D&D 5E Linking LMoP and PotA

[Blakey]

Hello all

Anyone have any good suggestions to link these two adventures?

Specifically I'm wondering if anyone has worked a connection between the Black Spider and the cults?

Also is there potential to link the Forge of Spells with the weapons of the cults at all?

I'd really like it if there was a natural pull into PotA once the drow has been encountered.

Thanks in in advance for any ideas!
Blakey

 

[Uller]

Black Spider wishes to secure a magical energy source for one of the cults to power their orbs.

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[Tales and Chronicles]

In my game, the Forge was used by the mad Drow who forged the magic weapons which became the weapons of the prophets when he later bind them to the elemental essence of the princes in the Fane. I changed the Black Spider for an actual awaken giantic spider (think Shelob from LotR) who was Devir's familiar and assistant until he left her behind and went to find the Fane. She's now quite large and mad from feasting on the deads in the cave. She sees the whole region as ''her web'' in which the inhabitants are mere bugs.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I went a similar route in that the Prophets' weapons were all forged at Phandelver with the spell forge.

Then I went one step further and I made the delegation that goes missing at the start of PotA to instead be merchants working for Gundren Rockseeker to establish trade routes for the recently reopened mines. My PCs went into business with Gundren and that made them very interested in what happened to the merchants, and so they went to the Dessarin Valley to investigate....

 

[cooperjer]

I didn't manage a direct tie in as well as the others above, but I used the faction ties to draw attention to the PoTA story. My players build up Phandalin to Tribore using some kingdom rules. They have ties with the Lords Alliance because of that. Yartar is a Lords Alliance controlled town and is being shorted trade supplies on the Dessarin river. Because the PCs were new members of the Lords Alliance they were tasked with looking into the trade disruption. This also allowed them to start looking closely at Yartar for annex.

 

[Blakey]

Thanks guys. Handy thoughts and ideas.

I think I'm going to make the Black Spider working for a cult looking to uncover the Forge of Spells to power their orbs.
I am also liking that the drow forged the cult items in the Forge of Spells back in the past.
I'm going to steal the idea of the delegates being trading partners of Gundren. That nicely links in and I can foreshadow that early in LMoP (we have only just started this and they are not yet in Phandalin).

Any other ways that you linked these two?