Adventurer's League Season 3 part 3 (Lower Level Track Pt 3)

All right Game Fans, we’re continuing with our look at the 3rd season of the Adventurer’s League for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition.  Like 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 the next two adventures for the lower level track, DDEX 3-10 Quelling the Horde and DDEX 3-12 Hillsfar Reclaimed.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 3.

DDEX 3-10 Quelling the Horde

All right Game Fans, Season 3 of Adventurer’s League (The Rage of Demons Story Arc) continues with DDEX 3-10, Quelling the Horde. Despite best efforts, folk are still disappearing from the lands surrounding HIllsfar.  Something must be done to guarantee the safety of the people, and the factions of the Sword Coast are sending their best agents to investigate the source of these disappearances.

Like most of the early adventures, DDEX 3-10 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 to run in three parts, and should take around 4 hours to complete from start to finish.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.  If you’re running this adventure, pick whichever hook you think will attract your party’s attention and get the fun started from there.  

Part 1:  Aftermath of Madness

Adventurers are traveling in the vicinity of Hillsfar and are hired by a local to do some investigation work.  Folks south of this little town have reported attacks, kidnappings, and a host of other unsociable activities.  Being good adventurers, the characters travel south and investigate the farmsteads and ranches in the area.  Eventually, they’ll run into a recurring NPC from the Adventurer’s League, and find their way into part 2.  

This section of the adventure is primarily an investigation, and you might not enjoy the absence of combat.  Well, you’ll probably get rewarded mightily with combat in later parts of the adventure so dig into the investigation, help people find clues and track things down.  Use your brain, and you can get to your combat encounters that much faster if everyone’s working together.  

Part 2:  The Passage Downward

The second part of this adventure is a fairly straightforward dungeon incursion.  The characters have tracked the “problem” back to its lair, and have to go into the lair to handle things.  This part is a short one, but full of heavy combat and a lingering air of madness.  If the characters can push through here, they might be able to find the source of the misfortunes in this area, and restore some semblance of peace to the Hillsfar area.  

Part 3:  The Skullspike Caves

This part of the adventure is a traditional dungeon crawl.  It’s an occupied area filled with monsters, treasure, and traps.  This place is serious, and new adventurers should have their wits about them and be aware of the environment.  This section is a wonderful way to learn how dungeons should be explored as a player, and how to run them as a Dungeon Master.  Take your time and study up if you’re running this.  

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:  Completing this adventure will net your character between 900 and 1,200 experience points.  If you’re playing this after DDEX 3-6, you’ll have between 3,025 and 4,200 experience points.  Either way, you’ve got a 4th level character and could be cruising to level 5.    If this is your first adventure with a new character, this will get you to level 3.

·         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 play through each of these, you should end up with 55 Downtime Days.  

·         Renown:  Every Character earns a point of renown, and there are additional faction assignments that can net you an additional point of renown.    

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

DDEX 3-12 Hillsfar Reclaimed

Season 3 of the Adventurer’s League continues the Rage of Demons story arc and carries on with  Hillsfar Reclaimed.  The situation in Hillsfar is coming to a head, and forces are coming together to strike at the First Lord of Hillsfar.  Adventurers are needing to advance this agenda and bring about the liberation of Hillsfar.

DDEX 3-12 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 adventure is built to run in 3 parts, and should take about 2 hours start to finish.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.

Part 1: Looking For Work

There are a lot of different ways for the characters to get into this adventure, but the first part of the adventure is fairly straightforward.  The characters need to infiltrate the city of Hillsfar and they’ve been provided the location of a secret access point to the city’s sewer systems.  Some running and exploring later, and a potential interaction with some rats of possibly prodigious size, the characters can finally get into the city proper.  A few friendly interactions later, and the characters have an appointment to keep

Part 2:  The Interview

The characters need to work their way into the service of the Tower of the First Lord, and that requires an interview with the Tower’s Seneschal.  This is primarily a social activity, and the characters need to be able to talk their way into their potential job.  Should the characters be discovered and their mission revealed, this goes to a combat encounter almost immediately.  The adventurers will have to work fast if they’re discovered.  Should they be successful in their task, they can advance to the third and final section of this adventure.

Part 3: To Serve

Everything has led to this.  The characters are employed as servants of the First Lord during an important party that he’s hosting.  This gives them the opportunity to discover some terrible secrets in the Lord’s tower.  For the first time in their lives, the characters are actually not the instigators of the party ending calamity that’s about to ensue.  Think fast, pay attention, and see what you’re supposed to see.  

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:  Completing this adventure will net your character between 450 and 600 experience points.  If you’re playing this after DDEX 3-10, you’ll have between 3,475 and 4,800 experience points.  Either way, you’ve got a 4th level character and could are cruising towards level 5.  If this is your first adventure, you’re going to make 2nd level, and could be halfway to level 3..  

·         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 5 downtime days for completing this adventure.  If you play through this, you should end up with 60 Downtime Days.  

·         Renown:  Each character is going to get one point of renown.

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

And those are the next two adventures in Season 3.  We’ll be back next week to take a gander at the final adventure on the lower level track.  For those playing along at home, that’s Death on the Wall (DDEX 3-14).  Game on, Game Fans.