Princes of the Apocalypse: Session 2

Our last session of Princes of the Apocalypse was in November, and we hadn’t done much more than the adventure intro, so we returned to the Dessarin Valley after the events of Red Larch, in which our bold heroes had found a cult with an unusual symbol…

[This promises to be a long one, we got a lot done. This post contains spoilers for Princes of the Apocalypse.]

Our party consists of:

David Maltman as Reed Tosscobble, Halfling Rogues Swashbuckler

David Longbottom as Ulfang Strackhelm, Dwarf Cleric of Helm

Amanda Hewitt as Eva Dawnfell, Human Monk Necromancer

Dak’kon of the unbroken circle of Zerthimon a Githzerai and NPC Companion.

This session was a trial at starting our sessions earlier in the morning. We convened at about 9am and shared a hearty breakfast of pancakes with crispy bacon and slathered in maple syrup. If you’ve never run a roleplaying session in the morning I heartily recommend it.

This might be a point considering for your own group but there was a reason that we decided to run the session in the morning. We’ve often found that running sessions later tends to suffer from two things; a lack of initial focus and getting bogged down around dinner time. Basically anything that can disrupt the flow of the session.

By starting early we got everybody while they were still fresh from sleep, fed them so they were energised and then managed to make haste with the adventure. I found this made the group a lot quicker at making decisions, less distracted by minutiae and meant that we managed to cover considerable more ground early on.

Along the Cairn Road south of Womford the party met a group of Dwarf Miners led by Gaelub Pwent heading west, and informed them of the quarry in Red Larch which is now in need of new owners. They offered what little they knew of the missing delegation from Mirabar then pressed on. The party continued, arriving at the Bargewright Inn and continuing directly on to Womford here they spent the night in a cottage turned inn called the Womford Arms.

Before going in Ulfang saw a keel boat having goods unloaded onto a kart. These goods mostly seemed to be provisions but had a strange symbol on them that he could not recognise. Later that night as the rain came in they consulted Eva’s spellbook, which she had inherited from her uncle, and she identified the symbol as a primal one, similar to the symbol they had encountered in Red Larch.

Everyone agreed this was vexing, and the young man tending to them Grout, confirmed that “Old Shoalar” has been moving goods up the river via cart. The party considered following him, but instead resolved to head north to Summit Hall instead.

[DM’s Notes: This was a slight alteration from the adventure as written. I elected to use ‘rapids’ to divide up the river, for reasons that became useful later. It did mean Shoalar had to complete his journey using cart rather than boat, but I had no issue with this making him easier to track.]

The party headed north, lodging for an evening with a halfling family before pressing on through heavy drizzle and driving winds. A day south of summit hall they saw a rider on a giant vulture cross the sky, east to west. The rider seemed to pay them no mind and continued on.

Summit Hall was reached in the evening of the third day and Dam. Ushien Stormbanner of the Knights of Samular welcomed them and gave them safe harbour and lodgings in the name of Tyr. The party had their clothes dried as they feasted and drank strong wine with the knights. Ushien told them what they knew of the missing Delegation of Mirabar, which was in truth not much more than the rumours, and offered them luck in their journey to find them.

As an aside she spoke with Ulfang, as she was a fellow member of the Order of the Gauntlet and requested his help tracking down Erned Stoutblade, who was last seen in Beliard heading east, on a mission to hunt down the Iceshield Tribe Orcs. Ulfang agrees to do what he can.

The party heads north towards Beliard along the Dessarin Road. It is here, signalled by a broken spear at the side of the road that they find the tracks that lead the off. Tosscobble slips and falls down and finds broken weapons and bushes torn aside, following the path to a small dell where a dozen or so Mirabar guards lie slain.

They follow the tracks down to the river and, seeing the evidence of boats landing, decide to travel north, but turned back after camping, realising the rapids up here would have prevented any keel bat from escaping in this direction. Instead they resolved to head south. By mid-afternoon they found themselves looking over the water at the crumbling keep of Rivergard, seeing men at work repairing the small castle.

The party called out to the men who sent a boat out to assess their intent and, finding no issue with it, they took the party over and introduced them to their leader, a porcine looking man with squinty eyes called Jolliver Grimjaw. As they approached Tosscobble noticed sheafs of paper on the tables before him, detailing measures of money and a missive that seemed to identify the party as trouble makers from Red Larch.

Grimjaw is inhospitable, until Eva offers the party’s services to him. The robed woman at his side, Ushanova, intercedes and gives him a suggestion. Grimjaw offers them work at 25 gp apiece, if they will travel south and deal with some religious fanatics that have been harassing his people. They agree and he offers them lodgings in the bunkhouse and stew for dinner.

That night they speak with a young man called Ephen who, after being suitable charmed by Tosscobble, reveals they are doing great work in the service of ‘Lord Shatterkeel’, but won’t say much more.

The party are given the location of the Sacred Stone Monastery and proceeded there directly. Still having a scrap of cloth with the symbol of elemental earth they presented it at the gate, with Eva convincing the guards that she was the child of an Earth Cultist who had been sent to join their ranks. They were ushered into the main temple where Ulfang noticed the symbol of elemental earth had been carved over an erased symbol of Moradin.

The head priest here, Qarbo, offered to take them on but upon being told that he would have to give up his possessions, including his holy symbol and thus faith in Helm, Ulfang chafed. Qarbo, reading the room, offered to let the party stay and partake in meditation within the ‘Womb of the Earth’, gesturing to some stairs down beneath the altar.

It was only once the party were at the bottom and the stairs snapped shut into a chute, that they realised they were now trapped in a chamber with a large creature shaped like a beetle, but the size of a bear.

Combat was hard and fast Dak’kon and Tosscobble moved in to take on the Umberhulk, blessed by Ulfang and Helm as Eva unleashed Rays of Sickness to weaken the beast. Tosscobble and Dak’kon were both felled and raised by Ulfang whose prayers to Helm invigorated his allies, keeping them from death until the beast was felled.

The party then took a moment and, realising they had expended most of their resources, beat a hasty retreat. They meandered through the tunnels beneath the monastery, finding a barred and chained path that led further underground and eavesdropping on a guard room with three Orog. One of them called Jurth was talking to an Ogre called Drool and then they resolved to go and scavenge any valuables from the party, who must surely have been killed by the beast by now.

The party slipped into the room behind them and took a stairway up to the monastery proper, looting a few rooms as they looked for a way out before hearing sounds of fighting coming from a chamber. Beyond the door they saw four monks sparring against a woman in a mask with no eye-slots.

Short on resources, but emboldened by their victory of the Umberhulk, they bust down the door and gained a surprise round and set about the woman and her sparring partners. The fight was fast flowing and brutal with Ulfang doing everything he could to keep the party fighting, whilst Tosscobble was once again felled and brought to the very gates of death. Meanwhile Dak’kon was also felled, but twice rose to his feet, roused by sheer force of will and determination.

Eva joined the fray, matching her own martial arts against the woman, until she too was felled and Ulfang and roused Tosscobble brought the last of the monks down. Ulfang stabilised Eva and Dak’kon as best he could and they tried to make good their escape.

The first door they came across was locked, the second entered onto a laboratory. The two men fell deathly silent as they realised what they had stumbled across. A voice, cowled in the dark, simply said: “I have told you before, the answer is no.” and the party graciously accepted this racious pardon and left.

Their final means of escape was via a garden at the back of the monastery, they ran across and managed to exit via a gate, hearing a sound of grinding stone behind them. Tosscobble managed to lock the gate, but as he did so he was gouged and wounded by the claw of a Gargoyle, and, remembering they have wings, they ran straight out of the valley and found a cave in which to hide and tend their wounds.

They made their way back to Rivergard the following day, Grimjaw was surprised but seemed pleased, and duly paid the party what he had offered. They stayed for a night, tending their wounds and then made the excuses, resolving to return to Summit Hall. They trailed the southern edge of the Sumber Hills until they came upon a camp. They went to investigate but the steadily falling rain turned to sleet and fog and they were set upon by two warriors with shark toothed blades and a group of bandits, and beyond them a blue skinned mage who escaped before the party could dispatch them.

Having survived the bandits the group returned to Summit Hall, but not before encountering another group travelling beneath a white banner with a golden embroidered wheatsheaf. Sister Taliana Vranks of the church of Chauntea and her cadre are lost off the road, travelling to Summit Hall before heading on to fresh pastures beyond Beliard.

The party accompanied them to Summit Hall and filled in Ushien Stormbanner on events. She shed some light on the Stone Monastery and Hellenrae, the abbess who the party felled. They present her with the late abbess’ mask and she tells them of the other Haunted Keeps, giving them a rough idea of where they are.

The following day the party escort the Chauntean contingent north, meeting a caravan along the way led by a copper haired dwarf woman called Grissell Bellowscrown. The large group continued north until they parted ways in Beliard. Here Ulfang interrogated the locals about Erned Stoutblade, and followed their direction that he headed east on the trail of the Iceshield Orcs.

Following the road it’s not long before the party find a burning farmstead. They rush to the aid of the one surviving inhabitant, a badly injured farmed called Selwyn, who calls out for his wife Maygan and his farm hands. The party heal him and find the trail of the Orcs that attacked Selwyn’s farm. He insists on joining them to save his wife and the party grudgingly agree.

They catch a quartet of orcs by a small rill, resting beneath a tree. The two farm hands had been used to pull the cart and lie exhausted nearby Maygan is in the back of the cart. Selwyn is given a light crossbow and told to stay out of the way, advice his mostly ignores in the short combat that follows. The orcs are swiftly felled, but with night closing in and their home destroyed they ask one more favour of the party; escort to Dellmon Ranch where they will be safe.

Dellmon is anything but when they arrive. Night is closing in and they find Kerbin Dellmon and Erned Stoutblade arranging the defences against an Orc attack. Amongst the people gathered there are the Chauntean delegation, and Sister Vranks is very grateful to see the party.

Each character takes a building, save Ulfang who stands with his Order of the Gauntlet colleague Erned at the east gate. Darkness falls and the Orcs stoke fires to further cut down on the visibility, then launch their attack. At the forge to the west Eva struggles to fend off the attack and is brought down by a vicious Orc attack, but is rescued by guards dispatched from the gate to the east whilst Dreena, Kerbin’s daughter and member of the Emerald Enclave, entangles the attackers on that side.

Most of the initial attacks are repelled, but a rush on the house in the north breaks through the hastily erected barricades and despite Tosscobble holding the Orcs at bay with the help of an Enclave scout, he is soon close to being overwhelmed as Ulfang leaves Erned on the gate to reinforce the building.

The barn to the south is mostly unscathed, with Dak’kon making short work of the orcs attempting to scale the walls. Out in the darkness though more horns sound, the orcs are massing, and there is precious little time to prepare their defences.

When the hammer lands it lands hardest at the house. The barricades are splintered and the farmers holding them are no match for the orcs breaking through. Tosscobble and Ulfang fight on even as the invaders set light to the building. Then, disaster.

An explosion destroys the gate and craters the courtyard. Ulfang rushes out to reinforce Erned, and the two of them fight side by side, desperately trying to trap the orcs in the crater rent into the soft earth. Dak’kon is finally pushed back in the barn, with Orcs hacking through the outer wall as Eva climbs atop the forge and begins to knock down the attackers trying to clamber across the steep roof.

In the house Tosscobble crosses blades with a larger Orc in plate armour, an Orog, who attacks him deftly and beats him to the ground. Orcs now pouring through the breaches in the defences. As the circle draws tight horns wail in the distance and finally the Orcish attack goes slack, they lose momentum, Ulfang recognises them; they are no Orcish horn.

Tosscobble is thrown aside by the brute he was facing, badly injured by his assault. He raises his hand crossbow and fires a single parting shot, failing to wound the brute, but causing him to turn and regard the halfling with cruel eyes set on revenge…

[Session End]

The party reached Level 4.

Ulfang Strackhelm gains 3 Renown with the Order of the Gauntlet for defeating an enemy and performing a task assigned to him by a superior.

My GM’s round up will follow in the next day or so, I have a great deal to mull over. This has been great fun though, Princes of the Apocalypse is a blast to play.