The party made its way through the ruined village of Thundertree somewhat quietly. Killing twig blights and ash zombies, they became aware that some sort of natural disaster had occurred here decades earlier when the village was abandoned. They were here to find Reidoth the druid, and hopefully finally learn the location of Cragmaw Castle and their lost dwarven friend Gundren.
They made their way to the most prominent building around. A round tower with an attached cottage, perched atop the local hill. The tower's roof looked mostly collapsed, but otherwise the two buildings were in good condition. They found the corpses of two giant spiders dragged out from the cottage and left to rot outside. After a quick check, they determined the spiders were slain by something with a jaw bigger than their heads, before being dragged outside. The party continued inside, smelling something acrid. The cottage was filled with old covered furniture and thick spiderwebs. With a cursory glance, the group continued across the cottage interior to open the inner door to the tower.
Colonel Brown opened the door. As soon as he did, the friends saw a huge green dragon lying in wait. Grinning evilly, the dragon immediately unleashed its powerful poison breath on the whole group. Brown, Heggin, and Arturo fell instantly, gasping and shuttering with the poison. Kun's dwarven resilience against poison helped him some, but he still became extremely disoriented and fell against a wall, coughing hard to clear his lungs.
Zefer and Gil took cover quickly. Their group laid low, Gil saw only one course of action. He pled for the dragon to let him collect his friends, not even sure if they were living, dying, or dead. The dragon seemed to believe his tales that the party had no idea he was there, and did not come to steal his treasure, and would never return. The dragon demanded some powerful magic to add to its hoard, and Gil produced a fine ermine mantle (Iarno Albrek's), deceiving the dragon into believing that the cloak had its own puissance. The dragon accepted the deal, taking the mantle and letting Gil drag his friends from the cottage, where Zefer quickly helped stabilize them.
The dragon squeezed into the cottage and proceeded to intimidate and humiliate Gil while he worked to drag his friends out. Using its bulk and power to cow the bard, the great green beast waited until almost all the party was outside the cottage. Gil finished dragging Arturo outside and turned to retrieve his last companion, Brown. It was then that the dragon acted.
"I have changed my mind. I am hungry, and those spiders were not very tasty, so I will be having your friend here for dinner. He has an elvish whiff about him," the dragon said, staring at Gil. "And I love eating those with elvish blood. Farewell. Or not." The cottage door slammed in Gil's face.
Gil was stunned and heartsick. He turned to see if Zefer was going to help him (and maybe die with him) to save their friend. Instead, Gil saw a gaunt old white-bearded man helping Zefer (and a partially recovered Kun) drag Heggin and Arturo away south. The white-beard held a gnarly finger up to his lips, beckoning Gil to silence and then to follow.
They went to a house across the village that was reasonably kept up, with thick shutters on the windows and heavy iron bands reinforcing the door. Once the group was entirely inside, the old man sighed heavily. "I'm Reidoth, druid. I'm sorry about your friend. Venomfang likes to take his time tormenting his meals, so it will not end quickly or well. I think we can help rescue your friend, but first you need to recover your strength."
