A Curious Evening

The party talks to various people in the town and enjoy a nice evening in the tavern. The next day they set out to Thundertree.

## Synopsis

After leaving Tresendar Manor, the party decides to go talk to various people. First, they visit Halia Thornton, to tell her the news about the Redbrands and bring her the correspondence. They also try to bargain for a higher reward, but seeing as they have only brought the correspondence and have not dealt with Glasstaff, she is unwilling to pay more. Then they proceed to the townhall, where Sildar has said he would be. In front of the townhall they also see a notice board, where the mayor of the town asks for adventureres to deal with orcs in the east. They then first go to visit Harbin Wester the Mayor, where they also update him on the situation of the Redbrands and ask for a reward. Harbin is unwilling to do so, claiming they were not that much of a problem and were actually just keeping peace. Letting the subject go, they inquire about the job offer about the orcs. Harbin is looking for someone to head east and take care of the orc problem. He offers 100gp to any group who can succeed in the task. The group is somewhat suspicious about actually receiving that reward but takes on the job.

Next they go talk to Sildar. He first pays them the promised 50gp for escorting him to Phandalin. The party then tells him what they found out about Iarno Albrek. Deeply troubled, Sildar wants Iarno to face justice and asks the party to capture the wizard. He also pays them 200gp for eliminating the Redbrand threat. Furthermore, he expresses the desire to find Gundren Rockseeker. He offers the party 500gp if they can locate Cragmaw Castle and defeat or drive off the tribe's chieftan.

Having talked to these people, the party decides to return to the Inn. On their way there, they are stopped by a young female elf named Sister Garaele. She asks them to visit the banshee Agatha north of Conyberry, in order to ask her a question. Knowing that Agatha is a vain creature, she gives them a silver comb, with which the characters are supposed to flatter her vanity. She offers three potions of healing as payment for their efforts.

The characters promise to look into it when they have time and finally proceed to the Inn. In the Inn they meet some new people; a young couple named Edward and Sofia Hawkin from Neverwinter on their way to Triboar. Caelynn begins suspecting them of being spies, as the letter in Glasstaffs room talked of spies coming to town. She shared her suspicions with the others and they decided to not do anything rash, but get them drunk and ask a few questions. The young couple, however, was not that cooperative in the endeavor, claiming to have to get up early next morning to continue on to Triboar. In the end they only had a few drinks and then went to bed. The party did not find out any more than they met in Neverwinter, got married and are now on their way to Triboar to visit Sofias mother.

That evening, Nate is approached by Garret Alderleaf, Quelline's Husband. He tells Nate of his own stories as a young bard, and they spend the evening sharing stories and tips. In the end, he offeres Nate a copper coin with a lute crossed with a writing quill on one side and an eye on the other side. With this, he offers him his sponsorship into the college of lore. He also tells him that in order to become a full member of the college, he will have to find another member willing to sponsor him. Nate of course accepts this sponsorship.

After a nice evening of drinking, getting Droop drunk, and having fun, the party members eventually return to their respective rooms (or places in the wood) to go to sleep. That night, will meditating, Brottor's is disturbed by a sense of a presence nearby. Opening his eyes, he sees the spirit of a ghost, looking at him. The ghost then walks away, still looking, so Brottor follows. He is lead to the dead body of a bear. Not quite knowing what to do, Brottor approaches the body. At that point, the spirit rushes into to Brottor and disappears into his chest. Suddenly he feels filled with strength and energy, and starts making a totem out of the bear claw. Then he drags the body back to where he and Caldarion were sleeping and falls asleep curdled into the body.

The next morning, Caldarion finds Brottor asleep next to a dead bear and is somewhat surprised. Upon waking the barbarian, he tells of strange visions in the night involving bears and is astonished himself to find the bear body here. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he decides to skin the bear and take the pelt with him. So somewhat later that morning, the rest of the party sees Caldarion and Brottor returning to the Inn, the latter carrying a fresh bear pelt. Brottor claims he did definitely not do that out of a drunken stupor, but the rest is somewhat sceptical. They missed the travelling couple though, them having left early in the morning.

The party, having two different directions they can go to, decides to head to Thundertree, to look for one of the statuettes there. Caelynn decides to keep on travelling with them for the time being and accompanies them. So they set out and arrive in Neverwinter late the next afternoon. Brottor first goes to sell his bounty and claim his reward, while the rest of the party go to find someone willing to buy all the loot they found. They spend the night in an inn and continue on to Thundertree the next morning.

After about half a day, they arrive at what appears to be Thundertree. A shield warns potential treasure seekers of plant monsters and zombies in the area. They walk through the village which lies mostly in ruins, when they notice one house that appears to be in better shape than the surrounding houses and has a reinforced door. Someone appears to be inside, which is why Caelynn hides in the bushes before the rest knocks on the door. Unfortunately, she did not notice the Twig Blights hiding in the shrubs, which caused them to attack her. Luckily they were not the most hardy creatures and were quickly dispatched.

The inhabitant of the house appeared to be a druid. Talking to him he informs them about the zombies and plant monsters in the area (since they obiously have not seen the sign he put up). Furthermore, there are dangerous spiders at the base of the hill, as well as new "folk in black masks and cloaks" on the other side of town. The party then asks if he has seen a statuett like the one they found in the Cragmaw Hideout. The druid replies that everything shiny as probably been moved to the dragons lair by the dragon that has recently moved in. This did not sound like good news. Seeing that they might want to confront the dragon, he warns them that this is a green dragon and they should not trust him, as they are crafty and deceptive. He also says that should they actually want to go there, he could protect three of them against poison. He would not recommend going against the dragon though.

## Featured Characters

### **Adventuring Party**

* Nate Westerland
* Akemena
* Brottor
* Caldarion
* Caelynn

### **Returning Characters**

* Halia Thornton
* Sildar Hallwinter
* Droop

### **New Characters**

* Harbin Wester
* Sister Garaele
* Sofia Hawkin
* Edward Hawkin
* Garret Alderleaf
* Reidoth

## Quests

* The Banshee's Bargain
* Orc Trouble