As we say goodbye to another season of D&D Encounters we reflect and discus what we liked and did not like about season 12. I’ll admit that I think Against the Cult of Chaos was one of the better seasons of D&D Encounters we’ve had so far. I do have some criticisms, but in the grand scheme of things I think the good far outweighs the bad. Review my list and let me know your thoughts on D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos as a whole in the comments below.
Tag: Against the Cult of Chaos
This week was the grand finale of D&D Encounters season 12. The PCs would face of against the forces off evil in an attempt to seal the rip in the Chaos Mote and ensure Miska remained imprisoned. The PCs would either be successful or die trying.
We ran a party of six this week. The members included a Drow Cleric, Half-Orc Barbarian, Elf Fighter (Slayer), Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, Pixie Wizard (Witch), and Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid). In their possession were all three chaos artifacts: the Chaos Blade, Death Circlet, and Scroll of Final Words. With these three items the PCs felt that they had the means to ensure the forces of good would prevail.
Last week the PCs defeated Lareth the Beautiful and his minions. This week we began with the PCs returning to Hommel Lane from the Moat House. In the centre of town a crowd had gathered around the statue of Haffron Hommel. It seemed that the statue was now smiling. As the PCs approached the statue it spoke. “It feels incredible to be whole again, even if I cannot move!” it said.
Today Dungeon’s Master and 20ft Radius are proud to present a special episode of our podcast, Recounting Encounters. In this episode we talk to Shawn Merwin, one of the authors of this season’s adventure Against the Cult of Chaos.
Shawn is a freelance writer and game designer with a long list of impressive gaming credits to his name. His writing credits for Wizards of the Coast include Dungeon Delve, Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress, and Halls of Undermountain. He’s also been a very active member of the D&D public-play community having written for Living Greyhawk (LG) and Living Forgotten Realms (LFR). Most recently Shawn was one of the authors of the D&D Encounters season 11 adventure War of Everlasting Darkness and this season’s adventure Against the Cult of Chaos.
In week 2 this party visited the Moat House and nearly got wiped out by the bandits. This week they finally decided it was time to return to the Moat House and investigate the strange happening going on in the dungeon level below the old fort.
I ran a party of five that included a Half-Orc Barbarian, Drow Cleric, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), and Drow Wizard. I’ve now got seven regular players rotating in and out of my group, but their respective schedules have kept at least one away for the past month. Next week I expect all of them to be there for the finale which should make things interesting.
Last week the party stormed the Temple of the Lawbringer and faced off against Bullywugs, Wights and Priestess Devi. After the fight the PCs took a short rest and that’s where we picked things up.
This week I ran a table of six. One of our regulars was absent but another player brought a friend. I’ve had a brand new player at my table every week since we started. The fact that they all keep coming back is a good sign. The party included a Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Half-Orc Barbarian, Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, and Syndrina the Drow Paladin (Cavalier) pre-gen.
As the PCs searched the basement of the temple they found a Drow in one of the cells. Since we already had two Drow in the party we said that they knew her. This made adding the new PC marginally plausible. In the other cells they found evidence that people were held here recently although no one was there now.
We began this session in the cellar of the Golden Grain Inn. The PCs defeated Bertram, Derek, four goons and two Bullywugs last week. With the festivities still going full force upstairs they didn’t know how long they had before these guys were missed. They took a short rest, cleaned up evidence of the fight and moved the bodies into the secret passage. Hopefully this would buy them some time if anyone got curious and came to check on things.
This week we continued to draw in new players at our FLGS. Two of my friends visiting from out of town joined us as well as three brand new players and the return of a player who was absent for the past few sessions. Had we not had a few regulars absent we wouldn’t have had room to accommodate everyone at the three tables in the store. As it was I ran a table of seven PCs. The party included an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch), Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Drow Wizard, Svirfneblin Seeker, Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen and once again Fargrim the Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.
Last week the PCs traveled to the Caves of Chaos where they faced wave after wave of monstrous minions. They managed to save Otis, retrieve the Chaos Blade, and escape with their lives. They were too wounded to make the long trip back to Hommel Lane so they camped and took an extended rest.
They questioned Otis who was very forthcoming. He explained that the ghost who helped them was none other than Hafferon Hommel. He told Otis and his adventuring party all about what was really going on including that existence of a chaos mote, an imprisoned deity of evil trying to escape a celestial prison, and three items of power that were needed to seal the rift and stop this god from slipping through. The first item was the Chaos Blade blade which the party now possessed. The second was the Scroll of Final Words which the ghost beleived was in possession of an evil cleric known as “Beautiful.” The third was the Death Circlet which was currently in the possession of great evil near Hommel Lane.
This week I ran a table of five PCs. Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch), Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Drow Wizard, and Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.
Last week the party faced the bandits in the Moat House, this week they ventured to the Caves of Chaos. One of the things that I’m really enjoying about this season of D&D Encounters is that the players decide the order of events.
Despite some inclement weather in the GTA we still had a remarkably good turnout. We ran three solid tables with only two regulars absent. However, we had one new player show up so that was a plus. I think it really speaks to the quality of this season’s adventure that the players aren’t finding excuses to miss weeks. In the past a little bit of snow might have kept 1/3 of our regulars away, but not this season.
My table had four players from last week and one brand new guy. The returning players were running an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch) and Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid). The player who was running the Fargrim pre-gen last week brought a Half-Orc Barbarian this week. Our fifth player was brand new to D&D having never played any edition before. He opted for Ryltar, the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.
Beginning this week every party participating in this season’s adventure will have the option of following one of three adventure paths. So there is a strong likelihood that the path my group took this week will not match the path your group took this week. It’s going to be tough to describe what happened without giving away some spoilers. Please be mindful of this as you continue reading.
Players who don’t want to know what’s still to come may want to delay reading this recap until they’ve had an opportunity to complete this part of the adventure. DMs who have not yet run this adventure path can hopefully learn from my ups and downs to make their DMing experience better when the time comes.
This week we had a great turn out as our numbers continued to grow. We had three tables with five players each. We haven’t seen this kind of turnout since the Dark Sun adventure back in season 2. My table had five players: two new players (one brand new last week, one brand new this week) along with three seasoned veterans (one a DM at another FLGS). The party consisted of an Elf Slayer, Pixie Wizard (Witch), Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), and Fargrim the Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.
D&D Encounters Season 12, Against the Cult of Chaos, is finally underway. After a long break, Wednesday night D&D returned to FLGS across the country and around the world. This season returns to the more traditional D&D Encounters mold with one normal encounter each week. For an overview of what’s on tap this season I encourage you to check out our D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos – Preview.
One significant change this time around is that DMs have a choice of running the adventure using the 4e D&D mechanics provided in the adventure or downloading the play test kit and running it using the D&D Next rules. At both FLGS where I play we polled our regulars to gauge their interest. We had one or two at both locations say they were interested in trying D&D Next but they wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if we stuck with 4e. As none of the DMs have been involved in recent D&D Next play testing we opted to just stick with the 4e rules we already know.
At our FLGS we had 15 people, just enough to split into three tables. Despite losing a few of our regulars after the long break, we did have three brand new players join the fun. I got a good mix of experience and anticipation at my table. The party consisted of a Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Pixie Wizard (Witch), and Elf Fighter (Slayer). The player running the Ardent is the DM this season at another FLGS and the player running the Slayer was playing D&D for the very first time in any edition.
SPOILER WARNING: This season the party is given a lot of freedom to explore the town of Hommel Lane in whatever order they see fit. There are three threats to the village that can be uncovered and tackled in any order. If you have problems separating player knowledge from character knowledge then you may want to skip these weekly recaps until after you’ve completed week 7.