Sphyboe will let the Zhentarim agents pass the bridge unharmed when she does not seem quite satisfied with the outcome. Keeping the half-elf leader imprisoned would've brought her a bigger reward, or even a promotion! She attempts to retrieve her Handaxe and Dagger from the battle-torn landscape, then she will be taking a moment to search the fallen bodies of Zhents for any significant items or documents.

"Helena! Let's keep the drawbridge down for awhile. Do you remember the villagers? They might come back through the main entrance if they somehow get the information of our truce."

Bramble lies twitching on the dirt. He appears to be reliving the last 12 seconds of his life in a disturbing dream. He mutters a soft growl and his arms and legs flex and grind into the pavement as one can imagine he charges into battle as the bear. This is immediately replaced by a soft and pathetic whimper as he relives being lit up by crossbow bolts and deep sword slashes. His muscles relax and he goes silent once more.

After stabilizing the guard, Essie moves over to Bramble. "Here, friend," she murmurs quietly. She reaches out and brushes her fingers against his forehead, casting Cure Wounds with a Celestial incantation. "We could use you up and at 'em."

Then she sits back on her heels and looks at the others. "You all are good fighters," she says. "Though I am glad we were able to come to a truce. Magical or not."

Cure Wounds: 12 HP back to Bramble

As Bramble opens his eyes, he sees the familiar face of Essie. He smiles at her, still not sure if they have entered some afterlife or not. Tears begin to well up in his eyes as the realization that he has not yet been released from this mortal coil and that more pain will certainly follow.

He then averts his eyes and his body language takes on the form of deep shame. “I am sorry that I made myself such a liability to our group. Did we lose anyone else?”

Bramble will sit up and begin brushing off the caked dirt and dried blood from his wounds. As he steadies himself, he will check his inventory for the healing kits and slowly make his way to his feet. “Can I help anyone with their wounds?”

Alara looks between Helena and Sphyboe, and after a moment of thought says, “I do worry about the villagers and the rest of the guard who I hope is with them. But as we’ve seen, we need to protect the village so they have something to come home to. Let’s raise the drawbridge and then we guards can take watches. We’ll be sure to see if the villagers return -- or if Xolkin changes her mind about leaving us be.”

Torem says, “I’ll take first watch.” He helps Helena raise the drawbridge. Sphyboe retrieves her weapons and searches the bodies of the three fallen Zhents, finding a total of 27 gold pieces in pouches at their belts.

When Bramble returns to consciousness and apologizes, Kaelen looks at him in surprise. “I’ve heard of folk who can change shape, but I’ve never seen it myself, until today. You were amazing! You took several big hits before you went down! If you hadn’t soaked those up, they would have gone to the rest of us.” He looks around at the whole group and adds, “Really, you all are quite a team. And smart to fight at a distance.” He looks down at his own injuries. “I really need to remember to keep a crossbow handy. These spears don’t give us many options.”

Alara speaks up, “Perhaps we should retire to the inn. We can all sit down and bandage these wounds, maybe find something for a midday meal, rest up a bit. And we should see what’s in this pouch that Xolkin handed over, find out if it was worth letting her go. Then perhaps we'll be ready to do something about all these bodies. If--when--the villagers return, they don't want to come home to carnage everywhere.”

Daerthe stows her bow away, moving to gather up some of the arrows that she fired. With that done she will nod her agreement and make her way to the inn as quickly as she can.

Ryndar replies to Torem, "Let me assist you with the watch, you took a fair beating in that fight. Besides, I'd feel more useful on the wall than dealing with matters of diplomacy. Not to mention, you'll need a second set of hands to lower the bridge if any of your people return."

Sphyboe will pick up the Gold Pieces and put them inside her rucksack. She's been cautious about the newly attuned currency and has decided to select a separate compartment to keep it distinguishable from her own coins at the same time feeling concerned at the odd number of coins.

"What do we do about these fallen Zhent comrades? Should we wait for the villagers to return here so that they can make proper arrangements?"- she asks everyone while trying to maintain a straight face.
"Err... I forgot to mention that I found some Gold Pieces, I'd like to divide these among the party members when we're done with everything else." Not to mention the amount, till then.

At Ryndar’s suggestion, Torem says, “I would greatly appreciate your help. In fact, if you don’t mind going ahead, I might take advantage of your friend Bramble’s offer. I’m pretty beat up. I could bind my wounds myself, but I have a feeling he will do a better job.” All three guards accept Bramble’s offer of help, as they seem to have taken the brunt of the fight.

When Alara has a moment to sit down in the inn, she empties out the contents of Xolkin’s pouch. Her eyes go wide at the sparkle of five gemstones of various colors: a rich gold stone of amber, a deep purple amethyst, a red garnet, a lustrous pearl, and a pale green tourmaline, each worth around 100 gp. There are also several coins: 4 platinum and 13 gold pieces. Alara speaks, “Well. I guess Xolkin really wanted to leave. And now we have a way to thank you all properly.” She looks around at everyone and adds, “We are truly grateful for your assistance in defending the village. I’d like to keep a couple of gold pieces each for Torem, Kaelen, and me, but the rest is all yours. Your arrival in Nightstone, just when we needed help, was very fortuitous.” She pulls out 6 gp for the guards and leaves the rest for the party. She continues, "Does your group have a name? When we report the events of the last few days to the authorities in Waterdeep and the rest of the Nandar family, I'd like to make sure you get the credit you deserve."

Bramble sets up a field hospital outside the inn in the direct sunshine. Sometimes sunshine is the best disinfectant comes back to Bramble’s mind. He busies himself with keeping the guards comfortable with makeshift shades while each can be attended to. He makes multiple trips to retrieve water from the river. Cool water compresses and running water over wounds followed by sunlight, crushed herbs, and some ancient prayers and then bandages from a healing kit keeps Bramble busy for quite some time. He casts and offers multiple goodberry to the guards during the ritual healings, not to “top them off”, but to strengthen their bodies own abilities to heal themselves.  He knows that a short or long rest has potential to do much more than one or two berries, but a few berries could allow the body to heal even more efficiently.

Once he is satisfied, he will instruct the guards to enter the inn and try and get some rest in the cool. He promises to check on them later. He will then disassemble the field hospital to leave no trace that it had been there. Next is dealing with the carcasses, disease will certainly come for them. But now a weariness overcomes Bramble. He mentally notes the ugly chore and enters the inn for his own breather.

Each guard nibbles at one or two berries. Once Torem has been attended to, he thanks Bramble profusely. “Good sir, I knew you would do a better job at bandaging my wounds, but I had no idea the level of care. I feel so much better. I can’t thank you enough.” Then he joins Ryndar at the gate. Once at the top, he tells the half elf, “You are lucky to have that Bramble fellow traveling with you, given your dangerous work. The man knows his healing! And that bear transformation! How long have you known him?”

The other two guards feel much refreshed after Bramble’s care and taking a short rest in the inn. Kaelen manages to find some cheese, slightly old bread, and a small cask of ale and brings it out to the party. He suggests that perhaps after resting, the guards might drag together some wood from the damaged cottage nearby and make a pyre. “We have a graveyard, but forgive me if I don’t think these folk belong there. There’s nothing disrespectful about burning the bodies anyway, to my mind.”

“That sounds like a fine plan to me,” says Alara. “And afterwards, we need to do something about finding the villagers. I do suspect they are at the bat caves, as Torem suggested. But I don’t know why they haven’t returned. It isn’t far, only about a mile north, though I hate to leave the village unguarded…” She glances at the party.

Daerthe finds a comfortable spot to rest in the inn to wait and see what their next step is. Once relaxed she goes over what she has found and kept for herself, making sure to hide it when anyone gets to close to her.

Helena is just glad they managed to drive off the mercenaries before they could get a foothold here.  She settles down in a chair in the inn, glad the business with them was over.  She smiles as the gemstones are discovered, and would accept her portion of the reward quite gratefully.

“The group of us here are just barely met ourselves.” She explains at the question of a name for their group.  “We likely need to discuss such a thing, but not sure now is the time.  I also agree we should check on these people you believe are in the caves nearby.  I would be willing to go and take a look, and would very much like the guards to be able to stay here in town, as those we ran off might decide to return if we all leave for the caves.”

Ryndar takes his position in the guard tower, looking out for any sign of additional threats or the return of the people of Nightstone. As he stands vigil, he takes time oiling his longbow, and adjusting the tension of the string. 

Perception, as needed 19

"Here, please take 2 additional gp for Sydiri"- Sphyboe will hand over the gold pieces to Alara from the separate compartment. That leaves her with 25 gp, and if she adds the additional 7 gp from the pouch she will be left with total 32 gold pieces. She decides to pass on 30 gp to the adventuring party, and divides these rewards equally among the members to give each of them 5 gp including herself. 

"These two gold pieces can not be awarded fairly, and I don't want to start a skirmish over who gets to keep them"- she's seen holding out the shiny coins in front of the party to show it's worth then throws these spare coins into the Nightstone Well. After letting out a vibrant and carefree smile, she suggests a name for the party:

"I vote for the name 'Team Who-nearly-beat-the-Zhents'. And don't worry about the lore, when I'm going to describe how we had fought for the autonomy of Nightstone, I'll make sure to highlight our heroic contributions." Also, the idea of spreading a rumor about our victory seems intriguing- she keeps the final line secret to be revealed later, when she sees it fit to do so.

Quote from DarthDrizzt >>

Daerthe finds a comfortable spot to rest in the inn to wait and see what their next step is. Once relaxed she goes over what she has found and kept for herself, making sure to hide it when anyone gets to close to her.

 (Roll Sleight of Hand. Do you want to taste the potion to see what it is?)

When Alara hears that the party has not worked together for long, she says, “I’m surprised to hear that you all have only met recently. You are certainly effective.”

Now Kaelen speaks up, “Maybe you could call yourselves ‘Zhents Bane’? Though you may not want to so directly taunt them. Snakes Bane, maybe? Or...what animals prey on snakes? Eagles? There’s some kind of mammal that does as well. I can’t think of the name.”

Alara stands up and grabs Kaelen’s arm, “You can put your creative mind to it while we build a pyre.”

Meanwhile, Ryndar keeps watch out over the countryside. A bank of clouds has rolled in from the west, occasionally blocking the early afternoon sun. There is no sign of movement along the path to the south that leads to the High Road. And no sign of villagers returning from the north. Birdsong can be heard from bushes and trees across the moat. A hawk circles and then dives into a field. Torem is happy to enjoy a companionable silence or conversation. If Ryndar seems interested in talking, Torem might ask him about his archery training or how he came to be in Nightstone with this group.

Sleight of Hand: 17

Essie had followed the others into the inn, falling back to her quiet ways. Watching Bramble work had been extremely interesting, but she kept her distance so as not to bother him. She'd have to learn to do that one day. Now inside, she chooses a spot on the floor and sits, setting her shield down gently beside her. She kicks her feet out, leans back on her hands, and just listens to the conversations around her.

Watching people interact is always fascinating, even if she misses half of what's going on. She really needs to get better about reading people, she thinks. She accepts the gold from Sphyboe with a confused little nod. Not quite sure what to do with the gold, but she ends up sticking it in one of her little pouches around her waist. Then she hears the guards mention the bodies they've left around, and something nudges her in the back of her mind. Oh, right.

"Would you like aid with the pyre and the bodies?" she asks Alara, looking up at the guard with a smile. "I'd like to help send everyone off properly."

At one point or another, those who rest in the inn notice Daerthe fiddling with or sorting through some small items that glint in the low light.