November 28, 2020 The party bid Xanth the Centaur farewell, as he was headed to the Circle of Thunder to see whether any of his scattered clan members had returned and the party was headed back to Phandalin. Before they left, Xanth provided directions to Icespire Hold, which he had obtained while interrogating an orc prisoner several weeks earlier. Armed with this knowledge, the party trekked back to Phandalin, to Tibor's great pleasure. He had about enough of the Neverwinter Wood. Little did he know it would only get worse for him... Arriving back at Phandalin, the party discovered the town was largely abandoned, most of its residents having fled to Axeholm out of fear of Cryovain's return. Among those who decided to remain in town: Elmar Barthen (Barthen's Provisions), Halia Thornton (Phandalin Miner's Exchange), and a handful of farmers. The party resupplied at Barthen's Provision but decided to break into the Lionshield Coster to secure some javelins for Simplejack and armor and weapons for Tibor (which he still didn't understand why he needed them, because the sensible thing to do would have been to take him directly to Axeholm). Simplejack paid for everything he took, but while inside, Cormac decided to further case the place looking for any magic. Finding none with his arcane talents, he took to looking under rugs, tapping walls, prying at loose floorboards, until he eventually discovered a secret compartment behind a portrait of the Lionshield Coster's sharp-tongued Proprietrix, Linene Graywind. Unfortunately, Linene cleared the vault out before departing for Neverwinter and Cormac was left empty-handed for all his efforts. Cormac then put everything back in its right place. After their business was complete, the part departed Phandalin for Icespire Hold. Along the way they discovered an ogre encased in ice. They melted and chipped the ice away to get at a hefty sack slung over the giant's shoulder. Inside they found a rusty dwarven helm, two halves of a splintered wooden shield, a tumbleweed, a crumpled-up cowboy hat, a sack cloth doll, and Bjorn's cloak! Moreover, inside Bjorn's magic cloak was a secret compartment, containing three healing potions. Continuing, the party came upon Icespire Hold and spent some time deliberating over their approach. Tibor accidentally tripped over a rock, sending a shower of smaller rocks down the mountainside that hit bigger rocks, alerting the sunbathing white dragon atop the fortresses' roof. Cryovain rose to check out the situation, but Travyn cast a minor illusion to camouflage the party on the exposed trail. A few tense moments passed and Cryovain returned to her sun-bathing activity. The party eventually flew up to the gatehouse, entered, and met four mercenaries, members of the Stone-Cold Reaver Gang. Their leader, Laurenbeth, a lean, brash woman read the adventurers the riot act for being so noisy out there. She also explained her gang (which she claimed was 20 strong) called dibs on the dragon's hoard and told the party they needed to leave. The party countered with an offer to join forces to fight the dragon, which Laurenbeth wanted no part of. She just wanted to wait until the dragon went off to hunt and steal its treasure. Less risky. The party would not leave, so Laurenbeth told them they could continue and fight the dragon for all she cared, but they could not stay in the gatehouse. They reached an impasse. Tempers flared. Some nasty words were spoken. Swords were drawn. Blood was shed. Fires raged. Two Reavers hit the floor. Laurenbeth sued for parlay. Swords were lowered. Simplejack was not ready to let bygones be bygones and ran the owl-killing, dark-haired, brooding barbarian from Icewinddale through with his sword. She fell to ground and Laurenbeth fled into and barricaded herself inside the gatehouse barracks room. Sensing the party was going to burn her out and with no prospects, she steeled her mind this was how it would end for her. Saying a prayer to her god, Kord, she charged out of the room, at the party, and went out in a blaze of glory. But she was no match for the Fellowship of the Hat. She had miscalculated. She had wrongly assumed the party consisted of two real adventurers (Simplejack & Travyn), an old man (Cormac), and an aristocrat (Tibor). Two of four is not bad, but in her line of work, such mistakes can prove fatal. And it did. PCs present: Cormac, Simplejack, Travyn Items gained: cloth sack doll (Simplejack), rumpled cowboy hat (Tibor), Bjorn's cloak of hidden pockets (Travyn), 3 potions of healing