Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 20 - Orc Webbing and Black Bear Brawlin'

 The prep...

Time to smash some elves.

In light of how I felt during the last session, I headed over to one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons YouTube content creators: The Dungeon Dudes. I remembered that they covered running a game based off a module, so I decided to give that a rewatch and see if there were any tips they had. Sure enough, the Dungeon Dudes had some great advice.

They suggested printing the map out and then making some quick notes right on the paper. This way you don't have to keep flipping to the section in the book as much. I did this (but I admit right now, my handwriting is pretty dreadful. Hopefully I'll be able to read my notes). I also used sticky note tabs to flag the places in the module where the monster stat blocks are located (I'll also try to remember to open tabs on my tablet in D&D Beyond before the game. But this is a good back up in case I forget to). 

The Dudes also suggested creating a roster of main NPCs and villains so you can keep it all straight. Now Dragon of Icespire Peak is a bit unique in that it is fairly short (for an official campaign) and that it doesn't really have an antagonist that directly interacts with the party that much. Cryovaine is just a menace tormenting the people around Phandalin. He doesn't have an active plot or design. He's just hungry, bored and enjoys terrorizing folks.

But the orcs worshiping Talos... I could do something with them. I went over the sections of the module where they appeared and found three named Anchorites of Talos. I essentially made these the sub-antagonists for the campaign. These three would be coordinating the orc takeover of this area. The party would learn more from the first encounter with one of the three: Grannoc the shaman. Grannoc is the big bad guy at this location. So I would have him do an evil monologue about how he was one of three and defeating him would only strengthen the other two.

But digging up these named half-orcs and having them handy I will be able to foreshadow events later. I kinda wish I did this from the beginning, but hey, I got it down now and hopefully it will make the later adventures against the orcs feel a bit more planned.

I did some minor work with the other two half-orcs seeing them as a cleric and a paladin of sorts for Talos. I might tweak with their stat blocks to give them some abilities of those classes (clerical spells and smites). We'll see how it goes with this one.

After that, I gave everything a review going by the Lazy Dungeon Master material. Not a lot to change form the last session, just a few more notes about the three anchorites. I felt ready to run the session.

The story...

Is your kitchen rated for shape changing
druids?

So we picked up with the pair of heroes exploring the Manse and seeking out a way to clear it out. The Druid reverted back to her elf form and with Inverna the two decided to go upstairs. Unfortunately the stair were trapped and the Druid failed her Dexterity Saving Throw (a trend to continue through the night). After taking a bit of damage, she used Misty Step to teleport to the top of the stairs. She had Inverna hold the lower level. They each had Sending Stones from early on in the campaign, and they could use these to communicate.

Now I did screw up a bit here. There are Stirges hiding at the top of the stairs, and I forgot to have them attack right away. I ended up using them later, but just something I should have been more mindful of. The Druid did great on her perception checks, and found foot prints leading to where a group of orcs were hiding out. She also explored the Master Bedroom and found all the magic items inside the loose stone in the mantle as well as finding the magic item vault. Of course my description of the secret door was pretty obvious (hidden behind a tall painting of a waterfall). The Druid recognized the Cloak of Billowing and got a kick out of it (it featured in a D&D live play she watched). But she was unfamiliar with the other items. 

Repulsive little beasts.

The Druid then used the Sending Stone to communicate to Inverna to come up using the vine covered balcony. The warrior did this and felt she was unobserved. The two then made their way back to where the orcs were hiding out. They burst in and attacked. The Druid cast Web and nabbed two of the five. One was slowed but not restrained and the other two attacked. These orcs were rolling really badly to escape the webs. But they did hit the heroes a few times, nearly killing The Druid again (she keeps refusing to Wild Shape). Finally she torched the restrained orcs in the web, and they looked for a location to take a rest. Here is where I unleashed the Stirges on them. But a well timed Moonbeam  spell took out most of the vile creatures and Inverna rolled a natural 20 on her shot with the bow, so they were not a threat.

The two went to the magical vault and took that short rest to get some hit points and spell slots back. The player also took some time to look at the strange metal rod they found. After playing around with it, she realized it was an Immovable Rod. The concept delighted the player and she started thinking up all kinds of ways to use it. Then they continued exploring (using the rod as a makeshift stepladder to climb from a second story window).

Those orcs were hiding upstairs.

They had seen the strange tree growing out of the well in the central courtyard from the windows above. So they made their way down. Now this whole time I was rolling behind the screen to see if anyone was going to be looking for the Black Bear that the magical Boars saw wander in the kitchen. But luck was on their side, and they weren't looking in the right rooms.

So the elves examine the tree and find that it smells like blood, has an oily texture to the bark and is just generally gross. The Druid assumes that some evil magic is at work (she's right of course) and declares that the tree must be burned down. She decides to her combo of Web and Produce Flame to burn the tree down. The minute she webbed the tree the two Vine Blights hiding in the tree emerged and attacked. 

The battle was going poorly for the Druid as she kept failing her Strength and Dexterity saves to avoid being entangled by the grasping vines. They were both taking quite a beating, and this forced the Druid to finally wild shape into a Black Bear again. With the added strength and extra attack she did more damage to the cursed vines and the elves won.

The tree burning was bound to attract attention and soon the Anchorite of Talos, Granoc the Druid emerged from the ruined laboratory. Enraged at Inverna for burning down his tree and seeing the black bear he was warned about running amok, he took matters into his own hands. With a sinister threat he prepared to attack... next session.

The post...

Evil on the vine!

So this session went a lot smoother than the last. My description makes it seem short, but there was a lot of careful creeping around the manse, as well as lots of conversation and pondering on how to best explore and what to do. Also role-playing the two characters messing with the Immovable Rod was a lot of fun (and a nice slow point between the combat encounters). It was a solid balance of exploration, roleplaying and action. I will say that they nearly got overwhelmed by those orcs. Those axes hit hard and it was only through bad saving throws for the two webbed ones that they were able to hold their ground.

Printing out the map and making notes right on the paper was a HUGE help. I only opened the book to check the monster stats. I was using my laptop to show the player the map of the manse, otherwise I would have had the laptop displaying the monster stats and would have barely opened the book at all. I also prepped the magic cards early on, but I should have prepped my combat information on paper ahead of time. I usually write down AC and HP for the monsters head of time so it is all in one place and I don't have to keep referring to it. 

All in all it was a fun session and leaving it as a cliffhanger for facing the boss of the area is going to be exciting. Probably the first Boss Battle of the campaign. I'm pondering having him wild shape into a boar to attack them to start for a real battle royale. And lets not forget there are still some Twig Blights hanging around. Looking forward to the next session.

Up next...

Dueling Druids and a BIG Ham

Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 19 - The Falcon and the Pumpkin Patch

The prep...

"My friends call me Falcon."

So I was a caught off guard by the next session. My Druid player wanted to jump right in a couple of days later. I was good with that. However I didn't realize that the session could contain possibly two locations. One was Falcon's Hunting Lodge featuring at least three non-player characters (NPCs) the Druid may want to interact with. The other was the Woodland Mance, which was a two story house filled with dangerous monsters and a mystery of sorts. Two very different locations with a lot to wrangle in a short amount of time.

I skimmed over the section on the Hunting Lodge, focusing on the NPCs. I made some notes on them and how they would interact with the player. I also went over Falcon's motivation for hiring the adventurers in the first place. This guy is a bad ass former adventurer himself and the section points out that he has killed orcs recently. So why isn't he hunting down the source at the Woodland Manse himself? I decided that he couldn't go because he had guests staying for a lengthy amount of time at his home. He needed to entertain these nobles (and get paid). This means that I had to cobble some additional noble NPCs together as well. Nothing too detailed, but if the Player wanted to meet or chat with them I had to come up with something.

I got that done and then really gave the Woodland Manse my attention. Skimming again to get idea of the key monsters, treasure and secrets within. I didn't really focus on the rooms and where stuff was placed. I figured I could use the book as a guide to trigger my memories as we played. I probably should have done a bit more.

Last I went through the Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master tips. I reviewed the characters, created a strong start (pulled my random encounter idea from the previous session to be the opening encounter of this session), plotted out possible scenes (focusing mostly on the Hunting Lodge and Pumpkin Patch around the Manse) and then pulled together some secrets and clues for the session. 

I felt pretty prepared, but that was my first mistake. 

The story...

Plenty of adventures in the area.

I asked the Druid if she had anything else she wanted to prep for the journey to Falcon's Lodge. She got directions from Barthen, and he asked her if the creatures at the Logger's Camp might have been in league with the dragon. She didn't think so, but it seems like the idea never occurred to her. Pondering this, she left Phandalin with Inverna and started on their way down the Triboar Trail toward Conyberry. The idea was to travel about a day, and then find the game trail leading to the lodge.

One thing I forgot to do in the last session was roll for the location of the dragon, Cryovain. So I did that and turns out he was on his way to the Shrine of Savras - which near Conyberry. This means he has to fly over the Triboar trail. The Druid freaks out! She grabs Inverna and the two take cover in the trees as the the creature flies by. They didn't do well on stealth rolls, so Cryovain saw them, but he is much more interested in the tasty ogre hanging out at the shrine. The two waited there for a while, and then continued following the trail but staying much closer to the forest. They camped for the night and didn't light a fire.

The next day they started on their way along the trail, heading toward the Hunting Lodge. Here I placed the undead orc encounter. They found symbols of Talos the storm god carved into some of the trees. They'd seen these symbols on many of the orcs they faced before. So immediately they were ready for anything. They came to some slaughtered forest animals, and then to an orc pinned to a tree by a stag's antlers. Both were dead. As the Druid examined the scene the undead orc moved and battle began.

I threw another one into the mix to face down Inverna. The Druid was trying to conserve her spells and not draw attention using anything too noisy. So she repeatedly tryied to use Frostbite on the zombies. But they kept making their Constitution saves. Eventually she used a combo of Web and then Produce Flame to catch and burn the horror. Inverna made short work of hers, and helped finish off the other. The ladies then hurried away from the scene, worried that they might attract a dragon or more zombies. And yes, the Druid made sure she put out the fire. She wasn't about to burn down Neverwinter Woods.

Lodge or palatial estate?

Eventually they came to the Lodge, which is more like a small fortress. This confused the Druid, and I admit it does seem a bit strange to have this massive sprawling place as a "lodge". As a DM I know why the writers did this based on later story events. But I was able to explain it away as needing to be impressive looking for Falcon's noble clientele. The thing was, the fortress looked deserted (there are only three people running the place and two guests).

So the Druid was super cautious and transformed into a mastiff and along with Inverna the two tried to look like they were out hunting in the area, while surveying the building. As a mastiff, the Druid could smell the livestock inside the compound, but still not hear anything. Eventually the two went to the back door and knocked. 

I had Corwin the cook answer, and let the ladies in (the Druid dropped her mastiff form). They explained they were here to help with the orc problem. He lead them into the lodge itself, and the met the stablehand Pell. Soon Falcon came down and chatted with them about the job. He explained that if they could clear out the Manse he would give them some magical boots that would help with stealthing around. He gave them directions to the Manse and invited them to stay the night and enjoy a meal. They did just that.

So many pumpkins so little time.

The next day they traveled to the Manse, which was about a half day's journey away. They kept quiet and eventually came upon the pumpkin patches around the Manse. There were boars feasting in the patch, and the Druid rolled high on her perception and recognized one with a chipped tusk as the boar they encountered in the previous session. She cast Detect Magic and sure enough the three of the nine visible boars glowed with magical powers - as did the pumpkins! Puzzled by this, the ladies crept around the home getting a good look at it from the outside and noting the doors and windows. Unfortunately there were boars all around, and no way to get by without being seen.

They retreated into the woods and the Druid wild shaped into a cat. She then snuck forward through the pumpkin patch and past the boars. The door in the back was broken, and so she was able to get in that way. She explored the kitchen, and the pantry which had a roof that was caved in. She climbed up the walls and out the hole in the roof. Up there she could peek into windows and found a bathroom. She climbed down and peeked into one more window to see the dining room - and the strange twig dolls of both her and Inverna. Creepy, especially since the dining room was covered with scrawled blood symbols of Talos.

She went back and talked with Inverna about what she found. They chatted a bit more and decided to see if they could distract the boars and allow Inverna to get inside. So the Druid wild shaped again, this time into a black bear. The normal boars were terrified and two fled, but one of the magical boars just backed up and watched the bear carefully. The Druid played the bear as if it was just hungry for pumpkins and trying to find the best one. Inverna took the initiative and snuck into the Manse easily. Then the Druid pretended to sniff something on the air of the kitchen and go lumbering inside. The magical boar watched her and went racing to the front of the house.

Now they were inside and ready to explore a bit more. We ended there for the evening.

The post...

What is really growing in 
the pumpkin patch!

So there was quite of bit of exploration in animal forms this time. This kind of stealth reconnaissance can feel like it slowing down the game, but my player seemed to enjoy it. She always plays pretty cautious and it usually works out for her (especially since it is just the two of them). The only thing I screwed up was not have a firm idea in my head of the layout of Falcon's Lodge and what was in the rooms for the Manse. I ended up referring to the adventure book A LOT. I really try to avoid doing that, because it slows the pacing of the game down.

I realized I had gotten so used to creating my own material and therefore knowing it so well that this kind of thing didn't really happen. But here it was tricky because the Druid was a cat and therefore could climb all over the place pretty easily. So any idea of prepping for the probable order of exploration would have been wasted anyway.

I asked the player if she felt I was dragging the pacing with my constant reference to the books. Either she was being kind, or it just felt like it was taking way longer than it really was. In any case, I need to really read those room descriptions a bit better before our next session. 

I think the rest of the session went well. The roleplaying at Falcon's was fun. The encounter with the zombie orcs was surprising to the player and just dangerous enough to keep things exciting. And I'm so glad I remembered to roll for the dragon. That whole sequence with them hiding was really intense and brought back the reminder that Cryovain is always around. Looking forward to the next session when we dive deeper into the dangers of the Woodland Manse.

Up next...

Episode 20: Orc Webbing and Black Bear Brawling

Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 18 - Graboids?

The prep... 

Only the Essentials

I'm as surprised as you are. I had considered this campaign over. Then the player of the Druid mentioned that she was a bit sad to not see this adventure to the conclusion. Sadly our player who handled the Rogue was unable to join. I told the Druid player I had no problem running the game for her as a single player with a sidekick. I would have to adjust a few things I had originally planned, but it wouldn't be too hard. She declared she wanted to take that damn white dragon down, and so I pulled out my copy of the Essential's Kit and reviewed my notes. 

Now, I've been running my homebrew campaign for almost thirty sessions now, so I've gotten pretty good at using the techniques from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master to prep for my weekly games. But I'm making up all that material: from the lore of the world to the adventure material. So picking up Dragon of Icespire Peak again and realizing how little I'd have to do was kind of a pleasent surprise. 

Going of my notes, I saw that I had focused so much on the Harvest Festival in Phandalin as the next big event. I also realized that a bunch of that stuff, while fun and entertaining, would work so much better for two players and the DM. It was all homebrew material, and I'm going to use it someday, but I know my Druid player. She is goal oriented. For her, getting to the Dragon was the big prize. I decided to just skip the festival, and say that her character had a good time and enjoyed it. I also mentioned that her partner the Rogue decided to work off her debt to Haylia and do a job for her in Neverwinter. 

Bout that time ol' Inverna showed up...

I asked the Druid player to look over the available quests. There was the Goldtoe Mine (which was the one I think they were going to do after the festival) and the logger's camp. She read over both quest cards and picked the logger's camp. Simple enough, deliver supplies to the loggers through the Neverwinter woods. Still she was wary and asked her old friend the Cowgirl Elf, Inverna to come along. 

Since I was pulling this together on the fly I flipped to the adventure in the book and gave it a quick read. I noticed a few key things. First was the boar they run into on the way (which is an anchorite in disguise) could act as foreshadowing for a later adventure. There is a totem hidden in the chimney of one of the ruins that is causing the Ankhegs to swarm. Finally I've never used Ankhegs before (but I remember them from the old Balder's Gate game). I was amused by the fact that the Ankhegs can tunnel, grapple and spit acid... damn. Luckily the adventure was pretty self contained and short - the perfect one for a quick pull up session.

I wanted to add the possibility of one more random encounter on the two day journey to the logging camp. Since they had run into undead orcs in a previous session I created a scene where the Druid and Inverna could come upon two more undead orcs set up as a trap. Other than that, I took a few notes for secrets and clues (the boar is an orc shaman, the totem is calling's the Ankheg, Tibor is a coward) and then got ready to DM. 

The story...

Sometimes a boar is just a bore.

We started with the pair going to Barthen's Provisions to pick up goods. Had a quick role-play moment as Barthen told them the name of the ox pulling the cart was named Vincent and that Barthen expected to have Vincent come back in one piece. I asked if they wanted to pick up anything else from the provision's store. However the pair had a bunch of stuff already (I just shifted a bunch of the magic items the Rogue had over to the Druid). So with that the pair was off.

I had her roll 1d6. On a 1 she would get the zombie orc encounter. Otherwise they would run into the boar in the clearing. She rolled a 5, so I told the Druid that Inverna was a bit more talkative than normal and the two ladies caught up discussing the happenings at Butterskull Ranch (where Inverna stayed to help in a previous session) and the excitement of the festival (we rolled and Rupert the goat lost to Black Phillip in the Goat races).

Up next was the encounter with the boar in the clearing. The Druid was cautious and decided to have the cart and ox go around the creature. I had her roll Animal Handling and she succeeded on the DC: 13. Vincent obeyed her commands. I also asked her to roll for Inverna to roll Strength/Athletics to help move the cart off the trail so it wouldn't get stuck. She also succeeded. So the ladies avoided the boar, and it raced off into the forest to the east (planting the seeds for danger in an upcoming adventure).

Then it was time for the evening stop and setting watches. On the fly I decided the "boar" would return to see what they were up to. The Druid detected the animal watching them, but she remained quiet and observant. Since she didn't react, the boar headed to the east again.

I'm sure it is nice and safe...

The next morning I had them roll another D6. She got a three this time, so no encounter again. Instead the the party arrived at the logger site. I read the description of the camp to the player. She was immediately suspicious of the holes in the tents and how damn quiet it was. They dismounted the cart and investigated the tents. I kept things eerie and mysterious as they examined the damage to the tents and the bedrolls. The Druid rolled poorly for Investigation and wasn't able to determine what kind of attack this was. As they started toward the next campsite, the first Ankheg attacked!

The ankheg rolled poorly on stealth, so it wasn't able to sneak up on the Druid. She heard it coming and we rolled initiative. It was a pretty intense battle. The Druid used Moonbeam to great effect, and Inverna swung with her blade. But the acid attack was vicious and both ladies were burned in the attack. They finally defeated the creature with a combination of Frostbite and a mighty strike from Inverna. The player sighed and said, "So now we're dealing with Graboids!"

Not quite Graboids, but
an incredible simulation!

The party returned to the cart. There the Druid cast Beast Bond on Vincent the ox, to communicate with him and he with her as they explored. He could warn them if he saw something coming or if he needed help. The two then went to the only standing building: the office. They circled the building peeking in the windows. They saw the floor was wood, easy for an Ankheg to burst through. But they didn't see anyone inside. They did see a closed door to a storage room, so they headed to peek into the window of the storage room. 

Unfortunately for them one of the Ankhegs heard them messing around (they weren't being stealthy), and it attacked. This time they were not caught unawares either. In fact they had a clever plan. The back of the office is close to a stone plateau. Inverna was able to climb up that easily enough, and she managed to get a rope down to the Druid at the last minute and pull her up, just as the Ankheg erupted from the ground. It was time for another dose of Moonbeam, Produce Flame and Inverna unleashing attacks with her longbow. The Ankheg did get an acid blast against Inverna, but they were able to take the creature out with little issue.

They climbed back down and headed to the storage room, peaking inside. There they saw the lone survivor, Barthen's brother Tibor. He barricaded himself in the storage room. They entered the office and told him they were there to rescue him. He was dubious that they killed all the creatures. Sure enough another one was charging toward the office. Tibor screamed and the ladies prepared for battle. The Druid hurried out doors and when the monster exploded forth she cast Entangle. The Ankheg was strong enough to break free, but the ground was still difficult terrain and his movement was slowed. But things got dicey, the Druid exhausted her spells.  She was doing the most damage to it, so the monster focused on her, driving forward and finally knocking her out with a deadly bite attack. Luckily it was also very hurt, so Inverna finished it off with a longbow shot. She then used their only healing potion to bring the Druid back up to her feet.

Could easily be in the
Monster Manual.

The pair hurried back to the office and found that Tibor had tried to escape through the window and was stuck. The ladies extracted him and got him back to the cart. He assured them that no one else has survived the Ankheg attack and that they should return to Phandalin. The ladies took him at his word and turned the cart around. Soon enough Tibor reveled his cowardly nature (mentioning that he was willing to sacrifice Vincent the ox and hiding in the middle of the crates in the cart for the whole trip). Both ladies were not impressed.

On the journey home I had them roll for the zombie encounter, but once again it didn't happen. I did have the boar return in the night, and this time the Druid got a good look at the boar. Still she didn't react, so the creature hurried away to the east. The next day the group returned to Phandalin, and returned Tibor to his brother. Barthen paid the ladies (100gp!). The Druid gave Inverna half the pay, and then spent 50 of the GP on another healing potion, because that last one came in real handy.

I told the player that the notice board had new adventures and that she leveled up! She was excited to increase to see what she got at level 4 and picked up a new Feat from Tasha's Caldron of Everything. I leveled up the sidekicks and the player picked the Woodland Manse as the next stop for the adventure.

The post...

It was a lot of fun throwing this quick session together. The book provided me with enough information to run it pretty smoothly with such short notice. I was able to adjust the difficulty as we went through the session (there can be up to 4 Ankhegs around). Since they are fighting the creatures one at a time it is easy to drop one or more from the adventure if you need to. After the Druid fell unconscious I figured it was probably a good idea to ignore that last one. 

I had a blast rolling physical dice again, and seeing my player's face as events occurred. Playing online has many advantages, but since we play audio only it can be hard to read how well the players are enjoying the adventure. I did stumble a bit, referencing the book a few too many times. I keep forgetting that I have the adventure on D&D Beyond, and can reference the text as well as the images for the adventure. I also goofed when showing my player the map. She was able to see some text behind it, and a spoiler for the site was revealed. 

The player had a good time and was looking forward to playing again. The Manse it a bit more complicated so I'll have to take some time to prep that one, but all in all this went well. 

Up Next...

Session 19: The Falcon and the Pumpkin Patch

Blog Update

 So it has been quiet around here for the last few months. As I mentioned in my previous post, my Dragon of Icespire Peak game was cancelled because of COVID. The good news is that I'm still playing D&D each week. The bad news is that my blogging time has been cut down severely.

I'm running a home brew game in a world of my own creation. Between all the world building, and session planning, I'm not having a lot of energy or time to write a full campaign diary for the sessions.

If you are curious about my world building, you can check out my page over at World Anvil for Reluria. It is based on the old D&D Basic setting of Mystara, but I've added my own twist to it. I'm using the same basic maps of Mystara and even some of the information from the Gazetteers which I've been picking up. I uses these as a jumping off point and then weave my player's stories and histories into the setting.

I post new content over there each week. Most of it is probably too much detail for my players, but I'm enjoying building all this right now and if I end up running more adventures in this setting in the future, I'll have it all set up.

Anyway, I hope to return to posting here a bit more frequently, but until then, thanks so much for reading the blog. I read and try to respond to all the comments. Stay safe and keep your ears open for any good stories you might  hear.

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Mid Campaign Wrap Up

(We did end up picking the game up again, but with only my Druid player and a sidekick. Read about the continuing adventure with Graboids!)

Wrapping it all up

Still out there making mischief!

Once the virus hit, it became impossible for our little group to meet up again. One of the players was an essential worker, and her job kicked into high gear. We weren't able to come up with a consistent meeting time or day, and came to the agreement that the campaign is on pause. But in all honesty I think we are just going to stop right here.

If things get to a new normal, and my players want to pick up where we left off, then I'm willing to adventure with them once more. For now, the dragon is still flying  over the Sword Mountains and terrorizing the folks in Phandalin. Somewhere a elven druid and her tiefling rogue companion are preparing to take it down.

Game Talk

I was able to discuss the campaign with one of the players and get her feedback on her experience with it. This was a HUGE help in guiding my approach to my next campaign (which is happening sooner than I thought). She confirmed some of the elements I experienced, and I also learned a bit more about her as a player and what kind of adventure she was looking for.

So the big stumbling block for her, were the episodes in town. The player felt those dragged on too long and didn't feel like they offered much to the story. I would feel the same way at times. I enjoyed playing all the townsfolk in Phandalin, and some of the interactions were a blast (Harbin in particular). But I agreed that it often felt like the story took a back seat as they wandered around the town and interacted with all these folk.

Voted most useful companion!

I've been listening to Sly Flourish's one on one version of The Dragon of Icespire Peak to hear how differently he handled it and for one player. One of the big differences was that he kept the town moments very short - ten minutes max. The player was there to pick up the job, rest in the inn, and that was it. He only really narrated something if there was a new element in play. In one instance he had some bards show up and attempt to make a song about the heroic adventurers... with humorous results.

Now, I've played in a couple campaigns where the shopping/town sequences can bog down the whole game, but we've had some players that love that stuff. So it is important to figure out what works and keep the approach balanced. My player is very goal oriented, and so I understand how she felt the "between encounter" segments were not her favorite.

However when I asked her what parts she really enjoyed, she mentioned nearly all the encounters and puzzles (she's a big fan of puzzles). She like the set piece encounters and the exploration of the excavation site, as well as the battle at the Shrine. She also enjoyed the side kick characters, although she felt Inverna (cowboy elf) was the better one, and that Donnabella (the magical unicorn) was more of a liability. I did remind her that they didn't really get to see Donnabella at her best. She got to cast one spell in the entire Gnomengarde exploration.

Reflection

Overall it sounds like my players had a good time. I know I did. I learned quite a bit as well. I've been playing online using a virtual tabletop for nearly three years now. So running a game at a physical table was very different in some ways. I really came to appreciate how much math the virtual table tops do for you. But I also liked rolling physical dice and seeing the players faces as things happened (I play voice only online).

This game has a dress code?

I think I've improved as a DM. It felt like I had a better handle on pacing, with only the town sessions really giving me trouble. I really liked running from a published module, it gave me a nice spring board to build on. It's fun to know that my version of the game is the only one where zombie orcs can attack in Conyberry, or where a festival of High Harvest included goat racing. I am sad that we never got around to the festival. I put a lot of work into it, and was really looking forward to it. But I kept all the materials so maybe I can include it in a future game (or if we ever come back to Phandalin I'll have it ready).

All that said, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends in a fantasy world for a few hours, enjoying each others company, rolling funny shaped dice and talking in silly voices. It is a shame it ended too soon, but we made some great memories while it lasted and that is the important thing.

What's Next?

Once I realized we were not going to be able to meet for a long time, I started thinking about running an online campaign. I talked with the player of the Druid, and she was game to give it a try. So I started pulling some concepts together. I've had a home brew world cooking away in the background for a couple years now. I think it is time to unleash it on some players and see what kind of stories we can make. I'm looking forward to it, and who knows maybe I'll write a diary about here.

For those of you that have been reading and enjoying the diary, thanks so much. I'm sorry you didn't get a proper ending. But if this helped you with your own version of The Dragon of Icespire Peak, than it was worth writing.

Perception or Investigation - Dungeon Master Tools

Why open a "trapped" door yourself when a friend can
open it?

Like my previous look at Athletics or Acrobatics, I'm going to examine the difference between Perception and Investigation skill rolls in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. These two checks come into play a lot during a game, and they are often ones that seems to cause some contention at the table. Usually you have characters with higher wisdom scores, like Clerics or Druids competing with higher intelligence scores like Wizards and Rogues wanting to use the skill that best suits them. Let's take a close look at the situation and see what skill is really called for.

Classic example, the adventuring party is tracking down the orcs who have abducted the village wizard and spirited her away to their overlord. As they pursue the orcs into a dense woodland, the group is staying on alert, knowing that orcs aren't completely stupid. The monsters may anticipate a tail. Sure enough a group of three orcs lie in wait to ambush the party. You ask for a Perception check from a character who is proficient. The Druid says he is and starts to roll, but the Rogue says that she has a higher Investigation skill modifier and wants to roll too. What do you do?

That dragon has one hell of a
stealth score!

In this case you can have both characters roll for their individual skills, because both apply. Let's look at each skill individually. According to the Players Handbook, Perception "lets you spot, hear or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings sand the keenness of your senses." It is directly tied to Wisdom with "reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents your perceptiveness and intuition". It would be safe to say that the Druid's experience of living within the woods, knowing the sounds of bird and beasts would allow him to perceive changes in the environment that may be caused by the orc rearguard. A Perception check makes sense.

The Players Handbook describes Investigation as when you "look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues." It is tied to Intelligence score which "measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall and ability to reason." So if the Rogue notices some broken branches on a cluster of shrubbery, the lack of animal sounds in the area and even the slight indentation of a boot print, she may put the pieces together to determine that someone is hiding and waiting to ambush.

You can see right away that there is a grey area here. How can the rogue pick up these clues without perceiving them? How can the Druid deduce from the signs of nature the ambush around the corner? In this case, I have no problem letting both characters make the roll. Perhaps the characters work together to piece the ambush together (if both roll well). Or you can have the Rogue roll with advantage (roll two D20s and use the higher roll) to say that the Druid was assisting her with the Investigation. Or vice versa. Like my previous post explained, the goal is to make sure you let your players do the cool things their characters can do.

Between the two of them, I think they got this mystery
solved.

Let's flip the tables a bit. Suppose the party is looting the office of a corrupt mayor looking for evidence that he is being bribed by the evil wizard. The Druid's high Perception will not help in this case, because what they are looking for is specific documents or a paper trail. The Rogue's Investigation skill will be a big help here as she pieces together the correspondence that proves the mayor is corrupt. Luckily she has the Druid along with her to keep an eye out for trouble. So when the mayor's deadly elf bodyguard tries to sneak up the stairs, the Druid rolls his high Perception skill and detects the assassin.

Another way they can work together is in detecting and disarming traps. The Druid may be able to find the discolored cobblestone on the floor. But he will need the Rogue's keen Investigation skill to put together how the trap works, and then her nimble fingers to disarm the danger.

The main idea is to keep the two skills distinct enough when possible so the players feel like they are specialized and able to use those talents when needed. It keeps the players working together to solve problems. It also lets you as the DM to build encounters that play to their strengths or prey on their weaknesses. Because sometime even heroes have a bad day.

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 17 - The Night Before the Festival

The prep...

A quick search on the internet will reveal all kinds of fun
festival mini-games.

Ok I'm going to admit right off the bat that I probably spent way more time than I needed to on this little bit of home-brew content. But after the fuss I had the NPCs in Phandalin make about the festival, I figured I might as well make it a bit of an event. I curious to see how it plays out for the players, and if they find it as much fun as it was to put together.

I did some research online to find some skill challenges and mini-games to have at the festival. I wrote down some notes on the mechanics for the ones I think would fall into the wheelhouse of the player characters. Events include an archery contest, a scavenger hunt, a card tournament and of course goat races. None of these are mandatory for the players to engage in, but all have prize money and I know for sure the Rogue is looking for anyway to make coin to pay off Haylia.

I created some NPCs visiting the town on this feast day. Some will provide information for the current campaign. I have also thrown in a couple with seeds for Princes of the Apocalypse as well as the official followup to this adventure Storm Lord's Wrath. We'll see if either one grabs the characters (although I've been seeding Princes for a few sessions now).

There are also some vendors in town selling unique items like Silvered weapons (needed for later missions) and health potions. Yes the dragon is going to be sighted during the event, just to keep the tension up. All in all, there is plenty to do. I spent quite a bit of time creating new NPCs and working on the festival events. The NPCs will be useful to flesh out Phandalin a bit more, so even if the festival doesn't click, I'll have new characters for the players to interact with. I've also finally made a list of NPC names (something I should have done a long time ago) just in case my players decide to talk to the random halfling drinking at the inn. (deep breath). Ok, let's see how this goes.

The story...

I told the players in advance that they had a couple days before the festival started. So they could spend those days doing anything they wanted, and we could role play any key events that got their interest. So I started working through the events, and the players ended up interacting with just about every single one! In the end, we didn't actually get to the festival.

To win, he'll stop at nothing!

I handed out the list of events for the festival and the players were immediately caught up in the idea of Goat Races. So they went around town asking about which goats were participating. I had established that Donnabella had saved a goat named Rupert during the white dragon's attack on Phandalin earlier in the campaign. So now I revealed (retconned) that Donnabella was out training Rupert for the goat races when that occurred. So the players had a connection to the event. I made Rupert the middle of the road option for the race, but if encouraged he had the potential to win! I also made the favorite goat Black Philip (which the players heard as Black Peter, so we just went with it). Yes Black Philip is a reference to the film The Witch, just for fun. Or is he really tied with infernal forces? Not sure, but I can go that way if we want. The players promised to help Donnabella get Rupert into racing condition and did some research to find out that Rupert loved apples. So tempting him with apples and having the Druid speak to him is the next step. Rupert's owner, Margo also has some story hooks to deliver, and I hinted at those.

They met some old friends like Adabra the alchemist. Norbus and Dazlyn, the dwarf archeologists showed up to talk with Fargrim Rakencrack (at a lunch event). They also met an older dwarf who helped out Haylia at the Miner's Exchange. The players wondered if he was also part of the Zhentarim... I'll let them wonder.

To the west of Phadalin lies a new adventure...

Lots of visitors from local areas arrived. Obviously Fargrim came with a group of adventurers acting as his body guard. I had them chatting a bit about the dragon and wondering if they should try to take it down. A group of merchants arrived from Yartar and Triboar. They brought more news about things going badly in that area (tied to Princes of the Apocalypse). Finally I had a traveler from Leilon show up and talk to the players about her new town and how they are looking for adventurer's to help make the village a center of trade and travel in the area. This is a plot hook for Storm Lord's Wrath. I also had a couple elven bards show up and chat with the Druid about her background in the Feywild.

I'm really abbreviating everything that happened, because it was a lot of role play, discussion about which festival events to try, and checking out the stalls and stores to see what kind of deals and specials they were planning.

We ended the session on the morning of the Festival. The characters were awakened to the smell of cinnamon apple pancakes in the inn. Then they headed off to find Donnabella and Rupert to see how he was doing the morning of the race.

The post...

I swear it is happening next time!

This session was a lot of fun for everyone and it just flew by. I created hand outs for the festival events as well as a lengthy menu for the Stonehill Inn. These items delighted the players and they referred to them throughout the session.

I introduced a LOT of NPCs in this session and I'm going to create a handout for them to keep as a reference for the day of the festival in case they want to interact with any of them. I was prepped for all the mini-games, but we didn't get to any of them. I admit I was a bit disappointed, but the session was so much fun, it doesn't matter. I love that this is a role-play heavy group. But I think they'll be ready for some hack and slash when the festival is over.

I'm also pleased how much the players enjoy the townies of Phandalin. If we move action to Red Larch or Leilon for future adventures, it will be tough to compare those folk with these that the players have really grown to like (especially Donnabella, Tobin and Inverna). But that is a worry for future DM. For now, I'm looking forward to the next session,

Up Next...

Session 18: Graboids?