The party solved the puzzle room and found… magic items! The first permanent magic items! Woot!
Early in the morning, the party had an ancounter with an Ogre named Sulg. It turned nasty (as it usually does with Ogres) and ended badly for Sulg.
The party arrived back in Phandelin, just in time for the election (which they couldn't vote in).
That evening, Sister Garaele, the official counter, announced that the new townmaster was Halia Thornton, on a tide of popular support about how she hired the party to deal with the Redbrand bandits.
That evening, the party met an Orc named Tallik, who was looking for her cousin Sulg.
They also discovered that one of their party had apparantly taken all their paperwork from Garaele. I say "apparantly" because Hassier had been at Old Owl Well with them at the time.
The party also noticed that the job offer to clear out the Orcs at Wyvern Tor was still there. "Hey, weren't we just near there?"
Left for Wave Echo Cave.
The party finally enter Wave Echo Cave. It was a little sad that Gundren Rockseeker, their friend and employer, was not there to see it.
It got even sadder when they discovered the body of Tharden Rockseeker, one of Gundren's brothers. Dead of a sword wound.
The party buried the body in the woods nearby, then entered the mine.
After correcting my maths, everyone should be ending session on 2,376 XP.
The group took 1 session to get to level 2, 4 more sessions to get to level 3, and five more sessions to get to level 4 (though some were short sessions).