We played our second session of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, September 16, 2023. This session covered the end of Chapter 1: A Dangerous Journey, and the beginning of Chapter 2: Trouble in Phandalin.

We ended our previous session with the characters defeating the Cragmaw goblins and rescuing Sildar. Which led to the fun little interaction of me describing Sildar as a middle-aged, grizzled human, and one of the players going, “I thought he was an elf?” You see, I have run The Lost Mine of Phandelver for a couple of my players not that long ago, and when I did, I mistakenly turned Sildar into an elf (it’s the name), and just kept it as that. Which led to them becoming quite confused when this happened.

There are several other NPCs in The Shattered Obelisk that officially change races, genders, and possibly personalities. Sildar isn’t one. I don’t think any of the other NPCs registered with the players, though. Sildar was the one who did.

One of my aims this time is to have the NPCs register more. Well, at least the ones that the players show an interest in. The Shattered Obelisk has a basic problem in that it wants the players to care about the NPCs in Phandalin so when the later events of the adventure kick in, they’re motivated to help. Unfortunately, it hasn’t done a great job of making the NPCs recurring so that the PCs keep interacting with them. And the one part that could have helped here – the NPCs that recruit players for their factions – have been neutered. The text explicitly says factions won’t be used in this adventure. They’re for organised play. Which makes me wonder if anyone at Wizards has the foggiest about organised play. (Wizards actively worked to scupper the plans of the D&D Adventurers League admins for faction use).

The main trouble with getting the NPCs to register more is just how much time the players spend in Phandalin. You can’t have great interactions if you’re always away from the NPCs! This is going to be a problem because throughout the adventure, there is not much time spent in Phandalin. You’ve got to make the most of your opportunities – and one way of doing so is to make sure the players interact with NPCs each time they return to Phandalin after their mini missions in Chapter 3.

Let’s see how that works!

Meeting Sildar

To start this session, we had the first real interactions with Sildar. He was appreciative of the rescue, and – as the adventure states – he has a fair few things to tell the characters. I’ve now run Lost Mine enough times that I know what he has to impart: That the goblins deliberately attacked Sildar and Gundren. Gundren and his brothers had discovered the location of a lost mine with magical properties, and someone named “The Spider” had organised the goblins to capture Gundren and take his map. There had also been a couple of odd-looking goblins in the ambush who weren’t part of the tribe and had seemed to be looking for something else. Whatever that thing was, Sildar wasn’t it.

Yes, this is foreshadowing for the new content in The Shattered Obelisk, and it’s fairly minor. The players may miss it.

For now, Sildar was the worse for wear. He really, really wanted a bath and a soft bed. He could tell the party that the goblin leader had taken Gundren and the map to Cragmaw Castle, but he was unaware of where that was.

The party, loaded down with the goods they’d recovered from the goblins, headed back to their wagon and the horses, and then they made their way to Phandalin.

Welcome to Phandalin

I brought up the map of Phandalin in Roll20, and started revealing the identities of some of the buildings as the players passed them. This is a really nice feature in a VTT: the map names are on the GM layer, and you can then move them to the map layer when you want the players to see them.

First off, the characters delivered the supplies to Barthen’s provisions, the job they’d originally been hired to do. Elmina Barthen, the proprietor of the establishment, was happy to see them, and paid the agreed upon amount. She discussed with them where they could buy supplies in town – she could deal with most regular gear, while for weapons and armour, they could go to the Lionshield Coster.

Note: Here’s one of the changes in this adventure – Barthen was a fifty-year-old, balding human in the original adventure. As a fifty-year-old balding human, it would be nice to see more representation here! More seriously, this looks like something that has changed to help the players care about the NPCs in the town more. In the initial boxed text, the townsfolk now smile at the PCs as they enter. If only the adventure cared more about the development of the players’ relationships with the NPCs over its course. More on that later.

The players then delivered the goods they’d recovered from the goblin cave to the Lionshield Coster. As I’m writing this, I can’t remember the name of its proprietor. (It’s Linene Graywind). This doesn’t bode well for how much Linene will feature in the campaign! Apart from needing player engagement, NPCs also need DM engagement to be successful! If I can’t remember the name and personality of a character, what hope do they have?

Linene was grateful to the players. The adventure notes that she doesn’t like selling weapons to those she doesn’t trust. Trust achieved!

She also was the first of the NPCs to warn the players about the Redbrand Ruffians, a group of bandits that were causing trouble in the city. She also promised to inquire about Cragmaw Castle, after the players asked about it.

Stonehill Inn

Finally, the characters made their way to the main (only) inn in Phandalin: Stonehill Inn. On the way, they participated in some banter about Yuan-Ti eating habits. “Alcohol makes the flesh a bit… spicy. I get… indigestion.” “At least the room will be rat free.” “Rats are little… gamey. Mice are… sweet.”

The inn has several patrons who can interact with the players, many of whom have useful rumours or hooks for continued play. Here’s an issue that can arise: If your players aren’t interested in interacting with these NPCs, then they won’t get the information. My players interacted with a limited number of the patrons. It’s tricky because lots of interactions can break the flow of a game. So, they certainly didn’t talk to everyone. Those people are still available, however, so I will have to remember to return to this section in later sections as the players continue in Phandalin.

Of particular note, the innmaster’s son, Pip, wondered if Syzoth was a dragonborn.

Syzoth also talked to another couple of patrons and learned more about their concerns about the Redbrands. They also mentioned that the mistress of the Mining Exchange, Halia Thornton, was avoided by the Redbrands. Queries as to the location of Cragmaw Castle were met with ignorance, although the patrons did suggest that Daran Edermath, a retired adventurer in town, might have an idea.

With that information, the characters hired rooms and went to bed.

Edermath and Thornton

The party had come away with two leads they believed worth following up: First, to discover if Daran Edermath knew where Cragmaw Castle was. Second, to learn more about the ruffians from Halia Thornton.

Daran, an old drow adventurer, did not know where Cragmaw Castle was, unfortunately. He could tell the party he was concerned about Old Owl Well, an ancient tower built by the magical kingdom of Netheril. Rumours of undead and strange diggings. He offered the party a set of boots of striding and springing if they could deal with the trouble there. (Daran wasn’t a drow in the original; another human, I’m afraid!)

The party were interested in the reward, but it wasn’t immediately useful.

Halia Thornton, the mistress of the Mining Exchange, was far more informative. She was a formidable woman, and had learnt many things about the Redbrands, including that their leader was known as the Glassstaff, and they had their main base under the crumbling manor nearby. She also did not know of the location of Cragmaw Castle but would see what she could find. Halia offered a reward for capturing the Glassstaff and dealing with the brigands.

The Den of the Redbrands

The party decided to visit the manor that evening and creep up there once the sun set. Although the ground floor was ruined and derelict (and wrecked as well), they discovered a set of stairs down to the cellars.

The room they entered had many barrels, a cistern, and several doors. While Syzoth went to investigate the barrels, Nymia listened at the doors and heard movement to the west.

A pair of resting Redbrand Ruffians were little danger to the party, with Nymia the only one hurt in the battle. Well, the only one that counted. The bandits were a little the worse for wear. (This is another change; the combat is easier with the Redbrands of CR ½ swapped out for Bandits of CR 1/8). They had little of use, and no further exits from the small room.

Going through the door to the north, Nymia found the pit trap in the corridor beyond by falling into it (she took 9 damage). She was still conscious – just. It was time for some healing. Three of the party members have healing magic, so that was achieved relatively easily.

Syzoth rolled a 22 for Acrobatics and crossed the narrow ledge at the side of the pit, and put down a rope for Nymia to climb out.. Simeon rolled a barrel from the storeroom and tied another rope to it to climb into the pit, then used the other rope to climb out. Velrari considered leaping the ten-foot gap (8 Strength), then thought better of it. (I pointed out how the jumping rules work – with a running jump, he’d make 8 feet!)

The next chamber was a tomb, with several skeletons standing near the sarcophagi. Nymia tried removing the arms and armour from the skeletons in the next chamber (a Baldur’s Gate 3 strategy!) but just triggered the attacks. And yes, she got hit for 8 damage by the first attack, then 3 by another attack. She had fun using a warhammer, though. (Originally 3 skeletons in Lost Mine, now 6 in the revised Shattered Obelisk).

There were two further doors leading further into the complex. Simeon rolled a critical success while listening at them and detected the Redbrands trying to hide in a prison to the west. He kicked open the door and we got several rounds of combat. He took minor wounds; the Redbrands failed to win. (Change: 3 Redbrands rather than 2. Which means the note about them hiding is nonsensical, since there isn’t room!)

Taking stock of the room, the party realised there were three prisoners: a woman and two children. They had been captured by the Redbrands after the father of the family had defied them – and been killed as a result.

The group suggested they stay with Daran Edermath, who would be able to protect them, and escorted them out, intending to return in a couple of hours to continue the exploration of the area.

And that was all we had time for that evening! (170 XP each – I might have given more for role-playing, but there’ll be enough XP from combat coming up, and I don’t want to level characters too quickly).