Droknin grabs the Goblin, and sling onto his broad shoulder. "I will take care of the little creature."

Electing to withdraw for now, the party gathers the unconscious goblin and once again withdraws from the ruins underneath Tresendar Manor.  Once outside, Cassius Kemp takes his leave.  "I need to rest this shoulder a bit before I am good to anyone.  It was good to get into a little scrape again... but I might need a few days in bed before I am up for this again.  If you folk need any more help, ask around.  The people here know where to find me."

Returning to the Townmaster's home, it appears deserted, with the same single candle lit on the dining room table.  Once inside, however, a noise in the basement draws your attention. 

Slipping down the stairs, you smell sweat and blood.  Inside the cellar, you see Sildar Hallwinter and Harbin Wester, the townmaster.  Sildar is still in most of his armor.  Both are tied to chairs brought down from the dining room, with their arms behind their backs, and both look barely conscious, their faces battered and bruised.  Looming over them is the Redbrand prisoner you left with Sildar and the 'townmaster' [way back in post #301]. 

His eyes widen in shock and recognition when he sees your group.  He draws a dagger and moves behind Sildar.  "Now just hold it right there!"  His eyes dart around the cellar, near to panic.  "Listen here... this is how this is going to go.  You lot go back up them stairs, and in a minute I'm going to come up with the old man there.  He and I are going to leave town together, and if you don't want anything bad to happen to -" 

He doesn't finish the thought.  The ropes holding Sildar fall loosely to the floor, and the old knight reaches back and grabs the thug by the shirt, and yanks him down hard.  At the same time, he rocks his head back, slamming into the Redbrand's nose and spraying blood across the cellar.  Then he turns in the chair and punches the man three times with a mailed fist, and just like that the Redbrand is lying unconscious and twitching on the dirt floor.  Harbin makes no comment, other than to turn his head and spit on the man.

Sildar turns to look at you all, rising from the chair and removing the last of his bonds.  Despite his fast hands in dealing with his captor, it is obvious he is still badly hurt.

"Thanks for the distraction.  I slipped my bonds an hour ago, but he never gave me an opening."

"I'm glad you're all here.  You need to know... the Harbin Wester we all met earlier is an imposter.  After you left, he freed that Redbrand and together they overpowered me.  It's a shapeshifter, possibly a doppelganger or a changeling.  They're incredibly dangerous... we need to find it before it takes a new form and we lose track of it in town."  Then he sits back down in his chair, seemingly exhausted.

"It's dead. Came to 'help us' wearing your face. We feared we'd handed the real Townmaster over to his death. Glad it thought you two were still worth saving. Unless either of you are another of them? It didn't bleed red...", T'laren says, nodding at the knife suggestively.

"Take good care of yourself brave warrior." Dronin says to Cassius. Once in the Townmaster Hall's cellar. He drops the Goblin onto the floor. "It is good to see you still standing. We all need to gather our strength. I suggest we all stay here for the night. We should secure this place, if possible, first."

(What time is now?)

Sildar doesn't hesitate, and cuts one his fingers.  He does the same for Harbin, as he cuts the man loose from his bonds.  Both men bleed red.

[It is about an hour past dawn now.  You were adventuring all day and all night.]

After watching the blood drip, T'laren's fingers finally relax the bowstring that had been drawn in their general direction.

"Wizard's still at large, but we need rest almost as much as you. I can stay up and trance later, let some of you rest. You don't mind our staying here, do you Townmaster?"

The townmaster has no complaints.  He seems pretty shaken by his ordeal and is trying to get acclimated to being free again.

You can all take a long rest.  It’s early afternoon when you are finished.

Garrin will also cut his finger to show his blood is red. 

"Are you alright, Sildar? I can't help but feel I - we- owe you one for putting you in that situation." He starts searching his pockets for something to give Sildar. 

T'laren would have tranced early, and has been up since mid morning. He would have quietly moved about the house, making sure it was secure, and keeping watch for the latter half of the morning and early afternoon while the others rested. He's been peering out the windows, trying to get a sense of if anything else different is going on in the town.

Droknin was only going to take a cat-nap, but when he woke up he realized he slept for more than he had intended. Embarrassed, he slowly gets up. "Ready for more fun Lady and Gentlemen?" The big Leonin broadly smiles showing his fangs.

While you rested, Sildar Hallwinter had the goblin prisoner tied up in the chair that formerly had held Townmaster Harbin Wester.  He also searched the Townmaster's home thoroughly, where the doppelganger had been holding court in disguise.

When you awake, he advises you that the goblin has regained consciousness and is available for interrogation in the basement.  But first, he lays out some correspondence he discovered.  There are a number of letters between the doppelganger and Glasstaff, the wizard leader of the Redbrands.  Most of these deal with choreographing the charade or requesting that the 'Townmaster' take actions that will benefit the Redbrands' occupation of Phandalin.  One letter in particular, however, he pulls out and shares with all of you.  It is written in a different hand than the others.

Baker [This seems to be the name the doppelganger was going by in all of the correspondence],

I thought it was high time to reach out to you directly.  While Iarno insists you are but a pawn in his operation, my spies tell me that our operations in Phandalin would be for naught without your special talents.  In the world to come, there will always be a place for useful assets. 

I have an opportunity I'd like you to look into.  The Lords Alliance has dispatched another representative to Phandalin.  In the event he slips past my welcome for him on the Triboar Trail, I would like you to neutralize him for me.  I'm not yet ready to trust Iarno with this.  His betrayal of the Lords Alliance is still fresh, and he could threaten my plans if he is flipped back into their service.

One more thing; the Lords Alliance representative may be traveling with a dwarf.  Kill the Lords Alliance spy, but capture the dwarf.  See that any dwarven maps in their possession are delivered to me with haste. I’m counting on you, Baker. Don’t disappoint me.

[Instead of a signature, the letter ends with a symbol of a spider, stamped in red ink]

Sildar appears deeply shaken by this.  "I'm not sure yet what to make of this.  Iarno Albrek is an old friend of mine.  I cannot imagine him abandoning our cause, but this letter seems damning.  And this..." he points to the spider symbol.  "Have any of you seen something like this before?"

"It looks like a spider, saw plenty of them in the woods, but if left them alone, they left me alone. Sometimes would toss something into their webs, just to be neighborly. But since I doubt it's any of them writing a letter, no, I don't know who would use it at their sigil. Do we know anything about a Lords Alliance spy and a dwarf with maps? Iarno could be a code name, if the beast wearing your face as going by 'Baker', could be someone else. Or this could be a false letter, meant to confuse if it were discovered... though in that case the spider means nothing, and seems like a long game to play if you don't know anyone's playing against you. A false letter would likely have found its way to its intended recipient before now.", T'laren muses.

Garrin shakes his head. "Can't say I know anything about the spider mark. But Sildar... This Iarno fella'. If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Mostly. Maybe. Maybe not? I don't know, folks are funny nowadays. Maybe he's just confused."

Droknin studies the letter, it takes a while longer for him to digest all that is happening. "We don't see many spiders from where I come from, specially one that writes so well. Must be a very smart little bugger this one..." He gives the letter to the next person and walks away.

Sildar gathers the note back.  "Hrmphf.  Yes, it doesn't seem you lot are any more familiar with it than I."

"Lest there be any confusion, I am the Lords Alliance representative this note is talking about.  I came here specifically to check up on our agent, Iarno Albreck, who had come to Phandalin some months ago but was no longer reporting back.  I was also traveling with the dwarf, Gundren Rockseeker.  Keashirryl, so were among those who rescued me after Gundren and I were captured by goblins."

"Let us all return to the criminals' lair and put this to rest."

Sildar Hallwinter accompanies the four of you back to the ruins of Tresendar Manor.  You spend the afternoon clearing the remaining rooms.  There is no one here.  The nothic remains, and it has gathered all the bodies of Redbrands and Bubgears into its crevasse, apparently planning a feast.  It flees at your approach, and seems almost ghost like in its ability to evade your pursuit through the basement.  Eventually, Sildar recommends you leave the monster be for now.  He will see to its removal, or perhaps just have the entrances to the ruins sealed.

In the unexplored section, you find a messhall, bunk room, and dining room.  There are also what seem to be more well-appointed private quarters for the Redbrands' leadership, and what looks like the workshop of a mage.  An alchemy workbench has been left behind, though it looks like the mage must have gathered up all of his valuable ingredients.

Arcana DC 14 (or proficiency in Alchemy Supplies): 

 The private quarters are in disarray, as though the residents packed suddenly.  Nothing of value has been left behind, and an ornate wooden chest sits open and completely empty.  There are a few common books on magic and mysticism, and a primer for teaching oneself how to read Dwarven writing, but little else.

Back on the surface, the party also discovers that a handful of Redbrands who had been drinking at the Sleeping Giant Tavern also fled in the night.  For now, it seems, they have been driven from Phandalin - though their Captain [the one Droknin throat-grabbed at the beginning of the campaign] and their wizard commander Glasstaff have so far not been captured.

***

Congratulations - the party has earned Level Three!

***

Back at the Townmaster's house, Sildar takes his leave from you to pen some letters back to Neverwinter.  He suggests you interrogate the goblin when you have a spare moment, and fill him in on anything you learn,

((Did the nothic also have the doppelganger body, or is that missing? 😬))

[LOL. ]

No.  Strangely, the nothic did not collect the body of the doppelganger to add to its larder.  Perhaps it doesn't recognize it as food?  In any case, the doppelganger's corpse remains right where you left it.

With the manor "cleaned", and the town safe now. "Well, that was fun and all. Perhaps, we can return to the business of catching a certain Dragon."

(Woohoo!! I would like to say that this is the farthest that I have even gotten in the campaign. LOL)

Garrin would examine the mage's workshop

Arcana 18 

He'd also grab that primer on dwarven language, before joining whoever would like to interrogate the goblin. 

He'd lead off. "I think it's time we have a chat. You've been an unwelcome visitor to this town, and made yourself unwelcome even by the monsters. There's a one eyed beast that's in the habit of eating anything we throw in the pit in that house. I am more inclined to offer tea to a guest. So are you an unwelcome visitor? Or a guest?" 

persuasion or intimidation 23 

Halfling luck! 

Reroll arcana 6