The Phandalin Chronicles

 Rhogar opens his mouth and raises a finger, pauses for a moment, and let it fall without a word. "Was it now? Huh... It was! Ah!" He lets out a hearty chuckle and slaps the back of whoever happened to be close enough at hand. "Then its fairly settled then! If nothing else, we can see how they've been fairing, and perhaps even resupply for the last leg of the trip! Haha! Ah! It seems a few days of us not having to run around has already got my mind all KINDS of twisted in on itself." He admits, chuckling as he shook his head.

"Well in that case! What are we waiting for?! Let's set off immediately for Gnomengarde!" Rhogar declared happily alongside a cheerily and cutely roaring Ghorar. "Oh, and as for the Helm, Master Krom, the helm should be yours. So that at least one 'gift' of kin remains in proper hands." He smiles. "Plus, if I must admit, I rather like my eye color. Though, it would've been funny, I IMAGINE, at least, if Ghorar had it though." Chuckling, he marches his way for the carriage, ready to take that one step closer to the end game.

"Very well then. We shall pay a visit to the gnomes. Please excuse me, I just have one more matter to take care of."  Kazri goes to see Linene. "Ms. Graywind. We are heading to Gnomengarde, then, we shall pay this dragon a visit. Hopefully we will put an end to its days of terrorizing this region once and for all. Keep the Sending Stone. Please let us know if you are in any danger, and I shall update you on our status."

"To Gnomengarde then, one last step before facing the Dragon!" Krom climbs on the carriage and, as soon as all the party members are ready, will start moving it towards Gnomengarde.

Krom makes the gesture of taking the helm from Rhogar but he stops "Thank you, I appreciate the gesture, I have to admit, that having a red-eyed Ghorar would rise our spirits so please give it to Ghorar."

Graywind meets with Kazri and agrees to keep her informed of what is happening at Axeholm.  Kazri can also easily inform Graywind of the dragon's defeat so they can return to the village.

You break out your map of the area and mark the locations of places you have visited.  Icespire Peak is marked on the map by Graywind and the recollected accounts of those whose saw the vision of the dragons lair piece together its approximate location, Icespire Hold.

You see that if you head NE along the  western edge of the Sword Mountains you will indeed reach Gnomengarde within a day.

From there you would leave the foothills of the mountains and enter the heights.   You surmise that travel may be difficult and judging by the snow covered peaks that it will be cold.

Each hex is 5 miles.  You can normally travel 4-5 hexes per day but travel through the mountain areas will be difficult and slow and will be reduced to 2-3 per day.

"It will be an hard travel from now on, but we should be able to reach Gnomengarde within one day." says Krom as he drives the carriage, "Chill, since you have the best sight within us, could you keep an eye on the sky? The Dragon may decide to attack us."

During the travel, after midday, Krom will chant an hymn of Aid to fortify the group.

(OOC Krom will cast Aid at 3nd level 2 times granting a +10 Hp current and max to all the group for 8 hours. )

Kazri rides Serenity a little ahead of the wagon.

Rhogar more than happily rides along the back, though now more wary of final destination. "Here is hoping our soon to hopefully be gnomish compatriots have a habit of making oversized winter clothing." He would comment at one time or another alongside a hearty chuckle, and newly helmed Ghorar trying to scare Chip and Chill throughout the trip.

“Good idea Mr. Nimbatuul. We may need to purchase appropriate garment for when we pay this dragon a visit.” Kazri wearily looks at her boots of winterland and hope that it will shield her from the cold when the time comes.

Chill plays along with Ghorar and pretends to be scared when he sneaks up on him trying to scare him with his glowing red eyes.

"I hope the gnomes can help us out with warm clothing because we didn't plan this very well.  I almost wonder if it isn't worth going around and sticking to the foothills."  Chill remarks as they travel.

Rekuberk nods as he takes the crossbow, trying to load it a few times before he manages to get the bolt to fit properly. Once that comical display is done he moves to take point with those that walk in the front, keeping his sword drawn at all times.

Following the edge of the mountains you travel northeast.  Eventually you come upon and follow a stream uphill to the base of the mountain, where waterfall erosion has carved out a natural concavity. The roaring waterfall creates a cloud of mist as it plunges into a shallow pool of water, within which rise two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms. Several cave openings overlook the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain blocks any sunlight from reaching this place.

When the carriage finally comes to a stop, Rhogar and Ghorar are rather eager to get hop out of the carriage, and just spend the first few minutes stretching on the spot. "Ahh...Much Better! Now, let's see--oh. So this is the place? I had half figured it'd be a CASTLE of some kind. For as understand it, Gnomes are a rather industrious people." Rhogar casually strolls up to at least where river connected into the small lake.

"It appears there's a natural ramp to the west there we can give a try first -- SHOULD try first before the others. Though with them being so close to the dragon, I suspect company would be the least expected thing. So, chill? Up for a bit of scouting ahead as we go? Or do we go bold?"

(@AL: Just so its clear OOC, by west, it'd be east on the map.)

"I'd say bold scouting Rhogar."  as Chill moves forward and carefully up the ramped entrance on the east side.

Stealth 22

Perception 26

As the carriage comes to a stop Krom says to Rhogar "Usually gnomes prefer to live under the mountains so if they have a castle, it will be underground. That ramp over there seems to be the main entrance, let's wait a few minutes and then follow our friend."

"Those mushrooms may be edible, but with this cold I would prefer to not get wet." says Krom looking at the two small islands.

The dwarf then climbs down from the carriage and pulls it a bit more towards south trying to give the horses some protection from the weather.

Climbing up the easy sloped trail, quieter than a mouse, Chill peers into the cavern.  He sees that the caves are illuminated by hanging oil lanterns attached to rope-and-pulley mechanisms. The ceilings throughout are 7 feet high and flat. He can see a couple short hallways and junctions, but hears nothing.

Kazri unmount Serenity and tie her to the wagon. She will have her shield at the ready, but leave the Dragon Slayer Sword sheathed. She stays close to the wagon and let the experts do the scouting.

Chill motions for the others to follow and then heads north.

"I would say otherwise. But, I doubt they would wish us to casually partake of their front garden in so brazen a fashion." Rhogar had said grinning at Krom.  Once Chill motions the group after, Rhogar gladly followed along after the Tabaxi, eager to see this so called underground home of gnomes. Though Ghorar would flutter on ahead, joining Chill in any future scouting.

You come upon a room that contains several dining tables and chairs sized for Small folk. A stout wooden cabinet against the east wall holds tin dishware and utensils.  You now hear voices and continue north following the sounds of work and talking.

The passage opens to a larger room that is obviously and kitchen.  This kitchen is furnished with gnomes in mind, so everything is either close to the floor or readily reachable by tugging on an overly complicated rope-and-pulley mechanism. Five rock gnomes busy themselves here:

A female uses a poker to stoke the fire of a hot iron stove standing against the east wall. A male uses a complicated press-like contraption to squeeze oil out of a big red mushroom and filter the liquid into four oil flasks.  A female stands atop a low table and uses a mechanical rolling pin contraption to kneed green bread dough. The severed caps of several big green mushrooms are set around her. Another male forms the dough into loaves of green bread, his tongue sticking out as he carefully shapes each loaf like a master sculptor and a third female teeters on a stool as she stuffs a big purple mushroom into a barrel, so that it can ferment and be turned into mushroom wine.

They are all so busy they do not see or hear you enter.

Rekuberk stretches as he gets off the wagon, moving to keep in pace with the rest as they go ahead. As he walks he will once more ready his sword as if he was constantly ready to fight, either do to bloodlust or possibly paranoia. 

As the rooms get somewhat smaller he does he best to not have to crouch to much as he does not want it to be uncomfortable.