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DDAL00-05 Winter's Splendor (5e)

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You’re invited to the Midwinter Gala in the City of Splendors!

Among the jovial festivities, a sinister mystery waits to be unwrapped.

A two-hour holiday adventure for 1st – 4th level characters.

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Reviews (21)
Discussions (25)
Customer avatar
Max J February 25, 2022 10:32 pm UTC
How much work has to be done to modify this for a lvl 6 party?
Customer avatar
Chiyi T February 13, 2022 3:45 pm UTC
3.5 stars, a solid adventure, we had lots of fun, kudos to the beautiful art inside. I would give it four stars however I found the information layout hard to navigate mid-game even having taken notes and read it in detail beforehand. A few more callouts for major hooks or clues would be good. Ex) I had to dig in the text in order to realize that the book page is erroneously available from both the Imp on the stage and balled up in the child's hands.

My group tends to reason things out in a very logical fashion, so I had to amend this one shot in a few ways to ensure the inner logic was extra smooth. I had the group meet and become friendly with Aria's band in the winter market (they exchanged polite favors, played a small prank on my group and started drinking together) to guarantee that they would jump into action or even be backstage when XXX goes down during the performance. This turned out to be a good way to introduce the Song that needed fixing as a backburner issue for them to gain favor...See more
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Can U December 30, 2021 8:56 pm UTC
How come there is a train set in one of the children's toy boxes? Trains exists in Faerun?
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Shu Qing T May 16, 2019 12:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I played and eventually ran this as my first game as DM. I liked how it captures the spirit of the festive season and it is well-written. It does not claim to be everything for everyone but does what it purports to do well. I find that this offers a good opportunity for role play, both from a player and DM perspective. My players loved the role play aspect!
Whilst there is not that much combat, the big boss battle can be scaled to improve the challenge for higher level Tier 1 players. My players are quite insistent on exploring "no go" areas of the family house and the cemetery. Whilst both are not extensively covered in the module, it would be nice if a few more rooms to explore can be put in to satisfy the exploration aspect without giving away too much of the Waterdeep HC spoilers, if only as red herrings. All in, I loved this little adventure and would heartily recommend it.
Customer avatar
Francis C March 30, 2019 2:07 am UTC
Why is this being sold for $5.00 when you can download it for free from the WOTC website? Does this version have something extra special in it? Link here: https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/dragon/23/DRA23_WintersSplendor.pdf
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Francis C March 30, 2019 2:23 am UTC
My mistake! I didn't see at first that this purchase supports the "Extra Life" project.
Customer avatar
Peter T February 06, 2019 10:45 pm UTC
5* rating, the system does not led me put down a review in the reviews section.

The adventure captures the festive season.
The start is good, drawing the PCs into the story and a way to form a group without the "inn setting".
Some of the side tracks need a bit of juggling by the GM, esp., the song writing. I really liked the idea, but for some it might not work.

The second side adventure is nice and can a lot of roleplay to it.


Overall, nice adventure, can be run fast, challenges at the right level, at least for APL1.
Customer avatar
Patrick B February 01, 2019 3:57 am UTC
Winter’s Splendor --- DDAL00-05


<spoilers>



Background: This year’s Midwinter Gala is held in Waterdeep’s glamorous Sea Ward. The festivities include a bustling outdoor holiday market and special performances at the CASSALANTER VILLA, which the Cassalanters have graciously opened to the public for the duration of the holiday.

The pleasant atmosphere is tainted when an aasimar opera singer is attacked by a tiny fiend that seemingly appears out of nowhere. The City Watch shuts down the event, holding guests in the villa for questioning until the culprit can be identified.

The villa is full of Waterdeep’s most prominent citizens and a family with a secret so dark they’ll do anything to protect it. The players will have to make several investigation and persuasion checks to uncover clues and unlock secrets.

An eventual search of the daughter’s bedroom and analysis of a children’s folk tale will reveal the devils...See more
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PHILLIP D January 27, 2019 12:00 am UTC
Do we have an official answer about A Gift of Golden Wings for AL games? Is it a story award or unlocked, and for how many TP?
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Customer avatar
Allan T February 08, 2019 5:24 pm UTC
there is guidance about this in the Content Catalog.
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PHILLIP D February 19, 2019 4:13 am UTC
Great! Thank you!
Customer avatar
Brian H January 15, 2019 9:31 pm UTC
Its a well written adventure. i would say that i think the creator was confused about Imps and mistook their personalities with Quasits. also i did like the fact that Blinsky was mentioned in the mod but it felt like a cliche easter egg and i dont get the motive for it being here. still a fun read through. cant wait to run this at PAX South. gonna set up some spooky sounds for the final fight.
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Customer avatar
Brian H January 15, 2019 9:46 pm UTC
Also a enduring Spellbook is mentioned but not on the list of unlockables is it assumed that the characters cant ask the Casslanters to have one made fore them or where they got it? why have it be found but not unlock it? am i missing something?
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Customer avatar
Jason J January 24, 2019 4:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
It was brought up in one of the AL articles that the spellbook is, in fact, unlocked if the players find it.
Customer avatar
Jay G January 04, 2019 12:21 am UTC
Back in my younger days playing an adventure over the Christmas break was a regular tradition for my gaming group. I hadn't done it in years until I happened upon Winter's Splendor in Dragon+

My group and I really enjoyed the adventure. It was nice to do something that was a bit heavier in role-playing and lighter in terms of actual combat.

I ran three 1st level PCs through the adventure and they found the combats they ended up in a reasonable challenge but I can see how if you were running a larger group or level 3 or 4 PCs through the adventure you would want to adjust the encounters accordingly.

I'm really hoping to see more 'thinking' adventures in the near future.

Thanks for giving us a great fun session!
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Customer avatar
Jay G January 06, 2019 2:41 am UTC
Just thought to add this after my initial comment. These are 2 of the 3 PC models we used for the game. Just thought I'd share :)

https://worlds-in-conflict.blogspot.com/2019/01/one-shot-pcs.html
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Customer avatar
Jay G January 06, 2019 4:11 pm UTC
Last follow up :) I took some (poorly lit) pictures of two of my baddies for the adventure.

https://worlds-in-conflict.blogspot.com/2019/01/satanic-panic-2019-edition-sorry-not.html
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Customer avatar
Ashley W January 07, 2019 2:09 am UTC
These are awesome, Jay! Thanks for sharing! :)
Customer avatar
Rune V January 03, 2019 1:47 pm UTC
With regard to inner logic, this is probably the worst adventure I have ever read. We couldn't see any reason our character should get into the position dictated in the transition from episode 1 to episode 2, and there simply was not sufficient reason to motivate the insane risk the characters would have to face with the transition from episode 2 to episode 3 (Even looking away from that none in our group were in a position to get the only little piece of information that might work as motivation). That being said, my first time playing wife liked the play trough of the first 2 episodes, so the module isn't all bad at least. I am just surprised to not see anyone else seeming to be bothered by these in my eyes glaring short commings. (I am also a bit sad that there are hardly any attention given at all to what set the events in this adventure in motion. A question I think would be quite obvious for curious characters to try to pursue, even if it might be outside the scope of the immediate threat)
Customer avatar
Ben C January 02, 2019 6:14 pm UTC
Enjoyed playing this with my online roll20 group. Thanks for the module, Ashley!
Just for fun, I made a tiny map for the final battle in City of the Dead.
Link is here, if other DMs want to use it: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14i47Nfdy5qYObDc5zdUrp4FH4HdSYHre
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Customer avatar
Ashley W January 02, 2019 8:59 pm UTC
Thank you, Ben! The map is lovely and I'm glad you enjoyed the adventure!
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Customer avatar
PHILLIP D January 27, 2019 12:03 am UTC
This is great and I'll be using it for my current game! Thanks!
Customer avatar
Frank H December 30, 2018 9:20 pm UTC
As another thing that I just noticed when looking for the Pseudodragon stats for the new familiar, well, this kind of creates a major advantage since the MM sidebar for Pseudodragons as familiars kind of creates a mess with magic resistance and the far larger telepathy range...
Customer avatar
Frank H December 30, 2018 7:32 pm UTC
Played through it and had a lot of fun despite having a character in the party that decided to try disrupting parts of the flow...teifling bards not liking the fact that there's an aasimar bard, go figure.

But this does lead to an immediate question, does the Enduring Spellbook work for as a Ritual Book as well for those with the Ritual Caster feat?
Customer avatar
D\\\'Arcy A December 28, 2018 4:48 am UTC
PURCHASER
Ran this for my group for christmas, they had a great time plenty of room for roleplay and the puzzle was challenging but did not slow them down thanks for making this.
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Customer avatar
Ashley W December 28, 2018 5:27 pm UTC
It's great to hear you and your group enjoyed it. Thanks, D'Arcy! :)
Customer avatar
Matthew Z December 28, 2018 2:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
Great module! Highly recommend for a holiday-themed oneshot. Works well for any group, from newbies to experts.
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Customer avatar
Ashley W December 28, 2018 5:26 pm UTC
Thank you, Matthew! Glad you enjoyed it!
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