Adventurer's League Season 2 (Part 3, Lower Level Track)

All right Game Fans, we’re continuing with our look at the 2nd season of the Adventurer’s League for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition.  Unlike last season, we’re not going to take these adventures in numeric order, but we’ve split them up into two different tracks based off of their suggested character level.  Today we’re looking at two adventures for the lower level track, DDEX 2-6: Breath of the Yellow Rose, and DDEX 2-7: Bounty in the Bog.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 2

DDEX 2-6 Breath of the Yellow Rose

All right Game Fans, Season 2 of Adventurer”s League (The Elemental Evil Story Arc) continues with a terrible mystery.  The ancient monastic order of the Yellow Rose has long practiced its ascetic lifestyle, which has recently caught on with the rich and powerful of Mulmaster.  Unfortunately, some of the new practitioners of this ancient art have started dropping dead.  Someone’s going to have to investigate this before it gets more out of hand.  

DDEX 2-6: Breath of the Yellow Rose, is designed for 1st thru 4th 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 5th level or higher are not playable in this adventure.  This specific adventure is built to run in four parts, but has an opening scene to introduce the characters to the events going on throughout the adventure. .  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.

Note: This adventure is optimised for level 3 characters, which means the threats are going to hit a little harder and the traps are going to be a little more dangerous, i would not suggest bringing a 1st level character to this adventure.

Opening Interlude: The Party

Before the adventure kicks off, there are several hooks that can draw a party of adventurers into this caper, and two of these hooks are faction assignments.  Other options include hired on as guards, or if you have a character with the Noble background, they can end up just being invited.  

This scene serves two purposes for the adventure.  First, it gives characters an opportunity to socialize with other party goers and learn some interesting background information about what’s happening around the realms.  Second, It introduces the Yellow Rose as a philosophy to the players and gives them several leads to consider following to start the adventure proper.  

Part 1:  Pleas

A member of the local nobility requests the assistance of the characters to solve a potential crisis/scandal before it becomes an issue.  If you’ve played these adventures in relative order, This is the 2nd time the party has encountered this particular noble, and they may have previously pulled his bacon from the fire.  He has a wealth of information that should give the players ideas and directions on where to go next, and how to proceed with the remaining sections of the adventure.  

Part 2: Inquiry

Building off of the leads gained in Part 1, the characters are off on a search across the city of Mulmaster.  The order they follow these leads from Part I don’t particularly matter, so if you’re DMin this part, make sure you read each section and be ready to run them out of order.  The characters can pick up a lot of information about what’s going on with the Yellow Rose, and if they are following one of the Faction Assignment Quests, a member of the Order of the Gauntlet can pick up a point of renown.

Part 3:  From Above

Unlike a traditional Narrative, Part 3 interrupts the flow of Part 2 and injects a little combat into an otherwise bloodless adventure.  If you’re DMing, make sure you read the pacing directions for when to spring Part 3 so that it hits at a right time.  

Part 4: The Mulmaster Job

This is the most traditional portion of the adventure from a gaming standpoint, as the characters must enter a location, explore it to find a specific thing (in this case a person) and fight their way back out through determined resistance.  Aside from the set being a little different, this is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawling expedition.  This section gives players multiple ways to think through the problems at hand, and rewards some clever thinking.  The secrets of the Yellow Rose are here for the taking, if the players are quick on their feet.  Once the characters have finished this portion of the adventure, they’ll hopefully be in good enough shape to return to the noble who originally hired them for this job, and the adventure is over.  

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:  For completing this adventure, your character will gain anywhere between 900 and 1200 experience points, depending on how things end up going and how many people are playing.  If this is your first adventure in your Adventurer’s League career, you should be level 3.  If you’re continuing from DDEX 2-5, you’ll end up with between 2275 and 2900 experience points.  There’s a greater likelihood that you’ll be level 3 than level 4, but you might get to level 4.  Getting to level 4 gives you the option of using the catching up usage of Downtime that will let you trade downtime days to get to level 5.  

·         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 you are continuing from Flames of Kythorn, you should end up with 45 Downtime Days.  

·         Renown: All faction members receive 1 point of renown for participating in this adventure.  Further, members of the Lord’s Alliance and Order of the Gauntlet have the opportunity to earn an additional point.  

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

DDEX 2-7 Bounty in the Bog

All right Game Fans, Season 2 of Adventurer”s League (The Elemental Evil Story Arc) continues with a rather straightforward job request.  Bandits have been marauding all over the southlands and the Soldiery is hiring some adventurers to deal with the situation and deal with these troublemakers.  Good thing we know a band of adventurers, right?

DDEX 2-7: Bounty in the Bog, is designed for 1st thru 4th 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 5th level or higher are not playable in this adventure.  This specific adventure is built to run in three parts.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.  (The version of the module i have says it’s for characters level 5-10, this is a typo)

Note: This adventure is optimised for level 3 characters, which means the threats are going to hit a little harder and the traps are going to be a little more dangerous, i would not suggest bringing a 1st level character to this adventure.

Part 1:  Hazards on the Road

The trip south is included as part of an offer to guard a caravan.  It’s good work for a party of adventurers, and the caravan master is offering a nice piece of cash for the extra security.  The extra security pays off, because the caravan runs into trouble along the way, and it becomes an interesting day of managing problems.  There’s also an option to track bad guys back to their lair and steal their stuff.  

Part 2: Foreboding Forest

This section of the adventure presumes that the adventurers are going to look even closer for a bigger bandit lair to take them out.  This restores some sense of security and removes the bandits as a major threat.  The characters bump into a wandering patrol of natives who are also not happy that the bandits are hanging out in their part of the region.  There’s a nice combat encounter with some trouble making bugs, and then the characters can encounter the heart of the bandit crisis in part 3.

Part 3:  Subterranean Surprise

The third act of this adventure wraps up with a little bit of exploring, some combat, and a hell of a surprise guest star.  There are a lot of things going on in this Earth Elemental Node, and the characters can discover a lot of information and details about the larger elemental evil storyline.  The final battle of this combat can be extremely dangerous for an unprepared party, so keep your eyes open and your mind ready to go.  

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:  This adventure rewards between 450 and 600 experience points for completing it, depending on how things went.  If this is your first night at Adventurer’s League, you should be at 2nd level, working your way to 3rd.  If you’re playing this adventure after you’ve completed Breath of the Yellow Rose, you’re going to have between 2725 and 3500 experience points.  Your character is definitely 4th level at this point.  

·         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 you are continuing from Embers of Elmwood you should have 55 downtime days.

·         Renown:  Each player completing this adventure earns a point of renown with their faction.  Harper, Emerald Enclave, and Lord’s Alliance faction characters have the opportunity to earn an additional point of renown.  

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

All right Game Fans, that’s our review of these two adventures.  Next week we’ll be back to take a look at DDEX 2-8:Foulness beneath Mulmaster and DDEX 2-10: Cloaks and Shadows.  If you need to check back on the rest of our season 2 write up, you can find it here: http://zardozgames.blogspot.com/p/adventurers-league-season-2-compilation.html

Game On, Game Fans