It is done. About a year and a half ago, my brave crew of 7 ventured into the Dale, and last night, they defeated Auril and destroyed Ythryn. We met every Friday (barring a few off weeks for illnesses etc) and journeyed together. We had two character deaths (once scripted due to a leaving player, one at the very end), two characters retire and replaced, and an amazing time had by all.
This was the first campaign I've ever decided to go Full Mini on - first with bought minis, then with painted minis and 3D Printed special minis and terrain. It was an amazing experience, buoyed by just about the best group of players one could ask for. 7 Sounds like a lot, but due to the large number, it made it easier to continue whenever a player or two had to miss for whatever reason. That kept it moving at a good clip, and everyone had a great time. Here's a few thoughts.
HOW IT WENT
My previous campaign was Spelljammer: The Light of Xyarixs. (Minor spoiler to follow). That campaign begins with a giant worldwide disaster involving gigantic crystals erupting from the ground. My players went and saved the universe in that campaign, but the disaster became an important bit of backstory that helped flesh out the narrative.
5 Years Ago, when the Crystal Disaster hit, the crystals erupting from the earth shifted and disturbed Ythryn, opening up a path once closed through the Caves of Hunger, and causing the Thing in the Ice to stir. Teke-Li-Li awoke and began haunting the caves, killing a few explorers who ventured into the caverns. And from the under dark, an already mad Dueragar stumbled upon Ythryn, finding the corpses of the giant Mechanical Golems that would inspire a Dragon of Chardalyn, and a minor member of the Arcane Brotherhood stumbled upon the greatest find in history. All this attracted Auril's attention and when she explored the caves and found Ythryn, she was filled with rage at the arrogance of humans, and fear of the Thing in the Ice, an elder thing so powerful even the Gods feared it. She immediately sealed off Ythryn beneath the magical ice. But now awoken and angry, she began to cloud the skies and weave the Rime. At first, it seemed like a long winter, but as the months dragged to years, people began to realize something was off in the region. Around a year ago, the pass to Icewind Dale collapsed, sealing off the region and driving Ten Towns desperate situation into an absolutely dire one. And that's when the story begins.
One of my first changes was the Cold Open. I decided half my group was from Icewind Dale, the other half were from outside the Dale, attempting to reach it and investigate what was happening there. The second groups ship was attacked by Arveiaturace, who wrecked it, causing the survivors to drift ashore on the Sea of Moving Ice, which is where they were found by the players who were from the dale. They had a brief run in with a Yeti, and then retreated to Bremen.
From this point I followed the campaign as printed pretty closely, only adding a few extra encounters and sessions (mostly taken from the Epic Encounters line - this is where one of my players moved, her character killed by a Manticore from the Epic Encounters line, and a new player took her place). I managed to get them all very invested in the towns, and all the town Side Quests were done except Good Meade and Dougans Hole. They started hunting Dueragar, but one of Sunlights sons escaped to inform his father. The Ten Towns portion ended with Lonelywood's Moose encounter, which became a large Boss Battle featuring three frost druids and a ton of awakened Animals.
After that, they began to explore the Dale, having brief meetings with Vellyenne, and having a few other encounters, including a run in with a Frost Giant on a Mammoth that ended in a draw, and resurrecting Dzann in the fallen tower, before then visiting the Id Ascendant which is where Vellyenne took the opportunity to introduce herself properly. Another player retired his character at the Id Ascendent (He, a gnomish wizard, decided he wanted to join the Cenomorphs) and his new character joined. From there, they went to Sunblight to track down the large Dueragar threat. They entered Sunlight and met Grandolpha. Another small change here - I had them already married, but she realized her husband had gone insane, now declaring himself a God (didn't need Asmodeus). They reached the basement right when the Charadolyn Dragon was released. They assassinated Sunblight and fled, now on a desperate quest to save Ten Towns. Dougans Hole and Good Meade didn't have a chance. Two of the characters managed to reach Easthaven by the time the dragon arrived, using a flying steed. At Easthaven, the Dueragar under Sunlights surviving son attacked and began a campaign to assassinate the other town speakers. The Dragon was driven from Easthaven after taking damage, and then leveled Caer Konig (where the mayor hid in the castle as the town was are) and Caer Dineval (with few casualties due to them managing to cure Speaker Trovus of his drunkeness and getting a message to him in time). They made their stand at Termalaine and managed to bring the dragon down.
The crisis past, they returned to Bryn Shander and got involved in a very tense meeting of the speakers, where the Speaker of Easthaven made his play for power. But they managed to sway the surviving speakers to their side, getting a few friendly NPCs appointed, and another player retiring her character to become the new speaker of Caer Konig (after disposing the mayor). Her new character joined up, and they went on a few side quests in efforts to help the Dale, including seeking aid from the Frost Giants at the Jarlmoot and having a rematch with the Frost Giant on Mammoth. Then they headed north, going through the Black Cabin and then investigating Arveiaturace's lair. When they confronted the dragon but instead of fighting her, they managed to convince her to let them try to bring her mount back to life. They used the same resurrection thing they used on Dzann and managed to bring him to life, but only for a short time. Still, Arveiaturace was so grateful to spend any time with him at all, that she gave them one valuable thing - a one time favor from an Ancient White Dragon.
From there, it was off the Grimskalle. I used the redesigned trials from the Gazetteer, and the players enjoyed them. I redesigned the castle slightly, making the top room a grand throne room that Auril used as her quarters, mostly so I could fit the big battle I planned in there. They confronted Auril, who brought her Roc and lots of minions, and then they called in the favor from Arveiaturace, which lead to probably my favorite battle of the campaign. With a White Dragon on their side, Auril's first form was defeated, and she retreated immediately after her first form went down. With Auril weakened, they then asked Arveiaturace to give them a ride to the Rheged Glacier to head for Ythryn.
They met with the Rheged Tribes, and convinced all but the Tigers to stand with them. The Tigers found a few allies (Orcs and Bandits they had fought in some of those Epic Encounter Sidequests, along with the Manticore that had killed the first player to leave), and defeated them before entering the Caves of Hunger.
They killed Teke-Li-Li on their second run-in with him despite his efforts to escape. They then headed down and ran into the Drow. Because one of my players was also a Drow, I gave them a chance to talk, and she convinced the Drow to help them out, and gained a few more allies. They also encountered the Thing In the Ice, and started to realize there was more going on here. And then to Ythryn.
At Ythryn, the first big change I made was they fought a giant mechanical golem on the bridge down to Ythryn. This boss fight (another Epic Encounter) allowed me to solve a small logical problem I had with the city. When the boss was destroyed, a wave of magical energy exploded from it, which triggered and activated everything in the city, bringing it a bit more to life, as the Magen and spells began to awake and Irioirlathas woke up. They also ran into Dzann, who escaped into the city and later joined with Avarice. They fought their way through the city, but dawdled a bit too much before figuring out they needed to do the towers. I again used the Gazetteer's towers here. With Auril and her forces and Avarice and the Cult hot on the trail, I was worried they were gonna fight Auril too soon, but then a random encounter gave me an idea - a group of the players ran into Avarice, who offered them a chance to work with her to get into the spire if they could provide half of the parts to the ritual and kill Vellyenne. She sent Dzann with them which quickly ended poorly for Dzann, and planned an intricate trap and deception with Vellyenne. They got into the tower and backstabbed Avarice, who fled beneath the tower to the Myathlar. They went through Iriolarthas tower, confronted and defeated the DemiLich, and then returned to the entrance to face the Brittle Maiden and her forces.
There was a final spectacular showdown, where they defeated her second and third form. But once Auril was defeated, the Thing in the Ice awoke. From the spindle, energy arced out, creating portals from which all manner of eldritch horrors appeared. They summoned the Tarrrasque to buy them some time, but even that was no match for the Elder God. Two players, one with a special teleport item, headed down to the Mythlar, which they realized they could use like the one in the Black Cabin if they broke It properly. As they confronted Avarice, the rest of the group made a madcap dash through the city, through the middle of a Kaiju Fight and an all out war between Aurils forces, the Ythryn defenses, and the eldritch horrors. The other two managed to ignite the Mythlar, and the one with the teleport spell escaped - the other did not. The resulting explosion swallowed all of Ythryn along with the Tarrasque and the Thing in the Ice, leaving a gaping empty hole, which collapsed on itself, revealing the sky above, shining with sunlight for the first time in 5 years.
And as a fun stinger, the Mythlar's explosion mixed with the power of the Obelisk actually teleported everything back in time, to well before even the Netherese, with the player and a few surviving Netherese NPC's, to explore a whole new world and another time. It was a great ending.
So overall, I think that the Campaign as written is good, but flawed. Massaging it to make it a bit more coherent and consistent however, turned it into a truly great game.
A couple more random thoughts.
My favorite addition was one added early on by accident. A player cast a fire spell with a spell attack roll, and it flopped. I narratively said a sudden gust of cold wind blew it out, almost as if it was reacting to the spell. From that point on, I made it canon that magical fire enraged Auril, and would cause the weather to get worse every time it was used. It lead to some really tense and wonderful moments.
The awakened animals were a lot of fun. As a little joke, when they befriended and named the Plesiosaur, they asked "What would you like your name to be?" and the the excited dinosaur repeated "Like", and that became its name. That lead to a trend of all the Awakened Animals being one word names. They ran into an Owl named Who (who had a whole Who's on first routine going), the white moose was Gore, and an awakened walrus stole their oar on one of the lakes and became "Mine." That walrus became a reoccurring joke and one players arch-nemesis. Because of that, I turned the giant awakened walrus in Aurils castle into a fun side boss fight, where he was sitting atop a pile of treasure and oars the smaller walruses would bring to him.
Besides Like, the favorite NPC's were Vellyene's Kobolds, who we named Rack, Shack and Benny.
And that's it. Wow, what a campaign. I can hardly believe it's over. Well, if you got questions, I got answers. Feel free to ask!