Adventurer's League Season 2 (Part 4, 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 2-8: Foulness Beneath Mulmaster, and DDEX 2-10: Cloaks and Shadows.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 2

DDEX 2-8 Foulness Beneath Mulmaster

All right Game Fans, Season 2 of Adventurer”s League (The Elemental Evil Story Arc) picks up with something rotten beneath Mulmaster.  Something’s afoot and some brave adventurers are needed to investigate the depths of Mulmaster and root out the nefariousness.  Good thing we know some adventurers who are up for a sewer crawl.  

DDEX 2-8: Foulness Beneath Mulmaster, 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, and follows a direct, linear structure.  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.

Note: The level guidelines for this adventure are off, and it is intended for characters level 1-4, with an optimization for 3rd level characters rather than the 6th level characters suggested in the opening.  

Part 1: Into the Sewers

A weird, mysterious body has been found near the entrance to the sewers beneath Mulmaster, and the local watch has politely asked some adventurers to investigate the problem.  This kicks off a dungeon crawl of an adventure, where the adventurers will progress deeper and deeper into a dungeon in search of answers, loot, and probably mischief.  It’s also a nice play on the “Our sewers are so terrible we hire adventurers to clear them out” idea that shows up now and again in fantasy gaming.  The sewer adventure bodes ill for the lovers of cleanliness in a party, but the sewers hold a wealth of information and clues to something.  

Part 2: The Outer Tomb

The only difference between most dungeons and most sewer systems is the level of water and the smell.  This section of the adventure moves towards a more traditional dungeon crawl, but there are secrets and mischief everywhere.  There are a couple of ways for this part to play out, depending on what the players decide to do.  Combat is always an option, but there might be other ways of handling this business.  

Part 3:  The Inner Tomb

Part 3 of this adventure shifts into exploration mode as the adventurers need to navigate their way through the area and successfully deal with a variety of interesting/annoying factors to solve the mystery that they didn’t realize they were in.  There’s a variety of treasure and other shiny things in this part, but the very real potential of dying painfully.  Keep your wits about you and you might make it through.  After the party has completed this section, they’ll need to return to the surface and deal with the City watch that sent them on their way.  

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 1,200 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 2-7, you’ll end up with between 3,675 and 4,700 experience points.  This puts you firmly in the middle of level 4.  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 Bounty in the Bog, you should end up with 65 Downtime Days.  

·         Renown: All faction members receive 1 point of renown for participating in this adventure.  

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

DDEX 2-10 Cloaks and Shadows

All right Game Fans, Season 2 of Adventurer”s League (The Elemental Evil Story Arc) continues with a rather straightforward job interview.  Mulmaster’s arcane society, The Cloaks, have taken an interest in a group of adventurers, and are considering sponsorship for the arcane practitioners.  All the adventurers need to do is pass the interview, right?  

DDEX 2-10: Cloaks and Shadows, 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.  

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:  The Interview

The adventure starts off with a fairly straightforward meeting to determine whether or not The Cloaks will sponsor the arcane spellcasters in the party for membership in their order.  This has a few helpful benefits for them, the most important of which is being able to legally cast spells in Mulmaster.  Forces conspire against the adventurers that cut their meeting short and see them accused of a heinous crime they didn’t commit.  The adventurers will have to hurry to clear their names and track down the real criminals.

Part 2: The Investigation Begins

The adventurers have been accused of an ugly crime and have to work quickly to track down leads to clear their name.  This section of the adventure let’s the players choose the direction their investigation takes, and each of the locations can be tracked down in any given order.  The other thing to keep in mind is that the adventurers are being hunted by the city watch and will have to keep their heads down while they conduct their investigation.  

Part 3:  The Plot Thickens….

The investigation has led the adventurers around Mulmaster on a search for clues.  FInally, they have a chance to put these clues together and figure out what exactly is going on.  In the midst of questioning some potential witnesses, assassins attack, and the adventurers finally have a line on the people responsible for the crime that they were blamed for originally.  

Part 4:  Storming the Windmill

The adventurers have finally tracked the villains of this enterprise to their hideout, and with quick, decisive action can take out the fiends before they escape.  The adventurers will need to work quickly to end the threat posed by these assassins and prove their innocence.  Once the players have finally ended this threat, they can hopefully clear their good names and get back to being well liked citizens of Mulmaster.  

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 900 and 1,200 experience points for completing it, depending on how things went.  If this is your first night at Adventurer’s League, you should be at 3rd level, working your way to 4th.  If you’re playing this adventure after you’ve completed Foulness Beneath Mulmaster, you’re going to have between 4,525 and 5,900 experience points.  Your character is definitely 4th level at this point.  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 Foulness Beneath Mulmaster you should have 75 downtime days.

·         Renown:  Each player completing this adventure earns a point of renown with their faction.  If the characters succeed at an additional objective, they can earn a bonus point of renown from their faction.

So now that you’ve completed Cloaks and Shadows, 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 2-11: Oubliette at Fort Iron  and DDEX 2-12: Dark Rites at Fort Dalton.  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, we’ll see you next week