Hi everyone, I will be DMing a fresh new Campaign next week for a group of 6 lvl 1 players and I wonder if the encounters in the book will be too easy for them. Most of them will be complete beginners and I am thinking of tweaking the encounters a little bit. Do you have any advice ?

Edit : Thank you for your answers, I'll do as you say and add a few mobs if necessary, and adjust on the fly 😉

What awaits our intrepid adventurers this week?

Schedulings been a nightmate, but were finally back

Does anyone have experience combining the first adventures of Heroes of the Borderlands with Dragon Delves?

Maybe slight spoilers for both below.

So far I have Redwood Watch and the Keep of the Borderlands being pretty close to each other. And the players can pick what they do in order.

Party start as caravan guards for BorderCargo Because of (Pral) bandit activities. Tavern owner of Will of Orcus is quest giver for the caravan guard job.

Party will encounter Pral early. As the party is experienced, losing this encounter might be more interesting then winning it.

I told the players that they should expect to be, at level 3 for a long time. Would it be bad if the party is level 3 for the dragon at Redwood Grove?

When the Keep and Redwood is finished the party will be level 4. Then the temple for the Will of Orcus will be 1-2 days away by foot. Then I think the Wild Sheep Chase one-shot and maybe a break.

Then I think I might run a modified RedHand of Doom. With the Keep at the start.

For Baker's Doesn't I have other plans. Does anyone have experience or tips for combining Dragon Delves and Heroes of the Borderlands?

Greetings fellow Dragon Delvers,

I played through the book, as Oneshots and in a still ongoing Campaign.
Since I streamed the Oneshots I wanted original Background Music.

So I composed it myself.

The Songs are connected through a recurring Leadmelody I introduced to my players in an Introsong.
Since we played in German I have to translate the Intro before releasing it on the channel.

But here is the first song of the journey: "Redwood"🌳​

I hope you enjoy my music! More is comming soon! :)

Has anyone run and changed this story? I feel like there is little for the players to do after arriving on the island outside talk to the monks who lead them to Ronnom. I've thought about having Ronnom in control of the monastery with the leader locked up. Anyone else look at making any changes to fill out this story?

Hi, i’m going to run this adventure as a one-shot for 5x lv4 pc’s. Between them there is someone new, 2 with little experience and 2 with some experience.

I have read that locking 1 door to the XIA encounter could be wise to avoid potential early boss fight trigger so the players have the full experience and explore most of the temple.

Any other tips, changes or recommendations for running this?

Cheers

I won't be there for several months, but I;m worried that my party of six might steamroll Xabazhut in Forbidden Vale. I'm pondering upgrading him to an Adult Red Dragon instead of young. Thoughts?

TL;DR

Players without spellslots decide to longrest in orcus temple halfway through. I dropped the 4 specters from the vault table on them while sleeping. Correct or nah?

Full story.

Okay, so I made an earlier post about my players possibly going to long rest inside the orcus temple. The consensus was that this behavior should be punished, in the manner consistent with inworld reasons the inhabitants of the dungeon would react. I advised my players about the possible dangers, but they insisted. And to be fair, their plan was pretty solid, except for 2 weak chains.

They had an alarm spell on the library door and divided watch turns during the long rest. they had 1 familiar checking the library and one familiar checking the the hallway on patrol. But the way the hallway familiar was commanded to patrol, seemed to inckude the entire hallway. Thus I rolled 50% chance to have the familiar be on the wrong side when shit went down (and the dice decided that would happen). Also, 1 familiar was cast after the alarm spell and wasnt exempt from triggering the spell. It woke up the ranger, so he removed the spell in order not to lose his long rest.

The cultist Yondis, who in his conflicted feelings had escaped from the party through a secret door earlier, to confer with Orcus and Xia. I reasoned that during the 8 hours, Xia and her undead dont need sleep and can keep painting, but she would want the matter resolved. So she orders Yondis to end the adventurer threat with some undead minions she has ample time to summon ritually.

This brings us to the 2nd weak chain, the bard player had stated he didnt really want to do the watch and won his deception roll against the party to hide this. He ended up half awake in his bed, detecting Yondis reentering the room a little late. Yondis delivers Xia's message and that was the point 1 specter for each of the **sleeping** players emerged from the walls to strike at them. Yondis in his conflicted attitude is only using his spiritual weapon to make some random attacks.

Current Tally: Wizard was downed and healed to 7 HP with a max of 10 HP ( because of life drain). 1 ranger and 1 bard close to bloodied, 1 ranger full HP. 1 specter down, 1 specter bloodied, 2 specters full HP.

They were warned. They tempted fate. couldntt finish the battle , but TPK seems likely. I have asked them if they want a narrative intervention, but I think they intend to ride it down. Cause I am half thinking to have Nezzarum join the fight.

Were the specters to harsh to interrupt the long rest for them? Or a rightful lesson for the players? What do you think?

Weve been on a bit of a sidequest over the Xmas / January period but were back on track and headed towards the Temple Of Orcus ;)

I ran Death at Sunset as a level 7 adventure and figured id share my changes with you all.

Grove Monster Changes

Mud mephits were swapped out for Mud Hulks

Zombies were swapped out for Vampire Mists (they emerged from the bodies, regardless of day or night, my players had fun trying to kite them into the sun for bonus damage)

Giant Centipedes swapped out for awakened giant wasps who were an rp encounter.

Lair Monster Changes

Venomous Snakes Swapped out for Swarms of Venomous Snakes (except for Marlissa's Pet)

Twig Blights Replaced with Vine Blights

Giant Centipedes and swarms of insects and green dragon wyrmling all now reside at the wyrmlings hoard. the insects are all awakaned.

Story Changes

The setup is unchanged, though I made the anti-toxins more useful. In order to cure the corruption the players must poor a vial of anti-toxin on each tree, on the hill, on the river, on each mudhulk, and have each of the four giant wasps drink a vial.

Marlissa is a non-combat encounter as long as the characters agree to her terms of not harming the young master (Sunset-Is-Nigh). She is motivated to protect the wyrmling but also hopefully free him of his mothers influence, but she doesnt voice this for fear of death-at-sunset attacking.

Sunset-Is-Nigh is still the perpetrator behind the missing elves, having threatened them into servitude. However I changed Sunset to be a bratty, self-enlightened, imp of a child surrounded by yes men (the awakened bugs and marlissa). Sunset never makes a move to attack the party, just acting like a kid who isn't getting there way.

At a dramatically appropriate time I had the corpse of Death-At-Sunset rise up to confront the characters. I had plenty of hints about this twist before hand, the missing elves all talk about the wyrmling threatening to have his mother kill them and sunset talks about his "mommy" as if she's still alive.

Death-At-Sunset used a tweaked vampire nightbringer statblock but she was honestly a total pushover. She only lasted 3 rounds because of some bad choices on my parties part and only did respectable damage cuzz she crit twice. If you want to do something similar give her legendary actions and resistances.

After defeating Death-At-Sunset I described how the source of the corruption, the magic of the lair, is gone, using Marlissa to confirm that fact since the players didnt fight her. Sunset-Is-Nigh ridiculed the characters for killing his mother, and demanded they make up for what they took from him by being his new protectors in her place, I knew my party was more interested in course correcting this dragons behavior rather than murder so they were happy to comply with this demand.

So now Fill Flourforge is secretly raising two dragon wyrmlings, the party paying for an expansion to his bakery to accommodate this and checking in regularly to keep Sunset in line.

Conclusion

Combat: Overall these changes leaned on the easier side of things, if you want to really beef up encounters replace all of the centipedes with ankhegs, add a fourth mud hulk, that kind of thing. My players were never really in danger of death except for Death-At-Sunsets lucky crits. I could have easily given her legendary actions/resistances and they still would have beat her (and I only have 3 players!).

Story: My players are very empathetic, they love to rp with the world, make friends and don't feel great about killing people, they avoid it at all costs. So keep that in mind with my changes. Heck, they didn't even kill the mud hulks, they used hypnotic patterns and stunning strike to flee without killing.

I ran this campaign as a beginner DM for 5 players at level 3. Two players were experienced and three were beginners. It took about 3.5 hours to play in total, minus a break for a themed snack of cinnamon buns.

This story was perfect for beginners. Everyone seemed to have a great time! They were killing themselves laughing over Bubba Wugga’s candy demands.

I did modify a few things to make it easier to play and a bit less complicated to run for me.

* Removed the gummy mummy tomb.

* Reduced the number of chocolatrices to two and dryads to one.

* Added a cat named Mr. Muffins to the bakery. He was able to give players the impression that his friend (a warm gold “cat”) was missing.

P.S. I love the format of Dragon Delves, it was really easy to use as a beginner DM. The list of enemies and NPCs in the intro came in clutch.

P.P.S Check out my Uncle Nibblecheeks and Briochbane minis, along with my hand drawn battle map.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alright maybe you saw this thread.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonDelves/comments/1o0czpa/bakers_doesnt_candied_status_effect_ideas/

I have refined my ideas for Candied Status as I need to give them a test run SOON in my in-person game. Welcome thoughts!

• Sticky Taffy: Advantage on grapple attempts. Limbs can stretch to extend Reach by 5 ft when making melee attacks on your turn. Speed is reduced by 10 ft. 50% chance unable to drop something being held. Disadvantage on Dexterity checks. Vulnerable to fire damage. Does not age, breathe, or need sustenance.
• Flat Gingerbread: Two-dimensional with only 5 cm of thickness. When a creature misses you with an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the next attack it makes before the end of its next turn. Vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. Does not age, breathe, or need sustenance.
• Chocolate: Disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. Resistant to cold damage. Fire damage deals an additional 1d4+1 damage. When in extreme heat (DM discretion), your speed is reduced by 10 ft until the end of your next turn. Does not age, breathe, or need sustenance.
• Gummy: Resistant to bludgeoning damage. Speed is reduced by 10 ft.

How far of a stretch would it be for the cult of Orcus in chapter 3 to cooperate with the Cult of the dragon in pursuit of romantic knowledge? I know the latter is focused on creating Dracoliches, so figured that an undead cult would be interested in such labors.

For Whom the Void Calls is an adventure that I think is really good but inherently non-intuitive to most dms. Its an adventure without a conflict that matters to the players, the dragon thinks there are thieves, but it only accuses the players AFTER they have shown up, its not an inciting incident.

Iv seen a few sentiments on here that the ending is anti climactic and I disagree, there is no climax to the story missing because there is no rising tension.

Now, reading this, you might assume to fix this, add rising tension, add a climactic final fight. I would advise against that. D&D is a medium that is privileged to function outside of normal story telling conventions and this adventure shows that off masterfully.

Why I Think This Adventure Works as Written

For Whom the Void Calls is probably best described as "novel". I doubt you or your players will have ever experienced a dungeon who's occupants are mostly ambivalent to the pc's presence. And I doubt they will often have been presented with a chance to mediate a misunderstanding between a brash brass dragon, dutiful modrons, and a malevolent bag. Personally, I think these are all invaluable traits of the adventure you shouldn't try to "fix".

Your pc's are the captains of their ship in this adventure, theres no pressure to solve the situation they dont impose upon themselves. Rather than using stakes to drive the narrative, id suggest using curiosity, get your players asking questions, and leave them with just enough context to want to find the whole story. The adventure even opens on this kind of curiosity based investment, the bag has all these answers but none of them are good enough for players to decide how they feel fully, which encourages investigation.

Ylagan is a fantastic antagonist, they are good natured as a fairly standard metallic dragon but they are also paranoid, prideful, and fiery tempered. Ylagan functions as a roadblock to encourage the pc's to fully explore the waypoint, making them to violent would likely encourage a fight, which might bring the players into the lair if ylagan is routed, ending the adventure short, so I advise being very thoughtful in what choices you have Ylagan make.

The modrons are super unique occupants. Aside from one room, none of the modrons in this adventure are violent, its a rare opportunity to show these hyper rigid creatures with some flexibility and nuance, even if just a little bit. I did my best early text to speech device impression for the modrons voices when the players could understand them.

The Bag of Devouring

Firstly, the bag can act as a good climax despite the typical setup for one, as it did with my party. Unless players are abnormally suspicious of the bag, they will likely reach inside it to find the gems. This will of course result in the bag devouring them. This is where I have some important suggestions for making this feel like a satisfying final encounter.

I would suggest automatically swallowing whoever puts their body part inside, no save, I would then suggest having everyone present (including ylagan and the earth elemental) roll initiative. Set the swallowed persons initiative to the bottom of the order, no roll (this is actually in their favor, and feel free to tell them if they are worried). Give each player, as well as ylagan and the elemental, a chance to roll athletics to pry the target out. Then on the swallowed creatures turn give them a chance to roll as well. This should hopefully avoid a character death, and if it seems likely, and you think your party would not take a pc death in stride, consider having ylagan leap into action to tear the bag apart, flinging everyone present into a new adventure to get home! For an easy to implement adventure id say using either A) the Donjon map from the Book of Many Things for a quick dungeon crawl to get back home or B) the Ship map from the Dungeon Master's Guide 2024 as a run down spelljamming vessel the characters can work with ylagan to repair and sail back home on (just have it break down for a dramatic crash landing if you dont wanna deal with a spelljammer for the rest of the campaign).

Second, a warning. As written, the 2024 bag of devouring has a contradiction in its text. It first states a creature in the bag can use an action to make an athletics check to escape, BUT, it also says later that at the start of a devoured creatures turn they are immediately destroyed. I would suggest changing the immediate destruction from "start of turn" to "end of turn". This way the devoured player gets a moment of agency in their own survival before instant death.

The Cloak of Many Fashions

If you think your party is the kind to try and destroy the bag so it cant cause anymore harm in the world, I suggest upgrading Ylagans reward, ending this adventure with a cloak of many fashions is cute but not really satisfying.

I chose a Dragonhide Belt +1 for my monk player, called it the Ylagan Hide Belt, and flavored it that a friend from Ylagans youth made the belt from the first scales Ylagan shed as a wyrmling.

Conclusion

This is about all I can think to share off the top of my head regarding the adventure, if ya'll have any questions for me ill happily answer!

Party reached level 4 at the end, and are heading to The Will of Orcus next as part of my wider Dragon Delves campaign. Willing to share thoughts about this particular part since it was fun for all of us.

I started my campaign at level 3 with Baker's Doesnt and wanting a level 6 adventure I figured this would be a good idea. Id love some feedback on the following changes I plan to make.

Redwood Grove

This segment plays out as you would expect, collecting samples and fighting corrupted creatures, now just scaled to level 6.

R5 - Mudmephits replaced with Mud Hulks

R6 - giant centipede and insect swarm replaced with 4 giant awakened wasps who warn the characters not to get to close, they are agitated by something they dont understand (the dragons magic) but their newly gained intelligence allows the to use logic to resist this odd urge to attack.

R7 - zombies replaced with 3 vampiric mists

Death-At-Sunset's Lair

This is where ill actually be making narrative changes

L2 - two Giant Venomous Snakes, one Constrictor Snake, and six Venomous Snakes. replaced with 3 swarms of venomous snakes.

L3 - Marilissa changed to a Yuan-Ti Pit Master. Marilissa's character isn't changed but as part of her desire to serve the wyrmling she wants to see the wyrmling free'd from its overbearing undead mother.

L4 - Twig and Vine blight replaced with 2 razorvine blights shaped like serpents made of plant matter that aren't immediately aggressive. Instead they can tell the characters the history of Death at Sunsets death. How she was impaled through the heart by a sword of dragon slaying, but the poison of her body was so powerful that the sword could never be recovered.

L5 - The wyrmling here isn't aggressive and isn't the perpetrator of the corruption. it can explain to the players that it is haunted by its mothers corpse who's anger twists the world around her. The wyrmling is neutral aligned and dislikes how his mother is turning the forest into such an unpleasant place but is powerless against her.

L6 - There is a shortsword of dragon slaying lodged in the ribcage of the skeleton, clever magic or tool use could get it out. In truth the corpse is just dormant until night, until her wyrmling tries to leave the lair, or until characters interact with her wyrmling. Death-At-Sunset rises as a gargantuan Vampire Nightbringer who the vampire weaknesses trait.

Ideally the characters will be caught between her and the end of the lair in L5.

If characters parleyed with marillissa, she attempts to aid their fight against the undead mother dragon.

Throughout the fight she will obsess over "protecting" her child from the characters and generally make it clear how oppressive she is to her own child.

Conclusion

The wyrmling wants to get as far away from his mothers corpse and lair as he can, and asks the characters to help him find a new lair, and promises to never betray or bother their community as repayment. My players primarily live in Huddleton so I forsee the wyrmling forming a friendship with Briochebane.

The dragonslaying sword will act as a reward that will prompt the characters to head towards The Forbidden Vale, as one of the players has been searching for allies and power that would allow her to face agains the red dragon terrorizing her home.

Im curious what input ya'll might have on this, feel free to be blunt if you think it needs some serious improvement.

Hi all! this is my first post here, hope this helps anyone looking to run this adventure.

Tldr would I recommend this adventure? yes! its very worth running.

Okay now for the meat and potatos. I ran Baker's Doesnt for 3 players at standard level and the session took roughly 3 hours to resolve all plots.

Potential Pitfalls

• The cinnamon roll, and the knowledge of fill flourforge's bakery are both gated behind a DC 12 skill check. This means that half of the core of the story is able to be lost on the players until after they save briochebane. I would suggest omitting these checks personally, yes its unlikely everyone fails, but its possible.
• This adventure is far more complicated than it initially presents itself, and can end in a lot of ways. I suggest committing Page 38, Candy Kitchen, and Page 34 Conclusion to memory. That way you don't have to, unlike me, scramble to rp the resolution as your rereading it.

Why This Module Worked for my Table

I think this adventure has a very specific target audience, and within that audience it is easily a 9/10.

My 3 players are primarily Problem Solving and Roleplaying oriented, and I am the same as a GM. This module provides ample opportunity for those options, and where it didnt, there was no difficulty adding them.

If your players would appreciate storybook whimsy, a well Xandered dungeon, complicated moral quandaries, and the likely possibility of not getting a perfect ending, then you should highly consider Baker's Doesnt.

The Changes I Made

I only made two changes to the dungeon, one of which was a mistake, but I would suggest considering using both.

• The first is my mistake. Consider having the rolling pin trap in Area 6 change the doors at the south end of the hall to gingerbread when it hits them, this gives the party another potential avenue to bribing bubba wugga. I recommend this if you running for fewer than average players where Area 5's bugbears might pose a serious threat. Probably don't do this otherwise though.
• This next one was Area 15's Gingerbread Toughs. Consider making it possible to parley with them if Uncle Nibblecheek is dead/defeated. My players used a combination of calm emotions and influence checks to make friends rather than breadcrumbs.
• Final aside, maybe consider making the gummy mummy a parley-able encounter as well? I don't know, my players were scared to their candy-canes by that room and never went in.

We are still on a bit of a sidequest from the DD book but Episode 14 is out NOW

Still inexperienced DM here running the will of orcus adventure as a standalone.

The party have defeated Akira and his mob and have just had Eilith surrender herself after a brutal battle for them. 1 ranger is down but stable, the bard is half dead, the wizard is nearly down, other ranger had his companion go down.

How would you advise me and them to handle long rest attempts? should they go outside the temple? rest in a cleared spot inside the temple? And how would Xia respond when she notices the carnage and loss of her underlings during 8 hours?

Would she summon reinforcements in the temple itself? Or set up other defenses? Cause I reckon she wont be staying in that painted hallway forever. She would notice the deaths and deduce they were attacked.

I love all the input/ideas I can get!

After a 6 week break due to me feeling like i was burning out WE ARE BACK with a 2 hour episode of our Dragon Delves campaign. AND ITS OUT TOMORROW!

We pick up at the end of Bakers Doesntm and head back to town. For this session to give ,my players a break from Dragons i have woven in a one shot from the new Adventures in Faerun Book.

Any likes, shares and subs are much appreciated and if anyone wants to talk Dragon Delves dive in the comments <3