Lost Mine of Phandelver: The Rogue's Betrayer

[jayoungr]

I've been running Lost Mine of Phandelver for a friend's family, including some kids who are new to D&D but seem to be taking to it enthusiastically. They just cleared out the Redbrands' hideout, and I realized that I have overlooked a plot point.

My friend's daughter is playing the pregen halfling rogue that comes with the starter set. I admit I didn't look over the character sheets for the pregen characters before running the last session, so I didn't realize that the rogue has a personal quest to find out who betrayed her and led to her leaving the Redbrands. She asked a couple of people in the dungeon about it, but I didn't have an answer ready, so I sidestepped. The problem is that the Redbrands are pretty much out of the story after this point, so I'm not sure how to bring that storyline back into the adventure.

They did capture Iarno Albrek alive, and when last seen, he was being hustled off to the "jail" in Phandelver. Maybe I could do something with that--have him offer to give the name if the rogue will let him out? But I'm not sure where the betrayer should be or where the party might later encounter him/her.

Any suggestions? How did you handle this story thread at your table?

 

[Motorskills]

I found that background to be hugely problematic for a newbie group, much better for them to find out about the Redbrands through play. I have either not used that particular pre-gen, or else I swapped in a backstory from one of the other pre-gens.

 

[cmad1977]

Maybe the betrayer moved up in the world? Maybe the betrayer is none other than Neznar, the Black Spider himself! Neznar is cunning and is using doppelgängers to hide his actual location(you will run into a few of them during the adventure and they all are described as looking like a drow male.)

 

[aco175]

You could introduce another 'friend' that was kicked out of the Redbrands that the PC knows. You could have them meet and he tells the PC that a few remaining Redbrands are meeting the wizard by Wyvern Tor. Then you have another plot point to push them to explore this area and you can just have a random encounter with them and the evil guy can go into monologue about how he thought he seen the last of the PC and such. Or, you can have the redbrands now be zombies under control of the necromancer found there and the story is the same with just this changed and he got his due.

 

[LordEntrails]

Or have Iarno request to talk to her. In exchange for leniency, he's willing to tell her that Neznar is the one who betrayed her?

 

[Spohedus]

In our LMoP, my party also captured Iarno alive (the rogue was outvoted; he wanted to kill him to exact revenge). They did a couple of the side quests (Wyvern Tor, Agatha..), and when they returned, they learned through investigation that the Black Spider had sent one of his dopplegangers to rescue Iarno (he was concerned about what info Iarnod would leak, and didn't want to lose an ally with Lord's Alliance connections). The heroes tracked Iarno to Thundertree, where he confronted the heroes again a bit more on his own terms. He was impersonating as a cultist trying to strike a deal with Venomfang on behalf of the Spider. I leveled him up one level and opened with fireball. It was an epic battle that the party has not forgotten years later with cultists, twig blights....and THEN half way through the conflict, Venomfang came out of his lair to see what the fuss was about, and it added a significant level of threat to everyone. They made sure the Glasstaff wasn't breathing at the end of that fight and fled the dragon, only to quarter him in his lair the next day. That was also an epic battle...but a tale for another time.

 

[jayoungr]

In our LMoP, my party also captured Iarno alive (the rogue was outvoted; he wanted to kill him to exact revenge).

Did you use the pregen characters? If so, did the rogue ever find out who betrayed him? If yes, how did he find out?

 

[Rya.Reisender]

If one of your players asked a question that I didn't expect, like about the whereabouts of someone I never heard of, rather than sidestepping for a short moment I'd go OOC and ask my player how he got to that question. The player would then show me his background story and I'd quickly improvise based on that.

As for the rogue background, I solved it simply by having one of the many Redbrands in the dungeon be the betrayer and could be easily identified by him himself saying something along the lines of "I knew you couldn't be trusted!". In fact it was the very NPC that runs during one of the encounters (as per campaign script)! That makes it much more interesting than just killing him the first time you see him.

In general it's always best to prepare something for backgrounds / adventure hooks right after Session 0. Because it's more fun for players if they gradually find hints on how to reach their goal than if it's just "adventure together, no hints... adventure together, no hints... [several months later] Bam! The goal of your adventure hook stands in front of you!"

For example the rogue background is particularly tricky, you should establish several things before even startings the campaign, like: Does the Rogue know who betrayed him? Does he have any hints or general idea who it is? Has he ever been at the hideout or was he only a lower rank member that wasn't allowed to know yet? Did the hideout's layout change since he was there last?

In any case:

They did capture Iarno Albrek alive, and when last seen, he was being hustled off to the "jail" in Phandelver. Maybe I could do something with that--have him offer to give the name if the rogue will let him out? But I'm not sure where the betrayer should be or where the party might later encounter him/her.

Yeah going via Iarno works, of course you first need to admit to your player you messed up, so he even knows he could get more information by asking again. (In case he asked Iarno before.)
Even if Iarno was dead, he might still have the "note" that the betrayer wrote in his office.

Redbrands are not always in their hideout. They are also often at the pub in Phandelver. They may also be "undercover" somewhere. Maybe he is currently at Cragmaw, trying to forge an alliance too. Several possibilities.

 

[Eltab]

Create a new NPC (or recycle an existing set of stats) who will meet up with the Rogue and start a conversation "You can't trust anybody, you know. They all turn on you..." This is another former-Redbrand who was part of the betrayal, and wants to sound out the PC to head off a possible dagger in his own back as revenge. The NPC should be able to defeat the Rogue one-on-one but not if the rest of the group is nearby to help.

 

[Charlaquin]

I’d have the betrayer be a disguise adopted by one of Neznar’s dopplegangers to spy on the Redbrands. I’d also have Neznar turn out to be a persona the dopplegangers collectively portray.