Lost Mine of Phandelver - Venomfang attacks Phandalin!

This is an update on an ongoing Dungeons and Dragons campaign. We are playing the fantastic Starter Set, which includes the adventure entitled The Lost Mine of Phandelver. And so the adventure continues..!

In a previous session, one of the adventurers had, somehow, ended up inviting the young Green Dragon Venomfang back to Phandalin, to take up residence on Tresander Manor! The adventurers journeyed back to Phandalin from Thundertree, with Venomfang following them in the sky.

As they approached Phandalin, Sildar Hallwinter, Daran Edermath, Qelline Alderleaf and other brave souls rode out to meet them and fight off Venomfang. At this, Venomfang attacked, tearing down out of the sky to breathe noxious fumes all over the battle field.

Whilst engaged in this desperate struggle, some of the adventurers came under arrow fire. Turning, they realised the dragon cultists had followed them as well from Thundertree and a fierce melee was fought on a low hillock to the north of the village.

Venomfang attacks!

Some of the brave heroes fell due to the poison Venomfang belched onto them, but the rest stood firm. She landed on top of their ranks, flinging some into the air only for them to land, dead, back on the ground. Venomfang grabbed Sildar in her claws, tearing off his one good leg. Mortally wounded, Sildar begged the adventurers to rescue Gundren Rockseeker to prevent the Spell Forge ending up in the clutches of the Black Spider.

Thankfully, our cleric just saved him as he started to slip away. One of the adventurers, the wizard, heard coughing from a nearby barn and, upon investigating, found a group of children who had been playing there, suffering from the dragon's toxic vapours. He did what he could for them whilst the battle continued outside.

Noble Berum, a fighter of renown, bravely clambered onto the dragon's back to gain close quarters with the evil monster. Her fury growing, Venomfang flung herself skyward, taking Berum with her. He fought on but after climbing higher, Venomfang shrugged him off her shoulders and he plummeted to the ground, dying from the impact. Only the cleric's greatest magic could save his friend.

With that, Venomfang left the village and flew northward. The heroes looked around, counting the cost of such a deadly encounter.

As well as this encounter, the major sub-plot in our game, with my junior players, is they have decided to open the Forgotten Realms' first pizza parlour in Phandalin and they have a lot of fun working on this. They bought the land with a disused house on it from the Townmaster using some of the treasure found in previous adventures and have been buying supplies to renovate it. 

They've employed Droop the Goblin as their waiter and the wizard is employed to fire up the ovens with his spells (their advertising gimmick being that their pizzas are magically baked). It's a lot of fun, and one interesting aspect is that, thanks I think to their background in computer strategy games, they ask questions such as "if we pay more to have the restaurant area redecorated to a higher standard, how many more customers do we have?" At some point, Toblen Stonehill is going to wander over to check out the competition. Oh, and while they were away adventuring, Droop tells them he has found a strange tunnel that leads off from the cellar.....