Mines of Phandelver - Session #1 and 2 Recap

Yep, 5e. I'm running a game with it. Mainly so that I can #1, learn it, #2, use the free Starter Kit that I won at GameHoleCon (Thank you for the DM raffle!) and #3, just because I wanted to pull in other family members that enjoy 5e. It's a new experience for me and my wife.

It's... different. I'm learning it slowly, but we're all having fun. The group is myself as DM, my wife, my adult son (M) and two of my older granddaughters (DD and J). We are trying to play every Monday night for about 90 minutes. Corralling a very active 8 year old and pre-teen 11 year old takes some work!

Some spoilers are here if you haven't played the module and might do so at a later date. You were warned...

In session #1:

• The four heroes, hired to take a wagon to the eponymous town, found two dead horses full of black goblin arrows. Their employers, who had been riding the horses, were missing!
• The heroes were ambushed by goblins. "Helga the Fish", a dwarf cleric, managed to climb a tree to confront one of the goblins, then jumped off a tree to squish a second. Goblin-pancake.
• Two of the four ambushers were captured after being put to sleep by Meirala the elven wizard. After some candles to the feet (that would be my ever-so-gentle wife...), Pus and Drool agreed to help the *cough* heroes find their friends. 
• The goblins helped the party past two traps.
• At the entrance to their hideout, the goblins tried to escape, but were corralled by Helga. Two other goblins in an ambuscade fired upon the party!

Session #1 ended, with much groaning and subsequent gloating about pancakes by the granddaughters.

In session #2:

• The so-called heroes killed the two ambushing goblins. The mage used the cantrip "Shocking Grasp" on Drool and killed him, much to the Helga's and Xena's horror (the granddaughters were very upset!). Both swore to keep Pus from being killed, as long as Pus behaved.
• Helga the Dwarf and Meirala the elf took the lead with Pus since the cave was dark! They decided to leave the chained up wolves alone and creep further along the stream and passage.
• Helga tried to slip under the bridge guarded by a goblin lookout, but scored a "1" on her sneak roll and tumbled in a clatter/splash! 
• The wizard, thinking quickly, cast "Mage Hand" and made it dance in front of the goblin, distracting it! (I used an old school reaction roll to see how this would go. Fortune favored the murderhobos... I mean, the "heroes").
• The party snuck past and up the steep stream, coming to a dammed up pool. They heard more howling and a deep evil chuckle from a passage that seemed to be lit by a fire of some sort!

And so session #2 ended here, again with the requisite groaning and excited instant-replays by the grandkids. 

I'm teaching them a bit of table etiquette as well, such as to know that how they talk at the table could be seen as how their PCs are talking, and to wait their turn to call out what they want to do. I'm just glad they are having fun!

I think my wife may strangle them all, though. She is the tactical one of the bunch, trying to stay ON MISSION!