DISCUSSINGIn the Shadow of the Spire – Session 37A: Dominic Departs They had an almost impossible number of possible courses to pursue. First, there were the Banewarrens. They had been hired by Jevicca to seal them and by Rehobath to retrieve the Sword of Crissa. Agnarr raised the possibility of following up on Demassac Tovarian, assuming that Jevicca hadn’t already done so. They knew he was experimenting with chaositech. “He might even be the one who supplied the items that let the bone rings into the Banewarrens,” Ranthir said. Ah! Demassac Tovarian! He’s one of those roads untraveled tha ..read more

Should the GM hide their rolls behind a GM screen or should they roll openly where the players can see the results? A lot of people actually think that hiding their dice rolls is the primary or even ONLY reason for a GM to use a screen, and this can even mire discussions about using GM screens in a debate about whether or not the GM should be hiding their rolls. And the debate about whether or not a GM should be hiding their rolls can often be entirely swallowed up in an argument about whether or not a GM should be fudging their rolls. (Which is, according to these debates, the only possible ..read more

This adventure was originally developed as part of my In the Shadow of the Spire campaign. When I posted the campaign journal describing what happened when my players encountered the crypt (which you can read here), several people asked where they could find a copy of the crypt for their own campaigns. The False Tomb was originally designed for D&D 3rd Edition. It has been updated to 5th Edition here. (Members of my Patreon will receive a copy of my original 3rd Edition adventure notes as special bonus content.) The adventure uses the tomb spider, along with the associated broodswarms and ..read more

Go to Table of Contents Just like the other sections of the campaign described in Part 2 and Part 3, the Hekaton investigation is ultimately organized around a revelation list, although it may be useful to think of it in separate parts. SETTING THE STAGE Even before the PCs get directly involved with the Kraken Society, you’ll almost certainly want to set the stage with some key revelations: Storm Court is no longer in charge of the other giants King Hekaton is Missing / Queen Neri is Missing Serissa is acting as Regent of the Storm Court Optional: Storm Giant Raids (if these are happening ..read more

DISCUSSINGIn the Shadow of the Spire – Session 36D: Crypt of Webs “Maybe it’s a magic box. Maybe our memories are trapped inside,” Ranthir said, only half-joking. “We just open the box and we get our memories back.” But wishing the box open wouldn’t make it happen… … unless they’d been over-looking the solution. “What about the key from Pythoness House?” Tor asked. “The one that can open any lock?” “Would that work?” Tee asked. “There were no moving parts in the lock.” Ranthir shrugged. “I don’t know. It might.” This moment from earlier in Session 36 – where the PCs abruptly realize, comple ..read more

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE SESSION 36D: CRYPT OF WEBS January 24th, 2009 The 19th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty Being tethered to the Banewarrens – effectively limiting their actions east of Oldtown – was becoming completely untenable. Their affairs in the Banewarrens required them to seek out Alchestrin’s tomb, but the Necropolis was well out of the range. To solve the problem once and for all, Ranthir spent the next couple of hours tracking down several scrolls which described the arcane creation of a small missive token that would allow its holder to communicate ..read more

Go to Table of Contents As described in Part 4B, you have everything you need for the PCs to penetrate to the heart of the Kraken Society conspiracy and rescue King Hekaton. But what if you want to take this even farther? Here are some options. You can easily use one, some, all, or none of them. OPTION #1: ADD A STORM GIANT THREAT The storm giants know that King Hekaton and Queen Neri were meeting with representatives of the Lords Alliance and the Open Lord of Waterdeep, and they assume that the small-folk are guilty of murdering the queen and kidnapping the king. Isn’t it possible that, with ..read more

The riddle of running riddles is a riddle you can’t unriddle by rolling a riddle roll. (Say that three times fast!) USA Today Bestselling Author and ENnie Award-winning RPG designer Justin Alexander unravels the trick for having player character solve puzzles and conundrums at the gaming table by way of the Paul Czege Principle and Gandalf the Grey. Subscribe Now ..read more

Go to Table of Contents To clearly see how the PCs can rescue Hekaton, we need a few key insights. First, finding Hekaton is not the end of the campaign. For the reasons we’ve previously discussed, and which we’ll take an in-depth look at in Part 5, Hekaton’s disappearance is not the reason the Ordning is broken, nor will returning him to power restore the Ordning. Therefore, saving Hekaton will not end the campaign. Importantly, this also means that solving Hekaton’s disappearance doesn’t need to be positioned as the end of the campaign: We don’t need to stop the PCs from “prematurely” solvi ..read more

Player: So in Dweredell the Guild is like a local trade organization, right? GM: That’s right. It’s ruled by a large number of powerful merchant families and its official function is to maintain commercial standards and regulate all matters of craft or trade. But in practice it’s more like a protection racket. Player: Great! Can you tell me every single member of the Guild and also their immediate heirs? GM: Uh… As a GM, it’s actually kind of surprising how often you’ll run into questions like this. In the real world, of course, this is the sort of encyclopedic data that you could pull up w ..read more