One last giant thank you to you and Eventyr Games for doing this work for the module. I bought your content packs and have studied these videos as I juggled DMing with real-life demands. Today is the finale for my group and it's taken us almost 2 years to finish Rime of the Frostmaiden with a very exhaustive and detailed play-through. You've been a huge part of that experience for me as the DM and I want to thank you one more time for all the work you put into it. Good luck with your future endeavors!
I'm in the preparation phase of our campaign. I'm trying to scrape youtube, reddit, and other sources for as much information as possible. Please share with me and recommendations and lessons learned.
Dude I've been following your ROTFM content for a long time. You completely overhauled the module in the best way possible. Very good presentation and extremely clear. Thank you for your content and looking forward to your incoming D&D content. Big cheers my man !
Auril’s first form is meant to be weaker because it’s meant for level 7 characters fighting her at Grimskalle. She’s supposed to be tired from casting her spell over the land. When the players realize she doesn’t die, they’re supposed to run and escape the island while she uses her lair actions to find them and try to stop them. If you make her too strong in first phase it will wipe parties!
I want to thank you for the awesome content. I DM an Icewind Dale game right now, and all the rewrites this channel has provided has made it very fun and tense.
I really appreciate your content about the endgame for this campaign, it’s helping me quite a bit. Def the best series about it that I’ve found on TH-cam. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your Ideas. I also bought the Complete DM´s Bundle and for me it was such a big help to run the Campaign. So much good ideas for adaptations that made the game a whole lot better. Also there where quite a bit of Situations that were a little bit odd in the Core Book and with yout tips they got a whole lot clearer. The stat blocks where also very important for me as it was much easier to have them all in one place than to search thru the book. Saved me a lot of time. My group is finally heading to complete the Rite of the Arcane of the Ocatad. My next Campaign will be The Tomb of Anihalation. Already bought the Complete Dm´s Bundle an looking forward to dive into it.
Oh man the fight was brutal. We did a boss rush of the Arcanoloth, a Tomb Tapper, and then Auril with no rests in between. Fortunately my wizard dropped 'I think it's time we break the ice' right too her face before smacking said face with an animated Tomb Tapper hammer, so she was gunning for my wizard most of the fight while my wizard loony tunesed herself across the Mythalar Chamber with misty step every other turn.
Part of me almost wonders...would it be utterly unreasonable for the final climactic battle with Auril JUST be all three of her forms at once? No minions, just all three versions with their own tactics (and probably only 2 Legendary Actions each to limits their action economy). I don't know if that's unreasonable, but it would be interesting to still have it be that her Third Form is the real one and the other two are illusions that'll just be brought back after being killed (at the cost of 2 Legendary Actions as a limitation). Might be overbearing, but idk.
I like the idea of requiring the party to cast her Divine Spark into the Mythallar after destroying the third form in order to actually defeat her. She is a god after all, she really can't be defeated by conventional methods. I'll probably have the Mythallar, or even an NPC tell the Player who deals the finishing blow about it. Depending on how healthy they are, might even have a large AoE blast when they do so that they have to save against, add some weight to the finale, they can destroy Auril and end the Rime whilst potentially dying themselves.
Regarding that she is a god: I came up with the idea that Auril was summoned by Iriolarthas to weaken her in combat an then use a version of Karsus‘ Avatar to replace Auril with himself. Durin the research of ancient artifacts from Ostoria, Iriolarthas could get a hold of all the ingredients for the spell except the blood of the Tarrasque, but he had or was able to make a scroll of Tarrasque summoning (why else would there be one in Ythryn?) and that’s the point when he got impatient and (too) megalomaniac: After being in a kind of stasis for almost 2000 years because of his malfunctional demiplane, a few years before the events of the adventure, he summoned Auril before he was able to get the tarrasque blood. Auril came but never showed up on Iriolarthas‘ doorstep. He slowly lost his lich powers and his support casters and with them the hope of ever defeating the tarrasque or Auril, not to mention both of them. In his desperate attempts to somehow complete the spell, he found a way to replace the 16 support casters with the staff of power. But that’s the end of what he was able to accomplish before he descended into demilichdom. My idea is, that the characters can puzzle together these clues during their stay in Ythryn and, after defeating Auril, can decide to cast Karsus‘ Avatar themselves to replace Auril to end her threat for good and prevent Aurils potential return. If they don't want to follow that path, fine, then at least they can find out some interesting things about Iriolarthas and the reason for Aurils presence in Icewind Dale. The necessary defeat of the Tarrasque (I would use the True Tarrasque stat block by GMbinder: www.gmbinder.com/share/-M9usahTVHiYqci1OHYA) would be an adventure for level 20 characters. I thought, that maybe they could have some divine help that would allow them to reach level 20 temporarily fort he price of possible death (1d6+4 levels of exhaustion after the battle with the tarrasque or something like that) afterwards, so they could immediately fight the tarrasque as an epic finale of the campaign.
I have a crazy idea for the final showdown. Here me out! After the party deals with the demilich and activates the Mythalar, the city starts to float and rises from the glacier. Then Auril teleports on the city with her troops to confront the Pcs and destroy the Mythalar. The party will have a countdown to fight since the city floats over Ten Towns and if they fail to capture and protect the Mythalar, Ythryn will fall and destroy Icewind dale (Age of Ultron style). If the party manages to succeed on stopping Auril, it turns out that the mythalar is made from Ancient Chardalyn and its true power is unleashed since Auril is not around to contain the Warp of the Weave that the Mythalar causes and it opens a portal that summons ancient evil to the World (insert Vecna here). As the epilogue unfolds, our Heros learn that Asmodeus learned about the true power of the mythalar and wanted to make a deal with Vecna (or whatever great evil you think fits best) so he used Xardorok to gain access to Ythryn and Levistus figured that out and influenced the Knights of the Black Blade to stop Asmodeus and potentialy gain access to Ythryn him self.
This is basically how my endgame is going to work out. If the PCs end up being successful, Auril will reveal her motivations as she's being banished. She wanted to keep Ythryn buried because of the Mythalar and the anti-magic stone spindle, killing everyone in Icewind Dale was just a sacrifice she was willing to make to protect her domain. I've been hinting at Levistus and Asmodeus both making power plays over Icewind Dale and that they both want the same thing (for different reasons.).
This is *kind of* how my RotF is going, but not really. Asmodeus and Levistus are both making power players for the Mythallar, Auril, aware of their ambitions and the potential destruction the artefact could cause, decided that it was worth killing everyone in IWD to ensure that no one could ever use it. Also, there's a Tarrasque down there, not a scroll of summoning one, a sleeping giant that will also be freed if the Mythallar is removed.
Really great job on these videos! I'll be using a lot of your suggestions. Thank you for your hard work! Do you have any thoughts on using Levistus as a secondary bbeg or a red herring type of enemy?
Thank you so much! Not any general thoughts, it's not something we delved too deep into in our run-throughs. If you have any specific questions I'm always willing to shoot some ideas, though! :)
I actually ran Levistus as a bit of a moral choice for the players. On the one hand, an archdevil. On the other hand, the enemy of my enemy... do the players need allies enough to aid the cult? I should add that I made Asmodeus and Auril kinda allies in this story. Asmodeus is the Moriarty of the story. Auril, broken and betrayed, seeks him out for a plan to ascend. Asmodeus, who has his own schemes, provides Icewind Dale as an ideal target. He tells her to send frost druids with chardalyn to the Duergar, using them to terrorize the towns. Asmodeus doesn't feature in the story, he is just the catalyst by which Auril begins her plans. And Levistus hates everything Asmodeus likes.
awesome video and just in time for me to run the final fight of the campaign. while i absolutely want to give the party a chance to have a long rest after the fight with iriolarthas, if she’s already in ythryn, why wouldn’t auril swoop in and fight the characters as soon as they attune to the mythallar? just wondering because my party already knows she’s in ythryn and if i do have her show up after a long rest they might feel like she’s letting them off easy
It can simply be explained away with her not being omniscient - she simply doesn't know that they've begun attuning to the mythallar straight away. Another way is to let a character with Arcana know that attuning to the mythallar may alert Auril, which may tell them to take a long rest. If neither solution works, you can always have the mythallar magically replenish them (either partially or wholly) when they begin attuning to it, basically giving them a free long rest before Auril shows up. I hope that helps! :)
One last giant thank you to you and Eventyr Games for doing this work for the module. I bought your content packs and have studied these videos as I juggled DMing with real-life demands. Today is the finale for my group and it's taken us almost 2 years to finish Rime of the Frostmaiden with a very exhaustive and detailed play-through. You've been a huge part of that experience for me as the DM and I want to thank you one more time for all the work you put into it. Good luck with your future endeavors!
Thanks so much for these videos and The Eventyr Edition of RotF. You've made DMing this campaign more enjoyable.
My pleasure!
I'm in the preparation phase of our campaign. I'm trying to scrape youtube, reddit, and other sources for as much information as possible. Please share with me and recommendations and lessons learned.
Dude I've been following your ROTFM content for a long time. You completely overhauled the module in the best way possible. Very good presentation and extremely clear. Thank you for your content and looking forward to your incoming D&D content. Big cheers my man !
Same. This content and the modifications to the module are all Top Shelf.
I had a bunch of people tell me to get the tower bundle on DM Guild, and i did, but had no idea you did vids!
Auril’s first form is meant to be weaker because it’s meant for level 7 characters fighting her at Grimskalle. She’s supposed to be tired from casting her spell over the land. When the players realize she doesn’t die, they’re supposed to run and escape the island while she uses her lair actions to find them and try to stop them.
If you make her too strong in first phase it will wipe parties!
i agree, with my team comp they should be able to steam roll the first phase of auril at level 7
I want to thank you for the awesome content.
I DM an Icewind Dale game right now, and all the rewrites this channel has provided has made it very fun and tense.
Glad you enjoy it!
I really appreciate your content about the endgame for this campaign, it’s helping me quite a bit. Def the best series about it that I’ve found on TH-cam. Thanks!
Want an epic fight?!
Just use the 3 forms at the same time.
triple threat 😈
dude that could be the last hoorah after fighting all 3 now fight all three together? lmao that could be a tpk
@@chasmichaels2948 in my opinion it won't feel like a fight with a god if it doesn't have a high chance of TPK.
Thank you so much for your Ideas. I also bought the Complete DM´s Bundle and for me it was such a big help to run the Campaign. So much good ideas for adaptations that made the game a whole lot better. Also there where quite a bit of Situations that were a little bit odd in the Core Book and with yout tips they got a whole lot clearer. The stat blocks where also very important for me as it was much easier to have them all in one place than to search thru the book. Saved me a lot of time. My group is finally heading to complete the Rite of the Arcane of the Ocatad. My next Campaign will be The Tomb of Anihalation. Already bought the Complete Dm´s Bundle an looking forward to dive into it.
Was searching for Rime of the Frostmaiden videos and found this one. I am 100% using this and subscribing!
love your work Eventyr
RotFM is my first campaign and your guides and videos have helped me make it as good as i can
Oh man the fight was brutal. We did a boss rush of the Arcanoloth, a Tomb Tapper, and then Auril with no rests in between. Fortunately my wizard dropped 'I think it's time we break the ice' right too her face before smacking said face with an animated Tomb Tapper hammer, so she was gunning for my wizard most of the fight while my wizard loony tunesed herself across the Mythalar Chamber with misty step every other turn.
Part of me almost wonders...would it be utterly unreasonable for the final climactic battle with Auril JUST be all three of her forms at once? No minions, just all three versions with their own tactics (and probably only 2 Legendary Actions each to limits their action economy). I don't know if that's unreasonable, but it would be interesting to still have it be that her Third Form is the real one and the other two are illusions that'll just be brought back after being killed (at the cost of 2 Legendary Actions as a limitation). Might be overbearing, but idk.
Our final battle is next session and I found your endgame advice to be super helpful--looks like flexibility is key!
The video I was waiting for... THANK YOU!
Hope you enjoyed it!
I like the idea of requiring the party to cast her Divine Spark into the Mythallar after destroying the third form in order to actually defeat her. She is a god after all, she really can't be defeated by conventional methods. I'll probably have the Mythallar, or even an NPC tell the Player who deals the finishing blow about it. Depending on how healthy they are, might even have a large AoE blast when they do so that they have to save against, add some weight to the finale, they can destroy Auril and end the Rime whilst potentially dying themselves.
That is truly the most epic way to end it. The timing can be difficult, but if done right it's just awesome!
Regarding that she is a god: I came up with the idea that Auril was summoned by Iriolarthas to weaken her in combat an then use a version of Karsus‘ Avatar to replace Auril with himself. Durin the research of ancient artifacts from Ostoria, Iriolarthas could get a hold of all the ingredients for the spell except the blood of the Tarrasque, but he had or was able to make a scroll of Tarrasque summoning (why else would there be one in Ythryn?) and that’s the point when he got impatient and (too) megalomaniac: After being in a kind of stasis for almost 2000 years because of his malfunctional demiplane, a few years before the events of the adventure, he summoned Auril before he was able to get the tarrasque blood. Auril came but never showed up on Iriolarthas‘ doorstep. He slowly lost his lich powers and his support casters and with them the hope of ever defeating the tarrasque or Auril, not to mention both of them. In his desperate attempts to somehow complete the spell, he found a way to replace the 16 support casters with the staff of power. But that’s the end of what he was able to accomplish before he descended into demilichdom.
My idea is, that the characters can puzzle together these clues during their stay in Ythryn and, after defeating Auril, can decide to cast Karsus‘ Avatar themselves to replace Auril to end her threat for good and prevent Aurils potential return. If they don't want to follow that path, fine, then at least they can find out some interesting things about Iriolarthas and the reason for Aurils presence in Icewind Dale.
The necessary defeat of the Tarrasque (I would use the True Tarrasque stat block by GMbinder: www.gmbinder.com/share/-M9usahTVHiYqci1OHYA) would be an adventure for level 20 characters. I thought, that maybe they could have some divine help that would allow them to reach level 20 temporarily fort he price of possible death (1d6+4 levels of exhaustion after the battle with the tarrasque or something like that) afterwards, so they could immediately fight the tarrasque as an epic finale of the campaign.
I have a crazy idea for the final showdown. Here me out!
After the party deals with the demilich and activates the Mythalar, the city starts to float and rises from the glacier. Then Auril teleports on the city with her troops to confront the Pcs and destroy the Mythalar. The party will have a countdown to fight since the city floats over Ten Towns and if they fail to capture and protect the Mythalar, Ythryn will fall and destroy Icewind dale (Age of Ultron style).
If the party manages to succeed on stopping Auril, it turns out that the mythalar is made from Ancient Chardalyn and its true power is unleashed since Auril is not around to contain the Warp of the Weave that the Mythalar causes and it opens a portal that summons ancient evil to the World (insert Vecna here). As the epilogue unfolds, our Heros learn that Asmodeus learned about the true power of the mythalar and wanted to make a deal with Vecna (or whatever great evil you think fits best) so he used Xardorok to gain access to Ythryn and Levistus figured that out and influenced the Knights of the Black Blade to stop Asmodeus and potentialy gain access to Ythryn him self.
This is basically how my endgame is going to work out. If the PCs end up being successful, Auril will reveal her motivations as she's being banished. She wanted to keep Ythryn buried because of the Mythalar and the anti-magic stone spindle, killing everyone in Icewind Dale was just a sacrifice she was willing to make to protect her domain. I've been hinting at Levistus and Asmodeus both making power plays over Icewind Dale and that they both want the same thing (for different reasons.).
This is *kind of* how my RotF is going, but not really. Asmodeus and Levistus are both making power players for the Mythallar, Auril, aware of their ambitions and the potential destruction the artefact could cause, decided that it was worth killing everyone in IWD to ensure that no one could ever use it. Also, there's a Tarrasque down there, not a scroll of summoning one, a sleeping giant that will also be freed if the Mythallar is removed.
Just in time for me to run chapter 5!
Really great job on these videos! I'll be using a lot of your suggestions. Thank you for your hard work! Do you have any thoughts on using Levistus as a secondary bbeg or a red herring type of enemy?
Thank you so much!
Not any general thoughts, it's not something we delved too deep into in our run-throughs. If you have any specific questions I'm always willing to shoot some ideas, though! :)
I actually ran Levistus as a bit of a moral choice for the players. On the one hand, an archdevil. On the other hand, the enemy of my enemy... do the players need allies enough to aid the cult?
I should add that I made Asmodeus and Auril kinda allies in this story. Asmodeus is the Moriarty of the story. Auril, broken and betrayed, seeks him out for a plan to ascend. Asmodeus, who has his own schemes, provides Icewind Dale as an ideal target. He tells her to send frost druids with chardalyn to the Duergar, using them to terrorize the towns.
Asmodeus doesn't feature in the story, he is just the catalyst by which Auril begins her plans. And Levistus hates everything Asmodeus likes.
awesome video and just in time for me to run the final fight of the campaign. while i absolutely want to give the party a chance to have a long rest after the fight with iriolarthas, if she’s already in ythryn, why wouldn’t auril swoop in and fight the characters as soon as they attune to the mythallar? just wondering because my party already knows she’s in ythryn and if i do have her show up after a long rest they might feel like she’s letting them off easy
It can simply be explained away with her not being omniscient - she simply doesn't know that they've begun attuning to the mythallar straight away. Another way is to let a character with Arcana know that attuning to the mythallar may alert Auril, which may tell them to take a long rest. If neither solution works, you can always have the mythallar magically replenish them (either partially or wholly) when they begin attuning to it, basically giving them a free long rest before Auril shows up. I hope that helps! :)
I think this is fair without making her Op
She was so underwhelming. The Remorhazes were way more difficult and terrifying, unfortunately.
Yeah, it's a shame she doesn't really live up to the hype, as she is written :/