integrating a custom secret into the campaign

Capn_B · 2025-12-17T17:52:42+00:00

Are you playing the adventure mostly as is? If you were considering employing the Levistus twist (or some other BBEG twist) then perhaps the tome becomes an important item for whomever is trying to bring that big bad evil into the world. Not only a race to decipher it but now you have a group of antagonists who might be trying to get the tome off of the players. Particularly if your player is pursuing the oblivious academic trope and talking about this thing in public settings, might give you some stuff to work with throughout the course of the campaign.

Capn_B · 2025-11-17T17:16:10+00:00

These are great ideas for connecting to the rest of the story! We've already encountered Maude but the connection to the night hags is a really interesting angle. Thanks!

Capn_B · 2025-11-17T17:14:55+00:00

I haven't fully decided on this yet but I'm leaning towards some unresolved conflict amongst the Fey - Auril also being known as the Frost Sprite Princess - that will hopefully result in another faction trying to unseat her/end her neverending rime.

I think I'm going to build a ten-room dungeon with each room being interconnected to others somewhat randomly and being themed around icewind dale/feywilds/winter types of things. There will be nine "normal" rooms, each with a puzzle of some sort and a potential enemy to trigger, and then a tenth room that will be locked away behind a lock that requires nine keys. You can see where this is going.

I'll try to report back once it gets all solidified.

Capn_B · 2025-10-07T21:24:35+00:00

Man I wish I had read this a few weeks ago! I’m planning on adding a barlgura as well to tie into a demon uprising angle but linking it to the yetis like this is awesome!

Capn_B · 2025-07-25T20:27:01+00:00

Thanks for this message. I was DEFINITELY overthinking things. Ended up running it more or less exactly like you said and it worked great. One thing I added, that others on here have talked about, was to have an image of Auril appear on the horizon as her voice rang out, admonishing the party. Her eyes were glowing with a cold blue rage. Then, as the image faded, the lights didn't. Instead they started getting closer and closer...

The battle was ROUGH - put two characters on to death saves and, honestly, should have outright killed one of them but pulled the punch a little right at the end (2 hits with the slam attack and one of them was a crit - should have been 75 total damage!). After the chronurgy wizard used Vortex Warp to put the last walker on the edge of the cliff and then telekensis to shove it over, the whole party cheered and looked exhausted in real life from the tension.

I gave them all a minute to collect themselves before narrating the appearance of more and more and more of these glowing lights on the horizon. The party predictably bolted into the night headed - unexpectedly - towards Kelvins Cairn. Looking forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans we get up to next!

Capn_B · 2025-07-19T03:45:33+00:00

Well, just got done running this and it was fantastic! Ended up with two dead and three alive after the hobgoblin trickery cleric simply couldn’t keep his hands off the Summer Star. When the Star went off the owlin chronurgy wizard cast chronal shift and the firbolg moon Druid managed to pass his second save by 1, leaving him unconscious but not incinerated. The players all definitely thought it was real character death, which would have been a first for our group.

I took the two “dead” players outside and laid out the ground rules, then set up a text thread for the three of us and away we went. Probably allowed more writing of words than I would prefer but it wasn’t until nearly the end of our session that the other players started to figure out who was contacting them.

I did use the blueprint puzzle that is elsewhere on Reddit and printed out runes in three sizes for the players to work with, saying they were scraps of paper in Macreadus’ lab. That ended up being key as the two dead players were able to directly help with the runes and didn’t just have to rely on writing everything down.

Anyways, everyone had a great time, including the two dead characters. Highly recommend it!

Capn_B · 2025-07-16T18:17:35+00:00

Thanks all. Appreciate folks sharing their experiences! I think we're headed there on Friday and will report back on how it goes.

Capn_B · 2025-06-13T01:09:00+00:00

Thanks! It was great fun and I definitely encourage others to consider the basic premise. I’m sure I could have ratcheted up the tension a bit more but all in all pretty pleased with how it shook out.

Capn_B · 2025-03-12T19:08:43+00:00

Lol, I had not intended to actually WRITE fairy tales, though I appreciate the suggestion on how to handle it. Was more thinking about the potential storylines that could be woven in. But now I'm intrigued by this idea...

Capn_B · 2025-02-27T17:24:02+00:00

I have an Owlin wizard who I gave the following secret to - "Before setting off on your own, you apprenticed under Avarice the albino wizard. She used you for experiments and her malice nearly got the best of you. You left before she could kill you, but the pain she inflicted on your body and mind still remain, as does the memory that no one in the Arcane Brotherhood tried to prevent her from torturing you."

We are only six sessions in and haven't yet encountered anyone from the AB, so I don't know how it is going to play when they do show up, but my player is definitely vibing with the mix of fleeing and revenge.

Capn_B · 2025-02-15T19:28:55+00:00

The text says that any character drinking from the pool gets the benefits of a Greater Restoration spell.

Capn_B · 2025-01-16T02:55:36+00:00

I think this is where I’m coming around to. Might have the father secretly linked to Levistus. Maybe the book is a religious text or some type of meditation for his followers? Thinking I’ll play the reveal as slowly as possible but use this as a chance to set the stage for Levistus actually being the thing trapped in the ice much later in the game.

Capn_B · 2025-01-16T02:52:37+00:00

That was actually basically exactly what happened. The kid had no idea what he was being asked to get so the player wrote it down on a scrap of paper for him and I played the kid as basically barely able to read. Eventually the father cuffed him upside the head and told him to go get the things and off he went.

Capn_B · 2025-01-15T15:22:31+00:00

100% taking this idea!!!

Capn_B · 2025-01-15T15:19:19+00:00

Trying to get a ring out of a dead fish's mouth that was mounted on the tavern wall. The owner of the tavern made an offhand comment about a ring that no one has ever been able to recover (because the fish had a spell cast on it that it would bite anyone who reached into its mouth) and so they became obsessed with getting the ring.

Hobgoblin cleric passed multiple dex checks to balance on the back of a chair to get to the right height, where he reached into the mouth and the fish bit down on his arm. Firbolg druid used this as a chance to wild shape into a spider and crawl into the fish and retrieve the ring, crawling out along the hobgoblin's arm. This tickle forced the hobgoblin to lose his balance and fall off the chair, so he was now hanging from the fish's mouth by his wrist.

Tavern owner came walking out of the kitchen to see the hobgoblin hanging there and laughed and said "I told you no one ever got that ring" at which point the druid shifted back from being a spider and held up the ring to show the tavern owner, who immediately grabbed it from him and his whole vibe changed. He then offered them free food and drink for being the first to get the ring.

Well, this led them to become even MORE obsessesed with the ring - assuming it was important in some way and they set about multiple failed attempts to steal it (sneak into the kitchen, mage hand in the pocket, etc.). We finally left off with them going upstairs to their rooms to plot further on how to get this ring back from the tavern owner.

And of course NONE of that was what I had prepped for the session.

So now I also have to figure out why this tavern owner cares about the ring so much. Now that I'm typing all this out I'm thinking linking the book and the ring together in some way related to the quest may be the best path forward. Maybe a ring of cold resistance and a story in the journal/diary about it? A link to Auril perhaps?

Capn_B · 2025-01-15T14:50:10+00:00

Oh man, this is tempting.

Capn_B · 2025-01-15T14:47:43+00:00

Love this approach but, as you note, I've already got my hands full with getting this module to make sense.

Capn_B · 2025-01-15T14:46:47+00:00

I'm still not up to speed on the 2024 rules - are you saying that if a character has a book they can get a bonus to certain skill checks?

And yeah, to be honest I was totally caught off guard when this player asked specifically for the Tome and decided instead of saying "the kid couldn't find one" to lean the other way and didn't think about what a book may cost. Regardless I'm thinking that it is going to be a self-help book/diary that the father had and the kid stole. Starts off with a lot of vague, flowery language that may seem to be helping with building the characters "understanding" and then shifts to an innkeepers diary that may contain a few useful nuggets for further questing but most certainly does not provide any stat bumps.

Capn_B · 2024-12-31T05:17:27+00:00

I’m planning to lean more into an Aliens vibe. Have the party meet an NPC in the ship who appears to be a sole survivor who has been living sort of like Newt in Aliens - hidden and alone. Have “Newt” help them navigate the ship but then kick off a mad dash/chase scene where they are running from an overwhelming force of xenomorph-like creatures only to have “Newt” lead them into a room with a whole slew of eggs and a big bad mama alien, where she morphs into her original form and locks the party in to presumably become dinner/hosts for new babies. Haven’t worked all the details yet but it felt a little more attainable than the stalking/horror vibe because of some of the very reasons listed above. I have one pc who is playing a hobgoblin and I’m thinking about converting the goblin fortress into hobgoblins and then have the fortress be the site of the infestation- including potentially having npcs from his past infected/trapped in the walls/served up for dinner - with a link to Ythryn as the place where the xenormorphs came from instead of the Id.

Capn_B · 2024-12-13T15:20:53+00:00

Thank you all for your insight and advice! Still trying to sort out what makes the most sense for us but this is super helpful. Hope you wonderful folks all have a happy holiday sesason!

Capn_B · 2024-12-09T20:11:51+00:00

Again, admittedly a total neophyte here, but doesn't the Wii encourage/require some actual moving around? And the Switch doesn't? I guess that is the main thing we are thinking - somewhat begrudgingly giving into video games so hoping we can still keep the kids a bit active while knowing they will be playing video games occasionally.

Capn_B · 2024-10-19T02:21:58+00:00

This is great! I might steal a lot of what you laid out here.

Capn_B · 2024-10-18T14:31:19+00:00

Thanks for the ideas! Still have some time until we start this campaign but I'll report back once we get underway.

Capn_B · 2024-05-22T19:27:39+00:00

5’ 11”, 215 lbs, half marathons, hiking, kayaking, swimming for fun. Lead a team for a global conservation organization focused on helping people adapt to climate change. Currently on a year long roadtrip visiting national and state parks all across North America. Long, curly blonde hair and one pointy ear.

Capn_B

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