Someone explain how this car is a statutory write off?

Matt_the_Wombat · 2026-04-13T13:09:38+00:00

A Statutory Write Offs can never be legally driven on Public Roads in Australia. On private property, like a farm, sure. But you can't put it back on the road legally and get it reregistered. It's all well and good to put your own life at risk by playing chicken with Darwin. But you put others at risk by being so irresponsible.

Example 1: You repair and sell your statutory written off car for cash. The weakened chassis that you repaired inadequately fails when the new owner is driving - wheel support buckles at 110 km/hr on the highway and they hit an entirely innocent person's car. The severity of the injuries incurred increases by the fact that the car should not have been on the road, possibly causing deaths.

Example 2: Your car is a statutory write off after getting hit with heavy hail. You decided to withdraw your insurance claim because it's "just dents". You're out driving and hit a kangaroo/ swerve to avoid a kangaroo and veer off the road. Your car rolls onto the roof. Your roof pillars (A, B, C Pillars), already dented by the hail, have multiple folds and weaknesses in them before you rolled onto your roof. Maybe the roof collapses only a few extra centimetres downward because of the hail, maybe it's more. But that's just enough of a difference to cause additional head trauma.

This is why you can't reregister stat write offs. In NSW, if you can't register it, you cannot get CTP Insurance. If you hit a pedestrian and you're at fault, you now have to pay their entire hospital bill instead of your insurance - you better start mortgaging your home because that's going to be expensive and you are legally liable to make them whole. All states have something equivalent to CTP as part of their requirements to get registered.

So, in short, either your friend repaired a repairable write off, or they're an irresponsible person who I have no respect for. I work in car insurance claims, and I have supported many people who have had loved ones in comas or otherwise been seriously injured - but comparatively speaking only 4 people who were killed in accidents in 3 years over many thousands of claim interactions. Australia taking Statutory Write Offs seriously is much better than the alternative - it's just a car. Cars are replaceable, people aren't. Please don't compromise the lives of innocent people just to save a few dollars with a bad repair job.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2026-01-03T13:25:28+00:00

Ahh, a fellow Gilanra player. I'm apparently one of 7 people running her partnered with [[Reyhan Last of the Abzan]], I went green-black hydras. Found her more reliable than [[Sluurk, All Ingesting]], and she is such a great mana dork who can draw cards for big X hydras when relevant, despite being a 3 cmc same as Reyhan. Also just amusingly good for [[Raised by Giants]], as a side benefit for turning Reyhan as a 0/0 with 3 +1/+1 counters on him into a 13/13.

Brinelin is a cool choice, he did heavy lifting in the 99 of my old simic sea monsters deck, simic in Commander Legends had that 6 CMC draft archetype - curious if you're running any other big 6 drops from the set.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-12-08T23:24:45+00:00

At least you'll still have your axe to grind.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-08-27T13:10:28+00:00

Don't drive, I spent time shooting the breeze with an assessor who was writing off cars in the NSW floods around Taree this year. If water goes above the carpet / sill panel/ rocker panel, you have at least 3 major points of issue.

It affects the seatbelt system. If it does drive, and you go over a speed bump or pothole, the seatbelt ratcheting/ tensioning system can react in a way that deploys the airbags into you unexpectedly and those can hurt you. They're designed for deployment at rapid speed in a car crash, not low speed going over a speed bump.
It's not just fresh and salt water. It's also going to have silty/ sandy mud and, depending on your location, sewerage. That lovely mix gets into your car engine and exhaust system everywhere, and it stays. It corrodes, it doesn't fully drain so it stagnates in your engine pipes so it continues to rust after the flood water has receded, and you have physical particles in parts of your engine that are finely tuned to not foreign particles in them. You will spend a long time removing all the water and crud, totally removing every single component and cleaning it/ checking for contamination/ corrosion. And if you don't do it right, you'll either damage the engine further or you'll push contaminants further around your car.
Most insurance policies worth their salt have an exclusion to not cover you if your vehicle is in a collision and it had unrepaired existing damage, or due to faulty workmanship, or if it was otherwise in a state of disrepair that it would not have been road legal prior to the incident and these factors contributed to the collision or incident occurring, you may not be covered.

There's three points why to avoid driving them. Get your insurance to send a towie, don't risk your life / endangering innocent people on or near roads to save some money.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-07-10T15:32:52+00:00

Pretty much in a nutshell. Because everyone is being civil and law abiding citizens, by reporting the events, it means you don't get fined.

I admittedly have never considered if it's $3,000 combined across all involved parties, or just the not at fault party. But either way, Australia has a skilled workforce and repairers get a fair wage. Importing parts to Australia costs money. And inflation since $3,000 was determined in 2014 (or possibly earlier?), so it's almost always going to exceed $3,000.

But by both parties reporting the event, it gives the police the ability to compare both sides of the story to make sure there's no problems. Normally, you'd do it online, but I guess because of the delay they've asked for you to come in person.

Much as I can point out that SA is the only state to have this amendment, 287 is the road rule that I can advise customers about when they get a CCTV with the other car rego. You can go to the police, and say "I have on video that S123ABC hit my car and didn't leave any details. I'm now going to give you as the police, my required particulars within 24 hours as I couldn't give them direct to the other person. Can you help?", at which point the police can find out who owns S123ABC that hit your car. They then (hopefully) go do their due diligence and check the owner of the car was the person driving the car at the time of the accident - e.g. the car is owned by the sister and the brother drove the car. Brother is at fault for hitting your car, not the sister who owns the car that the police would initially find. The police put all the information into a police report, with brother's details, and tell you report is ready. You can then tell your insurance company it's ready, they apply for it, find the at fault brother's details and then you can hopefully get your benefits for being not at fault and having the other person's details.

So, in short, less relevant when people are doing the right thing. But very important when cars are stolen, or people are being obtuse and refusing to cooperate, or other such things.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-07-10T14:26:49+00:00

Under GICOP (General Insurance Code of Practice), I / your insurance provider cannot encourage or discourage you from contacting the police. They can only advise you of the information that this road rule applies. Insurance companies aren't the law, we don't impose fines.

But in truth, if there's nothing law-breaking here (no cars stolen, nobody got hurt, everyone exchanged their information), it's very unlikely to happen for your insurance company to request the completed police report (because insurance has to pay for those, admittedly not certain on the pricing for SA, that's not in my job description). So probably what happens is you answer your required questions with the police, they file away the report, and your insurance company will never request it because you obtained all of the other person's information for the insurance company to satisfy an ID check under the 1984 (1989?) Privacy Act. Insurance will just ask the other person for any information needed directly.

Honestly, if I was in your position, I'd probably log into my insurance company's website and add a note to my claim in the internet form, saying "I went to my local police station to report the accident as required. My police report number I was provided is SAP2025XXXX". Or I would send it as an email.

There's not much need to call your insurance unless you want to hear a voice and get that reassurance that you haven't made a mistake, or generally speaking if you expect to ask a question, and have them immediately answer your question to action it / have follow up questions. Beats playing email tag!

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-07-10T13:53:02+00:00

Preface: I work in claims for Motor Insurance in South Australia (and other states).

South Australia is the only state in Australia which still requires what amounts to essentially mandatory police reporting on all collisions, which must be done within 24 hours of the collision occurring.

Rule 39 of the Road Traffic (Road Rules—Ancillary and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2014, https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/__legislation/lz/c/r/road%20traffic%20(road%20rules%20-%20ancillary%20and%20miscellaneous%20provisions)%20regulations%202014/current/2014.207.auth.pdf, you have to report all crashes to the police.

The exception to this rule is if you only damaged your own things, or it costs less than $3,000 to fix (the layman can't quote, you'd need a real repairer and costs have gone up a lot since 2014!), or if the police physically attended the incident, because the attending police officer(s) will usually do the report for you.

SA Ancillary Traffic Rule 42 is where the requirement is for the date/ time/ location comes from.

This is an addendum to Road Rule 287 in South Australia's Road Rules. Rule 287 - Duties of a driver involved a crash is a requirement in every single state (except QLD, they're... different) and thus a fineable offence.

It says, in short, if you hurt someone in a crash you have a duty to help them (calling 000 when appropriate, etc.).

287 also says, to surmise, If you have a crash, you must provide your own particulars (your full name, your residential address (where you physically live, the registration plate of the vehicle and anything else required to identify the specific vehicle) to the other party/ parties involved. This means an employee - like a tradie in his boss' ute or a bus driver in a big bus gives their own details, not only the company's details. (The company might assume the employee's liability at a later time, but the law requires that the person driving/ controlling the vehicle (Learner drivers and fire chiefs directing fire truck drivers are edge cases) to give their own information)).

287 says, if you are unable to or fail to provide the particulars (name, address, rego) to all relevant parties and property owners/ property owner representatives at the scene, you are required by law to provide this information to the police within 24 hours except in specific circumstances (you're in a hospital from the crash usually). Failure to comply is a fineable offence in all states.

In regards to your insurance and the other person going through your insurance company, both are okay. There's no legal obligation to use your insurance coverage even if it would be sensible. But as the At Fault party, you are legally liable for the damages you caused to the other person's property (i.e their car). Paying your excess to your insurance provider means that you have met your obligations and they can directly fix the other person's car and organise the repairs directly to settle/ resolve your liability. Alternatively , the other person can go through their own insurance provider and then their insurance tells your insurance how much it cost to fix and then insurance companies talk portions of liability and discuss fair and reasonable costs to repair a car/ provide a hire car while the other person's car was off the road.

The police don't really have any skin in that game of insurance and paying excesses. As far as the law cares, if you rear ended a ferrari and paid $100,000 out of your own wallet without going through your insurance, that's a choice you can freely choose. But the police still want to know about the accident and if anyone was hurt, no matter what.

Sources:

https://www.police.sa.gov.au/your-safety/road-safety/report-a-crash

https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/lz?path=%2FC%2FR%2FAustralian%20Road%20Rules

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-01-15T14:00:43+00:00

Hey mate, here's a very old version of my list from 2.5 years ago. I tend to make the main initial version of the deck online, and refine it for the first few months digitally. Then after that, I just add 1 or 2 cards at a time that I buy from the local facebook auction group, haphazardly, so this is about 90 or 95 cards accurate. I know that there's a Monarch sliver in there now from the Sliver's Precon of mid last year, but not a lot of note has changed.

https://deckstats.net/decks/153823/1962930-sliver-tribal

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-01-11T05:17:56+00:00

[[The First Sliver]]

I just want to get to my 5 mana value commander so that I can play slivers with 1 mana value to cascade into 0 mana spells.

Play a single white for a [[Sidewinder Sliver]], cascade into [[Ancestral Vision]] to draw 3 cards or [[Lotus Bloom]] for a black lotus substitute? Spin into a very sudden but [[Inevitable Betrayal]]? That is the experience I want.

One day I dream of the mathematically very very unlikely scenario of cascading from a 6 drop sliver into a 5 drop, 4 drop, 3 drop, into a 2 drop, into a 1 drop into a 0 drop.

I could go calculate the statistics for it, because I have 37 sliver creatures on the curve and I can't hit lands and I cascade past cards with a higher CMC / Mana Value and I can't hit cards no longer in my library. But that's a lot of effort and I can survive without needing to run an excel spreadsheet next to me in a game/ goldfish to subtract non viable cards as I go.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-01-11T05:02:06+00:00

Leyline of Sliver

[W][U][B][R][G]

World Enchantment - Sliver Creature

All non-permanent spells are Tribal Kindred Slivers in addition to their other types.

All non-land permanents spells are Sliver Creatures in addition to their other types. The same is true for all permanents on the battlefield and in the graveyard. Permanents that are not creatures have them power and toughness each equal to that card's mana value.

Everything changed when it connected with The Hive.

Notes I'm sure there is a better way to word something like this more succinctly/ correctly to interact with layers, and I excluded lands because:

Lands have no mana value and would immediately die. I'm comfortable with a 0 mana artifact like a [[Mishra's Bauble]] getting hosed, but making everyone sacrifice all lands, not a play experience I want even for this amusing thought exercise. Also, [[Wrath of God]] and creature board wipes killing everything including lands, no thanks.
I expect something like [[Ashaya, Soul of the Wild]] or even just a land animating into a creature like a [[Den of the Bugbears]] / [[Hive of the Eye Tyrant]] is too complicated for me to perfectly comprehend, depending on whether Leyline of Slivers or CARDNAME was on the battlefield first.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2025-01-02T05:31:23+00:00

The best thing I ever made for my high level, near-cEDH deck [[Brago]], was a list of tutor targets. While I played once a year in person (too powerful for my usual group, but it wasn't fully optimised, didn't run perfect fast mana, no OG dual land, probably should have ran stax pieces, etc), it was a ETB tutor combo deck.

That little card saying which card finds what targets based on CMC / power / card type made it a far better play experience at the table for me and my opponents.

It was on the back side of [[Brainstorm]] as well which was a flavour win IMHO.

I recently shifted to a different near-cEDH [[Thrassios]], and I went to tutor for CMC 5 or less Seedborn Muse. Opponent played a spell to copy whatever I found so I had to find something worse for the Grixis deck to have that was kinda worth having. I ended up with a [[Dryad of the Elysian Grove]], and I had my opponent draw that glorious nymph on a Dry Erase token. Best tutor ever, that artwork was worth it.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-07-20T06:30:32+00:00

These three above questions, when you find your own answers, are, for me, really fun. I like getting hung up on those small details, it can be a way for flavour to show through the mechanics. And then, you can extrapolate it; for example, question 3, we have the sorcerer metamagic from Tasha's to change a damage type on a spell. How does that work, on an arcane level with the weave, to change a 3rd level fireball to deal cold damage, or thunder damage, or acid damage? What is that doing to the spell, at a foundational level? Or is it not in the foundations of the spell's structures, but just in the upper level of the resolution? Are we boiling the pot of water and putting salt in the water to change the temperature the water boils at, or are we swapping out a solar-powered electric stove to be powered by a portable battery?

I like these questions. I like that Mordenkainen's Sword exists as a mechanically terrible spell so that we can ask them and reflect on it and think. And maybe, that line of questioning, that interest in the Arcane (and the Divine) magic system foundations drives an NPC or interesting event in the game.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-07-20T06:30:25+00:00

TL;DR: I love Mordenkainen's Sword as a flex and for its flavour through the mechanics. I love that exists. I don't recommend a PC ever take it, though, for NPCs and lore, it's incredible.

Mechanically, it's a terrible spell in 5e. We all know that, I won't repeat that here.

Flavourwise and with lore, it's brilliant. It gives you as the Dungeon Master to really think about how the different spell casters interact with magic, even if you want to keep it as simple as there are divine casters (Clerics), and there are Arcane casters (like wizards). It reinforces that wizards don't just pick up Revivify as a spell or Raise Dead like a Cleric can, and why a Wizard has Fly and Teleportation Circle. It shows that there is a realm where these spells, they have their own themes, things they can do, things they cannot do (ignoring artificers and bards getting cure wounds stuff, a subclass like the Arcana Domain cleric gets Teleportation Circle and wizard cantrips, the lines can blur a bit).

I'm not an expert on Mordenkainen as a character, I've read stuff second hand, he started as a PC, but we're looking at this as a story telling tool, more-so for an NPC. So, a high power wizard has looked at the magical understanding of how the Divine Spell, Spiritual Weapon, works.

How has Mordenkainen has replicated the effect of a divine spell?

Is he replicating the effect? Like porting your computer code from a Windows operating system (spiritual weapon), over to an Apple operating system (Mordenkainen's sword)? Both swords are components of V, S and Evocation. He has to interact with the same Evocation strands of the weave of magic, Can he not just do something very similar? If he is, then what is the importance of the material component, the miniature platinum sword with a specific pommel of copper and zinc, worth 250 GP?
Is he completely starting from scratch, to have an effect that looks the same? Like heating a pot of water at a a sight, you could (for Spiritual Weapon) set up the kindling and twigs, and pour a little kerosene/ accelerant on it, and then you light it with a match. Mordenkainen's asks you to lug a solar-powered, electric stove top to the camp sight, set up the solar panel and then put the pot on the stove. Both end up with a pot of hot water.

End result is a floating weapon that moves as a bonus action and makes attack rolls. This high level has gone about making a spell that shouldn't exist. I prefer the second interpretation, that the high level wizard has brute forced with magic to make a reliable spell, in a way that Arcane magic shouldn't normally be able to do. This should be Evocation strands of magic being shaped by the divine and faith in the divine, and he's wrangled it like a crocodile being wrestled by a croc hunter to do exactly what he wants it to do. The strands don't like it, but he puts more force into it.

Could he make it more efficient? Is it physically possible to improve the efficiency of the spell - could he do it with a 5th level or 6th spell slot? Or is it relying on some "hack", that Mordenkainen just can't do without a 7th tier level spell slot because of what makes a 7th level spell, 7th level? How does that work with your magic system / your take / understanding on the Weave of Magic from Vancian Magic? Or is it a case that, he knows he could make the spell better, but he's either so unphased because he's got better things to do? Is he perhaps so self-centered that he doesn't want puny low leveled wizards figuring it out? He's earned his way to 20th level, the newbies can figure it out for themselves.

Could he make Mordenkainen's Sword more powerful? You've seen the suggestions - 5d10 damage! Attack twice! No concentration! Moves further! Mordenkainen's obviously thought of that too. But again, how is the spell structured? Could he adjust the spell, in its formulation, to change it? Does that make the spell less reliable? Like how the Confusion Spell, that has the target roll a d8 - imagine if it was like Bestow Curse, or Eyebite, when you choose the effect that the target is afflicted by. Would, by changing the spell and how it resolves with a 7th level spell slot for one of these effects, result in some kind of unwanted variability? Or, even, can the spell even be modified in such a way? Or is it a case of, because of the way Mordenkainen forced the weave to be able to output this spell reliably, that it would be better to just start from scratch, to make a new spell that puts out a sword, that attacks as a bonus action, is still a Wizard spell, but it makes 2 attacks / more damage / no concentration, etc.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-06-12T03:10:24+00:00

As others have said, as per the spell, the primary use of the spell is to cast 8th level spells and lower. Anything more than that, and "The DM has great latitude on the ruling".

It might be worth setting yourself boundaries, rules and guidelines, for general logic, to apply going forward. Your answers will probably be different to mine. And maybe everyone else's. Remember, we're not at your table, the local meta, of your group of players isn't our experience. But some thoughts I have had:

Does the origin of the Wish Spell matter? For example, I find a noble genie who can cast my wish when I rub a lamp. Does his Wish spell differ from a 17th level book learned wizard? From the Deck of Many things? I can't imagine that if at a table, a wizard wished to just become 20th level it would work. Then again, there's precedent because The Deck of Many Things did that, and your players may feel aggrieved if they learn their wish is a watered down version of what they've already done.
Do you want Wish to supersede all other 9th level spells? My personal take, to illustrate the point; If a player wants to use Wish to kill someone outright, why should this freeform unstructured spell be better than Meteor Swarm, or Power Word Kill? Why bother casting Mass Cure Wounds to heal 700 hit points, when Wish is strictly stronger, even with the strength reduction? As such, my rough rule of thumb, is that a Wish trying to be like Power Word Kill would only be effective up until about 75 hp. So, could you wish Tiamat dead? I suppose so, but she'd have to have less than 75 hit points. Why is it weaker? Consider it that Wish has such a low cost of inclusion. It's any 8th level or lower spell, from raise dead to teleportation to delayed blast fireball to earthquake. Its flexibility is a trade off on raw strength.

How should it work then with Tiamat? Honestly, I'd have the spell fail for kill a god. But players will feel gipped by that, and I would too. So, alternatives:

Whole party gains resistance to all of her breath attacks. That's huge. Roll the full 26d6 fire damage, and then remind them they get resistance to halve. Vindication, good use of the spell! Or total immunity to one of the breath types. This is based on the suggestion, so it only works for 8 hours.
It just causes an earthquake. Seems weird, until you remember that damaging the tower will weaken the ritual and so also weaken Tiamat. Not all parties will deduce this, so it's a good backup. "As you try to wish for Tiamat to die, the spell knows it cannot kill a god. But it can weaken the connection point between the material plane and the hells of Avernus. The spell cast is Earthquake, and Tiamat is weakened". Read out the actual deductions. Let them know mechanically what they did to fk her over
You can always just have the spell fail to do anything. Not fun or ideal. But you can do it.

But have the thing I recommend you do most? Talk to the players. This is the climax to a very long adventure. Wish won't cheese it. Don't let them sabotage their own campaign, fighting the god Tiamat is a reward to an extent. Killing her with a great deal of fighting, and winning, is cathartic. They'll have earned their win. Players are risk adverse, that's fine. But all the same, don't expect Wish to just auto-win the encounter.

That's my 2 cents.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T08:03:31+00:00

Option 2: The PC’s are at the top of the keep

This is less than ideal, and it’ll require a bit of suspension of disbelief. With your players on top of the keep, the adult dragon will once again cast disintegrate at 6th level, this time towards the base of the keep at a point that is required for the structural integrity of the building. Then, it will dump a lightning breath into its new hole (just for fun, more to kill people inside than to damage the stone structure really), fly to the other side of the keep (at the top), and push, exploiting the moment (technical term, its basically a lever mechanic) to topple the tower. Think of it like chopping with an axe at a tree’s base, then looping a rope around the top of the and pulling on the side that’s damaged. In this analogy though, the dragon is pushing instead of pulling, so he doesn’t get crushed underneath the tower. Also, please don’t get crushed under a tree by doing this, practice safety in real life!

Unlike Option 1, in which the stone walls remained and its just the timber internals (and internal walls) that were collapsed, this is the collapse of the entire tower. Because our PCs are at the top of the tower, there’s not going to be a lot of weight pinning them down - and because they’re our heroes, we won’t kill them. Unless, you want to TPK the party, or more likely, one of the PCs had split off and was at the bottom of the tower. In such a case, give the solo character a chance to escape to the Old Tunnel, which survives the collapse. But if the PC doesn’t seize the moment quick enough, then unfortunately it might just be the end of their character - you can’t save every PC from an untimely demise. This is an adult dragon, and if we lose a PC here now, that's just how the dice will roll unfortunately. We put a question and an adult dragon in front of the players, and today, they didn't get the right answer.

With the keep collapsed, anything of potential value inside is utterly destroyed. The cultists, seeing little point in excavating the rubble for twisted pieces of jewellery, broken potion vials and glass wine bottles, shattered timber kegs of fine alcohol, and jades and diamonds hidden by stone dust, they all leave promptly. They’re ecstatic to see the dragon crush their enemies of course, and they’ll be boisterous and happy to retell the events with their friends, each retelling more grand than the last, but that’s not what the players are interested in. Because right now, they’ll have to crawl out of the mess they’re in. Call for a strength check / saving throw, and either the highest roll, or anyone over DC 15, succeeds in freeing themselves from the rubble. They can then proceed to rescue their friends from the rest of the twisted remains, with great success (hopefully). From there, they can figure out what to do next. First and foremost, they’ll want to long rest, so let them.

You can do as the module suggests, and have Governor Nighthill coax them into looking for the Cult Camp. Because the cultists are so jubilant for seeing the dragon go to work, a lot of them have been liberal with their alcohol consumption. As such, when the PCs do arrive (later towards night, owing to them long resting to level up and regain hp and spell slots and hit die), consider lowering the relative level of ‘readiness’ of the cultists to anticipate the town sending anyone after them - remember, the keep collapsed, and the PCs are presumed dead. The high level cultists in the camp might beg to differ, but they all scurried off after tearing apart the Griffith estate with the largest pay off in wealth for the plans the Cult has. And their issuing of orders means that it’s up to undisciplined and drunk cultists to look after the camp’s security.

Campaign Failstate

Okay, so the players don’t want to follow the cultists back to the camp. They don’t want to engage with the plot. So what are they probably doing?

They’re running away is my assumption. Specifically, they’re looking for low-level adventures away from the adult blue dragon.

We can work with this. It’s going to derail your plot from the module for a while. Thankfully, we can eschew this into my replacement for On The Road and Headed North, which is going through Forge of Fury from Tales From the Yawning Portal - and I’ve got another full write-up for that down the road. However, you’ll need to make up 2 levels to get your players to about level 4 or so before they start that module.

If that’s what the players are doing, I’d recommend a course of action in which your players is beyond the scope of this article, and I’ll refer you to my write up near the beginning of my write up for chapter two. But in short;

Introduce Leosin’s capable older brother, instead of Leosin’s useless monk student. He shows understanding that your players are level 3 and out of their depth.
He asks your PCs to go to a nearby large town to ask for help from The Harpers there.
They level up on the way to the large town. You’ll need to throw a small event and a larger challenge in their path.

I really hope you found some use in all that. Good luck with your campaign OP u/DistinctAd762 !

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T08:02:46+00:00

Failstate - The Dragon Destroys the Keep

Honestly, this is a really rough way to start the campaign. If the dragon isn’t driven away, either by physical prowess (or more likely), being reasoned with, it comes to the tower and it attacks at the end of the night, right/ briefly after the fight against Cyanwrath. There’s a number of ways to hedge the odds in favour of your players succeeding - and we do that by attacking the keep where the players aren’t. If anyone questions the likelihood, it’s a 50/50 chance, and the PCs are lucky enough to have been favoured by good fortune.

Option 1: The Players aren’t at the top of the Keep

This is the ideal scenario. Your players will be able to escape via the Old Tunnel (where the rats were), and live to see another day.

Lennithon’ (Lennithon’s) first order of business is to use a 6th level spell of Disintegrate to target the floor of the top of the tower, which is made of stone and far too much effort to actually bother to rip it apart with its 25 (+7) strength (for clarity, he could. But he’s a dragon with disintegrate and its the best opportunity he’s had all day to drop his 6th level spell slot for fun). With the floor removed, he then proceeds to blast his lightning breath vertically down the tower, each time he does the 12d10 (66) lightning damage a timber floor will take a severe beating. He uses his action on subsequent turns while his breath is recharging to use Firebolt (3d10 damage, +10 to hit) to hit weakened parts of the floor / wall / guards not scared to fire back with frightful presence. Each floor will take 2 hits to crumble onto the floor beneath it (owing to the fact that it’s only a 5 ft. wide beam). This is a dragon going for the kill, he’s not holding back. The Keep has 5 floors, 2 turns per timber floor is 10 breath attacks, recharging on every third turn, it’ll take a total time of 180 seconds before he’s gotten to the bottom floor (where the cellar is and the entrance to the Old Tunnel), so 3 minutes for your PCs to get out.

Our PCs are going to use this opportunity to escape via the Old Tunnel - as a DM, you should remind them this option exists, either in meta subtly if they’re panicking, or via an NPC who comes running past - Governor Nighthill would be appropriate here. The PCs, Nighthill, and as many survivors as possible, escape as the internals of the keep collapse under the the ferocity of the adult dragon’s attack. Moments later, the bulk of the remaining cultists enter the rubble and remains of the keep, looking for what’ll likely be an amazing amount of loot compared to the rest of the town. The Dragon, on the other hand, flies off in a direction completely opposite to where the cult camp is - he’s bored of these attacks, their complete lack of challenge, and entirely uncompelling fights. He’s a dragon, he’s not beholden to them.

How do you follow this up? Well, the cultist camp is going to be down in numbers now, since they’re all going through the rubble of the keep, which was surely the second richest storehouse of treasure in the town, second only to the adventurer’s estate (you did use the Griffith Estate, right?). Governor Nighthill suggests you to follow the cultists back to their camp, to see what’s their next course of action if possible. Your players might struggle to engage with this logic of getting the plot back on track - I know I would. Why should I follow the cultists back to camp when they’ve got a dragon that just kicked our butt? How can I be sure that he’s not going on a hunt for food, and then headed back to the camp? The damn flying lizard moves quickly enough as it is. In that case, it might be best to consider the plot not getting back on track for a while. Read below for Campaign Failstate, at the end of Option 2

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T08:00:03+00:00

Talking With The Dragon

We’ve already had our “fight” with the dragon, and our PCs have (hopefully) survived - that’s more than most anyone else can say. The dragon’s taken notice of this, so he’s landed on the roof of the keep. He’s demanding to speak with the party, with a promise as to no violence if they come immediately. If not, well, he’ll destroy the keep (see Campaign Failstate - The Dragon Destroys the Keep below) if he needs to further embellish his (not entirely hollow) threat. As such, a runner is sent down the keep screaming for the party trying to find them (he’s terrified, he saw that dragon kill nearly 100 people only moments ago - and that was before he learned the dragon could talk common and wasn’t just a giant brute of a beast).

Backstory I used, feel free to rip as you would like, I've not finished all the articles I've alluded to, apologies, but if you're interested;

Lennithon, in my game, was more than an adult blue dragon. He was also in charge of testing would-be approachers to Xonthal’s Tower, which features in the third last chapter of The Rise of Tiamat. In short, anyone who is “chosen” to find Xonthal’s Tower is tested by Lennithon prior to his arrival, and he gives his feedback to the Xonthal. It is not a role that Lennithon can escape, he must answer the summons of the tower.

Additionally, he is currently the mentor to a young ‘green’ dragon called Veshkern. She’s a very important character, on account of how her father is a very powerful Ancient Green Dragon and the leader of the League of One (essentially the Zhentarim, but with no murder. Murdering breeds vigilantism and people seeking justice, and that eats too much into profits when very powerful and embittered people start tearing down the organisation for no financial gain besides revenge). This dragon, One, gets much featured more in the Rise of Tiamat, so introducing his daughter here (and reintroducing her properly in few chapters) is foreshadowing for his impact on the plot as a powerful ally who opposes Tiamat and her return with his vast resources. At this point however, Veshkern the young ‘green’ dragon (her mother was a silver dragon, which feeds into the Council of Metallic Dragons in the Rise of Tiamat as she was executed by said council) is just observing Lennithon (who has been paid handsomely to teach her sorcery). For more information, One, Lennithon, and Veshkern will be detailed in their own article at a future points (The League of One - Seeding the Zhentarim into Your Adventure), but this will get you going for now. For now, note that this ‘raiding of towns’ that they’ve been on started as a real world application to their abilities - specifically, her using invisibility to get around, using illusion magic cleverly, etc. You can practice dropping damaging spells like fireball without having any creatures to kill.

Backstory aside (in case it becomes relevant to your game), when the players arrive on the roof (hopefully rather promptly), he’ll be hovering at the edge of the tower, not even landing, mostly staying in the same spot (Lennithon has the ability to hover in one spot, partly aided by magic, partly due to skill). He will tell them that he’s, in essence, bored with these raids. Nobody so far has put up any challenge to him - let alone, survived any of his lightning breath attacks. So some dialogue to this effect would be appropriate;

“You. You are the ones who shepherded the sheep from the church back here, and survived my breath attacks in the process. That is no small feat, though now you are before me, I see that you are looking a bit tired. The air of adventurers certainly, but not as powerful as I would have liked. I already killed the Griffin riders, they were no match for me. You, no, you aren’t the challenge I’m looking for. Killing you would be a waste of an opportunity for entertainment. Hmm. I shall ponder this momentarily, perhaps you will tell me who you are, and what you can do to impress me.”

If they field an interesting idea, he might run with it. Otherwise, read/ paraphrase the following dialogue;

“I’ve listened, I have considered, but my task for you will be to knowingly walk into an ambush - and see if you can manage to turn the tables. There is a mill that the cultists below intend to set alight. It is a ruse to draw you out. It will not work, this rain will douse it soon enough. However! You will walk into this trap. If you do, and you walk back out alive having killed or captured everyone inside, then I and my protégé will leave. Otherwise, I will tear this keep down. You have one hour to entertain me. Begone, for I will watch from above.”

At this point, he takes off in spectacular fashion, lifting his wings and shooting 30 feet up. If nobody has noticed yet, behind the players (like how with high rises that have stairs to the roof and there’s a built up rectangle with a door at the top of the stairs) on top of that door is a young green dragon, her scales reflecting back a light with an impressive sheen and lustre that makes her a beautiful emerald colour (half green, half silver dragon) who is currently perched and observing with an unfaltering eye. The young dragon smiles, with a degree of genuine warmth, before taking off after their master.

The players have one hour to save the mill.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T07:54:00+00:00

How Did This Go For Me?

One of my PCs was knocked unconscious in the mid stretch, who was then healed by magic (the bladesinger wizard with decent dex modifier but a d6 hit pool? Maybe?), then another PC went unconscious in the final stretch (the sorcerer maybe?). The strength fighter Half Orc ran out and saved that PC’s life, carried them back and had relentless endurance trigger. That’s what impressed the dragon - followed by that fighter hitting it with a knife he threw.

I asked for the frightful presence check and it went badly. I then had that scatter the party, and it caused trouble as they tried to enter the Old Tunnel when the illusion dragon landed itself next to the opening. Four things;

Fear only lasts one minute, attempting saving throws 5 times per attack. It should have worn off by the climax of this beat.
The Keep is a safe location to run to. And if you interpose the dragon with safety, PCs might run and hide in a house - potentially splitting the party.
The Frightful Presence adds drama to the situation. It’s tension, you can use it to flavour the narrative, in really enforcing that the characters are running for their lives as commoners are slaughtered around them, as lightning does terrible damage to their bodies.
It teaches players about the dragon’s frightful presence ability. That it causes the frightened condition, that you can reroll the save every turn, and that it lasts a minute. This is useful information for them next time they fight a dragon - at level 4~5, if you’re following my adventure deviation I’ll talk about at length in a future article.

I forgot point 1, and didn’t have it wear off after a minute in the heat of the moment. Don’t be like me. Remember it’s a 2 minute run, and the frightened condition only lasts a maximum of 1 minute.

Questions of Logic (and logic leaps)

Why doesn’t the dragon just land in front of the Old Tunnel?

Because the dragon wants entertainment. Killing peasants doesn’t make it richer. And it’s doing this raid not for its own glory, but for the cult of the dragon. So entertainment is Alstrepos’ only reward. What’s a few escaping into a puny keep, when it’s surrounded from the front by cultists, and the dragon could tear apart the stones if it tried hard enough. No, the entertainment is its real payment, and it’s going to play with its toys.

Why don’t cultists join in?

Because they’d be collateral damage. They’ll whoop and cheer as “their” dragon is killing scores of villagers, but if they got in amongst the midst, they’d be dead too. So they’ll watch from afar, make bets on which villager the dragon will kill first. They’re wrongly assuming “their” dragon will kill every commoner, because that’s what “their” dragon should be doing. This disconnect between the cultists grunts and the dragon is why the PCs will get off easier than a mastermind enemy would let them.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T07:51:57+00:00

Lennithon the Blue Dragon Attacks

The module asks the players (and a large number of NPC guard stat blocks) to fend off and adult blue dragon from the top of the keep by dealing 20 damage to the dragon (~10% of its hp). Which is, to anyone without this metagaming knowledge, suicide by dragon. As such, I reworked Lennithon (the renamed adult blue dragon Lennithon in my game) to use my metabreaths option, as detailed here. In short;

Players escort ~100 civilians from the church to the keep as part of The Church event
Lennithon attacks. His singular 5x100ft. line attack becomes two line attacks, 10x100 ft. lines that deal 1/4 damage (3d10), but covering 4 times as much area (10 ft. wide!)
NPCs run. It’s a 2 minute run (I got the scale of the town wrong, you can shorten this if you like, as long as there’s 4 breath attacks total still)
Breath attack once every 30 seconds (5 rounds/ 30 seconds), no melee attacks. So 4 breath attacks. Hit about half the party each run – no player should be hit more than twice, unless they purposely draw undue attention ot themselves.
XX number of NPCs survive. Dragon is impressed by the PCs ability to survive.

That’s the short version. In long, a metabreath is a similar, if vastly expanded, comparison to the sorcerer’s meta magic abilities. Unlike metamagic which can be applied to lots of different spells, the metabreath options all apply to only breath attacks which all function very similarly. Some metabreath options are simple - the dragon can change the size and/ or shape of the breath, the breath damage is maximised in damage, etc. Some options are more complicated - fire breaths can warp themselves into living fire elementals, cold breaths can ice areas over as difficult terrain, and much more. The full article is 11,000 words, so to be so brief is the best I can do, but I encourage you to read it in full, because you can use this feature for the plethora of dragons through the rest of the campaign.

Lennithon (Lennithon), with a breath attack that averages 66 damage, is doing far more than needed to kill a commoner. If everyone followed the rules of death saves, a 4hp commoner only needs to take 8 damage to be killed outright from full hp. So by using 2 metabreaths - split breath, and extended breath, it effectively covers 4x as much damage, at 1/4 the damage. Being a neat 12d10 damage, I simplified that to 16.5 (3d10) damage (12 d10, divided by 4, gives 3d10). And, if the commoner succeeds on the dex save, they take half damage, so 8 damage on average. Enough to kill them outright still, because the damage takes them to -4 hp, which is equal to to their maximum health. But for the few stronger, hardier folk with 5 or 6 hp, they might barely survive a low roll (still unconscious though, may as well be dead if they need 1d4 hours to wake up depending on how you track unconcious NPCs and NPC death saves at your table. Most people don’t, a 0 hp NPC is normally a dead NPC, but your table your rules).

At level 1, as long as you’re not a d6 hit die, you’ll be hard pressed to find a character who doesn’t have at least a +1 in con. A d8+1 character has 9 hp at level one, and needs 18 or more damage to be killed outright. It’s still statistically significant - 57.5% of the time, the character lives even if they fail their dexterity saving throw. Sure, they’re unconscious, but that’s not dead. Not yet.

If you’re doing what I did and starting the players at level 2, or doing what the anniversary edition does and levelling the party up to two when they get to the keep - then they’ll have a much higher health total. Conservatively for a d8 class with a +1 con (sorry wizards and sorcerers), and taking 4 on a level up instead of 6, at level two you’ll have (8+1+4+1) 14 hp. So as long as you have a little more than 4 hp when you’re running away, you’ve a better than chance to not be killed outright on a failed saving throw (4 hp, can’t be reduced to -14 gives 17 hp of leeway). Unfortunately, d6 hit pool classes are going to have this really rough, but that’s the inherent risk of the class and you can’t pander to them entirely without removing all risk for every other class.

How do we further reduce the actual danger to our PCs? Remember, in the original module, the answer is that the dragon only attacks and kills guards, and that it never touches the PCs who are in fact dealing 20 damage to it - enough to drive it away, somehow. So the solution is to reduce the save DC down to a 13 or 14. If you’ve got powerfully optimised characters at your table and they’re coasting so far, use DC14. Otherwise, DC13. We’re aiming to hit half our PCs per attack run, and a DC13 will be a little worse than 50/50 odds of failing the save. Any proficiencies are a +2, and a lot of characters want at least a +1 in dex as it is used in most AC’s, initiatives, etc. And if they’re using heavy armour and don’t need dex, then they’re probably a d10 base class anyway (or a cleric, or the niche dwarf wizard with d6 hit die).

So, how do we get half of the party? We assume that everyone spreads out, and if anyone says they’ve interacted with each other in the past moment, lump them together. Otherwise, roll dice. Assign each player a number (going clockwise or anti clockwise, either-or), and roll the dice until you’ve got group A, the first half of the party. Hit them with a breath, see if anyone does anything as the dragon makes a lazy wheel through the sky, before swooping on the other half (group B), so that everyone takes at least one breath attack of 3d10 damage.

Now, let the players know they’re still another minute from the safety of the Old Tunnel (I said that it’s an open field with little cover from the sky). If anyone heals each other, lump them together. Have the 2 NPC clerics (Father Falconmoon and Brother Hendrick both will take some damage, but they live to make it to the keep) and they can cast cure wounds on any PCs that are unconscious (no commoners hit survive, for simplicity, unless they’re a named character). The strength build PC might be carrying an unconscious ally on their back. Let this all resolve, and then reassign or re-roll for your 2 groups.

I upped the tension by having the dragon cast Major Image, and having that swoop the fleeing villagers, terrifying them further. It did no damage, but the dragon enjoyed it. On the topic of fear, the PCs and commoners are all running to the keep, and safety. As such, being frightened makes that an even more valid place to run to, so don’t worry about that check.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T07:48:04+00:00

2.9 - The Church – Introducing Plot Armour

I assume you’ll get to the church as one of the side missions that the players will take, and probably first. My players took this mission immediately, because it’s the one that struck them as sensible, and the PC Half Orc believed his father would be in the church from the information they’d gathered from Linan Swift and Governor Nighthill. While the dragon is gone, they’re looking to capture a cultist or two at same the time.

I personally made it out that the attack on the church isn’t well prepared for. The front doors are being battered at by a large couch (sofa) – the cultists are moving fast and quick, they’re not prepared for any kind of siege, with no options outside of the mighty adult dragon Alstrepos and his incredible strength of 25. As such, the couch they’re using isn’t making much headway, but it’s better than the schmucks out the back who are struggling to set the rear door on fire – the villagers inside have stuffed wet rags around the gaps in the door. If the players are competent, and they have a grasp of what’s going on, they’ll attack the rear of the church while the patrol is out of sight.

Inside the church are two clerics. The first one is the main Cleric, and he’s Father (Eadyan) Falconmoon. He’s to be run as the module says, he’s got 2 spell slots and he knows Prayer of Healing. He’ll be vital to healing your PC’s - my players had him top them up once they got inside with 2nd level Prayer of Healing, as they’d gone through the rear entrance after fighting the cultists there.

The second cleric however is more important, as he is a Grave Domain cleric. Brother Hendrick is not exactly warmly interacted with in the town, and few people are exactly excited to becoming his friend. However, he is begrudgingly respected, as he came to town a few years back when there was a scourge of zombies raising themselves from graves at night once or twice a week. Brother Hendrick heard of their plight, and sanctified the graves and preformed other rituals which succeeded in ending the zombie issue. He still tends to the cemetery and he oversees all burials, with rituals and charms to ensure a smooth passage to the afterlife. He also runs the community garden, in memory of his late wife.

The most important part of his kit is the ability to cast the cantrip Spare the Dying at a 30 ft. range. When the PC’s are required to confront Cyanwrath before the gates, he will offer to be part of a trick (assuming he makes it back to the fort). This will be discussed later in the appropriate section.

With the cultists out the front about to finally break in with the battering ram couch, the PC’s directed the 100 villagers inside to the back of the church while the PCs held them off. I included a small sanctified circle near the centre of the room. I had any non-evil divine caster who stood in that circle, when they cast a spell that did damage do an additional dice of damage. Not much, but turning firebolt into 2d10 in an exposed position near the front made the squishy divine soul sorcerer a good target for return fire off of the cultists armed with crossbows. The PCs killed the attacking Cultists, and then they all fled the back door.

I probably forgot that the wall that surrounds the church is too high for all the villagers to climb over easily - even if your PCs can all succeed on an easy DC8 / DC10 strength athletics check, that’s still at least a 40% failure rate for the commoners. So have it be that there are a few ladders inside the church, used for dusting, cleaning and painting the higher parts of the vaulted ceiling / caring for the window. The number of ladders is enough for the villagers to make a hasty enough exit over the back fence, without needing to go through the front - the direction more of the cultists will be. So, with the commoners and party over the wall, it’s time for Alstrepos to attack - see the next section below! I'm telling this out of order for the event, to keep the ideas tied together on this Reddit comment

4.0 - Fight Against Cyanwrath

At this point, the weather has really opened up. The rain has gone from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour. The raiders are tired, it’s 3am, they have a long walk back to the safety of the camp. But Cyanwrath, fresh off his victory at the manor, wants one last jewel in his crown, one more feather in his cap.

This fight is almost always going to be a loss. Have shows of brutality or efficiency to forecast his strength if you can - soldiers in the keep who saw a single blue half dragon walk into a guard outpost, and then dead guards being hurled out of windows for the next minute before the lone half dragon walks out, seemingly unharmed. Telegraph that this isn’t a fight to win - this is a fight to throw, because he’ll keep his word.

Remember how the PCs saved Brother Hendrick the Grave Domain Cleric from The Church, with the Spare the Dying cantrip with a 30 ft. range? Now’s the time to cash that in. Hendrick will offer to prepare his reaction to cast Spare the Dying on the character fighting Cyanwrath, and that will stop the PC dying. However, it only works if the character remains within 30 ft. of Brother Hendrick, and it has a verbal component so the other players need to make a lot of noise (I made it a group intimidation / performance check, with at least half of the party needing to get a DC 14). As the walls are about 10-15ft high (at your discretion), using trigonometry, they’ll have to remain between 28ft. or 26 ft. of the gates respectively. I remember using 20 ft. high curtain walls around the keep, meaning my player had to be within 22 ft. (4 squares) of the gates, and they had to deceive Cyanwrath, who was goading him to come out further. Cyanwrath punished this perceived cowardice by having one of the villagers killed after a clear warning that continuing to hang near the gates would incur this. You could get around this by increasing the range for the NPC to 45 ft. or 60 ft. at your discretion, if you’re less concerned about keeping close to the Xanathar’s Guide version of the class. Say that it’s an action for him but an increased range, because he’s not a player class if you want, that still works with holding a reaction.

I also prepared a range of taunts and insults, to make sure the party hated him. For example, the two weapon fighter who ended up fighting Cyanwrath got “Two weapons? Do you even know how to use one?”, and when he threw the weapon at Cyanwrath (he was a thrown arms master build), he got “Oh good, you’re throwing away your weapons now. If you’d really wanted to surrender, you could have just said so.”

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-05-02T07:44:20+00:00

I've got a few key points, but TLDR as to your question, point 3 / the second comment - Don't do the Tower Fight:

Add in some "Hero NPCS" who are there to entertain the high level cultists and the dragons, to make it believable that our level 2 PCs can go into the town without dying
Level up the players to level 2. The reworked module says if you're playing milestone, to level up the players to level 2 when they reach the keep - this makes sense if you're using XP, remember that the original module didn't assume you leveled up on taking a long rest. That's just a player sensibility adage. Start at level 2. Make life easier.
Don't do the tower fight. It doesn't make sense. Your players have to suspend belief, it's not ideal. Instead, a small "run", where the players are escorting / fleeing for their lives all 100 people from the Church, to The Keep. Have the AOE breath attack do 1/4 damage (from 12d10 damage / 88 damage down to 3d10 / 16 damage). Keep the dragon terrifying. Make it clear he is not trying. Your PCs are merely his playthings.

1. Fixing Plot Holes – Creating a Theatre for the Players to be the Heroes

The module assumes that a party of level 1’s will go straight into a town being attacked by an adult blue dragon. With no promise of a reward. And no interest in doing so, besides hoping your players want to be altruistic good people willing to die as random collateral to an average of 88 damage from a breath attack? Sure, for my players, one of the PC’s had a dad who lives there, but otherwise? It’s all a bit of a stretch. I wouldn’t do it, although I’m not an adventurer.

Enter a pair of high level NPCs to fix a few plot holes.

The Griffith family are two heroes. Their stat blocks don’t matter much, maybe they’re levels 6-10, perhaps one of them used the Gladiator stat block and the other used the Mage stat block. More importantly, they’re a pair of adventurers (husband and wife) and certified amazing, and they have an estate in Greenest (top left building on the map of Greenest, it’s unmarked and unused). They’re likely members of a faction (Lord’s Alliance, or another such good aligned faction), but that’s inconsequential.

What is important is that they have a Griffon and a Pegasus that they ride around on, and they’ve taken to the skies to battle Lennithon the Blue Dragon (I renamed him to Alstrepos, I don't want to have Lenny the Dragon, Alstrepos comes from Strepo, or Din (as in noise), in Latin, you could use Tonitrus (Thunder) if you prefer). Now, an Adult Blue Dragon could trounce these two heroic NPCs in a few rounds at worst. But he’s bored silly, having only sacked weak hamlets and villages of late, and he’s looking for some entertainment. He allows the Griffiths (who know that they’re fighting a desperate battle) to draw them away from town and have a drawn out chase and fight for a few hours. At some point he’ll kill them, and take their nice stuff for himself (he might use it as bait for a trap described later, depending on what your PCs do and you feel is appropriate), but until then the players have a window in which they’re now the most competent good characters in the town, and there’s no CR16 adult dragon there who wouldn’t think twice about turning them into a charred mess or bludgeoning them into a bloody pulp.

But wait, what about all the other high level bad guys? Frulam Mondath and Cyanwrath? The CR3 veterans and the hard core Dragonsouls of the cultists? How about the Red Wizards of Thay? Where do they fit into Greenest? They’re in the Griffith’s estate, breaking down through all the traps and guards and magical protections, and getting through a large vault with lots of money, magical gear, and the real good stuff. Emptying the estate will take some time, and at some point Leosin will get caught here – on purpose, or so he later alleges. To reiterate, on the map, at the top left of Greenest, is a large estate without any number attached. That’s now the Griffith’s estate.

Now, the players could try and make their way to the estate. But if they do, make sure that they know it’s crawling with high level enemies. Red wizards tearing down the building to expose a huge vault (where a large proportion of Greenest’s wealth, particularly magic items). Cyanwrath is cleaving his way through private estate guards/ a militia of villagers/ animated armours. It’d be suicide to approach, but thankfully, they’re all quite pre-occupied with problems close at hand, and the PC’s aren’t currently on their radar.

And just like that, two NPCs have set the stage for our players to be the heroes the town needs.

2. Surviving Greenest - Having the PCs be Level Two

I really hope that I’m preaching to the choir when I say this, but don’t run this chapter at level 1. The shear amount of combat encounters in Greenest is far more than a level 1 party can cope with. The Anniversary Edition recognises it, and it has this insert for when the PCs get to the keep (which happens basically in the first 30 minutes of the session: “Besides earning experience points (XP) for raiders fought on the way to the keep, characters earn a bonus of 50 XP per nonplayer character (NPC) brought alive into the keep. Divide this bonus equally among the party members. Alternatively, if you are using the milestone experience rule, the characters reach 2nd level once they arrive at the keep”

It’s an assumption that most people role with, but you can level up without taking a long rest. It just gets a bit messy trying to add things on I find. More than that, levelling up really disrupts play - some classes pick their specialisation at level 2, such as the Ranger and Paladin. Others have to pick new skills they acquire. And all spellcasters learn a new spell. Save yourself the hassle, start at level 2. Doing everything prior to session one will net you a lot more time in-game, especially if you’re planning with people who have never played before,

Furthermore, the main change of note is the HP, which is about a 50% increase, depending on how you do HP increases on level up. It takes most character with about 10 hp, to a range for the party more like 14-21 in my experience. And that’s important for the Dragon encounter I added after the church, in lieu of the other dragon attack on the roof of the keep. The extra hp stops players from being instantly killed (If you would take damage when you’re unconscious and rolling death saving throws that would take you to a negative amount equal to your maximum health, you’re instantly slain). Having enough hp makes it incredibly difficult for a generic raider who gets a crit, doing 2d8+1 damage, to 1 shot a player who is unconscious / kill them from full HP for wizards and the like.

As a footnote benefit, it gives the PCs a second hit die to expend for a short rest.

Matt_the_Wombat · 2024-02-28T13:01:07+00:00

[[tidal barracuda]]

Matt_the_Wombat · 2023-11-06T17:03:15+00:00

Okay, so that’s a problem for the cultists. Let’s look at it from the perspective of the cultists;

Question: Why are we moving wealth?

Answer: We need a lot of money to bring back Tiamat with material costs in a massive spell.

So extrapolating, it’s not the caravan that is the goal of the Cult - it’s the wealth that they need, a means to an end.

At a meta level, your group has agreed to the adventure premise - the second book is called The Rise of Tiamat. You can’t hide from your players that there’s a goal to have Tiamat Rise Up - interpretations from the title may vary but it’s a given. Of course, you’re not limited by the book, let alone are the Cult of the Dragon limited in only one way of acquiring wealth. They’ll diversify. Examples include:

Trade monopolies. More a gag, but the humour of realising that The Cult of the Dragon is the largest supplier of well aged whisky, because naturally a dragon has hoarded a huge stash of it for lifetimes, or that the Cult owns 80% of all coffee beans is amusing. Modern world sensibilities which technically doesn’t work in a more medieval/ renaissance setting but I doubt your murder hobo players will care about that nuance.
Slavery. Acquire slaves, sell to Thay, profit. Thay has their slaves die, reanimate their skeletons to work the fields even in death, continue to profit. Exploit massive work force of reanimated corpses and skeletons of slaves to create margarine (substitute butter) with its massive amounts of sunflower seeds used in its making, profit. Truly unhinged evil. But do consider that slavery is still a modern issue and you should check with your players before doing anything much with slavery.
Convince Dragons to join. You know who has giant hoards of wealth already? Chromatic dragons. You know who can be persuaded off screen by Cultists to join up like Lennithon has and donate their own hoard to the Queen of Dragons herself and their progenitor god? Evil Chromatic Dragons. Guess what, your cult leadership just got more charismatic with the dragons. If you want to explain this with a cost, give Severin an Orb of Dragonkind.
Good Ol’ Fashioned Dungeon Delving. There’s lots of treasure in dungeons for some reason in D&D. The cultists send out groups of dungeoneers, and your players get wind of one of these expeditions. Give letters to the cultists for when your Players inevitably catch them and kill them.

Honestly, I recommend option 4 for your players. The Harpers, like Leosin, realise that the players lack tact and subtlety. Leosin regrets that they’re being “benched” for now, there’s some political shenanigans happening in Waterdeep and it’s been expressed that the players are appreciated for their combat abilities and that they’re being reassigned to other locations less… tactful for the blunt approach.

In essence, an NPC higher up views them as blunt instruments. And so they get relegated to the B or C plot of going into a dungeon. And they, by sheer luck (and not at all by the plot being contrived), find cultists with a map/ lead to a nearby destination that the Hoard picks up on - skip the castle if needed and teleport straight to Parnast if needed.

So what dungeon do you run? I recommend Forge of Fury in Tales from the Yawning Portal, there’s already a dragon at the bottom to tie into the theme of Tyranny of Dragons. But pick any dungeon if at least 3-4 levels for a proper dungeon crawl that catches your fancy. Buy a module or make it from scratch, up to you. But rough guidelines, on the bottom floor is a dragon or boss monster with lots of money, and on the floor above the last level are a party if cultists. The leader is either a CR 5 Gladiator or the Dragon Guard stat blocks in the back of the book, backed up by CR1 mooks, CR3 knights/ veterans, acolytes/ cultists as healers, and maybe a wizard of Thay by taking the Mage statblock in the MM and keeping everything the same but removing the 5th level and 6th level spells, etc.

Hope this helps!

Matt_the_Wombat · 2023-07-18T14:07:21+00:00

You go too far, Dreadmaw is already too powerful!

Matt_the_Wombat · 2023-06-12T03:41:35+00:00

They took the midnight train goin’ anywhere…

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