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- I Cast...Brainstorm issue 18!
I Cast...Brainstorm issue 18!
A weekly newsletter of ideas and advice for D&D Dungeon Masters, players, and fans
Dave Palmer
August 8th, 2025
In partnership with
This week — A Poisonous Villain, A Poisonous Trap, and 20 Names of Rare Poisons
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...
A Poisonous Villain
An assassin is a powerful villain, so if your characters would be overpowered at their current level, you can make him a recurring enemy that acts like a (poisoned) thorn in their side until they’re powerful enough to meet him head on.
For a first encounter, perhaps one of the heroes is poisoned by Ridrym, and given a message to leave a stash of gold some specific place in return for the antidote, or they could be hired by the relative of one of Ridrym’s victims to avenge their loved one’s death.
Ridrym Ma’kesh
Adult, LE, Assassin — methodical, careful, no friends or family
Riddrym is an expert in the crafting of poisons — a skill earned the hardest of ways, through trial and error over many years. This work has left him with numerous burns and scars, all evidence of having been poisoned. His left eye is a milky white, and his right arm is completely covered with lesions from a particularly virulent dose of something experimental.
A talented assassin, Ridrym doesn’t make his coin with contracts. Instead, he chooses a target, administers a dose of poison, and then informs them through a message or intermediary that the antidote can be bought at an exorbitant price. Most of Ridrym’s poisons are bespoke, and should a victim try to find or purchase a cure themselves, there are few, if any, who could help them.
Ridrym is a misanthrope who cares nothing for his victims — if one should dally too long and succumb to his poison, the only thing he regrets is the loss in coin. However, his twisted sense of fair play means that should the victim come through with the payment, they will receive the antidote post-haste.
A Poisonous Trap
This trap can be adjusted so its just powerful enough for your story and style — adjust the DCs higher or lower, and change the poison type and strength until it feels right.
The Rainbow Hall
You turn a tight corner, and find a narrow and colorfully tiled hall, barely 5’ wide, that stretches ahead for twenty feet, ending in a colorfully painted door. The large tiles that cover the walls, floor and ceiling are a dizzying variety of bright colors.
The floor, walls and ceiling of the hallway are covered with 2’6” tiles, (four in every 5’ square). There are at least 16 different colors, and no two tiles of the same color border each other.
The door at the the far end of the hall is painted in horizontal bands of color from top to bottom — indigo, pink, yellow-green, teal, lavender, white, yellow and light blue. Anyone using the hallway to reach the door must step on the corresponding colored tiles in that order, (there will be two in every 5’ section), or a volley of poisoned darts fires from both walls, filling the full 15’ length of the hall with darts.
Anyone in the hall when the darts fire takes 2d4 piercing damage, and must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution save or take an additional 3d6 poison damage.
The wall across from the door is also painted in 8 horizontal stripes — violet, orange, blue, red, black, green, yellow-orange and brown — and the corresponding tiles must be stepped on, in order, to pass from the door to the wall without setting off the darts.
If inspecting the walls, a DC 18 Perception check will reveal small holes hidden in the seams between tiles. There are many such holes, ranging from floor to ceiling. The darts can fire twenty times before having to be refilled.
20 Names of…Rare Poisons
Below are 20 new poisons for your game. I also added a type (contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury) and a result (damage, death, paralysis, sleep, etc.) — ignore or adjust them to fit your style/game/world.
The Quipper’s Belch (inhaled, nausea and poisoned condition)
Grogbottle Dregs (ingested, sleep)
Heffran’s Boils (injury, damage)
The Cuffs (contact, paralysis)
Gold Orchid Pollen (inhaled, death)
Bloodfire Resin (injury, damage)
Lullabye Drops (contact, sleep)
The Sour (ingested, poisoned condition)
Sawbone’s Helper (inhaled, sleep)
Five Times Wurst (ingested, death)
Uncle Knuckles (contact, damage)
Sliversaw (injury, damage)
Blackjack Gas (inhaled, paralysis)
Filbert’s Fiddle (injury, sleep)
Gripe Juice (ingested, nausea and poisoned condition)
The Boiler (injury, disease)
Angry Nightshade (inhaled, death)
Marauder’s Milk (ingested, damage and poisoned condition)
Uncle Fumble (injury, paralysis)
Five Finger Death Punch (ingested, death)
Brainstorming Links
You probably already know about the folks below, who are real inspirations to me, but if not, do yourself a favor and check them 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 amazing newsletters with more great ideas, advice and news about RPGs.
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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 the Partiful app. 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
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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! I’m currently stuck at mid-gold in Standard, but if you want to play, find me at BigKahuna (#1802)
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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.
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