D&D 5E Lost Mine - Wyvern Tor

[Nebulous]

Funny how the adventure gives you pressing business and then assumes you'll ignore it to go after sidequests CRPG style.

Well, my guys were literally at the front door Cragmaw Castle, I had built the battle map and everything, then Glasstaff told them that Gundren was no longer there, and they said "screw it" and they left and went to find him at the mine. Which really surprised me, I thought for sure they'd loot it first CRPG style! But they were afraid the Black Spider would kill him the longer they delayed.

 

[Nebulous]

So Lost Mine is turning out interesting now that we've reached "the end", except it's not really the end, the problem is getting more complicated because there's a beholder mage and a contingent of duergar smithies who now want to use the Forge of Spells to start hammering out magic weapons, and that doesn't make Sildar Hallwinter very happy. He's going to try and convince the Lord's Alliance of Neverwinter to send a regiment of soldier and knights to help clear out the mine and take control again so that the Phandalin area can be civilized and nip this threat before it escalates. The last thing he wants is an alliance with the beholder and the orcs in the region, with the Phandelver mine still in their control.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

There really isn't a whole lot to it in the book. Would you be able to elaborate at all? Did you use a map? Did the PCs go inside the cave?

I found that just the other day. Interesting background info but not all that practical.

Not practical? May I ask why?

And not defensively, either. Maybe it's time to edit or update that post....

 

[jayoungr]

I ran LMoP over Roll20, and I used this fan-created map for the Wyvern Tor encounter:

http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=56089

(There's one for Old Owl Well too: http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=56085)

Cool. I'm definitely going to include a lone orc for them to encounter ahead of time,

I used that encounter as suggested on the WotC forums, and it worked really well. The players, having just come from Old Owl Well and having a healthy respect for 5E combat, decided to ally with Krokk. They killed the sentry and then sent Krokk in to lure out the chief orc and his ogre buddy. After the PCs dispatched the two of them--a relatively easy fight, though not a complete walkover--Krokk, as promised, led the rest of the orcs away.

... although I'm not entirely sure how it would work for him to make a play for the leadership of the band. Orcs value strength, and if this guy isn't strong enough to beat the leader himself - if he needs help in the form of the PCs - then I can't see the others being willing to follow him.

Here, I borrowed a page from Scrivener of Doom's blog writeup and had the orcs searching for some relics of the old kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt in order to challenge the status quo of the Many Arrows tribe. I didn't like the idea of repurposing Cragmaw Castle, as the blog proposes, so I left vague exactly what they were searching for. Anyway, the orcs had found nothing so far and were starting to feel that they were on a fool's errand. Only Brughor's insistence was keeping them there. Thus, if Brughor were removed, Krokk was confident he could persuade them to go back north. Whether he can hang onto his rule any longer than that is beyond the PCs' concern (unless they should choose to make it so).

This has a nice parallel with the Red Wizard searching for artefacts at Old Owl Well, too, and suggests that the whole area is potentially crammed with interesting treasures waiting to be discovered.

On a side note, am I the only one who finds it a bit odd that wyverns would've nested in a cave at the bottom of a ravine? I would've thought they'd have preferred to nest up near the top of the rocky outcropping.

Does it say the nest was in the cave? I thought it was at the top of the hill. After all, it's the hill (tor) that's named after the wyverns, not the cave.

Funny how the adventure gives you pressing business and then assumes you'll ignore it to go after sidequests CRPG style.

Well, you find out later that King Grol and Vyerith had gotten stalled in negotiations for the terms of handing over Gudrun Rockseeker. Those could easily last for days.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Not practical? May I ask why?

And not defensively, either. Maybe it's time to edit or update that post....

My guess would be it's because there's only plot and musings and ideas - no actual encounters, maps, loot etc.

 

[Nemio]

Indeed. My group rescued Sildar and then took out the Redbrands, then went straight into the woods and bumbled around until they found Cragmaw Castle and rescued Gundren. Concerned that they would be too low level to take on the mine, I decided that Gundren was pretty beat up and needed a few days' rest. While they waited for him to recover, they wandered off to Thundertree but decided not to engage the dragon. Then they went and talked to Agatha and investigated Old Owl Well. Next session, they'll be hitting up Wyvern Tor. (It was their choice to do all three sidequests at once since they're all in the same vicinity.)

Also keep in mind that Gundren's brothers are supposted to be back in Phandalin by then.
Barthen mentions that he expects them to restock any day now when you first arrive in town.
This might be an extra reason for Gundren to be in a hurry if he's worried that something happened to them.

 

[pukunui]

I moved Gundren to the mine itself, so they went there to get him.

That works too.

I ran LMoP over Roll20, and I used this fan-created map for the Wyvern Tor encounter:

http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=56089

That's a decent map. Thanks.

Anyway, the orcs had found nothing so far and were starting to feel that they were on a fool's errand. Only Brughor's insistence was keeping them there. Thus, if Brughor were removed, Krokk was confident he could persuade them to go back north. Whether he can hang onto his rule any longer than that is beyond the PCs' concern (unless they should choose to make it so).

That works! I suppose, also, if the PCs can manage it so they take out Gog and Brughor without the other orcs seeing, if the PCs then made themselves scarce, Krokk could claim he did it himself.

This has a nice parallel with the Red Wizard searching for artefacts at Old Owl Well, too, and suggests that the whole area is potentially crammed with interesting treasures waiting to be discovered.

Yeah!

Does it say the nest was in the cave? I thought it was at the top of the hill. After all, it's the hill (tor) that's named after the wyverns, not the cave.

The text reads: "The tor was formerly the home of a large and dangerous nest of wyverns, but a band of bold adventurers dealt with the monsters years ago. Though the wyverns never returned, other creatures lair here from time to time."

I took that to mean that the other creatures lair in the wyverns' old nest, but I suppose it could just mean that they lair in the same general area now that the wyverns aren't there to scare them off or eat them.

Not practical? May I ask why?
And not defensively, either. Maybe it's time to edit or update that post....

My guess would be it's because there's only plot and musings and ideas - no actual encounters, maps, loot etc.

Precisely!

Also keep in mind that Gundren's brothers are supposted to be back in Phandalin by then.
Barthen mentions that he expects them to restock any day now when you first arrive in town.
This might be an extra reason for Gundren to be in a hurry if he's worried that something happened to them.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about: the module provides a great sense of urgency to get to the mine as quickly as possible, and to a certain extent, the sidequests just seem utterly extraneous. Why bother going to investigate someone poking around an old ruin - or spend days traveling to another old ruin in search of a trinket - when your patron needs rescuing and his brothers have gone AWOL? That's why I ruled that Gundren was in no shape to travel - I decided he had five levels of exhaustion and, since no one could cast greater restoration on him, that mean he'd need five days of rest to fully recover from his ordeal. His map also got ruined, and I decided that his memory was faulty, so the PCs weren't able to go to the mine to look for his brothers without him. Thus they ended up with five days of free time, which they decided to spend exploring the sidequests while they waited for Gundren to recover.

 

[Nebulous]

I ran LMoP over Roll20, and I used this fan-created map for the Wyvern Tor encounter:

http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=56089

(There's one for Old Owl Well too: http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=56085)

That reminds me that I have the Paizo desert flip mat in storage, it would make a great plateau/tor for this encounter

Scrivener of Doom[/B]'s blog writeup and had the orcs searching for some relics of the old kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt in order to challenge the status quo of the Many Arrows tribe. I didn't like the idea of repurposing Cragmaw Castle, as the blog proposes, so I left vague exactly what they were searching for. Anyway, the orcs had found nothing so far and were starting to feel that they were on a fool's errand. Only Brughor's insistence was keeping them there. Thus, if Brughor were removed, Krokk was confident he could persuade them to go back north. Whether he can hang onto his rule any longer than that is beyond the PCs' concern (unless they should choose to make it so).

This has a nice parallel with the Red Wizard searching for artefacts at Old Owl Well, too, and suggests that the whole area is potentially crammed with interesting treasures waiting to be discovered.


Does it say the nest was in the cave? I thought it was at the top of the hill. After all, it's the hill (tor) that's named after the wyverns, not the cave.


Well, you find out later that King Grol and Vyerith had gotten stalled in negotiations for the terms of handing over Gudrun Rockseeker. Those could easily last for days.

I haven't even read the Wyvern's Tor section of the book, it seems a little more involved than I thought. Which is good. SO, i was going to run Wyvern's Tor and Cragmaw Castle back to back, but it doesn't sound like I can do that in 2 hours (our usual time limit).

 

[pukunui]

I haven't even read the Wyvern's Tor section of the book, it seems a little more involved than I thought. Which is good. SO, i was going to run Wyvern's Tor and Cragmaw Castle back to back, but it doesn't sound like I can do that in 2 hours (our usual time limit).

The Wyvern Tor encounter takes up half a page in the book. There's very little to it.

 

[Bayonet]

I was reading through LMoP the other day, and had a few vague thoughts about how to expand it ( If I ever get to DM this module... sigh...)

I have some fantasy art on my laptop that shows a small village clustered around a ruined tower. Got me thinking...

Old Owl Well is a fairly recent village, sprung up around the fortified (and abandoned) tower housing the well from which it takes its name. The villagers largely ignore the tower, believing it to be haunted. One day, a Red Wizard shows up with a force of zombies, ensorcels the hapless villagers for slave labour, and begins excavating the dungeons/tunnels/whatever beneath the tower.

Players need to drive off or kill the Wizard to save the villagers (and find what he's hunting), but first must find him deep within the caverns. They can kill zombies, but should try to deal with the hostile, charmed commoners by non-lethal means.

Kind of bare bones, and I'll flesh it out with more of a plot when(if) I run it, but I think it could expand on what is currently a very brief encounter.