TOPIC: R5: D&D5E Princes of the Apocalypse

Rotation Number: 5
Ref Name: Garuda
Game System: D&D 5th Ed.
Scenario Name: Princes of the Apocalypse
Character Levels: 1
New Characters: Yes
No. of Players: 6

Players
Steve D - Rogue
Viggi - Barbarian, Half-Orc, Viggi-Vahl Sammar
Sarge - Cleric
Matt - character class TBA (Dwarf barbarian or sorcerer?)
Mel - character class TBA
Stew - character class TBA
Aka- character class TBA


The first signs are always small: bandits on the roads, pirates on the Dessarin River, monster sightings throughout the sumber Hills -all too close to the lands of civilised folk.
To top things off, a delegation from the dwarven city of Mirabar has gone missing. Are these events all some bizarre coincidence, or is there a deeper reason behind them?



Princes of the Apocalypse is a campaign designed to take characters from level 1 to 15. It will probably therefore take more than one rotation to complete. It is, according to reviews, a re-imagining for 5th edition of the classic adventure Temple of Elemental Evil. It’s not an update though, it is a completely new story line in which characters will adventure throughout many locations dotted in and around the Dessarin Valley (Forgotten Realms).

EDIT: Removed some of the convoluted blurb in order to keep this simple.

Backgrounds
A choice of backgrounds is available in the players handbook, there are also some homebrewed backgrounds to be found on-line, alternatively you can create your own and thereby tailor your character concept. I almost decided to start with level 0 characters – race and background only (no class). I originally wanted characters to be known foremost as Gildas the fisherman or Pendra the grave digger etc. before becoming Gildas the Fighter or Pendra the Wizard, but I decided just to dive straight in at level 1.

Location
The Dessarin Valley is in the north of Faerun. The nearest cities are Waterdeep and Neverwinter. Probably about a tenday’s journey from each. For anybody who played Lost Mine of Phandelver – the town of Triboar is mentioned in that adventure. Triboar marks the northern edge of the Dessarin valley – the southern boundary is marked by the Forlorn Hills – over 300 miles south of Triboar. That’s a lot of land to adventure in. (Actually I just realised one map shows the valley to be about 300 miles north-south and another about 150 miles, I need to check which map scale is correct).

Its probably easier to have you character originate from somewhere outside the valley. So choose an appropriate home town in the north of Faerun somewhere. If you want to originate from some backwater village or farmstead just make one up.

Pantheon
I want to keep this simple. Forgotton Realms pantheon only please. It’s easier for me as GM to give depth of feeling to religion in the campaign if I only have to cater for a short, but classic list of deities.

Steve D has signed up for this.

I would like to play in this please, heard good things about it.

Can we use this?
media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf

Viggi wrote:
To be honest I wasn't too sure about allowing goliaths, genasi and tieflings as player character races (I was hoping to keep an 'old school' feel to the party), but if somebody really wants to then yes you can. Oh, but definitely no bird-men please, those avian characters are just too weird.

The one thing that stood out when I perused this the other day is that there are no new spells for clerics. I wonder whether this is an error considering there are new spell options for everyone else?

I was thinking more for spell casters as these elemental type spells are a clue (I guess) as to what characters will find useful during the campaign. I think elemental spells are more your wizard/sorcerer thing but absolutely no cleric spells is a little odd.