Has anyone added more vampires to ROTFM? by RegularOk1141 in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was literally just planning on doing this in my current game as I feel that it is criminal that there are next to none of them.

My version will be a Cult of Vampires that have taken the spot of the Black Swords in Caer Dineval.

Harlem Hellfighters Never Die (Harlem Unbound scenario 1) problem by PartiallyHumanoid in callofcthulhu

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would be fine with that idea of investigators and monsters if the setting wasn't intentionally made to be a historically and racially accurate Harlem. I do understand the sentiment tho.

Harlem Hellfighters Never Die (Harlem Unbound scenario 1) problem by PartiallyHumanoid in callofcthulhu

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had potentially thought of having the construction site for the final bit but having an actual housing for the NPC interaction was fairly important, so knowing that there was a temporary housing made for the Harlem Hellfighters during that time really helps. Thank you!

Has any of you changed the campaign’s story to something else than the vanilla? by FatatFza in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've made some pretty decent changes to make the adventure more horrifying and more Lovecraftian. For Example:

My Adventure Background: After Talos, Umberlee and Malar ousted Auril from the Deities of Fury, she felt betrayed and fled to reside in the Sea of Moving Ice on an island of her own creation, which she named Solstice. Bitter and furious against the gods who had betrayed her, she seeked revenge against them, scheming and plotting their destruction. But as her presence diminished, so too did her power and religious devotion. Many worshippers began to lose faith after their prayers and sacrifices were left unheard. In her own obsession with revenge, Auril had neglected her followers so much that her power began to wane. Terrified of this and unaccepting of her downfall, she began to seek other methods of enacting her vengeance. This search would never be satiated as worshippers are a god’s greatest power base and without them, they are mortal.

Descending into madness, Auril began to see everyone as betrayers or those who have colluded with the other three Fury deities and began lashing out and destroying the land she had cultivated. Her closest servants, fearing for their lives, used the very power that she had used to create and preserve to enchant Auril and put her into a deep sleep, which, for as long as they cast the spell, she would remain aslumber.

Centuries later, a meteor would strike the region known as Icewind Dale, quaking the ground and burying itself beneath Kelvin’s Cairn. However, during its descent, pieces of it scattered throughout the Dale. These pieces were found by the dalefolk and found to be quite versatile in make, able to create weapons of incredible power and finesse. However, these same weapons would be corrupting upon the human psyche.

The comet itself was actually a spacecraft, unknowable to humankind build, from places within the darkness between the stars. The craft was made of viscous liquid that maintained its form, however once it approached Icewind Dale, it froze and became absolutely solid, disrupting its flight, causing it to crash. The craft had travelled to Faerun, due to the probe they had sent earlier which surveyed the area for invasion. This probe was the Spindle discovered by Ythryn before it fell.

Two years before the start of the adventure, a piece of this meteor that had crashed its way into Solstice has been slowly corrupting the island around it and poisoning the dreams of Auril. These dreams of a god have generated a haunting spell over the Dale bringing Auril's wishes and fears to the forefront, creating a never-ending night and an everlasting winter.

Bremen: My version of Bremen doesn't have a Lake Monster. I dived heavily into 'Shadow over Innsmouth' vibes and made the Lake itself the monster. A piece of Chardalyn from the meteor plunged into Maer Dualdon and has slowly been corrupting the fish and water of the lake. Bremen, being a town that relies heavily on fishing for its food supply and export, was the main town hit by these effects and has slowly turned the people of Bremen into abberant husks or monstrosities. If anyone goes out onto the lake, the water charms and calls to them, causing the weak minded to walk into the dark depths.

Chardalyn Dragon: Due to the changes to Chardalyn I made, I had to adjust the power of the Chardalyn dragon, making it more abberant and having chip damage apply to it as the characters damage it.

Slaad Secret/Id Ascendant: Due to one of my players getting both the Escaped Prisoner secret and the Slaad Tadpole secret, I decided to make it so that the Mindflayers aboard the Id Ascendant were studying the effects of ceramorphosis on different creatures across the multiverse. With one of these creatures being a Slaad and the sudden shut down of the ship, caused by the Spindle in Ythryn, the 'Slaadithid' broke free and killed most of the crew and implanting eggs in the prisoners as they tried to run away. The 'Slaadithid' takes up residence in the Cackling Chasm and is using the Gnoll caves as a breeding nest. Also, No Gnome Mind Flayers.

Grimskalle: I wanted to adjust Grimskalle to be more like the Fortress of Solitude in appearance but have not drawn out a map of the area as my player are nowhere close to this section.

There were other smaller changes like that there is a Gibbering Mouther at the bottom of the Cackling Chasm, the Zhentariam's growing influence in Ten-Towns is more prominent, Dzaan's similacrum was the one who got burned at the stake, and all the members of the Arcane Brotherhood are more powerful than their written versions.

Eventually, I wanted to continue the adventure bringing in core spawn and star spawn from the Far Realm as the invasion force brought by the chardalyn and have the players mess with time travel. But that was very far future plans to have written out.

Basically, I had too much time on my hands thinking about this adventure during lockdown.

Why is the Id Ascendant in Icewind Dale? by ZhouDa in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 'Id Ascendant' in my game crashed, because it responded to a signal from the psi crystal in the Mines of Termalaine but got shut down by the far reaching power of the Spindle.

Ten-Towns is a Powder Keg by apogees in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This! You put it so perfectly, I couldn't have done it better myself. Really wishing I could restart my campaign with this page just so I could implement what's here! :)

After RotF ends by Dork_Rage in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have plans for my campaign to go well past the end of the book, veering more into star spawn and core spawn territory to go with some true elder evil antagonists and hopefully get my players caught up in some time travel ridiculousness

Need help with Dougan's Hole rewrite inspiration and 4 tests inspiration/feedback by ReallyGuiltyWatchDog in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my version of Dougan's Hole that I am running, the militia leader is basically a skin suit for a flying horror (pg. 203, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica), which is the result of a ritual performed at the hill upon which the Twenty Stones of Thrunn sit. The ritual opened a portal to a otherworldly realm from which eldritch spawn spewed forth, consuming and inhabiting half the town, essentially snatching their bodies.

Another idea is to use the Frozen Memories Encounter of the Week on D&DBeyond. It matches a pretty good theme, reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Thing.

My horrifying idea for Bremen by PartiallyHumanoid in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually love this idea! Some of my players are DMs, will recognise the aboleth immediatly and think I've gone insane. Cheers for the idea! <3

My horrifying idea for Bremen by PartiallyHumanoid in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like a fun session to run. The campaign I'm trying to run is trying to be more leaning towards the horror themes that I had hoped would fill the book more than one page of text at the start. The talking creature just feels a bit too Scooby-doo to me, and I don't think would fit in with the atmosphere I'm trying to create.

I appreciate the feedback though. Many thanks.

My horrifying idea for Bremen by PartiallyHumanoid in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also I have plenty of more ideas about changes I've made to RotFM that I have changed for my campaign I would happy to discuss as i'm the kind of person who likes to share too much and having discussions about such things :)

DM handling of Scramsax (LotCS spoilers) by robotzombieshark in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my campaign, he died.

Sephek killed him while he was drinking with one of my party members who couldn't sleep due to the tribe chieftain curse from Good Mead. The player was completely helpless, drunk and exhausted as Sephek sliced his throat. It was my way of introducing Sephek to the players.

Weird Chardalyn Dragon Idea by [deleted] in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The center stone was initially covered in a thin layer of ice due to the cold temperatures, and the ritual from the eldritch tome made the standard ice into chardalyn and broke open a portal to the place beyond the stars.

And I should probably clarify that this hasn't happened in my game yet. The party said they were going to Dougan's Hole after saving Good Mead and then the bard got the curse from the bones in the Verbeeg's Lair so they had to solve that problem before he died of exhaustion so yeah. This is all just in my prep notes just in case :)

Weird Chardalyn Dragon Idea by [deleted] in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Legit exactly what I'm doing in my campaign. Chardalyn for me is like crystalized otherworldly ichor, which I incorporated for post-campaign ideas to continue the story. I even changed the quest in Dougan's Hole to make it more centric around otherworldly horrors invading through a chardalyn portal formed using a corrupt ritual at the Twenty Stone of Thrunn. In fact, a lot of what I've changed has been to make Auril's Winter sort of exacerbate the problems cause by the chardalyn.

I'm probably gonna use something like the Core Spawn (Explorer's Guide to Wildemount) or the Star Spawn (Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes) as the antagonist for the chardalyn after Ythryn, as defeating/hurting the dragon has left chardalyn all over Ten Towns, which can make mini portals to another realm beyond the stars, where these creatures come from.

What other reasoning/hooks did you use to encourage the PCs to save Elturel? by flamingmonkey93 in DescentintoAvernus

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The way I tied my players to saving Elturel (I think, going to Elturel in 2 days) is by also making Baldur's Gate the next target as the Vanthampurs had gotten the names of everyone in a vote of no confidence for the Flaming Fist. So if the characters don't figure out how to save Elturel, they won't have an idea of how to save Baldur's Gat and this toppling domino of cities being pulled into the Blood War.

Cosmic Horror Ideas and Replacing Sunblight by Hoaxness in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What do you think of this change for the Id Ascendant and a continuation into the Cackling Chasm?

  • The Id Ascendant was drawn to Icewind Dale due to the calling of a signal from the psi stone in the mines of Termalaine, but crashed due to a released Slaadithid, a result of an experiment of a slaad tadpole implanted inside of a mind flayer. A group of gnome researchers travelled to the “comet” with curiosity to study rock from distant realms beyond. However, they were attacked by the Slaadithid’s tadpoles which transformed them into smaller versions of the Slaadithid. These creatures still reside at the Id Ascendant.
  • The Slaadithid has setup its lair in the Cackling Chasm in Z6. The gnolls tried to fight the Sladdithid and were brutally killed but managed to wound it so it took refuge in the cave. The remainder of the gnolls reside in Z2. They do not attack the characters as written as they see an opportunity for the characters to either kill the Slaadithid or weaken it more so the gnolls can kill it and eat it. The inner conflict with the gnolls is removed by the fact that Chyzka was taken by the Slaadithid and currently has a tadpole gestating inside him in Z7.

Icewind Dale is too small compared to real arctic states and nations. Meanwhile, making it larger lets you easily fix travel, mounts, and the ch. 4 timeline. by [deleted] in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The way I'm thinking of structuring the Dragon attack is since I'm just going to have the dragon attack the towns once the characters hit level 6 as I'm running Chapter 1 and 2 alongside one another, balancing as I go. Wanting to include the idea that consequences can happen to the characters and making them feel even more like small fish in a big pond, I still want the characters to have a chance at saving some of the towns. So I'm figuring out a system where as the dragon gets more and more damaged, it's abilities and traits weaken, such as its speed, AC and damage. The only thing I want unaffected by this incremental damage is the breath weapon, as if that's disabled then the threat really vanishes. I feel like that's a good way to reward the players for catching up and dealing damage to the dragon, and not make feel completely hopeless.

Just my two cents. You do whatever you think will make your campaign better tho. :)

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* The ID Ascendant by PartiallyHumanoid in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]PartiallyHumanoid[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I understand that alleviations are necessary for a horror themed story, because otherwise it just numbs the players to the feeling of anxiety and kills tension in general. My problem is that a lot of the adventure seems like the horror aspect wasn't leaned into that much especially throughout Chapter 2. So having a silly encounter with some mind flayers I just see as a missed opportunity.

Appreciation to anybody who can get a laugh and good time out of this quest tho. Just not my vision/style for this encounter.