DnDNerds!

Umgurn leads Thronor, Jhank, Caradoc, and Arty back to the Hidden Lake Delve to take on the gnolls that have now infested it! After a big battle with giant hyenas and a few gnolls, Jhank gets a magic battleaxe and the party retreats to the surface for a short rest; then heads back in to explore the side passages. The underwater course of the Shrike River is found on one side, and the other is a dwarven workshop complex with a loud repeating sound. After finding and befriending a guardian construct and finding several arbitrage loads worth of metals, the party finds the source of the sound: a steam-filled hammermill room with dwarven skeletons; yipes!  Lots of falling on slippery floors, but they manage to defeat the undead and retreat back to the surface once more. Jhank puts a locked iron door from his Robe of Useful Items in place to keep the gnolls in while the party retreats back to the safety of Sootscale Caverns, killing a giant owl along the way.  The Eldergrove group heads back to Oleg's and meets some Bignose Goblins near the trading post. Plans are made to renovate the Raided Farmstead. 

Thronor leads Umgurn, MikMek, and Arty northeast of the Sootscale Caverns to the edge of the Graypeak Mountains in search of dwarven ruins of Ammarindar!  They run into trouble with a bear! MikMek gets lowered down a ventilation shaft and sees a moving room. That night, there's more trouble with a territorial cyclops who nearly one-shots Thronor. A hidden lake is discovered and with it a hidden door! A sealed and deserted dwarf ruin is explored, including richly appointed tombs that Thronor and Umgurn won't let anyone disturb. When they return to the surface, they find a band of gnolls feasting on ClipClop and Baeshra the pack horse! Salvaging what they can (but without all their coins the gnolls stole), the party returns back to Sootscale Caverns, discovering Shrike Falls along the way. 

Kobold MikMek guides Arty, Caradoc, and newcomer dwarf cleric brothers Umgurn and Thronor towards the Sootscale Caverns. Along the way, Caradoc has a run-in with a wild basilisk but manages to escape. They come in contact with an undead bridgekeeper and promise to throw the Stag Lord's corpse into the Shrike River so the bridgekeeper can be put to rest. They visit the hidden shrine of Kurtulmak, where MikMek's cousin Tuklak Kurtulmak Dragon Mighty Bone lives in hiding since evil shaman Tartuk displaced him. At the caverns, the demon idol is returned to Chief Sootscale and smashed on the ground. Everyone turns on Tartuk but in an abbreviated combat, Tartuk escapes to cause problems for the PCs later.  Feasting and celebrations ensue and the party finds a nearby bridge and the fangberry thicket Bokken wanted them to harvest.  All in all, they are occupied for 13 days and will start next session at the Sootscale Caverns. 

Some new secondary characters are introduced and Jhank, Barriq, Sir Parrik, Floki, and Fiori set out to regain the bandits' stolen gold and take vengeance on them.  They track the new set of bandits back to their camp at the Thorn River and exterminate them, with both Parrik and Jhank using their special mounts to great effect, while newcomers Fiori and Floki attack from the edges.  Some of the furs are recovered along with additional treasure and things stolen from Eldergrove Village. The party then heads down to the raided farmstead for more of their cached loot, only to find gnolls have been there. But luckily the cache is intact and it gets loaded onto the wain and Floki's cart for transport back to Oleg's.  

After a quick bluebook review, Caradoc takes over as caller and the party heads southwest to look for the Sootscale kobolds, but instead they find a farmstead the kobolds have raided and a magic mouth gives them a kobold-related quest! A cache of furs and other goods is discovered that the farmers had hidden. Overnight, Arty hears kobold yipping and goes to investigate, and comes back with a pair of emaciated kobolds who had been tied to a tree and tortured by mites. After a rough interrogation where one kobold dies, the party decides to 'help' the remaining kobold by having him lead them to the Old Sycamore tree where the mites lair. Everyone who can fit down the dirty burrow goes in and the mites and their giant centipede and tick pets are destroyed and the demonic kobold idol they had taken recovered, along with kobold warrior MikMek, who agrees to accompany the party back to the Uthgardt camp for a couple of weeks to earn back the idol. 

While Caradoc stays behind to work on some smithing, Arty leads the rest of the party southwest to find the bandit camp that's been causing trouble.  After some exploration, Arty goes full crocodile in the water to scout the place out and the party returns at dusk for an attack! Parrick continues his signature move of impaling baddies on his lance, Jhank sets up overwatch with his crossbow, Barriq lights things on fire and causes chaos, and Arty charges out of the water to attack with his glaive!  After vanquishing the brigands, a survivor is tracked down and interrogated, some of the bandits' loot and a boat is hidden in some nearby woods, and the party catches sight of goblins training giant centipedes on the way back to Oleg's.  

After resolving the trouble between the local fey and the village of Eldergrove, the party gets back to proper exploration! We try out all kinds of hexcrawl watch action mechanics! The group heads north to reclaim an abandoned wain (open-top wagon) mentioned by Bags Dagnulfsson in the Feywild, south again to discover a bloody altar being used by some kind of cult, then further south to gather moon radishes for Svetlana despite the objections of a few Sootscale Kobolds, then back to Oleg's Trading Post by way of the hunting grounds of a vicious giant trapdoor spider, where they find a clue to a possible treasure hoard. 

In Eldergrove, the party discovers that children have gone missing over the last several nights, presumed taken by local fey. Following a trail into the nearby woods, they find a fey crossing that transports them to a strange forest filled with bizarre beings such as Makka Pakka, Iggle Piggle, and the sentient Pinky Ponk airship. The children are there, but the fey are upset because the rare and wondrous Olly Bolly Dob Dob Flower has been stolen, and they won't give the children back until they get their flower returned.  There's also the human bard Bags Dagnulfsson, who tells them of a wain that he and his adventuring group recently abandoned near the Delimbyr Route.  The party must return to Eldergrove, find the missing flower, and appease the fey to resolve the situation without violence!  Fans of the British children's show "In the Night Garden" are in for a special treat; Pip-Pip-Onk-Onk!  

We are introduced to Caradoc, Jhank, Bariq, Sir Parrik, and Artvirious, who make up our new level one heroes! At Oleg's Trading Post near the Greyflow River, the will of the wizard Narthindlar of the Nine Spells is read, giving gifts to our new adventurers and charging them with rebuilding an ancient kingdom!  To deal with some bandit troubles, an ambush is staged and the small band of bandits is defeated. Various nearby opportunities for adventure are discussed, and player roles for the upcoming campaign are discussed. Heading northwest, the party discovers signs of a hidden wagon buried by the Lord's Alliance to conceal it from the Zhentarim, and it's full of treasure! Bariq discovers the joy of foraging for rare plants! Arbitrage sneaks its way back in, and the party then continues to the village of Eldergrove, which has been having some kind of trouble with the local fairies. 

We talk about our upcoming wilderness exploration campaign and collaboratively start on the character creation process!  Looks like we may be headed towards having a fairy knight paladin, a lizardfolk ex-soldier ranger, a human or tabaxi spellslinger, a genasi druid or sorcerer, and a dwarf archaeologist fighter, who all knew a recently deceased wizard who's last will and testament brings them together to explore and tame the wilderness west of Secomber including parts of the Gray Vale, Southwood, High  Moor, and Graypeak Mountains!