This is a walktrhu report about the PCs moving through Thundertree. You can find all the other walkthrus on this page, which also details the PCs, somewhat. The PCs are second level.
Before we begin, I’ll mention that these notes are being typed up 2.5 months after our gaming session, from my (mediocre?) memory, so who knows how accurate this is!
The Summary:
The PCs beat up on some twig blights, met with the druid, and talked the dragon into leaving the druid alone so she could keep doing her experiments on the BLUE trees found in Thundertree. They didn’t go around the whole area and clean it out, having achieved their goal of getting the location of Cragmaw Castle (where they believe Gundren is being held). They then went to Cragmaw Castle and the druid shapeshifted and scouted the exterior of the castle (believing the collapsed tower to the North being the best entrance).
What I Changed:
I built a 3d map of Thunder tree, which turned out quite well. I added some odd blue trees, which I decided was why the druid was there (note: the “weird” goblins people have seen near Phandalin are also blue……). She wanted the dragon to leave her alone, nothing more or less. The dragon wanted to know the druid wouldn’t fight them, and for the players to give them some yummy spiders to eat (also, the dragon wanted that building for something that the PCs don’t know about…..).
I changed one grouping of twig blights to two plant monsters from Kobold Press, the Alliumite and the Garlicle. I find that many of these encounters are a bit long on samey NPCs/monsters for my taste. (alas, the party never went that direction)
How It Went:
We took my monk character out of the game going forward. I’ve run DMPCs in other games, but this just wasn’t working for me at all. This means most fights are a bit harder than they were, as there are only 3 PCs now. That said, the PCs had no issue with the twig blights, though the blights did injure them some, as they kept attacking from being hidden the in the plants that were prevalent in the area.
The PCs saw one building that still had a roof, and figured that the druid would be there. They were, of course, correct (though there was at least one other building with a roof that they never got to). They spent a good deal of time talking to the druid, and discovered that she had tried to talk to the dragon, but that the dragon didn’t seem all that interested. The PCs did agree, though, to try to talk to the dragon about leaving the druid alone, with a promise the druid would leave them alone also. All the druid wanted to do was to figure out why there were unusual trees in the area, blue trees.
The went to talk to the dragon, and again, rolled remarkably well on their Charisma checks (and did some smooth talking). The dragon agreed to leave the druid (and the party) alone, if the party cleared out some giant spiders and left the bodies for the dragon to eat. The party had a bit of work with the spiders, but I don’t recall anyone being in dire danger. They left the bodies for the dragon, and went to the building they thought had the treasure in it that the captive they saved in Redbrand Hideout promised them. They largely avoided all the areas and buildings in the rest of Thundertree, and missed out on some encounters.
The party proceeded to the castle, as they were worried about delaying and how Grunden was holding up. They hid in the forest as they got close to the castle (barely avoiding an interaction with an owlbear – I think it was an owlbear), and again rolled very high and stayed hidden. As is their modus operendi at this point, the druid shape changed and scouted. They circled the whole building as a bug (I think) and easily stayed hidden. They all agreed the tower ruins on the north side of the building was the most logical entrance, and we adjourned for the night.
Aftermath and Thoughts:
Foundry 3d works really well for outdoor scenes like this, where you don’t have to worry about how crowded things feel. I was quite happy with this map, and it worked really well for the players too. They felt the twig blights hiding made sense, and they definitely worried about the partially fallen over wall.
The party actually had to work to kill the spiders, which was a nice change from how easy most of what they’ve done has felt to me. I’m still worried about only having three PCs in some encounters, but no one seems to want to have a sidekick, so we’ll see how things go.
While having the druid scout makes perfect sense, it kind of makes surprising them harder (not impossible, it’s a dial, not a switch). I’m working out how to handle this, without punishing the players for being smart. I want to reward them for that!