D&D 5E Thundertree (5ed Starter Box Set) Possible Spoilers

[Scrivener of Doom]

[MENTION=6747838]Fastjack[/MENTION], I like your ideas particularly how you're planning to incorporate the druid.

yeah, this is all great ideas. Thanks for posting, i can just take notes and tweak the adventure into something really cool.

YW. Please also post ideas you may have. What I posted was a first draft and very half-assed. I think the ENWorld hivemind can come up with some much better stuff.

 

[the Water Temple]

Mostly thanks to this thread, I've been thinking about the encounter and yes, it seems.. very weak.

The druid knows things, and would help, but the druid wants something in exchange (because.. he's a cantankerous old bastard? because he's unsure of the characters' moral fiber? something).

The village is pretty much just a stage in which to put the druid and the dragon.

First-thoughts:
* I don't really want my game to spend a lot of time here
* I'm not going to be running future games in the realms, and the whole cult of the dragon/dracolich thing is.. not me or my group. Ugh.
* even if it were.. why send weak, low-level cultists to try and convince a dragon? send someone with some power! except then it skews out of range for the adventure. so these cultists are weak and dumb and make no sense.

So I'm thinking something like this, now:
* Creatures in the area are the druid, the green dragon, a few twig blights, and a couple of ash zombies. The blights and zombies are more for ambiance than anything else.
* The town is called Thundertree due to a great oak that used to be at center of town. Any time a storm passed through, it would "eat" the lightning, acting as a giant lightning rod, protecting the town. The tree is just a stump now, having died in the eruption, but slumbering within it is a lightning elemental that could be awoken; it would act as a town guardian.
* The dragon is of the corrupting-type outlined in.. someone's link. It's basking in the residual volcano-destruction-magic that suffused the area, and planning on using this as a base to grow stronger in order to make a claim at the main forest to the north.
* The druid wants the dragon driven off, but wants the village to remain abandoned and be reclaimed by nature. Possible confrontation with the folk hero.
* The druid knows the location of Wave Echo Cave. Both the druid and the dragon know where Cragmaw Castle is.

Still debating the rest:
* Working the cultists back in as enthralled servants of the dragon. Maybe they're going around planting something the druid doesn't like, something that will help the dragon's influence.
* Druid might be in danger of falling under enthrallment as well. It could trigger if he and the dragon meet.
* Are the blights and zombies necessary at all?
* Maybe the zombies can take the enthralled-cultist role
* Really don't want to spend more than 30 minutes real-time in Thundertree, unless something extraordinary happens.
* ...what does an "ash zombie" even look like? Is it a zombie made of ash?

Possible resolutions:
* Drive the dragon off with help from the elemental
* Trade something to the dragon (bring it something valuable, or bring the druid to him)

 

[Andor]

This encounter set gets a lot of flak and I don't see why.

Yes, the module does not hold your hand and say you can buy the dragon off with 500 gp and a turducken, the check is Charisma (Persuasion DC 15).

It does however give you the cultists goals and the means they were going to employ. It even tells you how they will respond if you try to negotiate and if you try to bring them into a 3-way negotiation with the dragon.

If that's not enough of a hint that you don't have to run it as a bunch of static combat encounters, I don't know what is.

The module over all shows a clear progression in 'looseness', starting from a fairly simple combat based clear the dungeon encounter in the begining to the looser town setup with multiple subquests and competeing NPCs and ending with a multi-factional dungeon with several approaches to take and no clear end-point.

Thudertree is right in the middle of that progression. They are still pointing you down the street, but the training wheels have come off and you are expected to be able to ad lib. If you can't it's probably going to be a TPK. No pressure.

 

[KarinsDad]

This encounter set gets a lot of flak and I don't see why.

Yes, the module does not hold your hand and say you can buy the dragon off with 500 gp and a turducken, the check is Charisma (Persuasion DC 15).

It does however give you the cultists goals and the means they were going to employ. It even tells you how they will respond if you try to negotiate and if you try to bring them into a 3-way negotiation with the dragon.

If that's not enough of a hint that you don't have to run it as a bunch of static combat encounters, I don't know what is.

The module over all shows a clear progression in 'looseness', starting from a fairly simple combat based clear the dungeon encounter in the begining to the looser town setup with multiple subquests and competeing NPCs and ending with a multi-factional dungeon with several approaches to take and no clear end-point.

Thudertree is right in the middle of that progression. They are still pointing you down the street, but the training wheels have come off and you are expected to be able to ad lib. If you can't it's probably going to be a TPK. No pressure.

Whatever.

We play at our table to have fun, not for the DM (and possibly a new DM) to try to figure out what an author was smoking when he put a 16 HD dragon into an encounter for 3rd or 4th level PCs.

If you play at your table to either force your players into certain actions (i.e. negotiate) or allow them to get TPKed because they do not want to do what the module is forcing them to do (and one of the players is roleplaying their PC), that's your business. It just doesn't sound like fun to me for the module to be deciding PC actions and punishing them with a TPK if they do not conform (and also for having multiple clues that would result in a fight for the PCs). That's totally lame.


My suggestion to the OP, half the Dragon's hit dice and damages. Then, play it smart if it does get in a fight (i.e. never attack from the ground or if it does attack with melee, move in, attack, and fly away so that only one non-melee PC like the wizard or archer gets an OA and the rest of the PCs have to rely on ranged attacks; grab PCs and drop them from a significant height; run away at 75% damaged instead of 50%, etc.). It still makes it a tough encounter, but at least the players have a fair chance of avoiding a TPK.

Sorry, but this encounter is just plain terrible. Just because something is written down in a WotC adventure does not necessarily make it anywhere near a good idea.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Hey,

So last night I ran my players through Thundertree, which I very extensively modified. I began by removing the Twig Blights and Zombies, which didn't really fit what I wanted, and instead ran the town without the map or encounters described. As the players saw the town, the Green Dragon landed, scaring the crap out of them (I had informed them of its presence, and how much damage its breath weapon did prior to this point). They sent forward the rogue, who asked (humbly) what they could do for her. She asked them to retrieve her eggs, and destroy the cult which was infiltrated into the lumberjacking operation that they could see. The conversation was fun, with the players contorting themselves to avoid givin offence. When recompense for the task was discussed, the folk hero fighter insisted that she leave the town; she offered to "find a new home". I didn't ask for Insight checks, since they tend to make the players metagame even if they don't mean to, nor did the players.

The players head into town, and observe that the lumberjacks had a disused inn as their headquarters. They walked straight in, saw that only the head lumberjack was there, and sent forward the mage (who spoke Draconic) to bluff their way in. Naturally he had no idea what to say, and very unconvincingly said that he was here to do an inspection. Headman doesn't buy it, so they knocked him out then stood around and discussed what to do. The cultists upstairs (six or them, plus an Evil Mage) come rushing down the stairs, leading to a messy and funny combat (they cast Sleep on men running down the stairs, leading to some falling damage). They find the diamonds and the Flight potion, but no eggs; they learn from the captive headman that there were no eggs, and that they hadn't yet approached the dragon. The players all got sadface.

They then found the Druid, who told them that the dragon hadn't laid eggs yet, and that Green dragons were duplicitous. They saw, in the distance, the dragon smashing her way into the tower that the adventure provides her with. They decide to leave, rather than picking a fight with her, but plan to return and take their revenge.

It worked for me. The cult was mostly amusing (with the dragon complaining about their stupid masks), the druid served as exposition monkey, the dragon was an object of fear and anger, and they left with the intention to level up and try taking her out. The conversation established her as a regal and intelligent opponent, and her statline commands great respect among the players. I think that they will likely make a run at her after Wave Echo Cave, which should make for an exhilaratingly dangerous fight to end the game.

 

[halfling rogue]

There are some awesome ideas in this thread.

I think I'm going to foreshadow the dragon in Part 1. When they clear out the hideout and return to the Triboar Trail they will spot the dragon in the distance (depending on what they do with the wagon, the oxen will be, well...eaten). No encounter, just seeing a dragon way off to the north flying back to Thundertree.

I'm still trying to think of a better way to use the druid and the Cultists. I'm thinking that the druid could meet up with the party on the way to Thundertree. Not sure what he'd know at that point. Maybe he's been searching for the dragon's lair and all roads have led him to Thundertree? Maybe he's in the service of the dragon and looking to bring some toys for her to play with? Not sure yet, but hoping something will spark.

 

[mcbobbo]

Liking the "collect people" angle, and wanting to tie in the druid, perhaps part of the treasure is his daughter, turned to stone. The Druid has already failed to free her twice and the dragon has threatened to smash the statue to rubble if he tries again. He won't ever tell the PCs this out of shame, but does want to see the dragon gone so he can recover the statue.

The cultists are a fresh batch from the cult who have yet to approach the dragon because he ate the last bunch. Nobody knows why...

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Liking the "collect people" angle, and wanting to tie in the druid, perhaps part of the treasure is his daughter, turned to stone. The Druid has already failed to free her twice and the dragon has threatened to smash the statue to rubble if he tries again. He won't ever tell the PCs this out of shame, but does want to see the dragon gone so he can recover the statue.

The cultists are a fresh batch from the cult who have yet to approach the dragon because he ate the last bunch. Nobody knows why...

I love that idea about the druid.

How was his daughter turned to stone?

 

[mcbobbo]

Great question. After researching this, it seems the only CR/level appropriate method is via Basilisk. I'm leaning towards a chance encounter pre-dragon. The Druid hadn't reversed it yet before the dragon snatched her up.

 

[halfling rogue]

The statue/daughter idea is really interesting, especially if the PCs don't know it's his daughter. One of the pregenerated PCs wants to have a statue of himself placed in Thundertree. It would be interesting to see if the dragon could trick the PCs into thinking it really is nothing more than a simple statue and persuade this PC into destroying the "statue" in order to have his own placed in town one day.

As cool as that sounds, I don't know if I'd go that route with my group though. But I still like the Druid having a daughter. I wonder if I could tweak it a bit.

Maybe the Druid's daughter has been kidnapped by the Cultists in order to sacrifice her to Venomfang? Maybe they are using her to get the Druid to access something for them, maybe to act as a mediator for them for the dragon? Or maybe the cultists are on a quest of their own, they need to acquire a certain amount of venom from a green dragon for their worship practices. They've been sent on this quest and thus far it has gone wrong, which has led them to kidnap the girl. Maybe they think the Druid has the skill to persuade the dragon to give him the venom? Lot's of motivations could play out of that.