The day after they sent the air elementals to their home plane, the party awoke refreshed and got on their way. They followed a path to the northeast along Serpent's Tail Stream, skirting the Serpent Hills. The sprawling prairie of the Backlands stretched out to their right. Tall grass grew as far as they could see. A few trees dotted the area. Birds were plentiful, especially near the stream. It was warm, but a cooling breeze blew across the plains.
The ground was fairly flat, and they had little trouble traveling. There was plenty of grass for the horses to eat, so they didn't think they would run out of feed. However, they kept an anxious eye on their own rations. They hoped that they could find game if they ran out of food.
For 3 days, they saw no other hostile creatures, and breathed a little easier. On the 4th day, early in the morning, they turned north to continue following the stream. After lunch, Mara flew ahead as a giant eagle. She noticed a small settlement, composed of 4 huts, a short distance from the stream. She swooped down to take a closer look.
Several creatures jumped to their feet, shouting and pointing at her. She could see that it was around a dozen wereboars. Four of them looked to be children, and the adults hustled them into one of the huts. The adults encircled the hut with the children and waved their mauls threateningly at Mara. They jumped up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs and gesticulating angrily.
Mara rose into the air, and they seemed to calm slightly, but still watched her warily. She made a note of their position and went back to report to group. Returning to half-elf form, she explained to the party that there was a small tribe of wereboars living next to the stream.
"There seemed to be around 12 of them. Four were children, and I guess when they saw me, they thought I was going to snatch and eat one of the children. They formed a circle around the children to protect them and tried to scare me away."
"Do we want to take them on or leave them alone?" asked Neega.
"I vote for leaving them alone," said Kellen. "They haven't attacked us, so maybe we shouldn't pick a fight."
"If they see us, they might attack" worried Bree. "We're going to have to make a wide enough berth around them so as not to draw their attention."
"Wait!" Hazirawn butted in. "If you don't fight these wereboars, that will be 3 possible encounters in a row that we passed up! I would like some blood!"
"I've given you a lot of blood since I began wielding you," Neega shot back. "Would you rather I give you back to that copper dragon Tazmikella so you can spend the rest of your existence on display in her hoard?"
Hazirawn harrumphed unhappily but stopped complaining.
The group agreed to avoid the wereboar tribe by veering away from the stream long enough to pass them. Mara took to the air again and flew over the settlement, circling and distracting them. The party was able to figure out where the huts were by watching Mara. They put enough distance between themselves and the wereboars so that they were not seen Fortunately, the wind carried their scent away from the tribe. After a period of time, they decided they had passed the tribe and could return to the stream. Mara's sharp eagle eyes saw them turning and flew away from the wereboars to rejoin the party. They continued along the stream until the end of the day and camped that night. They kept careful watch, in case the wereboars came looking for them while they rested.
Another day of traveling brought them to the spot where they would leave the stream and head east to the Marsh of Chelimber. This was the closest approach of the stream to the edge of the marsh, and they would have little difficulty navigating from one to the other. They camped that night and rested for the entirety of the following day.
A day's trek through the tall grass brought them to the edge of the marsh. They turned northeast and followed the edge of the marsh on the following day. The presence of the marsh raised the humidity a good deal, and they were hot and uncomfortable. Additionally, the stink of stagnant water and decaying vegetation wafted out of the swamp. The noise of frogs, insects and birds was a constant background. Occasionally they heard the roar of a crocodile.
The marsh edge bent to the northwest on the following day, and so did they. On the afternoon of the day of they turned to the northwest, Mara returned to the group and reported she had seen a large group of bullywugs, accompanied by a nearly equal number of giant frogs. They seemed to be hunting along the edge of the marsh. As they were discussing whether or not to detour around the bullywugs, they heard the loud croaks of the Bullywug language rapidly approaching their position. The bullywugs had made that decision for them.
"What? How did they know we were here?" asked Neega in shock.
I don't know," responded Mara.
"Did they see you flying overhead? Maybe they followed you back to us."
"Maybe they saw me, maybe not. But why would the bullywugs follow a giant eagle who could swoop down at any moment and snatch one of them?"
Kellen interrupted, "We need to stop arguing and prepare ourselves for battle! The bullywugs are getting closer!"
The party hid their horses deep in a large clump of trees at the marsh edge. They then took up positions at the edge of the clump facing the direction from which the bullywug sounds came. Mara, Neega and Frostbite hid just inside the clump, in the front line. Behind them Borovik, Bree, Kellen and Preston formed a second line. Borovik and Bree were behind Frostbite, Kellen was behind Neega, and Preston was behind Mara. Talis stayed at the rear to do healer duties.
Before long they saw the bullywugs approach. They were aligned in 3 ranks. The lead rank had 3 bullywugs backed up by 3 giant frogs. The 2nd rank and the 3rd rank behind them were in the same configuration. There was a final bullywug in the center of the group who seemed to be directing their motions. It had a spear in one hand, but, unlike the other bullywugs, carried no shield. Instead, in its second hand it held something that looked like a wand. As soon as the bullywugs appeared, Talis cast Bless on the rest of the party.
The bullywugs stopped about 60 ft. or so from where the party hid. The apparent leader looked around, then pointed to the clump of trees where the heroes hid. It croaked some sort of command and all 9 of the giant frogs began hopping toward the clump of trees. They all did dashes to get as close as they could, but this left them no time to do attacks. One frog got directly in front of Frostbite and a second came up next to the first frog, within melee range of Frostbite. A 3rd frog approached Frostbite and got to within 15 ft. of him, being shortly joined by another frog. One of the frogs ended up directly in front of Neega and was followed up by a frog who got to about 25 ft. in front of Neega. A 7th frog ended up directly in front of Mara and an 8th frog got to about 25 ft. in front of Mara. A final frog hopped forward until it was about 25 or 30 ft. from the party's front line.
Borovik saw that the giant frogs were tightly clumped, so he decided to use a Fireball spell to see if he could take out a large number of them all at once. A burning sphere formed in his hand, and he threw it into the midst of the frogs. Frostbite was within the area of the spell, so Borovik used his spell sculpting ability to carve out a pocket of safety for Frostbite. A blazing ball of fire erupted at the point of contact, and afterward all 9 of the giant frogs lay unconscious on the ground.
No enemies were within melee range, so Neega pulled out her longbow and attacked one of the bullywugs in the front rank. Unfortunately, the shot went wide. Bree had more success attacking another front rank bullywug with her shortbow. She hit and the bullywug bled profusely from a piercing wound. Frostbite wasn't near enough to any enemies to use his cold breath weapon, so he prepared to use it when enemies got within 30 ft. Kellen tried unsuccessfully to hit a front rank bullywug with his shortbow. Preston wanted to use his Shatter spell but saw that none of the enemies were within the range of his spell. So, he prepared to cast it when enemies got closer.
The bullywug leader then spoke an incantation and held up its wand. A 40 ft. diameter patch of dense, thorny vegetation sprang up around the party. They could tell that if they tried to move, they would have to go slowly, and that moving through the thorns would surely put many deep scratches on their legs.
The first rank of bullywugs dashed forward toward Frostbite but didn't have time to attack. Frostbite used his prepared breath weapon attack to inflict cold damage on the bullywugs. All 3 of them froze to death. The 3 bullywugs of the second rank ran forward. As soon as they were within range, Preston let fly his prepared Shatter spell. Sonic damage from a huge thunderclap slammed into them and all 3 fell unconscious.
The final 3 bullywugs dashed forward and got close to the party but had no time to attack. Mara cast Ice Storm and managed to target these 3 bullywugs, as well as the bullywug leader. Bludgeoning and cold damage rained down on the final 4 bullywugs. The leader was knocked unconscious, and the rest of them were killed. As the leader fell to the ground, its Spike Growth spell ended, causing the dense vegetation to vanish and letting the party move freely.
After the enemies were down, Neega went through and gave good whacks to the ones who were unconscious, but not yet dead. Hazirawn hummed happily as its blood lust was thus satisfied. They looted the coin purses of the fallen foes and collected 26gp, 39sp, 71cp. Mara examined the body of the bullywug leader. She realized that its wand was made of yew, and she deduced that it practiced Druidic magic.
"This bullywug must have been their shaman," she said. "I'll bet that when they saw me fly over as a giant eagle, they thought it was an omen and the shaman spoke to the nature spirits to find out what it meant. Maybe the spirits told them that the eagle meant that a group was near whom they might be able to kill and steal from."
"Well, that didn't turn out so well for them," commented Bree.
"I guess they didn't expect a group as powerful as we are," added Kellen. "Maybe the spirits should have given them more complete information."
"Yeah, like 'Their druid is better than your druid'," laughed Neega.
Once the bullywugs were dealt with, Mara took off again to scout as a giant eagle and they continued on their way until dusk. Kellen cast Leomund's Tiny Hut and they settled in for the night.
The next morning, they ate their breakfast and continued their journey. All was quiet that day. The day following, Mara again flew off in the morning to scout. After a couple of hours, the group on horseback passed by a large, deep pond, whose edge was lined with scrubby clumps of weeds and grass. Mara had yet to report back that any enemies were ahead, so they were relaxed as they progressed. Neega was in the lead, with Preston slightly behind to her left. Bree was likewise slightly behind Neega to the right. Talis took up the middle, and behind her Borovik and Kellen rode side by side. Frostbite guarded the rear.
Without warning, a giant crocodile lunged from the vegetation at the edge of the pond. Heading straight for Bree, it tried to bite and grapple her horse. She saw it just in time and managed to make the horse dodge out of the way. The crocodile them lashed out at Kellen with its tail. This attack was successful, and Kellen fell off his horse, sustaining injury and landing flat on the ground. Unbeknownst to the party, a second giant crocodile silently swam from the other end of the pond to get close enough the party for an attack.
Preston cast the Shatter spell at the giant crocodile the group could see, expending additional magical energy to do greater damage. The crocodile twisted out of the way and only took half of the damage but was still wounded. Neega went into a Barbarian rage and attacked the crocodile. She hit with both of her attacks and the crocodile let out a mighty roar as its blood flowed freely.
Borovik cast Bigby's Hand and an extremely large hand materialized. He ordered it to grapple the crocodile and pin it to its location. Frostbite then got within melee range of the crocodile and attacked. Teeth and claws hit and sent it into unconsciousness. Bree dismounted from her horse to help Kellen get up and Talis cast Cure Wounds to restore him to full health.
Frostbite had moved close to the hiding spot of the second giant crocodile, so the crocodile lunged out of the weeds at Frostbite. It tried unsuccessfully to bite Frostbite, then missed in its attempt to strike him with its tail.
Preston rode to the rear, slightly past the group, to get a clear shot at the crocodile. He cast Lightning Bolt and a line of crackling electricity hit the crocodile, causing its entire body to spasm. Neega also rode back and got next to the crocodile. She hit it twice with Hazirawn and the combination of slashing and necrotic damage knocked it out.
"Where did these come from?" Bree asked crossly. "Why didn't Mara report them to us?"
"I don't know. We should ask her when she gets back," responded Kellen.
A few minutes later Mara returned from scouting, assured that the way forward until lunch was clear. As she flew over, she was shocked to see the party standing over the dead bodies of 2 giant crocodiles. She quickly flew down and landed, resuming half-elf form.
"Mara!" yelled Neega. "Why didn't you warn us about the giant crocodiles in this pond?"
"I didn't see them," Mara responded in surprise.
"You have keen vision when in the giant eagle form! How could you not have seen them?"
"For the same reason you didn't see them! They silently hide under the water with nothing but the tips of their noses and their eyes above water! They're nearly invisible!"
"Well, they caught us by surprise! If Bree had been just a little bit slower, her horse would have been grabbed, dragged into the water and eaten! Maybe her as well! What kind of a scout are you, anyway?"
"Stop, folks!" interrupted Kellen. "Why have we been so cranky with each other the last few days?"
"I'm just pointing out..." Neega sputtered.
"Oh, shut up!" Borovik barked. "Ripping into each other isn't going to make our job any easier."
Preston spoke up, "I think we're just weary of the journey. This has been the longest trek we've ever had to make and I, for one, am tired of it."
"Yeah, me, too," agreed Bree. "And this damn marsh is giving me the creeps!"
"So," continued Kellen. "Tomorrow will be a full day of rest. Let's figure out stuff we can do to remind ourselves why we're a team and why we're friends."
"In the meantime, why don't we hack off some of the crocodile meat so we can eat well today?" suggested Talis.
"Good idea,' the group nodded in agreement. Frostbite practically drooled at the thought of fresh crocodile meat.
They resumed their journey and stopped at noon for lunch. Kellen played on his harp and sang songs of friendship and camaraderie, which soothed some of the irritation they were feeling with each other. Very shortly thereafter, they turned north toward the foothills of the Greypeak Mountains. By the time they reached their campsite for the night, they were feeling contrite for arguing. Apologies were made all around and many hugs were exchanged.
The next day when they awoke, they could see the foothills of the Greypeak Mountains in the distance, perhaps a half day's trek to the north. Kellen had thought about ways they could reaffirm their friendships and had a number of things planned. In the morning he played his harp for them, and everyone danced. They also played a fantasy role playing game, in which each party member pretended to be a character vastly different than what they currently were. Neega as a bard had everyone in stitches. In the afternoon, he had them all sit in a circle and talk about things that had happened to them early in their lives.
Neega started. "When I was still with my tribe, I was so excited to go on my first hunt. At that time, I wielded a spear, rather than a sword. We were out chasing a wild boar. It disappeared in a bunch of bushes, and then suddenly charged back out right at me. I was so scared I nearly dropped my spear! The other hunters were yelling, 'Neega! Stab it!' So, I thought 'Oh, yeah.' I jabbed it with my spear, and it let out a bellow so loud you could have heard it a mile away! The other hunters hit it with clubs and stabbed it with spears, and soon we had a dead boar to take back to the tribe. I was ashamed of my performance, but my Papa was so proud of me. 'You got first blood on the boar, Neega!' he said. When we got home, the whole tribe celebrated my first hunt."
The party cheered and laughed. Mara went next. "The first time I helped during sheep shearing, I was green as a blade of grass. Mama showed me how to shear the wool from the sheep, pointing out how you need to cut close to the skin and take the fleece from the entire sheep off in one piece. Then she handed the shears to me so I could try. I tried to copy everything she did, but it wasn't long before I pinched the sheep's skin with the shears. The sheep bleated loudly and kicked me, knocking me flat on my behind! Talk about being humiliated! Fortunately, my mama was a patient woman. She helped me back up and told to me try again, without chastising me for my mistake."
Kellen then described one of his adventures early in his career as a bard. "The son of Clan Daergal's Chief was getting married, and I was asked to play for the wedding. I was just learning how to infuse my music with magic, and I put everything I had into charming the crowd with my performance. Well, the bride of the Chief's son was so enchanted that she had eyes only for me as I played. You can bet that the Chief's son was mad! He grabbed me by the collar and yelled at me, 'You find your own woman and stop trying to steal mine!' We almost got into a fist fight and the Chief himself had to separate the 2 of us! What a mess that was! But the crowd thought it was hilarious and laughed like they were watching a comedy!"
One by one the rest of the group told their stories of events early in their lives. Some of the stories humorous, some poignant, but all were from the heart. Kellen smiled to himself as he saw the party remembering why they were friends and why they loved each other. By the time they bedded down for the night, they were a much happier group.
The next morning, they turned north and by noon were in the foothills of the Greypeaks. After another half day's travel into the foothills, they made camp for the night. The day had gone peacefully, and the weather cooled slightly in the foothills. Trees grew in more abundance here and offered welcome shade. The next day they turned east to go toward Mt. Hlim, on the southern tip of the Greypeak range. After traveling that day, they could actually see Mt. Hlim as it got close to the end of the day. The day following also went without incident, with Mt. Hlim growing ever nearer, ever larger.
The 3rd day, close to lunch, they realized that Xonthal's Tower was now visible above the hills, although the village surrounding the tower was still hidden from view. They could also see that as Mara flew back to the party for the midday meal and a short rest, she was being chased.
She landed and as she resumed half-elf shape, she shouted, "Take cover! Two young black dragons are after me!"
The party scrambled to get the horses secured in cover within brush behind a large tree just as 2 young black dragons approached from the east. They themselves hid in the brush surrounding the trunk of the tree. They spread out around the tree trunk, with Neega, Mara and Frostbite forming an arc around the side of the tree facing the dragons. Preston hid behind Neega, then Borovik, Talis, Kellen and Bree completed the circle around the tree trunk. They waited until the dragons had approached to within about 60 or 70 ft. of their hiding place.
The party took turns stepping out of cover, making attacks, then retreating back into cover. Mara started off by targeting one of the dragons and casting the Sunbeam spell at it. A blazing line of radiant energy streaked at the dragon. It wasn't tough enough to protect itself from the spell, so it was scorched by the radiant energy. Additionally, it was temporarily blinded. Neega was next. The dragons weren't within melee range, so she took a shot with her longbow at the blinded dragon, Unfortunately, the arrow bounced off the tough dragon hide. Preston then stepped out and cast Lightning Bolt at the blinded dragon. It sensed the incoming spell and tried to dodge the crackling line of electricity, but its blindness impeded its effort. It took full damage and now it had 2 large scorch spots on its hide. Borovik tried the Phantasmal Killer spell, but the dragon had enough presence of mind not to fall under the psychic assault.
Since it couldn't see anything, the blinded dragon landed on the ground and stumbled into the brush behind it to hide. The other dragon couldn't see the party members but made a guess where the rude druid who had blasted its companion was hiding. It flew up to within 30 ft. of that spot and let loose with a line of acid breath. Mara was harder to hit because she was in cover, so she only took half damage. Despite being injured, she managed to maintain concentration on her Sunbeam spell. The second dragon then retreated back to its original spot so that none of the melee fighters could get near it.
Bree responded to the dragon attack by trying to shoot the dragon who just injured Mara, but the shot went wide. Kellen cast Confusion on the dragon, attempting to addle its brain with delusions. However, the dragon was able to rebuff the spell. Talis now had an opportunity to cast Bless on the entire party to increase their ability to hit targets. Frostbite flew out of cover to within 30 ft. of the dragon who could still see, blowing a cone of cold damage at it. The dragon was tough enough to avoid some of the damage, but sustained cold injury, nonetheless.
Mara sent another Sunbeam at the dragon whom Frostbite had just blasted. It took full radiant damage and, like the first dragon, was rendered blind. Neega once again fired with her longbow, and this time the arrow lodged in one of the hind legs of the second dragon. Preston cast another Lightning Bolt spell at the second dragon, and it bellowed as electric sparks surrounded its entire body. Borovik decided to use Magic Missiles, casting it with the maximum magical energy he could put into a single spell. Eight darts of force damage slammed into the dragon's body. It fell from the sky to the ground and lay still.
The first dragon had regained its sight just in time to see its companion fall unconscious. Taking stock of its own substantial injuries, it decided that its odds weren't good. It flew out of hiding and fled back to the east.
Talis took the opportunity to cast heal on Mara, then gave her a long hug. Are you okay? she asked.
"Yes. Thank you, Dear," Mara whispered back to her, resting her head on Talis' shoulder.
"Give the dragon on the ground a good whack," pleaded Hazirawn. "That way I can get at least a little dragon blood."
Neega complied. Then the party settled down for some food and a short rest. They resumed the trip after lunch and fortunately there were no more enemies for the rest of the day. They arrived at the Xonthal's Tower village late in the afternoon. Entering the village, they began searching for a place to eat. There were many townsfolk milling around in the streets, and they directed the party to a tavern. They sat down and ordered bowls of rabbit stew and mugs of ale. After many days of eating travel rations the tavern fare seemed like the feast of a king. As they ate, one of the tavern patrons, a cheerful looking dwarf woman, came over to speak with them.
"Greeting, folks," she said. "My name is Helga, and I make it my business to welcome people who are new in town. Your accents seem to indicate that you come from the area around Waterdeep."
"We do indeed," said Borovik.
"You're a long way from home. What brings you here?"
"We've been sent to investigate a request we received from a man who wants us to meet him at Xonthal's Tower."
Helga started at that. "Xonthal's Tower! Something strange is going on there, and it might not be smart to go there."
"What's going on?"
"Well, the place has been quiet for 100 years or more. Ever since Xonthal vanished. But about a year ago, we started seeing lights in the windows at night. And a lot of weird sounds have been coming from the place. It's got us all spooked."
By now a few more people had become interested in the conversation and gathered around to join in.
"It's Xonthal. I just know it. Come back as a lich," said one.
"No! I'll bet it's one of the genies or elementals he had imprisoned there! I bet one of them broke loose and is wandering around inside there!" offered another.
"Well, we think the place may have been occupied by the Cult of the Dragon," Borovik said. "We were contacted by someone who claims to be a high-ranking member and who wants leave the cult. Because the cult will try to kill him if he tries to leave, he wants us to rescue him."
"Oh, no!" a third person cried. "I guess that explains why some folks claim they saw a blue dragon flying around the tower. Those Cult of the Dragon sorts are just plain nasty! You don't want to mess with them!"
"We know all about how nasty they are," said Bree. "They've already been messing with us. But this guy who wants out has offered to give us a powerful magical artifact if we rescue him. So, here we are."
"Hmm," said Helga, scratching her chin. "If you really want to go to the tower, you'll have to go through the hedge maze that surrounds it. It's magic and it's dangerous. Xonthal set it up to prevent intruders from getting into the tower. Most folks who enter the maze don't ever come back out, and those that do look like they've been to Avernus and back."
"Yeah," piped up the tavern keep. "We warn all our children not to go into the maze and we put up a wall to prevent our livestock from wandering in there."
"We have plenty of magic among us, so we're willing to take it on," said Kellen.
"Good luck," said all the townsfolk. "We sure hope you can get that guy out and maybe kill the cult members while you're at it! We want them to be gone!"
After they ate, they arranged for lodging at the village inn and rented space at the stables for their horses to be boarded. Bree went to the weapons shop and bought 20 more arrows, since she was starting to run low.
The next morning, they went up to the entrance of the maze surrounding the tower. Sure enough, there was a sign warning against entering the maze and a wall to keep the animals out. They looked up at the tower. It had a square outline and seemed to be about 6 stories tall. From where they stood, there was no visible entrance into the tower.
As they gazed up at the tower, they noticed a tall human man dressed in black robes step out onto a balcony near the top.
"Phandalin Heroes!" he shouted. 'I have the mask! Meet me below the tower in the dungeons. You will need a key, and I'll leave it behind for you after I use it."
At this he held up a glittering hourglass shaped object in one hand and the Blue Dragon Mask in the other.
Just then, another figure ran out onto balcony and attacked the tall man. They engaged in a fight, utilizing swords and magic. The tall man that first called to them was victorious and threw his attacker off the balcony before dashing back inside.
"I guess the guy that yelled at us was Iskander," said Bree. "It looks like we'll have one or more fights on our hands to get him and the mask out of there."