"We should deliver this book", Lureene told the others, with a glance at Rihala, "lest the sister worry about us and our task. We shall join you anon."

In reply to Lureene Raventree (msg # 6):

Knowing business should be concluded first and the book is most important Cunaar comments about his own agenda,
"Perhaps we should accompany the delivery of the book before we indulge in other recreations."
As much as he might like to go drinking with everyone this was a matter that should be seen to before pleasure.

"Garaele will be surpised," Rihala answered Lureene, "when we actually give her the book. I'm just wondering if it will be a pleasant surprise."

"All she asked for was information on its location. I wonder if she may have had some other reason for that. I mean, she could have asked us to retrieve the book just as easily."

Artem smiled back at Serena and the mention of coin and was happy to go along with whatever the group decided--be it drinks now or drinks later. Overall, he was enjoying his respite and rewards.

Maldor didn't speak. He was content with just listening to the others. If there was an opportunity for more adventure, he was up for it... Even if it was something as easy as delivering a book.

Mal took another sip of his ale. It didn't have quite the same taste as the drink back home at the Black Scarab. But it still hit the spot.

Lureene chuckled at Rihala's words. "Well I'm fairly sure we can give her good information on the book's current whereabouts then."

She nods to Cunaar and smiles a beautiful, warm smile. "Your company is welcome, of course, but feel free to head to the tavern if you prefer. We're only going across town, which I doubt will be perilous, and I want to shrug off this armor and put on cleaner clothes before any revelry." She ran a hand through her long red hair. "And give my hair a comb! 'Twouldn't do to look bedraggled from travel if I can help it; and what would the Lady Firehair think?"

In reply to Lureene Raventree (msg # 11):

"Well then, I will accompany you to the place of Garaeles'. If for no other reason then see her response to actually getting the book in hand. That should go well."
For those going to the inn immediately he requests a favor,
Do save us a seat, we will be there post haste. Try not to drink the barrel dry.
Laughing he goes with Rihala and Lureene to meet with Garaele and deliver the book.

While Lureene, Rihala and Cunaar visit Garaele's house, everyone else has settled in to the Stonehill Inn.

Amiri, Bleddyn, Mella and Sylvester delivered the wagon of goods to the Lionshield Coster. Although there is only the one wagon, you recovered around 80% of the goods, overstuffing the wagon as much as you could.

Linene is delighted to get so much back, especially in such a short time. She pays each of you 25gp. She lets you know that she'll be shipping most of it on to Waterdeep in a day. She's not sure about sending the lone wagon back over the mountains, though.

"The Redbrands are mercenaries, aren't they? Couldn't you hire some of them to go with the wagon?" one of her servants quips up.

"What? Are you addlepated? The Redbrands are worse than the goblins!" Linene yells at the servant.


Back at the Stonehill Inn, several townsfolk wander in, and as they see the group, they congratulate all of you and buy you all a drink. Naturally, they want to hear all about it!

Serena is more than welcome to perform at the inn.


In the course of the celebration, one or more of you manage to overhear a few significant conversations.

"So they found 'em in da castle, huh?"
"Yeah, that's what they said. More like ruins of a castle."
"Never knew there was a castle up there. Say, did they take the hideout, too? Day was some goblins what had a hideout in the woods by the road. Wunner if'n it was the same group?"


Amid the celebration, Sildar Hallwinter enters the inn. He was the guard accompanying Gundren that you rescued from the castle ruins. He's a member of the Lord's Alliance, a political alliance that unites the free cities and towns of the North. He walks over to your table and discretely sets a small coffer on the table.

"That's the reward for finding the Cragmaw Castle and defeating the goblins and their chief," he says. "500gp. I hope you spend it wisely."

He then heads over to talk to someone named Harben.

"Have you seen Inkarno?" he asks Harben.
"Hmmm. No, now that you mention it. He was going to check out the area around Tresendar Manor. That was about 2 months ago. I don't think I've seen him since." Harben replies.
"That does not bode well."


"Someone should do somethin' about 'em!" grouses one inn patron with a black eye and a few other bruises and cuts as he downs another shot glass of something.
"And just who do you think is going to do that? You don't expect the mayor to do anything about the Redbrands, do you? He's more afraid of them than you are!"
"Old fat Harben? Nah, not a chance. Somebody needs to!" He casts a glance over at your group.

Joking and telling of the goblin fight with some embellishment, Artem drinks with the best of them, though he pauses frequently enough to make sure he is not overly drunk.

When the guard plops down the loot, Artem eyes the coffer with an awe struck look--that much money he had not dreamt of in his days of living. He manages a "thanks" and then notices the stranger looking at their group. He smiles at the man and says

"Friend, would you mind coming here and telling me more about these Redhands which I've heard twice now tonight? Might be we could do somethin' good for folks herebouts..."

Madlor imagined what he could do with the extra gold. Better armor? A sharper weapon? He didn't get much of an opportunity to think fully, for the talk of the Redhands piqued his interest. Would this be the chance for more adventure? Mal slid his seat closer to Artem as he invited the man over.

Ero can barely contain his excitement.  Gold!  Now he can finally get his longbow, and maybe a new change of clothes.  His current robes were getting a bit ragged.  A scholar's robes simply weren't made for the wilderness.  Perhaps he should purchase something more rustic.

This message was deleted by the player at 01:15, Tue 07 July 2015.

Serena finishes counting the coins into 8 piles, with 3 coins more in hers since they don't evenly split and she wants to avoid bickering over a few coins. This is the gold she had found under the throne of the bugbear king.

"Alright guys, on top of our 25 gold/person payment for transporting our employer and most of the goods safely, and this neato 50 gold/person* bounty we got from the guard we saved, I have finished sorting some nice shinies I found under the throne back there. Each of the eight of us at this table are getting a pile of 78 gold coins, with mine having 3 extra that were left over and I don't want to hear a single grumble about it. Artem and Ero were a huge help in facilitating my ruse, so for their risk I'm giving them each a single gem while I'm taking this strange ring that appears to have bardic properties."

"There are 4 remaining gems that I will not hide from you all. you all fought the good fight and fought valiantly so deserve it. Now, you guys need to vote and decide if I should sell the remaining 4 gems and split the gold amongst us, or keep them to use as a sort of emergency 'party fund' for shared expenses we may incure that a patron or employer doesn't or cannot cover, like rations, healing salves, rope, sunrods, and so on. I'll leave that choice up to you guys."

She placed the 4 gems on the table in front of her, after giving the 5th to Ero and 6th to Artem. She had the ring on her right hand.

"After you guys vote - I will abstain - I am going to go see if I can get the inn to patronize me and let me give everyone a great performance!"

A party fund?  He is part of a party?  Of mercenaries?!  Ero leans back in his chair.  This has possibilities, he thinks.  He'd only expected this caravan trip to be a one-off adventure to get him to Phandalin, but he really never made any plans for once he got here.  He had to admit, scary as it was being neck-deep in a horde of goblin bandits, it was exciting.

"I think a party fund is a good idea," he replies.  He wasn't exactly sure what a party fund entailed, but he had a general idea.

As Maldor put his share into his pouch, he grunted in agreement. He studied the elven wizard.

"Thin one no handle ale well" Mal said to himself, somewhat amused and not knowing the reality of Ero's emotion.

Mal returned to his seat and looked at the server. Once he caught the bar worker's attention, he pointed at his drink container. While waiting for more ale, he tore at one of the dried pieces of meat from a nearby plate. He sniffed it, then placed it within his mouth.

"Not as good as Black Scarab" he muttered, missing his former home.

Getting to the inn a little behind the others but no less enthusiastic Cunaar enters as the subject of a party fund is brought up with the four extra gems.
"A party fund would be just fine, most useful Serena."
That finished Cunaar goes up to the bar to get a pint and rejoin the others in conversation and drink. Taking a long pull he sits down to enjoy.
Whenthe first barmaid comes by he will give her a gold to keep them coming and another gold for her alone to keep her smiling.
"So, have I missed anything while I was gone?"
Speaking to no one in particular just addressing the group.

Amiri, Bleddyn, Mella and Sylvester each got 25gp from Linene at the Lionshield Coster when they dropped off the wagon. 80% of the goods was better than she'd expected, though she was a tad annoyed that the goblins had destroyed the second wagon. A wagon, though, is easier to replace than the goods that were recovered.

She's kind of happy that there are so many adventurers in town at the moment so she should be able to hire enough guards to go to Yartar and back to Waterdeep.

Sylvester and Mella both agree to go to Yartar. Bleddyn wants to go to Neverwinter.


So when all is said and done, everyone except Lureene and Rihala got 158gp. Lureene and Rihala each got 133gp.

"Ho! Cunaar!" Mithra replies to the wizard.

"Well, you missed the reward money! Serena's got your share. Seems there was a standing reward to find Cragmaw Castle and deal with the goblin menace!"

"We did that right enough. Did you get your payment from Gundren? I suspect some of the bugbear's treasure might have come from him, but he did say anything about it, so I'm guessing he's letting us keep it anyway."

"Lureene and Rihala okay? How'd Garaele take receiving the book? Would have liked to have seen that, but I needed a drink more! Thirsty work haulin' that wagon around without horses!"

In between drinks Cunaar will answer Mithra,
"Oh, they are fine and Garaele was overjoyed to actually get the book, not just information on its location. It was a delight seeing her surprise. "
Slapping his hand on the table he has to agree with her on the thirsty work.
"Indeed hauling it was. The whole reason I could not stay and catch up with them. A mug was calling my name."
He quickly finishes his drink and looks about for that barmaid that was supposed to keep them coming.

Serena nodded as she doled out the loot honestly, doing as she said she would.

"You all fought great back there and I'd feel comfortable trusting my welfare in your guys' hands as I fought next to you in future battles. I'm going to try and get these 4 gems sold and converted to coins for the party fund. If anyone is particularly good at mercantile trading please let me know. Otherwise I'll take care of it. I can be very persuasive." she said to everyone.

she looked at Cunnar.

"Yes, do make sure you get your payment and a cut of the bounty. you earned it fair and square. But can you tell me what is up with that book? I am kind of in the dark but a few of you guys seemed to be in a tizzy over acquiring it."

"To be honest, I do not know much more than you at this time. While I was there she only looked at it briefly and claimed it would need to be looked at more."
Perhaps Lureene and Rihala would be able to provide more information on the matter when they came back to the group.
"Lureene and Rihala may be able to answer that question."

"Wizard stuff," Mithra comments rather emphatically. "It was a grimoire. Wizards' grimoires have more detail in them than just an ordinary spellbook, but usually less than a workbook. Workbooks, though, are a lot harder to decipher."

"The grimoire has notes and comments by the wizard. Sometimes they are only relevant to him. There was this one comment about pickles and a lightning bolt, which led to fried pickles."

"Sometimes, though, it's about some specific application, like maybe throwing lightning bolts at stone golems or something."

"It sounds like in this case, someone thinks there might be a clue to a location or a spell secret. That usually means they have some other piece of knowledge, so even if we read the book, it'd be all Gnomish to us."

She finished her ale and gestured for another.

"So how long do we party before it's acceptable to go find another adventure?"

Serena nods.

"Well we just got here so I'd certainly like to stay the night at the minimum. I'd like to go hit the owner of the tavern up to see if he'll let me play in exchange for some coin and room and board. Can't ever have enough of either. I also want to see if we can get the 4 gems sold too while we're here, since smaller towns and such on the road may not be able to help us with that and you know that would also be the time we need to re-supply or something. Go figure. Heh."

She considers.

"Ah a grimoire? Interesting. My magic is more sorcerous than magely though, although I do like learning new knowledge and lore for the sheer sake of it. Everything and anything can potentially make a good story, after all. I'm more happy we finally be off that wagon for a bit though. I was about to shove my lute down someone's throat or something if I got elbowed one more time or jostled from a divot in the road one more time during a strumming session."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:02, Wed 08 July 2015.

There's no single source in Phandalin that is able to buy all four gems, but if you spread them around some, you can find a buyer in the Lionshield Coster, one in Barthen's Provisions, and 2 at the Phandalin Miner's Exchange.

You can only get 125gp for each gem. You could probably get twice that in Waterdeep or Neverwinter, which is what the buyers are hoping to do, but no amount of bargaining will raise that amount simply because no one has any more money than that to spare.

That becomes evident also when Serena approaches Toby Stonehill, the owner of the inn. He'd love for Serena to play there, but he can't pay her for it. He doesn't get enough business as it is, but if some of the others are willing to pay for a room, then he'll let Serena stay in one of the rooms for free.

Sildar is in one of the six rooms, so that would leave four rooms for the adventurers. He charges 1gp per day per person per modest room, but that includes good meals.

OOC- Will pay the 4gp for the last 4 rooms for the rest of us and 4 more to see we are well taken care of. Plus 2gp for more drinks for the night.

---

Subtracted 10gp to pay for it
This message was last edited by the player at 05:56, Wed 08 July 2015.