19th of Eleint, 1492 (Highsun) We've returned to the party, having just taken out an Ahnkeg, taking a moment to take a step back and assess the situation. However, this moment was cut short as their brother, Alatar appears from the southern path heading towards the logging camp. Alatar, having woken up later in the day than the others, went to find out where they all went, getting the info from Barthen, and set off directly towards the camp. Alatar approached the party to rejoin his siblings, but not before setting off another eruption from the ground as a second Ahnkeg burst out after sensing his steps. The party rushes to his aid, hitting it with fire and blades before it rushes over and takes a swipe at Alatar. Alatar, glaring up at it, pulls out his rapier, and he stabs it in the gut, performing the finishing blow. After some time, the party continues to investigate the camp, seeing that there were at one point other buildings that existed here but were stripped down and the wood likely used to build the currently single standing cabin. Briar notices the only things left of these cabins are the stone foundation and the stone chimney. On a hunch, he goes over and investigates the chimney, and he finds an odd bundle of stick figures dipped in what looks like blood and a bolt carved into them, bundled together in hair. They figured out this was likely causing the Ankheg attacks as Neri recognized this with her religious background as a cursed totem. Briar quickly disposed of this with fire as soon as he heard a curse. The party goes into the cabin carefully, checking around to find any survivors. Quickly they hear locked in the next room, Tibor Wester, had barricaded himself in the room from the attacks and asked to make sure the Ahnkegs were gone before he would come out. Kia, Alatar, and Naisys leave Briar and Neri to deal with Tibor as they figure out how to tell if these ahnkegs were really gone. They figured if they dropped a bunch of logs, then their tremor sense would go off. As they test this, Neri tells Briar that she's pretty sure the ahnkegs were here because of that cursed totem, so they should definitely be gone. They were about to tell the siblings this but were interrupted by them tumbling an entire log pile across the camp, which confirmed the ahnkegs were indeed gone. Tibor was retrieved from the barricaded room in the cabin, and he signed off on the supplies. The party leaves him with his supplies to begin anew by getting a new crew. 21st of Eleint, 1492 (Dusk) [The Autumn Equinox] The party returns to Phandalin, tired and weary from the long travel back from the loggers camp, Falcon's lodge, and the long trek down Triboar trail. After turning in Barthen's ox and the quest to the town master, they find there's been a new stock of quests to fulfill on the notice board, so they decide to take them all and handle each one before going to the inn for some much-needed rest. The next day at breakfast, they found that their contact for the next job was staying in the Stonehill inn, so they contacted him before heading out to purchase a covered wagon and a couple of horses from the town. After fulfilling that need, they pick up Don-Jon, the contact, and head east towards Mountain Toe mines. The trek there wasn't without its issues however, the party staying carefully out of the sight of the dragon that was flying around above Triboar Trail. Along the way, they find dead orcs just outside the mine. Investigating them, they find that the orcs died of being frozen a few days prior. Briar decided to raise two of these orcs as zombie minions to aid him. The party finally arrives at the Mountain Toe mine to meet what appeared to be female wererats taking guard at the entry. Taken aback by this slightly, they decided to try to be diplomatic and speak with them before resorting to slaughter. So they talked with the wererats and found they were a part of a gang called the Whisker Gang and have claimed the caves as their new lair. The party tried to strike a deal, which caused the guards to insist they speak to their leader if they wanted to make any dealings with them. The party agreed to speak with their leader, so they were lead into the mines until they met in an opening with various mining equipment strewn about. to the northeast, they see a brood of giant rats, and to the southwest, they spotted what looks like 5 men and another female wererat. This female was introduced as the gang leader, Zeleen Varnaster, and they opened a discussion with her about the possibility of leaving the mines and the safe return of the dwarven miners that worked in this mine. Zeleen wasn't moved by this and remained adamant that this would be their new lair, and they were forced to leave their old lair from orc invaders. They struck a deal that if they were to take care of these orcs, they would consider moving back. Some of the siblings weren't too keen on trusting this deal, but they agreed to this task none the less. Don-Jon followed them on this task, seeing as it was the way to get the mines back and operational. After a 3 hour trek to the northeast, they came across an old shrine's ruins surrounded by crumbling walls, and on one of the walls, they spotted an orc on the lookout in the only remaining tower. After a quick bird scouting from Briar, he confirmed this orc in the tower and a couple more in the courtyard, as well as 4 ogres roaming the property. The rogue of the party, Naisys, figured this was her time to step up to the plate and make her way around to this tower without being spotted. She does so as she comes up to the base of this tower, misty steps behind the orc with the aid of Briar's bird, and she quickly dispatches this orc without alerting the rest of the orcs. She makes her way inside the walls to the courtyards, sneaking her way to the front of the shrine ruins and into the main room. Inside, she finds a handful more orcs, who thankfully have not spotted her yet. She sneaks into the far corner, hiding in its shadow as she looks around the room. She looks up, seeing the 40-foot high vaulted ceiling and the opening to the belfry where a copper bell still hangs. She gets an idea, and with a swift throw of a psychoblade, she cuts the rotting rope holding the bell, causing it to fall and land on two of the orcs. This dull but loud thud of the fallen bell alerted every orc and ogre on the property, all coming to rush into this room to see what had happened. Naisys was in the furthest corner away from all the action, so she wasn't easily spotted. She was further hidden away as the ogres came in after the orcs, the large creatures making it easy to hide behind in her safe little corner. Finding an opportunity, Briar sees this through Phoenix and relays this info to the rest of his siblings. They quickly develop a plan, Brair splitting off with his two zombies and Kia and Alatar splitting off to head up to the front door. Unfortunately for Briar, after making it all the way onto the roof with the belfry, he realizes he has no rope on him. So he asks Kia to toss him up a rope, but she instead gave it to one of his zombies with him being up so high. The one zombie on the roof with Briar was ordered to get the rope, but zombies being not the brightest of creatures, figured this meant he would walk right off the roof to get it. Briar, frustrated by the zombies' dimwittedness, tried to go after it but lost his footing and ended up sliding off the roof the other way. After the short bout of questioning "why," they all got back to it, rope in hand, Briar making his way up to the roof with his two zombies behind him as Alatar and Kia set up at the front door. After securing the rope to the beam that held the bell in the belfry, Briar drops down onto the crowd of orcs and ogres, giving them a "Hello boys!" followed by a thunderclap. This sent every orc to the ground, killing most of them near instantly. At this, Briar realizes his last command was for the zombies to come down after he cast his spell, so he quickly drops off the bell just in time to see his two zombie minions fall right where he just was. One landing mostly on its feet while the other lands face first. To a zombie, this was, of course, the best way as it was the quickest way to follow their master's orders. This is where we pause the game for the next session 23rd of Eleint, 1492 (Just approaching Dusk)