D&D Starter Set Session 5

At the end of our fourth session with the D&D Starter Set, the party had made their way to the frontier town of Phandalin after experiencing the horror of a doppleganger and the psychoses of goblins. They had learned of the death of Bran’s brother-in-law, Thell, and the disappearance of his sister, niece, and nephew as well as about the Redbrands, a gang terrorizing the town. Various interactions with NPCs had given them various bits of information, some allies, and, most likely, some enemies. Baren had left town with two young clerks and two oxen from Barthen’s provisions to recover the supplies and wagon the party had left behind. The others had gathered at the Stonehill Inn to get rooms for the night and to have some lunch. While the others continued to relax at the inn, Feran left to go buy some arrows on his own. Shortly after leaving the inn, he ran into trouble.

There are potential spoilers below the break for the Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver. This write-up is from yours truly. My GM comments, as typical, are in [brackets and italics].

The four Redcloaks had their hands on their weapons but had not yet drawn them as they spouted out their threat. Feran elected to back away rather than escalate the confrontation. The thugs tossed out a few more insults as Feran retreated into the inn. Inside, he explained what had happened but the party didn’t seem concerned or head outside to confront the Redcloaks.

Instead, they talked a bit more to the innkeeper’s sister–the town’s gossip–to learn what they could. The party learned that Iarno Albrek had not left anything behind in his room when he left. This continued to leave the party confused and concerned as Iarno was supposed to have stayed. They also learned that Sister Garaele, who maintained the Shrine of Tymora in the town square, had a house just behind the shrine. She had also recently left town and returned looking worn out and worse for wear.

Deciding that it was probably safer to stick together, everyone left together to visit the Sister. Outside, only one of the Redcloaks remained, leaning against a nearby building. Although he attempted to antagonize the party, they largely ignored him and headed to Garaele’s home. Valanthe was keen to meet the sister as she had had some visions of a Shrine to Oghma, defiled by goblins, in Cragmaw Castle and that Garaele could, somehow, assist with restoring this shrine.

Garaele, who did look a bit ragged, invited the party into her home and she and Valanthe discussed her visions and Cragmaw Castle. However, although the Sister had heard of the castle, she did not know its location. Garaele wasn’t quite sure how she could help out. But, as Valanthe started to ask if there was anything that the party could do, Garaele seemed to have an epiphany. She explained that she might know of “someone” who would know where Cragmaw Castle was located.

This “someone” was named Agatha and lived near the ruined town of Conyberry, some 50 or so miles away. Garaele had, in fact, just returned from an attempt to visit Agatha. Agatha, sadly, had refused to see her but perhaps she would be willing to meet the party if they took her a gift that appealed to her vanity. The Sister wasn’t quite sure what such a gift might be but that the party should be careful as she had encountered a large number of orcs in the area…the reason she was looking a bit haggard. She offered the party three Potions of Healing if they accepted her quest. A quest to determine the location of the spellbook of a legendary mage, Bowgentle, and she was sure that Agatha would know the answer to that question as well as to the question of where Cragmaw Castle could be found.

It turns out, although Garaele was a little hesitant to admit this, that Agatha is a banshee, an ancient elven spirit that haunts the lands around Conyberry. The spirit had been around for a very long time and would know very much about almost anything in the area. The party explained that they had another task they had to accomplish first and Garaele was okay with that. She simply hoped that they would return with the answer in the next week or two. All agreed that this would work for all parties involved.

Returning back to the inn, the party–sans Baren who was still off recovering Gundren’s supplies–retired to one of their rooms to discuss their plans in private. Once in private, Bran’s curiosity got the better of him and his concern for his missing family. He insisted on looking and trying to open the black iron box that had been found way back at Crellar’s Trading Post (in Mirapesh’s room). Casting detect magic, he found nothing magical regarding the box (just like when Valanthe had done the same days before). Borrowing Caelynn’s lockpicks, he tried to open the box even though he had never used such tools before.

The result was largely the same as when Caelynn had attempted to pick the lock days before. The same rotten, dark purple colored cloud oozed out and engulfed the wizard’s arm, feeling like it was sucking the life out of him. He was unsuccessful at picking the lock but did notice the could was magical before losing concentration on his spell. Neither Caelynne nor Valanthe had much sympathy for him as both had essentially told him this would happen.

Getting back to the various tasks at hand, the party discussed their various priorities. They decided that dealing with the Redbrands and, hopefully, finding Bran’s family was the first priority. It was decided that they needed to make it look like they were leaving town but, instead, would circle back around to explore Tresendar Manor to find Glasstaff. Heading back down to the inn’s common room, they had some lunch and an ale [and took a short rest so Bran could recover some hit points lost from the purple cloud] and then checked out. The innkeep was quite relieved that they were leaving. He hesitantly told them that the Redbrands had come by and threatened him unless he kicked the party out of the inn.

Some Redbrands followed the party to the outskirts of town but stopped following at that point. The group realized that it would probably be a good idea to go find Baren before they headed to the manor. If they didn’t, their dwarven friend wouldn’t know where to find them and might run into trouble with the Redbrands on his own in town. They headed up the trail to find Baren and encountered him, the boys, and the oxen coming back empty-handed, er, empty-wagoned a few hours out of Phandalin. He explained that it looked as though goblins had found the supplies, stolen some, and essentially made those left behind unsalvageable. The wagon had also been vandalized beyond use. The party escorted the two boys to the outskirts of town before continuing with their mission.

Circling around through the woods north of Phandalin, Caelynn led the party to the hill upon which Tresendar Manor sat. While most of the party waited a short distance away, Caelynn and Valanthe snuck up to the ruined manor. Very little of the structure was still intact. Portions of wall still stood at varying heights along the length of the one-hundred feet that was once the length of the manor. Although they saw some signs of individuals moving about the edge of the ruins, there were no regular trails or tracks except for one…the old road that led up from Phandalin had clearly been well-traveled. A well-worn footpath led right from the road into the ruins.

The sneaking pair headed back to the others and reported what they had found. There was lots of arguing about how best to find where in the manor the Redbrands could be found. Some argued against following the obvious trail as, well, it was obvious and thus probably guarded. Some wanted to start searching from the back of the manor. Caelynn eventually lost her patience and said she had a plan. She rushed to the front of the manor, started down the footpath, and began to call out that she had a gift for the Redbrands, holding the black iron box in front of her.

There was no response and the rest of the party caught up to her. They followed the footpath into the ruins. It led directly to a set of stairs nestled between a couple of short walls, leading down to an intact wooden door. After taking all due caution, the party opened to door. Beyond was what looked like an old cellar complete with a full cistern and numerous barrels and crates. A couple of doors also offered entry deeper into the cellars. Neither door appeared locked and nothing could be heard from beyond either.

Caelynn started to open one of the doors and it began to creak. A voice from beyond asked who was there. She responded that it was Emma, the name of one of the female Redbrands that Caelynn remembered from her time with the gang. The voice beyond seemed confused and asked when she had gotten back but told her to come on in. Dousing their lights, in the hopes that the voice wouldn’t immediately identify Caelynn as not being Emma, she opened the door.

Within was a small storeroom half full of more barrels and crates with the other half other room dominated with a pair of bunks. Three Redbrands sat on the bunks. Oil lamps illuminated the room and cast light on Caelynn’s features. One of the Redbrands immedicately recognized her and weapons came out. The combat was relatively brief and [as usual] the party prevailed. A quick search showed supplies like in the prior room but nothing of value in or around the bunks. [Caelynn actually didn’t search the bodies of her once fellow Redbrands…snicker, snicker].

There were no other exits out of this store/bunkroom and so the party headed towards the other only exit. Bran took the lead now, anxious to find his sister and her children. There was a corridor beyond this door. Faux columns decorated its walls at regular intevals and a set of copper, green with age, double doors were at the end of the hallway. The doors were decorated with a relief carving of a mournful angel. Lord Corlinn mentioned that this was probably an indication that the chamber beyond was the crypt for the manor that once stood above.

With nowhere else to go, Bran headed down the corridor and the flagstone floor collapsed just in front of him. His reflexes were up to par though and avoided falling in the deep pit that had opened in front of him. Baren leapt across first, followed quickly by Corlinn, Feran, and Caelynn (who danced across a slim ledge along the walls rather than jumping across). Bran and Valanthe remained on the other side of the pit as there was no more room on the landing between the pit and the copper doors.

The doors were pushed open to reveal, as Corlinn had speculated, a crypt. The walls had more faux columns and the walls were carved in the image of spreading oak trees. A trio of stone sarcophagi sat about the chamber and a trio of skeletons, clad in rusty mail, were propped up against the sarcophagi. As the players speculated, okay presumed, that the skeletons were about to animate, we ended the session.

[I hate to say it…and what GM wouldn’t hate to say it…but this was one of those sessions that was probably more frustrating than it was fun for the players. There was a good deal of “analysis paralysis” and not a lot was accomplished. Under most circumstances, I would have stepped in more and helped the players make a decision as to where to go and what to do…not tell them but help them by asking questions to help them focus on what they already know. But not in this session. I think it is important that when a group is first playing together that they need to work through some of these things on their own.

That’s enough of my rambling for now.]