LMoP DM Blog V: Election Aftermath / Potion Adventure / Tower of Storms

This session took place on October 14, 2019.

Recap previous session:
The town of Phandalin had an election for mayor, and one of the players is a candidate. Some freeform election RPing happened and went pretty well, and then the players bought a manor! Eventually, the election was interrupted by some scary mansters and Pheonix Falconflight (one of my players) ended up victorious by a slim margin. The session ending with an announcement of the winner and a woo-hoo. THE END.

A Minor Interlude: Universal Rule of DMing #1 - People will always be late

Its just reality, and its important to understand this going in. As a DM its easy to get discouraged by it but you gotta tough it out. Find ways to make the wait interesting by discussing things about the game (without actually running the game). Find ways to use the time for DND still. 

In the previous session, my players purchased a manor (Tresendar in Phandalin) and I presented them with a really bad hand-drawn map on graph paper of its interior. To use up some of the wait time, I presented them with a nice new version of the manor map that I made using a program called Dungeon Maker Studio. This program is invaluable to making content for Roll20 (other DND platforms are available) but I'm finding some ways to use it for in-person DND.

"To-Be-Named Manor"
AKA the manor formerly known as Tresendar

I had the players place their minis on which rooms they wanted to claim, and start writing out what each room would be used for. It was a great way to let the players help build the world in an interesting way. They were mostly concerned with where the bathrooms go and if plumbing or pooping exist in my world. (YES BOTH EXIST)

OK back to the blog about what happened last session.

Post Election Late Night Party

So I began the session directly after the events of the previous, with all the players at the Stonehill Inn and Bar celebrating with most of the town. All of their NPC friends were here and since I knew I needed to drop a bunch of information on them, it was a good way to intersperse dialogue and fun events.

Here's what I had planned

• Reidoth (a high level druid from LMOP who they have befriended)
• Ask about their future plans, warn them about dragon and that he wouldn't help them.
• Suggest a the players head north to Helms Hold in order to buy potions to help prepare for the dragon fight.
• Sildar (a lower level soldier from LMOP. In my game the players are in love with him. He is known for his heroic javelins that always miss and his quick elderly wit. [Mostly stuff about whipper-snappers and "showin' yall how its done"])
• I gave the players a chance to persuade him to come along on the dragon slaying adventure, but set the DC at 25 (which was about a 10-15% chance). He rolled a 22, but it wasnt good enough. Sildar wants to go back to being a regular pay-for-hire soldier in Neverwinter and quit with this dangerous adventuring stuff as he is getting old.
• Tarbin Tul (a bard they hired for the election and a future quest hook)
• He wanted to congratulate the players and ask Pheonix for a job-well-done tip. Seeing as he did fail a bard-battle during the election, the players were not interested at all in tipping.

I kept interrupting the NPC talks with other small events, and even threw in a dice game involving 3d6 and gambling. (I got this idea from this reddit post https://old.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6cici0/oc_a_simple_dice_game_that_requires_nothing_but/)

This turned out to be a bit much discussion and the players were over it, so we moved along to sleepy time. I gave Brise the Aasimar a dream about the Order of the Guilded Eye as the player intends to shelve that character. It was also a subtle hint to go to Helms Hold next, as that is the headquarters of both the Order of the Gauntlet and the Order of the Guilded Eye and we are planning for Brise to join one of the orders as a way out.

The Day After the Election

In the morning the players were met by the Magistrate from Neverwinter who ran the election, and he explained some mayoral duties and how taxes work. 100G will be collected from each group in town (miners/farmers/innkeepers/traders) and 400G total will be collected. From that, the mayor must choose how to spend it and can choose to take a salary. Tax breaks can be given to groups but that results in less tax money taken in.

The players immediately found the offices and sent off runner boys to fetch Daran and Sildar. Edith (the ex potato farmer turned mayoral secretary) got everything together and sat attentively with a fresh open notebook.

We started thinking about how to enact mayoral promises and who to run the place while Phoenix went to slay the dragon, but this almost immediately felt like work or too much responsibility or something, and I could tell the players wanted to just get back to regular DND. So I quickly rounded out the event with some easier targets:

1. Edith to start collecting taxes.
2. Daran is now the deputy mayor and is in charge of hiring some soldiers to defend the town. 

This was a decent place to start and next time the players come to town they will have tax money to allocate. I made sure to have Edith mention that a way to communicate would be very valuable and the players do have access to 3rd level spells and Sending. Two-way communicate stones are good simple loot as well.

And so the players set off north to Helms Hold to try and get more potions to help fight the ice dragon Cryovain.

On the Road Again

The players are now level 5 and so travelling around on hexes is somewhat less interesting, so I offered free horses from the townsfolk and stopped tracking travel times.

I wanted something normal to happen while the players traveled along the road in an attempt to make things more believable, so I made something up on the spot! A small caravan of peasants travelling south along the High Road stopped and recognized the players as the heroes of Phandalin. They noticed Phoenix's bright white MAYOR sash and were glad to learn he was the mayor now. The NPC were on the way south to Leilon (the town where the players will eventually end up in later modules), and as a joke I had one peasant ask for Pheonix to kiss his baby.

They came to the mother and she revealed a cute young baby who was terribly sick. Pheonix didnt really want to kiss a sick baby for fear of catching some illness, so he kissed his hand and touched the baby. The peasants noticed but accepted it without a word. The best part though was the druid and paladin immediately concerned for the babys' well-being; they both wanted to cast some curing magic on the baby in an attempt to cure the sickness (which was really just a common cold). Neither Lay on Hands or Healing Word were able to cure the baby, but the peasants were impressed and moved along.

I think it was a really good encounter. My players were very suspicious at first because almost all encounters on the road are combats, so it was good to change things up a little bit and also stroke the players' egos a little bit.

(Fantasy) Racism at the Gates

As the players approached, I described Helms Hold as a large walled city with a massive cathedral inside. I printed out a picture I found online (Helms Hold is really Forgotten Realms location!)

At the gates, they were examined by two guards, one by one. Both the Dragonborn and the Air Genasi were regarded with concern and asked twice about their business, to the players' dismay.

Helms Hold in 5th edition has some cool inner-faction stuff going on I'll take a quick sidebar to explain here:

Helms Hold Sidebar

So Helms Hold is not actually in either LMoP or DoIP (the 'starter set' and the 'essentials kit', see my other post about them) but it is right in the same area in Forgotten Realms lore, so I added it in!

This is an older map so it doesnt even have Phandalin!

So long story short, Helms Hold was the headquarters of a 5th edition faction called "The Order of the Gauntlet" of which Daran Edermath (an NPC in Phandalin) is a member. The Gauntlet are concerned with fighting evil, but they are careful to only act retributively against evil acts. The are not concern with hunting evil and slaying it as long as it stays away.

Sometime in between 4th and 5th edition, the faction split into two. The Order of the Guilded Eye splintered off, believing that evil builds strength where it lies and needs to be routed out. Since then, the Guilded Eye have taken over control of Helms Hold and run the large church. They also constructed large gallows in the center of town and closely inspect travelers at the gates. Any race with a hint of evil is denied access, and Tieflings will likely be hung for no crime other than existing. This is the current state of Helms Hold, so I thought it would be cool to incorporate.

Helms Hold: Back to the Blog

So both the Dragonborn Kaalia and the Air Genasi Aeras were harassed at the gates, mostly for being different, but they were allowed to pass eventually.

The players immediately hunted out Alyzira (a young female half-elf alchemist) so they could purchase some potions. She seemed not a day over 12 years old but her alchemy was highly regarded. The players haggled some on prices and eventually purchase a few greater healing potions (4d4+4 I think?) for 100G each. Aeras inquired about some more exotic potions and Alyziras eyes lit up.

She pulled from her bag both a potion of haste and a potion of heroism, and she sold both for 175G each. The players inquired about discounts for potion materials or anything to deal with ice resistance, and Alyzira was quick to point out she needed some Ice Dragon Scales. She also pointed out that Kaalia was in fact an ice dragonborn! Alyzira pulled out a set of rusty pliers and looked at Kaalia greedily.

At this point the party rogue decided to quickly pluck a scale from Kaalia. I described it like pulling out a fingernail and gave the dragonborn 1 damage, but Alyzira agreed she could make a potion of ice resistance out of this by morning. She was very interested in Kaalia: "Imagine the money we could make together!" but Kaalai was very uninterested!

Later at the inn, the halfing Garron arm-wrestled the smallest dwarf in the bar and won some gold. And the druid sold some Dwarven Dankmoss for a high price, which they realized they kiiinda smuggled into town. The rogue was sure to point out that this would be a good business if they could find a reliable source.

Leaving the Hold

In the morning the found Alyzira and got their cold resistance potion. They heard church bells and noticed many walking towards the church for service, and they quickly got the fuck out of town.

In two different games that I have DM'd so far, players run the opposite direction from fantasy church bells. Not sure whats up with that, but its always pretty funny. If the players would have gone to the church they might have obtained a blessing from the church in the form of an AOE temporary HP buff in-a-scroll, BUT NO all players are scared of churches!

They left town and I laid out their options for destinations:

• Phandalin
• Dragonspire Peak
• Tower of Storms

The tower was the closest, and they had found out about its location from the LMOP blank map inside of Wave Echo Cave. They were close enough and willing to put the Ice Dragon on the backburner, so back to module dungeon-crawling we go!

Spooky Lightning Tower

The tower here is pretty straightforward and contains a good deal of loot. I scaled all of the fights up significantly because the place is designed for level 3. First they met a crab that spoke perfect english. He gestured with his claws until the players approached and asked them to help him free his friend: a trapped banshee. They need a spellcasting focus that looks like a conch shell in order to free the spirit, and in return the crab promised some treasure from nearby wreckages.

The players quickly found the banshee named Miraal, who screamed at them. By the book, banshess make people fall unconscious on a failed save, so instead I just made it CON damage. The banshee quickly realized its mistake in screaming at the players and apologized, thankful for the help.

Miraal let the players know that the place is for worshipers of Talos, the god of thunder and storms. She told the players about the evil bad guy here who has her conch, and the dungeon hook was set.

The players next found some harpies that attacked from across a pit. There were 4 harpies and one elite harpy, but Aeras' Wind Wall spell took care of two immediately.

The evil creatures' plan was to draw the players into the open pit, then attack them once they fell. I only managed to get one player to fall in against his will, but another jumped/fell in willingly.

I learned that I have to learn more about jumping during combat (damn halflings with jump boots can jump like 65 feet but only move 30?), and once the elite harpy was dead, the others flew away shrieking.

The End

That's where we ended it this week. The player who controls Kaalia has to go on some work trips soon, so we really all want to slay the dragon before then. Since that would leave only one session to go, we decided to meet again this Saturday.

We can likely finish the Tower of Storms this weekend and likely start the final approach.

I have a mountain-climbing style adventure planned for the trek up the mountain, so I am planning to get at least to there.

Thank for reading, see you next blog.