Faction Secret Missions for Adventurers League D&D

I am still going to Adventurers League events (and should update my Adventurers League Logbook on here sometime).

My character Wrathgar has reached the point where I am starting to look at the future regarding his Harpers Renown... and boosting him up in the ranks so he can get access to certain perks.

The trick to getting those perks is that you need to get renown and complete secret missions to reach certain ranks.

Faction Rank Requirements

1. No requirements.
2. 3 Renown
3. 10 Renown, 5th level, 1 Secret Mission
4. 25 Renown, 11th level, 3 Secret Missions
5. 50 Renown, 17th level, 10 Secret Missions

Rank 2 isn't that big of a deal. Faction Tool Training really has limited usefulness.

Once you get to Rank 3 you are able to buy Faction magical items, which are typically +1 weapons or +1 shields, but each Faction also has special items that can be purchased - like a Cloak of Elvenkind for members of the Harpers.

So the real trick then is Secret Missions.

But how does your character go on secret missions???

The problem comes down to a very small number of D&D Adventurers League Quests that include secret missions. There are only twelve Tier 2 quests and three Tier 3 quests - and to be clear, most people do not play these quests. Which means you might have to request that a DM run one of these quests

List of Faction Missions for Forgotten Realms/Ravenloft

Faction Guide

• Emerald Enclave = Ee
• Harpers = Hp
• Lord's Alliance = La
• Order of the Gauntlet = Og
• Zhentarim = Zh
• All Factions = ~

Tier 2 - [Twelve Quests]

• DDEX1-10 Tyranny in Phlan (Hp, La)
• DDEX1-11 Dark Pyramid of Sorcerer's Isle (Zh)
• DDEX1-12 Raiders of the Twilight Marsh (Ee, Og)
• DDEX2-14 The Sword of Selfaril (Ee, Zh)
• DDEX2-15 Black Heart of Vengeance (Hp, La, Og)
• DDEX3-7 Herald of the Moon (Ee, Hp)
• DDEX3-8 The Malady of Elventree (Zh)
• DDEX3-9 The Waydown (La, Og)
• DDEX3-15 Szith Morcane Unbound (Og)
• DDAL4-14 The Darklord (~)
• DDAL5-11 Forgotten Traditions (Ee, Zh)
• DDAL5-13 Jarl Rising (Hp)

Tier 3 - [Three Quests]

• DDEX3-16 Assault on Maermydra (~)
• DDAL5-08 Durlag's Tower (La, Zh)
• DDAL5-09 Durlag's Tomb (Ee)

Notice any problems with the lists and the above rules for Faction Ranks?

#1. It is impossible to get to Faction Rank 5.

To get to Rank 5, you need to complete 10 secret missions, which is impossible to do because there aren't that many Faction secret missions. While there are 15 different quests containing secret missions, there are only so many secret missions per faction.

• Emerald Enclave - 7 secret missions.
• Harpers - 6 secret missions.
• Lord's Alliance - 6 secret missions.
• Order of the Gauntlet - 6 secret missions.
• Zhentarim - 7 secret missions.

So doing 10 secret missions for your Faction is clearly impossible.

Even to do all the missions available to you, you would also need to go to Ravenloft ("The Darklord") and escape Ravenloft (fortunately there are two ways to do that in "The Darklord", however one of them involves using downtime, so if a character who is low on downtime could theoretically end up being stuck in Ravenloft).

#2. It is possible to get to Rank 4, but why bother?

While it is nice to be able to Raise Dead on other faction members, this perk really only makes sense if you are playing a cleric. Otherwise it would be really expensive to be giving away your gold and downtime like that.

#3. It actually makes more sense to Switch Factions...

Think about it.

1. Get to Rank 3 by doing 1 secret mission and gaining 10 renown.
2. Save up gold and downtime.
3. Buy 2 or more magical items from that Faction.
4. Switch Factions.
5. Repeat actions 1 to 5.

After getting to Rank 3 of Harpers and getting all the magical items I want from that group, it makes good logical sense for Wrathgar to switch to one of the other factions (eg. Emerald Enclave).

And it makes even more sense to do, since Rank 4 is a waste of gold/downtime, and Rank 5 is impossible to get to.

#4. It is very tricky to find a DM who is running secret missions.

Not many DMs in Adventurer's League actually run secret missions. Because they are not part of the main quest lines, there is no need to run them. They are considered to be "extras" and most DMs don't even bother.

To get a DM to run one, you really need to request that your regular DM do one of the quests (which cost money to get a copy of the PDF...).

I have managed to find a DM who is running two of these quests, but it involves me getting on a train from Toronto and going to Hamilton to play an 8 hour session. The DM is planning to run two secret mission quests, back to back, "Tyranny of Phlan" and "Black Heart of Vengeance".

This would mean getting 2 secret missions done in one day. Which is awesome. But it does involve some effort and time on my part to trek to Hamilton for a really long session, but at least it will get this done.

Update, March 6th

• Went to Hamilton.
• Long grueling session.
• No healer.
• Crazy dwarf with no armour who kept charging into combat.
• Many short rests.
• We only managed to complete "Tyranny in Phlan". It was supposed to take 4 hours but took closer to 6.5 hours.
• Didn't have enough time to do "Black Heart of Vengeance" too.
• Came home early.

Well, at least that is done. Not doing that ever again. I blame the dwarf.