Starting the Sunless Citadel - Dungeon Master Walkthrough

[@DianaMarieTaibi]

Thank you for this video! I'm running this module in 3.5 with my husband and kids. Your DM tips for making the module more engaging are perfect for upping the fun for kids. I was worried that they'd miss the dragon door entirely, so moving it is brilliant. We're still in the Tower Shell, so im going to ammend the search at the beginning of the next session.

[@RdotDoyle]

I love to hear it, I hope you all have a ton of fun and create some great memories together

[@dylpckl]

I cannot believe how detailed this video is. I am about to run Tales as a campaign for a group of new players, and this is an amazing resource. Please tell me you have videos like this on all of the adventures!!

[@RdotDoyle]

Thanks! I also have a walk through of Forge of Fury up, but just those two. One day I might do more Tales from the Yawning Portal for sure, because there's some awesome stuff in here. Hope your group has a ton of fun in here, let us know how it goes

[@dylpckl]

@@RdotDoyle Will do! Do you have any videos with tips on stringing the adventures into a campaign? My current plan is just to prep Sunless Citadel and Forge and see how the story evolves. Just missing a start to the "campaign"

[@RdotDoyle]

@@dylpckl It takes some work from the DM to make them connect meaningfully and if you're going to make the effort the best approach is to lean on the player characters backgrounds and backstories to try to make it relevant to them. In my Tower of Rydal video I do talk about planting a bunch of hooks to Forge of Fury as an example, so you might find that one helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/janbqH1rlsuWoqs

[@meliannhawke3318]

A great video, so helpful listening to someone sharing his ideas and experiences with the adventure. Thank you very much! I absolutely, definitely must have the vampire ressurection and bow at the end - now, this is the thing I am the most looking forward to. So elegant (narratively and otherwise) and fun. :-) A little fact: The Plague section in the Monster Manual actually gives us Gulthias the Vampire's story. And it seems, "our" vampire is indeed the sorce of all plagues. This is epic. Thank you also VERY MUCH for giving us the name of the follow-up adventure! This could be a very nice continuity encounter for later. I absolutely love such things.

[@RdotDoyle]

Glad you enjoyed it and got something out of it! That plague idea is very interesting, next time I run this it might spring into a whole campaign. It’s a bit of a dirty trick but having the players on the hook to undo the destructive force they unknowingly unleashed is a powerful motivator

[@pzalterias5154]

Your videos are really useful ! And you're the only one to do it with such details. It's so much easier to watch this before diving down all the dungeon and preparation. A shame those don't make a lot of views.

[@RdotDoyle]

Thanks! Glad you find them helpful. I try to make these in the way I would learn best, I guess there's not as many people built like us lol. Or I've been paying my dues and this channel is about to blow up

[@mathueelkins76]

Going to start a group on this Saturday, love the vampire twist..! Will be using that.

[@RdotDoyle]

Awesome, enjoy it!

[@ThomasPercy]

Good work. Thanks.

[@RdotDoyle]

Thanks, hope you enjoy the rest of the series and have an awesome time running it

[@garionofriva7216]

New to the channel, just subscribed after watching this episode. Brilliant take, I'm doing a homebrew game and am using this as the first real dungeon. I'm using most of this, except in my world, goblins don't exist yet. But I'm using the basic premise. 👍

[@RdotDoyle]

Awesome, welcome to the party! I'm curious what you're going to throw in there for the goblin side?

[@RuneGM]

Im planning a big sandbox campaign for the new phandelver book and I’m definitely going to use that vampire reveal to tie together the Icespire sequel modules

[@RdotDoyle]

Oh nice, I like that. Maybe throw a tentacle or two in there for good measure, or a glowing green crystal. Just to keep your options open

[@feraligamerm2775]

Gulthias is a legit vampire

[@RdotDoyle]

Definitely. Lots of potential there

[@calebshoemaker]

Running this as a better adventure lead-in hook to Dragon Queen. Definitely making Oakhurst Greenest so when the heroes come back they'll be better prepared to take on the blue dragon quest and the rest of the story where is so ADD at times. This gives us a much stronger base to work from and go back to as necessary

[@RdotDoyle]

That’s clever, I hadn’t thought of that. I love this little dungeon and with all the dragon elements here it wouldn’t take much to tie it into Tyranny of Dragons. Thanks!

[@giannettomichael]

I feel like the vampire would be a good segue into Dragon of the Icespire Peak follow up adventures, specifically as the head of the cult to Myrkul the god of death

[@giannettomichael]

Oh lord maybe even replace the Wererats with vampire spawn, with something important to the vampire located in the mine.

[@RdotDoyle]

Oh heck yeah, now we're talking! I love connection making like this and those are good ways to tie in to DoIP

[@Wolfirhart]

I wish they had provided some reason why the Troll is locked up there with treasure and all, even tho he is described as basically a failure to the cult. I mean yeah, eternal punishment by burying him alive is cool and all, but why do they put so much effort into hiding his tomb and making it so expensive too xD

[@RdotDoyle]

Definitely, I hear you. This is the sort of thing the DM will struggle with sometimes and the players will never even think about. I still usually need to make sense of things for myself, it makes it smoother and more fun for me. For my own head cannon he was revered and respected before he went rogue so he was afforded the rites of a leader of their order, plus they couldn't kill him so they had to lock him away and keep others from releasing him.

[@davidwasilewski]

I’ve got the original 3rd edition module and use the maps from that - much better than the ones in the Yawning Portal book.

[@RdotDoyle]

I had the players find the 3e version (partially redacted) on the fallen adventurer the rats got.

[@jonwooldridge3766]

I might be jumping the gun here as I have not watched all the related videos yet, but I would like to know how you ran the wilderness encounters with the Twig Blights. I nearly TPK'd the party with these stealthy little buggers. I mean, when a bush is not a bush bad things are expected to happen. The map you have of the Fortress level is way better than the one I found on-line. Where did you find it?

[@RdotDoyle]

Short answer: I might only throw a couple at a level one group as they are almost always getting that surprise round off. Long answer: When I ran this I was using an early version of my forest encounter tables. First time we were heading to the "Dragon Gate" there were actually only two players and their first role on the 2d6 was a 2 (which is about half as likely as a nat 1) and they pulled a troll at level one. They saw it through the tress but it didn't see them, they followed it back to it's horrific shack beside an old stone bridge, triggered its alarms as they tried to cross the bridge and it ran out and bullied them out of all of their gold. With the small group and the large imbalance the whole thing was very intense, and after a suspenseful hour or two we were all relieved everyone survived. You might enjoy this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJqloKKrqNl7pq8 For maps I almost always just use google image search and change the terms a couple times. The cleaned up basic one of these is from Imgur/Reddit, the ones from the 3E module make appearances, and I just found one on Deviant Art searching for "fortress level map sunless citadel" that looks really good as well: www.deviantart.com/foundryatropos/art/Sunless-Citadel-Fortress-Level-746761212

[@sroura546]

I have seen people mention this adventure is a good substitute to the Death Mansion of Curse of Stradh. I'm trying to figure out if i should run CoS as is or use this one as a hook. Opinions?

[@RdotDoyle]

This could be an awesome intro to Strahd with a little adjustment. Watch the playlist through to the end but there is a big vampire reveal at the end which could easily transition to CoS

[@rudyvigil6928]

Why the gulthias is there didn't bug me before but now it does.

[@RdotDoyle]

I'm sorry... or you're welcome?