D&D 5E Lost Mine - Wyvern Tor

[pukunui]

Hi everyone!

My group is going to be heading to Wyvern Tor (in the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure) next session, and I'm just wondering if anyone's done anything fun to flesh it out a bit more. I'm liking these ideas that were posted over on the WotC forums:

[p.35] Orc Camp
The text says the PCs can attempt one check per hour to see if they findy the camp…but says nothing about what happens in the meantime. So basically the players are just supposed to keep rolling every hour until they find it? Feels like a hastily written part of the adventure.

Here are some ideas for encounters at Wyvern Tor:
* The PCs find signs of the orcs. A stray bloody arrow. Old campsites. Hacked trees. This means they're getting closer to the main camp.
* The PCs come across a butchered animal. It was clearly killed for sport and not food. Builds tension about how savage these orcs are.
* The PCs encounter a single orc carrying two large bucket of water. The orc (named Krokk) looks pretty wounded and has a bad limp. He only has 5 hit points left. Krokk lost some sort of tribal contest and is now being hazed, bullied, and picked on. The Ogre Gog is especially tough on him. Gog sent Krokk to fetch him some water from a nearby stream. Krokk is muttering curses in Orcish as the PCs encounter him. Unless the PCs were specifically being stealthy and their checks beat his Passive Perception score, then neither side is surprised. Krokk's weapon is on his belt but he doesn't immediately go for it because he REALLY doesn’t want to spill any water. The Ogre will surely beat him up good for that. This opens up a possible alliance between Krokk and the party! If the party promises to kill the Ogre and the current leader Brughor, and help support Krokk for the new band leader, then Krokk promises to move the tribe to a new location. Diplomacy instead of Brute Force. This would be a great way to run the mini quest.

I particularly like that last one. I'm open to other ideas too, though.

Also, anyone got a good map that would be suitable?


Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[wedgeski]

Just FYI, I ran the encounter pretty much straight out of the book, and it is the closest the group has come (by far) to a TPK in Lost Mines. They were backs-to-the-wall in the ravine and only survived by the skin of their teeth. So, the idea of forewarning the group as to the strength of the tribe (which I failed to do) is a good one.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

You might want to check this out.

 

[pukunui]

Just FYI, I ran the encounter pretty much straight out of the book ...

There really isn't a whole lot to it in the book. Would you be able to elaborate at all? Did you use a map? Did the PCs go inside the cave?

You might want to check this out.

I found that just the other day. Interesting background info but not all that practical.

 

[wedgeski]

There really isn't a whole lot to it in the book. Would you be able to elaborate at all? Did you use a map? Did the PCs go inside the cave?

As per the description, I envisioned a swathe of moor-land with a large granite tor, and a steep-sided ravine leading to the base of the rock where a cave entrance led down to the orc lair. The party approached with as much stealth as they could, but were spotted, leading to the sentry retreating back into the cave. Without any idea what might be down there (sigh), the group smoked the orcs out of the lair and engaged them, hoping to choke them at the entrance and dispatch them one at a time.

A few probability-crushing rolls later, and the entire party was in melee with the orcs and the ogre down in the ravine. The paladin and the bard were quickly rendered unconscious, but the rogue managed to scramble up into daylight and crit the ogre to death while the cleric tanked massive damage below. Just when all appeared lost, the bard nat-20'd a death save (which we rule brings you to consciousness -- not sure if that's a house rule or as per RAW), poured a healing potion down the paladin's throat, and the party got things under control.

This was played via Skype video and I have a second screen for sketching battle-maps for reference (we don't use a grid).

 

[Barantor]

Just FYI, I ran the encounter pretty much straight out of the book, and it is the closest the group has come (by far) to a TPK in Lost Mines. They were backs-to-the-wall in the ravine and only survived by the skin of their teeth. So, the idea of forewarning the group as to the strength of the tribe (which I failed to do) is a good one.

My group had the opposite happen. One of the party used his familiar to scout the area from the sky and then they climbed up on the rocks above the ogre and the orcs. After a volley of arrows the dwarf decided to do a jump attack off the low cliff wall onto the ogre, knocking him down and then before the ogre got up, crushing his skull with a warhammer.

The last two orcs ran away, but the rogue got a crit on one and the last one surrendered.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=16212]wedgeski[/MENTION]: That's one of the reasons I particularly like the idea of having the PCs meet a lone orc who isn't interested in fighting. If they can get him talking, they can find out what to expect. So did both you and [MENTION=6778128]Barantor[/MENTION] just make up the terrain as you went along?

 

[Barantor]

Well I just went with the standard that a Tor is a rock formation on top of a small hill and looked up on the forgotten realms wiki the info on Wyvern Tor.

Gave it a small cave and put a campfire outside. Two of the orcs were inside the cave (one being the named boss) that were resting.

I didn't put them on high alert because they are basically just camping out in between going out raiding. I told the PCs that smoke from a campfire could be seen, and which side it was on, at which point the wizard sent up his familiar.

They climbed the rock portion of the tor and got above the orcs and ogre and it was a downhill fight for the orcs (literally at some points!).

 

[pukunui]

OK. Fair enough. Did the PCs explore the cave after the fight at all?

 

[Nebulous]

After tonight's session the party finally left the Lost Mine after 12 hours of play, it took a while! And Wyvern's Tor and Cragmaw Castle are next on their hit list of stuff to kill, they didn't do either of those missions on the lead up to the mine.