My players are about to finish Lost Mine of Phandelver. We ended the last session right as they were about to burst in on King Grol/Drow woman/Gundren in Cragmaw Castle so now it's all coming to an end where they run off to Wave Echo Cave and bask in victory.
BUT!
Recently, I put out a survey to find out who would want to continue playing another adventure and what feedback they had for me so far on this one. One critique stated that they wished there was more to some interactions than just GO HERE AND BONK W/ SWORD. Fair enough. They want more roleplay opportunities and I'm happy to provide that. I want to give the end of LMOP a twist to show them I'm taking their feedback seriously and I've brainstormed a few ideas. Please look these over and let me know what sounds the best or provide your own:
1) GUNDREN IS ACTUALLY STEALING THE MINE FROM NEZZNAR:
The Rockseekers were actually part of Nezznar's original survey team that helped discover/excavate the lost mine. Knowing the value of what they had discovered, the Rockseekers put together a plan to steal the mine from Nezznar. Gundren went to Neverwinter, rounded up a crew of hearty adventurers and sold them a sob story about his great discovery and the evil "Black Spider" taking it away from him. The only problem is things have spun out of his control. He has been captured by Goblins and beaten while his brothers Tharden and Nundro are still in the cave and prisoners of Nezznar. The players must roleplay a solution that gets the Rockseekers out alive and allows Nezznar some sort of consolation for being the true discoverer of the mine.
2) GUNDREN IS DYING OF DROW POISON:
While a captive of King Grol and Vyerith in Cragmaw Castle, Gundren was fed a slow acting Drow assassin's poison that has been slowly killing the dwarf. Grol and Vye are w/o the antidote and are freaking out that their captive is dying (Nezznar wants him alive... for reasons). The players must team up with Grol and Vye to get Gundren to Wave Echo Cave where Nezznar will have a dose of the poison's antidote. The players may have to negotiate a shared ownership of the mine in order to save Gundren's life.
3) GUNDREN IS NEZZNAR:
The players bust in on Grol and Vye, kill them and revive Gundren. "Gundren" is distraught over recent events and admits that he is not actually Gundren. He is Tharden, Gundren's twin brother. He explains that when the Rockseekers discovered and explored the mine in Wave Echo Cave, they activated some sort of mechanism that awoke the long dead spirit of some entity calling itself "Nezznar". The spirit possessed Gundren who immediately began attacking his brothers and in the process gruesomely killed Nundro Rockseeker before running off into the dark corridors of WEC. Tharden went to Neverwinter to round up adventurers seeking gold but really needed them in order to defeat whatever had taken a hold of his brother. Fearing no one would sign up for such a dangerous mission, he kept the worst parts of the story to himself. The players must go and reason with the possessed Gundren, hopefully w/o killing him and reunite the remaining Rockseekers.
4) GUNDREN PLANS TO TRADE THE ADVENTURERS FOR HIS BROTHERS' LIVES:
The Rockseekers had a rough time in WEC. They were captured by the Drow led by Nezznar and used as subjects in the experiments the Drow tried on various mechanisms within the cave. It was awful. Gundren managed to escape and immediately went to Neverwinter to find idiotic lvl 1's that would blindly follow him to the mine where he would hopefully be able to trade his brothers' lives for those of the adventurers. The players must now rethink their allegiances and determine what should happen to each of the parties and the riches within the mine.
5) WAVE ECHO CAVE IS IN THE SHADOWFELL:
It doesn't matter that Nezznar has invaded the mine, because he can't get out even if he wanted to, for the Drow Wizard has no way back to the material plane. The only problem is Tharden and Nundro are his captives. The mine has remained hidden for so long because it no longer exists on the Material Plane. The players must go to the mountains, perform some sort of ritual/transport to the Shadowfell where they will be facing the entrance to Wave Echo Cave. There the players must find a way to negotiate a peace and be able to return alive back to the Material Plane.
all very cool ideas, twists on the LMoP plot, I guess ideally you'd want to have hinted at them before they are just about to enter Wave Echo cave
I have to wonder though what your players meant by wanting more roleplay opportunities? I wonder if they wanted something tailored to the characters they are playing, specific scenes that uses their particular characters skill set maybe? or were they meaning fire camp banter between party members?
When I DM'd LMoP a roleplay oppertunity that I felt worked rather well was when I had the kids of Phandelver pestering the Sorcerer to do some magic... who then suggested the kid give him a coin and he'd make it disappear... to which the kids were like "that's not magic that happens to me all the time!" and so it went on...
I don't know if that's the kind of roleplay your players were asking for I'm just a little worried that putting in a lot of effort on your part to change the plot of LMoP is not quite what they are asking for and they aren't going to see the difference not knowing the original plot.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I have to wonder though what your players meant by wanting more roleplay opportunities?
First of all, thank you so much for your feedback. I love the idea of using the kids of Phandalin to move the story and my players have loved interacting with Pip and Carp so I may visit that some more.
To address your question above:
I believe what they are asking is, "DM, can you please give us more situations where we don't feel forced to fight our way out of situations? Maybe not every problem is something we need to punch our way out of." That's why I'm putting so much effort into creating scenarios where the PCs are invited to discuss and rethink the narrative they have been fed since session 1. I feel like the plot of GO PUNCH THAT BLACK SPIDER GUY AND THEN YOU WIN goes against what maybe they want and have been dreaming up scenarios where they have to stop and discuss dimplomatic solutions or solutions that overturn what they'd assume is coming.
What if Gundrun is not possessed, but has always used a Nezznar persona? Gundrun could be trying to lure the PCs in the mine for some reason, and maybe it backfires, trapping them all in the mine and they have to work together, like in 5. The PCs might have to roleplay to avoid the conflict among the Rockseeker brothers.
I would definitely suggest playing up the faction politics as well- have the players joined any of the factions after completing quests? Zhentarim always causes trouble...
Also, definitely use the Halia prison break! That definitely complicates matters and could have some heated faction politics- Lord’s alliance would be furious!
What if Gundrun is not possessed, but has always used a Nezznar persona? Gundrun could be trying to lure the PCs in the mine for some reason, and maybe it backfires, trapping them all in the mine and they have to work together, like in 5. The PCs might have to roleplay to avoid the conflict among the Rockseeker brothers.
This gives me a ton of ideas! Wow, what a cool idea. Thanks!
Glad you found it useful :) Wave Echo cave part of LMoP is definitely the classic DnD dungeon crawl part of the adventure so particularly difficult to avoid combat in... I'm Also tending to Plot twist 3) I think it gives the party the chance to further interact with existing NPC's they may have encountered already, in finding a solution for Gundren's possession namely Sister Garaele and Reidoth the Druid
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I like your ideas (especially 1 and 4) and felt that LMoP really needs some more stuff like this.
I added the twist of finding both Sildar and Harbin prisoners with the surviving Rockseeker brother. I played up the use of doppelgangers (like one that looked like king Grol leading the bugbears in WEC) so when they found the room they realized that the Sildar and Harbin they were dealing with in Phand were doppelgangers, which explains why Harbin did nothing about the Redbrands. The party goes back to town to deal with them, the towns people tell them they are at Tressendar manor with a few other prominent towns folk looking into rebuild the ruins. When confronted a combat starts vs the group of doppelgangers that have been replacing townspeople. The boss doppelganger polymorphs into something lv5 appropriate.
RP: Have Halia meet them on their way back to town from the mines. She has spied on the doppelgangers and has figured out what's going on. She offers the party a partnership, membership into the Zhentarim and control over Phandalin. All they need to do is kill Sildar and Harbin, then expose and kill the doppelgangers. If Sildar and Harbin were never seen again everyone would simply assume the doppelgangers killed them long ago.
This gives them a chance at doing 1 combat at level 5 and adds a little bit of a twist at the end.
I'd also say add some motivation for Nezznar, I just dropped the plot of Out of the Abyss as his motivation for trying to find power in the forge.
Have the dragon be the real villain. It's way too strong for a 3rd level party, and would give a reason for the armour you find in the Forge of Spells.
I think the idea of Gundren being possessed is the only one that wouldn't be possible to solve at all with pure violence. The other options have more creative ways they could be handled, but the most efficient could very well just be running in and beating the crap out of whoever the real villain ends up being. That's really not a proper option when the enemy is a kindly ally who's possessed... it's the ultimate hostage situation.
When I ran my friends through LMoP I didn't really have any twists to Nezznar, but I did try to give him some kind of motivation and backstory, since the adventure doesn't really concern itself with that detail. My idea was that he was the son of a noble family... but within Drow society which is generally uh... let's say "aggressively Matriarchal", he was eventually just a bargaining chip for his family. So he stole a bunch of his family's money, left to gather power and resources with the plan to return to the Underdark and take over. I think I might have made him a bit too sympathetic, because the players went out of their way to spare his life and have him arrested but it led to some interesting details when they wanted to continue using the same characters int he next adventure.
I think I might have made him a bit too sympathetic, because the players went out of their way to spare his life and have him arrested but it led to some interesting details when they wanted to continue using the same characters int he next adventure.
My PCs arrested him too- and then Halia broke him, the leader of the guys who’d been threatening Phandalin, and several others they had arrested out of jail. It was great!
I would say either 2 or 3. 1 and 4 makes Gundren to be the one in the wrong so it might lead to them turning on him and let Nezzar do as Nezzar does; it means a resolution without battle but it is not much of a roleplaying challenge. 5 would also be a go there kill that interaction.
I am running Lost Mines of Phandelver as well, for the first time and combined with Dragon of Icespire Peak (so there are some spoilers for that one in this post). My players have not yet reached Cragmaw Castle but last session they captured a goblin and convinced them (with a mix of threats and bribes) to show them the way there. Since it took them a while to find the castle I had the goblin tell them that King Grol was in negotiations with his allies because he thinks that he can get a better deal out of handing Gundren (hence why he is still alive, since there has been some discussion between them about how much to pay for him). That might be a chance to roleplay instead of fighting: If your players can convince Grol that he can get a better deal out of Gundren than from the Black Spider then they can free Gundren without fighting and have goblinoid support later. If you go that way, you would need to change Wave Echo cave a bit since a lot of Nezzar's minions there are bugbears.
On the other hand, if they do kill Grol, I was planing to have one of the doppelganger's take his place as ruler of the Cragmaws to justify why they still obey Nezzar. So instead of them taking the form of a drow in WEC they look like Grol. That way they can solve the dungeon partway by convincing the bugbears that they are following an impostor and have them turn against the Black Spider. The way I see it, it doesn't matter that much if they save the dwarf there or not: for it to make sense that Nezzar is already in the cave when the players get there, he must already know where the mine is by the point the players get to Cragmaw. So he probably captured one of Gundren's brothers when they were going back to Phandalin to resupply and got the location of the mine that way and the reason he wants Gundren and the map is because he wants to interrogate him to make sure they are the only ones who know the location of the mine. If it looks like the players are getting close to saving Gundren, then the doppelganger there has orders to kill him and destroy the map.
As for what I was planing for the campaign myself besides that... well, I am mostly making things up as I go but it is shaping up to be a multifaction war.
As I mentioned before, Glasstaff managed to escape but most of the redbrands died (I said they were around 40 guys and my players killed 36 from various things) so he is not that useful to Nezzar as he does not have control of Phandalin. Way I see it, the Cragmaw/Redbrand/Nezzar alliance wanted to take control of the area. Nezzar would take control of wave echo cave, the cragmaws would raid caravans to make sure the townfolk wouldn't help outside help by isolating the town and then the redbrands would take control of the town to get labor and stuff. Once they had the mine operating then Iarno would take control of the town using his noble status and with both the redbrands and cragmaws equiped with magic weapons they would declare independence from Neverwinter. Thing is, without having control of Phandalin he doesn't have that much to offer to the alliance so his allies are not very kind to him and now he is planning to betray them.
As a combination of LMoP and DoIP, I am usually rolling where both dragons attack whenever the party travels. So far they both attacked the same place at the same time twice in a row (which I interpreted as both of them fighting for territory) and then Cryovain attacked Phandalin twice. So the goblin my party is interrogating told them that the green dragon had attacked the goblins before and thus in order to prove that he is still useful, both Nezzar and Grol sent Iarno in a suicide mission to deal with the dragon. Iarno in turn tried to make a deal with Venomfang instead, became her minion and Venomfang had the rebrands help her in her second fight against Cryovain while making it clear that they came from phandalin (which is why cryovain attacked the town) to force the town to deal with the dragon and thus weaken both of them.
So on one side we have Glasstaff now working with Venomfang (who would mostly hang back and try to take the winner of the free for all due to lack of numbers). On another the party. Then we have Nezzar who is controling the bugbears and if he is deceiving them or the negotiations at cragmaw go really bad, then potentially the cragmaw might betray him and try to take the mine for themselves. Then we have Mormesk the wraith, which I have as a traitor working for the red priests who organized the attack on the mine and now controls the undead there. The prize for the dungeon are two things: the forge of spells itself and the records of the last items made there and where they were sent, which include a set of relics meant to raise the dead from the battle that created the Mere of Dead Men and take control of them (part of one of my player's backstories, who discovered their master was mind controlling the lord of their city to use their resources to gather them). Nezzar wants the forge for his own purposes but is financed by said player's master in exchange for the info, Glasstaff learn about them from a book they took from the player after capturing them, Mormesk was part of the original group that commissioned it and that organized the fall of the mine when they refused to surrender it, the Cragmaws want to turn the forge production capabilities for war... Unfortunately, Sildar perished during the first dragon attack on phandalin (a lightning to the face since I replaced Cryovain for a blue dragon dealt over twice his maximum health) otherwise I would also added a plot about how if Neverwinter and Waterdeep learnt of the mine they would both want to take control of it.
As for more interactions instead of fighting... well, originally I had Sildar be an investor to help the Rockseeker brothers open the mine again but with him dead they will have to find a new one if they want to open it. You could have sidequest about either finding an investor or experienced miners or artificers to help repair the forge if you chose to continue the adventure (I probably will, since another of my players needs to forge repaired to build a dragon radar to help him search for the dragon balls). Alternatively, you could have the different factions (Zhentarim, Lord's Alliance, etc) learn about the mine and want to have it themselves. Like, Sildar should know it exists but not where it is; maybe he was a bad guy all along and wanted to take control of the mine with noble connections? Or Halia negotiates for the players to betray the Rockseeker brothers in exchange of sharing the mine? Maybe either the Harper's or the Order of the Gauntlet want to keep the status quo with the mine being private business or use the town new prominence from it to have it declare independence.
Alternatively, give the forge some nasty side effects. Like, instead of just magic weapons it made powerful and cursed magic weapons and there is some wild magic which caused undead and mutations to populate it. Then have the Rockseeker brothers want to operate it anyways despite the weapons created being ethically wrong (maybe they hurt souls or stuff) and the players have to decide if it wouldn't be better for it to reamain lost.
Maybe Nezzar reaches the forge first, does something during the battle that causes the mine to begin to collapse and the last challenge of the adventure is to escape alive while performing ability checks to pass all the hazards and magic shenanigans a damaged forge causes?
Or Nezzar wants the forge for cultural reasons: Maybe it was made from something important to his people (be it cultural or that it can save them from a magical malady) that he is trying to recover and he lied to all his allies about wanting to use the forge, so now they players have to choose whether it is best to turn the mine operational or let Nezzar take the sacred drow mcguffin (well, maybe not sacred, maybe Nezzar was exiled on the condition that he brings that for him to be allowed to return). I think I saw the idea somewhere about maybe making Nezzar a Drider and that he wanted the power of the forge to heal himself of that; the choice would be to let him exhaust the power of the forge for that or not (though if pointed out how much trouble he caused for that I doubt he would receive much sympathy).
I think I might have made him a bit too sympathetic, because the players went out of their way to spare his life and have him arrested but it led to some interesting details when they wanted to continue using the same characters int he next adventure.
My PCs arrested him too- and then Halia broke him, the leader of the guys who’d been threatening Phandalin, and several others they had arrested out of jail. It was great!
My PCs were smart enough to keep an eye on Nezznar until Sildar could bring some Lords' Alliance members to town to arrest him and take him to Neverwinter. Although I did have him break out between adventures and folded him into Hoard of the Dragon Queen :P
I think I might have made him a bit too sympathetic, because the players went out of their way to spare his life and have him arrested but it led to some interesting details when they wanted to continue using the same characters int he next adventure.
My PCs arrested him too- and then Halia broke him, the leader of the guys who’d been threatening Phandalin, and several others they had arrested out of jail. It was great!
My PCs were smart enough to keep an eye on Nezznar until Sildar could bring some Lords' Alliance members to town to arrest him and take him to Neverwinter. Although I did have him break out between adventures and folded him into Hoard of the Dragon Queen :P
I think my guys trusted the Phandalin guards too much!
oh the prison break is so much fun. I gave the PCs each a different message from their faction (one Zhent), and they did not communicate with each other at all. Then ran (online) little parts of the session one on one, to bring them together at the 'what are you doing here!' moment,and they just role played amongst themselves for ages. Was great/hilarious.
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all very cool ideas, twists on the LMoP plot,
I guess ideally you'd want to have hinted at them before they are just about to enter Wave Echo cave
I have to wonder though what your players meant by wanting more roleplay opportunities?
I wonder if they wanted something tailored to the characters they are playing, specific scenes that uses their particular characters skill set maybe? or were they meaning fire camp banter between party members?
When I DM'd LMoP a roleplay oppertunity that I felt worked rather well was when I had the kids of Phandelver pestering the Sorcerer to do some magic... who then suggested the kid give him a coin and he'd make it disappear... to which the kids were like "that's not magic that happens to me all the time!" and so it went on...
I don't know if that's the kind of roleplay your players were asking for I'm just a little worried that putting in a lot of effort on your part to change the plot of LMoP is not quite what they are asking for and they aren't going to see the difference not knowing the original plot.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
First of all, thank you so much for your feedback. I love the idea of using the kids of Phandalin to move the story and my players have loved interacting with Pip and Carp so I may visit that some more.
To address your question above:
I believe what they are asking is, "DM, can you please give us more situations where we don't feel forced to fight our way out of situations? Maybe not every problem is something we need to punch our way out of." That's why I'm putting so much effort into creating scenarios where the PCs are invited to discuss and rethink the narrative they have been fed since session 1. I feel like the plot of GO PUNCH THAT BLACK SPIDER GUY AND THEN YOU WIN goes against what maybe they want and have been dreaming up scenarios where they have to stop and discuss dimplomatic solutions or solutions that overturn what they'd assume is coming.
My favorite is number three! I love the twist.
What if Gundrun is not possessed, but has always used a Nezznar persona? Gundrun could be trying to lure the PCs in the mine for some reason, and maybe it backfires, trapping them all in the mine and they have to work together, like in 5. The PCs might have to roleplay to avoid the conflict among the Rockseeker brothers.
I would definitely suggest playing up the faction politics as well- have the players joined any of the factions after completing quests? Zhentarim always causes trouble...
Also, definitely use the Halia prison break! That definitely complicates matters and could have some heated faction politics- Lord’s alliance would be furious!
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
This gives me a ton of ideas! Wow, what a cool idea. Thanks!
Glad you found it useful :)
Wave Echo cave part of LMoP is definitely the classic DnD dungeon crawl part of the adventure so particularly difficult to avoid combat in...
I'm Also tending to Plot twist 3) I think it gives the party the chance to further interact with existing NPC's they may have encountered already, in finding a solution for Gundren's possession namely Sister Garaele and Reidoth the Druid
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I like your ideas (especially 1 and 4) and felt that LMoP really needs some more stuff like this.
I added the twist of finding both Sildar and Harbin prisoners with the surviving Rockseeker brother. I played up the use of doppelgangers (like one that looked like king Grol leading the bugbears in WEC) so when they found the room they realized that the Sildar and Harbin they were dealing with in Phand were doppelgangers, which explains why Harbin did nothing about the Redbrands. The party goes back to town to deal with them, the towns people tell them they are at Tressendar manor with a few other prominent towns folk looking into rebuild the ruins. When confronted a combat starts vs the group of doppelgangers that have been replacing townspeople. The boss doppelganger polymorphs into something lv5 appropriate.
RP:
Have Halia meet them on their way back to town from the mines. She has spied on the doppelgangers and has figured out what's going on. She offers the party a partnership, membership into the Zhentarim and control over Phandalin. All they need to do is kill Sildar and Harbin, then expose and kill the doppelgangers. If Sildar and Harbin were never seen again everyone would simply assume the doppelgangers killed them long ago.
This gives them a chance at doing 1 combat at level 5 and adds a little bit of a twist at the end.
I'd also say add some motivation for Nezznar, I just dropped the plot of Out of the Abyss as his motivation for trying to find power in the forge.
Have the dragon be the real villain. It's way too strong for a 3rd level party, and would give a reason for the armour you find in the Forge of Spells.
Thanks guys, this is purestrain campaign fuel and I'm glad I asked everyone for their thoughts.
I think the idea of Gundren being possessed is the only one that wouldn't be possible to solve at all with pure violence. The other options have more creative ways they could be handled, but the most efficient could very well just be running in and beating the crap out of whoever the real villain ends up being. That's really not a proper option when the enemy is a kindly ally who's possessed... it's the ultimate hostage situation.
When I ran my friends through LMoP I didn't really have any twists to Nezznar, but I did try to give him some kind of motivation and backstory, since the adventure doesn't really concern itself with that detail. My idea was that he was the son of a noble family... but within Drow society which is generally uh... let's say "aggressively Matriarchal", he was eventually just a bargaining chip for his family. So he stole a bunch of his family's money, left to gather power and resources with the plan to return to the Underdark and take over. I think I might have made him a bit too sympathetic, because the players went out of their way to spare his life and have him arrested but it led to some interesting details when they wanted to continue using the same characters int he next adventure.
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My PCs arrested him too- and then Halia broke him, the leader of the guys who’d been threatening Phandalin, and several others they had arrested out of jail. It was great!
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
I would say either 2 or 3. 1 and 4 makes Gundren to be the one in the wrong so it might lead to them turning on him and let Nezzar do as Nezzar does; it means a resolution without battle but it is not much of a roleplaying challenge. 5 would also be a go there kill that interaction.
I am running Lost Mines of Phandelver as well, for the first time and combined with Dragon of Icespire Peak (so there are some spoilers for that one in this post). My players have not yet reached Cragmaw Castle but last session they captured a goblin and convinced them (with a mix of threats and bribes) to show them the way there. Since it took them a while to find the castle I had the goblin tell them that King Grol was in negotiations with his allies because he thinks that he can get a better deal out of handing Gundren (hence why he is still alive, since there has been some discussion between them about how much to pay for him). That might be a chance to roleplay instead of fighting: If your players can convince Grol that he can get a better deal out of Gundren than from the Black Spider then they can free Gundren without fighting and have goblinoid support later. If you go that way, you would need to change Wave Echo cave a bit since a lot of Nezzar's minions there are bugbears.
On the other hand, if they do kill Grol, I was planing to have one of the doppelganger's take his place as ruler of the Cragmaws to justify why they still obey Nezzar. So instead of them taking the form of a drow in WEC they look like Grol. That way they can solve the dungeon partway by convincing the bugbears that they are following an impostor and have them turn against the Black Spider. The way I see it, it doesn't matter that much if they save the dwarf there or not: for it to make sense that Nezzar is already in the cave when the players get there, he must already know where the mine is by the point the players get to Cragmaw. So he probably captured one of Gundren's brothers when they were going back to Phandalin to resupply and got the location of the mine that way and the reason he wants Gundren and the map is because he wants to interrogate him to make sure they are the only ones who know the location of the mine. If it looks like the players are getting close to saving Gundren, then the doppelganger there has orders to kill him and destroy the map.
As for what I was planing for the campaign myself besides that... well, I am mostly making things up as I go but it is shaping up to be a multifaction war.
As I mentioned before, Glasstaff managed to escape but most of the redbrands died (I said they were around 40 guys and my players killed 36 from various things) so he is not that useful to Nezzar as he does not have control of Phandalin. Way I see it, the Cragmaw/Redbrand/Nezzar alliance wanted to take control of the area. Nezzar would take control of wave echo cave, the cragmaws would raid caravans to make sure the townfolk wouldn't help outside help by isolating the town and then the redbrands would take control of the town to get labor and stuff. Once they had the mine operating then Iarno would take control of the town using his noble status and with both the redbrands and cragmaws equiped with magic weapons they would declare independence from Neverwinter. Thing is, without having control of Phandalin he doesn't have that much to offer to the alliance so his allies are not very kind to him and now he is planning to betray them.
As a combination of LMoP and DoIP, I am usually rolling where both dragons attack whenever the party travels. So far they both attacked the same place at the same time twice in a row (which I interpreted as both of them fighting for territory) and then Cryovain attacked Phandalin twice. So the goblin my party is interrogating told them that the green dragon had attacked the goblins before and thus in order to prove that he is still useful, both Nezzar and Grol sent Iarno in a suicide mission to deal with the dragon. Iarno in turn tried to make a deal with Venomfang instead, became her minion and Venomfang had the rebrands help her in her second fight against Cryovain while making it clear that they came from phandalin (which is why cryovain attacked the town) to force the town to deal with the dragon and thus weaken both of them.
So on one side we have Glasstaff now working with Venomfang (who would mostly hang back and try to take the winner of the free for all due to lack of numbers). On another the party. Then we have Nezzar who is controling the bugbears and if he is deceiving them or the negotiations at cragmaw go really bad, then potentially the cragmaw might betray him and try to take the mine for themselves. Then we have Mormesk the wraith, which I have as a traitor working for the red priests who organized the attack on the mine and now controls the undead there. The prize for the dungeon are two things: the forge of spells itself and the records of the last items made there and where they were sent, which include a set of relics meant to raise the dead from the battle that created the Mere of Dead Men and take control of them (part of one of my player's backstories, who discovered their master was mind controlling the lord of their city to use their resources to gather them). Nezzar wants the forge for his own purposes but is financed by said player's master in exchange for the info, Glasstaff learn about them from a book they took from the player after capturing them, Mormesk was part of the original group that commissioned it and that organized the fall of the mine when they refused to surrender it, the Cragmaws want to turn the forge production capabilities for war... Unfortunately, Sildar perished during the first dragon attack on phandalin (a lightning to the face since I replaced Cryovain for a blue dragon dealt over twice his maximum health) otherwise I would also added a plot about how if Neverwinter and Waterdeep learnt of the mine they would both want to take control of it.
As for more interactions instead of fighting... well, originally I had Sildar be an investor to help the Rockseeker brothers open the mine again but with him dead they will have to find a new one if they want to open it. You could have sidequest about either finding an investor or experienced miners or artificers to help repair the forge if you chose to continue the adventure (I probably will, since another of my players needs to forge repaired to build a dragon radar to help him search for the dragon balls). Alternatively, you could have the different factions (Zhentarim, Lord's Alliance, etc) learn about the mine and want to have it themselves. Like, Sildar should know it exists but not where it is; maybe he was a bad guy all along and wanted to take control of the mine with noble connections? Or Halia negotiates for the players to betray the Rockseeker brothers in exchange of sharing the mine? Maybe either the Harper's or the Order of the Gauntlet want to keep the status quo with the mine being private business or use the town new prominence from it to have it declare independence.
Alternatively, give the forge some nasty side effects. Like, instead of just magic weapons it made powerful and cursed magic weapons and there is some wild magic which caused undead and mutations to populate it. Then have the Rockseeker brothers want to operate it anyways despite the weapons created being ethically wrong (maybe they hurt souls or stuff) and the players have to decide if it wouldn't be better for it to reamain lost.
Maybe Nezzar reaches the forge first, does something during the battle that causes the mine to begin to collapse and the last challenge of the adventure is to escape alive while performing ability checks to pass all the hazards and magic shenanigans a damaged forge causes?
Or Nezzar wants the forge for cultural reasons: Maybe it was made from something important to his people (be it cultural or that it can save them from a magical malady) that he is trying to recover and he lied to all his allies about wanting to use the forge, so now they players have to choose whether it is best to turn the mine operational or let Nezzar take the sacred drow mcguffin (well, maybe not sacred, maybe Nezzar was exiled on the condition that he brings that for him to be allowed to return). I think I saw the idea somewhere about maybe making Nezzar a Drider and that he wanted the power of the forge to heal himself of that; the choice would be to let him exhaust the power of the forge for that or not (though if pointed out how much trouble he caused for that I doubt he would receive much sympathy).
My PCs were smart enough to keep an eye on Nezznar until Sildar could bring some Lords' Alliance members to town to arrest him and take him to Neverwinter. Although I did have him break out between adventures and folded him into Hoard of the Dragon Queen :P
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I think my guys trusted the Phandalin guards too much!
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
oh the prison break is so much fun. I gave the PCs each a different message from their faction (one Zhent), and they did not communicate with each other at all. Then ran (online) little parts of the session one on one, to bring them together at the 'what are you doing here!' moment,and they just role played amongst themselves for ages. Was great/hilarious.