Lesser bloodwights are either the pupa-like clone-spawn of true bloodwights or the first stage of recovery for a bloodwight who has been reduced to a desiccated state.

The Crimson Sheen. The signature of the bloodwights is the sheen of blood which they cause to erupt on the skin of the living. They are so inimical to life, that mortal flesh erupts in a hemorrhagic rejection of their presence. But the bloodwight itself thirsts for the warmth and energy of life, their limbs growing sleek and supple in its presence.

The sheen notably does not require line of sight, allowing bloodwights to lurk in sealed up attics or glide through city sewers. There are tyrants who have been known to wall up lesser bloodwights in oubliettes, into which can be thrown doomed prisoners.

Blood-Damned Nests. Bloodwights have a strong nesting influence, constructing mounds from whatever material may be at hand (furniture in mortal dwellings, detritus in ruins, leaves or fallen trees in forests, and so forth).

There may be a hunting component to this behavior, as the bloodwights can lay hidden within a nest while nevertheless feasting on any living creatures who pass by. In some cases, those excavating these nests have found them to be connected to other nests in the same area through shallow tunnels.

BLOODWIGHT, LESSER

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 14

Hit Points 45 (6d8+18)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 14 (+2), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 11 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills Stealth +3, Perception +3

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities poison

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Any

Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

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Bloodsheen. A living creature within 30 feet of a lesser bloodwight must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or begin sweating blood (covering their skin in a sheen of blood). Characters affected by bloodsheen suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus 1 point of damage for each bloodwight within 30 feet. A character is only affected by bloodsheen once per round, regardless of how many bloodwights are present.

Health Soak. A lesser bloodwight within 30 feet of a living creature gains 2 hit points per round. A lesser bloodwight benefiting from health soak will gain hit points even after their normal maximum number of hit points has been reached, up to a maximum of 66 (the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die).

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ACTIONS

Multiattack. Lesser bloodwights make two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage.

Blood Welt. When a creature is struck by a lesser bloodwight’s claw attack, they must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer a blood welt. A blood welt bleeds for 1 point of necrotic damage per round. The victim can repeat the saving throw at the beginning of each turn, ending the effect of all current blood welts on a successful save. Alternatively, the bleeding can be stopped with a DC 14 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

True bloodwights are among the deadliest of the undead banes, capable of achieving power to rival even the most potent liches. If they become trapped and unable to feed, however, their blood-drenched flesh dries to desiccated husks; their desperate and unquenched need for living energy driving them first to madness and then to near-brainlessness.

Shambling Gait. When adventurers first encounter a desiccated bloodwight, they’ll often drawn the wrong conclusion. The shambling gait and limited actions of a desiccated bloodwight are likely to leave them thinking that they’re facing common zombies.

Bloodsheen. The first indication that something is wrong will come when they start sweating blood and their skin becomes coated with a scarlet sheen. As the blood drips from them, it will pool on the floor and flow towards the desiccated corpses which grow in strength with every passing moment.

Transformation. When a desiccated bloodwight has drained enough energy from the living, it will transform into a lesser bloodwight. Its dry skin will crack open as the undead horror literally tears itself out of its own body. The thing which emerges is a glistening mass of raw muscle, pulsing with thick veins of crimson-black blood. Its fang-like teeth glitter as its mouth parts in a ghastly, hissing smile…

BLOODWIGHT, DESICCATED

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 8

Hit Points 22 (3d8+9)

Speed 20 ft.

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STR 12 (+1), DEX 8 (-1), CON 16 (+3), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills Stealth +1

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities poison

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Any

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

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Bloodsheen. A living creature within 30 feet of a desiccated bloodwight must succeed at a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or begin sweating blood (covering their skin in a sheen of blood). Characters affected by bloodsheen suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus 1 point of damage for each bloodwight within 30 feet. A character is only affected by bloodsheen once per round, regardless of how many bloodwights are present.

Health Soak. A desiccated bloodwight within 30 feet of a living creature gains 2 hit points per round. A desiccated bloodwight benefiting from health soak will gain hit points even after their normal maximum number of hit points has been reached, up to a maximum of 33 (the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die). If a desiccated bloodwight reaches the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die, they benefit from a restorative transformation (see below). If a desiccated bloodwight with more than their normal maximum number of hit points is no longer within 30 feet of a living creature, they will lose 1 hit point per minute until they return to their normal maximum number of hit points.

Restorative Transformation. A desiccated bloodwight who reaches the maximum number of hit points per Hit Die as a result of their health soak ability is transformed into a lesser bloodwight as a bonus action. From that point forward, the desiccated bloodwight is treated as a lesser bloodwight in all respects.

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ACTIONS

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) bludgeoning damage.

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Design Note: Bloodwights originally appeared in my 3E adventure The Complex of Zombies, which reinvented the typical cannon fodder zombie of fantasy roleplaying as a terrifying monster of horror commensurate with its cultural cachet. You can read some behind the scenes commentary here.

The Art of the Key breaks down how you can organize and format the room keys in your dungeon to make them easy to prep and run. But what do you actually put in the key? What do you fill your dungeon rooms with?

Every dungeon is a unique snowflake, but my general process is:

1. Make a list of ideas. “Section of dungeon that looks like a Mongolian temple,” “dracolisk hatchery,” etc. Often this is just a list of cool/necessary rooms that I want to include, riffing on the general theme or purpose of the dungeon. (You can use techniques like the Goblin Ampersand to juice a basic concept and help spur your creativity.)
2. Draw the dungeon map, making sure to include all the cool ideas. (This will often involve combining multiple ideas into a single area to make them cooler in combo.)
3. Flesh out the key.

“Fleshing out the key” covers a variety of sins, but our key tip today for making awesome dungeon rooms is to avoid having rooms that are just one thing*.

It’s not just the room with the goblins; it’s the room with the goblins and the bubbling stewpot and the chandelier made from kobold bones.

It’s not just a room with some bookshelves; it’s a room with bookshelves, a slate table with a hidden compartment, and a looted rug from the Cambarran Dynasty.

A good rule of thumb here is to include at least three interactive elements (i.e., things that require or reward the players for doing more than just looking at them).

There are a couple reasons why this is good praxis.

First, the interplay between the elements tends to result in gameplay that’s greater than the sum of its parts: A fight with goblins is interesting. A chandelier made from kobold bones is a nice bit of set dressing. Goblins swinging on a bone chandelier during a fight? That’s awesome.

Second, a room with multiple interactive bits (i.e., things that are worth checking out) will encourage the group to split up and all check out different stuff.

Lisa: I’m going to scan the bookshelves for interesting titles.

Roberta: Can I make a History check to learn more about the antique rug?

DM: Go ahead and give me that check. Sandra, what are you doing while they do that?

Sandra: I’ll examine the table in the middle of the room.

If each room just has one thing for the PCs to interact with, you’ll often find the group falling into a routine where one character defaults into being “the guy who checks out the one thing in the room worth checking out.” (Usually the rogue.) If you break that up with multiple, simultaneous interactions, over the course of the dungeon you’ll make it more likely that everyone in the group will feel engaged with the exploration.

* The exception are empty rooms. In my dungeons, empty rooms are rarely truly empty (in the sense of being barren and featureless). Instead, “empty” rooms commonly feature one flavorful thing which does not have a significant interaction. (“Cool mural! Okay, let’s go left.”)

In 5^th Edition, you can take either a short rest or long rest to recover from your adventures.

When taking a short rest a character can:

• Regain and use abilities that indicate they require a short rest (e.g., a warlock’s spell slots).
• Spend Hit Dice, one at a time, to regain hit points (up to their maximum Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level).

When taking a long rest a character with at least 1 hit point can:

• Regain and use abilities that indicate they require a long rest.
• Regain all lost hit points.
• Regain a number of spent Hit Dice equal to half the character’s total number of Hit Dice (minimum 1).
• Reduce their exhaustion level by 1, if they have also ingested food and drink.

Spending Hit Dice. When spending a Hit Die, roll the Hie Die plus the character’s Constitution modifier and restore that number of lost hit points. (This cannot increase the character’s hit points above their maximum hit point value.)

REQUIRED REST TIME

Setting the amount of time required for short rests and long rests will have a significant impact on the tone and balance of your campaign. Use this interval scale to set required rest times:

• 5 minutes / 1 dungeon turn
• 1 hour
• 8 hours
• 1 week
• 1 month

Usually a long rest will be one interval higher on the list than a short rest (e.g., if short rests require 8 hours, then a long rest will require 1 week). You can, of course, increase this gap (e.g., short rests requiring only 5 minutes, but long rests requiring a week). Note, however, that classes rely on different balances between short rests and long rests for using and regaining their abilities. The more divergent the period between short rests and long rests, the more you will tilt the balance to favor one set of classes.

Interrupted Rest: In order to rest, characters can only engage in light activity (eating, drinking, reading, tending wounds, standing watch). If characters engage in strenuous activity (which can include fighting, casting spells, walking for a significant distance, or similar adventuring activity), the required rest period is extended by twice the next lowest interval (or double the rest period if at the lowest rest interval).

(For example, if a rest requires 8 hours and a character casts spells during the rest, their required resting period will increase by 2 hours to a total of 10 hours.)

At the GM’s discretion, each distinct disruption to the rest may additionally extend the required resting period. (For example, if you get into a fight during a rest, it will extend the rest. If you get into another fight later in the rest, the resting period may be extended again.)

Design Note: The standard rules for restarting a disrupted rest are replaced here with rules for extending the rest.

Option – Limited Long Rests. The GM may limit the number of long rests a character can take in a given period. (For example, if long rests require 8 hours, the GM may limit characters to taking only one long rest per day. If a long rest takes 1 week, the GM might only allow long rests every other week.)

Option – Narrative Rest Time. Instead of associating rests with a specific amount of time in the game world, you can instead pace your rests based on the narrative structure of play.

For narrative long rests, it’s recommended that characters benefit from a long rest either at the end of a scenario (for episodic campaigns) or at the completion of a major goal (for multi-threaded campaigns).

For narrative short rests, give the players X number of short rests that they can use during the scenario at any time of their choosing. The number of rests will depend on the length of the scenario. As a rule of thumb, grant one short rest for every 5 encounters in the scenario.

Alternatively, allow the players to take a certain number of short rests per session. (As a rule of thumb, allow one narrative short rest for every two hours of play. This is particularly useful for multi-threaded campaigns where the PCs may be engaging with multiple scenarios simultaneously.)

You may or may not want to require the whole group to take their narrative short rests at the same time.

POOR REST

If a character is resting in poor conditions (too noisy, too cold, a slightly caustic atmosphere, random interruptions, a newborn baby in the house, etc.):

• Double the amount of time required to achieve a short rest.
• When taking long rests, the character must take two long rests (instead of one) to gain the normal benefits of the long rest.

Design Note: The distinction here becomes meaningful when you’re limiting the number of long rests characters can take – e.g., you need to rest 8 hours one night and then 8 hours the next to get a long rest; you can’t just rest for 16 hours straight. It also becomes significant if rests are being interrupted.

LACK OF SLEEP

If you get less than eight hours of sleep in a night, you must succeed at a Constitution saving throw (DC 20 – twice the number of hours you slept) or gain a level of exhaustion. (If this aligns with a long rest, the level of exhaustion is applied after the effects of a long rest.)

Elven Trance. Elves only require four hours of meditation in a night. If they get less than four hours of meditation, they must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 20 – four times the number of hours they meditated) or gain a level of exhaustion.

Jet Lag. If a character rapidly shifts to a different time zone (or the equivalent thereof) due to teleportation, dimensional travel, flying carpet, or jumbo jet, they must make a Constitution saving throw for sleep deprivation even if they get 8 hours of sleep. Once a character succeeds at two consecutive sleep deprivation saving throws, their circadian rhythm has acclimated to the new time zone and they are no longer affected by the jet lag.

If the time zone shifts more than 4 hours or if the destination has a day/night cycle of a different length (or no day/night cycle at all), then the saving throw is made at disadvantage.

Characters using magical or pharmacological aids — like a sleep spell — to force a rest period that’s properly synched with the local time zone gain advantage on the sleep deprivation saving throw due to jet lag.

Taking your shoes off and scrunching your toes into the carpet also grants a +2 bonus on sleep deprivation saving throws due to jet lag. This bonus rises to +4 if you happen to do it during a terrorist attack.

(If you’re the sort who doesn’t like dragons passing like an express train and bursting over Bywater, you might choose to refer to this as “dimensional wildering” or “teleport lag.”)

CIRCADIAN EFFECTOR

1^st-level enchantment (Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 10 minutes or instantaneous

When cast on a character suffering from jet lag, circadian effector immediately removes the effects of jet lag. (It has no effect on other forms of exhaustion.)

If cast on a sleeping character, circadian effector immediately acclimates the character to their current time zone. If used in this way, the effect is instantaneous (which means it does not wear off and cannot be dispelled, although a character can be subjected to fresh jet lag if they move to yet another time zone).

The spell can also be used to induce the effects of jet lag on a character not currently suffering from it for the duration of the spell (Constitution saving throw negates). Or, if cast on a sleeping character, the spell acclimates them to a time zone of the caster’s choice as an instantaneous effect (presumably causing them to suffer from jet lag in their current time zone).

OPTIONAL RULE: NATURAL HEALING

When using the natural healing optional rule, characters do not automatically recover all of their hit points at the end of a long rest. Instead, long rests, just like short rests, allow a character to expend Hit Dice (including the Hit Dice they just recovered).

OPTIONAL RULE: RESTING IN ARMOR

Resting in light armor counts as a single interruption to the rest period (extending the required rest period accordingly).

Resting in heavy armor is considered resting in poor conditions.

OPTIONAL RULE: LONG RESTS & DOWNTIME

Under this optional rule, downtime activities do not count as strenuous activity for the purposes of interrupting rest.

Alternatively, the GM might prep a specific list of allowed downtime activities. (Although it should be noted that many downtime activities are already allowed under the guidelines for interrupting rest. It’s only necessary to implement this rule if you are allowing downtime activities which might otherwise interrupt rest.)

Design Note: The goal of this rule is to encourage the use of downtime activities. If long rests require 1 week and more or less the only thing characters can do with that time are downtime activities, that will almost certainly guarantee a lot of downtime activities being used in your campaign.

Special thank to the Alexandrian Discord crew for their invaluable feedback on this article during its development.

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As written, the key problem with the Eye of the All-Father revelation is that there’s no way for the PCs to discover it for themselves. Instead, they just kind of bumble around in Phase 3 until the giant Harshnag shows up, tells them what they “should” have been doing this whole time, and then joins the group as a vastly overpowered GMPC who pretends to be only semi-competent in combat so that he doesn’t make the PCs feel inferior. (That’s literally text, see p. 120.)

Here’s how you fix that:

1. The PCs learn what the Eye of the All-Father is.
2. They find out where it is.

These two steps can happen simultaneously, but if they’re separated, then the first step will make the PCs appreciate the significance of the second step when it happens.

The big change we’re going to make here is inverting Harshnag’s role in the campaign. Instead of showing up at the end of Phase 3 and telling the PCs where the railroad tracks are, we’ll trigger the encounter with Harshnag early in the campaign. (Perhaps he’s traveling in Zephyros’ Tower, p. 32.) And what he says is: “I’m trying to find the Eye of the All-Father, the true location of which has been lost for many generations of giants. (Insert a bunch of lore about the Eye of the All-Father here.) If you learn anything about it, please send word to me via Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep.” (Although this is not mentioned in Storm King’s Thunder, Harshnag is a member of Force Grey, an elite strike force commanded by the Blackstaff that enforces the laws that Waterdeep’s normal watch cannot.)

If the PCs now locate the Eye of the All-Father and decide to contact Harshnag, THEY’RE the essential players (pun intended). The more awesome Harshnag is, the more awesome they are for having helped him.

THE EYE OF THE ALL-FATHER EXISTS

• Harshnag’s Quest. The giant Harshnag (p. 118) is seeking the Eye of the All-Father and asks the PCs to send word to the Blackstaff in Waterdeep if they discover the lost location of the Eye.
• Frost-Touched Monolith (Triboar). In the courtyard of the Frost-Touched Frog, there is a stone sarsen that stands about nine feet high. Written in Dethek characters in a Giant (Jotun) language is the message, “Here are the lands of the Hill Giants. Decreed as Law by the Eye of the All-Father. Let no small folk enter here, or they shall find our stomachs are their final destination.” The stone was once one that marked the territory around Grudd Haug, but was removed a generation ago by treasure-seekers and brought to Triboar, where Alatha Riversword, the former proprietress of the Frost-Touched Frog, accepted it as payment for a bar debt on a lark.
• Dwarf’s Quest (Citadel Adbar/Citadel Felbarr). The kings and queens of these dwarven fortresses know the legends of the Eye of the All-Father and that it exists somewhere in the Spine of the World. They suggest that the PCs might want to seek it out.
• Gwent’s Advice (Ironmaster). If the PCs are following Augrek Brighthelm’s quest from Bryn Shander (p. 42) and meet with Gwent Brighthelm, he will suggest that they might seek out the Eye of the All-Father. (His information is rather vague: The dwarves know it was a site in the Spine of the World which was of importance to the giants in ages past, and “perhaps they are using it as a command center now.” He does not know the exact location.)
• Deadstone Cleft – Area 14: Temple. Add Where lies the Eye of the All-Father? To Kayalithica’s Questions, p. 153. (She has not received an answer.)
• Claugiyliamatar (Kryptgarden Forest), p. 96. If the PCs enter Kryptgarden Forest, the green dragon flies out of her lair and informs them the Eye of the All-Father can tell them “what must be done to end the giant menace.”

Note: Claugiyliamatar lies at the end of a short quest line which originates in Goldenfields (p. 52). Naxene Drathkala sends the PCs to a dragon expert in Waterdeep, who then sends them to the Kryptgarden Forest to look for the green dragon.

THE LOCATION OF THE EYE OF THE ALL-FATHER

• Questioning Cartographers (Waterdeep). Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara, the cloud giant cartographers who visit Waterdeep while the PCs are there (p. 113), have tentatively identified the location of the Eye of the All-Father. They have not yet gone there, but it’s on their list of places to visit (and confirm if their hypothesis is correct).
• Svardborg – Area 4D: Narthex. The ceiling of this building is decorated with a faded mural depicting the peaks of the Spine of the World. (Artistically it makes it look as if the narthex were the root from which these mountains had grown.) Anyone inspecting the mural will note that the peaks have been individually labeled with their names, some of them archaic and/or peculiar to giant nomenclature. One of them is “the Eye of the All-Father,” and indicates the location of the temple.
• Questioning Hekaton. Hekaton knows the location of the Eye of the World, a secret that was passed down to him from his forefathers. (He never had a chance to pass that knowledge onto his daughters, although you might hide a scroll containing the knowledge somewhere within the King’s Tower in Maelstrom, p. 214.)
• Questioning Iymrith. Iymrith knows the location of the Eye of the World. This fact is alluded to in a letter Iymrith sent to Nym (see Finding Hekaton revelations, below). Iymrith might also reveal this information if he ends up allied with the PCs; or if he thinks that seeking the temple might distract them. (You could add the lore book from which he learned it to Iymrith’s Trove, p. 229.)
• Claugiyliamatar (Kryptgarden Forest), p. 96. If the PCs enter Kryptgarden Forest, the green dragon flies out of her lair and informs them the Eye of the All-Father can tell them “what must be done to end the giant menace.”

Note: The players might choose to take a more proactive approach to finding the Eye of the All-Father, rather than simply waiting to stumble across the information. For example, they might head to Candlekeep to do research, attempt castings of legend lore, ask the Blackstaff to consult the spirits of the former Blackstaffs to see if any of them knew the secret before it was lost, or any number of other possibilities. Generally speaking, if they put some effort into this, pay it off by either revealing the location or by pointing the PCs towards one of the clues above. (For example, they might discover that Iymrith stole a book of lore about the Eye of the All-Father from Candlekeep. Or learn that the information would have been encoded in the murals on the ceilings of Ostorian shrines.)

Go to Part 3D: Concept Revelations