The D&D group is now well underway.   Their story continues.

Having beaten off the Orc attack on the goldrush town of Phandalin, the group tracked the retreating horde to try and find their base.  This proved to be an abandoned lighthouse on the coast to the west.   The group let the Orc army return to the Shield Mountains and then infiltrated the lighthouse.  A fight ensued with the leader of the orcs and his ogre guards. 

The leader was another of the half-orcs the group had already encountered in the Wood.  He wielded a lightning attack, which literally shocked many of the group, damaging them badly.  However, they struggled through, finally eliminating the half-orc and his guard. Rifling through his papers, it seemed that he, and the half-orc in the woods, belonged to a sect calling themselves the Anchorites of Talos.  They seemed to be intent on taking over the Sword Mountains.  The group bundled up the papers to take back to Phandalin for further investigation.

While in the lighthouse, the group noticed some nearby shipwrecks, probably vessels unaware that the lighthouse had gone dark.  Hoping for some sunken treasure or, at least, a few gold pieces, they organised a dive on the vessels.  They successfully pulled a few useful items from the sunken hulks, while playing hide-and-seek with some reef sharks swimming around the rocks.

The group’s retun to Phandalin was uneventful.  They left the recovered papers with the Town Master for further translation and investigation.  Meanwhile, the Town Master asked the group to open up an old dwarven hold built into the mountainside.  This had been used over the years to protect the miners from bandit raids and the like.  It could act as a refuge for the townsfolk.  However, it had been sealed up over a century ago.  No one knew why but it looks like the group is going to find out!