You can watch this episode on youtube here.

I feel like watching more of the adventures of G-Spot and Shattercock. Clocking in at just 20 minutes, these episodes are easy to watch and write about.

The Party

(Matt) Myriadus O'Probbels - Dwarf Paladin
(Adam) Racsan Bartooth - Human Fighter
(James) Dirik Benslorde - Human Barbarian
(Bruce) Shattercock - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Elyse) Grimo "G-Spot" Rudefellow - Halfling Rogue
(Lawrence) Decker Rootkit - Human Wizard

The group is still on the trail of the orc brothers who broke out of prison. The group comes upon a farm and they are going to stay there for the night.

The farm is owned by a big hairy guy. He offers the group a drink called "pokse" (?). The group thinks he is trying to slip them a roofie. Shattercock says that she will have a drink. The group groans.

The heroes go to sleep in the barn. Shattercock casts a spell to appear as one of the farmer's kids and she creeps around in the farmer's house. She looks for stuff to steal.

The next morning, the farmer convinces the group to go hunt some wolves for him. The heroes reluctantly agree. The farmer and some of the kids come with them.

It isn't long before they find some wolves. One is old and the other two are young.


G-Spot creeps up, lights a cigarette, says "Hey!" and fires an arrow that kills a wolf in one shot.

Shattercock uses mage hand to borrow and smoke G-Spot's cigarette, which blows G-Spot's mind. These two crack me up.

The Shadowrun guy destroys the wolves with a fireball.

There's a campfire nearby and an elf tied up in a tree. Someone cut his tongue off.

Suddenly, goblins jump out and ambush the group. That's where we stop.

Timestamps

(14:45) Shattercock casts mage hand

Overall

I didn't like the idea of fighting more wolves, but it turns out that it was just a set-up for the ambush. I still think the group is too big. They should cut two people.

I think Shattercock and G-Spot are hilarious, so I'd watch this show any time.

I finished the Guide to Storm King's Thunder. I need to go back over it and polish it up, but it's pretty much done. It should be a handy tool to use if you decide to run that adventure.

Cloud Giant's Bargain is a special adventure linked to Storm King's Thunder. It was given to people who went to a theater to watch the Acquisitions Inc. PAX West 2016 game. The show was really great. If you haven't seen it and you have the time, you should check it out. I didn't go to a theater. I was able to buy this on ebay.

Movie Theatres and Freebies: There has been a lot of talk online about movie theaters that didn't give out the adventure. I was a theater manager for many years. I can tell you with certainty that, yes, the theater management kept them and sold them on ebay. Don't blame the ticket tearers for this. It is the people at the very top who are making tons of extra money on the side with this kind of thing.

As further evidence, I should note that my module came shipped in protective cardboard cut from.. an Icee box. We were up to our necks in Icee boxes at the theater.

Availability: Right now there are a ton of these on ebay. You can get one for ten bucks at this very moment if you want one. I would imagine that wizards will put the .pdf of this on the DMs Guild site in a few months.


Quality: This book is in color and it has a nice shiny cover. Almost half of the book has monster stats, magic item stats (!) and maps. The maps are hand-drawn just like in other encounters adventures.

Newb-Friendly: This seems to be aimed at people who want to try D&D. It has tons of DM tips for new DMs. It's for characters 5th - 7th level, which seems tricky to me for new players and DMs to start with. I think this could have used some pregens printed in the book.

Luxurious: One thing that I love about this adventure is that it has lots of boxed text. I always like boxed text as long as each one is kept short. Storm King's Thunder has almost no boxed text at all. Things are so packed in that book that it feels almost claustrophobic to read it. This adventure has room to breathe.

Interns: We begin in Neverwinter. The heroes are hired on as interns of Acquisitions Inc. Acquisitions Inc is going to attack the cloud giant Stratovan, who has almost all of the pieces of the rod of seven parts. This situation was resolved in the PAX West game.

Stratovan's son Olthanas says he wants to be allies. Our group has to go meet with Olthanas in his flying castle and see if he's full of it. The group has to go to the flying castle of Olthanas in secret, because apparently most of the other creatures at the castle are sympathetic to Stratovan.

The group each gets a fun little memo/handout.:


If the players are familiar with Acquisitions, Inc, I think it might be cool to say each member of the group gets a signed Jim Darkmagic photo, too.

Travel Options: To get there, the adventurers can either use griffons (if so, they land on C1, page 8) or do a HALFF - a high altitude feather fall drop (see page 10), which sounds awesome.

The HALFF drop is really great. The group has to jump out of the airship, hold hands, and break an object with a rune on it to activate the feather fall spell. As they fall, they can try to make Dex checks to angle into a dark cloud to conceal their approach. Otherwise, they might be spotted by a chimera or giant eagles. That is just awesome.

In the adventure, they say to have whoever is breaking the rune make an arcana check. Then it says that the DM should widen their eyes in horror and pretend something bad is about to happen and then reveal it's a joke.

I think that's a fun idea if you're running for new players. If not, I think you should come with some kind of slight negative consequence for a low roll. Not death, but maybe a weird wild surge or something. Maybe Jim Darkmagic made this thing and gave it some weird quirk.

NPC Ally: The group is given a talking skull named Tulahk, who is a fun NPC that can be used as a sort of mouthpiece for the DM. He's a lot like Morte from Planescape: Torment.

The castle has four sections to it. There's three structures connected by walkways. There's an island at the intersection of all the walkways:

1. The Island of Contemplation 
2. The Towers of Hospitality
3. The Towers of Judgment
4. An adjoining island

You might want to put some giant doors in this place like the ones on page 189 of Storm King.


Island of Contemplation

The group can creep around in this place and learn about Olthanas. The group can learn that Olthanas might have a pet white dragon! They can find some magic items and clues that the majordomo of Olthanas seems to be committed to villainy.

Towers of Hospitality

More creeping around, a few random monsters. There is a really cool idea in room 6 where the heroes have to use a mirror to get to the second floor. There's a very amusing spa encounter with a cloud giant grandfather. The group can get the impression that the majordomo is up to something at this very moment.

Towers of Judgment

The group might fight a dragon here, and they meet with Olthanas and Majordomo Balakar.
That meeting is very cool. There's a really great idea where someone is wearing a trapped choker. Awesome.

Reward: The group can gain ranks in the Intern "faction," which is really fun. If they hit the highest rank, they get to meet the members of the Acquisitions, Inc. group. Maybe that meant that this was run at PAX and that these players got to meet the cast. Maybe their characters were on the airship when it fired on the cloud castle during the PAX West adventure.

Overall

Good Stuff: This scenario seems like it works best if you're not committed to having the group go through every area. In Adventurers League play, you are expected to fill four hours so you kind of need to have the group explore. But if this for a home game, then you can just let whatever happens happen.

Breezy: The really nice thing about this is that it reads so smooth. You can absorb this whole thing in a very short period of time, so your preparation time won't be too bad at all.

Convenient: Another thing that really helps your prep time is the fact that all of the monster stats are in this book! It's very handy.

Modules: I have no problem with the 5e strategy of putting out one adventure every 6 months. It's basically like we get two adventure paths a year, which is great. But I must say I really love that this is a "module." It's a little booklet with everything you need. I missed it and I'm glad they made this.

We played through a session of Planescape again last night. In this one, the group goes to the city of earth genies in the plane of elemental earth to get his stolen magic items back. This session was good, but I felt a little off of my game.

I've been trying to prepare less for my sessions lately. For this session, I purposely waited until about 5 hours before the players got here to prepare. I still have a problem with obsessively over-preparing. Spending 5 hours preparing for a 2 hour session should be way more than enough time, but I actually didn't get finished.

Arabian Adventures: The main reason for this is because I was trying to write down everything I could about The Great Dismal Delve. As far as I can tell, this place has virtually never been used by anyone. That is a total crime because it is so full of potential. Wolfgang Baur came up with so many incredible ideas for it in the Al Qadim Secrets of the Lamp boxed set.

I gave the whole city a big Al Qadim vibe. I ran a massive Al Qadim campaign way back when and I love rolling out all of the cool stuff from that setting. In general it seems like "Arabian Adventures" interest people, but when you only have so much time to run D&D it always ends up as people's third or fourth option that they never get around to playing. What that means is that there is an entire setting full of fantastic, first-rate material that is brand new to virtually a lot of people playing D&D. This is absolute gold for a DM looking to wow their players.

While preparing, I ended up basically making a "Guide to The Great Dismal Delve" so I'll probably polish it up and post it in a few days.


Sounds: I bought a subscription to Syrinscape, the program that has all sorts of environmental sounds. There's over 50 sets of sounds, like "Dragon Battle" and "Elemental - Earth." There are also sounds for specific Pathfinder paths! I've already been planning to run Hell's Rebels, and seeing that it has all of these soundtracks just makes me want to get started with it as soon as possible.

There are sound sets for Pathfinder Iconics, too. So for Theran, I used Ezren the Wizard, which has a billion spell sounds. Bidam used Valeros the fighter.

Us being us, everyone found the "injury" grunts to be hilariously sexual. Most of our night involved me spamming the Ezren "injury" button like a 12 year old.

I know background sounds and/or music isn't for every group, but this thing is so overwhelmingly great that I think you should give it a look.

Plans: Next session will be the final surreal battle with the Iron Shadow, villain of the Tales from the Infinite Staircase book. I plan on taking all of the cool ideas that I can find from Monte Cook's Invisible Sun game and working it in, especially the keyfall (it rains keys).

I assume Monte played a big part in giving Planescape a lot of the weird, symbolic vibes when he worked on it. It feels right to incorporate these new ideas in if I can. I've always admired Monte because the quality of his ideas is so consistent over such a long stretch of time. So much of his stuff feels inspired and a cut above most everything else out there in the world of RPGs.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Half-Dabus/Half-Elf Wizard
 
Each character has powers linked to the Lady of Pain:

• Theran can create buildings in Sigil and he can banish people to extra-dimensional mazes.
• Bidam can look at people and cause cuts to appear on their body and he can create portals in Sigil.

When they use one of these powers, they gain level four exhaustion. The only way to remove the exhaustion is to spend days pursuing their beliefs (belief is a big deal in Planescape).

The heroes own a cluster of buildings known as "Deadbook Square."

Last Time: The group drove The Iron Shadow out of Limbo. An earth genie almost killed Theran and stole all of his stuff.

Magical Cures

The group returned to Sigil. Each of them had gotten carried away with the altar of change:

• Bidam: 9 feet tall, skinny, -2 Dex, a thief.
• Theran: 9 feet tall, red skin... female.

They headed to a church to get some greater restoration spells cast on them to return to normal. I used the adventurers league guidelines for paying for spells. 450 gold per casting! The group is beyond rich so they could afford it.

Some of the castings were done at a church of the Raven Queen. They bumped into my alternate universe Dice, Camera, Action group. Evelyn is a paladin of the Raven Queen in my game. The group likes her accent.

Fall From Grace Rescue: It turned out that the entire religion that Fall from Grace is part of found out that she was in trouble, and a massive force of clerics and paladins had gone to save her. She had "died" in Limbo and was reborn by her demon amulet, which was stashed in the Abyss.

Bidam has two devil servants. One of them killed his maid and put her in a box. Bidam was baffled but just kind of let it slide.

The group used a detect thoughts spell to get a mental image of the Elemental Plane of Earth. Then Bidam used his power to make a permanent portal to it.

They rested for a full day. Then they headed through the portal to The Great Dismal Delve.

The Great Dismal Delve

This is a Dao Noble

This place is a vast network of mazes in the elemental plane of earth. It's home to 10,000 earth genies and 100,000 of their slaves!

The group met a xorn named Feta. I just wanted to work this DiTerlizzi art into my game.


Feta showed them around after they fed him 20 gold. They went to the market, met some people and bought some stuff. We got to do some haggling, which is a big part of Al Qadim.

Sha'ir: They met a sha'ir (spellcaster that can force genies to do his bidding). He traded spells with Theran. Theran learned the 5th level 2e spell "Genie Contract." It allowed him to make a magically-binding deal with a genie.

Yak-Folk: They saw a yakfolk treating slaves poorly. They were a big part of Al Qadim and they are also in Storm King's Thunder. In 2e, the yakfolk could control dao thanks to their Forgotten God tricking the Lord of Earth Elementals into a deal. This arrangement was said to last for 1,001 years. In Storm King, it says that this arrangement has expired. Yakmen do have the ability to summon earth elementals.

Potion Vendor: They bought some potions from the new magic item section in Secrets of the Lamp off of a merchant:

• Oil of Attractiveness: This gives you +2 Charisma for 24 hours.
• Oil of Romance - They tried to use this in this adventure but the creature made their save.
• Potion of Dreaming: Drink it, think of something you want to know, go to sleep. You'll have a dream that will clue you in on what you want to find out.

Rav's Mansion


The heroes asked around and found out where Rav the genie lived. They headed to his mansion, which was covered with statues and paintings of himself. Dwarf slaves toiled away on the exterior of the building and a tasked genie was trying to build an apparatus of kwalish outside.

Tasked Genies are an Al Qadim genie type that spent so much time doing a certain task that they became a separate type of genie. There's all sorts of types of tasked genies: Guardians, Slayers, Administrators, etc.

Stealth Mode: Ultimately, the group decided to sneak into the mansion. They were very smart. They realized there was an alarm spell on the back door, so they used an identify spell to figure out the command word to deactivate it.

This was good, because there were two umber hulk guards that would have popped up and assaulted the group.

The Harem: Rav was not home. They learned that Rav had a harem. Rav had two wives and two husbands. I decided that the males and females hated each other and were rivals. Rav preferred the dudes and the wives were incredibly lonely. I figured this would be really fun to see what the group did with this situation.

The wives were looking at all of Theran's stolen magic items. Rav had left most of Theran's stuff here. The group were able to quietly befriend the wives and got their stuff back. One wife was a goliath and the other was an earth genie.

The group learned that Rav had the Iron Tome and was using it to un-make genies he didn't like. Doing this was healing the Iron Shadow, who had been mortally wounded by the slaads in the last session.

The heroes realized that Rav was going to use the tome to un-make the Great Khan of the Dao and take over as ruler of the Earth genies.

The Sevenfold Mazework

The Great Khan of the Dao

The group ended up meeting with the Khan, who has a throne room full of mirrors. Because of the reflections, it was impossible to tell where the Khan actually was.

The group agreed to go find and eliminate Rav.

They found him in the 3rd maze of the Sevenfold Mazework - a place where every chamber was identical to the last.

He had an army of slaves around him. Theran fired off a lightning bolt that killed a ton of slaves and hit Rav. Then Bidam used his horn of blasting, which blew up a big pile of slaves, too. I don't know what it is about this group and slaves.

Rav tried his wall of stone trick where he tried to trap a hero in a dome of stone, but Theran rolled out of the way. Then he hit Theran with a phantasmal killer spell while Bidam sliced him up with the sword of sharpness. Rav used the tome to try to un-make Bidam, but Bidam made his save.

Theran was able to drop the genie after using almost every charge in his wand of lightning bolts. When Rav died, he turned into gem dust.

The group had saved the ruler of the earth genies and thus they were handsomely rewarded. Each hero was given an estate in their own little mazework. Each estate came with 101 slaves. The adventurers were to be treated as honorary genies throughout the Great Dismal Delve.

The group got Rav's wives to agree to watch their estates for them.

They also each were allowed to select a tasked genie servant:

• Theran decided that he wanted the tasked genie who was building the apparatus of kwalish to be his genie (this genie also built the dream diver).
• Bidam decided that he wanted a tasked guardian genie. I haven't really read that entry yet, but the art looks really cool.

The Khan gave them one more gift:

Orrery of the Inner Planes: When put on a ship, this device enables the ship to travel to the ethereal plane and the inner planes (the elemental planes of earth, air, fire and water):

• The vessel and everyone on board is immune to elemental damage. 
• It can sail underwater, it can sail on lava, it can sail through rock and it can levitate. 
• When levitating, the ship can use its sails to fly.

This is perfect for their magic pirate ship that they can summon with their scrimshaw whalebone.

High Level Play: The group is 10th level and they are about to hit 11th. We've played over 50 sessions. I want to make sure that they have cool stuff to show for it. I also want to give them some fun items just to see what they do with them.

Next session will be the big final battle with the Iron Shadow. I am planning on giving each of them a really powerful item like a staff of the magi, that kind of thing.

Right now I kind of want to explore high level play and see what it's like. When we play, it still feels like the heroes are still very weak. Theran tries to use his wand of lightning bolts almost exclusively. He has cool spells like Bigby's hand, but he's never used them.

I actually sat down and tried to come up with an encounter where Bigby's hand would be really useful, but I couldn't think of one.

Curse: Both heroes are still infected by slaads. The players forgot about this. In three months, Theran will turn into a golden slaad and Bidam will die when a slaad tadpole explodes out of his brain. They might realize it before then.

We're going to play through a series of months in the next four sessions, so I guess we'll see what happens!

Title: Dead Meat

You can watch this episode here.

I made an episode guide for Dice, Camera, Action right here. It's got everything you need to know about this show to follow along. I also marked off which episodes I think are the best.

There is a Dice, Camera, Action section on reddit.

Ezmerelda: I forgot what had happened with Ezmerelda. A few episodes back, Strahd bit her and she uttered a vistani curse. Both of them vanished into mist. It looks like she is now a vampire. I wonder what the curse was?

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard 
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Mark) Ezmerelda - Vistani NPC

Last Time: Paultin tried to escape Castle Ravenloft but it looks like Ezmerelda stopped him. The rest of the group is trapped in the Amber Temple. They obtained the Tome of Strahd. Evelyn was cured of her lycanthropy.


Hey... we start off with a little animated intro! It looks like a shelf with Blinsky toys. There's a little Diath hanging from a noose....and there's an Evelyn werewolf with an axe! It ends with the Strahd doll popping out of a coffin. Fantastic.

Then we get a title. Wow. Now we're getting somewhere!

In the Amber Temple, a bunch of vampire spawn are coming at the group.

Over at Castle Ravenloft, Paultin fell and took 17 damage.

The group stops Chris and demands to know why Chris lets the Acquisitions Inc group ride dragons while Evelyn can't even keep her horse alive. They think Chris loves the Acquisitions Inc group more than his "real kids."

Paultin tries to wake up Falkon, but he is 100% dead. Ezmerelda is on a battlement 90 feet above him. Paultin gives her the finger.

Ezmerelda walks down the wall. Jared is wondering if we're about to have some PvP. Paultin casts suggestion on her, which actually breaks Strahd's control over her.

In the Amber Temple, the group rolls initiative. Every character rolls a natural one. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Then Chris rolls for the lich - natural 1!

Wowww. The first vampire attacks. Natural 20! Freakish!

The vampires grab and bite the heroes. Strix uses misty step to teleport up to a ledge. The lich uses a measly cantrip and the group is mildly outraged.

Ezmerelda

Back at Castle Ravenloft, Paultin and Ezmerelda creep into the castle and make their way to that room with the colored stones that can teleport them. Chris kind of hinted that Paultin should go there. Paultin actually tried to leave via the drawbridge but that was not happening.

The vampires are sucking the life out of the group. Diath uncanny dodges with his veins.

In the Castle, Paultin and Ezmerelda are trying to decipher the riddle to figure out the locations they can go to. Here comes Ass Smear! Interestingly, Ezmerelda knows that Ass Smear is actually named Rahadin. He lied to the group about his identity. Chris accidentally called him Rahadin on about 3 different episodes, but the group never seemed to pick up on it.

In the temple, Strix is dropped to 0 hit points. Wow, the vampire attacks again on unconscious Strix. That's beyond alarming. The vampire drops her off the ledge. Diath catches her.

Back in the Castle, Nate is taking forever to make decisions again. He eventually decides to go through a portal to the Amber Temple. Ezmerelda tries to hold Rahadin off. Ezmerelda uses a red stone to open a portal to a different place.

Anna is being really funny. She's going off on the vampires, scolding them like a mother.

The vampires run. The heroes go to heal Strix. She's DEAD. DEAD! That's where we stop.

Ohhh boy. If you read the vestige spoiler thing in my review of episode 21, there is a way to bring her back to life. Or who knows, maybe she will rise up as a vampire.

Holly says she actually has three other characters ready to go. Awesome. I wonder if they are also Planescape-related?

The group will be doing a live stream at TwitchCon in 3 weeks. Chris says he has a vampire costume ready to go, and there might be a special guest, too. It sounds like the whole group is going to wear costumes. Holly is going to make them. She is amazingly talented. I watched her make that Strahd doll. She did it in half an hour and it is incredible - beyond professional quality.

Overall

Good show! Everyone was really pumped up today. I think they're all still buzzed from the Acquisitions, Inc. game. It almost doesn't matter what this group does in the game, they are just plan fun to watch. The group chemistry grows every week. These are the good times and what is really nice is that I think we may be in this zone for a very long time.

It must have been really cool for them to watch Chris run the Acquisitions, Inc. game. I actually like this group more than that one and I think that given enough time, this show can be a really big thing. I do wonder if the fact that they are connected remotely hurts it in some way. I will definitely enjoy seeing them all sit at a table together. Maybe they could tape some shows like they did with Force Grey and Acquisitions Inc?

I am definitely glad Paultin is back with the other heroes. Let's never split him from the group again.

If you bought Storm King's Thunder (you can buy it right here) and you are having a hard time figuring out how to run it, this one's for you. I am going to do my best to explain how to prepare and run this adventure.

New DMs: If you are new to being a dungeon master, it is important to remember that you can do whatever you want with this book. The authors are expecting you to change things to suit your style. There is no "wrong" way to run this.

Also, if you're new, don't get stressed out over running this thing. Being a DM is hard and nobody is expecting you to be the greatest DM in the world. The important thing is to always keep things "fun" and to try your best to be fair. If you have time, watch some Dice, Camera, Action to see how Chris Perkins runs his games. He wrote this adventure.

If the group comes up with a clever plan, let them be clever! It's important to find the right "difficulty setting" for your game. You'll probably do a lot of tweaking. That's what we do behind the DM screen, we fiddle with knobs.

The best thing of all about this adventure is that chapter one is pretty straight forward. All you have to do is read it and take some notes, then let your group go nuts. That chapter alone should take you a few sessions and will give you time to find your footing.

I made a guide to this adventure. You can get a pdf of it on the DMs Guild site here:


The Structure


I am going to give you my approach to how I would run this adventure. My way isn't "right" or "better" than anyone else. I am doing this so you can see how you can take this adventure apart and then put it back together to form the adventure you want.

Let's do a quick, basic outline.

1. Nightstone: The group goes through chapter 1. That's very straightforward. The villagers need help.

2. Pick One of Three Locations: Chapter 2 is trickier. The group will have to pick a hook. If there is one place you want to run, just give the group that one hook. For example, I like Bryn Shander. So I would have the group be asked to go tell Markham his sister is dead.

3. Zephyros: Now we fly in the cloud castle to Bryn Shander.

4. Bryn Shander: In Bryn Shander, we go through the frost giant attack.

5. Sort Out Chapter 3: Then we get to the most complicated part of planning this thing out. Chapter 3 is wide open. Ultimately, the group is meant to meet Harshnag (page 118). How and when that happens is completely up to you! Remember, if you like another of the chapter 2 locations, there's nothing stopping you from using it now.

6A. Winging It: If you are a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of DM, then just let the group go where they want and when it feels like it is time, plop in Harshnag.

6B. Planning: If you are like me and you like to prepare, I suggest that you go through chapter 3 and find all the things that you want to use. Then look at the map on pages 74-75 and see where all these places are in relation to each other. Then just connect the dots - make a reason for the group to go from one place to the next. I have already broken down this chapter into quick little blurbs in my Guide to Storm King's Thunder.

7. The Oracle: Once the group meets Harshnag, then they are off to the Eye (page 121). The group will be asked to go to all those burial mounds in chapter 3. I don't like those, so in my version I changed it. Some people online have said they didn't like the idea of desecrating holy sites, so consider your group before you run this as written.

8. Iymrith: The group gets the artifacts and returns to the oracle. They learn that they need a conch. On the way out, Iymrith attacks and Harshnag makes a heroic sacrifice.

9. Find the Conch: In the book, every giant lord has a conch. The heroes will need to go steal a conch from a giant lord. I liked a lot of these areas, so in my version I changed things a little so I can use Svardborg, Ironslag and the Cloud Giant castle in my campaign.

10. Use the Conch: It takes the group to Maelstrom (page 201). There, the heroes hopefully expose Iymrith and get a clue to Hekaton's whereabouts.

11. King Hekaton: The group tracks down Hekaton and saves him!

12. Final Battle: The adventurers team up with Hekaton to take down Iymrith. As written, there's a bunch of NPC giants with the group. That seems a little unwieldy, so think about if you really want to take these NPCs along.

Foreshadowing

Once that is done, I suggest that you go back through your neat little outline and place clues and ideas. A lot of stuff in this adventure feels kind of out of the blue. I think it's a good idea to let the characters hear about some of these things in advance so it doesn't feel so random. Here's some topics to consider foreshadowing:

• The Golden Goose Token: I think it would be fun to have the group gamble on The Grand Dame (page 216) during chapter 3. You can watch the group light up when Serissa shows them the token in chapter 10.
• Iymrith: I think the group should hear legends of Iymrith before they meet her so it's more awe-inspiring and epic when they face her. 
• The Wyrmskull Throne: Serissa gets paralyzed when the Korolnor Scepter is taken from her (pages 209-210). This might feel very bizarre and random to the group. I suggest having the group learn about the Wyrmskull Throne and how it interacts with the scepter beforehand.
• Slarkrethel and the Cult: If you can, let the group hear tales of the legendary kraken and maybe hear word of the cult that worships Slarkrethel. This is tricky because this organization is kind of a surprise villain and you don't want to show your hand. I think if you present this detail among a sea of other details, it won't stick out. So I'd say you should present legends and rumors of two other shadowy organizations in prior sessions first to get the group used to this sort of presentation. That way, your inclusion of a mention of the Kraken Society won't stick out.
• Felgolos: If you are going to use the Cloud Giant castle, you might want to have the group meet Felgolos early on so they'll care when they find out he is being tortured.
• Harshnag and the Gray Hands: Harshnag was a member of the Gray Hands, now known today as Force Grey. The group should hear about their exploits, so when they meet Harshnag they know who he is.

Remember that your plans are not set in stone. Who knows what weird choices the group will make? Just adjust your outline as you go and indulge the players as much as you can.

Leveling


Once you start rearranging things, you might get worried about when to level your group. Chapter 3 is so huge that the adventurers could gain quite a few levels. I don't think you need to worry about the group getting too powerful. The giants are really tough. Worst case, just add in another giant to each encounter.

As an example, fighting those 4 ambassadors in Maelstrom seems like a tough encounter for a group of almost any level.

I don't think you need to be concerned if your group ends up at 13th level or whatever.

Deluxe Outline


This would be my plan for the campaign going in. As we played, it would probably change once I saw what interested the players and which NPCs were popular.

What you want to do here is make a skeleton outline like the one above, then go back through it and place in various elements you want to include in your game.

After some thought, here are things I want to make sure I do in this campaign:

• I want to do some quick, stylized intros right off the bat to introduce the heroes and give them some background links to various things that are important to this adventure.
• I want to use the white dragon Arveiaturace, as I think she is cool.
• I want to use Felgolos the bronze dragon (he ends up getting caught and tortured by the cloud giant in chapter 8).
• I want to build up the legend of Iymrith so the final battle will feel big.
• I want to make sure Harshnag is foreshadowed a bit so it feels really cool that he is with the group for a stretch.
• I assume at least one player will want a winged cat, so I'll plan accordingly.
• We should think about encounters with giants that are too powerful for the heroes.

Before We Start: I'd ask the players to go through the magic item charts in the DMG and pick three items that they want from each chart and write them all down. This adventure is LOADED with rolls on the charts and I want to make sure the group gets items they are excited about and can use.

Pet: See if anyone wants a tressym (winged cat) familiar.

Giant Items: Cook up some more mundane items like those on the chart on page 18. When you roll on this chart a billion times, you're bound to end up repeating dull results quite a bit.

Prologue
When we first sit down to play, I'd run each player through a very quick scenario. It wouldn't be fully rolled out. There would probably be one roll or choice. Each of these should take just two minutes. We want to get it done as fast as possible so the group is excited rather than bored.

King of the Giants: When one character was a kid, let's say they were in a boat, fishing out in the water on the Sword Coast. Suddenly, a giant rises from the depths and explodes through the kid's little boat. Have them make a Dex check. Fail: Unconscious. Succeed: Cool maneuver.

The giants are Queen Neri and Princess Serissa. Neri likes the small folk and wanted to show the Princess around a bit. Crashing through the little boat was an accident.

The giants apologize and patch up the hero. Serissa takes a liking to the character and asks them to come back to this beach in a week. For the rest of the summer, The character hangs out with the giants. The character can tell them about small folk customs. The giants will teach the character the giant language.

As summer is winding down, one of their meetings is interrupted by King Hekaton. The King is appalled that his wife and kid are talking to a small one. He takes them back to Maelstrom and they never return.

The Gray Hands: So from what I can tell, Harshnag the Frost Giant was a member of an adventuring group called The Gray Hands. This scenario might be good for an elf, because I'm not sure how long ago the Gray Hands were around. It looks like it was around 100 years ago.

The Grey Hands were going to make an expedition into Undermountain, and they needed a torchbearer. That's our hero.

The torchbearer has to go first in the dungeon. The hero will need to make a perception check. Fail: Fall in a pit trap. Succeed: Dodge it and earn the respect of the Gray Hands. Either way, a bunch of cultists and a mindflayer pop out of a side door and ambush the group. The hero may not realize this, but they are members of the Kraken Society up to some nefarious scheme.

Harshnag protects the hero from cultists. There's a moment where the hero will need to stop a cultist from throwing a dagger in Harshnag's eye. If the hero fails, Harshnag loses an eye. If the hero succeeds, he doesn't. Either way, Harshnag doesn't hold a grudge.

The Gray Hands end up being sent on another mission and the hero never gets to work with them again.

Hand of Stone: I want the group linked to the Harpers if possible because I most definitely want to use Moongleam Tower in chapter 4 and on.  I'd ask a player if they want to have a hand made of stone, permanently balled into a fist. It can do damage like a mace or something.

Not too long ago, the hero tagged along with a harper on an adventure. It was either Beldora or Thwip Ironbottom (page 40). They ended up stumbling right into Iymrith's lair through a sinkhole and were captured by her gargoyles. Now, the pair are shackled to a wall. They watch in horror as the dragon uses her magic to turn an orc into a gargoyle.

Iymrith plays a cruel prank on the hero. She makes the hero pick who's next - the hero or the harper NPC. Either way, Iymrith intends on doing the hero next. She starts the process. The hero's hand turns to stone - but then they are interrupted. More Harpers burst in to the room - Zaldar Floshin and Arrow (page 220), Daviana Yalrannis (page 82) and Artus Cimber (page 42).

Show off all the crazy crap that the ring of winter can do. Go out of your way to have Artus utter some memorable turn of phrase, maybe a Forgotten Realms swear like "Dark and Empty" or "Blood of the Lady!" That's for chapter 2 - we're going to use that as a clue for the heroes to discover the son of Artus Cimber. Give the hero a chance to snatch an item or get a shot in on Iymrith. Something to give Iymrith cause to despise the hero.

The Mad Dragon: I love Arveiaturace and I want to use her in this. The hero is up in the frozen north, hunting. The adventurer comes to a clearing and sees a white dragon with the corpse of a wizard sitting on a saddle on her back.

The white dragon is weeping and talking aloud to her master. Her master's ring fell off into the snow and she can't find it. Play up how sad and pathetic she is. The hero spots it nearby in the snow - the wizard's whole rotten hand fell off! The ring is on the hand.

The hero has a choice: Help Arveiaturace find the ring, steal the ring, or just run away. If the hero helps her, she is overjoyed and tells the hero that her master is pleased. Maybe she gives the hero a gift, like a magic item or something. If the adventurer doesn't help, she will notice the hero and chase them off. She will never find the hand and when the group encounters her in the adventure, the wizard corpse is still missing the hand.

If possible, have the character notice a gleam in the eye of the corpse. We're going to reveal that Arveiaturace has some kind of magical link to this corpse. Maybe it really does talk to her in some way.

Slave: Our hero is a slave of the yakfolk. The hero and the moon elf princess Halani Meliamne (page 173) are cleaning clay vessels. Halani drops and breaks one accidentally. One of Kartha-Keya's wives, Nahala, is enraged. The hero knows a whipping - or worse - is about to take place. Nahala asks who did this. The hero has a chance to take the beating for her, a noble act that Halani will never forget.

Whatever the hero's choice, the beating doesn't take place. A fire giant shows up and says that Cinderhild (page 182 - she's the spoiled Princess) wants the hero down in Ironslag.

The adventurer is brought to her. She dismisses her hobgoblin handmaidens. She wants to hear everything that the adventurer knows about the outside world. She gets excited, and decides that both of them are going to sneak out through the adamantine doors on page 183. Have her use the pass phrase.. if the player thinks to make a note of it, good for them!

The hero and Cinderhild creep out but it is noticed quickly that she is missing. The duke releases his hell hounds to track her down. We can do a thing from The Fugitive where the hero can jump into a waterfall to escape the hounds and win their freedom. Make a Dex check: Fail: The hero nearly drowns and from now on suffers from a fear of water (which they will have to overcome in Chapter 10 and 11!) Success: Stuck the landing!

NightStone

Let's have it where the heroes don't know each other. The heroes are each coming to Nightstone for a different reason, drawing from their background and the list of hooks on page 19. Some of them are coming through the woods, others are on the trail. All of them hear a cry.

Kella Darkhope (page 25) is in the guise of a monk, being attacked by four goblins. Her arm is singed very badly from the lightning breath weapon of Felgolos. In my version of the adventure, she was heading to Nightstone in a Zhentarim caravan. That caravan was annihilated by Felgolos the bronze dragon. She was the only survivor. She's been hiding here waiting for help to arrive. She decided to creep out into the woods to find some berries but it turns out the woods are just as dangerous as the village.

This battle isn't meant to be dangerous, it's just a chance for the players to show off what their characters can do and to meet each other.


From here we can go through the whole Nightstone adventure. Once it is done, but before the group can rest, run "seven snakes" (page 27). The Zhentarim are here and they want to take this place over!

We're going to change it. Felgolos the bronze dragon shows up and attacks the Zhentarim - preferably once the group is about to fight them.

Felgolos has this weird luck thing going on. When he first shows up, I'd have him crash into the church (area 5) and accidentally send the steeple flying at a random person (PC or Zhent). Felgolos fights along the heroes. I like the idea of giving him a luck aura. When the group fights alongside him, their critical hits and misses are enhanced. I'd probably dig up some cool charts or modify the Critical Hit Deck, which was mega popular in my 4e campaigns.

Once the Zhents are dealt with, Felgolos can assume the form of a halfling and make friends with the heroes. He should talk to them about the giants and point out that the giants are everywhere wreaking havoc. He should also point out that all dragons are potential allies, even chromatic dragons.

If you want, run the orc encounter, too. Felgolos can help with that and he will keep watch while the group rests.  

Once they've rested, Felgolos takes leave of them. He assures them he'll be watching them from afar.

Hooks


I don't really like the hooks to send the group to the different areas. I want the group to go to Bryn Shander. I'd have Felgolos tell the group to go and talk to his friend Duvessa Shane (page 248), ruler of Bryn Shander. She will know what to do about this giant menace. Additionally, the group can take the quest to tell Markham that his sister, Semile, is dead (see page 32).

Soon after, Zephyros shows up. He takes the group to Bryn Shander. For the encounters on that trip, I'd change Operation "Orb Strike" on page 37. I'd use Felgolos instead of the silver dragon. I don't want to confuse the players by introducing too many dragon NPCs, and I really want the group to feel like they know Felgolos so that when they find out he is captured down the line, they will be outraged.

I'd change this so that Felgolos crashes into the castle due to an unlucky gust of wind and maybe one of the heroes or NPCs almost falls off. I think I might also have it where Felgolos spots a Zhentarim caravan and asks the heroes if they want to go blow it up with him. Felgolos flies away once this is resolved. He promises to try to keep tabs on the group and help them when he can.

Bryn Shander


This whole "players control the NPCs" thing is awkward. I think I'd concoct a scenario where the group gets to meet each of them as they enter and explore Bryn Shander.

The cloud giant drops the group off at Bryn Shander in the frozen north. The heroes can go in town and look for Markham and Duvessa.

The group walks around and hears a familiar voice say "Blood of the Lady!" or whatever quote you used in the prologue with Artus Cimber. That character will think that Artus Cimber is here. But he's not. It's his son, Sirac of Suzail. Sirac is doing church stuff and nervously says he doesn't know who Artus is. If pressed, he admits it but asks the characters to keep it under their hat.

Sir Baric (page 249) approaches the group, wondering if one of them is "The Weevil" in disguise. Maybe he's on his horse, Henry. After grilling the group, he realizes he's been rude and apologizes, and explains that this Weevil guy is causing a lot of problems. As a token of apology, he offers the group a yeti-skin coat made "from the finest yeti!" He always keeps one in a saddlebag just in case there's a gale-force wind.

If a hero puts it on, I'd have everyone compliment them on their yeti cloak and give some stupid fact about yetis from MM page 306, like: "My cousin Bort said that the voices of loved ones killed in avalanches and blizzards sound out in the wails of the yetis, crying warnings of ill omen."

I just think the yeti-skin coats are funny.

As this goes on, a PC notices someone is watching them. It's a hooded figure in an alley. This person will try and slip into the shadows, but the group can catch up to her. It's Beldora (page 249). If she was in the prologue, she'll recognize the character. If not, she'll try to lie her way out of it and keep it secret that she's a Harper. She likes to lie, according to her fault.

The group should notice she has some weird gear - a modified crossbow, boots with weird spiked soles, metal claws on her wrists, and lots of thin rope. If they press her, she will admit that she plans on hunting giants. She wants to fire a crossbow bolt with a rope line attached to it into a giant. Then she'll use a mechanism built into the crossbow to reel herself in at tremendous speed, launching herself onto the giant's body. She can use the claws and boots to grip the giant, climb around and stab it in vital places.

I am thinking that for the early levels of this campaign, killing a giant should be a little like Shadow of the Colossus and/or Attack on Titan. Defeating a giant could be a major project involving a lot of cool maneuvers.

I am going to say that Beldora has never actually tried this before, and when she does try, she has a hard time with it. If the group likes it, they can use her gear and perfect the technique. They can become known as expert giant hunters over time.

The group finds Markham (page 248) and they can tell him that his sister is dead. The guy buries his emotions and gets stoic. The group notices Augrek (page 248) watching, concerned. She has a thing for Markham. She tries to console him but is rebuffed with extreme prejudice.

Duvessa comes over and asks the heroes about the giants. She's concerned that the giants are all over the place, causing problems.

Then we do the whole frost giant attack thing.

Chapter 3 Sorted Out


Once that is resolved, We'll deal out some quests. I'm not even going to give out the quests from Augrek or Barick. The group will basically have three places to go:

1. Explore This Area: Go around Icewind Dale and check out the giant activity.
2. Hundelstone: Say hi to Thwip Ironbottom.
3. Waterdeep: For the Duvessa quest and the Sirac Quest.

So now we enter the wild world of chapter 3...

Icewind Dale: Technically, we're already in Icewind Dale. The group is asked to check around the area for frost giant activity. You can read more about the whole "Ten Towns" area here. Here's how this search goes:

• Destruction: The group finds a caravan smashed. All of the people are dead. Two giants attacked them - they were here looking for the ring of winter.
• Yeti: The group spots a yeti with an especially spectacular coat of fur! If they want, they can hunt it and sell it for a hefty sum as long as they don't do too much damage to the fur.
• Dragon Fight: The heroes are tramping along in the snow when they walk smack dab in the middle of a battle between Arveiaturace and a frost giant. This encounter will be partly about just surviving the chaos - an avalanche, the ice beneath them breaks, stray breath weapon. They have the option of helping Arveiaturace, or running, whatever. If possible, have Arveiaturace tell a character to use a certain spell they have memorized. How does she know? Her master told her. Again, we want to play up the idea that there is some kind of weird magic going on with the corpse. She will eventually kill the giant and the group won't have the opportunity to question it. Make sure to narrate the big ise rune (page 125) on the giant's belt. We want to foreshadow those runes for the encounter in area 6 of chapter 4.
• Another Giant: A huge storm hits. The group needs to find shelter. Of course, this would be the time when the other giant finds them. Let's give this giant the weighted net power from page 246. It wants to question the group about the ring of winter and then kill them. The group is going to have to defeat this giant or escape. The giant will definitely mention Storvald and how he will plunge the world into an ice age, and how he travels in a ship with 20 frost giants.

Then the group can go back to Bryn Shander and tell Markham, whose eyebrows will rocket straight into the sky as a result of this alarming news.

Waterdeep: The trip to Waterdeep should be a pain in the groin. We want to impress upon the group how dangerous travel is now. That way, they will truly appreciate the harper portals and the airship when they get them.

This trip looks like it is about 600 miles! You'll really need to be wary of pacing. These kind of trips can drag down a campaign, as some sessions might feel like "filler" to the players.

Long Journey to Waterdeep

PH page 182 says that the group can travel 24 miles per day, whether on foot or horse. The group might want to take a boat once they get to Fireshear or Luskan. On PH page 158, we can see that ships travel between 2-4 mph depending on the vessel. They can travel 24 hours per day, so that's between 48 to 96 miles per day!

If the group decides to take a ship, you can use one of the ships on page 220. I'd probably use either the Kelpie's Kiss or the Ravenous. Honestly it would be hard to avoid a disastrous encounter with a massive boat full of frost giants.

Detour to Fireshear? Fireshear has the griffons, but I think I would remove that whole idea. For right now, I want the group to get a feel for the dangers of traveling on foot/horse.

Bryn Shander to Hundelstone: This should take a full day. If you look at the map on pages 74-75, you can see that Klauthen Vale is nearby. I want to set up Klauth the red dragon, so we better do it now.

The heroes are making their way down the road, when an airship (page 132) drops out of the sky. It's piloted by the cult of the dragon. They hover 100 feet up and tease/question the group. I think I'd have Delsephine do the talking and play her as a little sassy. Basically I'd give the group a chance to either be jerks to her or be flirty and go from there. Down the line, the group will be working with her so let's establish the dynamic now for future fun.

A frost giant shows up, and the group can team up with the cult to take it down. Klauth himself shows up and hopefully he is impressed with the group. He can use his wands to wipe out the frost giant, if necessary. Klauth asks the group what they know about the giants and he can add that he believes that the ordning has been shattered and that this has the giants scrambling to re-order their hierarchy.

Hundelstone: While the heroes stay here for the night, Thwip Ironbottom will keep an eye on them and see if they are Harper material. I think he should use the expression: "By the clocks of Neverwinter!" if possible. Apparently that's a realms saying, according to the forgotten realms wikia. They can complete the Beldora quest and maybe get a clockwork dog.

The trip to Luskan will take 3 or 4 days. When they cross that river on the map, I'd have some ogre huckers (page 50) launch goblins at the group. I just like the idea of heroes walking along and suddenly goblins are falling out of the sky right at them.

Camping in Ruins: I also want to have a scary encounter where the group may want to hide from the giants. Let's say that it is getting dark and the group spots a stone area partially overgrown with vines that people have obviously used for camping quite often. The group doesn't know it, but these are Ostorian ruins. There is a giant building with an opening that once held a door that is ideal for resting in. The walls contain carvings that are clues to the history of the giants and the ordning. There are also clues that there is a secret stash of treasure here. Maybe there are carvings in the walls of all the different giant runes (shown on page 125).

Let's say that there is actually a secret compartment in here with ancient magic items in it:

• A potion of giant size (page 236).
• The orb of the stein rune (page 235).

That night, cloud giants show up. They are looking for the trove of dragon magic! We'll give them the fling and wind aura powers from page 245. To display that some cloud giants are good and some are evil, let's have one of each. The group will need to do some serious hiding as the cloud giants scour the ruins. They can overhear them talking about Countess Sansuri and whether or not she is mad. They are going to read the carvings on the walls and they realize that there is a treasure trove here. They will end up going right into the building.

One giant is nice, the other is a bully. The bully doesn't want to kill the adventurers, but he might want to see how far he can fling the ones who give him lip. If a hero uses the potion of giant size and beats up the bully, he'll apologize. The other one is happy to see the bully get what is coming to him, but won't let the group kill him.

Luskan: (page 98) The group gets here after the frost giants attacked it. There's dead frost giants floating in the water and burning ships in the harbor.

Luskan to Port Llast will take about three days.

During this trip, let's do the horse-drawn wagon encounter (page 71). I'd have the guys get loud and drunk, and have a hill giant show up. The group could offer the giant some food or attack it. The giant will have a crude tattoo of the Haug rune and can say that Chief Guh wants to marry him so he is getting as far away from her as he possibly can.

Port Llast: (page 104) This place is being attacked and plundered by frost giants! Yikes. The group can actually sneak on their ship and steal some loot. They could also make their way through the fog and take down some giants. This might be a time for Felgolos to show up and help the group beat up some giants.

If possible, once it's all over, have some old fisherman tell the group the legend of Slarkrethel, a spellcasting kraken. He hopes to catch the kraken on his line someday.

Neverwinter: All right, it's time to let the group use that Harper Tower. This travel stuff will get old quick. While in Neverwinter, the group can impress Sandyse Thunderquill (page 118). Let's have a big bar fight, where Sandyse and the heroes are on the same side. Maybe she's being harassed and the group comes to her aid. Maybe she wins a drinking contest and the drunk sore loser tries to beat her up.

Let's use the Fallen Tower Tavern, that looks like a cool place. This bar is a neutral ground where orcs and citizens both visit as customers. Spirits of the dead swirl around in here - an aftereffect of the Spellplague.

The point of all of this is that Sandyse is impressed and decides to bring the group to the Harper Tower, using her teleportation circle.

Moongleam Tower: Here, the group can meet the Moonlord Davianna Yalrannis (page 82) and Krowen Valharrow (page 60). Make sure that Krowen rambles about the sequester spell and how he wants it to hide his treasures. This is done to foreshadow the piles and piles of sequestered treasure in Iymrith's lair on page 229.

The Harpers can teleport the group to Waterdeep.


Waterdeep: We have two quests to deal with:

1. Find the loot from the wrecked ship.
2. Talk to Lord Roaringhorn about the Ring of Winter.

Additionally, the people of Waterdeep are more than a little alarmed about the cloud giant castle that is hovering over the city.

At Lord Roaringhorn's party, I think it would be cool if an NPC from the Acquisitions Inc. game was here. He's a goofy wizard named Flabbergast and he has a cat named Mr. Snibly. I think you should have it where Flabbergast has two sips of a drink and he gets very drunk. He'll slip out of the party.

Once the group deals with Roaringhorn, have Mr. Snibly urgently try to get the group to follow it. The cat leads the group to a dark street. Flabbergast is standing there, drunk, waiting for something. The cloud giant castle is directly overhead.

Here's what happened. Flabbergast has a bag of beans (see DMG page 153), and he knows that sometimes a giant beanstalk comes out of a bean when you plant it. There are a lot of possible random effects that can happen. He found a patch of dirt here and he drunkenly planted ALL OF THE BEANS AT ONCE.

Right then, all of the effects go off:

• A bulette (MM page 34)burrows up and attacks.
• 8 shriekers appear.
• A fruit tree grows, with fruit that has powers of magic potions. Let's have some be water breathing (DMG page 188), as they'll need those for chapter 10. We could do one invisibility, one invulnerability and one vitality (all on DMG page 188).
• d4+8 pink toads appear. Touching them turns them into a monster of the DM's choice. I am thinking rust monsters! MM page 262.
• A beanstalk grows and rises all the way up to the castle.

Some guards might show up to help out. Remember that the guards in Waterdeep all wear helmets that magically modify their voices so they all sound the same.

Flabbergast is wasted so he's got the poisoned condition. Once this situation is dealt with, the group can go up and see what the deal is with the cloud giants. This is detailed on page 113. They're cartographers, so no real danger up there.

This should get the attention of Laeral Silverhand, ruler of Waterdeep. She will want to meet with the group and see what they've learned. She will ask the adventurers to seek out a legendary adventurer - Harshnag the frost giant. She says that the group can find him near Yartar. The Hand of Yartar (page 115) should know where he is.

The group can use the Harper teleport network to go right to Yartar.

The Gambling Ship


In Yartar, the Hand says they can arrange a meeting with Harshnag in a day or two.

Someone else is in Yartar - Felgolos! He's in his halfling form. There are Zhentarim up to no good on a gambling ship called The Grand Dame (page 216). This place is extremely important in chapter 11. I want to use it now so that when the group sees the token in chapter 10 they immediately recognize it.

Felgolos wants the group's help. He'll offer them loot if necessary. Lord Drylund is not on board! He's off doing Kraken Society stuff! We don't want to short-circuit the plot.

A bunch of Zhentarim scoundrels are on board, and they are going to rob Pow Ming. Remember, if the group cheats at a game, Pow Ming will use detect thoughts on them.

Felgolos's weird luck kicks in and he hits a massive jackpot. Pow Ming thinks he must be cheating. Then, Felgolor's bad luck kicks in. He drinks a weird, exotic fruit drink. It turns out he is allergic to it. He starts throwing up over the side and accidentally assumes his dragon form. All he can do is vomit. He's a prime target for these Zhentarim scoundrels, who utterly hate him for all the attacks he's made against them.

People panic/dive overboard/faint and the Zhentarim attack. It is up to the group to stop the Zhentarim now in what should be a ridiculous, chaotic battle.

Once all of that is resolved, Felgolos will need a night to shake off the allergic reaction. Then the next day he can take flight and find Harshnag, who is wandering the Dessarin Hills to the south.

The group can meet up with the giant. Harshnag wants to take the group to see the Oracle. That brings us to Chapter 4.

The Oracle


To save time, let's have Felgolos use his Frame Teleport spell from older editions:

(lvl 6) Frame Teleport: You can link two wooden frames (mirrors, windows, etc) and pass through them. This portal lasts a few rounds.

They can pass through a window frame in Yartar and appear in Mirabar. From there, the group will have to travel deep into the Spine of the World mountains. This trip is detailed on page 121.

Felgolos will bid the group adieu - he's got Zhentarim to mess with. The group doesn't know it, but he's about to be captured and tortured by the cloud giant Sansuri.

We could stick an encounter in on the way to the Eye. We could do "Battlefield" (page 69), the one with dead giants and barbarians. Maybe some of them have become undead. Zombie giants! That might be fun.

We should also use this time to try to get the group to like Harshnag. See page 120 for how to run Harshnag. He could do stuff like:

• Tell them amusing stories about the Gray Hands.
• Work out cool battle maneuvers with characters. Maybe he throws them at a giant or something.
• He can explain the giant runes and how there are rune magic items.
• He can talk about the wyrmskull throne (page 237). We specifically want to mention the korolnor scepter, how it is linked to the throne and how you can get paralyzed on the throne. That way the group understands what is going on when Serissa is paralyzed in chapter 10.
• He can show off Gurt's Greataxe (page 234). Remember, it glows when it is in really cold places like this one.

Then we get to The Eye of the All Father on page 121.

Alterations: I don't like the whole burial mound thing, so I'm going to remove it. I'm going to say that only one giant lord has a conch. The rest were lost or destroyed or whatever.

So when the group communes with the oracle, instead of sending them to the burial mounds, he will demand that the group retrieves giant artifacts that Storvald has hoarded at Svardborg.

The items:

• The boulder on page 103.
• The ring on page 105.

Waiting outside is Klauth's gift: The airship! Page 134. The way the group treated the Cult of the Dragon earlier in the campaign will obviously come into play now.

Svardborg


The group can go to Svardborg now (page 155). We're going to make a couple of changes to that chapter. We're going to put the giant artifacts in area 1G. We're also going to put the severed head of Arveiaturace's dead master there, too!

Apparently, the giants fought her recently and cut off the head of the corpse. So.. the group gets to room 1G, they get the stuff, and then the ship full of 20 giants shows up. They see the severed head and they've been clued in that it is possible that there's some kind of magic to this dead thing. Arveiaturace can be contacted through it!

So, as the group tries to survive this insanity, Arveiaturace can show up, tee off on the giants and help the group get through this thing. 

Now the group has the items and can head back to the Eye. They're flying on the airship and they hear terrible cries - it's Felgolos being tortured! The castle of the cloud giants (page 187) is just a mile away.

The group can go save him if they like. He will be forever in their debt. He's hurt bad, and will need to go off to rest for a while. 

Then we fly back to the Eye, hand over the artifacts, and the Oracle tells the group to get the conch from Duke Zalto at Ironslag (page 201).

On the way out, the group has the encounter with Iymrith. Harshnag holds her off and the group can escape.

Now that  the group has the conch, they can teleport to Maelstrom when they're ready. 

The Rest


We play through that stuff. Serissa has a clue - the token with the golden goose on it. The group will know exactly where it's from - The Grand Dame in Yartar!

They fly there on their airship and go through that whole boat encounter (page 216). This time, Lord Drylund is on board. The adventurers can learn from Drylund that Hekaton is being held prisoner on The Morkoth, a ship that can't be scried. Then Drylund dies, killed psychically by Slarkrethel.

The group can take the airship to go try to find the Morkoth. Along the way, maybe we could throw in the manticore encounter on page 135.

The group finds the ship and has that whole epic battle (page 221). If the group likes Felgolos, maybe have him show up at a convenient time for a dramatic assist.

Once Hekaton is saved, the group can use the conch to go back to Maelstrom.

Iymrith: There, the group can set things right and prepare for the final assault on Iymrith's lair. I say replace two of those storm giant NPCs with Felgolos and Harshnag.

Then we go through chapter 12! The final battle with Iymrith.

So there you go. I hope something in here gave you some ideas. Good luck!

Today I am going to try to write a review of Storm King's Thunder, a D&D adventure for characters level 1-11.

Disclosure: Wizards of the Coast sent me a review copy of this adventure.

Lord Drylund, one of my favorite pieces of art

We're going to go over the good stuff, then the bad stuff, and then I'll give my overall thoughts. Real quick: Storm King's Thunder is pretty good and worth getting if you have time to sort through it.

The Good


More Improvement

One of my big complaints about previous adventures was that there was no adventure summary. When you don't have a summary, it makes preparing the adventure very tedious. You have to go through the whole book to figure out what the overall story is.

In this adventure, not only is there a summary, there is also a flowchart! That is greatly appreciated and very helpful.

There is also a large but concise outline of all of the major NPCs on pages 5-6. I do appreciate that, but honestly I didn't actually refer to it at all when I prepared this thing. I am trying to think of how it could be better utilized. Maybe a quick line of essential stats, including AC, HP, attack bonus and damage?

It's also a bit odd because they don't put page numbers in, but we'll get to that below.

It might have helped to list enemies on one page and allies on the other. In my guide, I made a list of every member of every faction in the book and it was very useful when I laid out my plan for the adventure.

I think the NPC list is good, but it needs some refinement.

Big Art


In Curse of Strahd, we got some full page art. In this adventure, we actually get double page spreads! That's pretty great. I really like the fire giant spread on pages 178-179.

The only problem here is that the binding eats up some of the central details. You really can't make out the huge demon idol tribute/forge in the background, and to me that is the coolest part about that painting.

I also don't like how they put a little bit of text over the art describing what it is. I'd prefer if there was a table that listed all of that information on the table of contents.

But I appreciate that this was done. To me, D&D art is very important and it helps a DM bring the adventure to life. Those big pieces can be shown to the group right at the table and the players will have no trouble making out the details.

I'd love it if they were able to make a little booklet with art to show the players like they did in the Hellbound boxed set.

Use of Factions

In the previous adventures, the factions were barely used. This made running these games in the Adventurers League a bit awkward. Players would sit down, make a character and pick out a faction... then the faction was barely mentioned at all. Sometimes it felt like factions were pointless.

In this, the factions are heavily involved, particularly the Harpers and the Zhentarim. I really like the Harper tower and the faction-connected ships that might see use in chapter 11.

Strange Bedfellows

I love that the heroes can team up with villains to battle the giants. Being an ally of a chromatic dragon like Klauth opens up so many different, fun possibilities.

I've always found that one key to running an interesting game is to give your bad guys some good qualities. That extra dimension opens a lot of doors and makes the NPC stick out in the group's mind.

Klauth goes out of his way to help the adventurers in this. I think that is really cool. Rubbing elbows with the cult of the dragon seems like it could lead to all sorts of wackiness.

Integrating the Lore


By far, the thing I like most about this adventure is that they took the time to use old material and build on it. I'm not a Realms guy so I am sure I missed a billion references, but you can just look at the list of products on the credits page and see that this adventure uses material from a wide range of old products, even stuff from Dungeon Magazine!

I also think it is great that they refer to other 5e products. Blagothkus from Tyranny is in this. Harshnag actually made a little cameo in Rise of Tiamat. The air cult from Princes shows up here early on. You can go to locations from every other adventure except Curse of Strahd. The Gauntlgrym information in Out of the Abyss is extremely useful if you use that drow scenario on page 85.

Easter Eggs: I used to be a huge fan of The Simpsons, and one of the things they went out of their way to do was something they called "rewarding you for paying attention." There were a million secret jokes in the background on the show. If you paused certain episodes at the right time, you could catch all sorts of things.

The more they could do of that in these adventures, the better.

Continuity: I love it when we are reassured that the old stuff "counts." I can't imagine how they could possibly integrate material from hundreds of old products, but it seems like that is what they did. I would imagine that Realms fans would absolutely love this, but I really haven't heard much talk about it online.

They even used stuff from the novels! I have always been a little fuzzy on what books "count." For example, did the events of the Rod of Seven Parts novel actually happen in official D&D continuity?

I think they should count whatever they can. I know a lot of people way back when that were very disgruntled when they would find out that the Star Wars books that they loved didn't actually happen in the movie continuity. It feels like making the effort to include all of that stuff is just going to build excitement and interest in future products.

In particular, I hope the people on the Candlekeep forums check this out. I would love to hear their thoughts on this adventure and how it relates to other Realms adventures and books.

Ahead of the Curve

Here's a sentence you will see a lot of in this book: "...good-aligned males and females of various ethnicities on riding horses." They go way out of their way to point this out repeatedly. I feel like D&D is way ahead of other forms of entertainment in some ways.

Milestones


In this adventure, it is suggested that you don't track XP and just level your characters at certain points in the story. I like that because I think that most groups stop tracking XP as they play and switch over to this method, anyway.

That said, it does make me sad to think that XP itself would ever go away or become irrelevant. Maybe in the future, XP is something that should be used solely to calculate encounter difficulty.

I do think there is a lot of fun to be had simply wandering around and killing monsters for XP. It sort of feels like that kind of game deserves its own separate adventure. In fact, that is what a "sandbox" is, to me.

Design

I love the quality of paper. Some of the other books have paper that is a little "smudgy." I actually really liked the paper in the Tyranny books, but it did make the art come out a little dark. I would say this paper is pretty much perfect.

I absolutely love the page design. I'm talking about the white background with the blue/grey clouds and runes. It looks really cool and is much better than the "page rips" in the Player's Handbook. To me, this is by far the nicest-looking book. Because the background is white, it is less intrusive but it still has cool little designs that make the book stand out from the others.

The Maps

I think we'd all be happy if it was all Schley all the time, but the maps in here are really good. There are some really nice burial mound maps and I love the maps of the giant lairs, especially the ones that include an artistic rendition of the place.

Future Stories


We keep getting told that there are clues to future storylines in these books. In this one, we are outright told that Artus Cimber and his ring of winter are somehow involved in a future adventure.

If you look back to Hoard of the Dragon Queen, you will see a few sentences about how Blagothkus is trying to rally the lethargic giants and shake things up. This adventure came out about two years ago! They were planting seeds for this from the very beginning. I think that is really great.

I have also noticed that we are getting lots of mentions of devil-worshipers. In Curse of Strahd, there were the Wachters in Vallaki. In this, there is Othovir's family (page 56). I seem to remember something about a tiefling and her kid worshiping Asmodeus too, but I can't remember where it was from. It might have been an online game that Chris Perkins ran.

I enjoy trying to find these clues and I appreciate the effort put into it.

Final Battle

I really like chapter 12. I like the lair, the sinkholes, the gargoyles, the trebuchets, everything. Well, except the yuan-ti. I don't really get that. I kind of assume this is some stuff that will link to a future adventure..? The entity in the hole?

It just feels like a really epic encounter. One big, sprawling, chaotic assault. I think every dragon fight should be like this - fully developed and spotlighted with a lot of thought given to the various trappings.

The Bad


Before we jump in, I just want to point out that I think this adventure is probably the second-best one so far. I have a lot of issues with things in this book, but in general I'd say that if you have a little time to sort through this and pull out the stuff you like, it is worth buying.

Commitment to the Sandbox

Apparently, most people like the sandbox approach, where the adventures are not linear, but rather a collection of things for you to assemble however you like.

I don't like that, and I feel like a lot of other people don't like it either. Maybe I'm wrong.

It takes so much time to go through these giant books and figure out what to use, where everything is, what stats I need. It's a major chore and a little baffling considering all of the talk that people just don't have a lot of time to prepare (or even play in a weekly game!).

I can accept that this approach is just how they're going to do things. If it is working, then they should keep doing it.

But for me, this is definitely the adventure that gave me the urge to start using and converting Pathfinder adventure paths to 5e rules. I love how Paizo makes their stuff. They have it down to a science. They give you maps, sourcebooks and minis that all are designed specifically for their path.

Other Old Gripes


They are also committed to not giving us page numbers. That approach makes that NPC list on pages 5-6 kind of useless. It takes up a lot of column space when instead of saying "Page 128" you have to say: "Chapter 4 ("Eye of the All-Father," area 11)."

I realized something when I was reading this. My theory as to why they don't use page numbers is that if they add errata to a future printing, the page number references won't need to be changed.

If they do someday print updated versions of any of these books and the page numbers change, I will have to go through every one of these guides and change all the page numbers. I am weeping already.

Finding Monsters is a Pain: I can just imagine all of the DMs who are going to want to shoot themselves when they try to find the axebeak statblock. Same with awakened trees and shrubs. They're not even in the Monster Manual table of contents.

They Made Five Dungeons and Want Us to Use One

What is the deal with this? In chapter 2, there are three fully fleshed out scenarios. Giants attack the settlements. We are meant to use just one. What a tremendous waste of space!

I know you can still use the other ones, but now you're wondering how to work it in, if it will cause the group to level too quickly, all that stuff.

Worse, if you run this in a session and you let your group choose which of the three cities to go to, it is entirely possible you will need to have read and retained all three giant, complex areas each with their own batch of NPCs for the group to run. But you're only going to run one of them.

That's asking an awful lot of a DM who, in theory, bought this book so they wouldn't have to do a lot of preparation. It really feels like it is actually more work to use a published adventure than it is to just sit down and make something up.

Giant Lairs: Same thing with the Oracle in Chapter 4. As written, the group is probably going to go to just one of five fully-made giant lairs. One out of five! Again, what a waste.

I have read some talk of "replayability." How many people run these adventures more than once? Does anybody run the same adventure for the same group of players twice? I don't see the value in this.

One of the big problems of the early adventures is that they took too long to finish. By making an adventure that is, I guess, meant to be replayed, you are once again causing groups to end up spending a year or more on one adventure, meaning they won't need to buy the next one.

Maybe the thinking is that with all of these people running games on streams, that each campaign will be vastly different and worth watching. But from what I have seen in life, even extremely linear adventures come off completely different from one group to the next just due to the DM's style and the proclivities of the players. You don't need to go to these extremes to hand out a varied play experience.

Chapter 3


What the heck is this? I mentioned in my guide that this chapter is 46 pages long and details 164 locations. To me, this material belonged in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide rather than in an adventure where space is at a premium.

I do really like that they compiled all the lore. I love doing that kind of thing in this blog, and what they did here is a sort of mammoth achievement. It feels like this could be kept and used as a basis going forward. It could be updated when each adventure comes out to act as a really useful resource for DMs.

I can't tell you how much I love that they developed the story of Daggerford (from Scourge of the Sword Coast). D&D Next "counted!" I really do like Daggerford. I feel like I missed something, though. Where did the Duke go? What about his magic sword?

That said, this chapter was absolute torture for me to read. I had to go through each entry to see which areas I would actually want to use. Out of 164 places, I liked about 10 of them.

The worst part here is that the entries are so vague that they're almost useless.

Here's an example. In Port Llast on page 104, the place is in heavy fog and there are 20 frost giants destroying the town. The group can use the fog as cover and kill giants "one or two at a time."

That could (and should, IMO) be an entire 30 page adventure on its own, but we get half a page on it. It is completely up to you to unpack and design it. You need to come up with encounters, allies, events, stats, and contingency plans. When do the giants run away? What are the chances that other giants notice a giant being assaulted? How do we keep 10-20 giant fights from being boring?

There's good material in here, but they are asking a lot of you. Especially new DMs. It feels like every single adventure they put out has these giant roadblocks that are going to hamper or ruin a new DM's first campaign.

Underdeveloped Encounters


In general, the 5e approach to published encounters is broad. We get a few sentences and then the DM does the rest. I don't like that. I want details. I want terrain. I want cool moments, special flavor text, awesome twists. If I was able to always come up with a mind-blowing encounter, I wouldn't be buying this book.

That's really the thing that struck me the most when I read this. There aren't many "holy crap!" moments. There aren't any encounters that I got excited about. Usually in an adventure, there's at least two things that really blow your mind, something really different and fun.

Like having to dive into a monster's gullet to have an encounter with something else that was swallowed. Or a huge major NPC showing up out of the blue in the middle of an encounter. Or some kind of disaster that throws everybody for loop (like, say, getting sucked into a whirlpool and plopping out on the isle of dread or something.

I'd really love for someone to make a really well thought-out, developed chase scene. I don't think I've ever seen one that didn't require some pretty major tweaking in a published adventure.

Too Fiddly: In general, there are a lot of moving parts to everything in these adventures. As a DM, you are already multitasking. Keeping all of these movements and "if this, then this.." stuff in your head is impossible. The "alert" sections in each giant lair, to me, are just too complex. I think I would have liked it if they just said that in the case of an alert, the giant lord does this and a patrol of 5 giants goes to investigate the problem.

I just don't see being able to eyeball those alert charts while I'm running the game and it is too much information to keep straight without extensive pre-game memorization.

Typos

I didn't expect this. Early on in the book, there's about three very noticeable typos, including what looks like a few omitted words. I'm not sure how much I care about this.

I've noticed that typos are more common now than they used to be in the old days of the newspaper. I think I see typos every single day on major websites. Because most things are read once and then never looked at again, does a typo really matter?

In a book of this size, does anybody care about three typos? I think that a typo here and there doesn't really matter in the big picture. If there was an ongoing issue, I guess it would feel like the book is of a lesser quality.

Honestly though, I kind of wonder how many people actually read through these entire books. If I wasn't writing this blog, I think I would have skimmed vast swaths of this adventure.

Overall


If I were to rank this, I'd say that Storm King's Thunder is the second-best adventure for 5e yet. Curse of Strahd was quite a bit better, in my opinion. Curse of Strahd was extremely popular and probably a classic. It's almost unfair to follow it up with a return to the realms in an adventure with monsters that are kind of cool, but have been used a lot before.

There is plenty of stuff worth pulling out of this. I would use a streamlined version of most of the giant lairs. I really do love the idea of defending a city from a giant attack.

Rune Magic Items: The rune items are pretty cool, but I feel like there's something missing from them. They're a little confusing, too. I don't really understand the whole "transfer" thing.

Stone Giants: I like how effort is put into making stone giants cool, but when you have to choose one or two dungeons, I just don't see many people picking Deadstone Cleft. It's a very cool place, but if it's a choice between that and fire giants, I feel like the fire giants are going to win every time. Because they're fire giants!


Other Types of Giants: I wish that instead of using up pages to provide a bunch of dungeons that you choose one of, they used that space to include other types of giants, like:

• Death Giants: I love the ones with soul gems flying around them. 
• Astral Giants: From Revenge of the Giants. They have really cool minis and are just interesting to me.
• Eldritch Giants: You could do a lot of fun stuff with them.

Sticking to just the traditional types makes this adventure feel a little stale. I think this story might have been much cooler if some of the newer giant types tried to make their way up the hierarchy in the ordning. This was the perfect story to do that in!

In fact, I think I wouldn't have even used stone giants and hill giants in this. Not that they're bad. I like both of their dungeons. I just think this is too similar to the endless reiterations of Against the Giants over recent years.

All in all, this adventure is quite like the others. If you have the time to dig through it, organize it and pull out all of the stuff you like, it's definitely worth buying.

I played in my friend's Eberron game yesterday. I am running an 8th level sorcerer who talks like Sean Connery (badly).

We had finally assembled the deck of many things. The DM was expecting us to draw from it, but nobody wanted to! I had originally planned on drawing 3 cards, but once my character died and was raised, I got scared. I am much more cautious now.

Then, that beanstalk we made a few sessions collapsed. We had forgot - the flying island above it was losing its magic. The island fell on the graveyard. It was sort of a disaster.

We did have a mission with these cards. We had to put each card in the hand of a different statue i this weird underground place.

Potion Smugglers


First, we wanted to get some healing potions. We went to House Jarasco - they're the clan that specializes in healing. It turned out that healing potions had been made illegal.

Because of the collapsing island, the ruler of Sharn decided that adventurers in the city needed to be dealt with. So the thinking is that without healing, adventurers will either quit or die off.

The ruler of Sharn right now is this princess who we are very suspicious of. She is apparently linked to an entity known as the Lady of Plagues.

We immediately started planning a black market potion-selling scheme through the bar we will be opening soon. I love the idea of us going to other cities and stealing healing potions, then coming back to Sharn and selling them,

We hit the library and did some research. We know there are some rakshasas involved in this whole story somehow. In real life, I know that's bad. They are immune to spells level 6 and lower! But I don't know if my character knows that or not.

In my games, I let players use any knowledge they have. To me, it's a benefit you earn by playing the game a lot. We can always make up a reason why your character knows it.

We eventually learned all about rakshasas,

The Draconic Prophecy


Then we went down below and placed the cards. Glowing images appeared in the room. They showed spiders crawling over all of Eberron, and a mark of prophecy. Marks of Prophecy are some kind of Eberron thing that I know nothing about.

I think they have to do with the draconic prophecy, which is an Eberron thing I know nothing about. It might have something to do with the dragonmarks, which are marks that some people are born with that gives them special powers.

We also saw a vision of these three stones banishing a warforged to some other realm. Three people were holding the stones - our characters from the previous 4e campaign.

Eventually, we learned that each of those stones were located in planes we could access in my well of worlds. Once you have all three stones, you can access a new plane.

While we gawked at the glowing images, a portal opened up and this giant spider came out. It really messed us up with acid webs, but we eventually defeated it.

I was kind of expecting some sort of massive explosion now that we have assembled the deck, but from what I can tell we are now going to be trying to stop some evil scheme involving Lolth and Orcus.


We did a bunch of stuff back up in Sharn as we tried to figure out all of the clues in the vision we had down below. This all lead us to the apartments of two people who were are pretty sure are the rakshasas. We needed to break in to their apartments.

We are the worst at breaking in. One locked door completely shuts us down. That said, we did pretty well this time. Two of us crept in, invisible. I used dimension door to get us into an apartment. We lowered a rope out of the window down to the fighter and he climbed up.

A thorough exploration turned up almost nothing, except for a cauldron that apparently was a one-way portal. We eventually jumped in and we appeared in a dungeon.

As we explored, we saw a magic elevator that was powered by a couple of items. We needed that elevator to go up. Without it, we were stuck down here. It took a lot of trial and error to figure it out.

We thoroughly searched this whole level. We got attacked by a phase spider and killed it. We found an altar to Orcus guarded by a monster I'd never seen before - a Mohrg.

We also fought some intestine-snakes with fangs. They paralyzed me and man I could not make my save.

Eventually we found the two items we needed:

• An amulet in a closet full of cursed items.
• A glass eye floating in a gelatinous cube.

I was able to use mage hand to extract the eye from the cube.

We used the items and activated the elevator. That's where we stopped!

Overall

It was a good session. They're all good! We players all work together and there's no dysfunction in the group dynamic.

Metagaming: The thing I've been thinking a lot about in this campaign is metagaming. In the beginning of this campaign, I never worried about anything because I assumed the DM would scale everything to our level. The other players don't think like that. They assess every situation and if it sounds too dangerous, they don't want to do it.

Now I try to think like that, too. I'm getting better at it. I defer to them as often as possible. It's sort of like they are teaching me how to be a player.

In addition to this campaign, the DM runs a weekly 4th edition game. I love hearing about other people's campaigns, so I've heard a lot about it. When he tells me stories, all that 4e stuff comes back to me. I loved 4e, but wow, I do not want to play it again.

Last night we wrapped up the Tales from the Infinite Staircase adventure, and it went really well. While I heavily modified a lot of that book, there were a lot of fun and useful ideas in it.

When planning this "final boss" battle, I sat down and tried to organize my thoughts. In Planescape, there are three core philosophies:

• The Rule of Three: Everything comes in threes.
• Unity of Rings: Everything is circular. Often, you will end up back where you started.
• Center of All: There is a center of the multiverse and it might be right where you are.

Weirdly, in Planescape, there are NPCs with the same name as the three core philosophies. Two of them are given big entries in Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. Whether they are an embodiment of these concepts is sort of left up to the DM.

The group already met Rule of Three a few times. He's the son of Graz'zt, and he's trying to unite the demons and devils. Unity of Rings is a deva who goes around giving people advice. I'm not sure who Center of All is. I think I read a mention that it's a rilmani - one of the neutral creatures who live by the central spire in the outlands.


I decided to change it so that Center of All is The Nameless One from Planescape Torment. I'm about to give spoilers, so flee if you must...

The Nameless One keeps dying and getting reborn. He loses his memory every time this happens. Ravel Puzzlewell is in love with him and only he can answer her riddle: "What can change the nature of a man?"

In Torment, the actual answer of the riddle is whatever The Nameless One really thinks it is. She just wants to know his answer.

I decided I'd make it so that there is one "correct" answer to this riddle. I saw a poll on this site where people voted on the true answer to the riddle. The result is very interesting: regret.

That's going to be the "true" answer to this riddle in my campaign.

In Torment, some of the Nameless One's incarnations are evil and some are good. I decided that the one they encountered tonight was evil.

I had been thinking about the ultimate ending for this campaign. I liked the idea of one or both of the characters becoming the ruler of Sigil by being in charge of the most powerful faction (The Sensates, probably).

Now I am thinking that the group is actually going to inherit and embody the philosophical concepts.

• Bidam will become Rule of Three.
• Theran will become Unity of Rings.
• They will get to choose who becomes Center of All. Whatever NPC they like.

This will put them at odds with the current Rule of Three, Unity of Rings and Center of All. I am planning on having the group battle and defeat both Rule of Three and Unity of Rings during the Hellbound adventures.

The Nameless One will probably be dealt with later and I think I can do a lot of fun things with him. Ravel Puzzlewell is extremely powerful. The group will probably have to kill her, too.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Half-Dabus/Half-Elf Wizard
* NPCs: Nin the heresy devil, Pyranicus the baby abyssal dragon. 

The heroes own a cluster of buildings known as "Deadbook Square."

Last Time: The heroes killed an earth genie and were given estates in the Great Dismal Delve. Now they are ready to take on the entity known as The Iron Shadow, who is unmaking planes.

Rule of Three

The heroes found out that they'd lost their weird powers. They could no longer create portals or buildings. They couldn't Maze people or slice them up with their minds. Apparently, the Lady of Pain or whoever had granted them those powers had taken them away.

The group rested for the night. The next morning, Theran's book glowed. There were weird, new pages inside. The book explained the concepts of Rule of Three, Unity of Rings and Center of All.

A whole bunch of clues pointed them toward the NPCs of the same name. The group found Rule of Three at the Black Sail tavern. Bidam had stolen his magic earring back in Graz'zt's palace. When you say the word "gold," 33 gold appears in your hand. Rule of Three demanded it back.

Then he reluctantly handed them a book he'd been reading about the theoretical center of the planes.

The group found Unity of Rings at A'kin the Friendly Fiend's new shop. Unity of Rings stared a hole through Theran. Unity subconsciously sensed that Theran was poised to take his place. They are destined to have a huge battle. The group nabbed a scroll that had information about dreams.

The quest for Center of All led the group to Fell, the fallen dabus. He makes magic tattoos. He has slices of people's skin with tattoos on them that he hangs for display. One tattoo caught their eye - it was grey skin with the tattoo of the symbol of torment.

Fell hates the adventurers, but they were able to persuade him to hand over the tattoo to save the multiverse.

The Deep Ethereal


What this boiled down to was that the group needed to pull memories of the planes from the plane of dreams. Theran could take those memories and put them into "dream pearls," which could be placed in the exact center of a plane. This would allow the plane to "remember" its original form and undo the damage the Iron Shadow had done to it.

They needed Bidam's five ladies to carry the pearls. Each lady was connected to one of the damaged planes.

Once all that was figured out, Theran's book lit up and created a portal to the Deep Ethereal.

They went through and they brought a horde of NPCs with them: The 5 ladies, Nin the heresy devil and Pyranicus the baby abyssal dragon/son of Bidam.

Torment


The Deep Ethereal is full of fog (visibility: 30 feet) and has no gravity. The adventurers saw the Iron Shadow hovering above a giant stone symbol of torment. On the symbol were five doors.

The Iron Shadow had been sliced up by the slaads a few sessions back. They saw that her wounds were slowly healing.

Beyond the symbol was The Castle at the Edge of Time, a location from the Guide to the Ethereal Plane. I was thinking that the group would deal with the shadow first and then go to the castle, but they flipped it on me.

The group went into the castle and found Center of All beating up Feurina, the warder devil. Feurina was linked to the Iron Shadow, but had become friends with Bidam.

The group jumped in and we had a pretty epic battle. Center of All had lich stats. I had heard that liches were weak in 5e, but one glance at the spell list was beyond alarming. Here's two spells I used:

• Disintegrate: Did 72 points of damage. If it kills you, you are literally dust.
• Finger of Death: Did about 60 points. If it kills you, you are a zombie under the caster's command!

When preparing, I decided not to even give the lich Power Word: Kill. I figured that spell would wipe out my group.

Bidam took a ton of damage, but smartly used healing after the disintegrate. What was really crazy was that Feurina jumped in, made two attacks, and rolled a 20 on each attack!

Center of All had just one hit point left. Theran finished him off with a lightning bolt.

I had Center of All lying there, conscious, slowly turning to dust. I had planted clues that he had the answer to Ravel's riddle (she asked the heroes "What can change the nature of a man?" way back when they broke into her maze). They didn't pick up on the clue, though. They did see that the tattoo fit right on his shoulder and they put it on him.

The group found a pile of treasure. 10,000 gold worth of rubies and these:

• Staff of Power: (which has a million spells in it)
• Armor of Invulnerability: Take half damage from nonmagic attacks.

The group feels very weak to me, so I wanted to beef them up before we start the Hellbound adventures.

Repairing The Planes

Then the group dealt with the Iron Shadow. Basically, they had to open a door, go into each plane and place the dream pearl in the center of the plane (marked by the symbol of torment). They had three rounds to do each one, otherwise Bidam's lady would be unmade.

This ended up very chaotic, as the group frantically went from door to door. They were able to successfully save each plane:
Infinite Staircase: The shadow had wiped this place out. All that was left was a single platform. I put agents of Vecna there, as I am planning on running the Vecna adventures at the end of this campaign (I want to see if I can fix Die, Vecna, Die).

Long story. The Infinite Staircase in the books is linked to a forgotten realms goddess. I've decided that when it is remade, it will now be linked to Vecna, allowing his agents to spread all throughout the multiverse.

Bidam's lady was killed by The Eye, an agent of Vecna.

Elemental Plane of Earth: The center of this plane i actually located in the head of Grumbar, the Living Mountain, lord of earth elementals. Bidam was able to move a boulder and place the pearl while an earth elemental tried to beat him up.


Limbo: I decided that the center of this plane is located inside of Ssendam, Lord of the Insane. He's one of the slaad lords and I really like him.

I did this thing where the modrons were bringing their big clockwork planet from Mechanus into Limbo (in the 5e monster manual there is a mention that the modrons are trying to make Limbo lawful). Ssendam was fighting them off. Theran used mage hand to put the dream pearl inside of Sendam's goo.

Ssendam hit him with a pseudopod for 30 damage and Theran went down. Bidam's lady, Yulmanda, healed Bidam but was sucked into Ssendam and utterly destroyed. Theran escaped.

Barovia: I used a room from the Amber Temple in Curse of Strahd. The center of the plane is in the mural down in the room with the vestige of Tenebrous. Tenebrous, of course, was defeated by these heroes at the end of the Dead Gods adventure.

There were three flameskulls hovering between Bidam and the symbol, so he hilariously side-rolled under them.

The vestige in the block of amber pulsed and offered Bidam great power. Bidam said "OK" and touched it..

In the Curse of Strahd book, there are a lot of qualifications to receive this dark gift. If you qualify, Tenebrous gives you the ability to make a soul phylactery and a potion that can turn you into a lich. You gain a flaw: You are obsessed with treasure. Also, once you become a lich, your character is an evil NPC under the DM's control.

I changed it. I'll make it so that if Bidam wants to become a lich, he can, but he's going to need to fight off the evil influence of Tenebrous. Maybe I'll adapt the 2nd edition "Dark Powers" checks or something.

George did point out to Jessie that if Bidam becomes undead, he's going to have a hard time scoring with the ladies.

Dessakrul

Astral Plane: Both heroes converged here. This door opened to an area deep inside Tu'Narath, the city of the githyanki (as detailed in the Chris Perkins adventure "The Lich Queen's Beloved" from Dungeon Magazine 100).

I set up a thing where there's a pit that the two-headed red dragon is sleeping in. Next to it is a room that is an "emotion node." This is where the center of the plane is. When you go into the emotion node, you have to make a saving throw or be overcome with sorrow (and wake up the dragon).

Theran made Bidam invisible, and Bidam rolled really high the whole way through! Bidam got in and out without a hitch. They never found out what was in the pit.

Victory

The group had fixed all of the damage that the Iron Shadow had caused. The Iron Shadow proceeded to flake and fall apart. In a moment, all that was left of her was a little ball of light slowly floating down to the symbol of torment.

I decided to break a rule for this. I really don't like it when DMs "steal" ideas from players. But for this, I decided that whatever the players believed would happen with this ball of light would be true.

They were certain it was going to cause an explosion! So.. the whole symbol broke apart and became a vortex of swirling stone.

The iron tome became a portal back to Sigil. The heroes realized that Nin, Pyranicus and Feurina were all in the castle and would have to fly through the vortex to get to the portal.

All three of them were killed! I rolled real low for them.

The two devils appeared back in hell. Pyranicus might be dead. I need to read up on what happens to demons when slain outside of the Abyss. That will be really sad.. he's a baby dragon. I'll figure something out.

The group were back in Sigil! They had saved a number of planes and now were poised for some time to relax and enjoy Sigil. The next few sessions will be dealing with:

• Their festhall
• Raja Khan, their rakshasa enemy
• The return of Shemeshka the Marauder, their arcanaloth enemy
• Their estates in The Great Dismal Delve

Then we'll start the blood war adventures, which should be awesome.

Title: Van Richten's Wild Ride

• You can watch this episode here.
• I have a Dice, Camera, Action Episode Guide here.
• You can buy Curse of Strahd here.
• Check out the Dice, Camera, Action section on reddit.

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard 
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

Last Time: The group is in the Amber Temple. Strix was killed by some vampire spawns. Chris confirmed on twitter that the spawns cannot turn her into a vampire.


Paultin went through a portal to the Amber Temple. He's down below where the vestiges are. He casts invisibility just as two creatures (vampire spawn?) clamber down the wall to get him.

Meanwhile, dead Strix is in mist. In the fog, she sees dark grey forms. She meets a little kid named Jesper who died of an illness. She thinks that the longer they stay here, the less real they will become.

They run into the crazy kid who tried to kill the group a while back. He has no feet. He is weird and creepy.

Diath is holding the corpse of Strix. Evelyn and Barmy the lich are nearby. Barmy tells the heroes that one of the vestiges can bring her back. Hee hee.

Paultin actually gets dropped by the vampire spawns. Oh boy. Wait, Diath and Evelyn hear the noise. Evelyn charges in. Paultin is invisible still, so they don't know he's there. Does invisibility go away when someone drops to 0? I think it is a concentration spell and since he's unconscious, he can't concentrate.

Evelyn trips over Paultin and lays on hands for 5 units of well-being (!). The group isn't sure if it's really Paultin or another simulacrum.

Paultin becomes visible. They hear someone below yelling "Back in the name of the Morninglord!" I think it is Van Richten. Chris is doing an Anthony Hopkins type voice very well. It's fitting, as Hopkins played Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Van Richten

Wow. Diath tells the vestige it can do what it will with him as long as Strix is brought back to life. Zurdun the Corpse Star (Curse of Strahd page 196) offers him the power to raise the dead.

Diath becomes an emaciated, ghoul-like thing. Blinding white light fills his eyes. He's been invested with ancient power. He can use the power once and then it is gone forever.

From page 196: "The beneficiary of this dark gift takes on a corpselike appearance and is easily mistaken for undead."

Diath will need the spell component to cast the resurrection spell. The spell component is a 1,000 gp diamond. He goes into the treasure area to look for a diamond.

Resurrection is on PH page 272. It looks like Strix will have a -4 to all rolls. It will improve by 1 with each long rest. It looks like Chris decided not to use that, which is good. Those penalties are a real bummer.

Van Richten talks with Evelyn. He reveals that he was disguised as Rictavio, the guy who interpreted Madame Eva's reading in Vallaki way back when. Evelyn asks about Dee and it sounds like we'll see her again soon. Good! Erika Ishii was my favorite.

Van Richten.. ohhhh poor Diath. Van Richten has a scroll of raise dead. Ohhh wow, that is really funny. Jared is hitting himself in the head with a book.

Van Richten uses the scroll of raise dead on Strix. Jared wanted to use his power but Chris kind of scrambled to have Van Richten take care of it. It seems like Chris wants Diath to have that spell in his pocket for future use.

The group goes up to the entrance. It was blocked by rubble, but something burrowed a tunnel. It was Van Richten! Apparently he had a creature imprisoned and let it free.I think he had a tiger in his wagon. What creature was this? A bulette? An umber hulk?

Hey, I just remembered. Van Richten killed Paultin's parents. I wonder if Paultin is going to do something to him.

Van Richten tells Strix she has the key to defeat Strahd. Is he referring to the Tome of Strahd?


The group piles into Rictavio's Wagon. He drives like a maniac. They go through Tsolenka Pass. Uh oh... here comes that winged creature that Strix heard but didn't see! It's a roc!

It scoops up the whole wagon. Awesome. Strix uses hellish rebuke to damage it. The roc drops the wagon right on the edge of the bridge and the wagon doors open. Oh no, Strix fails her save! She falls out and plummets into the chasm. She thinks she can assume gaseous form to save herself. She does.

Van Richten is prone on the ground near Paultin. Welp. Paultin has an opportunity to take a shot at the guy right here. He doesn't. A reader pointed out that Chris later said on twitter that they ran out of time. Apparently Paultin had something up his sleeve.

The carriage is teetering. The horse is tethered to it. Diath tries does a sweet maneuver to get out of the wagon. The roc is flying away. That's the end.

Timestamps

(1:04:04) Diath makes a dark pact.

Overall

Very good episode! I like how pretty much every session is eventful. None of them feel like "filler."

Jared is Good: I think that Diath is becoming a great character. He did whatever he had to do to help his friend. Jared was being very unselfish, which to me is the hallmark of a great player. I didn't realize how much Jared contributed to the game until I made that episode guide. When I dug around for my favorite moments of the show, I realized pretty much all of them were because of Jared.

The next show isn't until October 1st, and that will be the live Twitch Con show. Erika Ishii will be there. I have absolutely no idea what will happen. I guess they are going to go through chapter 11, which is one of my favorite areas in the whole adventure. It is very D&D. I think it is going to be epic. 

Today I'm going to check out a DMs Guild product by Jason Bradley Thompson, who does the walkthrough maps that I like so much. He made a new class for 5e - the Priestess. The class is not restricted to one gender, which I'll talk more about below.

You can buy this right here.

Disclosure: I was given a review copy of this product.

I am not a big numbers guy or a character-making guy. As a DM, I am primarily interested in cool ideas. So I was a little apprehensive about checking this out, but I flipped through it and saw that it is overloaded with great ideas.

Quality: This pdf is 22 pages long and extremely professional-looking. The layout is fantastic, the art is great and the material inside is very well thought out. They took the time to consider all possibilities with the concept and then hammered out the details.

I can tell you right off the bat that I'd make a Priestess character in a heartbeat.

The Idol


A priestess is connected to an "idol," a statue related to their deity. This book won me over completely just by showing that your character's idol can be the demon statue from the 1e AD&D PH cover. How awesome would that be? You could buy this mini and live life on the razor's edge.

A Priestess is proficient with no armor at all. Yikes.

Idol Progression: The priestess starts out with a tiny idol. As they gain levels, they need to get idols that are bigger in size. By 13th level, they need an idol that is Large.

If the idol of a priestess is lost or destroyed, they can't regain spells until they get another one! They have a special spell called "Repair Idol" which can solve this dilemma.

Boons:


Your idol can grant you boons, which you can save ("boon points," basically). Those boons can be spent to get special benefits. There is a limit to how many boons you can hold onto that increases as you level. Spending one boon might give you temporary hit points, while spending seven might let you fuse your consciousness with the idol and go on a rampage. You can still cast spells in this form! How awesome is that?

Aspects

Gaining boons depends on which type of idol you have. Here are some of them:

Bloodthirsty Aspect: You gain boons when you kill creatures within 5 feet of the idol. There are specific counts for how many creatures must die for you to gain a boon and everything.

Resplendent Aspect: You must offer money to the idol or buy food for other followers of your god. I love this idea. You could do a lot of fun in-game things during a big feast like that.

Mortifying Aspect: Egad. You can hurt yourself as a bonus action to automatically hit your opponent! If you subsequently gain any kind of healing during that battle, the idol is displeased. There is a big section on how to redeem yourself in the eyes of your idol.

Spells and Powers

As you gain levels, you gain special powers. My favorites:

• You can share boons with your party.
• Nonbelievers who touch your idol take damage!
• See through the eyes of the idol and cast spells through it.
• There are a couple of ways to bring your idol to life for a short time (up to 10 rounds, more or less). You have to save up your boons for it, so it's a pretty special thing when you finally unleash it.

Every few levels, you get to pick a power for your idol. There's a million of them! My favorites:

• Spend a boon to raise a zombie minion for ten minutes.
• Humanoids, giants and fey who come close have to make a save or be awed by the idol's beauty. They are charmed!
• The idol speaks. Sometimes the priestess controls what it says, other times the idol speaks on its own. I could do a million things with that.

New Spells: There are about 8 new spells in here, many of which deal with the idol. You can make it come to life and attack for a moment, which will be really epic once you hit 9th level and your idol is Huge. My favorite spells:

• Kiss of Passion: You kiss a willing creature and heal them. You're also immune to exhaustion for up to one minute. I'll add this to my Planescape campaign post-haste.
• A floating disk spell specifically tailored to transport some of the heavier idols around.

Observations

I think this is a really great class. It is very well conceived and presented. I don't really have any criticisms, but a few things stuck out to me.

"Priestess": There are some players who don't like playing characters of one gender or the other. I had a number of players in the past who wouldn't play a female character. I had others who only played females. I think that when people who don't want to play female characters see the name of this product, they might just pass it by.  

Sacrifices: The Bloodthirsty Aspect is awesome, but to regain spells during a long rest you need to sacrifice a number of creatures. Quite a few creatures! It suggests that livestock could be used as sacrifices. It seems like the whole idea of ritualistic sacrifices might cause problems with some parties. I could see quite a few of my players not wanting to team up with someone who makes sacrifices to their god all of the time.

Cheeseballs: The Mortifying Aspect Priestess regains spells by maintaining a state of ritual purity. There is a list of 10 restrictions which you must pick three of. Your character has to stick to those restrictions forever.

Some of the restrictions are really great: Don't drink, don't have sex, don't speak except to pray. But I can see some cheesy players taking these three:

• You can not consume spices.
• You can not cut your fingernails.
• You can not cut or groom your hair.

It's tricky to figure out restrictions that have a tangible effect on the character without hampering them too much. I think you need the right type of player for this aspect.

Overall

This thing is just three bucks and it is of professional caliber. It was meticulously crafted and very well done. I can imagine this adding a lot of fun moments to your campaign. If the Priestess sounds at all interesting to you, you should definitely check it out.

The Plane of Elemental Earth is a tough one to figure out what to do with. If you've ever been faced with the prospect of running an adventure there, you know what I mean. How do you make it different from the Underdark? What kind of interesting encounters can be made?

I dug through as many old D&D products that I could find to compile all of the material on this plane in one place. When it comes time to use the Plane of Elemental Earth, you can sort through this and pull out the ideas you like.

The Essential Information

• The Plane of Elemental Earth is one of the Inner Planes.
• The Sevenfold Mazework: Earth genies have a vast city/labyrinth known as The Sevenfold Mazework.
• Ogremoch, Evil Elemental Prince of Earth: He lives here on a vast mesa and a plateau made of the dead bodies of his enemies.
• Sunnis, the Good Elemental Princess of Earth: She opposes Ogremoch. She lives in Sandfall, a cave under a perpetually falling column of sand.
• Grumbar the Living Mountain: A massive earth deity who lives here as well.
• Granite Gloom: This locale from Tales of the Outer Planes is a really cool genie lair with geometrically-shaped rooms and a garden of floating crystals. 
• Earthsblood: This stuff is from Egg of the Phoenix and is a highly sought-after substance with many magical properties.
• Portals: There are portals to Sigil, Elysium, Hell, the Spine of the World Mountains in the Forgotten Realms and many other elemental planes here.
• Monoliths: Monoliths are basically greater elementals linked to the plane. 
• Earth Weirds: These stone women can see into the future.
• Primordials: There are at least 3 primordials trapped here in some fashion.
• The Pillars of Creation: These pillars are each made of different types of rock and may hold up the entire plane.
• Primordial Shards: These are prized magic items that bond with the wielder to give them the power to become an elemental being.
• Races: It seems like earth genasi and maybe goliaths should have a bigger presence in this plane.

The 5th Edition Plane of Elemental Earth


In the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 52, the inner planes are described as being enveloped in the elemental chaos. The edges of each elemental plane are more inhabitable and are the domains of elementals, the Elemental Princes and others. It is said that the center of the plane of Elemental Earth is solid earth. Other factoids:

• Opposes the plane of air.
• It is a chain of mountains bigger than any in the material plane.
• The largest cavern is known as the Great Dismal Delve or the Sevenfold Mazework.
• The Furnaces: These mountains are near the plane of Fire. There's a lot of lava and dao forges.
• The Swamp of Oblivion: This is also known as the Plane of Ooze. This is the region where water and earth connect. An object thrown into the swamp can't be found for at least 100 years. 

There is also mention of what I think is a new locale - The City of Jewels, capital city of the dao:

• Every building is made from precious stone and metals.
• The city is guarded by a spell that alerts all of the dao if a single stone is stolen.
• Theivery is punishable by death and might be extended to the relatives as well.

Princes of the Apocalypse


I'm pretty sure you could take most of the earth node/The Black Geode and repurpose it for the Elemental Plane of Earth. It has a few cool things, like the earth mephits spawning.

Now let's go through old editions and see what we can dig up. We'll start with 1st edition and go up from there.

Tales of the Outer Planes


Tales of the Outer Planes is really goofy in parts, but I have to say this area is really cool. You can take all of these things and do cool stuff with them. There's two scenarios. One involves a captured princess, and the other one is a really weird place infused with radiation.

The Missing Kristal: A dao has captured Princess Kristal and taken her to his lair in the Plane of Elemental Earth, Granite Gloom. A wizard uses plane shift to send the group there.

Here's the flavor: "A wide river flows by the alcove entrance, filling the vaulted cavern from wall to wall. The river's surface is flat and as smooth as glass, despite its speed. Swirling eddies of brown, gray and blue can be seen. Shockingly, this river is made of flowing stone!"

The Well of Thunder: The river eventually spills into a hole in the floor. If you fall in, you die "in the maelstrom of breaking rock below."

The Gravel Lake: You can walk on this, if you are careful.

Kristal is trapped in a crystal garden. The group needs two gemstone keys to get in there.

In Granite Gloom, there's a bunch of weird rooms shaped like cubes or pentagons. There's one that is a sphere with walls made of sand. There is a "demi-power" earth elemental named Jaggak, a distant cousin to Grumbar. He's 60 feet tall. I think he's under the sand. The group is meant to fight just his arm..? If the group annoys Jaggak, his head will pop out of the sand and he will demand a magic item. He somehow knows all of their items, and demands one of the three most powerful items.

The Crystal Garden: It is full of floating crystals of all colors. Some are the size of a house.
Several of thee crystals are magical prisons. From the outside, all you can see is a dark shape moving in it. One of the prisoners is Kristal. The others:

• A Marid who was tricked into getting trapped.
• A basilisk
• "13 exotic creatures of the elemental plane of earth"

The Radioactive Lair: There is also a dao lair. The dao is named... Rockhead. Yes, "Rockhead." He trades precious gems for lead. His lair is at the center of a uranium vein, so it is radioactive. The group must "protect themselves with a leaden shield or die."

Failing two saves means that your hair falls out, you're nauseous and you will lose d10 hit points per day until dead or magically cured.

Egg of the Phoenix


Egg of the Phoenix is a gigantic adventure that takes you to the Negative Material Plane and many other places. There are quite a few links to the elemental planes.

To start with, the kingdom has a miracle substance called Earthsblood. It is black, liquid goo and in many ways is portrayed similar to the role of oil in our world. Earthsblood might be the secretion of a great creature living deep in the heart of the earth. It:

• Lights homes
• Powers furnaces
• Provides materials for wizards
• Heals the sick
• Cure baldness!!
• Smells bad

The group has to make their way to a place called the "Terminal of Planes." This place has portals to a specific location in each of the inner planes. The brown portal takes you to The Mesa of Ogremoch.

If the group goes in, here is some of the flavor:

"In the midst of the mesa sits a half-formed giant, a blobby mannequin of clay. The thing's soft features turn to face you, hardly aware of your existence. Yet moments later, the earth shakes under your feet, a great crack opens and your point of view drops deep into the fissure."

While Ogremoch is actually civil with the heroes, later in the adventure he sends elementals and xorn to try to steal the Egg of the Phoenix from them.

Dragon Magazine 77 - Elemental Gods


This article details gods from somebody's home campaign. Maybe you can do something cool with it. Really the best part of this article is the author talking about how awesome their campaign is.

The Allmother: Goddess of birth, farming and fertility. She rules all animals. She has an evil aspect which rules plague, poison and decay.

She has many names: Giver of Gifts, Earthshaker, Bearer of Burdens, Mother of Horses, Pourer of Poison, and Mother of Vipers.

Now let's jump into 2nd Edition, which has a lot of awesome stuff.

The Inner Planes


The Inner Planes is a Planescape supplement that gives a real good look at the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Creatures that dwell in the elemental plane of earth: Crysmal, dao, dao noble, earth elem, earth mephit, galeb duhr, sandman, earth genasi, xorn, svirfneblin (deep gnomes), dragons, basilisks, cockatrices, medusae, goliaths, earth genasi, neogi (who enslave umber hulks) and stone giants.

Grumbar: The Living Mountain, Earth Father. God of earth elementals. Those who visit with him come to a vast wall of stone, on which the face of Grumbar appears.

Elemental War: Sunnis, the Good Elemental Princess of Earth and Ogremoch, the Evil Elemental Princess of Earth fight for supremacy and domination. Grumbar sits by and watches.

Portals:There are a number of known portals to the Plane of Elemental Earth:

• There are a few in Sigil.
• Mechanus: The modrons have this giant planet-sized contraption that is somehow powered by continental drift. This machine is an eternal key to elemental earth. It is a one-way portal.
• Hell (Phlegethos, the fourth layer): Ogremoch's citadel, Stonemire, contains a portal to Hell. It leads to an evil fortress called Abriymoch ruled by a pit fiend. Ogremoch is allied with the pit fiend.The key to this portal is a large diamond, which turns to powder when used. There are guards on either side.

Hazards: We get a list of dangers of the plane:

• No Air: Some areas have no air.
• Earthquakes
• Gas Pocket: Explosive, noxious (stinking cloud), or toxic (cloudkill).
• Links: Planes of magma, ooze, mineral and dust.

The Kryst: Lawful Good elementals. Earth elementals are also known as "heartfolk."

Fiery Cascade: A stronghold between pockets of elemental fire that has 3 dimensional flaming moats.

Stonemire: Ogremoch's fortress. It has fountains of molten stone, clouds of hot smoke, and geysers of scalding steam. There is a plateau made up of the bodies of his enemies. 

Sandfall: Home of Sunnis, Good Elemental Princess of Earth, the Lode Mother. This is a cavern under a perpetually falling column of sand. The sand falls in bottomless pit. It is built around a gleaming crystal 50 feet across. She likes unique treasures.

Secrets of the Lamp


Secrets of the Lamp is one of my favorite Al Qadim supplements. This thing literally details the entire area known as The Great Dismal Delve.

The Great Dismal Delve: Dao have the most hierarchical society of all elemental races other than the efreets. The sharif is the supreme ruler, ensconced in the race's ancestral home in the Elemental Chaos. This place, called the Great Dismal Delve, is carved into a massive block of freestanding earth. Though the dao constantly bore through its interior, the stone constantly renews itself from within so that they can never remove it all. This cycle of activity spawns great earthquakes that rattle through the Delve.

• Tunnels and roads lead to the Sevenfold Mazework
• Full of toiling slaves
• The dao use Sandmen to capture slaves.
• There are gem gardens where they grow rare games.

The Sevenfold Mazework: A confusing maze riddled with gates leading to distant regions and a trading center/place at the center of the delve. Population: 10,000 genies, 100,000 slaves (minotaurs, dwarves, etc.) It is dimly lit by light reflected from embedded gems - mica, pyrite, and hematite. Stealing one of these gems is a fine of 500 gold or a year's service to the Khan. Here are the seven mazes:

• 1st Maze: A maze of arches and balconies full of thousands of slaves. Shining gems are mounted high on the columns of each archway. 
• 2nd Maze: Tunnels and rooms blocked by stones that must be shifted in the proper sequence.
•  3rd Maze: Huge, identical halls mirrored with polished metals. There are huge blue mirrors, some of which are secret portals.
• 4th Maze: A reverse maze where you have to walk through the walls. Walking through the wrong walls lead you back to the beginning.
• 5th Maze: Made entirely of glass and walls of force. The exit is always visible. Minotaurs lurk here.
• 6th Maze: The walls and floors shift like puzzles and tesseracts. Looking at this place is said to provoke madness or petrification.
• 7th Maze: Many tiny tunnels for creatures a foot tall or genies in gaseous form.

Great Khan of the Dao: This genie rules the Dao:

• Other Titles: The Fountain of wealth, the Stone Sultan, the Carver of Destiny, Balancer of All Earthly Accounts.
• He is hefty and has a quick wit
• He is interested in alchemy, mining, and metallurgy

Audience Chamber: The Great Khan lurks in the Hidden Fulcrum of the Dao, a place that is nigh-impossible to get to. It is deep in the Sevenfold Mazework and you will need to bribe guards 10,000 - 80,000 gp to possibly get an audience within the next month. To get there, you must be blindfolded and led through mazework for several hours

The Khan's throne room has mirrors that reflect his image so that you can't tell which one is the real Khan.

• He asks constant questions
• Anyone who comes before him are supplicants stripped of wealth. His audience should be humble and poor.
• Those who come before him must make gifts of their riches.
• Mortals must refer to him as "The Magnificent." Other dao are "your radiance."
• His empire is vast and profitable

The Pale River: This river flows from the plane of earth to muddy depths of oyster beds in the plane of water.

The Free Market: You can buy anything here, especially slaves. The market teems with slave traders.

Iron Crucible: Near the mazework is a fiery mountain of molten metal. It is link to plane of fire. The dao come here to trade with efreet - slaves in exchange for magic and precious metals. If you sail on the liquid, you can go the plane of fire or back. Yakfolk sometimes charge tolls in the lava tube tunnel.

Yakfolk: There are a lot of yakfolk here. Up until 5th edition, the dao were forced to serve them. The yakfolk buy slaves to make sacrifices to The Forgotten God in the "Manner Elemental" - They bury people alive daily.

3rd edition has all sort of cool things in weird places, mostly Dragon Magazine. Every once in a while they'd do an elemental-themed issue and they're all really good.

3e Web Enhancement

This page has information on a ton of Forgotten Realms gods. There is an entry on Grumbar.

Grumbar: King of the Land Below the Roots, the Earthlord. He is worshiped by underground races and "those who resist change."

Dragon Magazine 293 - The Elemental Planetouched


Earth Genasi: This race is patient, stubborn, and contemplative. Many are descendants of creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth. The rest are descended from deities of earth. They have earthlike skin, eyes like gems or black pits, a gravelly voice, iron gray hair, and a metallic sheen on their skin. They can cast pass without trace once per day

There is also a note that there are natural portals to the Elemental Plane of Earth in the Spine of the World mountains in the Forgotten realms.

Shard Wolf

There's a whole article on elemental wolves. How random!

Shard Wolf: Wolves that were swallowed up in fissures created by an angry spirit of Earth. They're made of sharp, jagged stone that looks like shale or flint. Their eyes are pure black and they are ponderous, slow, and deliberate. They actually speak Common.

They usually appear after an earthquake or a a violent tremor. They hunt gnomes and dwarves. They have a special power:

Quaking Howl: Their howl is a 15 foot cone that has effects like the earthquake spell.

Dragon Magazine 306 - By Evil Bound

This article has 18 new demons/devils/"daemons" all by Mike Mearls! It is really crazy how much D&D stuff is out there that's just completely untouched. These monsters are awesome.

Earth Demon: "These chunks of demonic earth are simpletons even by the standards of the elemental demons." They can assume the form of a featureless rock or as a human-shaped statue of a demonic horned warrior. Its face is permanently etched into a leering grin.

They make for bad guardians, as they fall asleep at their post. Their blood is like lava, so melee attacks might cause the attacker to take some fire damage.

Dragon 314 - Dust to Dust: Magic of the Earthborn


The Earthborn is a lawful neutral cult who worship a creature they call the Earthen King. Their king is asleep and they want to awaken him. They believe that their king is on the material plane, but that his true home is in the Elemental Plane of Earth.

New Spells:

• (lvl 2) Earthen Grace: This spell make damage from stone sources nonlethal. That is tricky to translate to 5e rules. I could you could just say the caster has resistance to these attacks.
• (lvl 2) Mountain Stance: The caster can be rooted to the ground and cannot be moved.
• (lvl 2) Stonemantle: You can make an object strong like stone for 10 minute per level.
• (lvl 3) Tremor: A minor earthquake that disrupts spells, knocks people prone and stuns them for a round.

Magic Items:

• Ring of Earth's Grasp: Gives bonuses to climbing, grappling an anything involving your grip.
• Staff of Earthen Might: This staff is loaded up with earth spells, like transmute rock to mud, stone shape, etc.

There's also a prestige class:

Earthshaker: Spellcasters who specialize in earth. They have tremorsense, they can cause tremors, create geysers (!) and at the highest levels, make earthquakes.

Dragon Magazine 347: Princes of Elemental Evil


Ogremoch: There's a big section on how Ogremoch teamed up with the Queen of Chaos (she's the villain who is involved with the Rod of Seven Parts). Yan-C-Bin, Evil Elemental Prince of Air, was an ally of the wind dukes. Ogremoch let he Queen use legions of earth elementals. He actually showed up at the battle of Pesh, the battle where the rod was first shattered.

Ogremoch wants access to the Great Dismal Delve because it has a lot of portals to other planes. He has a truce with the dao, who hold a grudge against him for some ancient slight.

Ogremoch had a dwarf warrior ally named Kaylef, but he fell out of favor. Kaylef wanders the Elemental Plane of Earth wreaking havoc.

Elemental Hazards: Well this is cool! This article has tons of useful stuff that can be encountered in the Plane of Elemental Earth:

• Adamant Algae: Dark red liquid that doubles the normal healing rate. It's also known as "Blood of the Earth" and many battles occur over control of the stuff.
• Choke Mold: Bright yellow mold which sucks up oxygen. If you get within 5 feet of it, you begin to suffocate.
• Ghost Tunnels: Natural passages that appear and disappear. Obviously, passing through one is dangerous and deadly. Make a save or basically you are sucked into stone and crushed.
• Iron Coal: Coal that burns without smoke. This stuff is pretty valuable.
• Mineralmites: These things weaken stone. Some call it "rock rot." Crossing a floor with rock rot means a save or you fall into a pit that is d10x5 feet deep.
• Pure Ore: Really nice, quality metal that is twice as strong as the normal kind.
• Silent Stones: These pebbles absorb sound. Areas with a lot of silent stones create a silence spell effect. If these are taken to another plane, they crumble to dust in a month.
• Stoneshrooms: Chalky fungus that releases spores of breathable air and creates air currents throughout the plane. Eating one is the equivalent of an entire meal. For the next 24 hours after eating, you can hold your breath for twice as long as normal.

There are also new elemental monsters. Monoliths are more powerful versions of elementals.

• Magma Monolith: Not much to them, really. 40 feet tall, ooze magma and they punch you.
• Magma Element Rhinocerus: It is formed entirely of lava.

Paraelemental beings are immortal and are "formed of the tension between the elemental planes."When one is slain, there is a period of instability until another forms.

Then there's elemental weirds.


Elemental Weirds: Elemental weirds look like beautiful women linked to an element. They have magic powers, are oracles, guard portals and are bound to a certain area. Earth weirds warn of impending doom.

Earth weirds have a cold calculating mindset. Future events are the same as past events to them. To meet with them and gain their knowledge, you must bring them the skull of a thousand year-old lich crushed to powder or a stone that has never been exposed to any sort of light.

They lurk in lightless chasms, mountain peaks and barren tunnels.

Basically, a water weird from the 5e monster manual is an immature, "lesser" water weird. They will eventually become one of these oracles. We also get some magic items:

• Gloves of Burrowing: These are made from the hide of a xorn and grant the ability to burrow. Once per day, you can mold stone like clay.
• Sling Boulder: Wow, a magic sling boulder. I don't think I've ever seen one before. This one turns into a giant boulder in mid-air. They can only be used once each.

4th edition has all sorts of weird stuff that can be used.

Manual of the Planes


Vezzuvu the Burning Mountain: A primordial that is trapped in a field of radiance, partially phased out of reality.

The Head of Balcoth, the Groaning King: A primordial with a face of ash and cinders that is buried in a cave, unable to muster his power until he can re-form his body.

The Keening Delve: Not far from City of Brass is this mass of blood-red rock. This is the ancient stronghold of a dead primordial named Haemnathuun. Those who travel in it hear echoes of his dying screams. There are slaads and elementals here, driven mad by the echoes. There is a crystalline heart at the center that could bring Haemnathuun back to life.

Plane Below

The Stone Council: This is a band of elementals served by hill giants, dwarves, kobolds, and earth elementals. They rule Allrock, an earthmote and they want to expand their empire. They are not too smart.

Plastron of Tziphal: This is an artifact - a breastplate of dark stone. It merges with your flesh to turn your skin to rocky armor like plate mail. It hates the gods and wants to bring Tziphal back to life. Tziphal, a primordial, isn't really detailed. He is apparently dead and is buried in a place called Mountain Builder's Burrow and is staggeringly huge. It's a mini dungeon in the book.

The Aviary: There is a 15 mile pocket of air that is home to winged elves (Avariel) and their city. Visitors can rent pairs of wings.

Caverns Under the Stars: This is a pyramid chamber 30 miles to a side. The upper half of it looks like the night sky. It is a sprawling city ruled by Geb, a deity married to Nut, an Egyptian god. There is a portal to the plane of Elysium here.

Irdoc Morda: Iron archons rule this earthmote. Their leader is the  Twice-Forged General. They are building the largest spelljammer ever conceived with an iron hull to launch attacks from. There are deposit of new types of metal that makes archons behave weirdly. There are 3 watchtowers armed with scrying magic.

Pillars of Creation: These are massive columns that may hold up an entire plane. There is one that is a jagged tree of crystalline minerals, and another that is a column of muck.

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos


Primordial Shards: These multicolored crystals might be remnants of fallen primordials. They are made of crystallized ichor and have powers like magic items. They can bond with a mortal and turn it them into an elemental, partly of wholly.

Tablet of Ad-Baraz: Etched onto this clay tablet is a list of names, the identities of those primordials defeated in a time now largely forgotten.

Links

An elementary look at the planes
Forgotten Realms wikia has a great page of concise details
The "I" series of AD&D adventures

The Party

• Mike: Dungeon Master Kid
• Lucas: A molten ball of rage
• Dustin: Comedic Goofy Kid
• Eleven: Kid with psychic powers

NPCs

• Joyce Byers: Winona! Mother of Will, who is missing.
• Jon Byers: Her teenage son who is deep and angsty.
• Officer Jim Hopper: Hopper busts dudes left and right.
• Nancy: Mike's sister, who is looking for her friend Barb.
• Steve: Her wanna-be boyfriend, who is akin to walking diarrhea.
• Dr. Martin Brenner: Matthew Modine, agent looking for Eleven, has had about three lines of mumbled dialogue so far.

Hopper is breaking into the lab. What the.. security pulls guns on him. He ends up punching them out. This guy is definitely a PC.

Winona is in her house with her ex husband. This guy is trying to tell her he's crazy. This dude... I am not a fan. Now they're getting wasted.

The kids have a theory. Will is in the "upside down" world. They relate it to their campaign - "The Vale of Shadows" heh heh. He's in the Shadowfell! They flip open a binder full of D&D stuff...

Wow. I have my friend's dad's 80's binder and it looks exactly like this! It is full of photocopies of Dragon Magazine articles and homemade rules/charts. The binder on the show has the D&D expert set and I think that is the back of the Isle of Dread, too.


Hopper found the portal. Please don't go in there. Here comes security. They got him. He wakes up in his apartment. He trashes his apartment.. he's looking for a bug. Yep. They bugged his place. Looks like the scientists have bugged the homes of some of the main characters.

Funeral preparation montage. Jon wants to go kill that thing in the woods. He gets a gun. He is also a PC!

The kids ask their teacher how to get to another plane and he does this big explanation. He says if there was a gate to another world, it would warp gravity and the electromagnetic field and maybe destroy everything.

Two hunters have gone missing. Hmm

The ex-husband took the Christmas lights down. Somebody punch this guy. Winona realizes he's here for money. She kicks him out. They should have dropped an F-bomb right there. I guess it's not that kind of show.

The kids check their compasses. They see that the electromagnetic field is indeed screwed up.

Oh no. Nancy has a baseball bat and here comes that lame boyfriend guy. He tries to get her to go see a Tom Cruise movie. I hate when this guy tries to be charming. He is rebuffed with extreme prejudice.

I haven't heard the phrase "nuclear family" in forever. It turns out that Nancy is a good shot with a gun.


Eleven has a flashback. I think they want her to kill somebody who is really far away with her psychic powers. The group is following the compass... they're going to end up at the lab. Eleven does not want to go there.

Nancy and Jon are in the woods. They get in an argument. Good god, he utterly destroys her. He says that she thinks she's rebelling by doing what every other suburban girl does when the think they're rebelling. Boom! Roasted!

The kids realize that their compass has taken them in a circle. Lucas figures out that Eleven messed with the compasses with her powers. Lucas, who is very intensely vicious on this show, goes off on her. A fight breaks out and Eleven telekinetically sends that kid flying and knocks him out. Good! When he comes to, he storms off. Eleven is gone, too.

More Eleven flashback. The guy she's supposed to kill - It's a Russian dude. Cold War psychic assassination! She has found him. She's in a quasi-psychic realm. Aha! One of the creatures is here. So it sounds like Eleven is the one who accidentally alerted these creatures to the world of humans.

John and Nancy are in the woods and it is dark. They find a deer. Oh no.. the thing sliced it. The deer is still alive. She wants John to put it out of its misery. Something pulls the deer away.

A bit of searching for the deer and the thing.. Nancy finds a weird, moist hole in a tree. She gets ridiculously close to it. SHE GOES INTO THE HOLE! Don't.. ohh no, it's all cobwebby in there. Are you nuts?


She pops out in the Shadowfell or possibly Barovia. She sees the thing eating the deer. Will her gun work in this world? I wonder if season 2 will deal with a different parallel dimension?

I'm old, so I can't tell when CGI is good or bad, but I think some of you younger people will think this creature looks pretty fake. The thing notices her.

Jon is in our world and he somehow doesn't see the moist hole of the Shadowfell two feet away from him. That's it!

Overall

Good show, but too much arguing. I don't like watching people argue in movies and TV shows. They better not try to turn that boyfriend into a good guy. I want to see him get a dish best served cold.

I love the casting on this show. Everyone has a very distinctive, memorable face. A lot of shows feel like they're full of models with geometrically-pleasing faces. On this show, there's a little more room for variety and personality.

I've been meaning to write this one for a while. Today, I want to look at death in D&D. First we will go over the death rules from the 5e Player's Handbook and then we will look at what happens to your soul once you move on. At the end, I'll give you the multi-edition version of the afterlife that I like to use in my campaigns with the Raven Queen and all that good stuff.

Death (PH page 197)

Dropping to 0 Hit Points:

• You're unconscious.
• Make a death save each turn. Roll a d20. 10 or higher is a success, lower is a failure. Once you have three successes, you are stable and you stop making death saves. On your third failure, you die. If you roll a natural 20 on a death save, you regain one hit point. If you roll a 1, that counts as two failures.
• Damage at 0 HP: If you take damage, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If you are hit by a critical hit, you suffer two failures.

Stabilizing the Dying: DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check. Success = You have 0 hit points, are unconscious and you are stable (no death saves required). You regain 1 hit point after d4 hours.

Instant Death: When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum (no death saves - you're just dead).

Spells that Bring the Dead Back to Life



Raise Dead (PH page 270): Creature must have died within the last ten days. It doesn't restore body parts. It takes an hour to cast and you need a diamond worth 500 gp.

Reincarnate (PH page 271): This spell actually forms a new body for the character. You roll on a chart for a new race. It takes an hour to cast and the components cost 1,000 gp.

Resurrection (PH page 272): This works on creatures that have been dead for up to 100 years. It also restores body parts. It takes an hour to cast and you'll need a diamond worth 1,000 gp.

What the Core 5th Edition Books Say About the Afterlife

Good Souls go to Elysium: Spirits of good creatures go to the plane of Elysium (Dungeon Master's Guide page 43). Elysium (DMG page 60) The flavor text is strong with this one. "Tranquility seeps into the bones and souls of those who enter the plane. It is the heaven of a well-earned test, a place where tears of joy glisten on many a cheek."

Dead Gods: When gods die, they become giant stone corpses that float in the astral plane (DMG page 47).

Claiming Souls: Some souls are claimed by the gods of the Upper Planes. Some souls are claimed by the rulers of the Lower Planes. Unclaimed souls become larvae (DMG page 63) and appear on the Grey Waste of Hades. The larvae is medium-sized and it has the face of its mortal form. It has dim memories of who it once was. Night hags harvest them.

Empyreans Can't Die: (MM page 130) Empyreans are children of the gods. If they are slain, their parents just bring them back to life.

You Can't Become an Angel: (MM page 15) are formed from the astral essence of benevolent gods and are thus divine beings of great power and foresight. Mortals do not become angels when they die!

Fun Fact About Solars: (MM page 18) There's 24 of them, total. Only a few are known. It might be fun to look through old products and see if we can name every solar that have been published.

How to Become Undead


I thought it might be fun to list who can become undead in 5e under what circumstances. Here's what I dug up:

Anyone: You can become a mummy! A priest of a death god needs to do a ritual on your corpse to animate you. 

Creature Slain by a Shadow: Becomes a shadow! (MM page 269)

Dragons: (MM page 84) Dragons can use ancient rituals and necromantic energy to transform themselves into dracoliches.

Elves: Elves who used their beauty to corrupt others become banshees when they die (MM page 23).

Evil Beings That Perished in Anguish: Become Will-o'-wisps (MM page 301).

Evil Creatures: The spirit of a slain evil creature can be bound to a scarecrow (MM page 268).

Evil Mortals: Mortals who are shunned or cursed by the gods become demons (usually manes) MM page 50. "Souls of evil creatures that descend to the lower planes are transformed into manes."

Evil Mortals Who are Really, Really Evil: Become wraiths (MM page 302).

Human Babies: Hags eat a human baby and then one week later they give birth to a daughter who grows up to look just like their hag mother.  

Humanoids Bitten by Vampires: They become vampire spawn under the control of the vampire (MM page 295).


Humanoids Who Can't Pass on to the Afterlife: They become specters (MM page 279). They are created either through dark magic or when a wraith rips a soul from a body.

Humanoids With Unfinished Business: Those who have an unresolved task from life become ghosts (MM page 147). 

Liches: A lich who doesn't feed souls to its phylactery becomes a demilich (MM page 49).

Mortals Corrupted by a Succubus: Once a mortal commits betrayals of thought, word and deed, their soul belongs to the succubus. The succubus kills them and their soul is sent to either the Abyss or the Nine Hells.

Mortals Driven by Dark Desires: When they die, Orcus or a god of the underworld grants them undeath to make war on the living.

Mortals Who Deal with Devils: (MM page 66) Devils love to make contracts with mortals, all of which are enforced by the will of Asmodeus. "Any mortal creature that breaks such a contract instantly forfeits its soul, which is spirited away to the nine hells." To own a creature's soul is to have absolute control over them. "Only divine intervention can release a soul after a devil has claimed it."

Mortals Who Met an Undeserving Fate: Rise up as a revenant (MM page 260) to claim revenge.

Murderers: If you cut off the severed hand of a murderer, a necromancer can make it a crawling claw (MM page 45). I think technically most adventurers are murderers.


Other Evil Mortals: "When the soul of an evil mortal sinks into the Nine Hells, it takes on the physical form of a wretched lemure."

Paladins: When a paladin who fell from grace and never atoned for it dies, they rise up as a death knight (MM page 48).

Soldier: A soldier or knight who dies on the battlefield might become a phantom warrior (Curse of Strahd page 235)

Wizards Who are Dead: Sometimes spellcasters will turn the remains of wizards into flameskulls (MM page 134).

Wizards Who Are Evil: A wizard can use an ultra-secret arcane ritual to become a lich.

Wizards Who Read Alot: Some wizards who spend their lives looking up arcane secrets end up transforming into a Nothic through a curse of Vecna (MM page 236).

Multi-Edition D&D Afterlife


This is what I do for the afterlife in my campaigns. For some reason, I put a lot more thought into what happens when evil people die.

The Raven Queen Judges Your Soul: The Raven Queen, goddess of death, is in charge of safeguarding a soul's passage to whatever lays beyond. Above her citadel (Zvomarana, Fate's Palace, in the Shadowfell) is a maelstrom of swirling souls that shine like stars.

There is a magical lattice that sends most of the souls along automatically. Once in a while, she intercedes and judges a soul.

Sorrowsworn

Her sorrowsworn agents fly up and grab the soul and bring it to her. There's actually flavor for this in the Shadowfell boxed set:

"A soul falls through the air to burst onto the floor before the Raven Queen's seat in an eruption of light and in an instant, it regains its mortal form and sinks to its quavering knees before the god of death. The Raven Queen seems to take no interest in its plight. Her face impossible to read, she fixes her gaze upon it, searching its features in silent judgment."

I say that each soul is marked with their alignment or the symbol of their god or whatever.

Lost Souls: Some souls end up lost and are snatched up by planar beings (like hags). The Raven Queen's sorrowsworn do their best to find and rescue these wayward souls.

Vorkhesis, son of the Raven Queen

Powerful Souls: This is from the Shadowfell boxed set. "When a powerful hero or villain dies, the Raven Queen might choose to hold the person's soul in her realm, whether at the behest of another god or for her own inscrutable reasons." Vorkhesis, Master of Fate, guards them in his Hall of Final Fate.

Vorkhesis knows the fate of every creature that has lived.

Petitioners


Now You Are a Petitioner: Once you are shipped out to whatever your destination is, you become a petitioner. In the Planescape boxed set, it explains that a petitioner is the departed spirit of a mortal who reforms on the plane that matches their alignment. All memories of their past are wiped away. Their personality remains.

Petitioners hate leaving their new home plane. Once the petitioner dies, their essence is merged with their plane and that's the end of them.

If they die outside of their home plane, they are destroyed forever.

Proxies: A proxy is a soul chosen to act as the agent of a god/demon lord/whatever.

Soul Distribution

Elysium

From there, the soul is either sent to a plane linked to their alignment or to the realm of their god to serve them as a planar being. You could pick your own planes from the handy list on DMG page 58. Here's how I would do it:

• LG Mount Celestia - Home of Moradin, Bahamut and more.
• CG I'd go with a homebrewed realm, probably. I don't like any of the choices in the book.
• NG Elysium or a homebrewed realm.
• LN Acheron - I love this plane
• CN Limbo - You become absorbed into the plane, or become part of a chaos elemental.
• NE The Gray Wastes of Hades - You're a soul larvae being harvested by hags.
• CE The Abyss - You are a soul larvae or you become a manes.
• LE Nine Hells - You become a soul shell on the banks of the River Styx.

Souls

Soul Larvae

There are a few creatures and weird things that are affiliated with souls in D&D.

Death Giants: (4e MM page 120) They harvest souls. The people they kill are absorbed into a "soul shroud" that contains soul shards. They expend these shards to heal themselves. They live in the Shadowfell but cross over into the material plane often.

Oni Souleaters: (Open Grave page 172): They can harvest souls - pull them right out of your body. They can devour your soul to acquire your memories and learn any languages you speak. The person's body crumbles to dust.

Soul Larvae Herd

Soul Larvae: In 2nd edition, soul larvae appeared in Hades. In 4th edition, they appeared in the Shadowfell. I just say that they show up in both places. There is a huge article in Dragon Magazine Annual 2 that has a ton of info on larvae:

• Larvae appear on all of the lower planes, but the larvae that appear in the Grey Waste are pure evil. Hags wander the Grey Waste accumulating herds of larvae. They brand them to mark ownership.
• Liches can use soul larvae to keep their condition (liches need souls for their phylactery).
• Hags end up with herds of soul larvae
• Devils and demons can turn soul larvae into quasits or imps.
• In the Grey Waste, there is a sort of shanty town called The Grande Larvae Emporium. It is right on the banks of the River Styx and it has yugoloth guards. 
• They make Yellow Wurm Stout there, a liquor made of soul larvae. They also make soul larvae perfume called "Evil."

Demonic Life Cycles

A manes, lowest form of demon

The 4e Demonomicon has a lot of cool ideas to use. The 3e Fiendish Codex I has surprisingly little about souls heading to the Abyss. Here's what we learn:

• Demons consume souls. That is how they become more powerful types of demons. They can do this by killing creatures with souls, consuming soul larvae or acquiring mortal thralls. Enough soul energy will give the demon the power to control an abyssal realm. Once that is done, they can take a truename and become a full-fledged demon lord.
• Demons sometimes buy souls from night hags, onis and death giants.
• One soul larvae is worth 1,000 gp in goods and services.
• There is actually a chart of effects for what happens if a character eats a soul larvae. It is not pleasant.
• I would say that when chaotic evil creatures die, they are either absorbed into the Abyss and are spewed out as manes, or they become larvae that appears either in the Abyss or the Grey Waste. Demons can promote the pure evil larvae of the Grey Waste to higher ranks of demon right off the bat.

The Economy of Hell


The Fiendish Codex II is one of my favorite D&D books ever. When you die and go to hell, you become a soul shell.

Soul Shell: You are a rubbery, bedraggled version of yourself and you still have the wounds you suffered when you died.

Fiendish Codex II has a huge section on what happens when you die and go to hell:

• You materialize on a blood-soaked rock protruding from the River Styx in an area known as the Shelves of Despond on the first layer of Hell.
• Almost every soul shell has a special mark on them to denote that a particular devil has claimed their soul.
• Bearded devils, soul collectors on boats, put the new arrivals in cages. The cages are put in carts and shipped off to a torture station.
• You are brought to a torture station and go through a process that peels off your individuality. A portion of your essence flows to a prominent devil who has staked a claim on you.
• You are thrown in the Maggot Pit where you are reborn as a mindless lemure.

Unclaimed Soul Shells: Soul collectors barter and brawl to claim them. Sometimes minions of lawful evil gods prowl the banks of the River Styx for unclaimed souls. Each archdevil keeps a bunch of unclaimed souls to use as units of exchange.

So there you go! Now you can whip up your version of the afterlife in your campaign if you haven't already.

I'm going to write a little a bit more about Curse of Strahd. We'll go over the possibility of an anticlimax at the end and come up with ideas on how to run the final encounter against the big bad guy, Strahd.

I was reading this thread on ENWorld and I see that people are having wildly different experiences when they fight Strahd. Some people are killing him in a single round..?

Way back in second edition, I ran a "surprise" Ravenloft campaign. I told the players I was running a campaign in Greyhawk and gave no advance details about it. By the end of the first adventure, the group had been sucked into the mists of Ravenloft. Thankfully, they were very happy and genuinely surprised when I held up the boxed set, which I kept hidden in my backpack through the whole session.

One of the first things I noticed about that 2e boxed set is that Strahd had a total of 55 hit points, if I remember right. He seemed very weak to me. I don't think I ever used him, but if I had, I think it would have come off real flat. I was not good at using monsters to their full capabilities.

A Dynamic Finish


I think that the key to avoiding an anticlimax is to make sure that you don't run all of your encounters in "dungeon crawl" mode leading up to the big final battle. When I say "dungeon crawl mode," I mean the style of game where your group traverses the map, kicking in doors and killing the monsters inside. The monsters don't talk, parlay, give information, etc. They are just things in a room to be killed for XP and loot.

You can do that with most of this adventure if that's what you like. But I feel like the biggest advantage that Strahd has in this adventure is that he has a ton of minions and that he can hit and run. Try to put yourself in his shoes. Look at all the stuff he has at his disposal. He can and should use it all!

Tone: That said, if you are running the game mostly dungeon crawl style and then you run the Strahd fight with lots of hit-and-run tactics or hordes of maneuvering NPC allies, the group might feel a little "cheated." You switched it up on them. Throughout the whole campaign, they've been playing a certain way and rightly assumed that the final battle would be handled in the same manner. They planned accordingly. Now the fight comes and you're completely changing how you run the monsters.

If you can see yourself in this situation, from here on out, try to run one encounter in each session where a creature "thinks." Put yourself in the creature's shoes and do what you need to - try to trick the group, try to barter for your life, try to poison them. That way, the group will understand on some level that some of the encounters in the adventure are being run differently. You've set a precedent and now everything is fair game.

Total Party Kill


The problem here is that you want to challenge your group, not slaughter them. In my opinion, a TPK should happen mostly due to either fateful die rolls/decisions or if the group violates the "stupid rule." That is when the players get a warning from me that what they are doing is risky/foolish and might have severe consequences. If they do it anyway, then we let the dice fall where they may.

The tricky thing with the stupid rule is that what is "stupid" to one person is perfectly reasonable to another. So in those cases, before action is taken, make sure that the environment and the situation is completely clear in their minds. Often, a player makes an action because they are imagining the room differently or they misheard/misinterpreted a vital piece of boxed text. It is really hard to describe complex areas in D&D and it is easy for misunderstandings to take place.

I haven't run Curse of Strahd, so I'm not sure what your group's characters can and can't do. That has a huge impact on the battle. I spent a lot of time looking up things Strahd can do and I realized that the way he watches the group is very important.

Strahd Scrying


A big part of this adventure is the fact that Strahd keeps tabs on the group. He casts scrying once per day, he can go personally watch them in a shapechanged form and his spies check in with him twice per day.

Pick Scrying Time in Advance: It is hard to remember and decide what Strahd knows and when he's watching. If you can, before you run each session, decide when Strahd will scrying on the party. That way, you're not just deciding what Strahd knows after the fact.

Scrying: (PH page 273) It takes ten minutes to cast. It costs 1,000 gp in components or a font full of holy water. Other stuff to know:

• It lasts up to 10 minutes. It's a concentration spell.
• It targets a specific creature. Strahd has the option of choosing a fixed location instead.
• It creates an invisible sensor that follows the creature. If someone can see invisible, they can see the sensor!
• The target makes a wisdom save DC 18 with modifiers. If Strahd has a body part of the target, that bumps the DC by 10.
• If the target succeeds on the saving throw, they can't be scried on for 24 hours.
• If they fail the save, there's an invisible sensor that moves with the target

Rolling it Yourself: The group might be meta-gamey if you ask for a saving throw but don't say why. Their characters won't know that they had to make a save! You might want to write down their wisdom saves in advance and quietly roll it for them. 

Shapechanging: Also remember, he can turn into a bat. I think it would be fun to have him watch the group from up on a tree branch in bat form once in a while. They might never know he's there, but you will. Anything the characters say out loud, he will hear. A lot of times, crazy stuff happens from little decisions like that.


Spies: Check out Strahd's Spies on page 29 of Curse of Strahd. He has vistani and "swarms of bats" reporting to him. They report to him at dawn and dusk every day. So there might be points where the group does things that Strahd won't know about for hours.

Here's something I don't remember reading before. "Every day and night the characters remain in Barovia, one or more of the vampire's spies check on them and attempt to return with a report." The spy needs to use stealth to beat the highest passive perception. The spy will try to flee if noticed.

I think you should come up with a vistani or two for this. They should have a lie ready. If caught, they could say that they are lost and hungry, or that they're looking for Arabelle and were wondering if the group had taken her. That's a good one, because it could throw the group off the scent quite nicely.

Locks of Hair: The spy wants to acquire something from each character so that Strahd can scry better. I think the best way to do this is to just have a vistani come right up to them and trade trinkets or Blinsky toys in exchange for locks of their hair. The vistani could say that he's making a wig for a sick child who lost their hair (how dastardly). Also, they could just try for a lock of hair of one character. Strahd can see through the sensor and will likely be able to see the whole party anyway.

Tools at the Group's Disposal


I took a look at some of the things the group will have when they fight Strahd and I think I see the problem. Sunlight! Here's some stuff:

Strahd's Enemy: The NPC ally can give out inspiration to a PC when Strahd is in sight. I guess they can do this every round.

Sunsword: It's a sun blade (DMG page 205).

• +2 to hit, does radiant damage (which will shut down vampire regeneration). 
• +d8 damage to undead. 
• Emits sunlight 15 foot radius. As an action you can extend the aura to 30 feet.

Sunlight does 20 radiant damage at the start of each of Strahd's turns, and he has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Good god.


Holy Symbol of Ravenkind: More sunlight. It has 10 charges.

• Hold Vampires: DC 15 Wis save fail = paralyzed for one minute, save each round.
• Turn Undead: They have disadvantage on saves.
• It can emit sunlight! Wow.. 30 foot radius, lasts 10 minutes. It can do this up to twice per day.

Strahd's Tools


Strahd's Brides: I feel like Strahd's Brides are underutilized (page 94). They are really interesting. Are they jealous of one another? What do they think of Ireena? Does one of them have a thing for Escher? Are they lonely? Would one of them take a fancy to one of the heroes? You could do a billion fun things with them.

The Wandering Monsters: Once the group enters the castle, there is nothing stopping Strahd from rounding up a few of these creatures to aid him.

• d6 shadows obey Strahd's commands.
• Rahadin (page 51) You could use him to just bring the group right to Strahd and then he could be part of the battle. Rahadin has a shadow demon in his room (page 79). No reason why it couldn't be with him.
• d4+1 Vampire Spawn (page 52) - former adventurers!
• d4+1 Vistani Thugs (page 52)
• d4 Wights (page 52) - They are undead castle guards

The 7 Barovian Witches: (page 229) I really love these ladies so I'd try to work them in. They have Tasha's hideous laughter which can really do a number on the group.

Vampire Spawn: (MM page 298) Strahd's 3 brides are in the tomb with him.

• Regenerate 10 hit points per round.
• Resistant to nonmagic.
• They can claw for 8 and bite for a total of 13 (-7 max hit points).

The Final Battle

All right, let's assume that the final area is Strahd's Tomb (page 93). That's the one I would have used for this. I am going to throw in the kitchen sink here and we're not going to worry about the group being defeated, because we've planned for it in case it happens.

Here's my basic idea:

• Strahd needs to use his powers to get those sunlight items out of the picture.
• Use greater invisibility and launch off fireballs.
• Use legendary actions to keep moving.
• Use the huge crypt area to keep distance from the sunlight auras. 
• Use the teleport trap to split the group and bring in one or more wights to help.
• Summon shadows every round and try to drain strength points off of a low-strength PC. 
• Have the brides spread out so they don't all get hit by the sunlight aura at once.
• Once Strahd is hurt, assume mist form. He can fully regenerate in 8 rounds.
• When he assumes mist form, have Rahadin and the invisible Barovian witches come in from k87, where they've been lurking in wait.
• The witches will all cast Tasha's hideous laughter on the group. This could potentially drop the entire party.
• Strahd doesn't want them killed. He has plans for them.

It Begins When the Group Has All of the Items: I would say that once the group has the items (I think Strahd is under the impression that the sunsword is long gone, so he will be very alarmed when he finds out otherwise), Strahd knows that it is time to get ready. Maybe we do the dining hall encounter on page 56 first. I really like that one.

One possible way for the endgame to be triggered is if the group gets close to the Heart of Sorrow. Maybe Rahadin invites them to meet with Strahd. Strahd wouldn't want the heart destroyed, so he might figure now is the time to take them down, before they can deactivate the heart.

I am thinking the set-up goes like this.

1. The group enters the castle and has/gets all the items they need.
2. Strahd goes and gets Rahadin and the witches.
3. He tells them to wait in K87.
4. Strahd and his brides lurk in Strahd's Tomb. Strahd can have informants keep him apprised of things or he could periodically leave the tomb in mist form to track the group's progress.

Once the group gets down to the massive crypt area, ideally they will start messing with the crypts. They will end up taking damage and using up spells and powers. Maybe some charges on the Holy Symbol will be used up.

If the group heads toward K87, or if they are looking like they might leave to go rest soon, Strahd throws something right on a trapped square. It makes noise. I'd say it's a trinket, a Blinsky toy, or something relating to the life and past of whoever has the holy symbol or the sunsword.

Hopefully, one or more characters come over to pick up the item. When they step on the trapped square, they appear down in a coffin in crypt 14 and a wight appears where they were standing!

The wight attacks, the brides open the portcullis, and Strahd quietly casts greater invisibility. Greater invisibility is awesome - he'll have 10 rounds where he can attack and maneuver and the group might have a really hard time pinpointing his location.

Strahd will want to keep space between himself and the sunlight auras. So will the brides. The goal is to use the vast area of the crypts to keep those auras from decimating all of the vampires at once. He can use his legendary actions to move many times per round so he should have no problem keeping his distance while invisible.

If possible, stay near the trapped squares. Strahd can use gust of wind to send more characters onto them. He needs to get that sunsword and holy symbol out of here, and teleporting them down into the crypt is a nice way to do it.

If Strahd is invisible and using his innate spiderclimb ability to stand on the ceiling, dropping fireballs on the group while his brides try to suck their blood, I think that's a pretty epic final fight.

Play by the Rules: If you want to have Strahd try to separate the group from their sunlight items, play fair! There is no disarming! He can't just snatch it from their grasp, just like they can't do it to your bad guys. He'll have to get it from the heroes via his charm power or by dropping them to 0 hit points.

One problem we have here is that many of Strahd's spells are concentration spells. There are other useful ones:

Polymorph: (PH page 266) This is a bit of a controversial spell and I'm not sure I'd use it. The target must make a WIS save DC 18 or they're polymorphed into a beast of your choosing.

If you want to be a real bastard, you can polymorph them into a sea horse (MM page 337). It has one hit point, no attacks, a speed of 0 and can only breathe underwater.

I wouldn't do it because that's too brutal and I don't want a player sitting there flopping like a fish for a few rounds. Plus, you have now opened the door to let your players do the same when they have a character who can cast polymorph. I'm not sure if the sunlight aura goes away if the person holding the sunsword or holy symbol is polymorphed. I think it does.

Let's do a rat (MM page 335). At least it can move around and has an attack.

Gust of Wind: (PH page 248) This is concentration, too. A line of wind 60 feet long, 10 feet wide. When a creature starts its turn in it, they need to make a strength save or be pushed 15 feet. We can use this to slide heroes onto the teleport trap squares.

Animate Object: (PH page 213) Strahd could, I guess, animate object on the doors of the crypts? How big are those doors? Medium? Honestly, I don't think I'd bother with this spell.

Charm: The target has to be able to see Strahd to be charmed, so that's tricky becuse we're going to be invisible for a while (hopefully). The target will protect him and obey him. "Hand over the sunsword so that I can admire it" is a very reasonable request. Strahd could chuck it in the shaft at k18a while the charmed hero defends him.

Lair Actions: This goes off at initiative count 20.

• Summon a Specter: (MM page 279) The problem here is that they have only 22 hp and they also have sunlight sensitivity. The neat thing is that they can pass through creatures and walls.
• Summon a Shadow: (MM page 269) They have 16 hp and they have sunlight weakness. They do drain d4 strength if they hit and the hero dies once their strength is 0. I'd have them under strict orders not to go under a strength of 1.
• Gain the ability to walk through the walls/ceiling/floor - perfect for escape

If Strahd is Hurt: He can use an action to become a cloud of mist, speed 20. Assuming he can evade radiant damage, he'll regenerate 20 hit points per round and will be back to full in no time. Also don't forget that when he bites someone, he heals.

If Strahd Drops to 0: He becomes mist instead of falling unconscious. He must get in his coffin in two hours. He does not have to go there right away! I'm sure Rahadin knows the deal. Depending on where the PCs go during these two hours, Rahadin could round up Escher and some other allies to guard Strahd while he recovers.

Once the Sunlight is Gone: When in doubt, Strahd attacks whoever has the Tome of Strahd (page 221).

If the Group Runs: If the group flees the castle, he could fly on Beucephalus (he can get on Beucephalus and fly out of the shaft - he'd be outside long before the group would) and drop every fireball spell and.. actually.. ray of frost would slow them down. He could also try to gust of wind them right off the bridge.

Rahadin is Fast: Rahadin has a speed of 35, so he can outrun most heroes. Misty step is a bonus action, too. That's another 30 feet of movement. If one of the sunlight aura heroes drops, Rahadin can run over, pick up the sunsword or holy symbol and chuck it somewhere.

Heck, he could try bring it to the brazier room and chuck it through a portal to the Amber Temple. One character might give chase... that would be great. A one-on-one battle with Rahadin while the rest of the group has to deal with Strahd.

7 Invisible Barovian Witches: (page 229) Tasha's hideous laughter DC 12. Then, more invisibility or ray of sickness.

Plan for Failure


Here we are making the fight tough. My thinking is that either the group actually prevails in what would definitely be an epic battle, or they are defeated and we go into a really fun "temptation" scenario.

During the battle, try to avoid 'fudging' in obvious ways by "forgetting" to use powers. Players pick up on that and it kind of damages the whole experience. The best thing to do is to handle it in a logical way. Strahd doesn't want them dead. He wants to break them.

If the battle is going bad for the heroes and there is a PC that Strahd wants as a consort of protegee, he can tell the character that if they swear fealty to him, he will let his friends live.

Defeat: Strahd wants them all alive. The group can be thrown in the prison (page 81). Their stuff will be taken. Perhaps the bad guys will excitedly get ready to torture them in the torture room (page 82). Rahadin might handle that.

I think it would be awesome for Strahd wants to make "gifts" of them. Perhaps Escher, the brides and Pidlwick 2 want new friends to keep them from getting bored. Gertruda could probably teach a PC to be a butler. Generally, Strahd enjoys breaking the spirit of his enemies and turning them more than just killing them (like he wants to do with Van Richten).

The heroes can lick their wounds and scheme to their hearts content. Strahd wants them to be his new Rahadins! He wants to win them over and integrate them into his world. It would be a lot of fun running a scene where a character hangs out with Pidlwick 2. The brides would probably use the heroes as blood dispensers, but maybe the heroes could be charming an win them over or something.

Ultimately, the group can get help from their NPC ally, Van Richten, wereravens, Emil, whoever. The point is that the group can explore the castle safely, gather intelligence and scheme to get their items back. Once that is done, they are going to get their revenge.

If Ireena is still around, Strahd could set up an actual wedding, reminiscent of his brother's wedding so long ago.

We've already had our hard battle, so now I'd be inclined to hand Strahd to the group on a silver platter. They could bust into his tomb and drive a stake into him, or whatever ends up happening.

When Strahd Dies: Don't forget, if Rahadin is still around he has a freak out and attacks as described on page 207.

Arabelle and a halfling

This article has a lot of details and backstory on Curse of Strahd entities from previous editions. I fell down a lore rabbit hole and did my best to find more information on things from Curse of Strahd. I originally was just going to write about the 4e adventure Fair Barovia, but I ended up using the 3e Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, too:

• Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
• Fair Barovia
• Curse of Strahd

I enjoy unraveling the lore in these 5e adventures. It looks like quite a bit of thought went into the NPCs and how they are linked to the past. If, like me, you were a D&D Insider subscriber for years, you likely have Fair Barovia sitting on your hard drive. Most of the time, I would flip through the new issue of Dungeon, get annoyed that nothing in it was relevant to my campaign at the moment and then forget all about it. Years later, I go back and look and there's all sorts of awesome stuff that I barely remember.

Dungeon Magazine #207 has 2 adventures and one location in it:

1. Starhaunt: Astronomers spot some star spawn in the night sky who send a meteorite into their observatory that has a magic item in it. 
2. Timbergorge: A new domain of dread that involves a werewolf-hunting treant with a mouth lined with silver.
3. Fair Barovia: An adventure where Strahd enlists the heroes in taking down a rival vampire.

Fair Barovia features Vallaki, the village of Barovia, and an excursion to the front door of Castle Ravenloft. It has a lot of weird little links to Curse of Strahd.

This note from Curse of Strahd page 25 seems to come into play quite a bit: "When a being with a soul dies in Barovia, that soul remains trapped in Strahd's domain until it is reincarnated in a newborn. It can take decades for a bodiless soul to find a host, and Barovians who share the same soul over generations tend to look alike."

From what I can tell, a number of the NPCs in Curse of Strahd are either NPCs from previous adventures reborn, children of previous NPCs or, weirdest of all, their own grandchildren.

Strahd's Family

4e Barovia

Strahd's parents are referred to as King Barov and Queen Ravenovia.

Where Ravenloft got its Name: As a mortal, Strahd's army was at war with the Tergs. The Tergs were led by a warlord named Dorian, who Strahd killed. Dorian's fortress became known as Castle Ravenloft, named after Strahd's mother.

Ravenovia Worshiped the Morninglord: In the White Sun Monastery in Fair Barovia, there is a portrait of Ravenovia, wife of Barov von Zarovich and the mother of Strahd. She was the monastery's first patron.  She had raven black hair, gentle blue eyes and a noble bearing. 

Strahd has two Brothers: Strahd has another brother - Sturm, who is scholarly.

Strahd Faked his Death: Strahd fakes his death sometimes. The people of Barovia think that the current Strahd is a descendant of the original. Most people don't know he is a vampire.

Leo Dilysnia, the Bad Guy


Leo Dilysnia: He is a member of an assassins guild called the Ba'al Verzi. He served under Strahd when he was a mortal. Leo tried to overthrow Strahd during the fateful wedding of Sergei, but failed.

Link to the Wachters: At some point, Leo's henchmen had killed Lorvina Wachter's family. "Years later, with the help of a loyal subject named Lorvinia Wachter, Strahd found Leo." Strahd actually turned Leo into a vampire and sealed him in a mausoleum inside the Wachter estate, so that he could starve for all eternity.  

I think that Leo Dilysnia is a big part of I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire. 

The Ba'al Verzi: A secret society of assassins. Their signature weapon is a curved dagger with a hilt wrapped in black, red and gold.

Leo's Bones: Leo Dilisnya's bones are on page 113 of Curse of Strahd. It says he was an enemy of the Wachter family. "He escaped from Castle Ravenloft, only to be hunted down and killed by the vampire Strahd. The Wachters keep his bones under lock and key so that Leo can't be raised from the dead."

The Wachters: In Curse of Strahd, Lady Wachter of the Wachterhaus is Lady Fiona Wachter, an apparent descendant.  In the library, On Curse of Strahd page 114, the group can find an old letter to "Lady Lovina Wachter" (It's "Lorvinia" in Fair Barovia) from one Lord Vasili von Holtz, thanking her for her loyalty over the years. Characters can realize that the handwriting in the letter is identical to Strahd's handwriting.

Also, there is this note in Fair Barovia: "There are no surviving members of the Wachter family in Vallaki.." I assume the Wachters in Curse of Strahd moved to Vallaki from elsewhere.

Strahd's Alter Ego: When Leo is dealt with, a luxurious coach shows up drawn by twin black stallions driven by strong middle-aged man holds the reigns. The driver is Vasili von Holtz - Strahd in disguise. He takes them to the mists and lets them leave.

The Morninglord: "The Morninglord was originally a religion brought to Barovia by traveling adventurers." Also, Fair Barovia page 51: "...this church is dedicated to a deity the Barovians call the Morninglord, who promised an end to the misty darkness that engulfed the land."

Barovian Saints


Fair Barovia gives us a list of the saints in Barovia. Some of them are detailed in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft:

Saint Andral: This is the only saint I couldn't find details of. Maybe I missed it. Andral's bones are stolen in Curse of Strahd on page 97. The bones create a hallow effect inside Andral's church in Vallaki.

Saint Bogdan: He worshiped Pelor. His presence brought good luck to his friends and bad luck to his enemies. He died of natural causes at the age of 104.

• St. Bogdan's Fingerbone: Gives a +1 to saving throws. 

Saint Ecaterine: She established a convent near Barovia on Lysaga Hill. Apparently she ended up being buried alive in Castle Ravenloft.

• Saint Ecaterina's Burial Shroud: This is from Expedition page 215. It heals all diseases.
• The Ecaterine Husk: A burned-out tower on Lysaga Hill. The Lysaga Hill map in Fair Barovia is almost exactly the same as the Husk map in Expedition.

Saint Markovia: She followed her heart and became a priest of the Morninglord shortly after her 18th birthday. On Curse of Strahd page 146 it says that Saint Markovia was a priest who took a stand against Strahd, but she ended up being destroyed along with most of her followers. Saint Markovia is buried in crypt 6 (Curse of Strahd page 86).

• Saint Markovia's Thighbone: (Curse of Strahd page 222) is the equivalent of a mace of disruption.
• Saint Markovia's Abbey: This is where The Abbot and his bride are in Krezk.

There is a stained glass window that depicts Saint Andral, the Morninglord and Saint Markovia on page 138 in Curse of Strahd.

White Sun Monastery: This was the home of monks who used rituals to make it so that Strahd is weaker if he enters.This is where Leo is hiding. Strahd wants the group to take him down.

The abbot of the White Sun is Father Yevgeni Miroff. There is a Yevgeni Krushkin on page 100 of Curse of Strahd. He is one of the wolf hunters. Might be a coincidence.

There are two NPCs in Fair Barovia that might join the party:

Arabelle Zarovan: A vistani seer and a spy for Strahd. She doesn't like Madame Eva. She foresaw a dukkar coming soon, an evil being that will bring woe on the vistani. She actually can do a tarokka reading for the group. There's a full page of details.

In Curse of Strahd, Arabelle is the little vistani girl who was kidnapped. She has alabaster-white skin and raven-black hair. She is a descendant of Madame Eva with the blood of Barovian royalty in her veins.

Falstan Mitrache: A halfling guide. Amiable and competent. Is secretly an agent of Strahd spying on Vallaki.  He is haunted by the memory of his beloved Yera, who fell over Tser Falls.

Dukkars: These are beings prophesied to endanger Vistani. Fair Barovia mentions two:

• Hyskosa the Mad Seer: Hyskosa was part of the 2e Grand Conjunction string of adventures.
• Mollochio Aderre: Mollochio is from 2e sourcebooks. He hunts and kills vistani, even half-vistani.

Vallaki

Burgomaster Lars Kjurls: In Fair Barovia, Vallaki has a Burgomaster but the town is ruled by a council of merchants and landowners. In Curse of Strahd, the Burgomaster is Baron Vargas Vallakovich

Curse of Strahd page 123: Lars Kjurls is a member of the town militia. He ends up being arrested for an ill-timed outburst.

Brom and Bray Martikova: In Fair Barovia, Brom is the Innkeeper of the Blue Water Inn. It says: "Brom is the younger brother of Bray Martikova. owner of the Blood o' the Vine tavern in the village of Barovia."

Curse of Strahd page 102: Brom and Bray Martikova is the name of the children of the Blue Water Inn. Their father is the owner, Urwin Martikova.

Karl and Nikolai Wachter: In Fair Barovia, they were cousins killed by Leo Dilysnia. In Curse of Strahd, they are brothers - sons of Lady Fiona Wachter.

Other Locations: There are a bunch of locations in Vallaki in Fair Barovia that are not detailed in Curse of Strahd: Aresek's Wares, Tibor's Smithy, the Thaani Quarter. There are also three taverns: The Blood-Red Rose, the Lakeside Tavern and the Svalich Pub

Yagno

St. Andral's Church: In Fair Barovia, the priest is Father Lucian Petrovna. It says he has a deranged cousin named Yagno who tried to kill Lucian's newborn nephew. Yagno is the darklord of G'Henna.

On Curse of Strahd page 97: The priest is Lucian Petrovich, not Petrovna. Tasha Petrovna (page 87 Curse of Strahd) is in one of the crypts. She was the "...healer of kings, light unto the west, servant, companion." If the group goes in her crypt (which actually has a sunlight effect vs vampires), her ghostly voice tells the group about her hidden holy symbol in the Abbey. I think this means she served under Saint Markovia.

Kasimir and Patrina: Kasimir is detailed in Fair Barovia. At this point, the Velikovna elves have taken over Vistani campsite, led by Kasimir Vilikovna. It says that he has led the elves for over 60 years. He is ashamed of his sister Patrina, who courted powers of shadow. In Fair Barovia he is a druid who sells potions.

Patrina wants to team up with Strahd and kill the dusk elves.

• Patrina wanted to become Strahd's vampiric bride.
• She was caught trying to feed on an elf child to seal her transformation.
• She was stoned to death.
• She was interred in a crypt in castle ravenloft.
• She rose up as a banshee.
• COS page 89: "Patrina's spirit can't rest, however, until she is formally wed to Strahd."Even if destroyed, her banshee body eventually reforms.
• In Fair Barovia, she is "the Witch of Lysaga Hill." She is using the evil energy of Lysaga Hill to turn dusk elves into her undead servants.

In Curse of Strahd, Kasimir wants to resurrect his sister. She can be brought to life. She becomes an archmage, but she's still evil and will ditch the group.

Rahadin mutilated Kasimir - he cut off his ears. Kasimir was given the name "Velikov" by a vistani who passed away 1,000 years ago.

Kasimir is having dreams of Patrina and he thinks she has repented. Kasimir wants to go to the Amber Temple to find something to bring her back to life.

Page 196 of Curse of Strahd: Kasimir gets the dark gift of Zhudun (which I believe is the dark gift Diath got on Dice Camera Action). Patrina is neutral evil and will go back to Strahd.

The Hags of Barovia

The hag situation is confusing. Lysaga Hill has been around since 3rd edition at least. Baba Lysaga, I think, is new for 5e. So that means that Lysaga Hill was probably retroactively named after her. We get a history of the hill:

• It was home to cultists.
• St. Ecaterina wiped them out and built a monastery
• The monastery mysteriously collapsed.
• The ruins became home to Red Lukas
• Strahd and Sergei cut his head off
• In Fair Barovia, it is the home to the banshee witch Patrina Velikovna.

In Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, there is a hag coven in Barovia. You'll never guess who the first hag is:

• Madame Eva: She is a hag in disguise! This idea seems to have been scrubbed away in Curse of Strahd. In CoS, she is Strahd's half-sister, her original name being Katarina. She made a pact with Mother Night, trading her youth for the power to undo the evil that Strahd had wrought. That means that if Strahd dies, Eva and Arabelle are the rightful heirs to Barovia, right? It says that Eva wouldn't want to rule. So... Arabelle.
• Baba Zelenna: She leads a cult of witches who gather at Lysaga Hill.
• The Drowned Lady: A wretched monster who knows the secret to unlocking the power of the Sunsword.

The Witches of Lysaga Hill: They worship a demon named Chernovog, the Green God. Baba Zelenna wanted to summon Chernovog to destroy Strahd. In Expecition, the witches actually summon Chernovog. Chernovog has a whole bunch of warlock-type powers - Eldritch blast, beshadowed blast, hideous blow, etc.

Baba Lysaga and her Hill: Baba Lysaga has been around since Strahd was born according to Curse of Strahd page 228. She was obsessed with baby Strahd, so Queen Ravenovia banished her. Baba Lysaga must bathe in the blood of beasts on nights of the new moon, or else she will age and turn to dust in seconds.

Sasha Ivliskova

Sasha from 3rd Edition

One of the NPCs that I thought had a lot of potential in Curse of Strahd was Sasha the jilted vampire bride (Curse of Strahd page 89). I didn't know she was featured in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft! We learn a lot more about her:

Expedition page 13 says Sasha was transformed into a vampire during a "romantic liason" with Strahd. Normally she is kept in a crypt, but Strahd lets her go out to spy on the heroes.

Sasha was the Burgomaster of Barovia 40 years ago. "...at a time when Strahd's depredations were growing worse every year, Sasha somehow dealt with the Master of the Castle, causing his raids and evil cleansings to cease."

We even get a big journal entry from her that the heroes can find. She admits that she hates Strahd and provides clues to help the group defeat Strahd.

Ireena's Crypt


In both Expedition and Curse of Strahd, crypt 18 is for Ireena. Expedition actually has a depiction of her plaque and a bit of descriptive test of how when Ireena sees it, she flips out and shouts a challenge to Strahd that goes unanswered.

Also, Fair Barovia has a nice map of the gate to Castle Ravenloft:

I think the title of this episode is: Twitching Hour

• I'll add a link to the show once it is posted on youtube.
• I have a Dice, Camera, Action Episode Guide here.
• You can buy Curse of Strahd here.
• Check out the Dice, Camera, Action section on reddit.

I am quite excited about this episode. I think the group is going to Van Richten's Tower, which is one of my favorite side locations in Curse of Strahd.

This session is being played in front of a live crowd at TwitchCon 2016. The players are actually dressed up as their characters. Holly is amazing at this kind of stuff and she looks really, really good. Check it out:


No Nate: Nate is not here. There were a lot of bummed Nate fans in the live chat. The good news is that my favorite guest star, Erika Ishii, is filling in for him.

New Art: They had a lot of graphics ready for this episode, which is awesome. We get images of all sorts of stuff that I can't find online, like a clean image of the witches and Van Richten's door puzzle. They were really on the ball as far as production goes.

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(Erika) Dee - Human Fighter
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

Last Time: Diath made a dark pact to bring Strix back from the dead. The group escaped the amber temple and are on their way to Van Richten's tower.


Chris reminds Strix she was brought back to life so she only has one hit point. Evelyn heals her for a cool 20 units of well being. The heroes survived the battle with the roc, but the wagon fell into the chasm.

They cross the bridge. There's those two vrock statues that gave them so much trouble last time. They come to life. Van Richten knows their truenames! They back off. He casts dispel magic to remove the sheet of green flame. The crowd actually yells "green flame" on multiple occasions.

Dee is waiting past the bridge with the horses. Evelyn is happy to see her. They embrace and Dee loves every second of it.

They ride to Van Richten's tower. Outside of it is a wagon. The two wolf hunter brother NPCs are here, Szoldar and Yevgeni. They're hiding from the eyes and ears of Strahd.


To open the door of the tower, Van Richten does a dance (this door is insane - see page 169 of Curse of Strahd). Anna is so smart. She asks to memorize his dance. She rolls well and succeeds in doing so.

Dee insists that this tower is actually called "Dee's Tower." Van Richten goes along with it when she glares at him. The tower was made by a wizard named Khazan, there's an anti-magic aura here. I was kind of wondering if either Kazan or Exethanter were originally going to be Azalin the lich and then they changed it for some reason...? Azalin was a big NPC linked to Strahd in previous editions, his absence is sort of weird.

Van Richten says he had a dream about the group. The group is a little curious. Van Richtean doesn't want to elaborate.

The group notices that Paultin is intensely staring at Van Richten. I was kind of wondering if maybe Paultin is a Dukkar, a person fated to oppose the vistani. I wrote about dukkars yesterday.

Dee goes to get something to eat from a chest. There's a severed head in the chest! The group is alarmed. Van Richten says that it is the severed head of a vistani.

Evelyn and Dee sleep in the same bed. Dee is thrilled. It isn't long before their snoring is coordinated.

Diath decides to subtly keep watch while everyone sleeps. Smart!


There's a shadow on the wall creeping toward Van Richten. It's Paultin's shadow! Awesome. Diath yells out and throws a dagger. He rolls bad and hits Strix in the head with the hilt.

Jared is really witty. That seems to be very important for these live shows.

Strahd can manipulate the shadows. Van Richten snatches the Strahd doll. Van Richten says it is an effigy that can trap Strahd. The ritual needs to be completed. Van Richten says that this thing could be the key to defeating Strahd..! He says they need some ingredients, including the hairpin of a hag, which Van Richten got off of a dead hag at Old Bonegrinder.

There's cackling outside. Is it Baba Lysaga? No. It's flying. It's a black-clad figure riding a broom. More than one. Witches! One is a man-witch! There's wolves, too.

The group wants to lean out of the window to circumvent the anti-magic aura and make ranged attacks. A hag chucks a vial in the window, which Evelyn swats with Lightfall. It shatters and she gets ichor all over her.

Strix rolls to see if she knows what it is, she rolls a 20! She knows that it is demon ichor and that it will form into a demon. I think this is the same stuff that's on page 126 in Curse of Strahd.

Van Richten says that there's holy water in Ezmerelda's wagon. Chris! Why?! Now?


The group has some holy water... nice. Another flask of goo is chucked through the window. The audience is coming to life for this combat. This session starts out quiet and by the end the crowd is living it up. Van Richten casts magic weapon on Dee's shield. Through the anti-magic? I think Chris forgot. No big deal, that kind of thing is going to happen.

They can hear the wolf hunters in combat. What's Paultin doing for this? Sleeping? Strix can't cast spells in the tower so she takes a dead rat and chucks it at the ooze. Holly actually has a rat prop in her pocket and throws it into the crowd. The ooze climbs into the dead rat and brings it to life.

Diath kills the rat. The crowd applauds. The ooze spews out of every rat orifice. Evelyn stabs it "right in the middle of the rat puddle."

Evelyn wants to go outside and help the wolf hunters. They killed over a dozen wolves. She kills two.

A witch hits Evelyn with a ray of sickness. She takes 15 poison damage. She makes her save, but she's unconscious. The rest of the group comes outside

Strix drops the man-witch with a magic missile. He falls from the sky and lands right on the top of the wagon. On her next turn, she kills another witch with the same spell.

Diath tries to pick up the broom of the man-witch. It attacks him and hits him twice. Diath uses UNCANNY DODGE to survive a broom assault.

The group realizes that Van Richten is up there alone with Paultin. They're up there fighting.


Diath hits the broom.. but it lives! It hits him. Then the other broom comes at Diath doing 7 points. It dropped him! Crowd is dying of laughter. Diath was defeated by a broom. His head is on the table. Anna: "Looks like you really got swept away there, Diath." Crowd groans.

Strix continues her assault as she kills 15 wolves with a fireball. One broom is destroyed. The other is on fire and comes at Strix. It hits her once for 4. Strix finishes it off.

Dee hears Paultin and Van Richten fighting in the tower! Dee is going up the elevator. Wolf hunters kill the fire broom.

Dee sees Van Richten trying to stab Paultin with a pin. Dee splits them up. Van Richten says he needs vistani blood. Dee convinces Van Richten to come outside to heal Evelyn and Diath. Van Richten heals Diath and Evelyn. Diath asks, "Can you heal shame?"

Outside, Strix points out that she killed almost everything. Evelyn asks her if she wants a hug. She says no, but Dee and Evelyn rush her and make a Strix sandwich. That's where we stop.
Overall

Really great show! When it comes to these live shows, it seems like the most important thing is to have players who are funny and quick on their feet. All of these players definitely fit the bill. Jared in particular has a really sharp wit. He pretty much won the crowd over by the halfway point and he was on fire as the show went on.

Growth: It is really fun to watch them build this show step by step. Each episode, it gets a little bigger and better. These players draw a really young crowd, many of whom know nothing about D&D going in. They see this and they get interested in the game.

Keep Dee: Erika is great and I think she should be on every week, or, at the very least she should fill in on the weeks that Nate can't make it. She brings a lot of energy to the proceedings and she's a real team player.

Good: I thought we'd see something big on this show, since it is a special live episode. I assumed there would be a Strahd appearance. I'm not disappointed at all. The show was great and you should definitely check it out if you can. I'll get some timestamps up if/when it is on youtube.

You can buy Dungeonology on Amazon here.

Disclosure: I was sent a review copy of this adventure.

Treasure: I came home today and look what was waiting for me! Dungeonology is a new D&D hardcover that comes out on November 5th. I have started receiving these preview copies of D&D books kind of out of the blue. I am certain that it is because you keep coming to my blog and I really appreciate it. I'll do my best to give you an accurate look at this book so you can decide what you think of it.

Not a Sourcebook: First off, this is not a sourcebook or a monster manual. Dungeonology is more like a coffee table book. It's got a shiny chrome cover on the outside. On the inside, it has all of these weird little gimmicks - booklets, foldouts, maps, etc.


Envelope: Right on the inside cover, there is a sealed envelope attached. In it is a letter from Elminster. He welcomes us to the book and explains that it was written by Volo. I'm really worried about damaging these things or losing them, but they seem pretty sturdy. That envelope is stuck on there pretty tight.

There are not that many pages. It looks like around 20 or 30. They're really thick and most of them have some kind of fold-out attachment.

We start off with a lot of broad adventuring advice. No mechanical stuff. It's all flavor. The sample marching order they give is pretty much exactly what I would do:

1. Rogue: To scout ahead/check for traps.
2. Fighter
3. Cleric
4. Wizard: Because they are squishy.
5. Another Fighter: In case bad guys come from behind, which they often do.

The one thing I'd add is to never form a straight line, otherwise you're all going to get hit by a single lightning bolt spell. This has happened to me many times! My beloved frog-man Rudolph, who had a barrel of water strapped to his back, was murdered in this manner.


Magic Items: Then there is a section on magic. There is an actual spell book attached to the page. We also get a description of a wand of a wonder and images of a very eclectic mix of magic items. What's nice about these is that you get the entire piece of art, uncluttered. In the DMG, the magic items are all kind of smooshed together.

Some of the items depicted are a cubic gate, an efreeti bottle and a blast scepter, which all look really cool. I don't get why they picked the candle of invocation picture, though. It's just a candle.

Then we jump into an overview of the Forgotten Realms. There's a large image of the vault of the dracolich player's map, which is very cool.


The Map: Then we get to what I think is the most handy part of this book. In the center is a fold-out map of the Sword Coast region of the realms. This is the exact map from Storm King's Thunder, with all of the relevant locations labeled. If you are running chapter 3, you can just plop this down on the table.

The paper is really thick and sturdy. The map folds and unfolds with ease. It is really weird when you unfold it the first time. It catches you by surprise.

This map has descriptions of items on the borders. They include the Wyrmskull Throne and the Morkoth from Storm King's Thunder. The Morkoth mini-map will also be handy, as it is a crucial location in Storm King and it can be difficult to convey properly verbally.

We get a really nice full page image of one of my favorite pieces of art from the PH:


It's got this spiral fold-out thing on it. Call me a weirdo, but I'm afraid to unfold it. Plus, I feel like I shouldn't spoil everything that is in this book.

We get some information on treasure and the factions. Then we move on to the monster section, where there is a special dragon booklet attached to the page. This booklet has a very handy chart that lists the main types of metallic and chromatic dragons as well as their corresponding breath weapons.


Here's the pronunciation they give for Bahamut: "buh-HAY-mutt." Is that right? I thought it was "bah-HA-mutt."

Villains: There's a list of major NPC villains, including some from the previous 5e adventures. Acererak is one of them.

Heroes: We get some pages on hero NPCs. Most of them are realms people, but we also get Ezmerelda from Curse of Strahd. In the entry, Volo actually refers to the events of the Volo short story in Dragon+ where he went to Barovia and met her. That's pretty awesome.

The very last pages have a surprise. There's a hologram of a green dragon and.. an entire booklet. Volo's Guide to the Realms.

It's about 20 pages long. It contains overviews of a lot of different aspects of the realms. One of my favorite parts is a two-page spread where they go over the "threats," which are the bad guys from the first three adventures.

There are overviews of settlements like Waterdeep, Gauntlgrym, Thay, Candlekeep and Daggerford. I really like Daggerford as a starting locale for a new group. I'd also like it if they started an adventure in Candlekeep. I remember that place being really cool in the Baldur's Gate computer game.

Here's a location they detail: The Tomb of Horrors. They are really going nuts with the tomb stuff in this. Does this mean we're going to get a 5e Tomb of Horrors at some point? I know it is a controversial location, but I get a kick out of it.

There's even a little bit of info on Zakhara, home of the Al Qadim setting.

The very last pages have a diagram of the planes and info on the "worlds beyond." There is stuff on a few places, including Greyhawk and... Sigil! I really hope we get a planescape adventure soon.

Overall

Again, this is not a sourcebook. The information in Dungeonology is very broad. It's definitely fun to look through. I would say that this book is a great Christmas present for these types of people:

• Those who haven't played D&D, but are interested.
• Those who play but don't know a lot about the lore.
• Kids! This is not a kids book, but I think that if you have kids, they will love going through this book and messing with it.

In a lot of ways, this is a very solid primer to get someone up to speed on all of the basic things you should know to be a D&D fan. Considering that right now we are in a time when there are tons of new players joining in, it definitely feels like this is the right moment for a product like this.

For a hardcore fan, this is useful to fill in gaps of knowledge. The map is extremely handy, and Volo's Guide gives you a good foundation if your realms knowledge is shaky.

One of the hardest things for me to get my head around when I first started working on my Planescape campaigns was the factions. There are a million of them and each one has a name and a nickname that are used interchangeably. Worse, I tried to find a simple faction list on google, and I couldn't.

We're going to whip one up right here. First, I'll list them as they are in the Planescape boxed set. Then I'll talk about the changes to the factions following the events of the Faction War adventure and scattered things from subsequent editions.

This article uses material from these sources:

• Planescape Boxed Set
• Planewalkers Handbook
• The Factol's Manifesto
• Faction War
• Planar Handbook
• Dragon Magazine 213: This has a wealth of great information on each faction.
• Dragon Magazine 287: Fractious Factions
• Dragon Magazine 315: Exiled Factions
• Dragon Magazine 370: Riven Justice: The Mercykillers
• Dragon Magazine 414: Character Themes: Sensates, Ciphers and Xaositects

Mercykiller

5e Faction Rules: If you want to use these factions for 5e, don't forget to check out the faction and renown rules in the DMG page 21. In theory, a hero can rise up in the ranks from namer to factotum to factor to factol.

Using these factions in a campaign can feel overwhelming. There are so many to keep track of! I suggest just focusing on the ones your players like to start with and slowly expand when it feels like everyone is familiar with the ones introduced so far. You could do an entire campaign of just focusing an adventure on each faction if you wanted to.

History of the Factions: At one time, there were dozens of factions that were constantly bickering and brawling. The Lady of Pain forced a limit of no more than 15 factions operating in Sigil at the same time. This event and declaration became known as the Great Upheaval. It occurred over 600 years ago.

Factol Erin Darkflame Montgomery

Joining a Faction: It's usually simple and there is a fee. You might have someone sponsor you to get in. Some of the factions have a more complicated entry process.

You Can't Be a Member of More than One Faction: Unless you are an Anarchist.

Changing Factions: This doesn't happen much, because a faction is all about your core beliefs. Often, other factions won't allow members who quit another faction previously. The Harmonium actually brings a quitter to court to try them for "treachery" so they can be put to death.

Faction Ranks: There are 4 ranks in each faction. Most people are "namers." Some factions have different names for the ranks.

1. Namer: All new members are called namers, and most remain that rank for their entire lives. They are members of the faction, but they don't get too involved with the whole thing.
2. Factotum: Full-time members. They run messages, escort guests, and fill positions of low responsibility.
3. Factor: A factor is a high-ranking member who directly serves the factol.
4. Factol: The one person in charge of the entire faction.

Benefits of Being in a Faction: There are a few perks to joining:

• Headquarters: Members get use of the faction headquarters. Many of these huge places offer services and events. You can stay at the headquarters for a few days or perhaps permanently, depending on your standing.
• Information/Services: Most factions have information on where portals are and all sorts of other info that only members have access to. For characters, joining a faction means that they have access to special powers. 
• Powers: These powers change with each edition. If you want to use them in 5e, you'll have to pick out the ones that you like and convert them.
• Healing: Most factions have healers who can remove curses, cast knowledge spells, all sorts of stuff for a fee.
• Adventures: They can give you jobs or adventures to go on.

Factions Don't Fight Openly: The Lady of Pain doesn't look kindly on factions going to war. She decreed there could be only 15 factions in Sigil when things got out of hand years ago.

List of Factions

Transcendant Order

Now I am going to list each faction as they appear in the Planescape boxed set. I'm adding information from other sources, too. After that, I'll list the changes to the factions following the Faction War.

Plane of Influence: In these lists, the plane of influence is the plane that the faction travels to on occasion and the plane that best suits their beliefs. Their actual headquarters are always in Sigil.

The Athar (Defiers, The Lost)


Philosophy: There are no gods, just powerful mortals. They want to discover the secret truth to reality.

Plane of Influence: Astral Plane.

Headquarters: The Shattered Temple in Sigil. Formerly a temple of Aoskar, god of portals.

Allies: The Believers of the Source.

Ranks: Factotums are known as "Athaons." To become one, you have to go through a special hidden ceremony in the Shattered Temple. You bring three objects linked to the gods (bibles, holy symbols, etc) and destroy them.

• Low level athaons work as guards and messengers
• Mid-level athaons work as special envoys and supervisors.
• High level athaons: Join the inner circle of the defilers..

Factol Terrance: Lawful Good former priest of Mishakal. Has a sense of humor about realizing the god aren't gods.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Magic Resistance: Athaons have a bonus to saving throws against clerics or planar agents serving a diety/archdevil/demonlord
• Obscurement: Factors gain an obscurement power that protects them from any sort of divination spell.
• Banishment: Once per day they can case banishment.
• Divine Cancellation: Counterspell a divine spell once per day.
• Divine Retribution: Reflect a divine spell back at the caster!
• Divine Interference: Generate an aura that interferes with divine spellcasting.

Lore:

• Crystal Cask of the Great Unknown: The Athar think there is a shattered cask that, if reassembled, can contain and drain the power from all of the "pretender" gods.

Believers of the Source (Godsmen)

The Great Foundry

Philosophy: Everyone is tested and reincarnated until they become a supreme being. When everyone has ascended, the multiverse ends. Godsmen spend a lot of time in the Ethereal Plane studying.

Plane of Influence: The Ethereal Plane.

Headquarters: The Great Foundry.

Allies: The Athar and the Doomguard.

Enemies: The Bleak Cabal and the Dustmen.

Restriction: They can't be raised or resurrected, only reincarnated.

Factol Ambar Vergrove: Courteous and kind, beloved by all.

Rising in the Ranks:

• To become a factotum, you must have a mentor. When the mentor thinks you are ready, you must go before a factor and go through tests, puzzles and challenges tailored to your fears and weaknesses.
• To become a factor, you go through a secret test in the Deep Ethereal.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• A bonus to charisma checks when interacting with planar beings.
• Godsmen can speed up your travel time in the ethereal plane by up to x2.

Source Tokens: Some factotums have these magical stones that allow you to enter the Ethereal Plane at will from anywhere in the multiverse. It's a consumable item, so each one only works once. Source tokens are made in a secret forge in the Great Foundry and are usually given to factotums who are on specific missions. They can manifest aspects of a past life.

Each pouch has 12 tokens. When you break one, a creature materializes. It could be a tree, a horse, an owlbear, an ogre, or lots of other amusing creatures. The creature obeys you. It's a materialized form of one of your unconscious memories.

The Bleak Cabal (Bleakers, Madmen)

Factol Lhar

Philosophy: The multiverse is without meaning.

Plane of Influence: Pandemonium.

Headquarters: The Gatehouse, an insane asylum.

Allies: The Doomguard, Dustmen, Revolutionary League and the Xaositects.

Enemies: The Fraternity of Order, the Harmonium and the Mercykillers.

Restrictions:

• Lawful characters can't join. 
• Each day, roll a d20. On a 20, you are overcome with a feeling that everything is futile. Other PCs will need to convince them to get up, otherwise the bleaker does nothing for that day.

Rising in the Ranks:

• Most members volunteer at a poorhouse, orphanage or the Gatehouse.
• A lot of members are wizards and scholars.
• To become a factotum, you must serve for six months in the Gatehouse watching over inmates.

Factol Lhar: Chaotic neutral half-orc, who was himself an orphan. He may be succumbing to The Grim Retreat.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Immune to madness/ insanity effects from confusion, feeblemind, Tasha's hideous laughter, etc. 
• Advantage on saving throws vs. detect thoughts.

New Spells: Factotums get special spells:

• (Lvl 4) Despair: An area effect spell that causes depression and hopelessness - targets can't attack, cast spells, or move. Paralyzed, basically. Lasts one round per level.
• (Lvl 6) Howl of Pandemonium: This is like a super gust of wind, where you channel the screaming winds of pandemonium in a cone. It incapacitates people and gives off a random confusion effect.

The Grim Retreat: Many Bleakers get this illness, which leads to madness and death. This process eventually takes down every factol of the Bleak Cabal.

The Doomguard

Factol Pentar

Philosophy: The multiverse is decaying and nobody should meddle with that process.

Plane of Influence: The Negative Energy Plane and the quasiplanes of Ash, Vacuum, Salt and Dust.

Allies: The Bleak Cabal, the Godsmen and the Dustmen.

Enemies: The Fraternity of Order and the Harmonium.

Restrictions: Naturally resistant to healing. They actually have to fail a saving throw for the healing to take effect.

Rising in the Ranks:

• Factors: Their factors are known as Doomlords. They go through an unspeakable transformation in the Negative Energy Plane and they wear black and red masks blazoned with the faction symbol where their faces ought to be. They say if you look under their mask, you'll go insane.
• Weapons: Doomlords can create champions of entropy to deal with threats that wield entropy blades.

Factol Pentar: She is chaotic neutral and she has a sword of modron-slaying.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Entropic Blow: Do extra damage to creatures, piles more to objects.
• Destructive Expertise: Good at disabling devices.
• Spell-like Powers: True strike, shatter, disintegrate.

Entropy Blades: Entropy blades are imbued with negative energy and are made to deal with a specific threat. The blade turns to dust once the threat has passed. In 2e, they are +2 weapons, +4 vs. their specific threat they were made to deal with. A factotum with a long term mission may end up with an entropy blade for their entire life. Most blades exist for a few months.

• Ash Blade: Protects you like a ring of fire resistance, cast chill touch three times per day.
• Vacuum Blade: Immune to gas (stinking cloud, etc) and can cast ray of enfeeblement three times per day.
• Salt Blade: Water resistance, cast lower water to destroy water three times per day.
• Dust Blade: Protection from stone attacks, can disintegrate stone once per day.

The Dustmen (The Dead)

Philosophy: Everyone is dead, some more than others. Undead have attained purity - they have purged themselves of all passion and sense.

Plane of Influence: The Negative Energy Plane. It is said that the soul of every dead Dustman lurks in their hidden citadel. The Dustmen could call them back to the Mortuary should the Dustmen need them.

Headquarters: The Mortuary. It has a lot of portals in it, many of which go to cemeteries on other worlds.

Allies: The Bleak Cabal and The Fated.

Enemies: The Sign of One and the Society of Sensation.

Restriction: Most Dustmen won't accept being raised or resurrected. They quest for "True Death," where there is no coming back in any form.

Rising in the Ranks:

• The Dustmen collect bodies and bury or dispose of them in the Mortuary.
• Factotums are known as "Initiates." You must be at least 4th level. Factotums are initiated through a dark pact with the undead. Factotums gain the power to command undead.
• Lowest ranking factotums are Initiates of the Fifth Circle
• Mid-ranking factotums are in the Fourth Circle.
• Factors and the Factol belong to the First Circle.
• Nobody knows what the second and third circles are. Many think they are full of powerful, free-willed undead. There are a lot of undead members of the Dustmen.

Factol Skall: He might be an undead spellcaster. He often appears as an empty black robe with the symbol of the Dustmen hovering above him.

The Dead Truce: Undead ignore Dustmen as long as they do no harm to the undead.

The Fated (Takers, the Heartless)

Factol Duke Rowan Darkwood

Philosophy: You have to take what you want in life through hard work and by whatever means necessary.

Plane of Influence: Ysgard

Headquarters: The Hall of Records

Allies: The Free League and the Mercykillers.

Enemies: The Harmonium.

Restrictions:

• No lawful good members. 
• Can't accept charity in any capacity. Everything they receive must be earned in one fashion or another.

Rising in the Ranks:

• To join, you must pass a series of mental and physical tests.
• Members collect taxes and track the city's business dealings.
• To rise up in rank, you need to remove someone from their spot, usually through threats or magic.

Factol Duke Rowan Darkwood: He is an ambitious fellow with a white beard who schemes for control of Sigil.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Fated generally have bonuses to knowledge rolls on one specific plane and have extra bonuses to their skills.
• Aura of Confidence: Boosts allies, bugs enemies.
• Larger than Life: Can cast enlarge on themselves.

The Luckmaker's Glyph: In the Serpent Spine mountains of Ysgard, there are deadly caves that contain a glyph that the Fated frequently quest to see. This glyph is said to give you a bit more luck than the average mortal.

The Fraternity of Order (Guvners)


Philosophy: Everything has laws. Learning the laws of the multiverse will give you ultimate power.

Plane of Influence: Mechanus, they have a stronghold there.

Headquarters: The City Courts.

Allies: The Mercykillers and the Harmonium.

Enemies: The Xaositects and the Revolutionary League.

Restrictions: Members must be lawful.

Rising in the Ranks:

• To join, you must take tests of general knowledge and legal matters.
• Run the court system of Sigil. Faction members frequently judge cases.
• Namers are known as "aides."

Factol Hashkar: A lawful neutral dwarf who bores people but knows a lot.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• They can automatically comprehend languages once per day.
• At 7th level, they might be able to use magic items not meant for their class if the DM is cool with it.
• Factotums learn the loopholes of the multiverse and can take advantage of them. Once per day, they can give themselves a bonus to a roll or a penalty on someone else's roll.
• Sometimes they have custom abilities, like borrowing elemental fire to make their sword a flaming sword, or a thief might learn how to manipulate shadows. 

The Free League (Indeps)


Philosophy: They insist that they are not a faction. They stay out of things and watch each others backs. Many of them are merchants.

Plane of Influence: The Outlands.

Headquarters: The Grand Bazaar.

Enemies: The Harmonium.

Restrictions: Have less rights than most in Sigil.

Factol: While there is no factol, there are 3 leaders. Bria Romay, a human female, and Lethea and Lesander, twin wemics.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Advantage on saving throws vs. charm.
• They can cast (Lvl 1) Know Faction: Lets you look at someone within 60 feet and know what faction they are in.

The Harmonium (The Hardheads)


Philosophy: If everyone follows the rules (their rules), then there will be peace. 

Plane of Influence: Arcadia.

Headquarters: The City Barracks.

Allies: The Guvners and the Mercykillers.

Enemies: The Indeps, the Revolutionary League and the Xaositects.

Restrictions:

• Must be lawful. 
• Must atone for any violation of Harmonium policy. 
• If you betray the faction, the factol sentences you to death.

Rising in the Ranks:

• Factotums are trained extensively in combat. They gain a bonus to saves against fear.
• Harmonium clerics can learn (Lvl 2) Dictate: This is an improved version of the command spell. The caster can speak up to 12 words that must be obeyed by those who fail their save. Examples: "Throw down your weapons!""Seize that elf!"
• The factor hierarchy is organized by "Movers." Mover Five is th highest, then four, than three, etc. Like army generals.
• There are two Mover Fives: Tonat Shar and Killeen Kaine.
• One Mover Four is Durkayle, the guy who gets into trouble in "Umbra" from Dungeon Magazine #55.

Factol Sarin: A lawful good paladin, devoted to law and good.

Power: Cast charm person once per day

Planar Mancatchers: Harmonium use these magic polearms that are enchanted to block teleportation and plane-shifting.

The Mercykillers (Red Death)


Philosophy: Justice must be carried out. Perfection is the goal of the multiverse. 

Plane of Influence: Acheron

Headquarters: The Prison

Allies: The Harmonium, the Guvners, the Doomguard and the Mercykillers.

Enemies: Signers, Sensates and the Anarchists.

Restrictions:

• Must be lawful. 
• No thieves, no criminals. 
• If you break a law, you must subject yourself to the full punishment.
• They execute the guilty.

Rising in the Ranks:

• No tests to join. They just hear the cold, hard facts about law.
• Many Mercykiller guards have Aoskian Hounds, two-headed dogs.
• Factotum are known as Justices. They must train and study to learn the law thoroughly. They are free to take on a crusade against rulebreakers. They can go through a ritual to become a justiciar (see below). 
• Some people who are sentenced to death are devoured by the Mercykiller Wyrm, a dragon-like creature that lurks in the bowels of the prison.

Factol Nilesia: She is very unhinged and very harsh when it comes to sentencing offenders.

Power: Once per day, can ask a question and know whether the person is lying or not.

Justiciar: An elite members who track their quarry. Created in 3 steps:

1. Swear a blood oath to pursue their target
2. They are linked to the target in a binding ceremony
3. They have a warrant to serve the prey.

They can sense the location of their quarry, even between planes. The quarry is aware it is being hunted. The warrant has a special hold person spell that the target has a penalty to save against.

The Revolutionary League (Anarchists)


Philosophy: The other factions are corrupt and need to be brought down. Once that is done, the real truth will be revealed.

Plane of Influence: Carceri

Headquarters: None in Sigil. They move from place to place to avoid detection.

Allies: The Doomguard and the Xaositects.

Enemies: The Harmonium and the Guvners.

Restrictions:

• No lawful characters. 
• Can't hold public office or own a business. 
• 90% of their income (treasure) must go to the cause or to the oppressed. "In no case can it be given to another player character or player-controlled nonplayer character."

Rising in the Ranks:

• The league is made up of cells of 3-8 anarchists. Only the leader, a factotum, knows who all of the members are. That factotum is also a member of a cell full of factotums.
• Factotums are masters of forgery and disguise and get bonuses on those checks.

Factol: None. The closest they have is Beringe, a smooth talker who has set traps, killed officials and started riots. He has toppled governments on prime worlds.

Power: They can pose as members of other factions without being detected and gain access to the headquarters of other factions.

The Sign of One (Signers)

Factol Darius

Philosophy: One person is the center of the universe, possibly you. Everyone else is a figment of that person's imagination.

Plane of Influence: The Beastlands

Headquarters: The Hall of Speakers

Allies: The Sensates

Enemies: The Harmonium and the Bleak Cabal.

Restrictions:

• No Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral members. 
• They have big egos that tend to rub people the wrong way. They have a penalty to charisma checks.

Rising in the Ranks:

• To Join: Go to the Hall of Speakers and predict the future. If it comes true, you're in.
• Factotums belong to the inner circles of the faction.

Factol Darius: Neutral good olive-skinned woman who promotes tolerance and diversity.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Advantage on saves vs. illusionary magic.
• Imagining: Factotums have a special power called imagining where they can mimic certain creation spells. In 2e it's minor creation or shadow monsters. For 5e, maybe phantasmal force, phantom steed, and phantasmal killer? Basically, the caster needs to make a check. If they do, they can imagine an object or creature into reality for a time. Failing this check means they "burn out" and can't try using the power again until they gain a level. If the Signer rolls a one, the signer realizes that he or she is imaginary and becomes a shadow version of themselves. Each day they can make a check to try to imagine themselves back to reality.

The Society of Sensation (Sensates)

The Civic Festhall

Philosophy: To experience everything is to learn the meaning of the multiverse.

Plane of Influence: Arborea

Headquarters: The Civic Festhall

Allies: The Signers, the Guvners and the Indeps.

Enemies: The Doomguard

Rising in the Ranks:

• To Join: Visit the Festhall and record five experiences in sensory stones.
• To become  factor, the sensate has to make a lasting and significant contribution to the faction.
• Factotums gain 2e bard abilities. They get bonuses to local history and can identify magic items.

Factol Erin Darkflame Montgomery: Lawful good, has the most political power in Sigil, hunted by demons.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Bonuses to saves against poison, hard to surprise, all members have darkvision.
• Sensory Caress: You can take on one effect that a save can end from one target to yourself.
• Dramatic Recount: Enthrall people as per the spell.
• Sense Link: See and hear through a creature within 30 feet.
• Sensory Overload: Magnify a creature's perception of damage. The target takes extra damage.
• Shared Spell Experience: You can reflect spells, but you still are affected.
• Hyper Scent: You smell real good.

Sense Escalation Tank: Spending a minure in one of these items feels like a day of real life. It is a way to experience deep thought and inner exploration.

The Transcendent Order (Ciphers)

Factol Rhys

Philosophy: Be impulsive, follow your instincts. Once you sync up your body and mind, you will be in tune with the multiverse.

Plane of Influence: Elysium

Headquarters: The Great Gymnasium

Benefits: Bonus to initiative.

Restrictions: Must be neutral. Players of Ciphers can't change their mind once they commit to an action. They should not pause to consider or debate pending actions.

Rising in the Ranks:

They don't have factotums or factors, they have "masters." It takes 3-4 months of intense exercise and meditation to achieve each rank.The ranks...

1. Master of the Heart: +2 to initiative
2. Master of the Mind: +3 to initiative
3. Master of the Spirit: Nobody knows what it takes to become a master of the spirit (except the masters themselves).

Factol Rhys: "Master of the spirit," a neutral tiefling who has internal harmony and can inspire others to greatness. She becomes important post-Faction War, because she suddenly becomes one of the most politically powerful people in the new Sigil government.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Bonus to saves against charm/fear/illusion. This only applies when they are in an "action trance," which is when they are fighting, exercising or mediating. They can't walk around in this state all day.
• Locate Weakness: Do lots of damage to inanimate objects.
• Evasion.
• Become ethereal once per day.
• See invisible.
• Haste once per day.

Lore:

• Mauvignon Fragments: Pieces of a tome known as the Mauvignon Codex that can expand your consciousness.
• Pinnacle of Perfect Knowledge: A place where perfect knowledge is attained. Might not be a physical place.

The Xaositects (Chaosmen)


Philosophy: The multiverse is chaos. There is no order or pattern to anything.

Plane of Influence: Limbo.

Headquarters: The center of the Hive Ward.

Allies: The Doomguard and the Bleak Cabal.

Enemies: The Harmonium and the Guvners.

Restrictions:

• Must be chaotic. They are bound to chaos. 
• They can't own a business or stronghold, and they can't do things that require long-term organization.

Rising in the Ranks: No factotums or factors.

Factol Karan: A githzerai who quits a few times per day and doesn't remember anything about his past.

Powers: As members become more powerful, they can gain these powers:

• Once per week they can cast babble, a spell that makes people speak incoherently.
• Chaosmen of 5th level or higher are protected by nondetection.
• At 9th level they radiate confusion in a 20 foot radius once per day for 2d6 rounds. Lawful characters have a penalty to the save.
• Really powerful chaosmen have the ability to create a circle of chaos (like protection form evil) and some might be able to mutate their forms.
• The Die is Cast: When you roll a d20 and dislike the result, add d10 and subtract d4.
• Hornung's Deflector: When you would be hit by a ranged attack, it hits a random creature (including yourself) within 15 feet.
• Hide from the Law: Hard to scry them.
• Immune to illusions.
• Chaotic Contagion: Cause confusion.
• Babble: Aura of chaotic noise (like a gibbering mouther, maybe).
• Confusion aura.
• Chance's Friend: Reroll a die roll.
• Spark of Life: Bring inanimate objects to life (like the monsters).
• Chance's Master: Force a creature to reroll.

Blade of the Attractor: A sword that can cut reality to the bone, revealing hidden cycles that dictate each moment. It can change weather patterns, alter the flow of rivers and disrupt political order.

Splinter Groups

Incantifier

There are all sorts of sidegroups and sub-factions in Sigil and in the planes:

• The Ring-Givers of Ysgard: Giving things away brings you the true wealth of the multiverse.
• The Dispossessed: Angst-ridden outcasts on Pandemonium and Carceri.
• The Order of the Planes-Militant: Defenders of Mount Celestia.
• The Incantifiers: Mastering magic is the key to ultimate power.
• The Prolongers: They quest for immortality.
• The Ragers: Your worth is determined by beating others in physical challenges.
• The Hopeful: Splinter group of the Dustmen who believe that once they achieve True Death they'll be granted True Life.

Factions of the Past

These factions once thrived but were snuffed out by the Lady of Pain.

The Communals (Hivers, Tribe of One): They shared everything and proclaimed that all races are equal.They were made up of the poor people of Sigil and they controlled the City Provisioner's, the only food storehouse in Sigil. They tried to declare that Sigil belonged to everyone, not just the Lady of Pain. One day, they all vanished.

• Solidarity Bands: When two different creatures where these, they share damage evenly when they are on the same plane. An armband can't be removed until the wearer dies, or someone casts dispel magic.

The Expansionists (Growers, Bullies): They believed that power grows and that anyone could build themselves into a being of great power. They began to get bigger and bigger. Then their leader, Vartus Timlin, vanished and they disbanded. There is only one member still in Sigil. She is known as the Grixitt. She does her best to sabotage and destroy portals.

• Bully Chains: These chains boost intimidate checks.
• Metal Slave Collar: Absorbs a bit of damage, made primarily for bar brawls.
• Rear Guards: Darkened lenses that let you see behind you, as well as the front.
• Shivving Duster: Long leather coats that are like leather armor +1 and have lots of space to hide weapons.
• Lightbringer: A +3 dancing sword that is intelligent (It's neutral). It can communicate telepathically with the wielder and cast bless 3 times per day. If there is another weapon bearing the same name, it can destroy it. It can speak Common, Abyssal, Celestial and Infernal. Lightbringer was wielded by the Factol Vartus Timlin until he was mazed (see "The Mazes" in Well of Worlds).

The Incanterium (Wanters): They believed that magic is the root of all power. They lived in the Tower Sorcerous in Sigil and they controlled a good chunk of Sigil and manipulated other factions. One day, the tower and the faction vanished.

The survivors had immersed themselves in magic and lost their bodies and souls. They needed to consume arcane energy to survive and they can only heal wounds by absorbing magic. They are paranoid and bitter and they have silver eyes.

Alluvius Ruskin is an Incantifier. She runs Tivvum's Antiquities and she has a big role in Faction War.

Faction War

Duke Rowan & Factol Nilesia

In this mega-adventure, the factions go to war. I don't want to spoil the whole thing, but the outcome is that many of the factions are gone and most of the factols have disappeared.

This Wasn't Meant to be Permanent: Apparently, there was a sequel to Faction War planned. The idea was to use the Faction War as an excuse to make some Planescape products and adventures that focused on the planes. Then, the sequel would more or less restore the status quo.

This never happened because TSR collapsed and got bought by Wizards of the Coast. I have never heard what the proposed plot of the sequel was going to be.

The "Factions" post-Faction War

The Lady of Pain has forbade the existence of factions. All of these operate in secret.

• The Sodkillers: They run the Minders Guild, where people can come and hire them as mercenaries.
• The Sons of Mercy: Oversee the Prison, patrol the streets.
• The Mind's Eye: You must discover the secrets of the planes to pass into a new kind of existence. They have a base in each of the gate towns.

Sodkillers

They operate within an organization called the Minders Guild. They are mercenaries for hire. They hack off the hands of thieves and execute killers

Philosophy: Chaos wins if we permit free thinking and subversive ideas.

Restrictions: They must be lawful and have the ability to track.

Factol Cruel Seirrah:She is a tiefling with twisted horns and an illegitimate daughter of the crazy former factol Nilesia. Unpredictable and vindictive, she craves power. She likes to carve up enemies slowly with a thin knife.

Powers:

• Axiomatic Strike: Do extra damage to chaotic creatures once per day.
• Oath of Blood: This takes an hour, and locks you into a particular quest. It allows you to use the contract and warrant abilities like the justiciars above.

Sons of Mercy

Arwyl Swan's Son

They run the prison and police Sigil in an unofficial capacity.

• Philosophy: By Ensuring justice is applied fairly to all who live in civilization, we all prosper. The punishment should always fit the crime.
• Factol Arwyl Swan's Son: A kind and just leader.. He was once a divine champion of Torm from the Forgotten Realms. He is 150 years old and has white hair. Torm has blessed him with an extended life. Torm wants him to represent his interests in Sigil.

The Mind's Eye

They believe that each time you die, you are reborn in a new body and in each life you learn more of the cosmic truth. 

• Philosophy: You can discover the secrets of the multiverse by exploring it. 
• Factol Ombidias: A voadkyn who was a factor in the Believers of the Source when it collapsed.
• Orb of Omniconsciousness: An eye plucked from a god. It gives a clear, unsullied view of the multiverse. Those with weak minds can't handle it.

Dead Factions

Following the Faction War, some factions ceased to exist.

The Sign of One: The Believers of the Source and the Sign of One combined to become The Mind's Eye.

Believers of the Source: They reached a state of philosophical atrophy and merged with the Signers to form the Mind's Eye. Factol Ambar vanished, was possibly mazed.

Mercykillers: After the Faction War, they split into two factions: The Sons of Mercy and the Sodkillers. There are some Mercykillers still out there. They are fighting the hordes of chaos in the planes. Their leader is Captain Andrezhej, a being with pale skin, white hair and strange skin patterns.

The Sign of One: They merged with the Godsmen to become the Mind's Eye. There are a bunch of newer magic items associated with them:

• The Book of All Names: This book has the name of every creature in existence. Whoever possesses it can control the fate of any being. Signers make lesser versions that are largely empty. When you write a name in the book, you can bestow a blessing or curse.
• Shadow Mirror: A mirror that reflects only shadows. Once per day it picks up the thoughts of the nearest sentient being and creates a shadow creature from their thoughts. It exists for one day and then fades away.
• Speaker's Trumpet: A clasp that goes on your lip. It makes your voice project. It's like a magic microphone/speaker system for making proclamations.
• Heart of Aoskar: This is a minor artifact, a clockwork heart originally meant to bring the dead god of portals, Aoskar, back to life. It can create spontaneous, random portals.

Factions That Moved to the Planes


After the Lady of Pain outlawed factions, these organizations moved to the planes.

The Athar: They moved to Sum-of-All, the rilmani city at the base of the spire in The Outlands. Their home is the Fortress of Veils. They also have an observatory in the Astral Plane overlooking dead gods. Deities hold grudges against them and send spies and assassins after them. They mine gems near the base of the spire and used them to make magic items harmful to deities and their agents.

• Spireshard Weapons: If this hits a target, that target must save or be unable to case spells for d4 rounds.

The Fraternity of Order: Their leader died during the Faction War. They live in the Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment on Mechanus. They spend their time experimenting, studying and plotting their return to Sigil.

• Zelekhut Wings: Clockwork wings with golden feathers, give you the ability to fly.
• Kolyarut Hand: If you graft the metal hand to your wrist, you can use vampiric touch three times per day.

Doomguard: They were almost wiped out in the Faction War. They fled to their four armories on the edge of the negative energy plane.

Harmonium: They went to Arcadia. They want to unite the upper planes under the banner of law.

Their new factol is named Faith. She travels the planes extensively trying to make new allies. There is an army of Harmonium Peacekeepers that steps in wherever evil and disorder rear their ugly heads.

• Planar Steed: They get special mounts like paladins. 
• They can plane shift once per day from Arcadia to the first layer of any non-evil plane.
• They can smite chaos once per day, doing extra damage to chaotic creatures.
• Calm Emotions once per day.

The Fated: They moved to Ysgard and live off the land. Their new factol is a dwarf named Aram Oakwright who likes to duel. 

Revolutionary League: They have no purpose any more. They moved to Carceri and live in the Bastion of Last Hope on the first layer of Carceri. They want to return to Sigil as rulers, to lead the masses toward the real truths of the universe.

The Second Wave: This is a splinter group that has formed cells in cities across the planes (like Dis and the City of Brass) to try to make them crumble like Sigil. Many of the are magical saboteurs known as anarchomancers. They use special rituals to promote rebellion and anarchy:

• Ritual of the Dark Infiltrator: This takes a day to cast and turns you into different race/class for an indefinite period of time.
• Ritual of the Stilled Tongue: Touch a helpless foe and compel them to be silent about a certain topic.
• Ritual of the Moment Unleashed: Creates 2d12 confusion effects within a one mile radius. Lasts as long as the anarchomancer keeps the ritual going. Causes widespread civic unrest.

Disbanded, Still in Sigil

• The Bleak Cabal: They shrug and keep helping the poor.
• The Dustmen: Continue running the Mortuary.
• The Free League: They were never a faction. Now they are happy.
• The Society of Sensation: They went to Arborea and wander the planes. Some stayed in Sigil to continue to run the Civic Festhall.
• The Transcendent Order: They disband and form a new government - the Sigil Advisory Council. The council has nine seats. Former Factol Rhys has one of them. She's the only Factol to survive the Faction War unscathed.
• The Xaositects: They carry on as if nothing has happened.

My Other Planescape Guides:

• A Guide to Sigil
• A Guide to the Lady of Pain

Today I'm going to take a look at Monsters and Heroes of the Realms: A Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Book. It says that this is for ages 10 and up. You can get this right now on Amazon for very cheap and there are a few sample pages right here. One of them is a blank map and it is definitely worth downloading.

I figured that this thing was going to be like a big pamphlet, maybe 32 pages. That's how I remember coloring books being from when I was a kid. But this thing is gigantic. There's 70 pages to color! And then there's more stuff on top of that! Check out the binding:

I am pretty big into D&D art, so I really got a kick out of this thing. All of these images are from published 5e products. I don't understand how they converted the painted art to line art. Do they have access to the underlying artwork?

I am amused and mortified at the idea that someone had to trace each image in a separate layer in photoshop. Some of the images are of a single creature, others are of the big scenes. Here's the beholder:

I took some of my patented low quality photos of other pages so I could run them side by side with the originals. They chose a lot of my favorite images from the 5e books. I don't really like a lot of the 5e art, but some of these actually look better in line art form than they do painted, which is pretty weird.

Here's one of my favorites, the modron march:

I love this one. I don't quite understand the story behind it. The heroes are in Mechanus hiding from a horde of modrons. This image is actually called "Great Modron March" (we learn that in this book - I'll talk about it in a minute). The modron march is this scheduled event where the modrons march through the planes. Nobody knows why they do it.

I can't think of a reason why these heroes would need to hide from them. Are they bringing chaos into Mechanus somehow? Did they do something to the orrery in the Modron Cathedral?

Here's another of my favorites:


I like the fire giant. His proportions are funky and amusing. I love his giant sword. Frost giants have a very set look that works for them. It seems to me that fire giants have a little more room for variation.

One of the things I like most about this book is that it comes with maps. The maps are mostly blank. The artist set up borders and placed a scroll for you to put the title in. These are really handy.

They should definitely put these out in pdf form, I think people could do a lot of cool things with them. Here's the one you can get off of the product page:
There are also a few pages of patterns. I think some crafty people could do fun stuff with these. Here's one that I think is pretty cool:

Once we get through the 70 pages of art to be colored, then we get an entire section which tells us the name of each piece and the artist that made them! This is awesome for me, because now I can go look up my favorite people and see what other work they have done.

It is hard to find out who drew what in the core books. Some artists you can pick out right away like Michael Komarck and Ralph Horsley, as they have very distinctive styles. But in most cases, you're stuck.

After that stuff, there is another surprising section. All of the color art is presented in their original forms! I think it is meant to be a reference when you color each image. This is especially handy because most of the art in the core books are covered up by the "page rips." There are two pieces in particular that really got me:

I do not remember this from any of the core books. I am guessing we only got to see a fraction of it. I really wish they had presented each piece in full in the core books. I know there's only so much space, but you can't chop something like this up. You need to see the whole thing. I found it.. page 37 of the Player's Handbook. They completely altered it.

This one really gets me:

How awesome is that?! I bet you don't remember it. Let me show you how it looks in the Dungeon Master's Guide:

They did get the central part of the image, but to me that one deserves an entire page. It looks much more awesome in full. Cut up like this, it loses something.

Overall

You can get this thing for very little money. If you have any interest at all, it is worth buying. The maps alone are really cool starting points for you.

If you have a kid who colors, this is a no-brainer. It should keep most people busy for an extremely long time.

The Maze Arcana site is here.
Check out the Maze Arcana Youtube channel here.

Today I decided to watch the first episode of a new D&D show airing on Twitch called Maze Arcana. This campaign is actually set in Eberron, which is pretty cool. It looks like everybody went out of their way to make characters related to the setting - warforged, shifters, etc.

From what I understand, the show will have a guest star each week. Our guest today is Taliesin Jaffe from Critical Role.

This show also features Zak Smith who made Maze of the Blue Medusa, but he wasn't on the show until the end for some reason. Maybe I missed something.

They said that they will be airing these episodes in slices on youtube. It looks like each show is going to be 5 hours long, which is way too long for me. I guess I could see people getting into the habit of watching one hour each weekday.

The DM is Ruty Rutenborg, who seems like a nice guy.

The Party

(Satine Phoenix) Azure - Kalashtar Psion
(Taliesin Jaffe) Bandore Mercury - Half-Elf Bard
(Kyle Vogt) Lucky - Warforged Artificer
(Milynn Sarley) Tabbris - Shifter Divine Herald (a homebrewed rogue class)


It is always a double-edged sword when it comes to reviewing these first episodes. The debut installment of most D&D shows have a lot of glitches/technical problems and it takes a few sessions for all that stuff to get smoothed out. Dice, Camera, Action had that problem in the beginning and now they are a well-oiled machine.

This show had serious technical difficulties involving audio and video. Large swaths of the episode are fine, but there are a few times where they had to stop the show to make a fix. My heart kind of goes out to them because they are doing this all by themselves. Satine did the art (which is awesome) and she's handling the tech stuff! That's the kind of player I'd want in my group. On top of that, they take donations for charity.

So right off the bat, I would recommend that you wait until this is posted on youtube with all of the technical stuff edited out.

The DM has cooked up some homebrewed classes for this. He says he might put them on the DMs Guild. Lucky is an 'Arcaneer,' a version of an Artificer that can create constructs like turrets and etc. It's sort of like a clockwork mage from the Sha'ir's handbook. He has a homunculus called "Facet" that he can attach little items to. Apparently it can be used as a light source.

Tabbris is a faith-based rogue, like an arcane trickster but using divine magic.

To start off, Ruty tells us about Eberron. There's airships, lightning rails (trains), etc. The group is level 3. They've played a session or two offline prior to this.

In those previous sessions some things were revealed:

• Tabbris (who is an assassin for the Church of the Silver Flame) got bit and became a shifter. 
• Azure is trying to clear her name with the silver flame and is hoping if she helps Tabbris that they will leave her be. 
• Lucky is an airship pilot hunting for someone. He wants to settle an old debt. 
• Rav apparently had his kids abducted and the group is looking for them.

We start off in Breland. The group is trying to track down Rav's family. Bandore the bard is performing in a bar called The Flask Half-Empty. He attacks a heckler. Bandore has a musical instrument that he calls a "Lulu Lute." The group gets involved and we get into a big bar fight.

Azure comes in there and unleashes her cerebral pulse. Milynn is new and doesn't know the rules. New players are usually a heck of a lot of fun to play with and for some reason they always roll ridiculously well.

This sprawling battle ends up involving goblins, wolves and a woman in charge of the wolves. Tabbris wants to befriend the wolves... and rolls a natural 20. Boom.

After a long battle, the group defeats the goblins and keeps one alive for questioning. The group thinks that the goblins might have stolen and abducted Rav's children.


Azure is going to "mind meld" with their captured goblin. Bandore amusingly prepares him for this intense psychic sensation. The goblin says he was hired by the Dorm (?) army to find lost supplies and repurpose them to protect from incursions. The goblin's name is Gilly.

Gilly is about to explain why he attacked the heroes, when a guy in armor shows up and wants to question Gilly about Fort Orcbone. We learn that "Bromwahrk" the orc raider took Orcbone from the inside. There are men inside the fort that are being held hostage. A bit confusing.

The heroes really don't like this guy and much prefer their new buddy Gilly. They agree to help try to retake Orcbone and plan to meet him at Orcbone in 3 days. Gilly becomes a hireling.

The group heads out and travels for three days without incident. The four wolves are with them. When they arrive near Orcbone, they make camp. Bandore practices his drumming. Tabbris allows the wolves to go and wander about. Only one wolf comes back from the excursion and it is wounded. The other wolves apparently have been slain.

Tabbris names the lone wolf "Lightning."

The group finds the sewage pipe that is apparently the entrance that the bad guys used to infiltrate Fort Orcbone. The ladies really don't want to go in. The group starts to argue. Bandore pushes everybody into the poop chute.

They're in! We talk a bit about odors. It is determined that warforged smell like old pennies, which I find hilariously accurate.

After some wading through poop (which poor Tabbris really doesn't like at all), they find a secret door that is activated by a sconce. Bandore points out that he is now a "Sconce Pusher," which sounds more lewd than it is.

They hear an orc composing poetry in "moronic pentameter." After some careful creeping, the heroes realize that they've stumbled on three orcs trying to impress an orc lady. She's not exactly thrilled with their efforts so far.

What an awesome encounter. Tabbris wants to kill them but the group stops her. There's so many hilarious things you could do here. Bandore should try to out-woo them.

It looks like that's where we stop. This show really warmed up as it went along.

Overall

By the end of the show, they were rolling along quite nicely and the group got comfortable. At that point, it became fun and funny. I love that they're using a published setting as opposed to a homebrew like on most shows. I know most of you are "homebrew bastards," but I really love seeing official stuff used in play.

Needs More Eberron: That said, I wish that this had more Eberron-y stuff in it. This session could have been in any setting - it was just orcs and goblins. At one point the DM said that maybe down the road the group will get an elemental airship. Why wait? Dad joke warning: Let's just get the airship now and get our Eberron... on. I'm so sorry.

The Critical Role Effect: It seems to me that Critical Role is popularizing a certain style of play. A lot of these groups are doing voices and letting players "narrate the kill." Every time it happens, it throws me. It's not bad, it just feels weird to see this new thing become the norm.

You should definitely check this out if you have the time. You might want to monitor it for a few weeks and jump in once they've settled into a groove.