After spending the night in the hilltop ruins of
Thundertree, the party performed a more through search of the area. Silvermoon was able find a stairway leading down to a basement of a large ruin. At the bottom of the stairs was a locked wooden door. Silvermoon was able to easily pick the lock, though swelling of the wood still required the party to pry it open.
Inside, they found several sets of stone shelves containing scrolls, maps, and ledger books. They had apparently found the records room of the old city hall. Silvermoon took the book with the latest dates that she could find, then the party carefully resealed the cellar door.
Deciding to go next to
Phandalin, the party retraced their path back down the hill (no longer blocked by the thorn-hedge or illusionary terrain) and followed the
Red River downstream towards
Conyberry. When they reached Conyberry, they were careful to give the ruined village a wide berth, and continued southward to the
Tri-Boar Trail.
Once on the Tri-Boar Trail, the party soon noticed that the tracks indicated heavier traffic than they had seen on their previous journeys along the ancient road. The traffic appeared to be small groups of people on foot, pack mules, and small carts, most of them headed west towards Phandalin. Arriving at the town itself, the party found ti to be much more crowded than usual. The village commons across the town square from the inn was filed with tents. As a result,
Sildar Hallwinter was drilling some of the townsfolk in a field north of town.
Sildar confirmed the large influx of prospectors, adventurers, and fortune-seekers, all drawn to Phandalin by news of the rediscovery of
Phandelver. He said that dwarves hired a few of them, but most were turned away at the entrance to the dwarven settlement. The newcomers are now either wandering the hills looking for other mining deposits, or hanging around town until they run out of money. Sildar added that one of the penniless itinerants even tried to steal from the Shrine of Tymora. The party decided to give Sildar 100 gold and several surplus weapons to help his effort to boost and train the local militia.
Entering the town proper, Riswynn noticed
Sister Gabrielle performing a sacrifice to Chauntea at the shrine near the center of town, and went over to introduce herself. Gabrielle was happy to see another cleric of Chauntea, and offered to let Riswynn stay at her home while she was in town. Riswynn agreed, and told the party where to find her if needed.
Almalexia separated from the party to go see
Harbin Wester, and was gone for the rest of the day and night.
Silvermoon took the book recovered from Thundertree to the Phandalin Miner's Exchange. As she approached the building, she spotted a previously-unnoticed detail in the decorative scrollwork of the sign. Entering the Exchange, Silvermoon confirmed her suspicion of
Halia Thorton's side-business. Halia was excited to see the book from Thundertree. She explained that her office has no deeds or other records from Thundertree, and would love to take an expedition there to retrieve the other papers. Silvermoon replied that the party had other immediate plans, but perhaps they could escort her there when they return. Halia then queried Silvermoon extensively about the ruins of Thundertree.
Halia also expressed concerns about the large number of newcomers in town. She said that is worried about the new-arrivals claim-jumping the digs of existing, long-term miners.
[I think I forgot to mention this during the session.]
Silvermoon then asked Halia about the title-search they requested for the derelict Sleeping Giant tavern. Halia replied that she still hadn't heard back from
Blackrock, and suggested a few carefully-placed "fees" there could move their requests to the top of the priority list. Halia then gave Silvermoon the names of a couple contacts in Blackrock who could "expedite" matters.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party went the inn. There they were met by
Gundren Rockseeker who called them over to his table. After catching up with each other on recent events, Gundren told the party that they were having trouble getting the mines of
Phandelver full back into operation. He explained that the smelter was designed to be powered by a captive fire elemental. Since the party had destroyed the one that had been in the smelter, they were not able to use it to smelt any ore. Gundren then asked if the party spell-slingers could obtain a new fire elemental. The party replied that they did not currently have the means to do so, but would look for one.
The owner of the inn recognized the party, and even though there was a waiting list of rooms (many of the overflow in tents in the village commons), he moved them to the front of the line so they could have a room for the night. After dinner, they were approached by a young human man who introduced himself as
Marcus Dendra.
Marcus said that he had come to pick up the pendant his sister had asked them to retrieve from Thundertree. He said that he wanted to save them the long trip back to
Westport. Although the party believed that he was who claimed to be, they felt he was hiding something, and declined to give him the pendant. They then offered that he could accompany the party back to Westport. Marcus reluctantly agreed to this, and told them he was renting a cot in the red tent over in the commons, and said to get him when the party left town. He asked if he could get a look at the pendant that had been missing from his family for so long, but the party declined.
Later that evening, as the party at the inn enjoyed their after-dinner drinks, they noted that there were several "adventuring types" in addition to all the locals and prospectors in the common room. Of the adventuring types, a half-orc male and a pair of half-elves (male and female) appeared to be taking note of the party. After a few minutes, the two half-elves left the inn. Squirrelly followed them, using her wild-shape ability to become a spider to follow stealthily.
Back at the inn, Silvermoon started a conversation with the half-orc. The half-orc said that and his comrades heard rumors of "easy money" at Phandalin, but so far they hadn't found any. He said they would probably stick around a while longer before moving on.
Squirrelly (as a spider) followed the two half-elves to a small campsite in the woods about a quarter-mile north of town. As he listened in near the low fire the pair had lit, one said that "He's a lot bigger than I expected", while the other replied "Yeah, but I think we can take him". Squirrelly then moved between the two half-elves and wild-shaped into a dire wolf. As the two half-elves staggered backwards, surprised at the sudden appearance of a wolf, Squirrelly stood his ground and howled loudly.
Back in town, Cressidien heard the howl and recognized that Squirrely was probably in trouble. He alerted the rest of party, who existed the inn and headed north towards the sound. Meanwhile, Cressidien ran to Sister Gabrielle's house to retrieve Riswynn. He then carried the dwarven cleric and also ran to the north.
Back at the campsite, Squirrelly soon realized that being surrounded by a pair of assassins was
not a desirable tactical situation. When the party reached the campsite, they found Squirrelly's half-orc body motionless next the low fire. Cressidien spotted two humanoid forms running away at the edge of his enhanced darkvision, so he dropped Riswynn next to the fire and dashed off after the fleeing figures.
Checking Squirrelly, Riswynn discovered that he was indeed recently slain. She dug into her pack and retrieved the diamonds needed to cast Revivify, and began the holy prayer to restore her fallen comrade. Squirrelly gasped for breath, and regained consciousness, but found herself extremely fatigued. Riswynn then applied some healing prayers to move her patient further from death's door.
Cressidien was able to easily outpace the fleeing half-elves, and his attacks slowed them down enough that the rest of the party could catch up. Facing the entire group, the pair quickly fell, and they were both cut down. Searching the bodies, the party found some gold, their weapons, and two vials of poison. No letters or other documents were found.
The party moved the bodies back to the campsite, and put them in their bedrolls as though they were asleep. They then cleaned up the area, hiding any signs of combat, and all but Squirrelly hid in the bushes, hoping to ambush the half-orc when he too returned to the camp.
Squirrely, meanwhile, went back to the inn while Riswynn returned to Gabrielle's house. At the inn, there was no sign of the half-orc, so Squirrelly sat down and finished his drink. Eventually all the other patrons turned in, either to their own rooms or outside to the tents on the commons. Later, one of the bar maids came to pick up the mugs and dinner plates. She gulped down the contents of some of the mugs as she collected them. When she got to Koravhik's mug, she downed it heartily, then began coughing and choking. Squirrelly quickly cast Lesser Restoration to cleanse the barmaid of poison, and her breathing began to clear. When she asked what had happened, Squirrelly explained that goliath spittle can be poisonous to other species, and that his mug probably contained backwash. The barmaid appeared to be shocked to hear this.
Back in the woods, the party did not see anyone approach throughout the night, and at dawn they ended their stakeout. At Cressidien's urging, they erected small pyres and burned the two bodies. They then returned to the inn. When Koravhik entered, a couple of the barmaids exchanged glances, whispered, and eyed him warily.
Since most of the party did not get a long rest the previous night, they decided to wait until the next day to begin their journey eastward to Westport and Blackrock. Halia found them in the inn, and showed the party her notes and maps based on her discussion with Silvermoon. The papers did seem to reflect to what the party remembered of Thundertree. She then asked them to sign a block of text attesting that the papers were an accurate record of what they saw when they surveyed the ruins of Thundertree at Halia's direction.
The next day, when the party was preparing to leave, Almalexia appeared with news from townmaster Wester....
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