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Würm Fest

D&D Ideas Dusk

D&D Ideas Dawn
Explore the Darkest Shadows at your Peril - Part 2 Shadow Summoner

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is dusk, in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of dusk there’s no shortage of different ways your characters can interact with the power of twilight in your games with the power contained inside magic items from the Mage Forge! We’ve got the digital versions done and production on the physical card decks begins very soon. There’s still time to preorder — but not too much! Learn more here.

Spotlight

Würn Fest 2022

By the creator of Vast Grimm for fans of Vast Grimm

Come and experience Würm Fest

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Watch Our Video on Vast Grimm

Swing by the Nerdarchy YouTube Channel 11-1-2022 at 8:30 PM Eastern Time. We’ll running a game play of Vast Grimm to help promote Würm Fest.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Dusk or twilight when the last vestiges of the day begin to fade from the world. It’s also when a bunch darker magic items in 5e D&D recharge their powers. I like to think this is the time where the veil between the world and Shadowfell is the thinnest. What might creep out of the Shadowfell into the world that the player’s characters inhabit?

Here six things to crossover from the Shadowfell into the world.

  1. Despair and Gloom: Just the energies from the Shadowfell leaking into an area. These energies could be concentrated making the characters experience the full despair of the Shadowfell. Chapter 2 of the DMG has rules for Shadowfell despair. In addition to the despair effect a gloom hangs in the air that no light can penetrate. No light source can produce more than dim light in the area. Light becomes dim light and dim light becomes no light.
  2. Despair: Just use the despair effect from the DMG.
  3. Gloom: Only the gloom effect from above affects the area.
  4. Shadar-kai come through looking for a relic or artifact that came from the Shadowfell. Players could aid them or try to stop them.
  5. Pact of Shadow Mastiff led by an Alpha Shadow Mastiff. THe question is have they been sent or are they just on the hunt.
  6. Sorrowsworn range from low to high Challenge. They are just bleeding into the world from the Shadowfell looking to inflict suffering any they find.

These are just some ways to instill some Shadowfell mischief into your games.On top of dealing with the circumstances as they are happening the players will need to figure out if this is going to be an ongoing problem that needs to be solved.

From Ted’s Head

I feel that Dusk is a harder topic to discuss than Dawn, which we did last week. Dawn is set apart because it is about beginnings or new beginnings and that is what heroes represent. So Dusk would have to be on the other side of that right? Dusk is the darker stage of twilight. The last rays of sun are just gone. Dusk is a shadowy, dim or dark area or place.

Obviously the shadowfell fits right into this theme. You can find some great ideas about the shadowfell here. One of those ideas combines the shadar Kai riding a dire shadow mastiff. If you are looking for more mounted combatants that just might be for you.

We know that dusk is when the last rays of sunlight are gone means the creatures of the night are able to come out. But it is not so late that people are in bed. That means that people are potentially still going about their final business of the day and are more at risk of such an attack. Vampires, Werewolves, various fey and undead and who knows what else could be setting upon a town, village or city. During our live chat we started to develop a cool adventure, check it out on YouTube and go from there. That is if Dave did not already flesh it out. But there were lots of cool ideas discussed. But I am going to go in another direction.

I am going to give the start of some ideas, prompts if you will, that can lead an adventure in a number of directions. Each prompt can be used however you want.

  • Every night for the past week, at dusk an unsettling mist and fog appears coming from the forest. It covers the whole of the town. People are getting more and more nervous as this continues to happen with no explanation, and now things are going missing in the fog. Can anyone help?
  • Strange things keep happening in this town. Recently it seems that darkness is falling earlier and earlier and staying later and later. The hour of dusk is being pushed forward in the heat of summer, like it was winter. As people begin to fear the dark they wonder if it will get to the point of perpetual darkness.
  • Characters who spend time in this one place, at dusk have to make a charisma save(based on tier) or find that they are becoming emotionless. Each dusk emotion drains from those who fail. Can anyone find the source of this emotional drain before too late.
  • The shadowfell is expanding into the prime. Every night, presumably at dusk the area of the shadowfell creeps and expands claiming more land and territory. At dawn the sunlight was unable to penetrate the barrier of the shadowfell. The darkness looms closely toward the town. Can you solve the issue? Can it be pushed back or has the shadowfell forever taken over this land?

Go Wild, Do Crime, and Don’t Let the Humans Catch You!

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D&D Ideas: Dusk #176 Live Chat

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