few weeks to mull it over before I need to set my ideas in stone.