The party is safely approaching the bottom of the hill, near the spider-infested ruined store (U6). Are they headed next to the Druid's Watch Post (U4)?

Meanwhile, Jurgen enters the old cottage. (Presumably Draco is with him, unless Jurgen has other plans for him. Venomfang seems aware of his "automaton".) The cottage contains dusty furniture draped in webbing, but nothing of any apparent value or use. The webbing looks relatively fresh.

A single door connects the cottage to the base of the tower. A broken, old wooden chest lay on the floor against the far wall. An intact spiral staircase leads up to the top, forty feet above, where the roof looks freshly damaged. Venomfang peers at him from a fat intersection of heavy wooden beams near the top, where it is perched. The dragon stares down at Jurgen through the open doorway, about 40 feet from him

"You talk a lot for a little insect," replies Venomfang sweetly from its perch. "Stay on that side of the door. Enter the tower, or try to leave the cottage, and I will kill you, Guest."

(Jurgen: Make a Persuasion check.)

Kimberley headed off to inform the druid.

Quinn follows along with Kimberly. He keeps his bow handy in case they stumble upon any twigfolk.

Syzygy joins them, and returns to his regular form before arriving at the Druid (but remaining concentrating on it until it ends if not already ended) 

"Little kobold, your tiresome mouth makes me regret choosing you for the collateral," replies Venomfang to Jurgen. "It is clear I will not get much rest with you in my cottage. Fine. You may work in the yard. Build a statue in my likeness outside. Make it worthy of Venomfang the Mighty. Do not disappoint me. And do not leave the hilltop, else I will hunt you down and reduce you to a bubbling pudding for my supper. And do not disturb my rest."

Jurgen notices that Venomfang has already picked up both the box of amethysts as well as Mirna's gold necklace, and carefully laid them atop the old wooden chest on the tower floor, where Venomfang's gaze tends to rest when not addressing Jurgen.

~~

Meanwhile, the rest of the party carefully crosses through the ruined village, avoiding the webs stretched across the road near the ruined store. No threats emerge along the way – the ruins seem eerily quiet. Reidoth opens the door of her cottage before you even knock.  

"Back so soon? What'd ye' learn?" she asks.

" Dragons suck...", Kimberley ventured before slumping down against the wall.

" We need to be stronger before we take that thing down.....hopefully before our little friend annoys it enough for it to eat him."

Bryony shows Quinn a silk pouch she had taken from Klarg's lair. "I forgot all about this," she says. "There were some spell scrolls as well. Do you think this would really be enough?"

Inside the pouch were some jewels. Bryony didn't know what spells the scrolls contained. She had never had any aptitude for magic. As she shows Quinn the bag, she has a horrible thought. "What if this had been enough for the dragon not to kill the others? I forgot! It's my fault they died." Tears well up in her eyes again. Even though they are in the druid's cottage, the halfling has barely noticed Reidoth.

Quinn looks over the jewels and scrolls. He does his best to access the value of the items, but he's in over his head here. He thinks perhaps Syzygy, and definitely Jurgen, might be able to grasp what we have here.

As Bryony's guilt begins to set in, he gives her space to work through her emotions before giving his take on the situation.

Quinn kneels down and looks Bryony in the eyes.

"Little one, this life we live is hard. It never get's easy. But know that no matter what, you played no part in the death of those people.

Had we not been there, I fear the ending would've been the same. Their leader was a self-serving fool. If we weren't there, he would've turned on his followers and offered them up as an offering."

Quinn examines Bryony's silk pouch which she took from Glasstaff’s Quarters a few days ago. It contains five carnelians and two peridots - worth perhaps 80 gold in total. It also contains two scrolls that look arcane in nature, but he has no idea what they do - one of the other magic users will need to spend some time with it to decipher their purpose.

"Did ye' lose some folks?" asks Reidoth. "That dragon is dangerous. It needs to be driven off. It's a destroyer. How many people did it kill just now? I saw it circling over the tower for a moment, earlier. We need to balance the order of things here – this town already has enough troubling it. This is bound to get worse, if'n we don't act."

Jurgen continues his conversation (especially with that persuasion roll).

"Cool, then I am your first minion and in charge of all the others that come in the future. (Looking about) We could really make this place into something. See over there (point to the blacksmith shop) we could have a great forge making statues of you in not stone, but fine metals. Silver and Gold. Over there (point to other buildings) would be the barracks for your troops. And over there, the housing for your agents to... " (pausing to see if Venomfang was listening)

Kimberley nodded in agreement with the druid, " We will kill it....we just need sharper teeth and stronger jaws...."

" We have at least reduced the number of bad neighbours you have; destroying plant things and dead folks and.....inadvertantly....the cultists."

The dragon is indeed listening, and nodding, if also perhaps sizing Jurgen up. "You are ambitious for such a little gecko. But I don't disagree with your ideas. And yet we shall not pounce upon our prey too hastily. Patience, little one. Give our friends time to gather the tribute. You have much to prove to me. Today we rest, and digest. Tomorrow is a new story. You may build your hilltop tribute. But now I nap."

Venomfang suddenly takes to the air, floating down to the bottom of the tower, its wingspan nearly the width of the interior. Approaching Jurgen in the doorway, it reaches out with one gnarled green talon and grips the ancient door separating the cottage from the tower. "Do not open this door."

And then it closes the door between you, abruptly ending your conversation. Jurgen is left in the dusty remains of the old cottage.

~~~~

"Killing, killing, killing," admonishes Reidoth to Kimberley with a shake of her head. "We do not need to kill everything. The zombies, yes, they need to rest again. The plants, perhaps, as well. They are an abomination. But consider that th' dragon may need just to be driven out, not executed. And, certainly, humans are not a plague to be extinguished. There is a balance..."

Kimberley regarded the druid dubiously, "  The Silver Lady has gifted us this prey.....we only need be stronger before we hunt it."

Syzygy interrupts Kimberley. “It’ll be fair time before we have the strength to do such a thing. For now, certain death is still in the equation. Plus, now we have a kobold on the inside, gathering intel. Ultimately, it might be equally satisfying outwitting the conniving creature Venomfang. To do so we must gain its trust.”

Bryony gives Quinn a grateful smile. "You're probably right," she says. "I just wish it had ended differently. And I pray to all the gods that we can get Jurgen back safely from the dragon."

Rejoining the others she says, "I'd prefer if there were no more killing as well, but I don't think the dragon cares who it kills. I just want to make sure Phandalin and my family are safe from it. If that means killing it, then I will if I can, but Syzygy is right. We are still no match for it."

(What do you do next?...)

Quinn approaches as the group debates our next steps. 

"All valid points, my friends. Let's not forget that our friend is being held as collateral. We need to get him out of there as soon as possible before that dragon's belly begins to grumble."

Quinn pauses as he ponders whats next. He looks to Reidoth.

"if..IF...an encounter goes south with this dragon, do you know of any weaknesses of such a beast?"

Kimberley calmed and looked to Bryony, chastened, " Your right.  The people of Phandelver should be our priority..."

" There is a dwarf to rescue, yes?"

"Weaknesses?" pinders Reidoth. "None that I know of. It's got a poison breath that'll reduce th' whole lot of us to nothing. It's got teeth and claws that'll shred a human in seconds. It can see in th' dark, breathe underwater, it can fly, it's smart, it's very strong, and it's very evil. It's kinda big, I suppose, if you had cover and could hit it from afar or something, maybe it can't get into the little buildings. And it's greedy. But good luck outsmarting it."

"I got little to offer you. A little country healing maybe, if'n your wounds aren't too bad. I have lots of little prying eyes in the woods. I can send your friend a message if you want. I can whack that worm with my little stick, if I had to."

"Who's it got captured? A dwarf? Ye' got a dwarf with you?"

"Uh...no, we do not have a dwarf with us. Our friend, Jurgen–a wise little kobold, was detained by the dragon while we were sent out to pillage and plunder in order to present the dragon a worthy tribute. 

The dwarf Kimberly speaks of is a fella by the name of Gundren Rockseeker. He's been kidnapped and taken captive by someone, or something, known as The Spider.

Bryony, Syzygy, Jurgen and myself were hired by Gundren to escort a caravan of supplies to Phandalin. Gundren and his escort travelled up ahead of us and we eventually  found their wagon had been attacked by a band of goblins. We tracked the goblins to a cave nearby and uncovered evidence that this Spider person is holding Gundren captive at Cragmaw Castle.

That's why we came here seeking your assistance. Now we find ourselves tangled up in this mess with the dragon while our friend, Jurgen, and Gundren are held captive.