So I know there have been some posts from Steve Winter on HotDQ corrections, the issues they ran into with stat blocks being in flux etc. But has anyone really figured out who is who in this dang cult at any given time?
In episode one, players run through the streets of Greenest fighting "Cultists" and "Acolytes" and maybe a "Dragonclaw" (only once mentioned as far as I can see),
but in the Prisoners mission, we are told that most of the "cultists" are just mercenaries. The townmaster asks the PCs to bring him an "commander" of some sort, pointing out a "wearer of purple" but declaring that one is probably too ambitious, so go for a lower ranking officer. Well what does that mean? How would a player identify that level of middle management, when another subtext describes the "wearers of purple" to be the middle management on up to the highest authority. Are we to assume that the PCs have to capture a Dragonclaw? No. The text says explicitly "All the players need to do is bring a live cultist or Cult of the Dragon initiate back to the keep." Either or, huh? Whats the difference again? So the players go out and do their best to capture somebody and then the text breaks it down as to what different levels of prisoners might say. Ignoring Kobolds because we know what they are, the next level up says "captured mercenaries or bandits talk freely" Wait who? There are no "bandits" or "mercenaries" mentioned an any of these missions. Lastly, the "cultists and initiates are the most tight-lipped" What if they capture an Acolyte? What would they have to say?
Later in episode 2, at the Rearguard encounter, the "cultists" and "gaurd" self-identify as "initiates" but are also described as "dedicated cultists" and we are told that they are wearing some nifty black tunics that the PCs have not yet encountered. On the previous page the subtext tells us that initiates choose their affinity for a chromatic dragon and then become a dragonclaw.
So it seems to me that there used to be an "initiate" statblock which was later ommited (or maybe became Acolyte?) and also that we should have bandit and/or mercenary stat blocks and they should feature in the encounters, both formal and random.
The very first cultists my PCs encountered, I described as wearing black tunics. Ofcourse they all grabbed them to be used as disguies latter. Only I had to retcon that once they got to episode two.
I would just like a bit more clarity as to how I should intrepret "cultists" at any given time and describe to my players what they look like or are wearing.
Lastly who the heck are these guys supposed to be?
"Cult of the Dragon Enforcer" by name, but he sure looks like an unmasked version of a Dragonclaw, pictured on page 71, and he fits the description of the dedicated cultists (initiates?) described in the Rearguard encounter.
Thank you Lumenbeing, you know doing fashion for the Army is an incredible thing but today I'd like to talk about Cultists, I'd like to talk about the enemy and what they're wearing. They're wearing black. I say you can fight in the jungle in it and at night put on some pearls and you're ready for formal wear, this says it all to me, it's kind of a Hefner thing. They're dressed in pajamas, it's casual it says I can fight or I can just lay around.
Thank_Dog wrote: