25th of Eleint, 1492 (Sunset) The party resumes it's search through the mines of Mountain Toe, eventually coming across surviving dwarves in various states of minor starvation. As they were being evacuated by Don-Jon, Kia noticed nearby the sounds of skittering. Quickly looking over, she sees several eyes peering at her from the darkness. Cautiously, the party was recollected at this location, before they carefully started to position themselves at the entryway to the room these rats were in. They lashed out and attacked with grease across the floor and a candle, lighting two giant rats on fire. Quickly the rest rush the party, being funneled by the doorway into the party's clutches, the rats were quickly dispatched of before the grease was burned away. They checked through the rest of the mines to make sure there were no more dangers before reporting back to Don-Jon that the mines are once again safe to operate. He thanks the party and signs off on their notice. With it already night time, the party spends the night with the dwarves and Don-Jon before parting in the morning. Upon morning, they find that one of their orc prisoners escaped, and one of the zombies was missing. Despite this loss they press on back towards Phandalin. However, they ran into some serious trouble as a mighty roar can be heard overhead. They look up to spot the ice dragon flying above them, and it was diving towards them. Quickly, Kia mushes the horses into a full gallop, attempting to outrun the dragon while Naisys threw psychoknives at the dragon. After taking a few hits from the party, the dragon decided to swoop in and snatch the orc zombie that was lagging behind the party, finding this prey easier than the rest. They watch as the dragon flies off back towards the Icespire Peaks, while the party safely makes it back to Phandalin. As the party makes it back into Phandalin, they start to argue about what they should do with their remaining orc prisoner, whether they should sell it, kill it to resurrect as a zombie, or keep it as a sort of pet. Not wanting any part of what they decided, the orc made his escape, rushing way as best he could. Briar hits the orc with cold touch, killing the orc instantly with how weak it already was, or so they thought. Upon closer inspection, they found he was carrying a dagger on his person, and he decided it'd be best to die on his terms than by the party's terms. They buried the orc on the side of the road in a shallow grave, Briar burning the corpse pyre style before they lay the creature to rest. The party continues on it's way, taking care of the bell and other business at the exchange, finding out the real value of this bell as well as the other objects they've scavenged, walking out of there with a 3k guild note. They turned in their quest, gaining the rewards from the mountain toe quest, before they head home and rest up for the evening. After some breakfast, they decided to look through the remaining quests, saving a chance to hunt for the treasure they heard of for another time. They instead opt to head northwards towards Dragons Barrow in search for the dragon slayer sword. After some shenanigans of Alatar driving the cart, almost headed right towards the dragon, performing a 32 point turn around in the middle of the high road, and headed back down Triboar Trail. Kia steps in having had enough of this, she whips Alatar back into the cart with the reigns before driving the group to the barrows herself. After a couple days on the road, they come across a centaur named Xanth, who asks the party for help in taking care of some orcs who chased him away from his home in the Neverwinter woods. The party decided to help if he would wait for them to finish their task, which he gladly agreed to, waiting with Kia as she set up camp. Meanwhile the rest of the party makes their way into the catacombs. After some observations they found one of the rocks sticking up out of the ground had a seam running around it near the ground. After some insight, they figured they could topple the rock over since it had an overhang. After working together, they barely were able to pull hard enough to make the giant rock topple over, revealing a hidden spiral stairway inside. One by one, they make their way into the tomb, finding the entire area dark and eerie. After some minor exploration, Naisys fell into a trap, a pit covered with rotten wood and a thin layer of earth, she landed into a nest of rusted swords that are embedded into the ground. Immediately upon her falling, she was suddenly attacked by a will-o-whisp. It took the party some work but they managed to take out the whisp, while Naisys misty stepped out of the hole. After the will-o-whisp was taken care of, Naisys started to glance about the room, spotting a pile of bones and a rotten horse saddle. She took a closer look via kicking the saddle, before she finds the bones started to knit themselves back together. As the brothers got over the pit, they see her standing there with a skeletal horse looking at her. She reached up and she decided to pet it, finding it was peaceful as it nuzzled her hand. Briar wasted no time in attempting to bond with this horse. Meanwhile, Naisys finds a narrow passageway leading out of the current room and into another. Getting smart, she pulled out her extending rod and she started to prod the floor for traps, finding one in the narrow passageway. Quickly disarming the trap, she made her way into a tomb room, figuring out this one was false as both caskets had acid traps in them. The three make it towards the northern wing of this catacomb, finding two more caskets and a dragon skull at the far wall. Upon the skull laid the sword they were after. Surely it wasn't this simple was it? Cautiously, Briar used magehand to grab the blade, causing a concealed stalker to appear before them to attack. They quickly take it out and claim the blade for their own. They check the rest of the tomb, finding a few other goodies in other caskets like a illusory instrument and a necklace of fireballs. Satisfied with their haul, they resurface to join Kia at camp. Kia seeing how banged up the party was, she gave them an earful. This is where we paused. 29th of Eleint, 1492 (Sunset)