Princes of the Apocalypse - Session 2

 *Pocahontas was absent today - she was off in the woods getting more in tune with nature :)

When we left off last session, the group had stopped about half a mile away from the spot on Cairn Road that was marked by Harburk.  It was around 6pm and Falwyn and Durnir decided to get the camp set up while Skotizo went to do some scouting of the area to see if he could find anything useful.

Skotizo stumbled upon the encampment, and from the shadows observed three humans around a fire, a cage with a dark shadow in it, and the cave entrance.  When he tried to get closer to inspect the cage, one of the humans heard him and went to investigate.  Skotizo was nearly caught, but managed to escape before the man could catch him.  He went back to camp, reported his findings, and they tucked in for the night.

The next morning, they woke up to this weather roll:  "A soft, light rain that gently taps on surfaces, refreshing the land." They decided that Falwyn and Skotizo would sneak up on the camp, and Durnir would walk in from the road and attempt to speak with the bandits camping there. Falwyn scouted the area and saw that the cage held a black bear, and there was also someone tied up and laying on the ground at the mouth of the cave. As soon as Durnir walked into the camp, combat started!

Falwyn used her charming skills to seduce the young guy who ran to hide behind a tree, effectively making him a non-threat since he was so enamored with her. Skotizo shot his bow from the trees, and Durnir walked over to the cage to inspect the bear inside it. Durnir spent all of combat attempting to communicate with the bear and get it to trust him, which was completely ineffective and resulted in him being attacked ruthlessly (but unsuccessfully, since his AC is 18). The bear eventually fled after taking damage from Skotizo. Skotizo took a hit from the female bandit, but eventually killed her. The last bandit grabbed the hostage, held a knife to his throat, and spouted some nonsense about the "Fire God's secrets". Skotizo sank a well-placed shot that killed him before he could kill the hostage.

Falwyn shot an arrow into the mouth of the cave in an attempt to keep the hostage from crawling further into it. She also stepped on his rope bindings to keep him from moving, and began aggressively interrogating him about why he was there and what those bandits wanted. The hostage was very upset at the audacity of asking him so many accusatory questions after he just endured the trauma of being taken hostage. He told them he didn't know anything, and they finally untied him and let him go. They also tied up the young bandit that was charmed by Falwyn.

They investigated the cave and found 99cp, 74sp, and 13gp. They also found numerous weapons and the basics of a group camping in the woods. They collected all of the loot and exited the cave. As soon as they emerged, a figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Marlos Urnrayle introduced himself, claiming to be the Prophet of the Black Earth and encouraging them to join their group. He threw them a small bag of obsidian and quartz as a "pittance" compared to the wealth they could acquire by aligning with him. He then disappeared into the ground.

The players just said, "hm that was weird" and then continued on to Red Larch, their prisoner in tow.  They went immediately to Harburk and gave him the prisoner after explaining their experience with the bandits.  Harburk was very grateful and told them they should go see Kaylessa at The Swinging Sword to get some rooms.  They were also approached by Harburk's workers who asked for their horses back, which they accommodated.

They all went to The Swinging Sword, and as they walked in they saw the hostage they had freed in the center of a group of celebrating people.  Kaylessa approached them quickly and thanked them profusely for saving her son.  She offered them free rooms for the duration of their stay in Red Larch.  The players decided to stay here for an hour to get a short rest and enjoy the celebration.  

After their rest, Falwyn and Skotizo went to Tantur Smithy to inquire about selling the weapons they had found.  They were informed that the blacksmith only does repairs, and if they were looking for weapons they should go see Feng Ironhead.  

In the meantime, Durnir attempted to go see Mangobarl at his bakery, but it was closed for the afternoon.  He decided instead to go talk to Grund at the Market, where he bought some pickles and had a good chat.  

At Ironhead Arms, Falwyn and Skotizo managed to sell their weapons for a good chunk of gold.  Skotizo decided to take his money and go to Drouth's Fine Poultry, where he was sure he could get a good meal.  Unfortunately for him, Nahaeliya only sells raw poultry that needs to be cooked.  He decided to go to Minny's for a home-cooked chicken meal. 

Falwyn skipped eating and decided to go up to Mellikho's to see if she could sell the obsidian and quartz.  Mellikho gave her a ridiculously cheap price that she accepted without question, and Mellikho also told Falwyn that she should go investigate Tricklerock Cave.  

Falwyn also wanted to go to Vallivoe's Sundries, because she thought he might have some cool magic items she could pick up.  Little did she know, Vallivoe's was the end of her quest that the Zhentarim sent her on when they gave her the note in Session 1.  She skipped past Chansyrl Fine Harness and Haeleeya's and ended up getting information about the black arrow in a skull that Vallivoe heard rumors about.  He marked the spot on the map for her, and she decided to leave and get her own chicken dinner at Minny's.

Unbelievably, this was when Falwyn decided to start her quest set by the Zhentarim!  She went to Chansyrl Fine Harness and seemed to think that Phaendra was a Zhentarim member as well [she's not, the letter just said she might have valuable information].  Phaendra suggested she go talk to Haeleeya, but by this point the shops were closing up and it was time to go back to their new rooms at The Swinging Sword.  

There was a point during this session when Skotizo asked if he could look around for any type of quest that he might be able to start, and I was flabbergasted.  They had only done 1 of the 4 quests that they were given, and he wanted more??  I have to keep reminding myself that it's only the first few sessions, they're level 1, and they are trying to figure out what's going on in the town as well as the quests.  I was really surprised they didn't want to try to go to another area on the map, though, instead choosing to just hang out in the town and talk to people.  Hopefully they get more excited about the adventures when we get to the real meat of the book!

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Princes of the Apocalypse - Session 1

To prepare for Session 1, I wanted each player to receive a message from their faction that basically tells them to investigate someone specific in the town and to group up with other adventurers to avoid suspicion.  Each player received a different note with a pre-planned track to lead to one of the four intro adventures.  Each NPC would direct the players to talk to the next NPC, then the next, until the final NPC gave them the info for that specific adventure.  

Here's what the plan was for each character:

Bears and Bows:

Skotizo (Emerald Enclave) - Received a note from their faction saying they should investigate leads with Grund (21) → Jalessa (11) → Harburk (11)

The Haunted Tomb:

Durnir (Order of the Gauntlet) - Received a note from their faction saying they should investigate leads with the priests at the Allfaiths Shrine (1) → Mangobarl (8) → Minny (14)

Bloody Treasure:

Pocahontas (Emerald Enclave) - Received a note from their faction saying they should investigate leads with Tantur Smithy (9) → Dornen (12) → Mellikho (18)

The Last Laugh:

Falwyn (Zhentarim) - Received a note from their faction saying they should investigate leads with Chansyrl (6) → Haeleeya (15) → Vallivoe (22)

Here’s what one note looked like:

Did I stain them with coffee, dry them in the oven, roll them into tiny scrolls, and seal them with a fake hot glue gun seal before asking my husband to hand-deliver them to our friends’ houses?  Yes.  Was it worth it?  HECK YEA!  Don't they look so cool?   

Did two of the players forget to bring their scrolls to the first session?  You betcha.  I had to send their messages to them via Discord 🫠

We started the session off by having everyone make their character sheet by hand based on the D&D Beyond character info.  This was my husband’s idea and it was really smart, because it forced everyone to acknowledge each element of the character sheet and pay attention to their specific character’s information.  It also took an hour which was unexpected, so the session was a bit short.

I gave everyone their character token, which is a 1” clear cabochon adhered to a 1” character picture with diamond glaze.  I also hot glued a felt backing that lets it slide more easily when moving around.  My husband came up with this idea for our other campaign and I really loved it - we also have a bunch of enemy/ally/treasure tokens that can be used in all different scenarios.

FINALLY we started the session.  I decided to start off each session with a d10 roll for the weather, using this weather table.  For the beginning sessions, the weather is going to be very tame.  Their roll for this session:  A thin, cool mist that gently obscures the distance, creating a mystical ambiance.

I read out a brief description of Red Larch, and then told everyone that they are having a “meet cute” moment where they each arrive from a different road and see each other at the same time standing at the center signpost.  There was some silly banter back and forth with incomplete introductions, and then the campaign officially began!

Durnir - “Well I’d like to go get a drink, if anyone would care to join me.”

The group agreed and then realized they don’t know where to get a drink in this town.  They looked at the signpost and decided that The Swinging Sword sounded like a tavern, so they started heading in that direction.  They passed the Allfaiths Shrine on the left and the clothier on the right.  The Swinging Sword was the next one on the left. 

As they walked in, the proprietor ushered them back out, basically saying that they can come back when they prove their trustworthiness and usefulness to the town.  It’s too dangerous to allow them to come in given the current climate.  They attempted to coerce her with money, which didn’t have any effect.  She suggested they go speak to someone at the Allfaiths Shrine next door if they are looking for sympathetic listeners.

They took her advice and headed next door to the Allfaiths Shrine.  Imdarr and Lymmura welcomed them graciously and the group for some reason became obsessed with which gods they worship and whether other gods are better.  Durnir finally announced that he's from the Order of the Gauntlet, and Imdarr and Lymmura exclaimed with joy and gratitude.  Durnir asked if they have any leads on how they can be of assistance, and Imdarr told them they should go speak with Mangobarl, the baker.  

The group headed right out to go to the bakery, but at this point Skotizo decided he was going to hang back and try to find Grund.  He asked a random person on the street where Grund could be found, and he was directed to The Market at the southeast edge of town.  He left, and Pocahontas decided to go with him.  

Durnir and Falwyn forgot to ask directions to the bakery and just decided to walk there until they found it.  They passed Chansyrl Fine Harness on the left, and then found Lorren’s Bakery on the next left.  

They. Loved. Mangobarl.  He’s got the attitude of a kid who tells lots of tall tales and is constantly trying to win approval and get people to believe him.  Durnir asked if he could have some day-old bread, and Mangobarl happily gave it to him for free.  Falwyn bought some honey cakes.  Mangobarl was PUMPED to have customers and eager to have a new audience to share his stories.  He told them a ridiculous story loosely based on information he heard from Minny’s granddaughter’s scary experience (including catching a fish twice his height!), informing them at the end that Minny didn't believe him when he told her that story. 

Falwyn really pressed Mangobarl for more details about where his experience took place, and he started loudly proclaiming that he DEFINITELY went there [he didn’t] and simply can’t remember where it all happened.  She continued to press and he continued to lie profusely.  Durnir told him that he believed him and would go to Minny and tell her that she was wrong about the fish story.

Cut to Skotizo and Pocahontas, who were approaching The Market.  Before they entered, Pocahontas asked Skotizo if he received a note.  Skotizo was a little resistant to answering, but he admitted that he was sent by the Enclave to talk to Grund.  Pocahontas said she was sent to talk to the blacksmith.  Skotizo agreed that they should go to the blacksmith after talking with Grund.  

As they walked into the clearing, they were presented with a single stall run by Grund - Grund’s Pickle Emporium.  Grund was very excited to have customers and offered them some really gross samples.  When they pressed him for information, he told them they should go talk to the butcher and her husband.

Falwyn and Durnir were making their way to Minny’s, and Skotizo and Pocahontas spotted them before they went in.  They joined back up and entered Minny’s together.  Minny told them about her granddaughter’s experience at the old tomb outside town.  She said she could direct them to where it is if they brought her a map, which the constable might be able to help them with.  

They headed to the butcher shop and met Jalessa, who advised them to go talk to her husband.  Harburk was taking a nap in their home and was startled awake by their knock on the door.  He was thrilled to have some additional help in resolving some of these rumors of banditry, and happily gave them a weathered map. He marked the spot where he heard about banditry off Cairn Road.

[I stained the map with coffee and also burned the edges.  I then folded it a bunch and crumpled it up so it looked like it was in someone's pocket for a while.  Here's the final result:]

The group realized that Harburk's marking was about 8 miles outside of town and it would take a while to walk there.  Luckily, some workers came out from the bunkhouse and offered to loan them horses for a 5gp deposit per horse.  They gladly accepted, handed over the gold, and rode off to their next goal.  

[I never really considered that the group would be concerned about how long it took to get somewhere, and I really didn't want to play out the walking and camping that would be required to get places, so I just invented the horse loan so they would stop trying to plan a multi-day campout for one mini encounter.]

Falwyn wanted to go back to Minny’s to get the location of the tomb.  Durnir wanted to go to the bakery again to get more rations and chat more with Mangobarl.  Pocahontas and Skotizo wanted to go to the blacksmith to get more information.  They split up with an agreement to meet back up at the signpost when they were done.  

Durnir got more day-old bread from Mangobarl, and continued to assure him that he believes his stories even if no one else does.  Falwyn headed to Minny’s and got the location of the tomb drawn on her map.

Pocahontas and Skotizo headed to the blacksmith’s, who were very busy and didn’t appear to have time to talk about idle gossip.  Pocahontas noticed that Laefra had a delicate necklace with the symbol for the Emerald Enclave.  They told her that they’re from the Emerald Enclave, to which she responded that the Enclave saved her life as a child and she owes them a debt.  She told them to go talk to Elak Dornen, as he was in there yesterday discussing some strange business.

Meanwhile, Falwyn looked around town and decided to go visit Dornen Finestone, which is next door to Minny’s.  She asked him some questions about his quarry and whether he had any magic items for sale.  He was confused and told her that he sells stone slabs - this is just a quarry and they don’t have anything fancy.  Falwyn slipped on her fake signet ring in an attempt to show off some imaginary wealth.  Dornen immediately shifted into seller mode, and suggested that with the right amount of money, he’d be happy to show her some of the things he’s found in the quarry.  She obviously didn’t have the money, and instead attempted to flirt with him to get access.  She rolled a nat 20, but unfortunately Dornen is gay and was not interested in her companionship.  

Pocahontas and Skotizo attempted to stealthily make their way through the town to avoid the rest of their companions.  Skotizo rolled poorly and ended up just peeking around a building in wide view of everyone.  Durnir threw a piece of bread at him and then pretended it wasn’t him.  Skotizo had no idea who threw the bread and was confused.  [I still don't know why they were being sneaky.] 

Pocahontas successfully snuck around everyone and into Dornen Finestone, narrowly avoiding Falywn who left minutes before.  Pocahontas interrogated Dornen about the strange happenings that are going on in town.  He mentioned Tricklerock Cave and suggested she go speak to Mellikho if she’s so interested in fairy tales. 

Everyone met back in the center of town and decided to go investigate the lead from Harburk first.  Pocahontas stayed behind because she wanted to talk to Mellikho.  

Pocahontas asked Mellikho about Tricklerock Cave, who very eagerly told her that she should definitely go investigate it.  When Pocahontas accused her of trying to send them somewhere to die, Mellikho vehemently denied it and said she just wants them to experience true adventure.  Pocahontas rode quickly to catch up to the rest of the group, who stopped ½ a mile from where Harburk marked on the map.  

Everyone followed up on their letters except for Falwyn!

Princes of the Apocalypse - Session 0

I told everyone that we would fully build the characters in Session 0, particularly because we were all pretty new to D&D (excluding my husband) and a few people have work schedules that don’t really give time for research.  This idea actually ended up being pretty great, because everyone was able to experience using D&D Beyond and I was able to look at their characters in my own time and assess how I wanted to incorporate them.  I also got to make sure they included the elements I needed them to include, and I could carefully watch my husband and make sure he didn’t build an outrageous character that was overpowered 😂  

For Session 0, I gave everyone an introduction to the campaign, a quick rundown of my plans as a DM, and the information I wanted them to include while they built their character.  I also made a quick rundown of 5 factions they could choose between and just made it a requirement that they belong to a faction.  Here’s the characters that they came up with:

1. Falywn - Eladrin Warlock

1. Faction - Zhentarim

2. Motivation - Her patron (Felurian) is bound to the Feywild.  Falwyn is tasked with finding a way to release her.

3. Fear - Being trapped or enslaved (physically or emotionally)

4. Key Characters - Lady Seraphina (ally) & Rennick Blackthorn (enemy)

2. Skotizo - High Elf Ranger

1. Faction - Emerald Enclave

2. Motivation - Protect nature at all costs and wreak havoc on those who have harmed it.

3. Fear - Snakes

4. Key Characters - Elder Elf Leader John Wick (ally) & Drogg (enemy)

3. Pocahontas - Wood Elf Druid

1. Faction - Emerald Enclave

2. Motivation - same as Skotizo

3. Fear - Frogs

4. Key Characters - “The Messenger” (ally) & [no enemy chosen]

4. Durnir - Dwarf Cleric

1. Faction - Order of the Gauntlet

2. Motivations - Wipe out evil and preserve the lives of innocent people that are being harmed.

3. Fear - Claustrophobic

4. Key Characters - Branor Stoneforge (ally) & Karnath the Soulflayer (enemy)

Can we stop for a second and talk about how they essentially picked 3 elves and a dwarf?  Their creativity knows no bounds.

Princes of the Apocalypse - Introduction

My husband is a perpetual DM. We moved to a new town in Ontario and made some local friends who expressed an interest in trying D&D, so he did a mini-campaign with all of us to see if our new friends would like it. At the same time, he was running our campaign with our old friends from Quebec. Between the two, he was getting pretty overwhelmed with the planning and prep work required for both!

When the mini-campaign with our friends was over, they were eager to jump into a larger campaign.  One of them expressed a desire to do a campaign that felt like “classic D&D,” so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try my hand at DMing to give my husband a break.  He was super excited to finally build a character and be a player!

I sent everyone a list of a few campaigns that were on the longer side.  Everything I looked at said to run Curse of Strahd, but my husband started DMing that one with another group a while back so he was too familiar with it (and I didn’t feel comfortable stealing it from him after he did all the studying for it).  I offered them these options:

Storm King’s Thunder

Princes of the Apocalypse

Rime of the Frostmaiden

Out of the Abyss

I sent those four titles with a mini description of the campaign to everyone, and they all agreed that Princes of the Apocalypse was the one they wanted to try.  They liked it because it sounded like it would have lots of evilness and dark elements, which is right up their alley (Curse of Strahd would have been perfect 😫).

I really should have read reviews before I even put Princes of the Apocalypse in the options list.  I assumed all the campaigns would be well written and it wouldn’t matter which one they chose, but WOW was I wrong.  As soon as I started digging into Reddit posts and blog reviews, I realized that I chose one of the worst campaigns to try as a new DM.  

This campaign is one that requires a LOT of prep work to feel confident with the story and all of the moving parts.  The book is really disorganized, so I found myself doing read-through after read-through to understand how everything fit together.  I also found the amazing Power Score RPG, who has a beautifully written walkthrough and breakdown of all the elements that helped me finally wrap my head around how to run this campaign.  I also used the WikiDot site to get some extra yummy tidbits to add to the adventures. 

After doing all that initial research and studying, I knew I wanted Red Larch to be a focal point of the story.  There are 22 different locations and even more NPCs in the town, and I wanted my players to consider it their home base and begin to build relationships with the townsfolk.  I loved the idea of sowing seeds of mistrust and doubt about who in the town is evil, who is trustworthy, who is a huge gossip with some elements of truth, etc.  I pictured a sort of crime scene investigation where my players went door-to-door and tried to gather information about what was going on in the town.  

With that in mind, I also really wanted to make the game more tactile and engaging for the players.  I decided to get the map of Red Larch printed on 48”x36” engineering paper at Staples, which we then put under the clear vinyl table protector that was already on our dining/gaming table.  IT LOOKED SO COOL!!  I also made these little signpostsOpen 2nd ImageOpen 3rd Image that showed all the names of the shops so they could see what options were in each area of the town.

Here’s where I went down a rabbit hole.  I made the signposts and then thought, well wouldn’t it be cool if each shop had their own little sign too?  So I made those.  I used ChatGPT to draw 22 unique signs for each of the shops in town. I then printed and laminated the signs. Then I glued them to mini skewers and made sure they were all relatively the same heights. Then I glued them to bases so they wouldn’t topple over. This took me hours.

All of that is only a fraction of the amount of prepping I did before our session 0.  I essentially prepared the first 3 sessions because I was so concerned about timing, so I prepped all of the Chapter 6 “Into the Wilderness” mini encounters.  This included making maps and learning the intricacies of each location inside and out.  

I did all of that and then realized that if I was encouraging them to go to each location in Red Larch, I would need to know each of the NPCs they would encounter in EACH of the 22 shops!  So I made a binder.  But not just any binder!  One with 30 different tabs that would allow me to seamlessly flip from shop to shop based on where they decided to go.  Did I stop there?  OF COURSE NOT!  I turned to ChatGPT (ol’ reliable) and asked it to help me plan out each potential encounter at each of the 22 shops.  Describe the building’s exterior.  Describe the interior.  Describe the NPC.  Tell me what they would say.  Build me a pricing list of what they sell.  

Did I mention I started doing this over a month before we even had Session 0 planned?  Session 1 was still 6 weeks away and I had already prepped way more than was necessary.  Unfortunately for me (a struggling perfectionist), I couldn’t stop.  I began thinking about what information I wanted each shop owner to have and how they would present that information to the players.  I needed a way for them to be interested in doing the 4 adventures from “Into the Wilderness,” so I invented stories that each NPC might tell that usually ended with “but you should go ask _____ about that.  They know more than I do.”  I created an intricate web of gossip and rumors that would eventually lead to the 4 adventures I wanted the players to do.

THEN I realized that the 4 adventures were cute, but they didn’t really seem to tie into the campaign very much.  Wait.  4 adventures.  4 elements.  4 prophets.  Let’s have the prophets show themselves a little earlier than planned!  As each adventure was completed, I had ChatGPT help me write out little scenarios where each of the prophets introduced themselves very briefly before disappearing again.  

I planned all of these intricate details and connections, but I knew that Session 0 was going to change the way I did some things.  I didn’t even know who my players were going to choose for characters, so I decided to stop there and wait until I knew more about who everyone wanted to play.

My recommendation to new DMs: if you insist upon doing Princes of the Apocalypse for your first campaign, dedicate a full month to prepare 😂