D&D 5E 3 best adventurers league modules for a Phandalin sandbox

[Islayre d'Argolh]

Hi guys !

I'm presently working on a Phandalin sandbox, using the Starter set and the Essentials kit (obviously).
I want to add a few additionnal quests and ressources (especially monsters) to this already dense mini-setting.

Wich (good) adventurers league modules would fit nicely in this area (including Neverwinter) ?

I'm already sold on DDEX01-8 "Tales Trees Tells" (using the Neverwinter Woods or the Kryptgarden forest instead of the Quivering forest) and i'm thinking about DDAL05-4 "In Dire Needs" (using the Icespire Peak or Sword Moutains instead of the Ice Spires).

Thank you very much !

 

[DEFCON 1]

It's not an Adventurer's League module... but the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book for 4E has a lot of really great locations and information you can add to the areas of the Neverwinter Wood... Helm's Hold, the fey ruins of Sharandar, the Dread Ring (run by the Red Wizards of Thay), the Tower of Twilight, a more elaborate set-up for Conyberry, and other stuff.

Now granted if you are a stickler for the Realms timeline, a lot of this stuff would be "10 years earlier" than the stuff in Lost Mines and Icespire... but if that doesn't bother you, go for it.

I'd also give a shoutout to @Scrivener of Doom as they have a brilliant breakdown of the entire area on their blog to create it as a sandbox themselves, fleshing out all the areas in Lost Mines and showing ways to enlarge or tie in the area to larger events and themes. I've used a lot of great stuff from it in my own Phandalin game I'm running right now. Start with the first post HERE.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Thanks for the kind words, @DEFCON 1 . Glad you're getting some value from my old blog.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Thanks for the kind words, @DEFCON 1 . Glad you're getting some value from my old blog.

Absolutely! Your stuff has been great. I went with your recommendation to make Cragmaw Castle an old elven keep and connecting it up to the banshee Agatha (or as you recommended, Lady Melarue Auglatha). As I have a player who made a woof elf ranger and decided to be descended from the fey from Sharandar, I re-located the Sharandar settlement to be where Agatha is (the banshee controls one isolated corner of the city ruins.) I inserted an elven lord's crypt underneath Cragmaw (Crypt of the Elven King) and made the undead lord be Auglatha's husband. I also went with your idea of Auglatha having become corrupted by reading a tome of Moander and leaving Cragmaw to go east (before settling at Sharandar) which is why she's now a banshee.

When the party found the crypt of Lord Elauthin Auglatha and spoke to his unsettled spirit, the elven ranger PC agreed to bring Lady Melarue's looking glass to her at Sharandar and reflect Agatha's face upon herself as they destroyed her banshee form (in hopes of reclaiming her non-courrpted self within the glass to be brought back to her husband at Cragmaw.) Your stuff worked like a charm!

And to add to the fun, I had Moander's tome in a sealed lead box within the crypt's vault, and of course one of the other PCs couldn't help but shatter the lead box open to see what was inside. They found Moander's tome and the wizard realized the lead box was to stop others from divining where the tome was. Thus they felt bad and the gnome paladin decided to take the tome with her (surrounding by chunks of shattered lead) in order to get the box mended and the tome hidden back in it. But needless to say... the party has gotten re-routed to the paladin's home, the gnomish village of Gnomengarde (from the Dragon of Icepsire Peak adventure). And unbeknownst to her and the party, there's an aboleth lair hidden beneath the village (a bit I added to the location) and the group is bringing the tome of Moander right to it. We'll be seeing tonight whether the aboleth telepathically scans the party and learns of the tome, and whether it will get the party to bring the tome to it.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow, @DEFCON 1 , I'm taking notes!

 

[Weiley31]

While technically not what your asking, Accustions Incorporated named drops Phandalin. Why do I mention this?

Cuz I view Accusitions Incorporated as Forgotten Realm in the future/further into the DND "Timeline" so to speak.

So if you run an Accusitions Incorporated game, you can have your version of Phandalin REFLECT what had happened previously in your games dealing with it.

So in the history books they would mentioned what had transpired at the Lost Mines and how the mighty Dragon Cryovain was slain by a group of pioneering adventurers who led the way for Phandalin to develop into a thriving economic power.

Or whatever it was that Gnome Paladin did finding that tome.

 

[Rellott]

The adventure “In Volo’s Wake” takes place in and around Phandalin.

 

[aco175]

I found In Volo's Wake just meh, but could be ok for newer players and for the AL stuff. There is also a bunch of adventures on DMsGuild, but not 'official'.

 

[Islayre d'Argolh]

Thanks guys for the suggestions !

I know about the Neverwinter campaign setting but i'm very into minimalist gaming (owning only stuff you will use*) and 1/3 of the book is 4th edition crunch (an edition i do not play) : the opposite of minimalism (also, the original book is now very expensive).

I've read In Volo's Wake and i agree : it's just meh.

* I want to play the sandbox campaign using only the two boxed sets : no core rules.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Thanks guys for the suggestions !

I know about the Neverwinter campaign setting but i'm very into minimalism gaming (owning only stuff you will use*) and 1/3 of the book is 4th edition crunch (an edition i do not play) : the opposite of minimalism (also, the original book is now very expensive).

I've read In Volo's Wake and i agree : it's just meh.

* I want to play the sandbox campaign using only the two boxed sets : no core rules.

@DEFCON 1 mentions my blog as a source. I wrote those posts largely because I didn't like 5E but I didn't want to be one of those online voices who got off on telling the online world that their preferred edition sucked. So, I made a positive contribution via that blog to expand what you see in the Starter Set. And I wrote it from the perspective that a 5E fan, like you, wouldn't want to buy a 4E book.

TL;DR: You don't need the Neverwinter Campaign Setting to get some value out of what I posted - which quite a few 5E fans have said to me over the years since I wrote those posts.

As for AL modules, I have to confess that the overwhelming majority simply aren't very good IMO/IME - and that's been true of most organised play modules since the RPGA first began (with a few honourable exceptions - quite a few during the LFR period with 4E, surprisingly).