Frontier Forays - featuring Phandalin's Finest

Session 1 of a drop-in campaign

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER

[9 min read]

When my group of regular players can't all make one of our two 'official' campaigns, I offered to DM a series of loosely connected one-shot sessions regardless of how many can make it. To keep things simple, I have mashed together the two starter campaigns of Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak, with an NPC representative from the Lord's Alliance as the patron for whatever motley crew of adventurers show on the day. This is Frontier Forays, Featuring Phandalin's Finest...

0. Prologue

Terach, a half-orc barbarian, and Wick, a custom lineage blend of human and elf with both warlock and sorcerer powers, have been doing small jobs in Neverwinter over the last months for Sildar Hallwinter, a retired veteran fighter with the grace of a noble. Feeling like they have passed Sildar's test to be considered as trustworthy, the two fledgling adventurers are making their way after dark to a rendezvous with Sildar and an anonymous guest in his manor in the well-to-do part of town, when they sense they are being tailed. Both adroit in the shadows of Neverwinter's streets, the party uses stealth and deception to foil the black clad pursuers, and confront them in an alley. Two other rogues flee via the rooftops when they see the ruthless adventurers calmly dispatch their co-conspirators, leaving the party to hide the bodies and make it to the manor with discretion.

Sildar Hallwinter and Gundren Rockseeker

Awaiting them there is Sildar, and his guest, a ruddy dwarf with dirt on his clothes, wine in both hands and food stuffed in his pockets. Sildar first reveals he is a representative of the Lord's Alliance.

The Lords’ Alliance isn’t a nation unto itself, but a partnership of the rulers of towns and cities across the North, who have pledged peace with one another and promised to share information and effort against common threats such as orc hordes and Northlander pirates. The focus for the Alliance in Neverwinter is the frontier around Phandalin. I can explain more when we meet there, but for now, let me introduce my associate, Gundren Rockseeker.

Gundren is one of three brothers, famous for providing quality metals and gems from the mines of the region.

Gundren Rockseeker asked you to bring a wagonload of provisions to the rough-and-tumble settlement of Phandalin, a couple of days’ travel southeast of the city. Gundren was clearly excited and more than a little secretive about his reasons for the trip, saying only that he and his brothers had found “something big,” and that he’d pay you twenty five gold pieces each for escorting his supplies safely to Barthen’s Provisions, a trading post in Phandalin. He then set out ahead of you on horse, along with a lone warrior as an escort, claiming he needed to arrive early to “take care of business.” Sildar turns to you and says “I have pressing business here in the city, but I will be in Phandalin shortly after you to discuss our next move. Here are healing potions, courtesy of the Lord’s Alliance”

The two adventurers accept, getting some rest before heading out at first light along the High Road. They use the time to explore each other's back stories and realise both are seeking not just booty, but also, belonging.

1. Goblin Arrows

After turning east on to the less travelled and more dangerous Triboar Trail, the party sees dead horses across the path in front of them, and a dead dwarven warrior.

You’ve been on the Triboar Trail for about half a day. As you come around a bend, you spot two dead horses sprawled about fifty feet ahead of you, blocking the path. Each has several black-feathered arrows sticking out of it. The woods press close to the trail here, with a steep embankment and dense thickets on either side.

The party is ambushed by goblins, who use hiding and cover to great effect, harrying them and peppering them with black-feathered arrows. None are left alive.

The party recognises the horses and the dead dwarf escort as belonging to Gundren, who is nowhere to be seen. However, an empty leather map case is found, along with goblin tracks and drag marks heading north. The party hides the wagon and sets off to find their new employer, tracking the Cragmaw goblins back to their hideout.

After negotiating some hastily made traps along the journey of a few miles, the party breaches the dark cave hideout of the goblins. While doing so, one of the sentries is able to parkour his way past them and alert the goblins further in, who set off the ingenious flooding traps, not once, but twice sending large volumes of water down the tunnel. The traps manage to catch both the sentry and Terach, sending them tumbling down the tunnel and dumping them at the cave mouth. 

Successfully dispatching the goblins in the main tunnel and the Twin Pools cave (where the waterfall is conveniently drowning out any noise of the battles), the party then surprises the boss of the hideout, a fierce bugbear known mostly to himself as Klarg the Mighty and his loyal wolf pet Ripper. After a tough fight, the party relieves the hideout of its master, and go on to find not only his treasure, but some stolen supplies. However there is no sight of the ruddy dwarf benefactor, Gundren Rockseeker.

Pushing into the last part of the hideout, the party find that the remaining goblins, led by a larger, fat specimen named Yeemik, are aware they are under attack and are holding Gundren hostage as leverage. The party however, does not negotiate with terrorists, and when battle ensues, Gundren is dropped like a sack of potatoes over a ledge. Wick heals him to consciousness and he runs to safety - Gundren is a purveyor of fine minerals and not a fighter - while Terach hunts down the fat goblin, who valiantly surrenders rather than face the greatsword.

The party rests, and Gundren fills them in on recent events:

• The three Rockseeker brothers (Gundren, Tharden, and Nundro) recently located an entrance to the long-lost Wave Echo Cave, where a rich mine had been lost to the dwarves after the orc battles over centuries ago
• Klarg, the bugbear who leads this goblin band, had orders to waylay Gundren. He heard from the goblins that the Black Spider sent word that the map of a dwarf was to be brought to him. He doesn’t know who or what the Black Spider is.
• Gundren had a map showing the secret location of Wave Echo Cave, but the goblins took it when they captured him. Gundren believes that Klarg sent the map and the dwarf to the chief of the Cragmaws at a place called Cragmaw Castle. He doesn’t know where that might be, but he suggests someone in Phandalin might know.
• The stolen supplies belong to the Lionshield Coster in Phandalin.

2. Phandalin

Gundren pays the party to escort them to Phandalin, which they do after recovering the hidden wagon at the site of the ambush. They arrive after dark on a moonlit Flamerule night, having had quite the long day.

The rutted track emerges from a wooded hillside, and you catch your first glimpse of Phandalin. The town consists of forty or fifty simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations. More old ruins—crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars—surround the newer houses and shops, showing how this must have been a much larger town in centuries past. Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the cart track, which widens into a muddy main street of sorts as it climbs toward a ruined manor house on a hillside at the east side of town.

Gundren points out the key buildings as they enter, and encourages them to stay at the Stonehill Inn.

• Yellow - Barthen’s Provisions
• Green - Stonehill Inn
• Red - Sleeping Giant tavern
• Blue - Lionshield Coster 

The next morning, Gundren buys them a fine breakfast and pays them for escorting both him and his supplies to Phandalin. The party visits the Lionshield Coster to advise Linene, a sharp-tongued albino woman, of the whereabout of her stolen crates. She is grateful, but remains wary since the town is on edge with red cloaked troublemakers roughing up the local businesses. 

Among those with whom she refuses to do business are the Redbrands. She warns the characters that the ruffians are trouble and advises them to avoid the Sleeping Giant tap house.

The party returns to the Stonehill Inn, where they gather rumours by using their charismatic personalities to win over the locals. There are many complaints about the Redbrand Ruffians, but these hardy settlers, trying to make a living from the ruins, hint at bigger problems in the region.

“Once again, the orcs have come down from the mountains to prey on the lowlands! If Neverwinter doesn’t send help soon, the orcs will overrun Phandalin and destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to rebuild.”

"Some folk have seen a dragon flying through the high clouds. At that distance, it’s hard to gauge the creature’s size, but some say it’s as big as an elephant and has gleaming white scales.”

The heroes are ushered to the largest room in the inn, where Sildar awaits them, having ridden hard through the night. He congratulates them on their success, but seems otherwise troubled.

"Those black clad thieves on the streets of Neverwinter were agents of the Zhentarim. You did well to foil them. But we must be wary, for wherever there is influence to be gained and money to be made, the black network is there."

And that is where we leave our heroes, gold in their pockets, exhilarated from their efforts. Phandalin is already proving to be an exciting place, full of danger and opportunity. Perhaps in this wild frontier they will find a new home and a new purpose. Perhaps even the belonging they seek.

 Highlights from the session

• Wick's Sleep spell turns the battle in the heroes' favour on multiple occasions
• None of the ambushing goblins on the Triboar trail are left alive - even the last sleeped goblin, being a perfect target for interrogation, gets critted to death by the raging barbarian
• Terach is unceremoniously dumped at the cave mouth by the flood waters sprung by the trap, but even whilst prone in the stream bed, manages to cleave a wide-mouthed goblin's legs out from under him
• Wick's Telekinetic Shove manipulates the battlefield, pushing goblins off bridges and into fires
• Terach jumping down the 30ft fissure, sword first on to Klarg, missing with the weapon but crushing the bugbear from the fall
• A frenzied Ripper, almost kills Wick in one-to-one combat, before enraged Terach clambours up the fissure with unnatural speed to grab the wolf's leg, and launch himself down the fissure once more, the impact killing the wolf