D&D 5E - have fun storming Cragmaw Castle! (LMoP spoilers)

I just ran this. The party disguised as Redbrands made their way into the castle to see King Grol. They had already planned out what they were going to tell Grol: that they were here to pick up Gundren and to give Grol 200gp for the dwarf and his possessions from Glasstaff (up to 500gp if they needed to). The party successfully bluffs their way in and is escorted to the back of the castle. Grol made the PCs wait outside because he was in the middle of some business. Listening at the door they overheard the negotiations between Grol and the doppleganger and decided they needed to get in on the discussion.

They push open the door demanding to be part of the negotiation. Grol, happy to have a 3-way to up the price for the map, agreed to let them participate. The debate got tense with the party claiming they represented Glasstaff and the Black Spider and the drow/doppelganger claiming she represented the Black Spider. Both sides started claiming that the other side was a fake representative. The party suggested to Grol that both they and the drow/doppelganger should pay Grol and then let them work it out. Grol thought that was a great idea, but with concern over a possible fight in his castle decided he wanted some back-up and started heading to the door to call for his guards. The Drow moves over toward Gundren and party goes into action drawing their weapons, but the drow wins initiative.

The drow's hidden intent in winning the negotiation is to kill Gundren and destroy the map to prevent anyone else from finding the LMoP (since the Black Spider is already there), so she uses her action to kill Gundren. He is already unconscious and the she autocrits for 2d6+4 plus 6d6 surprise damage, so Gudren is killed by damage exceeding his hitpoints in a single blow when he is already at 0. The party dog piles the drow, the first ones unsuccessfully trying to save Gundren and unsuccessfully trying to grapple, the rest deciding they just want to kill her.

In the next round, the drow disengages and moves over to King Grol's bed and the door to the closet. The doppleganger had previously asked Grol where the map was. Of course Grol didn't reveal the location, but since the doppler can read minds she knew exactly where it was. The party takes another round trying to kill her and manages to take her to about half health.

The drow disengages again, grabs the map from under the bed, walks over to the brazier, drops it in and steps to the nearby arrow slit. The party trying to save the map, grabs the burning map from the flaming brazier and tries to put out the flames. The rest attack the drow and fail to kill her. The doppler shifts into a child halfling, squeezes through the arrow slit and jumps to the ground outside.

The map rolls poorly for its save and is unreadable, the party rolls poorly to track the doppleganger and she escapes. The party leaves the 200gp for Grol to get the rest of Gundren and Sildar's possessions and says "at least we know who the impostor was"

They leave the castle deciding not to fight all the goblins in Cragmaw Castle at one time.

EPILOG

What an exciting encounter. With a bit of bad luck from the PCs and some smooth moves from the doppleganger this became one of the most memorable fights of the adventure so far. They are aware that they will have to face a very cunning and powerful foe in the future and it has added hugely to the tension of the plot. The party now has to find the LMoP without Gundren and the map. Fortunately Reidoth the druid in Thundertree knows how to get there and the party knows that the druid knows every inch of the surrounding land, so they suspect he can help them. This provides an interesting adventure hook for the party to go to Thundertree.

Other thoughts:

Grol's choice to change the original deal with the Black Spider and sell the map was a serious problem for the doppleganger because it was an unexpected complication to an otherwise smooth pick up. The doppleganger isn't listed as carrying any cash and so the doppleganger could only make promises at the bargaining table. This gave the doppleganger a huge disadvantage against the PC's sack of gold.

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