Lost Mine of Phandelver

Ronk and Rigel creep quietly around the south corner of the herbalists' shop and into the shell of an old building that is now little more than some partial stone walls. It has no roof and a tree is growing up through the floor in the southeast corner. A small farmhouse sits directly east of their hiding location with doors shut and windows shuttered. They see two individuals walking southward down a path towards the farmhouse. The pair are dressed in black cloaks cut to resemble dragon wings and wear black leather masks with stylized dragon horns. They are speaking in hushed tones, but Ronk and Rigel can clearly distinguish one voice as a male and the other female:

MALE: "Favric will be thoroughly displeased that the dragon he tracked for weeks has been slain! I am afraid to tell him what we found at the tower!"

FEMALE: "Yes, but time won't make the news any better...we must tell him right away so he can report it up the chain of command."

MALE: "But our mission was to come and entreat with this young green to join our cause to free Tiamat from the nine hells! We have failed! Don't you think we will be punished?"

FEMALE: "Do you think we'll be punished?" she mocks in a squeaky, antagonistic voice. "What have I told you about that snivelling, Yoric? You'll never rise through the ranks if you're always afraid of getting in trouble. Besides, the druid was much more powerful than we thought...or he had significant help from someone. We had no way of knowing that, so Favric can just say we found the dragon slain upon our arrival. Favric will have to deal with the blowback from above, not us and if anything, we might actually get to leave this hellhole sooner."

The two arrive at the farmhouse door and after exchanging what must have been a password with someone on the inside, the door unlocks and the two scuttle in quickly. The door then closes and Ronk and Rigel hear a heavy lock rotating into place.

Rigel whispers to Ronk, "Lets go tell the others but I want to stop at the herbalists shop first. I swore an oath to retrieve that lady's pendant and I' m not leaving here without it." If Ronk agrees then Rigel will start back towards Reidoth's home by way of the shop. If Ronk disagrees, Rigel will follow whatever alternative action is presented.

Ronk nods and starts heading back to the herbalist's shop with Rigel.  "Yeah, ok. You need help looking for it?"

"Nah, I can handle it. Go tell the others what we saw and heard. Could be they'll just leave now that we took care of the dragon. Don't worry, I'll be right on your heels." 

Ducking back into the herbalist's shop, Rigel digs through the wreckage until he discovers a tattered, half-rotten wooden box hidden in a small compartment underneath a bookshelf. Inside, he finds a gold necklace set with a fine emerald pendant.

Rigel breaths a sigh of relief after he locates the pendant. Tucking it safely away he joins the others as quickly as he can.

Ronk heads back to the others and fills them in on the conversation that was overheard.

Rigel comes trotting up to the group shortly after Ronk's arrival, "I'm sure Ronk told you, so what do you think? Do we go after them or let them leave on their own?"

Garet stops cleaning and fixing (with some little magic) cooking utensisls  "F...f...freeing Tiamat will n..not b..bring g..good to our w..world" 

"I agree, but I get the feeling that they're still a bit away from their goal. We could leave them for now. Besides there are only 3 that we know of. Maybe we should just talk to them and convine them to abandon there goal. But I'll go with the consensus. Somebody will have to attend to them eventually." Says Rigel. 

Marcon kicks off the wall he'd been leaning on since the pair originally left. "If ya'll wanna try'n steer'em straight, then ya can sure try. But leave'n crazy folk like that to try and cause trouble later, and probably on a grandier scale if they got an actual hierarchy, ain't someth'n I can sit on my hands for. So, unless one of the rest of ya wanna try'n talk wit'im first, ya can. But, ya gotta speak up now. 'cause once we get over there -- or when /I/ get over there, and nobody ain't say they gonna commit to try'n set'im straight... well... what's a bit more fertilizer fer this place?" He asks dryly. 

"All right then. Sounds like we're going after them. How do we want to do this? Just walk up, bang on the door, and have at 'em? Might not be the best way. Or do we wait and try to get them as they come out? Could take awhile. I suppose we could try a bait and switch where we send in one to try and lead them to a trap. Any suggestions?" Asks Rigel.

An idea occurs to Rigel and he breaks the silence with the suggestion, " Ronk do you remember those zombies we passed in the smithy. What if we led them to the cultists? Then scratch and bang on the door drawing out the cultists and make them deal with the dead. Might get two targets with one arrow."

Ronk scratches his head thinking. "Yeah... Do we leave a trail of meat for them? Or just lead them?" The bugbear frowns a bit. "I dunno about getting too close to them..."

Reidoth, who had been watching the conversation unfold in silence as he re-organized all his belongings, finally offered up some information: "They are not violent, at least they haven't been so far. I ran into them one day a while back - they had a lot of questions about the green dragon. Like how to approach it without being eaten, what sort of things it likes...basically how to engage with it. I told them I did not know and that they should keep well away. There's six of them in total, led by the one they call Favric. Now that the dragon is dead, I can't imagine they'd have much reason to hang around, but I'm sure they will wind up somewhere else trying to strike up a conversation with or make some kind of plot with another dragon."

Reidoth looks around the group before finally offering up: "Just go up there and knock...and then show them the teeth ye pulled from the wyrm's mouth. Tell 'em the same fate awaits them if they don't make scarce from this place. That oughta straighten them up..." He glances over at Marcon before adding one last comment: "...and there's the added benefit of not murdering six people based solely on something one of yer traveling companions overheard through the bushes..."

The druid returns to his duties of rearranging things. He finds a couple of whithered eyeballs on the floor of his hovel, picks them up, walks outside and hand-feeds them to the minature pegasi like a pair of chestnuts. "That oughta keep the fleas off of ya," he says with a smile.

"Well since they don't seem to pose an immediate threat I think we're better served getting Gundren back to his brothers. We'll swing back through here later on and make sure they've moved on if needed. Besides I have other business in Phandelin as well." 

Rigel checks the time of day and if he estimates it to be early enough suggests that they get started.

Ignore Spoiler:

 Marcon narrows his eyes and bares his teeth a ltitle at Reidoth after the comment. However, perhaps seeming to remember the man's magic, he looked away sharply clinching his fist at his side. Once Rigel chimes in with his own two cents, it was the last straw. Without waiting for the others response, figuring at that point they'd side with the half-elf, Marcon began marching for east side of the village using the same route as Rigel and Ronk, donning his shield along the way.

And nothing short of being physically or magically restrained would stop him, as all words by this point fall on deaf ears...

From Reidoth's cottage, Marcon storms southward and then to the east following the path that Ronk and Rigel had set previously. He passes one building on his left (the one directly east of the druid's hovel) and continues eastward. He then turns north after passing a second building, the old smithy - but fails to notice the zombies loitering within. Not attempting to be stealthy, the pair of undead Thundertree residents do not fail to notice the fuming farmboy, and rise from their shaded respite to advance towards the lone wanderer:

ROLLING INITIATIVE:
11 - MARCON
10 - ASH ZOMBIE 1
16 - ASH ZOMBIE 2

(OOC: any party members that follow Marcon may make an initiative roll if they wish to enter the combat encounter, otherwise any non-combat actions will occur on initiative count 10.)

The zombies alert at the sound of Marcon's feet stomping along the dirt and gravel path just outside the door of the smithy and spring towards him:

ASH ZOMBIE 2
Attack (Slam): 4 vs. AC 18 (Marcon); dealing 6 bludgeoning damage on a hit.

ASH ZOMBIE 1
Attack (Slam): 21 vs. AC 18 (Marcon); dealing 7 bludgeoning damage on a hit.

Before he knows what's happening, both zombies clobber the farmboy with a pair of moldy fists, injuring him, but only slightly.

Garet gasps "M..marcon w..wait", he grabs his things and moves after him