I'm incorporating "The Frozen Castle" into my Rise of Tiamat campaign. Potential spoilers for both below.
A little background: My group ended Hoard of the Dragon Queen with Skyreach Castle intact and in the hands of its original owner, Blagothkus. In order to set up "The Frozen Castle," I'm having the Cult of the Dragon attack the castle in an attempt to retake it, and it will crash as a result of that attack. (This also will explain the cultist camp on the glacier.) However, my PCs are in Waterdeep at the time. To hint at what's going on, I told the wizard that he has a dream about Tiamat biting at a flying castle in a snowy landscape and breaking it into pieces. The group has gone to Maccath the Crimson to help them try to figure out what's happening at the castle.
I wanted to have Maccath cast scrying, but I didn't stop to double-check the rules while we were playing. She asked the group to give her something that came from the castle to use as a focus and told them to come back later. They gave her a claw from the white dragon which they killed there, and a music box from its hoard.
Now that I've read up on the scrying spell, I'm not quite sure how to handle this. It's typically supposed to be cast on a creature and opposed by a wisdom save from the target. You can target a creature you've never actually seen. There is a variant where you can cast the spell on a place, but in that case, it has to be a place you've seen. Maccath has never seen Skyreach Castle.
I can see several possible ways of approaching it:
1. Maccath casts the spell on the dead white dragon. In order for the spell to have some value, I'll have to say Blagothkus didn't jettison the carcass, which might be straining credibility a little. The dragon has no wisdom score, since it's dead, so I roll a D20-5 (+5 difficulty because she has only heard of the target, but -10 because she has a body part as a focus.) and try to roll under Maccath's spell save DC. (I'll have to figure out what her spell save DC actually is; she must be at least 9th level to cast scrying.) Repeat daily until she succeeds. She will only be able to see the dragon's lair, where the dragon was slain.
2. Maccath casts the spell on the flying castle. I fudge a little and allow her to cast it on a location she hasn't seen, using difficulty modifiers similar to those for a person. I roll D20+1 (+5 difficulty because she has only heard of the target, but -4 because she has a possession from the place as a focus) and try to roll under her spell save DC, repeating daily until she succeeds. She will only be able to see the dragon's lair, where the focus items were kept on the castle.
3. Maccath casts the spell on the flying castle. I fudge a little and allow her to cast it on a location she hasn't seen. She rolls at disadvantage because she is trying to scry on an unfamiliar location. I roll 2D20 and take the higher result, trying to roll under her spell save DC, repeating daily until she succeeds. I handwave how she manages to do this by saying that someone from the Arcane Brotherhood helps her to modify the spell. She can look at any part of the flying castle.
4. Maccath prepares the spell, but our wizard, who has seen the flying castle, actually casts it with her guidance. He doesn't know the spell, but Maccath talks him through how to do it. He rolls at disadvantage because of the unusual circumstances of the casting and tries to roll under his own spell save DC (or Maccath's?). He can look at any part of the flying castle.
5. Maccath prepares the spell, but our wizard actually casts it with her guidance, as above. He rolls a straight D20 because the bonuses from his familiarity with the castle and the fact that they have an object for focus cancel out the disadvantage caused by the unusual circumstances of the casting. He tries to roll under either his own spell save DC or Maccath's. He can look at any part of the castle.
6. The scrying attempt is unsuccessful because Maccath has never seen the castle, or because she cast it on the dragon corpse and it's just lying in a snowbank somewhere. Maccath attempts the spell again with Blagothkus as the target.
Overall goal (tl;dr): I want the players to get enough of an idea of what's going on for them to feel concerned and be willing to go check it out. But I don't want to set a precedent of scrying being more powerful than it is in the PHB, since I know that it's very open to abuse and limitations have been placed on it in this edition for a very good reason. I'm okay if it takes a few tries, because I can have them do things in town in the meantime.
A little background: My group ended Hoard of the Dragon Queen with Skyreach Castle intact and in the hands of its original owner, Blagothkus. In order to set up "The Frozen Castle," I'm having the Cult of the Dragon attack the castle in an attempt to retake it, and it will crash as a result of that attack. (This also will explain the cultist camp on the glacier.) However, my PCs are in Waterdeep at the time. To hint at what's going on, I told the wizard that he has a dream about Tiamat biting at a flying castle in a snowy landscape and breaking it into pieces. The group has gone to Maccath the Crimson to help them try to figure out what's happening at the castle.
I wanted to have Maccath cast scrying, but I didn't stop to double-check the rules while we were playing. She asked the group to give her something that came from the castle to use as a focus and told them to come back later. They gave her a claw from the white dragon which they killed there, and a music box from its hoard.
Now that I've read up on the scrying spell, I'm not quite sure how to handle this. It's typically supposed to be cast on a creature and opposed by a wisdom save from the target. You can target a creature you've never actually seen. There is a variant where you can cast the spell on a place, but in that case, it has to be a place you've seen. Maccath has never seen Skyreach Castle.
I can see several possible ways of approaching it:
1. Maccath casts the spell on the dead white dragon. In order for the spell to have some value, I'll have to say Blagothkus didn't jettison the carcass, which might be straining credibility a little. The dragon has no wisdom score, since it's dead, so I roll a D20-5 (+5 difficulty because she has only heard of the target, but -10 because she has a body part as a focus.) and try to roll under Maccath's spell save DC. (I'll have to figure out what her spell save DC actually is; she must be at least 9th level to cast scrying.) Repeat daily until she succeeds. She will only be able to see the dragon's lair, where the dragon was slain.
2. Maccath casts the spell on the flying castle. I fudge a little and allow her to cast it on a location she hasn't seen, using difficulty modifiers similar to those for a person. I roll D20+1 (+5 difficulty because she has only heard of the target, but -4 because she has a possession from the place as a focus) and try to roll under her spell save DC, repeating daily until she succeeds. She will only be able to see the dragon's lair, where the focus items were kept on the castle.
3. Maccath casts the spell on the flying castle. I fudge a little and allow her to cast it on a location she hasn't seen. She rolls at disadvantage because she is trying to scry on an unfamiliar location. I roll 2D20 and take the higher result, trying to roll under her spell save DC, repeating daily until she succeeds. I handwave how she manages to do this by saying that someone from the Arcane Brotherhood helps her to modify the spell. She can look at any part of the flying castle.
4. Maccath prepares the spell, but our wizard, who has seen the flying castle, actually casts it with her guidance. He doesn't know the spell, but Maccath talks him through how to do it. He rolls at disadvantage because of the unusual circumstances of the casting and tries to roll under his own spell save DC (or Maccath's?). He can look at any part of the flying castle.
5. Maccath prepares the spell, but our wizard actually casts it with her guidance, as above. He rolls a straight D20 because the bonuses from his familiarity with the castle and the fact that they have an object for focus cancel out the disadvantage caused by the unusual circumstances of the casting. He tries to roll under either his own spell save DC or Maccath's. He can look at any part of the castle.
6. The scrying attempt is unsuccessful because Maccath has never seen the castle, or because she cast it on the dragon corpse and it's just lying in a snowbank somewhere. Maccath attempts the spell again with Blagothkus as the target.
Overall goal (tl;dr): I want the players to get enough of an idea of what's going on for them to feel concerned and be willing to go check it out. But I don't want to set a precedent of scrying being more powerful than it is in the PHB, since I know that it's very open to abuse and limitations have been placed on it in this edition for a very good reason. I'm okay if it takes a few tries, because I can have them do things in town in the meantime.
