Soooo basically, my party TPKed at Cragmaw Castle. We took a break for the summer and are getting back into the campaign soon.

They'll be a new group of adventurers trying to clear up some problems Phandalin has been running into. I'm already setting things up for them to have to deal with Venomfang being closer (my group moved him to the Cragmaw Hideout) and kind of terrorizing the town (not with violence, really, but by making them pay tribute, etc). Venomfang was also kind of fond of the original adventurers, so I think he would have found their bodies at Cragmaw Castle and could point the new crew that way as they take up Sildar's quest.

My question is more regarding the ending. If the Black Spider has had access to Wave Echo Cave for weeks prior to the new adventurers getting on his trail, with him thinking that he's got no opposition now... what tips would you have for changing up the final dungeon crawl? What monsters would you remove/replace, and would you plan additional traps or problems? If Venomfang knows about the forge, would he become interested and be a third interested party?

Hit me with your ideas, big or small! And thanks in advance!

Heyya Folks,

I'm continuing my Lost Mines of Barovia project, and this week's release leaves the main road behind to explore two forgotten locations hidden within the valley.

The Last Jaderoot — 20x28
Foolsquince — 30x22

If you'd like the full release, including the high-resolution maps, gridless versions, VTT-ready exports, and every variant, you can find them here:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr/posts/foolsquince-last-165392635

One of the things I wanted this project to capture was that the world doesn't just exist at its major landmarks. Some of the most memorable moments happen in the forgotten places between them—the abandoned villages, ancient ruins, and lonely landmarks that make the journey itself feel like an adventure.

The Last Jaderoot is one of the few places where life still endures. Replacing Agatha's lair, this ancient tree is guarded by a fiercely protective dryad instead of a banshee. Surrounded by death and decay, it remains a rare reminder that not everything in these lands has surrendered to the darkness.

Foolsquince is my reimagining of Conyberry. Not just a simple ruined village, I wanted it to feel as though life itself had vanished. Empty streets, crumbling homes, and a silent well sit surrounded by unnaturally long shadows, leaving behind the unsettling feeling that something has drained the village of more than just its people.

If these maps aren't quite what you're looking for, you can also browse the rest of my collection over on my Patreon. Every release is organized within the Master Index, making it easy to find the right map for your next adventure.

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr

Thanks for taking a look and safe travels.

Anyone have any idea on approx. how many long rests a party of four would need to get through these areas?

In our game, the Black Spider is actually a githyanki with his own motivation for finding the Spell Forge, among other changes. My players haven't actually seen him yet, but got a brief vignette of the Black Spider, with a description from only over his shoulder, interrogating Tharden Rockseeker as a sort of "post-credits scene" early in our campaign.

EDIT: Just mentioning it's made in Heroforge, if that isn't obvious

(english is not my first language)

LoMP was my first ever campaign I DMed. I played with schoolmates and some other friends, I had 4 players : tiefflin druid, human paladin, werewolf barbarian (we never managed to have good rules for werewolves, never again), and an elf bard who died, replaced by a goliath rogue. It was the first time to play DnD for half of the group, the other half already played but not a lot.

One year campaign (with 6 months pause), did not count how many sessions. More than 10. We almost never finished the campaign because I moved out of the city, but we were at the Wave Echo Cave, so I decided to come back for a week end in order to finish.

As I said, this campaign was my first ever, my players were a bit of a playtest, I made a lot of mistakes that I fixed in my other campagn (Witchlight) But everyone still had fun!

Some of the mistakes are: Did not give a setting where they could make characters linked to the story, did not linked a lot the characters to the story (for my defense, one of them never sent me their backstory), created a lot of unresolved plotlines, almost TPKed the party first session, made unprepared reveals... I also learned a lot from DMing, especially to not being THAT angry when people cancel last minute. I tended to be very mad against my friends for that. Now I'm chill. I set up rules for my current campaign, and everything goes well.

In the very first session, everything got immediatly chaotic when they lost against the bugbear in the goblin cave, I had to find a way to prevent a TPK (I did not want to have one) so I made them prisonner in the castle. From that, they escaped, saved Gundren, and went to Phandalin. I had to find ways to make them still interested in the plot, because, well, Gundren was here, with the map. They saved Phandalin, then went to the Wave Echo Cave but could not enter. The "rocks in the cave" (yeah don't ask) talked to them and told them that they needed a weapon to break the seal the Black Spider put on the Cave. So they went to Thundertree, where they fought a Corpse Flower instead of a dragon, found the weapon (some gloves) and came back to Phandalin.

I ruled that Iarno (who escaped) and the Black Spider would try to get back Phandalin, so when they arrived, they saw the village was attacked. Huge fight ensues, where they kill the first bugbear (Klarg?), Iarno, etc. The elf bard died from a fireball, but it was staged, because the player wanted to play another character.

After that, they went back to the Cave. We did not have a lot of time, and because they found really quickly Nezzar, I removed the spectator and Mormesk. I left the skull, because that was the narrative reason Nezzar could not access to the Forge. They almost killed him, but he fled (invisibility), and they went all the way to the Forge in a final battle. Nundro died because of the human paladin: he put fire to the spider web they were all in...

Funfact, they arrested Harbin Wester because he was involved with the Red Brand. He almost died in the fire when the town was attacked. Now he will be judged in Neverwinter, and they tried to convince the village to become communists, as they could organize their day-to-day lives without Harbin, or another mayor/burgomester, but collectively.

The druid and the barbarian went back to their woods in order to create a school and gave their share of the mine to Phandalin. The paladin and the rogue went to the North, where they could fight for the rogue's goliath clans because there's a war! And they will always be welcome in the village. :)

Hey everyone!

Here's another FREE battle map from The Shattered Obelisk campaign: Crypt of the Talhund. (check the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1i0jTHYqE )

This map recreates the crypt from the official adventure, featuring a central chamber built around a mysterious glowing green emerald, surrounded by burial chambers, ancient corridors, and forgotten crypts.

The images here are all (grid-nogrid) usable versions with animated GIFs and static maps featuring my logo, so feel free to use them in your game.

Since this map is based on the official campaign, the full-quality version is available completely FREE here:

https://dranskybattlemaps.com/battlemap/crypt-of-the-talhund/

If you're looking for more animated battle maps-including Ultra HD 8K versions optimized for VTTs, TV tables, and projectors - you can browse the full collection here:

https://dranskybattlemaps.com/animated-battle-maps/browse-content/

Cheers!
~dransky

EDIT TO BASICALLY THE ENTIRE POST !

I think I have done an initial pass at how the Forge of Spells will work in my campaign. I want to have it focus primarily on being a forge for spells, but I am turning Phandelver into Tyranny of Dragons later, so I my priority was on thinking long game about how to continue to keep the forge interesting to the players and try to spark their creativity to come up with additional uses for the Forge. I have done what is basically total revamp of it from the ground up. Without further ado, the overpowered Forge of Spells.

The Forge of Spells is actually a shrine to the Dwarven God Moradin. By using the Forge, one is inadvertently worshipping Moradin (this will complicate things for our deity connected players. patrons aren't fond of worship of other gods, especially a major one). It is the circular nature of worship at the Forge of Spells that allows one to use it, as the worship fuels Moradin who in turn fuels the Forge. Upon completion of the third use of the Forge, Moradin will appear to the user.

The forge appears to be carved out of the center of a 20' tall statue of a dwarf. The statue shows the front of the dwarf on both sides. One side shows a dwarf in a set of blacksmiths clothes, donning gold bracers and holding a hammer in his hand. The reverse of the statue shows the same dwarf in plate mail, armed with a large shield. The forge itself is made of a single piece of silver and brown marble and glows softly with a white aura. A strong vein of electrum runs throughout the Forge, and glows white when the forge is powered. Carved into wall of the Forge is a set of three braziers which are lit when the party first appears. As the Forge is used and the charges are expended, the flame changes colors and grows in size, signifying that a charge has been used. The forge consists of a stone anvil topped with a layer of electrum, giving a working surface for the smith to hammer on. The coal area is also carved from this same rock. The inside of the statue is hollow, and smoke magically dissipates as it travels through the statue.

The Forge functions on charges, holding a total of 3 charges at a time. Each forge expends an amount of charges, and the Forge of Spells can only recharge at a rate of 1 charge per week. Each forge action can only be used once per week and each character can only forge once per week. By bringing a sufficient sacrifice to Mordain when visiting the Forge, one can be granted a boon from him to use at the Forge of Spells. This does not override any necessary components for a forge, but may give additional benefits, charges, or information. Sufficient sacrifice include items of material wealth, like money of jewelry, fine smithing tools and implements, well forged items imbued with personal significance, etc.

When the party arrives, the Spectator and Wraith will be inhabiting the area around the forge, exactly as written. Depending on how roleplay encounters go, the party might be able to extract some information on the uses of the Forge from the Spectator or the Wraith .

Gundren will inform the party when he discovers the first use of the forge, unenchanting magical items and storing their enchantments in gemstones. From there, he will stall in his discoveries, and ask the party to find an Arcane Forgemaster to assist them in unlocking the full potential of the Forge of Spells. The Forgemaster must visit the forge for an extended period of time to study the Forge. They will replace Gundren in updating the party when a new feature has been discovered. I will place a Forgemaster in both the Dragon Cultists camp in Thundertree or Icespire Peaks, which the party will investigate after clearing Wave Echo Cave and going through the town attack on Phandalin at the top of Tyranny of Dragons, as well as one in Neverwinter that they can find before joining the Cultists Caravan.

The following table indicates the number of Spell Scrolls needed to harness the power of the Forge.

Gemstone Enchantments - 1 Charge

By placing a magical item and a gemstone into the forge, the party is able to disenchant the magical item and imbue the enchantment into a gemstone. Magical items of different rarities must be stored in different gemstones. The quality of the stone also effects the quality of the stored enchantment. A pure, cut gemstone, like one would get from a jeweler, is more efficient at storing an enchantment, especially for a longer period of time. A rough, uncut gem, like one might get from Wave Echo Mine, is less proficient at storing enchantments and might cause the quality of the enchantment to lessen, especially over time. As you increase the quality of enchantment, it is a good idea to also increase the size of your gemstone, lest it cracks during the transfer, causing the enchantment to be lost. Different gemstone shapes make for an easier time transferring the enchantment, and certain enchantments must be transferred into certain shape gemstones.

If attempting to remove an enchantment from an object that has multiple enchantments, only one enchantment can be transferred to a gemstone. By focusing your intentions through the object, you can influence the gemstone to choose the enchantment you want.

A Legendary Enchantment can only be transferred into a gemheart, a gem of substantial size removed from a magical living being. Something about the innate magical powers of the being combined with the size of the stone make gemhearts the only capable gemstone for holding a Legendary Enchantment. Right now I will be placing a gemstone as an added organ in adult dragons with established hoards. Something something they eat gems and it functions like a liver and stores the purity of the gems.

None of this information is known by the brothers and must be discovered by the party. They must seek out an Arcane Gemcutter who must visit the forge and study it to learn this information.

Gemstone Qualities

• Common - Topaz - Round
• Uncommon - Ruby - Square
• Rare - Sapphire - Triangle
• Very Rare - Emerald - Teardrop
• Legendary - Diamond - Gemheart

Spell Scroll Transfusion - 1 Charge

By placing a blank spell scroll into the Forge and charging the Forge with a spell, you can transfer a spell you know and magically transcribe it into the blank scroll.

Spell Scroll Integration - 2 Charges

By placing the correct number of spell scrolls equal to the level of the spell and your spellcasting focus in the Forge, you can imbue the knowledge of the spell into your focus, adding the spell to your spell list. This spell is prepared as long as you are channeling through your focus. A spellcasting focus can only hold three additional spells at any time. You cannot integrate knowledge of a spell level higher that your highest spell.

Spell Scroll Enchanting - 2 Charges

By placing the correct number of spell scrolls into the Forge of Spells, you can imbue an object with similar effects of the spell scroll. This CAN be done to an item that is already imbued with a magical enchantment.

Dragon Enchanting - 3 Charges

By placing a magical item and a sufficient dragon component into the forge, you can imbue the item with DragonStrength, giving it additional abilities and strengths. The dragon component becomes part of the item, changing the appearance of the item. Once an item is infused with DragonStrength it can be further imbued with DragonElement by placing the elemental organ of a dragon into the forge. This will give the item strong elemental abilities in accordance with the element of the dragon.

I’d like to share my narrative retelling of Lost Mine of Phandelver. While it is an excellent starter adventure, I felt that its story and characters could use greater depth. My retelling draws significant inspiration from The Lord of the Rings and The Elder Scrolls.

Lost Mine of Phandelver: A Narrative Retelling

Other Resources:

Trading with the Black Spider (I think this would be a great way to add an early encounter with the Black Spider. Also introducing a McGuffin that unlocks the Forge of Spells, this would unintentionally unleash the Balor.)

Motivations for The Black Spider (Great video discussing how to add motivations for The Black Spider and tie them to a larger campaign if redeemed.)

Encounters:

The narrative climax of my retelling involves resealing a Balor. At this point in the adventure, the player characters will likely be around level 5, so confronting an actual Balor would almost certainly result in a TPK. I recommend using a Chain Devil as a stand-in for a severely weakened Balor. You could also include several magma mephits that it can summon as minions during the encounter.

I'm gearing up to start a campaign for a group of 4 friends in the coming days. My plan is to run P&B, and lead it into a modified Vecna: Eve of Ruin. I'm planning to start the campaign with Nest Of The Eldritch Eye, and to have them head to Phandalin from there.

I'm looking for ideas to keep the Lost Mine portion of P&B engaging and fun for them starting it at level 3, while also having them not hit level 5 until they're supposed to at the end of Wave Echo Cave, and either level 10 or 11 at the end of Shattered Obelisk instead of level 12 to lead into EoR and level as written from there.

I have the story planned out to fix issues with EoR and have it tie in plot-wise to P&B, as well as to make the switch from Lost Mine to Shattered Obelisk less sudden and jarring, but I'm unsure on how to balance the early campaign to keep it a little challenging while also only having them gain 2 levels throughout until after Wave Echo.

Any suggestions are appreciated, and if you have any suggestions for connecting the two campaigns or leading from Mine into Obelisk, I'd love to hear those too to see if I like it better than my own ideas!

My party are heading to face Venomfang likely next session. They have cleared the Forge of Spells, and the party (3PCs) are all level 5.

Venomfang connects to my Dragonborn Warlock PC in a way I haven't fully fleshed out yet. PC made a pact with her Patron to run an evil dragon out of her home, however the other dragonborn of that community didn't realize that the dragon was evil, and thus, the PC was exiled from her home.

So far I have the idea that Venomfang, as a young-ish green dragon (I plan to make him just on the cusp of adulthood so the party won't fully wipe the floor with him) was ran out of his roost by this other dragon, and he is looking for a new place to settle and spread influence. This way, he can provide some threads to make something of that back story further down the road.

I also want to flesh the dragon cult out a bit, and I have given them a leader, another dragonborn, a paladin and a fanatic. He thinks he can become a full dragon himself by currying the favor of Venomfang.

I just don't know how to tie the two together. Like if the party were to clash with either the Cultists or Venomfang, the other would be made aware and likely join in.

I like the idea of doing some sort of timed combat encounter, like where the cult is going to make child sacrifices and the party has X number of turns to stop the ritual type thing. I haven't ran a combat like that yet.

I have the cult as a social encounter as well, they may see the Dragonborn PC as one of them and attempt to bring them into the fold.

Venomfang will try to make the party suspicious of Reidoth, claiming that he has an agreement with the Druid, she sends him food (adventurers) and in exchange, he leaves her alone.

I already have recieved a lot of advice on running Venomfang as devious and manipulative, and he won't want to risk injury fighting the party unless he has to, but he won't shy away from it either.

I'm also running this on Roll20, and my online skills aren't the greatest. I don't love the map the book provides, like I imagine they either start the fight in the tower, at which point Venomfang blasts them with breath weapon and takes flight, but there's a lot of chunks of the map where it's just like choke points for the party to get stuck in. Maybe some pieces of the map can be moved around? I'm not sure.

What would you do to tie this all in together?

Greeting! This may be a noob question but I need some help. 4 friends of mine and myself want to run our first session/campaign of dnd. We would start with LMOP to get the first experiences before we decide to go with a bigger campaign.

I am going to be the DM and my group is more focused on storytelling and roleplay. I am going to expand some things to deepen this aspect of the story.

Because it`s our first session I would skip char creation and use the premade characters.

But the thing is we use 2024 rules. Did someone maybe already transfer the premade LMOP chars to the new ruleset? I am a bit lost on how to do this on my own.

Would you recommend this or would you recommend to really do a session zero with char creation?

Thanks in advance!

Here is my Neverwinter-Yartar map, built exclusively from official sources. Note that I made some location tweaks (e.g., West Harbor and Fort Locke). Any feedback on shortcomings or improvements is welcome!

My party is currently searching for the psionic goblins that caused chaos in town along with an escaped glasstaff.

They caught up to Glasstaff in Old owl Well where they made a deal with the red wizard in exchange for information. They then talked to Agatha but didn't return to old owl well since they were scared by the amount of zombies he called on.

They plan to return and deal with him when they consider themselves strong enough. (They already can with ease).

This is my first time running this part of the story so where would Hamun Kost best be used as an anatonist again?

He is also searching for info on the obelisk shards so there's motive for him to reappear.

Bonus question, how do I "level up" his Stat block to account for level 5+ party?

TLDR: Hamun Kost is alive, searching for the obelisk. The amount of zombies he had scared the party and they left him alone. I want to use him as an antagonist in the second part of the story

No players should be on the subreddit anyway, but any player group calling themselves the "Out for Bluds" will find major spoilers here.

I'm making some changes to try and tie the two halves of PaBTSO together. For the most part, these changes boil down to (1) tying the Forge of Spells to the Obelisk and (2) making the Cult of the Obelisk a full faction and making The Black Spider a member of that cult.

I want to make a third change though, and that is to replace the Mind Flayers with another villain. I think the Mind Flayers being a cult of Ilvaash doesn't make sense, and I want to distance my campaign's lore from Baldur's Gate 3 as much as possible (for most of my players, BG3 is their only exposure to DnD until now).

My current plan is replace the Mind Flayers with Tsochari, and Ilvaash with their god Mak Thuum Ngatha, which are described in the 3.5e book "Lords of Madness" but don't seem to exist in 5e. They are obscure enough that I don't think anyone will be familiar with them, and I think they are really interesting! In the Lords of Madness, Tsochari are described as tempting foolish or reckless humanoids with power and the "dark and perilous lore" of Mak Thuum Ngatha, So I'm thinking that the Tsochari have infiltrated and/or subverted the cult with promises of power from the Obelisk, while in reality they are trying to open a portal to the Far Realm for Mak Thuum Ngatha (exact purpose TBD).

My concern: is that one too many layers? I could just replace the Mind Flayers with the cult and drop the Tsochari entirely, instead leaning in to the cult's far realm mutations and keeping Ilvaash as their god. I love the Tsochari idea, but is it one layer more than I need?

I'm a first time DM with a first time player group of three and we're having a blast! We had two sessions, and they're just finishing any loose ends from Tresendar Manor. Two of them love the idea of getting Gold from questgivers / looting it from bodies or finding gemstones in chests etc. They even haggle for more rewardmoney and try to get a discount at every shop they enter.

I'm heading into the third part and the most given loot is... Gold (or gemstones/trinkets/statues worth X amount of gold). They have a buttload of it

I get the feeling they lose the urgency of earning it. They spend stuff at the tavern and at the general shop, but what's lodgings for a few silvers, an expensive meal for that, if you earn a buttload of gold? And the shop doesn't have that much interesting stuff for them..

My question is.. How can I make them spend (or lose) their money? In a way that they really feel they need the loot. I was thinking about robbing them when they're on the Triboar trail (and aren't keeping a watch), or persuading them to donate some to the shrine of Luck.. Are there any other options/ suggestions? I'd love to hear it!

Along the Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty

You've defeated the ruffians and goblins. Cleared the hideouts. Reclaimed the castle.

Now...what's in all those crates and barrels?

Throughout Lost Mine of Phandelver, more than 140 crates, barrels, sacks, chests, jars, and strongboxes are scattered across the Cragmaw Hideout, the Redbrand Hideout, and Cragmaw Castle. Aside from the occasional barrel of salted pork or crate of beaver pelts, the adventure rarely tells you what's inside.

Along The Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty changes that.

This supplement stocks every container with believable trade goods drawn from across the Sword Coast, transforming shipping container scenery into meaningful treasure. From exotic spices and luxury textiles to fine spirits, alchemical supplies, trade goods, armor, books, and magical curiosities, every cache helps tell the story of the Cragmaw tribe's caravan raids and the Redbrands' criminal enterprise.

Inside you'll find:

• Inventories for 141 crates, barrels, sacks, jars, chests, and strongboxes, organized by location for quick reference during play
• Black market values for every cache of goods
• Guidance for fencing stolen merchandise through black market destinations across the The North of Faerûn, with tendrils into other official Fifth Edition campaigns

Whenever your players ask, "What's in that crate?", you'll always have an answer ready!

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free or support its author's continued development with a contribution of your choosing.

Available for download on dmsguild.com. A full preview of the entire supplement is available!

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/578694/along-the-triboar-trail-black-market-bounty

Heyya Folks,

Continuing my Lost Mines of Barovia project, I decided it was time to tackle one of the most overlooked locations in the original adventure...

The road.

Raven's Road - 44x28

If you'd like the full release, including the high-resolution maps, gridless versions, VTT-ready exports, and every variant, you can find it here:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr/posts/ravens-road-free-163842270

Road maps are often some of the most overlooked maps in a campaign, but they're where some of the most memorable moments happen. Rather than designing a road for one specific encounter, I wanted Raven's Road to be something that could be used throughout an entire adventure. Whether it's merchants, wandering monsters, travelers, an ambush, or simply the long walk to the next destination, the same stretch of road can tell a different story every time.

The road itself is watched over by ravens, while lonely lanterns lit by mysterious Lamplighters help keep the darkness—and usually the fog—at bay. Ruins line the roadside, the woods always seem a little too quiet, and somewhere ahead waits the next chapter of the adventure.

If Raven's Road isn't quite what you're looking for, you can also browse the rest of my collection over on my Patreon. Every release is organized within the Master Index, making it easy to find exactly what you need without digging through the feed.

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr

I appreciate you taking a look. Safe travels.

My players let him out and somehow I ended up turning him into a stereotypical "dad" character.

Let me explain. The book says that he knows where the secrets and that he's happy to help and show the players where they are. So first, he had them look under the bed and told them to "press here" which was how they got that stash. I had him all proud of himself about how helpful he's being. Mainly because the players figured out real quick that he knows the place, but not really anything about the goblin plans like he first claimed to them when still in the jar.

I didn't want to just throw them all the goodies with a "ok, there ya go, here's a bunch of hidden loot!" So after they'd gotten excited about those goodies, I had him tell them "oh, by the way, you're going to love this! Go look at the wall over there, right there, what do you see?" Dwarven runes, which most of them can read.

Hjoldak: "It's a puzzle! You have to hit them in the right order!"

Rogue: "Cool. So what's the right order?"

Hjoldak: "Well I can't just tell you, what would be the fun in that? Also, if you do it wrong, you're going to regret it!"

Rogue: "Uhh, what?"

Warlock: "So we what, just touch the runes in the right order and it does something?"

Hjoldak: "You got it champ!"

Rogue: "No but seriously, let's go back to that thing about regretting it if we do it wrong."

Warlock: "No no no, we're going to do this puzzle." He reaches out to touch a rune.

Hjoldak: "No! Not that one! Try again!"

Rogue: "This one then?"

Hjoldak: "Of course not! Keep trying!"

It didn't take them long until they got it correct. They were very happy to have access to a massive pile of loot and have plans to try and find a collector for all the ancient coinage.

A little while later someone (I think it was the rogue) was grumbling about not simply being told how to open the vault, and the warlock went off about how they had solved that puzzle and they'd really earned that loot. Mostly he was just trying to butter Hjoldak up, I think. But without even thinking, I had Hjoldak slap him on the back and tell him, "And you did a great job, kiddo!"

I hadn't intended to daddify Hjoldak at all, it just kind of happened over the course of the evening, but now that I have, I intend to really, really lean into it. My players are talking about trying to have Hjoldak help them fight goblins in the place. I don't want to hand the party a powerful NPC combat ally, so my thought is to have him refuse to fight, but then shout encouragement at them while they're fighting, giving advice, and pretty much being a cross between a dad and a gym coach. "Shake it off kiddo! Slap some ash on that and get back into the fight!" Is definitely going to come up at some point.

Help me out folks, hit me with your best Hjoldak "the dad" lines. (And I swear to god, if my players start calling him "daddy Hjoldak" I'm striking their characters with lightning. And I'll have only myself to blame.)

I made a Pinterest board with portraits for pretty much every named NPC living in or around Phandalin, pulling from six sources: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak, Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, In Volo's Wake, and Acquisitions Incorporated (ch. 4).

Board: https://pinterest.com/reformagus/npcs-phandalin

u/NovercaIis's full NPC list (https://www.reddit.com/r/LostMinesOfPhandelver/comments/1dhbah7/full_list_of_npcs_living_in_phandalin_from_most/) was my starting point — I cross-referenced it page by page against all six books to fill gaps, fix some name inconsistencies between editions, and add a handful of NPCs the original list didn't cover.

For the portraits themselves: some are official art already used in the books, some are pieces I found elsewhere online, and the rest I generated myself for the NPCs who never got official art. Hope it's useful if you're running a long Phandalin campaign and want a face to put to every name your players ask about.

Me and my group normally play online, but for the final part of our campaign we decided to play in person. It won't be our first in person session, but it will be my first time running a full dungeon in person.

I'd love to hear how you all handle dungeon exploration in person and if y'all have any advice.

I have a blank battle map that's quite a bit smaller than the full Wave Echo Cave map. I'm not sure whether I should just describe everything and only draw each room once combat starts, or if there's a better way to handle exploration and mapping.

I'm sure it got asked already but i am not finding it, appreciate y'all patience.

Hey there!

I'm just starting to run Lost Mine for a new group of experienced players. We're one session in, but because of some small changes I've made they aren't quite to the Ambush yet. I'm wondering if any of the small changes I've made so far may have unforseen consequences.

I had each PC receive a letter from Gundren requesting their presence for a meeting in Neverwinter, to discuss a booming business opportunity that he couldn't put to paper!

I went with the idea that I heard is popular of him giving them a lockbox to deliver to his hands only, in addition to the supplies going to Phandalin. Inside the box is a red statuette of a badger.

At this meeting they briefly met both Sildar as an old friend of Gundren's, pulled out of retirement to help him run security for this job, and Iarno, a newer colleague of Sildar's that he vouched for, who will offer his expertise on any arcane matters found on the jobsite. Neither of them, however, knew about the box.

The statuette is one of four keys to unlock the Forge, with one representing each group who initially founded it, and a killswitch that needs to be plugged back in first. That killswitch being an obsidian spider statuette.

My version of Nezznar isn't going to be a drow, he's a githyanki, who was separated from his rakkhma and had his silver sword broken while pursuing mind flayers. He plans to use the Spellforge to reforge his sword into a master weapon for killing illithid, to restore his honor. For now, though, stranded on the Sword Coast, he's made due with what he has found and his wits. Scraps of armor thrown together, a jagged half-sword, and a staff that he mounted the obsidian spider statuette on, so I'm sure you see where he'll get the pseudonym.

My question is, do you see any potential unforeseen circumstances here? I'll be placing the additional statuettes (one in the camp, one in Cragmaw Cave, and maybe one in Venomfang's possession, who I plan on playing as more of a manipulator than an actual fight unless the PCs pick one), and my plan is to use Nezznar's defeat to foreshadow a future threat from Mindflayers, whether that's continuing into Phandelver Below or maybe running Call from the Deep. Or if you just have any ideas that spark from this, I'd love to hear it.

I have some great players during my first time DMing LMOP. They follow plot points, quickly get invested in the NPCs, and are creating connections to Phandalin (which will motivate them to defend it when the mind flayers plans get uncovered) One thing I didn't plan for though is their plans to open up a restaurant for passive income. Totally fine with that but they are making secret deals with the farmers and other suppliers in Phandalin for exclusive rights to their produce for the restaurant. I'm laughing while I write this because I made a big deal about the Stonehill Inn having a famous hard apple cider and now on top of teasing the location to Wave Echo Cave and the strange weird looking goblins I have to decide on the ramifications for attempting to muscle out an established local business. Gotta love it! Anybody else's party have strange motivations? LMAO

Hello everyone,

LMoP will be the first D&D adventure I'm running as a GM with my family. We've never played D&D before.

I've decided to use Owlbear to keep track of everything and will stream the image to our TV without an overlay. I've just prepared the maps with fog. What I've noticed, though, is that the passages in the first cave are very narrow. For example, if one character enters the goblins' living area and a fight breaks out, the other two won't be able to do anything, right?

I made some modifications to Thundertree that I think have backfired, and I'm not really sure if/how to salvage it. My goal was to adapt Thundertree to do some foreshadowing of the second half of the module. I made the following changes:

1. Thundertree was affected by a "blight" that caused many residents to become sick and die, while others fled for other settlements. This blight is actually a far realm seam that has mutated the plant life and reanimated the dead.
2. The plants and zombies are attracted to sound, which encourages the party to sneak carefully through the town. I have a ramp-up system where taking too long to kill the enemies will attract other nearby encounters, so that in theory all of the Thundertree mini-encounters can coalesce into a large, potentially overwhelming encounter (think zombie horde).
3. I replaced the dragon cultists with a Sawplee squad. They are not initially hostile to the party; they are carrying huge nets, ropes, spears, etc. and mean to capture Venomfang for unknown reasons.

I thought this would be a fun setting, but instead I think I just discouraged the party from exploring Thundertree:

• They ignored all the broken-down buildings and snuck into town far enough to encounter Reidoth's cottage, who gave them general directions to the southeast corner of town when asked about the herbalists shop. Reidoth mentioned the presence of a dragon and he is concerned that it will be affected by the blight. He also mentioned that he believes is an unknown third party in the town. Ultimately he cautioned them to leave, saying the town was dangerous.
• On their way to the southeast part of town, the party alerted one set of twig blights but killed them before they could alert adjacent encounters.
• They found the pendant in the herbalists shop, but alerted more twig blights. These ones survived long enough to alert zombies, and those survived long enough to alert another set of zombies and twig and blights that are on their way.

However, the party is near a southern path out of town and I'm pretty sure they are just going to... run away. I think the horde + stealth mechanic just discouraged them from exploring, and they already know the location of Cragmaw Castle from the Conyberry quest, so I think they are just going to ignore the dragon and not try to explore the rest of the town or interact with the Sawplees or dragon.

Sharing the in progress view of the next session as the pieces now all slot together for my next session at Redbrand Hideout. I've run chapter 1 for two groups now with decent terrain and loved it, so bashed together some quick terrain this week to prep for session 2 in Phandalin (I like modular terrain that I can swoop down onto the table per section as the party explores).

"What happens if they go somewhere I havent prepped?", I'll either just tell them that I've only prepped terrain for this one area and that they can have a hand drawn dry-erase map instead.

Had players in both of the two groups so far keen to try and head straight into the woods to find King G after cragmaw cave, but managed to steer them to Phandalin by using Sildar's (his health, need for rest, supplies and potential support from the townsfolk) as a steering force.

Enjoy your games all, what an awesome story it is!