On Toward The Castle

As with the other posts in this series there are spoilers for the adventure contained in the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. I probably should have had a disclaimer in the last post, but there weren’t many spoilers in that chapter, but for this one, well…

When last our adventurers gathered they had a lead on where the Black Spider would be. This mysterious entity has been causing all sorts of trouble from a distance, and our intrepid heroes intended to take the fight to him (or her) directly. Uncovering and finding the Black Spider has proven to be difficult, but this was it, with the location of the castle now they could end the troubles once and for all.

So they thought.

Major spoilers for the adventure Lost Mine Of Phandelver ahead.

elf rangerAfter stocking up on a few healing potions in Neverwinter, the elven ranger rejoined the party. Since the player behind the ranger was going to be gone, I needed a way to write his character out. I decided to have him summoned back to his clan to face the council for not completing his training and fully participating in the ritual of becoming an adult (you can look back to his character origin for reference on why). On the way back home, however, he woke up one morning and his escorts have vanished. His conversation with them left a severe distaste in their mouths and he has been shunned by the elves of the forest. This will come up later, but not immediately. The player really needs to make better decisions and think before talking.

The party arrived at the castle from the north, which eased their entrance. Finding what was supposed to be a hidden exit they were presented with a couple of different choices as to which direction to proceed. It was possible they could have taken one door, confronted the villain and been done with this portion of the story. Instead they went another direction and eventually were confronted with a group of goblins.

It was at this point I decided to stop playing nice with the ranger. The guy playing him is nice, but he just isn’t thinking. He isn’t taking the character seriously. This isn’t serious business, but it isn’t a joke either. I have started rewarding “good” behavior in the game, proper role-playing, which is why I manufactured the resurrection of the party’s wizard. Would the ranger fare as well?

Since the ranger is the only one in the group that can speak Goblin, the party members asked him to say “We come in peace.” Apparently the group’s goal was to simply ask where the Black Spider was and leave his minions alone. Well, the ranger, jokingly, said “We have come to hack you into pieces,” not to the goblins, but to the group. I decided to simply take it as his translation and that meant the goblins were not happy with the intruders.

Yes, a battle ensued.

Fortunately he is the only member of the party who acts this way. A few well placed dice rolls and the battle was over rather quickly. Navigating around the rest of the castle the party eventually found themselves in a room  with a curtain to the north and a door barred shut to the south – and two hobgoblins. There wasn’t time for any talk as the enemy knew these adventurers were not friendly (well, to their side of things at least).

Very quickly after the battle started one of the hobgoblins took off northward. Fortunately the party managed to get some good initiative rolls as well as some great attack rolls. Smartly the party also divided the battle up with three adventurers going after the hobgoblin that was attempting to run away. Short work was made of the hobgoblins though some healing potions were needed to keep the hit points up.

After this confrontation there were two choices – one was to explore the barred door or see where the one bugbear was going in such a hurry. Naturally the ranger decided to walk over and open the barred door. The owlbear dropped him down to 3 hit points before running through the open door and out the castle.

I wonder if he is getting the hint to proceed with more caution. Probably not.

In the final room there they found a dark elf and a Bugbear in a heated argument with a dwarf unconscious on the floor and a “pet” wolf ready to attack. Fortunately they managed to figure out how to stop these creatures, save the dwarf (which turned out to be their employer from the beginning of the adventure) and locate his map which the Black Spider was after. A map to what? What is the title of this adventure?

I am being particularly vague about this last part because while there has been a spoiler warning some spoilers are even too big for me to mention here.

While the rest of the party was searching the room or healing their employer, the rogue decided to skin the pelt off of the wolf. Guess who doesn’t have a share of that treasure?

And the pelt of the wolf is worthless.

Next up – the mine. Only thing is, the characters, according to the booklet, should be at level 4 for this section of the adventure as the encounters are geared towards that difficulty. Everybody is only at level 3. I may have to scale some monsters down a level or two or offer up a few discount healing potions in the town of Phandalin before the party descends into the depths.