My party didn't get round to Axeholm while they were chasing the Dragon of Icespire Peak, and I want to level it up within the story of Storm Lord's Wrath. Any ideas on how strong an empowered banshee and undead stronghold should be for level 9 PCs.
I am a DM who likes to make a living world / sandbox game and I threw loads of story threads and destinations at them. (Pretty much all of DoIP, most of LMoP, some locations straight from the NWN series and Neverwinter MMO, and several backstory locations specific for their characters that I made up as well.) It gave me small problems with level balance and when to level the party up, but I think they were more invested in their characters and the world because of it.
They finished the Dragon story arc, and I lured them down to Leilon, then back up to Phandalin, and started the foreshadowing of the rivalry between the two cults, Myrkul and Talos. Just the briefest hints of 'an artifact of great power' so far.
So my plan is that Myrkulites are gathering undead in the region, and have recruited Vyldara and are using Axeholm as a stronghold and a staging area for future attacks on settlements in the area. I am planning to empower her (possibly using the rings of myrkul lore as inspiration) and add mobs to bring it closer into the story and give it more importance as an enemy base. Visiting Myrkulites will have a guest suite, and there may be a room full of zombies or dwarf skeletons or something in the same way that Iniarv's tower is being used.
The most interesting (and creepy) idea I've come up with for a more powerful Vyldara is that a Myrkulite sorcerer has filled the corridors of Axeholm with mannekins or lifesize clay figures which can be posessed by Vyldara or some lesser ghost-type enemies at any moment. (this can foreshadow some of the events from SDW, and I can throw in some surprises like reforming clay figures, or non-humanoid items that can be posessed for a surprise attack). The Eidolon stat-block sound like a good match for this idea, but I don't want the encounter to be too similar to Dumathoin's Gulch. On the other hand, I can't see the Gulch adding much to my story at this point, so it might be ok to merge the details and use the Gnomengarde Grenade plotline in a different way. Giving Vyldara a Boneclaw servant instead of lots of ghouls (we've already done ghouls) might be fun too - The blurb for boneclaw sounds like something the cult of Myrkul could arrange for their new ally.
I'm imagining a death-worshipping sorcerer who is obsessed with making life-sized clay sculptures could be creepy enough on their own. Each mannekin's face is sculpted into the last expression of a dying person. Or something. It could use the conjurer-wizard stat-block, which is only CR6, but possibly his unseen servant spell animates basic attacks from nearby statues, and summon elemental (1/day) instead creates a new clay figure (i.e. earth elemental) that becomes an inanimate (but posessable) statue, rather than disappearing after the hour.
Has anyone else needed to rebalance Axeholm, or added new undead to this point in the SLW story arc? Any suggestions on what would work well, or favourite choices from the Homebrew library as alternatives to what is available in the Game Rules?
My party didn't get round to Axeholm while they were chasing the Dragon of Icespire Peak, and I want to level it up within the story of Storm Lord's Wrath. Any ideas on how strong an empowered banshee and undead stronghold should be for level 9 PCs.
I am a DM who likes to make a living world / sandbox game and I threw loads of story threads and destinations at them. (Pretty much all of DoIP, most of LMoP, some locations straight from the NWN series and Neverwinter MMO, and several backstory locations specific for their characters that I made up as well.) It gave me small problems with level balance and when to level the party up, but I think they were more invested in their characters and the world because of it.
They finished the Dragon story arc, and I lured them down to Leilon, then back up to Phandalin, and started the foreshadowing of the rivalry between the two cults, Myrkul and Talos. Just the briefest hints of 'an artifact of great power' so far.
So my plan is that Myrkulites are gathering undead in the region, and have recruited Vyldara and are using Axeholm as a stronghold and a staging area for future attacks on settlements in the area. I am planning to empower her (possibly using the rings of myrkul lore as inspiration) and add mobs to bring it closer into the story and give it more importance as an enemy base. Visiting Myrkulites will have a guest suite, and there may be a room full of zombies or dwarf skeletons or something in the same way that Iniarv's tower is being used.
The most interesting (and creepy) idea I've come up with for a more powerful Vyldara is that a Myrkulite sorcerer has filled the corridors of Axeholm with mannekins or lifesize clay figures which can be posessed by Vyldara or some lesser ghost-type enemies at any moment. (this can foreshadow some of the events from SDW, and I can throw in some surprises like reforming clay figures, or non-humanoid items that can be posessed for a surprise attack). The Eidolon stat-block sound like a good match for this idea, but I don't want the encounter to be too similar to Dumathoin's Gulch. On the other hand, I can't see the Gulch adding much to my story at this point, so it might be ok to merge the details and use the Gnomengarde Grenade plotline in a different way. Giving Vyldara a Boneclaw servant instead of lots of ghouls (we've already done ghouls) might be fun too - The blurb for boneclaw sounds like something the cult of Myrkul could arrange for their new ally.
I'm imagining a death-worshipping sorcerer who is obsessed with making life-sized clay sculptures could be creepy enough on their own. Each mannekin's face is sculpted into the last expression of a dying person. Or something. It could use the conjurer-wizard stat-block, which is only CR6, but possibly his unseen servant spell animates basic attacks from nearby statues, and summon elemental (1/day) instead creates a new clay figure (i.e. earth elemental) that becomes an inanimate (but posessable) statue, rather than disappearing after the hour.
Has anyone else needed to rebalance Axeholm, or added new undead to this point in the SLW story arc? Any suggestions on what would work well, or favourite choices from the Homebrew library as alternatives to what is available in the Game Rules?