Search Results
All Results
Characters
Compendium
Spells
Items
Monsters
Vehicles
Forums
Returning 35 results for 'dismal imagine are back'.
Backgrounds
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
You crept into the Witchlight Carnival as a child or youth and never looked back, earning a place among those who work behind the scenes to keep the carnival in business. As a hand, you work hard and
party hard. The carnival has borne you to many fantastic worlds, circling back around to your home world once every eight years, but you know almost nothing about these worlds because you spend all
Species
Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
that extend from their back and shoulders.
Like owls, owlin are graced with feathers that make no sound when they move or fly, making it easy for them to sneak up on you in the library.
Your owlin
, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Darklord’s Shadows A Darklord lurks at the heart of every Domain of Dread. Everything in their realm is inspired by or personalized to them in some way. Some domains might be dismal ruins reflective
). For each evil act, imagine the scene where it took place, and then answer the following questions: What does the act sound like from a distance or to someone in the next room? How does the act, or its
Species
Acquisitions Incorporated
.
Reality is a descent into chaos punctuated by brief flashes of order, whence we arose and so imagine it to be the norm rather than a distant outlier. That-Which-Endures held entropy back for a mere instant
spontaneous alterations over their lifetime, from the typical range of point and peak seen among the elves, to huge ears that sweep back from the head like wings, and which are often pierced behind
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Acquisitions Incorporated
. Reality is a descent into chaos punctuated by brief flashes of order, whence we arose and so imagine it to be the norm rather than a distant outlier. That-Which-Endures held entropy back for a mere instant, and the Verdan emerged. I’m sorry, was that the question?
— K’thriss Drow’b
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Background In recent times, there have been reports of fearsome hauntings, horrible shrieks, and eerie lights emanating from the dismal place. Now, not even the bravest of the area’s denizens dare to
(money, ale, or both), confesses to having wandered in the back door of the house a couple of years before, hoping to acquire some food. Encouraged by the prospect of free wine in the cellar, he
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Curse of Strahd
-facing gargoyle carvings. If a character peers over the balcony, read: A flash of lightning illuminates the dismal village of Barovia, its rooftops visible above a smothering blanket of fog one
dusty tomb beyond (area K88). Characters who try to reach the windows from the overlook must descend 110 feet and move 20 feet back under the platform. This descent can’t be accomplished without the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
Secrets in Sedgemoor The day after the incident at the Rose Stage Festival, the characters are scheduled to collect spell components from Sedgemoor and bring those samples back to Professor Lang, who
following to set the scene: Your expedition has brought you to one of the more dismal parts of Sedgemoor, the bayou that encompasses the Witherbloom campus. Muddy swamp water flows between raised islets
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
, the gold dragon Karavarix refused to hold back. He led a contingent of metallic dragons to the soaring city, intent on forcing it to land. The god Paladine tasked the Knight of Solamnia Zanas Sarlamir
(see chapter 4) with peaceably ending the conflict between the dragons and the kingpriest. However, Sarlamir’s quest was a dismal failure, ultimately resulting in the knight attacking and killing
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual
waters, hoping to snare unsuspecting prey by bursting from the water and grabbing their quarry or by skewering victims with deadly harpoons. These hunters then drag land dwellers back to dismal
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual (2014)
Dragon, Shadow Shadow dragons are true dragons that were either born in the Shadowfell or transformed by years spent within its dismal confines. Some shadow dragons embrace the Shadowfell for its
, and yet can do nothing to prevent it. Back in the World. A shadow dragon is so suffused with the power of the Shadowfell that even a return to the Material Plane can’t undo its transformation. Some
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
Witchlight Hand You crept into the Witchlight Carnival as a child or youth and never looked back, earning a place among those who work behind the scenes to keep the carnival in business. As a hand
, you work hard and party hard. The carnival has borne you to many fantastic worlds, circling back around to your home world once every eight years, but you know almost nothing about these worlds because
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Out of the Abyss
dark. Suddenly, a loud voice booms out all around you in Undercommon: “Turn back or suffer a death so horrible you cannot imagine! You have been warned!”
The voice is actually a minor illusion cantrip
purple worm, the headstrong and half-starved young mage-in-training is attempting to make her way back to Menzoberranzan. Hanne spotted the adventurers as they approached and tried to scare them away
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
that remain linger in the shadows of their ancestors’ wonders. Only slowly have they begun to push back centuries of darkness and rediscover how the world has changed. Then came the Dragon Armies
have joined the enemy en masse. Whispers also speak of winged doom, wild reports of riders on dragonnels—and I dare imagine worse.
I don’t yet understand the shape of our enemy. Their motivations
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
stumbling back from a horrid event, consider giving the character inspiration for their fear-focused reaction (see “Inspiration” in the Player’s Handbook). Once a character gains inspiration in this way
, they shouldn’t be able to do so again until they finish a long rest. For example, imagine that a character has the Seed of Fear “I hate being stuck in tight spaces” and must squeeze through a narrow
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tales from the Yawning Portal->a4
Adventure Start The party has arrived at White Plume Mountain, which stands alone in a vast area of dismal moors and tangled thickets. They will probably arrange to leave their horses and possessions
the rush of air slows down, stops for a couple of seconds, and then comes back out in a great blast of steam. This steam is not hot enough to scald anyone who keeps low and avoids the crevice, but it
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
sigils at the bottom of the Sea of Moving Ice and brought it back to Ythryn for study in the fall of −343 DR, the Year of Chilled Marrow. During one of their experiments, something went wrong—a flash of
came back into use, Netherese arcanists could no longer cast their mightiest spells as they had before, forcing them to resort to traditional wizardry. Four hundred years after Karsus cast his spell
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros
.
—Jenna Helland, Godsend
The caprice of the gods. The destiny of heroes. Great journeys into monster-infested wilds, and mythic odysseys to the edge of the world and back. These elements of adventure
into the divine realm of Nyx and the dismal realms of the Underworld. Chapter 4 builds on the guidelines in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, highlighting adventures set in Theros. Maintaining a focus on the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
perched atop the sculpture, throwing his head back in pain or ecstasy as the lights surround him, and he unleashes a bolt of lightning up toward the sky. At the base of the statue, a bronze dragon is
ways. Let the players try whatever they can imagine, using these ideas as examples: Manipulate the Effigies. A character might use an action to lift an effigy closer to the central sculpture, breathe a
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
Waterdeep’s politics.
Outlander You’re a child of the icy wilderness, born and raised in one of the Reghed tribes. Imagine, after following herds of migrating reindeer your whole life, getting a taste
Ostorian relic would fulfill a lifelong dream and make your rivals back home green with envy.
Sailor You’ve sailed ships up and down the Sword Coast, but a shipwreck made you reevaluate your life
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse
her. She says, “Those I allowed to went away disappointed. Well, disappointed once the terror wore off, I imagine.” The cults are led by self-styled prophets and are using the Haunted Keeps as their
their way to provoke a violent confrontation, Nurvureem emerges from the shadows in her draconic form and attacks, holding nothing back. To create Nurvureem’s statistics, apply the shadow dragon template to the adult black dragon statistics in the Monster Manual.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
. Fresh as I was from Evereska, I’d never heard the warnings of the wise regarding this site. I am either extraordinarily beloved of Solonor, or stupidly lucky, to have made it back out alive. Tragically
, which ignited with himself at its center. As one might imagine, this blast drew the attention of all manner of twisted predators and hungry undead, which came forth to investigate. I don’t know how
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Misdirection. I work vigorously to keep others from realizing my flaws or misdeeds.
7 Obsession. I’ve lived this way for so long that I can’t imagine another way.
8 Obligation. I owe it to my people
above all else, even if it doesn’t benefit anyone.
Horror Character Bonds d12 Bond
1 I desperately need to get back to someone or someplace, but I lost them in the Mists.
2
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
cobwebs. Imagine what she’ll be like when she’s senile.
Your favorite sister,
End
Dearest Skab,
Mummy’s little warlock spy was happy to betray her companions and reveal that Kelek, Zargash, and the
appear on the horizon immediately and take 20 minutes to reach the tower, where they alight on the balcony. Each bird waits patiently for a rider to climb on its back. The giant cranes deliver the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
. Had the elf killed me on the spot, my soul would have gone to Garl and demanded a ship so that I could sail right back to Evermeet. My dumb wonderment caused the elf to turn and look, and he too was
enraptured. As to what we beheld, well, imagine a place of staggering natural beauty and impossible elven artifice, an alien realm as distant and beautiful as the stars, but as much a part of you as
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
permanent stronghold on the Astral Plane. From there, she began making plans to strike back at both the hated mind flayers and the traitorous githzerai. The Grand Proclamation Vlaakith cemented her
innermost court — the wondrous realm that Gith discovered in her journeys, and where she awaits those who have proven themselves worthy. Imagine you lack any concept of family. You’re constantly told that
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
extended human families who can trace their heritage back to age-old Vistani clans. Over generations of exploring the Mists, though, individuals of other ancestries have been accepted into some clans and
longstanding trade relationships. Some more dismal communities view Vistani with suspicion, though, being wary of anyone who emerges from the Mists. But even these communities often find the lure of news
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
their fallen leader shifts subtly at first and then changes dramatically as they look back or reminisce about the time before. The fallen leader might have been a benevolent ruler, an influential citizen
its repercussions change the characters’ world, and its effects echo long after the initial attack or takeover. Imagine that part of your campaign world is attacked or invaded. Depending on the current
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Journeys through the Radiant Citadel
its own realm.” Bond. “We serve Janya by defining the future instead of dwelling on the past.” Flaw. “Cross me and you’ll regret it more than you can imagine.” Caught in the Middle Both Zisatta and
philosophical debate that stretches back generations. Zisatta’s group, the Djaynaists, believe in cultivating the Janyan people’s connection to their original homeland, Djaynai. Brother Broumane’s group, the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
runes. The doors have neither handles nor hinges. The writing on them reads, “THE THREE KEYS. BRING THEM FORTH.” The doors part, sliding back into the walls, when the three correct keys are brought
move out of sight of the fresco and defends it to the death. If forcibly moved away from the fresco, the creature tries to find its way back. The creature can’t rest while under this effect. After 24
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse->Sigil and the Outlands
frequent in the Hive than elsewhere in Sigil, reflecting the ward’s dismal mood. When it falls, gutters ooze sludge into brackish pools of oil and rainwater, their surfaces disturbed by scurrying
a rotten body into the back of a wooden wagon. “If ye need a ride to the Mortuary, there’s room in the back!” he laughs. 7 A thieving musteval guardinal (see Morte’s Planar Parade) snatches a bag
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
interesting aspect of an undead villain is that this past injury might have occurred centuries ago, inspiring revenge against the descendants of those that harmed it. Imagine a vampire imprisoned by the
villain do to compensate? One way to track a villain’s reactions is by using a flowchart. This might grow out of the timeline that describes the villain’s plans, outlining how the villain gets back on
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Storm King's Thunder
in peril. In the wake of Hekaton’s disappearance, turmoil engulfed his court. After nearly a month of waiting for him to come back, Serissa reluctantly claimed her father’s throne at Imperator
thrust into power. Unable to find her father and fearing that he might be dead, Serissa can imagine her political influence evaporating quickly. Several giant lords previously under her father’s thumb
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
” section earlier in this chapter can help you describe your game to others.) Telling players what to expect prepares them as they imagine what sorts of characters they could create and launches
aren’t always bad. It’s OK for characters (and players) to disagree about how to deal with a captured enemy or which side to back in a brewing war. If the disagreement gets too heated, take a break and
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->D&D Beyond Basic Rules
” section earlier in this chapter can help you describe your game to others.) Telling players what to expect prepares them as they imagine what sorts of characters they could create and launches
. Conflicts between characters aren’t always bad. It’s OK for characters (and players) to disagree about how to deal with a captured enemy or which side to back in a brewing war. If the disagreement gets