DDAL04-05: "The Seer"
This adventure is short and straightforward, made shorter in my campaign by various cuts. This was just as well for me, as my players were very squirrely and unfocused on the evening we played this adventure.
As noted above, I had already run the "Prastonata" challenge considerably earlier in the campaign, just before "The Executioner." Our bard was the one to dance with Annika, and he did very well, so I kept up the theme of her interest in him when the group returned to the Bogarav camp. She was sharing a vardo with several relatives, so she wasn't able to get out at night to see him, and she just gave him a rueful look as she was hustled off to bed. This was partly meant to hint that Lela Moslavaric was unusual in having her own private vardo, but I should have been more explicit about that, because my players didn't pick up on it.
I also cut the opening encounter with the brown bears, for two reasons: first, because I substituted Donani's invitation (see above) for the standard opening of the adventure and second, because I decided to reinstate the fight with the wolves as the PCs traveled between the Bogarav and Moslavaric camps. I felt this improved the pacing of the adventure by alternating social encounters and combat. The PCs were attacked by one winter wolf and two dire wolves, which ran off when the winter wolf was defeated.
I liked the contrast between the two Vistani families, and I'd play that up even more if I were running this again. I'd also explicitly ask the players if they wanted to investigate Lela's vardo. My players didn't even realize it was an option, so they missed a chance to find some clues and get a little more XP.
I had intended to run "Shambling Dead," the undead encounter that happens while the PCs track Lela, but time was getting short, so I cut it.
Note that Lela (CR 4) is weaker than a standard vampire spawn (CR 5).
My players were very confused about why the fan underwent a change when they got near Lela. For a while, they were convinced it meant that Donani was the vampire who had bitten her! It does bug me that the vampire is unnamed and never appears. As written, this adventure does not connect at all to the larger storyline, except that Lela's jewelry can be used as a focus item in the final adventure. My solution was to link the vampire to the incubus in "The Innocent" (DDAL04-07), but that involved extensive rewriting.
This adventure has no maps. There is a
digital map pack by Brian Mccray available on the DM's Guild. I also found these free winter woods maps, which are useful for lots of encounters in the season:
Please download and use all four of these 40×30″ D&D Winter Wilderness Battle Maps for your 5e or Pathfinder games. Perfect for VTT gameplay such as roll20. Have fun! Note: These map…
thedungeongeek.wordpress.com
Problems with "The Seer"
1. It seems clear that the adventure originally contained a fight with wolves (dire and/or winter) that was cut, probably for time. It may have originally been at the beginning of part 3, as wolf tracks in the snow are mentioned there. As noted above, I chose to insert it between parts 1 and 2.
2. Similarly, there is an owlbear stat block in the monster list at the end of the adventure. It's not clear where this encounter was originally intended to go.
3. If you have a weak party and use zombies in part 3, I recommend using mist zombies from DDAL04-01 instead of the standard zombie. They're CR 1/2 instead of 1/4, but they're much more flavorful.
4. There is a mistake in Lela's stat block under "Vampire Weaknesses": the text for
Forbiddance says she can't enter a residence with an invitation. Should be "with
out an invitation."
5. Part of the winter wolf stat block has been moved to the end of the owlbear stat block. Everything from "Snow Camouflage" to the end of the stat block properly belongs under the winter wolf.
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