This is your DM Guide for Sleeping Dragon’s
Wake! The second expansion adventure for the
Dragon of Icespire Peak from the
D&D EssentialsKit!
Hi :) Bob here, and welcome to Bob World Builder,
where we learn how to have more fun playing
D&D together! I’m excited to announce the
Neverwinter City supplement will be coming
next week! As you may know, Neverwinter is
indicated on the Dragon of Icespire Peak player
map, but not described in the book, so this
short supplement will provide some background
on the city’s lore and 20 urban encounters
to entertain your party if they decide to
take a detour in Neverwinter! So hit that
subscribe button and the little bell to get
a notification when the video review goes
live, and for weekly DM guides, player tips,
and D&D reviews! Now continuing our Beyond
Icespire Peak series-- full playlist linked
below, we’re diving into Sleeping Dragon’s
Wake, the level 9-11 expansion adventure available
for FREE with the download codes inside the
D&D Essentials kit box set, or on D&D Beyond
for $4.99!
Just like Storm Lord’s Wrath, this adventure
is based around Leilon, but it’s features
are a little different this time as the town’s
construction has progressed! Aubrey’s peculiarities
shoppe, the barge yard, and idol island are
unchanged. The fishery however, has become
a more permanent structure where the town
council meets at night to discuss the construction
and threats to the town, and it has a job
board where they post quests for your party!
The House of Thalivar is no longer haunted
assuming your party took care of the ghost,
but the wizard Gallio remains to help them
with obscure history and lore, much like the
Shrine of Lathander where the halfling priest
and town councilwoman Merrygold Brightshine
can heal your party’s wounds and ailments
for price. The settler’s camp is still there
but now it’s led by a witty old human woman
Mazira Shae who can help guide your party
through Leilon. And Torver’s Post is a new
general store owned by Jack Torver, a devout
worshipper of Lathander, who sells everything
but healing potions which they can buy at
the Tymora Shrine from Puck Caridbas a rambunctious
elf who sells a handful of other useful potions,
but neither spell scrolls nor weapons, which
they have to get from Town Square merchants
like Zana Taylish.
And finally, the new-constructed Umber Hulk’s
Shell inn can provide food, a place to sleep,
and rumors to help direct your party to the
two starter quests and one of the three follow
up quests. Whichever quests they take on first,
character’s gain a level when they complete
two quests, and again when they complete the
remaining three.
I recommend starting with the Death Knight-Dreadnaught
starter quest because it bridges the gap well
between the cult of Talos events in Storm
Lord’s Wrath and the cult of Myrkul plot
in this module. The party is basically told
to investigate an undead boat thing off the
shore of the Tower of Storms where, as you
probably recall, Phandalin had some trouble
with the cult of Talos, and the reward is
a very enticing 6 potions of greater healing!
The actual goal is to rescue Tarbin Tul, the
bard captured by Fherelai Stormsworn at the
Wayside Inn in Storm Lord’s Wrath, because
his forced singing is appeasing this sentient
undead vessel to do Fherelai’s bidding.
But this death knight ship actually belongs
to the other cult leader, Ularan Mortus, who
like so many other captains, was drawn into
the Tower by Talos-- even though your party
probably destroyed the beacon already so maybe
we can just blame Talos for creating an epic
storm that drove the ship to shore. The real
issue with this quest is that it says Fherelai
Stormsworn is onboard and will try to escape.
But if my level 6 party could kill a white
dragon in one round, your level 9 party can
definitely kill a cult leader in one round.
However, it also says that her followers could
resurrect her using divine intervention from
Talos, and that would make a pretty shocking
come back in the next adventure, so as long
as your players wouldn’t feel cheated by
that, I say go for it! Whether or not she’s
around, I recommend using the smashing wave
effect from area 1 to continually rock the
ship-- roll a d6 every round, and 5 or 6 triggers
the strength saving throw, as if Talos himself
is attacking the party! And the skeletal figurehead
on the ship’s prow is kind of funny because
it can’t move, but it does have a crazy
20 foot reach to whack your characters if
they walk by, and maybe consider having another
creature untie it, so this undead giant can
really join the fight.
BUT between the figurehead, the cultists with
siege equipment in areas 3, 5, and 7, the
necrotic damage trapped steering wheel in
area 6, the minotaur skeletons and six rugs
of smothering below deck, AND the very sauron-esque
mainmast hellfire orb with a passive perception
of 13 that can shoot a level 5 fireball once
per day, the dreadnaught is very-well defended.
So I recommend giving your party the chance
to communicate with the death knight’s soul
early on through any of the creatures it can
see through, like the figurehead or the fireball,
and maybe your characters can turn the ship
against the Talos cultists, and take it for
themselves! An important piece is finding
Ularan’s Journal in area 10, which Fherelai
also made some notes in, for clues that seed
the plot of this module, but if your party
doesn’t search, you could have the deathknight
reveal information after the party frees Tarbin
Tul.
The second starter quest, Leilon point, is
not really part of the story, and it’s incredibly
simple: defeat the scary aquatic humanoid
raiders harassing the little village of Leilon
Point, and get some gold; however the hook
for this adventure says that these sahuagin
raiders started attacking here at least 10
days ago, AFTER the dreadnaught left the Tower
of Storms, but ignoring the weird timeline,
the point is that Fherelai tricked the sahuagin,
posing as an avatar of their shark god and
telling them to attack leilon point. Now,
pretty much everyone here is pulling a Harbin
Wester: as-written “no amount of persuasion
or intimidation” can get them to open their
doors, but I would at least make this possible,
because even the leader of this little town
is written to do it too, and I know from talking
to many viewers like you, that plenty of players
did not enjoy Harbin’s antics-- and this
guy actually has important clues to share!
Overall I suggest having your party arrive
the morning after a night raid, which explains
the dead NPCs in the fishing supply hut and
the shrine, and giving them one day to talk
to the scared villagers and find clues before
the sahuagin attack again that night. Also
the huer’s hut is a great place for them
to explore because it contains a book that
can provide them with information about the
sahuagin! Very cool! If they learn about and
explore the salt caves to root out the sahuagin,
really rely on the trap in area 1 and the
awesome giant shark skeleton in area 4, the
sahuagin aren’t too interesting on their
own, but they do have a giant glowing clam
that gives them advantage on attacks as long
as the head priestess is alive, and some sweet
hidden loot in area 3!
And hey, if you’re into sweet hidden loot,
did you know we have a Patreon where you can
download pdfs of these scripts to keep with
your DM notes? And a new discord chat where
all Bob World Builder Patrons and YouTube
members can discuss these quests together?
Check it out through the links below after
this video, and we’re back to the show!
Iniarv’s Tower is maybe my favorite quest
of this adventure: defeat the bandits and
earn some gold! Cliche but with a great twist!
Because banditry is merely their side hustle.
The Chimera Crew has been hired by cult leader
Ularan Mortus to guard his towerkeep filled
with zombies, and it begins with a few zombies
having escaped from the tower with two bandits
chasing after them! This makes for a fun fight
and can reveal an alternative way into the
keep if the bandits are interrogated. There
are guards on the walls who will probably
spot your party, but that’s okay. I think
this quest is more about the party trying
to talk their way through this weird situation,
where not even the bandit leader knows what
Ularan is planning with the zombies. Because
while there is a neat pit trap filled with
snakes, and a very secure gatehouse with flammable
oil and murderholes, and obviously a bunch
of bandits around, the coolest thing your
party can do here is kill all the zombies
in the main tower by destroying its shabby
roof because it does a lot of damage! The
problem with this location is that the party
doesn’t really get any closer to stopping
Ularan’s plans, so this is a good place
to put Ularan’s journal if they didn’t
find it in the dreadnaught, you can decide
that the bandit leader DOES know Ularan’s
plans if interrogated, you could make the
bandits willing to double cross Ularan-- we
all know the party can probably pay better,
or you can leave a note with the whereabouts
of Viantha Cruelhex-- Ularan’s lieutenant
laying siege to one of our two not-so-sleepy
dragons.
So first, let’s check out the Bronze Shrine,
because by the book, the final location can
only be learned about from this location,
where the party must visit the temple of an
adult bronze dragon, Lhammaruntosz (Lham-MA-rune-toce),
to hopefully receive a vision of any threats
to Leilon while praying at its shrine. The
dragon used to defend the region, but has
been maddened by decades of unknowingly living
with a fiend in disguise! As written, the
place is kind of hard to enter and it’s
guarded by several dragon followers and a
pretty tortuous molten bronze trap, but I
would nix the trap because these followers
shouldn’t be trying to kill everyone who
comes to the shrine, and I would even reduce
the number of followers to one loyal individual
who will gladly accept any help the party
can offer to restore the dragon’s wellbeing.
They can warn them about all the traps, and
thereby help them ascend into the dragon’s
chamber without being charmed to drown themselves,
because that would just be a pretty terrible
(albeit memorable) way to lose a character.
Then in the Lhammaruntosz chamber, characters
must make DC 18 persuasion checks on the dragon
every single round to keep it from attacking,
and a DC 20 arcana check to notice the disguised
fiend. So it seems like the book wants them
to fight and kill this dragon, which they
probably can, but then they would have no
way to learn of the final location. So I recommend
letting combat erupt, but having this parasite-like
fiend join the combat to protect their host--
hopefully your party will then go for the
fiend first, kill it, and thereby cure the
dragon, and receive a premonition of the other
dragon attacking Leilon, learn it’s current
whereabouts, and go home with the sweet loot.
Finally, Claugiyliamatar’s lair (Claw-gil-I-amatar)
which is located through that vision-- not
the quest board - This ancient green dragon,
Claw for short, has been dealing with daily
attacks by minions of Uluran Mortus to quote”weaken
the dragon’s mental state with anxiety and
frustration” so the undead dragon spirit
can possess it. But then whyyyy did Uluran
NOT just have it possess the bronze dragon
Lhammaruntosz who’s been in a weakened mental
state for decades, and is not even that far
from the tower of storms where his boat crashed
a few weeks ago? Because SPOILER alert, at
the end of this quest, the undead dragon spirit
just possesses Claw anyway and flies off which
is pretty lame. So I recommend totally flipping
the script, and having the party sent here
to receive a vision of the bronze dragon attacking
Leilon! Claw even has multiple crystal balls
in their lair because they’re constantly
keeping tabs on the entire sword coast, so
it makes sense; And as-written, Claw doesn’t
attack right away and even tries to hire the
party to help her take care of Ularan! So
to quickly sum up the rest of this location,
the slime pools are an awesome mix of quicksand
and acid that I definitely want to use in
my own games, I really like the wood woad
guardians, the magical moss map room, the
detailed dragon-worshipping druids, and the
thorough details for the lore-filled statues
scattered around the lair and how the statues
can potentially be used to unlock the dragon’s
hoard. Then after the party talks to Claw,
you can have Lhammaruntosz be possessed, OR
still give the party the chance to save Lhammaruntosz,
and if they do, having the now dead body of
Cryovain be possessed by the undead dragon
spirit. And come back for round two in the
final adventure of Icespire Peak! Now be sure
to subscribe so you won’t miss that video,
and the Neverwinter supplement coming next
week!
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