Halia Thornton's Miner's Exchange, Lost Mine of Phandelver ( DM Guide)

[@HowtoRPG]

Lost Mine of Phandelver Dungeon Master Guide & Tutorial. The Lighthall Platform is now offering free online live classes for Dungeon Masters that I will be facilitating in one week. The student sign-up is free and the link is below, www.lighthall.co/class/d336b3e7-aac8-4070-b57f-a5f421cc793a

[@evanhopper8925]

I had not prepared enough for the players to encounter a prolonged conversation with this character, they definitely skipped the trail to the goblins. They went straight here and kept disregarding any hints they should do anything else! They also slighted this character and definitely ended up on her hit list at level 1.

[@HowtoRPG]

Well that should prove entertaining in the future.

[@MaleusMaleficarum]

... i made her a Dwarf... and play her kind of like one of the Goodfellas. She is happy to work as a fence... and has been willing to buy things from the party no one else will. Instant friend! The players just cleared the manor, but let Glasstaff escape. They plan on striking east to follow a few breadcrumbs... in the meantime... Halia is going to bring in a few Zhent mercenaries to fill the vacuum left by the Redbrands.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@MaleusMaleficarum Thanks for sharing your experience and story.

[@woody_young]

I'm planning on writing an adventure (level 5-8) based on Halia to follow on from The Mines campaign... she's a very interesting character!

[@HowtoRPG]

Yes she is.

[@woody_young]

@@HowtoRPG Seriously, thank you very much for your videos, they are a great source of information and inspiration!

[@bringingtherukas7473]

Perhaps a DM could use that the woodcutter story, the person who stood up and was murdered and family disappeared to explain why no-ones has gone against the redbrands and offer a small reward to find out if they are still alive/rescue them as a ruse to get the party to go to the manor combined with the goblin with the information.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@bringingtherukas7473 Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[@fuzzydragon]

I had been disapointed with this character in Dragon of IceSpire Peak and had no Zent background players so I made her secretly a Lamia Nobel running a secret underground pleasure cult of brainwashed citizens. had her subtley influincing my players choices to advance her own goals or deal with threats that might later get in the way of her plans.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@fuzzydragon Thanks for sharing your experience and story.

[@kestrel1234]

During the redbrand ruffian encounter the last redbrand alive panicked and took her as a hostage (I gave her a chance to escae but failed on the roll) two of my group were debating on letting him go, but the artificer just shot him in the eye even with her as cover. She took the redbrands sword and stuck it in the other eye of the dying man. The tiefling hexblade is already a Harper (used Heroic Chronicle rules) and is trying to make a good impression on Daran especially since Daran gave him his halfplate armor from his Order of the Gauntlet. The human artificer and changling sorcerer are two potential candidates for her. Both were already talking out loud about taking the Rebrands over themselves and the human showed how coldblooded he can be so he may rise on her list. The changling is eyeing the Townsmaster job since he found out Harbin only has two months left.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@kestrel1234 Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.

[@diegolopezpena3156]

In my Campaign my characters ended killing the leader of the red marc. And I made that the mayor was working with them at least by looking the other way. So one of my players killed him because his god did not forgive criminals. Then I made Halia prosecute Sildar because she saw him as a threat for her search of control over Phandalin. This all conbined made a great opportunity. My players just went back to phandalin and now Sildar is arrested for the death of the mayor and the whole city is even more oppresed by the hand of Halia who hired mercenaries to have the city under control. By the way the only character who knows who killed the mayor is now dead( the charcter of the player who killed the mayor). im looking forward to see what they do in this situation.

[@HowtoRPG]

A twisted plot we weave.

[@diegolopezpena3156]

@@HowtoRPG yep. Good video by the way. Im totally gonna use some of your ideas

[@AlabamaBoiz]

Yeah in my campaign ended up romancing her, usurping the town master and essentially enslaving the miners to extract resources for her and the party

[@HowtoRPG]

Eek. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@mikehocc]

Why does the thumbnail say this video is 51 minutes long?

[@HowtoRPG]

@@mikehocc It is a KZbin glitch.

[@fhuber7507]

Of course there needs to be some brigands robbing the exchange, burning the records then claim jumping.

[@HowtoRPG]

lol

[@Aaron1Ayala]

I was planning to start my friends first campaign (and my first as well) with the essentials pack with the dragon of icespire peak. Should I go back and start with this starter pack first and then use the essentials kit as an expansion?

[@HowtoRPG]

@@Aaron1Ayala I think that is a good idea. Otherwise try the very short Dragons of Stormwreck Isle starter set as there is little assistance required.

[@WolfBerserker13]

My own way of explaining her interest in killing the redbrand leader only is that the ruffian group is populated by locals, many of whom are the miners her company deals with. We all love the image of the good for nothing brigand who spends their days swaggering through the streets bullying old women, but gangs provide an outlet for difficult emotions, especially for hard on their luck manual laborers. The redbrands can be bandits and citizens with day jobs who are hungry for just a bit of respect. Halia knows this and can present them as misguided fools who should face justice some day, but not at the point of a sword. Dispose of their leader and she'll put the pressure on them to be better. Maybe even reform them. At least this is what she'll claim.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@WolfBerserker13 Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[@therealmckoy365]

So, I’m new to GMing and largely playing as well. I played a handful of times in my youth and now my boys and some of their friends really want to play and have asked me to be the GM. This is the adventure they are going to run. So I have a question that I hope doesn’t seem stupid: How would you play her character to approach only certain members of the party without the others knowing about it? Do you have a sidebar with the “chosen” player(s) away from the table? We will be playing over Discord and I could mute the other player’s audio or whisper to the chosen players. Am I making this too complicated or is there another way to accomplish this?

[@arend681]

I conntacted them between sessions. Our last session ended with them returning to Phandalin and I just talked to the PC's one-on-one. Since they are friends of mine, I just called them up and did this scene during a conversation.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@therealmckoy365 I prefer to do it infrastructure of the whole group and ask everyone not to metagame. If the group can't play also, then make it private.

[@roelvanbree3151]

My group know Halia is up to no good, bur they have 0 evidence. She invited 1 PC to join 'the family', en is actively looking for whatever Gundren has found while taking over Phandalin. The players don't really want to help her, but she keeps giving them easy jobs that pay rather well...

[@HowtoRPG]

@@roelvanbree3151 Thanks for sharing your experience and story. That is how it all starts, going down the dark side 😉