Frostmaiden Help--Beautiful Mine quest

[TheCleverGuy]

I have a party of five level 2 PCs who will most likely be heading into the Termalaine gemstone mine in our next session. I know that the kobolds aren't meant to be a real threat, but there a couple of other encounters in the mine that I'm a little worried are going to be too easy.

First, the giant rats. As written, two giant rats just don't pose any real threat. I was considering adding a couple more rats as well as a swarm of rats or two just to mix things up. According to an encounter builder I found, this should still be an Easy fight, but I was wondering whether anyone with actual experience with this would agree, or is it too much?

Similarly, the Grell--by itself that should be a medium encounter, but my players did already take out a Yeti (same CR as the grell) without much trouble. Do you think the grell needs any back up? I am more inclined not to mess with that encounter too much, but I want it to feel dangerous and scary, and I'm a little nervous that a single monster is just going to feel too weak.

[GooeyChewie]

I just ran that quest the other week! So, spoilers for anybody who plans to play it.

The grell can catch single party member unaware, likely getting a one-on-one situation and a surprise round. Still, in my game the grell got last in initiative which pretty much negated those advantages and the party wiped the floor with it. In the end, the most dangerous thing in the mine is probably the chance of falling down the bottomless pit.

You're right that not much else in the mine poses a big threat to the players. But that's not really the point. This quest has more roleplaying consequences than combat consequences. Do the players realize the leader is possessed? If so, what do they do about it? Do they actually find the grell? (If they stay together, likely no.) Do they kill the kobolds, or spare them? Do they find the psychic gem near the end? If so, do they take it? Do they recognize that it is a mind flayer brain? And of course, how long do they spend trying to pry shiny gems out of the wall, and does that put them to having to travel at night? All of these questions make a big difference in the outcome of the quest. The party can end up with kobold bodies, or kobold friends, or they can just drive the kobolds off. They might need to convince the mayor to accept the kobold friends, or maybe not. They might end up accidentally bringing the ghost back to town, and/or they might get the mayor killed by a grell.

Make sure to leverage the fact that the module names all the kobolds. When my players killed the first one (one of the two under the bridge) and the other yelled out his name, they freaked out about killing a NAMED kobold. As they got closer to the bottom they started trying diplomacy and when the leader mentioned fetching the kobold they killed first, they had to explain what happened.

[TheCleverGuy]

I just ran that quest the other week! So, spoilers for anybody who plans to play it.

The grell can catch single party member unaware, likely getting a one-on-one situation and a surprise round. Still, in my game the grell got last in initiative which pretty much negated those advantages and the party wiped the floor with it. In the end, the most dangerous thing in the mine is probably the chance of falling down the bottomless pit.

You're right that not much else in the mine poses a big threat to the players. But that's not really the point. This quest has more roleplaying consequences than combat consequences. Do the players realize the leader is possessed? If so, what do they do about it? Do they actually find the grell? (If they stay together, likely no.) Do they kill the kobolds, or spare them? Do they find the psychic gem near the end? If so, do they take it? Do they recognize that it is a mind flayer brain? And of course, how long do they spend trying to pry shiny gems out of the wall, and does that put them to having to travel at night? All of these questions make a big difference in the outcome of the quest. The party can end up with kobold bodies, or kobold friends, or they can just drive the kobolds off. They might need to convince the mayor to accept the kobold friends, or maybe not. They might end up accidentally bringing the ghost back to town, and/or they might get the mayor killed by a grell.

Make sure to leverage the fact that the module names all the kobolds. When my players killed the first one (one of the two under the bridge) and the other yelled out his name, they freaked out about killing a NAMED kobold. As they got closer to the bottom they started trying diplomacy and when the leader mentioned fetching the kobold they killed first, they had to explain what happened.

Thanks for the tips! This will be the first real dungeon-crawl this party faces, and I have a feeling they'll be pretty thorough in their exploration of the mine. The party's wizard is prone to having his familiar scout ahead, so I'm expecting that the grell's surprise round will be eating the familiar (hopefully while the Wizard using its senses).

[Unoriginal]

I have a party of five level 2 PCs who will most likely be heading into the Termalaine gemstone mine in our next session. I know that the kobolds aren't meant to be a real threat, but there a couple of other encounters in the mine that I'm a little worried are going to be too easy.

First, the giant rats. As written, two giant rats just don't pose any real threat. I was considering adding a couple more rats as well as a swarm of rats or two just to mix things up. According to an encounter builder I found, this should still be an Easy fight, but I was wondering whether anyone with actual experience with this would agree, or is it too much?

Similarly, the Grell--by itself that should be a medium encounter, but my players did already take out a Yeti (same CR as the grell) without much trouble. Do you think the grell needs any back up? I am more inclined not to mess with that encounter too much, but I want it to feel dangerous and scary, and I'm a little nervous that a single monster is just going to feel too weak.

A medium encounter is supposed to be barely a speedbump that *may* require some of the PCs to spend some ressources to clear it.

For what I recall of this adventure, the difficulty is more from where the fights happen, with the Grell in particular having a big chance to get the drop on the PCs as they're near a deep pit.

[Azuresun]

Bear in mind the town quests were written with the idea that any one of them might be the first or second quests the PC's undertake, at level 2. And modules tend to softball encounters anyway, so feel free to buff it a bit based on the strengths of your PC's. I had fun adding some more kobold traps around the place. :smallwink:

[Keravath]

Thanks for the tips! This will be the first real dungeon-crawl this party faces, and I have a feeling they'll be pretty thorough in their exploration of the mine. The party's wizard is prone to having his familiar scout ahead, so I'm expecting that the grell's surprise round will be eating the familiar (hopefully while the Wizard using its senses).

That might depend on how far ahead the scout familiar is ... if the grell gets surprise then the familiar could be eaten before the wizard even realizes it is under attack. The last thing they might see are a set of teeth or some claws digging into the familiar and ripping it apart. This tells the wizard that a threat might be ahead and maybe approximately where it is but not what and not exactly. Depending on how the grell is hidden it could still surprise the party.