"hmm...we shall have to see about the false information," the Sergeant begins doubtfully, as she moves to bind the unconscious Farnok, "but you did help clean up the mess Grady and Dwindlejoy created earlier." She glances at Dekkett and begins to rub her templates. "But a demon-summoning mouse trainer? You're not the only one with a headache. Ach, we'll find out how this here character was tied to those two in time. But not until tomorrow..he's got a lot to sleep off. Meantime, my men can take him to a place where he's more comfortable."
For the first time, a grin creeps over her features.
"Now, somebody said something about a drink. I know just the place..."
This concludes "Once in Waterdeep," as you have successfully completed all objectives of this one-evening module:
Prevent the antagonist -- in this case, Farnok, the "mastermind," from obtaining information leading to the Vault of Dragons, which you accomplished through creative application of false information, and then, when necessary, taking him down in the streets when he made a secondary attempt.
Prevent the antagonist from taking the MacGuffin, in this case, the information framing you, and preventing it from being used against you.
Thwart the antagonist, breaking as few of the Laws of Waterdeep as possible. (Waterdeep has a code of laws, the penalties for breaking in AL were not published prior to our beginning, but suffice to say indiscriminate theft, assault and murder could have resulted in lengthy prison sentences, effectively retiring the character from AL.) You never robbed, or cheated, and engaged in violence only as necessary and appropriate to answer threats.
Under the Season 8 award guidelines, each of you earned 4 Adventure Checkpoints (AP), 4 Tier 1 Treasure Points (TP), 10 Downtime days, and 1 renown. If you log these on your character's log sheet, you can take this character to any Adventurers League table, online or offline, and continue their story. If you are unfamiliar with the rewards system, a brief overview:
AP replace Experience Points in Adventurer's League. from levels 1-4, each level is 4 AP, so you each have earned enough to reach level 2.
TP are how one acquires magic items. Items are purchased with Treasure Points. One table of items costs is here. The points you have earned today can be used to buy any Tier 1 item. So, for example, you could use 1 of your current TP to buy 50gp, or you could save up until you have 16 of them, and buy a +1 weapon of your choosing.
Speaking of gold, gold is not found or awarded in Adventurer's League, but rather obtained upon each level. Hitting level 2, you earn 75gp.
Downtime is used to fund activities that take place between adventures. In addition to those listed in the Player's Handbook, the canonical example is a wizard scribing a spell from a scroll or a found spellbook into their own spellbook. That might take 16 hours for a spell of a certain level; the wizard must have enough downtime days to scribe.
Renown is a measure of your character's fame, which makes you eligible for certain benefits. When we started this game, the rules had not yet been finalized, but, at your current renown rank, you would start each game with a Potion of Healing, which would be good only for that session. As you gain renown, other benefits become available. Renown can be gained each adventure, but rewards can be lost at the DM's discretion if the character behaves in a way the DM judges to be incompatible or unheroic actions.
Players also have the option to take "slow advancement" -- essentially take half of the stated awards. Why would one do that? This adventure, for example, is intended to be a brief introduction to Waterdeep before the hardcover proper. If you wanted the same character to play the full Dragon Heist hardcover, you might eventually find yourself too high a level to be challenged, or even to continue playing. Taking slow advancement is a way to keep a character within a certain level range for a longer period of time.
There are also two Story Awards in this module, to include on your logs:
Everyody receives "Faction Favor" from both the Emerald Enclave (from Blossom) and the Order of the Gauntlet (from Savra)
You have won the favor of two of the great factions: The Emerald Enclave, the Lords’ Alliance, the Zhentarim, the Order of the Gauntlet, the Harpers, or Force Grey (circle which factions apply when you receive this award). As the bearer of this award, you may at any time replace your own background feature with the Safe Haven background feature (Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide).
In addition, you may call upon these factions to cast raise dead on your character if your remains are taken to Waterdeep. Doing so removes this story award from your record. You can use this favor even if you don’t have the Faction Agent background.
The raise dead award is significant in AL, as it is an expensive spell and gold is difficult to acquire, especially at low levels.
For saving the cat from the fire, Arvel also receives the "Marmaduke the Tomcat" award
This old ginger tomcat has a heart of gold and likes nothing better than to snooze on your lap. He wears a name tag on his collar that identifies him as “Marmaduke”, but the tag has chipped off just underneath “This Cat Belongs To...”. If you can find Marmaduke’s owner, you’re sure to get a reward!
Unfortunately, Marmaduke is extremely cowardly. During combat, he leaps onto you and digs his claws in, never letting go and scrambling all over your body. Treat this as a flaw – if you use it to your disadvantage, your DM can grant inspiration at their discretion.
Once in Waterdeep is a new type of module for Adventure's League, in that it is less direct than most. Our rather lengthy introduction, as well as all of the questions and back and forth, served to create what followed. The characters of Leilani and Farnok were improvised out of your responses and backstories; AL's intent is to increase replayability by having DMs and players together make up large swathes of the content as they go. While these particular characters cannot go through Once in Waterdeep again, should you play another character in this module, large portions may be different. Next time, the antagonist may not be a manipulator at all, but a hulking brute invading the Tavern personally. The Leilani character may not be a victim from long ago, but an ally, or perhaps a seeming ally who eventually stabs the party in the back. (Here, I have to apologize a bit for the ending; I had tied Leilani and Farnok to characters who had to leave the game at an inopportune time, and the back and forth story elements towards the end did not materialize.)
If anybody has any questions about Adventurer's League rules, keeping log sheets, or pretty much anything else, please feel free to contact me either on this thread, in our OOC private thread, or even through direct messages. I will be happy to assist however I can.
Thank you all for playing, and for sticking it through to the end of an entire AL module through posts. It has been fun, and a learning experience for me too.
Thanks,
Greg
P.S. Please feel free to hit me with any comments or criticisms, either publicly or privately, as well; that's the best way for me to learn.
This game in particular was a one-shot module, not a campaign, but there is AL content available from level 1 all the way to level 20. Some are solo one-shots, like this, others are a small series of related one-shots, and some are full-blown campaigns. As long as you keep up your log sheets, you can continue your character's story in any location -- online or in person. If *anybody* has questions about how to do that, please pepper me with them, here, in the OOC thread, or on PM.
In terms of next steps here, I had originally not planned on going further, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by how they went. I ran this one twice on these forums (the other one ended slightly earlier, last page here if you are curious), and enough people in both played through to the finish. I certainly do not begrudge those who had to drop out - real life has a nasty way of interfering for us all - but that was one of the things about which I was most curious. I have not yet decided if I plan on running another game (either another module like this one or starting the longer campaign) on the DDB forums, but, if I do, I would certainly run a level range for which these characters would qualify and give precedence to those who stuck it out in the two games I ran.
Persuasion, please, Avel, with advantage due to Orynn's assistance
Persuasion: 16
DCI: 3319125026
"hmm...we shall have to see about the false information," the Sergeant begins doubtfully, as she moves to bind the unconscious Farnok, "but you did help clean up the mess Grady and Dwindlejoy created earlier." She glances at Dekkett and begins to rub her templates. "But a demon-summoning mouse trainer? You're not the only one with a headache. Ach, we'll find out how this here character was tied to those two in time. But not until tomorrow..he's got a lot to sleep off. Meantime, my men can take him to a place where he's more comfortable."
For the first time, a grin creeps over her features.
"Now, somebody said something about a drink. I know just the place..."
This concludes "Once in Waterdeep," as you have successfully completed all objectives of this one-evening module:
Under the Season 8 award guidelines, each of you earned 4 Adventure Checkpoints (AP), 4 Tier 1 Treasure Points (TP), 10 Downtime days, and 1 renown. If you log these on your character's log sheet, you can take this character to any Adventurers League table, online or offline, and continue their story. If you are unfamiliar with the rewards system, a brief overview:
Players also have the option to take "slow advancement" -- essentially take half of the stated awards. Why would one do that? This adventure, for example, is intended to be a brief introduction to Waterdeep before the hardcover proper. If you wanted the same character to play the full Dragon Heist hardcover, you might eventually find yourself too high a level to be challenged, or even to continue playing. Taking slow advancement is a way to keep a character within a certain level range for a longer period of time.
There are also two Story Awards in this module, to include on your logs:
Everyody receives "Faction Favor" from both the Emerald Enclave (from Blossom) and the Order of the Gauntlet (from Savra)
The raise dead award is significant in AL, as it is an expensive spell and gold is difficult to acquire, especially at low levels.
For saving the cat from the fire, Arvel also receives the "Marmaduke the Tomcat" award
Once in Waterdeep is a new type of module for Adventure's League, in that it is less direct than most. Our rather lengthy introduction, as well as all of the questions and back and forth, served to create what followed. The characters of Leilani and Farnok were improvised out of your responses and backstories; AL's intent is to increase replayability by having DMs and players together make up large swathes of the content as they go. While these particular characters cannot go through Once in Waterdeep again, should you play another character in this module, large portions may be different. Next time, the antagonist may not be a manipulator at all, but a hulking brute invading the Tavern personally. The Leilani character may not be a victim from long ago, but an ally, or perhaps a seeming ally who eventually stabs the party in the back. (Here, I have to apologize a bit for the ending; I had tied Leilani and Farnok to characters who had to leave the game at an inopportune time, and the back and forth story elements towards the end did not materialize.)
If anybody has any questions about Adventurer's League rules, keeping log sheets, or pretty much anything else, please feel free to contact me either on this thread, in our OOC private thread, or even through direct messages. I will be happy to assist however I can.
Thank you all for playing, and for sticking it through to the end of an entire AL module through posts. It has been fun, and a learning experience for me too.
Thanks,
Greg
P.S. Please feel free to hit me with any comments or criticisms, either publicly or privately, as well; that's the best way for me to learn.
Thank you. It's unfortunate so many dropped out during. I appreciate you taking it to completion.
Are there next steps? I’d love to keep playing this character. Can we recruit replacements and start the next phase of the campaign?
DCI: 3319125026
This game in particular was a one-shot module, not a campaign, but there is AL content available from level 1 all the way to level 20. Some are solo one-shots, like this, others are a small series of related one-shots, and some are full-blown campaigns. As long as you keep up your log sheets, you can continue your character's story in any location -- online or in person. If *anybody* has questions about how to do that, please pepper me with them, here, in the OOC thread, or on PM.
In terms of next steps here, I had originally not planned on going further, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by how they went. I ran this one twice on these forums (the other one ended slightly earlier, last page here if you are curious), and enough people in both played through to the finish. I certainly do not begrudge those who had to drop out - real life has a nasty way of interfering for us all - but that was one of the things about which I was most curious. I have not yet decided if I plan on running another game (either another module like this one or starting the longer campaign) on the DDB forums, but, if I do, I would certainly run a level range for which these characters would qualify and give precedence to those who stuck it out in the two games I ran.
Thanks for playing it with us! It was fun!! Thanks all!!
PbP Character: A few ;)