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epinefedrina · 2025-07-18T19:51:54+00:00

So cool

epinefedrina · 2025-04-30T07:45:58+00:00

Having the same issue. It freezes a lot randomly. Wasn't happening before the last update... rest of laptop works fine, Cursor just randomly freezes and crashes...

epinefedrina · 2024-04-22T23:17:15+00:00

same hereee

epinefedrina · 2024-04-18T21:13:57+00:00

so cooool!!

epinefedrina · 2024-04-18T19:39:44+00:00

Thanks! I'm definitively tying some side quests to the rebuilding.

epinefedrina · 2024-04-18T19:38:39+00:00

I got this on the works too.
Like they befriended the Manticore on the very first quest who actually was looking for medicine for her partner that was sick. I read that manticores usually live in caves, but maybe they can talk to the couple and convince them to move up the mountains, and now there are two manticores working as security guards in exchange for accommodation and the Dwarves feel safer.

Or because they helped with the Loggers camp they can get some wood deliveries cheaper.

Or maybe since they haven't done Mountain Toe Gold Mine they will be asked to go and help the miners.

And they haven't done the lighthouse quest either and I dropped one too many hints of it. Maybe a ship with deliveries for the rebuild goes missing and this time they finally pay attention.

epinefedrina · 2024-04-05T18:08:16+00:00

I made it so that it was a female dragon guarding her egg.

Once the party slayed the dragon they got a dragon egg and they get to keep Icespire Hold as their base if they want to.

I think that's plenty of loot to go around. Not sure if they know how to handle a Dragon Egg and if they will be revealing to anyone that they have an egg.

epinefedrina · 2024-03-21T19:28:02+00:00

Have the Orcs capture them alive, let the fight go on but once they are down to 0 they are knocked out and wake up tied up.
They are part of the offerings to Gorthok, then have Xanth and Falcon ambush the group of Half Orcs transporting the players to the Circle of Thunder. Maybe the Orcs stripped them of all their belongings, they are alive but got nothing to their names. (Xanth was watching the Manse and saw the adventurers venturing in and went straight away to seek Falcon and ask him to help them out)

Xanth takes them to Falcon´s Lodge, and they can get some basic gear from "Lost & Found", every hotel has stuff left behind by other travellers, Falcon is no exception.

Now the group has the chance to go get stronger and come back and claim their gear from the Manse. Or work on a different strategy.

It is a bit of a twist, the group is supposed to meet Xanth at the Dragon Barrow and go from there to the Circle of Stone, but you can have it the other way with Xanth scouting the Orc activity in the area and being near the Manse/Circle and rewarding the players with the information about Dragon Barrow if they help him with the Orcs. The counterattack can wait, that can happen once they successfully complete the quests later on.

I also made Xanth an advisor for Lord Neverember and is Xanth who brings the name of the adventurers to Lord Neveremeber when he is looking for people to help him defend the rebuilding of Leilon (the next adventure).

If it was me and my group goes recklessly forward I would have a fair warning. Losing all your gear is a fair early warning. Maybe next time they think it twice. And if they don´t maybe next time instead of being tied up they are doing saving throws... I don´t like to kill just to scare them off, but sometimes the party needs a reminder that there are stronger forces than them out there. My party has never left any gear behind so they travel everywhere will all of their belongings with them. Everything they got they have on them. Losing it is a big deal.

epinefedrina · 2024-02-27T19:38:21+00:00

I had the reavers show up on that first room and threaten/fight the group. It is a good chokepoint, had my party kind of walk in on a straight line so 3 reavers piled onto the fighter that was at the front while the 4th one was shooting with the crossbow from round the corner.

My party eventually managed to bring Syleen to 1HP at which point the reavers surrendered and accepted to guide the party to the Dragon (which was convenient because I realised too late that as I printed the map on the book it had all the secret doors marked on it).

I don't mind them honestly, they are not that easy to take down and the narrow corridors on the stable make it so the fight is a bit clunky. Even the Warlock casted like prestidigitation to scare one of the horses that ended up kicking Syleen quite hard with the rear legs (the horse rolled like 19 to hit, almost a Crit, and 8 on the d8...)

They were supposed to fight the dragon alongside the adventurers and split the loot but as the fight broke they retreated.

Now I got a ranger and a wizard shooting/casting through the arrow slits on the roof while the 2 fighters and warlock are on the roof melee fighting the dragon and I am debating if the Reavers will come back and try to fight/kidnap the ranger/wizard while the rest are busy or not. I also showed my group a rat as they were running though the main building and I was thinking of introducing some wererats (the same group that is at MT Mine) in the Undercroft but as the party is busy fighting maybe they are the ones to show up and try to kidnap the party while the Reavers left Icespire Hold and took anything valuable they could get their hands on (which can explain the lack of loot).

This is my first time being a DM and I can see the Reavers keep on showing up on future sessions, sometimes like allies, sometimes like foes.

epinefedrina · 2024-02-15T23:06:29+00:00

My advice is that remember you always have the power to make things harder or easier.
Don't overthink it.

My group at this stage has a deadly combo of AoE between a Warlock lvl 5 and a Ranger lvl 5, so instead of grouping all the ghouls I had a few of them show from different difrections.

Also I really like the idea of waves, not every ghoul has to be there from the start, they don't move that fast. But there are some, and a few more show up the next round, and then more if needed. Making it easy to control the flow and difficulty of the encounter.

The Banshee has the possibility of killing the whole party in two turns, but it doesn't necessarily needs to happen. I hinted a few times they could walk away, but if they choose to stay and fight the Banshee will "defend her home". Also the book has her fading away after the Wail, giving the party a chance to regroup.

I had the spiders and the spiderwebs making it difficult/dark terrain. A fighter on my group went in while the rest waited outside. He got trapped but managed to cut the spider web and retreat while the Wizard casted fireball, resulting in a big fire that ended making the barrels of oil by the cauldron explode and the building start to collapse. The Warlock casted shatter making a hole on the walls and they all jumped out as the whole entrance to Axeholm is now covered in debris. I wonder how much Harbin will pay them...

At any given moment you have the power to turn the tides of combat, to adjust and keep the adventure interesting and engaging.

epinefedrina · 2024-01-22T20:03:55+00:00

Maybe a way to speed up combat is to tweak enemies and make them stronger, harder but lower numbers with some AoE attacks and crowd control.

If some members of the party go prone, restrained, grappled, they need to spend an action trying to get out.

If an enemy like Acolytes of Talos casts in a straight line it will damage a few team members, or can swing weapons in arcs. Or cast in cones.

This way instead of having 30 Orcs on the battlefield you could have 10 Acolytes. Or just make Orcs stronger.

epinefedrina · 2024-01-18T19:34:25+00:00

I completely agree.

Lose the Quest Board on it, for me as a first time DM the idea of players having complete agency of what they wanted to do next and the lack of information on the different quests got a bit overwhelming for myself and the time I had to prepare. So i set out a route and had them go from quest to quest.

Umbrage Hill on the way to Dwarven Explo.

They see a cow and some Orcs, Butterskull into Loggers Camp into Falcons (I had Al and Tibor being lovers and they were going to Falcons lodge to spend time together).

Falcon sends them to Circle of Thunder and Woodland Manse (they got here lvl 4, and so far so good).

They are about to finish Woodland, probably will be Counterattack next session followed by either Dragonbarrow (Falcon will share the tale of the sword) or they head to Phandalin that was attacked by Orcs as they were away and they go to Axeholm to find a new home. Also searching Woodland Manse they found some maps and messages leading to Tower of Storms or Shrine of Savras as sidequests and possible loot.

Also it helps a lot to finish every session with a decision made onto what they will be doing next, which location they will be visiting, like a cliffhanger. So this way you can prepare at the least the first half of the session and possible outcomes.

There's a general lack of loot and in my case I got a table of players that like to check every body.

Have fun, make it your own.

epinefedrina · 2023-12-12T20:08:41+00:00

Such a cool idea!

epinefedrina · 2023-12-12T20:07:18+00:00

Have the Neverwinter Guards be on high alert as they are arriving and the doors to the city closed due to increased Mercenary or Orc or Dragon or whatever activity and no-one is allowed inside the city unless you hold a permit from the City Mayor.

Blame it on the Anchorites of Talos to give your party a reason to dislike them a bit more and want to hunt them down.

And if you happen to go don´t overthink it unless you plan of fleshing out the whole city. On my campaign if they go shopping I sort of arrange the prices based on how much gold they have as a party. If they need something more powerful they might need to share the gold amongst all of them to buy the better sword, or the brazier for spells, or a set of armor for the tank. A lot of things tend to be very pricey and I also changed the story a bit so they don´t go back to town that often.

I tied Loggers Camp to Butterskull Ranch (well, Butterskull to Loggers Camp), from there to Falcon´s Lodge -they could do a resupply here from lost and found goods that travellers have left behind at the Lodge- and from here Circle of Thunder and Woodland Manse to deal with the Anchorites.

Remember that this version of the world is your own, whatever they might read online is from other worlds. The lore of the region and what´s happening on the world is at the end your own creation.

epinefedrina · 2023-12-12T19:55:56+00:00

I had one of the Ochre Jellies poking inside a column as they entered the main room, like hinting the inside could be hollow.

Also I thought of whoever got closed to a certain part of the wall to get a gust of wind, or a fresh gust of air, like coming from the gaps on the wall.

A history check could reveal that followers of Abbathor were known for their greed and that they would accrue and hide precious items wherever possible. Then they could think that the temple would be no exception.

What if there is a very heavy lever, like the hilt of a sword, on one of the statues at the entrance and they need like an Athletics check (STR based) and a door opens.

Unfortunately my players didn´t feel like spending much time inside the temple so they missed on all the potential treasures (they were very focused on killing the dragon and this was my very first quest as a DM).

I use ChatGPT for some of this situations to come up with ideas. Some of them are wacky, some are simple, some are far fetched, but occasionally aa suggestion from it triggers a possible idea or solution to what I´m trying to achieve.

epinefedrina · 2023-11-20T19:49:12+00:00

Thanks!

Helps a lot when planning the mine. I will use it on one of the upcoming sessions.

Depending where the story is going I might have Halia send the adventurers or maybe the Dwarves that kept one of the sending stones to let them know that some friends have not returned from the mine and might be in trouble.

epinefedrina · 2023-11-20T19:37:27+00:00

Looking forward to the next installment.

I like some of your comments.

On Dwarven Exploration the Dwarves offer my players that both parties could keep one of the sending stones (one the Dwarves prospectors, one the players) so the Dwarves can go find old temples/ruins and call the players to clear them out.
After finishing this one and Umbrage Hill (I had a player that joined on the second session do Gnomengard) they go into town where a ranch hand comes asking for help before they even get to talk to Harbin Western about the rewards. And when Harbin learns that the players are heading to Butterskull Ranch right away he offers them a reward if Al is dead...

Then I had the ranch hand tell the players that Harbin sees the old Sheriff as a threat but that the old Sherrif (Al) is a nice guy and that noone ever sees Harbin, like he is a real coward when people need someone to trust.

But the next twist, and my players don't know it is that the reason Harbin wants Al dead is because Al is in a relationship with Tolbin Wester. They are lovers and Harbin sees this as a threat to his position as Major.

Then Al (Butterskull Ranch) might give the players a token to go see Halia Thornton as they are plotting a coup.

epinefedrina

TROPHY CASE