The next morning was a busy one. Keeper spent her morning copying over several spells from the various texts the group had collected and adding them to her personal spellbook. Bronn spent his morning at his forge creating a special magical component for Nash. When all was said and done, the group checking in with Harbin Wester. The news was all about the dragon sightings and the increased orc presence in the area. An outlaying farm had been attacked by the dragon and it had carried off with some of their cattle. There were several notices on the board and the team decided to pick up a couple of them.
Harbin was concerned about some dwarves who were excavating ruins in the area and wanted them to be warned. The other quest was to go to the reclusive gnome community called Gnomengarde, in the hills several miles south of Phandalin. Harbin wanted to see if these eccentric yet crafty folk had any magic or inventions to aid in the defense of Phandalin and the region.
The PCs headed out to bring news to the excavating dwarves first. On the way south out of town they passed near Umbrage hill and Adabra's converted windmill. They quickly discovered that her home was under attack by two manticores of decidedly unpleasant dispositions. Dodging the flying spikes from the evil monsters' tails and bracing their shields against their raking claws and vicious bites, the Phandalin Five defeated their foes once again, much to the relief of Adabra. She gave each of the PCs one of her home brewed healing potions as a token of thanks. Using Bronn's sending spell, they contacted their associate at the Starshine Academy for help in identifying any potentially valuable bits to be harvested from a Manticore, and they did their best. Farooq said the creature was too horrifying to look at to be mounted with his other trophies at the hideout.
From there they traveled to the dwarven expedition. A large avalanche centuries ago had buried the entrance to some temple and they could see that much of the outer ruins were excavated already. Looking around they found two dwarf explorers named Dazlyn Grayshard and Norbus Ironrune, who were working on clearing the area. They needed help with a problem - they had cleared out the main entrance and while exploring the ruins they were set upon by massive ochre jellies. They offered a pair of Sending Stones if the PCs would clear out the creatures. After killing all of the jellies and finding every secret door in the place, the PCs were confident that the site was as safe as it could be.
They warned the dwarves of the dragon in the area and the many orcs who had been displaced from the mountains and come raiding into the lowlands. This temple would be a grand fortified outpost for a group of orcs. They convinced the dwarves to go back to Phandalin in the morning. They decided that it was too late to leave for Gnomengarde and would sleep in the temple that night. On the way out of the ruins in the morning they ran straight into an orc war party looking for a fight.
Farooq took up position holding a narrow front to fight the orcs. Arrows and spells flew at him even as several mighty orcs rushed full on against his position. The battle was vicious and as Farooq stepped forth to make room for Bronn the orcs overcame his position and several rushed past to harry the back of the heroes ranks. Keeper suffered serious wounds at the hands of one of the more powerful orcs, even as she attempted to get out of his range. 100% was needed from everyone in the party to overcome these foes and when the last orc fell, Bronn was busy tending to his comrades wounds for several minutes.
The rested for a bit to catch their breath and continued eastward to the trail that led back to Phandalin, so they could set the dwarves safely on their way before traveling on to Gnomengarde.