Dragon Of Icespire Peak DM Guide | Axeholm Quest
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- This time on Bob World Builder you get episode 7 of the Dragon of Icespire Peak DM guide series: the Axeholm Quest from the D&D Essentials Kit! Check out the D&D Essentials Kit on Amazon! amzn.to/2N8U60r (affiliate) ⏬ More below! ⏬
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![Lp. Последняя Реальность #107 РОДНОЙ ДОМ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IK3QKzKUlHM/mqdefault.jpg)
Axeholm is the BIGGEST dungeon in Dragon of Icespire Peak! So what did I miss that you would change?
As an alternative to the loose 'uhh, maybe Phandalin can evacuate from the dragon.. a days travel towards its lair' footing, I'd suggest maybe having the mayor discover that the deed for the castle ended up in Phandalin's hands. And he offers to give it to the players so they can use Axeholm as their home base if they clear out all the nasties.
For the creatures sitting outside the fortress, I had them be Dazlyn and Norbus from Dwarven Excavation.
In my game they were archaeologists who were exploring dwarven ruins so they can study them, so it made sense that they'd also be interested in this ancient fortress. You could even have them be the quest givers instead of Harbin Wester, say the party meets them at the Stonehill Inn.
For me this makes more sense than "yeah the people need a place to evacuate that's over a days travel away"
Excellent fix!
For the banshee encounter, I have her explain her backstop on how she was murdered with axes and wanted revenge but was only manage to make them ghouls. If the players try to convince her that the ghouls are dead, they make a DC 15 persuasion or deception check. She will fly throughout the fortress to see for herself. If they succeed, she tells them where the rest of the ghouls are if any. If they fail, she yells and then initiative. If they killed all the ghouls, she thanks them and tells them where the vault is before laying down to rest.
This is a great idea! I had wanted to try something like this, but the book said banshees were just plain evil, and silly me went with the book! Well done, Tyler!
Hi there! Great video series, an absolute necessity for this newly minted DM during the age of COVID -- my friends and I are truly enjoying the D&D experience, and have no plans to stop anytime soon (playing nearly daily, we're in the Woodland Manse/almost Icespire Hold phase). Below is how I ordered the final quests of the module -- starting with Axeholm -- with some urgency and without the use of the job board (and in preferred order). Below is how I spurred (i.e. railroaded) the Axeholm quest and third tier job board offerings. After completing the Mountain's Toe Quest), I had my players return to a Phandalin on edge, with a gathering taking place in the town square attended by most of the town's panicky residents. On a makeshift stage Sildar (one of the Starter Set NPCs who I kept around as a semi-constabulary figure in this module), announced a tentative plan to temporarily relocate the town's population to neighboring Axeholm in light of the dragon's recent attacks on a local shepherding family operating on the edge of town. I had Sildar call for able-bodied men and women to help clear the hold to enable this emergency relocation effort. My heroic players of course volunteered, and they enjoyed the Sildar callback. When they returned from Axeholm to collect their reward from Harbin, I had Sildar in sight in the back of Harbin's office excitedly reading from a dusty tome his "find" that might help in the fight against the dragon -- the sword found in Dragon Barrow. The players then learned from Xanth the centaur about the Circle of Thunder/Woodland Manse quests, which I combined together. Would welcome your thoughts about the job board and thematic "urgency" in the game setting!
Great job!! NPCs always make more interesting quest givers than bulletin boards haha
Sounds like you’re doing a great job, especially for playing every day! Wow! Be careful about DM burn out my friend, but keep up the good work 😊
This is a really great story-telling. I'm definitely stealing the urgency idea of the townsfolk for the lead up to Axeholm. Thank you!
My group is meeting for the first time since Feb. and this is the quest they're doing. Thank you so much for the tips!
That’s wonderful! Stay safe and have fun! :D
How did it go? I’m gonna try and run this on Sunday
I just ran this a few days ago, and the giant spider room (as written) was a TPK for my lv4 group. I definitely agree that reducing the spiders would make this encounter more manageable.
As a solution to the TPK, I had the banshee rescue the party from the spiders. Then my players awakened in the banshee's bedroom with her phasing through the door demanding their purpose for invading the fortress. When we return to play, I plan to have her work with the party (and Phandalin) if the party agrees to clear out the dwarven ghouls that slew her.
This is super helpful. I'm about to DM my first-ever campaign, so seeing encounter breakdowns is great, since I have no intention of running this super strictly from the book. My players are very new, but all have watched D&D liveplay, but more importantly are pretty much all heavy readers and writers. So I want to give them an actual story they can dig into. It's why I didn't start with Lost Mines. Your videos have great suggestions and are giving me ideas of where to introduce story elements.
It’s great to hear this series has been helpful! Since your players are mostly driven by a good story, I would try to weave their backstories/motivations together as all being tied to one problem or villain
Running AxeHolm for my 13 year old son who plays a Dwarf Fighter. I gave him a full fldged NPC Dwarf Cleric (his in-game brother). I made both of them come from a little Dwarven mine west of AxeHolm. After a double Cryovain attack on the village - rolled 14 twice on dragon location table, it became clear that the village needed to have an escape in the event of further attacks / feeding raids from the dragon. So the heros set out to clear AxeHolm, as per Harbin's instructions. I did heavily modify the quest so that it exposed their Mining village's current leader's dark past and why they had to resettled (this happened before they were borned). In the end, they cleared the dungeon, knew what their leader had done (shady dealings) and went to confront him / got him expelled (I have a plot line planned with a mage raising an undead dwarven army...so this expulsion will explain how he joined the dark mage). The dwarven clan then reclaimed AxeHolm as theirs and generously offered protection to the human habitants of Phandalin, hence further forging their alliance. Also, by the time my players got into AxeHolm, they were Lvl 6...so I upped the ante a bit instead of just using ghouls.
I added a Ghast, dressed in the red robes of an Abbathorian priest, to the throne room as the special ghoul. The Turn Undead resistance he exudes made him a special threat to the party.
Then the rest of Phandalin took refuge in Axeholm against the coming Orc hordes who attacked the fortress in the next few sessions!
Thank you very much for this video. Changing up the dungeon will be great especially since on of my players has already read this adventure before. Also, to keep with the theme of Axeholm being connected to the Abbathor the statues flanking the throne could be states of Abbathor.
Glad I could help!
Thank you for always having great tips to running dungeons. My players are 10 and 13 so they often need a lot of help.
I like the idea of adding some NPCs to the outside. Thinking of making it the dwarves from the expedition... they get around!
All great ideas! I decided to put a story on the Banshee. I kept the Dwarves of Axeholm as followers of Moradin. A18 is not an empty room though, but a locked cell with a dwarf chained to the wall. He is wearing red and black leather armor with a half-torn off symbol of Abbathor. This is Glazram, a once-priest of Abbathor who was captured trying to steal from the dwarves of Axeholm. Glazram wasn't stealing for Abbathor, however, he was stealing for love.
If the party removes Glazram's bones from the cell the Banshee will be freed. She will be waiting in the bedchamber as a spirit to thank the party and tell her story.
Glazram was one of the lucky few priests able to escape the earthquake at the temple of Abbathor. Disenchanted with his god, he tore the symbol from his armor and vowed to find a new way in life. In time he fell in love with an Elf druid in Neverwinter Wood named Vyldara. Glazram knew that Vyldara had never owned jewelry. Wanting to propose to Vyldara, he went to Axeholm hoping to barter, but the dwarves detested him and drove him away. Old habits die hard, and Glazram decided to sneak into the fortress only to be caught. When Vyldara learned this she went to Axeholm to beg for his life, but they wouldn't listen. At night, she herself tried to sneak in to rescue Glazram but she was caught and killed in the ordeal. A few days later she rose as a Banshee.
As a reward, when Vyldara disappears she leaves behind a Nature's Mantle Cloak that seems like it had been laying on the floor of the bedchamber the entire time.
Once again, your guide videios are helping me craft a much better adventure for my group than just reading the book. Thank you so much, you're doing fantastic work!
Was eagerly awaiting you to tackle this beast!
It certainly was a beast. Not sure if I tackled it or it tackled me! lol
Hi Bob, thanks for doing a full list of video's for this campaign, This has been my first go as DM and i have used it for my lockdown campaign and it has help lots.
Keep up the good work
You're very welcome! I love helping new DMs because I get to fel like I'm helping their whole group! :) Thank you for checking out my videos!
Very good tie ins and balancing. I especially like the ghoul on the throne idea.
Thank you! I did my best :D
3:51 my man right there!
😎👉🏻👉🏻
Thanks for the map edit, bob!
For such a large dungeon your tips are great adaptations
Thank you! :)
I'll bet you made someone's day with that map edit :)
Yeah, I initially wasn't going to bother, but it didn't take much effort on my part and I figured it will help somebody :)
My new favorite channel! Thanks mate
That makes my day! Hope you find this series helpful :D
@@BobWorldBuilder when do you recommend leveling up your players? (Haven't started yet, I'm still preparing to DM) thanks in advance
If you're specifically talking about DoIP, there's a section under 'Running the Adventure' with the recommended level progression: 1 level for both of the first two quests, then one level for every two followup quests. I prefer milestone methods like this that link level advancement to significant events
I altered some stuff. The condition of the fortress is dependent on many factors. Did the orcs from the excavation live? When do the players head to axeholm? What have they do prior to visiting?
I have 2 groups. One went ASAP and everything went as normal in the group. The other went late and found the gates open but a group of orcs still trying to clear the fortress.
Hi Bob! Wonderful video! I really like the tie in with Abathor. I am about to start the game in a couple of weeks and I have a party of players who are heavily into roleplay and want to explore there backstories. Can you tell me, how can I keep the game seem open world but also, make sure my party doesn't venture off into the other parts of the map, like neverwinter or leilon or Mt. hotenow? Since no information about those places were given in the book.
Hi Roshni, I'm a new DM but I had similar concerns when starting with my group - especially after one particular character had backstory heavily built into Neverwinter.
What's seemed to work for me is stressing the timeliness of everything. Townmaster Harbin is quite worried, and is pulling people from the outskirts into the town, and townsfolk they talk to express their concern and mention rumours of attacks and sightings of the dragon nearby.
In addition to that, they been enticed by quests and rewards that has seemed to keep them focused.
Maybe consider pre-empting this by emphasising the BACK in backstory - this is what has led them to be where they are and what they have done to develop them into the person they are, while not necessarily part of the future plot for the group.
I've found my group (and definitely myself) really enjoy the role play too, and I think my first point above and building rapport and empathy with Phandalin could encourage the group to want to take an active role.
Hope my little experience might help, also hope some others might chime in.
Excellent question! The Sword Coast player map does tease all of those locations, so I would either just show them the DM map (which doesn't really spoil anything), and/or clarify during session zero (when they're making characters) that THIS module does not take place in Neverwinter or Leilon. Choosing to explore those locations will be a different campaign and take a lot of time to prepare! If you want to go that route, Jordphan's Forgotten Realms Lore series on UA-cam will be helpful :)
I ran the campaign for one person and the problem then is that the player gets more gold from the quests than can be spent in Phandalin. So I made Neverwinter this big city with lots of shops and merchants. Here you can perhaps sell higher tier gear (+1 AC) for double or triple the price even. That way the game balances better for 1 player (+sidekick) as well.
I even tried to rob the player but the player used "suggest" to get all the money from the thief, so that was no good :P
Another interesting tie-in here is the mining corporation which sent don jon raskin to the mountain's toe gold mine. My player didn't engage the were rats, so according to the book don jon raskin is turned into one. However, would a mining corporation (a wealthy one?) let that slide? Perhaps the player could be summoned here to explain why there are no reports from the mine. Depending on how the meeting goes you can let them pay back the reward, or maybe on a succesful persuasion/deception could be asked to take 4 heavily armed soldiers to clear out the mine for them. Just some ideas :)
@@hammerhead4real Great ideas! Remember that suggestion spell still has to be a "reasonable" request
Thanks for all your videos. I am now halfway through DoIP and use your videos for every section to give me ideas. Really appreciate it. Do you plan to do other D&D adventures. Maybe Curse of Strahd?
Happy to help! I appreciate your support, and yes, later this year I will be starting a series for Waterdeep Dragon Heist! There are already some great guides out there for Cos. Check out the Lunch Break Heroes channel if you're interested in that module!
you had the perfect chance to name yourself bob the builder
That's the inspiration haha
I‘m a player that wanted to find out if the 7 year old, still alive half elf daughter of the Banshee that our DM shocked us with was actually in the module. It sucked that I messed up talking with the Banshee because my character badly wanted to do that but the Banshee attacked as soon as my character moved closer to her. But yeah, my character found that child there. I don’t yet know what we‘ll do with poor little Cassandra.
Thank you
How many rests did the party take during the axehelm quest?
They only took 1 short rest. Though I reduced the number of hostile creatures in each area
Neat! Though with such a short to-hit scale in 5e, I'd stay away from armor modifiers and give the treasure shield an effect instead.
Ya know, I agree that's a better move. I think I jumped right to a +1 shield because there's a card for it in the kit. Also my group tends to stress over having low ACs! In that case I'd try to come up with an effect based on Abbathor's lore
@@BobWorldBuilder The +1 shield is supposed to be in the Northeast cave of Circle of Thunder, any plans of putting another item there?
@@hammerhead4real The simplest switch is to replace it with a potion of greater healing. That potion can be gained in CoT if your party defeats Yargath, the anchorite, in their travel to the circle. I have one other idea for a great item at CoT, but the video is coming out this week so I don't want to spoil it :p
@@BobWorldBuilder silence & darkness are commonly associated with Abbathor. But probably anything from the Trickery divinity like the Blessing of the Trickster.
Use your action to touch a willing creature other than yourself to give it advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
My plan is to have Cryovain destroy Phandalin and have the remaining villagers ask our heroes to clear out Axeholm so they can flee there. (I'm thinking Helm's Deep)
Instead of having merchants or orcs looking for shelter, I think I'll have a couple of brave villagers come along with the heroes.
Regarding the map error with the vault, I cropped the image to show the fireplace of the room next door, placed it overtop the background map, and plan to move it once discovered. They won't see the sloppiness because of fog of war anyhow.
Very nice! Yeah, I didn't make the change until after my players spotted the secret room on the unedited map I used during gameplay haha
I think I may have the legendary once who wields a Double Sided ass here. (If you slurr a word the party never forgets. NEVER.)
What if the undead monsters in axholm were minions of the undead god and his followers that are some of the main villains in the after Dragon of Icespire Peak
That’s a great connection!
Thanks! The idea just came into my head! Also you can foreshadow the undead cult in Axholm!
In 5:04 where can I find this app/website btw really helpful video !
Dr. Stroulis It’s called Kobold Fight Club! I highly recommend it as a resource for balancing encounters 👍🏻
@@BobWorldBuilder Thank you 🙏
My pleasure!
Can it be played in Level 2
Is it just me or does the whole layout of this fortress not make any sense? What dwarf would design for ballistae to fire mostly into their own fortress, several with a field of fire that is literally a 5x5 section of a corridor also they are all at ground level.
Kinda but imagine a horde of foes are at the gate. They are easy pickings for them. Granted, arrow slits would work too but ya