I am currently running dragon of icepire peak for 4 level 4 characters. Last session the players defeated Moseko in the tower of storms. I have been dropping hints about Talos for the campaign and when they got there they thought Moseko was the BBEG. My question is how can I make Cyrovain feel like the true enemy this late in the campaign?
Another option, if they haven't seen it yet, would be to switch his color to blue. Blue dragons are smarter, have higher CR and like to collect minions, so you could take advantage of it having lighting breath on top of that and have it take control of the cult of Talos by pretending to be an emissary of their god.
Alternatively, you could make the orcs pushed from the mountains more of a threat and then make it known that they are attacking because the dragon pushed them from the mountains. No dragon, no reason for the orcs to support the anchorites.
Or you could make it so that the anchorites are planning to summon Talos and the ritual has to take place in Icespire hold or needs something from there that is in Cryovain's hoard. The dragon would not be the big bad but your characters would race the cult to see who would secure the place or item first. Maybe the ritual had been in the works for a while before Cryovain took over the place. The mercenaries there would actually be orcs or half orcs veterans sent by the cult then.
The following reddit post was really useful for me in running DoIP. Gives a little more connection between Cryovain and the orcs/anchorites. It also includes making Cryovain a young blue dragon which I am doing as well.
Have the dragon occasionally attack the players and/or Phandalin. In my last session of my LMoP + DoIP campaign, my players spent a ten-day in Gnomengarde waiting for the gnomes to finish a craft for one of my PCs. I rolled a random location for Cryovain to be in on each day, and I rolled Gnomengarde. I ran a brief encounter with the White Dragon, nearly killing several gnomes before it scampered off.
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Hello,
I am currently running dragon of icepire peak for 4 level 4 characters. Last session the players defeated Moseko in the tower of storms. I have been dropping hints about Talos for the campaign and when they got there they thought Moseko was the BBEG. My question is how can I make Cyrovain feel like the true enemy this late in the campaign?
Well, you could always have it attack Phandalin.
Another option, if they haven't seen it yet, would be to switch his color to blue. Blue dragons are smarter, have higher CR and like to collect minions, so you could take advantage of it having lighting breath on top of that and have it take control of the cult of Talos by pretending to be an emissary of their god.
Alternatively, you could make the orcs pushed from the mountains more of a threat and then make it known that they are attacking because the dragon pushed them from the mountains. No dragon, no reason for the orcs to support the anchorites.
Or you could make it so that the anchorites are planning to summon Talos and the ritual has to take place in Icespire hold or needs something from there that is in Cryovain's hoard. The dragon would not be the big bad but your characters would race the cult to see who would secure the place or item first. Maybe the ritual had been in the works for a while before Cryovain took over the place. The mercenaries there would actually be orcs or half orcs veterans sent by the cult then.
The following reddit post was really useful for me in running DoIP. Gives a little more connection between Cryovain and the orcs/anchorites. It also includes making Cryovain a young blue dragon which I am doing as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/e77dmi/dragon_of_icespire_peak_revised/
Have the dragon occasionally attack the players and/or Phandalin. In my last session of my LMoP + DoIP campaign, my players spent a ten-day in Gnomengarde waiting for the gnomes to finish a craft for one of my PCs. I rolled a random location for Cryovain to be in on each day, and I rolled Gnomengarde. I ran a brief encounter with the White Dragon, nearly killing several gnomes before it scampered off.