Adventurer's League Season 1 (Part 2)

Adventurer’s League Season 1, part II

Afternoon Game Fans, last week we talked about getting you started with the D & D Adventurer’s League organized play campaign, and we’re back to get you started with a couple more adventures, and gear you up for the newest season of organized play.  More on that at the end, but right now we’ve got two more adventures to cover.  Let’s get going on our review of the Tyranny of Dragons.

Today’s adventures are DDEX1-2 (Secrets of Sokol Keep) and DDEX 1-3 (Shadows over the Moonsea).

 

DDEX1-2

Secrets of Sokol Keep is a bit of a mystery solving adventure located at an isolated locale on a small island outside of Phlan.  The lighthouse that dominates the island has gone dark, and the garrison has been silenced.  What sinister secrets are hiding in the keep, and how can our intrepid heroes solve the mystery of Sokol Keep? 

Like most of these very early adventures, DDEX1-2 is designed for 1^st thru 4^th level characters, with an average party size of 5 suggested.  For Adventurer’s League play, the level range is a hard ceiling, and characters of 5^th level or higher are not playable in this adventure.  This adventure is built with taking a single session in mind, so you should be able to finish it in a single session barring extraordinary circumstances.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game. 

Note 1: This is a 3 part adventure, so you can pace yourself accordingly. 

Part 1:  This portion of the adventure focuses on establishing the characters in the city of Phlan and introduces them to some of the many inhabitants.  If this is your first adventure, take the time and interact with the non-player characters.  It will give you an opportunity to play with the dice and see under the hood of how the mechanics of the game work.  There may be a spot of trouble, but you and your friends should be able to handle it.  With a little more wrangling, you should be able to get access to the isolated island that Sokol Keep rests on, and may get your first faction assignment. 

Part 2:  If you’ve ever wanted to experience the joy of Scooby Doo style mystery investigation, this is the adventure you’ve been waiting for.  Creepy servants, a spooky, storm wracked island, and the possibility of things that could be ghosts are ever present in this environment.  Really look around and get used to interacting with the environment in this section of the adventure.  Follow the clues, find the thing.

Part 3:  The finale of this adventure turns off the Scooby Doo and turns up the scary.  This could be your first encounter with some of the most prevalent monsters in the Dungeons and Dragons environment, and you should enjoy the thrill of combat.  Roll the dice and see what happens.  If you make it to the end, you probably found yourself some shiny new treasure. 

Aftermath: 

So as a character in the adventurer’s league, you have three primary rewards you’re aiming for, and the occasional extra bit of stuff.  Let’s go over your Downtime Days, your Experience Points, Your Gold Pieces, and your renown.    If you’re not playing in an Adventurer’s League group, you don’t need to track these on your log sheet, but keep an eye on your numbers.

·         Experience Points:  Experience points for this adventure will vary depending on the path you take through it.  The minimum amount of experience you’ll earn for this expedition is 450 experience points, while the maximum is 600 points.    If you’re a brand new character, the minimum experience points you earned will get you into level 2 with 150 to spare, while the maximum will do that and get you half way to level 3.  If you are continuing this adventure season after playing DDEX 1-1, you’ll either be at 950 experience points or 1100 experience points, which puts you firmly in level 3. 

·         Gold Pieces:  This ones’ a little trickier, because GP is calculated based off of the number of players at a table.  There’s enough treasure available that you should certainly be able to pick up some extra supplies or replace ones that you expended during the adventure.  Keep an eye out for any handy magical items that may show up.

·         Downtime Days:  This one’s easy.  Everyone gets 10 downtime days for playing through this adventure.  If this is your second Tyranny of Dragons adventure, (and you’re playing them in order) you should have 35 downtime days. 

·         Renown:  Everybody should earn a point of renown, and if you completed a secret mission for a faction you may be a member of, you’ll get an additional point. 

So now that you’ve completed Secrets of Sokol Keep, check your character, level up if you need to, pick up additional gear and get ready for the next adventure.

DDEX1-3 Shadows over the Moonsea

There is a looming shadow across the entire Moonsea.  Bandits, monsters, and Pirates (really just sea bandits) strike with impunity and take what they want.  The only clues left in the wake of their raids are survivors babbling about the “eye of the Dracolich.”  Will you and your brave companions dig into this mystery and what will you find waiting for you?

This is an adventure written in five separate parts for characters between level 1 and 4.  Again, with an Adventurer’s League table these are hard limits, and higher level characters will have to wait for a different adventure.  This adventure has 5 parts, but some of the parts are shorter scenes that reflect combat and mayhem.

Part 1:  The adventure begins with a gold old fashioned investigation into weird stuff.  This is primarily a role-playing/investigation part, but everyone should be able to find something to do during the investigation.  You’re going to find a bunch of clues that may not make any sense without working with other party members and npcs.  You’ll also have the opportunity to pick up two different faction assignments if you stay in school and study all the right books.  Once you’ve finished your intel gathering, it’s time to go do some investigation!

Part 2:  Once you’ve got enough information to make a decision, it’s time for a travel scene.  This one is primarily road travel towards another settlement, but careful observation and some deductive thinking can give you some more information about the shenanigans that are affecting the Moonsea.  Keep your eyes peeled and listen for stuff.

Part 3:  You’ve finished your travels, and made it to a different settlement that is chock full of clues, mysteries, and neat things.  The clues are important and finding most of them helps you setup for the last two parts of the adventure.  There are many interesting background details that you can discover in this town if you go looking around.

Part 4:  There’s something to be said for the type of battle you’re about to get yourself into.  I won’t spoil the fun for you, but this is the first major opportunity for combat you’ve had during this adventure, so enjoy the hell out of it.  If you’ve just gotten to level 3, enjoy your new spells and abilities. 

Part 5:  The grand finale of this adventure, you get to explore combat in a new environment.  You’ve finally found the source of the trouble and have an opportunity to put an end to this threat to the Moonsea forever.  Be ready for an interesting encounter and some new enemies you haven’t encountered before. 

Aftermath:

So as a character in the adventurer’s league, you have three primary rewards you’re aiming for, and the occasional extra bit of stuff.  Let’s go over your Downtime Days, your Experience Points, Your Gold Pieces, and your renown.    If you’re not playing in an Adventurer’s League group, you don’t need to track these on your log sheet, but keep an eye on your numbers. (If you’re playing Adventurer’s League, you might be starting your second log sheet, if you don’t have one, ask the DM)

·         Experience Points:  Experience points for this adventure will vary depending on the path you take through it.  The minimum amount of experience you’ll earn for this expedition is 450 experience points, while the maximum is 600 points.    If you’re a brand new character, the minimum experience points you earned will get you into level 2 with 150 to spare, while the maximum will do that and get you half way to level 3.  If you are continuing this adventure season after playing DDEX 1-1 and DDEX 1-2, you’ll either be somewhere between 1300 experience points and 1700 experience points, which puts you firmly in level 3. 

·         Gold Pieces:  This ones’ a little trickier, because GP is calculated based off of the number of players at a table.  There’s enough treasure available that you should certainly be able to pick up some extra supplies or replace ones that you expended during the adventure.  Keep an eye out for any handy magical items that may show up.

·         Downtime Days:  This one’s easy.  Everyone gets 10 downtime days for playing through this adventure.  If this is your third Tyranny of Dragons adventure, (and you’re playing them in order) you should have 45 downtime days. 

·         Renown:  Everybody should earn a point of renown, and if you completed a secret mission for a faction you may be a member of, you’ll get an additional point. 

So now that you’ve completed Shadow over the Moonsea, check your character, level up if you need to, pick up additional gear and get ready for the next adventure.

Those are two adventures for this week, check back next week for a look at DDEX1-4 Dues for the Dead, and DDEX 1-5 The Courting of Fire.

 

Game on, Game Fans.

 

As an after the section note, if you’re gearing up for the newest adventure season (Season 5) to correspond to Storm King’s Thunder, you’re going to need  the newest version of the Adventurer’s League player’s guide (Downloadable from http://www.dmsguild.com/product/190680/Storm-Kings-Thunder-Adventurers-League-Players-Guide-5e?src=newest_in_al).  The most important change I saw when I looked through it is that a player can choose 1 supplement for their character (Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion or the upcoming Volo’s Guide to Monsters).   Gear up for Season 5 and watch out for those tricky giants.