Week 13: RIP Glass Staff, RIP Spell Forge

Week 13: RIP Glass Staff, RIP Spell Forge

Freestone: 5/24-5/26

*AS 952-954*

When we left off...

With Nezznar and Nundro in tow, it was time to open the room containing Glass Staff, AKA Iarno Albrek.  Nars had some serious beef to squash, so Quintus threw open the door like he does and you all ate a fireball to the face.  Nundro and Nezznar, in particular, suffered severe burns.

Now free of his restraints, Iarno was confident of his victory.  His secret ally, a **Spectator**, confused the shit out of Ulfar, who struggles to do more than walk around the battlefield in a stupor.  It attempted to do the same to Selgaard and Nars, but didn't manage to repeat the trick. When the Spectator tried to take a more advantageous vantage point, Quintus went ahead and shish kebabed it.

Iarno used the confusion on the battlefield to his advantage, luring most of the party into a devastating cone of cold.  But once more it was Quintus to the rescue, and he incapacitated the overly confident wizard.

This left just the **Spell Forge**, which had been badly damaged and wasn't working anything like any of you expected. Selgaard deployed the tried and true method of hitting it with his glaive. He broke his weapon, but the Forge cracked too, and it's eerie green flame jumped into an unwilling Nord host.

As you all recovered from fairly serious wounds, a debate about what to do with Iarno now that you had him began in earnest.  Nars wanted him dead, but worried it was for the wrong reasons.  Selgaard and Ulfar really didn't care about the reasons, but Clyde and Quintus thought it should be done in such a way as to serve justice. Unfortunately, you didn't have much hard evidence and nobody expected Harbin to do a good job. For Nezznar's part, all he wanted was a promise not to kill the Wizard inside the caverns; something has been raising a lot of undead around here, and the Drow did not want to provide it with a fresh Wizard corpse.

Everyone moved back to the surface, collecting the body of **Tharden Rockseeker** along the way. In a clearing outside the Deep Woods, everyone circled the unconscious Iarno and prepared to put him down if he tried any funny business. Nars woke him up and laid down the law, only removing the gag when the Wizard promised not to cast any spells.  Of course, Iarno always was a liar....

He immediately tried to Misty Step, and the proverbial dominoes fell.  In a blind rage, Nars lunged for him and missed; Clyde created an area of Silence to prevent further casting, and while effective, this prevented any further communication between the party; that left Ulfar, Selgaard, and Quintus (who were also ready to hit Albrek) doing so in void.  Ulfar dropped the target, and other weapons already in motion killed him instantly.  You found yourselves unable to talk, with a corpse at your feet.  Nobody minded that he was dead, but nobody was happy about the way it went down either.

Nars proceeded through the rest of the day in a tense mood, not even bothering to wipe the copious quantities of blood from his face.  Another quick forray into Wave Echo Cave to clean up the last of the undead turned up a pack of ghouls and a **Mormesk the Wraith**. Mormesk took full credit for the undead infestation, but ran away when Clyde pulled the **Lightbringer** **Mace** on him.

But not to worry! Quintus and Nars correctly surmised that the greedy Wraith cared a lot about it's collection of treasures, so they reached into the pile and broke Mormesk's **smoking pipe.**This did not have the desired effect of killing the ghost a la Supernatural, but it did bring him out of the closet where he was hiding, and Quintus' magical sword Talon finished him off.

With Wave Echo Cave truly clear (at least for now), the party returned to Phandalin. Nundro met with Gundren to arrange a funeral for Tharden in Blackaxe; Nezznar quietly slipped off for a private word with Sister Garaele; and Nars prepared for an awkward conversation with his mom.

Mirna Dendar took her son's decision to become an adventurer with as much grace as possible, while little sister Nilsa did her best to play a prank.  She gifted Nars her grandfather's bear paw pendant, and though only forged of humble pewter, it has tremendous significance to the family.  Of course, the huge sack of gold and share of profits in Wave Echo Cave will certainly do a lot to keep the family secure while Nars is away.

We enjoyed one day off in Phandalin to rest, shop, and make whatever arrangements are necessary for LEVEL 5 before finally going to deal with Harbin Wester's **orc** **problem**.

**Around Town**

Brother Bran made a brief stop in Phandalin, before receiving an urgent Falkon summoning him back to Cuthbertinople. The reason is unknown, but he left without conducting any of his planned services or meeting the townsfolk.

Halia Thornton has re-opened Tressendar Manor, as the newly expanded base of mining operations for the Phandalin Region. She now offers a variety of services to would-be miners, including lodging, maps, and mining gear.

A group of miners returning from a expedition out near Wyvern Tor was sacked by Orcs - at least, that's the best guess out of the next group headed out that way, who promptly turned back.

A few adventurers were poking around Phandalin, seeking leads on recovering the "The Thundertree" a magical shield made from the eponymous tree of lore. As best as anyone could direct them, Thundertree (the eponymous Village) was a decent place to start looking.