D&D 5E Revenge of the Cultists - DM Help

[pukunui]

Hi guys,

I'm in the middle of running Legacy of the Crystal Shard (updated to the final 5e rules and upgraded to levels 3-5). The PCs have succeeded in being a thorn in the side of Auril, the evil goddess of winter, and her agents in Icewind Dale, so I'm thinking that it's time her cultists attempted to get revenge.

Last session, the PCs also foiled an attempted coup in Bryn Shander. As part of their reward, they were given the deed to the instigator's residence. They had fought a battle in the building, though, so it is in need of some repairs and new furnishings. I was thinking that maybe some of the tradespeople the PCs hire to fix the place up could be cultists. The locksmith who comes to replace the lock on the back door that the sorceress melted with acid splash would make for a very good candidate. He could make a copy of the key so that his fellows could sneak in easily during the night.

One complication is the presence of black ice carvings. The PCs failed to investigate that thread of the adventure, so as a result, the black ice is spreading throughout Icewind Dale. The module indicates that in this eventuality, while the cult of Auril doesn't grow in size, the ferocity of its activities does increase due to the black ice's effect (it makes people more paranoid and belligerent). So instead of just kidnapping people and leaving them to die in the snow as sacrifices to Auril, the cultists are now kidnapping people and leaving their brutalized corpses in the snow.

I mention this complication because it might mean that the cultists are less likely to take a subtle approach in seeking vengeance. They might just throw open the doors (in keeping with Auril's commandment to "let in the cold to drive away the false security of warmth") and attack in a murderous frenzy.

Another option, however, could be a kidnapping. One of my players will be absent next session, so her PC could end up being kidnapped, and the other PCs have to rescue her. That could make for a dramatic sidequest in keeping with the feel of the module.

While the module stresses the importance of the suddenness of the cultists' attacks (to play up the paranoia factor, I guess), I feel like this event, regardless of its specifics, could do with some foreshadowing so it's not a complete surprise. Anyone got any suggestions on how I could go about telegraphing this attack without giving the game away completely?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[Tormyr]

Spoiler tag for reasons.
[sblock]
So if they foiled the coup, that means they are in act 2. It's time to pull them to the next major town on the water. Have the cultists kidnap an NPC important to the party. Have the trail lead to the town on the water, let them experience the pirate attack, and then further investigation leads up the mountain which leads to the cultists lair.

In my game, the mayor of Bryn Shander and the PCs found that documents in the bad guys hideout lead to the next major town. At the town the party experienced the pirate attack, and resolved that. One of the PCs had an adopted granddaughter that was kidnapped (with the player's permission). They followed the trail to the hideout, where they were attacked by a group of goblin snow corps, complete with shortbows and parkas, snow goggles, and snowboards. Inside the lair, they saved the PCs granddaughter, and it gives a means of travel to "the end."

[/sblock]

I would let the event be a surprise. Any mentioning of others being kidnapped is foreshadowing.

Don't forget that not everyone is murdered by the cult. They have uses for prisoners.

I would recommend kidnapping a NPC vs a PC because this could take several sessions to resolve. Anything directed at the PCs should be an attack. They know the PCs are dangerous and do not want the PCs finding out about their future plans.

 

[pukunui]

I would recommend kidnapping a NPC vs a PC because this could take several sessions to resolve. Anything directed at the PCs should be an attack. They know the PCs are dangerous and do not want the PCs finding out about their future plans.

Good point. Plus, they've just done the kidnapping thing, so I doubt they'd want to do it again so soon.

As for your spoilered comment, pursuing the wizard is one option - and probably the most likely that they will pursue - but not the only one. They can also look into the cultists' activities or even go into the Dwarven Valley to deal with the black ice, since that's the one thread they didn't follow during the first act.

 

[Tormyr]

Good point. Plus, they've just done the kidnapping thing, so I doubt they'd want to do it again so soon.

As for your spoilered comment, pursuing the wizard is one option - and probably the most likely that they will pursue - but not the only one. They can also look into the cultists' activities or even go into the Dwarven Valley to deal with the black ice, since that's the one thread they didn't follow during the first act.

It depends on how tightly you are holding to the timetable in the adventure. The dwarven valley is over by the end of act 1 as written. What I did was have them encounter a group of dwarven refugees as they were pursuing the wizard. The dwarves explained that they were evacuating their home in the dwarven valley because it had been taken over by zombies. As they parted ways, a little dwarf girl near the back of the group is tugging at her mother to slow down while her mother is trying to get her to hurry up. The exchange went something like:

Girl: Slow down, Mommy. I think I saw daddy!
Mother: Honey, your father has been missing for almost 2 weeks.
Girl: No, Mommy, I see him there. (Points back up the road).
Mother: Run!

At this point, a single zombie comes around the bend in the road. One of the PCs took it down at range and went to investigate. As he did so, dozens of zombies come out of the forest and around the bend in the road. This was back in D&D Next and I had 5 5th level characters, so encounter building had something like 50 or 60 zombies. I ran it theater of the mind and had each of them decide on an attack, figure out how much space that took up, and roll dice to see how many zombies their attack would affect. So a fireball is 20' radius 20 * 20 * 3.14 = about 120 sq. ft. I had the wizard roll a d12 to determine how many zombies were in the blast radius, and then roll up the damage and do saves like normal. A fighter could swing his weapon through 5 squares, so I had him roll a d10/2 and then roll his d20 to hit and roll damage. A hit meant it did the damage to d10/2 zombies. They had fun doing something "different" (we normally play with minis) and wading quickly through hordes of zombies felt suitably epic. I am not sure how well it would work with the final version of the zombies. You probably couldn't use more than about 20 in my scenario.

This tied in the story but kept them from investigating in that direction. We were playing in Encounters, and we had to get the adventure wrapped up within 3 or 4 weeks. I had to get them to the next town, stop the pirates, rescue granddaughter, defeat the cult and stop the ice queen. The first two Sundering adventures were great, but there was not enough time in an Encounters season to do it properly.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, I'm glad I'm not running this as an Encounters adventure. We can take our time with things and flesh stuff out. One player has been paying particular attention to all the background info I've been drip-feeding them and recalled that there was "another barbarian tribe that needs saving" (the Tiger Tribe, which is detailed in the extra info section at the end of the free stats pdf). If the PCs want to do that, I won't stop them.

As for the Dwarven Valley, yes I'm going ahead with the evacuation, but the PCs will still be free to go in and fight the zombies and potentially take out Baerick to stop the production of the black ice. One issue I have with that part of the module, though, is that the campaign guide puts the valley's population at about 80, including the dwarves in Baerick's camp. That's not a lot, and yet the dwarf zombies can potentially be limitless. Where are they all coming from? It also says that the zombies don't harass Baerick's dwarves, but it feels weird that those dwarves, as paranoid and belligerent as the black ice is making them, would be happy to share the valley with their undead kin. It also describes them as becoming bandits, but it never explains who they're raiding. Is it their fellow dwarves? Is it the people of the towns on Lac Dinneshere? Is it each other? I can't imagine their "society", if you can call it that, would be very stable. I imagine they'd self-destruct sooner or later.

Anyway, that's all stuff for me to work out if/when it's needed. The point is: They don't have to pursue the wizard to Easthaven straight away. They've got other options, such as investigating the cultists' activities or even doing something completely different (like going to help the Tiger Tribe on the far side of Maer Dualdon).

I do like your dwarven refugees + dwarf zombies encounter, though, and may use something like that in my own campaign. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[GSHamster]

Another option, however, could be a kidnapping. One of my players will be absent next session, so her PC could end up being kidnapped, and the other PCs have to rescue her. That could make for a dramatic sidequest in keeping with the feel of the module.

I would avoid this. It trespasses too much into the player's sphere of influence, and has a high chance of backfiring on you.

Basically, the bargain is that players control their characters, and the DM controls everything else. The DM moving to control a player's character breaks that bargain, and should be avoided.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, I'm not going to bother doing that. I'll come up with some other way to explain the PC's absence.

 

[Gilladian]

The other PCs could certainly "fear" that she's been kidnapped, if they don't know where she actually is. Then when the player comes back, you can reveal whatever the truth is, if that works for your scenario. It might motivate the PCs to move in one direction over another if they have some "evidence" that she was "taken" in a particular direction (even if it turns out to be wrong, and even if the players KNOW it is wrong).

 

[pukunui]

The other PCs could certainly "fear" that she's been kidnapped, if they don't know where she actually is. Then when the player comes back, you can reveal whatever the truth is, if that works for your scenario. It might motivate the PCs to move in one direction over another if they have some "evidence" that she was "taken" in a particular direction (even if it turns out to be wrong, and even if the players KNOW it is wrong).

Yep, that works too. The PC in question has the soldier background, so I've been thinking that maybe she meets up with some former comrades and ends up hanging out with them, trading old war stories, perhaps for a bit longer than she'd intended.

 

[Gilladian]

And at the same time, the pcs receive word from someone they trust that a woman of her general description was seen, being kidnapped...