Having successfully defeated the green dragon Venomfang, they immediately began to carve up the corpse for parts. You know...as you do. Blood, skin, scales, head, and heart were harvested from the dead creature. Having no idea especially how to extract these raw materials in such a way as to make them viable for magical purposes, all they could do was try their best.
They decided not to continue on to Phandalin and instead head back to Neverwinter with the dragon bits. They reached the city by the end of the next day and took rest at the Witch and Cup Inn. After feasting and sharing the story of their defeat of Venomfang, they had a restful night's sleep.
In the morning they went to the Starshine Academy and met with their contact, Volstag, and shared their tale. He was thrilled to learn more of the deadly green dragon and when they asked about selling some of the dragon parts, he suggested that the academy could take stewardship of the remains and find buyers for them. He offered them a substantial amount of gold and if they earn more than that, they will disperse the additional back to the Phandalin Five. They agreed and having gotten rid of the dragon bits, they once again headed off on the High Road south towards the Triboar Trail cut-off.
During their first day on travel, then saw smoke rising from over some hills and Nash went forth to investigate. What he found was a makeshift camp of Hobgoblins and their Ogre muscle. More importantly, he noticed that 5 humans were being held captive in the camp. As Nash was heading back the half mile or so to the road, he was noticed by sentries and was fired upon. Nash made quick work of the 2 guards with a well placed arrow shot for each of them, but the jig was up and the alarm was raised.
Nash broke into a run back towards the road and as Farooq had been carefully watching the situation from the distance, he immediately turned his steed and broke into a gallop towards Nash, just as a large group of Hobgoblins crested the hill and began to give chase on Nash. Finder took off like a shot and Bronn ran along behind them all.
When Farooq caught up to Nash, they both stopped and prepared to deal with the situation as the other two party members continued to catch up. Nash began firing his long bow and arrow after arrow found their mark, dropping hobgoblins as they ran forward. Two massive Ogres continued to plough ahead as several hobgoblins took cover and began firing their long bows back towards Nash and Farooq with poor effect.
By the time the enemy reached Farooq and Nash's position only the two ogres and two of the charging hobgoblins remained. Four others continued to hang back and fire their arrows. Finder showed up just in time to help battle the remaining opponents with Nash and Farooq and they made short work of the remaining enemies. They chased down and killed the last four and made their way back towards the Hobgoblin camp.
Soon, they were rescuing the human captives and collecting some treasure from the largest of the makeshift tents. The humans were travelling to Phandalin in search of work in the new mine when they were beset upon by the goblinoids. The group offered to escort the people with them to Phandalin and the rescued captives were happy to accept.
The team and their new charges spend the night at the caravan way-stop and chose not to interact with any of the other caravan travelers and just had a good night's sleep. The next day was another hot summer day and that afternoon they came upon a horse tied up next to the road, saddled but with no rider in sight. They debated whether this was something to become involved with, but it was decided to at least have a look.
Tracks were followed into the nearby wilderness and they eventually let to the rider, a couple of hundred feet from the High Road. He was laying against a tree, covered in sweat and near death. Bronn assessed him and determined that he had been poisoned, so he cast a protection/ healing spell to dispel the poison. They man slowly came back to his senses and thanked them for helping him. They escorted him back to the road and his horse. He gave the group two potions of greater healing that he had. He informed them that he was an alchemist of sorts and was on his way to Neverwinter, from Triboar, to try and make a go of a career there.
The group spoke to him of Phandalin and that he just might find a decent living there as they had no one of his skillset there, and the community was growing. Thinking it over, the man decided he would give it a shot. If it didn't work out, he would continue his journey to the big city. They all were soon underway and traveled the high road until eventually turning back onto the Triboar Trail and set up camp about a day away from their destination.
*** As I write this it has come up that we will not be gaming this coming Tuesday night because 'Stuff' and will pick it up on March 16, 2021. ***
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