Kiss And A Slap: Lost Mines of Phandelver

This is the first official adventure published for 5th edition D&D. It was published before the Dungeon Master's Guide, and is intended to introduce players and dungeon masters to the game from scratch. It is included in the starter set which is overall less impressive than the adventure that comes with it. LMoP is widely regarded as one of the best introductory adventures ever made, and one of the best adventures for 5th edition to date. Despite this recognition, LMoP is not without its rough patches.

I told myself I wasn't going to review this one. Everyone's reviewed this one. But I play it too often to not review it.

10 Problems With Lost Mines of Phandelver

1. The maps are inconsistent and it annoys me. Look, I love maps. I use them to set up battle grids on my gaming table. Without them, I either have to make it up from scratch or run it theater of the mind style. Maps allow you to track the passage of time during travel. Maps create a visual sense of realness for the players. Maps matter. It would not have been difficult for them to make a couple of small maps for the minor encounter sites. It would not have killed them to use a hex grid on the world map with a scale that matches the travel pace rules in the PHB.
2. It was made before the DMG treasure guidelines, and you can tell. Let me put it lightly: Characters who come out of this adventure will come out of it decked out like a christmas tree. Some encounters offer almost no reward for severe risk. Some treasures are just laying around and up for grabs. It can be a bit jarring going from such a generous campaign over to the other published adventures.
3. It was made before the DMG encounter guidelines, and you can tell. Let me put it lightly: Your players should just roll up two characters to start. Especially the first ambush and the first dungeon crawl are severely balanced against the players. There is a dragon in this book too- new players used to games like Skyrim will be sorely disappointed by the results of charging it with sword in hand.
4. It is not meant to run with original characters. Look, the game doesn't give much to maintain character interest in the mainline adventure. Many most almost all PCs are inclined to drop off the wagon, get paid, and move on with their lives without regard for their quest giver's fate. The book it comes with gives next to no guidelines for building a new character. Original characters tend to be awkward in the locale described, as continued motivation is supposed to come from the hooks the pregens came with.
5. The narrative is kinda' cliche. It just is, OK? For anyone who is immediately offended by standard tolkeinesque high fantasy, this is probably a deal breaker. This is standard Forgotten Realms fare, folks.
6. Chapter 3 is a disorganized mess. Spoiler Alert: Chapter 3 is a sandbox with multiple optional adventure hooks which direct the players toward Cragmaw Castle or the mine of Phandelver. The problem? Some of the locations are tied to quests given in chapter 2. The connections between the quests and their quest givers are not obvious, and there is no explanation for what you're supposed to use this stuff for. For example, it just explains what Old Owl Well is without stating why the players might be going there. This forces an attentive DM to go back through the previous chapter to figure out who wants the players to go there and why. Tis is why my book is full of sticky notes.
7. The NPCs are talking name plates. You know what would be nice? Some information about who these people are other than a description of their name, occupation, and attitude. As it is, as a DM, all of the NPCs in the town are completely forgettable unless you take some real prep time to flesh them out. Most new DMs are probably not experienced with character writing. Why not give them some examples to go off of? Would have made it easier for me to keep their names straight, at least.
8. No guidelines for improvisational play. In a couple more points, I'm going to be raving on and on about how this adventure has something for everybody. Know this: I am a hypocrite and I am full of dog shit. There is no guide for a DM to resolve what happens when the players go off the rails. Now, in some ways this is better than old books which encouraged an abusive and manipulative style in which the players are forced back on track through passive aggressive gaming. However, giving no advice at all isn't exactly helpful either, is it? What happens when the players attack the bandit hideout, get scared, and run? What happens if the players barricade themselves in a room in cragmaw castle? What happens if the players decide to smoke the goblins out of their cave? How does a newbie DM know to generate new content on the fly without ever having done it before? This book's negligence of improvisation fails to acknowledge the true power of RPGs: the ability to do anything and everything you can imagine. A DM who only understands to run the material in the book is an unwitting sycophant to the publishers. The closest they get to improvisation guidelines are the spots where they prompt you with "Hey, you might have this character do X Y Z if you want." and leave it up to you to make it up from there. For players who do want X Y Z but don't know how to get there, you've kind of just hung them out to dry.
9. Low production quality. The publishers really dropped the ball. Maybe they were trying to make it cheap to lower the barrier to entry? Whatever. I'd like a hardcover version. The paperback pamphlet it comes as is flimsy and definitely not ready for the rigors of constant handling and page flipping with multiple bookmarks. My booklet is getting pretty ragged.
10. More for DMs than for players. There isn't very much in here that helps the player. Like I already said, it neglects character creation. It teaches the rules to the DM in terms that the DM needs to understand them, but otherwise just leaves the players to their own devices to read the rule book themselves. It gives absolutely zero guidance on how a new DM can teach their new players the game as they learn it together. A missed opportunity.
11. NO. You know what?! ONE MORE THING! Phandelver is a stupid fucking name. So is phandalin. And so is phandal. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper geeky. There is a known group of people who will bail as soon as they hear that name just because it sounds exactly like the stereotype of what D&D was supposed to be in the 1970s.

10 Great Things About Lost Mines of Phandelver

1. It is as true and pure to the spirit of D&D as possible. This is what Dungeons & Dragons is all about. It has dungeons. It has dragons. It has a group of friends pretending to be big damn heroes. It has magic. It has fantasy. It has violence. You can not get more pure than this. Above all else, LMoP does one thing best: it teaches D&D as an experience.
2. It actually teaches new DMs how to DM. It is possible to sit down with 5 people who've never played, open the box, choose someone to be a DM, and start playing. From scratch. No past experience at the table. No preparation. Many people have been introduced to the game in just that way. That is EXACTLY what an introductory adventure is supposed to do, and it's amazing it took 40 years for someone to figure that out. As for the learning process, it starts easy and slowly works the DM into running increasingly complex aspects of play, eventually culminating in a wide-ranging sandbox followed by a huge hardcore dungeon crawl mixed with wandering monster tables. In a way, getting your players to level 5 is like working your way through a practical crash course on dungeon mastering followed by a final exam.
3. It has a little bit of everything. This adventure has little pieces of virtually every style of play anyone has ever done. It has roleplay, it has dungeon crawling, it's even possible to run the sandbox part as a hex crawl! It has theater of the mind play and grid tactics combat. It has check based exploration and improv based exploration. The game has a balanced mix of combat, exploration, and roleplay. All three pillars of adventure in perfect balance. No other adventure seems to hit on all 3 points in such an even handed way.
4. It's super portable. I know all the locations are clearly from the Forgotten Realms, but here's the thing: it doesn't do anything with those names. They're just names. That means you can plop this adventure into any campaign setting- even a homebrew one! All you have to do is fix the names to suit.
5. Breathing space! In the Realms no less! So my big problem with the Forgotten Realms is that it is DENSE. The history is long and convoluted. There are hundreds of novels detailing every nook and cranny of the setting. For someone new coming to the setting, it is completely overwhelming. How do you add your own adventure to something so utterly thick with content? This book shows you how. It lets you dive right in without worrying about what R.A.Salvatore wrote on page 346 of a novel published in 1996.
6. It's actually fun! Haha, what a fucking idea, eh?! I cannot describe how many token adventures I've played that exist just to serve a purpose other than fun. This. Is. A. Game. This is the first time I've ever seen a starter adventure that understands its primary purpose is to be enjoyed. This adventure is so fun, I have run it multiple times- and it just never seems to get old!
7. This thing is beefy. Five levels of xp is a buttload of encounters, and there is a lot of shit to do. My current run has been going for about 3 months now, racking up about 18 hours across biweekly sessions, and we're only just getting to the fourth chapter now! So not only does it introduce new players to the experience of a single session, it has enough material to give the experience of an actual ongoing campaign.
8. It never plays the same way twice. I've run LMoP about 8 times now, though rarely to its completion. I have never, ever seen this adventure go the same way twice. There's enough room for creativity that, (as long as you know how to think on your feet) this adventure can go sideways at any time.
9. There's a secret 5th chapter. In one of the chests in the last dungeon the players find a map that leads them to a dungeon designed by the DM. This is your graduation gift for completing the adventure: an opportunity to step beyond running the game and learn how to prepare one for yourself. This is your opportunity to apply everything you've learned thus far and create your own adventure with the resources you have at hand! The adventure essentially closes with "Now spread your wings and fly."
10. It flows directly into most other published adventures very well. With a little bit of a handwaved road trip, this adventure can lead directly into Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat. Princes of the Apocalypse is even more local and flows really well with almost no effort. Out of the Abyss doesn't flow quite as nicely, especially as it's a significant tonal shift. The players are high enough level to get sucked directly into Curse of Strahd without need for running Death House. Storm King's Thunder flows directly from LMoP almost as well as PotA. Tales from the Yawning Portal, along with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, all require a road trip, but otherwise flow quite well. Tomb of Annihilation has the hardest one to jump to, as it requires both a long road trip and a long boat ride. It's hard to justify why the adventurers suddenly picked up shop and went on such a long journey.

I recommend viewing the full size of this one.

How To Kill An Ancient Red Dragon At Level 1

OK, so a lot of people talk about how weak the enemies in this edition of D&D are, that combat is simple, boring, easy, and mostly safe. To this I say poo-poo. If you can't drop a single player to 0 with the first encounter in LMoP, you aren't implementing your monsters very well. Likewise, people who complain about the difficulty guidelines given in the DMG being too gentle, again I have to say that if you're pulling your punches, no guideline can match up to your incompetence. (No offense meant, in this I mean that you are failing to compete.)

That said, as harsh as I am when I control my monsters, I firmly believe that it is entirely possible for high level players to be demolished by mooks, and it's just as possible for a first level player to annihilate a high CR monster. The thing the guidelines don't account for is strategy. Those guidelines are written with the assumption of a head-on clash of arms in a face-to-face confrontation. It isn't meant for creating challenges of any other sort.

This is my guide to how to destroy an ancient red dragon- one controlled the way I would run it- at 1st level.

Let's make something clear though: This depends on being able to hire soldiers. If your DM makes it impossible to hire anything more powerful than a commoner- or indeed disallows hiring anyone for anything at all- you can not do this.

Alright you bunch of apes, here's the plan:

1. Find a suitable killing site.

You do NOT want to fight a dragon in its lair or out in the open. You need to corner it in a roofed-in area where it can't use its mobility to defend itself. A large cave or a big interior space in an unusually vacuuous keep might work.

2. Pool your resources.

Gather your collective starting wealth as a party. Do some small quests to earn some extra coin.

3. Hire labor.

You need people to carry a lot of stuff for you. People are WAY cheaper than horses at 2sp per day and no initial purchase cost. Hire a gaggle of commoners. Buy a whole bunch of sacks for them.

4. Lure the dragon out of its lair.

You need the thing gone for a few days. A couple of weeks is better. The best chance you have at doing this: Whoever got the highest ability score roll during chargen should put it in charisma and play a dragonborn dragon blood line sorcerer. It also helps if this player plays a noble to justify later meetings to hire soldiers. Remember to appeal to the dragon's hubris and greed.

This step, and step 8, are much, much harder than they sound. Getting an ancient red dragon to do anything it wasn't planing to do should be extremely difficult. They are chaotic, disobedient, independent, and inherently evil. They're also supposed to be incredibly smart. Good luck.

5. Steal its hoard.

All of it. I told you you need a bunch of commoners. If you can go into debt hiring them, or hire with the promise of later pay, all the better.

While you're at it, you're probably dungeon crawling its lair too, right? Well kill everything. Get rid of its minions. If you can hire soldiers on loan to help you with this, do it. The last thing you need is a rescue team throwing a monkey wrench into your dracocidal plans!

6. Use the hoard to buy an army.

Pay off your debts first, of course.

7. Become Tucker's Kobolds.

Prepare the killing site for the dragon. Make it so the dragon has to fight to get in, possibly being forced to destroy a barrier, while taking damage from sources that it can't retalliate against. Booby trap the interior of the cave. Find some way to subdue the dragon. Set up siege machines behind protective structures. Do everything you can to make it so your guys can attack without being attacked. Also, set things up so that once the dragon manages to get inside, the entrance seals behind them, trapping them completely.

8. Lure the dragon to the killing site.

Maybe taunt it and tell it to come get its treasure hoard back.

Alright, let's talk numbers. What is this really going to take?

The magic number you're looking for is 546 damage. It has 22 AC.

How many guys are you going to need to hire, and how long will it take? That depends on what statblock the DM lets you hire. You're most likely to get either guards or veterans, so that's what I'll calculate.

Guards have +3 to hit by throwing their spears. That means out of every 20 you hire, ~2 will hit per round. Their spears deal an average of 4 damage per hit, so you're looking at ~8 damage per turn per 40gp/day spent on your army. Keep in mind that they lose their spears when they throw them, so you'll need to buy stacks of ammunition to supply them after the first round. I would recommend buying piles of javelins. They're cheaper. One volley of javelins will run you 10gp per round per 20 guards.

Veterans also have a 10% chance of hitting. So again, ~2 per round per 20 soldiers, costing 40gp per the day. Their attacks deal an average of 5 damage, so you're looking at ~10 damage per round per squadron. Crossbow bolts have the same effective price as javelins, theyre just bought in stacks of 20 at a time, so cumulative rounds will cost you just as much.

So, given that information, how many 20-man attack volleys will it take to end this dragon?

68.25 for guards.

54.6 for veterans.

Now, obviously, the more rounds you run, the fewer soldiers you'll have attacking, and the longer it will take. Theoretically, if you can afford to hire that many squadrons, you can kill the thing in the first round of combat. Keeping in mind that 1 squadron, costing 2gp per man and consisting of 20 men, costs 40gp, that means a first-round kill costs 2,730gp for 1,365 guards and 2,184gp for 1,092 veterans.

Given that the treasure hoard should contain approximately 322,000gp, that shouldn't be a problem. You'll even have the spare change to repay the 10 commoners you hired to haul that 1,400lb of coinage back to civilization! Oh, also, since a sack has a capacity of 30lb, that means you'll need 5 sacks per commoner, for a total of 50 sacks.

D&D 5e: Houserule: Falling, Jumping, & Collisions

OK, so a few people have pointed out some really wonky aspects of the fall damage rules in the PHB. I am among the people who agree that the fall damage rule is not functional in representing what it was intended for. So I rewrote it.

First off, the original rule gave no fall rate. As such, it is not possible for a flying character to go into a dive and then resume flying to gain movement distance on the vertical plane. Furthermore, it seems to be assumed that the moment a creature begins to fall, it instantly hits the ground, regardless of how high up they were. This means it is also impossible for a player to try and catch a falling character without an improvisational DEX check outside of initiative order. Xanethar's Guide to Everything finally gave us a fall rate, but it is a little incorrect. They give it as 500ft per 6 second turn. The actual terminal velocity of the average human body is 1,038ft in 6 seconds. For my rule, I rounded this down to an even 1,000ft per turn.

The next problem, and the more commonly cited one, is that there is a damage cap on fall damage. The rule is 1d6 bludgeoning per 10ft fall distance up to a limit of 20d6. The problem is that it is not unusual for player characters to reach HP scores in the hundreds. 20d6 deals an average result of 70 damage. It effectively means that once characters of certain classes reach a certain level, they can confidently jump off an airship at 20,000ft and suffer only a heavy blow. Now, I did some theory crafting, and it looks like the maximum HP possible without magic using only the core rules is about 450. For a fall to be an almost guaranteed kill on a maxed out character, you need 150d6 to produce an average result in that range. But you know what's even more effective? Having no damage cap. It's just 1d6 per 10ft. All the way. That way, no matter how much HP a character has, high altitude drops are always a guaranteed kill, even if they're overkill.

The next point isn't mentioned as much, but fall damage is based on the idea that the falling thing is human-like. It makes no consideration for monster size/mass or object properties. I can fix this. The damage die is determined by the creature/object size class, while the count of the die is determined by the distance fallen. Smaller objects have less mass so they need to fall greater distances for that mass to cause more damage. Large objects have more mass, which means they take more damage from less distance fallen.

The next problem is that there is no rule for collisions. What kind of damage happens if you drop one enemy on another enemy? To handle this, I created a simple collisions rule. To prevent people from abusing this rule to engage in physics engine combat to deal extra damage outside of the standard action economy, I added an exception that disallows players from intentionally causing a collision without taking an action to do so.

My collisions rule also has a provision for lateral collisions due to causes other than fall damage. This rule, being general, is replaced by any specific rule that mentions collisions caused by it. This rule exists primarily for figuring out what happens when vehicles ram into each other, and to determine damage dealt by thrown objects that lack the thrown property.

Finally, there's some awkwardness I've found regarding how objects and creatures travel through the air via jumping, which has some interaction with falling and collisions. Specifically, how far does one need to drop before it is considered falling? I can jump down from a 10ft drop and be fine, and I'm not even in halfway decent shape. How far could a violence-loving athletic hero go before they tear ligaments absorbing the landing? I created a rule to hanle this by adding a drop distance calculation to the jump rules.

Finally, the jump rules don't scale for non-medium creature. The consequence being that riding horses aren't very impressive at leaping obstacles the way they should be. Likewise, other big agile creatures like giant and dragons are restricted to relatively small hops. To fix this, I added a rule that modifies all of the jump distances, (long jump, high jump, and drop limit) based on size class. This also makes it so that the Tarrasque doesn't take fall damage by stepping down a few stories from a ledge.

THE FALLING RULE:

When a creature or object begins to fall, they fall at a rate of 1,000ft per 6 second turn, or 10,000ft per minute turn. If a creature or object collides with the ground while falling, it takes 1 damage die of bludgeoning damage per 10ft fallen. For falls from great heights, fall damage is measured cumulatively across turns in which a character falls continuously. The fall damage die is determined by the creature or object's size class, following this chart:

Tiny d4
Small d6
Medium d8
Large d10
Huge d12
Gargantuan d20

THE COLLISIONS RULE:

When a creature or object collides with another creature or object due to a fall or from being thrown, it is possible that the objects will take damage from the impact. This damage is equal to the fall damage the instigating object would have taken on impact with the ground. If the collision is not happening in free fall, the damage is halved. If the two objects were thrown toward one another and collide simultaneously, they take double damage. If a character intentionally attempts to cause a collision, they must use their action to make an attack on the target of the collision, using their dexterity modifier if they are using an object to cause a collision, or their strength modifier if they themselves are the projectile. Otherwise, objects are assumed to pass targets by unaffected, colliding only with structural features of the environment like walls and floors.

For example, a player throws a chair, (Medium object) at another character 25ft away. (I would be using my throwing range rule to determine whether this is even possible, but it likely is.) They make a dexterity ranged attack check to throw the object at their target. On a hit, the target and chair take 2d8/2 bludgeoning damage from the collision.

THE JUMP RULES EXPANSION

A chreature can drop from one level to another without taking fall damage as long as the distance is within their strength score in feet.

For example, a character with 18 strength can drop 18 ft without it being considered a fall.

Additionally, a character can take half damage from a fall up to double their strength score by making a dexterity saving throw against the total distance fallen. Whether they succeed or fail on this save, they land prone.

For example, if a character with 18 strength falls 20 ft, they can take half fall damage on a DC 20 dexterity save.

Falls of a distance exceeding double your strength score deal full fall damage on impact.

Drops and falls do not consume your movement speed.

The long jump, high jump, and drop distances are based on the assumption that the creature in question is medium in size and humanoid in form. For creatures of other sizes, adjust those ranges by the percentage given:

Tiny 25%
Small 50%
Medium 100%
Large 150%
Huge 200%
Gargantuan 300%

For example, a riding horse has a strength of 16. If it were medium, its long jump distance would be 16ft. Because it is large, its jump distance is increased by 8ft to a total of 24ft, 150% of the base value. This is consistent with reality as the longest recorded jump distance for a horse was 28ft.
Another example, the tarrasque has a total drop distance of 30ft, which is 300% of the 10 feet the base rule would apply. This means a tarrasque could stand on top of a 3 storey building and then jump down from the side of it to street level without taking any damage whatsoever.
As a final example, an ancient black dragon could do a running high jump 90 feet vertically into the air, (27+3*3) before spreading its wings to take flight. It could also fly within 81ft of the ground and simply fold its wings to dive at the ground without taking any damage whatsoever or spending movement speed to do so.

D&D 5e Adventure Building By The Book

The following is an experiment in building an entire campaign using the encounter building rules and adventuring day system in the DMG. I will be using Kobold Fight Club to generate encounters at random to save myself time.

The idea is that I generate the encounters first, then write justification for how these creatures are a threat together and how the encounter might be resolved, and then justify the entire chain with an overarching narrative.

The general process works like this:

1. Get your adventuring day budget.
2. Divide it into 3 chunks representing the encounter budget per rest. The first two budgets end with a short rest. The last budget for the day ends with a long rest.
3. Generate random encounters of varying difficulty per budget until you meet or pass the budget for that section. (Keeping in mind that only actual XP is awarded to players and counts toward this budget; adjusted XP is for determining encounter threat only.)
4. Fill the day until you meet the total budget for the adventuring day.
5. Divide the budget between four PCs, record their current total xp, and determine what their level will be at the end of that day. Assume the party levels up on a long rest if they can.
6. Begin next day.

I will only be planning the first level of play. Once I have reached that point, I will go back and write explanations for the gobbledy-gook the randomizer spat out.

Once I have all that, I'll insert optional encounters that the party may or may not decide to pursue based on the encounters they've already experienced.

Then, to make the adventure less linear, I will create alternative routes the party can take, changing a section of encounters to a different series. For example, marching straight through a forest rather than walking along the winding road.

Finally, I will determine treasure rewards based on the guidelines in the DMG.

Level 1

The party begins on the road. They are travelling together for reasons up to the players to determine. They are on their way to a small frontier village in search of opportunity and fortune.

A Rock and a Hard Place

Easy

Badger x2

Giant Crab x2

70

(While traveling, the party finds themselves pinched between two drangerous wildlife. The two crabs are a large variety of land crab. They are both males who are sparring for territory when the party disturbs them. Behind the party is a breeding pair of badgers who are searching to make a new burrow who arrive shortly after the first round of combat.)

Lurking Evil

Easy

Chitine x1

100xp

(This chitine is lurking at the roadside and traps unwary travelers for food and goods. It tries to kidnap one person at a time using stealth.)

Ice Breaker

Medium

Giant Frog x1

Pony x1

Tribal Warrior x1

100

(The warrior is riding on the pony. The giant frog is its animal companion; it is a ranger. While the tribal warrior is inclined to try and capture the party as slaves, it recognizes it is outnumbered and can be reasoned with if its surprise attack goes wrong. He tries to take just 1 hero. If any of the party are small size, he sends his giant frog to swallow them and then flees. Otherwise, he simply tries to grapple someone, drag them onto his pony, and ride away. The players may attempt a rescue of their comrade if they flopped this encounter.)

Hammer Time

Hard

Giant Owl x2

Tribal Warrior x2

150

(More of the slaver tribesmen. These ones are riding on giant owls and are nowhere near as inclined to talk it out. If the party spared the previous warrior, these two may pass the party over out of respect. They swoop down and grab 1 party member each, the giant eagles making a grapple check to do so, and leave if they can. If the party already destroyed the slaver camp, these two are out for revenge.)

OPTIONAL: Rescue captured party members.

Hard

Commoner x5

Tribal Warrior x4

150

(If any of the party were captured by the tribal warriors, the remaining heroes may attempt to give chase. The captured hero might attempt an escape. The party can use stealth to break the captive out, they can try to murder the whole camp, or they can bargain for the release of the captives at a price of 100gp worth of livestock each.)

The party happens upon an ancient ruin of a stone farm house, mostly collapsed. In the center of the building is a large stone table surrounded by stone chairs. This is a good place for a short rest.

Short Rest @ 420xp

On Second Thought

Hard

Giant Poisonous Snake x2

Twig Blight x2

150

(The party is actually in the middle of an evil druid's lair and are attacked by the guardians: twig blights riding on giant snakes!)

(Challenge 0-4 Treasure Horde. These are a collection of wealth left behind by the druid, and the reason for the guards.)

Highway Boys

Medium

Bandit x2

Commoner x3

Mastiff x1

105

(A group of rag-tag criminals ambush the party. The two bandits are the leaders, professional highwaymen. The rest are novices who just started turning to crime and fell under their sway. The mastiff belongs to one of the bandits. They are desperate for money and food, but are otherwise only dangerous if the party initiates conflict. They'll let the party pass if they refuse to pay, but they will follow in secret and rob the players when they take a long rest.)

True Nature

Hard

Abyssal Wretch x1

Pseudodragon x1

Xvart Speaker x2

150

(The abyssal wretch is a former xvart. The two speakers are from two different local bands of xvarts, and have been working together to track down the wretch. The wretxh was accidentally created when the Xvarts failed to summon Raxivort and instead summoned a Rutterkin by accident. One of them is a warlock and has a pseudodragon familiar. The party will find the wretch mercilessly attacking the two foolish leaders. If the party rescues the xvarts, they then try to con the party into paying them, or if that fails, try to rob the party using guile and misdirection.)

OPTIONAL: Reclamation

Easy

(If the Xvarts successfully conned or robbed the party after being rescued, the players may be rightly interested in reclaiming their property. The stolen wealth is divided evenly between two small settlements of Xvarts. Repeat this encounter for each half of the stolen stuff.)

Now in a swampy/forested area, the party finally finds a dry and sturdy open space to rest in.

Short Rest @ 405xp

It's How You Play The Game

Deadly

Will-o-Wisp

450

(At dusk the party encounters a will-o-wisp. It attempts to trick the players into falling off a 30ft cliff into a sheltered ravine.)

(Challenege 0-4 Treasure Horde. This is all just stuff laying with the remains of the wisp's former victims.)

After their brush with evil, as the sun nears the horizon, the players finally arrive in the village.

Town Details:

Race Relations: Harmony

Ruler's Status: Feared Tyrant

Notable Traits: Center of trade for one specific good

Known for its patriotism

Current calamity: Marauding monsters

Long Rest @ 450xp

Total: 1275/1200xp (400xp/R)

Each character gets 318xp. They are now at 318 xp and are 2nd level.