Help with TSO Ideas and Plot Points
Hello everyone! This is my first time posting so hopefully it doesn't sound too incohesive. This is my second campaign that I have attempted to run, but I have also run a handful of One-Shots as well.
I am currently running TSO for a few friends. I have a lot of ideas that I think would be really cool, but I also would like some feedback or suggestions on how to make it either run smoother, or if it is an idea that people like, to maybe expand on it a bit more to help with player experience.
I think it would be very interesting if Daran Edermath was already dead. I know in the module that he is the Order of the Gauntlet "contact" for the party if you choose to run the Factions. I was thinking that since The Spider and Glasstaff are working together, Daran actually put two and two together prior to the party making their way to Phandalin. Then he "comes out of retirement" and investigates Tresendar Manor on his own, to try and figure out what their true intentions are. Unfortunately for him, he ended up being spied on by the Nothic and eventually Redbrands are sent to his house to deal with it. Then, when the party meets "Daran", they are actually meeting The Spider for the first time unbeknownst to them. This is his way of spying on the party, but also trying to send them to their doom by telling them about Old Owl Well.
Hamun Kost is a bigger part of the story and that he, The Spider, and Glasstaff are actually working together. I ran LMoP for a group during COVID and I thought it was very weird that Hamun was introduced as a Red Wizard of Thay and then vanishes. So, when The Spider sends them to Old Owl Well, he is actually trying to get rid of them at the hands of Hamun. But, Hamun is smarter than that. He understands that they can be useful. So he feigns like he's a helpless wizard stuck in this tower being attacked by all of these undead. Even though they are his zombies, he wants to see what the party is capable of. He pretends to be a wizard of the Many-Starred Cloak (using Disguise Self) who was sent here to investigate the tower to try and get it back up and running to help give Neverwinter another point of defense. In reality, he is trying to get the tower up and running due to the dormant magic that kicks off after Wave Echo Cave. And he tasks the party to kill the raiding party at Wyvern Tor so he can resurrect them later in his army.
Edit: Hamun is Tsernoth. Tsernoth is the necromancer that Agatha, the Banshee in Conyberry, gave Bowgentle's Spellbook to a long time ago. I thought it would be fun to have Hamun just be Tsernoth. As the party returns to Hamun after dealing with the enemies in Wyvern Tor, he is simply reading a spellbook, Bowgentle's to be exact. And if the party investigates, they can make this discovery. And if so, he would drop the ally persona and immediately teleport them to be killed by Venomfang in Thundertree. This both "protects him", even though he would most likely be able to kill the party on his own, but also have the party get to Thundertree without the tedious travel and what not to eventually learn the location of Cragmaw Castle. And the reason for not just killing the party is that he, along with Glasstaff and The Spider still haven't figured out how to return the Forge of Spells to its former glory and reawaken the magic in the region and he needs them since the party has a piece of the puzzle.
Glasstaff is tasked with reinvigorating the tower at Thundertree. When I ran LMoP before, Glasstaff was able to escape from Tresendar Manor. Before, since he really isn't mentioned after the fact if he escapes, I had the party fight him and The Spider at the same time as a finale. This time, Glasstaff is tasked with figuring out how to activate the dormant magic from the tower in Thundertree. He bribes Venomfang to keep watch over the tower and keep out unwanted intruders. Coinciding with Hamun at Old Owl Well, once the towers activate if/once they complete Wave Echo Cave, the two towers become the perfect flanking points for keeping Phandalin under attack by undead and psionic enemies.
Glasstaff, The Spider, and Hamun end up becoming Chishinix, Hashutu, and Voalsh. I know this one is easily the biggest stretch, and I am not even close to getting anywhere near the end. But, Knowing that there are three evil wizards and three mind flayer fanatics at the end of the campaign, I thought it would be a perfect way to help tie the campaign together a little more and also add that callback factor. Obviously I have plenty of time for this to even come into play, but this is the part where I am struggling to connect. Like were they just already infected with a mindflayer tadpole and then once the Forge of Spells gets reopened and reawakens all of this dormant magic in the region, they transform into mindflayers then? Should I even have them become the mindflayers or should I keep them separate?
Thank you in advance!