Events & Play Wednesday - My 5E D&D Starter Set Playthrough Final Session

Our playthrough coverage continues from here!

We've been gearing up for our final leg of the 5E Starter Set Adventure for a while.  Getting us all together proved difficult in the end of the summer so those of us who could make it week to week opted to hold off and play boardgames.  Some have far to travel and can only do so if an RPG is in the offing.  Sadly, a last minute illness still meant our delay meant playing shorthanded.  We pressed on.

Here are the PCs and their players:

• Fighter, Noble (Human) - Excelon played by Floyd
• Cleric, Soldier (Dwarf) - Nox played by Norman
• Rogue, Criminal (Halfling) - Bulbo played by Keith
• Fighter, Folk Hero (Human) - Samuel played by Kurt
• Wizard, Acolyte (High Elf) - Heronimus played by John (proxy to Floyd)

For this final session, I made some adjustments to the layout and extent of the Wave Echo Cave complex, compressing the ecosystem and the map.  Images and details on that below but the intent was to make sure we could potentially get through the last leg in just one evening.  It worked out well though in retrospect, I might have done a few things differently.  Read on and enjoy but with the following warning . . .

The rest of this post, a continuation of 

this series is fraught with spoilers.

You have been warned!

(My own players have now played and 

are welcome to examine the details below or in previous 

posts in this series.)

For the last leg, even after having purposefully skipped some of the less-intriguing areas of the adventure like Thundertree,  Given we hadn't played through the whole adventure, and much experience that could have been gained in the omitted sections was not available to them, we opted to raise the group up to fourth level.  I wanted to truncate the Wave Echo Cave location so as to fit it into a single evening.  That too, would require the group be strong enough to handle most encounters swiftly.  While the temple and smelting locations are clever, as well as interesting set pieces, in my view they don't necessarily add to the adventure aside from be places where certain creatures could be encountered.  As such, they were eliminated and the encounters (mostly) relocated to a tighter cave complex.  Much of the southern end of the complex remained intact with some adjustment in the middle.  Compare the following to your own map f you'd like to follow things along in closer context.

To speed up play, and because I enjoy using battlemats much of the time (as do my players) I grabbed some images from the players map I got through Mike Schley's excellent resource.  As with previous areas that are heavily geared toward combat in this adventure, I blew them up to one-inch equals five feet.  I had to add in some grid lines because the map for Wave Echo Cave is set to ten foot squares.  I then printed the pages out on 110 lb cardstock, cut out the sections, and attached them to some thin foamcore boards in sections.  I made the images in greyscale / black & white because it is less expensive though in previous parts of the adventure I colored some portions in with markers.  I considered coloring the fungi area but didn't bother.

Floyd brought a GM screen for me to use, set up with the faction symbols on the outside and some updated charts on the inside.  Very nice, indeed.  One will note that one of the main features of Wave Echo Cave, the underground sea, and even all traces of water are gone, thus necessitating an alteration in the explanation of the periodic echoes.  I simply allowed for this to be coming from beyond the section of this complex through fissures and louder toward the natural caverns to the east, loudest in the northeast, which still accomplishes the original design intent, leading the PCs toward the Forge of Spells.

During play, I used cardstock pages to introduce a fog of war beyond the reach of light sources.  I had moved the Ghouls into the opening cavern and though this left the body of the dead Rockseeker brother less intact, it was still easy enough to identify once it was seen.  The group moved in, engaged in hand to hand combat, then backed off to the cave mouth and allowed the Dwarf Cleric to turn the Ghouls.  This gave the group a minute to snag the body and drop into the gorge in the north of the cavern, which I deemed the Ghouls would not drop into themselves.  A couple of the PCs had taken some damage and after a quick bit of healing they pressed on.

Rather than heading north to the maze of mine tunnels, the group opted to head east toward the louder sounds of the "waves."  In the first passage northward, Gundren took the time to bury his brother, if only temporarily, with the Dwarf Cleric to say some words over the corpse.  The rest of the group edged eastward and discovered, after tossing a light source well into the next cavern, that Stirges were swarming around in the heights.  I didn't have Stirge miniatures but had some Giant Ice Flies that I had created for another game some time ago.  I had used some dollar store flies with the black base removed, drybrushed with icy blue and a touch of black, then re-based.  They worked just fine.  A sleep spell took them out after only doing a smattering of damage.

After squishing the sleeping Stirges, the group had a look around.  The bones of those who had fallen here long before and the decorations on the walls gave them some confirmation of what they already knew about the mines and cavern complex.

They checked out the storage room to the north, now a dead end, keeping it in mind for later to rest.

They looked over the original entrance, realizing that any clearance effort would be beyond their strength and time.  They quickly looked in the assayers room and discovered the coin chest.  Then they looked in but did not enter the guardroom, avoiding dealing with the skeletons there.  I missed a trick with the assayers room.  Discussing things afterward with Norm, we decided it might have been a good idea to set the Flameskull on one of the sides of an assayers scale, playing possum, and have it come to life while the group was vulnerable.  I had left the Flameskull out completely.  I considered adding it back in when I allowed the group to level up to 4th-level before we began playing but didn't pull the trigger.  As it was, the evening was full enough so no big loss.

After checking out the entrance and the near rooms, and a short rest in the storage room, they moved toward the fungi cavern.  They had given it a quick look before, and tossed something in to disrupt the puffballs, watching as the cavern became spore-ridden, so they knew what they were up against.  They decided to chance it one at a time.  I give each player a single reroll they can use during each session.  They cannot save them from week to week, so they know to use them or lose them.  As each ran the gauntlet of the fungi cavern, most set off the spores and failed their first save.  The rerolls were all used up before reaching the far side but they made it nonetheless.

They had a good look around the next cavern before deciding top set up and try the scarred doors of the "Wraith" room.  I use quotation marks because this is really a toothless encounter designed to give the PCs a chance to gain some information.  The Halfling Thief was prompted to cross and check out the chest they saw from the doorway, which triggered the Wraith to rise and threaten anyway violating the room.

The Halfling Thief thought quickly and offered up a magical potion to appease the Wraith, so I allowed that to be enough if they agreed to leave him in peace, which they did, and as they left I had him beseech the group to eliminate the threat in the northern room.  Some of the players heard "Spectre" rather than "Spectator" and some discussion ensued before they mustered their courage to deal with the next threat.

They crossed northward and climbed the stair.

Again, they set up well to handle whatever they would find.

I explained the differences between the miniature I used and the actual Spectator but it worked for our purposes.  The dice went their way and although the creature got off some attacks at the Noble Fighter who rolled poorly on Initiative and stood in the door as the group moved back and forth, taking some ranged attacks.  In the following rounds, the fighters charged and landed some heavy attacks, finishing the Spectator.

They gather the magic items, assessed the weakness of the forge, and continued on to find the Black Spider.

They followed the winding hallway back into the worked sections of the complex, fearful at most had taken some damage and spells were now running low.

They found a collapsed room with the bodies of dead Bugbears.  My interior explanation was that these had fallen as the Black Spider made his own hasty attempts to gain the secrets of the forge.

The two Bugbears the Black Spider, Nezznar, a Dark Elf Wizard, had left in his employ were in the barracks, as was the villain himself.  As the Bugbears fought, Nezzner attempted to grab something and make his escape.  He was seen, so rather than risk his own life, he left behind the sack (treasure from the unused sections of the adventure) and took to the maze of the mines.

Poor rolls by the players allowed the Bugbears to last for many more rounds than should have happened.  This turned out to be a real nail-biter, despite Nezzner getting out and probably getting a good lead on getting away.  It was made even more sweet as I described these two Bugbears and the ones who helped Iarno escape from the Phandolin manor ruins.  Once the Halfling Thief slipped through the lines and was able to divide the attacks from the doorway, others slipped through.  A Hold Person finally stopped one of the Bugbears and once they were able to coordinate their attacks on the other, they chopped him up then finish off the held creature.

They were very happy with this, quickly gather the treasure sack, and made after Nezzner, hoping the Ghouls left behind in the entrance cavern would slow him down.

But they hadn't seen the mine-maze before so this threw them off and they slowed their progress to be sure they were not taken unaware.  I had replaced the Ochre Jelly, figuring it was too slow to be a real challenge for the group, with a Minotaur, which I constructed from some slightly-beefed-up Ogre stats.  I thought of having Nezzner attack them from hiding, invisible at first as he now was in my estimation, but they made such quick work I opted for Nezzner making off with what little dignity he had left.

The group also searched the rest of the maze, came up empty, gather up the body of the one Rockseeker they had found, dealt with the Ghouls again (having had a short rest early and able to turn them), and left the complex.

We were out of time for the evening and I offered the chance for the group to fight Nezzner in league with the dragon from Thundertree but we all agreed that we had the lion's share of adventure from the Starter Set and were done with it.  We'll re-start the 1E campaign next time we get together to roleplay and go back to our twice a month schedule, those who are more local boardgaming in the off-weeks.

No one was more pleased the group's success while being less pleased with his dice rolling than Floyd.  He really stepped up, running two PCs for the evening.  He'll also be running a regular Saturday afternoon 5E game at Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL starting this week.  If anyone is interested, mention it here and I'll be sure he gets word.  I plan to make some more notes on how the whole process of playing through the 5E Starter Set Adventure (with some Basic rules) and will address my thoughts on a System Saturday post this weekend or next.

Thanks for following this blog series.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Events & Play Wednesday on CreativeMountainGames.com 

News of Conventions and Gamedays as well as pictures
from those I have attended and games I have played.

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The Friday Grab Bag - Madness at Gardmore Abbey: The Patrons at Winterhaven

This post is about a post at the the-forsite-irregulars.obsidianportal.com that has aspects that could put it anywhere on the CMG Blog Triad, so I thought I'd put it up as part of The Friday Grab Bag.  It's part playthrough report, part adventure and setting, and part model and minis making, so you can understand my dilemma for where best to share it.  The blog post title over there was "Madness at Gardmore Abbey: The Patrons at Winterhaven" and it went up back in July of 2103.  It's a real treat when you stumble across a GM who puts so much effort into running a game, so follow the link here to have a look for yourself.

The Friday Grab Bag on CreativeMountainGames.com 

Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics not covered
elsewhere or needing a particular focus.

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The Friday Grab Bag - My 5E D&D Starter Set Playthrough Powers On

Our playthrough coverage continues from here!

First off, Floyd (who plays the PC Excellon and  drives up from IL) put together a GM screen based on the reference sheets downloadable from EN World here.

He added some pics to the outside, gleaned from various editions and sources, and made a four panel screen.  I set up behind it with the creatures I would need for the night as well as my dice and dice tray.

The group really pulled things together during the Castle Cragmaw section of the 5E D&D Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver.  I was impressed by the way they worked together to overcome the many challenges.  They reconnoitered well, made a solid plan, stuck with it, and reacted with speed and decisiveness, fine-tuning their plan along the way.

So, with the following warning in mind, let's look closer . . .

The rest of this post, a continuation from last week, will be fraught with spoilers, so you have been warned. 

 My own players should avoid the text below as well!

Here are the PCs and their players:

• Fighter, Noble (Human) - Excelon played by Floyd
• Cleric, Soldier (Dwarf) - Nox played by Norman
• Rogue, Criminal (Halfling) - Bulbo played by Keith
• Wizard, Acolyte (High Elf) - Heronimus played by John
• Fighter, Folk Hero (Human) - Samuel played by Kurt

For much of the week since the last game, my players were torn between traveling to Thundertree or finding Cragmaw Castle some other way.  They now had a Goblin who had been pressed hard enough to show them the way to the castle but weren't sure he could be believed or trusted.  They were confident if they connected with the Druid Reidoth he would give them definitive information on Cragmaw Castle, plus there was a necklace at Thundertree left by the family of the murdered woodcutter that they were told was their's for the taking and that some of the players desired.  They opted to allow the Goblin guide to lead them to Cragmaw Castle.  When they were within a half day of their assumed destination, they had to deal with an Owlbear during their last watch at night.

At this point, the party is all 3rd-level PCs.  They were a little shy of that benchmark but the Owlbear encounter at the end of the previous session pushed them all over the top.  The group was definitely feeling their oats.  Approaching the site of Cragmaw Castle, they were pleased the Goblin guide had not steered them wrong.  In preparation, the Halfling disguised himself as a Goblin.  They secured the Goblin up a tree and, not taking chances relying on the Goblin disguise, the wizard cast invisibility upon the Halfling who scouted out the location.

If you're going to use dry erase markers, as Norm does, be sure to use the low-odor EXPO variety and clean them up as soon as done using the dry erase board solution from EXPO.

The Halfling checked out several possible entryways and decided to urge the group to attempt the sally door on the south end, and the group agreed.  Noise from the mess hall helped the group decide it was the first thing to handle.

Much like they did with the dice game in the Redbrand lounge, the party worked as a well-oiled machine and wiped out the Goblin in the mess hall. Some fast melee, an arrow or two, and a Sleep spell dropped all but the cook who was knocked out and tied up swiftly with no real chance of alerting anyone else in the castle.

They moved the fallen around, made a quick search, the made ready to check out toward the castle's western entrance.

It was fortunate they sent the Halfling first and that he opted to check for traps.  It would have all turn sour if he had died while invisible in Goblin disguise under a pile of rubble.  Those in the know will note I fudged some of the architecture here but the castle plans were close enough for our gameplay.

The moved into the temple area from two fronts.  It took a moment for the Grick to decide when best to attack with a divided party but dropped down on the Dwarf who was peeking through the curtain to the north.  The three beyond the curtain were cowering in the convex area between the curtains, as it happened, having heard plenty of discussion regarding the deities represented by the carvings and ornaments of the temple.

The Grick nearly killed one or two members of the group with some solid hits but was vanquished nonetheless.  I was amazed that no one ever searched in the brazier despite giving them plenty of opportunities.  As it happened, they never did discover what was in there.

When they moved north through both curtains at once, they were confronted by the two Goblin acolytes even as the Goblin, Lhuopo slipped out the door to the west and alerted the Hobgolins in their barracks.  The party wasn't aware that the Hobgoblins were being summoned by did see that Lhupo had headed west so they sent the Halfling around to head him off.  As he crossed the entrance chamber and opened the door, he saw the Hobgoblins coming out and was greeted by a shouting Lhupo.  I had remembered that the Halfling, though now long visible, was still disgiused as a Goblin.  I rolled the contest and both the Hobgoblins and Lhupo were fooled b y the disguise.  Through the Halfling did not understand the words, the gesture to get out was understood.  In fact, Lhupo was sending the Halfling to summon the other Goblins and trusted him to do so.  A crucial mistake on his part, though the Halfling turned and shut the door on his way, seemingly following the orders.

As the Hobgoblins stormed over to the northern portion of the temple, the shrine, they were not fighting very effectively.  While they were hard to hit, they were taking steady damage and losing quickly.  A couple of hits they did make managed to inflict their martial advantage damage but it wasn't enough to stop the heroes.  At one point, the Halfling jumped into the fray and git in his sneak attack damage as the Hobgoblins were still convinced he was a Goblin and on their side.

As the Hobgoblins were faling in the shrine, Lhupo attacked from the south west door side.  He knew he had already alerted the other Goblins by way of the Halfling posing as a Goblin, so he didn't bother to check if they were coming himself.  After a round or so of fighting with the Folk Hero, the Goblin from the front entryway were now coming of their own accord.  Lhupo glanced over his shoulder and began to gloat how the castle forces would slay all of the intruders.  On that same round, however, the Hobgoblins were felled and the newly arriving Goblins were all enveloped in a Sleep spell.  The Dwarf Cleric and Halfling came round from the north, the Folk Hero renewed his efforts, they surrounded Lhupo, and finally cut him down.  He died quite sure that his comrades were winning and the intruders would shed their blood in the desecrated temple.

With the western end of the complex secured, they moved eastward.  They considered resting at this point but wisely decided to press on.  Quickly determining they'd stick together and use the southern most of the two eastbound doorways, they quietly moved up then barged on through, surprising two Hobgoblin guards.  They dealt with the two Hobgoblins standing guard and chose not to disturb the large beast barred in the southeastern tower.  This is when things got tricky.

The curtain at the north end of the room ripped open and there stood a Bugbear, King Grol, holding a knife to the throat of an obviously incapacitated Gundren, their Dwarf benefactor.  The stand off lasted a few moments as all parties readied actions and considered their positions.  When it seemed that Grol was going to kill Gundren, several actions happened in quick succession.  The Folk Hero fired an arrow but caused little damage.  The Halfling sprang forward but also just winged the king of the Bugbears.  The wizard got off a couple of missiles but barely harmed the enemy.  Even the Noble Hero got a swing in quickly but only grazed him.  Because of good initiatives and readied actions, the Dwarf even had a chance to strike before the Bugbear would be able to slice Gundren's throat, but it was not enough to finish him off.

It seemed such a waste for this rescue attempt to fail.  I gave it a few moments of thought and decided that the Doppelganger would act now on the behalf of the party, but for some rather interesting motives.  I decided the Doppelganger had already sent his Wolf off with a message to the Black Spider that Cragmaw Castle was as good as lost.  It seemed feasible that the Doppelganger had been monitoring the situation.  Still unable to convince Grol to give up the map to Wave Echo Cave nor to transfer Gundren as prisoner to him, the Doppelganger was in a bind.  If he had left empty handed prior to knowing the full outcome, the Black Spider would not be pleased if Grol lived and branded the Doppelganger a coward.  The Black Spider would be no less disappointed if the Cragmaw Castle fell and the map was not secured.

Seeing no other option, and knowing by Reading Thoughts that the heroes believed they'd find the still-at-large Iarno here at the castle, the Doppelganger took on the guise of Iarno and struck the killing blow in the back of Grol.  While doing so, he shouted out the word, "Redemption!"  As faux-Iarno stood over the corpse of King Grol, he quickly pleaded his case to the heroes, and Sildar was present for this.  Although they took faux-Iarno prisoner, binding his hands and gagging him against the chance he might cast spells, they let him live and it bought the Doppelganger time.

With another Hobgoblin as prisoner along with faux-Iarno, the group made camp in Grol's chamber for the night.  It was a much needed rest as everyone had been hurt and spells were running very low.  During the third watch with Sildar, the Dwarf Cleric, and the Elf Wizard, the Doppelganger made his move.  The Dwarf Cleric was stationed out near the door to the temple, watching the sally entrance and and the northern concealed door.  The Elf was in the room between Grol's room and the Owlbear tower.  Sildar guarded the prisoners and watched over the party that slept in Grol's chamber.  At one point, as will happen on a four hour watch, I had Sildar needed to relief himself and went out to ask the Elf Wizard to keep an eye on things.

In that moment, the Doppelganger took on the likeness of the Halfling Thief and slipped from his bonds.  As the Elf Wizard entered the dimly lit room, the faux-Bulbo was right in front of him and told the Elf Wizard he was going to patrol out the concealed door.  He hadn't had time to retrieve the map nor kill Gundren but now he was more in fear for his own life.  I rolled a Passive Perception Check to see if faux-Bulbo could keep the Elf from noticing the discrepancies in the sleeping party members and prisoners, and the Elf did not.  Plus, the Elf Wizard's player had made it very clear he was intently keeping an eye on faux-Bulbo because he suspected he was up to something.  As faux-Bulbo left the room, heading west, the Elf called to the Dwarf Cleric to let him know that Bulbo was going out for some reason.  The Dwarf Cleric moved toward the room with the concealed door but was somewhat behind faux-Bulbo.  At this point, Sildar came back into Grol's chamber and immediately spotted that the Doppelganger wasn't where he had been left, so he shouted this information.

All three ran to try and prevent the escape.  The Doppelganger had a lead and was out through the canvas curtain swiftly.  The players were becoming frustrated that yet another enemy leader was potentially getting away.  With lousy rolls, Sildar and the Dwarf Cleric saw nothing outside to indicate where the Doppelganger had gone.  But the Elf got lucky, and perceived that the Doppelganger had left the castle then turned and climbed up the rubble, taking on its natural coloring and demeanor, hoping to blend in and wait for the heroes to give up on finding him.  We rolled initiative.  The Doppelganger won and leaped down on the Elf Wizard with a boulder in hand to attempt braining him.  He missed and the onslaught by the heroes laid the Doppelganger low in two short rounds.  They felt vindicated.

Now, it made much sense how the faux-Iarno had managed to say all the right things to press them into not killing him.  He had read their thoughts and knew which buttons to push to garner leniency.  This also meant that, they reasoned, word had arrived that the real Iarno was at large and likely the Black Spider knew of the group's movements.  While they  determined the best course was to return to Phandalin, they were up in the air over their next move.  Mosy seemed to want to strike at Thundertree but some group members wondered if they shouldn't move quickly on Wave Echo Cave.  Gundren, obviously, urged the latter.  More on their decisions and continuing adventures soon enough . . .

The adventure continues here.

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Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics not covered
elsewhere or needing a particular focus.

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The Friday Grab Bag - My 5E D&D Starter Set Playthrough Keeps Going (and Going!)

Our playthrough coverage continues from here!.

Before we jump back into the adventure, I have some added information to share.  One of the things I wanted to try and work out before our next game are inserts for a customized GM screen.  To that end, I discovered a thread on EN World where user ren1999 was building one for himself to use with 5E Basic D&D.  While I hope to make mine with more group-specific and Starter Set specific info, I'm keeping an eye on that thread for ideas for content and how to prioritize the layout.  See more here.

Also, WotC has put the five pregen characters from the 5E Starter Set up online as a PDF here.  Folks that are running the game, especially online, have been clambering for these.  Even if you are not playing or running the 5E Starter Set, you might want to look them over to get some insight on the new rules.  For our group, the characters and their players are named (in the order of the PDF) -

• Fighter, Noble (Human) - Excelon played by Floyd
• Cleric, Soldier (Dwarf) - Nox played by Norman
• Rogue, Criminal (Halfling) - Bulbo played by Keith
• Wizard, Acolyte (High Elf) - Heronimus played by John
• Fighter, Folk Hero (Human) - Samuel played by Kurt

But without any further ado . . .

This whole post, a continuation from last week, will be fraught with spoilers, so you have been warned. 

 My own players should avoid the text below as well!

Often I post reports like this from the perspective of the adventurers but let's look at the rest of this section of the 5E Starter Set adventure in part from the point of view of the hapless victims of our fearless band of marauders.  I'll try to include details that would seem most important to the villains without leaving too much out for those who want the usual treatment.  Maybe a GM's insight into how one might run the bad guys will prove useful to other GMs.  Some of the encounters were from the previous week, held in reserve from the blog because the group had yet to complete the section. 

___________________

When last we left our adventurers they were surrounding the Nothic.  The group was taking a few hits but were dealing some serious damage to the creature.  The Nothic, who is often prone to negotiate.  Perhaps because he was once a wizard (though now horribly, insanely aberrant), he misses talking to people.  Perhaps, all Nothics are just greedy.  This one opted to attack for various reasons.

(Someone off-blog had asked for a peek behind the decision to have the Nothic attack rather than negotiate and the following is a capsule of what I shared.)

In this case, the party (without cloaks or disguise) are clearly intruders, had blood on their weapons, one had just fallen down the crevasse and was severely wounded and had thoughts of taking over the complex for his own (Nothic gained that info), and while three were back helping the Noble out of the crevasse, the unarmored one (Wizard) was wandering over in easy striking distance (with surprise and Advantage) with only the little one (Halfling) supporting him. 

I rolled a die and determined the Nothic would use the upper hand to try to take one or two down, perhaps using that and the injuries of the Noble to extort payment from a position of strength.  Nothics are evil, after all.

And there they were, the Nothic on the east side of the northern bridge, with adventurers all around him.  Some Fancy Dan of a warrior was standing atop this arched footbridge.  Our Nothic knew, through mental insight, that the so-called Noble had declared his intentions to claim the complex for his own and, in all likelihood, slay all who might live within.  With this threat came many merciless minions.  Action was taken.  What was meant to be an attack by the Nothic to slay an unarmed intruder before threatening the rest of the interlopers had swiftly turned into the Nothic fighting for his life above his cozy home in the treasure-laden crevasse.  Oh, the injustice!

The Dwarf was the hardest to hit and, despite Nothic's claws flailing multiple times at the bearded invader, only once did the nails cut through the Dwarf's armor, and then not-at-all deeply.  The Halfling was trickiest, avoiding damage but slipping in from time to time to strike with his little blade.  Another armored Human stood on the west side of the footbridge, firing arrow after arrow, more than a few finding the Nothic as a target even though the cavern resident had positioned himself with both the stone pillar and the Usurper as some form of cover.  It simply wasn't fair!

The party whittled away at our misunderstood mage-turned-monster, who was merely defending his home, and all soon seemed lost.  No matter how often the Nothic struck, a myriad of blows from the marauders rained down on him from all around.  Before long, the Nothic was at death's door.  But the leader, upon the bridge, slipped.  An errant swing of his axe had him slightly reeling astride the wooden span.  With all his strength, the Nothic plunged both sets of claws deep into the torso of the usurper.  Into his mind he projected an ultimatum, "Let me live or we both fall to our deaths!"

The Nothic felt the enemy stab deeply with his blade and shove him from the bridge, dislodging his claws.  As he fell into the crevasse, he could see he would land upon his treasures, some cold, golden comfort in his final moment.  He cerebrally screamed into the mind of his slayer hoping it would echo in his soul forever.

When Floyd's attacked with his Noble Fighter resulted in a "1," I allowed the Nothic to have Advantage on his next round of combat.  When the Nothic subsequently rolled a "20," and both claws had struck home, I allowed the Nothic to have buried his claws so deep it required a Opposed Strength Check (Contest) to separate them.  When Floyd struck with his sword, he also rolled the check and despite the Nothic rolling first and rolling high, luck was with the Noble Fighter.  I rewarded the well-played moment by having the falling body reveal the location of the chest hidden in the crevasse.  The group found the only one of the secret supply room doors, in the northeast alcove.  Through that, they discovered the Armory and only glanced into the tomb without entering (leaving the Undead undisturbed for now), then went below to the Redbrand Common Room.

Meanwhile, a weekly dice game was taking place in a Redbrand Common Room not far away.  Oblivious to the action that had transpired in the cavern above, Sulidan, the Redbrand who had been with Glasstaff the longest, was fleecing his fellows with a set of loaded dice.  He had just managed to build the pot large enough for a final throw of the bones when the door burst open and a sizable warrior moved in and around the table.  The newcomer hacked at the Redbrand to Sully's right dealing him a vicious blow.  Right on the warrior's heels, a wizard, his profession fast becoming apparent, danced across the room shooting out flames from his fingers, engulfing the table of ruffians in fire.  This finished off the injured Redbrand.  Next through the door came a Dwarf who clouted the ruffian across from Sully, and the former dice-mate died in his chair.  A fourth combatant appeared at the doorway and plunked an arrow in the back of the ruffian to Sully' left and killed him where he sat.  It all happened so fast that it was all Sully could do to blurt out, "Don't kill me!  I know things!"

After dispatching three dice players, and gaining some knowledge from the fourth, they bound him and checked the laboratory.  After a bit of confusion, they killed a large rat that was trying to escape the room beneath the door to the east.  It had already tipped off Iarno, though, who fled the complex.  After gleaning what they could from the paperwork left behind, including the identity of Iarno and the existence of the Black Spider, they discovered the secret way up to the storeroom, and made their way back to the Cistern hoping they could catch up with Iarno.  The tied up Redbrand from their first battle had been killed, seemingly by Iarno, and they figured out they had missed something hidden in the Cistern that had been retrieved.

 Figuring they had lost Iarno, but ignoring the door to the Bugbear Barracks, the group approached the tomb from the front hallway, nearly falling into the pit trap.  They opted to then go back around through he secret way to the tomb.  They vanquished the Undead and quickly handled the two Redbrand guards, releasing the prisoners.  With the former captives in tow, they returned to the Cistern and led them up and out through the cellar and back to town.  They felt they had cleared the complex.

In the meantime, the Bugbears had discovered the death scene in the dice room, not noticing the tied up Redbrand behind the dicing table.  The Bugbears checked Iarno's quarters and discovered he had fled.  The Bugbears opted to leave via the secret tunnel but soon reunited with Iarno hidden in the woods, who rallied the Bugbears awaiting a chance to make an attack on the adventurers.  Seeing they were still strong, he used his invisibility potion to follow them into town.  Because they revealed their next plan on the streets, Iarno returned to the Bugbears and waited in sight of the Manor ruins to see when best to make an assault.

"I had a very good thing going on here," thought Iarno.  "If it hadn't been for that meddling Sildar, and his collection of fools, I might have established a kingdom here in time and eventually had power enough to make the spider pay."

The disgruntled employee of the Black Spider knew there was but one way forward.  Fleeing the area was out of the question.  His identity was now known to Sildar and soon to the Lord's Alliance.  Neverwinter was off limits to him.  No place would be safe.  He needed to force the issue here and now, remove the adventurers from the picture, deal with Sildar and the folk of Phandalin, and re-establish control over the town.  If he could get this done before Sildar sent word to Neverwinter, it might buy him even more time.

Knowing now that but a fraction of the adventuring party would be returning to the Manor ruins to bury the dead, Iarno caught back up with his Bugbear allies hidden in the woods.  They crept up to listen and discovered the adventurers were the only ones willing to go deeply into the complex.  Iarno waited until most of the Deadbrands were pulled out and the townsfolk-helpers were busy with the bodies already brought forth.  Those idiots were still marveling over the burning body of the Nothic when the three adventurers on hand descended one final time to retrieve the three bodies form the Common Room.

Iarno scrawled a message to the Black Spider and dispatched it with the Goblin who would be glad enough to free from the Bugbears.  The Goblin only knew the way to Cragmaw Castle but they would pass word along to the Black Spider.  IF the Goblin managed to make it there.  It couldn't be helped.  Iarno needed all three of the Bugbears to re-establish control here.  With the Goblin on his way, Iarno gathered the Bugbears and slipped into the secret passage from the woods.

Without much light in the tunnel, he sent one of his burly, stealthy henchmen ahead to watch for when the adventurers would pass across the northern footbridge.  When he returned with word, Iarno split the group, sending two Bugbears, including Eyepatch their leader, down the southern staircase while he and another Bugbear, Splitnose, flanked the adventurers from the northern staircase.  Just to be sure they were softened up a bit, Iarno urged Splitnose to allow the other Bugbears to engage in the attack first, then head down.  As they descended to the sound of fighting in the Common Room, that damned Dwarf Cleric stepped out into the hallway.  If that bastard shut the door and barred the way, this combat would not end well.  He didn't.  His Dwarfish pride kicked in and he attacked Splitnose even as he was still upon the lower steps.  Iarno did his best to stay hidden behind his burly buddy, just above him on the staircase.

By the sound of it, the Bugbears in the Common Room were holding their own.  Splitnose was getting the upper hand here on the staircase but just to be sure, Iarno shot a couple of Magic Missiles at the bearded miscreant.  The dwarf called out that he was in trouble and another blow from Splitnose laid him low.  Iarno patted Splitnose on the back and sent him down to the Common Room to help finish off the others.  Still, there was no sense risking personal injury while the Bugbears had things handled.  Iarno stooped over the expiring Dwarf and rummaged through his pouches, snagging a couple of gems, a scroll, and some baubles.  As he heard Eyepatch call out that the battle was lost, Iarno looked up to see Splitnose hadn't entered the room and was now barreling his way toward the stairs in flight.  Leaving whatever else might be on the Dwarf's body, Iarno ran for it.  He didn't have to outrun the adventurers, he just had to outrun Splitnose.

As it happened, they both made it out the secret tunnel.  With little left he could do, while not risking his own neck completely, Iarno led Splitnose further off into the woods then slew him.  He had been bleeding profusely and it was not tough to tap a couple of missiles into the base of his skull.  If word of this bad turn reached the Black Spider, Iarno's days would be numbered even shorter than they obviously already were.  If he could just ensure that the Black Spider's plans for Wave Echo Cave were not thwarted, he might still stay in the evil graces of that tyrant.  For now, Iarno wandered off further into the woods to scheme and ponder his own existence.

With the complex now actually cleared of enemies in earnest, the group rounded up the supplies and weapons and made a deal with Barthen to liquidate them.  They put on hold their intentions to take the place over and stayed at the Inn where a long rest could more safely be assured.  With Sildar, they intended to leave the next morning using their Goblin guide to locate Cragmaw Castle and rescue Gundren, should he still be alive.  Most of that two-day journey north was uneventful but on the second night, during third watch when the Wizard and Cleric were up, the Wizard perceived a large creature lurking nearby and coming closer.  As the brush parted, an Owlbear burst forth.  Thinking quickly, the Wizard cast an image of as large a dragon as he could between himself and the charging beast.  It worked!  The Owlbear doesn't fear much but it also isn't bright and a dragon is just a little too big for him to comfortably attack.  It turned tail and lumbered off in the woods northward.

This ends the two weeks of dealing with the second section of the 5E D&D Starter Set Adventure.  We will continue and are having fun.  While we still need to refresh our memories on some of the rules changes from time to time, the game is playing well enough in this form to keep us enjoying what we have played.

More to come!  The next post in the series is here.

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The Friday Grab Bag - My 5E D&D Starter Set Playthrough Keeps Going

Our playthrough coverage continues from here!

The players have been doing well in our playthrough of the 5E Starter Set adventure but the final encounters of sections have been eluding them.  The adventure is designed to be very campaign-like, so villains often plan for potential escape should things not go their way.  My players have yet to properly corner their finale foes and even a few higher-up underlings have managed to slip through their grasp.  This can mean a bit less experience and we'll see how that affects their leveling process.

Looks like we will be playing weekly, rather than every other week (with an occasional in between game), so hopefully this helps folks with their immersion.  This is a good roleplaying bunch and I don't worry about that part but remembering details between games can be tricky.  As mentioned in previous blog posts, we're using a Facebook group (private) to keep track of stuff so that helps, but only if they keep an eye on it and participate.  They do for the most part.

Note that I am using a Paizo Flip-Mat as a GM screen.  I wanted to keep it handy for possible forest encounters anyway.  I'm still figuring out the best way to create some inserts for a GM screen.  I've got a four-panel portrait-orientated version as well as a three-panel landscape-orientated version but it's really more a matter of what information and charts stuff should go on customer sheets.  A list of Passive Perception numbers should certainly be well-positioned.  I suppose some of the other player ability scores and such would be good but I don't want to take any more out of the players' hands if I can help it.  What would be your ideal GMing screen configuration or inclusions?  Anything that is specific to the Starter Set that might not make a regular screen down the road like a list of the quests/hooks?

This week I wore a neutral grey shirt to ensure the dice would roll fairly.  But speaking of quests and plot hooks, in a thread over on EN World, "Remathilis" toyed with the idea of making some Quest Cards to help the players and GM keep the plot hooks in order.  I took this concept, made some adjustments, and use them in the Facebook group.  I can't share them here, as they fall in that area that might be infringing but you'll get the idea from the thread and can fashion some to suit your own group if they appeal to you.

From here down, expect spoilers and do not read on if you intend to play in rather than run a Starter Set adventure of your own.  My own players should avoid the text below as well!

In this latest session, after clearing out the Goblin Hideout last time and spending some time in Phandalin, the party had a handful of ideas what to do next.  They had decided the Redbrand threat was most pressing but also figured it went hand-in-hand with searching for Sildar's ally Iarno as well as discovering the fate of the woodcarver's family.  All of these pointed toward the manor ruins, so after fighting and locking up four Redbrand Ruffians in the Townmaster's cells, alongside their previous captives, four Goblins, they opted for a short rest over breakfast at the tavern.  They had a few wounds from which to recover and an hour to eat and collect their thoughts made good sense.  What they didn't know was that the Townmaster still fears Glasstaff, the Redbrand leader, and his ruffians more than the PCs just yet.  The Townmaster staged an escape while the party was having breakfast, so I had Pip, the innkeeper's son run in with the news of the escape, giving them a chance to recall the secret tunnel should they need options on how to assault the Redbrand Hideout.  They still chose a direct path to the ruins and information from one of the party (the Halfling was a former Redbrand), they knew where the cellar stairs were in the ruins.  On their way, they popped in the Sleeping Giant, a known Redbrand watering hole, to see if any ruffians were there.

I might have had something more picturesque than a simple sheet of paper to represent the Sleeping Giant, but so it goes.  With a well-placed gold coin, the surly female dwarf spilled a bit more information than the players expected regarding the Redbrands though they had most of that information already.  They did get a better idea of the number of members, though it isn't the Redbrand Ruffians they needed to fear once in their hideout.

Descending into the cellar, after forcing open the door which had been moderately barricaded, one ruffian attacked from below.  I gave Advantage to anyone with high ground, so this posed little problem.  Several more came forth from the opposite door, the storeroom/barracks, but the group made short work of them all, taking one captive.  Still in fear of their leader, they would have fought to the death.  Even the one captured, was not going to give up any secrets.

However, when the Noble Fighter threw the bound captive in the far left corner, it caused the PC to perceive the secret door there.  After a quick scavenge of the bodies, and the storeroom, and taking just a look into the hallway toward the crypts, they opted to take the secret way deeper into the complex.  A more thorough search would have been beneficial but more on that later.

I made sure to repeatedly mention the lanterns hanging around but I guess the party felt they still wanted to have some light of their own, so the Soldier Cleric slapped a light spell on the helm of the Noble Fighter.  This may have been why he felt confident enough to move ahead of the group and, with only one end of a rope in hand, decided to chance crossing the crevasse on the southern bridge.

Being well-heavy-enough, the bridge collapsed and a failed strength check to hang onto the rope resulted in some damage to the Noble Fighter.  If the rope had been tied around him, I wouldn't have required the strength check.  It was around this time he began to hear voices in his head, mocking his dreams.  The players had been joking around a bit prior to play and as we got started regarding their backgrounds.  That was useful for the players as some knowledge of the Redbrands came from the Halfling.  It was also useful for me, as the Noble Fighter mentioned he wouldn't mind claiming the manor for his own and fixing it up.  The other players had a chuckle over his own home having been destroyed by a volcano.  With all this at the forefront of his mind, and him in the lead and now injured, as he climbed back out of the crevasse a voice in his head scoffed at his plans to secure the manor for his own.  As the Noble was being healed and not sharing this development, the voice in his head went on to chide him further for the loss of his birthright to lava.  It was truly one of those GMing opportunities that tied a lot of the early adventure session together.

You'll note in the above picture that the Wizard is far on the left and everyone else has surrounded the Nothic that was mocking the Noble Fighter.  This might be deceptive.  It was actually the Wizard, not content to stand around and watch the Noble get patched up, nor having any interest in his accusations that someone in the party was saying things that the rest of the party couldn't hear because it all took place in his head, the Wizard moved further into the cavern and was surprised by the Nothic around the northern stone pillar.  Given Advantage, the Nothic rolled horribly.  The first of his two claw attacks missed with both dice and the second managed to strike but only for six damage.

After the surprise round, the Nothic rolled only moderately for initiative allowing the Wizard to disengage and get away while the Dwarf Cleric moved up to fill the gap and the Halfling moved up in support.  The Nothic had more trouble with the Dwarf after which the Noble Fighter leapt the crevasse and dashed up toward the other bridge, leaping the diagonal to land upon it, trusting his luck that at least one of the bridges would be safe, and it was.  The Folk Hero Fighter followed up by also leaping and dashing up the far side to help surround the crazy, one-eyed monster.

I'll post a bit more later today regarding the outcome of this battle and how the rest of the complex exploration played out, so make sure to check back in or watch for updates!

The playthrough coverage continues here!

The Friday Grab Bag on CreativeMountainGames.com 

Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics not covered
elsewhere or needing a particular focus.

Please Like, Share, Plus, Tweet, Follow, and Comment!