Plundering 5E Adventures for Freeport

I own a few of the many adventures that Wizards of the Coast has published for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. Most of them would be difficult to use as-is with Freeport, unless you set the City of Adventure in the Forgotten Realms (see my column on The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and Freeport). Even then, Freeport would definitely not be the focus of any campaign based on these adventures.

On the other hand, almost any adventure will have some material that can be plundered for use in other campaigns, including a Freeport-centric one. In this brief column, I will look at some of the adventures I own (or have access to through my local library) and discuss what content would be most useful for a D&D Fifth Edition Freeport game. Magic items and creatures reprinted from the Monster Manual or Volo's Guide to Monsters are omitted.

NOTE: This column contains spoilers for the D&D adventures discussed here, as well as for a few Freeport adventures.

Lost Mine of Phandelver (Starter Set)

Magic Items: Death in Freeport features a staff of defense, a version of which appears in this adventure's appendices.

Monsters: The Evil Mage and Redbrand Ruffian are suitable for use as NPCs in Freeport. (Simply rename the Redbrands to match one of the city's many gangs.)

Princes of the Apocalypse

I have not read this adventure, but I do own the Elemental Evil Player's Guide (a free PDF), which reprints the genasi race and new elemental-themed spells from that book.

Races: Fire genasi can be used for the efreeti-blooded azhar with no changes needed, making them a reasonably common sight in Freeport. Unlike genasi in most other settings, the azhar have bred true for generations and formed a cohesive culture, long before they founded the nation of Kizmir on the Continent. The Azharan language can be treated as being either the same as the Ignan dialect of Primordial, or a separate language derived from it.

Water and air genasi are likely to visit Freeport from time to time as well, but earth genasi would be an extremely rare sight, given their preference for solid ground.

The three other new races in the Elemental Evil Player's Guide are aarakocra, deep gnomes, and goliaths (with the last being reprinted in Volo's Guide to Monsters). These, too, would be rare visitors, most likely originating in small enclaves on the Continent (or under it, for svirfneblin) or more distant lands.

Spells: As I mentioned in my review of Xanathar's Guide to Everything, elemental magic is quite popular in Freeport, so most of these new spells are highly appropriate for the setting.

Curse of Strahd

Character Options: The Haunted One background would be right at home in Freeport, which can easily provide enough trauma for many such back stories. Likewise, the monster hunter's pack should be available, and Gothic trinkets would not be out of place.

Monsters and NPCs: Mongrelfolk can be used for the calibans in True20 Freeport: The Lost Island.

Tales from the Yawning Portal

Of the adventures in this collection, Lost Shrine of Tomoachan would be the easiest to use as-is in a Freeport campaign--simply relocate it to a lost continent or sizable island. See my column on Plane Shift: Ixalan, the setting of which was inspired by Tomoachan, for suggestions.

Creatures: Nereids appeared in Creatures of Freeport, and a choker appears on the cover of the upcoming hardcover omnibus of the Return to Freeport adventure series. Several of the aquatic and plant monsters from Lost Shrine of Tomoachan and White Plume Mountain would be appropriate for the islands of the Serpent's Teeth and surrounding seas. Freeport also seems to be a magnet for exotic undead, and this book presents several new varieties.

Tomb of Annihilation

I have read very little of this jungle-themed adventure, but the appendices have a great deal of useful material for Freeport campaigns. Enterprising DMs should be able to tie Chult to the World of Freeport in some way, if they wish.

Character Backgrounds: Both the Anthropologist and Archaeologist are suitable backgrounds for adventuring scholars. They are most likely to be encountered at the Temple of the God of Knowledge, at the Freeport Institute, or in the field.

Monsters and NPCs: Assassin vines appear in True20 Freeport: The Lost Island, and all other plant monsters from this book are suitable for the Serpent's Teeth (and elsewhere in the subtropics). The stone juggernaut can be used for the Naranjani juggernauts of Mindshadows. In addition, the aldani, flying monkey, jaculi, kamadan, tabaxi (see Volo's Guide to Monsters for PC tabaxi), and new zombies would easily fit into a Freeport campaign.

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For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.

2017 in Review: The Blog

2017 has been a momentous year, for myself, for my blog, and for our country. However, I try to avoid discussing politics here, so I'll keep the focus of my review of the past year on my own work. I started this blog in late 2014, and have managed to keep it going on a weekly basis for most of the time since then, which is an accomplishment I'm quite proud of.

For those new to this blog, I write about roleplaying games, LEGO toys, and how I combine the two, with occasional forays into my other hobbies. I have a number of ongoing series that I add to as I find the time and inspiration. These include session summaries for the campaigns that I Game Master, reviews of RPG and LEGO products, and other subjects. Each item below includes a link to the most recent installment; most of those pages include links to previous columns in that series.

"Building the Bestiary" is my series on how I build LEGO miniatures for my tabletop role-playing games. It focuses on the first Pathfinder RPG Bestiary and the D&D 5E Monster Manual. It's my longest-running series here, with 17 installments, and I added an Index this year to help readers quickly find specific monsters I've covered.

I also post reviews of the collectible LEGO Minifigures Series once I acquire enough of each new set. I only wrote one such column in 2017 (The LEGO Batman Movie Minifigures), but I anticipate doing one of The Ninjago Movie Minifigures series sometime soon, as well as the upcoming second The LEGO Batman Movie series.

"Time of the Tarrasque" is a homebrew Pathfinder campaign that I started in January 2017. This is a world that I've been tinkering with for years (decades, really), so was very pleased for it to see actual play. We are currently on hiatus due to many of our players having changes in jobs and/or residences this fall and winter, but we hope to resume again soon. The heroes have reached 3rd level and I hope to see them advance to 20th level (and possibly some mythic tiers) by the end of the campaign.

I also started running Tales from the Yawning Portal (D&D 5E) for my wife and children this past year. We have completed The Sunless Citadel, and started The Forge of Fury over the kids' winter break. I'll be posting summaries of our first two sessions of Forge over the next couple weeks. (We previously started Lost Mine of Phandelver with some friends, but had to put that game on hiatus. Yawning Portal has allowed us to move forward with a more regular game.)

I am a long-time fan of Green Ronin's Freeport setting. My long-running third Freeport campaign, which ended in 2016, used D&D v.3.5 and later Pathfinder, but I've been considering using D&D 5E for my next foray into that setting. My Freeport 5E articles include reviews of Wizards of the Coasts' "Unearthed Arcana" and Plane Shift articles, Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous, and other 5E titles with an eye to using them with Freeport. I recently acquired Volo's Guide to Monsters and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, so expect columns about them within the next month or two.

I am also making an effort to get more experience with Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE system, and have started posting my thoughts on that game. 

Campaigns Update

Due to many recent changes affecting my various gaming groups, it seems necessary to give a quick update on the various campaigns that I feature here on my blog.

Time of the Tarrasque (Pathfinder)

I noted in my last session summary that we have a couple players who are in the process of moving to another state. Since then, job changes have affected the short-term availability of another player in the group. I have also started a new job, which is absorbing more of my time and energy than expected as I settle into the new routine. Because of all these disruptions, I have decided to put the game on hold for now. Hopefully we can resume in a few months, once life becomes less hectic for most of us.

Lost Mine of Phandelver (D&D 5E)

School and other scheduling issues have kept this game on indefinite hiatus. We've only managed to fit in one session in the past year (in May), so I may as well pronounce this campaign over. Meanwhile, my kids and I still have Yawning Portal (below) available, which doesn't require coordinating schedules with anyone outside the household.

Tales from the Yawning Portal: The Sunless Citadel (D&D 5E)

I've just posted a summary of our latest session, from this past weekend. I think we will be able to finish The Sunless Citadel in one more session (probably this weekend). After that, we will either continue on to The Forge of Fury, or take a break for a different game. The kids and I would like to try out the AGE system, either Fantasy AGE or Blue Rose, so we may do that next.

D&D with the Kids: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Part 5 (Finally!)

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)

As I've reported in previous columns (see links above), I've been running The Lost Mine of Phandelver for my children and a friend and his children. We had not been to play in several months due to scheduling issues, but were finally able to resume the adventure this past weekend.

This was a relatively short session, because we needed some time to review the adventure so far, and the plans they had made at the end of our last session. I also knew that the first of their short side quests would earn them enough XP to reach 3rd level, so we would need some time to advance their characters before we could go onto the next quest.

(Obligatory spoiler warning for "Lost Mine of Phandelver")

Last time, the party finished dealing with the threat of the Redbrand gang in Phandelver. They now have three side quests to pursue while they seek out the location of Cragmaw Castle: dealing with orc raiders near Wyvern Tor; investigating reports of undead near Old Owl Well; and searching Thundertree for a lost necklace. They plan to do these quests in that order, with a visit to the town of Conyberry on the way to Thundertree.

The party went to Wyvern Tor, and searched for the orc camp. Caboose, the gnome bard, was the best tracker, so led the way, and soon found orc tracks leading to a ravine. He spotted an orc sentry near a cave entrance, so the party withdrew a bit to plan their attack. They decided to have the bard cast dancing lights to try to draw the sentry away from his post. The orc didn't move, but the spell kept him distracted, so Sothleene, the human rogue, sneaked up to the orc and took him out with a single well-placed thrust with her rapier.

The stealthiest party member with darkvision was the Caboose, so the gnome led the way up to the cave entrance. Inside he saw seven orcs--and an ogre! After some quick whispered planning, the party launched their surprise attack. The human wizard, Gybrush, cast sleep, which unfortunately only took down one orc. Bahli, the dwarf cleric, cast bless on the party. Sothleene shot an arrow from the entrance, and the dragonborn barbarian, Starfright hurled a javelin. 

The ogre was the first resident of the cave to react, and moved to the entrance to engage the party. Before he could attack, though, Gybrush cast grease under him, and the giant fell prone. The orc leader moved up behind the ogre and tried to hurl a javelin past it, and some of the other orcs followed to do the same. The orcs landed a couple lucky shots, but their leader soon decided to withdraw to watch and wait, content for now to just egg on the ogre, Gog, to smash the intruders.

The fight proved challenging--and bloody. Starfright took the brunt of the giant's fury--she was knocked unconscious, healed by Bahli, then knocked out again. Eventually, the party's weapons and Gybrush's spells whittled down the giant, and it finally fell down dead.

At this point, the leader ordered the others to attack, despite the hazard still posed by grease spell. This kept most of them tangled up and unable to attack effectively. However, Bahli and Caboose both took hits that dropped them. Gybrush, who was down to cantrips at this point, dragged each of his fallen friends out of harm's way and stabilized them. Starfright, healed enough to fight again, stepped back into the fray in their place. 

Eventually, the party was able to take down the leader, at which point the four surviving orcs surrendered. The party accepted their plea, and even let them keep their weapons, as long as they left their treasure behind and promised to leave the region. The orcs gladly complied (for now, at least, as far as the party knows). The party searched the cave and found a chest of coins. 

We stopped there in order to allow the PCs to heal and receive their XP. They now have enough for 3rd level, so I spent some time with each player to take care of that bookkeeping. Three of the PCs (the bard, barbarian, and rogue) got to choose their subclasses at this time. The party now looks like this:

• Bahli Kegstander, male hill dwarf cleric 3 (guild artisan background, war domain)
• Caboose, male forest gnome bard 3 (entertainer background, college of lore)
• Gybrush Threepwood, male human wizard 3 (sage background, conjuration school)
• Sothleene, female human rogue 3 (charlatan background, arcane trickster), and her familiar, Sasha (fey cat)
• Starfright, female dragonborn (black) barbarian 3 (outlander background, path of the totem warrior [wolf])

Other 5E Games

As I mentioned recently, I plan to start running Tales from the Yawning Portal for my wife and kids sometime soon. (We would have done that this weekend if Phandelver hadn't worked out.) Because of this, I am retitling this "D&D with the Kids" series to "Lost Mine of Phandelver," and will make each adventure in Yawning Portal into its own separately-numbered series. 

Character Sheets

Finally, I would like to recommend the ForgedAnvil D&D 5E Character Generator, available from the ENWorld downloads pages. I'm currently using this for the Phandelver game, and plan to use it for Yawning Portal as well. If you're familiar with HeroForge (for D&D v.3.5) or sCoreForge (for Pathfinder), this Excel-based character sheet works very much the same way. It allows you to enter character data and choose options from drop-down menus, then it does the math to calculate total hit points, armor class, skill modifiers, and other statistics. It also provides reference text for race, class, and background abilities, so that you don't have to keep flipping through your Player's Handbook to choose your next action.

5E is far less math-intensive than v.3.5 or Pathfinder, and has significantly fewer and less complex crunchy bits, so the ForgedAnvil sheet is likewise much simpler. This means that opening and saving the character sheet takes far less time than in HeroForge (which on older computers is prone to serious lag in processing and saving data, often crashing the worksheet). ForgedAnvil is also able to generate a spell reference sheet as part of the same worksheet, rather than requiring a separate SpellForge file.

According to the FAQ, ForgedAnvil only supports official WotC content, not any "Unearthed Arcana" or third-party material. There is some capability for customizing built in (for races, subclasses, deities, and spells), but I haven't yet needed to use that feature so don't know how difficult it is to implement.  

D&D 5E with the Kids, Part 4

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

This was a relatively short session to finish off Tresendar Manor and plan for some upcoming side quests.

(Obligatory spoiler warning for "Lost Mine of Phandelver")

Once the bugbears were defeated, the nothic was distracted by this new supply of fresh meat. The party left it to feed while they explored the rest of the cellar. They found an unconscious goblin in the bugbears' room, so tied it up and left it there for now.

The dwarf cleric, Bahli, heard confused noises coming from the next room, so the party prepared to move in. Starfright (dragonborn barbarian) and Gybrush (human wizard) moved to the door n the opposite side of that room, then the party burst in. The room held four Redbrands who had heard enough noise to prepare for trouble, but who had been drinking too much to provide much resistance. Bahli promptly took down one ruffian, Starfright wounded two with her acid breath, and Gybrush's sleep spell put two to sleep. That left just one thug, who had been trying to pocket the money from their gambling while his fellows fought. He immediately surrendered, begging for mercy. The PCs gave him the same offer as George and John (leave town, find honest work, and never come back), He gladly accepted, and was dubbed "Paul." The party tied up the two sleeping Redbrands and locked them in the bugbears' room while they finished searching the dungeon.

Battle with the last few Redbrands

The wizard's laboratory held many books of interest to Gybrush, including one dwarven tome that mentioned a magic weapon lost when Phandelver was overrun. The wizard pocketed the most valuable magical supplies here, and planned to move the rest of the lab and books later.

While he was perusing this library, Starfright went in search of her "friend," the nothic. It had retreated to the crevasse in the cave to lick its wounds, and was now hostile. It seriously injured her with its rotting gaze attack, so she retreated to find Bahli for some healing. The party went to look for the monster, who also hurt Sothleene (human rogue) with its gaze. (Gybrush, distracted by arcane loot, didn't join them until the ghastly-looking barbarian came to yell at him to help.) The nothic soon found itself at a disadvantage in the crevasse when the part started targeting it with ranged attacks, so it climbed out the far side and fled. The party caught up with it in the storeroom through which they had entered the cellar, and a well-aimed bolt from Caboose (gnome bard) finished it off before it could injure anyone else.


Several party members needed healing, and the casters were pretty much all out of spells, so they moved the nothic's body and camped out in this first room. This also gave Gybrush time to study Glasstaff's staff of defense and attune himself to it.

When the PCs returned to their search in the morning, they found the goblin missing and the two Redbrand prisoners dead, with their throats cut. This disturbed them a great deal, and made them regret not questioning all three captives when they had the chance.

The party then searched Glasstaff's room. They found a small chest of coins and gems, as well as many papers stacked on the dead wizard's desk. These revealed that Glasstaff was actually Iarno Albrek, the missing Lord's Alliance agent who Sildar Hallwinter was seeking. They also found a letter from the Black Spider ordering Iarno to keep a watch out for friends of the dwarves; this made it clear that the Spider was aware of the party.

The heroes returned to town and told Sildar what they had found and accomplished in the manor's ruins. He gave them a reward for dealing with the Redbrand problem, and offered another if they could find Cragmaw Castle and defeat or drive off the goblinoids' chief. This castle is where Sildar believes Gundren Rockbreaker was taken, so the party already had strong motivation to find it. He suggested that if they can track down other goblin patrols or raiding bands, they might learn its location from any prisoners they take.

Marta Dendrar, the townswoman whom the party had freed from the Redbrands, found them soon after their return. She was grateful for their help, but unable to offer any thanks more than her words. She did, however, tell them of the hiding place of a family heirloom (an emerald necklace) that had been left behind when her family fled the village of Thundertree during an attack by undead.

The party now has three side quests to finish while they seek out the location of Cragmaw Castle: dealing with orc raiders near Wyvern Tor; investigating reports of undead near Old Owl Well; and searching Thundertree for the lost necklace. They plan to do them in that order, with a visit to the town of Conyberry on the way to Thundertree.

The party should reach 3rd level after their first side quest, so I expect the next session to consist of that encounter followed by working out advancement.

[Edited 12/8/2016 to add photo.]

D&D 5E with the Kids, Part 3

(Part 1) (Part 2)

My run of "Lost Mine of Phandelver" has resumed after delays due in large part to my kids being away at their grandparents' for half the summer. This week's column is actually a summary of three sessions. My son had a school trip the weekend that the rest of us met to play out the the party reaching and exploring the town of Phandalin, so I ran a short solo session for him to catch up before the party took on their next major conflict.

(Obligatory spoiler warning for "Lost Mine of Phandelver")

The party finally arrived in Phandalin and received their payment for bringing supplies to Barthen Provisions. They also took the stolen goods from the goblin lair to the Lionshield Coster, and were rewarded for returning them to their rightful owner. At the Coster, they were warned about the Redbrands, a gang of ruffians who have been causing trouble in town recently.

The adventurers then took rooms in the Stonewall Inn. The gnome bard, Caboose, parlayed his skills as an entertainer into room and board for himself, and devoted the rest of the day to that activity. 

Bahli (dwarf cleric), Gybrush (human wizard), and Starfright (dragonborn barbarian) went to the town hall to learn more about this Redbrand trouble. The townmaster evaded their questions, trying to downplay the threat the gang posed, but the PCs saw through his cowardice and promised to deal with the ruffians. While at the hall, they also learned of a reward to get rid of some orc raiders near Wyvern Tor.

These three heroes then confronted some Redbrands at the Sleeping Giant tap house. They handily dealt with the four members of the gang there, sparing one (who was dubbed "George") to question about their organization. He told them that there are at least a dozen more members of the gang, and that they were hired by someone known as "The Black Spider." Bahli then offered the prisoner his freedom, on the conditions that he find leave town and find honest employment; otherwise, he would feel the cleric's full wrath. George agreed readily--he couldn't safely stay in town after spilling his guts anyway. Bahli sent him on his way with a handful of coppers to buy food until he reached the next town.

(The players now fully expect to run into George later on, whether he's backslid into crime or run afoul of some monster. There are a number of places in the adventure that I could work this in quite easily.)

Meanwhile, Sothleene (human rogue) assumed her false identity of a minor noblewoman and explored the town on her own. She started by talking to the staff and patrons of the Stonewall Inn, learning the various rumors and leads that the other PCs had not yet taken the time to find. She visited Sister Garaele at the Shrine of Luck, and Halia Thornton at the Miner's Exchange, but was a bit too clumsy in her attempts to extract more information to gain either NPC's confidence. 

She had better luck at Alderleaf Farm, where she talked to the boy Carp about the secret cave entrance he had discovered near Tresendar Manor. Sothleene then visited Daran Edermath, a retired adventurer, who gladly opened up to her once he learned she was interested in doing something about the Redbrands, and had friends in town who could help her. Daran informed her that the gang's safehouse was under Tresendar Manor and their leader is called "Glasstaff." He also told her of some trouble that had been reported around Old Owl Well, located a couple days to the east: something has been digging around the ruins, and prospectors have been chased off by undead. Daran fears that some dangerous magic from the ancient Netheril empire might still remain there, and encouraged her to look into it. 

Finally, the rogue visited the town hall, and learned her companions had been there earlier in the day. She learned about the orc bounty then she returned to the inn to find her party. Once they were also together again, Bahli, Gybrush, and Starfright told the bard and rogue about their fight with the Redbrands, and the rather comic story of setting George free to reform. Sothleene also shared what she had learned. The heroes agreed that they wanted to investigate Old Owl Well and Wyvern Tor, but that dealing with the Redbrands was a more urgent matter. If they dealt with the gang, then the town would be a safer place for them and for everyone else, and it would be a solid start to building their reputations here.

After a good night's rest, the party decided to investigate the ruins of Tresendar Manor before looking for the cave Carp had found. They easily found the stairs to the cellars, and entered, finding a storeroom with a couple exits. They chose a door, and found a hallway with a pit trap that Bahli narrowly avoided falling into. The fallen stones left a narrow ledge on either side of the trap, so with some rope and strong backs, the PCs helped each other safely cross to the other side. 

The hallway led to a crypt where the party fought some skeletons. They found a small jail room adjoining this one, and quickly took out the two Redbrands inside. The ruffians had been guarding three prisoners: the wife and two children of Thel Dendrar, a Phandalin woodcarver murdered by the gang. The party escorted them out of the manor, then returned to the cellar to explore further. 

The dwarf cleric (center, with hammer) turns 2 of the 3 skeletons in the crypt.

They attempted to rest in the first storeroom, but this time they made too much noise and alerted the three Redbrands who were just beyond the other door. They dispatched two of the ruffians quickly, the offered the same deal to the last man as they had to George. The terrified Redbrand surrendered and fled. That left this part of the cellar clear for them to rest in. 

After recovering a bit, they set about searching for secret doors, as they had found and explored all the obvious ones. While doing so, Starfrifght found a hidden satchel with clothes, money, and potions, which she concluded was a getaway stash for someone in the gang--probably someone far more cunning than the common thugs they had encountered so far. Eventually, they found a secret door that led to a sizable natural cavern, split by a crevasse spanned by two small wooden bridges. 

In this cavern, they encountered a bizarre monster, roughly humanoid but covered with spines and having only a single large eye (a nothic). It spoke to them telepathically, and seemed obsessed with its own hunger. They offered to bring it food, and returned with the bodies of the two jail guards. This, and a further bribe of a couple tiny gems, put it in a friendly mood, and they learned that the monster had been tasked with guarding this chamber by the mage who led the Redbrands.

While the creature continued its meal, the party proceeded down one of the passages on the far side of the crevasse. Here they found a wizard's workshop, with a great deal of alchemical equipment and texts. Gybrush determined that the owner had been trying to brew potions of invisibility but had not yet succeeded. While the party searched the room, and listened at the door on the far side, a rat scurried out from under the lab table and out the door they had entered. Gybrush warned the others that the rat was almost certainly a familiar, and that its master now knew they were here. 

They opened the next door quickly, finding the enemy wizard's bed chamber but no wizard. Instead, a secret door on the far wall had been left ajar in his haste to escape, and they heard running footsteps beyond it. The secret door led to a short passage back to the cavern, through which the wizard now fled. The party split up, some to follow the enemy's path and some to retrace their own steps. The PCs reached the cavern as the wizard--obviously the gang leader "Glasstaff," because he carried a glass staff--fled through it. They soon learned that his staff was enchanted with defensive magics, including the shield spell, which foiled their first few attempts to attack him.

Starfright, who had taken a liking to the weird one-eyed monster here, tried to beg its help in catching Glasstaff. However, the wizard ordered the nothic to destroy them, so her request seemed hopeless. However, it did not immediately leave off its feasting, so the party was able to continue their pursuit. They caught up to the wizard in the storeroom at the bottom of the stairs to the surface. Glasstaff used a couple misty step spells to escape their reach, so was first to the stairs. However, he was out of his most powerful spells by now, and the bard hit him with a hideous laughter spell. This magic incapacitated him, and he spent the last few seconds of his life cackling madly about how utterly doomed he was.

The evil mage (incapacitated by the gnome's spell) falls beneath the rogue's rapier and the barbarian's battleaxe.

While most of the party pursued Glasstaff, Gybrush had fallen victim to a hold person spell and had been left behind. He soon broke free of the spell, but rather than chase after his friends, he decided to explore another hallway leading out of the cavern. He found a room with three bugbears, but was able to cast grease outside the door before they could attack him. This slowed them down long enough for Bahli, who had turned back to retrieve the missing mage, to arrive. Gybrush made an impassioned plea to the nothic to help them fight the bugbears. He rolled exceptionally well on a Charisma check, so the creature joined the heroes' side (for the moment, at least). The nothic took several hard blows, but it and Bahli gave back several of their own. After a few rounds, Starfright arrived on the scene and was overjoyed to see the nothic helping her friends. Sothleene also returned, handed the dead mage's glass staff to Gybrush, then added her sword to the fight. Caboose brought up the rear of the reinforcements, just before the last bugbear went down.

The wizard and the nothic face off against three bugbears (two of whom are still trying to get past the grease spell).

Time constraints forced us to stop once that long battle was finally over. The party has a couple last rooms left to clear, then can finish searching the wizard's lair in earnest, which will finish off Part 2 of the adventure. This session puts them about halfway to 3rd level. The side quests and wandering monsters in Part 3 should give them enough XP to get there before they find Cragmaw Castle, where they believe their friend Gundren Rockseeker was taken.

A better look at the minifigures for the nothic and Glasstaff.

D&D 5E with the Kids, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted about the start of my run of "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for my kids, a friend, and his kids. After some delays, we had our second session this past weekend.

(Obligatory spoiler warning for "Lost Mine of Phandelver")

Last time, the party had taken out some goblin sentries, but then withdrew to rest and heal. They returned to face two replacement guards, but took them down before any further alarm was raised.

This session started with them entering the cave that served as the goblins' hideout. Just inside the entrance was a chamber with two chained wolves, who the party treated with wary respect. The barbarian, who had been raised by wolves, couldn't bear to see these two in chains, so enlisted the cleric's help to calm the hostile animals, then feed and release them. The wolves were uncertain at first what to make of their freedom, but after a moment, left the cave to prowl around the woods outside.

Searching the wolf pen revealed a narrow chimney up to another chamber. The bard climbed up to investigate, and noticed a smoldering fire pit in the room. He moved forward to tie a rope to a nearby stalagmite, but was attacked by a wolf. The barbarian rushed up the wall to protect the bard, who retreated back down the chimney--but slipped and fell, knocking himself unconscious. The cleric promptly healed him, then suggested that the party rush up the main passage to join the fight from the other side, rather than risking their necks on a difficult climb.

The wolf's bugbear master bellowed orders to unseen minions in the next room, then hurled javelins at the intruder. The wolf's attacks were more effective than the bugbear, and only the barbarian's rage kept her standing for very long.

The rest of the party reached a room that was the source of the stream flowing down one side of the main tunnel: a waterfall entered a large chamber, where stone walls collected water in large pools. Here, three goblins were working to knock out one wall, in order to flood the entrance. The cleric and wizard took them out quickly, while the bard dodged past the fight to find the room that he had fallen from before. The wolf had just mauled the barbarian, rendering her unconscious, so the bard used his healing word spell to cure her from afar. The rogue rushed into that room and killed the wolf. The bugbear cursed at the loss of its pet, but missed the rogue with its morningstar. When it started to take damage from the heroes converging on the room, it fled to the chimney--but then repeated the bard's accident and knocked itself unconscious. The barbarian climbed down to make sure it was dead by beheading it.

Meanwhile, the wizard, seeing his companions handling the fighting quite well without him, explored the tunnel beyond a bridge to the far side of the stream. He stopped when he heard the sounds of goblins speaking in a room ahead, and reported back to the party.

The party took a short rest in the bugbear's room, while the cleric stood guard at the choke point at the bridge. As a dwarf, he easily understood the goblin's water trap, and proposed turning it on the goblins if they entered the main passage below. However, after some scouting by the bard, that plan was abandoned as too dangerous for the party. (Due to the steep slope of the most direct access to the remaining goblins, down near the wolf pen, they could not safely lure them out that way.)

The rogue scouted out the barracks room, then attempted to sneak attack the nearest goblin, but missed. The two nearest goblins closed with her, while three others started shooting at her, but noen could hit her. The other PCs moved into the room to start attacking goblins. The goblin leader, who was on a higher ledge in the back of the room, moved to a bound prisoner kept there, and pulled him toward the edge. However, before he could threaten to kill the prisoner, the dragonborn barbarian breathed acid on him, and the wizard cast sleep on the surviving goblins. With two goblins down and the leader wounded, the wizard's good roll with his spell was just barely enough to knock out the rest. The party then dispatched their sleeping foes, and freed the prisoner. (One goblin woke after being hit too weakly to kill it outright. It fled, but was chased down by the cleric and rogue.)

The captive turned out to be Sildar Hallwinter, the warrior who was escorting the party's employer, Gundren Rockseeker. He and the dwarf had been ambushed on the road to Phandalin, and brought here. Someone known only as the Black Spider had ordered the goblins to bring the dwarf to him, and Sildar knew no more about Gundren's whereabouts. He explained the reason behind the Rockseeker brothers' expedition: to find and reopen Wave Echo Cave, a famous mine and site of magical power, the location of which had been lost when orcs overran it centuries ago.

The party will rest here and heal, then escort Sildar (and Gundren's supply wagon) to Phandalin. This is the end of Part One of "Lost Mine," and the party has reached 2nd level, so we took care of that before wrapping the session.

Level advancement in much less complicated in 5th Edition than it was in 3rd or 4th. For most of the party, they added a class feature or two, rolled hit points, and were finished. Two players--the barbarian and the wizard--were very unlucky and rolled 1's for hp, which prompted the bard's player (who went last) to choose average hp instead of rolling! The bard and wizard also had to choose new spells known, and the wizard chose the School of Conjuration as his arcane tradition. (The cleric already chose a domain at 1st level, and the bard, barbarian, and rogue have to wait until 3rd level to select their archetypes.)

This session demonstrated the odd blend of fragility and resiliency that low-level characters have in this edition--they can be reduced to 0 hp very easily, but then have the buffer of making death saving throws before they actually die. Two PCs were reduced to 0 hp this session, but only one was down long enough to have to make any death saves (and succeeded on that one). I forgot the rule about massive damage instantly killing characters (if leftover damage exceeds maximum hp), which might have been bad news for the bard, who had just 1 hp when he fell down the chimney. I'll need to point out that rule to them for future reference, because there are some monsters later in this adventure who can dish out enough damage to threaten that kind of swift death, even after the party gains a few levels.

D&D 5E with the Kids, Part 1

I recently acquired a copy of the D&D 5E Starter Set, which includes the introductory adventure "Lost Mine of Phandelver." My friend Tim "the Younger" ran this adventure for our regular gaming group, and it seems like a great introduction to the new edition for my kids (ages 10 and almost 12). They have played a few sessions each of D&D v.3.5, Pathfinder, and Earthdawn, but D&D 5E is somewhat less complicated than any of those systems, so seems like a better match for them at this point in their gaming careers. I invited Jeff, a friend who was not part of the previous run, and his two sons (ages 12 and 16) to join us, and they eagerly accepted.

(By the way, I won't be giving the kids' names here, since they're minors. I'll use their character names or race/class instead.)

We met last month to create characters. The party consists of five 1st-level adventurers:

• Sothleene, Human Rogue (Charlatan)
• Starfright. Dragonborn Barbarian (Outlander)
• Bahli Kegstander, Hill Dwarf Cleric of Moradin (War Domain, Guild Artisan)
• Gybrush Threepwood, Human Wizard (Sage)
• Caboose, Forest Gnome Bard (Entertainer)

(L-R): Sothleene, Starfright, Caboose, Bahli, Gybrush

We had our first session of actual play this past weekend. All of my players are new to 5E, and I'm new to DMing it, so most of this session was devoted to making sure everyone understood the rules as they came up in play--attacks, skills, saves, spellcasting, healing, short and long rests, (dis)advantage, etc. 

Here's where you need to stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled for "Lost Mine of Phandelver."

The adventure starts with the party being hired to take a wagon load of supplies to the village of Phandelin, while their employer and his escort ride ahead to take care of other business. The first encounter was an ambush by a handful of goblins. This scene has a pretty simple set-up, being specifically designed to teach the basics of combat. Despite a couple characters taking some arrow hits, the party (mostly the barbarian and cleric) took out the goblins pretty quickly. The cleric's War Priest feature gives him a bonus melee attack, and both front-line characters could easily take out a goblin with a good damage roll. 

Searching the area let the party know that their employer and his escort were captured here and dragged down a trail away from the road. The players spent some time debating what to do next, and eventually decided to hide the wagon in the woods and follow the trail, taking the oxen with them to keep them from being stolen. The big challenge here, for me as DM and for both Jeff and me as parents, was to have the patience to let the kids work all that out for themselves, with minimal nudging from us adults. Jeff very pointedly did not want to have his cleric end up as party leader just because he was the adult and the experienced gamer. 

Once the party settled on their plan, they followed the trail, and narrowly avoided a couple of traps along the way. They found the goblin cave, and were surprised by two sentries hiding in a thicket beside the entrance. After the goblins shot a couple PCs, the party rushed their position. The wizard's sleep spell took out the goblins, allowing his allies to kill them quickly. Between the two fights, the party had used up most of their 1st-level spells and Hit Dice, so decided they needed to retreat, camp, and rest before entering the goblin cave. This meant the goblins would almost certainly be on the alert when they returned, but the players didn't like their chances without recovering first.

The night passed uneventfully, and they returned to the cave to fight a new pair of sentries. They took these out more efficiently--in large part because the rogue successfully used Stealth to get close enough to sneak attack them (and her critical hit was pure overkill).

We stopped there because the kids were getting tired and restless. Also, the rest of this location will likely require a couple more hours to play out, with far less convenient stopping points. Overall, the session was a success, and everyone is looking forward to our next session, later this month.

[Edited 12/8/2016 to add photo of PCs' miniatures.]