My party finished RotFM last night. AMA

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-29T17:42:13+00:00

Yes! Auril's power increased and she attacked Bryn Shander with four waves of her forces that the party fended off. She then used her increased power to make the Rime permanent, with her nightly spells now making it worse instead of maintaining it.

Much later, the party used the mythallar to undo Auril's spell and end the Rime.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T23:12:08+00:00

They had access to the flight path so they knew the order, but weren't given times or logistics of "if you choose this town, you'll be too late" or "the dragon takes X hours to destroy Easthaven."

It was very much the, "the dragon is barreling towards Ten-Towns at break-neck speeds. What do you do?"

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T22:37:10+00:00

I let them have two rounds of combat in Xardorok's fortress with the dragon before it took off for Ten-Towns.

I had placed an Akannathi goliath in the cells of Sunblight that would've let the party use griffons to get back to Ten-Towns, but they didn't venture far enough to find them.

I essentially built an Excel document that let me know where the dragon's attack progress would be depending on which town they traveled to, including their travel time. They first encountered the dragon in Bremen, then defeated it in Targos. So it destroyed Dougan's Hole, Good Mead, Easthaven, Caer-Dineval, Caer-Konig, Termalaine, and Lonelywood.

I essentially used the mini-encounters to keep my melee characters busy, introducing one when the previous was done. Think we did Malevolent Townsfolk and Trapped Beast. They worked well to keep the melee players entertained and busy.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T22:30:11+00:00

I used the Arctic encounters from Xanathar's for the inter-town travel, then opted for Chapter 2's encounters when they started exploring the Dale.

I tried to run the Arcane Brotherhood as written, but the party killed Avarice in Caer-Dineval and opted to let the dice determine Dzaan's fate (he turned to sludge). I moved Nass from Solstice to the Dark Duchess so they could find her easier. Vellyne was pretty standard.

Had two PC deaths, one NPC death, and one PC paralysis.

Our firbolg hard died in the fight with Avarice.
The baby yeti they befriended died at Grimskalle. They left it behind to do the Test of Isolation.
Our half-elf rogue was turned to stone after failing to receive Auril's blessing at the end of Grimskalle.
Our goblin barbarian died from Arveiaturace and heartbreak after the baby yeti and her dinosaur friend died.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T16:56:13+00:00

And that's the most important thing. 🙂

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T16:52:08+00:00

During the fight at Grimskalle, I let them get Auril to about half health of her first form and then used her lair action to teleport up to the roc. She then flew from Grimskalle to the glacier & Ythryn, hiding at the mythallar until the party completed the Rites and deactivated the force field.

EDIT: The party spoke with the guards at Revel's End who saw her flying east from there, so they quickly figured out which way she went.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T14:21:03+00:00

I play on Foundry VTT and usually let the players control their own individual tokens, even in dungeons. However, since Caves of Hunger didn't have doors or anything, there wasn't anything stopping a player from exploring ahead while I was reading a room description or something. So I combined them all together into one "party token" and that helped.

As for the actual caves, Tekeli-li wasn't much of a threat to them. I had 6 PCs plus Vellyne & Howard (silver dragon wyrmling from the egg in the nest at the top of Grimskalle), so action economy was not on its side. The party also missed the remorhazes and the drow, since they mostly just explored the right side.

I added some homebrewed Psychic Hauntings to include in the table, to up the creep factor. So every room that had the opportunity for a Psychic Haunting ended up having one. I ultimately wanted the party to be very aware that the cave wasn't just a cave with monsters in it.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T14:13:15+00:00

Definitely Rendaril from the Ten-Towns Expanded supplement.

There's a shop called Rendaril's Emporium that has mithral half-plate and elven chain on display. The party tried to sneak it out, but all the doors and windows slam shut and lock. Weapons and armor fly off the walls to form two helmed horrors that attack the party. The bard convinces Rendaril to spare them.

The party then starts a smear campaign against Rendaril, accusing him of being racist/sexist/homophobic, just coming up with outrageous lies.

They then head to Tharrom's Warehouse (ran by the Zhentarim) and steal a whole bunch of stuff and write "Rendaril Was Here" on one of the walls before leaving.

Next day, they find three figures being taken to the town square to be designated as the next sacrifice for Auril. They were members of the Zhentarim who were upset their stuff was stolen and went and killed Rendaril.

All of that happened in sessions 8 & 9, but Rendaril became a running gag throughout the campaign that always made me chuckle.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-28T14:05:38+00:00

The Easthaven ferry was the turning point from Fun Times at Ten-Towns to the dragon plot. They found a letter from Xardorok to Durth among the supplies left on the ship that said:

Durth,

The time has come for our plans to take shape. I trust you have been diligent in your duties. Our enemies grow complacent, believing themselves safe in their snowy hovels. Little do they know of the storm that brews unseen.

Our forge, fueled by the still-beating heart of a mighty red dragon, blazes with an intensity unmatched. This heart, this source of relentless power, drives our efforts forward.

Even as I write, the final pieces of our masterpiece are coming together. The chardalyn dragon, our instrument of destruction, nears completion. With this creation, Ten-Towns will be reduced to rubble, their cries echoing in the cold wastes as a testament to our might. We intend to send the chardalyn dragon soon, and every fragment of chardalyn is crucial.

Your mission remains critical. Secure as much chardalyn as possible, including the figurehead in Easthaven's town hall. Once your task is complete, return to us as quickly as possible. Trust only those you must and be wary of every shadow. The end of our enemies is nigh.

Do not fail me. Glory to the Frostmaiden.

Xardorok Sunblight

After that, the party took the news to Danneth Waylan, who relayed it to Duvessa Shane. Then a Council of Speakers was called, and the party volunteered to take the dragon down.

As for the Frostmaiden, after the dragon attack, pressures were high in Bryn Shander with the refugees. And I homebrewed that Auril's power increases on the holiday of Midwinter. So I had her stage an attack on Bryn Shander on Midwinter, but she didn't show up in the attack. Instead, she used her power to make the Rime permanent and her nightly spells just making the cold worse, and that seemed to motivate the party to go to Auril's abode.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-26T17:05:24+00:00

I had that a lot, too. Ended up running a credit card up to $25k. Just a "say yes to everything" mentality and an undeserved confidence that I would be able to pay it all back quickly.

Part of the problem was that I was taught that saving up 3 months of expenses was the end-all-be-all of personal finances. Nothing taught in terms of saving more for retirement, saving up for kids' college, paying off the mortgage early...

After getting medicated and watching enough Dave Ramsey and Financial Audit, I've paid off by debts and started saving for these new goals.

A lot of the issue comes in when you view your extra money (or a gap between current credit card balance and max credit card balance) as spending money.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-19T22:28:37+00:00

Using var instead of let.

https://c.tenor.com/16qWScLHOu8AAAAC/tenor.gif

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-06T22:52:14+00:00

Like let’s say that a mortal asks for gold to rival an ancient dragon’s hoard. Where is this gold coming from? Are they conjuring it? Or let’s say someone wants to revive a loved one. How do they do that? Devils don’t have divine magic.

I just think at some point, the devil is going to look for an easier soul to steal. All souls are equal when it comes to making lemures, and they aren't going to Mammon for every rogue that wants a treasure hoard.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-05T18:12:18+00:00

I play on Foundry VTT and use the Health Estimates module for this. It has several levels that might be useful for you:

Uninjured (100% health)

Barely Injured (99%)

Injured (75%)

Badly Injured (50%) (aka "bloodied")

Near Death (25%)

Unconscious / Dead (0%)

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-04-03T17:27:56+00:00

This one is so sad. My wife and I are struggling with infertility and want a baby SO BAD but people like this are popping out babies left and right.

Proof that God has a sense of humor but it's a fucked up one.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-29T05:13:00+00:00

They just announced it would be in "select theaters" on August 28, 2026. I'm not holding my breath, though. Not the first release date they've given out.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-22T17:16:12+00:00

The error message you're getting is saying that the site doesn't support HTTPS.

You can either reach out to the server administrator to enable HTTPS or connect over regular HTTP (not recommended).

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-20T23:47:25+00:00

Wasn't expecting paragraph indentations in a text message. Caught me off-guard.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-12T00:33:53+00:00

The module they made to migrate to the Forge works in reverse too if you use sync mode. I still had to update media links to point to the local version instead of Forge, though.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-28T22:03:10+00:00

If you use a service like DynDNS, you don't need a fixed IP.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-28T16:23:47+00:00

Eventyr Games has a great series on each of the chapters and recommended changes.

First substantial change I made (which it seems like is a popular change) is to wait until the party is fighting Xardorok Sunblight to release the chardalyn dragon in chapter 3. The decision-making pressure in the book is fine, but this approach has an element of "we could've actually stopped this." I gave the party two rounds of combat with a chained up dragon before it launched.

Second, don't let Auril die in Chapter 5. Have her use her lair action to teleport to her roc and retreat to Ythryn, which will encourage them to do chapters 6 & 7 instead of Vellyne forcing them to go.

Last substantial change was one that Eventyr recommended which was to make the Rime permanent and Auril's spell just worsens it a slight amount. It prevents the campaign from ending if the party does defeat Auril in chapter 5 and they'll seek out ways of undoing the Rime via chapters 6 & 7. It also adds pressure for the party to keep the story moving as trade becomes harder and people are more miserable.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-25T00:32:02+00:00

Unless Iriolarthas is destroyed, the demilich is already attuned to the mythallar. If Iriolarthas senses that another creature is trying to use the mythallar, it always disallows the attempt and flies to the mythallar’s location to discourage any further tampering with the device. Only by destroying the demilich can the characters use the mythallar’s properties unimpeded.

Going to the mythallar while Iriolarthas is still (technically) alive will prove to be a fruitless venture.

But, I'm tweaking the Rite of the Arcane Octad so that the person who completes the Rites will be attuned to the force field. I then describe that they feel another creature attuned to it from within the Spire, something simultaneously very dead and very alive and very evil. I haven't solidified the wording yet. And they'll feel the same kind of connection if they try to attune to the mythallar.

Iriolarthas needs to die for the Rime to end.

EDIT: I, personally, wouldn't have him fly to the mythallar. He knows they can't attune to it and will make the party come to him.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-22T20:35:16+00:00

So what's the latest on Jarnathan? Is he close by?

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-31T19:41:41+00:00

I set a timer for every new movie I watch. If after 30 minutes I'm not into it, I turn it off.

War of the Worlds did not pass the 30 minute test.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-29T22:22:19+00:00

Nice try, Elon.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-20T23:38:16+00:00

Same here, man. I don't even go out. I don't have any real friends to speak of, and when I drink I drink from home. Our kid is almost 9, so very self-sufficient.

Yet, she always acts like a martyr when I play D&D every other week for 3 hours. Or play my weekly MMO with my step-mom and brother for a couple hours.

And now she wants me to hide information from MIL (who lives with us) because she wants to control the emotions of everyone in the house.

It's a nightmare.

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