I'm still throwing around ideas for my very first 5th edition D&D campaign. I want to start with Lost Mine of Phandelver, because I think it is a great intro, especially for players who haven't played 5th edition before. And after buying and not really liking Storm King's Thunder (should have read the review first), I decided to play Princes of the Apocalypse instead. There is just a small problem with that: LMoP ends at level 5, while PotA starts at level 3. People have suggested to solve that by rewriting the start of PotA, but I had another idea: What if I lost the mine of the Lost Mine of Phandelver?
*Spoiler Alert*
Basically my reasoning is that of the whole LMoP adventure, the Wave Echo Cave at the end is the weakest part. It is supposed to have been taken over by the archvillain of the adventure, the Black Spider. But somehow that archvillain can't deal with a bunch or undead or some fungus, which is why he hasn't reached his goal in the adventure yet. And from a story point of view, the Black Spider and the Lost Mine aren't actually needed. Gundren might still be seeking his mine and not having found it yet, bringing the supplies in for the prospecting. There is no map, and Gundren just gets ambushed by the goblins because ambushing is what they do, and he is brought to King Grol because the king likes to beat up dwarves. The adventure then ends with the players freeing Gundren in Cragmaw Castle. Instead of hints towards the Black Spider in the Redbrands Hideout and Cragmaw Castle, they find hints leading towards cult activity in Red Larch. I could also have Glasstaff encounter the group in the hideout, pelting them with some Magic Missiles, and then running away using Misty Step. After freeing Gundren the players then get hints that Glasstaff fled to Red Larch.
If I remove the dragon in Thundertree (wrong cult) and the lost mine, the adventure gets the players to the middle of level 3, with some solid leads towards Red Larch. That should give a pretty smooth transition to Princes of the Apocalypse. What do you think?
*Spoiler Alert*
Basically my reasoning is that of the whole LMoP adventure, the Wave Echo Cave at the end is the weakest part. It is supposed to have been taken over by the archvillain of the adventure, the Black Spider. But somehow that archvillain can't deal with a bunch or undead or some fungus, which is why he hasn't reached his goal in the adventure yet. And from a story point of view, the Black Spider and the Lost Mine aren't actually needed. Gundren might still be seeking his mine and not having found it yet, bringing the supplies in for the prospecting. There is no map, and Gundren just gets ambushed by the goblins because ambushing is what they do, and he is brought to King Grol because the king likes to beat up dwarves. The adventure then ends with the players freeing Gundren in Cragmaw Castle. Instead of hints towards the Black Spider in the Redbrands Hideout and Cragmaw Castle, they find hints leading towards cult activity in Red Larch. I could also have Glasstaff encounter the group in the hideout, pelting them with some Magic Missiles, and then running away using Misty Step. After freeing Gundren the players then get hints that Glasstaff fled to Red Larch.
If I remove the dragon in Thundertree (wrong cult) and the lost mine, the adventure gets the players to the middle of level 3, with some solid leads towards Red Larch. That should give a pretty smooth transition to Princes of the Apocalypse. What do you think?
