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- I Cast...Brainstorm issue 9!
I Cast...Brainstorm issue 9!
A weekly newsletter of ideas and advice for D&D Dungeon Masters, players, and fans
Dave Palmer
June 6th, 2025
This week — A deadly room, a new magic item, and more game 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...
A Deadly Room
Designing tricky rooms for dungeons or villain lairs has been one of my favorite things about D&D since I was a kid! Admittedly, as I’ve gotten older, my designs have gotten less bloodthirsty for bloodthirsty’s sake, but an encounter that rewards careful players, with the potential to scare the pantaloons off them, too? Fun times!
A Mirror Into the Past
This is a simple room that clever players can “solve”. It can also turn into a bloodbath or a social encounter — whatever fits best in your world and story.
When the PCs open the door to the room, you can read or paraphrase the following:
The door opens onto a set of stairs that descends into a huge room, thirty feet wide and eighty feet long. Flickering lanterns are arranged along the wood-paneled walls, illuminating dozens of framed portraits. On the far wall something large has been loosely covered with black cloth.
There are twenty-four portraits on the walls, (twelve on each side), and each bears a brass plaque at the bottom of the frame with a name and a year. The years go back for hundreds of years, or more. Most of the portraits depict grim and powerful-looking warriors, although a few look like scholars or clerics.
The people in the portraits are all ancestors of the NPC who owns the room — choose names and years that fit your campaign and world, (the years are birth years). The oldest and largest portrait is in the middle of the right-hand wall. It bears a plaque with a name and year at the bottom, and a DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check will also notice words carved into the top of the frame like so:
• • • • • • • Family • • • • • • •
Bravery • Tenacity • Honesty
The cloth on the far wall is black silk, and loosely tossed over something attached to the wall — any contact or physical examination of the cloth will cause it to slide off, revealing an impressive 10’x10’ mirror framed in shining silver. The mirror is bolted to the center of the wall, and the ornamental frame includes words along the bottom, inlaid in gold, which read “Recite the credo, or face the past.”
The mirror is enchanted, and can’t be removed from the wall. Any creature who looks into the mirror not only sees themselves and the room as normal, but they also see the room is filled with two dozen phantom warriors (or some other undead creature that will challenge your players) — the ancestors from the portraits. The ghostly warriors stand near their respective portraits, intensely watching the viewer of the mirror. Once they’re seen in the mirror, the ancestors become visible to the viewer and anyone else in the room.
The viewer can turn to face the room, and as long as they don’t move away from the mirror, the ancestors do nothing but watch. To pass freely out of the room, however, the viewer must recite the clan credo: “Bravery, tenacity, honesty, but family above all”. The clue to the credo is carved at the top of the frame of the oldest portrait. If the credo isn’t recited before the viewer takes a step away from the mirror, the warriors attack, believing the viewer and anyone else in the room are intruders who must be destroyed.
If the credo is recited by the creature who looked in the mirror, (even after the warriors have attacked), all of the ancestors fade away and disappear, except for the oldest ancestor, who bows to the viewer, and says” “Welcome home.” The oldest ancestor will remain visible as long as the viewer is in the room, and will answer any questions about the history of the clan.
If the ancestors attack and the PCs manage to flee back up the stairs and through the door without reciting the credo, the warriors will not leave the room, and only fade away after twenty four hours has passed with no intruders to attend to.
A New Magic Item
Sometimes a player will have a character concept in mind that includes a particular weapon, like my clumsy halfling fighter who uses a glaive that’s much too large for him, or a weapon they acquired in some way that’s woven into their backstory, (a great-axe passed down from an elder, for example). When a PC has a favorite weapon early in the game, the weapon can become under-powered as the characters level up, especially if its not magical, since many higher CR monsters are resistant to non-magical attacks in D&D.
As a DM, instead of dropping more powerful versions of the same type of weapon for the character to find, or forcing them to alter their concept by having to change to a different weapon, I can just drop a magic item that upgrades the weapon they have — like the Pommel Wrap of Triumph. You can create other magical wraps (or gems, or runes) that add special abilities or other enhancements — the speed quality, for instance — so that over the course of the campaign the character will have a suitably powerful and thematic weapon that perfectly fits their concept.
Pommel Wrap of Triumph
Wondrous item, uncommon
When this roll of enchanted leather is touched to the pommel of any non-magical melee weapon, it wraps itself perfectly around the pommel, and makes the weapon a +1 weapon.
The user can change the color of the Pommel Wrap of Triumph at will.
Game Hooks
More game hooks to add to the lore of your world, or beguile your players!
Serious
There was a meteor storm a ten-day ago, and not a soul has been seen in the Village of Aylbar since.
Spooky
One of the PCs wakes in the middle of the night to see a hulking dark shadow with glowing red eyes watching from just a few feet away. “Is it time,” the creature asks in a whisper. It then tilts its head inquisitively. “No…” it whispers. “Not yet. I will ask twice more,” and then it disappears in a burst of shadow.
Silly
A traveling merchant who claims to sell the fiercest and most deadly of guard-animals just had her cart stolen, and is offering 1000 gp to anyone who can help her retrieve the five animals that were inside. She has a drawing of one of the beasts that she shows to anyone nearby — a drawing of the smallest, cutest baby bunny the PCs have ever seen.
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://www.thearcanelibrary.com
DnDSpeak — an astounding volume of great ideas and the d100 lists are perfection
https://www.dndspeak.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
These are some of my favorite newsletters, which you might like, 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
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!
Ye Olde Shoppe
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.
What Do You Think?
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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
