The start of it all

I maybe should have started this earlier, it has been on my mind lately to record my adventures. I do not say this for vanity sake, but for the sake of future generations that may encounter obstacles such as I and my companions have faced. First though I should introduce myself and my companions. My name is Tempest Vedimere, I am a Mage, an Evoker to be exact. I come from the city of Neverwinter, where my life was pretty good, all things considered. Unfortunately that "good" life is what led me to seek adventure. I traveled to the town of Phandalin. I had heard there was ample opportunity for some one to earn a name for themselves there. Once I got to Phandalin I needed to accomplish two things, the first was to find a quest, or job which ever presented itself first. I also needed to meet some one that shared in my desire to adventure. The second was taken care of by frequenting the tavern. There I meet a Tiefling Ranger (surprising occupation for one of that kind, but the world is large and I must broaden my mind to encompasse it. My new companion's name is Fenestrae, very quiet individual. She does not seem comfortable in town. Perhaps she will open up a bit once we are traveling.
Once I found a traveling companion, we went to the local job board. Being motivated as we are, we accepted the three jobs that were posted. We need to convince the local medicine woman to move into town until the threat of the dragon is ended. We also have to travel to a place called Gnome guardeen, to see if they have any items that will help with the said dragon problem. Thirdly, we need to travel to a Dwarven dig to warn them of the dragon., I would suspect the Dwarves are already aware of the dragon, as legend has it dragons are fond of dwarven mines and treasure. My companion and I left to warn the medicine woman (notice I dont call her "witch", I think that is a very derogatory term and I will only use it once I am convinced that is in fact a witch). When we arrived at the old womans windmill, there was a strange creature trying to break into the building. The creature looked like a lion, wiht an almost human face. It had bat like wings, and most surprising it had spikes on the end of its tail. Naturally Fenestrae and I wanted to assist the woman, and we engaged the creature in combat. We learned the hard way that its tail spikes are projectiles. Eventually, we were able to drive the beast off The old woman seemed great full for our assistance, but was reluctant to leave her home, as all of her brewing instruments were here. We finally convinced her to travel back to town with us, and after collecting our pay from the town master we left again to talk to the Gnomes. Once we got to Gnomeguardeen, we searched for a brief time until we found some gnomes to talk to. There were 5 Gnomes working in a room. We were informed by one of the Gnomes (Turvaround, I believe was her name), that we would need to find a couple of inventors to speak to. The inventors, Fibblestid and Dabblebob, were deeper into the complex. We were given directions to find them, although I still dont understand why one of the Gnomes couldn't just take us to them. As we traversed the hallways that were our directions, we encountered a crazy Gnome sitting in a multi-bolted crossbow. She was rambling about needing targets for her experiment. While Fenestrae and I attempted to disuade this crazy Gnome from using us as targets she began to open fire. We mad it past the repeating crossbow, and encountered a strange type of doorway. There were blades spinning opposite of each other. We could see a handle on the other side, but we had no way to reach it. Fenestrae attempted to time her jump through the blades, but was unsuccessful. Unfortunately time and other circumstances have fragmented the memory. I just know we were able to bypass the blade door because we did eventually meet up with the inventors we were looking for. Fibblestid and Dabblebob listed to our plea for help for the town of Phandalin, and informed us we would need to speak to their kings. Apparently however, strange things had been occuring and two Gnomes were missing. King Nerkly was a prisoner of his twin brother King Korboz, and Korboz had gone suddenly crazy. KIng Korboz agreed to aid us if Fenestrae and I helped rid Gnomenguarrd of some sort of monster that was killing the Gnomes. We conducted our search and discovered a creature that could assume any shape it desired. We found it mimicing a barrel and our battle began. We eventually drove the creature to try and run away. WE followed it the best we could and discovered it again in a hallway impresonating a set of lights. We drove the creature further down the hall and were able to enlist the aid of the crazy bowman to destroy the creature. After showing proof to King Korboz he agreed to not only help us, but to release his brother as well. We returned to Phandalin with four items that might be of use to the town. Unfortunately only one item was deemed worthy. At some point we met up with Argus, a half-elven cleric of the forge. Where Fanestrae is quiet and unassuming, Argus is loud and boisterous., If it wasn't for his healing abilities, I am unsure what use we would have for him. Never the less, we journeyed to the Dwarven excavation site. We informed the dwarves of the Dragon problem and they informed us of a problem they were having. Apparently during their digging they unleashed some sort of yellow jelly like creature. The dwarves were unable to dispatch the creature themselves so were unable to continue clearing the site. My band of adventurers tackled the problem head on and were able to kill not just one but three of the creatures. With that we returned to Phandalin to collect our rewards and to search for new assignments.,
While in Phandalin Fanestrae and I each encountered individuals that would come to be servants to us. I met "Pickled Pete" an older human with a liking of beer. He is however quite capable with locks and traps. Fanestrae met a halfling called Nib, a cleric of Chauntea. As Argus had disappeared on us, it seemed wise to have a healer around, and Nib was much more agreeable than the Half-elf. We accepted three new jobs. We needed to escort the new supervisor to the Mountains Toe gold mine, we needed to investigate happenings at Butter Skull Ranch and we had to escort a shipment of goods to a loggers camp in Neverwinter wood. As an aside, who comes up with the names for these places? Mountains Toe, Butterskull? Anyway, on our way to the loggers camp we stopped by a Lodge called Falcon's. It was almost a small fortification, with the wall and such. but the care taker and the host were pleasant enough. (In truth, we had heard of the possibility of stopping there and purchased a good bottle of wine as a gift. Never discount the effect a good bottle of wine can have on a persons outlook of you.) Falcon gave us a "quest" to complete for him, finding and routing a group of orcs and their spellcasters. I will detail that later (after we complete the quest). Anyway, we took the goods to the loggers camp, and found the place almost deserted. as we searched for bodies, living or dead, we were attacked by a giant, ant like creature that burrowed underground. To say it was difficult to track and kill is an understatement, however we were eventually successful in defeating the monster and we found the logging foreman and brother to Phandalin's townmaster, Tibor Wester. We took Tibor with us to return to town, where he gave a detailed account of the creature and our actions in destroying it. What the future of the logging camp is, I am not sure, but I would believe there is a plan to reopen it. We then began the escort of Don-Jon Raskin to his new position of overseer at the Mountains Toe Mine. Once we got to the mine, we discovered the workers were gone and the mine was over run with Rats. Actually Were Rats, but the stentch and attitude is the same. The rats refused to leave the mine unless their haven was freed from orc invaders. We agreed to help them, but I do not trust their word, and expect trechery before we are done. The rat's haven is close to Butterskull ranch, so we will free that up after dealing with our last job from the townmaster.
Once we got to Butterskull Ranch we found it overrun by orcs. We found the Ranch owner tied in the basement with two orcs. WE defeated the orcs and freed the owner, Alfonse Kalazorn. We agreed to help Alfonse retake his ranch, which we accomplished and Alfonse gifted us with a beautiful suit of mitheral chainmail. Unfortunatley our priest, Argus, is the only one able to wear the armor, so he now has it. Since we have completed the three jobs we will liberate the were rats home so Don-Jon can get the mine back up and running.
I will endeavor to update my journal on a more regular basis, and not leave out as much detail as I did this time...........................TV