Varn frowns at the logic of Sniv's words. "Fine then. Let's carry it to Phandalin. Do we have a map we can follow or are we just going to guess where that place is?" 

“The payment better be worth it if we really need to pull it ourselves.” Komos half grumbles. “I wonder if there is anything here worth taking to make it worth our time.” He then looks around the common room for anything valuable. ((Perception 7))

All Komos finds are some loose change and food crumbs. Sniv gets a total of 3 SP and 70 CP.

So you guys step outside now?

"Let's go. We shouldn't waste our time here, waiting for a reception. I need to beat Arix." Varn walks to the door and tried to open it

Varn opens the door to the gardens, though which the stable is accessed. What time is it? There is light outside but it is not very strong thanks to the thick mist covering the place. It is clearly day time yet for some reason, it seems hard to get a read on what time of day it is. Looking up at the sky, all you can see is the white veil of the thick mist. You can't see the blue sky, any clouds or even the sun for that matter, just the white mist that blocks vision like a wall. The mist is also stopping you from seeing anything more than 60ft. It is cold, very cold. There is a layer of snow on the ground. Specks of green grass of the garden can be seen in places where there is not enough snow, giving the garden ground a green and white scheme. Strangely, the place is still eerily quiet. It is one thing for the tavern to be that quiet and empty; the city's silence could have also been explained last night given it was very late at night and during the winter but right now, there is no reason for the surroundings to be this quiet during the day in a large, normally bustling city like Neverwinter. 

Sniv looks at Varn and Komos noticing the silence. "On second thought, maybe we should do some looking around here before we go to Phandalin. After all if something could stop everyone in the entire city from coming out of their house, then it must be a truly massive beast. That will surely beat whatever Arix brings back." Sniv shudders to think of the kind of monster that could do something like this, but it is their missions to find such a beast. If the others agree, Sniv begins to look around at the other houses. Does it look like there are people inside that just aren't coming out? Or are the people just gone?

Varn's eyes brighten up. "A monster who made an entire city stay in their houses because of fear? That's definitely hard to beat. So, where is it?" Varn then follows leads Sniv around to search the houses for people who could tell him the whereabouts of the mighty monster they're so afraid of.

Everyone who is searching, Roll either Investigation or Perception (your choice). You may not use the Help Action here. (Again, it's like the noticing something is off but rolling to figure out whether you realize the thing that's off)

Perception: 11

As he walks around looking, Sniv draws upon a little natural power. It won't help him search, but if something springs up at them, he might be a bit more prepared.

Investigation: 19

Walking around the town, Komos is holding out his thieves’ tools fiddling with them as he ponders ((9)) what’s wrong with the town. He also decides to try something, and opens up one side of his Icosahedron, placing the tools in, and turning the device on  in an attempt to clean them.

While walking around town, you seem to have a hard time finding houses. You find buildings of course but it feels like you're seeing the same buildings over and over again. Is it just that the thick mist is making it hard to tell which way you're going and thus making you walk in circles?

After a you pass the same building 3 times, Komos notices something. The mist is unnaturally thick in places, forming "walls". No matter how close you get to these walls, you can't see through them at all. Staying in the boundaries of these non-solid "walls", you realize that there is only a select number of buildings that you can access. These are also the only places that you seem to be able to find via wandering. You could however, try to walk through the mist walls and stumble around blindly to see if that leads to any new places.

Places available to you:

• Nectar Dream Inn: The large two storied inn that you spent the night in.
• The Blazing Hammer Smithy: Blacksmith shop consisting of a small two storied wooden cabin that acts as the main shop, a large garden that lacks grass bordered by a tall stone wall, a forge building that's separate from the cabin and is in the garden. The stone garden walls stretch out from the wooden cabin itself.
• Hackmith's Restaurant: A relatively larger wooden house that has two floors.The front part of the house serves as the restaurant while the back part of the house is the residential portion.
• William Boblin's House: A small two storied wooden cabin that has a small backyard bordered by wooden fences.
• Roshan Family Residence: A smaller two storied wooden house. It has white walls but no lawns or gardens. It is an older design, the house probably housed more than 3 human generations. The house is well maintained though.
• Neverwinter Gate: This gate is the one you take to exit the city and follow the road to Phandalin

From a distance, all of the buildings are quiet. Hackmith's Restaurant and Roshan Family Residence have glass windows that are not barred and thus you can see that there is no light inside those buildings.

If you pick a particular location to visit, I will give you more information about it like windows, doors, wall height etc.

Thieves Tolls restored.
Please roll a check with that tool that you used as a spell casting focus to cast Mending.

Deciding that stumbling through the mist blindly would likely lead to death, Sniv instead decides to test these walls of mist and produces a small flame in his hand and extends just his hand through an area of thick fog to see if the light illuminates the fog at all.

The fog is illuminated but just barely. As he plunges the flame into the fog all that he can see of the flame that's just at the end of his hand is a very dim glow. It's clear that if it were just a few feet further into the mist it would not be visible at all.

Bump

Following the others, Komos sees the blacksmiths and says, “A blacksmiths in a town like this must have an amazing workshop!” He then goes over and knocks on the door, and then attempts to open it, saying “Hello?! Can I see your forge?”

Seeing the flame do little to illuminate the mist, Sniv frowns and wanders over to Komos when he hears the young kobold call into the shop. Patting him on the shoulder, Sniv offers him some divine assistance in his next task while he looks around the shop for any windows that he might be able to use to see into the shop.

Komos's shouts seem to almost disappear into the white misty void surrounding them as there is no response from inside the shop. The windows are barred and locked but surprisingly, the doors open with a long squeak that feels very loud thanks to the relative quietness of the surroundings. Inside the blacksmith's shop is dark and empty. There are a few tools and equipment on display though there is only one of each type, presumably because the blacksmith holds most of his inventory in a different room. It is cold inside, as if there was no fire lit over night. Again it is eerily quiet here save for the sounds of the winds outside and the footsteps of the party on the wooden floor. 

The room is furnished with a long counter from behind which business is usually conducted. The counter faces the entrance. Behind the counter is a single wooden door. Lined on various hooks along the wall where the single wooden door is, are various tools for farming, adventuring and crafting. Arranged on shelves, stands and racks arranged on two walls on the left and the right, are weapons and armor.

Knowing that Komos is probably better acquainted with a place like this, Sniv rocks back on his heels and waits for Komos to enter before following him in and glancing around. Sniv takes a closer look at the wooden door behind the counter, placing his ear up next to the door so that he might be able to hear something from the other side.

Perception: 11

Heading into the shop he says, “It seems the everyone is missing... There is something strange going on here. It’s very unlikely for a shop keeper to leave his shop completely unguarded.”