Players Abandoning Phandalin?
For context, I am running a homebrew mixed version of DoIP and HotDQ together
And with this, I replaced the whole Logging Camp with a toned down version of the Cult of the Dragon camp and included the whole cave etc, once they made it through the cave and killed basically everything and everyone except for Frulam Mondath for interrogation reasons. It was revealed to the party that Tibor Wester and the rest of Loggers that belonged to the camp were caged / or chained up and taken with the rest of the Cult of the Dragon caravan marching up north.
With this information I had thought beforehand they would just cut their losses and go back to Phandalin to report their findings, but that didn’t turn out to be the case and instead they are basically diving straight into that plot hook mainly to get Tibor Wester and the rest of the Loggers back. Which makes it so they are almost entirely leaning into the HotDQ storyline now and would be at that long drag and drawn out part of the HotDQ module where they are travelling for an upwards of a month or so
As for jobs, they are about 6/9 done if including the Logger’s Camp, they have yet to do:
- Axeholm, which I’m aware would mean that the residents of Phandalin would have nowhere to evacuate to other than Neverwinter
- Dragon Barrow, which the players are keeping track of and might hit up because of the sword itself and nothing else
- Woodland Manse, which I’m aware would mean that Falcon’s Hunting Lodge may be wiped out and could even mean that the Orcs become a far greater threat by the time the players return
Which brings up the original question, with them gone from Phandalin for about a month or so, what specifically might happen to Phandalin? Would it just destroyed somewhat soon bearing in mind that both Cryovain and the Orcs are still around? I suspect so but I’d like to see what others might think of this