Chapter One: A LMoP Adventure

Glynquinal will join Herr Doktor as he wants to see what two more daggers might cost.

Herr Doktor turns toward the buildings on the right. The shop is connected to a modest house. The shop's door and windows are all open. As Herr Doktor approaches, he can feel heat escaping into the open air. The regular pang pang pang of a hammer shaping metal can be heard. He enters and steps up to the makeshift counter. The shop is a jumble of scraps, tools, incomplete projects, and completed projects. Two Damaran humans are working: a short, stout male and a tall, slender woman. Both are well muscled and are working in perfect harmony around the forge and anvil. As Herr Doktor watches, the glowing piece of metal goes back into the fire. The workers haven't yet noticed the bard's arrival.

OOC: We're having some space/time issues. Glynquinal is inside with the old man, Gruxx is outside talking with the stock boys (about the Redbrands), and Herr Doktor is across the street at the smithy. You can't be in three places at once, Glyn.

Rock will go to the blacksmith shop

OOC: got it, thanks for the feedback.

 When the man and woman appear less busy (maybe while the iron is cooling), the Herr Doktor Professor will approach them.

"Hail and well met," he says to both. "It seems a busy time for your smithy. I can't help but notice that most of your displayed products (he gestures towards the tools mentioned above) appear to be well-made tools.

"I was curious if you had wares of similar quality, but of more ... martial ... utility."

He smiles his most disarming smile as he moves from innuendo to a more direct request.

"Do you sell weapons and armor, perhaps," he asks.

Glynquinal, thanks the old man for his help and wanders back outside looking for the rest of his party. Since Gruxx drove the wagon out back he will start there.

Herr Doktor looks over his shoulder to see Rock entering the smithy behind him. Turning back to the action, he sees the woman move the great tongs which are holding the pair's current project to a bucket of water and submerges the darkening metal. The water hisses and steams. When the noise dies down, the bard clears his throat. "Hail and well met," he says to both. "It seems a busy time for your smithy. I can't help but notice that most of your displayed products," he says, gesturing towards what he would consider their completed projects, "appear to be well-made tools. I was curious if you had wares of similar quality, but of more ... martial ... utility." He pauses for a second, then smiles his most disarming smile as he moves from innuendo to a more direct request. "Do you sell weapons and armor, perhaps," he asks.

The man turns and begins doing something the other direction, but the woman looks up and squints at Herr Doktor and Rock. "We aren't a shop," she says flatly. "We make what's been ordered. Everything you see here is being worked on for someone in town."

Glynquinal meanders out the back door he had seen the two youngish males go through in order to meet Gruxx. He first finds himself in a storeroom full of barrels, crates, sacks. To his eye, there doesn't seem to be any kind of order. One of the males comes in carrying a barrel from the wagon and places it with similar barrels along one wall. "Something I can help you find?" the old man asks politely, having followed Glynquinal. When the elf indicates he was looking for Gruxx, the old man smiles and ushers him to the outside door where the wagon is sitting and Gruxx is talking with one of the young men. The rogue hears the young man say to the barbarian, "The Redbrands are more trouble to us."

Glynquinal asks the old man, "Who are the Redbrands? Local brigands?"

The shop keeper nods. "The Redbrands are making it hard on everyone. They started out as thugs who were easily managed, but once they got organized, they've become a real threat. They even demand money from us shopkeepers ... or else. Some people are moving away because of the trouble."

Looking at the old warrior, who is standing beside the wagon and watching the unloading, "Sildar, if you are still interested in enlisting aid to go find and rescue your traveling companion, you can count me in."

"Thank you. I'll ask around town tomorrow to see if anyone knows where this Cragmaw Castle is. Hopefully, you can get to Gundren before anymore danger befalls him."

"Gundren?" the old man asks. He gives Glynquinal a sideways, confused glance, then turns back to Sildar. "Gundren needs rescuing?"

"Yes," Sildar responds. "We were traveling here and were ambushed by goblins. They've taken him to Cragmaw Castle. Do you happen to know where that is?"

"I don't," the old man says sadly. "I would check with Halia down at the Miner's Exchange. She knows this area best." He clucks his tongue. "Nundro and Tharden are going to be quite upset when they hear this. Of course, they might want to go along to rescue their brother. They've been camping outside of town, and I expect them any day now."

"Can you make weapons or armor to order then," says the Herr Doktor Professor without missing a beat. "My companions and I may have need of such. We traveled a hard road coming here -- goblins ambushed us, but we drove them off and even managed to rescue a fellow traveler they'd taken prisoner."

The woman pauses. The man looks up from what he was doing and the two exchange a look before the woman looks at Herr Doktor again. "Yes," she says in a little more kindly tone of voice than before. "Goblins? On the Triboar Trail or the Miner's Trail?"

Glynquinal hearing about the Redbands wonders about how they might be organized, "Do the Redbands have a hierarchy, or an established leader?"

Gruxx will thank those unloading the cart and go find the others.  He will then share what he has learned about the Coster's shipments going missing and the Redbrands.

Ian will collect the money from the old man, and thank him. He will hold onto for the time being until the party gets back together and it can be divided amongst the party.

Ian will stick with Glynquenal - OOC, rogues gotta watch each others backs...plus Ian has nearly died too many time in the recent days to just wander off.

Rock will ask "Have you ever made gauntlet blades?"

Glynquinal says to Ian in Thieves Cant 

"The goblins set up an ambush on the Triboar Trail," says the Herr Doktor Professor. "We tracked them to a nearby cave and defeated some, though their leaders escaped.

"One of my companions, Rock," he gestures towards the dragonborn, "roasted with dragonfire a feral wolf trained by the goblins."

He pauses for a moment, replaying in his head what the female blacksmith said.

"You mentioned the Miner's Trail just now. Have goblins also been cited on that road? Have they started making incursions into.the town?"

The shopkeep seems to consider Glynquinal's question about a Redbrand leader or hierarchy for a moment. "I imagine they must," he finally says, "but I don't know who it might be. They always just seem to be working under a common goal: terrorizing Phandalin." Gruxx relays what the young man said about the Coster. "I thought it was great faith the Lionshields showed, opening a Coster here in our little settlement," the shopkeep comments. "I don't know if they're going to continue to try to supply it if their goods never make it here."

At the smithy, the woman shakes her head at the bard's tale. When he describes Rock's roasting of a wolf, her eyebrows rise, and she apprises the dragonborn respectfully. "I don't know of any trouble on the Miner's Trail or in town," she says finally. "I'm glad to hear that hasn't changed." When Rock asks about gauntlet blades, she nods, but it's the man that responds. He steps up beside her, his attention having been caught by Herr Doktor's voice. "Aye," he says, "we've made some bladed gauntlets before. Fine weapons. If you're interested, we could make some for you for 25 gold for the pair. It will take ..." He looks around the shop, clearly taking stock of his current projects. "... five days, I think. We have a few things that need to be finished first."

OOC: Just a reminder: Glynquinal, Ian, Gruxx and Sildar are behind Barthen's Provisions with the shopkeeper, and Herr Doktor and Rock are at the smithy. It's about an hour before sundown.

Glynquinal thanks the man for what information he can offer, "Thank you for the information. I have another question before we have to find a place to turn in for the night. Who are the Lionshields?"

"A merchant company based in — err — Yartar, I think," the shopkeep responds. "They were to ship finished goods here to help revitalize the settlement."

Glynquinal, asks the shopkeeper. "Can you recommend a place to stay. We've been traveling for a while, and we'll need to rest before we move on."

"The Stonehill Inn, of course," the shopkeep says. He points two buildings south (#10 on the map).