I ran this adventure last week at my friendly local gaming store where I've been DMing Adventurers League tables for the last couple of years.
Note: myself and one other DM were lucky enough to download and print DDAL08-00 in the narrow window between when it first appeared on and then disappeared from the DMsGuild catalog.
At my table were six experienced players, some who are serious role-players, some who are min-maxing power-gamers, and some who DM other tables, both AL and homebrew.
They all created characters with urbane backstories and introduced themselves with significant elaboration. "Sometimes I just go down to Waterdeep's harbor to watch the sunset."
Everyone did a great job of introducing their character, other than the late arrival who furiously tried to catch up with others: I didn't award anyone inspiration for their intros.
Detail on the mostly "sneaky" race-class combos for this adventure: goblin rogue, half-elf rogue, kobold rogue, dwarf druid, human bard, and human monk.
For the story workshop, I gave everyone a pad of Post-It notes to write down their NPCs, and a stack of 3 "checkers" as tokens for voting.
A few players were really stuck on the roleplay challenge, so I provided the "125 Character Roleplay Challenges" document that appeared on the "DnDBehindTheScreen" subreddit.
Asking for a villain or an antagonist for the adventure, we received the following choices from myself and the six players:
- authorities from Phlan seek to arrest thieves
- a corrupt / evil noble
- snooty elven noble like Porthios Kanan
- some sort of evil conniving drow
- giant ogre
- ogre mage
- evil, fat kobold warlord with a silly name and clan backstory
Despite the clumping around "Porthios" or similar, 4 of 6 players voted for the kobold warlord. I asked the two votes against to elaborate the warlord: he's a hoarder, plagued by nightmares. I decided he was the BRUTE.
Asking the players to define an interesting person for the adventure, we received the following choices:
- Emerald Enclave Druid Sage
- Elanil Elassadil
- My mentor who I left behind after a plan that went south. He ended up in jail.
- Khelben Blackstaff
- Omin Dran
- Mordenkainen
- madam, procuress, owner of a local brothel, also with a very silly name
Despite the storied NPCs provided, the madam got the majority votes. Again I asked the two votes against to elaborate her: she's painfully beautiful, but fears close relationships. I decided she was an ALLY.
Asking the players to define a roleplay goal or challenge for the adventure, we received the following choices:
- a character thinks they are doomed but another character does not believe in fate
- a character is in love with someone horrible or forbidden
- we discover that the dwarf merchant, sought by the half-elf rogue, already has an antagonistic history with another character
- there is a big disruption between the three rogues that turns into a three-way duel
- two characters are in a love triangle with a beautiful NPC
- the human bard and the goblin rogue will fall in love and adopt many goblin babies
- the goblin rogue and the kobold rogue will need to "stack" to pass as a full-sized, human person.
As you might expect, the goblin-kobold stack got the most votes. Following the pattern, I asked the votes against to elaborate: the stack must pass anti-monster gatekeepers, and must reach a "top shelf" resource.
Finally I rolled for the MacGuffin: a letter written by a spy who gathered dirt on Lord Neverember. I struggled to determine why the madam would want to deliver the letter to the heroes, and I saw no reason for the villainous kobold warlord to take it via force, but I stayed on the rails of the plot: the madam met with the characters in a private booth, revealed the letter, and explained that it was left behind by a patron of the brothel and she didn't want to possess something so scandalous: could the adventurers please take it to the proper authorities? But the characters refused to receive the letter!
Meanwhile the goblin-kobold "stack" pretended to be a human barkeep and assisted Durnan and Bonnie, serving "top shelf" beverages to patrons of the Yawning Portal: this was hardly the dramatic event intended by Will Doyle.
The thugs Grady and Dwindlejoy attempted to intimidate the madam to give up the MacGuffin letter. The heroes "white-knighted" and protected her. Then the carriage crashed into the inn.
Grady was grappled, intimidated, and viciously mocked. He was defeated, mostly by arrows from the rogues.
Dwindlejoy was grappled, dragged, viciously mocked, and eventually tossed down into the Yawning Portal by the monk.
At one point the monk grappled one of the animated brooms and used it as a weapon to strike down the remaining animated brooms.
The madam sequestered the letter into the clothes of the goblin rogue and escaped during the fight.
One of the tables the rogues were using for cover was levitated away by a random Tavern Event.
The cat was rescued, and the oil fire was put out by the half-elf rogue.
The kobold warlord was a BRUTE, so I proceeded with the "2B" gang war quest, where the heroes attempted to kidnap Urlon Vhrule during the entertainment and chaos of the Circus of Skullport.
The battle with the goblins and kenku was busy, resulting in 2 of the 6 characters going unconscious, but the half-elf rogue helped Urlon escape the melee. He questioned him during the fight, only to see him combust before Manshoon could be located. The kobold rogue, hiding behind a table, unsuccessfully tried to console Urlon's distraught mistress.
For the final battle, the stat block for the kobold warlord required some definition. The text on page 7 it suggests "CR3 or lower" but then suggests an Orc War Chief, which is a challenge rating 4 opponent. On page 26 the text for Scene 3-1 reiterates "max CR 3" so at least the CR guidance is consistent.
I selected the stat block from Orc Red Fang of Shargaas (CR3) for the kobold warlord. He stayed in the armored car for the entire fight, sniping the characters with darts behind three-quarters cover.
The final fight with the warlord and his thugs & alchemist was tough: at one point all but two of the party were asleep from gas bombs, or in the throes of death saves. Eventually the brute was defeated by the heroes.
The version that I download from DM's guild on 2018-09-04 said "2 advancement checkpoints and 2 treasure checkpoint" (missing plural) for each story objective, and the party did complete both objectives, so here were the rewards:
- 4 advancement checkpoints
- 4 Tier 1 treasure checkpoints
- Level up from 1st to 2nd level from the 4 advancement checkpoints, and receive 75 gold pieces.
- 10 downtime days from the 4 advancement checkpoints
- 1 renown from the 4 advancement checkpoints
- Story award: Marmaduke the Tomcat
- Story award: Faction Favor (Note: none of the characters had selected backgrounds with the "Safe Haven" feature)
Note: all the players had printed out their own Season 8 log sheets ahead of time: I didn't need to hand out the ones I'd prepared for them.
As a DM I awarded myself the following:
- 4 advancement checkpoints
- 4 Tier 1 treasure checkpoints
- 10 downtime days
Total play time was just beyond three and a half hours, but we never felt rushed, unlike some 4-hour adventures.
Overall everyone at the table really enjoyed this change of pace that allowed them to shape the story. I was lucky to have veteran players who have experience with previous DnD stories and editions and see the pros and cons of the Season 8 rule changes.
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