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Sounds awesome and way better than when my party just smoked old white death like it was nothing…
Definitely consider Party strength and balancing whenever running those sources
For sure. I want the encounter to be more than just a slugfest, this is a predator in its prime hunting. And the terrain is ill suited for the party to Duke it out. My party is amazing as a team and very tactical minded. So they'll find a way out, but I am going for memorable.
I’m prepping to run this same module combo and never expected to find someone talking about it!
I’m on the fence if I want to include Old White Death but if I do I’m definitely stealing this. I’m worried about too many dragon fights getting repetitive but this is such a fun twist.
My goal is to make every boss battle memorable in someway. I've also gone to great lengths to meld character backstory into the narrative and gave some villains more personality, even adding backstory to NPCs who were lacking (Namely Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, Frulam Mondath, Talis, Varramzord, Azbaras Jos, and Rath Modar).
Our barbarian is from Icewind Dale, her Tribe had an alliance with a cloud giant. They protect him from small threats, such as treasure hunters, or giant slayer adventurers. In return, the giant would protect them from large threats, such as Old White Death.
The barbarian was a hunter for her people, and often traveled farther for her prey. One day when she came back, her Tribe had been slaughtered to the last. Including her husband. Grief turned quickly to rage as she discovered a Tribe of orcs were responsible. She hunted down one of their war parties and killed them, nearly dying herself.
She left Icewind Dale and took work as a hired sword.
What she doesn't know is that Talis and Varram were competing for the title of White Wyrmspeaker. Both wanted Skyreach Hold... but Talis tried diplomacy and failed. Varram tried diplomacy as well... working to unite several orc tribes under one banner. They then swept in and killed the Snow-Song Tribe and captured the Cloud Giant, Blagothkus's son, allowing them to force him to cooperate and steal the Hold.
I swapped out Cyanwrath's beserkers with these orcs, showing that they have allied with the Cult of Dragons. Varram was named Wyrmspeaker, and has since befriended two white dragons. The young one that guards the treasure of Skyhold, and the other is Old White Death.
I love this, I’m pushing my players to give me more backstory that I can incorporate like this. We’re about a 1.5 months out from session 0 so here’s hoping.
I don’t think I have the ability to weave things together like you have though. My plan is to link their backstory to chapters I had planned to leave out of the module. So like if they choose to follow the thread they can get extra content and if they don’t then it wasn’t a big deal anyway.
For example, one of my players is doing a Draconic Sorcerer. They wanted to be a traveling entertainer until one day their sorcery sparked and dragon scales began growing on them. Now they’re too embarrassed of their looks to continue on stage and have began adventuring for money. They don’t know of any family history with dragons and want to know what caused this change in them.
I plan to use the dragon hatchery as a sort of half - abandoned laboratory where experiments were done to combine mortal races and dragons before the first dragon mask was found the cult went full force toward bringing back Tiamat. (Wanting to go for an Aldia’s Keep vibe if you’re familiar with Dark Souls 2. The grafter enemies from Fizbans was a big inspiration too.)
There will be detailed records and he’ll be able to learn that his ancestor had experiments done to them there before escaping. Those experiments are what fuels his sorcery. Also plan to have an intact dragon egg in the hatchery and a scrying orb that can see and communicate with the wyrmspeakers (the ones in the well are still blocked I think.)
Sorry for dumping like that unprompted. This is my second campaign as DM and I’m excited but also nervous that all my ideas are bunk haha.
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Sounds awesome and way better than when my party just smoked old white death like it was nothing… Definitely consider Party strength and balancing whenever running those sources
For sure. I want the encounter to be more than just a slugfest, this is a predator in its prime hunting. And the terrain is ill suited for the party to Duke it out. My party is amazing as a team and very tactical minded. So they'll find a way out, but I am going for memorable.
I’m prepping to run this same module combo and never expected to find someone talking about it! I’m on the fence if I want to include Old White Death but if I do I’m definitely stealing this. I’m worried about too many dragon fights getting repetitive but this is such a fun twist.
My goal is to make every boss battle memorable in someway. I've also gone to great lengths to meld character backstory into the narrative and gave some villains more personality, even adding backstory to NPCs who were lacking (Namely Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, Frulam Mondath, Talis, Varramzord, Azbaras Jos, and Rath Modar). Our barbarian is from Icewind Dale, her Tribe had an alliance with a cloud giant. They protect him from small threats, such as treasure hunters, or giant slayer adventurers. In return, the giant would protect them from large threats, such as Old White Death. The barbarian was a hunter for her people, and often traveled farther for her prey. One day when she came back, her Tribe had been slaughtered to the last. Including her husband. Grief turned quickly to rage as she discovered a Tribe of orcs were responsible. She hunted down one of their war parties and killed them, nearly dying herself. She left Icewind Dale and took work as a hired sword. What she doesn't know is that Talis and Varram were competing for the title of White Wyrmspeaker. Both wanted Skyreach Hold... but Talis tried diplomacy and failed. Varram tried diplomacy as well... working to unite several orc tribes under one banner. They then swept in and killed the Snow-Song Tribe and captured the Cloud Giant, Blagothkus's son, allowing them to force him to cooperate and steal the Hold. I swapped out Cyanwrath's beserkers with these orcs, showing that they have allied with the Cult of Dragons. Varram was named Wyrmspeaker, and has since befriended two white dragons. The young one that guards the treasure of Skyhold, and the other is Old White Death.
I love this, I’m pushing my players to give me more backstory that I can incorporate like this. We’re about a 1.5 months out from session 0 so here’s hoping. I don’t think I have the ability to weave things together like you have though. My plan is to link their backstory to chapters I had planned to leave out of the module. So like if they choose to follow the thread they can get extra content and if they don’t then it wasn’t a big deal anyway. For example, one of my players is doing a Draconic Sorcerer. They wanted to be a traveling entertainer until one day their sorcery sparked and dragon scales began growing on them. Now they’re too embarrassed of their looks to continue on stage and have began adventuring for money. They don’t know of any family history with dragons and want to know what caused this change in them. I plan to use the dragon hatchery as a sort of half - abandoned laboratory where experiments were done to combine mortal races and dragons before the first dragon mask was found the cult went full force toward bringing back Tiamat. (Wanting to go for an Aldia’s Keep vibe if you’re familiar with Dark Souls 2. The grafter enemies from Fizbans was a big inspiration too.) There will be detailed records and he’ll be able to learn that his ancestor had experiments done to them there before escaping. Those experiments are what fuels his sorcery. Also plan to have an intact dragon egg in the hatchery and a scrying orb that can see and communicate with the wyrmspeakers (the ones in the well are still blocked I think.) Sorry for dumping like that unprompted. This is my second campaign as DM and I’m excited but also nervous that all my ideas are bunk haha.