Tallon the Tall and Ujio spent time in the Stonehill Inn listening to the party later calling themselves The Dragonslayers as they told their adventure stories and bragged about their deeds - here are some of them.
(See also Anchorites of Talos).
Axeholm and Umbrage Hill
Their adventures started in the Sword Mountains to the south of Phandelin where they investigated dwarven ruins - a fortress called Axeholm where they drove out a banshee and helped an excavation underway that uncovered a temple to the evil dwarven god of greed. On the way to these is where they killed the manticore at Umbrage Hill.Neverwinter Wood (East of Thundertree): anchorites of Talos
This group did not go into Thundertree, but they did travel past it up the Neverwinter River into the Neverwinter Wood where Harbin Wester had them deliver supplies to his half-brother Tibor Wester who was running a logging camp. The camp had been attacked by huge tunneling monsters attracted there by an item secretly placed in the camp by - guess what - worshippers of Talos called “anchorites” who can transform themselves into storm-powered wild boars. The party rescued Tibor, who had locked himself in a secure building - and learned these Talos-worshippers have been causing problems in the deep woods for lots of people, including a hunting lodge further up the river. It seems curious that Talos followers would choose a forest that is known as a stronghold for feyfolk and elves - we would later encounter their base of operations at the Circle of Thunder.The anchorites of Talos came into their stories again as the party quested for the location of a tomb where a hero known to have fought dragons was buried. The quest took them to a lighthouse called the Tower of Storms on the coast between Leilon and Neverwinter - almost due west of Phandalin. After assisting a giant talking crab, find the body of its sea elf master and bury it to rest its soul, they searched a shrine of Talos. There they encountered an anchorite of Talos named Moesko who they were not able to defeat.
Quest for the White Dragon
Getting to the dragon - this frost-breathing monster has apparently been actively hunting across the area stretching from the town of Leilon the High Road to our southwest - northward and eastward through all the mountains and hills, past Old Owl Well in the northeast to nearly the town of Triboar. We have been very lucky not to have encountered her while traveling, it seems. Following the legends and tales, the party successfully found the tomb of the dragon-fighting hero at what is called the Dragon Barrow, up toward Thundertree. There they unearthed a great weapon for fighting dragons, which proved effective if not essential in their defeat of the white dragon.Cryovain's Story
The story of the dragon - a white dragon named Cryovain - touches on some of our story as well. Like Venomfang, Cryovain was still a young dragon.The highest mountains and deepest mines the dwarves inhabited in the Sword Mountain range all fell to the orcs in that same invasion that took down the Phandelvar Mine in the Echo Wave Caves 500 years ago. But the orcs stuck around the mountains for a long time and took what they could find from the mines. Their base was Icespire Hold, a dwarven fortress near Icespire Peak - the tallest mountain in the range.
Then one day in the past few years they were driven out of Icespire Hold by this frosty dragon who called herself Cryovain. The orc tribes driven from these places moved down into the smaller mountains and hills to places like Wyvern Tor - where we found them, but also the active gold mine at Mountain’s Toe and the Shrine of Savras which is quite near Old Owl Well.
As the orcs were pushed out of the mountain peaks, they in turn pushed out the southern-dwelling goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears of the Cragmaw clan - into the valley and woods between the Sword Mountains and The Crags.