Session 10: The Dragon Under the Hill

The adventurers work towards establishing a place they can call home in the frontier town of Phandalin.

Summary
Latham approached his companions in the town green of Phandalin. The goliath had expressed an interest in restoring the crumbling castle of Tresendar Manor into a base of operations for the Order of the Shielding Hand. The manor could also serve as a place of refuge for the denizens of Phandalin should the town come under attack by the nearby dragon.

Spills the Stew and Varien were eager to contribute to the restoration while Moneux and Quoorin provided some of their wealth to the cause as well. With hold in hand, the goliath made his way to the townmaster’s hall.

L’aela’s request
L'aela, Phandalin’s resident sister of Tymra, approached the adventurers. Impressed by all of their accomplishments and having heard about their brush with a banshee in the halls of Axeholm, she requested the adventurers seek out a banshee in the woods near Conyberry.

The sister of Tymora received word from an associate that the, in its mortal lifetime, the banshee had in their possession a spellbook that belonged to a legendary mage named Bowgentle. L’aela believed the knowledge held within the spellbook needed to be kept safe and could be used to defend Phandalin from evil.

Quoorin was handed a silver comb that L’aela said would be useful in appealing the banshee’s vanity should the spirit be unwilling to speak to them about the spellbook.

Harbin Wester’s Identity
At the townmaster’s hall, Latham noticed the entrance to the building was slightly ajar. Sensing something was wrong, the paladin drew his weapon and called out to the townmaster. Inside the empty entryway the goliath heard a shuffling in the darkness toward the townmaster’s office. The paladin sprung into action, rushing to the townmaster’s office.

After taking on L’aela’s quest, the paladin’s adventuring companions approached the townmaster’s hall and heard Latham shouting from inside.

The rest of the adventurers made their way into the townmaster’s office to see Latham grappling the townmaster. The goliath proclaimed that the townmaster was a changeling and asked for his companions’ assistance. Though Harbin protested that the adventurers were mistaken, Quoorin and Shanjan helped Latham hold the townmaster down as Moneux searched the area, finding a bloody dagger behind the entrance to the building.

The Real Harbin Wester
When Moneux brought the weapon back to her companions, Harbin relented and his body began to change into that of a blue-skinned humanoid creature with smooth features and white eyes. The adventurers demanded to know what the creature was doing in the townmaster’s hall.

After the creature convinced the party to release it from their grip it explained to them it was indeed the Harbin Wester they knew. The creature identified themselves as a doppelganger — and not a “changeling” — that joined a group of adventurers in Phandalin years ago. During the doppelganger’s time with the adventurers, he witnessed the death of the original Harbin Wester. When the doppelganger’s companions left Phandalin he decided to remain in town by assuming the form of the deceased townmaster.

The doppelganger was crawling around in the dark of the townmaster’s hall because he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a shadowy cloaked figure at the entrance of the building. Transforming back into the round-bellied townmaster, the doppelganger and the adventurers agreed to keep his identity a secret while he looked into who would send someone after him.

Latham dispensed the first payment for repairing Tresendar Manor to the townmaster, who told the goliath that laborers were already headed toward Phandalin to start work on Tresendar Manor.

Back on the Road
Outside the townmaster’s hall, Latham’s companions informed him of L’aela’s request that would take them back towards Conyberry. Moneux also expressed an interest in returning to the Shrine of Savras to root out any details they may have missed the first time they ventured there.

After the first day of travel, Spills the Stew used his magics to conjure a tower to make camp in. The tabaxi dubbed the tower “Chateau le Stew”. As the adventurers reached Conyberry they were greeted by a passing caravan of laborers headed toward Phandalin.

Return to the Shrine of Savras
Moneux led the party back to the Shrine of Savras where they encountered hostile sentries atop the walls surrounding the shrine. After sending a message to the inhabitants of the shrine via arrow the inhabitants, ratfolk that the adventurers met at the Mountain’s Toe Gold Mine, allowed the adventurers to approach. The leader of the ratfolk saw that the adventurers wanted to uncover information at the shrine and allowed the adventurers into the altar room of the shrine for a fee.

At the altar of Savras, both Varien and Moneux took turns placing their hands on the eye of Savras. The two adventurers received identical visions that sent them into the skies above the shrine before soaring south, toward the Sword Mountains where they saw a white dragon sleeping atop an icy fortress high in the mountains.

The Banshee’s Lair
Having learned what they could from Moneux and Varien’s visions, the adventurers left the Shrine of Savras for Conyberry and then toward Neverwinter Wood. As the party ventured deeper into the woods, their surroundings became colder and darker. They eventually happened across a dome-shaped mass of vines and branches with an open doorway. Moneux called out for anyone dwelling within before entering the dome where she saw aged furnishings decorating the cold interior.

Just as the ranger turned to leave the dwelling, a cold air wrapped around her as a banshee appeared within the dome. Quoorin quickly moved toward the banshee, presenting the silver comb. He was able to convince the banshee to speak with them. The spirit could see that the adventurers sought her knowledge and offered “one answer to one question.”

Quoorin asked where Bowgentle’s spellbook was to which the banshee replied that she had not seen it in over a century when she handed it over to a spellcaster named Tsernoth of Iriaebor. Latham and Varien knew of Iriaebor as a major settlement far to the south of them. With this information, the adventurers returned to the road toward Phandalin.

Back in Phandalin
The adventurers’ journey back to town came with no complication. After relaying the banshee’s information to L'aela, the sister thanked the adventurers for their help and rewarded them with potions of healing for their efforts.

The party wondered if the townmaster needed their help in tracking down his assailants. At the townmaster’s hall, when “Harbin” was asked about how he was doing he replied gleefully deflected the question and told Latham that laborers were setting camp on the hill where Tresendar Manor sat.

Reuniting With Tibor Wester
The adventurers made their way up the hill overlooking Phandalin where they saw dozens of folks setting up camp half way up the hill. They saw a familiar face amongst the laborers, it was Tibor Wester, the logging camp leader and half-brother to Harbin Wester that the adventurers saved from a group of angry ankhegs.

Tibor was excited to see that Latham and his companions were indeed the adventurers that were establishing a stronghold in Phandalin. Tibor was to manage the restoration and oversee the laborers, he urged the adventurers to take a look at the ruined building before he and his men began work the following day.

Tresendar Manor
The adventurers made their way to the top of the hill to examine the structure of their soon-to-be home. The skeleton of the keep was still intact, providing some idea of the manor’s former features. At the back of the manor, the adventurers found a stairway to a basement level of the building.

Inside the basement, the adventurers found a cellar. Within the cellar was a cistern filled with water from a natural source as well as dusty, empty containers. As the adventurers looked around the cellar, Spills the Stew leaned against a wall revealing a secret passage that led into a natural cavern.

As the adventurers moved into the cavern, Varien was able to catch sight of something deep in the darkness and drew back toward the cellar. Varien proclaimed that he saw the eye of a green dragon in the caverns, Moneux used her knowledge of tracking to identify unnatural, gnarled roots poking out of the cave floor, an indication that a green dragon could be twisting the natural landscape’s form.

The adventurers retreated to the laborer’s camp and warned Tibor of the dragon’s presence. Tibor was hesitant to believe a dragon was actually under the manor but told the adventurers that the workers had already been paid for the tenday. With this information, Latham headed back toward the manor to face whatever dwelled underneath the hill.

The Dragon Under the Hill
In the cellar the adventurers’ prepared themselves with magic before pressing forward into the caverns and Varien warned Quoorin that green dragons were especially keen on the taste of elves.

Wielding his illuminated mace, Lightbringer, Latham led the party into the caves. This time the adventurers were greeted by a whispering voice that reverberated off the walls of the caverns. Shanjan and Moneux moved into the cavern, readying themselves for what would come. From the darkness, a cloud of poison poured out onto Moneux and Shanjan.

Latham and Quoorin rushed forward, the light of Latham’s weapon illuminated the dragon and revealed its green scales and a large X-shaped scar across the beast’s chest. Moneux and Shanjan used the opportunity to hurl spells and arrows at the creature.

As Quoorin attacked, the dragon teased the elf before attacking the fighter and summoning a wall of thorns and vines separating Latham and Quoorin from their party members. The dragon took flight, but not before Latham swung his morningstar into the dragon’s side. The dragon set itself on Moneux, dealing great damage to the ranger before she and Morgana fled back into the hallway with Spills the Stew and Varien.

As Quoorin and Latham chased after the dragon, the scaly monster breathed a cloud of poison gas into the hallway and incapacitated Moneux and Morgana. Spills the Stew and Varien survived the assault only to see the dragon once again take flight, retreating behind the wall of thorns.

Quoorin gave chase and hacked away at the wall of thorns before Varien burst out from the hallway and hurled a fireball at the dragon. Quoorin continued to attack the dragon, forcing it to flee. The dragon attacked Varien just as the warlock unleashed a wave of flames in retribution sending both he and the dragon into a wave of pain that brought Varien to his knees and the dragon to its death.

Conclusion
After recovering from the battle the adventurers scoured the rest of the basement to find nothing but what looked like rooms that were converted into dwelling, as well as a crypt and jail cells. Inside the cave where the dragon dwelled, the adventurers uncovered a hoard of treasure inside the crevasse that divided the cavern. The adventurers decided to keep the new of their feat a secret and the body of the dragon under Tresendar Manor as to not rouse the white dragon with the sight of a dragon corpse near Phandalin.

Player Characters

 * Latham the goliath paladin of devotion
 * Moneux the shifter beast master
 * Quoorin the wood elf battle master
 * Varien the half-elf warlock of the fiend

Non-Player Characters

 * Harbin Wester, the male townmaster of Phandalin revealed to actually be a doppelganger assuming the role of the deceased Harbin Wester
 * L'aela, the female elf sister of Tymora in Phandalin.
 * Morgana, the panther animal companion to Moneux
 * Shanjan, the male human spellcaster and squire to Latham.
 * Spills the Stew, a male tabaxi bard and adventurer looking to catalog the adventures of heroes.
 * Tibor Wester, the male human contractor and half-brother of Harbin Wester.