The Phandalin Five decide that since there are no job postings at the Townmaster's Hall, and they deserve a little time off, they will settle in for a bit. They spent a few weeks working on their own personal projects. Bronn built a forge in the basement hideout and offered his dwarven expertise in stone masonry to those constructing the manor house. Nash spent time in town getting to know the people of the town as well as meeting new faces coming in. Nash also spends some of his time learning to work with wood and particularly fletching. Keeper Volstag had sent along his details on Mimics while Nash and Aurelius worked together to create detailed anatomy drawings and samples to send off to the Starlight Academy, which was very well received. An agreement was reached to continue working together.
Farooq became terribly interested in learning about how to mount his creature trophies and has found a trapper named Tomlin Thalin in a nearby town who could teach him. He was a bit of a taxidermist and Farooq paid him to do up the three chimera heads for him as well as teach him his trade. Finder spent some of his time entertaining at the Stonehill Inn and at the Sleeping Giant Tap House. The majority of his time is spent talking and learning as much as he can about the area around Phandalin including the Sword Mountains and locations on the Triboar Trail. He also spent some of his time trying to pick up thedwarvish dialect from the many dwarves in town.
The PCs got to experience their first Midsummer Festival in the town of Phandalin. The traditions vary between different regions but in Phandalin it involved livestock shows, feats of strength, food contests and all manner of country fair fun. Everyone in town brought something to the large feast that was had and there was enough for everyone to have seconds should they wish. Harbin Wester was the master of ceremonies and after the feast all in town prepared for an evening of revelry and dance. The local shrine being to Tymora, some new traditions were added involving makeshift daring adventure, wild revels, mischievous pranks and romance.
After a few more weeks, they heard rumors from travelers of orcs coming down from the mountains in numbers and a large dragon spotted flying high above the area near Phandalin and the Sword Mountains. Itching for some action, they heroes decided they would go on an extended patrol and see what they could see. First they went to the Cragmaw hideout and found it pretty much as they left it, noting that no new enemies had moved in over the last couple of months.
They took on a delivery job from Elmar Barthen to deliver a wagon of goods to a small village east down the Triboar trail, near Conyberry. They would use this guise to try and lure out any orcs or bandits that might be in the area. The next leg of their journey had a bit of a false start as they encountered a strange talking frog on the side of the trail. The frog spoke of being cursed by a witch and pleaded for help. Farooq decided that he would rush back to Phandalin with the poor chap and then race to catch up to the group. He left the frog with Sister Gareal at the Shrine to Tymora. Galloping through most of the night, he managed to catch up with his companions just before dawn.
They rest of their journey to the village of Freewind was uneventful and they delivered the wagon to the tiny village, meeting Andy Damman, who offered them a place to sleep in his loft as well as 25 gold in payment. The next day they set about travelling to Wyvern Tor to see if there had been any new orc activity since they cleared out the last lot. Except for scavenging beasts, the cave of the orcs looked exactly as they had left it. The spent the night there and in the morning headed off to investigate the Old Owl Well.
By noon they were at the ruins of the Old Owl Well. Tattered remnants of the red tent of the wizard they had slain remained, but most of the things that were left behind by the PCs had been since taken. There were no signs of orcs or anything else. The least stop on their eastward patrol was Conyberry and they plotted a course across the hilly lowlands of the mountains towards the ruined village.
By late afternoon their course brought them to within range to see what looked like an old ruined stone walled fortification. Much of its outer walls and towers were collapsed into piles of rubble. Within the outer walls was the ruins of a stone building with a bell tower. The land between the PCs and the structure was a flat no-mans land, cleared of obstacles. Slight trails of smoke rose from within the walls and atop one of the towers stood a sentry with a spear. They were not close enough to see what manner of humanoid stood guard.
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