The Lost Mine Of Phandelver is one ofDungeons & Dragons’quintessential adventures. Packaged in with the 2014 starter kit, it’s the campaign many players and Dungeon Masters started out with. Despite its beloved status however, it’s only a rough and ready introduction to the game. A quick jaunt into a dungeon to introduce you to D&D’s intricacies.
Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk is different. Part remaster, part sequel, part reimagining, it takes that original adventure and spins it out into a full 226 page adventure book designed for levels one to 12. Not only is it full of new characters and locations, it also leans heavily on the cosmic horror only hinted at the first time around.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: Every Martial Melee Weapon, Ranked
Launching on September 19(or September 5 for those with early access via D&D Beyond), only about a third of Phandelver & Below is the original Lost Mines Of Phandelver adventure. In this first half, you’ll go over much of the same content as before, including exploring the village of Phandalin and descending into the mine to take on the likes of King Grol at Cragmaw Castle and Nezzar the Black Spider.
Part of the reason Wizards of the Coast decided to rerelease The Lost Mines of Phandelver was to preserve the adventure, which has only been available in a small booklet in a single edition of the starter kit. The introduction to the book outlines exactly what’s new and what isn’t, allowing you to either just play The Lost Mine of Phandelver mostly as it’s always been, or pick up your party from the original adventure and skip ahead the new content without replaying quests you’ve already done.
Wizards is keen to stress that it isn’t “an exact one-to-one representation”. Where the original adventure included lots of pickup art (art borrowed from other releases), Phandelver & Below includes brand-new illustrations (including of characters we’ve met but never seen before, like the Banshee Agatha in act three), brand new maps for combat encounters, and some tweaks to character designs to make them more inclusive, like reintroducing Reidoth the Druid as a woman.
A quick jaunt into a dungeon for no reason other than to fight some monsters is enough for a starter adventure, but for a full campaign Wizards has tried to give you a reason to care about the village of Phandalin. You’ll spend a lot more time on the surface, growing attached to this charming village and its denizens. For instance, you’ll be introduced to two new characters: Gwyn Oresong, a dwarf scholar from Neverwinter, who’ll become a crucial ally and source of information as things get out of hand, and Rivibiddle, an archaeologist gnome Wizards lovingly nicknamed Indiana Gnomes.
One of the biggest changes to the remastered Lost Mine content is the introduction ofa new type of goblinthat was only hinted at before. Possessing strange psionic powers and seen scribbling graffiti throughout the mines and Phandalin, they’re a scarier, more dangerous take on the goofy goblins we’re used to. They appear to be looking for something, and part of your job will be to descend below the mines and into the Underdark to find what they’re up to. It’s these goblins that serve as the connective tissue between The Lost Mines Of Phandelver and the much darker, gruesome content found in Phandelver & Below’s new offerings.
An energy called Mutate has been seeping out of the Underdark, transforming everything it touches into horrific monstrosities, and is seemingly the force giving these new goblins their powers. By venturing into the dungeons, you’ll encounter new monsters like the Gemmules, bizarre, triangular creatures hatched from brain-like Encephalons, and the Flesh Melds, which are a truly Cronenbergian horror of muscle, bone, teeth, and sinew.
As the alternate-art cover suggests, the guiding principle of the new content was to make it “really gross”, according to art director Bree Heiss, as parties encounter classic monsters twisted by the Mutate. For example, you may run into Cloakers who have been mutated to have flayed skeletons hanging from their heads, or creatures made of nothing but a ball of eyeballs, all displaying different emotions. They’re some of the most extreme content found in an official D&D book this side of Ravenloft, which might feel at odds with the beginner-friendly swashbuckling of the early chapters.
Because of this tonal shift, Wizards recommends not running the latter parts of the campaign with younger players, and also offers advice on how to tone the rest down to suit the comfort needs of your table. On the other hand, for those wanting to go darker, DMs can even choose optional ‘corruption’ content that dials up the horror even more. This is mostly cosmetic and can be totally ignored, but it helps really give The Shattered Obelisk its own identity distinct from The Lost Mine of Phandelver.
We’ve had a lot of stunning settings in recent years for D&D, from the Wilds Beyond the Witchlight toStrixhaven, but Phandelver feels like something different. It feels like an evolution (or mutation) of Dungeons & Dragons’ core identity, building on a classic adventure to make something new and horrific, instead of transplanting the game to a new place and hoping for the best. It looks set to combine the best of D&D’s traditional settings with a new confidence to try something new, and I can’t wait to see just how far Wizards is willing to take things when Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk launches next month.
NEXT:Bigby Presents: The Glory Of Giants Is Uplifted By Its Bestiary
