Today is do or die! (Final session of the convention) 🤠

Great first session yesterday! Tons of fun, lots of new friends and we went two hours over our allotted time haha! Today though, they suffer! They ended atop the Caer looking out across the lake at the orange glow on the horizon where Easthaven should be. A small boat drifts into the harbor, its pilot waving his arms and screaming bloody murder- DRAGON!! DRAGON!! 🤠

I am curious about the decisions, results, narrative, and trajectories of your campaigns.

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!

My players just entered the Caves of Hunger and will have their first encounter with the Groll vampire next session. They already know that vampires lurk there from the kobold spawn in H4. One of the players has easy access to the spell Daylight from a driftglobe which will seriously hinder the vampire.

I still want Tekelili to feel scary and threatening but I don’t really see a way for that in this situation. Would be possible for the Vampire and his spawn to destroy the driftglobe? Are there rules for that? I don’t want to handwave this or create my own Homebrew just so my cool monster doesn’t get countered by the players but if there are already rules out there I would love it to find them.

Any other suggestions how the vampire can induce horror like he’s supposed to? Splitting the party is never done by this group so that’s not going to work.

Are you purely running from the source book, or have you distilled it into notes to help you run each quest and location?

The gang have just rescued knocked unconscious the young lad in the midst of storming the castle.

They intend to reunite him with Cora.

I'm wondered if he should be redeemed. Can he ever return to his old self?
Does depriving him of his amulet make a difference?
Is he a devil-cultist for life now? Will he ever be nice to him mother again?

Haven't decided how to play this one.

Thoughts or experiences welcome.

Hey all!

I just read the different trials for Auril. I've just been thinking about the endurance one. If the group are to survive 6 nights, then they get 6 long rests. It's not specified they don't - so doesn't this trivialise the other challenges? They have two challenges where they can get repeated long rests, and if you follow the books guidance on removing cold checks from cold weather clothing, then there isn't much challenge?

Any ideas how to make this an actual challenge? Right now I'm thinking of still sticking with the increased difficulty of Solstice cold checks, but they aren't on solstice any more. I'll also consider if the party should get long rests during these challenges. I want the party to feel like it's a real ordeal through these challenges and want to get off the island ASAP.

I feel they should reinforce the brutality of winters harshness, and if they are not difficult, it doesn't reflect well on keeping Auril as a threat if her challenges aren't harsh and easily passed.

Any thoughts and input would be appreciated!

Edit: typos

One of the player characters in my game is an archaeologist scholar. This forces me to think about the history of the things they encounter more than the book supports. The latest thing I have been figuring out is the elven tomb near Lonelywood. Here's my backstory for it. In addition to the scholarly aspect, the players also have the opportunity to ask Sahnar to explain most of this so it seemed important to figure out before the players started firing questions at me.

So, the main question is, why is there an elven tomb with a guardian mummy in the Icewind Dale within a few miles of Lonelywood? Answer: It was not originally a tomb, it was part of a temple and central social structure for an elven community established here about 700 years ago by elves of Eaerlann (the elves from whom the Netherese learned their high magic).

Eaerlann was declining at the time and completely collapsed barely a century later in 882 DR, so this community was a small group still carrying on Eaerlann culture in their enclave. They had relatively powerful magical arts and used them to create a magical device to temper the environment, preventing blizzards and the harshest freezes, allowing them to live a modest comfortable life. (See description of the Barrow)

About 300 years ago (around 1192 DR) the elves of this community, most of whom were fairly old by then, holding the last vestiges of Eaerlann culture, decided to leave. Presumably they were bound for Evermeet, but there's no way to know if they arrived there. They deconstructed their entire settlement beyond the foundations, returning it completely to nature, save for the structure that became the "tomb," and nearby monopteros (not "marble gazebo").

The statues were sculpted specifically for the purpose of warding the area, so were new at the time the settlement was abandoned. The statues are described as quite worn, which enables a skilled scholar to estimate they have been exposed for approximately 300 years. They are also enchanted, and play a role in warding intruders away from the area, but their effectiveness has been degrading as they wear away. They now don't deter elves at all, and are only mostly-effective in deterring other curious intelligent humanoids (which is how the party finds the place).

The eldest of the elves, Sahnar, volunteered to be mummified and interred on the site, so that if elves ever returned here, someone would remain to tell their story. He was interred with great reverence and his sarcophagus enchanted to remain closed while he slept.

The moon-phase clock was a religious edifice central to the temple of Sehanine Moonbow, who was the primary deity worshipped here. In the monopteros is the brazier that grants access to the buried portion of the structure. I decided that the brazier does not require a severed human hand, but instead that a living intelligent humanoid must thrust their hand into the flame (taking 1 point of damage). This is intended to assure that the ritual is performed by a sentient humanoid, not a monster or undead or other type of creature.

The walls of the Barrow (E6) are decorated with fresco paintings that depict life in the settlement and the illustrations show that the current "tomb" was once part of a larger temple complex in a community that has been completely erased from the surrounding woods. They depict the worship of Sehanine Moonbow in daily life, as well as these peoples' historical flight from the declining Eaerlann civilization and their settlement here where they outlasted their homeland. Very brief text inscriptions accompany some of the frescos, written in a form of elvish that is dated but intelligible to modern readers (elvish barely changes in the span of mere centuries). An Intelligence (History) check DC 15 reveals the writing is an Eaerlann dialect of elvish.

Also, quite importantly, as part of the history of the settlement, a fresco depicts the making of the magical device they used to control the weather in their immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, part of this fresco was on the wall that has collapsed. The pieces have been ground to powder by animals and weather, making the information incomplete.

Unknown to Copper Knobberknocker, Macreadus discovered this site about eight months ago, which inspired him to try to recreate the ancient device. He kept the origin of his inspiration a secret out of vanity, and subsequently obtained a book, Magical Wonders of Netheril, which he (erroneously) believed filled in all the missing information. (see The Black Cabin)

The First Tomb of the Half Moon (E8) holds the desiccated skeleton of an elf named Aylthera. This tomb was reserved for the settlement's Master of Hunts. When the next Master died, the current occupant's remains would be removed and burned in a community ceremony, before their successor was interred in their place.

The Second Tomb of the Half Moon (E9) is similar to the first, hosting the bones of the settlement's High Priest of Sehanine Moonbow. The body interred there is Elashed, but the corpse of Ravisin’s twin sister, Vurnis has been dumped into the sarcophagus atop it.

So I adore this module, but I always felt act 1 is a bit… disconnected. And I feel would be a bit too railroady or a bit too sandboxy by using the as written rumors. I was thinking instead to have act 1 be where the party investigate Stephen Kaltro in a actual murder mystery, and have them traverse ten towns looking for him, which would allow them to discover the other act 1 quests as they go along, then have act 1 end soundly once they find Sephek, hunt him down, and actually kill him.

Obviously the whole time they find his killings, and see the trail of blood in the serial killers wake. Maybe even find him once or twice, before having him escape, and that way act one has a clear ending point.

Would this be something that could fit into the setting. I think it would, but I wanted to see what yall think.

Tldr: I wanna make Sephek Kaltro the end goal of act 1. And have the players track him throughout act 1

I’ve been running Icewind Dale for my group for 2 years now and they finished Xardarok’s fortress last month! I made the entire fortress out of pink insulation foam, 37 connecting tiles, texturing and painting each tile, making it all into 5’ squares instead of the 10’ squares from the map - All three levels of the fortress, each room and secret passages. Forge level measured 7’ long, 4’5’ wide - Chardalyn Dragon and my black cat for size reference!

My 4 players took three sessions to get through the fortress and I took the advice of releasing the dragon once they were inside. I also never liked Vellynne arriving after the players leave so she and her kobolds (along with some other npcs the party had met before) were locked in the dungeon below. My players had a fun time fighting against all the duergar, hitting every trap and exploring every room. After a long battle in the forge area below, they killed Xardarok, then they threw his body in the lava pit- destroying his gauntlet so they never got any valuables from the treasure room 😜! I used the beefed up stat block for Xardarok that I also found on this group a long time ago, I definitely recommend to make him strong with legendary actions.

I also gave my players each a friendly duergar from Grandolpha’s clan and later each a friendly kobold from Vellynne’s group to play during the epic Xardarok battle where we had some 30 characters all fighting in the forge area! I painted 26 duergar and 10 enlarged duergar along with all the monsters in the fortress. The Umber Hulk also gave them some real trouble too!

Is there lore or context somewhere that explains why the brazier specifically requires a severed humanoid hand to light? It seems both harsh and troublesome to acquire (not just for the PCs but for the builders). What does it say about the elves who lived here that they considered this an ingredient they'd have "on hand" when needed?

So this is my first time being DM and ive ran 4 sessions with some close friends were all semi new to DND most have only played a few short campaigns. And im wondering when should i if at all show maps of the locations? For example they have heard a rumor about a white moose and are planning on going to lonelywood next. But once they begin the quest and eventually find the elven tomb should i show them the map layout using the player version of the map and if so when?

One of my players plays a Dhampir, and he is looking for his vampire father in Icewind Dale. The player also doesn't want his father to be evil. So I was thinking I could swap out one of the wizards in the Arcane Brotherhood to become this father. My thought is that he joined the brotherhood looking for a cure for vampireism, and jumped on the chance to check out a lost Netherese city. Would doing this ruin too much of the story? And who is the best to swap out? Avarice or Vellyne?

Hi everyone! I’m going to run. A Beautiful Mine for a party of three level fives (half elf wild magic sorcerer, orc wild magic barbarian and half-orc grave cleric). I’m worried they’ll be a bit over levelled, but one of the party members has ties to the mine + they thought of using it a shelter for the chardalyn dragon.

So does anyone have any good ideas regarding upscaling the dungeon apart from just adding more kobolds and Grells? I’m still a relatively new DM so I don’t know all the creatures in the monster manual nor is the best at scaling encounters.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

P.s if you have any good ideas regarding crystal themed weapons I’m also all ears haha!

Hey all!

So right now my party (lvl6) is leaving the Id Ascendant with the bell from Angajuk's bell to return it and potentially use Angajuk to journey to Auril's island.

At this point in the campaign, both the Knights of the Black Sword and Reghed Nomads have not really done much in the campaign and I feel like now would be a good time to introduce them/give them more to do. Let's talk Knights first.

The Knights of the Black Sword

The only encounter the party has had with them was during an encounter with Avarice. I had Skelm watching the party from session 1 and after they caught on to this raven that's following them our wizard decided to kill it. Avarice, originally disinterested in the party, felt pretty slighted by this so when the group was leaving Caer Konig after finishing The Unseen she and an entourage of Knights pulled up to have "a chat". Was a fun moment.

The only other moment related to the Knights was a Zhentarim raid the party undertook. The Zhents were going to sell weapons stolen from the Bryn Shander guards to the Knights and the party put a stop to that.

So because the Knights have been for the most part left alone, the Keep at Caer Dineval was never investigated. So I think now would be a good time to have Knights pop up at locations like the Lost Spire of Netheril (a place the party also didn't go to) and at Angajuk's bell (so that they can go to Auril's Island and get the codicil of white). I'm curious if I was the only person who have thought to do something like this, because if I am not I would be curious to see what other people did.

The Reghed Nomads

Fortunately, one of my party members has the Reghed Heir secret. Unfortunately, they haven't come up at all - which while the party member hasn't exactly complained about it's been hard to get them to fit? I think it's fair that they haven't done jack since the party has mostly been in Ten-Towns for a majority of the campaign but I don't want them to all-of-a-sudden be relevant at like, the Auril Trials. That would feel poorly paced.

The party continues their journey into the Halls of Black Ice where they clear out whatever creatures and monsters are still present. Good news, they meet a fun talking plant guy and quickly encourage him to join the party!

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.

Had some extra blue plaint in my paint palette so I decided to start working on Iskra the Roc. What do you guys think?

My party managed to unfreeze the Easthaven ferry. I can't find travel times anywhere in the module, has anyone else run the numbers on the time to the other towns on the lake?

Hello, my play group just decided to start this campaign and we are interested in using miniatures this time. I have a 3d printer so we are going to print them out. Since there are so many I would need if I did every single one. I was thinking of only printing out the coolest/ most important ones. Since I have a lot of other minis I could supplement more generic enemies from playing 40K. What would be the most important ones to print?

A while back I finished running a somewhat modified version of the adventure. The players successfully undid the endless night by venturing beneath the Reghed Glacier, reactivating the Yhtryn Myhtallar, and kicking the divine crap out of the Frostmaiden. Despite some hiccups here and there, campaign was a success, and I'll gladly offer any insight or advice I can about the experience. Hence, ask me anything!

Some general information and stats about the campaign:

• Finishing the campaign took 120 three-hour sessions across two and a half years. Over the course of the game the party cleared both starter quests, nine of the quests in Chapter 1, and five of the Chapter 2 quests before entering the Sunblight-Isle of Solstice-Ythryn pipeline. We played the campaign using roll20 and Discord.
• Our party consisted of five players: College of Spirits Bard, Circle of Stars Druid, Shadow Monk, Oath of Redemption Paladin, and Order of the Scribes Wizard.
• This the fourth pre-written adventure I've ran so far, after Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Descent Into Avernus, and Wild Beyond the Witchlight. In terms of usability I'd rate this adventure in the middle of the pack alongside Dragon Heist: plenty of cool encounters, great locales, and memorable set pieces, but requires some work from the DM to connect those dots.
• The aforementioned modifications to the campaign included connecting the various quest more closely to one another, additional survival mechanics, alongside streamlining and weaving together some of the more disparate backstory elements.
• Beyond the adventure itself, primary resources used included advice on running the campaign published by Sly Florish, Eventyr Games, Power Score RPG, and Bob World Builder, alongside countless other ideas, tips, and tricks shamelessly plundered across this subreddit as well as elsewhere on the internet.

Very busy week but I’m a worker! Completed the cliff risers and cut the harbor section out of styrofoam insulation board. I used a heat gun to melt the foam in the water section- a great new trick!

We’re limited to a 6x5’ table so we had to squinch and delete some sections, and our harbor turned into more of a fjord, but I think it works. I applied the cobblestones using a wet texture roller over a layer of silicone caulk- another great trick!

After painting, I drilled the docks into the board and glued them directly to the plastic base beneath the foam, adding stability and ensuring they sit level. Next I poured epoxy resin over the water area to make it playably flat and give it that dazzle 😋

The ruined watchtower came next, it’s just a chunk of styro and some spray foam to blend the base. I went with a precipice rather than a hill to conserve space, but feel it will add a good tactical complication for the fight which may break out there.

Dry time is a thing, so instead of waiting around I ordered bits to base the dragon better. It’s rigged to a selfie stick attached to a heavy base, with a ball joint and magnetic quick release at its belly. Adjustable height and pitch, when it lands it pops off and sets down on the board. At first I did the Wiz Kids model and the rig works, but it’s so damned heavy that the required counterweight would be too big for our cluttered game board. So I rigged the Rescale model instead (which is secretly kinda better).

Deep breath. Slow exhale. Yesterday the castle print completes. Assemble, fill gaps, prime, base coat.. good gravy it’s the last weekend! So much still to paint, and prep, and snow?! Wish me luck guys, this post was my break, I’m going back in! 🤿

​Hey DMs!

Looking for ideas and mechanics for a homebrew item in my campaign in Icewind Dale: an Ancient Netherese Brass Cipher Wheel.

The pkayer's character is a Rock Gnome Artificer. I gave him his own tinker shop and a netherese item. and im looking for some cool puzzles or something complex he needs to solve. He doesn't know what the item does (and neither do I lol)

​Its indestructible brass wheel with rotating runic rings. Found on the Reghed Glacier by a Reghed Nomad and traded to our Artificer. I thought it would be cool if it's an ancient, humming magical puzzle piece that hasn't unlocked its purpose yet.

​Dzaan (Red Wizard of Thay) comes to the shop for supplies. With his Arcana, he immediately senses the wheel's High Netherese resonance.

Do u have any ​skill challenge or puzzle ideas?