Return to Phandelin

John – Klarg and his pet dire wolf lay dead at the players feet, and several of the group were looking worse for wear. Particularly poor Wendel. But they had located the lost cargo belonging to the Lionshield Coister and had successfully cleared out the hideout. Now all they had to do was get the cargo back to Phandalin.

*This became a short problem-solving exercise. *

The group would need to carry the cargo through the caves, then down the narrow trail back to the horse and wagon. But there were enough goods that this would take more than one trip.

They decided that they would carry the goods outside, then someone would go down the trail, unhitch the horses and bring them back up to help carry the goods back to the wagon. This would save them multiple trips and save them some time. The two halflings volunteered to retrieve the horses while Aurelia & Asterin continued to ferry the goods outside.

Bringing the horses up the trail was in single file was a DC 5 which the halflings passed easily. However, bringing fully laden horses down the trail was DC 10 which Wendel quickly failed with one of the horses backing up about to spill off the edge. Wendel opted to attempt to calm the horse, DC 12, and promptly rolled a very high roll on his animal check and bonded with the animal.

*I enjoy taking highly successful rolls and trying to make little stories out of them. In this case Wendel rolled so well that I had the horse bond to him and because of this interaction the players finally recalled the names of the horses. *

With the horse, Pip, nuzzling close to Wendel the group made it down to the road and quickly loaded up the wagon. During loading the wagon and close proximity to the horses Wendel noticed the other horse had a hitch in her step. Evidently on the trip down the trail, a stone had got caught in the horseshoe.

Merric quickly looked over the horse and was able to remove the stone without incident but it was approaching afternoon. Despite the approaching night the party choose to load up and get a couple of hours travel in before camping for the night.

During the first watch the group were awakened to the sound of the flapping wings and a group of 8 stirges descended upon the party. The stirges were more annoying than a real threat, however, there were only 4 party members and 2 stirges decided that the horses looked like an interesting meal.
While the party was busy fending off the stirges, the horses were attacked with Pip successfully pulling her reigns free and galloping off down the road. The quick footed halfling monk burnt a ki point to use step of the wind to chase after Pip and successfully retrieved her.

Meanwhile Aurelia shanked a stirge as it was feeding on her shoulder with her Crescent Claw, Asterin took out another with Merric running over to defend the remaining horse. The remaining stirges fell fairly quickly and the group collected themselves. It seemed from the fight Pip was the most hurt so Wendel used his last ki point to use Hands of Healing to restore the horse to full health. This further increased the bond with Pip.

*Aww Wendel is making a real companion out of this horse. *

Getting ready to go back to sleep, Aurelia noticed something strange, her blade had a faint glow about it. The blood on the blade slowly disappeared as if the blade soaked it up. A question for another time. The party went back to sleep and the rest of the night was uneventful.

Another day of travelling and the party returned to Phandalin. Something was different, however. This time instead of seeing ruffians with red cloaks, they saw several figures patrolling the town in grey cloaks. Several of these people waved and smiled at the party as they passed. Seems like Sildar had been busy with the weapons cache the group had found below Tresander Manor.

Receiving a monetary reward for returning the goods to Linene at the Lionshield Coister, they cut a deal with Linene to store the horses and cart for the forseable future and then the party returned to the inn to organise some rooms for the night. Sildar flanked by two guards wearing grey cloaks met the party at the inn and explained of the new law enforcement that he had set up, the Greycloaks. They were tasked to help the community and to also function as the town’s guardsman. Most were not well trained or equipped but it was a start.

Sildar also informed them about the bloody murders at a storage facility that had been rented out to Griska and the macabre display of blood in the streets several days back. He asked them to keep vigilant and that he was off to speak to Griska about these events.

*The group raiding the smugglers hideout in earlier sessions had caused a few problems it seems. Sildar had been called in to investigate and speculation on Griska being the cause will lead to some future developments in town relations. *

The group volunteered their services but Sildar waved them off saying that he was more interested in locating Rockseeker and Wave Echo Cave. Furthermore, he was only talking to Griska and had no intention of bringing Griska in yet. But he would let the players know if anything crops up.

Despite having concerns with Griska the group decided to continue with their original plans of travelling further east to locate the banshee and to check out the Old Well Inn. With their plans made the party opted to sleep at the inn and we called the session closed.