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Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”
I relish each opportunity to turn an otherwise regular combat encounter into a role-playing scenario. My group of players are definitely combat-oriented, and prefer to meet most situations with violence. But if there’s a chance to break up the murderous rampage into something a bit more interesting, I’ll take it.
In this week’s session our heroes continued exploring the various camps set up at Scarlet Moon Hall. Druids and others from around the land have convened to witness a questionable ritual. The party decided to go camp-to-camp questioning each group FBI-style. This put every camp on edge.
Some camps are outright hostile, like a group of bugbears and worgs chillin’ out at the East side, and a simple fight erupted. A fight in which I couldn’t hit a single PC!
Traveling West they ran into another group of druids. The truth is that one of them was a Priest of the Crushing Wave, sent by the water cult to observe any fire cult shenanigans. I described him as a bit paler than his companions, and Kalinaar seized the chance to grab him by the wrist and expose his cult tattoos and symbols. A few successful skill checks later (one having to use Inspiration) and the cultist was outed.
What unfolded was an interesting little role-playing scenario where the PCs had to convince the other druids that their Gestapo-like hunts were totally fine, and these cultists were super evil. I tried to make a point to include my other players, as Kalinaar tends to take over each RP scenario. His player took numerous theatre classes and performances in HS and you can tell he enjoys and is comfortable with responding in these situations.
The others actually seemed a bit frustrated with how I role-played the druids. To me they’re basically hippies at a gathering. Their responses are more “what the hell, man” instead of “oh my word!” I also had the three of them arguing about what to do with this false druid.
Ultimately Miri stepped in and offered money to the druids to take the cultist to Waterdeep. That is a crazy far journey, and one in which the druids will most likely not complete. But they did accept the money and agreed to take him – mainly because this scenario had started fizzling. I could kind of sense everyone wanted to get back to the killing.
At this point one of my players, a doctor, got called in to work. We decided to hit one more camp for the evening.
The camp in the middle contained a pair of werewolves trying to figure out what this ritual was all about. Once again Kalinaar hailed them and tried to suss out who they were and what was going on.
The werewolves were already agitated by their presence and quickly attacked, and just as quickly went down. I finally got one solid hit on Miri – the only damage the party has taken since arriving.
Scarlet Moon Hall is taking us awhile thanks to real life stuff slowing us down. It’s also a bit more routine than I was hoping. Part of the problem is that my PCs are pretty darn strong, and are wiping out each camp before the fighting alerts the next one. They’re also barely breaking a sweat, so the attrition of multiple fights has little effect on them.
Still, I’m looking forward to the action in and around the tower. I also have a nifty role-playing scenario cooked up for one of my players. Hopefully it’ll go off a little better.
Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!
RogueWatson 