HARBIN WESTER: “That old canker sore still lives out there in that windmill? What an idiot. I thought I took down that hiring sign days ago...”

The ill-tempered Townmaster uses the recipe card bearing Adabra Gwynn’s hand-written note as a sort of “chute” upon which he pours 25 gold coins that spill through the mail slot and scatter loudly on the wooden planks of the porch. The recipe card disappears into the mail slot, which slams shut with a curt, metallic clink.

”Now, unless you have proof that you have completed more of my busywork...get thee gone from here. Your very presence is attracting dragons! Go on, shoo!”

(OOC: the party has completed their first quest and has advanced to level 2! Woot!)

Brutus takes the time to pick up all the gold pieces from the ground and hand it to the party in at a time.  “Thank you, sir!”  He yells to beyond the door.

”Let me go get some supplies to do something with these pelts.  I’ll be right back.”

Brutus walks over to the general store. Tossing the pelts on the counter.  “Hello, I am looking for some oils, preferably plant based to help with these pelts, do you have anything?”

(don’t know if you want to full RP it)

After that goes to the mining supply and follow the same routine.  After throwing the pelts in the counter, “Hello I need some salt for these pelts here, I would like three pounds please.”

After obtaining the supplies Brutus will rub both pelts thoroughly and then roll them up into his bed roll, tying it tightly.

“My aren’t you a big fella,” says the clerk behind the counter at Barthen’s. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure, I’m Ander. And that over there is Thistle, we help Mr. Barthen with the store here.” The young human of barely thirteen years is trying not to stare at the towering firbolg, but clearly his curiosity is outweighing his manners. In an effort to keep his interesting patron hanging around a little longer, Ander decides to try entertaining Brutus with a little local lore:

”Say, have you heard about the haunted tower out at the coast? The one up north of Leilon? I’ve heard a banshee haunts the causeway and if you ever get past her, she will never let you leave! So, are you here to kill the dragon? I bet you could kill him all by yourself!”

Brutus rubs his head, as he looks down what would be south.

 “No I haven’t heard of that, I’ll tell my new friends.  People call me Brutus.  Well I’m here just for the oils really.”

 Brutus begins to blush at the compliment “You really think so?”

“I saw a Goliath wrestle a displacer beast once...and you’re a full foot taller than him! I hope you do kill that dragon...poor Mr.Wester has been having terrible panic attacks since it showed up. They say his wife and children were eaten by a dragon years ago in Red Larch. He hates dragons, so maybe that’s why he’s so crabby all the time.”

”I’m worried about Mr. Greyshard and Mr. Ironrune too. They have been out at their excavation site for a few ten days now. Either they don’t know about the danger they are in...or they have already been eaten. Mr. Wester is willing to pay for someone to go warn them, fifty gold I heard! I volunteered to go, but Mr. Barthen said he needs me and Thistle here. So boring...I want to learn to kill dragons!”

“I think we are going there next” Brutus puts one of the wolf claws on the counter “Start smaller, little one.”  As he leaves the store.

Vaxis returns to the bounty board. He still looks a bit irritated at the encounter with the Townsmaster. Gazing at the board, he points a clawed finger at the mention of the dwarves not having warning.

"That one."

He returns to the rest of the group.

"I am having our next task. Dwarves are unaware of the dragon threat. There isn't time to lose, The longer we wait the more chance the dragon will descend upon them. Let me know when you are having readiness, we will depart with swiftness."

Barric looks around at his companions. He had just been out to make enough money for his next few meals, but he felt a kinship to the group though they had only traveled together a short time. It brought back memories of being part of something bigger than himself. It felt right.

"I will join you Master Vaxis, though if we are chasing down dwarves, I confess I know little about their customs nor language. If anyone of us is more familiar, perhaps they should do the talking. I will keep the rearguard, that worked out well with the wolves."

" I assume these dwarves will be knowledgeable in the Common speech, as they surely must deal with humankind on a regular basis in their line of business..." 

Tabesha'l stood with her hands intertwined in a reflective pose.

"... yet I for one should be glad to have some amongst us familiar with the dwarves' Khuzdul  Runic Speech, which is sadly not my case. One other thing I would heartily recommend is to find out as much as we shall be able on the disposition and lay-out of yon archeological find." She seems to realize she's mostly been voicing her own thoughts to herself and so turns towards the others to clarify: " We would do well to get a map of the ruins these two are digging into, if such a thing can be obtained. Or at least to gather as much information on the site as we can before departing."

Barric nods.

"If there is a map to be had it would likely be at the Miner's Exchange."

Barric will head over to see what he can find at the exchange.

Connak nods.  "Go see if there are maps to be purchased.  I will go to the tavern and ask around for directions.  Meet up at the town square at noon?"

At the tavern, I'll talk to any dwarves first, then the barkeep and then other patrons.  Will also ask about rumors, sightings and other dangers outside of town.

Barric arrives at the miner’s exchange which is part bank, part grocery store and part rumor mill. The antiquated building looked as though it may have been one left standing in the ruins of old Phandalin, but had been renovated for its current purpose. The extra thick stone walls obviously served as a kind of vault for keeping the reserves of coin and other valuables safe from theft.

”Greetings, Mister Torvan,” said a distinguished-looking human female of about sixty in a measured, elegant tone. “What can the exchange assist you with today?” Barric, suddenly on his guard since he had never met the woman before, explained that he was looking for maps or information about the dwarven archaeological dig currently underway.

The woman, sensing Barric’s unease, introduced herself as Halia Thornton. “I do some fact-checking on all new visitors to our little town. We have no walls or active militia, so you must understand we are ripe for conquest or at least banditry. But then, you probably understand very well the hazards of not having a standing army, hmm?”

“Dazlyn Grayshard and Norbus Ironrune are shield dwarf prospectors and business partners. While looking for gold in the mountains southwest of Phandalin, they decided to explore a nearby canyon and found evidence of an ancient dwarven settlement buried by an avalanche. They’ve spent the past several months clearing the rubble and scouring the ruins for treasure, but so far they have not brought anything here for appraisal or consignment. They come back to town to resupply every third tenday or so, but they have not been back since the dragon appeared.” Halia has no maps of the site to share, but points out the exact location of the dig site on a large wall map of the region.

While they are studying the map, Thornton shares another pice of information Barric was not expecting: “West of Phandalin, on the coast, is an old stone lighthouse. Ships are drawn to this gleaming tower like moths to a flame, and are doomed to crash upon its rocks. Their wrecks must be filled with untold amounts of treasure! Should you take the notion to recover any of it, I hope we will be your first choice for appraisal of what you find.”

”Good day to you Mister Torvan,” sings Halia as he exits through the door, both informed and unnerved.

Before leaving, Barric noticed (Passive Perception: 12) a small insignia on a pendant worn by Halia Thornton.

Connak strolls casually through the doors of the Stonehill Inn’s small tavern and indeed finds a couple of dwarven patrons blowing the foam off of a couple of fresh tankards, even though it is only ten in the morning. Toblen Stonehill, tending bar as he does every day, throws a friendly nod of acknowledgement in Connak’s direction as if to say, “be with you in a minute.”

Sitting at the bar a few empty stools away from the pair of dwarves, he overhears parts of their conversation with Toblen, which comes through partially in heavily-accented Common mixed with unintelligible Dwarvish. From what he can understand, the dwarves appeared to be complaining about orcs which have recently come down out of the mountains into the lowlands around Phandalin and that if Neverwinter did not send help soon, everything they had worked so hard to rebuild would be lost once again to the hordes.

Toblen peels himself away from the conversation long enough to pour Connak an ale. “On the house, friend! Thank you for checking up on Adabra, she is one of me oldest friends. Barthen stopped by just a few minutes ago to let me know she is alright and that you and your bunch managed to take care of a couple of hungry wolves in the area as well as a manticore. That’s quite impressive, I must say! Try not to take old Wester’s insults too personally, he is just a cantankerous old coot. He pays fair and always pays on time.”

As they continue their conversation, which drifts toward the subject of the excavation site, one of the dwarves sitting down the bar perks up: “There be no maps o’ the site cause ain’t nobody drawed any. Them two knuckleskulls don’t know what they’re messing with...Talos’ storms caused the avalanche that buried that place for a reason. I wouldn’t be tryin’ to un-bury what the gods clearly buried on purpose...”

The conversation dies back down and the dwarves return to their ales and dwarvish rumblings. As far as he could gather, no one in town has seen the dragon in the skies over Phandalin in several days. As he leaves the tavern for his rendezvous with the rest of his traveling companions, Connak notes that by the position of the sun that it is precisely midday.

After getting a location for the dig site, Barric could not get away from Halia fast enough. As he makes his way back, his mind races.

She knows! But how? It does not matter. If Vaxis or Brutus were to find out...well,  you have seen what they think of cowards. Worse, what if she has sent notice of your presence here in Phandalin?  A deserter's sentence is death.

Completely unnerved by the encounter, he returns to the rendezvous obviously pale and shaken. When everyone has arrived, he explains what he found in a strained, clipped voice.

"We are looking for Dazlyn Grayshard and Norbus Ironrune. There were no maps available, but I have a location of the site they were excavating. We should leave immediately, they have not checked in for quite some time."

The party sets off across the grassy plains southwest of Phandalin towards the western end of the Sword Mountains. After about five hours of uneventful travel, the party arrives at the opening of several shallow pocket canyons which form the base of the mountain range. An angry storm brews out in the Sea of Swords, far to the west. Daylight has begun to fade casting strange shadows about the rock formations.

The canyon floor is strewn with rubble and bereft of vegetation except for a few tough, scraggly weeds. The rocky walls rise to a height of eighty feet. At the end of the canyon, a twenty-foot-high wall of black stone has a broken gate carved into it, with one stone door hanging precariously by a hinge and the other door missing. Beyond this open gate, can be seen what remains of a ruined settlement. All is quiet.

ELSEWHERE IN THE REALMS:

The crenellations of the ancient fortress begin to crack and crumble under the weight of the massive wyrm. Perched atop the fortification, overlooking the grasslands just north of the Sword Mountains, a young white dragon scans the valley below for signs of movement. Movement means life, life means food and food means the temporary sating of a voracious appetite. His meal from that morning, which consisted of deer, boar and a dwarven masonryman still clung in his palette, but the taste was beginning to fade and the first pangs of hunger were surfacing once again.

Sensing movement from behind, the dragon swiveled sharply to find a dwarf-shaped humanoid shambling aimlessly towards it. A split second before the wyrm was set to pounce on its next meal, it realized something unusual about the dwarf: sunken eyes, purplish skin and an apparent complete lack of concern that it was stumbling towards a razor-filled Draconic maw. Undead were certainly not on the menu for the young white, especially not with a valley so full of living (and fresher-tasting) prey.

A monstrous wail splits the serenity of the valley as a blast of high-velocity ice freezes the undead dwarf in its tracks. Several miles further west, a pair of dwarven miners-turned-archaeologists exchange concerned looks as they detect the faint echo of what sounds like a dragon’s battle cry...

Brutus begins to squint at the falling darkness, lighting a torch to help him see.  “What’s the plan?” He plops down on the ground sticking the torch upright in the dirt.  Rubbing his feet as he takes a brief rest.

Connak looks skyward, "Lets find some shelter, somewhere that hides us from above."

 Tabesha'l, who'd been busy gathering her spell craft around her, eyes their surroundings with a sharp gaze. Her lithe frame once again wavering and pulsating with the magic of her Arcane Shied, and the small moonstone set on top of her dark cobalt staff shining bright with a steady white-blue light, she illuminates the ground around her, like a shepherd holding a hooded lantern.

" Our archer has the right of it, we must find shelter. Whatever lays beyond yonder doors may hide untold dangers, but camping out here during the night will just as well bring the same fate upon our heads. I sayeth we shall go in, and be as careful as we can be. There shall be time enough for rest shortly, but we'd do well not to stay out in the open..."

Turning to Connak she says in elvish: " Bow-brother, doest thou feel confident enough to explore yon dwarven catacombs ? We shall remain close behind thee, and thus protect thy integrity if the need should arise..."

** OOC - Casting Mage Armor on herself and Light  cantrip on her staff. **

Hauling himself up and now peering around with the new light he begins to look around to get an idea of what lies ahead. “We should probably get moving then.”

Nature: 16