Flamerule 7, 1491 DR
Sleeping in a bit the next morning they began the day sitting around the table in their hideout discussing what options they had before them. They discussed going after the dragon, possibly going to Neverwinter or just seeing what good they could do around here. In the end they decided to go see Harbin Wester, the Townmaster and see if anything needed doing. They would their way down from Tresendar Manor into the village as people were going about their morning business and the sun was warming the village promising to be a hot Flamerule day.
Stopping by Townmaster Hall, they noticed a prominent notice posted out front - "500 gp reward for the capture of the villain Glasstaff (Dead or Alive)". They had no idea where to start looking for Iarno Albrek, but finding him was something that they knew they would have to do one of these days. They went in and spoke to the perpetually sweaty Harbin Wester. He mentioned that there was something they could look into locally. The local healer, Adabra, who lived about a mile outside of town, had seen strange creatures roaming about near her place and had a couple of close encounters with something in the dark. She decided to come into town to get away from it for a few days. She was staying with Sister Garaele here in town.
They went and got little more information from Garaele, but this is what they were looking for. A local challenge that could conceivably be interesting and hopefully exciting. They followed the Miners trail out of town and headed south towards the old mill on Umbrage Hill, where the healer lived. Exploring her land they noticed a few things. Strange large clawed feet had been trampling through her gardens and around her yard. One of her shuttered windows looked as if it had been broken into so they decided to pick the lock and head in the front door.
What they found inside was a very messy open spaced living area with a small kitchen and just wall to wall jars of herbs and poultices. Every manner of strange herbs and spices hung from every possible place. But beyond the general messiness of the place, it looked as if someone had been vandalizing her home, perhaps looking for valuables. Vases, pots and other containers were knocked off shelves - some broken and spilling their contents on the floor. There was a second floor bedroom that looked just as ransacked as the area below. The assumption was that someone or something broke into the mill house through the broken shutter and was looking to rob the place of its valuables, or quite possibly they were looking for something specific. There was no way of knowing.
The PCs followed the tracks leading from the mill and soon found themselves travelling deeper south into the foothills around Phandalin. They travelled for another mile or so when they had a chance encounter with a pair of giants. The giants didn't seem too intelligent, but no matter what Farooq did to push them to attack or show their evilness, they would not take the first swing. They kept their distance and watched the PCs warily. After a while even Farooq got bored with his attempt to incite them to violence and decided to just continue along their path.
They crossed a river and found the tracks again on the other side and followed them for another mile or so and as they were travelling along an ancient dried river bed they were ambushed by 3 very large, burrowing insect like creatures. These burrowing creatures were Ankhegs and besides crushing mandibles they had the ability to spit out long streams of acid.
The acid managed to hurt most of the team, but in the end their combined attacks took down their enemies. Farooq and Bronn feasted on Akheg Leg during a short rest. Bronn took their large mandibles as trophies. Soon enough they were on their way following the tracks once again. Before long they came to a long abandoned mine shaft and followed the tracks in.
They followed one shaft that split off from the main one and soon Farooq found himself falling in a loose rubble pit about 20 feet down. They helped Farooq out and hopped over the rough collapse and continued on. Eventually the tunnel led to a large natural cavern of stalactites and stalagmites, shallow pools and an abundance of fungi and mushrooms growing within. They decided to follow one of the walls to see what was beyond and when they were about half way across the cavern some mushrooms exploded a large cloud of spores which hurt Finder and Nash as they breathed them in.
They quickly backtracked out of the room and Bronn used some of his power to heal them of their poison. Still hurt, they all decided that they would head back to the main tunnel intersection and decide on t heir next course.
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