Dude! I have been DMing for a little over 10 years and I forgot to prep for tomorrows session and I was so stressed about running chapter 3-4 without having read it. This was the perfect video to help with a filler! I really appreciate it. I haven't had time to pour into more prep. This is great advice. Thank you so much!
I was considering having the party do the first part of Sunblight, probably up to Grandolpha Muzgardt and then they hear the dragon launch. Grandolpha will explain that is why the opposition has been so "light", since all of the duergar were prepping the dragon for flight. She'll explain what it is going to do, discuss a possible alliance with the players (including helping them re-infiltrate Sunblight) and then they can decide whether to go to help Ten-Towns or continue to clear Sunblight.
Love the content, finding it all super helpful for my RotFM prep! This adventure would have been pretty tough to run without the community sharing thoughts and ideas.
My sorcerer got 'see invisibility' just for the deurgar. Smart thinking imo especially since they've already cleared out all the duergar in Ten-Towns lol.
Yup, the sorcerer saw the duergar at the front door right away lol. Good advice Steely on making the trip to Sunblight a session on its own. Had the Chardlyn Dragon leave towards the end and the rest was them deciding if they would storm the castle or chase the dragon. They've chosen the castle ;-)
It's been almost a year and here I am ready to run this. I think I got a good way in for my parties (Skytower Goliaths!) to alert them to the fortress since they know the Spine of the World. Especially with how both ended chapter 2 the same way. Thanks for the pointers!
Personally, I don't like that the dragon launches at the beginning of chapter 3. I'm gonna change it to where Xardarok launches the dragon when they enter the forge. This takes the moral choice from "do we hunt the dragon (which we don't have a flightplan for) or assault the fortress (which is on no timecrunch, now that the dragon is out)" to "do we rest after fighting the fort and let tentowns suffer, or chase in our tired state"
I used Grandolpha's spy NPC at the Kelvin's Cairn duergar hideout to give extra information. I mean, I think the module chapter 1 provides plenty, if you go through the trouble - and my players wanted to complete everything, so they got everything there was in the module to give. I wanted to prepare the players with the thought that the duergar might not be unified frontier and they can get help inside Sunblight, before they are there, and it made sense to me to have Grandolpha influence outside the fortress, too. I also think it'd be slightly foolish from the players to NOT deal with the fortress. If they made one, they can surely make another one? Clearly the chardalyn beast -business has to be stopped.
First campaing as a DM, this was my idea of introducing this chapter. Party is lvl 3: they already face some duergar, i just gave them the task of investigate the Abandoned inn at caer Dineval, since they didn't put much effort into trying to sneak into the castle after the guards saying "nope" haha Then, i held hostage a guy from the blacksword cult inside (because of the chardalyn necklace, the duergar beat him and took off his necklace) After they rescued him, the guy just woke up and told the party members the leader of the castle is waiting for them (since blacksword cult is also enemy of the duergar), of course they were spechlees of WTF is happening at the moment, then the encounter with Hethyl is perfect for them to know about Xardorok. i was thinking of giving them one Robe of eyes, and one of my players is about to learn the "Blindfigther" fighting style.
I can't express how much yours and NoFunAllowed's videos have helped prepare for RotFM, thank you so much
I'm glad they are helping
Agreed.
Dude! I have been DMing for a little over 10 years and I forgot to prep for tomorrows session and I was so stressed about running chapter 3-4 without having read it. This was the perfect video to help with a filler! I really appreciate it. I haven't had time to pour into more prep. This is great advice. Thank you so much!
I was considering having the party do the first part of Sunblight, probably up to Grandolpha Muzgardt and then they hear the dragon launch. Grandolpha will explain that is why the opposition has been so "light", since all of the duergar were prepping the dragon for flight. She'll explain what it is going to do, discuss a possible alliance with the players (including helping them re-infiltrate Sunblight) and then they can decide whether to go to help Ten-Towns or continue to clear Sunblight.
Love the content, finding it all super helpful for my RotFM prep! This adventure would have been pretty tough to run without the community sharing thoughts and ideas.
I am glad you addressed this issue. I thought I had missed something.
Love love love your content Steely! I appreciate all the hard work put into these videos.
This has been my favorite video of the series...the duegar sled encounter is an excellent idea
My sorcerer got 'see invisibility' just for the deurgar. Smart thinking imo especially since they've already cleared out all the duergar in Ten-Towns lol.
Yup, the sorcerer saw the duergar at the front door right away lol. Good advice Steely on making the trip to Sunblight a session on its own. Had the Chardlyn Dragon leave towards the end and the rest was them deciding if they would storm the castle or chase the dragon. They've chosen the castle ;-)
It's been almost a year and here I am ready to run this. I think I got a good way in for my parties (Skytower Goliaths!) to alert them to the fortress since they know the Spine of the World. Especially with how both ended chapter 2 the same way. Thanks for the pointers!
Personally, I don't like that the dragon launches at the beginning of chapter 3.
I'm gonna change it to where Xardarok launches the dragon when they enter the forge.
This takes the moral choice from "do we hunt the dragon (which we don't have a flightplan for) or assault the fortress (which is on no timecrunch, now that the dragon is out)" to "do we rest after fighting the fort and let tentowns suffer, or chase in our tired state"
I’m 90% sure my party will chase the dragon. Fortunately that is along ways out.
I used Grandolpha's spy NPC at the Kelvin's Cairn duergar hideout to give extra information. I mean, I think the module chapter 1 provides plenty, if you go through the trouble - and my players wanted to complete everything, so they got everything there was in the module to give. I wanted to prepare the players with the thought that the duergar might not be unified frontier and they can get help inside Sunblight, before they are there, and it made sense to me to have Grandolpha influence outside the fortress, too.
I also think it'd be slightly foolish from the players to NOT deal with the fortress. If they made one, they can surely make another one? Clearly the chardalyn beast -business has to be stopped.
First campaing as a DM, this was my idea of introducing this chapter.
Party is lvl 3:
they already face some duergar, i just gave them the task of investigate the Abandoned inn at caer Dineval, since they didn't put much effort into trying to sneak into the castle after the guards saying "nope" haha
Then, i held hostage a guy from the blacksword cult inside (because of the chardalyn necklace, the duergar beat him and took off his necklace)
After they rescued him, the guy just woke up and told the party members the leader of the castle is waiting for them (since blacksword cult is also enemy of the duergar), of course they were spechlees of WTF is happening at the moment, then the encounter with Hethyl is perfect for them to know about Xardorok.
i was thinking of giving them one Robe of eyes, and one of my players is about to learn the "Blindfigther" fighting style.
great advice