The Lost Mines of Phandelver
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TL;DR
The party started out in Neverwinter. Gundren Rockseeker, a friend of the group, requisitioned their aid in transporting a cart to Phandalin. Travel on the High Road was pleasant. Shortly after turning east on the Triboar Trail, they were ambushed by goblins!Gundren Rockseeker, Patron and Friend
Y our story begins in the city of Neverwinter when your dwarf patron and friend, Gundren Rockseeker, hires you all to escort a wagon to Phandalin. Gundren has gone ahead with a warrior, Sildar Hallwinter, to attend to business in the town while your group follows with the supplies. He has offered to pay 10gp each by the owner of Barthen's Provisions in Phandalin when you deliver the wagon safely to that trading post. Phandalin is a rough-and-tumble settlement, and your cart contains provisions and other such goods. It's a couple of days' travel southeast of Neverwinter. Gundren was clearly excited and more than a little secretive about his reasons for the trip, saying only that he and his brothers had found "something big," and that he'd pay you nicely for escorting his supplies to the trading post in Phandalin, Barthen's Provisions. When he and Sildar Hallwinter left a little early, he claimed he needed to arrive early to "take care of business."Travel to Phandalin
You have spent the last few days following the The High Road south from Neverwinter, and you've just recently veered east along the Triboar Trail. You've encountered no trouble so far, but this territory can be dangerous. Bandits and outlaws have been known to lurk along the trail. "Ah bey ye we git thare 'n' thare isnae even a kinch, this is easy dosh." said Rass, a kobold. "You're likely correct, young Rass. But when old Gundren calls, am I right? Do you remember when he tried to get us to hide all those bodies? We all told him; 'No, thank you', at least I did, and we all went on our merry way. Good old Gundren has some of the craziest requests." Drallengray says while clearing and restringing his bow. Rass chattered his response. “That silly dward reminds me o' mah da. Pie eater wee dwarf loveable bit ye ne'er ken whit he's actually up tae. “ ”Oh man, there was this one time I remember Gundren called on me one mornings before the sun rose and when I opened the door, fully loaded and ready to go; he was just drunk off his arse and needed a place to crash.” Drallengray starts to laugh. ” I was cleaning his mead off the furniture of my room at the inn for weeks.” “That's nae even th' craziest thing that happened that nicht. Ye shuid hae seen him getting sloshed, ive ne'er seen a dwarf kegstand lik' that, he drank sae muckle ale that whin he wis dane he wis laying at th' bahookie o' th' barrel.” Came the kobold's reply. ”Oh man, classic Gundren.” Drallengray says wiping a tear off his cheek. ”You remember his brothers? Oh, one time they showed up, at least some of them showed up in town, elders know how many the dwarf actually has. Anyway, they showed up and all stayed with Gundren at his place and they all absolutely wrecked the place. It was a mess. There was food on the walls and mead in the wash basin.” ”I wonder which ones helped him find whatever it is they found.” Drallengray muses. “Mah daddy wis yin o' th' dwarves tae shaw up tae that, ah heard stoory o' th' epicness that wis that pairtie. Ah lassy that auldjin, he hud stoory 'n' stoory o' gundren even afore he met mah maw litteral auld gob fire. Picking up whaur mah da did wi' gundgren, getting intae trauchle lik' mah da tellt me tales o' juist brings fire tae mah belly.” ”Yes, after this escorting journey for Gundren, we may even have tales of our own to retell over a pint of mead. After we return to Wildcross, I'll get the first round at the tavern.” Drallengray says having finally finished stringing his bow. ”Who has the map to where we're going?” “Navigation insae mah pure tough suit. Ah gave it tae that glaikit gnome afore he fell aff th' wagon, bit ah think if we juist keep oan th' road we shuid be braw?” At the back of the wagon, Alan appears to be perusing his spellbook, after recently earning enough money he decided to study the arcane arts whilst on this long trip. He closes the book after memorizing spells and pinches the bridge of his nose as he clicks a finger and an owl appears on his arm, he sends it out of the back exit to fly 100ft up to help with surveillance of the wagon. "I suppose we might be reaching a landmark soon. Mayhaps we do come across one, the familiar will be able to help us get our bearings." “That seems lik' a barry idea, ah lik' ye awready young jimmy “ "Young jimmy?" His glasses lowers as he pushes them back up to regain composure. "You mentioned navigation wasn't your strong suit, would you be willing to share your strengths Rass? I myself is what you see so I won't particularly do too well in front of a bandit should we come across one" ”Ah, don't you worry Jimmy. I doubt this road will have too many bandits. But if they show up, we'll make sure to take them out.” Drallengray says with a smile. “If th' bandit shuid git tae us afore hitting th' ground, a'd mak' him skelp th' ground. A'm fairly pure tough at reconisance 'n' th' disabling o' traps as weel. “ And just like that he was now Jimmy. "T-thank you Drallengray, I'll rely on your experience then. I think we are quite fortunate we have a kobold with your skills in this party then Rass, should we come across any traps I believe we will go straight to you for guidance." A'm sure that we wull a' hae oor strengths, thir's a reason we've bin hired fur th' jab. A' that bein' said unless yin o' ye haes an objection a'm aff tae gang scout ahead 'n' ensure that th' path is free o' vermin. "Oh before you do, some food for the day." With a gesture of his hand, he summons 10 goodberries in his other hand as he hands it out to the party. "Two for each of you, happy hunting Rass." ”Thank you for this. By the way, I'm Lieutenant Drallengray but you can call me Drallen. What is your name?” The Eladrin asks looking to the human. "Nice to meet you Drallen. You can call me Alan. Truthfully this is my first long-term task so having you around means I am able to get some rest at night in the wilderness. Which army do you belong to if you don't mine me asking?" ”My company was the 5th branch of the winter court back in the fey wilds. Being mainly composed of eladrin like myself, our leaders would send us to a variety of places within the feywilds as we could blend in and take on the characteristics of the court we were stationed in. Sadly, when I ported here by accident, I know not what happened to the rest of my company.” Drallen says looking from Alan to the forest. "Ah I take it you desire to reunite with your company then? Should I come across the appropiate contact or pursue enough studies, I'll be sure to let you know. Until then I imagine amassing funds will be a top priority?" Alan occasionally switches his vision with his owl. ”Yep, unless it turns out that the temporal mage we were hunting is here. If that's the case then my mission is still on.” "Ah a temporal mage you say? Do let me know if you suspect his trail, I can use my arcane knowledge to detect magic though if they can cast temporal magic, capturing them will be a different matter altogether haha."Dead Horses
As you all keep an eye out some being more observant while others get distracted by clouds and butterflies you don't see any would be ambushers but you have to stop when up ahead your path is blocked by two dead horses laid purposely across the road its very clear the horses didn't die this way and its impossible to go around with steep embankments on either side of the road. "Keep your eyes about you, the way those horses are, it's unnatural. No wagon too. Here, a blessing to all of you if you are to investigate." Alan has his owl swoop down to 30ft above ground to scan the southern side as he gives the party his blessing. "I'll stay here, Rass might be better here with his experience of traps." At this point your all still in the cart so yes your within 30ft of eachother. The horses as the more observant members would see have several black feathered crudly crafted arrows sticking out of them. “If ye toss me ye cannae ever tell mah da.“ ”Don't worry. He'll never know. Draw them out and I'll pick em off.” Drallengray says before tossing Rass to the embankment. "What do you suspect, Drallen?" Alan whispers prone on the wagon with a shield above him. ”Well, judging by the drag marks; I'd say those horses were set there to trap us. The arrows would suggest either really poor bandits or maybe a roving group of Orcs. Not sure as I don't recognize the arrows. What I do know is we need someone to move the horses and we need to protect the gear. Any thoughts?” This last question is directed to all still in the wagon. Squinting and focusing on the arrows, ”Y'know, those arrows do seem more of a Goblinoid style. We'll likely hear some commotion soon but we're sitting ducks where we are now. Goblins are generally small and frail so for them to drag those heavy horses, there's likely many more than us.” "Should we wait for Rass to return? Maybe the ambushers will come out of hiding in confusion." Alan suggests. ”I wouldn't worry about Rass. He'll know when we're ready to leave. We should take care of those horses first. Any thoughts on what we could do or do one of you want to come with me to drag them out of the way?” "I'll try and guess their locations based on our situation. We can use their confusion or patience to our advantage. I doubt they would kill our horses granted they already have two dead ones, they're more likely to keep ours alive but that's a guess." Alan brings out a dragonchess set and begins alligning the pieces. You see Rass pop his head back over the embankment and shrug his shoulders point towards to the bank he's on towards the horses and begin walking forward. "Nope no idea, would you want to use the board to plan a formation?" Taking Rass' signals to mean that Rass has no sight of the ambusher's and that he is going to continue going along the road and hiding; Drallen takes the opportunity to leap off the Wagon and run to the Horses calling back: ”Ok, now looks to be our chance. If any of you wanna give a hand, come along; if not, yell if you see something. Actually, maybe bring the carriage too.” You see Rass small head pop back over the embankment holding a green leaf to his face and making a grimmance and other crude gestures, he holds up his hand at about the same height as he is attempting to indicate their height being the same as him. A elven woman walks out of the trees near the party in the cart; she notices the unrest among them. When her gaze catches sight of the horses dead on the path, she frowns in concern. She holds her hands in the air to signify she's friendly. "Looks like something has claimed this section of the trail as their own. I've been in the woods the past few day, but haven't spotted or heard anything. I'll lend my aid where I can." Her words smooth and sweet, like honey. Alan raises a lone thumbs up to the direction of the voice before quickly lowering it back down. As Rass goes to turn and look for enemies he runs straight into a tree and begins cursing a little too loudly, “Ye glaikit explecitive tree watch whaur ye'r gaun!“ Just as Drallengray approches and starts moving the horses and after rass decides to curse out a tree several arrows come flying out of the trees towrds the party. The kobold and elven woman both selected trees that were nesting goblins and attempted to climb some feet up; the kobold managed to scrape his opponent, and Miel pulled at hers; this resuled in the poor goblin losing its balance and plummeting to the ground. It popped up and dashed away in fear as a result. Miel unclasped her double-elven blade and plunged one end of it into a goblin's chest. The eladrin managed to sink an arrow into a second while the third struck Rass in the head, who fell unconscious thrown across a big branch some ten feet up...Hero Roster
- Dungeon Master: Carric
- Lieutenant Drallengray, Level 1 Eladrin Fighter
- Casric Themault, Level 1 Half Elf Bard
- Rass, Level 1 Kobold Rogue
- Alan Walker, Level 2 Human Cleric/Wizard
- Mieledrian Entislamorae, Level 1 Wood Elf Ranger
Associated Articles
Report Date
22 Jan 2021
