Adventurer's League Season 4 (Part 4)

DDAL 4-7 The Innocent

All right Game Fans, Season 4 of Adventurer’s League (The Curse of Strahd Story Arc) rolls on through with DDAL 4-5, The Innocent.  The characters explore the Glumpen Swamp and find a terrible den of evil.  Difficult choices await the adventurers as they decide what to do with an ancient creature of unspeakable origins.  

DDAL 4-7 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 range, and characters below 5th level or above 10th level are not playable in this adventure.  This adventure is built in 4 parts.  It should take about 4 hours start to finish.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game. (This adventure is optimized for 5th level characters, so plan accordingly)

Part 1: The Bloody Shrine

The adventure starts in the middle of things with the characters arriving at an old shrine.  If you’re running this adventure after 4-6, this journey has been prompted by Jeny Greenteeth, the Hag who the characters bumped into during that adventure.  Before the characters can do anything but witness a tragedy, they are set upon by powerful foes.  Defeating these enemies opens up a chance to communicate with a resident of the shrine and examine the area.  Between these clues, it should lead the characters to the Glumpen Swamp.  

Part 2:  The Glumpen Swamp

The Glumpen Swamp is a treacherous place and characters entering it should be alert to the dangers of the swamp itself.  There are a variety of hazards and challenges to overcome through this area, and more clues to the mystery surrounding what exactly is going on.  Exploration and investigation are the main ideas, but there are foes to challenge and overcome.

Part 3: The Pits of Blood and Bone

The characters have followed the clues to an ancient Yuan-ti burial ground.  This ancient place is still guarded and watched over by the Yuan-ti, and the characters will have to push through them to follow the clues to their final destination.  Even if the Yuan-ti are overcome, there are still the usual protections and wards guarding an ancient temple.  Once the characters have overcome all of these obstacles, they can make their way to the final part of the adventure.

Part 4: The Vault of the Royal Dead

The characters have followed the clues into an ancient Yuan-ti burial ground.  Even after centuries of disuse, the vaults have guardians, but there are alternatives to fighting.  However the characters proceed, there is a dark ritual being performed that they can interrupt.  If the characters are successful, they can save lives and put spirits to rest.  However the characters handle this challenge, they are free to return to the village and that concludes the adventure.   

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 2,625 and 3,500 experience points.  If you took the experience point boost from DDAL 4-6 The Ghost, this should put you somewhere between 9,260 and 11,550 experience points.  If you started with a fresh 5th level character, then you should have between 9,125 and 10,000 experience points.  Either way you’re about halfway to level 6.  

·         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.  You should end up with 75 downtime days if you played DDAL 4-6 before this adventure.

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

    Story Award:  Everyone who completes this adventure gains the Demiplane of Dread story award if they don’t already have it.  

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

DDAL 4-8 The Broken One

Season 4 of the Adventurer’s League continues the Curse of Strahd story arc and picks up with The Broken One.  Winter has reduced travel through Barovia to a happy thought.  Snowed in Orasnou for the foreseeable future, the characters are confronted with a serious threat to the village.  The livestock used to pay the Lord of the Land’s taxes are being brutally slaughtered.  If something isn’t done, the village could face ruin.  

DDAL 4-8 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 range, and characters below 5th level or above 10th level are not playable in this adventure. This adventure is built with an introduction and 2 parts.  It should take about 2 hours start to finish.  Remember to bring your D & D Survival Kit with you when you show up to game.  This adventure is optimized for 5th level characters

Introduction:

The adventure starts with the characters invited to dinner with the Burgomeister and visiting envoys from the Lord of the Land.  The situation presented is not a good one.  The visitors are tax collectors who have come to collect in the form of grain and livestock.  The amount of taxes collected will reduce the town’s stockpile of food below what’s needed to survive the winter.  The Burgomeister and the tax collectors are looking for ways and ideas to improve the food surplus to meet both their tax needs and ensure that the village survives.  

Part 1:  An Untimely Slaughter

A villager interrupts dinner with terrible news.  Something has happened to the sheep that are marked for taxes.  The characters, the burgomeister and the tax collectors rush to the scene and discover that several sheep are missing and one of the locals appears to be responsible.  The missing livestock set off a panic through town as the missing taxes are forcibly collected from the citizens.  The panicked townsfolk must be dealt with, one way or another.  .

Part 2: Monsters and Mayhem

The monstrous creature who’s been devouring the sheep is revealed (mostly because it’s moved on to people instead of sheep).  The already frightened people are scared witless and the characters will have to move quickly to prevent the monster from killing more townsfolk.  Quick thinking and decisive action can prevent the creature from causing more death and misery throughout town.  The adventure ends when the characters have either destroyed or driven the creature.  

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 1,312 and 1,750 experience points.  If you’re playing this after DDAL 4-7, you’ll have between 10,572 and 13,300 experience points.  You’re cruising towards 6th level fairly quickly.  

·         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.

·         Downtime Days:  This one’s easy.  Everyone gets 10 downtime days for playing through this adventure.  You should end up with 85 downtime days if you played DDAL 4-7 before this adventure.

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

    Story Award:  Everyone who completes this adventure gains the Demiplane of Dread story award if they don’t already have it.  There are other story awards along the way, but that depends on what the characters end up doing.  

So now that you’ve completed The Broken One, 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 4.  We’ll be back next week to take a gander at the next two adventures.  For those playing along at home, that’s The Tempter (DDAL 4-9) and The Artifact (DDAL 4-10).  Game on, Game Fans.