#042.2 - bonus newsletter : Phandalin and after
Additional content for my ttrpg newsletter: playing a D&D campaign after Phandalin!
This letter is a bit special as I’m making an experiment by translating one of my french ttrpg blog’s article, as I know that not so many of my Substack readers can read my language! Maybe one’s browser can translate it or is it possible to use Google or Deepl but it is an extra effort. So I decided to send this additional newsletter (which will also be an article on my Substack page like the other monthly letters) and see if you like it. So please let me know in the comments or by liking and sharing this, and I’ll publish this kind of bonus content from time to time!
I wrote several articles on my blog about my campaign prep for my 67-session campaign around Phandalin, on the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms, one of D&D's campaign worlds.
I mixed the first two introductory kits released for D&D 5E (the Starter Set and the Essentials Kit), and wrote about them in these articles:
Lost Mine of Phandelver: how to improve the adventure?
Dragon of Icespire Peak: my modifications to the “Essentials Kit” scenarios
While preparing the campaign and then running it, I consulted many, many documents and websites (notably the Forgotten Realms Wiki which was an unvaluable ressource) for inspiration. But also to have development ideas in case players wanted to go to such and such a place. This was a way to give a little “sandbox” feel to the rest of the campaign.
I'm giving you here a brief summary of the main resources I've consulted and used to inspire you, whether you want to play around Phandaline... or not!
1. Leilon and the Mere of the Dead Men
The “Essentials kit” is called Dragon of Icespire Peak (abbreviated to DoIP) is followed by three complementary adventures, taking adventurers who have finished the adventures in the box from level 6 up to level 12 or 13. These are :
Storm Lord's Wrath (levels 7-9): settlers from Neverwinter attempt to restore the town of Leilon, on the edge of the Mere of the Dead Men. Alas for them, the cult of Talos decides that things won't work out that way.
Sleeping Dragon's Wake (levels 9-11): this time, it's the worshippers of Myrkul who get involved, setting out to explore the swamp and awaken an undead dragon.
Divine Contention (levels 11-13): finally, adventurers must prevent two rival cults from getting their hands on an object of great power and wreaking havoc on the Sword Coast.
These three adventures are available on D&D Beyond with a single purchase. I found them rather poorly written and lacking in detail or overview of the organization and motivations of the two evil cults. Nonetheless, several leads are interesting and offer “motivating” adversity with, on the one hand, Talos, the chaotic god of the sea and natural destruction (of whom one of my players had made a cleric, which came in handy) and, on the other, Myrkul, the god of the undead (and there are a plethora of them in the swamp!).
So I took what interested me from these three supplements, adapting certain things, notably the order and level of the adventures to the progress of my campaign. Thus, players explored the House of Thalivar, the Thunder Cliffs, Iniarv’s Tower (see below), the Mere of the Dead Men, Ebondeath’s Mausoleum and so on...
It's also worth noting that it's possible to dip into the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book, which details certain places along the High Road near Leilon. I took from it House Carnath (although I finally did not use it) and Castle Naerytar, which became the place where some epic battles took place - including an adventurer getting swallowed by a giant frog!
Dungeon Magazine includes adventures set in the Mere of the Dead Men, which can serve as a basis for inspiration, most notably a long storyline between issues 69 and 73 involving magic items called Myrkul's rings.
As for DMsGuild, I found one or two decent scenarios (including a lycanthropy-related silver mine) and even the Neverwinter video game (MMORPG) inspired me the Necropolis of Ebon Downs, where adventurers defeated a necromancer in the graveyard!
2. Dessarin Valley
Located to the east of Phandalin, the long valley of the Dessarin River is an interesting area, with several towns and villages on the Long Road that follows the river, such as Triboar, Amphail, Red Larch and Waterdeep. The region is described in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and the Princes of the Apocalypse and Storm King's Thunder campaigns.
I chose to move the rest of the campaign there because the aforementioned Castle Naerytar communicates via a teleporter with a cavern at the junction of the Dessarin Valley and the Kryptgarden Forest. This was an opportunity to lead the group of adventurers, at the “suggestion” of a super-powered green dragon, in the direction of the hills were dwelled several elemental cults.
A campaign sequel loosely based on the adventures told in Princes of the Apocalypse, although I've lightened the dungeons considerably, keeping only the spirit. In addition, I've interconnected the various elemental temples with passages inspired by the intermediate half-planes of AD&D's antique Manual of the Planes. Thus, this didn't prevent a certain overdose of dungeon crawl at the end of the campaign.
Finally, the final battle was a nod to the famous Temple of Elemental Evil, with a confrontation against a lich on the Negative Plane. What better way to end the campaign than with an iconic location and opponent!
3. Kryptgarden Forest
Another area of campaign development, still in the draft stage as far as I'm concerned, is the Kryptgarden Forest (also known as Southkrypt Garden). This time, I drew on two sources: Dragon magazine and Carl Vandal's DMs Guild scenarios.
Initiated in The North: Guide to the Savage Frontier, this forest lies to the south of Phandalin, just across the mountains from the Phandelver (lost) mine. Enough to motivate you to cross the Sword Mountains, for example, to sell ores to the south, then reopening old roads formerly built by dwarves. Kryptgarden is an ancient dwarf settlement, then invaded by orcs during their bloody conquests. Lost mines, forgotten portals, monsters of all kinds, a giant hill vampire is even trapped here (seen in Dragon Magazine 236). Carl Vandal has created a small series of interesting scenarios on DMsGuild interlinked as a mini campaign.
For my part, I've appropriately placed on its eastern side the lair (the “Deeping Cave”) of Claugiyliamatar, nicknamed the Old Gnawbones, a green dragon with an eye on the Dessarin valley I mentioned earlier. It was also an opportunity to spread rumours of a conflict between giants and dragons in the North, which could be an axis for later high-level development.
Claug's lair communicates with Castle Naerytar, but I had also imagined factional conflicts in the Kryptgarden Forest. The Cult of the Dragon serving Claug, which also has its own army of evil druids and humanoids (my players met the hobgoblin general Garbûl), the Cult of the Eternal Dragon, trying to motivate her to become a dracolich, in conjunction with the worshippers of Myrkul and the mages of Thay in search of forgotten artifacts or fragments of the Netheril empire (among them, Hamun Kost, met earlier in the campaign at the Well of the Old Owl - perhaps this could have been his chance to make a revenging comeback!).
4. Neverwinter Wood
In the end, I didn't make much use of Neverwinter Wood. Yes, the Dragon Barrow and Thundertree are on its edge, the goblins inhabited there the castle where they were holding Gundren and the banshee Agatha lives on its southern edge in Conyberry! But there's plenty of room for more woodland adventures. I put aside the Falcon Lodge and thz Talos cultits from DoIP, who didn't inspire me much. And I'd started looking into the elven city of Sharandar, which seemed promising and could lead the group onto the plane of Faerie. A path not taken...
5. Phandelver and Below - The Shattered Obelisk
Released when my campaign was already well advanced and starting to move away from Phandalin, this book takes the content of the Starter Set (The Lost Mine of Phandelver) and continues the adventure with a longer campaign featuring degenerate opponents on the trail of fragments of a magical obelisk. I haven't read this adventure as it doesn't get much press in its more advanced levels, so I'll refrain from giving an opinion. But I'll quote it for the record if you want to think about it for expanding your campaign. Ranging from levels 1 to 12, there are undoubtedly elements to be recovered from it.
Conclusion
I haven't mentioned Neverwinter, where my adventurers have been a few times, or Waterdeep, but these are also possible destinations for urban adventures or carousing. You could even add the exploration of the megadungeon of Undermountain!
As you can see, continuing a campaign after the D&D starter kit(s) is entirely possible by expanding the area around Phandalin to a lesser or greater extent. There are - almost - too many leads to follow and you'll have to sort them out according to your tastes and those of your group. But a GM is spoilt for choice when it comes to continuing his adventures!
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That’s it for this issue, see you soon!
And do not hesitate to leave a message or comment below or answer to the email to let me know what you think of this letter.
I love the Sword Coast! Might be my next location for our next campaign. 😊