Lost Mine of Phandelver

Vanzaren hands over the book he found while skimming the handbill as he does, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. "I... uh..." he folds the paper up and drops a couple of gold coins by the shrine. "I need to go Madame... I'll be back later..." he takes off for the inn, looking for his friends.

Sister Garaele looks puzzled as the young man quickly retreats, leaving her holding Vanzaren's dusty copy of Stop Screaming At Me: How to Converse With Banshees. The elven cleric places the tome on the shrine of Tymora next to the offering Vanzaren had left and returned to her prayers.

When Vanzaren arrives at the Stonehill he finds Garret and Rigel leaning over a table in the common room.

Rigel looks over the hand bill and gives a chuckle at the irony of how he and his companions arrived in just the same manner. His amusement gives way to concern when he notices some of the more macabre elements pictured on the paper. "We should look into this before running off with Gundren. Something about this seems off. I've got a bad feeling its not on the up and up." He says to Garret. Noticing Vanzaren's arrival he calls his friend over, "Hey Van come take a look at this. Garret found something I think you should see."

Vanzaren looks at the handbill Rigel and Garret have, before taking it and ripping it up. "Hi, yes, we need to go. Right now."

"Err..." he shakes his head, "first, we have to find all these handbill and dispose of them. Then we leave."

Ronk frowns at Vanzaren's reaction to the flyer. "We have to find ALL of them? Why?" He leans in to the others a bit more. "Do we not like this circus?"

"I mean..." Van pauses for a moment, thinking. "Well, we are a circus after all. We don't need any kind of competition right?"

Rigel jumps with surprise as Van's reaction. "Okaaaaay, sure we can try to find them but isn't that a bit of an over reaction? I mean it feels a little off to me too but not that much. Is there something you want to share?" Asks Rigel as he gathers up his gear and follows Van out of the Stonehill. "It's not like we're an actual circus. I think everyone knows that by now."

"Well I think we would have made a great circus if the goblins didn't get turned into pegisi," Vanzaren says. "And anyways, it's the principle of the thing."

While Rigel, Vanzaren, Ronk and Garet discuss the circus posters, a loud song erupts in the other corner of the tavern of the Stonehill Inn as a rather drunken Gundren, Sildar and several townspeople began singing an old dwarven war hymn.

The by now local time is about 7pm.

Taking note of the time Rigel suggests, "Getting late, we should start first thing in the morning. Unless you think it really must be done this minute." Rising from his chair Rigel waits to see if he is retiring to bed or going out to pick up handbills.

As their conversation continues, the group alerts to the sound of hammering. Looking across the room, they see Toblen tacking up a poster-sized version of the circus handbill in the entryway of the Stonehill Inn.

"Look everyone, the circus is coming to town!" the innkeeper says gleefully. "Found this rolled up at my doorstep. We could sure use some entertainment around here now that those blasted Redbrands aren't scaring people away from Phandalin anymore. Say, uh...Mr. Vanzaren - weren't you some kind of sideshow performer or something? I bet you could give these clowns a run for their money, yeah?"

Rigel chuckels a bit at seeing Tolben put up the very thing they were about to go gather up.

"Well not much point in picking them up. Probably best just to get a good rest. Who knows what that is going to bring. Best to be well rested. Good evening everyone." Rigel says before retiring to a room. He takes a quick moment to checl on Marcon before he does.

"Sideshow preformer no," Vanzaren says, fingers twitching when he sees the sign, "I'm an artist of the blade. And that circus is nothing but a waste of time and money, believe me."

Vanzaren waits till it looks like the town has quieted down, before gathering up all the handbills he can find and ripping them all up, before burning them. He heads to bed once he's satisfied.

As Rigel cracks open the door to Marcon's room, he sees the young man sleeping in the exact same position as he was in hours earlier. As the moonlight shown through the window, it cast strange shadows about the room, and for a moment, the ranger glimpsed the outline of a humanoid-shaped figure lurking in the corner. His hair stood up on the back of his neck when a pair of sinister-looking yellow eyes "opened" and stared at him with murderous intensity. Rigel thrust open the door and began grasping for a weapon, but as the light from the inn's interior flooded Marcon's room, he found nothing and no one except the peacefully sleeping barbarian. Perched on a picture in the corner, was a couple of lightning bugs who flashed their phosphorescent bulbs a few times before taking flight through the open window. Satisfied that Marcon was safe and that perhaps his recent overexposure to so much danger had worn his senses a little thin, Rigel pulled the door closed and headed off to his own quarters.

Vanzaren walks outside to find the wind whipping clusters of refuse into small whirlwinds all about the town. He watches for a moment and realizes that the refuse is all circus handbills...hundreds of them. He is able to gather up a few, but the wind keeps most of them moving away from the wizard as he tries to grab them. Taking what he could gather to a small fire pit, Vanzaren sets them alight. The paper begins to crackle and pop, much like tinder does at the start of every campfire. As the fire grows larger, the burning paper starts to hiss and squeal, also normal campfire sounds. He watched intently as the handbills burned. Then the sound of squealing of heavily-inked paper as it burns seemed to change...it began to sound like  muffled screams...the screams of hundreds of people trapped in a burning building. The wizard shut his eyes as the papers burned into ash and slowly the sounds of screaming subsided. He made sure the fire was completely extinguished before going back inside to find a bed. 

Rigel rises early. The events from the night before having haunted his dreams. A shiver runs down his spine as he checks on Marcon before heading to the common area to wait for the others. 

When things begin to wind down, Ronk approaches Toblen and asks quietly. "Do I get a room? Or do I need to sleep outside again?" Wherever the innkeeper directs him, he'll settle in and doze off for the night, likely snoring.

Toblen folds his arms at Ronk's polite request."Ya know, if somebody had said to me a year ago that I'd be lettin' bugbears sleep here, I'd of thought it'd be because they overran the place. Ah, yer alright, even if ya do stink a little. Not near as much as some of these dwarven prospectors comin' in off the road though. There ya go, bungalow 'D' for ya," says Tolblen as he hands over a small key to Ronk.

(END OF ADVENTURING DAY)

The next morning, when Rigel pads down to Marcon's inn room, as soon as he opens the door the stench of rotting death hits him in the face just as hard as if it had been a tree branch swung by a hill giant. He quickly recovered and fearing for what he might find, he rushed into the room to check on the farm boy. Suddenly, the stench of death was gone, and if he attempted to touch or shake Marcon, he finds the young man in perfect health, though perhaps a bit cranky at being so rudely awakened.

When Vanzaren gets up, he spends maybe ten minutes flipping through his spellbook, silently cursing his inability to actually keep it organized. Finishing with all the, he heads back downstairs intent on finding more handbills and burning them.