D&D 5E Ogremoch Rampaging through Dessarin Valley

[LordEntrails]

Last night my players released Ogremoch (Prince of Elemental Evil, PotA) on the Dessarin Valley.

So where do you think he would head to first and then go to? What would be his primary interests in destroying?
- the Stone Bridge
- Red Larch
- The Haunted Keeps
- Westbridge
- Triboar & Yartar
- Beliard
- Womford

 

[hawkeyefan]

It would depend on what you want him to do. Personally, I'd go with either Womford or Stonebridge. Womford isn't all that detailed so you can have him destroy it to make an impression on the players. Stonebridge I can see attracting him due to the earth magic that had to be involved in its creation. I wouldn't expect him to destroy it, though.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Honestly he does not even need to go far. Just by existing in the material plane more portals to the earth plane are going to open and more evil elementals are going to come out. His Node will grow in size and earth quakes and such will happen around him. Anywhere he goes in the valley will be ruined. If the party is beaten it's likely that no one will stop him before the dessarin valley is destroyed.

 

[cooperjer]

My first thought is that is would head northwest to the Sword Mountains. There is a lot of mining potential in the mountains which implies there may be a lot of gems for Ogremoch to acquire. If you use the Forgotten Realms wiki, it indicates Ogremoch covets gems. If your PCs have played the Lost Mines of Phandelver (LMoP) then you can tie your Princes of the Apocalypse story back to the LMoP story. If not then you could use it as an option for a future story. Regardless of LMoP there is still a lot of story potential in that area. Waterdeep is near the mountain range. There are at least four dragons in the mountain range (Umsheryoth at the Helvenblade House per PoTA, Claugiyliamatar a green dragon, Olothontor a blue dragon, and Palarandusk a ancient gold dragon). If it were me, I would have Ogremoch make a straight line to Ieirithymbul to acquire any gems the gnomes may have. This gives me the opportunity to introduce the Cult of the Dragon with Claugiyliamatar. It would also allow the players to help the town of Ieirithymbul and potentially gain an ancient gold dragon ally. I might setup the story to allow a transition into Rise of Tiamat or if Ogremoch went deep into the mountain range then possibly lead into Out of the Abyss as Ogremoch ends his crusade in the Underdark. Alternativly, Ogremoch may end his crusade at the edge of Undermountain, although Ieirithymbul is pretty far north compared to Waterdeep. Enjoy!

 

[Savage Wombat]

Assuming your party is trying to stop Ogremoch...

I like the Womford idea because you do want him to take something out before the PCs can do anything. After that, you want to figure out which location would make for the best showdown, and have him draw a line in that direction.

Alternatively, if there's someplace that the PCs actually value in the valley, you probably want to aim him that way.

 

[LordEntrails]

[MENTION=6862150]cooperjer[/MENTION], Good thoughts. I'm going to have to consider those ideas. Very good. They did play LMoP, so maybe Wave Echo would be a logical target for Ogremoch. He might feel the arcane powers there would be beneficial to him. But I also like the ideas of the party gaining more allies.
[MENTION=1932]Savage Wombat[/MENTION], They are pretty much Murder Hobo's and have little interest or care for the world except for what it gets them. I also don't have any problem with Ogremoch actually destroying something(s). It's the price they pay for not pushing forward.

All that said, the intent, in the end is for the party to restore one of the dwarven kingdoms in the area. (Besilmer or Southkrypt or...)

 

[Nebulous]

I agree with MonsterEnvy, he might not need to go far from the Node. Earthquakes of epic proportions will start to ripple out, and you could even have a 9.5 or something open a crack in the earth and swallow Womford. Evil earth elementals will start flowing forth, and they'll wriggle through the Sumber Hills like malignant earthworms.

In my own campaign, which is nearly finished, the last Prince (Imix in this case) is going to wait around the Fane of the Eye until the stars are right and receive his blessing from the Elemental Evil Eye, which in reality is just going to annihilate Imix (or any other Prince) and then turn the entire planet to a wasteland of death. So from the time the Prince emerges and bad stuff happens, there's another much smaller window until the Elemental Eye destroys everything.

 

[cooperjer]

Since the characters are not too concerned with the world at large and more concerned with their personal power growth there is an interesting opportunity is Ogremoch is defeated by the green dragon Claugiyliamatar and the Cults of the Dragon as he travels through Kryptgarden Forest to the Sword Mountains. It may be possible for the dragon to convince the PCs the they would benefit greatly by assisting him in bringing Tiamat to the plane. Promises of wealth, political power, and eternal life could be made. If the characters agree, now the players can play on the "evil" side of the story of Rise of Tiamat. Some of their quests may involve a dungeon delve into the Tomb of Horrors to collect magical items to complete the ritual to summon Tiamat. That particular story may culminate in the PCs protecting the final ritual to summon Tiamat from another adventuring group or a large group of giants that want to prevent her from coming to this plane.

If the antagonist are giants then maybe the PCs find out that the giants are onto the summoning and they can run through Against the Giants to reduce the number of giants that will be present when the ritual completes.

The piece of the puzzle that is not mentioned is how the Kraken Society fits into the story. Thus far they have shown up in Princes of the Apocalypse in Yartar and they showed up in Storm Kings Thunder. The Forgotten Realms wiki suggest they are an information net work. Maybe they are the informants playing both sides (dragons vs. giants) with a hope to lead to both being weaken.

 

[LordEntrails]

Ogremoch certainly doesn't need to go far. But he has to have some wants/desires/goals. After all, he's probably been thinking about what he would do if the prophet actually succeeded. So, I guess the question is, what would he have planned to do?

The earthquakes, the random portals with elementals appearing, all that happens regardless of where he goes.

Note, even though the characters are typical murder hobos, they are still good aligned and not evil, nor really tending that way.

I'm also thinking of bringing Entemoch into the story line. Something along the lines that he loves his brother, but can no longer stand by passively while his brother does evil on others. To continue to do so, would mean he would be complicit in evil and that in itself would be an evil act. So, now that his brother is upon the prime material plane (and it therefore more vulnerable than normal), he will help the adventurers kill his brother by providing them with something (I'm thinking arrows to neutralize the burrow/earth melding abilities to keep his brother from escaping).

I had thought about Sunnis and Uzrith, but don't see a need to involve them in the storyline.