“I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” I’VE heard that more than enough times than I care to record here for the past tenday. “And ye thought we mad fer going looking in the Claw of Winter!” was said a fair piece as well. “The riches and wonders we’ll bring, for us… and for Phandalin as well, of course!” If it does play out the way Gundren says, I dunna doubt him there. The Rockseekers are a crafty and shrewd set of dwarf brothers, but they’ve always been fair and generous as well.
I stand by me word on the topic though. They WERE mad to go scraping and stumbling about in those hills with the freeze and the ice still on in full. A sight lucky they didn’t all freeze in place for the amount of time they were out there. B’sides The Forge has been lost since the ancient mage Elminster was just reaching his middle years. Most believe it will never be found, if it ever truly existed. Meilu agreed with my ‘sessment at the time, but ‘pon hearing those words from Gundren, she seems to have changed her mind. Now she says something big and important is afoot and we need to be at our peak wits. Alas, who am I to question her best judgement? “Just an old man with a long list, that’s all I be” I says to her whenever she’ll listen. Her reply was “T’will soon be time for the reckoning of two lists and the culmination of your ‘little game’ with The Scribe.” Bah! But she says that every time I talk of the list and my wager.
Maybe the Rockseekers finally did find it though. If any were to finish such a task, I would suspect it would be those three. They’ve been at it most of their young lives, after all. Not sure they’re going to find what they seek there though. I read the stories from The Wonders of Phandalin during my… what was it… decades? in service to Candlekeep. The tome must have been a respectable history of The Pact and The Forge. If there were any doubts to its veracity, t’wouldn’t have been deemed fit for entrance into the great library by the First Reader. Even if The Forge is still there, t’would likely been plundered clean. The orc hordes erupting from ancient Uruth Ukrypt weren’t known for leaving anyone alive, anything behind, or any place unsullied. The poor dead souls of Old Phandalin can ‘test to that.
Iff’n t’is real or iff’n it ain’t, Gundrun’s got his mine dust up and won’t be stoppin’ him now. I’m to start gatherin’ provisions and equipment back in Neverwinter once the roads are fit for travel. ‘spect I’ll be needing some hands to protect the goods along the way. Meilu seems set that we need in four in particular. Always a cryptic mule she is.