Assistance with Princes of the Apocalypse: Feathergale spire - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Tyranthraxus Aug 21, 2015 0:10:16	Hi, (Im not used to running these large modules (Im more used to running Expeditons) and my Party finally made it to the Spire. Savra greeted them and they actually made a good impression and were allowed it. She escorted them up to see Thurl and were invited to the feast (the Barbarian player in my group is NOT good with the roleplaying interactions.. and nearly cause trouble for the group so Thurl ordered his knights to take the Barbarian out of his sight). The rest of the group were invited to partcipate in a Manticore Hunt Later that day. I have a combination of Level 5's and Level 1s and 2s at the moment so trying to determine the challenge rating was tricky. I ended up including a second manticore with decreased hp and only one character went unconcious but lives. Earlier however the Ranger in the group was making eyes at Savra and took a shine to her. They actually spared out on the edge of the valley and while he won, she didnt mind too much. Im going to have Savra talk to him about him having the right stuff to become a knight and mention Yan-C-Bin. However the Barbarian keeps saying inappropriate things to people all the time and swilved the spyglass to check out some rocks (and not the gully at all). Im going to have Thurl direct the party to the Monastery next to placate them. The party have already met with some Earth Cultists and been attacked by them in a random encounter. I was wondering, what happens if the Ranger decides to join the knights? It dosnt really say but does that involve getting taken to the Gully?
#2 Nevvur Aug 21, 2015 1:10:25	Maybe, eventually? The way I would play the Feathergale Knights, there's a warming-up period before they reveal their true nature as cultists. The module provides for Savra dropping the hint that the Feathergale Knight's have a plan to use elemental air to crush Waterdeep's enemies, but not the actual plan, or their cult status. The appropriate amount of time before Thurl offers to initiate a PC into the Howling Hatred is just a bit longer than the party cares to wait. In the intervening time, the FKs may provide the ranger, if he joins, an aerial mount and clues about unusual sightings related to the other cults, provided they believe the ranger and his allies will bring harm to them. At some point Yan-C-Bin is going to wise up, and realize the PCs don't have her best intentions in mind, either. They were useful in eliminating the other cults, but now they need to fall from a very high place.
#3 Tyranthraxus Aug 21, 2015 1:32:39	Thanks. Thurl actively dislikes the Barbarian, which has proved challenging . (Essentially the player and Character does not have a 'limiter'. I think the idea gets formed and straight out it comes) The other characters are tolerated but Thurl is wary of the Cleric of Helm who has been asking too many questions. Im going to fob them off to the Sacred Stone Monastery and Savra will tell less now to the Ranger. Thanks for the assistance.
#4 zingbobco000 Aug 21, 2015 9:35:20	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#5 Tyranthraxus Aug 22, 2015 17:14:19	Nice. Ill do that!
#6 Byakugan01 Aug 23, 2015 4:54:47	If they thuroughly explore the Sighing Valley they should fairly easily piece together that the Knights are throwing people off the Spire. The party I ran it for also talked their way in( that is just about the only way you CAN get in at the intended level in AL anyways). They were very blunt about admiting they were searching for the missing Delegates from Mirabar. This worked well because the Air cult wasn't directly involved, so it gave Thurl a good avenue to steer the party towards the Sacred Stone Monastary and I also took the opportunity to gave them the location of Rivergard Keep as well. They won during the Manticore Hunt and they continued to act friendly, so Thurl made them a good offer. He offered the party a ride down into the Sighing Valley on the vultures/hippogriffs, but they had to agree not to enter the gorge. They inquired and he truthfully explained that it was a sacred place to them. The party agreed to the deal and they basically did a counterclockwise search of the whole valley but they honored their promise not to go anywhere near the gorge. It is worth noting that the module is actually 'planned' out well level wise, but there is literally NOTHING stopping the PCs from just keeping on going and ending up in an area that is way past deadly for their level. They are supposed to explore all 4 Haunted Keeps before going into any of the temples, then go through the temples in roughly the same order of the keeps. But its up to the DM to either give them hints, or give them a good reason to go elsewhere. My trick with the air gorge ended up working very well because once they did Rivergard Keep and realized the keep was guarding a Path that led ominously into the darkness, they immediately started asking me what was in the gorge they skipped and I got to give them a big grin! They were pretty beat up after clearing out Rivergard Keep so I steered them back towards town fairly easily by just describing the dark passage like it was very scary and the path back outside as bright and very safe-sounding, lol. At the Sacred Stone Monastery I was a little less subtle...the path that led down to the Temple of Black Earth I just labled 'Path to certain death' with the marker...and I intentionally left the little cover sheet crooked so it was visible...one of the players saw it and astutely said 'OK we're not going this way!" Problem solved, lol!
#7 Tyranthraxus Aug 23, 2015 5:05:41	My Party dosnt do investigation very well. Its essentially stumble stumble stumble... hey... its bandits get them!
#8 ZHDarkstar Aug 23, 2015 7:51:19	My table ended up approaching the spire in an obviously hostile manner, and the fight was on right from jump street. When they made the mistake of trying to take a long rest right by the bridge, I had the entire spire's residents come and capture the party. The Aarakocra came to their rescue after the party was thrown from the roof as the knights took bets on who would hit the ground first. It was also the most logical decision that week, as half of the players from the week before didn't show up and I had to figure out a way to incorporate the new players. I find that one of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome is making the drop-in nature of AL make sense in the middle of an adventure.
#9 Tyranthraxus Aug 23, 2015 19:42:05	How do the Aarakocra get to the party to rescue them? On the map they are many 100 of feet away and you drop like a stone in the round you fall off.
#10 Ravix Aug 23, 2015 22:56:03	There are some chilling nearby, investigating these nefarious Knights.
#11 Tyranthraxus Aug 23, 2015 23:13:15	Ahh.. Okay. I have a feeling my party are going to leave to locate the Foul Monks at the Monastery and then shrug their shoulders when they see the pile of garbage at the bottom below the Spire. Its a long way up so they arnt sure what it is exactly.
#12 ZHDarkstar Aug 23, 2015 23:44:10	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#13 Tyranthraxus Aug 24, 2015 0:02:39	What I found funny is that the Barbarian went up to the spyglass and tried to spin it around for some bizarre reason... otherwise they would of see Knifepoint Gully.
#14 Byakugan01 Aug 24, 2015 5:41:58	The write up about the aurokakra specifically suggests they might be used to save the party if they all get taken prisoner. So there is a pretty big margin for DM fiat here. Cinematically speaking though, it is an epic idea that they swoop in to catch the party like Gandalf jumping off Sarumon's tower. But it could just as easily go over feeling like a DM safety blanket. IE the party knew they should have died but the DM let them out just cuz...kinda like people who played Tomb of Horrors and survived, or people who killed Tiamat in AL during season 1. It's the DnD version of Survivor's Guilt.
#15 Ravix Aug 24, 2015 11:45:06	Don't even get me started on the supposed "Tiamat killers" lol.
#16 Tyranthraxus Aug 24, 2015 18:27:33	I might use them, not sure as yet. Ive still got to get the party to investigating the sighing Valley. ( I used two Manticores in the Hunt because Ive got some level 5's in the party), they may want to investigate the nest. Also Aaracokra dosnt meant much to any of my players in terms of good/evil. They are most all noobs.
(Reply to #16) zingbobco000	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#18 Tyranthraxus Aug 26, 2015 18:51:48	So, I ran last night and a few .. strange things happened. Ill first frame things. I have 7 players, 4 of which are 5th level and 3 are level 2. The 4 are people who carried over from my Lost Mine game and we didnt do the pre game sidequests in Red Larch. Thus I have 'added' the same monsters in the Spire to make things a bit more deadly but not too much. From last session Savra extended the invitation to Smaug the ranger to 'join' the knights. He then went to Thurl to say he would think about it. Thurl gave the party the chance to rest up after the Manticore hunt and he would speak to them all in the evening about information on the 'Monks' they are investigating. One guy took a long rest to level up and the Ranger freaked out and told the party abnout the offer. the time came and the party all came up to the Summit as Thurl told them about the 'Evil Monk's at the monastery and where to find the Monastery. He then offered the Ranger the chance to join the Knights. Now Smaug here was fully freaking out thinking he would have to kill a party member. However the Knights simply presented a prisoner for Smaug to push off the edge. I should point out here, that I have a guy that plays a Barbarian in my game. Hes currently level 5, and has issues with blurting out things (both player and character) at bad times. He insults people in Red Larch , he insults npcs and so on. For the whole time he had been at the Spire he had been insulting knights and then host Thurl. The same thing happened during the Nighttime talk. the Barbarian decided he wanted to spar with Thurl right there and then. Thurl said no and then the Barbarian started calling him weak and so on. Keep in mind that the majority of the knights were on the roof at this time. Thurl barely containing his anger allowed the party to leave.. and then the Barbarian again singled him out. He asked everyone to leave bar the Barbarian who he fully intended just to throw off the roof. Again the Barbarian insulted him and he finally snapped and just shouted out and pointed and said 'Kill Him'. At this point half the party had headed downstairs ( 3 of them), leaving the 4 up top against some nasty odds. Currently of the 4 people up there, 3 are down and stablised and the 4th surrended (Thurl is however dead as is Savra, Ive had another Feathgale knight step up named Nathaniel) who is now the 'leader'. Nathaniel has decided to feed the characters who are there to the Birds, not knowing that the other 3 party members have delt with the Knights who are left in the remainder of the Tower.
#19 zingbobco000 Aug 26, 2015 20:39:26	Tyranthraxus wrote:
#20 Tyranthraxus Aug 26, 2015 21:13:26	I also had a 2 player.. dustup on my table. I didnt hear what happened but the barbarian player got tetchy when he was told to calm his character down and I think I did hear a 'lets take this outside' then . Before Next session Im going to make things clear that things like that DONT happen at my table. Its ruining whats a great game as we had uncomortable silence for a while.
#21 Ravix Aug 28, 2015 13:29:58	Uh, stuff like that doesn't happen period. If he does anything remotely similar, let the Store Owner know and ensure that he is banned from your store.
#22 Kalani Aug 28, 2015 16:40:13	Making threats is a clear violation of the Code of Conduct we agree to by playing in an AL game and carries significant penalties. Here is the relevant text from the AL Players Guide: Code of Conduct D&D Adventurers League play is meant to be inclusive, fun, and safe. All participants (players, Dungeon Masters, and organizers) are expected to adhere to the following code of conduct: • Participants must not conduct themselves in a manner that is disruptive to the enjoyment or safety of others at the event. • Participants noticing disruptive behavior should make those responsible for the behavior aware of their actions. If a participant feels uncomfortable bringing it to the attention of the disruptive individual, the participant should notify the organizer of the event immediately. • Participants who feel as though they are in an unsafe environment should notify the organizer of the event immediately. • The Dungeon Master has the right to ask a disruptive player to leave the table and speak with the organizer. The organizer has the right to remove a disruptive or threatening player or Dungeon Master from the play area or premises. • No tolerance is given for theft or aggressive behavior. Theft and aggressive behavior are grounds for immediate removal from the play area and the premises.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Tyranthraxus

Aug 21, 2015 0:10:16

Hi,

(Im not used to running these large modules (Im more used to running Expeditons) and my Party finally made it to the Spire. Savra greeted them and they actually made a good impression and were allowed it. She escorted them up to see Thurl and were invited to the feast (the Barbarian player in my group is NOT good with the roleplaying interactions.. and nearly cause trouble for the group so Thurl ordered his knights to take the Barbarian out of his sight). The rest of the group were invited to partcipate in a Manticore Hunt Later that day. I have a combination of Level 5's and Level 1s and 2s at the moment so trying to determine the challenge rating was tricky. I ended up including a second manticore with decreased hp and only one character went unconcious but lives.

Earlier however the Ranger in the group was making eyes at Savra and took a shine to her. They actually spared out on the edge of the valley and while he won, she didnt mind too much. Im going to have Savra talk to him about him having the right stuff to become a knight and mention Yan-C-Bin.

However the Barbarian keeps saying inappropriate things to people all the time and swilved the spyglass to check out some rocks (and not the gully at all). Im going to have Thurl direct the party to the Monastery next to placate them. The party have already met with some Earth Cultists and been attacked by them in a random encounter.

I was wondering, what happens if the Ranger decides to join the knights? It dosnt really say but does that involve getting taken to the Gully?

Nevvur

Aug 21, 2015 1:10:25

Maybe, eventually?

The way I would play the Feathergale Knights, there's a warming-up period before they reveal their true nature as cultists. The module provides for Savra dropping the hint that the Feathergale Knight's have a plan to use elemental air to crush Waterdeep's enemies, but not the actual plan, or their cult status. The appropriate amount of time before Thurl offers to initiate a PC into the Howling Hatred is just a bit longer than the party cares to wait.

In the intervening time, the FKs may provide the ranger, if he joins, an aerial mount and clues about unusual sightings related to the other cults, provided they believe the ranger and his allies will bring harm to them. At some point Yan-C-Bin is going to wise up, and realize the PCs don't have her best intentions in mind, either. They were useful in eliminating the other cults, but now they need to fall from a very high place.

Tyranthraxus

Aug 21, 2015 1:32:39

Thanks. Thurl actively dislikes the Barbarian, which has proved challenging . (Essentially the player and Character does not have a 'limiter'. I think the idea gets formed and straight out it comes) The other characters are tolerated but Thurl is wary of the Cleric of Helm who has been asking too many questions. Im going to fob them off to the Sacred Stone Monastery and Savra will tell less now to the Ranger. Thanks for the assistance.

zingbobco000

Aug 21, 2015 9:35:20

Tyranthraxus wrote:

Tyranthraxus

Aug 22, 2015 17:14:19

Nice. Ill do that!

Byakugan01

Aug 23, 2015 4:54:47

If they thuroughly explore the Sighing Valley they should fairly easily piece together that the Knights are throwing people off the Spire.

The party I ran it for also talked their way in( that is just about the only way you CAN get in at the intended level in AL anyways). They were very blunt about admiting they were searching for the missing Delegates from Mirabar. This worked well because the Air cult wasn't directly involved, so it gave Thurl a good avenue to steer the party towards the Sacred Stone Monastary and I also took the opportunity to gave them the location of Rivergard Keep as well. They won during the Manticore Hunt and they continued to act friendly, so Thurl made them a good offer. He offered the party a ride down into the Sighing Valley on the vultures/hippogriffs, but they had to agree not to enter the gorge. They inquired and he truthfully explained that it was a sacred place to them. The party agreed to the deal and they basically did a counterclockwise search of the whole valley but they honored their promise not to go anywhere near the gorge.

It is worth noting that the module is actually 'planned' out well level wise, but there is literally NOTHING stopping the PCs from just keeping on going and ending up in an area that is way past deadly for their level. They are supposed to explore all 4 Haunted Keeps before going into any of the temples, then go through the temples in roughly the same order of the keeps. But its up to the DM to either give them hints, or give them a good reason to go elsewhere.

My trick with the air gorge ended up working very well because once they did Rivergard Keep and realized the keep was guarding a Path that led ominously into the darkness, they immediately started asking me what was in the gorge they skipped and I got to give them a big grin! They were pretty beat up after clearing out Rivergard Keep so I steered them back towards town fairly easily by just describing the dark passage like it was very scary and the path back outside as bright and very safe-sounding, lol.

At the Sacred Stone Monastery I was a little less subtle...the path that led down to the Temple of Black Earth I just labled 'Path to certain death' with the marker...and I intentionally left the little cover sheet crooked so it was visible...one of the players saw it and astutely said 'OK we're not going this way!" Problem solved, lol!

Tyranthraxus

Aug 23, 2015 5:05:41

My Party dosnt do investigation very well.

Its essentially stumble stumble stumble... hey... its bandits get them!

ZHDarkstar

Aug 23, 2015 7:51:19

My table ended up approaching the spire in an obviously hostile manner, and the fight was on right from jump street. When they made the mistake of trying to take a long rest right by the bridge, I had the entire spire's residents come and capture the party. The Aarakocra came to their rescue after the party was thrown from the roof as the knights took bets on who would hit the ground first. It was also the most logical decision that week, as half of the players from the week before didn't show up and I had to figure out a way to incorporate the new players. I find that one of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome is making the drop-in nature of AL make sense in the middle of an adventure.

Tyranthraxus

Aug 23, 2015 19:42:05

How do the Aarakocra get to the party to rescue them? On the map they are many 100 of feet away and you drop like a stone in the round you fall off.

#10

Ravix

Aug 23, 2015 22:56:03

There are some chilling nearby, investigating these nefarious Knights.

#11

Tyranthraxus

Aug 23, 2015 23:13:15

Ahh.. Okay. I have a feeling my party are going to leave to locate the Foul Monks at the Monastery and then shrug their shoulders when they see the pile of garbage at the bottom below the Spire. Its a long way up so they arnt sure what it is exactly.

#12

ZHDarkstar

Aug 23, 2015 23:44:10

Tyranthraxus wrote:

#13

Tyranthraxus

Aug 24, 2015 0:02:39

What I found funny is that the Barbarian went up to the spyglass and tried to spin it around for some bizarre reason... otherwise they would of see Knifepoint Gully.

#14

Byakugan01

Aug 24, 2015 5:41:58

The write up about the aurokakra specifically suggests they might be used to save the party if they all get taken prisoner. So there is a pretty big margin for DM fiat here. Cinematically speaking though, it is an epic idea that they swoop in to catch the party like Gandalf jumping off Sarumon's tower. But it could just as easily go over feeling like a DM safety blanket. IE the party knew they should have died but the DM let them out just cuz...kinda like people who played Tomb of Horrors and survived, or people who killed Tiamat in AL during season 1. It's the DnD version of Survivor's Guilt.

#15

Ravix

Aug 24, 2015 11:45:06

Don't even get me started on the supposed "Tiamat killers" lol.

#16

Tyranthraxus

Aug 24, 2015 18:27:33

I might use them, not sure as yet.

Ive still got to get the party to investigating the sighing Valley. ( I used two Manticores in the Hunt because Ive got some level 5's in the party), they may want to investigate the nest.

Also Aaracokra dosnt meant much to any of my players in terms of good/evil. They are most all noobs.

(Reply to #16)

zingbobco000

Tyranthraxus wrote:

#18

Tyranthraxus

Aug 26, 2015 18:51:48

So,

I ran last night and a few .. strange things happened.

Ill first frame things. I have 7 players, 4 of which are 5th level and 3 are level 2. The 4 are people who carried over from my Lost Mine game and we didnt do the pre game sidequests in Red Larch.

Thus I have 'added' the same monsters in the Spire to make things a bit more deadly but not too much.

From last session Savra extended the invitation to Smaug the ranger to 'join' the knights. He then went to Thurl to say he would think about it. Thurl gave the party the chance to rest up after the Manticore hunt and he would speak to them all in the evening about information on the 'Monks' they are investigating. One guy took a long rest to level up and the Ranger freaked out and told the party abnout the offer.

the time came and the party all came up to the Summit as Thurl told them about the 'Evil Monk's at the monastery and where to find the Monastery. He then offered the Ranger the chance to join the Knights. Now Smaug here was fully freaking out thinking he would have to kill a party member. However the Knights simply presented a prisoner for Smaug to push off the edge.

I should point out here, that I have a guy that plays a Barbarian in my game. Hes currently level 5, and has issues with blurting out things (both player and character) at bad times. He insults people in Red Larch , he insults npcs and so on. For the whole time he had been at the Spire he had been insulting knights and then host Thurl.

The same thing happened during the Nighttime talk. the Barbarian decided he wanted to spar with Thurl right there and then. Thurl said no and then the Barbarian started calling him weak and so on. Keep in mind that the majority of the knights were on the roof at this time. Thurl barely containing his anger allowed the party to leave.. and then the Barbarian again singled him out. He asked everyone to leave bar the Barbarian who he fully intended just to throw off the roof.

Again the Barbarian insulted him and he finally snapped and just shouted out and pointed and said 'Kill Him'. At this point half the party had headed downstairs ( 3 of them), leaving the 4 up top against some nasty odds.

Currently of the 4 people up there, 3 are down and stablised and the 4th surrended (Thurl is however dead as is Savra, Ive had another Feathgale knight step up named Nathaniel) who is now the 'leader'. Nathaniel has decided to feed the characters who are there to the Birds, not knowing that the other 3 party members have delt with the Knights who are left in the remainder of the Tower.

#19

zingbobco000

Aug 26, 2015 20:39:26

Tyranthraxus wrote:

#20

Tyranthraxus

Aug 26, 2015 21:13:26

I also had a 2 player.. dustup on my table. I didnt hear what happened but the barbarian player got tetchy when he was told to calm his character down and I think I did hear a 'lets take this outside' then . Before Next session Im going to make things clear that things like that DONT happen at my table. Its ruining whats a great game as we had uncomortable silence for a while.

#21

Ravix

Aug 28, 2015 13:29:58

Uh, stuff like that doesn't happen period.

If he does anything remotely similar, let the Store Owner know and ensure that he is banned from your store.

#22

Kalani

Aug 28, 2015 16:40:13

Making threats is a clear violation of the Code of Conduct we agree to by playing in an AL game and carries significant penalties. Here is the relevant text from the AL Players Guide:

Code of Conduct
D&D Adventurers League play is meant to be inclusive, fun, and safe. All participants (players, Dungeon Masters, and organizers) are expected to adhere to the following code of conduct:
• Participants must not conduct themselves in a manner that is disruptive to the enjoyment or safety of others at the event.
• Participants noticing disruptive behavior should make those responsible for the behavior aware of their actions. If a participant feels uncomfortable bringing it to the attention of the disruptive individual, the participant should notify the organizer of the event immediately.
• Participants who feel as though they are in an unsafe environment should notify the organizer of the event immediately.
• The Dungeon Master has the right to ask a disruptive player to leave the table and speak with the organizer. The organizer has the right to remove a disruptive or threatening player or Dungeon Master from the play area or premises.
• No tolerance is given for theft or aggressive behavior. Theft and aggressive behavior are grounds for immediate removal from the play area and the premises.