ll right Game Fans, we’re back with another look at the first season of Dungeons and Dragons organized play, The Tyranny of Dragons. We are looking at this from the perspective of participating in the Adventurer’s League organized play campaign, so we’ll focus on it from that and go from there. Today we’re going to check out DDEX 1-8 Tales Trees Tell, and DDEX 1-9 Outlaws of the Iron Route.
DDEX 1-8 Tales Trees Tell
Tales Trees Tell is the eighth adventure in the Tyranny of Dragons season for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. A tenuous peace exists between the city of Phlan and its elven neighbors. Recent interactions have threatened this tenuous peace and someone is going to have to take action to prevent hostilities and violence. It’s a good thing we know some adventurers, isn’t it?
This adventure is written for characters between levels 1 and 4, (and if you’ve read the other articles in this series) Adventurer’s League puts this as a hard cap (so you’ll have to find something else for your 5th level hero to do). Adventurer’s League is for a group of three to seven players, with five being the optimal number.
Now that we’ve got the number crunching out of the way, let’s talk about the story you’re looking at. This adventure is a a bit of a search and rescue. A local has gone missing, and his disappearance can cause a heap of trouble between the folk of the Phlan and their Elven neighbors in The Quivering Forest. The adventure follows a fairly quick course of action starting with an investigation, leading into an overland search. It’s a different type of adventure than we’ve seen so far from the Adventurer’s League, so embrace the new.
Part 1: Kabel’s Hill
This portion of the adventure starts with the players arriving in the small outpost of Kabel’s Hill. Something strange has happened, and the town is in an uproar. Fortunately for the town, a party of brave adventurers has recently shown up and can save them from this trouble in exchange for gold. This is exacerbated by the return of a critically wounded townsfolk who will serve as the springboard into the rest of the adventure.
This adventure does an excellent job of covering a neglected area of role-playing games. Actions performed by people have consequences to the larger world around them. If a townsfolk hadn’t decided to do something rash, the party of tonwsfolk wouldn’t have gone into the woods after him and endangered the peace. This wouldn’t have caused a party of adventurers to further aggravate the situation by chasing after the first group of would be rescuers. If you’re designing your own adventures, think about how events affect the world around the people who are performing them.
Part 2: Outside Kabel’s Hill
The second portion of this adventure is a follow up to several different plot elements that the players discover in part 1. There are several different directions that the players can go with this part of the adventure. Each lead that they follow is going to give them a legup for the next section, but a particularly bull headed party could try to skip ahead, or take off after they’ve gotten their first clue. If you think they can handle it, let them. The next section of the adventure could be rough without details, but they aren’t essential to the story.
This is another first for the AL, as this part of the adventure has a non-linear structure. The players can follow the leads in whatever order they would like, and the adventure structure is open to that. If you’re playing this adventure, i suggest you follow as many leads as you find because they are a part of the story immersion that makes Dungeons and Dragons different from other games. If you’re running this adventure and planning on writing your own, take a look at how this section is structured so you have a reference.
Part 3: The Quivering Forest
The players are close to finding the source of all this trouble and rescuing mission townsfolk. All they have to do is navigate a spooky forest, deal with angry elves and fey creatures, and treat with a powerful creature that the denizens of Phlan count as an ally. No pressure right? This section has several different ways of dealing with the crisis, but ultimately the players may be able to mend fences between Phlan and an ally. Also they have the option of burning that fence to the ground if they decide to go that direction.
This adventure is full of firsts, and this section should be no surprise. The end “boss” of this encounter is a Green Hag named Jeny Greenteeth. She is an intelligent monster, who’s been using her fey magic to keep an eye on the characters from an early point in the adventure. She’s also an enemy that can be reasoned with and talked to. It’s POSSIBLE to completely avoid combat with Jeny and still save the day. Once the players have dealt with the Hag and the consequences of that choice, the adventure is over and it’s time to count up the gp and xp.
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 600 experience points, while the maximum is 750 points. If you’re a brand new character, the minimum experience points you earned will get you into level 2 and halfway to level 3 The maximum will put 150 experience points off of level 3. If you are continuing this adventure season after playing DDEX 1-7, you’ll be somewhere between 2800 experience points and 3500 experience points, which puts you firmly in level 4.
- 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. There are a few that can show up in this adventure, and one of them is a permanent magic item.
- Downtime Days: This one’s easy. Everyone gets 10 downtime days for playing through this adventure. If this is your eighth Tyranny of Dragons adventure, (and you’re playing them in order) you should have 85 downtime days.
- Renown: Everybody should earn a point of renown if you are a member of a faction. Depending on your actions and your faction, you can also gain an additional point of renown.
So now that you’ve completed Tales Trees Tell, check your character, level up if you need to, pick up additional gear and get ready for the next adventure.
DDEX1-9 Outlaws of the Iron Route
Outlaws of the Iron Route is the ninth adventure in the Tyranny of Dragons season for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. The Iron Route is a major tradeway that connects Phlan to other cities, and it is currently awash in bandits. What’s worse, these bandits are competing for resources and are choking off the lifelines that are bringing supplies into the city. Someone’s going to have to deal with this problem in order to get the trade flowing back into the city.
This adventure is written for characters between levels 1 and 4, (and if you’ve read the other articles in this series) Adventurer’s League puts this as a hard cap (so you’ll have to find something else for your 5th level hero to do). Adventurer’s League is for a group of three to seven players, with five being the optimal number.
Part 1: Riot in Phlan
For the First time in a while, the adventurers are actually starting their adventure in Phlan proper. The city is on edge because trade has been slowed down by bandit attacks. A riot occurs, and the players have an opportunity to pick up a job hunting some bandits down. This sounds like our kind of adventure.
This is a nice change of pace from the last few adventures. The opening segment doesn’t feature a lot of tracking down and finding bad guys or story hooks. There’s a problem that needs a solution, and the players are the best option for that problem. Straightforward adventures can be a lot of fun and this change of dynamic is welcome refreshment from the investigation heavy starts we’ve had previously. There is a faction assignment for players belonging to the Lord’s Alliance, so keep an eye out for that.
Part 2: Grimshackle Jail
Grimshackle Jail offers a variety of interesting situations and solutions for enterprising players. The only major lead that was offered in the previous part is currently a prisoner in Grimshackle Jail. Questioning the prisoner is only going to get them so far, and the players may have to pull something drastic to secure his information.
This turns a traditional adventure idea on its head, as the players have to escape from a secure location rather than sneaking into it. Take your time and think your way through this, it’ll give you a lot of interesting situations and encounters to play through.
Part 3: King’s Pyre
By hook or by crook, the adventurers have found the location where one of the bandits are operating from. This is a fairly traditional site based adventure where the players are expected to push their way in, kill the bad guys and take their stuff. Keep an eye on the timing for the players and how well they are doing, because surprises are coming.
Part 4: Orc Assault
Oh crap, there are Orcs at the Gates. As the events of part 3 hit their stride, Orc mercenaries show up looking to kick in heads and murder everything. By the time the players are aware of what’s going on, the trouble has arrived in force, and they have to put down this fresh wave of orcs. If they survive, the rewards are going to be mighty.
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 third 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 put you 300 experience points from level 3. If you are continuing this adventure season after playing DDEX1-6, you’ll either be somewhere between 3250 experience points and 4100 experience points, which puts you firmly in level 4.
- Gold Pieces: This one’s 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 ninth Tyranny of Dragons adventure, (and you’re playing them in order) you should have 95 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 Outlaws of the Iron Route, 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 DDEX1-10 Tyranny in Phlan, and DDEX 1-11 Dark Pyramid of Sorcerer’s Isle.
Game on, Game Fans.
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