Hint at the Black Spider early

Glassstaff is corrupted by the Black Spider, and so will be the player

grabbing his staff

Make the Lost Mine come to life

Phase 1: Black Spider (how 2)

Phase 2: Black Drider (how 2)

Phase 3: Escape

Hello guys, first time DM here.

I ran LMoP as a birthday gift for a friend who never played DnD but always
wanted to, his brother, gf and friend. I am not sure if I can say a lot about it
since I'm a bit inexperienced, but I felt like LMoP is a great module that is
intentionally lacking depth for a lot of characters, so you may fill the void or
run it as a short adventure. Overall we had a great time!

I just felt like The Black Spider, the Drow Nezznar, was underwhelming as a
villain. A lot of other people felt that, too, especially after such a great
Venomfang fight and as an end to the very first campaign a lot of people
play. Let's make this memorable.

Here is what I did:

Preparations during the campaign

a. Getting to know and hate the spider

Nezznar is The Black Spider, and as such figuratively pulling the strings
behind the scenes. You first find him in the final fight. The trick is to make
your players know and hate him long before you face him in the center of
his web, Dumathoins temple in the Lost Mines:

Make sure he is behind every major setback your players experience, but
not every enemy!

Your party will find a letter in Klargs possession. Write and word it
appropriately. Give it clear instructions to capture the dwarf, give it a symbol
instead of a name sign (Black Spider, d'uh).

The Black Spider employs 3 Doppelgangers. Make use of them. Here are
some ideas:

A player likes to flirt with an NPC? Guess what, he's getting jumped during a
one night stand.

The mayor is a fat lazy piece of shit? Maybe there is a reason the town is run
so badly, maybe he's been replaced long ago. Maybe he is replaced in
between giving you a quest and giving you the money for the quest,
pocketing it.

Your party tries to lure out the Spider from its web? Surely Nezznar will
appear - wait no, it's another Doppelganger, sacrificed to wear your party
down.

You rescued your friend Gundren? Guess what... no, don't do that. Seriously.
I don't like this advise.

The Doppelgangers are the Mimics of this campaign. Your players will learn
to fear them.

Glassstaff is working for the Black Spider. If your partys wizard takes the
amazing staff, let him have it. He'll regret it once they enter the mines. Or
not. See below.

Do not make the Spider the root of all evil. Venomfang stands alone, maybe
he even is the enemy of the spider. The Orcs, the Red Mage, they all have
their own agenda. The trick is to stumble upon involvement of the spider,
and that can only happen if you set the traps carefully. Make your players
curse his name, waiting for the day they finally get their hands around his
damn neck!

b. His web runs far, he is involved

The Black Spider has business on the sword coast. He wants things. He can
control Klarg (and wrestles control out of Grols hand, or tries to), but King
Grol himself is a different story. From King Grol, he obviously wants the map
(and the dwarf), that's why the Doppelganger is there to talk. Think about
letting your players find a giant green Emerald in Grols possession.

You will find spiders attacking Venomfang. Let your players find a giant
green Emerald in his hoard. Let them loot venomfang, especially the eyes.

The Orcs camping at Wyvern Tor are descendands of the Orcs that raided
the Mines of Phandelver 500 years ago. They raid travelers (especially
servants of the Black Spider!) and chop of their hands for their shaman to
conduct a ritual of old magic. Your players might surprise them while the
hands, driven by old and unknown Magic, gather up and form into one big,
floating dead hand, pointing at the location of the Lost Mine. Absolutely let
your palyers find a giant green Emerald here.

Giant Green Emerald:

200 gp (trying to sell: make the trader act fishy)

Religion check dc 15: It is an item of religious worship

Religion check dc 20: It is representing the Eyes of Dumathoin.

Arcana check dc 10: It is nonmagical

There are two Emeralds total. They are the eyes of the statue of Dumathoin
in the boss room.
2. The Lost Mine of Phandelver

a. The Black Spider has a hard time, but his web is strong

When your party explores the Lost Mines, they will find old Orc vs Dwarf
battles, but also dead servants of the Black Spider, signs of new fights, a
struggle. They will also find random cobwebs when investigating rooms:
Some of them are easily dusted away, others snap in a weird way and
retract like silvery tentacles (perception check dc 10 to see they snap, dc 17
to direction boss room). The party will notice them all over the place (except
for areas that have been cleaned by oozes), getting thicker and snapping
harder the closer they get to the boss room, breaking off pieces of rubble.

b. Glassstaff was corrupted by the Black Spider

Let's be real here, we're trying to make the Black Spider more interesting.
But Glassstaff is lacking, too. Let's fix this, LotR style. Whoever carries
Glassstaffs Glassstaff will have to make random wisdom saving throws and
can discover the staff is trying to eventually corrupt them, trying to
convince them that "You are Glassstaff, my loyal servant." Make the saving
throws harder every time, success means they know it's coming from the
staff, then what it says, then what it is trying to do. They will figure out
Glassstaff was corrupted and might feel bad. If the one carrying the staff
succeeds in breaking the spell (arcana dc 10 when noticed what it is), he will
have advantage in the final boss fight, when the Black Spider casts
Suggestion on the one carrying the staff, telling them that "You are
Glassstaff, my loyal servant." Disadvantage if they still wear a red coat or
never notice the spell.

c. Echoes of Aeons Past

"Like echoes from long dead voices, magic from aeons past still lingers here,
trapped in the mine that is their grave." Your party will see ghostly visions of
the life in Phandelver, sad and fun stories of dwarves, gnomes and men.
They will see the war that ravaged the Lost Mines. I suggest telling them
how they see feint ghostly displays at the edge of their vision, dwarves
holding the position on the entrance and getting overrun, hearing the forge
in the distance, laughter from the barracks (and kitchen), seeing how a
mage casts a spell in desperation, then gets shot by orc arrows and falls into
the body of water behind him (the part where you find the random magic
wand). When they investigate just tell them that these are echoes, like the
ones you hear in caves. So great was the destruction, the magic at work, the
desperation: It never found its way out of this mine, trapped in an
everlasting war.

d. The Lost Mine Map is f***ing amazing.

Use it. God damn, use it. Every 2 minutes, blast the sound effect of a wave
crashing. Tell them about beautiful gems, illuminating the dark ceiling like
stars in the night. Tell them about the mushrooms. The tradgedy (?) of the
trapped wizard. Let them fight the spectator or convince him his 101 years
of servitude are long done (High Int wizard => numbers of waves crashing?
Maybe some book that tells the story of the mines? History checks? PROOF
IT!), barter with the ghouls and get betrayed by them. Make the mine feel
alive, albeit long dead. Get them invested. Try to convince them that this
mine has been sullied, defaced, is a shadow of what it once was. Tell them
about scenes woven into the walls by dwarven masonry skill, devoid of all
color and gems. Tell them of the broken gnomish inventions scattered on the
ground. The long gone magic. Skeletons lying where they had their last
stand. Let the dumb Sword +1, Talon howl in fury and start to glow once its
recognizes its birthplace, bloodthirstily wanting to cleanse it. Ghouls
gnawing on old bones, bugbears desecrating altars and the dead. There is
so much good shit you can pull here. Please, just sit down a moment and
weave your backstories in somewhere. Make it happen, it's your last
chance! Make the Mine come to live by showing how dead it now is. This is
important. This shows who the Black Spider is and what he does. He is a
scourge to this mine, like the Orcs long ago. Draw those parallels.

3. This is it: The Final Fight

Your party has made it. They stand before the Temple Doors, heavy stone
slabs covered with the murals of how the Dwarves, Gnomes and Humans
found the mountain. Forged the pact. Crafted weapons. A display of
interracial friendship, and the greatness and riches that came with it.

It is covered in thick spiderwebs and silken strings, blocking the entrance.

When your party slashes them, they snap and retract back into the temple,
destroying parts of the heavy doors.

The descriptions in the module are good. The Black Spider stands there,
under the statue of a dwarf. Describe him: He's patient, he feels superior.
Your party wandered into his web, his lair. Describe how he stands below the
stone statue of a dwarf, grim face, his hammer high above his head, the
eyes empty, ready to strike a giant anvil.
The Black Spider greets you:

The journey has been long, for all of us. The Mine has been rough, on all of
us. You think you know me, but I know more about you than you could ever
imagine. I watched your every step, know your every move. You are fools,
you know nothing. You shall die like you lived, in Darkness.

The Black Spider casts Darkness first. Do not give your players time to talk.
This is it.

You bust out your best damn music. You describe how he summons a black
sphere, expanding rapidly. Before everything goes black, the last thing your
party sees are Giant Spiders, one crawling down a column each. The one
carrying the Glassstaff hears a whisper, a Suggestion: "You are Glassstaff,
my servant. You fight for me."

I want to reiterate something here: This is probably the first time your
players play DnD. I hope to god you have been a good DM and taught them
creativity and that everything goes.

If your player carrying the Glassstaff has dispelled the curse, give him time
to shine and RP. Otherwise, wis saving throw with disadvantage. Good luck.

If a player carries Talon (great possible subplot btw) and has been good to
their sword, let him RP and break the Darkness with the glowing, shining
sword lusting to free this Mine.

Both is not possible raw, but it will teach them to think outside the box. Let
them have fun. This is their final fight. Throw everything at them. Let the
spiders web the doors shut. Go for the weak party members.

Beef up The Black Spider, more HP, better stats, better spells.

Whenever The Black Spider casts Shield, let him be shielded by the webs
and strings around him, snapping them, taking out column after column.
Make it clear the webs are holding this place together in the first few hits
(the hints have been there since the beginning, see above). Give him more
interesting spells.

When he is about to get hit, describe how Giant Spiders come to his aid and
throw themselves on him, shielding him from hits.

When his HP dips below 75%, the ceiling will start to crumble. The webs
holding this place together are being scorched away by your party, being
cut, being blasted. Describe the holy Temple Crumbling, mention the statue
looking angry in the dancing lights of fireballs and other spells. Lay a grid
over the battle field and as a lair effect determine where the rubble lands,
let anyone hit by it make a athletics check or dex saving throw to avoid the
falling rubble, else taking 1d6 damage and being knocked prone.

When his HP dips below 50% increase the falling rubble. His voice becomes
agitated, fearful even. Add more spiders. He glances over to them
sometimes, checking if they do his bidding.

When his HP dips below 33%, describe how the spiders try to shield him
from attacks even more. He is panicking. Bust out more music, let the
players feel like they are winning (you have that music, right?). This is the
final push for them, make them use everything!

When his HP dips below 10%, he screams. His eyes widen in fear, he is
staring not at your party but at the spiders.

No. NO! I can still win this! I will not disappoint you! I WILL NOT...!

If you have a warlock with a knowledgable patron in the party, now is the
time to bust out some of that mythology:

Betrayal is the fate of those who serve the Spider Queen. Observe, my child.

Nezznar, the Black Spider, has been betrayed by Lolth. He did not do as
instructed, he failed his goddess. Describe how he fearfully looks at the
spiders who now swarm him, how he starts screaming as he gets bitten,
gets carried to the (very high, very dark) ceiling of the temple by them. He,
a male drow, was scared all this time of this fate. His screams become
desperate as you hear munching from the ceiling. Dark, magical energy
surges from the shadowy corners of the mine and the temple towards the
ceiling, covering everything in black. The mine is howling, the dead are
wailing. Visions of how the last bastion, the temple, fell to the orcs and got
looted and desecrated appear before your players. Then, suddenly,
everything goes silent.

Your party should now panic.

Enjoy this.

Let them try things. Here is what my party tried, let them roll checks for
everything:

The warlock tried to cut her own throat and pray to her patron. (info by
patron maybe)The mage hurled his last fireball towards the ceiling. (could
work, interrupting the ritual!)The warrior knelt down and started meditating.
(bonus on perception checks etc)The ranger ran to the doors and tried to
pry them open. (maybe. maaaybe.)

If these tries succeed, you skip the whole next part and go to Escape, as the
whole mine collapses with Nezznars death.

The gnome paladin said: "I have an idea. It might be dumb.", went to the
statue and started praying out of desperation.

A religion check reveals that the statue is, in fact, Dumathoin, green eyed
god of the dwarfs, protector of mines (raw, module). A perception check
reveals that Dumathoins eyes are missing. (fun fact, my player rolled a nat
20 on religion and 19 on perception).

Your party can do a lot of things here, but yes, I would heavily imply that the
eyes are missing. The dumber and more panicked your players are (and if
you do your job well, they will panic even more!), the heavier you should
imply it. The idea is to get them to substitute the eyes of Dumathoin. My
party did this with the Eyes of Venomfang, the giant green emeralds are
very good, magical lights (fairy fire) could work, anything goes. Praying by
the way should work, too. Anything goes. Reward them for creativity, but
don't reward them immediately, even if they got the right idea. Here is what
I read them, feel free to substitute your own style and ideas. Yes, it is a lot. It
is story, but this is my style and my payoff as the DM:

You insert Dumathoins eyes.

A moment passes. Nothing happens. [wait for reactions, this is important!!]

A leg falls from the dark of the ceiling, hitting the ground with a wet "thud".
[wait for reactions]

Another moment passes. [again, wait for reactions, let them do stuff]

In the Darkness you can start to see that what once was the Dark Elf
Nezznar, The Black Spider, is being sewn onto the body of a giant spider by
their own kind. Snickering in the Darkness.

Another moment passes [wait for reactions]

From the shadows above there is a figure being lowered on silky silvern
strings. A big, bloated spider body with the torso and head of Nezznar where
its head should be. Twitching, like being pulled on strings, it is slowly
approaching the ground.

Another moment passes, silently. [wait. for. reactions. let them panic. no
music. nothing.]

Awkwardly, twitching the Black Drider focuses its gaze upon you and starts
to move. [reactions, but dont wait so long, no initiative!! Here. It. Comes.]

Then, you hear it. A single heartbeat from the deepest parts of your body
echoes in yourself, fills you until you think your body must burst, explodes
out of you and echoes from the temple walls, deep down into the mine.
The creature stops. It listens. [Start the most badass dwarven music you can
find. I used this. Play it, read the text out loud alongside if you want to test..
Build up your voice with it!]

Deep, deep from within the mountain, like an echo from aeons past, a lonely
pickaxe answers. A sound, clear as steel on finest gem, shines through the
dark tunnels of Phandelver. Another pickaxe joins in. A third. A fourth, in
rhythm. Creaking, an old wooden water wheel begins to turn somewhere.
Fireplaces start to crackle and fill the caverns with warm light. Steins filled
with mead greet each other, and songs sung by rough throats fill your ears
with tales of endless riches and incredible adventures!

Dumathoins eyes begin to glow. The light playfully shines a bright, full
laughter on his old and wrinkled face. With godlike power his hammer
comes crashing down on the anvil. The heartbeat of the mine, unheard for
five hundred years, awakens clear and loud.

Sing the songs of old! Feel the ancient stone! Wage the old war! One last
time shall Phandelver forge heroes in the heat of battle!

Roll initiative.

Give your players the benefit of a long rest. This is their last fight of the
campaign, and they have earned every bit of fun they are going to have
with the Black Drider. Let them use all their tools their character has built up
over the campaign.

Let the ceiling crumble under their mighty blows, the lair actions continue.
Give the Black Drider custom spells, build a custom statblock, have fun with
it! Ray of sickness, magic missile, poison themed attacks, anything goes.
Might as well throw in a legendary resistance. For each eye they blind, it
might shoot one magic missile less. For each of the 8 legs they cut off, one
less ray of sickness. For each string cut that keeps the Black Drider up and
moving, something... Add some giant spiders into the mix that get blasted
away by fresh fireballs, who cares. You balance that, have fun. There are no
rules to this other than your own.

Let. them. go. ham. They won the bossfight the moment phase 1 ended and
they did something with roleplay. This is how you, in my opinion, win dnd
and make great stories. Reward everything. Pull every narrative trick you've
learned, bring in their backstories, their weapons, their ideals. Let them
describe their attacks. Demolish that thing. It is their moment to shine and
do whatever they want.

When they finish the boss, you trigger the escape sequence. You did your
job, the mine is cleansed, but: The strings have been cut. The mine
collapses. There are great videos on skill checks and escape sequences out
there. Go ham. Underground forests made of giant mushrooms. A cavern
with gems that shine like stars in the night. A hidden door. A wild minecart
ride over canyons full of lava, from which you can see a giant fire elemental,
the source of the crashing wave sound, battling the crumbling, ancient
dwarven runes of water holding it in place. An underground lake. A last
tunnel, a tsunami unleashed from the freed fire elemental washing them out
of the mountain, a long fall, the whole of Phandelver erupting like a damn
volcano. The party falling down a waterfall, landing in a lake, watching as
the Griffin Cavalry lead by Sildar Hallwinter swoope in to battle the fire
elemental. Cut. The end.

I only hope I gave you some inspiration with this long af post.

Lost Mines of Phandelver is a great campaign, and we had a blast playing it.
It gives so much freedom, so many options to leave the railroads or build
some new ones. Use it. Make it fun. Make it memorable. Enjoy!