Over the Christmas holiday, some members of my family started playing Dragon of Icespire Peak. When we reconvene around Valentine's day for a family event, they will be wrapping up gnomengarde and heading onto Dwarven Excavation. During our last session, one of the players half-joked/half-suggested I should have holiday-themed the session because the previous time we all played together, we did a Halloween one-shot that was a lot of fun. I'm thinking of surprising them and updating Dwarven Excavation with Valentine's Day type stuff. I'm looking for suggestions and feedback on how to make this work. Here's what I'm thinking thus far:
the dungeon/temple was still for Abbathor, but there are illusions on the Abbathor elements to make them appear like they are from Sune - beautiful 'goddess' statues instead of evil-smirking dwarves in cloaks etc.
The priests of Abbathor had modified this temple to attract Sune's worshipers and have them make offerings to her so they could be stolen for Abbathor (dwaven god of trickery/greed). There will be some documentation explaining the backstory in the priest chambers. The fact that the back portion of the temple uses secret doors makes this work well I think.
I don't want to completely rework the dungeon's details, but I wanted to add some type of Valentine's day element to the conclusion of the dungeon. Some sort of 'power of love' true-seeing item (of limited duration so its only good for this dungeon) that shows the hidden doors and/or reveals the illusions?
Can you provide suggestions on how to tie this all together? Also got a vision of skeleton archers with tattered 'cupid' clothes and heart-shaped arrows? Does this impact the statue with the gem at the end somehow?
The settlement never was given a name so far as I know. That might be a good place to work in some theme work. Excavating the lost dwarven settlement of Eros, or more for a less subtle approach, Valentina. The NPCs have uncovered the Welcome carving out front that says Eros is For Lovers! It wouldn’t break the game for them to find some loot among the ruins of a bright red shortbow with a quiver of the heart tipped arrows. Different rocks could have been chiseled to look like conversation hearts and litter the ruins. Skeletons have been found in pairs like the Pompeii bodies. The Ochre Jellies can be Pink Jellies (that maybe turn red as they get closer to death.)
The gem in the statue could be cut into a heart shape and red instead of green. No mechanical difference there, as the gem turns to dust if taken.
How about if it actually was a temple to Sune, but the high priest secretly worshipped Abbathor from the back rooms. Sune caused the earthquake that brought down the back of the temple, (Abbathor destroyed the village in retribution.) When they get to the rubble blocking off the Hall of Greed, there’s a note with a divine glow that says something about ‘If you wish to reopen what greed and deceit closed off, you have my blessing. Only take care to avoid the greed of the insurgent god. You may write the name of one you love on a rock from this pile of rubble. The name of one who makes you want to be a better person. May their strength aid you on this quest. —Sune’ When they write the name of their loved one on the rock, it transforms into a shadow copy of that person who will help them clear rubble. (It takes 40 hrs for a single PC to clear all the rubble. Each additional character aiding the task cuts the time down proportionally. So adding characters saves them time and effort, but only at this dungeon.) After the rubble is cleared, their shadow companion, who could not talk, gives them a hug and vanishes.
I did the same thing with Gnomengarde when we ran it at Halloween. The whole place was decorated. I had paper maché spiders and skeletons. Are they real? This is D&D. Probably need to investigate. Or just shoot it and see what happens. Gnomes complimenting the party on their costumes. Illusory ghosts gliding down hallways. Unfortunately, the party is my wife and kids, and we’re so busy we haven’t played together since then, and had to end the session in the middle of the location. So we still need to finish that quest, and so technically it’s still halloween. I wish we got to play together more.
How about a Cupid-like enemy that shoots players with arrows and have to make a save or they spend their turn ogling(did I spell that right) the closest player to them? First thing off the top of my head that sounded funny.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Over the Christmas holiday, some members of my family started playing Dragon of Icespire Peak. When we reconvene around Valentine's day for a family event, they will be wrapping up gnomengarde and heading onto Dwarven Excavation. During our last session, one of the players half-joked/half-suggested I should have holiday-themed the session because the previous time we all played together, we did a Halloween one-shot that was a lot of fun. I'm thinking of surprising them and updating Dwarven Excavation with Valentine's Day type stuff. I'm looking for suggestions and feedback on how to make this work. Here's what I'm thinking thus far:
Can you provide suggestions on how to tie this all together? Also got a vision of skeleton archers with tattered 'cupid' clothes and heart-shaped arrows? Does this impact the statue with the gem at the end somehow?
The settlement never was given a name so far as I know. That might be a good place to work in some theme work. Excavating the lost dwarven settlement of Eros, or more for a less subtle approach, Valentina. The NPCs have uncovered the Welcome carving out front that says Eros is For Lovers! It wouldn’t break the game for them to find some loot among the ruins of a bright red shortbow with a quiver of the heart tipped arrows. Different rocks could have been chiseled to look like conversation hearts and litter the ruins. Skeletons have been found in pairs like the Pompeii bodies. The Ochre Jellies can be Pink Jellies (that maybe turn red as they get closer to death.)
The gem in the statue could be cut into a heart shape and red instead of green. No mechanical difference there, as the gem turns to dust if taken.
How about if it actually was a temple to Sune, but the high priest secretly worshipped Abbathor from the back rooms. Sune caused the earthquake that brought down the back of the temple, (Abbathor destroyed the village in retribution.) When they get to the rubble blocking off the Hall of Greed, there’s a note with a divine glow that says something about ‘If you wish to reopen what greed and deceit closed off, you have my blessing. Only take care to avoid the greed of the insurgent god. You may write the name of one you love on a rock from this pile of rubble. The name of one who makes you want to be a better person. May their strength aid you on this quest. —Sune’ When they write the name of their loved one on the rock, it transforms into a shadow copy of that person who will help them clear rubble. (It takes 40 hrs for a single PC to clear all the rubble. Each additional character aiding the task cuts the time down proportionally. So adding characters saves them time and effort, but only at this dungeon.) After the rubble is cleared, their shadow companion, who could not talk, gives them a hug and vanishes.
Fantastic ideas, thanks so much!
I did the same thing with Gnomengarde when we ran it at Halloween. The whole place was decorated. I had paper maché spiders and skeletons. Are they real? This is D&D. Probably need to investigate. Or just shoot it and see what happens. Gnomes complimenting the party on their costumes. Illusory ghosts gliding down hallways. Unfortunately, the party is my wife and kids, and we’re so busy we haven’t played together since then, and had to end the session in the middle of the location. So we still need to finish that quest, and so technically it’s still halloween. I wish we got to play together more.
How about a Cupid-like enemy that shoots players with arrows and have to make a save or they spend their turn ogling(did I spell that right) the closest player to them? First thing off the top of my head that sounded funny.