pukunui
Legend
Hi folks,
Here's a copy of the list of issues with Princes of the Apocalypse that I originally posted on the WotC D&D 5e forums. Some are fairly significant errors with maps and things, others are just minor discrepancies and inconsistencies. I've listed them all here anyway, though, for the sake of being thorough, if nothing else.
EDIT: Updated to take into account the official errata.
MAP ISSUES
TEXT ERRORS
STATBLOCK ERRORS
MINOR DISCREPANCIES
Cheers,
Jonathan
Here's a copy of the list of issues with Princes of the Apocalypse that I originally posted on the WotC D&D 5e forums. Some are fairly significant errors with maps and things, others are just minor discrepancies and inconsistencies. I've listed them all here anyway, though, for the sake of being thorough, if nothing else.
EDIT: Updated to take into account the official errata.
MAP ISSUES
Shallow Graves: The text consistently refers to the gravesite as being "a few miles" away from Red Larch. Furthermore, the read-aloud text on page 43 states that Feathergale Spire is only two miles away. Yet, going by its location on the Dessarin Valley map, the gravesite looks to be closer to 40 miles from Red Larch and a good 15 miles from the spire.Delegation Ambush: On page 37, it states that the ambush site is "only a few miles" from Summit Hall, but its location on the map also looks to be a good 40 miles away.Cult Locations: The locations of the surface lairs don't match up with the layout of the subterranean temples. On the surface, the cults are pretty close to the cardinal directions, with the air cult to the west, fire to the north, water to the east, and earth to the south. The temples, however, are arranged in quadrants. This is only really a problem for the earth cult, since it is the only one whose surface lair is said to be directly above its temple. I think the easiest fix would be to move the Sacred Stone Monastery to a place north of Rivergard Keep and east of Scarlet Moon Hall (and maybe move the latter a little more to the west). This would also help explain why the earth cultists were the ones who ambushed the delegation (as they would be closest to the ambush site).The Tomb of Moving Stones: The westernmost tunnel leading out of T1 supposedly heads north and ends up at Waelvur's Wagonworks (Red Larch, area 16), which is more or less in the middle of town. The easternmost secret passage leading out of T9 heads south/southeast and yet somehow ends up at the quarry (Red Larch, area 18), which is to the northwest of the wagonworks. One fix would be to swap the tunnels and their end points around, so T1 leads to the quarry, while T9 leads to the wagonworks. Another fix would be to rotate the map around 180 degrees.Iceshield Orcs: The text on page 164 states that "the group can reach Dellmon Ranch [from Anderil Farm] in a couple hours." However, looking at the Dessarin Valley map, the two farms look to be around 30 miles apart. That will take more than a couple hours even at a fast pace.Dessarin Valley Map Scale: The default scale for the map is 10 miles per hex. When compared to Mike Schley's other maps of nearby regions (the Phandalin area from Lost Mine of Phandelver and the Delimbiyr Vale for Scourge of the Sword Coast), the scale should actually be ~4.25 miles per hex. This would explain why so many things in the text are said to only be "a few miles" or "a few hours" apart.- Mike Schley's Red Larch DM Map: If you buy the maps of Red Larch from Mike Schley, you'll note that the DM map has some extra keyed locations (#23-25) that don't correspond to anything in the book. The last two are just the quarries, while #23 appears to be another business of some kind.
TEXT ERRORS
Distance Between Phandalin & Triboar: On page 17, it says the distance is 225 miles. On page 36, it says it's 140 miles. Looking at other maps, it would appear that the latter distance is more correct.Shallow Graves - Mirabar Uniform: The description of the dead female warrior's uniform is incorrect. It reads "a red surcoat with a black axe (the symbol of Mirabar's army)", but based on the preceding text for the delegation ambush, this should be a black surcoat with a red axe.Feathergale Spire - Pinnacle Spyglass: On page 48, under the "spyglass" entry, the location of Knifepoint Gully is given as "C3". This should be "V3", as it is labeled on the map of the Sighing Valley on page 51.Sacred Stone Monastery - Shrine Lever: The text on page 63 says that the lever is in the northeast corner, but the map on the facing page shows it to be in the northwest corner.Sacred Stone Monastery - Trapped Stairs: There is no DC listed for Dex save required for anyone standing on the trapped stairs when the lever is pulled.Scarlet Moon Hall - Wicker Giant: The last sentence indicates that the wicker giant may start burning "like the scaffolding in area H1". While the scaffolding is mentioned in H1, it also has its own entry (H4), in which the option of having it burn is detailed.- Scarlet Moon Hall - Upper Entry Chamber (H5): The read-aloud text on page 72 for this area is missing a word: "This warmly lit room has a large [hole] in the wooden floor ..."
- Air Temple - Lighting: Aside from the magic lantern held by the statue of Moradin in A7, there is no mention of any lighting in this temple. There's no "light" section under its general features, nor are there any torches shown on the map, like there are for the other three temples. Neither the read-aloud text nor the descriptions of any individual areas (other than A7) make any mention of whether there is light or not. I believe this is an oversight rather than intentional, as not all the air cultists can see in the dark.
Water Temple - Drowning Chamber: The text first states that there are nine ghouls, but then goes on to say that there are eight in the pools and four more (for a total of thirteen) lurking in the shadows.Earth Temple - East Guardroom: The text initially states that there are five duergar in this room, but then it later refers to only four (two that guard the arrow slit and two that defend the door).Earth Temple - Marlos' Flight: The text on page 102 states that Marlos flees to area B23, then makes his getaway via his secret path in B2. B23 is the shrine, so this should read B22, which is Marlos' private sanctum.- Fire Temple - Fire Temple (E26): The read-aloud text incorrectly indicates that the alcove with the altar is on the west wall. According to the map, it's actually on the east wall.
Saving the Delegates: On page 115, it states that Teresiel is in area W17 of the Weeping Colossus. Firstly, there is no W17, and secondly, Teresiel is not mentioned anywhere in the Fire Node text. Probably best to put her in area W6 (the fire prison).Howling Caves - Oubliette: The text incorrectly states that the shaft leads up to area A19 in the air temple. The correct location is area 18.That being said, in order for area 18 to line up with area N3, the compass on the Howling Caves map needs to be rotated about 45 degrees clockwise, otherwise area N3 would be under area A7 or thereabouts.- Weeping Colossus - Chamber of Skulls: The text describing the hidden levers on page 144 contains a sentence fragment: "Characters to notice the steady airflow." Not sure what to make of that. Was there meant to be a DC or something?
Lance Rock Quest: The text on page 151 states that Lance Rock is northwest of Red Larch. This is probably because it isn't obvious at first glance that north is to the right on the Red Larch Surroundings map on the facing page. The Dessarin Valley map shows it to be to the southwest more clearly.Curse of the Fire Witch - The Nettlebees: The bullet point describing Watson mistakenly refers to him as Bertram (eg. "Bertram knows about Wiggan and Bertram's new religion ...")
STATBLOCK ERRORS
Ghald: Ghald is listed as CR 5 on the table on page 189, but his statblock puts him at CR 7.Wiggan Nettlebee: Wiggan is listed as CR 3 on the table but CR 2 in his statblock.Aerisi Kalinoth: As windvane is a +2 weapon, Aerisi's attack bonus with it should only be +8, and the damage should only be 9 (1d8 + 5).Marlos Urnrayle: Given that ironfang is a +2 weapon, Marlos' attack bonus with it should only be +8, while his damage should be 9 (1d8 + 5).- Vanifer: Vanifer's tiefling racial spells are listed with her sorcerer spells rather than separately as with all other innate spellcasters in 5e.
MINOR DISCREPANCIES
Maegla Tarnlar: She is stated to be Tethyrian in her description on page 25, but the accompanying image makes her look more Turami.- Eldras Tantur: On page 20, under the "Important Red Larchers" heading, it states that Tantur is "an opinion setter in town", and yet on page 26, under the description of the Tantur Smithy, it states that Eldras is a "plain-dealing sort who knows almost nothing of the current mood and troubles in Red Larch, since he's so rearely away from his forge." Those two descriptions seem at odds with one another.
Random Encounters: On page 31, the descriptions of the fire cult random encounters refer to non-existent "Eternal Flame warriors". Looking at the list of Fire Cult NPCs in the appendix, it appears the fire cult has no minions below CR 2, unlike the other cults, all of which have a minion of either CR 1/2 or CR 1/8.Dead Knight: On page 41, it states that the delegation was transporting the body of a knight for burial at Summit Hall. The body of the knight is nowhere to be found, either at the ambush site, the grave site, or in any of the temples.- Renwick the Lich: On page 67, it says that Renwick "no longer has any wish to kill". If that is the case, does that mean he's stopped feeding souls to his phylactery? Perhaps he is on the way to becoming a demilich ...
- Air Temple - Music: How can the music from area A4 be heard all the way over in area A6 without also being audible in area A7, or even areas 10, 11, 18, or 19, for that matter? Is there some sort of weird acoustic thing going on there (like Whisper Lake in the Water Temple)?
Air Temple - Djinni Horn: The text establishes twice that the djinni Ahtayir can only be summoned with the horn once every 101 years and then only to perform a single task for the summoner. Since Aerisi has already summoned him to rebuild the palace, how is it that she is able to summon him with the horn again to have him come to aid her in the throne room? Can you use the horn to summon the djinni again before the 101 years is up if they haven't yet completed the first task you gave them? It isn't clear.- Water Temple - Sea Creatures: Are we to assume that the water cultists have used magic to enable the giant octopus and Eyon's shark to survive in fresh water?
Water Temple - Troll Hole: The read-aloud text refers to doors to the north and east. Going by the map, it should indicate a door to the west rather than the east.Earth Temple - Mess Hall: A door to the south is mentioned in the read-aloud text, but it does not appear on the map.- Earth Temple - Shrine of Bleeding Stone: The deep gnome in this room appears to be suffering from some gender confusion. The description identifies the gnome as a female, but proceeds to use both male and female pronouns. Plus, the read-aloud text states that the gnome is bald, whereas female deep gnomes have hair.
Fire Temple - Fire Cult Sign: In area E1, it states that the cult's hand sign is "hands cupped together upright with one pinky finger upward in the middle", but on page 10, it describes the sign as being "one hand in a fist, thumb up, and laying the other hand over the fist as if to cover the bowl but allow the flame to show."- Fane of the Eye - Hall of Battle: There are "a dozen dead warriors, clearly of the earth and water cults." Later, the corpses "include air cultists, earth cultists, and a pair of fire cultists." A sentence later, there are clothes for "five air cultist disguises, four earth cultist disguises, and one fire cultist disguise." Perhaps the fire cultists aren't that obvious to spot amongst the corpses and only one of them has a salvageable uniform?
- Earth Node - Portal: The text says nothing about ironfang being destroyed when the portal implodes (like the relevant sections for the other portals and their respective weapons do). It's not clear if this was intentional or an oversight.
The Long Road: On page 167, it states that "The route is over the Stone Bridge." However, the Stone Bridge is not on the Long Road and is, in fact, rather out of the way. Also, under the first bandit attack, the text states "Fire attracts the monsters in the next encounter." I can't figure out what this means.- Oreioth: On page 152, the necromancer is described as having a "shaved head", yet the illustration of him on page 210 shows him with a full head of hair.
- Halls of the Hunting Axe - Ancient Hall:The text offers no explanation as to why the symbols of the elemental evil cults appear in this part of the ruins.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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