Princes of the Apocalypse: Session 4 Part II

[This post contains spoilers for Princes of the Apocalypse]

A chubby hand formed into a fist, shaking, the knuckles swelling. Jolliver panted in the dark and cursed, spitting blood and phlegm. It wasn’t working any more. He had to be in control of it, it wasn’t in control of him. He flopped back on his bed, dropping the bottle to the floor where it failed to make the customary clatter.

He frowned and sat.

The bottle was on the floor, sat at an angle. The stone around it was warped, discoloured. He looked at the slab it sat on and saw the edge where it met the next disappear. His eyes were wide but it was already too late to scream.

Our party are:

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

Amy Tan as Amber Frostbeard, Dwarf Fighter

After the attack by the Water Cult the party moved camp and amongst a secluded copse of trees laid out their plan to assault Rivergard Keep.

[DM’s Notes: One of the agreements I made with the party before going into this campaign was that I would be lenient about how they enact plans in return for them not spending hours prepping for every contingency.

It’s worth having conversations like these before a game, with both the DM and players expressing what they like and don’t like about roleplaying, to focus on what matters to your players.]

Under cover of darkness the party approached in Crashing Wave robes stolen from the dead. They didn’t approach the gate, instead skirting the fort to reach the keep that stood at the north west end. They paused here, reading their weapons, and then Eva stepped forward and drew a scroll from within the folds of her cloak.

She unfurled it in a single swift movement and traced ancient words translated into common, her fingers playing across the smear of clay that made up an arcane sigil and casting the spell forward against the time worn stone.

During their visit to the Sacred Stone Monastery the party had gathered several useful articles, including several scrolls. Pocketing them for later use she had spent some time studying them and one in particular had stood out as useful for this situation.

Eva finished incanting the words and the spell of Transmute Rock was complete.

Half of Rivergard Keep was converted into mud and immediately collapsed, trapping everyone inside. The alarm immediately went up and the party began searching for Jolliver Grimjaw amongst the mudslide.

[DM’s Notes: Transmute Rock turns 40 cubic feet of rock into mud. It’s a powerful spell at the best of times and here the party used it to devastating effect. I had prepped for this encounter by splitting the defenders into 4 groups (North/South/East/West) and so all the North defenders were immediately trapped and crushed by the keep falling on them.

Great plans deserve to be rewarded and this one was pretty much everything I want in a player plan; simple, effective and flashy.]

Grimjaw was amongst the mud, half buried and the party set about digging him out as Holger, the gate captain, arrived with a score of bandits. Ulfang waded up the hill and took a place holding the line as Eva and Reed threw spells and bolts towards the defenders. Meanwhile Amber, with some difficulty, started to pull Jolliver from the mud.

Moments later the next set of defenders arrived led a portly blue-skinned man with white foam hair. He saw them and the unconscious Jolliver and incanted a few words. From the air itself sprung water at first like rain, then a spray then a torrent as the party were blown from their feet by crushing gout of water.

The damage would perhaps have been worse if the defenders weren’t bogged down by the mud and unable to swarm the party.

Spotting the danger this blue man (A water Genasi) presented Ulfang raised his holy symbol and implored Helm for aid, casting Hold Person against him. The creature seized up immediately and Amber and Reed rushed up the hill to set about him, desperate to bring him down before he could cast any more spells.

[DM’s Notes: The spell the Genasi cast was Tidal Wave and it was pretty punishing. That said the party weathered it well and between Ulfang’s spells and healing potions they managed to stay upright.

The Genasi was Shoalar who the party might have recognised from their first trip to Womford and him coming under the power of Hold Person was the tipping point of this battle.

The party are a group of glass hammers mostly held up by Ulfang’s incredible healing potential, the addition of Amber makes them a little less squishy (Her AC is much higher than Dak’Kon’s and she has only a few hitpoints less) but the party was still running on empty by the end of the battle and it was only a few bad rolls on my part that stopped me from dropping one or more of them.]

By the time the battle was over the cultists were all dead and

Ushien Stormbanner sat astride her Amnian Destrier, cloak caught by the wind. It caught in her armour and she brushed it aside, holding out a mailed fist by habit to see if the threatening rain was starting to show.

On the west-bank of the River Dessarin the ancient fort, once protector of these waters, lay in ruins. True, it had always been ruins, scaffolding showed where its inhabitants had clumsily repaired the fortifications, but nothing like the damage it had now sustained.

The keep had been to the North-West, perhaps the most intact part of the fort. Now it was a shell of itself. The great hall had survived and the walls to the east and south still stood, barely. The rest of the keep was gone though, replaced by a mound of slick clay studded with bodies.

“Definitely them.” Erned Stoutblade said.

Ushien Stormbanner nodded. “Unmistakably.” She agreed.