A month of calm has settled over Phandelver, and the Hall of Welcome hums softly in the background of a crowded tavern. Nhal slips through the noise and stops at Slaan's table, a flickering shard of map light in hand.
Nhal lays the fragment flat between Slaan and Mara. The scrap shows the town's outskirts, but one ink line runs wrong, like it was drawn over something hidden.
Nhal
I found this beyond the outer stones. It was tucked where the ground had been disturbed. I think it points to a buried way.
Mara leans in at once, her gaze sharp and wary. Slaan catches the faint tremor in Nhal's glow, the nervousness they are trying hard to keep still.
Mara
If it is a way, someone hid it for a reason. Show me the edge that was covered.
Slaan
The line bends toward the north road, just past the last field.
Nhal points with a careful finger, then looks from Mara to Slaan, as if asking which of them will say yes first. The tavern's candlelight catches on the map's torn seam, and the hidden route seems to wait.
Follow Nhal’s buried way
Learn what lies beneath the disturbed ground