Old Owl Well

The party returns Glasstaff to Sildar in Phandalin, then make their way to Old Owl Well in search of the 5th statuette.

Synopsis
After the fight with Glasstaff and his goonies, the party takes its time taking a short rest, while Nate uses the time to find out the properties of the curious staff Iarno would carry around. It turns out to be a Staff of Defense, and since no party member is interested in using a staff, Nate decides to keep it. They then proceed to interrogate Iarno, but he does not have much more information then they already know, so they walk him back to Phandalin in order to give him into the custody of Sildar. With Glasstaff now safely locked away, the party goes to Halia to claim their reward for removing him.

After midday, they once more set out along the Triboar Trail to Old Owl Well, where they know another statuette to be. In the evening, Akemena manages to get a fireburst off after handling a diamond. It seems like one hit too many on the head has unlocked some primal magic within her.

In the morning, they continue travelling and reach an old abandoned village in the late afternoon, which Caldarion remembers to be Conyberry. This means, that the lair of the banshee Agathe is just a short walk into the woods. Nevertheless, they decide to wait with that visit until the the morning.

True to their intentions, they follow the path into the Neverwinter Woods after breaking camp in the morning, and eventually come across a dome-like shelter made from woven branches. They do not dare enter, but a glance inside reveals old, well made elven furniture, but nobody inside. Only after they mention the silver comb Sister Garaele gave them does Agatha apperar. It's the spectral form of a once beautiful elf, hair and garments flowing in a non-existant wind. Agatha first appears hostile, but after Nate offers her a comb and complements her beauty, she starts smiling coldly and offers them the answer to one question. They ask her about the whereabouts of Bowgentles spellbook, and she says she doesn't know where it is, but last she knew of it she traded it to the necromancer Tsernoth in Iriaebor. With that she disappeared.

Surprised about the sudden disappearance, but happy about the successful trade, the party leaves the Neverwinter Woods and heads to Old Owl Well. In the late afternoon, they crest a hill and see the crumbled ruins of the old watchtower with a colorful tent struck up in the courtyard. Upon approaching, Caldarion notices a deathly odor coming from the ruins of the tower. As they approach the tent, Zombies start shambling out of the tower to the party. They open the tentflap and see a red-dressed human with a clean-shaven tattooed head sitting inside. Somewhat urgently they inform him about the undead making their way toward him, but he tells them not to worry about them just as the undead stop their approach. They then have a short discussion, about the place here (he tells them about a curious staircase leading down endlessly but the way out always seems to be very short) and about necromancy, where Caldarion argues fervently that raising undead is not the way of nature and the wizard claims that he just needs protection. They leave the wizard be for now and also check out the immediate area, eventually coming across the aforementioned stairway. On the doorway, it is written Life leads us down dark roads, but sometimes that is necessary to see the light. As the necromancer already said, the stairway seems to lead down forever, but the way up is always to flight of stairs away, unless they are physically connected. Upon closer examination of the writing, they eventually gather that they must walk down the stairs without any light. They quickly notice that, since they all have darkvision, it is not completely dark for them, so they blindfold themselves and after walking down two flights of stairs, they reach the bottom.

They find themselves in a large room with pillars and stone slabs, as well as a pedestal with a lantern and a shrine in the back of the room. Nate quickly discovers that the stone slabs are actually dust-covered mirrors, and the party deduces that they must shine the light across the mirrors onto the shrine. After the lights hits one of the pillars and it starts turning to a fleshy substance, they quickly turn the light away again and subsequently avoid hitting pillars with light. As the light eventually hits the shrine, it starts to glow and opens up, revealing a qwartz angel and a potion with a murky brown substance in it. They take both and decide to go and kill the zombies, since that is an abomination.

Emerging from the staircase, they first go and have a little chat with the necromancer, and Nate casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter, but it did not seem to have an effect on the human. Noticing just having been the target of a magical effect, a fight ensues, where the necromancer is killed due to the effects of a Hellish Rebuke and all the zombies are also eventually disposed off. In the tent, they then also find some coin and a few interesting magic items.

Quests

 * The Banshee's Bargain