At the end of our first session, the party had discovered the culprit behind the murders that took place at the trading post. They had just finished putting many of the pieces together and, as dawn broke, began to realize the magnitude of the tragedy that had befallen the outpost. We pretty much started the second session with the burial of the deceased. After…of course…a good bit of socializing AND tasty Indian food from Tallahassee’s best Indian restaurant, Mayuri.
Bridgett was able to join us and she played Feran. There are potential spoilers below the break for both the Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver, and for the old Dungeon Magazine (#28) adventure, Night of Fear. This write-up is from yours truly. My GM comments, as typical, are in [brackets and italics].
A few comments on how I think this new edition of D&D has been playing so far (they are positive after our first two sessions).
With the dead scattered about within and without the trading post, the survivors set about gathering them all up for proper burials. As Crellar’s had not yet experienced such a tragedy before, they had not yet established a burial plot. The party selected a spot not far from the nearby trees and set about digging the graves. Even Brent assisted with a little helpful innuendo of future dalliances suggested by Caelynn.
While this was going on, Caelynn and Valante set out in the woods to gather firewood for burning the doppleganger body. As they looked about, Valanthe noticed a a boot sticking out from the underbrush. Further investigation showed that there was a leg attached to the foot within the boot and, as they cleared away more of the underbrush, a full body was found. It had its head caved in and looked as though it had been hastily hidden and had been dead for at least a few days. It was Rudvarien. The body was clothed but had been stripped of any other belongings it had once had…presumably by the doppleganger.
Once the bodies were properly interred or cremated, Baren said a few words and everyone headed back to the inn to get some rest. [RJ had meant for Baren to say something pretty somber and well, priest-like, but it didn’t quite come out that way. Instead, Baren ended his prayer by saying, “I hope you feel better.” It became a running joke for the rest of the night and could, quite likely, become the most memorable line from this campaign. All of our campaigns seem to get that one line that becomes something of an unofficial motto and it is usually a line like this.]
Locking up the inn, everyone settled down for a good night’s, er, day’s rest. Not long after settling down, Gundren quietly knocked on Baren’s door and asked for him to come downstairs for a conversation. Gundren explained that he and his brothers had rediscovered the entrance to the Wave Echo Mine. Baren’s interest was immediately piqued…the Wave Echo Mine! The mine had been lost centuries ago. A rich mine, Wave Echo was jointly held by dwarves and gnomes and many magic items were crafted within before a force of orcs aided by evil wizard mercenaries overran the mine and the region. Yes, Gundren had his cousin’s attention.
Gundren needed a favor. He had been expecting a wagon full of supplies to have arrived already but it was late. [Crellar and Gundren had had a slightly heated conversation on this topic before the tragic events from the night before.] The other Rockseeker brothers had already gone on ahead but they were reckless and took after their mother’s side of the family [which is also Baren’s side of the family] and he worried what trouble they might get themselves into without him to look after them. Baren agreed to wait at the trading post for the wagon and then escort it on to Phandalin (to Barthen’s shop to be specific) so that Gundren could go on ahead. Baren asked for a map leading to the mines but Gundren became immediately suspicious and refused. Instead, he tossed his cousin a small pouch of coins for his aid.
Later, Sildar knocked on Lord Corlinn’s door and asked for him to accompany him downstairs for a conversation. Sildar explained that he was an agent of the Lord’s Alliance and needed Corlinn’s aid. Corlinn was well aware of the Lord’s Alliance, a group of political powers concerned with mutual protection and prosperity. Sildar had been tasked with finding out what had happened to another agent, Iarno Albrek, who had headed to Phandalin about two months earlier to investigate a blossoming criminal element in the recovering town. Nothing had been heard from Iarno since then. However, Sildar also owed Gundren’s clan a favor and had agreed to aid the Rockseeker brothers in reopening Wave Echo Mine [a task the Lord’s Alliance would also likely want to see occur] and so had some competing tasks to complete.
Corlinn agreed to take up the task of finding out what had happened to Iarno and report back to, if not Sildar, someone with the Lord’s Alliance. According to Sildar, Iarno had intended on staying at the Stonehill Inn in Phandalin and was a relatively short man with dark hair and complexion and was a relatively accomplished wizard. The old warrior also handed Corlinn a fairly hefty pouch that jingled with coin.
Gundren and Sildar left to continue their journey with varying degrees of confidence that their other tasks had been handed off to capable hands.
Even later in the day, close to evening, a third door was knocked upon. This time it was Caelynn’s and Goddle was standing outside. The halfling was quite distraught as he had, at this point, missed numerous meals. Goddle asked if Caelynn would come down with him and help him cook dinner for everyone. When they made it to the common room, they found Brent passed out on the floor in front of the bar. From the empty mugs lying about, he had taken some considerable liberties with the nearby casks. Before cooking, the pair cleaned up the lout’s mess.
The smell of bacon [mmm…bacon] and other hearty foods greeted the others as they made there way downstairs after getting a well deserved rest. Baren dragged Brent, by the legs, up the stairs and into the jerk’s room and shut the door.
Corlinn checked on Crellar and Gertrude. They were still, understandably, distraught and were not interested in any dinner.
As everyone else gathered in the common room for a rather tasty meal, the various conversations that had occurred during the day were all explained. As pretty much everyone [PCs that is] had a reason to head to Phandalin [I really like how the pre-gens all pretty much have different reasons that lead them to Phandalin], they agreed to travel together. They also agreed to have the trading post be closed for now and Goddle will stay and look after Crellar and Gertrude.
Their discussion and meal is interrupted by a knock on the post’s door. Beran yelled out that they were closed before thinking that it might actually someone with the wagon that he was waiting for. Jumping up from his seat, he hustled outside in time to catch someone starting to turn a wagon around and leave. It was, in fact, the much anticipated wagon. The driver is a young man named Cameron.
Inside the common room, Cameron asks where Crellar and the others are. The news was shared about what had happened and the deaths of the younger generation which was shattering news to the wagon driver. Cameron was engaged to Kelly, Crellar’s daughter. In fact, the reason that he was late was because he had been getting Kelly a ring. Cameron was escorted back to Crellar and Gertrude and the trio were left to share their grief in private.
The wagon was taken into the stables and oxen cared for. With a plan in place for departing in the morning and for Goddle to temporarily handle things at the trading post, everyone settled down for the night. Watches were kept but the night was uneventful.
In the morning, Goddle was already hard at work in the kitchen as the others came downstairs. Brent was the last one to come down and continued to endear himself to all around [that’s sarcasm]. He didn’t appear to remember the events of the prior day and night and made some rather rude comments. Caelynn told Brent that he’d be leaving the trading post within the next thirty minutes and the rest of the party backed her. Brent didn’t quite agree with the command but Crellar also expressed a desire that the boor get out.
After knocking his breakfast plate to the floor in anger, Brent headed upstairs to get his stuff. Corlinn escorted him up. In his room, Brent claims that his money has been stolen and demands some pants. Before Brent could push any claims of having been robbed, Corlinn pointed out that, given Brent’s lack of memory, perhaps he had lost his pouch instead.
Crellar brought out some pants for Brent. Putting them on, Brent commented that they were a little tight in the crotch for him and that the pants must have belonged to one of Crellar’s cowardly boys. Corlinn escorted the rude fool out before he could say much more and before Crellar could get a clear shot with the crossbow he had pulled out from beneath the bar.
Crellar and Cameron said a few quiet words to each other before Cameron also departed, taking the lone remaining horse from the stables. The young man was heading back to Neverwinter and to spread the news of what had happened. Although some concern was expressed for his safety given that Brent had also headed that way, it was deemed justified. Brent as on foot while Cameron was on horseback and the churl had left with no ranged weapons.
Goddle packed up some food for the travelers and then took up a collection for Crellar and Gertrude. Everyone was pretty generous with the coins they left behind for the couple. Caelynn left every single coin that she had stolen from Brent’s room.
After hitching up the wagon and saying their goodbyes, the group (Baren, Caelynn, Lord Corlinn, Feran, and Valanthe) headed down the Triboar Trail. About midday, Feran spotted something on the trail ahead, about a couple hundred feet ahead. Vultures sweep down and hop towards whatever the something might be.
Corlinn and Baren take the lead and walk closer to the the scene, putting some 75 feet between them and the wagon. They can see that there are two horses lying on the ground with black arrows sticking out of them. As they get closer, they can see that the saddles and saddlebags are still on the horses and realize that they are the horses upon which Gundren and Sildar had set out on the prior day! Even closer, they see drag marks leading from the dead horses to the nearby thick woods.
Before they could get much closer, arrows dart out from the woods quickly followed by two goblins armed with scimitars! Caelynn and Feran hustle to aid their companions while Valanthe brings up the rear with the rather slow moving wagon. Three of the goblins are defeated before the fourth runs off deeper into the woods. Although Corlinn could have given chase, he elected to tend to the fallen Baren instead, possibly keeping the dwarf from bleeding to death from the wounds he had sustained.
[Caelynn had ducked into the woods during the fight to find one of the goblin snipers. She did exactly that. The goblin kept making shooing motions at her, suggesting that she leave it alone as it was clearly more interested in shooting at the hated dwarf then deal with the approaching elf. The goblin, of course, didn’t get its wish.]
Checking out the dead goblins and the horses, nothing of value or interest is found. The unconscious Baren is placed in the wagon. Further searching around, the party realize that there is a trail leading off into the woods and the drag marks also are apparent on the this trail [it was assumed that the marks were left by Sildar and Gundren as they were dragged away].
Valanthe agrees to stay with the wagon and the unconscious dwarf, while the other three follow the trail. Although they guess that whatever happened here would have been just after dark the prior evening, they hope to quickly find Gundren and Sildar. Deciding that they’d be back within an hour regardless of what they found (or not), the trio set off.
About ten minutes along the trail, Caelynn, who had taken the lead, narrowly escaped a crude snare. Another ten or fifteen minutes later, she spots a crude pit trap in the trail. After thirty minutes, they had not yet found any new signs of Gundren and Sildar. Lord Corlinn heads back to the wagon to let Valanthe know what is going on but Caelynn and Feran push forward. [Hmm…what’s that about never splitting the party?]
Another ten or fifteen minutes of travel leads the pair to a hill with a cave mouth in its side. A stream flows out of the cave and the trail leads right into it after crossing the stream a short distance ahead of the cave. A large and dense thicket was nestled against the hillside on the other side of the stream and came right up to the cave mouth.
As the pair get closer to the cave, arrows fly forth from the thicket. Caelynn is struck and falls unconscious. Feran dodges the arrows and scoops up the fallen elf. He quickly retreats back down the trail, hoping to make it back to the wagon and hoping that no pursuers catch him.
Corlinn had already made it back to the wagon to find that Baren had regained consciousness. Not wanting to leave the wagon behind as well as not wanting to leave without finding out what had happened to his cousin, the dwarf decided that they should unload the wagon and stash the supplies in the woods and then head after Gundren. Shortly after they start to unload the wagon, Feran arrives bearing his unconscious load.
Deciding that they were in no shape to head after the goblins, especially with night falling soon, the party elects to continue to stash the supplies in the woods and make camp. In the morning, the plan is to head out to the cave and see if they can find Gundren and Sildar.
[So, basically, we’ve actually started the module now and are already a bit off the rails (at least in terms of how the writers envision the adventure going). There are a few plot strands that have started to become apparent. First, there is the Wave Echo Mine that the Rockseeker brothers have rediscovered. There is the missing member of the Lord’s Alliance, Iarno Albrek. Both Gundren and Sildar are now missing and various party members have various reasons for wanting to find them. The black box remains unopened so who knows what it contains and what it might mean for this little mini-campaign. And what about Crellar’s and all that happened there? Does the doppleganger’s appearance signal anything else that might be going on in the region? Is Brent really just going to walk away after having been insulted and robbed? Will Crellar really abandon the place? If so, might someone else take up ownership? If not, where will travelers stay? Might something less wholesome and even worse than the doppleganger take up residence within the inn? Where did the goblin that escaped the combat on the road head to? Did it head to the cave that Caelynn and Feran found or somewhere else? It didn’t use the trail that was followed. And speaking of goblins, was it goblins that shot Caelynn from the thickets? Given that the arrows look similar to those the other goblins were using, it is likely that they were. So how might they react to someone having come and found their cave? Given all that already happened with a doppleganger, is the rest of the party a little too trusting of Corlinn given that he was by himself in the woods for at least thirty minutes? Hmm…so many questions…
So far, I’ve found this new D&D to be quite easy to run. The combat with the goblins didn’t take very long with I found a good sign. The PCs were definitely threatened by the battle with Baren going to zero hit points. Of course, the goblins were largely attacking the dwarf so maybe he wouldn’t have otherwise. On the other hand, I kind of forgot that the goblins could Disengage or Hide as a bonus action each round so thing could actually have been worse for the party.
It hasn’t felt too tactical in terms of the grid, five foot steps, attacks of opportunity, and a lot of things I found cumbersome and tedious with the more recent editions of D&D. The players still need to be tactically minded though but more in terms of using cover, watching their backs, covering each other, and the kind of things that they should be focusing on instead of the “if I do this, will it provoke an attack of opportunity?” (although that did come up a couple of times). The players don’t seem to be overly focused on what their character sheets say that their characters can do and are more focused on playing the game at the table. Again, I think that is a good thing.
I will, of course, wait to make a final decision on what I think until we have a good number of sessions under our belts AND we’ve played a slightly higher levels. Probably not really high level but, then again, we’ve never really played really high level games…our D&D type campaigns have always seemed to sputter out for one reason or another before anyone gets beyond 7th or 8th level. I’m encouraged so far though.]
