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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8234670" data-attributes="member: 6988941">I've DMed Phandelver twice.Group 1: Warlock spoke through his homebrew flumphling familiar, having it pose as a real estate agent from the Underdark trying to get Venomfang to move away. It was some great roleplaying, but unfortunately it involved one of the worst series of ability check rolls I've ever seen, so fighting commenced. The dice then turned to the Warlocks side when he cast Phantasmal Force to make Venomfang think that magical vines were keeping him grounded. This wasted one of the dragon's actions failing an intelligence check. Meanwhile he was kept where the Fighter and Rogue could wail on him, and the Ranger landed an arrow of dragon slaying on him. I think he managed to drop a party member with his breath weapon before being taken out, but basically the spell tied Venomfang up for most of the fight.Group 2: They were successful in persuading Venomfang that they would be his loyal subjects and promised to clear out Cragmaw castle so he could have a more suitable home than the little tower he was in. This group then failed to clear out Cragmaw castle with some members trying diplomacy (the Minotaur Barbarian managed to get knighted by the Cragmaw king), while others focused on infiltration (they escaped through a disused latrine with Gundren Rockseeker). When Venomfang showed up to claim his castle a few days later he found it mostly still full of Goblins et al. but managed to capture the Doppleganger, who saved herself by leading him to the mine. On the way he encountered the party (many sessions later for them), who had made themselves excediingly easy to spot by riding to the mine in a borrowed airship. His landing on the deck of the airship knocked Gundren off the side to his death, but otherwise they were able to talk him out of killing them for their failure by promising to bring him all the wealth of Phandelver. He then flew ahead of them and settled down on a hilltop overlooking the mine entrance.So, after clearing out the mine they had their final confrontation with Venomfang, who was still waiting for them outside, and I think they basically cleaned his clock without too much trouble having by then reached level 5 (or maybe 6) and gotten plenty of magic swag. The only really memorable part of the actual fight was the Barbarian grappling him and going for a ride 80 feet up or some such. It's partly a blur because we had to take care of it at the beginning of a session, after otherwise wrapping the campaign, before switching to our other campaign. But, as much as the actual fight didn't amount to much, fear of that fight had managed to animate much of their decision making throughout the latter parts of the campaign.</blockquote>

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