The eldritch blast miss the creature, and Lena's attack down the creature skewering in with bolts.

Nothic

It learned a secret of Lena's but took it to the grave.  

Actions:

Faith approaches the corpse of the nothic. What does it look like? What’s on it? 

There is nothing on it.  While skirting the crevasse Faith gets a sense of something ominous from the lower parts.  Crevasse. This steep-sided fissure is 5 to 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Its rough walls are easily climbed without an ability check.  

You gather up and decide to investigate the crevasse and the [rule]difficult terrain[rule] : takes more time you manage to get to the bottom. The bottom of the crevasse feels unnaturally cold. Currently heaped at the bottom among broken and well-gnawed bones is the half-eaten body of Thel Dendrar, the woodcarver of Phandalin who was murdered by the Redbrands.  Obviously, the outlaws left his corpse here for the nothic to feed on.

The chest contains 160 sp, 120 gp, five malachite gems (15 gp each), two potions of healing, and a spell scroll of augury.

The chest also holds a +1 longsword in a silver-chased scabbard. The sword is inscribed with the name “Talon,” and its hilt is worked in the shape of a bird of prey with outspread wings.

Roll History vs DC 15........ Please: 

Matheris History!  9

Those with successful rolls:

 150 XP each.

 Actions:

History roll 1:

Faith’s mind recoils as a vaguely remembered lesson comes back to him. 

Talon… Talon…

He looks at the work on the handle, the fretwork on the scabbard. 

“Is this the evil weapon of a follower of Tiamat? With the name Talon I can think it is nothing else. Look at the repetition of this bar, five times down this side. Ignore the ones further down, they are to band the curve of the sword’s tip.”

Faith points more out as he goes, convincing himself, unless someone knows better. 

Lena uses the time that the others are spending inspecting the sword, to say a prayer over Threl's body. The chunks of flesh that are missing and the easily visible bite marks leave no mystery about the nothic's dietary habits. She lays her hand on the remains and incants the words to try and send his soul off to Kelimvor's realm.

After extracting herself from the crevasse, she looks to each of th others, "No crime justifies yer corpse to be so desecrated. An' t' jus let it happen incriminates every last one o' these mother duckers... From here out, I be shootin' first and askin' questions o' the dead."

You all notice that the lower you get in the Crevasse the cooler it gets.  Likely something weird here is going on.  The body decomposition seems minimal. 

The sword chimes in Matheris, "It once belonged to a great knight named Aldith Tresendar, known as the Black Hawk. Sir Aldith died fighting off the orcs that attacked through the hidden caverns below his manor. Talon was lost here until the nothic found it.

Is anyone tracking the loot to divvy up later or as a pool?  I'm not planning to do it as the DM.  Grin.  

“How deep is this Crevasse?” asks Faith. He peers down, trying to see the bottom. “There’s a growing chill.” 

Crevasse. This steep-sided fissure is 5 to 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Its rough walls are easily climbed without an ability check.  

Faith climbs down. He looks for any tunnel or way beyond what h could see from the top. 

The rough-hewn passage to the south, which continues off the map for about one hundred feet and emerges from a tunnel in the woods south of Tresendar Manor. The passage is an excellent way to smuggle people or goods in and out of Phandalin without being seen and is thus perfect for a gang of slavers and thieves.

Actions:

”There’s a tunnel down here!” Faith call up. “Perhaps how’s these ne’er-do-wells planned to smuggle their human cargo to those with the depraved judgement as means to by them. Should we block it off? We must inform the townsfolk in any case.”

Matheris replies, "I think I remember the boy mentioning the tunnel, I think.  I think if we just finish clearing out the hideout, we'll seal the redband's fate here in this town.  Let's move on inside here and wrap up this place and then get the town to come take this place over.  Might be a good place for us to work out of while in town helping out here."

Matheris starts moving stealthy again and goes west to the stairs and sees a door south and one further north up the hall.  

Matheris hears several gruff voices issuing demeaning commands in the Goblin tongue. Examples include “Lick the floor!” and “Roll like a dog!” The bugbears here are bullying their goblin slave.

Matheris signals 2 and points to the door and points to his ear.  Matheris moves north out of the way.

This barracks contains four roughly built wooden bunks, with heaped-up blankets and dirty dishes scattered about. A strong smell of unwashed bodies and rotten meat fills the air. Three tall, furry humanoids are lounging among the mess, barking orders at a sad little goblin that demeans itself for their amusement. Your sudden appearance causes the goblin to faint.

"The bugbears say, "You ruined our fun, Redbands.  What do you need of us?"

Actions:

Faith’s voice is deeper. His accent changed to sound like the people of Phandalin. 

“Goblins in the wood. Heading here, hindering smuggling. Courier told us they said they killed a bugbear chief, now they’re making up for lost time. Klegg. Klarg?”

“Thought it might interest you. They’re twenty minutes north of the Knotted tree.”

The Bugbears slightly taken off guard and eventually look at each other.

The leader is named Mosk, "Me Mosk, Leader here.  We will go investigate.  Come back later once we see about the chief and goblins."

The bugbears take off leaving the goblin passed out on the floor.

Everyone gets 150 xp...No loot as it's on the bugbears.  

Actions:

Karea quietly says, "I can go take them out, if you want." 

Matheris says, "I think you can take'em.  Up to you.  We'll work on clearing this out while you have fun."

Actions:

Faith begins to explore the house, looking for books as to its history, or to the organisation and doings of the Redbrands. 

Matheris moves north with Faith and Lena while Karea moves south out through the southern exit to ambush the bugbears.

Matheris listens at the door and picks up several voices of villains within engaged in a game of knucklebones and signals the others.  Matheris signals three...then uses fingers 1, 2, 3 and bursts into the room.

Roll initiative -

Actions:  You have advantage.

You are in the middle west room of the hideout and there are four redband ruffians sitting at the table in the northwest corner of the room surprised.  They are somewhat drunk....

Matheris initiative 18

Karea moves south and gets into some shade and makes their attack with advantage.

3 bugbears moving towards the forest where Klarg's hideout was.  Biding his time, he spots one who stops to piss that is 120 ft from the others.

Initiative for Karea:

Bugbear initiatives

Bugbear Boss 19 , Bugbear A 6, Bugbear B 10