Storm Lord's Wrath DM Guide | Dragon Of Icespire Peak

I gave my players a property awarded to them for defeating Cryovain that is in Leilon from Harbin Wester. I had Tibor Wester move to Leilon as a head of some of the builders.
We just finished the Tower, which my players wanted to do at night, so it meant that the ghost had possessed Galio. Actually had set up earlier with one player a plot hook based on his character's background which included an item "letter from an old friend" made the letter be from Thalivar as a ghost. That player knows the real reason for what was found using the planar beacon, because of how we worked his story into it. He'll probably help with rebuilding the tower.
Another player is wanting to turn their property into a hotel/bar. The others are barbarians with religious sides (one a zealot, one a multiclass paladin) so don't have too much interest in the town yet, but hoping to get something going with replacing or supplementing the religion there already.
So hoping this involvement in the town will make them more invested in the future in the later adventures

Reading through the Thunder Cliff quest, I think there are some changes I'd make to the sailing portion of the quest:
I do not like the idea of the mutiny at all. Instead, I will have both captains involved. If the players choose to go with the dragonborne, he will do some culty stuff. The fight will likely destroy his galley and the tabaxi's ship will come to the rescue! If the players choose the tabaxi, then they will get attacked by the dragonborne!
One or more of the crewmen will have the information in "Bad News."
Also the invisible stalker doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe 3-4 Manticores.

so I've noticed that my players have decided that aid from Phandalin isn't worth there time has it is shown as a goat herding mission. and i quote a player "this is some level one s**t not interested"

Some tipps in each quest would have been nice.I really liked the once in the old videos and included some in my campaigns.

Hey Bob, I've began running this campaign and have read through all 3 of the extension modules. The thing that really has me stumped is how to introduce the two cults as the BBEGs here, as especially the necromancer just seems to be around, but not really given any context until end of module 2. Unless I straight up get a character to tell them the deal, I don't see how the module sets anything up.

Thank you so much for this. I am finishing Icespire Hold and laying the seeds for this module with my group tonight. You probably have answered this a million times already, but are you planning to release DM guides for the other two expansion adventures?

Will you be doing this for all the expansions? Cause just checked the monster stat blocks of SLEEPING DRAGON’S WAKE and there is this massive dragon on it Z_Z

Something that came up when I was playing DOIP - when the PCs went to the Tower of Storms (at 3rd level), they wanted to check out Leilon as well. It was an interesting challenge to try hinting at some of the things of Leilon without giving anything away (especially Gallio).

Thank you for all of your videos Bob, you're extremely helpful

Hi Bob! I wanted to ask you, will you be uploading gameplay for this followup games after the dragon of icespire peak? My players and I are about to finish the main campaign and they have real strong feelings about Talos (roleplay in the circle of thunder and tower of storms was really really fun), so we're definitely gonna play Storm Lord's wrath, and your games are always really fun and helpful!

Thank you in advance! For real, your content is amazing

any recommendations how to have a world building business with the PCs? newbie DM here playing for my officemates

how did you get the clean map, and the separate labels to show up like that ? I need to figure out a similar setup for my online group's map... thanks for the video

I don't like D&D beyond, do I have to use it to play these extended scenarios?

Just posted this video to my combined group.

Hi Bob,
Wouw! I didn't know about these expansions!

Where can I find the download codes? And how do I get the free expension?

Thanks for the vid! I’m starting this with my players tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Great content as always 👍🏻👍🏻

Liking and commenting on each! Sorry I'm late to the party! Going to have my newbies put you into rotation.

When I first read through this campaign I was like meh..but you make it more exciting!

Lol we finised last Week xD

Love your videos! I am running an LMoP + DoIP adventure now and want to use storm lords wrath to move on after. I am trying to find a hook here with Cryovain being intentionally released by Talos or Myrkul disciples for some reason and Cryovain takes over Icespire Peak. Any thoughts on this to help connect the two? My party was tricked into releasing Cryovain in the first scenario and I would love to link that to this.

Are you planning on coming back to SLW in your video series (or did I miss it that you covered the whole module)? Just finishing DOIP and reading through this adventure online and making notes to weave into my off-the-script storyline. The discussions in the comments for your DOIP series of videos were very interesting and good DM fodder. I was hoping for more of the same for SLW.

So, Dragons of Icespire Peak ends at 6, but this is recommended for level 7. Do they offer any recommendations or suggestions for bridging that gap?

SO great how you condensed such key info in such a short and understandable video! Kudos!

My party had a hard time on the foul weather at Wayside Inn quest, but they pulled through. The tied up innkeeper had to break herself out when they fought in the basement. She drew aggro and helped the party win, but was knocked unconscious in the last round. The party was disorganized as they tried to help their fallen party members and she succumbed to her wounds (causing some good inter-party conflict as they wrestle with consequences)

I would recommend to be VERY clear that the party can pray to talos to try to protect from the lightening. Even with the hints set up by the book, my party didn't even consider it. I think the real trick should be a moral conflict, praying to the evil god, as opposed to whether or not the players understand that they can try. Maybe play that up and describe the influence it has on the characters psyche afterwards! If a character refuses to pray and takes a lot of damage as a result, maybe give them a point of inspiration for roleplaying the character sticking to their guns.

finished Doip as the Dm and I can say if you dont mind doing bits of rewriting or tweeking I honestly enjoyed this a lot more than Lost mines, maybe its just I prefer sandbox games but even my players have been pleasantly suprised how much they enjoyed it despite its reputation as the "worse of the phandelver games." and I honestly cant imagine why unless your Dm is a wierdo that sticks to every letter of a model and thus incapable of weaving their own story into a great framework.

My party is almost done with DoIP and ready for the expansions.

I used DoIP to setup the sandbox of the Sword Coast. Eventually players can go as far north as icewind Dale and south as buldar's gate and east as silvery moon.

I've been building this sandbox for over a year. Glad my players are my wife and kids

My party encountered the Yuan-Ti who won initiative and cast fear — the whole party failed their saving throws and they all fled. They could hear the Yuan-ti laughing and continuing to eat their dinner as they all ran away. LOL!

The Myrkul connection to the Mere (Argus’s clothing was covered with seeds from plants there) could also be expanded to be the source of the rot trolls which have a necrotic energy about them.

When the party finally located the lizard folk camp, the impulsively attacked them but so had the rot trolls enter soon which prevented a slaughter. One of the flail snail’s stunning brilliance froze the rot trolls for a turn or two giving the party valuable time to establish an alliance with the lizardfolk and make a strategic positioning. Their earlier impulsivity made that difficult. The wise lizard chief was JUST able to control his angry people. Good drama.

In Phandalin, I just had the brief appearance of Argus at the Stonehill Inn trigger the three way fight. The party chased him and they essentially stumbled on a showdown between the two cults. I didn’t wait for them to leave town for it happen. Also, while the module says Skeel can be chased to a nearby building there is no map or much detail so I did it differently.

Is there a way to print out this module? I prefer to have paper to run off, not using my laptop. How many pages is it?

keep up the great work im feeling inspired to write now

Would have been nice they placed wayside inn on the LMOP map, so that you don't need to say to players that make trips between Phandalen and Neverwinter. "Oh there's an inn at the crossroads, you've walked past numerous times and not even noticed it."

So I own both the Starter Set & Essentials Kit, and I've been using your very useful guide on combining the two. Doing a bit of scoping out the expansions.
You say this is free with a download code in the essentials kit? Could you please point me in the direction of where I need to look for this code, as I've not come across it.

Will you play through it and make a video?

BTW, when i DM the DoIP, i've put the Velleen Elf-lady in the Stonehill's tavern looking out for a job, the players talked alot with her, and she even did a little bit of "exposure" about the religion of Talos. Great connection

Great stuff as always! Here are a few other things I'll be adding to my campaign. First, our crew didn't get to the Tower of Storms in DOIP, so I'm definitely going to steer them that direction at the start of this adventure on their way to Leilon from Phandalin by having brooding black unnatural skies on the horizon.
Since the Spellplague is actually necessary knowledge to understand what happened to Leilon, I added some History / Arcana checks for them to know more past "Something bad happened 100 years ago". With a DC 18 they will know that the Spellplague was the result of Mystra dying and this has caused some competition amongst the gods, which is possibly why there is an increased presence of both Talos and Myrkul right now.
I thought it was weird that there was literally zero reward for completing the House of Thalivar quest. Yes, the experience is awesome, but the party could potentially be fighting some seriously tough baddies. As a reward I decide that Gallio Elibro will let them have one free use of his Legend Lore spell, and the frightened soldiers will share a few of their health potions and healer's kits if the party didn't steal any already.
The Thunder Cliffs Quest is so big! I divided it into two quests - one called "Out to Sea" and the other "Thunder Cliffs". I decided to make Captain Kristoffen try to poison the party at dinner the first night at sea if they choose him. Also changed the sea and air enemies the party encounters as they get closer to the shore of the cliffs. Instead of an invisible stalker and giant crab, they'll face 2 Manticores and a Giant Octopus with some legendary "Kraken-ish" actions.

Thanks for the write up. My players definitely made this interesting for me. At thunder cliffs my party decided to sneak by the cultist spies in section 2 , then killed all the scouts in section 5. Then the PCs decided they were going to use the blowhole until something happened just because i rolled each time they stepped into it. most got lucky and went to waterdeep but 2 ended up in the water plane. it took them a in game week to regroup and are now headed back, and since the cultists found the bodies in section 5 and realized someone was able to sneak in, this area will need to have enhanced defenses.

Thanks Bob for your short 10-minute or less "DM Guides" to all of the adventures in the DoIP series. I had already been thinking of offering my adventurers the opportunity to rent Giant Goats from Barthen's Provisions in DoIP as riding mounts for travel or as pack animals ... and it sounds like this will tie in great and explain Pinchwit's visit in SLW.

You can tell Bob's from Waterdeep because he pronounces it lay-LON instead of LIE-lon 😜Sorry, it's a running gag in my game that the locals can tell where someone is from by how they mispronounce it since everyone always pronounces it differently

First of all, thanks for all the videos on DoIP and now the follow-up adventures. The DoIP is my group's first ever campaign, my first experience as a DM and your videos helped A LOT.

Now, my question: right now (we play-by-post) the group is having a conversation with an envoy from Lord Neverember at Phandalin's tavern. They're asking for details of Leilon and the region, as well as how much coin is being offered, etc. Even though this exactly what the firs hook suggests, I'm thinking of offering them another hook at the same time: spying for waterdeep.

I thought about the spy envoy meeting them and being aware of lord neverember's proposition, but they would try to offer the spy job still, asking the players to play real double-agents.

So what do you think, would you have any suggestions on how to pull this one off? Even though I think it will be much fun, it would mean be a bit more work for me :D

Why is your background music country music? Its a weird choice for a D&D show.

Well done!

I bought the essentials kit and i'm having a blast for now. Too bad that since the expansions haven't been officially translated to spanish i didn't get the codes on my kit, so i have to pay to get them. I still will though

Im plannig on running these expansions as a extention to lmop rather than ice spire peak. I will have the players fight cryovien as vemon fang made a deal with the party to "retreive his lair" obviously lying and will double cross the party when cryovien is low health or as they drop. They will be level 7 by that point. Then level the party inline with the expansions.

Your videos for icespire were so lovely - looking forward to seeing these

As someone who knew about this expansion, forgot about it, then stumbled upon it again looking for a somewhat parallel plot line to Tyranny of Dragons for a smaller backup party, this guide is a life-saver.
Well laid out as always, concise, and very informative. Thanks for the recommendations on quest order, too.

question: would it be possible to play this without playing DoIP?