Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

This is a party brag. I had plans to end a current arc and segue into a new one, but they took my plans, tore them into little pieces and used those pieces to make something amazing.

Party is a pair of warlocks, a lore bard, a divination wizard, and a vengeance paladin.

A cult in the city had been kidnapping elves and stealing artifacts, and the party was on the case. They spent about 15 sessions taking out cult hideouts, rescuing kidnapped elves, interrogating prisoners, and chasing down leads. The party really hated this cult. The party got lured into a trap at one point that resulted in 2 PC's down, and one captured. They mounted a valiant rescue effort and got the warlock back. In the end, they found a local merchant (a slightly modified rakshasa-based creature) was running the whole thing. That's a long-winded way to say : the party really hates this cult, and really wants to take that leader down. The paladin was (of course) especially invested.

They fought their way through his mansion into his vaults, where they had a last stand with him as he opened a portal to facilitate his escape to some unknown, very distant location. I had contingencies for the party to chase him through the portal and have a whole arc on the other side, defeat the leader before he could escape, him get away, etc. The party had seen a portal like this before, and knew it only stayed open for a minute.

The bad guy wound up running through the portal with the paladin in hot pursuit. The paladin caught up and started beating on him for a round, dropping him to single digit HP (unbeknownst to the paladin). On the bad guy's turn, he taunts the paladin and casts dimension door, snapping 500 feet away. The bard comes running through to the paladin's side, grabs him and uses her last spell slot to cast dimension door on the two of them, sending them both 500 feet away. As she got ready to do this, I reminded the party that they had max 60 feet of movement per turn, and the portal had already been open for 3 rounds. They wouldn't be able to get back to the portal in time. They didn't care. They charged at the bad guy, and the paladin killed him on his next turn.

Back at the mansion, the wizard saw all of this and asked if there was any way she could try to keep the portal open. I thought that was cool, so I told her it would be concentration she would have to spend the entirety of each turn maintain concentration with a very high DC arcana check. For each turn she met the DC, the portal would stay open one more round. One of the warlocks wanted to help, and they were able to combine their efforts (advantage on the roll).

We switched to cinematic at this point : the bard and the paladin were dragging each other up the hill towards the portal, with the rest of the party cheering them on and trying to keep the portal open. The portal would close in 6 rounds. It would take 9 for the paladin and bard to make it to the portal. The wizard was straining, and it was down to the last roll. If she passed it, the pair would make it. If she didn't, they would both be trapped. The paladin did the paladin thing : "Instead of dashing, can I try to throw the bard through the portal?" I told him that would likely trap him on the other side, because the wizard would have to pass an additional time. He understood. He threw the bard. The wizard failed the roll. The portal snapped closed in front the paladin as the bard was launched to safety.

We left the session with the party scattering : the wizard is staying up all night, exhausting herself as she meets with her mentor to figure out how to get the paladin back. The warlocks are both trying to enlist their patrons' help, which will certainly cone at a cost. The bard is reaching out to all her contacts, trying to figure out anything she can about the place the portal went to. The paladin is alone, leaning against a Stonehenge like stone in a strange land as the sun sets.

The session didn't end anything like I planned, but I don't think I could be happier with the outcome. Such a wonderful roleplaying moment there. Truly an epic session.

So, a little backstory - My daughter got into playing D&D with her friends, but her group absolutely fell apart two sessions in and she came home really upset about it. I asked her if she wanted to maybe start playing D&D as a family, as we've been lacking some family bonding time and spending too much time on our devices. She eagerly agreed and so,

-Cue DM training montage-

I'd never played D&D before, and my only exposure to it was listening to a few podcasts so I had a lot to learn. In two months, I crafted an entire world for my two kids and wife to play in. My kids were enraptured to write their own backstories, and I planned their arcs in my main campaign accordingly. But, my wife decided that a backstory for her Owlin Druid was too much work and just said, "She's an amnesiac. She doesn't remember her past."

This annoyed me, because she has a tendancy to back out of things she's not invested in and I didn't want my hard work and my kids' excitement to die off. So, I set about crafting a backstory for her to stumble across early in the campaign.

Over the last few sessions, the city the party found themselves in kept making reference to the Owlin, as if the NPCs in this town knew her and her family, and acted offended or confused when she didn't recognize them.

It all culminated with my wife's character finding her childhood home. A sprawling manor that stood empty save for a single servant. This NPC invited her in, overjoyed to see her again, but was deeply saddened when she didn't remember him. Eventually, she stumbled across a bracelet, that triggered her memories.

In this moment, I shifted from being a dad telling a silly story, to a man recalling a deeply tragic story of a family of Owlins, torn apart by a deal gone wrong. Her player's father, on the verge of bankruptcy, gave up her character's young brother up to the BBEG in exchange for riches. I crafted this moment to be emotionally impactful. So much so that the entire table fell silent, tears were shed for these characters, and my wife, Now truly roleplaying for the first time in this campaign, grabbed the servant and SCREAMED, "Where is my brother?!"

It was at this point we ended the session, and afterwards, my wife asked me, "Where on earth did that come from? I know you write a lot but DAMN, that story HURT. Now I HAVE to play through this whole game to find out what happens."

I just grinned and said, "Exactly."

I just feel very, very proud of myself as a storyteller. Weeks of carefully laying out this "trap" certainly paid off, and now we are rest assured that the campaign will go on with a lot more surprises in store for this trio and their quickly growing army of NPC friends.

I don't think any of them use this sub, but if you are currently adventuring on the island of Draekari, stop reading.

So, I've just created an ancient city that was once on the island of Draekari. It's called Ilun'dara, or The Light in the Dark.

Long ago, Ilun'dara was a thriving, sun-worshiping civilization. Known for its wealth, culture, and military might, the city was a paragon of prosperity, with fertile lands and a booming economy. The people of Ilun'dara revered the sun as a divine entity, considering it the source of their blessings, guidance, and protection. Their city’s architecture, art, and cultural symbols were filled with sun motifs, reflecting their deep-rooted faith.

However, a catastrophic event struck. The city began to sink into the ground, plunging into what would become the Underdark. Whether this was caused by forbidden magic, divine wrath, tectonic shifts, or another unknown force remains a mystery. This disaster led to Ilun'dara being wiped off the surface of Toril, and the memory of its influence eventually faded.

Surprisingly, Ilun'dara’s people survived the initial descent and continued to exist in the Underdark. They adapted to life underground, trying to hold onto their sun-worshiping beliefs even as they were cut off from the sun itself. They relied on artificial lights and magical orbs to emulate sunlight, desperately clinging to their faith. Eventually, though, they were overrun by the creatures of the Underdark, and their city fell into ruin.

When my players discover Ilun'dara, they'll find a city filled with faded grandeur, remnants of desperate faith, and eerie signs of the struggle against the dark forces that ultimately overwhelmed it. Sometimes, you can almost hear the voices of those long dead, their cries for the sun's light to protect them, as though they were still echoing throughout the streets all these years later. However, the city is now abandoned, save for one ancient protector—Helior.

Helior was a devout warrior and chosen guardian of Ilun'dara centuries before it's fall, bound to protect the city and its people. During this duty, he was mortally wounded, and was placed into a mech of sorts, standing around 12 feet tall, clad in ornate armor adorned with sun motifs. He was both a symbol of divine protection and a powerful military force. His armor and weaponry were designed to channel the power of the sun, aligning with his people’s faith in their radiant god. Mechanically, he's a stronger/edited version of a Warforged Colossus from Eberron.

At the time of Ilun'dara's fall, Helior was in a form of stasis within an ornately decorated chamber, entombed within his coffin-like armor. Because of this, he is completely unaware of the city’s tragic fate. When he awakens, he’s stunned to find Ilun'dara in ruins, the people he was sworn to protect long gone. Confronted with the loss of his purpose, Helior is overcome by confusion and grief.

In this moment of despair, Felix Arlos, the party's cleric of Amaunator, becomes a beacon of hope for the warrior. Felix’s connection to the sun reignites Helior’s purpose, reminding him of his sworn duty to protect and serve the light. When he learns that Amaunator is a deity of the sun, just like the one that he once served, Helior will pledge fealty to Felix, seeing him as a worthy leader and new purpose in this darkened world.

And yes, Helior is basically a Dreadnought from Warhammer 40K, I couldn't resist.

The players are primed to:

• Stumble into a big fight
• Trigger a deadly trap
• Meet a dragon NPC in a vision (one of my PCs is obsessed with silver dragons. He's a valor bard so I am going to use it as an excuse to turn his rapier into a +1 weapon that levels with him)
• Fight a giant, cursed plant.
• Talk to a ghost NPC

And it all depends on what they decide to do. I have no idea how this will play out. So exciting.

Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

If you’re in the campaign “Awakening History” stop scrolling.

So here’s the deal, My party met a crime lord/Consultant (Basically Moriarty) named Corvus. If I were to describe him, he’s like a tentacle thing with a shit ton of eyes everywhere. (Mora from Skyrim but in a suit). He’s the leader of an org that took the wife of a rogue in my party “Nyx”. I’ve dropped tiny tiny hints in dialogue and other descriptions that Corvus that match him appearing around the same time her wife was kidnapped by this group. (10 years before the campaign started.) I plan to reveal that they are the same person further down the line by causing the tentacle skin to recede in the sunlight, showing Nyx’s wife actual skin and not the Corvus inky black tentacle skin (I’m still working it out T-T).

Hey y'all - I feel like I just need to vent about my last session and thought this might be the place. I don't know if any of you all have had a bad final session - I feel like I only hear how epic they are. If you have, I'd love to hear how you coped with it.

If nothing else, maybe you all can learn from my mistakes. I would say my lessons are 1) trust your players, 2) trust your preparation, 3) if life interferes with your preparation for a session that's important to you/the campaign, consider calling it off.

TL;DR: I got cold feet in the boss fight and let a high-level NPC help the players, making the encounter way too easy and relegating the players to the sidelines of two NPCs going at it, and it's making me reconsider DMing again.

Here's the story:

I've been playing D&D for years, but started DMing during the pandemic. I DM'd on and off but never finished a campaign in a satisfying way. I realized that I kept planning these massive campaigns like the ones in podcasts and streams when the reality is that real 30-somethings can't get together for large chunks of time consistently enough to do a lvl 1-15 campaign.

So I got a good group together and set my sight on a mini arc of 5-6 sessions that could stand on its own. And it worked! The players were engaged, they got through the challenges, and seemed to be enjoying it. We were all having fun and the characters were interestinng. If there was any critique of the campaign to that point, it would be that the players hadn't really been challenged in combat much. The only encounter that felt like a PC death was a possibility was the first session.

We ended the session penultimate session on the party about to confront the miniboss, so all I had to do was give them a boss battle and land the plane. I was finally gonna be able to do a boss monologue! I had a reveal all set up! I was finally going to have a campaign that would feel like it _ended_ instead of just fizzled.

Aaand I fucked it all up. I planned this complicated final encounter that I was so worried about balancing I even posted on r/DMAcademy for feedback. And I shouldn't even be that worried about a character death or even TPK because we were taking a break after the arc and could shift party composition or run a new campaign.

The confrontation with the miniboss and twist/reveal went really well, actually. But then the encounter happened. With out going into a turn-by-turn breakdown, basically early in the first round I got cold feet. I did a lot of damage with something that kicked off every round and thought "I'm gonna kill these guys". So I left a high-level NPC, who I had planned on removing, in the fight. Then, with a high-level spell from said NPC + a really good PC turn and roll, everything shifted and it's now 6-on-1 on the miniboss and it's really just a matter of time. It's not just that the encounter was too easy or over too quick, it's that the (arguably) most impactful turn on the PCs behalf was by an NPC. I felt like I cheated my players.

After that, I think the resolution of combat and the final reveal of what was going on the whole time went well. But I under-planned the denouement. I had the rough idea of what would happen (decide what to do with the treasure, go back to town, get celebrated as heroes, probably) but I guess I thought I could improv the rest. Maybe I'm a better improver than I think and my players didn't notice, but I didn't feel like I got all of it.

My players said they really enjoyed the arc, especially the story it told, which does make me happy since I wrote the narrative. They say want to play again after the holidays - we decided on a hiatus earlier since we knew scheduling would be a nightmare and I wanted to take a break from DMing. But that last session left such a bad taste in my mouth, I don't know if I want to DM again. At least in a continuation of that campaign. It all feels so silly, that I'm still thinking about my performance in a Dungeons and Dragons game 2 weeks later as a full grown man and father, but this is one of few the hobbies I really set time aside for and put effort into.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading.

Tonight, one of my players is going to be starting his own campaign in my homebrew setting, in which I get to be a player!

He's consulted with me about lore appropriate placement in the world and is even looping in one of my deities to act as a quest giver (without giving me spoilers).

I'm so excited I'm vibrating. This is literally a dream come true for me.

Any pointers on not being a backseat dm? Has anyone else had this experience?

Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

I just had an idea for a campaign where the characters either already know about past events or learn about them and slowly realize that they are encountering npcs and events from the past. Moving closer and closer to a major calamity. Somehow they must find out how to halt the reversing timeline before they find themselves plunged into a low survival time period.

I am not sure how to accomplish this. Again the basic idea just hit me. Any ideas on features or mechanics are very welcome.

Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

A PC recently regained custody of her sisters in a very emotional/sweet RP moment. One of the sisters is 9 and an aspiring author, so I'm writing little paragraphs based on the stories the characters share with her, and plan to bind them together as a small book for all my players at the end of the campaign. I think it'll be a fun gift for everyone, and it'll honestly help me keep up with my personal notes lol. I thought about this last night and I'm really excited about it :)

Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

The enemy is a cultist, Thulivia, of a cult that wants to resurrect an ancient old dragon god called Azarok, through this they get draconic abilities, regen and look more draconic - for a price. The dragon is also demonic by nature so it's a dreadful cost (sacrifice innocents) and you lose more and more of your specianity ("humanity" but not all are humans?). They killed Thulivia in session 2 and this is session 9. When they killed her they took one hand as a trophy so she'll be missing a hand and she might have claw-like protrusions coming out of the wound.

My idea is that the cultists can get different unnatural abilities depending on Azaroks mood, and that Thulivia has gained the "Bloodcraving heart" (and that her head and internal organs were OK enough to be patched up). Bloodcraving heart is a homebrew ability I plan on being "as long as you have blood you live, but you can't create any new blood". Her body was retrieved and filled with blood again, hence that's why she's alive.

Is this cheap? Will it be too broken?

Edit after session:

Thanks for all the answers, it was well received! The Barbarian reminded me that Thulivia had been cut in half after a crit, I admitted to that I hadn't remembered this but that Thulivia was still in the infirmary, patched together somehow. (I think burning the cult's witches is fitting to the theme as being one of the only ways to kill them for good).

The players did what players did and went beyond my imagination! One of them, with the help from the others and themselves blowing all inspiration, being creative and high sweaty rolls succeeded in charming the leader of the cult who explained their master plans and also got a shard of a magic item used by the cultists to do Corrupted shit ( he damn rolled 23+ persuasion in a high stakes situation so why the fuck not I thought). The player then yelled "Praise Azarok" in one of his ritual chambers - which made Azarok talk to him and beckon him to a cup filled with liquid. He then drank from Azaroks Cup of initiation - giving him demonic visions of death and decay, unleashing a terrible roar and since he wasn't a real cultist he got damaged from being burned from within. Azarok did not take kindly to that a Warlock Fairy with a Unicorn patron had drunk from his cup and punished him for his insolense, deafening him for one hour where he only hears the roars and hisses of the old demonic dragon god's rage.

Stella Errans, Aquila, Thera, Diane, do not read this post :D

I highlighted my questions so you don't have to read all the text if you don't want to.

I am running a homebrew campaign. Most of it is improvised on the go. The base setting I gave: The PCs found a giant infernal funnel-like structure in a newly discovered cave under the capital city. They later figured out that this funnel captures the souls of everyone who died in the city to be enslaved by demonic forces. They do not yet know that the royal family is involved in this. Perhaps, 100 years ago, the ruler of the land made a pact with a devil, to sell the souls of the people in exchange for power and peace. I'd imagine that this kingdom was under a huge threat which led the ruler to make this deal, sacrifice the souls of the people in the capital to ensure safety of the rest of the land.

Question 1: What enemy force could be so great that the royal family might be forced to make such a drastic deal? I'd love to hear your ideas on this!

When they found the soul funnel, they had to fight a hellhound-like beast. I wasn't sure if they would make it, so I put in an NPC that hid behind some rock pillars. In game, she was a cleric from the Lathander monastery in the city that went to explore the cave as well. I teased her appearance to the players by seeing the guards that guarded the cave be asleep and, after they woke them up, telling them about a hooded figure casting a sleep spell on them. Meta-gamewise, she was there to help/heal the party in case I made the monster to strong lol.

The cleric is a character of mine, called Caara, a female Aarakocra that looks like a fluffy yellow cockatiel. I played her kind and non-threatening, with occasional chirps and whistles at the end of her sentences.

The players adored her.

When looking for hints regarding the funnel, Diane, the fighter, said "I could go and talk to... (forgetting Caara's name) my cute little birdie" which the other PCs teased her for. From now on, there was a mini romance thing going on between Diane and Caara which we as players all found hilarious.

Too bad I knew Caara would be assassinated a few sessions later.

The players found Caara dying on the floor, with a cursed neck wound that had anti-magic (aka anti healing potion) properties. She died holding the hand of Diane and telling her she would become a great hero one day.

When I talked to Diane's player if she would like to pursue a way to resurrect Caara, she said yes and would do absolutely anything. The other players seemed quite shook by her death as well.

Question 2: How could the players go about this? I would love a quest where every player could contribute to Caara's resurrection. For example, Stella the rogue's secret organisation could find some Intel, Thera the druid could find a rare mushroom (she is a fungi specialist) etc. Aquila, the second druid, has an adoptive mom who is also after the fungus because she is terminally ill. Are there (besides resurrection scrolls/spells etc.) other ways of resurrection I should know of? I don't want to give them an easy way to resurrect Caara, because I don't want death in my campaign to feel too insignificant.

Question 3: should I make the cost of resurrecting Caara high or low? I played with the thought of having her come back to life by Diane giving up half of her years of life. Alternatively, Diane might have to swear an oath to bring Caara back (possible multiclassing to warlock/Paladin?). What do you think? Any other ideas?

Question 4: How would you go about a resurrection quest?

Thank you so so much if you read all of this and I am looking forward to your input!!

Hello everyone! This is the weekly thread where anyone can come and ask for and give advice relating to TTRPGs and your campaigns/stories. These will be up the whole week until they are replaced for the new week. Remember to be respectful and to have fun!

Just a quick reminder that the discord is up and running for this subreddit, come and join to have conversations about anything relating to TTRPGs :P

Link to the discord: https://discord.gg/SbHCmrZFCM

And as per usual nobody gave me their character sheets until a day before the session was about to begin. I had already written the first combat encounter and plot hook for the first session. It involved some goblins. Unfortunately one of my players decided to be a goblin. We ended up role playing it and it was hilarious. But I've been asking them for the last week or so if I can get their character sheets I got nothing. So when I finally got his character sheet I said "fuck it, we roll ".

We had a blast tonight. I'm a long time player but a new dm. The only games I've played in for the last 6 years are all homebrew from my forever dm. So when we finished our most recent campaign which was about two and a half years I offered to run a campaign. But I decide to embrace the full out faehrun lore. Out forever dm is the only one familiar with that lore. Our three other experience players are familiar with homebrew D&D but haven't played any lore. And we have a new player who has never played any D&D or experienced any D&D lore. So I have gone heavily into the spellplague with Shar, Cyril, and Mystra in the campaign.

I was really concerned that things wouldn't turn out well but honestly everybody enjoyed it and they gave me critical feedback. I guess I'm just ranting at this point but wish me luck!

If your campaign is run by your nerdy, heavily tattooed rock n roll cousin/uncle who lives in Southern California and you are on the first layer of The Abyss please ignore.

So I am currently running a game for my family - my brother (39 - Half Elf Abjuration Wizard level 6), my cousin's husband (41 - Human Arcane Trickster Rogue level 4), his daughter (12 - Wood Elf Dual Weild Champion Fighter [shortswords] level 4), my cousin's husband's brother (43 - Human Evocation Wizard level 4) and his daughter (also 12 - Half Elf Circle of Land Druid level 4). They are all first time players, and I'm a Forever DM since I was 12. We are all loving it as I homebrew a ton of stuff (maps, items, etc), do a bunch of art and have a style similar to Matt Mercer (memorable NPCs, graphic/gory battles, cool story, etc).

They rolled their characters up with the intention that my cousin's husband's brother would DM with a Starter Set (Dragon of IceSpire Peak), but he quickly realized he was in over his head and they asked me to do it. They started in Faerun outside of Phandalin and I let them explore some before starting to get the ball rolling on some main storyline. Some of The Mighty Nein have cameo'd with a few homebrew adjustments (obviously no dick drawing for Jester lol), and they were doing a reconnaisance mission with the intent of going to meet Jester, Veth, Yeza, Molly, Beau and Yasha in Neverwinter (where Fjord and Caleb would be waiting).

That's when things got turned on their head:

The Orcs and Ogres they were spying on (about 200 Ogres and 2500 Orcs) had just made an alliance of all the northern tribes when the Orc's Druid spotted them in Vulture form flying above. She cast Pass Without Trace on about 15 orc warriors, took them to the top of the cliffs where the party was spying from and ambushed them. The Orc scouts heard the ensuing battle, blew their warhorns and the ogres began scaling the cliffs while the orcs sent warg riders up the trail after them.

They're in the midst of the battle when my brother's character (Half Elf Abjuration Wizard with the Telepathy feat) debuted by walking through a moongate from another dimension (Sosaria, if you're an Ultima fan like him). He has a Voyager Staff that's damaged and can be unpredictable, along with a Cubic Gate that makes things even MORE unpredictable. Short version is, he casts Teleport with the staff as the Orcs and Ogres begin to swarm them, and tells my neice (Elf Fighter) via telepathy: "Think of a safe place..."

Then I take a page out of Brendan Lee Mulligan's book, grab my dice tower and say "ok! So since his staff is damaged, we're going to do THE ROLL OF DOOM!!!" the girls scream "OH NO!!!" the guys start laughing and I grab my favorite D20 - I say "If I roll a 10 or above, everything functions normally. If I roll BELOW a 10, things get...interesting."

I roll a 4.

They end up in Pazunia - the first layer of The Abyss.

"THIS is your SAFE PLACE???" my brother screams at my neice (who is at 0 HP and is rolling death saves before healing her).

They have battled through a cave full of Yuan-Ti servants of The Serpent Queen (ascended Marilith demigoddess who they haven't met yet), and ended up running from a Lesser Marilith and her warband into a hallway exposed by a cave-in...that on a map that they found, which was scrawled by a madman, reads "The Tower of Madness".

The Tower of Madness is an amalgamation of all of my favorite horror movies/shows into a labyrinth filled with illusions. It's a dungeon whose hallways are reminiscent of Freddy Krueger's boiler rooms, has rooms that will look like the Evil Dead Cabin (and cast Tasha's Laughter on you if you sit on the chair), The Black Lodge from Twin Peaks (and have evil dopplegangers of you try to strangle you) among others. There will be traps that are teleporters but to the untrained eye appear to be you suffering the most gruesome deaths (drawn and quartered by chains shooting out of the walls/ceiling, a giant monster hand grabs you from out of the floor and pulls you down to a giant fanged mouth that chews you into bits, flame jets that burn you to ashes, etc) but actually just teleport you to random locations in the dungeon (you take 1d4 psychic damage every time though). There are also floating DeathSpheres from Phantasm that will drill into your brain and read your fears so the dungeon can use them against you, etc.

The whole place is run by a homebrew monster that I call The Napier - he's a corrupted Dark Fey who made a deal with Demogorgon and was transformed into an evil jester mime - he looks and acts like if Art The Clown from Terrifier was a medieval harlequin jester, moves as if someone videotaped him moving in reverse then played it backwards (a la Twin Peaks), he can squeeze through cracks in the walls (Dimension Door), he can stretch like Mr Fantastic, is a master of illusions, and if he hits you, he can grapple you, stretch out his mouth like Pennywise and swallow you. If he does, it has the same effect as the teleport traps with the grisly deaths.

He will antagonize them throughout their passage through the labyrinth - if reduced to 0 HP, he mimes laughter and dissolves into a black mist that seeps into the walls. He then regenerates in 2d8+3 hours or after a long rest, whichever is longer. He can only be defeated by finding his heart (hidden in a pocket dimension accessed through the labyrinth). The heart is encased in blood-red crystal that can only be broken by 3 or more characters singing in harmony (I'm going to use "Will Happen" from Adventure Time, which is where I got the idea), and then they have to destroy the jet-black, anatomically correct heart that beats 5 times a minute. When they do, he loses all his abilities/resistances and drops to 20 HP. When they kill him, he'll laugh maniacally and his face/body will melt like in Indiana Jones down to a skeleton. Then a bunch of mini-Quasits will devour the bones.

Oh yeah, If you're reduced to 0 HP by psychic damage, you only have to roll 1 successful death save, but you get a minor madness. 😁

A cool touch is that the Evoker Wizard has a children's book about fiends that he got from Mollymauk (think German Fairytales type shit). If he looks inside after they meet him the first time, he'll find THIS (see comments)

Thoughts? Too scary for 12 year olds (almost 13)? Ideas?

Cheers!

My players are about to unknowingly unleash a Deep Impact type event wiping out tens of thousands of people along the coast.

This world has had one of those cataclysmic pasts that have left deep scars across the land. There are frost mountains next to a perpetual lava field next to sky islands. The lore is that dragons had a great magical fight thousands of years ago that created all of the mess before developing a sort of truce that lasted a long time. But the scars remained behind including a 1 mile wide, 1 mile deep, 200 mile long chasm that extends 10 miles out into the ocean. Water continues to magically move around the barrier.

The dragons disappeared over 300 years ago and no one knows where they are. The players were sent on a quest because of a rumor of dragon eggs which may or may not be metaphorical (it’s not). They go through the dungeon and are faced with three dragon eggs inside a magic circle with a warning to not remove them or they will cause untold death. There is also a mention of “human earth”.

First, if they remove the eggs, the field keeping the ocean water out will stop collapsing a mile wide, ten mile long empty space in the ocean to immediately fill up along with all of the consequences (flooding, giant waves, etc.) for hundreds of miles. All of the weird areas are being sustained by dragon eggs.

Second, even if they don’t do it, there is another group the party is aware of coming to this dungeon. It is not known when they will arrive (7 days and I’ve been keeping track). If the players leave the eggs, the other party will take them anyways unleashing the giant wave.

Third, “human earth” is a reference that this world is a split/parallel Earth created when the meteor killed all the dinosaurs. Some dinos were shunted to this other world full of magic. The dinosaurs eventually evolved into intelligent, magic using dragons that have existed for millions of years. Until the giant cataclysmic war mentioned earlier.

Fourth, there are still thin areas in the world where a person can travel between this world and our world. The main Kingdom is actually the colony of Roanoke that were tricked into this world by the dragon Croatoan. This history has mostly been lost but there are a handful of relics like an English Bible in the dragon’s library. Croatoan is a Dr. Moreau type character that loves evolution and mix-matching traits in monsters, humans, and dragons. He needed more “pure human” stock and brought over the colony.

I am not sure if this is the right place for this. If so I will move it.

This friday (my birthday) I am DMing for my D&D group a murder mystery I have been putting together this past week. I think I have it all set up. I would love to be able to run it by some one to see if its to obvious or to convoluted or if it makes any sence at all.

The fun part: I am not normally the DM. My character is (one of) the victims. I worked it out with my friend who is the normal DM and he is going to start it off and then we are going to switch.

So, here is the set up:

The Group finds a manor in the woods and are invited in to celebrate the birthday of a kind hearted Aristocratic inventor, Alister Hornswallow. The manor is grand and remote up on a hill within the woods between Carcolla & Reina. The manor is lit by a network of tubes and lamps burning off a supply of natural gas.

First impressions are everything! These are the people they meet and a bit of the interaction they will have. (These are just notes from me to my DM friend. He will be working this into a scene but these things are clues/anti-clues.

Alister Hornswallow: -Brilliant inventor and lord of this manor. It is also his birthday. -Offer them a drinks he gets from a tray in his butler's hand and raise a small toast. -Immediately he coughs and hacks up the drink, dropping his glass on the floor. -He waves away concern claiming, "I am fine, I am fine. Everything has been tasting off today. I think there”

Rojo & Arenque: -Two cats belonging to Alister -They come over and begin licking up the spilled drink -“These are my beloved cats, Rojo & Arenque. They are hungry lads, they get that from me. Hohoho.” Alister chortles.

Bear puncher: -Butler and ground's keeper of the Manor -Walks over to clean up the glass.

Elizabeth Montgomery Hornswallow: -Wife of Alister -Acts startled When Alister pulls her in to introduce her. She looks uncomfortable. He asks her if she has seen his brother, Samuel, and she quickly responds that she hasn't in a flustered manner.

Aluacious Berrelhoop: -Partner/assistant to Alister -Alister introduces Aluacious as his assistant to which Aluacious corrects saying, “More like partners Alister. Who was it again who fixed the natural gas system that keeps this place from blowing up.” -“No one knows Reptiles like him. His little reptile-ry is quite a spectacular collection.” Alister boasts on his friends brhalf. -“Its a Herpetarium.” Aluacious corrects.

Quincy Montgomery & Pi Mai: -Cousin of Elizibeth & friend of Quincy -Alister points out these two from a distance as they mingle near the laboratory entrance. -“That pale one is my dear wife’s second cousin thrice removed or third cousin twice removed. Honestly I don't remember. Couldn't care less. They showed up about a week ago and it would have been rude Not to invite them. But there is something odd about him. Sleeps in like a rabble teen and is up all hours of the night, poking around. His friend is fine enough. Polite.

Sir Ivic Edglir: -Legendary Retired vampire hunter -Alister introduces him as he broods over in the corner. “The esteemed Vampire hunter. He swears he's not here on business so don't worry you little necks. Isn't that right, Vicy?” -“Everyone should always be on guard. You never know who could be waiting in the shadows to jump out and get you.” Ivic growls, staring at Alister.

Samual Hornswallow: -Brother of Alister -Alister can't seem to find his Brother anywhere. “That's odd. He's normally the center of the party. He and my wife put this whole thing together. They have been at work in the library for weeks now. Told me I wasn't allowed in. Luckily I have my secret passage to my study.

The Group is invited to stay for a cocktail hour after the party once most of the guests depart. Those remaining break off for various reasons:

-Alister takes Herb (my character) into the kitchen to show him his Latest candy pulling invention he had been working on. Alister mentions, “I have a fondness of sneaking down here from my study for a midnight snack. Don't tell Elizibeth.” (Herb makes candies from maple syrup)

-Bear puncher heads out onto the grounds. “Butler-ly duties to attend to. Heh Heh, duty.”

-Aluacious asks Hephaestus (friend's character who is an automiton) If it would be terribly rude of him to take a few photos of his mechanical workings in the lab. He finds them genius and would love to study them further.

-Ivic challenges Ren and Jason (the remaining two PC's) to a round of billiards in the Games room.

-Quincy & Pi May Sneak up to the Observatory together.

-Elizabeth walks up to the Library.

-Samual popped up at some point during the party but hasnt been seen since.

During the Cocktail hour all the lights in the manor go out and the party is thrown into darkness. Once the lights come back there is a moment of confusion and then a scream.

-Alister was the one who screamed. He found Herb dead on the floor surrounded by a puddle of something red.

-Aluacious fell in the laboratory and is flailing Like a turtle on his back when the lights come back up.

-In the game room, Ren and Jason are alone. They heard Ivic whisper “the vampire!” Followed by a snapping noise. Ivic is gone and the pool stick he was using is broken in half with the larger end Missing along with him.

And at that point my friend and I will switch. But it is at this point the players could stsrt investigating and pointing fingers. General post murder chaos and what not. I am curious what you think and what you would do first.

I will say there are several twists planed. One very soon after these moment.

Long time lurker here but needed to share. As the title states I made an item for a player of mine. He bought it for 100 Platnium and a piece of his soul. Bought it from the Gnome DemiGod / Champian of Waukeen. I might regret it. I wanted to share with other DMs and ask if anyone else has made something too OP and lived to regret it. Also, should I Nerf it before giving him the identified item?

Gravity's Lament: Staff (quarterstaff), Artifact (requires attunement)

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A segmented quarterstaff crafted from a silverish green alloy. The alloy is a Mastercraft made of a perfect combination of Aethersteel, Star Metal (Meteor), and Celestial Steel (Solanian Truesteel). This staff is made up of four segments, each segment 1.5 feet long, interlocking and connected by 3 six inch chains of Mithral. Swinging the staff around causes four distinct low Aeolian flute sounds. Smooth and sleek appearance, but upon closer inspection, thousands of interlocking magic circles are inscribed. It has six buttons hidden in a groove on the second segment before the third segment. Each button provides a different effect and takes a set amount of charges:

Immovable (1) - You can use an action to press the highest button, which causes the staff to become magically fixed in place. Until you or another creature uses an action to push the button again, the staff doesn't move, even if it is defying gravity. The staff can hold up to 8,000 pounds of weight. More weight causes the staff to deactivate and fall. A creature can use an action to make a DC 30 Strength check, moving the fixed rod up to 10 feet on a success.

Violent Attraction (1) - When a creature that you can see, including yourself, within 60 feet of you hits with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction to press the second button increasing the attack's velocity, causing the attack's target to take an extra 2d10 damage of the weapon's type. Alternatively, if a creature within 60 feet of you takes damage from a fall, you can use your reaction to increase the fall's damage by 3d10.

Weightless (2) - You can use a bonus action to press the third button, which brings the gravity on yourself to nearly nothing. Effectively making you weightless and unaffected by friction; doubling your Movement speed for one turn and giving you an additional +5 to Dex Saves.

Gravity Well (3) - You can use an action to press the fourth button. Doing so increases gravity around you in a 30ft radius, centered on you. Everything in that radius, besides you, feels their weight double. Their movement is halved, they do not get to use a reaction and the have Disadvantage on Dex Checks and Saves. Using another charge triples the weight in the radius. At triple weight their movement is reduced to 0, they get no action, bonus action or reaction and automatically fail Dex Checks or Saves. This effect lasts one turn.

Gravity Sinkhole (4) - You can use an action to press the fifth button. A 20-foot-radius sphere of crushing force forms at a point you can see within a 100ft range and tugs at the creatures there. Each creature in the sphere must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 6d10 force damage and is pulled in a straight line toward the center of the sphere, ending in an unoccupied space as close to the center as possible (even if that space is in the air). On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pulled.

Gravity Fissure (5) - You can use an action to press the sixth button. You manifest a ravine of gravitational energy in a line originating from you that is 100 feet long and 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 22 Constitution Saving throw, taking 8d10 force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Each creature within 10 feet of the line but not in it must succeed on a DC 18 Strength Saving throw or take 8d8 force damage and be pulled toward the line until the creature is in its area.

You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This staff holds 6 charges and regains 1d4+1 charges per dawn. If all 6 charges are used the staff shatters and causes a gravity fissure in a 20ft cube centered on the staff. All creatures in the 20ft cube take must succeed on a DC 18 Dex Save or take 12d12 Force Damage, half as much on a success.

Proficiency with a Quarterstaff allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

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This weapon has the following mastery property. To use this property, you must have a feature that lets you use it.

Topple. If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus the ability modifier used to make the attack roll and your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.

Notes: Bonus: Magic, Damage: Force, Damage, Combat, Versatile, Topple

Hello! If you're getting ready to play a homebrew campaign set in the Land of Dreams, stop reading now! This is going to be a long one, so if you are kind enough to read all the way through, I appreciate you. I hope everything is clear and I haven't rambled too much, there is a ton of information floating around in my brain and I'm trying to be concise but that's not my forte lol.

This is my first time DMing a long campaign, and I ended up homebrewing the whole thing. I took the concept of the "Land of Dreams" from a one shot we played a while ago, and expanded it.

For background, the big bad for the campaign is the Hollow Queen, who has been pulling together an army and made a deal with an analogue of the Four Horsemen from Revelations in order to destroy the barrier between the Land of Dreams and Faerun. She is doing this by creating portals between the Dream World and Faerun and sucking people in to the Land of Dreams. Each portal is guarded by one of the Horsemen, whose power is keeping the portal open. The first boss they'll run into will be Pestilence.

This brings me to my feedback request.

As part of Pestilence's power, she spreads plagues and illnesses wherever she goes. She is now in the city of Somnus, capital of the Land of Dreams. To spread her evil even further, she has created 3 Disease Orbs, which affect entire regions. The players will find themselves at ground zero of one of them, which will lead them to the information they need to find the other two, save the city, and destroy Pestilence and the first party

I am starting the party at Level 3, and there are 5 players. I've created the mechanics below for the Disease Orbs, and want to get a couple of specific bits of feedback:

1. Will any of these diseases make things way too hard at the level they're playing at? I've got mostly veteran players who have tended to steamroll my encounters in one shots unless I make them way harder than "recommended," but I don't want to wildly overestimate them and murder all their characters in the opening act.

2. Does everything make sense, as in appropriate DCs, reasonable process, etc? The process is a bit complicated, so if you have suggestions on streamlining it, I am all ears.

3. Should I let the players be immune to any disease that they successfully cure? There will definitely be multiple opportunities for players to be infected, and I'm not sure if it would be fun to cure a disease just to get the same one again. From a story perspective it makes sense to me that since these are magical illnesses caused by the physical incarnation of disease it makes sense that natural defenses wouldn't be effective, but ultimately I want the game to be enjoyable.

4. Is there anything I've missed or maybe not fully thought through?

Here are the mechanics:

The characters will roll to determine whether they came into contact with enough contagion to have to make a save against a disease:

1. Every time they come into an area where a Disease Orb is active.
2. Every 24 hours that they spend in an area where a Disease Orb is active.
3. If they have a combat that puts them in contact with someone that might be carrying a disease. 

I will have them roll a chance dice any time any of these things occur. The likelihood they came in contact with enough contagion to cause them to save will start at 50/50, and increase in likelihood by 10 with each encounter. If they fail, they will need to roll a d8 to determine which disease they’re rolling for from the above table, and then make the appropriate CON save. The characters won’t know exactly how their disease works at first, unless they do successful Medicine Checks (DC13). However, they can get in contact with priests, clerics, etc, who will know what to do. Their first contact in the city is the High Priest and High Priestess of Somna Scaith, the deity who rules over the Land of Dreams, so they should be well aware that they can reach out to the temple for help.

The first round of diseases will be coming from a well underneath the Laughing Lantern, the tavern they'll be staying at, from a monster called a Balliegha. She will be working with Pestilence and will have a Disease Orb which is the source of the diseases themselves. The orb can be broken, though it will cause all creatures within 30 feet to make a DC15 CON save to not be poisoned, and they’ll need to roll on the disease table. However, after it has been broken, its effects dissipate and it no longer causes new disease after 24 hours, although organic spread of the diseases already released is still possible. If the party uses fire or radiant damage to destroy the orbs, or takes them to the temple for the clerics to take care of, then it won’t cause the need for saves beyond what is already needed. There will be 3 of these orbs in different locations across the city, including the one in the Laughing Lantern.

To make things simple, each disease will have an incubation period of 1d4 hours, at which point the characters will start feeling the effects of the illness.

Here are the possible diseases that the characters can catch. Most of them are slightly modified diseases from various official sources, but I made up the last two based on Fibrodysplasia ossificans progresiva and rabies. Several players are in the medical profession and I thought they might enjoy a corollary to a couple of real life illnesses.

1. Sewer Plague: Sewer plague is a generic term for a broad category of illnesses that incubate in sewers, refuse heaps, and stagnant swamps, and which are sometimes transmitted by creatures that dwell in those areas, such as rats and otyughs. When exposed through the Disease Orb, the creature must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected.

Symptoms include fatigue and cramps. The infected creature suffers one level of exhaustion, and it regains only half the normal number of hit points from spending Hit Dice and no hit points from finishing a long rest.

At the end of each long rest, an infected creature must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the character gains one level of exhaustion.

On a successful save, the character’s exhaustion level decreases by one level. If a successful saving throw reduces the infected creature’s level of exhaustion below 1, the creature recovers from the disease.

Other magical methods of decreasing a creature’s exhaustion level can also be used to help cure the illness.

2. Filth Fever: A creature exposed to Filth Fever must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, or be infected by a raging fever that sweeps through the creature’s body. While afflicted, the creature has disadvantage on Strength checks, Strength saving throws, and attack rolls that use Strength. The saving throw can be repeated at the end of each long rest. On a success, the creature is cured. 

3. Shivering Sickness: When exposed to the disease via the influence of the Disease Orb, a creature must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected. A creature with natural armor has advantage on the saving throw. Symptoms include blurred vision, disorientation, and a sudden drop in body temperature that causes uncontrollable shivering and chattering of the teeth.

Once symptoms begin, the infected creature regains only half the normal number of hit points from spending Hit Dice and no hit points from a long rest. The infected creature also has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls. At the end of a long rest, an infected creature repeats the saving throw, shaking off the disease on a successful save.

4. Flesh Rot: When exposed to the disease via the influence of the Disease Orb, a creature must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or become infected. The creature’s flesh decays. Once symptoms fully set in, the creature has disadvantage on Charisma checks and vulnerability to all damage.

The Constitution saving throw can be repeated on a long rest. On a success, the creature is cured.

5. Cackle Fever: This disease targets humanoids, although gnomes are strangely immune. While in the grips of this disease, victims frequently succumb to fits of mad laughter, giving the disease its common name and its morbid nickname: “the shrieks.”

Symptoms include fever and disorientation. The infected creature gains one level of exhaustion that can’t be removed until the disease is cured.

Any event that causes the infected creature great stress-including entering combat, taking damage, experiencing fear, or having a nightmare-forces the creature to make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature takes 5 (1d10) psychic damage and becomes incapacitated with mad laughter for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the mad laughter and the incapacitated condition on a success. Any humanoid creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of an infected creature in the throes of mad laughter must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or also become infected with the disease. Once a creature succeeds on this save, it is immune to the mad laughter of that particular infected creature for 24 hours.

6. Sight Rot: This painful infection causes bleeding from the eyes and eventually blinds the victim.

A beast or humanoid that comes in contact with the sight rot contagion must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become infected. 1d4 hours after infection, the creature’s vision starts to become blurry. The creature takes a -1 penalty to attack rolls and ability checks that rely on sight. At the end of each long rest after the symptoms appear, the penalty worsens by 1. When it reaches -5, the victim is blinded until its sight is restored by magic such as lesser restoration or heal.

Sight rot can be cured using a rare flower called Eyebright, which grows in some swamps. Given an hour, a character who has proficiency with an herbalism kit can turn the flower into one dose of ointment. Applied to the eyes before a long rest, one dose of it prevents the disease from worsening after that rest. After three doses, the ointment cures the disease entirely.

7. Bone Prison: The body of a creature affected by this disease begins to repair itself with bone instead of other materials. This means that even small injuries, such as the microtears of building muscle, lead to bone replacing healing tissue, causing debilitating pain, and petrification over time. 

A creature exposed to the Bone Prison contagion must make a DC13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature experiences debilitating pain causing the creature to have disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity Checks, Saving Throws, and attacks. 

After each long rest, the creature makes a DC13 CON save. On a success, the disease causes no new damage, and the bone growths disappear after a period of 1d4-1 hours, after which point the creature no longer has disadvantage as detailed above. On 3 failures, the creature is petrified. This condition can be ended with the Greater Restoration spell. 

8. Rageblight: A creature affected by Rageblight begins to lose its grip on reality, becomes aggressive and hostile, and is extremely fatigued as the disease attacks its nervous system.

When exposed to the Rageblight virus, the creature must make a DC13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is afflicted by 1 level of exhaustion, and must roll on the short term madness table. This saving throw can be repeated on a long rest. On a success, the disease is cured. On a second failure, the creature takes another level of exhaustion, and must roll on the long term madness table. On a third failure, the creature takes another level of exhaustion, and must roll on the indefinite madness table. After this point, the creature continues to make a saving throw after each long rest, but the madness cannot be cured except by a Greater Restoration spell. Further Constitution saving throws result in additional levels of exhaustion until the creature dies. A success ends the illness and removes all levels of exhaustion.

I think that's everything. I know this is very lengthy, so any questions are welcomed!

If you are in the Margaritaville campaign, read no further!

The context for this memory: I have been building up to this event in-game already for a long while. Little hints and NPC reactions, etc. But anyway, the players will find out that their collective father (a bard) and his party have been nearly decimated during combat against an ancient red dragon. This is a small party of three NPCs who my players have all grown to love and admire. Risca, a fighter/cleric and Bahamut's revenant, Derek, a bard and the party's collective father, and Sythyn, an elf rogue. The players will learn that Risca did not return with the other two. They can try to scry, but there is powerful anti-divination magic at work preventing them from finding her.

Sythyn was knocked out during the battle, and Derek is unconscious for the foreseeable future. There are lots of other avenues, but the party will eventually (hopefully, if things go well) quest for a magic orb that can show them someone's memory from that person's perspective, and once they have it, they will use it on Derek to find out what happened to Risca, and I will weave them a story of heartbreak and betrayal.

It will be the longest narration I've ever done in one go, and I do intend to warn my players that it will be a long one. I realise it might even be too long, but I hope it is at least an engaging story. This is what I've prepared for when the time finally comes:

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For a moment, there's nothing. And then, the room is launched into blackness. You can’t see each other, you can’t even see your own hand in front of your face. The only thing visible is the orb. Suddenly, you’re all pulled nauseatingly forward; hazy surroundings flicker in and out, a mountainside, a bustling city, a dark dungeon, watery and blurred as though you’re seeing it through warped glass. Then finally, an image comes brutally into focus: 

You’re at the back of a busy tavern, it’s stiflingly warm. A sea of commoners fill the room wall-to-wall, but they are all silent, staring at...Risca, who is sitting at a table near the bar. Three guards armoured in silver stand over her. Then, she stands – her chair scrapes across the floor, toppling over like an explosion in the silence. She yells; “Can’t I have a fucking drink anymore?!” Her voice is distant, echoing, as the world around you rushes out of view.

More scenery flies by, and you land on some kind of grand castle rooftop, looking down through a glass skylight at the interior of a fine room, you recognise the Emperor's grand audience hall. Risca stands in the centre, alone, with silver armoured guards encircling her. Her voice is muffled, but she is yelling again: “I  am not the sword of the people, I am a person!”

The rest  is lost as the world is already melting, faster this time, and you can hear the murmuring echoes of voices, some Risca, some not.

You’re standing in the doorway of tavern bedroom. The furniture is overturned, there are shards of glass and ceramic scattered across the floor. The curtains have been pulled down. And standing in the middle, is Risca. Her back is to you. She is heaving with breath, her braid is half-undone and one of her fists is bloodied on the knuckles.

The world is whisked away again. Just as you're starting to feel nauseous, everything comes back into vivid clarity. No more echoing, no more watery memories.

You’re in a sprawling cavern of raw brown rock. Amber crystals glitter in the walls from the flickering light of a fire. A huge fire. You are kneeling on the ground. In you peripheral vision you can see Sythyn, she’s badly wounded and unconscious. You’re holding her protectively, but you’re not looking at her. You’re looking across the floor of the destroyed and burnt cavern; across scorch marks and fresh rubble.

You see Risca.

For a moment, she’s surrounded by a wall of fire, but she’s not engulfed. It creates barrier her around her. Your arm raises up, but its your father's arm, shielding your eyes from the light until it dies down.

Risca is injured too, she can barely hold her shield up. Her long blonde braid has been burned off and her thick hair is short and wild. She’s looking up. Up into the face of a gargantuan red beast; a dragon whose massive body fills the cavern; the gaps in its scales glow like amber rivers of magma. Two crushing front talons the width of tree trunks, a thick, snake-like neck, and a horned, pointed face with huge sinister golden eyes.

Then, it speaks. In a low, rumbling voice that seems to echo throughout the entire cavern.

“Why do you fight me? Do you crave death so much?” It moves, taking slow and careful steps around her, each step shaking the ground; “I do not blame you. It is not your fault that those above send you to die, to rail against the world, to come so far only to fall against the embodiment of an element itself. How could you know?"

The dragon flicks its tail up lazily behind her, and in a blur of motion sends her sword flying out of her hand. It spins through the air and sticks into the ground  halfway to the hilt, maybe 10 feet away from you. Risca watches the dragon's face carefully, her shield raised up in defence. Her fingers fumble for a knife at her belt.  The fire crackles loudly. The dragon circles, then speaks again.

“I can sense it in you…the desperation, the lust to be more powerful. To defend yourself against those who force you to your knees -“ The dragon whips its tail again and cracks her shield out of her hands. It clatters to the ground a hundred feet away, dented and useless. In retaliation, finally, you hear Risca yell over the roar of the fire - “You’re wrong!” 

The dragon rears up.

*“*Am I wrong? I can feel your anger; your spite - it burns in you, its heat eats away at your heart. Let me help you. Fan your ember into a raging inferno. Who then would dare…to order you? To demand you? To refuse you? To ask of you…anything that you do not wish to give?”

Risca, injured, weaponless, defenceless…falters.

You try to stand, but you can’t. Your father's voice echoes in your ears; “Risca, don’t listen to it! Run, run to us! I can get us out!”

But the dragon opens its leathery wings - billowing out like the sails of a ship - and sends a howling gust of wind through the cavern, silencing him.

You don’t hear what Risca says next, but the dragon responds; “Protect them? Have your people ever protected you? Have you not sacrificed for your people all your life? Why should you be their sword? Their saviour?”  

Its huge tail curls in around her, not violently this time, slow, gentle, like a wall of red scales; you can barely see her over it. The dragon continues:  “I...can protect you…I can give you…everything you want…”

You watch, as it exhales a low stream of sparks into the air over her that condense and swirl, forming a brightly glowing amber stone that hovers. Barely more than a tiny bead of light from where you are, but it hangs in the air between Risca and the Dragon’s head.

Risca stands there for a moment, like a statue, unmoving. The cavern is suffocatingly silent.

 In one of her hands, the grip on her knife tightens. She glances down at her ruined shield, then back up at the dragon…

And then takes it.

An explosion of flames and blinding light blasts through the room over the sound of the joyous, booming laughter of the dragon. You can’t feel the heat, but you can hear the crackling fire and roaring of wind in your ears. You lean over Sythyn, protecting her from the worst of the blast. When it clears, Risca is there.

For the first time, she turns to look at you.

Her once sandy blonde hair glows amber and short, wild around her face like a fire. Her once cool green eyes are golden and fierce. Her injuries are healed, the dried blood burns away into nothing. She exhales a long breath of smoke into the air. The gemstone glows on her sternum, it’s burned a hole through the collar of her jumper. She crosses the room towards you, removes her emerald earring, and tosses it aside.

The dragon lets her step up onto its neck and leans its head into her, almost affectionately. It whispers something in Draconic to her. She turns to look at you again, and points. The dragon opens its jaws, a ball of fire lighting deep in its throat and - 

Then the memory flickers out, and you are all sent careening back into bright, cold sunlight. The only thing left of the orb is a cluster of hazy smoke that dissipates in a few seconds. Your father is still unconscious, but there are tears streaming from his closed eyes.

So I created a mini arc homebrew for my players off of a bit they pulled on me. My players have a penchant for renaming NPCs and places, so they renamed Dragon's Burrow to Dragonville, Dragon City, Dragonopolis, etc. Working from there, I created a village called Dragonville. The village is controlled by 5 Dragon orders: Red, Blue, White, Black, and Green. They alternate leadership every 100 years and use the money taxed to add to the hoard of each hoard with the majority going to the lead order that go round. These dragons created this village as a way to protect themselves and to prevent the humans constantly hunting them and their young. Lead dragon protects the eggs in the underground below the town. The other 4 dragons reside outside of town in hidden burrows to patrol and protect the city. Within the city are a mix of dragonkin, kobolds who serve them, and humanoids. Blues believe themselves better than everyone, think snuty royalty. Reds are gym bros, who love battle. Greens are free spirits that smoke weed and tend to their plants. Blacks are the tax collectors and hated by the townspeople and tolerated by the other orders. White are cool and diminutive, they run the only Inn in town. The hook is the white dragon order is the smallest and they will send an emissary to Phandalin to recruit my PCs to fight for their order in the 26th Dragon Ball. The Ball's grand prize is a Wish spell, the white order wants the spell to change the climate to have more true winters. True Winters will remind them of home and help their eggs to survive. Each order has their own mechanizations for the Wish, the Black's who are playing the villain initially are gonna wish to be in power permanently. The White Order will offer the PCs anything in return if the players win the Ball for them. The twist will be the White Order will actually wish for a permanent winter to overtake the Sword Coast. This is most of the lore, that I have come up with so far. (I may be forgetting some things). I have all the encounters planned out for the Ball and ending chase for the finale. I created merchants around town for them to interact with and a midnight underground boxing match for a magical item and gold. Thoughts?

Vulkhor, Veto, Laios, and Zor please do not read <3

Had to remove two people from my group due to some internal conflict and awful table vibes. We’ve picked back up the campaign with two new players and it’s going way better than before.

Unfortunately, I wrote some really exciting encounters for one of removed players. He was on his way to join an assassins guild, and due to a larger threat, the guild was going to steer him in the direction of a temple of Mask for some sort of boon. He was playing a red Dragonborn rogue who didn’t real care for any roguish mechanics, just the aesthetics. He wanted to breathe fire and fight with martial weapons so I created a long sword that would fit his vision.

The puzzle takes place under a temple called the Shadow Sanctum, with separate sections dedicated to Shar, the Raven Queen, and Mask. I wanted to share the puzzle here in its original glory as I had to reskin it as a side quest with no plot relevance.

The players find themselves beneath the Shadow Sanctum in a forgotten forge with 3 statues of a blacksmith. The statues represent different stages of the smithing process. A ghost inhabits the first statue, and the players must assist him in completing each stage to receive a special sword as a reward.

You find a dark room with the only light being what bleeds in from the hallway.

• they light the room

It’s a small workshop for a blacksmith, though based on the cobwebs it doesn’t appear to have been used in some time. There are supplies, tools, and containers around the room. Most notably, though, are the 3 statues around the room. All three are of men, holding various poses.

1. On the left side of the room, there is a man holding metalworking tongs in front of a forge.

players must ignite kindling in the forge and pump the bellows

there are vases and containers of smaller kindling and aromatics. For the heat required by the forge at this point, there’s a large metal container with a burlap sack of charcoal inside it

a spectral version of the man appears to animate while the statue stays still, and he puts his phantom tongs in the fire. Held by the tongs is a spectral bar of metal. If the players don’t pump the bellows, he will remark that it’s not hot enough.

He whispers some incantations in a language that shares some similarities to elvish, the sound being joined by dozens of tiny whispers around the room. The fire turns black; its shadows around the room dancing out of sync and unnaturally.

the fire eventually dies down. After the metal is sufficiently heated, he moves into the place of the next statue. the metal is pure black.

2. In front of the wall opposite the door you entered, a statue is sitting at an anvil with his hand raised in the air. There is nothing in his hand, though his fist is closed in a grasp.

the players must put a hammer in his hand

the spectral avatar animates once again, and he brings a hammer down on the dark shadowy metal, shaping it into a blade. He appears to be forging a longsword.

3. On the right side of the room, a statue of a man is holding his tongs into a shallow empty trough of sorts.

the players have to add oil to the trough for quenching. The oil will be in a squat black metal container - a yellow-ish white semi-solid. It has to be scooped into the trough, though the players do not have to melt it

the ghost animates once more, and before he quenches the blade, he holds a hand above the oil and whispers another incantation. The oil starts to melt and turn inky black - shadowy hands reach up from the oil, and he quenches the blade. When the blade is submerged, the hands retract.

the ghost gets up and goes to the first statue again.

4. The ghost adds the blade into the warm coals and begins tempering. He holds it until the blade is evenly heated, then returns to the statue at the quench. He dips it into the inky black quench, and then he disappears.

the players much reach into the oil to retrieve the sword. (Rogue PC)

As the shadows envelop you, whispers echo in your mind.

“He breathes flame yet seeks solace in the shadows. Embrace the darkness where true strength lies. Where light fades, there you shall find the power in knowing. Embrace the darkness, and it will reward you. Let it guide your hand. Let it show you what others find obscured. Creature of fire, even the brightest flames still cast shadow.”

With each word, the shadows seem to deepen, enveloping you in their embrace, promising power to those who dare to seek it.

Rogue PC retrieves the sword from the oil

edit reformatted bc Reddit does not like what I did in my notes app. Also called out my PCs in case they lurk

If your campaign is about surviving in a mind flayer apocalypse, ignore So, I'm currently preparing a campaign for a couple friends and I'm having trouble establishing a major plot point. The core of the story is about an illithid invasion on the capital of the biggest empire of the world (the city alone is big enough to be considered a self sufficient reign) and the players must kill the six leaders of the squids to stop them from spreading. After some time the real plan of the flayers will be revealed: to free the Goddess of Mind and Soul to unify all the minds of the world in a single hive mind. To free the Goddes they need to harness the powers of the other 3 gods of the world by creating 3 perfect beings to become theyr champions. The players will eventually kill all of this beings ( 3 of the leaders that have ascended) and with the help of a traitor( the sixth leader) they will try to stop the Emperor, who was the mastermind all along. During the campaign they will receive the blessings of the gods, a mechanic that offers a few buffs divided by spellcasters, half casters, supports and melee fighters and during the fight with the final boss he will use the ancient runes used to seal the Goddes to free her consuming theyr blessing. Is this believable or am I overcomplicating the plot?

What type of Campaigns do you run??

I have a mostly improved Campaign going on now- I prepped a ton of stuff for the starting City, even got monsters and important locations in the world. My players keep driving the story in crazy directions and it's absolutely hilarious. I am having an absolute blast as a 1st time DM and just curious how everyone else builds their world and the lore within.

Hi all.

I'm running a modified version of the Dragon of Icespire Peak where I have replaced the white dragon with a blue dragon who is viewed as an emissary for Talos and is using the Anchorites of Talos as his pawns to put continued pressure on the party.

I want to make it so that he is not actually the emissary and instead is using the Anchorites to further his own goals.

This could lead to a clash between the Anchorites and Gorthok the thunder boar (who could be an actual emissary/avatar of Talos) when they discover they have been duped.

I am looking for something input on what the dragon (renamed to Raiden to fit the lightning theme) is actually working towards. The current idea I have is to have some orbs hidden in various locations which if he gets hold of will grant him more power and if/when he gets all of these orbs he will have gathered the power of Tiamat.

Just looking for some input on these developments, how they could play out, some pieces of lore I might have overlooked, extra lore dumps for my party.

Thank you.

I am about to introduce a new character to my campaign. I've used him in a previous campaign with other players, but my current players have never heard of him. Pishtim's outlook on life and personality made for some hilarious interaction in the previous campaign, but I want to do more than just retread his old material. I need practice reacting to a variety of characters and situations.

SO

You are patrons of the World Serpent Inn, and while you're enjoying a meal, a small housecat with midnight blue fur pads up to your table and watches you eat.

"Pardon me," he says in crisp and fluent Common, "Would you be so kind as to give me just a tiny bit of nourishment?"

(If your character is the observant type, they will notice a newly erected sign that says, "Don't Feed the Cat". If they are social, they will overhear warnings that Pishtim is back, don't offer him anything.)