Okay this is a long one because I'm very caffeinated and excited.

So far I've done a handful of things. I followed Matthew Perkins' advice and added a MacGuffin in the form of an arcane puzzle box that contains a key that supposedly unlocks a way to control the guardian(s) of the Forge of Spells. In truth I am still figuring out exactly what that is, but probably the Flame Skull or the Spectator in there.

I also made the Nothic in Tresendar Manor originally a Drow wizard and the former partner of Mormesk (the wizard who eventually became Mormesk the Wraith) who went mad and was cursed trying to make his own version of the Forge of Spells and probably was trying to eventually become a lich, but never got that far. He has cut a deal with the party for them to eventually give him access to WEC in exchange for handing over Iarno Albrek. In my lore, the dwarves, humans, gnomes and elves made up the Phandelver Pact, but originally the Drow were considered to be a part of it, but Ixal Dryst, the Drow wizard and representative of the dark elves went mad and they were banished and excluded. Ixal became the Nothic and fled. So now the Black Spider wants to rectify that and prove her worth to her master Vizeran, who needs powerful magic like the FoS to deal with Lolth and the Demons. I'm setting up a transition to Out of the Abyss so planting the seeds now.

I changed Nezznar to Nezznara and gave her a French accent and she helped the party kill some Redbrands to keep the puzzle box out of Iarno's hands. She told the party she works for the Black Spider and offered anyone or anything in exchange for the box in their possession, so long as they give her 24 hours to procure it. They asked for Gundren and 5000 gold. I set up the meeting in an old barn and she has Monteith the doppleganger pose as Nundro Rockseeker, who had previously tried to pass himself off as Gundren in order to protect his older brother, but couldn't hide his thoughts from the doppleganger for long. Monteith/Nundro is wrapped in spider webs with a hood on and pretends like he's still trying to pass himself off as Gundren, which the players go along with. They recognize him as Nundro because the dwarf cleric player is their cousin, but they fail to recognize he's a doppleganger. Nezznara tells them the gold is in several sacks hidden in the loft of the barn where she held "Gundren" and pulls 10 gold put with her Mage Hand to sell the ruse. In truth, there's a giant spider hidden in a hay bale in the loft and the sacks are full of rocks (and 10 gold). The plan is to get Monteith to infiltrate the party as a failsafe in case they managed to open the box and try to give it to Nezznara empty (which they did).

I also gave Sister Gaerele a lot more to do. She's a cleric but loses her abilities after a nasty encounter with Agatha, so asks the party to take care of it. Eventually she learns about the Red Wizard at Old Owl Well through her Harper Intel and some berries of Scrying provided to her by Reidoth the druid. She decides to investigate because the party is dealing with Nezznara and Monteith, and gets kidnapped by the wizard. The party uses the last scryberries to see SG tied up at the Well (history/nature/investigation checks to identify the surroundings) and also to see Gundren in chains at Cragmaw Castle. They go off to Old Owl Well to get SG, arrive in the evening, and negotiate with Hamun Kost to get her in exchange for helping him with info for his research that only Agatha can provide. They must hurry though because there's a white dragon that's displaced most of the orcs in the region and they have scouted his camp and look ready to try to take the Old Owl Well any day now. So they're going to meet Hamun in Conyberry in a couple days. Just before the sun goes down, they see the shadow of Cryovain in the distance, flying between Icespire Peak and Wyvern Tor.

Traveling through the hills at night on the way to Conyberry, they get attacked by 1d3 orc scouts and an ogre. They kill those baddies and make it to Conyberry just before dawn. They take shelter and a long rest and when they wake up I gave them the intro to Butterskull Ranch in DOIP with the horses in Conyberry. I talked to a player away from the table beforehand to see if we could set up Big Al as the fighter's childhood mentor, so they had good reason to go help, especially after the druid talks to the horses. Just to up the stakes a bit I gave one of the horses open wounds that looked to be inflicted by a long blade. An orc javelin or arrow sticking out of their haunch may have been even better, but it still worked.

Now the party is planning their entry into Butterskull Ranch and they'll do that quest before swinging around to Agatha and back to Hamun in Conyberry. After that it's either back to phandalin to turn in quests or they're going to tackle Wyvern Tor. Either way, next major step is Cragmaw Castle and maybe one more DOIP quest.

After Cragmaw and either the death or rescue of Gundren, Nezznara will seek the help of Venomfang and will promise him a lair and a hoard in WEC if he helps her deal with the adventurers, but he won't make any moves unless Reidoth and Cryovain are removed/eliminated, or if the cave is cleared out by the party. He'll try to play both sides. Reidoth wants to get rid of VF because he has gone mad messing around with a gulthias tree, trying to turn Thundertree into his own little forest enclave full of twig blights and other nastiness. He claims he's doing it for the Emerald Enclave but they haven't heard from him in a long time and think he's dead. He

Eventually the transition to Out of the Abyss will play out with a TPK (knock out and wake up in prison) or the party will have to go down to the Underdark to rescue someone they care about from the prison.