Neb, you realize that each square on the Thundertree map represents 10', not 5'? You printed out the map to small.
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D&D 5E Thundertree (5ed Starter Box Set) Possible Spoilers
- Thread starter Jaracove
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Neb, you realize that each square on the Thundertree map represents 10', not 5'? You printed out the map to small.
Nebulous
Legend
No, we knew it was 10'. We didn't really use it for combat. We did once or twice with the zombies, but it wasn't a problem.
Great ideas here.
Has anyone run it where Venomfang is the real spider at the center of the web? Green dragons cherish manipulating others and this one could easily be pulling the strings here. It's an easy change to make, and it makes the dragon a much richer character in the story.
Venomfang wouldn't want to do the hard work of finding and working the lost mine, but having a greedy drow and a corrupt wizard do it for while some foolish dragon cultists flatter and entertain it seems very fitting. Venomfang could easily be the drow's source of information about the mine.
Venomfang's demands of the dragon cultists could include music, gardening to Venomfang's tastes, preparing fine meals, and general praise and flattery. Not to mention being errand runners between Thundertree and Phandalin, who keep the dragon's identity secret from all but the drow.
The blights are explained easily enough by the green dragon's corruption of the forest. They are part of the garden it is shaping around its lair. Perhaps the blights form topiary shapes for the dragon's entertainment.
Has anyone run it where Venomfang is the real spider at the center of the web? Green dragons cherish manipulating others and this one could easily be pulling the strings here. It's an easy change to make, and it makes the dragon a much richer character in the story.
Venomfang wouldn't want to do the hard work of finding and working the lost mine, but having a greedy drow and a corrupt wizard do it for while some foolish dragon cultists flatter and entertain it seems very fitting. Venomfang could easily be the drow's source of information about the mine.
Venomfang's demands of the dragon cultists could include music, gardening to Venomfang's tastes, preparing fine meals, and general praise and flattery. Not to mention being errand runners between Thundertree and Phandalin, who keep the dragon's identity secret from all but the drow.
The blights are explained easily enough by the green dragon's corruption of the forest. They are part of the garden it is shaping around its lair. Perhaps the blights form topiary shapes for the dragon's entertainment.
The_Gneech
Explorer
I played with this a bit, mainly she was playing the dragon cultists and the goblins/hobgoblins from Cragmaw Castle against each other for giggles. (The Cragmaw in my game were some of the survivors of Red Hand of Doom, since I'd previously run that with this same group.) She didn't have any real contact with Glasstaff or the drow, tho.
-The Gneech
Here's what I did for my campaign. Really I simply let the players come up with their own backgrounds and that helped to define the location itself. Then I just played off what they did....
First let me note that three of the player's backgrounds actually tied into Thundertree. Two of them claimed family relation to Sildar Hallwinter, and he has been trying to reclaim Thundertree for years, but his duties for the Lords Alliance has taken his time and attention away. So two of them had ample reason to visit Thundertree. The third PC didn't know it at the time but she is actually a wood elf from the Faywild and as a young child, a tragedy struck and she was shunted through a portal into the Forgotten Realms....this then leads to the changes.
- The town itself is named after a massive white tree (I replaced the location of the statue of the town's founder with the tree itself). The tree got its name because it had been struck by lightning many times but remained alive and thriving. Taking this as a sign of good favor the town's founder settled there.
- What no one knew is that the tree itself is a portal to the Feywild, the very same portal that the young wood elf came through as a child (over 100 years ago, prior to the founding of the town). The character wears a pendent necklace that is actually a small vial of dragon's blood (thanks to the random trinket table) that is the key to open the portal. The PCs have made an attempt to open it, but it did not go well and they left it alone for now.
- The dragon cultists I tied into the greater events from Horde of the Dragon Queen. They were a small force to attempt to get the dragon on the side. But before they could make their move, the PCs showed up. They pretended to be dragon slayers from Neverwinter to hopefully trick the PCs into a false sense of security and they could offer the PCs as a sacrifice to the dragon. (The PCs off course saw through this plan).
- The ash zombies and twig blights are from two different sources of corruption. The portal itself is slowly leaking vile energy (because of what happened on the other side) which created the twig blights. The zombies are from something else. Eventually the PCs will have to journey into the Feywild to fix the corruption happening there to fix what is happening here.
- The druid has been studying the tree for years, but has made little headway. The dragon really put a crimp in his studies. Now that the PCs have cleared the dragon and showed him what it really up with the tree, he called in the Emerald Enclave to secure the entire region. When the PCs return to Thundertree they will find a town taken over by druids.
Saddly, I didn't make any change to the dragon itself, which I really should have done. The PCs absolutely punked him. Should have made him much tougher and more intelligent. By the time he decided to flee it was already too late and they took him down with just a few well place ranged attacks. At any rate the druid used the excuse of "needing to harvest the dragon" in order to buy time for the PCs to leave and for him to bring in the Emerald Enclave, so I suppose it worked out.
First let me note that three of the player's backgrounds actually tied into Thundertree. Two of them claimed family relation to Sildar Hallwinter, and he has been trying to reclaim Thundertree for years, but his duties for the Lords Alliance has taken his time and attention away. So two of them had ample reason to visit Thundertree. The third PC didn't know it at the time but she is actually a wood elf from the Faywild and as a young child, a tragedy struck and she was shunted through a portal into the Forgotten Realms....this then leads to the changes.
- The town itself is named after a massive white tree (I replaced the location of the statue of the town's founder with the tree itself). The tree got its name because it had been struck by lightning many times but remained alive and thriving. Taking this as a sign of good favor the town's founder settled there.
- What no one knew is that the tree itself is a portal to the Feywild, the very same portal that the young wood elf came through as a child (over 100 years ago, prior to the founding of the town). The character wears a pendent necklace that is actually a small vial of dragon's blood (thanks to the random trinket table) that is the key to open the portal. The PCs have made an attempt to open it, but it did not go well and they left it alone for now.
- The dragon cultists I tied into the greater events from Horde of the Dragon Queen. They were a small force to attempt to get the dragon on the side. But before they could make their move, the PCs showed up. They pretended to be dragon slayers from Neverwinter to hopefully trick the PCs into a false sense of security and they could offer the PCs as a sacrifice to the dragon. (The PCs off course saw through this plan).
- The ash zombies and twig blights are from two different sources of corruption. The portal itself is slowly leaking vile energy (because of what happened on the other side) which created the twig blights. The zombies are from something else. Eventually the PCs will have to journey into the Feywild to fix the corruption happening there to fix what is happening here.
- The druid has been studying the tree for years, but has made little headway. The dragon really put a crimp in his studies. Now that the PCs have cleared the dragon and showed him what it really up with the tree, he called in the Emerald Enclave to secure the entire region. When the PCs return to Thundertree they will find a town taken over by druids.
Saddly, I didn't make any change to the dragon itself, which I really should have done. The PCs absolutely punked him. Should have made him much tougher and more intelligent. By the time he decided to flee it was already too late and they took him down with just a few well place ranged attacks. At any rate the druid used the excuse of "needing to harvest the dragon" in order to buy time for the PCs to leave and for him to bring in the Emerald Enclave, so I suppose it worked out.
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