Session Two: What Happens In Phandalin, Stays in Phandalin

Aka Session Two: Phandalin Boogaloo.  

Session two picked up where session one left off, with our mighty heroes waking up in the cave in which they slay Grusa, the white dragon wyrmling. Battered but not broken, they prepare for what's to come next, after a quick recap of session one and what the party should have learned from Sildar Hallwinter.

We opened with the usual "you wake up..." but alas, something has happened in the night! Rafael, the half-elf rogue has died in his sleep! MYSTERIOUS!

So really, the rogue's player just wasn't feeling the character and decided to roll up a new one the week prior to the session. He had to transfer things from his phone to his paper sheet so I did the recap real quick until it was time to get into it. We'll work his death mystery in somewhere, since even the DM doesn't know the hows and whys. Which makes no sense but whatevs.

The party wasted no time in divvying up his loot (and debating just eating him), and Gabriel said a few words in memorial (he actually just said "Yeet!") before Rafael was given a proper burial (they chucked him down the chimney to feed the wolves). Gabriel did find a note from his old friend, but only he knows what it says (pretty sure it was admission of undying love). 

With that unpleasantness behind us, the three remaining party members were able to utilize their gained XP to hit level two. It took a bit to get through all three players since, again, still a new DM, but fortunately Brian bringing his copy of the PHB always helps tremendously. Besiljka really hit the jackpot on her HP advancement roll, nearly maxing out her gain. Lenneth and Gabriel both had a respectable bump in their survivability. No one is in as much danger of getting one-shotted anymore. Level 2 saw Besiljka gain danger sense, so traps will be easier for the party to spot and both Lenneth & Gabriel gained healing abilities (song based for the former, and the ability to cast Bless and Cure Wounds for the latter) so a bigger dungeon crawl is possible before their resources are spent. The party also held onto their three healing potions earned in the cavern, so those will come in handy, I'm sure.

I hand waved the return to the hamlet and the letting the villagers know about the provisions being safe to retrieve. Also, with Grusa dead, the snow itself lessened so that the villagers were able to clear the road more readily and the party + Sildar were on their way to town. Sildar was still pretty banged up at this point, and we had a LOT of "gaping" jokes for the first half of the session. 

Really, session one was just a lot of railroading to help the party hit level 2, and to get some hands-on game playing experience, before the sandboxyness of future sessions. 

Arriving in Phandalin, the (DM's plan was entirely ignored) party decided what to do and where to go based upon their immediate and initial needs. Sildar let them know about the Stonehill Inn, where he was going to get a room and rest after his recent misadventure. This is also where they were directed to meet the wedding party before heading south to Valeth Tower. Which, of course, means the party ignored the inn and went straight to the other main area they could see from the road - the town square/merchanty type area. Gabriel needed to find a blacksmith to fix his axe, and whilst there, he talked them into using the dragon's blood he drained from Grusa in the repairing process. This interaction took like 15 minutes just because I was having a hard time understanding what he was requesting, since he also had a rapier, and the blacksmith (Radha, not her husband Adun) quoted a half day to repair the axe, so I thought Gabriel also wanted the rapier reforged. We straightened it out and he left the payment as he went on his way. 

Lenneth, true to nature, decided to immediately run a grift on the good people of Phandalin. Most of the farmers and merchants steered clear, because even though it's not entirely a backwater burg, not a lot of individuals are going to trust a rando blind Tiefling. However, a pair of halfling farmers decided to give it a shot. First, she gave them a reading that said their crops would be good, and did not do well (rolled a 2 on the Charisma check), so that they flat out disbelieved her, and she made things worse (rolled a 1 on her second Charisma check) to reassure them to the point that they believed their crops would actually be terrible and she was attempting to deceive them for nefarious purposes. That worked well for me because it allowed me to pull in Lezard's sheriff, Lady Elspeth. Besiljka, not standing idle, used her size and intimidation to scare the halflings into apologizing to both Lenneth and the sheriff for overreacting. Elspeth, like Sildar, was to serve as a deus ex plot device to give the players kind of a rundown on where things in town are, and what's been going on. She ended with asking the party to come talk to her after the wedding festivities as she needed help with some things. Besiljka took this to mean she needed, you know, "help" that involved thick half-orc fingers, if you catch my drift. 

Our party stays on task so well. 

Following that, the three members regrouped and, rather than go to Stonehill Inn, they found themselves in Karniv's Curios, a local shop of some repute, to sell off Grusa's teeth that Lenneth had yanked from the dragon's skull. I had so much fun typing up interactions between Karniv and the individual party members, up to and including him hardcore hitting on Besiljka, who is more interested in things that don't have wangs. But, as the purveyor of the odd, he also had some interesting things to sell each player based upon their background, including an Infernal romance chapbook for Lenneth, a velociraptor feather cloak for Besiljka, and an inspirational mug for Gabriel. There was also a truth coin for Rafael (to aid in cons and blackmail schemes) but, alas... None of the items have really game breaking effects -  the book gives an advantage on a Charisma roll in certain circumstances, the cloak increases movement speed, and the mug will give an Inspiration die once a day - but each add a little character flavor and maybe the party will use them in innovative ways. 

Finishing at the Curios, with a request to bring back weird shit if found, the party moved onto Lionshield Coster, to return the invoices they found in the Cragmaw's cave. And here I adapted, having them walk into Laucian, the new Elf Fighter companion (replacement for the rogue) arguing with Linene Graywind about the bandit situation in the town, and how the elf should feel obligated to deal with it since he's "on the payroll" of Lezard, so to speak. I had planned on the party going straight to Stonehill and checking in, thus introducing the new character, but this worked alright as well, since it gave him a reason to immediately be a dick, which is how the character is written (elf supremacist, low Charisma score, etc). Some good roleplaying interaction went on for a bit, before the party started to see the beginnings of some of the bigger issues in town. 

Finally making it to Stonehill Inn to check in with Toblen Stonehill, keeper of the wedding registry, the party decided to interact with some of the locals whilst Laucian had some words with Sildar in his room. Sildar's room, not Laucian's. Toblen delivered a missive to Lenneth from Lezard, and Besiljka took up position in the common room to keep an eye on the festivities. Gabriel, the life of the party this evening, mingled around, getting an idea for what's going on around town. Some people seemed excited for the wedding and for the travelers passing through. The party learned that the bulk of the wedding guests had already departed for Valeth Tower, but the wedding itself was still a couple of days away. One very drunken miner let it all hang out and complained, at length, about the Redbrand bandits that had gone to ground whilst the wedding guests were in town but that were now back in force, and how the High Elves gave no crap about Phandalin or the humans and halflings there, and how unjust it was that he had to be in the ground digging all day with no one doing anything about the plight of the common man. Laucian, returning, told the miner that Sildar had some inquiries about lost mines, specifically referring to the Wave Echo Cave that his homie Gundren Rockseeker was attempting to locate and reopen. The miner talked about how Phandalin used to be more prosperous and that the mine in question was responsible for magic weapons being produced by dwarves and gnomes, before the mine was lost. But his anti-elf tirades made the night. I really laid on how absolutely aloof Lezard is towards the town, despite both the sheriff and the town headman being his appointees. He also alluded to the Miner's Exchange possibly being on the take from the bandits since they aren't ever bothered. That may or may not be an important plot point for later. NOTE FOR MY PLAYERS - This is ONE drunken miner. His viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the reality of ALL elves in the Forgotten Realms. Some may be aloof. Some may be all up in your shit. But any time a drunken villager is ranting about anything, keep in mind their narrow worldview. 

At this point, the players had roleplayed heavily and had a lot on their plate as to what to do next. Since there's still a couple days before the wedding, they decided Gabriel needed to retrieve his axe and the party wanted to follow up with the sheriff to see what they could do about the bandits. The logic was that they can't be traipsing around if Phandalin is going to be their home base for the time being and leave a bandit menace to rob their shit. Totally logical. So a little more back and forth and the sheriff let them know about the Sleeping Giant taphouse. 

Where they'll head to next session and start crackin' some skulls since we did zero combat this session, I'll imagine. 

So it was requested that there be more roleplaying between the party, and NPCs make a great way to drop exposition without narrating a bunch of background info, and that's why we ended up with tons of one-liners but no sword swingy swingy.Also, we've reached a very sandbox portion where player decisions from session to session is going to necessitate overall plot shifts and encounter changes based upon what happened the previous week, and I have got some... Really, really fun things for them to look forward to over the next six months. 

Since I know they love spoilers and all;

Just kidding.