Returning to Phandalin via the main road (as the Redbrands seem to be too cocky to set watchment) we stop by at Sildar to break the bad news about Iano Albrecht to him, and return Thel Dendra’s body for burial.  We explain that we haven’t managed to kill Glasstaff yet, and need rest before we can take him on again.

9th day of Tarsakh

We return to the Stonehill Inn for a meal, and yet more adulation from the general populace.  After a good, and uninterrupted, night’s sleep, we return to the catacombs via the back entrance we found last time.  Unfortunately, the dungeon turns out to be completely deserted – Glasstaff and his bugbears have done a runner!  Disappointed, we return to Phandalin via the Sleeping Giant tavern.  We stake out the tavern, and observe a female dwarf bustling around the kitchen door.  Garrett goes over to engage her in conversation, and finds her thoroughly unpleasant.  She recognises him, and accuses him of having ruined her tavern by driving away (or killing) all her clientele.  Our view that she should try and raise the standards of her establishment fails to get much traction.

We return to Sildar and break the bad news to him, but declare our intention to track him down, as we suspect he has fled to Cragmaw Castle, whence we need to go to free Gudrun.  However, Sildar doesn’t know when Cragmaw Castle is.  At the Town Hall though, we do see a notice about travellers on the Triboar Trail being attacked by orcs based near Wyvern Tor.  Sildar also mentions that he is concerned about reports that prospectors in the mountains to the east near the Old Owl Well ruins have been chased away by undead monsters.  The Old Owl Well is an old watchtower from the magical Netherill Empire, and he fears that there might be some old, bad magic there that is causing this problem.  The Old Owl Well is also relatively close to Wyvern Tor.

We go to Halia Thornton, who is also disappointed to find that we haven’t killed Glasstaff, and refuses to pay us as we haven’t completed the task she set us.  We show her a bundle of his correspondence with his orders for alchemical reagents (but minus the letter from Black Spider that identifies him as Iano Albrecht) and she agrees to give us half the fee for that.  We ask her about Cragmaw Castle – she doesn’t know where it is, but suggests that Quentelle Alderleaf might know.

We return to Ma Alderleaf, but it turns out she doesn’t know where Cragmaw Castle is, but she thinks that Reedoth the Druid does know.  Unfortunately he was last seen leaving Phandalin heading for the ruined village of Thunderleaf, which is back up the Main Road towards Neverwinter.

Finally, I drop in on Sister Garaele again, to pick up on her request to deal with a banshee.  She is grateful that we have dispatched so many of the Redbrands, and tells us more of what she wants from the banshee.  It turns out that the banshee is called Agatha, and she wants to ask her the location of a spell-book that once belonged to Bowgentle.  In return she has an ornate silver comb that she is offering.  If we will go to Agatha’s lair and exchange the comb for the information, she will give us 3 potions of healing.

We undertake the perform this mission, and set out up the Triboar trail.  Agatha’s lair is in the forest opposite Wyvern Tor.

11th day of Tarsakh

It takes us two days to reach the ruins of Coneywood, but the journey is uneventful.  Once there, the route into the forest is easily found, and rapidly leads us to a large hut that we assume is Agatha’s.  Garrett enters and uses his charm and musical prowess to flatter her, give her the comb and get the question answered.  Bowgentle’s spellbook was traded over 100 years ago to a necromancer called Tseonarth from Iriaebor.