D&D 5E Enhancing "Rise of Tiamat" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

weedenbc · Oct 7, 2020

robus said:
I believe so. The bit where Harshnag(?) gives them the main quest. Instead Blagothkus can be that link. Especially as he might owe them a favor if they liberate his castle. I had the dragon cult hold his wife’s spirit hostage in order to get Blagothkus to comply with their demands.

Just finished reading through ROT and SKT over the weekend. I think that will work, assuming Blagothkus survives the end of HODQ

But even if he doesn't, I think I can have Harshnag show up to one of the Council Meetings or maybe have the Council send the party to find him to link in.

I also think I'll change up the Oracle part of SKT to have them do the Stone, Frost, and Fire giant castles.

weedenbc · Dec 28, 2020

My party is finally starting ROT this weekend and I'm super pumped! Made a lot of changes to it based on the great feedback here and elsewhere.

One final question - what can I do with the Draakhorn? Right now I have it blowing in the very beginning of episode 1, sort of as creating some uneasiness (and perhaps challenges with the baby black dragon the party just hatched!) and then two days later they get the summons from Leosin to the First Council Meeting.

But other than that, I don't really have a role for the Draakhorn. I'm dropping Sea of Moving Ice in favor of Frozen Castle and some other stuff so right now it won't come up again. But it seems like I probably should have it in there and potentially a way for the characters to get their hands on it? Or would that mean giving away where the Well of Dragons is too early?

Maybe instead having them go on a quest to retrieve some artifact of Bahamut that can rally the good dragons?

Eltab · Dec 29, 2020

Let a Ranger or a Druid treat that long continuous note from the Draakhorn as a 'homing beacon'; plot your location on a map and listen to where the sound is coming from*. Do this several times while traveling to get a general zone of origin, which can eventually be refined to the Well of Dragons.

Some of the Ancient Dragons who have decided to sit on the sidelines (see SKT) might want a group of adventurers - who will be traced back to the Lord's Alliance not back to the dragon - to go shut off that awful racket. Or get a bottle of 'aspirin' to deal with the Excedrin Headache they are developing.

* In the quiet of the very break of dawn, when night animals are settling in to rest and the day creatures have not yet greeted the morning, stand atop a hill and Listen. This may only work at dawn or dusk.

P.S. The Zhents own a fortress not too far from the Well of Dragons. They might let some spies use it as a forward base ... if the spies are discrete and if the price is right.

The Green Hermit · Dec 29, 2020

I like those ideas!

weedenbc · Mar 23, 2021

Currently prepping the second arc of my ROT campaign, which will end with Xonthal's Tower. Before they get to Xonthal's Tower, my party will have already had more than their share of experiences with various types of elementals as part of the Elementum Divinantor episode I'm adding to the beginning of this arc (along with Frozen Castle). So I'm planning on replacing the elementals in the dungeon of Xonthal's tower with demons and the backstory is that Xonthal was experimenting with summoning and controlling demons before he stumbled across a horrible secret.

The party will be 5 level 12 PCs by the time they get here. The plan is as follows:

Replace the fire and earth elementals at the checkpoint with 2-3 Armanites
Replace the wind elemental in the study with a summoning pentagon and 5-6 Bulezau
Have the door for the storage closet at the end of the hallway be infested by an Alkilith
Change the crystal portal to be looking out on the Abyss (and moving the crystal rod switches the view to a different layer of the Abyss)
Replace the talkative efreeti with an allip that is all that remains of Xonthal and wants to share his horrible secret

I'm looking for ideas of what sort of secret the allip can be hiding. There's some good ideas on RPing the allip here, but I'm a stuck on what horrible secret Xonthal could have stumbled upon that destroyed his mind.

Suggestions?

jayoungr · Mar 23, 2021

weedenbc said:
I'm looking for ideas of what sort of secret the allip can be hiding. There's some good ideas on RPing the allip here, but I'm a stuck on what horrible secret Xonthal could have stumbled upon that destroyed his mind.

Don't demons specialize in mind-warping and madness? Maybe he summoned a demon that was too powerful for him to control, and it destroyed his mind before escaping into the tower dungeon. And maybe he thinks he learned a dreadful secret, but he just can't remember what it was...

weedenbc · Mar 23, 2021

jayoungr said:
Don't demons specialize in mind-warping and madness? Maybe he summoned a demon that was too powerful for him to control, and it destroyed his mind before escaping into the tower dungeon. And maybe he thinks he learned a dreadful secret, but he just can't remember what it was...

Yep could certainly go that way, but I was hoping to be able to come up with something related to the overall campaign plot. Maybe some role of the demons in bringing Tiamat into the Material Plane? Or a traitor among the Council of Waterdeep?

I think if it's terrible enough, then when he passes it to the PCs it adds another new wrinkle for how the plot will play out.

robus · Mar 23, 2021

weedenbc said:
Yep could certainly go that way, but I was hoping to be able to come up with something related to the overall campaign plot. Maybe some role of the demons in bringing Tiamat into the Material Plane? Or a traitor among the Council of Waterdeep?

I think if it's terrible enough, then when he passes it to the PCs it adds another new wrinkle for how the plot will play out.

Perhaps Xonthal provided the missing info for the summoning ritual and was mind addled by the cult for his reward? Do they know at this point what the cults plan is? I can’t remember...

And perhaps this is how they can get the info on how to disrupt the ritual?

weedenbc · Mar 24, 2021

All my party knows is that the Cult is trying to bring Tiamat back to the Material Plane. They have no idea how, why, or where.

I don’t think the published campaign has any details about how the summoning ceremony happens, other than it involves the Dragon Masks. I’ve already changed that up a bit as my party managed to successfully retrieve two masks so far (white and black). In my world, Severin doesn’t need the masks to bring her over, they only help determine how powerful she is.

I’m not sure if stopping the summoning is something I want the party to be able to do. That sort of eliminates the big finale! They definitely can impact Tiamat’s strength when she arrives and how many allied forces they have, however.

Alos, I don’t think there’s anything in the published campaign about a role for the Devils or Demons in the Cult‘s plans. I suspect the Demons may want her to stay in Avernus because the Devils have to expend power to keep her there.

jayoungr · Mar 24, 2021

weedenbc said:
I don’t think the published campaign has any details about how the summoning ceremony happens, other than it involves the Dragon Masks.

We know it requires at least five wizards to do the ritual, and a large number of sacrifices (see pages 85-86 of Rise of Tiamat if you have the two-volume version of the adventure or 171-172 of Tyranny of Dragons if you have the single-volume version).

weedenbc said:
Alos, I don’t think there’s anything in the published campaign about a role for the Devils or Demons in the Cult‘s plans.

Demons aren't mentioned, but devils show up a few times in RoT. There's Lord Vollmer and the "Devilish Demands" side encounter, plus devils are listed among the cult forces at the Well of Dragons. (See pages 7, 10, and 86 of RoT, or 10, 13, and 173 of ToD.)