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- I Cast...Brainstorm issue 23!
I Cast...Brainstorm issue 23!
A weekly newsletter of ideas and advice for D&D Dungeon Masters, players, and fans
Dave Palmer
September 12th, 2025
In partnership with
This week — A City Location for Healing and Gossip, and a New Spell
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 great week of gaming has me excited for our next sessions, both for my in-person Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign and my online Vecna game.
The Rime game had a great moment that was a mix of by-the-book and homebrew — a really fun improvisational role-playing encounter with the creepy denizens of one of the Ten-Towns. It felt like I set the mood well, (trying for a Lovecraftian “old ones” vibe), and then made some moves as the townsfolk, eager to see how the players would react. They made great (and surprising!) moves, too, and the end of the encounter felt like it had closure and a really satisfying resolution…to me, anyway. I’ll ask the players at some point if they felt the same.
A robust, character-driven role-playing encounter, nestled in between some old-school hack’n’slash dice rolling, is a great way to add variety and depth to a game. May your games this week be full of surprising, improvisational fun!
A City Location for Healing and Gossip
Larger cities in your game-world may have a hospital where doctors treat diseases and nurses tend to wounds, or a temple dedicated to god of healing, where clerics manipulate the weave on behalf of the injured for a price.
The following location is too small to be considered a hospital, and mostly caters to a less wealthy clientele, although those with coin to spend also visit Uncle Sawbones when they need their visit and condition to be kept secret.
The Spell and Suture
Frennid Capsaw opened the small healing clinic named the Spell and Suture so long ago that townsfolk who were treated there as children now return to have the grizzled healer attend to their own offspring. Frennid, (Adult LN Priest — gruff, unkempt, observant), is known in the neighborhood as Uncle Sawbones, and is available at all hours to tend to sickness, stitch wounds, and apply herbal poultices as needed. He’s a competent alchemist as well, and sells inexpensive healing elixirs of his own creation, (1d4+1 healing for 1 gp), as well as more powerful varieties.
Frennid is keenly observant, and keeps his eyes and ears open to pick up news fromaround the neighborhood, and throughout the city. His gossipy nature is well known, and folks often visit just to ask for the truth of things they’ve heard whispers of. Uncle Fennid’s more wealthy and secretive clients, however, who often want to keep their presence in the city a secret, as well as the particular type of wounds the healer has treated, know that for a premium price ol’ Uncle Sawbones will never utter a word that he saw them.
Frennid knows that spilling his clients’ secrets would be bad for business, and ultimately for his own health, should any lapse of discreteness get back to his more violent patrons.
Create a random list of general city gossip and rumors for Frennid to know, should your PCs visit, mixed with adventure hooks and plot details as appropriate for your game.
A New Control Spell
Originally created by the Archpriest Ayo Pretarus for the Constable Priests of Kal Kayden, this spell has spread across the realms, a favorite of spell casters who find they sometimes need to make ruffians to keep their hands to themselves.
Spectral Shackles
Level 2nd-level Abjuration
Casting Time 1 action
Range Touch
Components V, S
Duration Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
You touch a humanoid which must succeed on a Strength saving throw or have its arms bound by a pair of force shackles, behind its back. Being shackled in this way prevents the target from making weapon attacks, or casting spells with somatic components, though it can still make unarmed attacks with its feet or head.
The caster can choose to shackle the target's legs instead, which reduces the target's move speed to 0’, (any flying speed is unaffected).
On it's subsequent turns, the target can use its Action to attempt to break free of the shackles with a Strength (Athletics) check — the DC equal to the caster’s spell save DC +5.
At Higher Levels: Casting this spell with a 3rd-level or higher slot allows you to target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd, provided they are within 20 feet of the target you touch.
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
We just ended our Curse of Strahd campaign via Roll20 using 2014 5th edition rules, and will transition into another campaign soon.
A weekly Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, in-person, with 2024 5th edition rules — the PCs just investigated Id Ascendent and then ran into some trouble at the Stones of Thruun.
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, and 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
Vecna: Eve of Ruin as Clybb Thistlebridge, a 9th level Halfling great-weapon Fighter
If you play Hearthstone, find me at BigKahuna (#1802)
Also, I just purchased all the gold-box D&D CRPGs via Humble Bundle, so I guess I’ll do a deep dive into those soon!
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
I Cast…Brainstorm! subscribers can save 10% off everything in the store.
If you have an online store that sells D&D or TTRPG themed things, let me know — I’d love to add it here.
What Do You Think?
How do you like I Cast…Brainstorm! so far? What’s working for you? What would you like to see more of? Or less of, or done in a different way? How’s the layout? Please let us know at [email protected]
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
