Adventurer's League Season 4 (Part 7)

DDAL 4-13 The Horseman

All right Game Fans, Season 4 of Adventurer’s League (The Curse of Strahd Story Arc) rolls on through with DDAL 4-13, The Horseman.  The Greenhall has gone mad with rage, and its creatures and its people are attacking everything.  Someone has to deal with source of this rage and quell the fury of Greenhall’s denizens.

DDAL 4-13 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 3 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 7th level characters, so plan accordingly)

Part 1: Bloody Demolition

The adventure starts with the characters escorting a mysterious individual to a camp on the outskirts of Orasnou.  If the characters have played 4-12, they are aware of the background of the dragon cultist and are supposed to be able to acquire some information from her about what exactly is going on.  After a conversation, they return to Orasnou for a bit of a rest and find the entire town on fire, and the citizens under a terrible mental compulsion to rage.  

Part 2:  Dark Awakening

The characters follow the trail of the cause of this unnatural rage into the Quivering Forest.  Unfortunately, the madness has taken hold in the forest and its turning against the people (the Greenhall Elves) who nominally live within its boundaries.  The characters will have to act quickly to save as many elves as they can and try to run this mysterious horseman to ground.  The characters will have to confront a variety of challenges along the way to pursue both of their objectives

Part 3: A Lost and Broken Dream

At the remants of ancient shrine, the characters finally bring the horseman to battle.  A twisted creature of rage and obsession, it is a creature capable of incredible violence.  The characters will have to have their wits about them to defeat this creature and discover the part it’s played in the overarching plot of this season of adventurer’s league.  Once the creature has been dealt with, the characters can figure out what to do next (and that concludes this 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 1,875 and 2,500 experience points.  If you are completing this adventure after 4-12, you should have between 21,632 and 29,050 experience points.  You can be reasonably close to 7th level if you haven’t gotten there yet.    

·         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 playing through this adventure.  You should end up with 120 downtime days if you played DDAL 4-12 before this adventure.

Story Award:  Everyone who completes this adventure gains the Demiplane of Dread story award if they don’t already have it.  Depending on what actions the characters take during the adventure, there are two potential story awards beyond the Demiplane of Dread.

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

DDAL 4-14 The Dark Lord

Season 4 of the Adventurer’s League concludes the Curse of Strahd story arc and finishes the story with The Dark Lord.  The  engineer of all the misfortune and strife the characters have experienced this season has finally been revealed.  They will have to race to confront this challenge, if they hope to defeat it in time.  If they fail, the consequences could be world shattering.  

DDAL 4-14 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 designed to be run 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 8th level characters

Before we dig into the breakdown of this adventure, we strongly encourage you to play this one last.  More so than any other season so far, this season represents a single, all encompassing story that is full of flavor and details for you to explore and interact with.  Skipping pieces of that story to get to the end short cuts a lot of those details and interactions and deprives you from the experience of the whole story.  Play it last, please, you’ll enjoy it a lot more if you do.  

Part 1:  In Need of Friends

The characters meet with the few remaining members of Orasnou and have to formulate a plan to deal with the witch, Esmae.  There are several people who can be consulted in this process and a variety of allies to renew acquaintances with.  Also of note are several items that have been encountered in other adventures throughout the season that have both benefices and blights attached to them. Of critical importance are two things, first, the characters don’t have all of the information about Esmae or how to stop her plans.  Second, there are additional allies that could be very useful in the upcoming battle.  

Part 2: In Search of Aid

The characters are off in search of Aya, an Elf whom they have encountered multiple times throughout the season.  After the recent rampage caused by the Horseman (see the adventure above) she’s been displaced from her usual sanctuary in the Quivering Forest and has relocated closer to Orasnou.  Unfortunately, the witch Esmae knows that the elf has secrets that can hurt her, and has sent minions to deal with her before she can alert the characters.  The characters will have to be on their toes to save her, and the information she has.  

Part 3: Magic Always has a Price

The characters travel into the Quivering Forest and Jeny Greenteeth, (the hag that may have raised them from the dead) bids them assist in protecting a ritual.  The Hag has formed a temporary coven to power a tremendous ritual that will assist the characters in finding (and hopefully defeating) the witch.  The magic is terribly powerful, but once again, the witch is on point and has allies to try and disrupt the ritual.  The characters are then presented with a method to take them to the heart of the enemy and confront the witch directly.

Part 4: Ruins of Boszorkan Keep

The characters have used powerful magic to travel to the ancient fortress the Witch is using as her headquarters.  There are guardians, allies, and powerful magic standing between them and their final nemesis.  If the characters can succeed at defeating her and thwarting her ambitions, they can free a part of the Forgotten Realms from the Demiplane of Dread and finally go home.  If they can defeat her, that is.  

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 this after DDAL 4-13, you’ll have between 26,132 and 35,500 experience points.  You’re at least halfway to 7th level if you haven’t gotten there already.

·         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 130 downtime days if you played DDAL 4-13 before this adventure.  There are a couple of special uses for Downtime Days at the conclusion of this adventure, so ask your DM about those, (or remind your players if you’re the DM).  

Renown:  Each character receives a point of Renown, and gets credit for completing one of his or her faction’s secret missions.  

Story Award:  Everyone who completes this adventure gains the Demiplane of Dread story award if they don’t already have it.  Depending on the final outcome of the battle with Esmae, there are additional Story Awards (including Escape from The Demiplane of Dread, which removes the Demiplane of Dread Story Award).  

So now that you’ve completed The Raven, check your character, level up if you need to, pick up additional gear and get ready for the next adventure.  You’ve also completed the fourth season of the Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer’s League and survived Ravenloft (probably).  Time to make some decisions about continuing to play this character for Season 5, or if it’s time to try another new character in the world of the Forgotten Realms.  Game on, Game Fans.