u/booboothebabe

Hi everyone,

Running Lost mine of phandelver with a group of six players, pretty much as written besides a few tweaks to include some of the PC’s backstories. Been going super well so far and we’re having a lot of fun. We’re nearing the end of the module (we won’t play shattered obelisk, or at least not immediately after) and my players will probably head to Wave echo cave in a couple of sessions.

I am a little concerned about the encounter with the black spider. My players really don’t care about this character LOL. I don’t think I’ve done a good job at portraying him as a big threat. They are however extremely invested in Venomfang as well as the cult of the dragon. They tried fighting the dragon and failed and yearn to defeat him. They’re so curious about the cult and look for hints about them everywhere.

I am considering changing a LOT about the original module to make Nezznar part of the dragon cult, and have Venomfang show up in the second half of the fight as a dracolich. Is that insane? Maybe a dumb idea. I’ve seen that the cult is all about turning dragon into dracoliches and exploiting their power. I’m thinking the Black spider could be sent by the cult with a few cultists to take control of the forge of spells on behalf of the cult. Venomfang didn’t outright refuse to join the cultists in front of the players, just mentioned that the cult wanted to turn her into their pet. But Venomfang could also see this as an opportunity to become more powerful.

It kind of sounds like an awesome encounter but it’s so different from the original module that I’m a little hesitant. Nezznar as written is such an empty shell that I feel like I HAVE to tie him into something else for him to not be a massive letdown. I could go the traditional turning into a spider route but it doesn’t really connect to anything else in the story as we’ve played it so far.

What do you guys think? Anyone ever made Nezznar part of the cult? Is a dracolich final boss a crazy idea? If anyone’s ever leaned into this or has any suggestions I’d love to hear about it. Cheers everyone :)

Hi everyone,

I'm running the starter set with six players, and it looks like my group is headed to Thundertree next session! A little background on the group is that one of the PCs is a human sorcerer, looking for the origins of her powers.

When I was reading through the module, I found the corrupted nature in Thundertree a little but more interesting than the rest. I'm thinking of doing some rewriting in my campaign so that a dragon, one of Venomfang's ancestor, died in Thundertree and that its blood corrupted the region, turning some of the villagers into "zombies". Venomfang would come back to "reclaim" the village as its lair. Regarding my sorcerer PC, maybe her herbalist mother used some plants from the region when she was pregnant and thus gave her daughter her draconic bloodline. Either way, her powers would be tied to the plants of the region. I also just kind of enjoy the idea of plant creatures roaming the village instead of zombies lol, and I think this set up may lead to some interesting interaction with Reidoth, as he's sent to "purify" the village sort of. Because i'm leaning so much into the nature aspect to it, I'm wondering if I should scrap the dragon cult altogether.

I got a lot of help on this sub regarding how to tie my PCs backstories into the module a couple of months ago, so now I'm wondering if anyone also leaning heavily into the corrupted nature of Thundertree in their run of the campaign, and how it worked out? Any ideas and comments would be appreciated :) Have a good one!