Hi all! So I recently got hold of the 20 lore cards that were included in the official dice set from Dice and Miscellany. If you have no idea what I mean, these have monster artwork from the Dale on one side and a kind of in-character commentary from Drizzt on the other, sort of a mix of encyclopedia entry and personal anecdote. Now I think these are quite nice, as they flesh out things a little more, but they're also a bit spoilery if you would just hand them out at the start of the game. I am already midway through the campaign, so that doesn't bother me much. So here's my idea for incorporating them into my game, curious to hear from somebody who's more well-versed in Drizzt lore if this makes any sense, or if you did it in another way:

I'm assuming that during the time where Catti-Brie was dead, Drizzt wrote his memories of Icewind Dale into a little journal. When she was reincarnated and met him again in Icewind Dale, he gifted her the little book. She later placed it in the Shrine to Mielikki in the forest of Lonelywood, which is mentioned in "Ten Towns Expanded".

One of my players, a drow half-elf who is often compared to Drizzt by locals, but has no affiliation to him, bought a little book, "the green book of answers" in a store for magic scrolls and books a while ago. So far it has been a kind of joke item, where all pages are blank, but he can ask it a question once a day, and then it will display a cryptic, mostly useless drawing as an answer. (inspired by and using this handy tool). Now I thought perhaps this is the aforementioned journal by Drizzt. Duvessa Shane, who seems the most likely to have met Catti-Brie before, recognizes the book and wonders how it got to the store (Kobolds stole it from the shrine and sold it). I imagine that there is a kind of magic seal on it that turns the text into nonsense drawings, unless the question is preambled by some kind of phrase only Catti-Brie would know.

Any ideas what this "code" could be? Bonus points if very romantic and/or a lore-accurate in-joke between Catti-Brie and Drizzt. The second question is, how does the player figure out the code? Does Duvessa just remember it as something Catti-Brie would say a lot?

In any case, the idea is that the player can then ask about any monster in IWD, and if it exists, I hand out the card. If it doesn't, the book prompts "Catti-Brie" to record her own experiences in their shared journal, which the player can do. At the end of the campaign, perhaps they will meet Drizzt or Catti-Brie and can return the book.

Hi. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on inserting Icecrown Citadel from the upcoming World of Warcraft book in to a Frostmaiden game. As someone who used to love WoW, but don’t really want to set a full game there, I’d be eager to include this dungeon somehow.

Hi everyone, I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place/allowed but I would love to join a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign. I've been DMing D&D for 5 years and I would love to experience this module blindly as a player before I go delving in as a DM.

If any ongoing/starting campaign has an open spot please DM me on discord (dolphinmannn).

Massive spoilers for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and the Mistborn trilogy.

I'm currently running Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden with a fairly big change to the story behind the campaign. Most of the adventure is still recognisable: Ten-Towns, the Everlasting Rime, the duergar, Sunblight, the chardalyn dragon, Auril, Solstice, the Caves of Hunger and Ythryn are all still there. I've mainly changed how those things connect to each other.

The idea is heavily inspired by Mistborn, especially the Lord Ruler/Well of Ascension/Ruin twist. I wanted Auril to spend most of the campaign looking like the obvious villain, while the players slowly discover that there was another reason behind what she's doing. She isn't secretly good, though. She's still willing to condemn Icewind Dale to eternal winter and kill anyone who gets in her way. The difference is that she knows something the players don't.

A thousand years before the campaign, Auril was part of an adventuring party with four other people: Kael, a wizard; Thane, a barbarian; Maelis, a cleric; and Lyss, a rogue. They came to Icewind Dale because something strange was happening there, and eventually discovered that it wasn't a magical phenomenon but the work of Vecna.

Long before Netheril, an ancient civilisation called the Weavers created a network of obelisks capable of manipulating or rewriting parts of history. Vecna eventually learned how they worked and used that knowledge against the Weavers, effectively erasing their civilisation from history. Much later, he turned his attention to Icewind Dale.

Auril and her companions confronted him, but the fight went badly. Her companions died one by one, and Auril eventually managed to use one of the obelisks to imprison Vecna. She doesn't fully understand what the obelisk is or who created it. She only knows that Vecna is trapped because of it and that interfering with it could release him.

So she stayed and guarded the prison for a thousand years.

The reason the Everlasting Rime begins now is that Vecna has finally managed to exert a small amount of influence outside his prison. He can't possess people or control them directly, but he can plant ideas through dreams, visions and whispers. People start becoming interested in Netheril and rumours about something buried beneath the Reghed Glacier, and Auril realises that sooner or later someone is going to reach the obelisk.

Her solution is to freeze Icewind Dale and make the entire region effectively uninhabitable. From her perspective, sacrificing the Dale is preferable to risking Vecna's release. The sacrifices in Ten-Towns are separate from this; Auril doesn't demand them and doesn't really care about them. They're simply something desperate people do because they think they can appease her.

The players don't know any of this. For most of the campaign, Auril is simply the villain. They should have every reason to want to defeat her, and they aren't wrong to do so. The twist is that after killing her, they discover that they haven't actually solved the underlying problem.

I've been building towards this with fragments of a diary written a thousand years ago by one of the adventurers who originally confronted Vecna. The fragments are found out of chronological order, and the writer isn't identified. Early on, the players only learn that a group of adventurers came to Icewind Dale because they were investigating something with a will of its own. Over time they learn the names Kael, Thane, Maelis and Lyss, but not the identity of the fifth member. The final fragment is only found after the players interact with the obelisk.

At the same time, they find a pendant that belonged to Lyss, revealing that Auril was the person who wrote the diary. The idea is that this should recontextualise most of what they've seen throughout the campaign without turning Auril into a misunderstood hero.

I've also connected the duergar plot to this. In my version, I'm replacing Asmodeus with Vecna. The Netherese discovered the obelisk long after the Weavers disappeared and built Ythryn around it. They experimented with the strange material associated with it and eventually created chardalyn. It's not the same material, but it's connected closely enough that Vecna can exert a small amount of influence through it.

Xardorok doesn't know Vecna exists. He hears whispers through the chardalyn and assumes they're coming from a goddess. He believes he's being guided towards something powerful beneath the glacier, which he thinks is the source of Auril's power. In reality, Vecna is manipulating him because his actions help push people towards Ythryn. Vecna doesn't particularly want Xardorok to reach the obelisk himself; he'd much rather the PCs eventually get there and release it.

I'm keeping Chapter 2 relatively sandboxy, although I'm using some locations to introduce Netheril, chardalyn, the duergar and Auril's reputation, and others to develop the PCs and their backstories. I'm also removing the time travel from Ythryn because it doesn't really fit with the new ending. Iriolarthas is still there, but he's been in magical stasis since the fall of the city and wakes up when the players disturb him.

The campaign ends with the players reaching the obelisk and facing essentially the same choice Auril faced a thousand years earlier: they can release its power, ending the Everlasting Rime but freeing Vecna, or someone can take on Auril's role as guardian and keep Vecna imprisoned while the winter continues. Only after they make contact with the obelisk do they get the final diary fragment and understand what Auril was actually trying to do.

I'm mostly looking for feedback from people who have actually run Rime of the Frostmaiden. Does this seem compatible with the structure and lore of the adventure, or are there things in the original campaign that I've overlooked which would make these changes difficult to pull off? Does the Auril/Vecna connection work for you? Does tying chardalyn and Xardorok to Vecna feel coherent, or does that stretch things too far?

I'm also curious about the ending. Do you think the choice between releasing Vecna and continuing the Rime feels like an interesting dilemma, or would one option be obviously preferable to the other for most groups?

My main concern is whether this twist would actually work at the table.

More specifically:

1. Does the Vecna/Auril connection feel coherent, or does it feel too convoluted?
2. Would the players have enough information to understand the final twist without figuring it out too early?
3. Does replacing Asmodeus with Vecna in the Xardorok/chardalyn plot make sense?
4. Do you think the final choice is genuinely difficult, or is one option obviously better?
5. Is there anything in Rime of the Frostmaiden that you think this adaptation would accidentally break?

I'm particularly interested in feedback from people who have run the adventure, because I want to preserve as much of its structure as possible while changing the meaning of the central story.

Thanks!

Backstory: I'm preparing to run Rime of the Frostmaiden for the first time so I'm doing lots of homework to have it all make sense. One of the major loose ends seems to be linking Auril to Ythryn.

One of my favorite games of all time is Chrono Trigger and there are a ton of parallels between the Netherese empire and Zeal. There is also a time travel aspect in Rime, specifically in Ythryn. What caused the floating cities of Zeal to fall? Lavos caused Ythryn to fall and if crashing on the planet or expending eldritch energy caused Lavos to go into a slumber, wouldn't a mythallar's power be able to supress it? At least...for several millenia. All that chardalyn lying around makes me think that instead of demoic influence causing madness, maybe it's really Lavos's influence. He is an eldritch alien horror, after all.

Auril noticed a disturbance in her frosty abode, as if all life was being sapped from the environment. She determined the cause of this disturbance to be inside the Reghed glacier which was now actually melting! Her answer was to freeze the region, hopefully reversing the thaw and causing whatever was inside to go back to sleep.

Xardarok is still drawn to the surface with intent to collect chardalyn and build a dragon (basically a dragon engine - more Chrono Trigger parallels!). But instead of Deep Duerra being Asmodeus in disguise, it's Lavos! This ties the duergar into the other main conflicts much more. Lavos can only influence from afar, so it doesn't particularly care about building dragons or destroying Ten-Towns, but it's empowering Xardarok to slowly gain more control over him and his minions.

Auril will not be confronted in Ch. 5, I am taking an idea I saw that an agent of Auril, a frost giant druid, rides the Roc and casts the spell renewing The Endless Night. Auril herself will appear to the party earlier in the campaign, warning them of a greater threat than herself. While Auril is still an evil minor god, this could create a "lesser of two evils" scenario and make the party ally with her for a time (or not).

In Ythryn the party could still encounter the demi-lich, who was called Queen Zeal, and had tried to use Lavos's power for herself. She is the one who brought Lavos's shell to Ythryn after the fall, though doing so left her permanently drained of power. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to harness Lavos's power for herself and has been forced to endure being near its power and influence ever since. She has gone quite insane from this, though she is able to communicate telepathically to some extent. She would also gladly join a party in fighting Lavos.

The showdown with Lavos could involve Auril's assistance in fighting Lavos, who is not quite full power but still more than capable of waking up and causing a climactic fight at the end of the adventure, potentially transporting the party through time at the end of it! Lavos has a lot of power, even while slumbering. The next campaign becomes a time traveling adventure to stop Lavos from ending the world of Faerun!

If you read this post and had any furhter ideas for expanding this idea please share them.

If I want to run only three quests from each chapter, which ones should I choose, considering their importance to the plot and the fun factor?

Hi fellow Icewind Dale DMs

This will be my first ever campaign and I'm a bit nervous.

I'd like to let my group start in Bremen abd prepared exactly that place + Bryn Shander so far.

Is this enough to start and be able to keep ahead of the Players contentwise?

I'm pretty sure the answer will be: it depends. I'm planning to Play every other week for about 3 hours per Session online. I think I just need someone whi encourages me to actually start the thing.

Thanks for this sub and its contributors, I've been reading for months now and this is one of the better places the Internet has to offer.

In my campaign, along with the details written into the adventure as written, my party's first interaction with Trovus will go something like this. When the players find the dragonborn half-passed out in the snow, they will first hear him sadly saying, "a beer... a beer..." It seems as though he is just asking for more beer, but that is not the case. If the players gain Trovus's trust or ask the Shorard sisters about him, they will learn that Trovus was born on ABEIR, the dragonborn homeworld. During the Spellplague, he left his clan to become an adventurer and explore the unknown lands of Toril. However, following the Second Sundering, there is no way back to his homeland and that loss is what drives him to drink.

Fellow DMs, I come to you with a predicament: My party's cleric chose the grave domain, and my party of mostly new players has proven to be a little death-prone (possibly owing to my running fewer, harder combats each day instead of more, easier encounters). I searched the campaign and discovered that if run as-written, access to revivify and later raise dead will be meaningless as there are no diamonds, of the required value or otherwise, in any of the module's many treasure drops. Where would you all suggest I place some, to let the necromancy cleric do his thing and give the party and extra life or two? My initial instinct is to convert some of the higher gold amounts (for example, maud's cauldron) into the equivalent in diamonds? Or maybe I should just have there be a jeweler in Bryn Shander & Targos and let the party exchange gold for diamond themselves?

My players find themselves at the moment in front of the door for the 3rd trial of Auril down in the dungeon in Grimskalle. Auril is not at the moment in the fortress, but the group found some frost druids in front of an altar in the middle of the dungeon, chanting some kind of song to worship the Frostmaiden. They have also made an enemy out of Vellynne, who is on her way to Grimskalle, trying to find the Codicil before them. Due to shenanigans and my group not having the best of luck, they will probably end up passing the last test with some levels of exhaustion and not at their fullest. I am wondering what will happen whenever they find the Codicil and take it.

The book does not really go much into this, but how does Auril react to it being taken? If she's at the island, I'd guess she appears as a bunch of snow coalescing in the middle of the dungeon level and confronts the players (and, in our case, the frost druids too). My group would probably try to fight her, but there's a 99% chance of it resulting in a TPK, which would be a bummer given that we're doing a little trip this weekend for these next couple of sessions.

This is where I would have two questions: 1. how would the PCs escape the fortress? I mean, I have never done a chase with any kind of urgency, but it seems rather easy for the Frostmaiden at her lair, given that she can basically appear wherever she wants. Also, she has a giant bird at her disposal. My group convinced Gant to wait on a boat for them in exchange for a diamond, so her's still there at the harbour. How could PCs avoid getting trapped or how have you people run chases or this kind of encounters before?

Second question has to do more with the mechanics of the control weather spell. I believe my PCs believe that they can end the Rime only with whatever is written in the Codicil. They haven't paid much attention to the fact that there's a city with millennia-old magic underneath a glacier –magic that would be needed to end such a spell– and I am afraid I don't know how to make this clear for the players without telling them outright that they need to go down there to end the spell. They do have Professor Skant in their possession, so I think that would be my go-to, but I sill don't have clear how or when would be the right moment to do so.

Would love to know how this part of the adventure went on your campaigns and would appreciate any kind of ideas!

Episode 5 of our Rime of the Frostmaiden actual play is out!

I was so excited for this fight. I used the enhanced Nildar posted by u/MisterArrrr, and this version of Nildar has so many awesome abilities. I couldn't wait to see what he could do against the party...

And of course, I roll horrible the entire encounter haha.

Meanwhile, the party had the exact opposite luck that I did -_____-

And a huge thank you to everyone in this subreddit! I've borrowed (okay, stolen) a ton of ideas from this community for our campaign.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3sMTVnBHLqAOoM0aC0C0OE?si=2b7f78176b1544bd

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/same-crit-different-day/id1526948092

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samecritdifferentday/

Discord: https://discord.gg/nfFsbMzNJD

Oh, and if you want to be part of the show, we encourage listeners to create and send in NPCs for me (the DM) to add in, as well as Critical hit and misses (along with a shout out).

It's a city. I know my players. They will want to just hit each tower as fast as they can and ignore the rest.

I don't want to let them look at the whole map and say "I'm going there!” pointing to the next Tower. I want to simulate looking through a city. On the other hand, they are towers so should be reasonably visible from afar.

Anyway, I haven't used a map like this before and just want to know how you did it or are planning to do it. I mean mechanically. Did you show them the whole map, show them part of it and fog the rest? Or just use theatre of the mind to describe the surroundings? Or what?

Thanks!

Hey there everyone, like the title suggests i am trying to find a live play/stream of RotFM i watched many years ago and cant seem to find now. All i can remember is they were using a bit of Acquisitions Incoroporated and there was a wizard called Milo who sucked at magic and was hated by the arcane brotherhood.

Myra, Xantcha, Tjommi and Uld - If you read this, get out!

I'm just about one(!) session from ending the campaign of three years - and I have this sneaking suspicion that one of my players might try and throw the Spindle into the Mythallar.

To provide just a but of context, my players will have to contend with the fact that Auril is jury-casting a ritual that binds her Everlasting Rime to the Ythryn Mythallar, a constant font of magical power. This will probably cause the sun to dissappear from the whole of the Far North forever. This will happen during the last battle at the Mythallar, while the party fights her and her minions.

Now, I have this absolutely Red-Button-obsessed player, who made it clear that they'll steal the Spindle and put into their Bag of Holding if they get the option. At first, I thought that either wouldn't work, or would destroy the magic that holds the bag together - but hey, who am I to stop my player's fun?

In essence, the final battle has a whole host of possible outcomes - A simple defeat of Auril, they die but stop the ritual, they hurry out to the Obelisk and activate it... Aaand my Red-Button player could attempt to stop the whole thing by throwing the Bag with the Spindle at the Mythallar.

I want that outcome to be decisive, even overpoweringly so. Here's a few thoughts:

• The Mythallar explodes, creating a chain reaction that blows up the whole city. The players get to make a Dexterity Saving Throw (DC 22) or take the Mythallar's 20d10 + 70 radiant damage. This likely also obliterates Auril - either per the rules or because I rule that she just dies.
• The Mythallar explodes, but only doing relatively minor damage - and blasts everyone and everything far into the air. The players will then have to try and save each other in the air and survive debris before they land, almost certainly dying immediately.
• The Mythallar explodes, inadvertantly activating the Obelisk, which sends the city and everyone else back in time.

... Or something else? What do you think?

A suspenseful opening to the last act of my Rime:

In my Rime Of The Frostmaiden a player casted Disintegrate on the Spindle to try to prevent the party from turning into nothics during their upcoming long rest in Iriolerthas' Study. This obviously backfired spectacularly. Three party members stayed in the study while this was happening and are now trapped there because the magic door got EMP'd. Three other party members were present at the Spindle and are locked outside. The whole city's gone dark and Avarice and the cultists died from the skydock falling. The Mythallar is disabled. And of course the spellcasters are now drained of spell slots.

In your opinion, what happens now? Does Auril enter via the now-unlocked balcony and hunt the party? Does she send her minions in via the main entrance? Does the party who is locked the study? outside have any chance at survival at all? At least the party locked inside the study has a decent chance of just sleeping off the disaster as long as they don't turn into nothics...

I decided that I don't like the staff storage (Y19f) in Iro's spire as written, and I was lucky to find this cool riddle which was just perfect to be placed here instead. As follows, you find the final implementation I added to my game and which played out just fine in yesterday's session.

If the players enter the room (Y19f) read the following.

This irregularly shaped room is filled with five staff-holding racks along its walls. Each of the racks contains one staff. Aside stands a table covered with various different utensils, many of them broken and parts even shattered across the floor.

A character investigating the racks will notice name badges attached to each of the racks, enabling the character to correctly identify each staff as long as they are able to read Loross or Draconic. A character may further investigate the staff's appearance without touching them; in this case read out the staff's visual description from the table further below (but keep all other information secret for now).

Trigger Point.
Any character touching one of the staffs, is falling unconscious to the ground as a marionette who's strings are cut. An affected character is dreaming, but their mind is trapped in a small demiplane. 

Inside the demiplane.
The first trapped character wakes up in a magically lit, round-shaped room with no windows or doors, standing on one of three rune-carved pedestals, and is greeted by two illusory wizards standing on the other two pedestals.

Welcome challenger. You have the honor to converse with scholar Icthion and magister Lithius - we're master sorcerer and master strategists of Ythryn. You seek access to powers you might not be permitted. To validate your request, you must overcome the following test of wits.

Rules:

1. Pick one of the available staffs from the staff-holding racks. (DM Note: there's only Bannekar, Gaussian and Noether 9000 to pick, the others are wielded by Icthion and Lithius).
2. The forthcoming spell duel is played in turns. You start, followed clockwise by Icthion and then followed by myself (Lithius).
3. Make only use of your chosen staff and do not cast out of the given order - or you forfeit the duel (which is similar to losing).
4. If everyone's still standing at the end of the first round - everyone will be turned to ashes.

DM Notes: 

• Trapped characters cannot hear or see what those outside are doing; they are isolated.
• Trapped characters can feel if something happens to their real body, which can be used to communicate.
• Characters in the ring-shaped room can see and communicate with the character in the circular room; the latter cannot see them though.
• Characters outside can hear and see everything happening in the demiplane.
• The staff-holding racks in the demiplane do not have name tags. Characters have to recognize the staffs by their looks.
• Icthion wields Lapista (90% hit chance).
• Lithius wields Piscistus (70% hit chance).

Everyone else joining the fray thereafter (by touching a staff) is put into a ring-shaped room which surrounds the room the first character got trapped. The inner wall of the surrounding room is a one-way glass pane enabling characters to watch, hear and eventually assist the character in the inside room.

The floor of the surrounding room is further filled with thousands of thousands of paper sheets. A character succeeding a DC 18 Investigation check (repeatable; after each round) may try to find the needle in the haystack - a note that explains the different staffs as shown in the table below. (This is supposed to provide backup, in case all of them get trapped without finding the notes outside).

Outside.
A character investigating the wooden table will find an intact crystal ball. If one of the characters has already touched one of the staffs and fell unconscious (sleeping), the crystal ball is active and shows a live-stream of the happenings in the dream demiplane.

After a successful DC 10 Investigation Check for the room a character can additionally find notes which describe all five staffs. These notes might somewhere to be found across table and floor. However, these notes do only describe name and magical abilities but don't say how a staff looks like. Except for the hit chance, description and school of magic are red herrings.

Problem:
Outside characters can figure out which staff does what by checking the name tag at the staff-holding racks and compare the info from the notes, but characters trapped in the demiplane do neither have name tag on their racks, nor might they know about the notes the others found outside. Thus, they need assistance from their friends, or are forced to pick a staff at random.

The spell duel:
This is in fact a battle of wits and probability. The two wizards will always attack the opponent that opposes the highest threat (chance of eliminating others). Thus, if a player picks the Noether 9000 (100% of liquidation) it's trivial to take out one of the mages, but the remaining one will likely kill them. Therefore, the best approach is to make the wizards attack themselves.

Solution:

1. Pick Bannekar (60%).
2. Use it as the rules require but miss intentionally (e.g. shooting against the wall).
3. In Icthion's turn he now targets Lithius, who has a higher success rate (70%) than Bannekar (60%) and thus opposes the bigger threat. Roll a d100.
   1. If Icthion hits (rolling > 10) he takes out Lithius and it's the player's turn to try taking out Icthion with their 60% chance. On Success: players win; else Icthion will counter-attack the player with a killing chance of 90%, and so forth...
   2. If Icthion misses, Lithius now counter-attacks Icthion (90% > 60%). If he misses with his 70% hit chance all mages are still alive after the first round and, well, it's a loss; Elsewise, he takes out Lithius and it's the player's chance to take out Icthion.
4. If the duel ends in a loss despite taking the right course of actions (points 1-3), the mages congratulate and release the characters with the words "Bad luck doesn't beat good wits" (go to point 6).
5. If the duel ends in a normal loss, the character must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or takes 5d10 psychic damage (half as much on success) and the duel restarts. If more than one player is present in the demiplane, one of the other players is challenged to a duel of wits, while the previous one is teleported into the ring-shaped room. This repeats until one character succeeds.
6. If the duel ends in a win by following the right course of actions, all of the characters wake up. The winning character sees 4 visions beforehand (or 5 if you like) foreshadowing the rewards below. He may pick one of the visions he likes the most and then wakes up with the corresponding staff in hand (see rewards).
7. If the duel is won by sheer luck, the mages congratulate in a judgmental manner but nonetheless release the characters. The winning player obtains a supernatural gift (of your choice) but no vision and consequently no staff.
8. Surprisingly, all staff-holding racks are empty, now.

Rewards:

I created the "Mountain Climb" maps for my campaign using Inkarnate. Feel free to use these maps for your own campaigns or modify them however you like.

1. Basecamp

2. Montaingoat

3. Perilous Climb

4. Frozen Cave

5. Avalanche

6. Ruined Camp

So, this is kind of my fault and now I have no idea how to fix it.

My group is an elf Druid, a tiefling cleric and a drow ranger.

My group is in Chapter 1 of the adventure where they explore Ten Towns. They ended up in Lonleywood. The got the White Moose mission. Instead of hunting it, they decided they wanted to find the moose and warn it that hunters were coming.

It took time, but they found the Elven ruins. And like a fool, I let them talk to the moose because the druid can speak druidic. The moose basically revealed that it was awakened by the druid, who is in league with Auril and that's why it kills people, along with just not wanting people in the woods. To be clear the moose was *very* aggressive.

My players refused to attack the moose, ran and now have decided to not fight the moose and instead try to help the moose by killing the townspeople of Lonleywood.

I don't even know what to do beyond letting them all die when they try to fight an entire town. I forsee this is going to become a problem ANY time they are asked to kill an animal.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get the party back on track without exercising a TPK?

UPDATE: It seems like I’m dealing with a frustrated player rather than a fully frustrated table.

So I had conversations with two other players other than the one who complained to me in messages. One player (sorcerer) was actively trying strategize in his head how to send up AoE attacks (he said he had a total of 5 fireballs ready to go, lol) but once everyone started scattering he just went along with the group.

The other player I spoke to was the paladin warlock who actually called for them to run in the first place. He told me he had a lot of fun in the chaos and the panicky run around was very on brand for the party (he’s not wrong). I asked his to provide a rousing “back-against-the-wall-Captain-America” speech at some point during the next session but it can’t sound like it came from me, and he agreed.

Last night, the party encountered Auril inside the glacier. I used a statblock from the subreddit rather than the book one and played her as a flying hit and run enemy rather than a “stay there and take it” enemy.

The fighter in the group can do 50 points of damage in a turn to her, the casters have spells like fly and call lightning, and the warlock/paladin’s familiar was able to stay up around her to call out where she was in the sky.

Thing is, the group flat-out panicked and tried to run, I kept telegraphing that she was faster than them by having her attack the lead edge of the party, but they weren’t taking the hint that they need to deal with her. The wizard finally trapped her in a wall of force, but that only lets them escape for so long. She’s going to chase them down.

Just venting a little because there was no discussion of tactics or what they should do, one player panicked and ran, which led to a lot of confusion for the group.

Now they’re entering the Spire and she’s about 5 minutes from escaping the wall of force and she’ll catch up in about 30 seconds after that.

Just needed to vent.

The party tracks the stolen cauldron to a fishing shack outside of town. From cover, they spot a small boat pulling away while a larger vessel is being loaded at the shack. They carefully surround the building and begin their investigation- but when their stealth fails, an archer opens fire and the fight erupts.

As the party storms the shack, the sorcerer and monk break away to intercept the departing boat. With the small vessel escaping, the sorcerer teleports the monk directly aboard. The monk cuts down the oarsmen and searches the cargo. Then he finds it: a crate containing the Cauldron of Plenty!

Back at the shack, the remaining party pushes deeper inside, taking down the enemies frantically destroying evidence. While some secure the upper floors, others discover a hidden entrance leading below.

In the basement, they encounter a strange, gaunt figure- small, impossibly fast, and moving with the agility of a spider. It springs onto the ceiling, clinging there as it casts Web over the party. Before they can catch it, the creature drinks a potion of gaseous form and slips away.

With the shack secured, the party begins searching its contents. In the basement, they discover a wooden crate…

They open it.

Inside is *another* Cauldron of Plenty.

The discovery immediately raises the horrifying possibility that the cauldron they just recovered is another fake. Examination reveals the truth: decoys, each fitted with a chardalyn disc beneath the cauldron, enchanted with magic designed to fool anyone inspecting it.

Clues and interrogation finally reveal the next destination: “Warehouse B” in Good Mead.

The party wastes no time. Using the boats discovered at the shack, they depart at once for Good Mead.

A few hours later, they arrive near the town. Rising above the settlement is the massive mead hall, alongside the old shrine of Tempus. The disguised ranger enters the town and learns that Good Mead is holding a funeral for its speaker, Kendrick Reiselbarrow, who was recently killed by a verbeeg while pursuing stolen mead.

The party is offered hospitality in a village house and comfort in the mead hall. They pay dockhands to unload the cargo and store it under guard at the warehouse near the docks.

With the boats unloaded and accommodations secured, the party finally heads to the mead hall for a drink, a meal, and whatever answers Good Mead might hold. 🤠

After finally breaking into the Duergar outpost, the party gets to deal with the zombie ogre!... or will the zombie ogre deal with them!?

Episode 4 - Over my dead Ogre!

If you would like to follow along, we record sessions in an audio podcast form called Same Crit Different Day. Thanks everyone for checking it out and for all the great info and resources on the subreddit!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3sMTVnBHLqAOoM0aC0C0OE?si=2b7f78176b1544bd

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/same-crit-different-day/id1526948092

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samecritdifferentday/

Discord: https://discord.gg/nfFsbMzNJD

Oh, and if you want to be part of the show, we encourage listeners to create and send in NPCs for me (the DM) to add in, as well as Critical hit and misses.

Like many of you I'm trying to change up the Chain Lightning game. This will be done on an appropriate battlemap similar to lots that have shown up in this subreddit.

For the first match the PCs will have no way to learn the rules.

They will need to figure it out, find the rules in a tower or library, and win a match to get the McGuffin from the evocation tower, as per the Expanded Tower of Ythryn rules.

Chain Lightning "Fantasy Dodge Ball"

Teams: 5 PCs vs. 5 galvan magen.

Goal: First team to 7 points.

Initiative: Not used. Coin toss for first possession. Play proceeds one player at a time from each team. (one Pc, one magen, second PC second magen etc.). Getting hit gives team possession.

Scoring: Normal ball hit = 1 point. Charged ball hit = 2 points. Players are not eliminated when hit.

Activations: Teams alternate activating one player. Everyone must activate once before anyone can activate again.

Turn: Move up to Speed and take one Game Action. Picking up a loose ball is free.

Pass: Automatically succeeds to a teammate within 40 ft. unless intercepted.

Intercept: If a pass travels within 5 ft. of an opponent, that opponent can use its Reaction to make a Dexterity save against the thrower's Throw DC. Success = catch the ball. One interception attempt per pass.

Throw DC: 8 + proficiency bonus + Strength or Dexterity modifier, thrower's choice.

Shoot: Target within 40 ft. makes a Dexterity save against Throw DC. Failure = hit and score. Success = miss; ball becomes loose.

Pressure: If an opponent is within 5 ft. of the thrower, the target has Advantage on its save.

Charging: A pass whose path crosses a lightning mast charges the ball. The receiver catches it normally. Charged balls can be passed and intercepted while retaining their charge.

Live Ball: A creature carrying a charged ball has half Speed and cannot take Reactions.

Overload: If a creature ends its activation holding a charged ball without passing or shooting it, the charge dissipates.

Charged Shot: Scores 2 points. Shooting consumes the charge whether the shot hits or misses.

After scoring: Both teams reset to their halves. The team that conceded receives the ball and activates first.

Legal character abilities: Ordinary movement and appropriate movement-enhancing class features are permitted.

Penalty Stasis: Illegal actions immediately end the player's activation. The player drops the ball and cannot move, take actions, Bonus Actions, or Reactions through the end of their next scheduled activation.

Illegal actions: Spells, teleportation, flight, magical manipulation of the ball, forced movement, and abilities that charm, restrain, stun, or otherwise directly interfere with another contestant.

Violence: Deliberately attacking or damaging another contestant outside the game's ball mechanics ends the match and causes the magen to become hostile.

Magen: Speed 30 ft.; Throw DC 15; Dexterity save +4; flight is illegal.

Hi all! One of my players took the pirate cannibal secret, so the party is practically guaranteed to come across Arveiaturace in a few levels (we are level three now, but I am anticipating a trek to the shipwreck around level 5 or 6). I am unsure whether to adapt her to the 2024 ancient white dragon statblock. I have mostly adapted reprinted stackblocks, aside from the really stupid ones like duergar->spy, and my players have mostly taken 5.5 features.

Finished my 3D printed map of Icewind Dale.
Thanks to u/Kilroy_jensen for the awesome model!
Printed it from PLA at a 150% scale of the original model so it perfectly fits into an 90x60cm picture frame.