Zeke would flare his wings and make a show of shaking out his muscled arms as he stood behind Arvel, a not so subtle reminder of the options facing the now defeated redbrands - cooperate and accept mercy or continue to agitate and be annihilated.  

At Arvel's urging, several of the men start blurting out potentially helpful information.

"He's up there under the old mansion..." pointing up towards the obvious cliff top where the old Tresendar Manor crumbles.

"Yeah, he's some sort of wizard."

"And there are bugbears..." adds another man.

"and those things with the one big eye..." adds yet another.

Zeke remains completely impassive as the Redbrands begin clucking like chickens, but inside he was pleased at how quickly they had broken.  Arvel's honeyed tongue was proving more valuable and deadly than his own oversized blade - even more powerful now that Ethan had reworked it.   And Tarja had used her mastery of nature to control their confrontation in the square, the thorns forcing half of the Redbrands out of the brief scuffle and Horton holding off the others.  Elra had kept them all on their feet and in the fight and still managed to get some hits in on their opponents, and Fae had unerringly blasted their foes with arcane bolts.

These were warriors and wizards worth defending, worth bleeding for, worth burning to protect.  That's all Zeke could do, it's what he had been born for, what he trained for, it's all he'd ever known.  A small part of him wonders if it's enough - if his sacrifice would be enough in the end to fulfill his pledge, to satiate the demons that haunt him or if he would falter and fail when they needed him the most as he had done once before.  

Elra takes in all the information, "Oh... well then I guess that means we should probably go there right?" she asks, looking at the party.

"After a short breather."

Tarja is appalled to hear about the one-eyed monstrosities and bugbears.

Why would you bring those sorts of creatures into our midst? Leave them where they belong! Towns and manors aren't the place for them.

"Maybe it was already here?" Elra suggests.

Maybe. I suppose a lot of those sorts of critters do belong in caves, maybe there's a deep enough cave under the manor for it to be native to there. Wonder what it is...

Tarja turns to the redbrand that mentioned the one-eyed beast.

Besides having one eye, what do they look like?

As the party rests from the encounter and inquires about the one-eyed creatures, Arvel takes the opportunity to slip away as surreptitiously as possible around the corner to the Temple of Tymora.

((Elra's passive is 16, so...))

Elra watches Arvel try to sneak off and follows behind him, "Going somewhere?" she whispers to him.

"Oh, er, um. Would you believe call of nature?"

"Loremaster said that people only say that when they're trying to run away from something and don't want help," Elra says, "unless they look really uncomfortable, then they're telling the truth."

"You're just about the only person I'd start a sentence like this for...

...in all honesty, I'm heading towards something, not running away. And I need to work some things out for myself before I ask for help."

"Hmm..." Elra thinks for a moment, "okay, but when you need help you come find us okay?"

The charlatan squeezes Elra's hand and slips off to the temple.

Ethan can't recall much about one eye creatures other than that most people have heard of beholders in many common stories.

In response to Tarja, one of the redbrands says "we didn't put 'em there, I don't think."  "They got these spike things all over their arms and legs.  Know that much.  We just avoid 'em, mostly."

Ethan goes a little more pale (if that is even possible) at the mention of one eyed creatures, but at the mention of arms and legs, he let's out a held-in breath.

"These one eyed creatures, could you describe them more? You say they have arms and legs, are they humanoid? Also how large are they? They don't...shoot beams of magic from their eyes do they?"

Seeing Ethan move his attention to the Redbrands, so would she. Fae would pull out her notebook to jot down a couple notes. At one point she would look up and notice Arvel trying to sneak off with Elra close behind. A small smile would tug at her lips before a barely audible giggle would leave her lips. Nothing gets by Elra! Fae will return to her notes when the redbrand would respond to Elra.

Still at their artificers side, Fae would hear the concern from his first question. She’d look up to see his pale face as he’d rhyme off one question after the next, feeling as though she may sense some anxiety. The wizard would begin to wonder if she could provide any insight on this creature to offer Ethan in hopes to provide some comfort.

Fae would look to Sildar and Giselle before she’d turn to the Redbrand who said ‘he’s some sort of wizard’, “What kind of wizard? What kind of spells? Staff?”. Not that the scholar was expecting much of a response, she hoped for one anyways.

“I agree with Arvel that we should take a breather before we head to investigate the mansion.” Fae had a couple errands of her own that she wouldn’t mind tending too. And now that she reflected on it, she felt as though a good portion of her arcane reserves were spent.

As the last rays of sun disappear over Phandalin for the night, two of the redbrands start bickering a bit and rambling on.  "No, I think they has spikes on their backs.  Dunno, they said not to look at 'em.  I mostly just seen the shadows."

"Oh, yeah, maybe their backs, replies the other redbrand.  All I know is it stinks like rotting meat where they are.  Yeesh!"

Fae begins thinking of various aberrations; beholders, spectators, nothics... nothics, those have more of a humanoid form than the rest, and spikey bodies perhaps, too.  That sounds familiar.  Fae remembers reading something about having their gaze fixed upon you.  They can make your flesh rot and have some small amount of telepathy or at least glimpses into your mind.

The two redbrands look even more unsure regarding the specific questions about the wizard.  "I dunno, he's a wizard, you know.  All kinds of magics and stuff, right?  Got that big ol' staff though."

The other continues "yeah, we don' go in there where he does all his experiments or potion makin' or whatever it is."  "We just do what he says 'cause that other elf wizard said so."