NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="THEMNGMNT" data-source="post: 7925623" data-attributes="member: 6809274">I DM for two groups and played on back-to-back days with each last week. Both groups have 5 players.The first group are D&D noobs. This was our 7th session. They just hit 3rd level. We're playing through a heavily modified version of Dragon of Icespire Peak. In my version, there is a cult of Abbathor--dwarven god of greed and trickery--trying to stop the players from saving Phandalin. Also, I changed Gnomengarde into a magical academy--Hogwarts for gnomes. The player characters are travelling to Gnomengarde to acquire magic items they can use to fight the dragon. Prior to their arrival, the Abbathor cult sends in a group of doppelgangers posing as the PCs to assassinate the headmaster, kill the gnomes, and sow chaos. By the time the players arrive, all hell has broken loose. The gnomes attack the players and accuse them of murder. Through smart player, the players quickly figured out what was going on and rescue the headmaster. Good, productive session.The Essentials Kit is a great product and I don't think it gets the love it deserves.The second group are mostly old friends from grade school. We're scattered across the country so we play online. This was our 77th session. Their characters are 12th level. I'm running a mashup of Storm King's Thunder and Tyranny of Dragons/Scales of War. Basically, players are fighting on two fronts--giants and dragons. The session started with them in the process of infiltrating the fire giant lair, Ironslag. They jumped in the bucket chain on the upper level and rode it all the way through Ironslag, giving them a great overview of the lairs layout. It was a very cinematic moment--echoes of Temple of Doom. The PCs spotted the chief fire giant, Duke Zalto, and his wife--as well as enemies from a previous adventure. When the elf rogue spotted the enemies he jumped out of the bucket for a solo sneak attack. The other PCs went on to parley with Zalto's wife, who looked upon them favorably due to a charm spell from the halfling bard. When the session ended, she was in the process of taking the PCs to Zalto for further discussions. The players can already see their plans going sideways and predict they'll end up fighting both giants at the same time. We'll see. This group has played through Grudd Haug and Deadstone Cleft. Each giant lair is distinct and memorable. They're great. I think Storm King's Thunder definitely needs work, but it's unfairly maligned.</blockquote>

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