Thanks! The hooks are certainly enough to run a handful of fun short quests in the city, and any of them can be expanded into more dramatic plots if the DM wishes! :)
Having just played The Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, I decided to merge the characters of Runara and Lhammaruntosz, except that she hasn't been possessed for years, just months - shortly after our party departed the island. I think that helps close the plot hole a little bit regarding Ularan's plans - being a relatively recent development, he simply didn't know that Runara was in a mentally weakened state.
One alternative idea if you feel your party would be cheated by Ferelai being resurrected - have a trusted lieutenant, lover, or something like that as a backup character. They were away at the time, found their boss/partner murdered and have sworn revenge against the adventurers who killed her. The Roc rider lady from the last book fits well as a lieutenant and could work as a lover as well.
You could argue that the fiend's influence messes with the bronze dragon in a way that would make them an ineffective prossessee if you still want to have Clau be possessed. That or the fact that an ancient dragon is straight up better than an adult one if you have the option as an undead dragon ghost.
Question for Bob/everyone. I've never played or looked into one shots before, is this something you can get through in a day or maybe 2? how many hours of content would you say is in these modules?
Each of the three expansion adventures **can** be run as a stand alone adventure, but the first two certainly have more content than I could pull off in one session. I would say minimum 1 hour for each quest if you breeze through the combats, ignore travel, and are playing with a focused group. Of course, it's all flexible, not every quest is necessary for the story to make sense.
To connect this better with DoIP, what if the dragon spirit was instead Azdraka from the Dragon Barrow quest and when the players took the dragon slayer sword, they inadvertently released it. Making the players (at least partially) responsible for the events after DoIP. Plus it explain why the spirit doesn't possess the bronze dragon, as by being the spirit of a green dragon it can only then possess another green dragon. Alternatively, if you have the luxury of running this from the start with these expansions already out then I'd make the dragon spirit belong to Ebondeath in Dragon Barrow because they sound a whole lot cooler and are better connected with Myrkul. Of course that also mean changing Claugiyliamatar to a black dragon to keep with the "same color" reasoning to avoid the bronze dragon issue. But hey, LMoP already had a green dragon so let's spice it up! 👍
@@BobWorldBuilder Want more? 1) What about that undead horse? Now maybe it was animated by the dragon spirit, so does killing the dragon mean killing it? Do you have to kill the horse to defeat the dragon because it's an accidental horcrux like Harry? 2) What if the dragon slaying sword was originally a +3 weapon with some other bells & whistles but sealing the dragon spirit away eroded its power. So now that it's free it will return to power becoming a +2 upon slaying Cryovain and a +3 upon slaying an adult dragon? Watch out bronze dragon, it's coming for you! Also something special gained from killing the newly resurrected dragon spirit? You could turn that boring +1 sword into a quest to reforge the Master Sword! 3) And the weak cult leader on the ship, what if the dragon spirit possesses the corpse upon death giving them mythic actions. Now an easy fight becomes an epic one! But there is a catch, the leader is too weak for the dragon's power and slowly decays round after round. Can the heroes hold out long enough? Or maybe they possess the whole ship for even more craziness? Either way, Myrkul and the dragon spirit is better set up as the real threat this go around since they can puppet around Talos followers. 4) I'd totally do a Wormtongue/King Théoden thing with the "follower" and the bronze dragon. Where the follower is the fiend in disguise slowly siphoning their life force to enrich their own. 5) Lastly, the visions from DoIP could be used to foreshadow the dragon spirit. For example, the last one showing the dragon's location could show its shadow come to life to consume everything in sight. The players will think this means the dragon must be stopped but in actuality the visions are trying to show the true threat on the horizon, the dragon spirit! 😱
I just told my parrty "remember the dragon barrow you got the sword and horse from, ebondeath..." they didn't remember that wasn't actually what it was called because it was over 6 months ago haha. So now they are convinced they disturbed this dragon spirit and set things in motion
Old Gnawbones (Claugiyliamatar) is a CR 22 monster. Having an undead dragon possess her is a VERY hard sell for me. I am actually using her as my BBEG in 2 campaigns (eventually both groups will team up to take her on in her lair is the goal). My level 9 party knows that they cannot take her on yet and are doing their best to avoid direct confrontation with her to the point that the are now in an agreement with her to eliminate the Dragon Cult. This all seems like a major departure from her capabilities and personality from earlier 5e content. Griping aside, I really like your breakdown of these modules and the suggested mods are quite handy. Thank you.
Hi Bob! Amazing video, as always. I wanted to ask you, is it necessary to have the monster manual in order to play this adventure? Or is it just optional like in storm lords wrath? Thank you so much, and keep up the great content!
Thanks Luis! You don't need the MM. I'm pretty sure most of the creatures have stat blocks in the adventure appendices, or they (or the stat block for a similar creature) can be easily found online
Both are useful but not necessary. I'm pretty sure most of the creatures have stat blocks in the adventure appendices, or they (or the stat block for a similar creature) can be easily found online. In time, reading those books will help you become a better dungeon master like any text book can help with a skill, but they're not required
Well it’s in the next adventure (Divine Contention) but not exactly this adventure. Since it’s in the region though and many people have seen it on the map and decided to play there, but the book doesn’t provide good info for it, so I’m filling in!
Great review, and my group has just completed Storm Lords so I've found your guides just in time. I do like the idea of the Green Dragon helping them, in order for them to help drive off the undead, by providing visions of the Bronze being possessed and attacking Leilon. My own party has a Dragonborn Paladin who is out to rid the world of evil dragons, so it will be a tense and awkward interchange, for some good RP there. I just don't see the town council "sending them to the Green" rather than the Bronze, so perhaps a different hook to get them to the Green would be better. I'm thinking the Journals would work nicely for that.
Thanks! Good point about the town council not sending them to the green dragon. And it's great that you have a PC with their own motivations to take them out!
I don’t even have the essentials kit (yet! Honestly with these follow up adventures its a pretty good deal!) But I really enjoy listening to your overviews and advice! Your videos are really calming and make DMing seem less daunting! This adventure in particular sounds really cool with not one but possibly three dragons! I do wish you’d remove the ad breaks in the middle of the video though, (if possible) they are really disruptive and annoying. Beginning and end is fine!
Thank you for the kind words! I hope you enjoy this adventure when you get the kit, and I agree ads can be annoying, but they're a big part of the support that enables me to make videos!
I have watched all of your icespire videos. I use them as a guide of sorts. I love them all. Didn't know there were even expansions until today when a link was in your video.
Wow, I'm planning to play this campaign soon after I've finished mastering the Dragon of Icespire Peak and your ideas are awesome ! Espescially the ones with the dragons and Cryovain's return ! Do you think it's relevant to link Clau to Azdraka ? I've always thought it is really poetic somehow that Lady Tanamere Alagondar wished to be buried with her supposedly greater nemesis (as a way to finally make peace with it) and this way, Clau could have a statue of her in her lair. She could help the players if they accept to give her the sword which killed her relative centuries ago, for exemple. A hard choice to make for the PCs.
