24 January 2021
The party
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Kisandra Starlight – Half-Elf Sorceress (Heather)
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Barendil Dawnwood – Elf Ranger (Robert)
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Guillerme don d’Lyonne – Human Paladin (Martin)
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Friar Buck Norris – Human Cleric (Silas)
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Nobby Nobbs – Human (probably) Rogue (Tom)
Dawn Raid
The adventurers had performed admirably the previous night, quickly and quietly infiltrating Tresander Manor and capturing Glasstaff, the leader of the Redbrand Ruffians – and who, it turned out, was actually Iarno Albrek, the Lords Alliance agent that SIldar Halwinter had been searching for. He had debased himself by working for the elusive Black Spider and terrorising the area around Phandalin with his band of thugs and mercenaries. However, he had been taken into custody and now sat languishing in a jail cell in the basement of the Townmaster’s Hall. The party had effectively cut the head from the snake, but they had agreed with Sildar that they would return before first light to finish the job and eradicate the troublesome Redbrands for good. Sildar met them before dawn in the common room of the Stonehill Tavern.
“Well met my brave fellows,” he said jovially. “I appreciate you only had a short time to rest after last night’s efforts, but I am confident that if we strike now, we should catch the remaining ruffians by surprise and eliminate this threat to Phandalin once and for all. I’m just sorry that I missed out on the fun last night, so I shall accompany you into the den of villainy – if you’ll have me?”
The adventurers nodded enthusiastically, pleased to have such an experienced warrior by their side.
“Then let us go,” Sildar said as he headed towards the door.
“And, to be clear, I have determined that, while Iarno will return to
Neverwinter to stand trial and be interrogated, these other wretches should pay
for their crimes with their lives. Kill them all!”
Brandishing their weapons in agreement with Sildar’s sentiments, Barendil’s new sword shimmered in the torchlight.
“That’s an intriguing weapon master Elf, mind if I have a closer look?” asked Sildar with interest. “Ah, yes,” he continued. “The hilt here closely resembles the coat of arms that was displayed above the entrance to Tresander Manor, before it fell down. I thought it looked familiar. Although I do know some of the history of this region, I suspect that if you took this sword to someone who was more familiar with the area you would find out more – Daran Edermath springs to mind, he used to be an adventurer like you until he took an arrow to the knee. Now he tends a lovely orchard on the western side of the town. Go and see him once this grisly business is done.”
They turned to leave the tavern, but Sildar got their attention again. “One last thing,” he said as he rifled through his pack. “I almost forgot – I got Iarno to draw this last night, it should come in handy.”
He produced a detailed map of the basements under Tresander Manor, that had become the lair of the Redbrand gang. The party were impressed, realising the benefits such a map would bring and surprised that SIldar had convinced Albrek to put pen to paper when he had been so dismissive of them asking the same thing the previous night. Sildar remained tight-lipped about how he had made the wizard more obliging – he muttered something about going to work with a pair of pliers and a hot iron but wouldn’t be drawn further.
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| Albrek's map of the Redbrand Hideout |
Examining the map carefully, the adventurers realised that
there had been a degree of luck the previous night to their success in finding
Glasstaff’s lair so quickly. No matter, they now had the opportunity to plan
their assault and decided to enter through the same secret entrance as last
night.
All was quiet in the cavern. The party considered destroying
the northern bridge over the chasm to hamper any reinforcements but remembering
how easy it was to jump the gap they decided to avoid making any unnecessary
noise. They all agreed that the Bugbears likely presented the most pressing
threat, and in fact the most likely source of information for their quest. The
Bugbears would have to die first.
Though Barendil was keen to simply kick the door in and slay
the monsters, other members of the party suggested a more cautious approach that
included luring the Bugbears out into the corridor where they could be cut down
in turn, perhaps using ranged weapons from the top of the stairs.
“A good plan,” agreed Barendil, reluctantly. He leaned his
ear to the door, hearing the distinct and guttural sounds of goblins within,
though he could not understand what they were saying. It appeared that not
everyone was as asleep as they had been hoping in Tresander Manor, but on the bright
side it didn’t seem that anyone had noticed their leader had been taken.
Moving back from the barracks door, Barendil told his
companions that he could hear several Bugbears inside. “I’ll go up here into
the common room,” the elf said, “catch them in a crossfire when they come out.”
Kisandra managed to stop the ranger with an urgent whisper,
insisting that perhaps Barendil should take similar caution with the common
room and have a listen at the door. Sure enough, he could hear noise inside –
this time, human voices speaking the common tongue. It was apparent that they were
playing a game of knucklebones inside, shouting and laughing at each other. It
was lucky he didn’t walk straight into the room!
The party agreed with Barendil about using crossfire to slay
the Bugbears, but clearly whoever was in the common room would need to be dealt
with first. They used some rope to tie the door handles of the two doors to one
another – as they both opened inwards, this would prevent the Bugbears from
getting out of their barracks should they hear anything from the common room.
The plan was to assault the common room in force from the north door, and as
the rest of the party hurried in that direction, Nobby stayed behind to spread
a layer of ball bearings on the ground outside the Bugbear barracks, providing
additional protection in case the brutes managed to force their way through the
door before the adventurers were ready for them.
Everyone was holding their weapons tight, prepared to enter
common room, when Friar Buck suddenly suggested peeking into the laboratory to
the north of where they were standing. He crept forwards and slowly opened the
door. Inside he saw a lot of magical apparatus that he was unfamiliar with, and
in the middle of the room a large white rat sitting on the floor. The rat
squeaked at the cleric and ran off at top speed towards Glasstaff’s private
quarters. Satisfied that there was no threat remaining, Buck returned and (finally) prepared
to assault the common room.
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| The large white rate ran away as soon as Buck looked at it |
Common Room Ruffians
Four red-cloaked ruffians sat around a table in the centre
of the common room, stacks of coin and knucklebones in front of them. They
looked up in surprise as the party burst in through the northern door and
fanned out into the room, though picked up the weapons they had close at hand
and prepared to fight the intruders.
The adventurers decided to split up and take on the
Redbrands up close, one-on-one, to avoid them aiding each other – a brave
tactic but one that proved a challenge as these men were tough, grizzled
fighters. They attacked mercilessly with heavy blows from their weapons, but
the party was inspired by Sildar’s expert swordsmanship as he demonstrated that
raw power was nothing without skill behind it. Kisandra remained at the rear,
slinging magical attacks at the enemy and finishing off one of the ruffians
with a well-aimed fire bolt. Barendil ran a second through with his newly
acquired longsword, proving that he was almost as deadly up close as he was at
a distance.
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| Four Redbrand Ruffians have their game of knucklebones disturbed by the adventurers |
Nobby, meanwhile, was hit by two ringing hammer blows from one
of the thugs, knocking the wind out of him. He remembered at that moment that
attacking enemies face-to-face, Queensbury rules, really wasn’t his style and
so he distracted the thug and slipped backwards into the shadow of a stack of
ale barrels at the side of the room. Fortunately, with two of the bastards
already dead, Nobby had friends who could continue distracting the ruffian and
prevent him being followed. The rogue drew a small tankard from a pocket and
drained some ale from one of the kegs before grabbing his shortbow and pulling
an arrow from his quiver.
Guillerme managed to take down the third ruffian with a vicious
slice of his glaive, thankful for his protective armour as he saw Barendil had
been wounded almost as badly as Nobby. The tankard of ale had appeared to
improve the rogue’s aim, and Nobby’s bowshot pierced the throat of the final
ruffian, dropping him dead to the floor.
Searching the common room, the only items of value had been
on the gambling table and so Nobby scooped up the coins and trinkets, figuring
that it didn’t matter who had been ahead in the game as he wouldn’t be
collecting his winnings now. He also went round slicing off ears from their
defeated enemies, his new habit continuing to grow and being met with mixed
feelings by his companions.
As Nobby went about his business, Friar Buck cast a prayer of healing over the party. They had found the battle against the four ruffians to be harder than expected, so a brief respite and some healing was welcomed by all. The noise of the fight didn’t appear to have caused anyone to come and investigate, so the party revisited their plan to deal with the Bugbears in the room to the south. Barendil, Sildar and Guillerme all elected to remain in the common room, using their missile weapons to catch the monsters in a crossfire as Buck, Kisandra and Nobby attacked from up the stairs. Those three made their way back through the cavern to set the trap while the others settled themselves near the southern door.
It’s a Trap!
With the hallway at the foot
of the stairs strewn with ball bearings, Kisandra used her mage hand cantrip to
untie the rope from the two doors, allowing Guillerme, Barendil and SIldar to
open the common room door and prepare for the ambush. Kisandra and Nobby stood
at the top of the stairs, behind the comforting figure of Friar Buck and his
shield. Everyone had missile weapons or spells prepared.
Guillerme boldly said he would wake the Bugbears up by
throwing a barrel of ale at their door. He strode towards a stack of kegs in
the common room, boasting of his strength and bracing himself to lift one of
the heavy barrels. Grinning at Barendil, the paladin lifted with all his
strength, but the barrel he had chosen was in fact empty and far lighter than
he expected. The keg launched upwards into his face, knocking him backwards in
surprise and cutting his lip. His companions attempted to stifle their laughter
at Guillerme’s discomfort, while he wiped his face with an embroidered
handkerchief and moved to check the weight of another barrel. This one was
indeed full of ale and Guillerme hefted the keg onto his shoulder, moving to
the door and throwing the barrel at the entrance to the Bugbear barracks. The keg
smashed into the door with an almighty crash, spilling ale on the corridor
floor all over the ball bearings and bursting the door back on its hinges.
Three Bugbears poked their furry heads out to investigate
what was going on, and immediately ran into the corridor to attack. Two of them
slipped on the wet ball bearings and landed hard on the floor. Barendil saw a
small goblin behind them inside the barracks run to the back of the room and
hide under a bed. With two of the monsters flat on their backs, the trap was
sprung and the party attacked.
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| Three Bugbears rush out into the corridor, into the party's carefully laid trap |
Although a single Bugbear had managed to maintain his
footing on the ball bearing trap and was therefore still presenting a threat to
the party, Nobby couldn’t resist his natural inclination to attack a downed
opponent and so aimed his shortbow at one of the prone monsters.
Kisandra chose to aim a fire bolt at the standing Bugbear
that was preparing looking to advance up the stairs towards them, hitting it
squarely in the chest. Guillerme, though unused to the cumbersome crossbow he
carried, managed to aim it deftly at the same Bugbear, but hadn’t fully wound
back the bowstring and so the shot lacked in power when it did connect with the
beast, only causing a slight wound. Barendil rolled his eyes at his human
companion, aiming his own longbow with apparent boredom and loosing an arrow
straight at the same monster, by now bleeding from several wounds.
Shaking off the damage, the Bugbear began to stomp towards
the stairs but finally lost its footing on the ball bearings and fell to the
floor alongside his cohorts. Kisandra took the opportunity to finish him off
once and for all, describing magical symbols in the air with her hands before
sending an almighty fire bolt down the stairs like a fiery inferno, utterly
incinerating the Bugbear.
Meanwhile, one of the Bugbears on the ground had finally
managed to pick itself up and decided to lumber up the stairs – it had received
too much damage from the adventurers in the common room and could see a clear
challenge being presented by Friar Buck standing at the top of the stairs and
calmly tapping his warhammer into the palm of his shield hand. Buck waited
patiently while the monster charged up the stairs, using his shield to swat the
Bugbear’s vicious axe-swing to one side while he drew back his other arm and
swung the hammer in a mighty arc over his head. The head of the weapon crashed
squarely down onto the beast’s skull, cracking it like an egg and splattering
its meagre brains down upon the stairs. Buck stepped back to the top step again
as the body fell down in front of him, returning to his calm demeanour and
watching for what the final monster might do.
The final Bugbear eventually found its feet as well and
followed in the footsteps of its companion by charging up the stairs, which
were now glazed with goblinoid brains. Nobby drew his bowstring but his
fingers, slick with sweat, slipped off the string and he somehow managed to get
his arms tangled up in the bow. Ignoring the commotion behind him, Buck once
again waited patiently for his second victim to get within striking distance
and launched another devastating warhammer attack against the foe. This strike
wasn’t quite so well-placed, glancing off the Bugbear’s round head and hitting
its shoulder, probably dislocating the arm from within its socket. Before he
could line up a second attack, Sildar Halwinter poked his head around the corner
below, aimed his crossbow up the stairs and fired a bolt straight up that
pierced the Bugbear’s spine and dropped it, dead, at Buck’s feet.
With the Bugbears dispatched, Nobby busied himself
retrieving his ball bearings and picking the corpses clean – he seemed to be
the only one not bothered by the stench of the dead Bugbears. In fact, it was
suggested that perhaps they improved his own natural aroma. The largest Bugbear
had a pouch containing some coin and a large iron key. Tossing the key to
Kisandra, she tried it in the door to the Bugbear barracks and found it worked.
The large monster also had a black eyepatch, encrusted with jewels, which Nobby
gleefully ripped from its head. He wasn’t a doctor, but he couldn’t see
anything wrong with the beast’s eye underneath the patch, so he assumed it was
just a cosmetic item – one that he thought was rather fetching so he placed it over
one of his own eyes, not caring about the hygiene implications of sharing body
jewellery with a Bugbear. The rogue grinned a yellow-toothed grin to his
companions, trying his best to look dashing in his new eyepatch but finding the
rest of his face let the side down somewhat.
Droop
The group walked into the Bugbear barracks, looking around
at the four rough wooden bunks and piles of fetid leftovers and rags on the
ground. The stench was not pleasant. They could see two little green legs poking
out from under the farthest bed and hear some snivelling and sniffing coming
from there. Kisandra waved the others back and walked over to the bed, seeing
that there was no threat here and perhaps some kindness would help the party gather
some information from this scared little goblin. Barendil had little interest
in being involved with talking to the creature and decided he would be better
employed at the top of the stairs, acting as a lookout – he was well aware that
they had only explored around half the Redbrand hideout so far.
Kisandra spoke soothingly to the goblin, convincing him that
the Bugbears were dead and he could come out safely.
“Bugbears dead? Good, good, they nasty,” said the goblin as
it wiped snot from its nose. “Me Droop, Droop be good, don’t hurt Droop!”
“Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you, come out here and tell us
all about it,” cooed Kisandra.
Droop crawled from under the bed and climbed up to sit on
the mattress, not realising how comical he looked as he swung his legs because his
feet couldn’t reach the floor. Pulling himself together, he told Kisandra about
the abuse he suffered from the Bugbears on a daily basis and how he was glad
they were dead. She asked him about the Redbrand hideout and if he had any more
information about it, but he had never been allowed to leave the barracks or
mix with the humans, so he didn’t know anything.
Guillerme decided he didn’t trust the goblin whatsoever and had
had enough of this nice gentle approach, so he stomped into the room,
attempting to intimidate the diminutive greenskin. Attempting to scare the
goblin, who was less than half his height, the paladin bent forwards with his
glaive held over his shoulder and a stern look on his face, but the heavy
weapon overbalanced him and caused him to stumble forwards. Droop giggled with
delight as the human stumbled, thinking it some sort of game. Kisandra waved
him back and Guillerme, mumbling to himself, returned to the corridor outside
the barracks.
Continuing with her questioning, Kisandra discovered that Droop
had come from Castle Cragmaw with the Bugbears, but that he was more of a butler
and cook than a soldier. He couldn’t direct the party to the castle himself,
but he knew it was to the north of Phandalin, in the forest. He said that other
goblin soldiers would know, and that they were often patrolling the wildlands
around the human town. He also mentioned that the Bugbears knew where the
castle was but, without realising the irony, said that they might have
difficulty divulging that information in their current state…
Again, they pressed him for a location of the castle, but he
simply did not know. He tried to show enthusiasm so that they would know that
he was trying to be helpful and hopefully not splatter his brains across the
bed. Buck knelt in front of the goblin and gently asked how far the castle was.
Droop didn’t know about distances, so the Friar tried another tack and asked
how many sleeps it had taken to get to Phandalin. The goblin grinned and said
it was two sleeps. This was at least some useful information for them to use in
their quest.
The party agreed to let the goblin live as he could prove
useful in the future but decided he might also be a liability for the moment,
so they locked him in the barracks using the Bugbears’ iron key. As they left,
they could see the sad little droopy face as the goblin sat swinging his legs
on the side of the bed and tapping his hands on his thighs.
Weird Science
Returning to the cavern, Barendil informed them that there
had been no enemy movement – apparently they were still undetected, which was
useful. Referring to their map, they decided to head north and take a closer
look at the laboratory that Buck had peeked in earlier, to see if there was
anything useful to recover.
There was no sign of the rat as they walked into the
laboratory, but Kisandra was more interested in the various distillation coils,
tubes and beakers on the workbench in the middle of the room. Based on the
equipment set-up, she immediately identified that Albrek must have been
attempting to brew a potion of invisibility, though it seemed that he had not
completed it yet.
A large bookcase filled the far wall and Buck was scanning
the tomes there to see if anything might be useful. One well-worn book caught
his eye, and he showed it to Kisandra. It was a journal written in Dwarvish and
described the journey of an adventurer named Urnon in his attempts to find the
Lost Mine of Phandelver and the Forge of Spells. The adventurers were already
well acquainted with much of the history that was detailed within the book, but
one entry about the mace ‘Lightbringer’ caught Buck’s attention in particular.
This magical mace had been commissioned by priests of Lathander, God of Dawn, but
had been lost when Wave Echo Cave had fallen. Surely finding such a treasure
would be a blessing, if it were still located in the region.
Before leaving the laboratory, Nobby and Kisandra looked
through the equipment for anything of value. The only items that were small
enough to easily carry and were potentially valuable were three small bottles
of reagents: mercury, dragon bile and powdered nightshade. Kisandra told the thief
that these could be worth some coin to the right alchemist or apothecary, but
that nothing else in the room was worth taking.
Armed to the Teeth
Following their investigation of the laboratory, the
adventurers figured that they had cleared everything in the hideout west of the
Nothic chasm. Pleased with themselves, they moved through the storeroom and
headed for the armoury that was through one of the secret doors that Albrek had
noted on his map. The armoury door was locked, but the key from the Bugbears
opened it with no trouble.
Inside, the adventurers found a plethora of weapons – enough to arm a sizeable force of ruffians should they decide to attack the town en masse. It appeared that Sildar had been right to move in and quash this threat with no delay before they could recruit enough warriors to use all the weapons in the armoury. The adventurers took a selection of weapons from the racks, in particular additional quivers of crossbow bolts. Behind the door was a line of red cloaks hanging on the wall and Nobby suggested they take some of these cloaks as potential disguises. Barendil dismissed the idea of playing ‘dress-up’ and walked out of the armoury without taking anything – he had his trusty longbow and new longsword, and nothing was going to cover up his ancestral green elven cloak. Deciding enough time had been wasted, the elf ranger stalked into the crypt without a backward glance.
Tales from the Crypt
The rest of the party donned their red cloaks and chose
their weapons without paying much attention to the grumpy elf walking off,
until a few seconds later when they heard him running back along the corridor
and ducking into the storeroom opposite.
“Skeletons!” he shouted, “the
crypt is swarming with undead!”
Barendil had been
surprised by three animated skeletons in ancient armour and mouldy rags, carrying
notched weapons that still seemed to retain their sharpness despite their
obvious age. The ranger had not been expecting such a welcoming party in the
crypt and it was only thanks to his elven reactions that he was able to quickly
jump back and get away to warn the others.
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| Three skeletons surprise Barendil as he enters the crypt |
The three skeletons shambled out of the crypt after Barendil,
but thanks to his warning the rest of the party was ready for them. Sildar
Halwinter took action first and ran forwards, aiming a slash of his longsword
at each of the two skeletons in front of him but found his sword passed between
the animated bones hitting nothing. Still, he distracted the skeletons long
enough for Kisandra to draw arcane energy to herself and prepare a fire bolt
spell. She poked her head round the corner from the armoury, letting the
magical bolt fly with a WHOOOOMPF that hit a skeleton square in the chest and
exploded it outwards in a shower of bone shards right in front of Sildar. The
warrior nodded his appreciation to the sorceress.
Friar Buck then stepped forward, raising his divine symbol
and murmuring a prayer. With a faint glowing nimbus emanating from his hands,
the others could see one of the skeletons jerkily stop in its advance and turn,
walking directly away from the cleric. The single remaining skeleton ignored
the divine influence and looked prepared to swing its ancient sword, though
before it could both Barendil and Nobby shot arrows at the undead monstrosity.
Somehow, both archers managed to fire their missiles straight through the same
gap in the skeleton’s rib cage, managing only to tear some of the already
ruined clothing that it still wore.
The shambling skeleton looked down at its rib cage as the
arrows passed through it. If a skull could look surprised then it probably
would have, but as it was the impassive bone visage didn’t change and the
creature finally swung its ancient sword at Sildar. Though the blow was quicker
than they expected, the party watched impressed as the experienced warrior
parried the blow with ease. Guillerme rushed forward to stand by the agent of
the Lords Alliance, though in his eagerness he failed to connect a blow to the
skeleton in front of him, and his frantic swing threw Sildar’s concentration
such that he accidentally stabbed Guillerme in the leg when he tried to thrust
at the skeleton. Though he apologised profusely, Sildar still didn’t like the
way that Guillerme had been portraying himself as a senior member of the Lord’s
Alliance and was amused by the young paladin’s clumsiness so couldn’t help a
small half smile forming on his lips.
Seeing his companions struggling to land a blow on the
skeleton in front of them with their blades, Buck stepped forwards, wielding
his warhammer with confidence – this was the correct weapon to use against the
brittle bones of an ancient skeleton. His warhammer knocked the head clean from
the skeleton’s shoulders and smashed the skull to dust against the wall. The
cleric grunted in satisfaction.
Barendil saw the effectiveness
of Buck’s attack and so his next arrow hit the one remaining skeleton squarely
in the back of the head, likewise knocking it from its shoulders and dropping
the rest of the monster into a pile of bones on the floor.
“Thank you for your mage
craft in helping to deal with these horrors,” said the elf to Buck with a gracious
bow.
Dusting themselves down, the adventurers moved into the
crypt as a group, more cautiously than before. This caution was well rewarded
as they noticed the lids of the three sarcophagi in the room were slowly scraping
open, and three more skeletons were pulling themselves up and out of their
tombs!
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| Three more skeletons rise from their tombs to attack the adventurers! |
Guillerme bravely went to move forwards to show Sildar what
he could really do and hopefully prove his place within the Lord’s Alliance,
but somehow Sildar’s foot got caught up with Guillerme’s leg. No one was sure
whether it was accidental or by design, but either way the paladin fell and
landed hard on the ground. Ignoring Guillerme’s clumsiness, Kisandra sent a
fire bolt streaking through the crypt, hitting one of the newly emerged
skeletons in the shoulder and turning it on the spot before Barendil loosed
another accurate arrow to knock its head off, as he had done with the previous
monstrosity.
Meanwhile, Guillerme stopped gnashing his teeth in frustration
and leapt to his feet, even more determined to show Sildar what he was made of.
This time, the paladin married his upward motion perfectly with the swing of
his glaive, rising up and slashing the weapon right through the skeleton in
front of him, slicing it into two halves that fell apart into two piles of
bones at his feet. He turned with a satisfied smile to Sildar, looking for
approval from the more experienced warrior. Sildar, however, was too busy
moving forwards to attack the final skeleton to acknowledge Guillerme’s
efforts, though they did not go totally unnoticed.
Friar Buck pushed forwards next to Sildar, following up with
his own swing of his mighty warhammer, bringing it up through the rib cage of
the skeleton. As the weapon tore through the undead creature’s rib cage it
tinkled a sound like a glockenspiel as it broke through each rib in turn,
making a surprisingly tuneful final note to the battle. The party looked around
the crypt at the piles of bones, ancient weapons and moulding clothes with
satisfaction. There was nothing of value to recover, and no ears on the skulls
for Nobby, but it had been a successful battle against the undead. Sildar gave
the briefest of pats on Guillerme’s shoulder before walking ahead to check for
other foes.
Imprisoned
Referring back to
Albrek’s map, the adventurers could see that a door in the corner of the crypt
led to a dungeon. The adventurers went and opened the door, peering inside to
see that there was a cell to the northern side of the room that contained a
small boy, and another cell to the south housing a woman and a girl. Two
Redbrand guards lounged in the centre of the room between the two cells,
surprised to see several people in red cloaks walking in through the door.
“What are you doing
here?” demanded a blonde-haired thug.
We’ll discover the answer
in the next chapter of the adventure…
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| Two Redbrands stand guard over three prisoners in the Tresander dungeon |
Next - Session 7 ⏩
