Monthly Archives: May 2015

3: Redbrand hideout

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You end up deciding to accept an offer from Halia Thornton (guildmaster at the Miner’s Exchange) to eliminate the leader of the Redbrands, a band of ruffians who have been extorting and bullying everyone if Phandalin for the last two months. This leader is known as Glasstaff and Halia wants you to bring her any correspondence found on him or in his quarters. She wants this job done discreetly.

Threftor has discovered that his aunt’s son knows a secret way in to the Redbrands’ lair so you follow his directions and head down a hidden tunnel in the woods, emerging in a large cavern split by a deep crevasse. After briefly fighting the strange, flesh-craving one-eyed telepathic beast guarding the room you negotiate with it and it tells you where to find Glasstaff.

Locating a secret door in a store-room you surprise Glasstaff in his bedroom and manage to capture him without a fight. A note from the Black Spider leads you to believe that he is probably Iarno Albrek, the Lords’ Alliance contact that Sildar was looking for. He reveals that the family the Redbrands kidnapped is held in the slave pens, but his directions are vague. You leave him bound, gagged and guarded by Enderman.

While trying to find the pens you stumble into a Redbrands guard room and barely manage to defeat them, with Threftor and Joe both being knocked unconscious. Capturing one of the thugs, you eventually return to Glasstaff and get him to lead you to the slave pens through another secret door and a crypt guarded by skeletons.

Entering the slave pens the unlucky Threftor is once again surprised by hidden Redbrands and taken down. A tense stand-off – with Joe threatening to kill Glasstaff and one of the thugs threatening to finish off Threftor – ends in a close fight with only Balrag and Hadron left standing. Freeing Mirna Dendrar and her daughter & son, Hadron uses the last of his healing and you all take a brief rest after locking all the doors.

The sound of a door being battered down ends the rest and you manage to escape through the crypt only for Balrag to fall down a pit trap. With some clever use of rope you manage to get everyone – party, captives, freed slaves and all – across just as the batterers break down the door.

Returning to the large cavern Threftor leads the way across one of the bridges over the crevasse. Fortunately for him, he doesn’t weigh much. Unfortunately for Mirna Dendrar’s daughter Nilsa, her weight is enough to collapse the rigged bridge and after tasting freedom for only a few scant minutes she plunges to her death. Mirna starts screaming the place down which brings shouts from the other end of the cavern; Balrag lifts her bodily and you all just manage to make it out in time before the other denizens of this place – who, after battering down the locked doors, had been investigating the now-empty slave pens – arrive.

Experience

You gained 162 xp mid-session and you get 254 more for negotiating the trap, bringing Iarno back to the town master, freeing the slaves and negotiating a truce with that telepathic one-eyed thing in the crevasse room; a total of 416 each. I’ll give Enderman (Martin’s wizard) a quarter of this since he was played by Ben for some of this session and was present in a ‘look after the bound prisoners’ role for the rest.

Balrag, Enderman and Joe started on 350 whie Hadron and Threftor – being new – started on 300. That brings you to:

  • Balrag: 766
  • Joe: 766
  • Hadron: 716
  • Threftor: 716
  • Enderman: 454

2: Phandalin

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Your wagon finally rolls into Phandalin, a new town built on the ruins of the old one. You begin by delivering Gundren’s supplies to Barthen’s Provisions, where Elmar Barthen is saddened to hear about Gundren but pays you the agreed fee. He tells you that Gundren’s brothers Nundro and Tharden are camped somewhere outside town and are expected any day now.

Next you deliver the stolen supplies to Linene Graywind at the Lionshield Coster. She thanks you and pays a reward, offering to help you any way she can. She also warns you that a band of ruffians known as the Redbrands have been extorting and bullying everyone in town for the past few months.

On Sildar’s advice everyone but Threftor heads to the Stonehill Inn to secure lodgings. He heads instead to see his aunt Quelline Alderleaf, a farmer. Her little son Carp tells him that he found a secret tunnel in the woods near the ruins of Tresendar Manor. A couple of “big ugly bandits” came out and met with some Redbrands, but they didn’t see him.

Quelline does not know the location of Cragmaw Castle but she knows someone who should – the druid Reidoth, who know every inch of the land for miles around. He recently set out for the ruins of a town called Thundertree, about fifty miles northwest.

The rest of the group spends some time at the inn buying drinks for the patrons. Nobody can tell you where Cragmaw Castle lies but your friendly manner leads you to hear many stories of local goings-on:

  • Sister Garaele, who oversees the Shrine of Luck, recently left town for a few days and returned wounded and exhausted.
  • Daran Edermath, the orchard keeper, is a former adventurer.
  • Orc raiders have been seen on the Triboar Trail. The townmaster is looking for someone to run them off.
  • Thel Dendrar, a local woodcarver, stood up the the Redbrands a week or so ago when they came by his shop and leered at his wife.  The ruffians murdered him and several townsfolk saw it happen. The Redbrands grabbed his body and now his wife, daughter and son have gone missing too.
  • Qelline Alderleaf’s son Carp said he found a secret tunnel in the woods, but Redbrands almost caught him.
  • The Redbrands hassle every business in town, except for the Phandalin Miner’s Exchange. They don’t want trouble with Halia Thornton, who runs it.

When Threftor returns you pay a visit to Halia Thornton, waiting til she closes shop and catching her on the way out. She interested but is wary of you and asks you to meet her clandestinely tomorrow.

Night is drawing near but you decide to visit the old adventurer Daran Edermath. He is a genial old elf who is concerned about the Redbrands and would like to see you teach them a lesson; he tells you that their main safe house lies under the ruined Tresandar Manor. He also asks a favour: he has heard stories that someone is digging in the ruins of Old Owl Well in the hills two days northeast of Phandalin and that some prospectors report being chased away from there by undead. He’d like you to find out who’s there and what they’re up to; the ruins are of an old watchtower from the ancient magical empire of Netheril, and there may be dangerous magic dormant there.

After a night’s rest you visit Halia behind the Miner’s Exchange as agreed.

1: Goblin ambush

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In Neverwinter a dwarf you know, Gundren Rockseeker, hires you to escort a wagonload of supplies to Barthen’s Provisions in Phandalin while he goes on ahead with a warrior friend, Sildar Hallwinter. Gundren and his brothers have found “something big” which he is very excited about but he won’t tell you more.

You follow the High Road south for a few days then strike east on the Triboar Trail. As you round a bend you see two dead horses stuck with black-fletched arrows. When you investigate you are ambushed by goblins who you manage to defeat.

Following the goblin trail you avoid a few traps and reach a large cave in a hillside five miles form the ambush. Creeping up the stream which flows out of it you defeat two hidden goblin guards and then three wolves tied up inside the cave. Further inside you survive a flood unleashed by the goblins and encounter Yeemik, the goblin second-in-command, with a large group of goblin warriors. He has Sildar captive and offers to hand him over if you kill Klarg, the bugbear who leads the goblins. Tricking Yeemick with a surprise attack you manage to defeat his gang and free Sildar.

Sildar tells you that he is an agent of the Lords’ Alliance and that the Rockseeker brothers have found an entrance to the long-lost Wave Echo Cave, site of the Forge of Spells where dwarves and wizards crafted magic items in ancient times before the cave was destroyed in a great battle.

He also tells you that Klarg was ordered to waylay Gundren by a mysterious figure known as the Black Spider. He believes Klarg has taken Gundren’s map of Wave Echo Cave and sent it to the goblin chief at Cragmaw Castle. He doesn’t know where this is, but his contact in Phandalin – a wizard named Iarno Albrek – might. Unfortunately nothing has been heard from Albrek for two months and Sildar was on his way to find out why.

You press on and defeat Klarg, recovering a little treasure and some supplies stolen from a merchant company in Phandalin. You haul these back to the wagon and ride on to Phandalin …