Chapter 16: Recalling The Main Quest
The Loud Boys in the Lost Mine of Phandelver, a D&D Report
“That took far too long,” complained Uayak.
The three adventurers were meandering through the forest on their way back to the outpost town of Phandalin. They had argued with the druid when he refused to pay them with physical wealth for ridding the ruins of Thundertree of its infestation of dragon and cultists, and had almost come to blows, but finally accepted his offer of information. It didn’t seem like very useful information. Something about the location of a castle where goblins had made a nest. It wasn’t immediately obvious to any of them why this information would be worth killing so many highly challenging vermin.
“Everything happens for a reason,” shrugged Kila. The big human fighter settled the new greataxe he had looted from the dragon’s tower more comfortably across his shoulders. It was of dwarvish make, with dwarvish runes spelling Hew stamped on the axehead. It had an aura of strength, and the surrounding vegetation seemed to lean away from Kila when he walked past with it. Kila reached out to redirect Jake slightly. The wizard had his nose in a scroll from the same looting and had been walking into almost every tree on their path, and some which weren’t.
“Yes, but everything that’s been happening to us seems a bit outside of normal reason, if you ask me,” said Uayak darkly, sneaking a glance upward. The sky wasn’t visible through the thick canopy of oak, but there was a heavy sense in the air, like that of an impending storm. “Why did those blighted twigs hit so hard? How did all that poison breath get inside the closed shutters? And most of all, why didn’t that dragon fly? Dragons are supposed to be fast and agile and definitely hard to kill. You’d think that Whoever was in charge around here didn’t actually know what She was doing.”
Kila looked around nervously and pulled Jake’s sleeve just in time for the wizard to miss a thorny bush. There was no change in Jake’s arcane murmuring as he continued to commit the spell in the scroll to memory. The air seemed to buzz with electric potential, and all the birds had stopped singing.
“Anyway, to change the subject away from People In Charge of Our World Who Might Or Might Not Know How to Run It And Probably Wouldn’t Appreciate Being Told That They Don’t, what are we going to do now? We don’t have to go back to Phandalin, do we?”
Uayak muttered something that sounded very curse-like under his breath, then said out loud, “I suppose we should check out this castle that we’ve been told about. And- oh, that’s right. We were employed by Someone-or-other to escort some goods to Phandalin originally, weren’t we? And What’s-his-name-”
“Gundren Rockseeker,” said Jake without looking up from his scroll.
“-Yes, him, he hasn’t been found yet, has he? So I suppose we should try to find him.”
“Oh yes,” said Kila. “I’d forgotten all about him. Now that you mention it, that’s the whole reason we’re here, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Uayak. The halfling slapped at his neck, and displayed a squashed leggy insect with a bright burst of blood on his palm. “Bloody bugs. Yes, the dwarf’s why we met and why we’re travelling together. All right, yes, that’s it, that’s what we’re meant to be doing. Well, where do you think we’ll find him?”
Kila’s face took on an expression of intense concentration, his brows scrunching and eyes narrowed.
“He could be almost anywhere,” said Jake, finally putting the scroll away and immediately getting his robes caught on a thorny vine. As he pulled free with a rip, he continued, “But what about that castle the druid was telling us about? There’s got to be a reason why we’ve been given that information.”
“Nah,” said Kila. “What would he be doing in a castle? I think we should go back to Phandalin and check there first. Weren’t there some ruffians ruining the town there? Maybe they’ve got him.”
“That seems rather unlikely,” Jake started, but one look from Uayak stopped him.
Uayak waved away another buzzing insect. His face had the expression of a halfling for whom all the pieces were falling together. The air still felt oppressive, but birdsong could be heard again. “Yeah, there were some ruffians. Let’s go ruff them up a bit, shall we?”
Kila looked at him, the scrunched brows dropping away as thought was replaced by reaction. “Hang on, didn’t your aunty say you were involved in some gang or-”
“Yes,” growled Uayak. “I was. This one, as a matter of fact. And now, I think, is time for my revenge.”
*************************************
It’s also time for a refresher on Chapter 15:
Or continue on with Chapter 17:
Or, if like the Loud Boys, you don’t have any idea what’s going on, maybe starting at Chapter 1 could be an idea…