D&D 5E Rime of the Frostmaiden Previews Include a Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning

Some D&D designers and freelancers have been sharing previews of what's inside Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Take a look!

When a wizard puts their brain inside a helmless horror.

David Sladek

A ring of warmth.

Claudio Pozas

And this last item... perhaps the less said the better? Ouch!

 

[Mistwell]

D&D: "... Includes a Scroll of Tarasque Summoning."
Me: "Congratulations on breaking the game."

I mean it can have a great story reason and be limited to a single item, but they've created it. It will be put as an item in Roll20, D&D Beyond, etc. It's a scroll that (I'm guessing) can now be scribed during a wizard's downtime activity.

So yeah, they pretty much just broke 5e.

I thought you said you don't play 5e?

God, I wish this was an April 1st joke.

You talking to yourself?

Just talking to myself.

Ah, thank you for the clarification.

 

[Eltab]

The Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning has to be cursed and malfunctioning. It sounds like "bait"; too-easy way to solve a problem.

My Evil DM thought was that reading that scroll actually summons you to the place where the Tarrasque slumbers and awakens it. You get subjected to an illusion that you haven't moved. And it's still darn cold here (because this environment is designed to make the Tarrasque want to hibernate). 'Behind the scenes', you might actually be in "Antarctica" - but how would the characters know that?

 

[Eltab]

The "Wish" thread is Summoned and ...

God, I wish this was an April 1st joke.

Your wish is granted. >Poof<
HIS calendar - but nobody else's - says April 2.

 

[Alzrius]

This reminds me of the talon of final destruction magic item, from the "Sleeping Dragon" adventure for the Council of Wyrms campaign in Dungeon issue #48 (July/August, 1994), by Bill Slavicsek. Basically, it was a single-use item that let you summon the tarrasque and give it a single order which it had to follow for 1d6+8 days, after which there was a 50% chance it would not return to dormancy but instead seek to destroy the person who summoned it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning, finally, a magic item that might rival the Deck of Many Things for its ability to wreck a campaign.

No way, I've wrecked five separate campaigns with a Deck of Many Things! And I'll do it again. It's just got this hold on me...

 

[Reynard]

The Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning has to be cursed and malfunctioning. It sounds like "bait"; too-easy way to solve a problem.

My Evil DM thought was that reading that scroll actually summons you to the place where the Tarrasque slumbers and awakens it. You get subjected to an illusion that you haven't moved. And it's still darn cold here (because this environment is designed to make the Tarrasque want to hibernate). 'Behind the scenes', you might actually be in "Antarctica" - but how would the characters know that?

I don't think it is an easy solution to anything. In fact it potentially creates a whole lot more problems than it could solve. Most of the players I know would agonize over using such an item because of its destructive potential.

I mean, sure, the GM could present it in such a way that it becomes a "We Win" button but I don't know too many GMs that are that terrible at running the game. In fact I would say that 90% of "problems" in D&D only exist in white room theory craft and never appear in actual play with real people. But that's probably a different thread.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No way, I've wrecked five separate campaigns with a Deck of Many Things! And I'll do it again. It's just got this hold on me...

I'm actually pondering buying one of the beautiful ones for sale on Etsy. At that point, it's guaranteed to start showing up in my campaigns.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm actually pondering buying one of the beautiful ones for sale on Etsy. At that point, it's guaranteed to start showing up in my campaigns.

I think I own every official version ever made, all the way back to the cardstock insert in Dragon Magazine.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I've always found the use of the name "Tarrasque" for this D&D kaiju to be weird considering the real world French story of the Tarasque.

From Wikipedia:

The king of Nerluc had attacked the Tarasque with knights and catapults to no avail. But Saint Martha found the beast and charmed it with hymns and prayers, and led back the tamed Tarasque to the city. The people, terrified by the monster, attacked it when it drew nigh. The monster offered no resistance and died there. Martha then preached to the people and converted many of them to Christianity. Sorry for what they had done to the tamed monster, the newly Christianized townspeople changed the town's name to Tarascon.

So to sum it up, the D&D "Tarrasque" is an immortal kaiju, and the original French "Tarasque" was a monster that was tamed, killed anyway despite putting up no resistance, and the people of the city were so ashamed of brutally killing the poor animal that they renamed the town, put on festivals, and built statues in its honor.

Maybe whoever first came up with the D&D Tarrasque imagined a "Gorgo" style scenario, in which the Tarasque of French folklore was just a baby and the D&D Tarrasque is the pissed-off mother.

BTW: I once had a Young Earth Creationist book full of gems like "maybe the Tarasque was a triceratops or whatever, who knows???"

 

[Carmen Sbordone]

The scroll feels like something some 13 year old munchkin would come up with.