Hi folks,
I've been meaning to start a thread recounting my experiences DMing for my wife and another couple who are friends of ours. Only one of them has any prior experience with RPGs and it was a long time ago, so they were all pretty green when we first started. I've been running the Starter Set Lost Mine adventure, and I've been pleasantly surprised by how much they've gotten into it.
To start with, the PCs are:
Roscoe, pregen halfling rogue
Valanthe, pregen elf wizard
Kerri, pregen human noble fighter
Travok, pregen dwarf cleric
My wife plays the wizard, and I've been running the cleric as an NPC ally.
Session #1
I altered the opening scene slightly so that there was a log blocking the road with a goblin sitting on it. The other goblins were hidden in the trees to either side. I also had an NPC driving the cart for the PCs. My original plan was to have him get shot by an arrow to announce the start of the ambush, but I ended up not doing that on the day (not entirely sure why). Roscoe was the boldest and ended up taking the most damage, but the group managed to make short work of the goblins and even took one of them prisoner.
They found the trail, but only explored it a short way before deciding to head to Phandalin (they were concerned about the supplies in the cart). On the way, they interrogated their prisoner and then handed him over to the town mayor upon arrival. They explored the town quite well, with the player of the halfling making sure his PC kept a low profile so the locals wouldn't see him.
The next day, they marched back to the trail and then followed it up to the cave. They had little trouble with the goblin scouts and wolves (one of which the wizard put to sleep).
Session #2
The PCs headed up the central tunnel of the cavern and headed right, dealing with the goblins and their bugbear leader. I had Klarg leap out from hiding and challenge them, rather than surprise attack them. They tried to talk to him, but it didn't really go anywhere, so he sicced his wolf on the PCs. The dead body of one of the goblins ended up the fire pit, which was rather amusing. Afterwards, they took note of the stolen supplies.
Session #3
The PCs headed to the western side of the cavern and dealt to the remaining goblins. They took Yeemik alive after negotiations fell through - they brought him the bugbear's head, but he wanted to extort too much money out of them. They managed to keep Sildar from dying and escorted him, along with Yeemik, back to Phandalin. After delivering the goblin to the mayor, they went to the merchant's shop to let her know they'd found her missing items. Upon leaving, they were confronted by a group of the Redbrand ruffians, but Kerri rolled a natural 20 on her intimidate check, frightening them away with a fierce brandishing of her heirloom greataxe.
Session #4
The PCs laid low at Roscoe's aunt's farm until that evening, then went and stole into the Redbrands' hideout via the secret cave Roscoe's nephew had showed him. Sildar accompanied them. The nephew tried to follow them but they jumped him and sent him home. They encountered the nothic and were weirded out by it talking in their heads. It eventually attacked them when they continued to refuse its requests for food and looked as if they were leaving. After killing it, Roscoe climbed down into the crevice, finding a corpse and some nice treasure (no one wanted the magic sword so they gave it to Sildar). They explored a few of the side passages, with Roscoe jamming the locks on all the doors they found to the west.
Session #5
The PCs explored the entirety of the Redbrands' hideout, successfully clearing it out, although Glasstaff got away and they didn't face the bugbears, who are still in their room, unaware the lock on the door has been jammed (not that it'll keep them trapped for long).
My Thoughts
First, I've been pleased with how successful (lucky?) they've been so far ~ a few PCs have gone down but I don't think anyone's ever really been in any danger of dying. I've been keeping both Travok and Sildar as back up muscle, so Roscoe, Kerri and Valanthe have been doing most of the work and the RPing. They're just a few XPs short of reaching 3rd level now.
Second, I've been really impressed with how much they've gotten into their characters. The listed traits have really helped them get their heads around who their characters are and what motivates them. Even though my wife keeps saying she doesn't understand this or that, I've actually felt like she's been doing a fantastic job. I think, in some respects, her not understanding things has actually helped her RPing, as she hasn't had to deal with the more experienced player's issue of trying to keep player knowledge and character knowledge separate. She hasn't got much player knowledge, so she just goes with what she thinks her character would do, which is great!
Cheers,
Jonathan
The pregens were well done and are great to help focus people on role-play. This seemed just as much the strong point of the Starter Set as the adventure (structured sandbox, encouraging roleplay but providing special combats). How'd the water trap play out in the early sessions (or did they avoid it?)
Touc wrote:
Session #6
The PCs decided to search for Cragmaw Castle so they could attempt to rescue their patron, Gundren. They knew the general location of the castle but once they got into the woods, they found that none of them was particularly good at navigating through the dense foliage. At one point, they even had Travok leading them. When he was doing well, he proclaimed that it was just like being underground, but once he had led them astray (again), he decided it was nothing like being underground. At one point, they stopped atop a hill so Roscoe could climb the tallest tree to have a look around. He spotted what looked to be a large clearing to the southeast, so the party headed that way (or attempted to anyway).
As an aside, when they first reached the woods, they stopped for a rest break, and I rolled a random encounter with an ogre. I stated that they heard something large crashing through the woods, so Roscoe went to investigate. His Stealth roll only just beat the ogre's passive Perception, so I said it stopped and sniffed the air but didn't seem to notice him. He successfully crept back to the others and the ogre continued on its way. The PCs wisely did not follow it.
By the time they reached Cragmaw Castle, they'd been on the go for nine hours, and little Roscoe was beginning to feel the effects of all that marching and tree-climbing (he'd failed his forced march Con save and had gained one level of exhaustion), so they retreated back into the forest a short way and set up camp for the night. Kerri took first watch, during which time she overheard a party of goblins passing through the woods nearby. The others were asleep (or trancing, in Valanthe's case) and Kerri managed to keep still enough that the goblins didn't notice her (I threatened to have the dwarf snore and give away their position but the players didn't like that idea ...). The goblins didn't come back the same way, so the PCs were able to rest undisturbed for the rest of the night.
In the morning they crept forward and had a good look at the castle. Roscoe slowly crept all around the treeline in a counter-clockwise fashion. On his return, he proclaimed that there was possibly something of a blind spot in the southeast corner of the castle via which they could approach a staircase in the south wall unseen. As the others followed him back to that spot, Valanthe was able to see - with her better vision - that the arrow slits in the southeast tower had been boarded up, so there was indeed a blind spot there. The PCs managed to creep up on the staircase, and while they could hear ordinary kitchen sounds, as well as the grumbling of goblins, emanating from the arrow slits above the stairs, no one spotted them. Roscoe was able to unlock the iron door at the top of the stairs and the PCs found themselves inside a partially ruined hall.
Going exploring, the PCs decided to leave the goblins on kitchen duty for now and ended up heading to the northeast part of the castle. They encounterd two hobgoblins on guard and Valanthe surprised them with a well-cast sleep spell. Roscoe and Kerri quickly moved in and dispatched the hobgoblins before they could wake up. That was enough XP to bump the PCs up to 3rd level as well, so everyone quickly leveled up their PCs before we called it quits for the night. [At some stage, I intend to institute a rule for my games that you must complete a long rest at the very least before you can level up, but since the players in this group are all still learning, I decided not to bother with that and go with the more video gamey default method of instant leveling.]
My Thoughts
There was no real combat in this session (since Valanthe's sleep spell knocked out both hobgoblins, I didn't bother asking for initiative rolls), but despite that, the PCs made some decent progress and played their characters well. They were cautious but not cowardly. My wife continues to play her wizard in an inquisitive manner, which is great. She also enthusiastically had a look through the 2nd level wizard spells when I told her she could add some to her spellbook. She chose invisibility and Melf's acid arrow, although detect thoughts was also a contender. (She's not really playing her character as particularly evokerish but she didn't want to change when I showed her the other wizard options in the PHB.) So even though the session consisted mostly of getting lost in the woods and doing a little light exploring in the castle, everyone still seemed pretty enthusiastic about things at the end, which was great. I'm looking forward to next session, and not just because of the various surprises lying in wait for them. [Roscoe had a listen at the door to the southeast tower but didn't hear anything ...]
That was a fun read.
I'm curious as to how you are handeling maping. My 4E games were online with maptools or from the Essentials line where I had maps for the players to see. In 5E I've been using my own adventures with maps from map packs or just using my Chessex mat. I still like using minis, so if/when I have a home game with the starter set I'm trying to decide how to map it.
The Board with Life guys had a podcast of them playing TotM style and the DM was describing the Redbands hideout to them. I was getting the impression that the players had no idea where they were and were just taking the DMs word for what they had not explored yet.
MrHotter wrote:
Session #7
I've been a bit slack about posting this. We played a week ago. Anyway, this session saw our brave heroes continue their exploration of Cragmaw Castle.
We picked up with the PCs examining the barred door at the south end of the hobgoblin guard post. Valanthe bent down to have a look through the gap between the door and the floor. Thanks to her darkvision, she was able to see a hulking, bear-like form slumbering in the middle of the ruined tower. They wisely decided to leave the creature alone for now. Going back to the northeastern tower, they could still hear the gruff masculine voice and silky, smooth feminine voice conversing. They decided to leave them alone too, although they found a nice sized rock and wedged it under the door just to be safe.
Heading back west, they popped open the door in the middle of the ruined hall to find a darkened room with a high ceiling. Valanthe immediately felt something tugging at her from within the room, so she cast detect magic and got a ping from inside a small brazier at the north end of the room. The PCs crept in, with Travok casting light so Kerri and Roscoe could see. They found themselves in the antechamber of a chapel, with Valanthe recognizing the religious iconography of several goodly humanoid deities, including her own patron, Oghma. She instinctively knew she had found the desecrated shrine that she had been instructed to cleanse. As she went to examine the brazier, however, her companion Kerri was set upon by a large, tentacled horror that the elf recognized as a grick.
The group fought the foul beast furiously and slew it with great gusto. Valanthe then turned back to the brazier, in which she discovered a gold statuette of an elf. This was the source of the magic she'd detected but she knew she would need more time to examine it closely to know what magic it contained (though she knew it was some kind of divination magic at least).
To the north, two heavy curtains blocked their way. Slowly they crept through and saw the main part of the shrine, complete with an altar covered in a stained cloth. There was also what appeared to be a goblin foot sticking out from behind it [DM Note: The goblin acolytes rolled very poorly on their Stealth checks]. Another fight ensued, with the goblin "priest" and one of his acolytes dying quickly, at which point the third surrendered. While Valanthe knelt down in prayer at the altar to begin the ritual of cleansing, the others dragged their captive back through the curtains and interrogated him. They were able to learn that the beast in the southeast tower was an owlbear. They also learned that there were "lots" more goblins in the castle. ("How many goblins are in the castle?" "One, two, many, lots!")
Ten minutes later, Valanthe's ritual was complete and a wave of cleansing energy swept through the chapel. Those who had been hurt fighting the grick and goblins found their wounds healing.
Soon after, they pushed on through a door in the west wall of the shrine, finding themselves in a storeroom containing slightly more edible foodstocks than in the ruined tower to the east. They also found some bloodstained armor and a sword with the Neverwinter crest on it that they recognized as belonging to Sildar. They decided they'd leave it there for now but would come back and fetch it when they'd finished exploring the castle.
Next they surprised the hobgoblins in the barracks, with Valanthe once again putting them all to sleep while Roscoe and Kerri did the dirty work. While looting the room, Valanthe found an extremely lightweight staff that appeared to be of elven make. While it didn't appear to be magical, she decided she'd take it anyway.
From there, they pressed on down the hall, clearing the goblin sentries from their posts and engaging the goblins in their bunk room in the southwest corner. At one point Valanthe opted to head down a side passage and fell victim to a trap that brought the remains of the ceiling down on top of her. She collapsed under the weight of it, but Travok came to her aid, dragging her out of the rubble and reviving her with the healing magic of his deity.
The PCs fought their way through into the dining area, where a big fat goblin with a cleaver ordered his subordinates to take them out. Roscoe lobbed a flask of oil into the brazier burning in the corner of the room, burning one goblin standing near it. That goblin stopped, dropped, and rolled, which resulted in him being the sole survivor of the attack. He crawled to the eastern door and made a run for the boss' room (the one room the PCs haven't explored yet).
Thoughts
While the castle has a decent layout and good number of ways to approach things, I can't help but shake the feeling that the encounter in King Grol's room is one of those things where everyone in the room is just in stasis, waiting for the PCs to come along. I mean, for how long can that conversation go on? The PCs have been exploring for a while on, especially if you throw in the 10 minutes for the cleansing ritual. At some point, the emissary is going to take Gundren and leave, right?
Also, I was super-chuffed when, the next morning, my wife told me that she hadn't wanted to stop playing! I was all like:
[quote]
Thoughts
While the castle has a decent layout and good number of ways to approach things, I can't help but shake the feeling that the encounter in King Grol's room is one of those things where everyone in the room is just in stasis, waiting for the PCs to come along. I mean, for how long can that conversation go on? The PCs have been exploring for a while on, especially if you throw in the 10 minutes for the cleansing ritual. At some point, the emissary is going to take Gundren and leave, right?
[/quote]
I felt the same way. My players cleared the entire castle and then the cleric (who's a bit of a power-gamer who's still playing 4e in his head) convinced the party to long rest just before exploring that last room. I made it work for me by reminding myself that neither of the people in that room trusts the other and wouldn't leave the other's sight until they had what they were each looking for. So as they're torturing the dwarf for information and he keeps losing consciousness, they're staying put. I did want to have Grol come out and get angry his dinner was taking so long, but I didn't want to set up my players for too easy a fight by splitting up the two baddies (they'd already made irritatingly-short work of my owlbear by forcing it to squeeze through the door after them.
It sounds like your group is right about where mine is (though mine went hideout, castle, and they're now dealing with the Redbrands) in terms of the overall story. I'm excited to hear how things go for you (I'm also DMing LMoP for my wife and some new player friends).
iDied wrote:
My concern is that they're going to go straight to Wave Echo Cave, ignoring all the sidequests until after.
That's not a bad idea! Thanks for sharing it.
Session #8
This session saw our brave heroes confronting the mighty King Grol. It was a near thing for them. Roscoe went round the outside and climbed up the wall to have a peek through one of the arrow slits. He saw a grey-furred bugbear crouched in the far corner with a sword at the throat of the unconscious Gundren, waiting ... He also spotted the room's various accoutrements and the fact that there was a slight ajar door to the north of the main door.
He came back and reported his findings to the others. They then proceeded to unblock the door, although the stone they'd used to wedge the door scraped a bit, and they heard a growl of warning emanate from the far side.
Roscoe yanked the door open and Valanthe stepped forward to cast a sleep spell into the room, but a ferocious wolf leapt out from under the king's bed and snapped at her. Grol himself proceeded to back away towards the far end of the room, while Roscoe charged in and stabbed at the wolf, followed by Kerri, who leapt up onto the table and then leapt back down onto the wolf, slicing its head clean off with her axe.
At this point, with her plan to cast sleep no longer a viable choice in such a small space, Valanthe chose to cast ray of frost on the bugbear king instead. This only served to anger him, and he slashed Gundren's throat with his sword and then cast the dwarf's body onto the burning coals in the brazier.
This in turn made Travok angry, for Gundren is his cousin. He charged in and engaged the bugbear in melee combat but quickly fell to the king's mighty attacks.
Meanwhile, Kerri was surprised with a knife in the back. The mighty warrior fell on top of the dead wolf. Valanthe pulled a potion out of her pack and poured it down Kerri's throat while Roscoe pulled open the door to find a female drow in what appeared to be a ruined bathroom. The two engaged in a brief melee before the drow tumbled past the halfling and reached for something under the king's bed. It appeared to be a rolled up parchment, which she proceeded to dump in the brazier, despite being harrassed by both Roscoe and Valanthe. She then made for the door and escaped out into the woods with Roscoe in hot pursuit. He managed to hurt the drow badly enough that her form seemed to waver, revealing a hairless, blobby grey form underneath. Bewildered, the halfling pulled up short and let her escape rather than go into the woods alone.
Valanthe, meanwhile, was dismayed to see what might be a valuable bit of knowledge going up in smoke, so she rushed over to the brazier and used prestidigitation to snuff out the coals, then scooped the burnt parchment up.
Kerri, having been revived by Valanthe's potion, dusted herself off, found her second wind, and advanced to engage King Grol in melee as Travok was succumbing to his injuries. Having potentially saved the parchment, Valanthe then severely wounded Grol with an acid arrow.
Kerri bravely faced the king, who tried to cut her down with his sword but it was he who was ultimately cut down as Kerri got two crits in two successive rounds of combat. Once the king was dead, Valanthe rushed over to Travok and administered first aid.
After that, the surviving heroes searched the room. Roscoe found a sack under the king's bed containing several hundred silver and electrum coins plus three healing potions. They immediately used two to revive Gundren and Travok but saved the third. Valanthe unrolled the burnt parchment to discover Gundren's map, only to find that it had been ruined beyond usefulness. As for Gundren, although he had regained consciousness, the dwarf was groggy and looked to be in no condition to do much of anything, so the heroes opted to retired to the recently reconsecrated chapel for a short rest.
That is where we ended the session, but the plan for next time is to investigate the tower containing the owlbear, then carry Gundren back to Phandalin using Valanthe's floating disk as a stretcher.
Thoughts
My wife was concerned that she'd done a "bad thing" by going to rescue the map first before going to help Travok. I told her not worry, though, and that part of what makes for a memorable encounter is presenting the players with tough choices. Plus, she was playing into her character's flaw quite nicely, in that she will do "just about anything" in the pursuit of knowledge. I gave her inspiration for that.
Session #9
Having all but cleared out Cragmaw Castle and rescued Gundren, there was just one thing left to do: deal with the owlbear. The heroes opted to have Valanthe use Tenser's floating disk to cart some hobgoblin corpses in there, and while the owlbear was chowing down, she cast invisibility on Roscoe, who went creeping around and climbed up to the jagged ledge where a chest was. He looted the chest and proceeded to fall down to the ground. The owlbear looked around, took a sniff, then went back to feeding since it couldn't see anything. Roscoe closed the door behind him but didn't bar it, so the owlbear could find its own way out if it felt so inclined.
The heroes decided to rest for the night at the edge of the forest. They climbed up into some trees for safety, which was a good thing because a small pack of wolves came prowling around. Valanthe and Travok were able to drive them off easily enough with a few well-aimed cantrips.
Back in Phandalin, it was established that Gundren would need a few days to recover from his ordeal. In the meantime, rather than cool their heels around town, the heroes decided to go off on a quest. Of the various options, they chose to go up to the ruins of Thundertree to retrieve Mirna Dendrar's family heirloom, which she had said they could have in exchange for having rescued her from the Redbrand dungeon.
The heroes consulted a map and decided to take the direct route, following the western edge of Neverwinter Wood until they came to the river. As they were about an hour out from the ruins, a large shadow crossed their path and they all felt butterflies in their stomachs. Looking up, they caught a glimpse of a green dragon flying north - the same direction they were heading! "Nobody said anything about a dragon!" they grumbled.
Coming into town from the south, they took immediate notice of the barricaded building. Knocking on the door, they introduced themselves to Reidoth the druid, who warned them to leave before they got themselves killed. He nevertheless invited them in and told them about what awaited them in the two - ash zombies, twig blights, men in black masks and cloaks, spiders, and the dragon. With some time to kill before nightfall, they decided to go exploring. Knowing that Mirna's family's shop is located on the eastern side of town, they cut through the ruins and thickets opposite the druid's abode.
They were immediately set upon by a number of twig blights hiding in the thicket. Roscoe climbed a broken wall and tossed a flask of oil at one. He then improvised a fire arrow and shot it at the blight, immolating it. Valanthe then cast burning hands at another three blights, which not only resulted in their deaths but also in igniting the thicket. She later spent a bit of time putting the fire out with her ray of frost. Travok and Kerri, meanwhile, hacked and pounded the remaining blights into piles of broken sticks with their hammer and axe respectively.
Roscoe had a bit of a peak into the ruin he'd scaled and saw lots of spider webs and a large cocoon. The heroes opted to leave that one alone and continued east until they came across what looked to be a smithy. Looking through the windows, they could see some bodies on the ground and decided not to enter. Up the path from the smithy was the herbalists shop and they had little trouble finding the gold necklace with the emerald pendant. From there, they spotted the sturdy, boarded up farmhouse and went to investigate. Roscoe spotted a number of men with funny masks and cloaks hanging out inside but they didn't appear to notice him.
The heroes headed north again and got set upon by more twig blights as they were investigating the ruins of a weaver's shop. The noise drew some of the men out of the farmhouse and they came to see what was going on. A brief conversation took place, in which the men established themselves as members of the Cult of the Dragon who had come to entreat with the green dragon in the ruins. They said they just wanted to be left alone and asked the heroes not to kill the dragon. The heroes agreed on both counts and they parted ways. Next up was the town barracks, which appeared to contain some more eerily preserved corpses - figuring they were zombies, the heroes opted to leave them and head back to the druid's house for some rest.
Thoughts
I'm continually impressed by the players' tactics. They are both bold and cautious - that is, they don't take unnecessary risks, but neither do they turtle up and shy away from everything. They found what they were looking for (the necklace) quickly and easily, but rather than just turn around and leave, they figured that since they'd come all that way, they might as well stay for a bit and have a look around. While they were fine with fighting the twig blights, especially once they saw how fragile they were, they decided to leave the zombies alone, and they were pleased that the cultists didn't seem to be looking for a fight. I'm curious to see if they decide to take on the dragon or not ~ that will have to wait for next time.
Twisting two threads together (and hopefully getting a good yarn as a result):
Would you use blights as "random" encounters to establish that some patch of woods are A Creepy Forest?
Good stuff!
BRJN wrote:
Session #10
Having spent the night in Reidoth's shack, the party chose take the old druid's advice and leave town. They didn't think they could handle the dragon, nor did they feel like fighting any zombies or the giant spiders.
On the way back to Phandalin, they encountered a trio of hobgoblins just as they were about to set up camp for the night. Valanthe put two of them to sleep and then Kerri gave the third a good hard whack on the head with her greataxe. He promptly surrendered and the three gobbos were tied up and interrogated. They revealed they'd been on patrol, and that they were with the Cragmaw tribe, now being led by a hobgoblin named Targor Bloodsword in the wake of King Grol's death.
The party decided to break the hobgoblins' weapons and leave them trussed up, then moved on for another hour (with everyone except Travok ending up a bit exhausted) before setting up camp. They made it back to Phandalin without further incident and promptly decided to return Mirna Dendrar's necklace rather than keep it for themselves. She was most grateful and promised to sing their praises around town at every opportunity.
Gundren was looking a lot better physically, but his memory was still a bit poor - he claimed he couldn't remember the way to Wave Echo Cave. With the map too damaged to be of any use, the PCs decided they'd give him another few days to see if his memory came back. With nothing else to do, they went off to see Agatha the banshee on behalf of Sister Garaele, with the intention of stopping off at Old Owl Well and Wyvern Tor while they were out that way.
The group traveled the 50-odd miles to the ruins of Conyberry uneventfully and found Agatha's lair with little difficulty. They took care to be respectful and successfully asked Agatha about the location of Bowgentle's spellbook - she had traded it to a necromancer named Tserloth a century or so ago. The PCs thanked her and left, making a note to keep an eye out for this Tserloth fellow.
They decided to head south and make camp in the hills to the north of Old Owl Well. Along the way, they bumped into an ogre who'd just killed a deer for his supper. They tried to follow it surreptitiously, but several of the party members made a bit too much noise, and it turned around and spotted them. Roscoe was able to hide in some trees to the side of the trail though, which enabled him to get a surprise attack as the ogre came charging down the slope. Valanthe hit the ogre with Melf's acid arrow, but that only enraged it. The brute proceeded to smash its club down on Kerri, nearly taking her out. Luckily Travok came to her aid with his healing magic. Kerri was able to get a good slice in with her greataxe and then Roscoe felled it with a shot to the back of the neck. The halfling was disappointed to find that the ogre only had some copper coins in its purse.
The next day, the party came down out of the hills and approached Old Owl Well. Roscoe went ahead to scout and discovered the zombies hanging out in the tower. They didn't spot him, but when he approached the colorful tent, he felt a tingle and then the zombies started shuffling out after him. He led them back towards the other party members, and Valanthe promptly whipped out her scroll of fireball and made her caster check, incinerating the whole group of zombies in one hit.
This prompted the resident of the tent to emerge and demand to know what was going on. Valanthe recognized him as a Red Wizard of Thay. The man identified himself as Kost. He seemed a bit peeved that the PCs had just killed off all his guards. When they asked him what his business in the ruins was, he said he'd only tell them if he helped him out first. He asked them to deal with the orcs at Wyvern Tor - on the one hand, he was now vulnerable to an attack from them without his guards, while on the other hand, if the PCs kill all the orcs, he can get himself some new guards. And that is where we left it.
Thoughts
The main thing that stuck with me from this session was a little side joke, in which we established that Valanthe was the James May of the group, while Roscoe was Richard Hammond and Travok was Jeremy Clarkson. That left Kerri with the Stig, which kinda fits given that she tends not to say much.
I must also admit to being a wee bit disappointed that they chose not to engage the dragon, but I think they made the right choice there ultimately. I was also pleased with how much we were able to get through in just two hours.
Now I've got to flesh out Wyvern Tor for next time!
Session #11
The PCs bid Hamun Kost goodbye and proceeded to trek south across the badlands for the better part of a day. A strong westerly blew through the gap between the hills but otherwise the day was uneventful. As they drew near to the base of Wyvern Tor, they came across a stream. Around a bend, they heard muttering and splashing. Roscoe crept through the brush to investigate. Much to his surprise, he found a lone orc struggling to get some large buckets of water onto a yolk without spilling any of the water. The orc seemed to be a bit beaten up and walked with a pronounced limp. Roscoe watched him struggle off through the rocks with the buckets and decided to follow at a discrete distance, although he lost sight of the orc and decided to turn back before he stumbled into the orc camp.
Upon Roscoe's return, the PCs opted to bed down there for the night. They hoped the orc would return in the morning so they could follow him together. Sure enough, they heard the grumbling and splashing again. This time all the PCs attempted to follow him, but the two heavily armored warriors (Kerri and Travok) made a bit too much noise and the orc turned and spotted them. The PCs rushed up and surrounded him and he willingly surrendered. An enlightening conversation ensued, in which the orc introduced himself as Krokk. He explained that he was taking the water to an abusive, foul-smelling (even to an orc) ogre named Gog. He also informed the PCs that there were six other orcs at the camp, including the band's leader, Brughor Blood-Axe. Valanthe recognized the emblem on Krokk's armor as being the sigil of the Many-Arrows tribe. When she asked what Many-Arrows orcs were doing so far south, she was surprised to get an honest answer: namely, that the band was looking for relics from an old orcish kingdom to give to an orc who wished to challenge King Obould. Krokk didn't seem keen himself and, in fact, had a suggestion: if the PCs helped him best Gog and Brughor while making it look like he'd done it himself, he would be able to convince the other orcs to accept him as leader, at which point he would then lead the band back north. Needless to say, the PCs were skeptical of this plan, but they decided it was worth a shot, although they refused the orc's request to be healed.
Krokk explained that the cave was at the end of a ravine at the base of the tor and that there was only a single orc keeping watch by a boulder about two-thirds of the way down the ravine. Valanthe crept up the ridge at the side of the ravine and cast sleep on the sentry. Roscoe then rushed in and tied him up before hiding behind the boulder. Krokk took the sentry's battleaxe and limped towards the mouth of the cave, calling out for Brughor. The orc leader emerged from the cave alone, as Krokk had hoped he would, and the two exchanged angry words and gestures in Orcish before laying into each other with their weapons.
When it looked like Krokk wasn't going to survive, Kerri and Travok rushed down the ravine and helped him cut down Brughor. With his dying breath, the orc leader bellowed for Gog. The ogre slowly lumbered out of the cave, took one look at the scene before him, and lunged to attack. Valanthe, still up on the ridge, fired an acid arrow at him - and it was a critical hit! Kerri then got a crit or two in with her greataxe, while Roscoe made sneak attacks with his bow. Gog didn't stand a chance.
When that was finished, Roscoe fetched all his arrows and then he and his companions retreated out of view, while Krokk went and untied and woke up the sentry and showed him what had happened. Krokk then summoned the other orcs out of the cave and somehow managed to convince him he'd done it himself. They went back into the cave to fetch their stuff and then off they went. The PCs watched them head north until they were out of sight and then plunged into the cave to look for loot. Valanthe was hoping they'd left some of their relics behind, while Roscoe just wanted to see what he could see. The ogre's lingering stench was almost overpowering, so the PCs were only able to have a quick look around. In one nook, they found a jar with a dead sprite inside. Elsewhere, they found an opened chest with lots of copper coins and three bottles of perfume in it. They took the perfume but left the coins ( 
).
The PCs then spent the rest of the day marching back to Kost. They explained what had happened and informed him that he could go and raise the ogre and orc leader as zombies if he wanted. He replied that with his guards - who had also doubled as his workforce - gone, he was most likely just going to leave the area himself. The PCs tried to convince him to tell them what he was up to, and he ended up giving them a little tour of the ruins, but he refused to tell them what he had found. The PCs decided it wouldn't be on to have a go at him (and decided they couldn't haul him back to Phandalin and throw him in the jail since he hadn't actually done anything to them), so they left and went up into the northern hills and found a campsite from which they could see the ruins. In the morning, Kost's tent was still there, but it was too hard to tell if the necromancer was still in there too, so they headed off to find the Triboar Trail again and spent the next few days traveling back to Phandalin.
Upon their return to town, the PCs discovered that Sildar had been busy - with the townmaster's approval, he had set himself up as sheriff and was proceeding to put together a proper constabulary - the job that Iarno "Glasstaff" Albrek had been sent here to do originally. He had even hired some penitent former members of the Redbrands. It was obvious to the PCs - and most likely to everyone in town - that Sildar was now the real authority in town, with Townmaster Harbin Wester reduced to little more than a figurehead.
In addition, Gundren Rockseeker was back up on his feet and had regained his memory. He was most keen to head into the hills to find out what had happened to his brothers, who were overdue in town for their regular restocking trip at Barthen's Provisions. He had also discussed some plans with Sildar, who was keen to get the mine up and running again so some money would begin flowing into the town. He had hopes of using some of that money to rebuild the old Tresendar Manor as a proper government building, housing the townmaster's offices and that of the constabulary. His one concern with that was the bugbears the PCs had left behind in the dungeon during their expedition against the Redbrands. Sildar didn't like having the beasts so close to town, so he was hoping the PCs would go and see if they were still there before heading off to Wave Echo Cave.
And that is where we left things.
Thoughts
The PCs are only about 200 XP short of hitting 4th level, so I'm thinking I'll just give them a bonus for successfully completing all those sidequests at the beginning of next session. If only my dice had cooperated and given me a random encounter or two over the three or four days they were out in the wilderness and on the road ... but nope, nothing of any consequence happened. I did get to roll on the "Something Happens!" table on my new DM screen a few times, though, which was fun. Once, while they were camping, I got the strange star in the sky one.
I was quite pleased with how my modified version of the Wyvern Tor encounter went down. I explained to the players afterwards that I had wanted to enhance it and provide an opportunity for them to resolve it without killing all the orcs. They appreciated that. Of course, I had Travok grumble about dealing with orcs the entire time, but he's got the perfect NPC ally personality - since he doesn't trust his own instincts, he waits for others to act first - and so he didn't cause any trouble for the others in that regard.
Everyone is still really into the adventure - the players all told me they were excited and couldn't wait to find out what happens next! 
Unfortunately, our friends are moving house sometime around when our next session would be due to come up, so we most likely won't get to play again until the end of the month. Stayed tuned!
Session #12: After a long hiatus (while the other two players moved house), we are back! We started the session with everyone leveling up to 4th level.
With Gundren sufficiently recovered, the heroes set off for Wave Echo Cave to find out what had become of Gundren's two brothers, Tharden and Nundro. The dwarf miner explained to the heroes that the mine was 15 miles due east from Phandalin, but due to the hilly terrain, it would take them about a day and a half to get there. Along the way, a somewhat ominous storm could be seen developing out off the coast to the west. It hadn't made landfall by the time they made it to the cave the Rockseeker brothers had found that gave access to the mine (as Gundren explained to the heroes, the original entrance to the mine had been blocked off, and his brothers and he had lucked upon a cavern which had partially collapsed, revealing one of the mine's old tunnels).
As the party entered the cavern, they found the very definitely dead body of Gundren's brother, Tharden. After Gundren was given some time to grieve and then compose himself, the heroes opted to head into the mine in search of Nundro while Gundren stayed behind to give Tharden's remains a proper burial. Upon climbing down into the tunnel, they were presented with the choice of going northwest or due east. As they stood there deciding which way to go, they heard the distant sound of water crashing on rocks - evidently the source of the cave's name.
Eventually the party opted to go east. After traveling for about half an hour, they came upon a large natural cavern strewn with the skeletal remains of dwarves and orcs. Valanthe decided to cast detect magic as a ritual to see if anything magical lay amidst the bones, but at that moment a flock of stirges descended from the ceiling. Although a few managed to latch on, they were soon dealt with, as Valanthe electrocuted some with her shocking grasp, while the others slashed and stabbed with their weapons. Once the bloodsuckers were all dead, Valanthe went back to casting her ritual.
Meanwhile, Roscoe and Travok decided to explore the hallway to the south, which was carved with images of dwarves and gnomes hard at work in the mines. They found what appeared to have been the original entrance to the mine, all blocked up with rocks and rubble. To the west, they found an old guard room strewn with skeletons. Shortly after Roscoe stepped inside, nine of the skeletons animated and moved to attack him, but he was able to skidaddle out, and then Travok and he wedged the door shut with some pitons. Across the hall to the east, they found what looked like an office room of some kind, but they decided not to explore it without the others.
Valanthe's spell detected no magic in the cavern, but she felt a slight tingle coming from the northeast. With that done, she and Kerri accompanied the others back to the office room. Travok went in first, but the gnomish and orcish skeletons on the floor didn't animate. Valanthe went to examine some paper in cubbyholes on the north wall. They disintegrated at her touch, so she very carefully blew the dust off some others and tried to read the Dwarvish runes. They appeared to be mine records of various kinds. Behind the weighing counter, Roscoe found an iron lockbox. After fiddling with the lock for a bit, he managed to pop it open and found a whole lot of coins. They left all the copper (as you do) and just took the silver, electrum, and gold pieces.
After that they headed north and, after about 10 minutes, came across an old miners' barracks with three ghouls in it, desperately munching away at the old bones in hopes of finding something tasty. Valanthe gave the group a little lecture on the nature of ghouls and the legend surrounding their origins, not failing to point out that she was immune to their paralyzing touch on account of being an elf. When Travok approached to turn them, they heard him coming and sprang to attack. Kerri moved in front of Travok and cut a ghoul in half with a critical hit from her greataxe, although she then got slashed by the second ghoul for her trouble. She failed her save and froze up. The third went for Travok and he too got paralyzed. Valanthe cast her new scorching ray spell at them, nearly frying one and hurting the other. The badly hurt one came after her next, critically biting her in the neck, but Roscoe then stabbed it in the knee, felling it - although his sword got stuck in its corpse in the process.
Next round, both Kerri and Travok managed to shake off the paralysis, but before they could do anything, Valanthe stepped in to save the day with a well placed fire bolt, one of her other new spells. While Travok used his healing magic to patch up Valanthe, Kerri and himself, Roscoe searched the room and had a listen at a door in the west wall. After opening it, he found more mine tunnels. The heroes opted to go back out of the south door and turned east, then north into a long corridor that ran beyond the limit of Valanthe's darkvision. Halfway along, though, was another opening to the east. This led to what appeared to be an old storage room, the contents of the old split kegs inside long since evaporated. Still, Travok decreed it a sound and sturdy room, and the heroes opted to use it for a short rest.
And that is where we ended.
Thoughts: Although the module states that many of the encounters in the mine are too hard for a party below 4th level, so far they've had a pretty easy time. The stirges were nothing but a nuisance, and while the ghouls did do a bit of damage, they went down pretty easily too. Kerri's initial crit was enough to fell one with a single blow! They did expend a few resources and are now looking forward to that short rest. They're going to need it.
I tried using the "Success at a Cost" optional rule from the DMG. When Roscoe stabbbed at the ghoul that had bitten Valanthe, he missed by one point. I told him about the rule and said I'd let him hit the ghoul and deal damage but that his sword would get stuck in its body in the process. He was cool with that, and luckily for him, the last ghoul went down before his next turn came up, so having to spend an action retrieving his sword became a non-issue anyway.
Also, on a side note: I decided that Wave Echo Cave was too small, and that it really didn't make sense for the Black Spider not to have found the Forge of Spells yet given the amount of time he's had to explore the mine, so what I've done is just taken the main encounter areas and spread them apart with ambiguous tunnel areas in between. I'm not really bothering with having them get lost in the maze of tunnels, but I am rolling randomly to see how long it takes them to navigate through them from one area to the next. So far, so good.
Session #13
After a short rest, the players opted to send their PCs back down to the cavern where they'd fought the stirges and then head east into the fungal cavern. I let the know-it-all elf wizard Valanthe make a knowledge check about the various bits of fungi, and she learned that the carpet of fungi, when disturbed, would release a poisonous gas. I had them roll Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks to pass through the carpet without disturbing it. The clanky dwarf made it all right, but the dexterous halfling stumbled and caused a cloud of poisonous spores to puff up. Only the dwarf and the elf were affected, though.
After that, they entered the starry cavern, where Valanthe decided to take 10 minutes to cast detect magic after feeling a tingle in her arcane senses. While she was doing so, an ochre jelly tried to sneak up on Roscoe, but he heard it coming. Kerri and Travok helped him stab and pummel the thing to death ~ without me saying anything, they somehow guessed that slashing at it wouldn't be a good idea, so they attacked it with javelins, arrows, and a warhammer.
When Valanthe finished her ritual, she got a strong sense of transmutation magic coming from the upper room in the cavern. They went and had a look and encountered the spectator. It greeted them and talked to them for a bit and invited them to use the forge. Roscoe enchanted his arrows, while Kerri enchanted her remaining javelins. Valanthe asked about the mace and breastplate in the back of the room, and the spectator said it was waiting for the owners to come and collect them. We established that Tergon, the hero who commissioned the breastplate, was an ancestor of Kerri's, so she tried to convince the spectator to let her take it on his behalf as one of his relatives, but the creature wasn't convinced and insisted that Tergon himself had to come and collect it.
Next, the PCs went up and discovered the hot spring lake. From there, they followed the old channel into the smelter room, where they were viciously attacked by the flameskull and its zombie minions. They managed to vanquish the flameskull, but not before it dropped its fireball on them (and on most of its zombies). At one point, Kerri was the last one standing, and she had two zombies futilely attacking her as she tried to pour healing potions down her comrades' throats. She managed to get to Valanthe and Travok, but Roscoe died after his player rolled three failed death saves. Fortunately, Travok had found a scroll of revivify earlier in the adventure, so he used that to bring his halfling pal back to life.
The four PCs then retreated back to the storage room for a long rest, during which time Travok intends to create some holy water so that when they go back and beat up the flameskull again, they'll be able to keep it from reforming.
Thoughts
One of the players commented that this was a "fun but sobering" session. They've had a pretty easy time of things so far. This was the first time that multiple PCs were down and rapidly dying at once. Kerri was extremely fortunate that the last two zombies kept missing her with their attacks. However, this was also one of the few times where I successfully used a zombie's Undead Fortitude trait - and not only once but three times in a row! That was one tough zombie to kill, and they were dealing quite a bit of damage to it each time too, it was just that I was rolling like 16+ on the d20 each time.
EDIT: Oh, and my wife was so excited to play that she got her dice out in the morning, even though we weren't going to be playing for another twelve hours or so.
pukunui wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Rhenny wrote:
Session 14
We started with the PCs retreating to the safety of the blasted workshop adjacent to the room containing the Forge of Spells. They wanted Travok to create some holy water so when they went back and defeated the flame skull again, they'd be able to keep it from rejuvenating. Rather than go back to town to buy 25 gp worth of powdered silver, they instead gathered up 250 silver coins and spent several hours shaving them down. Travok then performed the ritual to create a single dose of holy water, and then the group took a long rest.
Afterwards, Valanthe went to the Forge of Spells and re-enchanted Roscoe's arrows and Kerri's javelins. The spectator seemed to regard her as a "local" this time.
The PCs then took the western passage back to the smelting room. Travok cast silence so he and Kerri could sneak in close to the rejuvenated flameskull, which was luckily not looking in their direction. Once they were in position, Valanthe cast Melf's acid arrow from just outside the silenced area. Travok then laid in with a spiritual hammer and some throwing axes, while Kerri chucked her enchanted javelins, not having anything else to throw at the flameskull, which was floating 15 feet off the ground.
Despite its resistances, since it was alone, the flameskull didn't last long. However, the fight had attracted the attention of the ghouls to the south. While Roscoe was dousing the remains of the skull with the holy water, some ghouls approached, but Travok turned them. One ran off, but the other was struck down by the PCs. They waited for the first one to come back, and they killed it just in time for two more to come at them, while another two came from behind. None of these ghouls stood much of a chance against the might of the PCs either.
With the ravenous undead vanquished, they went to search the split cavern to the south of the smelting chamber, though they found little of any consequence, save a great number of skeletons.
So they headed west and found themselves at a door. Valanthe spent ten minutes casting detect magic as a ritual and got back a ping from the other side of the door. She was surprised to find, however, that her mage hand was unable to open it. Travok and Kerri stepped forward and pushed and pushed and eventually shoved it, along with the barricade holding it shut, open. On the other side was a barracks room inhabited by five bugbears, who were ready to repel the intruders. Their leader dashed forward to attack and received some mighty blows from Kerri and Travok in return. Valanthe then put him to sleep and Roscoe darted in and decapitated him. Seeing their leader fall so quickly resulted in the remaining four bugbears failing their morale save. They turned and dashed off out the western door, although one was cut down before he could get away.
A search of the room revealed some coins and a vial of red liquid that Valanthe identified as a potion of vitality, which she surmised was the source of the magic she'd detected from the other side of the door.
The PCs then headed west again and came to a cavern with a dark pool. Valanthe cast detect magic again and got a ping from in the pool. She used mage hand to retrieve the item, which turned out to be a wand of magic missiles. The light from Roscoe's lantern was reflecting off something else in the same area underwater, so Valanthe sent her mage hand down again and came up with two platinum rings still stuck to bony fingers. Roscoe removed the finger bones and pocketed the rings, although he let Valanthe have a look at them first - she surmised that the wand and rings had belonged to a wizard, though she wasn't able to identify the individual.
And that is where we left things!
Thoughts
Everyone had a lot of fun tonight. I reckon we've only got one or two more sessions to go now. I talked to the group about continuing on with Princes of the Apocalypse, and they were all quite keen to do so. I've just ordered a copy from the Book Depository, so I should have it by the next time we meet. 
I wanted to make sure they knew there was treasure in pool - my idea was to make sure they saw the glint of something metallic reflecting the lantern light. However, my wife had the idea of casting detect magic before I could even mention the reflected light, so she detected the wand. I was pleasantly surprised at how clever she was to use mage hand to retrieve the submerged items. Good job, wifey!
Session 15
We picked things up with the PCs following after the bugbears who'd run away. They came to the doors leading to the shrine of Dumathoin. Roscoe asked Valanthe to make him invisible so he could scout ahead. As soon as he'd opened the doors a crack, though, a male voice called out, inviting the adventurers to not be shy and come in. A bugbear came along and threw the doors open wide, revealing a drow elf with a bound dwarf at his feet and several bugbear bodyguards, as well as four large spiders hanging out in the corners of the room.
Nezznar introduced himself and got to talking to the PCs while Roscoe snuck around invisibly. He tried to have a peek at the drow's notes on the table but the drow heard him. Nezznar tried to catch him with faerie fire but Roscoe made his Dex save and stayed invisible. While the drow was trying to get the others to side with him and help him find the Forge of Spells, Roscoe wandered down the side passage, found the door to the priest's room, picked the lock and discovered the real Nundro Rockseeker. He revived him and convinced him to reveal himself.
Meanwhile, Valanthe demanded to be able to speak to "Nundro", but the doppelganger masquerading as the dwarf was able to play the role convincingly enough. Until the real Nundro appeared. Disappointed, Nezznar ordered his minions to attack.
What ensued was an interesting fight. It could easily have been a TPK, with Nezznar, the doppelganger, three bugbears, and four giant spiders. The PCs managed to hurt Nezznar enough that he decided to drop a globe of darkness on them and make a getaway. Valanthe and Roscoe followed him out of the darkness, but he then turned himself invisible (ending the darkness) and made his escape.
At the same time, Kerri offered to pay the bugbears twice what Nezznar was paying them. The player rolled well enough on her Persuasion roll that I said they hesitated while they considered her offer. She later offered them a specific amount of gold for each spider they killed for the party. This they refused, but she was convincing enough that they said they would neither help nor hinder them and proceeded to leave the room.
With Nezznar and the bugbears out of the fight, the doppelganger decided to make a getaway too, although he took out both Roscoe and Valanthe in the process, which kept Travok very busy running around healing his allies instead of fighting. He also had to go and rescue Nundro, who got knocked out and wrapped up in webbing by one of the spiders.
The spiders were soon out of the fight too, though, as they didn't like getting peppered with Valanthe's magic missiles or Roscoe's arrows. They soon retreated to their corners, allowing the PCs to rescue Nundro, grab the loot of the table, and make a run for it.
And in the aftermath, they decided to retire in Phandalin and live off the proceeds of their 10% share in the reopened mine.
Thoughts
Everyone told me they had thoroughly enjoyed this adventure. They liked the mix of creatures and situations. My wife said she particularly enjoyed trying to puzzle things out, although she didn't really enjoy the social interactions as much (she's a bit of an introvert in real life too). She also enjoyed using magic but found the book-keeping of the wizard a little complicated. She's thinking she might try a fighter type next. I suggested the archer fighter pregen, which was the only one no one had chosen for this adventure.
For what comes next, I gave the group the option of either continuing on with Princes of the Apocalypse or starting over with Tyranny of Dragons. The group chose to go with the latter, with the option of possibly coming back to these characters and playing PotA afterwards. It will depend on whether or not they've had enough of regular D&D sessions by then or not (as ToD should take us quite a while to get through, since we only play for about two hours every fortnight).
I'm hoping to get another player in for ToD as well, as it was kind of annoying running Travok the cleric along with all the NPCs. The group needed him, though. They wouldn't have been anywhere near as successful without his healing. At least that particular pregen is perfect as a DMPC, since one of his traits is that he doesn't trust his own instincts and waits for other people to act first. Ha!
Anyway, we'll be meeting again next week (tonight's session was a catch-up because we missed last week's regularly scheduled session) to make characters for Tyranny of Dragons!
Ahhh...the satisfaction of finishing a campaign. Nice, Pukunui.
Sounds like a good time.
Cheers.