Dungeon Master Behr: DnD Stuff

We snuck this session in on a Saturday (10/19/2019) in order to finish the adventure before the player playing Kaalia had to leave town, in hopes to finish the adventure. Stormy Tower The session started with the players out front of the Tower of Storms . (see the link to the adventure text.) The players started in area L2 after having defeated some Harpies last session. The players knew their goal was to retrieve the magical conch shell and free the banshee Miraal for their new friend, the Giant Crab. Inside the tower, they learned more about the bright green light and the wreck ships outside. They noted a lightning bolt on the door to T4, but eventually followed the green glow to the rood where they found the beating heart of Moesko. This heart serves as the vile engine of the lighthouse, drawing in unsuspecting ships to their doom. The players examined the bright heart and all wanted to make perception checks. I decided to have the lowest two players get blinded from t

In my current campaign ( Dragons of Icespire Peak , the dnd Essentials Kit. See my post about it here ), the group is quickly aporoaching the final encounter with Cryovain at the top of Icespire Peak inside a small dungeon called Icespire Hold. While the dungeon itself has some interesting bits (like an epic rooftop battle with an ice dragon!), it falls victim to a common complaint I have with the Essentials Kit: The dungeons are filled with empty rooms! It really sucks, and its probably the only bad thing about the box (I should do a post about this....). Regardless, this blog post will focus on making that final ice dragon encounter mean more . What I'm talking about is the journey! Icespire peak has no real descriptors or suggestions for modeling the players climbing a mountain, and I think that sucks, so lets make a mountain climbing adventure! And then we might discuss some adjustments that can be made to improve the final dungeon; Icespire Hold. So Lets Make a Mountain

This session took place on October 14, 2019. Recap previous session: The town of Phandalin had an election for mayor, and one of the players is a candidate. Some freeform election RPing happened and went pretty well, and then the players bought a manor! Eventually, the election was interrupted by some scary mansters and Pheonix Falconflight (one of my players) ended up victorious by a slim margin. The session ending with an announcement of the winner and a woo-hoo. THE END. A Minor Interlude: Universal Rule of DMing #1 - People will always be late Its just reality, and its important to understand this going in. As a DM its easy to get discouraged by it but you gotta tough it out. Find ways to make the wait interesting by discussing things about the game (without actually running the game). Find ways to use the time for DND still.  In the previous session, my players purchased a manor (Tresendar in Phandalin) and I presented them with a really bad hand-drawn map on graph pap

This session took place on 10/9/2019 This was one of my best sessions so far, and I'm excited to share what happened. Recap Previous Session: Wave Echo Cave was finished up when the players killed the Black Spider. They traveled back to Phandalin to find the town set for an election. Some of the group met with Daran Edermath, one of the candidates, and learned how much of a cool honorable guy he was. The other two broke into Halia's house, anxious for some dirt. The players had not rested yet and were very low on resources, and the session begins with a Ratform Druid (Aeras) and a Halfing Rogue (Garron) inside of Halias house. Breaking and Entering They two explored and found the house in a strange state, with furniture moved around and piled up according to value. The house was otherwise empty, and upstairs they found Halia's pristine bedroom. One player started opening drawers and searching behind them, so (after I crushed him once by finding a hidden furni

Storm Lords Wrath  is the first adventure released as a sequel to The Essentials Kit's  Dragon of Icespire Peak . Its a direct sequel that starts at level 7 and takes place in the same general region of Forgotten Realms, south of Neverwinter. The first adventure took place in Phandalin, this one is in Leilon. The Town of Leilon is the main focus of the adventure; a place that has been destroyed and rebuilt many times in its long history. The players are tasked with helping an effort to rebuild the town and protect it from evil forces. The adventure is the first of a larger 3-part campaign, all set in the town of Leilon. The sequels are "Sleeping Dragons Wake" and "Divine Contention", and the overall story arc concerns two different evil gods and their nefarious plans. This blog will focus only on "Storm Lords Wrath". Story Summary The players are hooked into helping defend and rebuild the town of Leilon. On the road there, they find t

Wave Echo Cave: Finale This session occurred on 10/2/2019. Recap Previous Session: The players explored Wave Echo cave and dealt with most of the threats easily. Rupert the Spectator was dismissed, and the treasure was claimed. All that remained was the Black Spider... This time on..... The session began a bit late, but I began by pointing out that everything had been explored except rooms 18 and 19. The players helped out with the recap of what exactly happened, and discussed the plan. They had detected a strong magical energy in room 18 previously, but though the Black Spider a bigger threat and investigated room 19 first. They finally agreed on splitting the group, having the charismatic players come in the southern door, and the others sneaking around to the eastern door. The plan was to talk it out and see how they could rescue their Dwarven friend Nundro Rockseeker. The codeword was "Keruffle" (lol). They began by knocking on the door. After