Adventurer's League Season 3 part 8 (Mid Level Track Part 4)

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 these two adventures. the first is the last adventure on the mid level track, DDEX 3-15 Szith Morcane Unbound and the last adventure in the high level track (miscoded in both it's description and its cover page) is DDEX 3-16 Assault on Maerimydra.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 3.

DDEX 3-15 Szith Morcane Unbound

All right Game Fans, Season 3 of Adventurer’s League (The Rage of Demons Story Arc) continues with DDEX 3-15, Szith Morcane Unbound. The drow enclave of Szith Morcane is on the brink of being taken by the drow from their oppressors.  Secrets are revealed that can reshape the drow community, how will you share this information?

Like most of the tier 2 adventures, DDEX 3-15 is designed for 5th thru 10th level characters, with an average party size of 5 suggested.  For Adventurer’s League play, the level range is a hard ceiling, and characters below 5th level or higher than 10th are not playable in this adventure.  This specific adventure is to run in four 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, make sure you read up on the faezress and the effects it has on people (Page 8) and check out the Madness sidebar on page 7.  

There are a couple of different adventure hooks that bring the party into this adventure, and make sure you figure out what previous adventures in this season your players have participated in, and how they were resolved.  

Part 1:  The Underdark

The Adventure begins with the characters in the Underdark on their way to scout out Szith Morcane and find out what’s going on in that area.  This is facilitated through a series of checks, and during the time this takes, there are a variety of random encounters that can happen while they’re scouting.  Read through the random encounters and figure out the principals of each one.  Once the characters have successfully found the outskirts, they can move to the next part of the adventure.     

Part 2:  Scouting Szith Morcane

Once the characters have located the drow enclave, they are going to have to sneak through the area to figure out what’s going on, who’s where, and a host of other questions.  Stealth is probably a better call in this region than a frontal assault.  There are a host of ways that this can from bad to worse, and triggering that scale of a fight without finding potential allies is probably going to end the party.  Scouting can lead to a lot of options, and eventually into part 3.

Part 3:  The Coalition of Darkness

This section of the adventure requires the characters to interact with the various factions operating inside the city.  The hope is that the characters can rally the disparate factions inside Szith Morcane to overthrow the giants.  Every successful meeting increases the resources the characters have and reduces the opposition they face in the next part.  The DM is going to have to pull a balancing act to figure out how much help each of the groups is, and how they affect the battle in the next section.  

Part 4:  Szith Morcane Unbound

This section of the adventure focuses on the battle to take the city back from the giants.  The priority target is Dengor, and if the characters can defeat him, the fire giants and their minions will flee the city.   There are some remarkably vicious fights in this area, but the DM has to make some appropriate adjustments depending on how successful the characters are at rallying the Coalition of Darkness.  Depending on the members of the Coalition, there are some potential fires that may flare into violence.  The characters have opportunities to head these conflicts off, if they choose.  

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 4,500 and 6,000 experience points.  If you’re playing with a fresh 5th level character, this should put you at somewhere between 11,000 and 12,500 experience points. Your character is still level five, but you’re about closing in hard on level 6.  If this isn’t your first Tier 2 adventure, then you could have any number of experience points.  

·         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.  Make sure you add this to your total from previous adventures.  

·         Renown:  Every Character earns a point of renown.   Order of the Gauntlet characters can complete a secret mission and gain an additional point of renown.

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

DDEX 3-16 Assault on Maerimydra

Season 3 of the Adventurer’s League concludes the Rage of Demons story arc and finishes with  Assault on Maerimydra.  The battle for Maerimydra is about to begin.  The forces arrayed against the madness in the Underdark are gathering for battle, but the characters will have to act quickly to stabilize their allies before they can carry the fight to the city itself.  

DDEX 3-13 is designed for 11th thru 16th level characters, with an average party size of 5 suggested.  For Adventurer’s League play, the level range is a hard ceiling, and characters below 10th level or higher than 16th are not playable in this adventure.  This adventure is built to run in 6 parts.  It should take about 8 hours start to finish.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.  If this for some reason is the first adventure you’re running, make sure you check out the rules for Faerzress on page 7, and Madness on page 8.  

 

Note, this adventure is intended to be run in two separate four hour sessions,  Session 1 is parts 1-5, and Session 2 is Part 6 by itself.  

Part 1: On the Eve of War

The characters have returned to Sporedome to make contact with their numerous allies.  They have been given several objectives and potential ideas for how to take the fight to the enemy occupied city.  The characters have one of their first opportunities to shape how this conflict is going to shape up, and their decisions will affect the course of the battle to come.  

Part 2:  Initial Assault

Depending on what areas the characters have decided to attack, there are six potential encounters that they can choose to meet.  The characters are responsible for two of these encounters, with the remainders handled by various allied npc groups.  There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of for the DM, so make sure you read through this area and keep copious notes.

Part 3: Counterattack!

The enemy forces strike back against the characters and their allies.  Depending on where the characters are fighting from, the enemy strikes hard at them.  Check the battle locations for any extra details and make sure you know what’s going on inside the battlefield.  The characters have little chance to rest after this part, as the action continues immediately into part 4.

Part 4: A Surprise visit from Mother

An unexpected attack from the Derro of Ravingstone threatens the allies and the characters will have to move quickly to stop the attack before it ruins the battle.  Depending on their potential allegiances, the characters have a couple of different ways to handle this encounter, and Harper characters especially have the potential for a secret mission.  Either way, the characters will have to move quickly to stabilize their battle plan.  

Part 5: Mommy Dearest

The characters have to confront Mother and her allies in their push into the city.  This is a knockdown dragout brawl of a fight, and the characters will have to defeat Mother to push deeper into the city.  This is a hellacious fight and the characters are going to have to work very smart in order to get through this battle.  This battle ends Session 1, and the characters have access to a long rest before the start of the next Session.  

Part 6: The Dark Prince’s Plan

The characters have a dungeon complex of their own to manage and deal with, and they’ll have to interact with a lot of moving parts to get to the final battle.  Final battle is an apt description of the last combat encounter in this area, and if the characters can succeed in this battle, they’re worthy of song and story.  This is a Total party kill potential fight, and the characters are going to have to manage their resources in order to defeat this foe.  Should they complete this task, the adventure (and probably the season) are concluded successfully.  

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 17,250 and 23,000 experience points.   If you’re playing with a fresh 11th level character, this should put you at somewhere between 102,250 and 108,000 experience points.  You’re going to hit 12th level if this is your first adventure with a Tier 3 character.  If this isn’t your first adventure with this Tier 3 character, make sure you adjust your experience points accordingly.  

·         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 20 downtime days for completing this adventure.  Make sure you adjust your downtime days correctly.

·         Renown:  Each character is going to get one point of renown. All Faction members have the opportunity to complete a special assignment during this adventure, but they have to be at least rank 2 to qualify.

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

And those are the last two adventures in Season 3.  We’ll be back next week to take a gander at the one adventure for the high level track.  For those playing along at home, that’s All in the Blood (DDEX 3-4).  The week after that, we’ll take a hard look at Out of the Abyss, and then gear up for Season four.    Game on, Game Fans.