My mind is running into a plethora of possibilities as my table approaches Wave Echo Cave/Phandelver Mine. If you're familiar with the module, you know that Nezznar is supposed to be the BBEG in WEC. However, there's also the Spectator, Mormesk the Wraith, and a Flameskull. I have a table of 6 lvl4 PCs, and I'm running 2 NPCs (Sildar Hallwinter & Glasstaff, as well as the cowardly Droop [so sorta 3 though Droop rarely engages]) so I have plenty of hit points to work with. Since Nezznar is a bit underwhelming, I plan to make him a Drow Arachnomancer from Mordenkainen's, and have him be a recurring enemy throughout the table's future campaigns. Additionally, I'm using an alternative map to WEC as the module's is sorta meh, IMO. I plan to have the Dwarven Temple be the site of the Forge of Spells, which will also house several "smithy" workstations. I'm planning to have Mormesk be a ghost instead of a wraith. He was in charge of the operation from a human-wizard perspective, and his soul is unable to find rest. Glasstaff is using the party to get him to WEC and plans to claim the forge for himself, but knows that Nezznar is too powerful for him to defeat. Nezznar will have a band of Bugbears with him, as he has no desire to get his hands or boots dirty with such trivial squabbling. My issue is timing, I think. I plan to remove the Spectator completely, have Mormesk possess Glasstaff and use him to place his skull on the fires of the Spell Forge, which then consumes Mormesk and Glasstaff, turning them into a Flameskull Skeleton as found in the Homebrewed Monsters. Then, once the party are finished with that fight, Nezznar and his posse will show up with Gundren and Tharden as their captives, and possibly take Droop captive, too, as he's the party's mascot. I am thinking that Nezznar will either demand their surrender (or fight them and capture them), and launch them into Out of the Abyss, or he'll demand that the party retrieve a death-apple from the Gulthias Tree (sp?) in the Sunless Citadel, which the timing would be perfect, as my campaign is currently set on Day 10 of Nightal, and the WInter Solstice is 10 days away.
Curious what you all think, and feel free to point out what I may have overlooked.
The only thing you might want to consider is the fact that the your PCs should be 5th level by the end of this and I believe that the Sunless Citadel is designed for lower level characters so you would have to amp it up a bit. Now, I might be wrong because I am not familiar with what changes were made for the 5E version of Sunless Citadel.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
Amping up enemies isn’t too much of a problem. In fact I usually enjoy the challenges of introducing variants and hordes of enemies. Thanks for the input !
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello fellow DM'ers,
My mind is running into a plethora of possibilities as my table approaches Wave Echo Cave/Phandelver Mine. If you're familiar with the module, you know that Nezznar is supposed to be the BBEG in WEC. However, there's also the Spectator, Mormesk the Wraith, and a Flameskull. I have a table of 6 lvl4 PCs, and I'm running 2 NPCs (Sildar Hallwinter & Glasstaff, as well as the cowardly Droop [so sorta 3 though Droop rarely engages]) so I have plenty of hit points to work with. Since Nezznar is a bit underwhelming, I plan to make him a Drow Arachnomancer from Mordenkainen's, and have him be a recurring enemy throughout the table's future campaigns. Additionally, I'm using an alternative map to WEC as the module's is sorta meh, IMO. I plan to have the Dwarven Temple be the site of the Forge of Spells, which will also house several "smithy" workstations. I'm planning to have Mormesk be a ghost instead of a wraith. He was in charge of the operation from a human-wizard perspective, and his soul is unable to find rest. Glasstaff is using the party to get him to WEC and plans to claim the forge for himself, but knows that Nezznar is too powerful for him to defeat. Nezznar will have a band of Bugbears with him, as he has no desire to get his hands or boots dirty with such trivial squabbling. My issue is timing, I think. I plan to remove the Spectator completely, have Mormesk possess Glasstaff and use him to place his skull on the fires of the Spell Forge, which then consumes Mormesk and Glasstaff, turning them into a Flameskull Skeleton as found in the Homebrewed Monsters. Then, once the party are finished with that fight, Nezznar and his posse will show up with Gundren and Tharden as their captives, and possibly take Droop captive, too, as he's the party's mascot. I am thinking that Nezznar will either demand their surrender (or fight them and capture them), and launch them into Out of the Abyss, or he'll demand that the party retrieve a death-apple from the Gulthias Tree (sp?) in the Sunless Citadel, which the timing would be perfect, as my campaign is currently set on Day 10 of Nightal, and the WInter Solstice is 10 days away.
Curious what you all think, and feel free to point out what I may have overlooked.
Thanks!
The only thing you might want to consider is the fact that the your PCs should be 5th level by the end of this and I believe that the Sunless Citadel is designed for lower level characters so you would have to amp it up a bit. Now, I might be wrong because I am not familiar with what changes were made for the 5E version of Sunless Citadel.
As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
Amping up enemies isn’t too much of a problem. In fact I usually enjoy the challenges of introducing variants and hordes of enemies. Thanks for the input !