IRON DM 2025 Tournament Thread

[AustinHolm]

Traumhammer​

An Adventure for Dungeons and Dragons (5e (2014)), intended for 4 fifth-level characters
CW: Euthanasia, Suicide

Ingredients:

• Shrimp Heaven
• Aggressive Puzzle
• Restless Thieves
• Weight of Inevitability
• Death Wish
• Fertile Ground
• Shoulder Pads
• Imposter Syndrome

TEXT:
Nightmares wrack the kingdom. From beggars to Barons, everyone who falls asleep has the same terrible, restless dream.

A painful pressure on the chest. An outraged sense of loss. Screams for help.

Her Majesty’s sages locate the psychic disturbance in the Traumwüste desert, home to the legendary Dreamsculptor Titan, Traumbildhaur. Exiled from the Dreamrealm, he’s lived on the mortal plane for centuries.

The PCs find the giant crawling across the desert, screaming about his magic hammer, stolen by thieves. Without it, reality’s rules are imposing themselves on Traumbildhaur. The cube-square law takes effect; his breathing grows difficult. Unable to walk, he crawls. Ever-growing weight crushes him against the burning desert sand.

He begs for death’s release. Only then will his psychic scream cease, letting the kingdom rest again. One problem: his hammer gives him just enough divine energy to make his death centuries-slow.

The pauldron-wearing thieves who stole it haven’t fled the desert. Fear of Traumbildhaur, his killer construct Rätsel, and their own misuse of the wish-granting hammer have them cowering inside their cave lair. Recover the hammer. Destroy it! Give both Titan and Kingdom the mercy they seek.

Hooks​

A psychic screaming haunts the kingdom’s dreamers.

Peace: Stop the screaming in your head.
Payment: Stop the screaming in the Queen’s head. She’s rich!
Compassion: Ease the screamer’s pain.

NPCs​

The Dreamsculptor​

Traumbildhaur, the Dreamsculptor, is easy to find; you’ll hear his screams in adjacent hexes, and he’s visible from the Mountain.

This blue-skinned, flower-eyed titan would stand over eighty feet tall if he weren’t forced Prone. An exile from the Dreamrealm, only his magic hammer kept him safe from this reality’s gravity. Without it, physics has reasserted itself, crushing him under his own weight. Inevitably, he’ll choke to death. This will take centuries.

He’s a Cloud Giant, with some differences. He:

• Is Prone and cannot stand.
• Is immune to damage (Gods can harm him)
• Speaks Giant, Primordial, and Elven.
• Can’t cast Fly, Misty Step, or Gaseous Form.
• Replaces his Morningstar attack with a Slam (bludgeoning damage)

His pain drives him to attack humanoids, thinking they’re the thieves who robbed him. Addressed in Giant, Primordial, or Elven, he can be calmed. He’ll explain his situation and beg for death’s release.

He’s semi-divine; mortal weapons and magic won’t end his suffering. His separation from his hammer in this hostile reality makes his death inevitable; the hammer’s existence feeds him just enough dream magic to make that death slow and painful. He’s understandably depressed.

Bandits​

These Thieves fight as Bandit Captains (14 AC due to their Parasol Pauldrons). Garnele, their chief, is an Assassin (AC 14, same reason). They’ve wished away their sleep.

Thieves have hidden in this desert for generations. Their armour, gigantic ceramic pauldrons, is adapted for the heat. The ceramic cools better than metal; the parasol-like design keeps light off the body while allowing more breeze than leather. Parasol Pauldrons are Medium Armour (AC 14, Disadvantage to Stealth).

Rätsel​

Forged from interlinked mithril puzzle-plates by the Dreamsculptor to be companion and enforcer. Trambildhaur’s pain drives it mad with rage. It seeks only violence.

Three puzzle-plates are missing, scattered across the Traumwüste. Adding puzzle pieces increases Rätsel’s AC, but it can’t be truly destroyed while incomplete. Weise helped create it; he knows how to destroy the creature.

It fights as a Clay Golem, with these changes:

• No Acid Absorption or Haste
• AC 8 (+3 for each restored puzzle piece)
• Reattaching a puzzle piece takes a successful melee attack and a DC 12 Intelligence check
• Half HP (66)

During combat, it screams about ‘solving’ the PCs. At 0 hp, if Rätsel has all its pieces, it asks a riddle with its hollow metal voice:

Hidden in chaos
Fun until complete
Join me for a good time
Where uneven edges meet
Who am I?

The answer (“a Puzzle”) ‘kills’ Rätsel, making it an inanimate mithril statue. If transported and sold, the oversized object is worth 1500gp. Wrong answers only deactivate it temporarily; it returns to full HP when it's next randomly encountered.

Weise​

Student-servant to Traumbildhaur and Mage, he knows all Illusion spells. He seeks the hammer’s destruction and peace for his master. He weeps for the Dreamsculptor’s unavoidable fate. He tests interlopers’ morals and meditates atop the Mesa.

Random Encounters​

1:6 chance of a Random Encounter when entering a hex.
2:6 chance every 10 minutes in the Caves.
Replace previously rolled or killed Encounters with Rätsel.

1. Dreamsculptor​

Desert: Traumbildhaur crawls in agony, attacking all he sees. Can be reasoned with (see above).
Caves: Traumbildhaur reaches inside, flailing around the Main Cave (see below).

2. Bandits​

Desert: 1d6+6 Thieves. This group’s over the hammer. Between Rätsel and the Shrimp, it’s too much trouble. They’re looking to steal enough gold to head back to town. They’ll stalk the PCs from a distance. Their Pauldrons keep them safe from the heat, and they don’t need sleep. When the PCs are sunburnt, tired, and resting, they’ll attack.
Caves: Erratic. Paranoid. In desperate need of help. They’ll bargain for safe passage back to town. Hochstapler tries to lead PCs and other thieves to their deaths.

3. Rätsel​

Desert: Rätsel attacks! It screams about ‘solving’ the PCs and demands the hammer’s location.
Caves: Rätsel appears at the entrance, moving through the caves, slaughtering all thieves it encounters. Their weapons cannot harm it.

4. Heat​

Desert: DC 14 Constitution Save or Exhaustion. Disadvantage if wearing non-Parasol-Pauldron armour.
Caves: You’re safe and cool. No encounter, just a slight breeze.

5. Weise​

Desert: Weise flies high overhead. He creates an illusion of an injured orc with a chest of gold. He’s testing interlopers’ morals. Try to rob or kill the helpless illusion, and you’ll earn an ‘educational’ Fireball. Weise flies back to his Mesa; if he likes you, he’ll fly low to lead you back.
Caves: 2d6 Thieves return with a hostage: Weise! They’ll threaten his life, demanding Traumbildhaur allow them to escape with the hammer.
This won’t work.

6. Double Encounter​

Roll 2d4, taking both encounters rolled.

Hexcrawl Features​

Heat: Wearing armour in the desert requires a DC 14 Constitution save each day (failure causes Exhaustion). Parasol Pauldrons avoid this.

Traumbildhaur: Randomly determine his starting hex. He’ll move as Random Encounters dictate.

Nightmares: Visions spoil 4:6 Long Rests. PCs with 15+ Wisdom sense Traumbildhaur’s direction in their dreams.

Hexcrawl​

Mountain: An arduous hike: DC 12 Constitution Save or d6 damage. From the top, you can see the whole desert, including Traumbildhaur’s location and the glint of Rätsel’s mithral pieces at the Battlefield and Mesa.

Battlefield: Thirty slain thieves. They hold 300gp, Parasol Pauldrons, Scimitars, and a map to their caves. Their killer left only one sign: a bloodstained mithral puzzle piece.

Mesa: This forty-foot-tall mesa is only ten feet in diameter. Atop it sits a lone stylite, Weise the Mage.

DC 14 Strength (Athletics) to climb the mesa without a forty-foot fall.

Weise meditates, eyes open, staring into a Mithril Puzzle Piece. Interrupted, he’s irate. If you wait an hour for him to finish, he’s pleasant. He knows the desert’s secrets: why the thieves wear pauldrons, what happened to Traumbildhaur, and Rätsel’s weaknesses. He’ll tell good people and Traumbildhaur’s allies how Rätsel becomes stronger with each restored puzzle piece, but can’t be killed while incomplete.

Caves: The thieves’ lair.

The Caves​

Seven surviving thieves here: Garnele, the leader; Hochstapler, the spy; Lösung, the greedy; and four guards: Hans, Frans, Otto, and Carl.

Main Room​

This entrance cave is only narrow at the front. It opens out, connecting to the Cellar, Garden, Barracks, and Throne Room. If Traumbildhaur is outside, his flailing arm makes this area dangerous: Dexterity Save DC 16 or take 3d8+8 bludgeoning.

Cellar​

The Cellar’s full of dried rations and bottles of strange yellow wine. Hochstapler hides in a corner.

Realizing the Dreamsculptor could use their dreams against them, the first thing the thieves did was use the hammer to wish away their sleep. They keep it bottled here; each bottle is a potion of sleep. Otherwise, the thieves don’t sleep; they’ve become erratic and paranoid.

Hochstapler’s not taking to sleeplessness well. He’s become erratic, sometimes sneaking into the cellar to drink his own sleep. While exposed to dreams, the Dreamsculptor incepted him with madness. Hochstapler believes he’s an inhuman Doppleganger from the Dreamrealms, sent to infiltrate and kill the other thieves. He’s poisoned the rations here: 3d6 poison damage, DC 14 Constitution Save for half. He’ll try to trick PCs and other thieves into eating, then flee to the Garden. If his delusions can be cured, he’ll seek to escape.

Garden​

Four thieves stand guard, eager to spill blood. Beseiged in their desert hideaway, the thieves tried using the hammer’s wishes to grow food. Now their kitchen is enchanted; the soil here can grow anything.

Anything.

Any food that touches the ground here explodes into a tree growing more of the same (Dexterity Save DC 13 or 3d6 bludgeoning within 10ft). 5d20 rations are currently growing here. Jostle them at your own risk!

If blood touches the soil, clones sprout up. They grow in two rounds and have half their original’s HP, the plant type, and vulnerability to fire. They’ll try to bleed as many people as possible to create an army of plant clones.

Secret: Behind a shelf, there’s a secret back exit. DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) to find it. Can be used to evade Traumbildhaur. The thieves know its location.

Barracks​

These sleeping quarters haven’t seen much use lately. Lösung lurks here. He’s stolen some treasure: 1200gp and a mithril puzzle piece. He’s seen enough death to freak him out and no longer cares about wishes and magic hammers; he just wants to go home. He’ll insist on rescuing Hochstapler. This might get him killed.

Throne Room​

Garnele, chief thief and Assassin, lurks outside a door. Inside, magically enlarged Shrimp prowl around the hammer.

The Thieves grew too lazy even to magically grow food. They used the hammer foolishly, wishing for frivolities like wine and exotic shellfish. During their revels, a live shrimp accidentally touched the hammer. Its wish was for its dead friends to live again in a perfect (by Shrimp standards) world.

Most of the thieves died in the immediate aftermath.

The thieves’ ‘throne room’ is now half-underwater and thoroughly coated in a thick, nutrient-rich sludge. Worse still, there are 10 Resurrected Shrimp, returned to life as horse-sized monsters. They act as Ankhegs with:

• 9 Intelligence
• A Boiling Water Spray attack (not acid)
• 30ft Swim speed

They’re enjoying their new place atop the food chain. They’ll peel, devein, boil, and eat any humans they catch. They are otherwise occupied making love and painting art that only shrimp eyes can appreciate. They’ve never left the room and can be distracted by novel colours.

The hammer’s underwater, at the pool’s centre. The Hammer grants 1 Wish each day (as the spell), but twists the PCs’ wishes as much as it did the thieves’. It resizes itself for new wielders. The Shrimps have no further interest in it; as far as they're concerned, this is heaven.

Garnele lurks outside the door. He’ll lure the heroes into fighting the Shrimps, then make a break for the hammer and wish himself somewhere else. If he’s allowed to teleport back to town, Traumbildhaur and Rätsel follow, with catastrophic consequences.

Conclusion​

Only a Wish can destroy the Hammer.

Hammer Stolen: If the PCs (or Garnele) escape with the hammer, the psychic screams continue. Traumbildhaur and Rätsel inevitably find the hammer, possibly causing havoc in a beloved town or home base.

Hammer Returned: Returning the hammer slows the gravity-infected giant’s collapse, but not even a Wish can reverse it. Reality has claimed him. He’ll wish himself dead, destroying the hammer.

Hammer Destroyed: If Traumbildhaur gets his wish and his hammer is destroyed, he dies. For granting his death wish, the Dreamsculptor uses his dying energy to grant a Wish for his hammer’s destroyer. The screaming stops. In reward, the Queen grants the PCs lordship over Traumwüste desert.

 

[Fenris-77]

So judges, how difficult have @AustinHolm and I made your judging lives?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So judges, how difficult have @AustinHolm and I made your judging lives?

Very tricky indeed. I am slowly working on it, but I don't think you'll see it very soon.

 

[Fenris-77]

Very tricky indeed. I am slowly working on it, but I don't think you'll see it very soon.

No hurry my friend. With the struggle I had to write mine I had a feeling it would a tough round to judge.

 

[Rune]

Rune’s Judgement for IRON DM 2025 Championship Match: AustinHolm vs Fenris-77


Overview
At last we come to the culmination of this tournament. Both entries are polished and well-presented.

One seems tailor-made to appeal to my tastes to such a degree that I have to wonder if its author researched my past contributions to this tournament and forum as a whole. I mean, general tone and thematic things like high-fantasy, reality-warping, dream-stuff is right up many allies, mine included. And I’m hardly the only DM to love a good riddle. But using german words as names that hint at NPCs’ roles in the adventure is a technique I have definitely employed as a contestant. What an extraordinary coincidence that would be.

How do I feel about this? Flattered? Targeted? Manipulated? Intrigued, maybe. Playing the judges has always been part of the tournament. Writing something designed to appeal is a smart play. If you can pull it off.

If AustinHolm did a little research on my historical contributions (and I don’t know that it is the case), that’s kind of an impressive effort, given that some of that research would be from over twenty years ago!

So, I recognize the possibility and I move on. I am not judging authorial intent. As always, the only thing that matters is what is in the text.

And what are we presented with in the text of these entries? Fenris-77’s PARADiS3 R3GAiNED (“PARADiS3”) is a cyberpunk heist using what I assume is a derivative of the Mörk Borg system. This adventure reads like a short story and is packed with style. It is loaded with fun NPCs and scenarios, but is ultimately far more linear than I would expect for a heist adventure. As always when pointing this out, I will point out that that linearity is not necessarily a flaw in an adventure. It is merely inherently limiting to both the players and the GM. Sometimes that limitation is what an adventure needs. Will that be the case here? We shall see.

In contrast, AustinHolm’s Traumhammer (“hammer”) is on the other end of the spectrum; it is a hexcrawl. It too has very interesting NPCs along with solid and conflicting motivations (crucial for a sandbox). Its presentation is clean and efficient – a hexcrawl could easily get cluttered with unnecessary detail, but this adventure avoids that deftly.

Hooks and Stakes
“hammer” provides simple, strong hooks that appeal to fundamental desires: peace (from psychic torment), payment (from the Queen), and compassion (for the giant, mostly). An unspoken fourth motivator strongly underpins the adventure, as well: curiosity. The premise is simple, but immediately interesting.

The stakes are similarly strong. At first, the sanity and lives of the PCs and NPC are imperiled. Ultimately, an entire town or similar home base for the PCs may be destroyed if any of the thieves are allowed to use the Traumhammer to escape. This is all very good stuff.

“PARADiS3” assumes the PCs are hard-up and ready for a job. This is probably a safe assumption within the genre. The stakes are similarly straightforward: success means Little Paradise gets to be complete, Wayland is (presumably) at least partially destroyed, and the PCs get paid. Failure means the status quo remains unchanged and the PCs suffer the consequences of getting caught. All solid enough.

Structure
“PARADiS3” is presented cinematically, even including a montage (which may be a feature of the system used, for all I know). This reads well, but I think may contribute to its linearity. Perhaps it is not meant to play out as much so as it seems, but, if not, I think something is getting lost in the presentation. I think what I’m getting hung up on is the assumed plan. With a heist adventure, I would want to present obstacles for the PCs to get around, but the actual plan should be the PCs’ to come up with and that doesn’t really seem to be the case, here. Maybe I’m missing something.

Whereas, in “hammer” the PCs have the freedom to pursue their goals as (and in whichever direction) they wish. The adventure will come to them if they stray. And the NPCs’ motivations are (mostly) easy to understand and contribute to the movement of their adventure with their conflicts and complications.

I am a little unsure that the PCs will be able to figure out that dealing with Rätsel will require a scavenger hunt. I also wonder why Traumbildhaur is more subject to reality than normal D&D giants, but these are quibbles. In the first case, there are many ways to seed in additional hints and in the latter, I assume it has something to do with being native to the dreamworld? That seems like an interesting avenue to explore, if the PCs even question it.

Overall, “hammer” is an excellent adventure begging to be run.

Ingredients

Shrimp Heaven
In “hammer”, we have lair/hunting ground taken over by the giant dream-wish-warped shrimp. This is a fun element that fully fits into the context of the adventure, but really any obstacle would serve the same purpose.

Meanwhile, the AlgaeFab Labs of “PARADiS3” are – or, rather, were – a water filtration system that used bioengineered plants and shrimp. I think there is a missed opportunity here. This ingredient could have been made relevant to the adventure by doing something like including enhanced shrimp with the ability to communicate telepathically and a desire to return to their lost paradise. Instead, we get nothing. Just a background element, and not even one that focuses on the shrimp or the heaven.

This first ingredient belongs to “hammer”.

Aggressive Puzzle
“PARADiS3” gives us Parcival, who loves games. If that were all this was, it would be adequate. But Parcival is himself (itself?) a puzzle that the players can solve by figuring out his vulnerability to flattery. This is clever. It is one of the obstacles the PCs need to contend with, so is also relevant.

In “hammer”, we have Rätsel, a (mostly) unkillable monster with missing interlocking armored plates that will relentlessly hunt the PCs and ultimately give them a riddle. The riddle is a simple one, but that’s a good thing in an adventure, because it’s far better for players to feel the satisfaction of solving one than the frustration of not doing so (especially if it is necessary for the adventure to progress – although that isn’t really the case here).

On a barely related note, we have a thread for riddles meant for the table that folk can check out here. I only mention it because I haven’t thought about that thread in years and we just don’t see very many riddles in IRON DM entries. This one is a good one.

But I think “PARADiS3” is a better fit for the ingredient. That it is both simple and clever is a nice bonus.

Restless Thieves
“hammer” provides a bunch of thieves who have wished their need to sleep away to protect from dream-induced insanity. The ones with names have solid motivations which, when acted upon, will complicate the adventure nicely in various ways.

In “PARADiS3”, the PCs are the restless thieves, in need of money and haunted by a soon-to-be employer. This ingredient consists of the entirety of the hook; it would be hard to be more relevant. But the restlessness is a bit of a stretch. I guess it’s true if the players buy in, but I’m not as sure that’s a given as the adventure seems to.

This one goes to “hammer”.

Weight of Inevitability
“PARADiS3” tells us that the alarm will get triggered and reinforces it with simple compounding mechanics. The weight, I assume, is metaphorical. And possibly a pun. This is all good.

On the other hand, “hammer” uses this ingredient to give us the basis for the adventure in the form of a literally crushing reality for Traumbildhaur. I find this to be not only very clever and very relevant, but also an exceptionally intriguing scenario to hook the players with. Outstanding.

Death Wish
Traumbildhaur’s final wish to destroy hammer and self is the best possible outcome of “hammer”. This is lovely, especially if the PCs have had a chance to get to know him first.

Whereas, the killer robots of “PARADiS3” are merely obstacles that will probably (but not necessarily) randomly appear once the alarm is triggered. Oh, and they have WISH in their name.

“hammer” obviously wins this one.

Fertile Ground
The Biochem Greenhouse of “PARADiS3” where the PCs can meet and recruit Candida is a nice set piece that fits into the scenario, but I’m not sure how its fertile ground matters to the adventure.

Similarly, the dream-warping-food-wish-powered Garden in the thieves’ caves of “hammer” is a very fun addition to the adventure and its secret passage can be used to evade the Traumhammer, but it’s relevance to the adventure seems to end there. I really like this element in the adventure, but I don’t think the ingredient is any stronger than in the other entry.

So I guess this ingredient is a tie.

Shoulder Pads
“hammer” has the Parasol Pauldrons worn by the thieves. This works, but I’m not sure how much it matters to the PCs. Surely, by the time the PCs can liberate them from some thieves, they will have already found some means of dealing with the desert heat?

In “PARADiS3” the RIFD chips are located in the shoulders for some reason that doesn’t seem to matter.

Another one for “hammer”.

Imposter Syndrome
I’m not really sure which elements of “PARADiS3” are meant to apply, here. Little Paradise is seeking to regain its lost self and is certainly afflicted by a set of symptoms (having been actively targeted by malware), but does not seem to be an impostor. There are two versions of Mr. Smith, but they aren’t really impostors (also, it doesn’t really matter?). Candita now works for her enemy and might be conflicted about that, that’s not really imposter syndrome.

What about the PCs? They might disguise themselves as Wayland employees and thereby attack the mainframe with the virus on the datastick. I guess that’s the best fit, but seems to be a bit of a stretch.

In “hammer”, we have Hochstapler, who has been stealing sleep and has thus been driven insane. He now thinks he is a Doppelgänger and is trying to kill his companions. This is a great complication (moreso, because Lösung insists on rescuing him). Also, the Garden might produce blood-clones to add to the violence and chaos of that room. Good stuff.

“hammer” takes this one, as well.

Spoiler: Final Judgement:

PARADiS3 R3GAiNED is a solid entry into this championship round of IRON DM. It is slick and stylish. If the other judges deem it the victor, I would not be confounded. It is a good entry. But sometimes you run up against a competitor at the top of their game, and that is what I find in Traumhammer. AustinHolm has given us a top-tier entry that stands among the best of any I have seen. And I have seen many.

Fenris-77, you wrote the adventure you wanted to write and I’m sure it would go over well at the table. And, while I think it might have been nice if it was a little less linear, I’m hesitant to call that a flaw here, as I don’t think it is likely a detriment to the gameplay. It looks more like a matter of preference. I do think that a couple of ingredients might have been underdeveloped, but sometimes that’s just what you have to do with the ones that are giving you trouble. You’ve shown yourself to be capable and impressive in this tournament (with your second round entry being an exceptional example). I look forward to the day you earn the championship.

This time, however, I nominate AustinHolm to be IRON DM 2025.