TOPIC: Thank You for V30 Ymir's Icy Maw

Once again Thank You to Grunnel, CPN, the NPC’s, Golems, Coaches (Yancey and Natasha), Innkeepers, the DM’s, Behind the scenes folks—Troy, Matthew and any others for bringing a fun-filled weekend of adventure to the hundreds of TD Adventurers this past weekend. It was a fun-filled weekend of puzzle-solving and combats.

Thank you to Lori and Jeff for creating an immersive atmosphere of fun and adventure as well as giving the reins to others for the Virtual True Dungeon (VTD) activities. The ability to make choices in the dungeon—puzzle or combat—is a popular aspect for the adventurers. Having some statistics analyzed to determine what happens to an NPC in future events is intriguing and adds to the speculation on future episodes.

The Combats were again filled with interesting foes with abilities that made it fun when dealing with them in combat. In my runs it took three to four rounds of combat to vanquish them. The Puzzle Rooms were again solvable but took some effort. Puzzle solutions were changed from day to day which makes for additional runs by adventurers more exciting. The additional mini-combats after solving a puzzle are great. They allow the Party of 10 Adventurers some additional activity while they wait for the next room to unfold.

The solving of the new Legendary Token name was unique with the treasure box. However, unveiling the Token Name and ability makes me wonder what and where were the clues in VTD28 and VTD29. What was key to solving it earlier? This adds to the mystique of the adventures. Easter Eggs are always fun and exciting. Congratulations to Alex for being the first to solve it.

A special thank you to Yancey, Natasha, Chris, and Andrew for their smiles and banter in greeting and interacting with the parties. I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to the DM’s for their excellent commentary and flavorful descriptions during the combats. Last but not least the Golems with the Go-Pros are doing a fine job of following directions from the adventurers.

Next is the In-person line of events and the Virtual Patron event—Origins, Patron Event, GenCon, VTD resuming in August, San Japan, and GHC in October. Happy travels to all of my friends and fellow adventurers in 2025 as the Viking tale unfolds.

Thanks John! And agree, thanks to everyone who makes (and continues to make) these weekends possible and enjoyable.

To answer the question about the transmute puzzle - it stemmed from VTD 28 having the 50 GP Runes. Once someone reported the first one, a lot of speculation starting taking off in the forums and even more so on Discord. With all of the runes put in order, the first letter of each rune's name (e.g., Farm) spelled out "NO RUNE YOU FIND WILL EVIL BE IF AREA HAS CIRCLE BE" (this was also on the final puzzle board in room 7 of VTD30). A couple people (though I remember Chris F. doing it first) made mention of it and then in a Trent Talk, Jeff mentioned the transmute would be *possible* to be solved after VTD30. So 29 came and went with no other clues other than Grunnel mentioning in Discord that we need to have STRENGTH to prove we are worthy of Runeheim (paraphrased).

So in VTD30, we had the strength/fort save to open the box, which flashed the runes, and then converted to what action had to take place. Without Grunnel's hint though (for those who aren't on Discord, though Chris F. also posted the hint on the forums), noticing the runes matched the 50 GP runes, you could spell out the solution.

It was really VTD28 for the initial reveal that a chase token exists, Trent Talk to figure out when it would be fully solvable, VTD29 (ish) hint from Grunnel in Discord, and VTD for the final bit (plus realizing Jeff's "here" post was for that purpose).

Hope to see everyone at Origins/GenCon!

Thank you Alex

Yes thanks everyone. VTD30 was really good. Might have been the best VTD yet.

Thank you all to players and other volunteers, this module was great as both player and DM, just nice to give players choices that mattered/affected other parts. The spoiler/hint about an upcoming puzzle room in a previous rooms video was clever as players across multiple groups I DM'd picked up on it. I love hearing that 'i got it' moment when players are rewarded for feeling clever. It's an emotional payoff for me as as a Vol.