For about a year following the defeat of the Black Spider in Wave Echo Cave, the party has lingered around Phandalin and the western Triboar region. You have had no small part in helping it grow and prosper from the half-ruined state you found it in when you first arrived, fresh out of Neverwinter and propelled by Gundren Rockseeker's promises of hidden wealth in the depths of the Sword Mountains
In the hastily vacated town hall, Harbin left piles of poorly organized documents, books, and records, out of which surfaced an old handwritten manuscript entitled, A Deep and Creeping Darkness. The slim volume recounts the unexplained collapse of an isolated village in the Graypeak Mountains.
You believe this book to be unique, and a suitable offering to buy entrance into Candlekeep, a library-citadel in the southern Sword Coast. With access to Candlekeep's wealth of knowledge, you hope to uncover more information about Kas's condition, among a miriad of other research options, whether known among the party or private.
Your ticket into Candlekeep, however, is an incomplete account and you believe a detour on your way to Candlekeep would provide an opportunity to investigate the village first hand. An epilog to the strange tale would certainly guarantee entrance from the discerning scholar-gatekeepers.
The Graypeak Mountains rear up at the eastern end of the Vale, a lush and sprawling region along the Delimbiyer River. The riverside towns could provide ample trade connections to further support the growing Phandalin.
It is early autumn and the air's chill has turned the leaves of Neverwinter Wood. You have booked passage from Neverwinter to Daggerford by sea, stopping once in Waterdeep. From Daggerford, a river barge will transport you up the Delimbiyer and into the misty foothills of the Greypeak Mountains, where the abandoned village of Vermeillon quietly keeps its secrets.
We will begin in Phandalin, as the party prepares to leave in the coming weeks.
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In addition to bringing your level 7 character, please prepare the following to discuss:
1. What was one NPC that your character followed up with and what happened to them? They can be someone you met from the list below, someone from your backstory, or an entirely new person or monster.
2. Describe one geographical or architectural feature that was built, repaired, or is currently under construction.
3. Describe one business that was revitalized or started during the stabilization of Phandalin. What does it produce?
No need to coordinate ahead of time among each other—in fact I think it’d be fun if we didn’t! That way we can riff off of each other and build what the town looks like after all the work you’ve put into it. If we have two people with similar or conflicting ideas about the same thing, it can be worked out at the table in a narrative way. It can also get a little meta here, and doesn’t strictly have to be strictly in character.
Some notes on primary Phandalin residents and people you have encountered (not exhaustive!):
Tobin Stonehill: Innkeeper, Stonehill Inn.
Elmer Barthen: Owns a trading post, Barthen’s Provisions; stocks general goods; party couriered a shipment to him from Neverwinter.
Darren Edermath: Prune orchard owner; former adventurer; asked party to investigate Old Owl Well, where they found Hamon Kost: Red Wizard. They let him go rather than kill him, and took his tent, wherein they found an incriminating note.
Lennine Graywind: Runs a trading post, Lionshield Coster; stocks armaments; party recovered her crates of goods in the goblin caves, wherein they also rescued Sildar Hallwinter
Halia Thornton: Heads Phandalin Miner’s Exchange; she suggests that removing the Redbrands from the playing field would be lucrative for both herself and the party.
Qelline Alderleaf: Helpful halfling farmer with a young, inquisitive son.
Sister Garole: Cleric of Tymora; keeps up the local shrine; conscripts Valon, and by association the party, to recover information from a banshee in the ruins of Coneyberry.
Harben Wester: Townmaster of Phandalin; held onto power tenuously by appeasing the Redbrands.
Sildar Hallwinter: Member of the Lord’s Alliance, lover of prunes and warm milk; seeking Iarno Haubrek, who the party discovered was using the alias Glasstaff, and leading the Redbrand Ruffians.
Iarno Haubrek/Glasstaff: Captured alive by the party, one of whom was smitten with him; disappeared while the party was away, presumably with Iarno.
Droop: Lovable goblin friend who helped the party navigate Tresandor Manor.
Gundren Rockseeker: Your initial patron; intended to clear and repopen the Mines of Phandelver, recover the spell forge, and set up shop.