Having slayed the monstrous jelly-like creature, the party heads deeper into the tunnels of the mine, searching out evil. They don’t get far before Lilvari stops. Droop, who was ahead of her, notices. She has a strange look of concentration on her face. After a few moments pass, she tells everyone that she knows where to find this ‘evil’.

She leads them back towards the Forge of Spells area when three bugbears can be heard running through the lower half of the chamber. They seem panicked and lost. They run into a room further to the south. Within moments, the party hears a scream. They get closer and listen. Other than the sound of another door opening and closing somewhere within, they hear very little. Dare decides to head inside first.

Inside, the air is extremely cold — so cold that they can see their breath. A dead bugbear lies before them. Another is further inside the room, half-hiding behind a bed. He’s not hiding from them, it seems, but the creature that stands between the adventurers and it. Dare and Mystic immediately recognize it as a Wraith. 

Suddenly the iron doors from which the party had just entered slam shut. The Wraith turns. Its dead eyes find Mercarri, and it demands that ‘the cleric’ hands over what rightfully belongs to it. Mercarri answers by casting Shit Hammer. The stinking brown mass comes down upon the Wraith’s head. It screams in anger and agony as it rushes Mercarri. Mercarri feels a sharp cold sensation rush down her spine. She’s able to ward it off but not before taking damage.

Droop’s spider-like cannon crawls between Lilvari’s feet and emits a cone of fire at the Wraith. The Wraith rises higher in the air, taking minimal damage. Droop attemps to shoot fire at it through one of his inventions — looks like a metal blowgun of sorts. Either because of the fear of what lies before him or the new weapon’s lack of fine-tuning, all three shots miss their target.

Lilvari steps over Droop’s cannon, summons Curse Bringer and unleashes on the Wraith. She lands slice after damaging slice, feeling the delight of her patron as each one pulls another scream. She doesn’t stop until the evil creature is no more. The creature dead, the air immediately begins to lose its chill.

Mercarri, Droop and Mystic look at her, half amazed and half afraid. Before any questions can get asked or answered, Dare leaps over the dead bugbear and launches an assault at the last remaining live one. He lands a solid hit with talon. The bugbear begs for his life, but when he sees he won’t be spared, takes off towards the doors. Dare doesn’t give him a chance to get that far. He ends the bugbear as it runs away.

The feeling of evil that presided over the mine is gone. It died with the Wraith. The party returns to Gundren and together head back to Phandalin. 

Back at Phandalin…

They stop at Barthen’s Provisions first. Lilvari asks Narth about the letter he delivered to The Dirty Dwarf in Helm’s Hold for Halia. He admits to reading the note — or at least trying to. Most the what it said he couldn’t make out — just a few words that were written in common. It seemed to mention a meeting and a monetary amount of 3500gp. They briefly stop at the town hall to update Sildar on their progress. Dare takes the opportunity to show off his ‘hand’ at juggling. He pulls the Black Spider’s hands from his satchel and begins juggling coins, much to everyone’s displeasure — especially Sister Garaele, who followed the party in. After getting over her initial surprise, she accompanies them back to Tresenar Manor where Lillian is outside riding her horse. It’s something that she hasn’t done since her grandfather’s death.  Standing alongside her are a man and a woman. They introduce themselves as Aldous and Herleva Wester — Lillian’s father and mother, from Helm’s Hold. They thank the party for watching over their daughter during such a horrible time. They then ask if there’s a funeral planned for Harbin. 

It reminds the party that Harbin, along with the other victims of the poisoning, are still in the basement of Lost Rites as part of the investigation. The party brings Reidoth and his bird, The Dutchess, to Last Rites to ask the victims a few more questions. When they question Harbin, they learn that when he left his house the morning of the party, there were no guards stationed at his door — information that contradicts what  Ethor Halus said. Ethor had said that when he fell ill, he was relieved by Menalaus Cree, who denies even seeing Ethor that night. Harbin also mentions that he had fish and eggs at home that morning before leaving, and that they tasted funny. He also says that the lock to his door was broken, and he went to see Luth the town locksmith about fixing it. 

The party, it seems, still has some investigative work to do — whether it be at Luth the locksmith’s or at the Dirty Dwarf in Helm’s Hold.