Lost Mines of Phandelver Idea Help

[Archerlord]

So, for the last few weeks, I've been DMing Lost Mines for three friends of mine. After this last session, I had an idea on how to spice the module up a little and thought that I would come here on how best to implement it, or if I even should. First, a quick run through of who the party consists of along with an explanation of what happened.

The party is the following at level three, although they have yet to fill in what class branch they're going with.

Bronze Dragonborn barbarian: De facto leader of the group and acts in typical barbarian nature

Half-Elf ranger: Best friend to the barbarian, voice of reason, sees Sister Garele as a love interest

???: The third player has had three characters die in five sessions, including the last one. Not sure what to expect

Hill Dwarf life cleric (DMPC): Previously belonged to a fourth player who never showed up, continues to follow group as a healer

Sildar Hallwinter (DMPC): For some reason, my players (all of whom are new) don't have a problem with DMPCs, as they willingly invited Sildar to join their party. Not sure what they really see in him, but through a good persuasion roll, he joined.

During our last session, the group pressed on into the Redbrand Hideout, guided by a captured yet-to-be-named Redbrand thug. The first chance the captured thug got, he alerted his fellow thieves to the intruders, and escaped through a secret door and losing half of his face in the process to the third player's wizard.

The group chased after him and encountered the nothic. The wizard attacked it and was promptly killed by its Rotting Gaze. The rest of the party decided to reason with it, and with convincing RP, had it show the way to Glasstaff. They defeated Iarno, and under Sildar's advice, took him prisoner and left the hideout.

They brought him to the Townmaster's Hall where the townmaster was horrified to see him, knowing it may mean danger for Phandalin. Iarno starts to laugh and talks about how his master would come for him (the session was close to ending, and although the letter from the Black Spider was looted, they have yet to read it). I thought that leaving off with his warning was a good ending to foreshadow future events.

Instead, the barbarian promptly decapitated him.

Now, for my next session, I've been thinking about doing a Battle for Phandalin scenario. Redbrand Hideout has brigands, bugbears, skeletons, and the nothic leftover. I decided that, for completely dramatic reasons, the half-faced Redbrand will have assumed command and wants revenge on the party. While there is the option of having them go back to clear it out, I'm getting the idea my players are getting bored of the dungeon crawl and wanted to give them something new.

I also think that my idea may be a better way to introduce the Black Spider as a BBEG. I've been thinking of having a doppleganger under guise of the Black Spider meet with the half-faced Redbrand. I'm also teasing with the idea of having Garale kidnapped and brought to Cragmaw Castle, providing at least one of the characters with incentive to pursue.

Now, with that out of the way, I am open to ideas on how best to proceed with this idea, or whether I should do it at all.

[SiCK_Boy]

Having the remaining Redbrand try to avenge themselves (or free Glasstaff - after all, how would they know he's dead) makes perfect sense. They could attack in public (maybe even offering opportunities for members of the populace to intervene now that they see the heroes have picked up the fight with the bandits), or try to burn down some buildings in a kind of last ditch effort to create chaos before leaving town.

I'm not sure I would bring the Nothic, however. The Nothic was not appreciated by most bandits, and doesn't really care for them anyway. I would leave the Nothic as a potential threat for later. Maybe it goes into hiding in the woods, but in a week or so, you can have the Nothic return and kidnap a kid or something. The fact that the players left it alive could come back to bite them at a subsequent time.

I would also refrain from using a doppelganger at this stage, unless your intent is to have it somehow survive (always a big risk, especially if he attacks the players). The main reason for that is that once the players are aware there is one doppelganger in the enemy camp, they'll become paranoid and you probably won't be able to pull the same trick a second time. I think having the first doppelganger introduced at Cragmaw Castle has way more potential to be devastating by infiltrating a traitor directly in the party.

The bugbears are probably your best way to introduce the Black Spider, beyond the letter. Maybe you could have them wear the same symbol found in the letter on their armor, or tatooed on their skin. The bugbears could take part in the attack on Phandalin, but with objectives of their own: while the Redbrands want vengeance or to spring Iarno out of prison, the bugbears could be focused on kidnapping one of the characters (especially if one of them has some personal link with the Rockseekers). I would play them a bit cowardly: they try to capture one PC in a surprise attack, and if it fails, they just flee (with the intent to update the Black Spider on all the things that happened in Phandalin). If players kill them, they can find further clues pointing to your big bad; if they capture them alive, the bugbears could be defiant, but still giving away key information (including the fact that Nezznar is a drow - this can be useful later on when the PC meet the first doppelganger, as they may falsely assume they`ve killed the big bad depending how things turn out - and also indicating that the dwarves are dead, or just about so - to further put the players back on the clock to save Gundren).

Finally, you could use the decapitation of Iarno as a way to distance Sildar from the PCs, if you want to. Sildar knew Iarno, and his primary mission was to find the traitor; with that mission accomplished, the barbarian just blew everything up in a single moment of rage. Without having Sildar threaten the players, he could at least tell them that he now needs to report to his superiors back in Neverwinter.

As for kidnapping Sister Garaele, it could work too. This can even give you a way to introduce a new PC as a possible Harper contact coming to assist, having heard of what happened. But that kidnapping could also be the work of Cragmaw Goblins retaliating against Phandalin and the PC for the destruction of their initial hideout (rather than something the Redbrand do... after all, it`s also fine to just play things out as if the players have decimated the Redbrands, to give them a sense of victory and accomplishment).

If your players just kill everyone anyway, you have another option to feed them information: Droop the goblin. Maybe the goblin just comes out of the hideout a day later, all dirty and crying all the way to the middle of the village, where some people have pity on it (you could use Sildar to stay the killing arm of your PCs, if needed). Could even use this along with the Nothic kidnapping someone: Droop saw the Nothic leave and took the opportunity to also leave the hideout at the same time.