Murder Hobo Squad: A Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak & Beyond D&D 5E record (Beware Spoilers!)

With the sun setting on them and their destination still a good few miles away they set up camp and had a chat about things.  Ramond expressed concerns that he had expected King Groll to be at Wyvern Tor, but it was just a small group of Orcs.  He was reminded that this was just a bounty from a jobs board.  He said he expected that camp to be the tip of the iceberg, and there would be far more connected to it.  They then discussed their plans for the next few days, and what to do with the Orc child, Grilda.  They decided to head back to town after Agatha’s lair to drop off the child, rather than head straight to the lighthouse, although they expressed concerns that she won’t “do well” in town.  Grilda spent the night in an improvised bed in a chest inside the luxury tent.  Talindra keyed her Alarm spell to wake her if the toddler tried to leave the tent in the night.

The next morning Araloth woke up expecting to be under the wagon, only to find the wagon gone and the campsite empty.  He shot out of bed and banged his head on the unseen wagon, discovering his head was encased in a very small illusion and outside it Talindra and Melandrach were falling over themselves laughing at him.

They then headed to Agatha and when they found her home they split in two.  All the more charismatic characters ventured inside, while the rest held back with the child.  They left their obvious weapons behind too.  Talindra took the lead on the talking to her and quickly persuaded her to answer their question (DM: Although unfortunately we didn’t go full RP here.  I’m hoping we can get more in to that as time goes by).  They found out what happened to Bowgentles spell book.  It was given to a necromancer 5000 miles away 100 years ago.  They made their notes and the politely but quickly backed out and ran away as quick as they could, and spent the next 2 days heading to town.

When they arrived in town Ramond went to the inn and booked them all 6 rooms between them and the Innkeeper said they could stay for free after helping them with the Redbrands.  Talindra and Karson took Grilda over to Garaele at the Shrine of Luck and asked her to find the child a home (DM: Talindra’s player has told me one of her goals in life is to start an orphanage and she gets rid of the first orphan she finds???  Why do I bother?).  They also relayed the information she had requested from Agatha.  Araloth headed over to the farm he had stayed at last time to see if he could stay there again.  Quelline Alderleaf was happy to see him and have him stay again.  She made him some lunch, and asked him a favour.  A friend of hers was due in town about a week ago but hadn’t arrived.  Reidoth is a local druid who travels around the area often.  He was last headed to Thundertree and Quelline was hoping Araloth could check in on him if he found himself in the area.

Talindra and Karson went to the Townmasters hall to get paid for Wyvern Tor, but the clerk inside told them that the Townmaster was working from home and they should head over there if they wanted to speak to him.  On their way in the noticed the jobs board had 3 more jobs on it:

Dwarven Excavation Quest.

Dwarf prospectors found ancient dwarven ruins in the mountains southwest of here, and have been working an archaeological dig seeking treasure and relics. They need to be warned that a white dragon has moved into the area. Take the warning to them, then return to Townmaster Harbin Wester to collect a reward of 50gp.

Gnomengarde Quest.

A clan of reclusive rock gnomes resides in a small network of caves in the mountains to the southeast. The gnomes of Gnomengarde are known for their magical inventions, and they might have something with which to defeat the dragon. Get whatever you can from them. If you bring back something useful and don’t want to keep it for yourselves, Townmaster Harbin Wester will pay you 50gp for it.

Umbrage Hill Quest.

The local midwife, an acolyte of Chauntea named Adabra Gwynn lives by herself in a stone windmill on the side of a hill a few miles south of Phandalin. With dragon sightings becoming more common, it’s not safe for her to be alone. Urge Adabra to return to Phandalin. Once she’s safe, visit Townmaster Harbin Wester to claim a reward of 25gp.”

They headed over to Townmaster Harbin Wester’s home and knocked on his door.  When he eventually answered he refused to open his door at any point as he is terrified by the rumours of a white dragon in the area.  They introduced themselves and asked for payment for the bounty.  Talindra relayed a greatly exaggerated tale of what had happened.  Harbin shoved a small pouch of money under the door as payment.  Talindra pointed out that an Ogre had not been part of the bounty and surely they deserved more and he agreed to give them a further 20gp, again shoved under the door.  The tale had been very convincing and he does want them to deal with the dragon.  They asked him where these stories of dragons had come from and he said some miner had wandered in to town and told him.  He didn’t get his name though.  Harbin is a well to do sort, and people like that are generally beneath his station.  They asked where Sildhar was, and found out he was still escorting the prisoners back to Neverwinter.  They enquired if there was anyone who knew the surrounding countryside well who could answer some questions for them and Harbin suggested to go speak to “that wandering druid” who stops by town now and again, but he had no idea where he would be now.

With the bounty paid, they did some trading, and ran in to Araloth in the Miners Exchange when they were selling along their gems.  He was asking for any further information about the Lighthouse.  With everything done the party gathered back at the Inn.  Thorovir locked himself in his room to study Glasstaff’s research on crafting Invisibility Potions, and the others gathered to discuss their plans for the next day.  Talindra spent the afternoon scribing spells in to her tome while joining the chat.  Once crowds had gathered in the inn for the evening meal Ramond took joy in loudly regaling the room with tales of their adventures and his bravery.  They had a good night’s rest, and then headed out towards Umbrage Hill the next morning.

As they approached the windmill on top of the hill a shape came flying out from behind it.  A winged lion with a barbed tale was attacking the windmill.  Sadly due to the long distances the ranged character were able to dispatch it before the melee characters could do much, but not until it had almost one rounded Karson with its tale spikes.  Under a close inspection of the corpse, Talindra found evidence of frostbite along the beast’s rump.  Adabra was grateful for the rescue and gave Karson one of her healing potions to drink.  They tried to persuade her to move back to town but she said she’d been out here for years and was always perfectly safe and had no intention of giving up her home now.  They were able to persuade her to head back to town today to check in and look in to setup up a signal to she could contact the town or town could contact her in an emergency.  Those who did not want a short rest after the fight escorted her back to town while the others healed up.  They then made their way as a group to Gnomengarde.

DM: Thats right.  A white Dragon and all these quests in Phandalin, but those aren’t in the Lost Mines module .  I’m also putting everyone through the Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials set.  They’re in the same town, for similar level characters.  No reason they can’t be at the same time.  DOIP ends at a higher level, and leads in to a series of modules that’ll take them up even further.  The party don’t know this yet though, although those who know of this module might now have figured this out.