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- I Cast...Brainstorm issue 17!
I Cast...Brainstorm issue 17!
A weekly newsletter of ideas and advice for D&D Dungeon Masters, players, and fans
Dave Palmer
August 1st, 2025
In partnership with
This week — A Dangerous Room, A New Spell, and Adventure Hooks
Thanks for reading I Cast…Brainstorm!, a weekly newsletter with ideas and advice to help make DM-ing and playing D&D (and other TTRPGs) easier and more fun.
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Let’s brainstorm some fun!
In this issue...
The Rat’s Nest
A pack of clever wererats established a den in a complex of old catacombs beneath the city. The entrance is designed for easy access to the rest of the nest…if you’re a rat. For everyone else, the wererats have arranged multiple choke points to dissuade anyone who would dare attempt to infiltrate their home.
Each square = 5’
Description
Rickety wooden stairs end at a stout wooden door with iron fittings. The door is locked, and can be opened with lockpicks, or a hard kick. Either way, when the door is opened, read or paraphrase the following…
A loud screech erupts as the door opens on rusted hinges. The large room beyond is dark. You hear water dripping, and also something moving beyond your sight — the scuff of feet on stone, and the scrape of wood and metal.
Just beyond the door, the floor extends only ten feet, then ends at the edge of deep fissure that extends from wall to wall. A wooden bridge extends across the fissure, and off to one side of the far end of the bridge is an arrangement of barrels, crates, and scrap wood.
The bridge sways slightly, as if someone or something just crossed it.
The wooden bridges are secured with ropes, easily cut by the wererats who have taken up position behind the crates and barrels, should anyone attempt to cross. There are four piles of wood and metal around the room, where wererats hide with hand crossbows at the ready.
Any creature that falls into the fissures lands 10’ below, in fetid water and sewage. The walls of the fissures are wet, and difficult, but not impossible to climb. At the DM’s discretion, the water can trigger a saving throw vs poison or disease.
The ropes secured along the north and south walls make for easy access for wererats to cross in rat form. The door directly across from the entrance is locked, and a false door. It opens on a brick wall.
There are three well-hidden secret doors in the room. The one closest to the entrance offers the wererats a way to slip behind intruders, although if clever heroes find it, gaining access to deeper parts of the nest will be much easier. The two secret doors flanking the false door lead to rough tunnels the wererats use to access the rest of the complex.
The wererats fight to the death to prevent access into the nest.
Inhabitants
Add enough wererats to make the encounter an appropriate challenge for your players, and the story you’re telling, including these three if they suit you —
Skeller Krimp
Young adult LE half-elven wererat — ambitious, over-confident
Skeller is a young, ambitious wererat who has “clawed” his way up the ranks of the pack in a short time. He’s recently been given authority to protect the entrance of the nest, and will sacrifice anything and anyone to succeed.
Brunhil Valk
Middle-aged LE human wererat — grim, serious, blood-thirsty
Brunhil is an older wererat who the rest of the pack finds hard to be around. He’s cruel, unfriendly, and lives only for the kill. He can barely tolerate Skeller, and wouldn’t mind finding a way to rid the pack of the youngster.
Haznan del’Etrio
Teen LN human wererat — nervous, unhappy
Up until recently, the orphan Haznan was a street-hood, until Brunhil caught him trying to pick his pocket, and turned him. He despises his new existence and the wererats who have made his miserable life even worse, especially Brunhil. If he thought he could escape, he would do so at the first chance.
A New Spell
I just finished reading Patricia A. McKillip’s amazing book, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and it inspired me to jot down this spell. Full disclosure — I have not play-tested it, so please use it at your own risk!
Available for casters of all types, the spell calls a creature to you. Beware of what you call, however, for the creature may not appreciate the summons.
Calling
Concentration
Level 1st
Casting Time Up to 1 hour
Range/Area 1 creature within 1 mile
Components V
Duration Concentration 1 Hour
School Conjuration
Attack/Save Wisdom Save
Calling compels a creature to come to you. When cast, you send out a magical Call to a specific beast of CR 1 or lower, either an individual creature (by its true name), or a random creature of a specific species, (cat, deer, horse, etc.). You may continue the Call for up to 1 hour, or until the creature you seek enters your range.
If an appropriate creature is on the same plane as you and within range during the casting, it must succeed on a Wisdom save to ignore the Call. If it fails its saving throw, the Calling compels the creature to move toward you at its fastest movement speed, moving along the shortest and safest route, stopping for rest, food and water as needed, until it reaches you. The creature immediately knows its being Called, but not who’s Calling it, until it sees you.
Only one creature is affected by this spell. If the creature dies before it reaches you, the spell ends. If you’re able to, you may communicate with the Called creature at any time, but its not magically compelled to listen to or obey you. If you Call a creature hostile to you, it remains hostile.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot
2nd level slot — the spell’s range increases to 2 miles, the creature can be CR 2 or lower, and the type includes elementals
3rd level slot — the spell’s range increases to 4 miles, the creature can be CR 3 or lower, and the types include beasts, elementals and fey
4th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 8 miles, the creature can be CR 5 or lower, and the types affected are all those included for a 3rd level slot, and giants
5th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 16 miles, the creature can be CR 7 or lower, and the types affected are all those included for a 4th level slot, and monstrosities
6th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 32 miles, the creature can be CR 9 or lower, and the types affected are all those included for a 5th level slot, and aberrations
7th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 64 miles, the creature can be CR 12 or lower, and the types affected are all those included for a 6th level slot, and fiends
8th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 128 miles, the creature can be CR 15 or lower, and the types affected are all those for a 7th level slot, and celestials
9th level slot — the spell’s range increases to 256 miles, the creature can be CR 18 or lower, and the types affected are all those for an 8th level slot, and dragons
Adventure Hooks
Serious
Rumor has it that a village was recently destroyed by a huge sinkhole that appeared in the town square one night. Moments after the ground stopped shaking, dozens of strange-looking creatures climbed out of the hole, and attacked the already frightened townsfolk. Only a few people escaped the slaughter.
Scary
The heroes stop at a remote roadside inn after a long journey, eager to enjoy a hot meal and a comfortable bed. As they approach the door, perceptive characters will notice horses in the stable, and an odd silence around the place. Inside, the common room and kitchen are destroyed, with spatters and pools of fresh blood everywhere. Drag marks in the blood lead to a set of stairs to the basement.
Silly
Magical boots worn by one of the heroes turn out to be the infamous and cursed Boots of Loud Squeaking. These ancient artifacts can’t be removed or dispelled, and a remove curse spell fails to sever the attunement, only suppressing the squeaking for an hour. Luckily, an old legend speaks of a remote pool of water at the peak of a mountain, where any magical item dipped into the water loses its power forever.
Brainstorming Links
If you love D&D and other RPGs as much as I do, you probably already know about the folks below, who are real inspirations to me. If you haven’t already, please check ‘em out!
The Arcane Library — masterpiece adventures, and Shadowdark, too!
https://www.thearcanelibrary.com
The Angry DM — so angry….so many great ideas….
https://theangrygm.com/
DMDave — on point analysis of D&D rules, and a ton of fun ideas
https://bsky.app/profile/dmdave.bsky.social
RPGBot — whip smart critique and explanations of 5e rules
https://rpgbot.net/
Sly Flourish — a DM’s best friend who is also a better DM
https://www.slyflourish.com/
Treantmonk — years of helpful advice and clever ideas
https://www.youtube.com/@TreantmonksTemple
If you like I Cast…Brainstorm!, you might also like these fun TTRPG-themed newsletters, too!
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What I’m DM-ing
A weekly Curse of Strahd campaign via Roll20 using 2014 5th edition rules
A weekly Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, in-person, with 2024 5th edition rules
A series of one-shots in a bi-weekly game at a bar in LA. If you’re interested in joining in, invites are sent via Partiful. Or you can sign up at Ye Rustic Inn — 1831 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, California.
Two different campaigns with my kids, (Rime and Storm Kings Thunder) when schedules align
What I’m Playing
A 5th ed. Dragonlance campaign as a 9th level Tinker Gnome Gadgeteer Rogue, named Professor Flondersnoot
About to start playing Vecna: Eve of Ruin as Clybb Thistlebridge, a 9th level Halfling great-weapon Fighter
And in all my free time, I play a LOT of Hearthstone! If you want to play, find me at BigKahuna (#1802)
Gifts for Gamers
You can also check out great gifts for the gamers in your life at Total Party Kits, which features all-original designs by yours truly on shirts, hats, mugs and other gifts!
www.totalpartykits.etsy.com
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If you have an online store that sells D&D or TTRPG themed things, let me know — I’d love to add it here.
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The original ideas in this issue of I Cast….Brainstorm! are covered under the Creative Commons BY-SA license — all content is free to use (including commercially) and change, with proper attribution.
You can read about the license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
