u/Myedicius

Hey everyone, I need some narrative advice and brainstorming help for my campaign. My party just finished clearing out Wave Echo Cave and reclaiming the Forge of Spells.

However, during their single-minded pursuit of the main mission, they completely ignored the quest hook to go deal with Agatha the Banshee on behalf of Sister Garaele. To make the world feel alive and consequential, I put up a bulletin board notice in Phandalin stating that Sister Garaele has gone missing because she eventually went out to the woods to handle it herself. The party intends to investigate her disappearance next session.

Once they resolve Garaele's missing person plot, I want to transition them into the heist module Masterpiece Imbroglio from Keys to the Golden Vault.

For those unfamiliar with the hiest, the party is hired by an academic society (the Cognoscenti Esoterica) to infiltrate a thieves' guild called the Agile Hand. The goal is to steal back Constantori's Portrait which is a sentient, Lawful Evil magic painting that loves to eavesdrop and collect dangerous secrets.

My Initial Idea:

I want to tie the painting into something where the Harpers are trying to find the location of a Lich's phylactery but I am having trouble connecting all the dots. My thought is that Constantori’s Portrait isn’t just a sentient magic item, but a cleverly disguised phylactery. But the module explicitly mentions the portrait eavesdrops especially on political conversations,so maybe it is just the only source of Avery valuable piece of information to the Harpers?

I am trying to figure out:

What does Agatha know about this portrait/phylactery?

Why did Garaele going out to see Agatha cause her to go missing or end up in a possession/stasis situation?

How can I use Garaele's current situation to give the party a incentive to go pull off this art heist?

I’m highly open to other ideas or variations if the lich angle is not a good one. How would you stitch these elements together?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Here’s a clearer, tighter version of your post with cleaner structure and flow:

My party just defeated the Black Spider and reclaimed the Forge of Spells, which was a great payoff for the campaign.

Now I am trying to figure out what to do next and how to present it. At the end of our last session, I asked the players if they wanted to switch to something new or keep going with these characters. Everyone was pretty set on continuing with their current PCs. I also floated the idea of doing a heist or mystery-style arc, and they were very interested in that.

Here is where I am at. I had some tentative plans to transition into a modified Dragon of Icespire Peak. I like the structure of having quests available on a town board, and it would also let me revisit some loose threads. My players skipped most of the side quests in Lost Mine of Phandelver, even though they were offered, so there is still material there I could bring back.

What I am unsure about is how to present all these options. It seems like the group is most excited about doing a heist or mystery, so I was considering running Masterpiece Imbroglio from Keys from the Golden Vault. At the same time, I want to introduce a Venomfang vs Cryovain thread as they travel back down from Wave Echo Cave. I modified the cave location so they had to trek up a mountain, so I was thinking Venomfang could approach them in disguise and offer a reward for dealing with Cryovain.

So my main question is: what is the best way to surface all of these hooks without overwhelming the players? Should I lean on something like a town job board with prompts such as “sensitive matter, inquire with Halia Thornton at the Miner’s Exchange”? Or should I trust the players to remember previous unfinished quests and just give light reminders through NPCs or rumors?

Any advice on structuring this so it feels natural and not like a pile of disconnected options would be appreciated.