DMDC 14 - The Aftermath of the Reptile God

It's over! Almost! For real this time, I swear. The group has been trying to kill this evil snakething for close to ten sessions and the moment is finally here, including all of the stuff that happens when they get back to town. More sadness awaits, but just maybe a smidge of hope that things aren't as terrible as when they left Orlane the first time.

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Transcript

Hey! This is the DM Discourse, a podcast about D&D, focused on the experience at the table from behind the screen. I'm your host Darrell, and today we’re wrapping up all the loose ends of our playthrough of the N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God AD&D module by Douglas Niles. If this is your first episode of the series, I recommend you go back to the start of the Reptile God series to catch up with what’s been going on with the adventure, and then come back here after to find out how it all ends - as well as the happenings afterwards to provide a denouement for the players, leading towards future adventures to come.

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“I never spoke to Root, the true Root. You said he was a drifter, but from the words I heard from the villagers as we returned to Orlane he was loved by all. For his mastery of the kitchen, his optimism and his wisdom. He may not have been born here but he was justifiably an important member of this community and I will carry his death with me forever. Root, I am sorry, and I can't say it enough. May Oolmund watch over your soul to wherever it goes.”

Aye, a bespoke parting given by that fervent priest of Oolmund, one of the veritable Heroes of Orlane. From the south they came, out of that treacherous place known as Fenskeep. They may be our neighbors and good for trade, but you won’t be ever catching me headed down that far into the swamp, not at all. I like it behind the bar here just fine. The Golden Grain Inn’s been good to me, good to the town, and good to others who come blowing through here, just like Root...

Where they went? Who? Oh, the Heroes of Orlane. Well I can’t tell you rightly. It seems they were here one day, gone the next - alright fine, if it matters to you so much buy another beer and I’ll tell you. What’s this, Vedraxian scales? Don’t see currency like this outside the capital very often, but like you said - as a trader you go plenty of places others don’t. Well alright then, what’s to tell? As I said they first came up from Fenskeep, arrived back near two weeks after they dealt with that Reptile God business, but didn’t stay long. Most of them took their ship back south into the swamp.

Oh! That’s right - one of them didn’t. That priest of Oolmund, the lil’ bat fella, Sq’Gee - turns out some of his fellow priests came this far out to find him. Guess the God of Sight and all that brought them this far out, but I can tell you the High Observer they traveled with didn’t look friendly. A pate like stone and dull granite skin, with black eyes that shook you to the core. Ugh, still gives me shivers remembering him. Still the whole group paid well, and I know a couple other gods whose clergy ain’t so keen.

They took him, or I guess so much as went with them, westward, up the river. No priest meself but I figure if the head of local chapel shows up you don’t just go around turning down whatever is that they’re offering.The cleric didn’t tell me where they was going but one of his friends, Pedwar, that dwarf who’s a bit more fond of drinking than others, said they were headed to Ukesh, the City of the Lion. Decent travel to get there, no matter if you’re taking boat or wagon, but it’s a busy enough tradeplace if you're thinking about heading up there yourself - although I’d recommend hiring at least one guard. Say, uh, what was it you were hauling again?

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Man you wanna talk about art? Let me talk about art for a sec - there’s a marked level of improvement that we’ve gotten over the decades, especially if you’re looking at the stuff the game started with. I’ve been on-and-off with the Art & Arcana book that Wizards put out a while back, which is basically a histwaefo;ijwfeajio;ewfajioewfoijewfaoij orical compilation of Dungeons & Dragons told alongside materials of the game for a given time period, and just looking at what it used to be compared to what it is now evokes such appreciation for modern interpretations but also awe at how striking these older works are. The new stuff even pays homage to the old stuff, with the spirit naga entry in the 5e Monster Manual having a quote attributed to her!

Before I even get to the encounter about Explicita Defilus, I gotta tell ya there’s something about the this art I can’t get enough of, these strong black and white silhouettes that are just iconic. Do yourself a favor and do a quick image search for Explicita Defilus and you’ll see what I mean, she’s got what is essentially a stretched, human appearance along a giant snakes’ body, twisted around a pile of gold complete with a complimentary skull. And the monstrous look of her face would’ve probably given nightmares as a kid, and I think it’s still creepy even now. Not everything in old school D&D I’d say is great, but in my opinion this particular drawing of a spirit naga is just awesome.

And now that I’ve front-loaded you with talking about how cool I think this art is let’s talk about how the party **** wrecks her ****.

We last left our heroes exploring the hallways beneath the swamp where the vile spirit naga, Explicita Defilus, plots all her machinations. They interrogated a yuan-ti who revealed the true nature of the villain they seek, and now it’s up to them to finish what they came here to do: free the people of Orlane of her influence. They’ve gone past dozens of cultists and troglodytes this point, uncovered ancient secrets about snakekind, and even freed the prisoners that would be the next set of cultists in service to the Reptile God - but none of that would matter if they didn’t finish the job, ending her reign once and for all.

Behind the altar at the end of a row of finished rooms in the second level of the dungeon, the party revealed a secret passage leading straight to the Throne Room of Explicita Defilus. It was a huge cavern, lit by a ghostly green glow emanating from the eight columns supporting the vaulted ceiling. Water occupied most of the cavern, and on its far side away from the party was a flat bottomed boat set along the shore. Directly in front of them though, was the reptile god herself, coiled atop a collection of her favorite treasures, and skulls of her most hated enemies. She hoped that, soon, that pile would include the bodies of her current foes, the soon to be Heroes of Orlane.

The module gives a ton of text talking about the strategies of Explicita Defilus, and if the group had managed to bring Ramne along as well. Apparently Ramne would also tell them about the naga’s charm ability, but only right now as opposed to telling it to them earlier? Whatever, there isn’t quite anything like that for the stat block of a 5e Spirit Naga other than the ability to cast Dominate Person, which may or may not even work against the party, and would take a whole turn for her to cast one spell. She’s much more likely to open with a fireball, with them this close. But if you take a quick look at the block, you’ll see that she has lightning bolt instead! It’s fine to swap spells. Much like doing a homebrew monster, you’re free to take apart what you like about existing monsters and change what you don’t. Honestly I think lightning bolt works just fine, but thought it would be more fun in the spirit of the original module to give her Fireball instead - so I did.

The module mentions that Ramne would cast a Globe of Invulnerability to protect the party, but what if he isn’t present, like my group? A couple episodes ago I mentioned the party found something that would prove invaluable to them - a scroll of counterspell, which is a spell that interrupts a caster’s attempts, automatically succeeding if the spell is 3rd level of lower (which Fireball is), or requiring a DC ability check against the spell’s level. But Olrune was only a level 3 sorcerer, only capable of casting up to spells of 2nd level - so this required a save DC of 13 against his spellcasting modifier. So, he rolled, in hopes to save his party from eating an immediate 8d6 Fire Damage before they even got their first turn.

He succeeded, by a mile. For a while Olrune’s player had been trying to find a place to shine amidst his martial allies and healing capabilities, but here it was because only he, as a mage with that spell on his list, was capable of casting it. There were still things in this game that the player hadn’t discovered, aspects of its design where he would find his place. Even with the solution in hand, there was still risk involved - but that’s just part of the game, isn’t it?

You can imagine how a 5v1 went for the monster. A challenge rating of 8 meant nothing against just the pure amount of damage the party could dish out in a few rounds. Explicita Defilus got to cast a Blight, and kept the party on their toes for other dangers she was hiding up her sleeve, but she proved no match for them. Elated by Olrune’s counterspell, the group followed suite to make short work of the naga within, like, 4 rounds.

Don’t be dismayed if that occurs, by the way. I’ll admit as a younger DM I was too attached to my monsters, too enamoured with the idea that I should be posing an authentic challenge each and every encounter. It doesn’t need to be that way, I’d go so far as to say the frogs proved more troublesome to the group than Explicita Defilus did. You’re free to maybe tack on some more health for a boss monster, or maybe give them an extra action if you’re feeling saucy, but it’s also ok for your party to wipe the floor with the encounter. Don’t worry, you’ll get ‘em next time. And if you can provide them the thrills they’re seeking from such a fight, there will always be a next time.

So it was for this group - they were ecstatic. At this point the adventure had taken over two months of real time sessions, about 9 in total. With that amount of time investment, they were ready to have this enemy conquered and the quest succeeded. I don’t think they were expecting to wrap up the way it did though, and that’s what I wanted to save for this part. It’s easy enough at the end of a quest to just say, “Hooray, you have slain the Great Foe of Typical Village, and they shower you in praise and gold and you’ll always have a place to rest your head here,” and so on and so forth. Tip number two of this episode: spice it up. Bring them back to town. Make the ending of the adventure just as memorable as this fight and the start.

I ended up not using the treasure depicted in the module. It may just be that I’m a bit of a miser when it comes to handing out material rewards to the players, but I ended up just having them roll on the tables depicted in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to see what they ended up with - they were showered with thousands of gold pieces, and a number of magic items to boot. A treasure hoard is also a good spot to drop any specific items you have in mind that may tie into the campaign - for me it was a mindstone of a dwarf mythic hero, who communicated to Pedwar telepathically and would lead to a couple of tie-ins with previous campaigns I’ve run.

As the module wraps up it states that the naga is killed, and those charmed by her are freed of her enchantment. The party secured the two prisoners they ran into earlier, and rather than just having them backtrack through the dungeon I had a secret staircase at one of the chamber ends of Explicita Defilus’ cavern/throne room that took them all the way up to the very surface of the swamp. I think that’s just good design to use if your party has to spend in-game days or even weeks getting to the dungeon’s lowest level, it’s fun to provide them a way to get out quickly, such as riding on the back of a rescued dragon. The secret staircase was less dramatic, but still useful.

Atop the dungeon the party ran into the human cultists, freed from the charm and in desperate need to help them. After flooding the temple of the reptile god by sabotaging the barricades along the entrance way, the party headed northward to the forest - where they encountered that shapeshifting druid I mentioned so long ago. Oreena Hollysong has been around this part of the world for a while, and wished to gauge the actions of the party, mostly to cast doubt on them. I didn’t want the party to think that they had done wrong by defeating the naga, but was curious to see how they’d take it if an NPC approached them about it. To Hollysong the naga served to prevent other dangerous threats from moving into the region, but now with Explicita Defilus dead those threats could do just that. Were these self-styled heroes ready to deal with the actions of their consequences? What if Orlane were endangered once more, would the heroes answer it?

Of course they would, they said, they were heroes. Oreena smiled and went on her way, but for us as dungeon masters this can foreshadow terrible events to come, bringing the party back to this very spot once more and to illustrate an important lesson - just as much as their failures, their successes too should have consequences. Maybe the party needs to return to fight off a different cult, or perhaps even Explicita Defilus herself returns. One of the peculiar aspects of nagas is that they don’t experience true death, but instead return after a number of days. Of course it would be some time before she could set up an operation on this scale again in the region, or perhaps she goes somewhere else altogether. It’s up to you if that’s something you think would add to the drama of your game. The module, in its wrap-up section, even mentions that as a possibility, the previous threats who lived here before the naga return to claim what they see as theirs by right. It doesn’t help that, surely after all this, the Orlane militia will be lacking in strength.

After dealing with the aggressively True Neutral archdruid, the party took the road westward, marching with the rescued villagers until they reached the town of Orlane, where they were greeted as heroes and saviors, the welcome they were long expecting. At the Golden Grain Inn, now a safe haven for the party, the mayor Zakarias Ormund held a feast in honor of those that had come to their town and freed them from the dreadful grip of Explicita Defilus. It was a somber celebration, as the realization of various townsfolk actions of what they did and those who were still lost could not be dismissed, but Antonio and Cht’Hoo did their best as entertainers to provide a livelier mood to help them return to some level of normalcy.

Elsewhere, Sq’Gee, the mayor, and Bertram Beswill, held a quiet funeral outside the Golden Grain Inn, for the innocent that Sq’Gee had taken - Root, the cook. The first part of the recap was what the player had written and… I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t prepared for that level of emotional investment from someone at the table, ever. But as always, you never know what’s going to happen until you sit down to play, and that was perfect: what a way to bring this adventure to a close, with a eulogy for a minor NPCs whose death was the catalyst for the events to follow. In that moment, I cried, we all did - something I’m not sure will ever happen again at my table, something I could never plan for, try as I might.

The end of the adventure doesn’t need to be that. It’s fertile soil for you to plant seeds of where the campaign could go next. The following day, the party had a discussion with Zakarias Ormund about events threatening to transpire. He showed them a letter, from Baron Tervin Blackshield no less, their current employer. He had heard from sources he was unwilling to disclose that the Prism Wizard’s plots to invade the Drifting Isles were nearing completion, and that a conflict would arrive on their doorsteps sooner or later. They would need to take sides, something Mayor Ormund was hesitant to commit to. The party urged him to stay independent, they themselves unsure of how to proceed with a matter far grander than they were aware of.

Asides from this, Olrune still needed to resolve the matter of the night hag’s haunting, still sapping him of maximum hit points. Short of going to Ukesh directly, he was unlikely to find someone capable of working a spell strong enough to release him from it, but Ramne the local sage knew of a dangerous way they could address it, involving travel to where his people came from: the moon, by mental projection at least. Their Dawn Guard allies, Dorian and Llewellyn, returned to town as well, and while Llewellyn was hesitant, Dorian, the sickly and helpful one of the twol brothers, could volunteer his abilities to help with whatever ritual it was - the Heroes of Orlane had proven themselves valiant and just, and he would be honored to help them.

Sq’Gee also had a matter of importance. The head of his church in this region, the High Observer, had been… let’s say “visions” of the party’s actions, and came to give the party cleric his rightful due: ascension to the role of Inquisitor, one of the highest honors of those serving in the church of Oolmund. He would need to return with them to Ukesh to complete the ritual, and then be free after that. This served two purposes: the first was to reward the player from a story standpoint, and open up even further doors to the possibilities of storytelling. The second was that Sq’Gee’s player had seen some homebrew and wanted to try out a new character.

The end of a quest or an adventure doesn’t have to be the end. It can also serve as a platform to present players with information about the future of the campaign, what awaits them over the next hill. Ultimately it’ll be up to them how to respond to these propositions, in this case it included the looming threat of war in the region, minor planar travel, transition to the nearby city as an advancement in story and tier of play both, as well as just going back to Fenskeep with pricing and trade restored. It’s up to you how once this chapter closes, to present how the next one will begin. 

I hope you all had as much fun hearing how N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God went as I did, both running it and looking back at those sessions. It’s been an actual two years since then and I don’t think I’ve managed to top what happened during that period. Sure the players have gone different places, characters have changed, and they even have their own ship now, but I’ve always looked back at this era of the campaign with incredible fondness. That isn’t to say I don’t like where my campaign is at right now, I’d go so far as to say I love it and I think D&D only gets more fun as you continue playing and get better and better at being a dungeon master. I know for a fact the investment and payoff we got from playing this module wasn’t something I would’ve been able to pull off ten years ago, or even five years ago, but I can tell you for sure that as you do this thing of sitting behind a piece of laminated cardboard, rolling fancy plastic dice with too many sides and telling stories with people you care about - you’re going to get better at it. And running Against the Cult of the Reptile God is a great place to start.

I’d also be remiss at the end of all this to mention Matt Colville, whose YouTube Channel based around DM advice (it’s easy to find, it’s just Matthew Colville), does go over this module and how he prepped for the adventure. There’s some great tips in there past what I’ve been talking about for a few weeks at this point, and I definitely recommend you check his content out. It’s been a big motivator for me getting back into running the game, even if I don’t run my table like he does.

If you have any questions, comments, or whatever else you can email me at dmdiscoursepodcast@gmail.com - I want to start adding a Q&A so if you have anything you want ask, please do! Also you can keep up with what I’m doing by following me on Twitter @DMDCPodcast. If you like what you’re hearing, subscribe to the show on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts - and leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. That helps me out to keep making content that you all enjoy. As always, appreciate y’all out there, thanks for listening, and have a great week.