I am running the Lost Mines of Phandelver right now and need some help with an idea after the Cragmaw Castle. My PC's were clever and able to sneak into Cragmaw Castle dressed as red brands, kill the doppelgänger, and run away with Gundren. I would like to have them followed and then ambushed by King Groll and his minions. But need help coming up with a clever scenario that isn't just a boring repedative fight.
I was thinking of having them stay at an abandoned barn/house/village that they come across in their rush away from the castle. They will want to rest and heal Gundren. I am thinking that Gundren should be unconscious and not able to wake until they get back to Phandalin, maybe someone in town has to wake him. I do think it would be interesting that they need to somehow protect Gundren from being taken or killed, and he cannot fight for himself. Also I would like some other ideas for the monsters. Having more than a Big Bugbear and his pet wolf, and tons of goblins and hobgoblins seems kind of boring.
Any help is appreciated. always open for ideas. I would like it to be a pretty deadly fight too.
How about a third party, antagonistic toward both sides? If your party hasn't gotten rid of the orcs at Wyvern Tor, some of them might have set out to expand their territory. A melee a trois (especially in that abandoned barn/village) would certainly mix things up and potentially hint at another quest. You'd be able to tweak who hits whom easily depending on how the PCs are doing, and I'd hope that your players would feel accomplished after having survived the chaos.
That’s a great idea. Unfortunately they wiped them out before hitting up cragmaw castle. Since this is the last push to wave echo cave part of me wants the black spider to know and throw everything at them, (for instance glasstaff escaped) but i don’t know. Just want it more memorable than slaying goblins. Even just a monster idea would be great. I know goblins capture monsters and keep them as pets. Just want something new.
Plot twist, Gundren IS a doppelganger, you can have him toss wet logs in the campfire to send up smoke for the goblins to follow and use the suprrise attack ability on doppelgangers to jack someone.
-Or you can just reveal that he is a doppelganger until the end. Have the real Rockseekers, Harbin Wester and Sildar all imprisoned by the black spider in the cave, due to them being abducted and replaced but doppelgangers.
-This explains why the lords alliance never sends support, and why harbin wester let the redbrands do what ever the wanted.
Well, it is not like the goblinoid kind of monster is lacking alternatives. Besides the normal goblin, hobgoblin and and Bugbears there are stuff like Booyaghs (goblin spellcasters), Nilbog (a splinter spirit of a former goblin god that keeps possessing goblins) and Hobgoblin Iron Shadows (hobgoblin monks that act as secret police and assassins). Alternatively, use goblin bosses to make the encounter harder.
Though if you want some more veriety, well, traditionally goblins and hobgoblins use worgs as mounts, which would be convenient to explain how they tracked the players since they have keen senses or you could use a Manticore as mount since they sometimes do so for hobgoblin. Alternatively, if your players didn't kill the goblins that were in the chappel at the castle, you can say that Maglubiyet blessed them in some way to help them track them, like turning the priest and its attendants into werebats or gifting them with Shadow Mastiffs.
So you could do something like have the players stay not at an abandoned village but at a farm, where the farmer let them stay in their barn. They are attacked during the night by three goblin turned into werebats due to the blessing of Maglubiyet. One of them escapes and when the characters go out to see where it went/ensure it didn't attack the family, they see in the distance a very large war party carrying torches and mounting worgs. The farmer, who went outside after hearing the ruckus, sees them as well and offers them to escape with him and his family using his cart and horses. There you have a chase sequence, though you would need a way to end it. Maybe when they characters arrive at the farm, the famer warns them about some danger ahead that could be used to ward the goblins like some territorial beasts (it could be a couple of owlbears that the farmer suspects are pissed because one of their cubs is missing or maybe some disturbed elementals or a couple of hill giants battling it out or even a unicorn guiding its fey servants through a procession or something). You would have to plan different complications and obstacles for both the players and the goblins to pass as well as the conclusion of the chase; whether the goblins are killed by that creature of if there are enough complications that their numbers are reduced to a point where it is viable to fight them.
You could then have a confrontation or several if they didn't do too well in the chase. To play up how the bugbears abuse the goblins, you could have an Ogre Goblin Hucker throwing goblins at them under the King's orders or an Ogre Howdah (an ogre with a box on its back for goblins to shot arrows from) if you want him to be more reasonable. To make the encounter more varied, you could have some Booyahg Wielders (goblin with magic items like circlets of blasting) along with normal ones and if the players focus on the casters then a normal goblin grabs the item from one of the fallen foes and suddenly their are a Booyagh Wielder as well. Then since the King is abusing his goblin subjects, one becomes a Nilbog to add to the chaos.
Hey All,
I am running the Lost Mines of Phandelver right now and need some help with an idea after the Cragmaw Castle. My PC's were clever and able to sneak into Cragmaw Castle dressed as red brands, kill the doppelgänger, and run away with Gundren. I would like to have them followed and then ambushed by King Groll and his minions. But need help coming up with a clever scenario that isn't just a boring repedative fight.
I was thinking of having them stay at an abandoned barn/house/village that they come across in their rush away from the castle. They will want to rest and heal Gundren. I am thinking that Gundren should be unconscious and not able to wake until they get back to Phandalin, maybe someone in town has to wake him. I do think it would be interesting that they need to somehow protect Gundren from being taken or killed, and he cannot fight for himself. Also I would like some other ideas for the monsters. Having more than a Big Bugbear and his pet wolf, and tons of goblins and hobgoblins seems kind of boring.
Any help is appreciated. always open for ideas. I would like it to be a pretty deadly fight too.
Rather than have them attacked on the way back, have Phandalin come under attack.
How about a third party, antagonistic toward both sides? If your party hasn't gotten rid of the orcs at Wyvern Tor, some of them might have set out to expand their territory. A melee a trois (especially in that abandoned barn/village) would certainly mix things up and potentially hint at another quest. You'd be able to tweak who hits whom easily depending on how the PCs are doing, and I'd hope that your players would feel accomplished after having survived the chaos.
But that's just my 2 cents!
That’s a great idea. Unfortunately they wiped them out before hitting up cragmaw castle. Since this is the last push to wave echo cave part of me wants the black spider to know and throw everything at them, (for instance glasstaff escaped) but i don’t know. Just want it more memorable than slaying goblins. Even just a monster idea would be great. I know goblins capture monsters and keep them as pets. Just want something new.
Thanks again
Thanks. I actually sent the Orcs from Wyvern Tor into Phandelin to attack the town folk. But I love the idea.
Plot twist, Gundren IS a doppelganger, you can have him toss wet logs in the campfire to send up smoke for the goblins to follow and use the suprrise attack ability on doppelgangers to jack someone.
-Or you can just reveal that he is a doppelganger until the end. Have the real Rockseekers, Harbin Wester and Sildar all imprisoned by the black spider in the cave, due to them being abducted and replaced but doppelgangers.
-This explains why the lords alliance never sends support, and why harbin wester let the redbrands do what ever the wanted.
Well, it is not like the goblinoid kind of monster is lacking alternatives. Besides the normal goblin, hobgoblin and and Bugbears there are stuff like Booyaghs (goblin spellcasters), Nilbog (a splinter spirit of a former goblin god that keeps possessing goblins) and Hobgoblin Iron Shadows (hobgoblin monks that act as secret police and assassins). Alternatively, use goblin bosses to make the encounter harder.
Though if you want some more veriety, well, traditionally goblins and hobgoblins use worgs as mounts, which would be convenient to explain how they tracked the players since they have keen senses or you could use a Manticore as mount since they sometimes do so for hobgoblin. Alternatively, if your players didn't kill the goblins that were in the chappel at the castle, you can say that Maglubiyet blessed them in some way to help them track them, like turning the priest and its attendants into werebats or gifting them with Shadow Mastiffs.
So you could do something like have the players stay not at an abandoned village but at a farm, where the farmer let them stay in their barn. They are attacked during the night by three goblin turned into werebats due to the blessing of Maglubiyet. One of them escapes and when the characters go out to see where it went/ensure it didn't attack the family, they see in the distance a very large war party carrying torches and mounting worgs. The farmer, who went outside after hearing the ruckus, sees them as well and offers them to escape with him and his family using his cart and horses. There you have a chase sequence, though you would need a way to end it. Maybe when they characters arrive at the farm, the famer warns them about some danger ahead that could be used to ward the goblins like some territorial beasts (it could be a couple of owlbears that the farmer suspects are pissed because one of their cubs is missing or maybe some disturbed elementals or a couple of hill giants battling it out or even a unicorn guiding its fey servants through a procession or something). You would have to plan different complications and obstacles for both the players and the goblins to pass as well as the conclusion of the chase; whether the goblins are killed by that creature of if there are enough complications that their numbers are reduced to a point where it is viable to fight them.
You could then have a confrontation or several if they didn't do too well in the chase. To play up how the bugbears abuse the goblins, you could have an Ogre Goblin Hucker throwing goblins at them under the King's orders or an Ogre Howdah (an ogre with a box on its back for goblins to shot arrows from) if you want him to be more reasonable. To make the encounter more varied, you could have some Booyahg Wielders (goblin with magic items like circlets of blasting) along with normal ones and if the players focus on the casters then a normal goblin grabs the item from one of the fallen foes and suddenly their are a Booyagh Wielder as well. Then since the King is abusing his goblin subjects, one becomes a Nilbog to add to the chaos.
Thanks for all the great ideas. This is super helpful.