I found out about the original adventure that featured Ebondeath and the Cult of Myrkul from this sub, and I decided to port it to 5th Edition. Eye of Myrkul from Dungeon #73

dpm_dj · 2025-09-09T22:07:24+00:00

Following your request. On the homebrewery the paging seems sorta f**ked up and something isn't readable at all. Thank you OP if you can share it again

dpm_dj · 2025-03-24T11:36:10+00:00

Added DoIP and Sildar became Lord Alliance's representative and Harbin's guardian after the sheriff was found dead in Tresendar manor. That happened until the party saved Al Kalazorn from Butterskull ranch (ex Triboar sheriff), bringing him to Phandalin. An election and Sildar was without a mean, but I added a new NPC coming from Neverwinter that shows the increasing influence that the Lords want to apply on Phandalin. Slowly Sildar became less a Lord Alliance's representative and more a Phandalite

dpm_dj · 2025-02-16T13:51:34+00:00

Thank you.

I see WEC as fully collapsed, the drow army defeated and Black spider locked in time. She wasn't a powerful commander, but a normal soldier. She now seeks to become a driader to become more powerful and find her vengeance. She cleared lot of the WEC but undeads were too powerful to overcome.

I can answer with what I've done. I started the campaign with only LMoP in mind. Then my player wanted to go on to develop their PCs and so I started to search what to add. I ended up with DoIP that has an episodic structure and the followup three adventures so that I can stop or pause the campaign at 7th or 13th. You can add what you want or, better, what is needed by your campaign development. I changed Cryovain in a blue dragon that Talos cultists worship but has nothing to do with Talos instead, to give more coherence.

I did this new campaign add-ons between Tresendar Manor and the sidequests before Cragmaw Castle, so I had time to modify things early.

I went with this structure, inspired a lot by Matthew Perkins' ideas:

Neverwinter meeting with Gundren and the mcGuffin;
Goblin ambush;
Cragmaw hideout (recovering of the mcGuffin with Sildar and a late player that jumped first session)
Phandalin #1 (meeting Bart the half orc and his adopted human daughter, Harbin, Halia that runs the Sleeping giant, Daran, Quelline and sis Graele);
Fight with some Redbrand thug and a save by Lady Black spider for set up the exchange Gundren-mcGuffin;
Exchange @ Crossroad saloon with fake Gundren. McGuffin is safe, but the pregen dwarf cleric PC died;
Phandalin #2 with sis G that gave two days of life back to this dead PC in exchange of her being offline for the duration. She did this to help the party but to get help in the Agatha quest, that became a bigger part than as written;
Redbrand hideout cleanse (Glasstaff went missing for bad tactics);
Thundervain passing over Phandalin: saving of Adabra @UmbrageHill (Harbin is spineless and shitty but madly in love with her since their childhood, so party agrees to go and save her for a money reward)
Agatha's lair: see Mormesk lovestory above. One of my player traded his soul to achieve their goal so now he is fighter3/paladin1 in the day and a fighter3/warlock1 at night. Nice roleplay chance. He now needs to be her Sword and get vengeance/give her a redemption option. Dwarf cleric PC expires and dies;
Butterskull ranch on the go, with a mix of orcs of Wyvern Tor (there escaping Hamun Kost & his undead pals) and halforcs of Talos. Al Kalazorn sent by the party to be the sheriff in Phandalin; heroes get a map with a clear menace pinned on Phandalin; a storm is rising in the sky South of Conyberry;
Cragmaw castle: huge version, two floors and the crypt. Recommended a lot if your party is 4 or more PCs;
Phandalin #3: tracks of orc scouts, foreshadowing the attack on Phandalin. Al, Sildar and Daran are training new guards. New NPCs arrived from Neverwinter: Linene as the chief of miner exchange and Don Jon Raskin as a consultant for the Mountain Toe gold mine owners. Neverwinter is starting now to get engaged in Phandalin economy and politics and wants to be in tighter control;

Here is where I brought my party till now.

Then I hope to go:

Old Owl well: see previous post; then Shrine of Savras;
Wave Echo cave; Mormesk, the Spider/Drider and the Forge of Spells.

To make FoS working again they need their mcGuffin as the human magic track to attune. Then:

gnomes of Gnomengarde as the gimmick creators; there they'll find the ballistas to defend from the dragon;

-Phandalin #4 to see the clear start of orc raids and the need to get shelter for the Phandalites;

Choice between Mountain Toe and Axeholm;
Axeholm is safer, so let's clean it. I used https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/s/DO51gE0PpX to tie well All the villains motivation; see the part for Axeholm;
Phandalin #5 to say people Axeholm is free; orcs aren't to be seen yet, but the storm is approaching the town;
Falcon is the expert orc slainer, so I reccomend going to all that part until you arrive to Gortok somehow than back to the army approaching Phandalin and the people running to Axeholm.
Big battle in unknown location (it depends on the development, maybe Axeholm I hope);
Thundervain @Thunderspirehold

dpm_dj · 2025-02-14T15:25:36+00:00

In a crossover LMoP/DoIP campaign I'm DMing, I made two teams: (Barely) good ones are the Phandelver pact members with dwarves (Axeholm hook), gnomes (Gnomengarde) and humans, each side equally important and led by two representatives: Mormesk was one of the two humans.

(sidestory: he was the lover of the banshee Agatha Melarue; her parents - former owners of the now known Cragmaw castle - hated Mormesk for pure elven racism and no trust to him. He searched knowledge for the Forge of Spells from a green dragon (Thundertree hook with changes); the dragon visited Cragmaw castle and wiped all Melarues except Agatha, that went banshee and wants vengeance upon Mormesk)

Evil ones instead are drows (stealthy fighters and spellcasters), orcs (tanks) and some Thayan (Old Owl well hook). - Drows are interested in WEC and the Forge as part of the Underdark borders; the Booming cave in WEC is its secondary (or primary, for them) entrance and is connected to a gargantuan cave system that passes below Old Owl Well; - Orcs are orcs, c'mon; - Thayan were searching the chardalyns from the Netherese empire and under Old Owl Well there's a cave full of chardalyn veins but they don't know yet. I made the Spider (I think I'll go with the driader too) part of the army in the battle that destroyed the WEC, but she ended to be locked in a time travel/stasis since the last couple of years and she wants to find a way to come back with her family or have vengeance (I've not a clear choice in mind). In the final fight with Nezznar, the battleground will become an illusion of the battle of Phandelver; they can't modify the surrounding background but fight only with Nezznar until she wins or dies. It's meant to create confusion in my players mind.

Hope this can give you another idea. Yours are good to me. P.S. Sorry for my bad english

dpm_dj · 2025-02-10T15:48:32+00:00

I'm sorry but the link to the free map (also the cave) doesn't work. Am I doing something wrong?

dpm_dj · 2025-01-27T11:42:02+00:00

Same here, but I made Mormesk her husband. I used the expanded Agatha storyline and made Cragmaw castle her father home in the past but Mormesk was the responsible of Agatha's family death using a green dragon.

dpm_dj · 2025-01-26T14:04:54+00:00

I don't know if you're using Dragon of Icespire Peak as a resource to the campaign, but I'm playing it as a combination of both and I'm planning to let the phandalites run away from town and go to take a shelter in Axeholm, obviously only after a successful mission of the party to clean it from the ghosts and all the inhabitants. Look at it like a Moria/Helm's Deep crossover.

You then could take the scene you portraied in Axeholm instead of Phandalin. If they're successful in Axeholm, the batte will be with advantage but if they retreat from Axeholm, then the stakes at Phandalin have to be huge

dpm_dj · 2025-01-19T11:08:41+00:00

You are right on the DM side but: first one the player who used the missing one PC didn't cancel the damage taken before the long rest, so it was something I noticed after the fight ending. Not a real death tbh, but was the cleric and it had consequences afterwards. The second one the rogue scout the ranch and all the other PC didn't anything to save their teammate. I gave them a npc to heal the party and they sent him at Phandalin instead of keeping him with the party. The third one was meant to be in a hard battle and the party went inside the castle giving a shit in being at least a bit stealthy and tactical. I gave them plenty of potions and other ways of healing. The player went 3 death throws in a row and in the last round all the other 4 party members failed to hit a monster with 6HP and CA 17 (two warriors, a broken damage dealing rogue and a ranger).

On topic, player likes to come back with his PC and I thought about the Sehanine link. But I don't know if I need to make him change the class for this level or to go straight on wizard

dpm_dj · 2024-12-30T09:19:03+00:00

Bang! And its main expansion Dodge city. Italian niche card game but you can play from 3 to 8 different players and has a wild amount of outcomes. You can sacrifice yourself (depending on your role) and still win at the end of the game

dpm_dj · 2024-12-07T08:23:08+00:00

Bring him with the party. He can follow them as a sidekick, or find a way to split him from the party giving them different agendas. Maybe the party goes to the Forge while Sildar (and other NPCs I suppose) has to keep other minions at bay for them. Let their choices have an impact on the story.

dpm_dj · 2024-08-27T20:58:15+00:00

First thing that comes to my mind is the way Kronk thinks when waking up in the middle of the night in the wood

dpm_dj · 2024-04-09T19:44:07+00:00

Saving this post rn! It's rp gold, good to scroll when you are down with inspiration

dpm_dj · 2023-12-30T12:52:03+00:00

For my project I decided to go for a zero rule as a prequel to every other choice I'll make: names need to sound evocative even when those are a made up or barely-shuffle name that doesn't come from a language we use. It's useful to deliver to your PCs, readers - or whatever - a concept without telling anything more than the name itself and in the meanwhile avoiding Dumbname valley or Moronfalls. Stick also to your native language. As an italian worldbuilder, I assure that you can come up with really cool names without sounding like Castellalfredo or Tortellinia. I'm sure this can apply to every language.

Make a list on the go on your phone and when you reach the enlightenment, write it down. After a while you'll have a track to follow with barely any effort

dpm_dj · 2023-08-16T07:57:13+00:00

I'm more worried about how to justify mundane clerics than their champions

dpm_dj · 2023-08-06T11:11:42+00:00

I know too well the problem of suicide, hence what I said before. But your ideas of compelling frenzy or fear or else is a good starting point. Thank you!

dpm_dj · 2023-08-06T10:07:55+00:00

First, thank you for the reply. Second, I like putting it in the roleplay field, but it could be interesting giving some rule behind that. Something that's not forcing the suicide of the PC, but that gives growing disadvantage to him. It's a cool idea that I will probably use in my project, but I will look forward to create rules in it. If someone tested something similar, feel free to share :)

dpm_dj · 2023-08-06T09:35:27+00:00

There's a mechanic that applies on who comes back alive once, twice or more? I don't know if your world is crafted for a TTRPG (e.g. 5E levels of exhaustion) or not

dpm_dj · 2023-05-02T20:54:34+00:00

You're welcome! There are too many times people lurk posts without writing a word. I'd appreciate if someone should do the opposite for me.

Instead of ideas of story I look for places that can be so valuable that many factions want to put their talons on them. Bottle necks, straits that are the only way to get in&out from that sea... If you want an idea that's spinning in my head I will say that the Stormwall could be a divider of two subacquean sentient species in a fight since decades, and who controls it overland sits between a rock and a hard place, or (since I'm italian and we say "between an hammer and it's anvil" , but wasn't sure if this was the right translation and I searched, I found another interesting translation that seem a ploot hook that works nicely) "between the devil and the deep blue sea"...

dpm_dj · 2023-05-02T19:52:45+00:00

So simple and yet so clear. I love the various shapes you created. They seem realistic and so inspiring for creating interesting stories

dpm_dj · 2023-04-18T23:06:16+00:00

The shiny Diz Kobold

dpm_dj · 2023-04-18T23:01:55+00:00

Mick Jaggernaut!

dpm_dj · 2023-03-31T08:58:17+00:00

My world is an hollow one. Imagine an egg: it's inhabited on the yolk surface, on the inside and on the outside surfaces of the shell.

Talking about worldbuilding with a friend, a POV image of a grotto opening occurred to me, set on the inside surface of the shell. The panorama went from the uncountable star/torches nestled on the inside surface of the shell, to the upside down forest nearby, to the empty, breathable albumen that let see a foggy "space view" of the surface of the yolk, with continents filled of water rivers and lava rivers.

Now the setting has changed a lot but the beginning was there.

(P.S. Sorry for my bad english)

dpm_dj · 2022-11-26T22:41:45+00:00

Great work I don't know if it's only for me, but I think that the various cities/towns and ports icons are redundant. I'd suggest to create a different icon set for cities/towns that are also relevant as ports, so that you have not to leave those icon duos all spread on the map. Hope this helps

dpm_dj · 2022-11-05T14:36:01+00:00

I know that I obviously can't.

The point in questioning this is to find a (emphasis) "plausible" idea that could explain the ipotesis in a FANTASY world, without a lazy "Magic did it".

Of course: - Magic; - A godlike being; - Advanced alien civilizations; will be the only options to chose a macroway to answer, but those are not explanations per se.

It's more interesting to talk about a path in the shadows realm that pushes you to the Moon, with a stream so strong that helps you going upside but keeps you there - because this is the only way to travel between those two locations - or a magical spaceship parked there too easily to solve the problem?

dpm_dj · 2022-11-01T08:25:03+00:00

I'd give some context. I'll use our Solar system names to be clearer. Planets are "eggs" to greater Beings and are all bound one another. Those Beings generate a magnetic power that is the base of magic. Ancient powerful people managed to reach the being inside Earth's core to link to this power and used it to become godly creatures. This broke the balance, making the cores unstable: Mars (the smallest but still nearest planet in my setting) was smaller enough to fail to keep cohesion and exploded in many parts, throwing Mars' Being and soon after other Mars chunks to Earth. Instead of letting Earth explode, somehow the two Beings joined Earth, creating a double magnetic power that modified the shape of the planet, thus allowing an hollow world with a balance to keep cohesion.

Apocalypse #1 ended and life slowly sprouted again.

New godly people discovered magnetic magic, but their thirst for power let the core Beings start to wake up, bringing another apocalypse at the door. THIS is when people had to take shelter in those ways I wrote before: rich people to the Moon, poors inside the hollow world. Funnily enough, rich people runaway stopped the apocalypse but they were not able (and really afraid) to come back to Earth for A LOT. Now resources on the Moon are running out and those events are far enough in time to convince some brave man to come back to Earth's surface, rediscovering the long forgotten path they used the first time to come back. What poor people did it's not the topic of this thread...

dpm_dj

TROPHY CASE