Peri, Sonny and Viola climbed out of the crevasse, rejoining Rose and Verne at the top. They shared their findings, and Verne offered no argument that Sonny should hold onto the sword. When Peri pulled out the spell scroll, Rose, having recovered from her shock, rushed forward.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked, excitedly.
"I think so. Check it out," Peri smiled as they held it out to her. Rose snatched it up and began analyzing the inscriptions on the ribbon and the side of the parchment. Her eyes widened as she took in each rune.
"This is fantastic," she whispered, "it's a scroll of augury!"
"Isn't that a fancy name for an eggplant?" Peri tilted their head in confusion.
"No, not 'aubergine', 'augury'," Rose explained. "It's a spell that allows me to predict the future."
"Wowee, that's impressive." the tabaxi mewed.
"I agree. Thank you for finding this for me, Peri." Rose smiled.
"Actually, Viola's the one who found the chest," Peri offered.
Rose turned to face the rogue, who flushed and avoided eye contact. The witch's mouth formed a hard line, but after a moment she said, "Thank you, Viola. I really appreciate it."
"Yeah, sure. You're welcome." The rogue grumbled.
The others sighed inwardly, accepting that it was probably the best outcome they could have hoped for. With that resolved, the party continued down an adjacent hallway, exiting the cavern. As the natural stone gave way to flagstone, Verne held up his hand, pointing to a nearby door. Through it, the party could hear gruff voices shouting.
"Lick the floor!" "Roll like a dog!" "Eyes to the floor, worm!"
Each of these commands was followed by cruel laughter. Sonny scowled and moved towards the door, but the elf grabbed his arm. "I understand your anger, my friend, but we must proceed strategically. Allow Viola and I to scout ahead and get into position. We will signal the rest of you when the time is right."
Verne quietly opened the door and peered into what appeared to be barracks. At the center of the room were three bugbears, all of whom were tormenting a lone goblin by barking orders at it and threatening or striking it when it didn't comply fast enough. While they were distracted Verne stepped through the door and slinked around to the opposite side of the room, silently knocking an arrow and aiming for the largest bugbear.
Viola soon followed, quietly striding through the door. But as she turned to find a place to hide, a silver coin dropped from her overstuffed pocket, landing with a treasonous clink. The bugbears snapped their heads around, all staring at the startled rogue, who smiled sheepishly as she scrambled to recover the coin. Before any of them could make a move, Verne let his arrow fly, landing squarely between the bugbear's shoulder blades. The bugbear roared, and chaos broke out.
The bugbear turned and dashed towards the elf, its mouth frothing with rage. It pulled a morningstar from one of the nearby beds and swung it, slamming hard into the elf's ribs. Seeing this, Viola ran at the attacking bugbear, slashing at its legs with both blades. The attack was shallow, but effectively drew the attention away from Verne. Unfortunately for the halfling, it also drew the attention of the other bugbears, one of which ran to the halfling and slammed its morningstar into the back of her head, sending her crashing to the ground.
Rose rushed into the room and, seeing the direness of the situation, drew a fistful of rose petals from her component pouch. With a pulse of pink energy, all three of the bugbears grew drowsy, their limbs growing heavy with slumber. Peri saw Viola on the ground and revived her with a healing word before firing a burst of sacred flame, which the bugbear, despite its drowsiness, managed to barely evade.
Sonny dashed through, interposing himself between the bugbears, Verne and Viola. As he ran, he attempted to slash at one of the bugbears, but in his haste, he mistimed his strike, missing entirely. Thankfully, it ended up not being necessary, as the furthest bugbear slumped to the ground as Rose's enchantment took its full effect. The beast began snoring loudly, its arms folded beneath it.
Now confined to close quarters, Verne abandoned his longbow in favor of his short sword and scimitar. He thrust in with the short sword, plunging deep into the bugbear's chest. He attempted to make an additional strike with his scimitar, but the pain from the earlier blow racked his ribs and threw off his aim. He ducked back behind Sonny, gasping for air. The bugbear, brought back to lucidity from the pain of Verne's attack, swung his morningstar at the elf, but instead found Sonny's shield, which easily deflected the blow.
Viola sprang to her feet and gritted her teeth, glaring at the bugbears. She slipped behind Sonny, watching the bugbear's feet for just the right moment before springing forward and plunging her short sword into the monster's belly, dropping it to the ground in a pool of viscera. She then darted forward and swiped at the bugbear that had struck her with her scimitar, cutting deep across the knee before scampering to join Verne behind Sonny.
The bugbear ran forward, trailing blood from its knee as it swung, but it met the same frustrating obstacle that its fellow had, as Sonny effortlessly shrugged off the heavy blow. Seeing the bugbears agitated awake, Rose grumbled under her breath, "For goodness' sake, why do I even bother?" The witch stowed her component pouch, and drew her wand, letting loose a fire bolt that exploded on impact, filling the room with the stench of burning hair.
Peri ran into the room, yowling with their mace held high. They leaped at the bugbear, swinging at its head, but it managed to sidestep fast enough to avoid the potentially fatal blow. The bugbear swaggered, ducking and sidestepping a barrage of sword strokes. Getting cocky, he leaned forward and sneered, not noticing the halfling who had darted in just beneath its chin. She thrusted up with her short sword, piercing through the bugbear's throat, and dropping the beast to the floor into a pool of its own blood.
The party panted, battered and bruised from their battle. Viola wiped the bugbears' blood off of her blades, but no sooner did she move to store them than the goblin stood up from the floor and rushed towards her with arms outstretched. Viola got ready to strike, but stopped when she heard the goblin yell, "Oh, thank you, thank you!" as he wrapped his arms around the halfling in a tight embrace.
"Ahh, guys? It's hugging me." Viola held her blades above her head and looked to Verne, who shook his head in mild amusement. The rogue, having had more than enough, pushed the goblin away.
"Apologies, miss," the goblin squeaked, stepping back, holding their hands up in surrender. "I did not mean to overstep. I'm just so happy to be free of those brutes."
"Yeah, no problem, just don't touch me again, 'kay?" Viola frowned, stowing her blades.
The goblin flinched, but said, "Yes ma'am, of course, ma'am."
"What is your name, friend?" Verne asked, sitting on one of the nearby beds.
"Droop, at your service, sir." The goblin stood at attention and bowed low, his long ears nearly touching the floor.
"You need not bow to us, my friend," Verne offered, but the goblin shook his head.
"I must, sir. 'Tis the code of the goblins. He who defeats the old chief becomes the new chief, and I am honor bound to serve." Droop gestured towards Viola.
The halfling grinned mischievously. "Ooh, I've never had a minion before. So, if I were to ask you to go find me some treasure-" Before she had even finished the sentence, Droop dashed over to one of the fallen bugbears, plucked his head up from the pool of blood on the floor, ripped off its gem-encrusted eye patch and slapped it into the rogues hand. Viola's grin vanished and she stood, stunned and more than a little disgusted at the dripping wet token. "Alrighty then," Viola mumbled, shaking the blood from the eyepatch and inspecting the inlaid stones.
"How did you come to work for the Redbrands, Droop?" Verne asked.
"It isn't the Redbrands I worked for, really, I served Was-chief Mosk," the goblin explained, gesturing to the bugbear he'd taken the eyepatch from. "Was-chief Mosk received orders to scout Phandalin from one called The Black Spider, and I went with."
The party looked at each other, recognizing the name from their interrogation of the Rebrands back at the Sleeping Giant. "Did you meet this 'Black Spider'?" Verne asked. Droop shook his head sadly and said, "No, sir. Only Was-chief Mosk spoke with them. I was simply told where to go and what to do, as is my station."
"You shouldn't say that, man," Sonny frowned. "don't let people make you feel less than just because of some stupid code."
Droop winced, and grumbled under his breath, clearly torn between wanting to argue and not wanting to offend his new chief. Finally, he said, "Perhaps, sir."
"So if you've been working here for a while, can you get us around the place?" Viola asked.
Droop smiled and said, "Yes, ma'am. I know where most all of the Redbrands are and where all secret passages lie. It would be an honor to help you dispatch them. They have been...not very nice."
"Well then, lead the way, Minion Droop." Viola pointed to the door and marched in place with mock-authority.
Droop brought his hand to his forehead in a salute and said, "Yes, Chief!" and scampered into the hallway
Viola grinned, pocketing the bloodied eyepatch before following her new minion into the hallway. The others looked to each other and sighed, hoping this new power wouldn't go to the rogue's head.
Droop led the party to the Redbrand common room, just down the hall. Through the door, the party could hear some of the ruffians shouting, and Droop informed them that when the room wasn’t in use for meetings, the Redbrands often played knucklebones on the table. Viola asked the goblin to go inside and make a distraction so that they might take them unawares, and the goblin obliged, pulling open the door and walking through.
Viola stuck her foot in the door, stopping it from closing all the way. She opened it slightly, chancing a peak inside, and saw several worn tables and chairs scattered around the room. Wooden benches were drawn up against walls decorated with draperies of brown and red, and several kegs were propped up and tapped. At the table, four tough-looking Redbrands were gathered around a stack of coins and trinkets piled in a heap. From the looks of the pile, one of the ruffians was making out far better than the others, and his fellows didn’t seem thrilled about it.
Droop walked into the center of the room, not drawing any attention from the Redbrands. He turned to them nervously, but before he could say anything, one of the Redbrands at the table noticed him and shouted, “Hey, goblin! Make yerself useful and get me a drink.” the ruffian threw his empty mug across the room, narrowly missing Droop’s head. The goblin let out a shriek as he ducked out of the way, drawing a wave of laughter from the ruffians. Droop wrung his hands nervously, picking up the mug from the floor and walking over to the nearest keg. The goblin looked over to the doorway as he fumbled with the tap, his small hands shaking. Viola pointed to the keg and made a pushing gesture. Droop’s eyes widened, and he shook his head fearfully. The rogue frowned and jabbed her finger at him. “Hey, what’s taking so long with that drink?” the ruffian snarled from the table. Steeling his resolve, Droop hopped up onto the table and shoved the keg over, sending the barrel crashing loudly to the ground. The redbrands rose in a fury, blades drawn, ready to punish the goblin, but before they could take so much as a step, the party attacked.
Verne stepped into the door frame, firing off a shot at one of the Redbrands that clipped the ruffian in the shoulder before slowly backing away, making eye contact as he went. The Redbrand, in his fury, rushed through the door after him, but instead found Sonny, who bashed him with his shield while Viola slashed across his legs. The ruffian, drunk and bleeding, staggered on and feebly slashed at the air while the elf effortlessly dodged his attacks.
Another Redbrand, seeing the attack that had befallen his friend, ran to the door and struck out at Viola, slashing her across the arm with his blade. In response, Peri leaped over the rogue, swinging at the Redbrand with their mace, but missing their mark. Thankfully, Viola was more practiced with weapons, scoring deep gashes across her assailants chest and stomach before jumping back and retreating a ways down the hall.
Seeing Peri in the doorframe, the third ruffian charged through and swung his sword, thinking the cat to be an easy target. Unfortunately for him, the agile cleric wouldn’t be taken so easily, ducking the first strike and quickly shrugging off the second. Wanting to protect her feline friend, Rose shot a fire bolt at the brute, but in the chaos, missed her target.
The final Redbrand ignored the fracas, still more enraged by the spilling of the ale. He staggered over to Droop, raising his shortsword high before taking two wide swipes at the poor goblin, who froze at the sight of the blade, then promptly dropped unconscious to the floor.
With two enemies in front of him, and another down the hall with Verne, Sonny had his pick of targets. He slashed down at the first, easily dispatching the ruffian that had attacked Viola, before grabbing the foe entangled with Peri by the collar and throwing him onto his back in the common room, stepping into the doorway and clanging his sword loudly against his shield.
Down the hall, Verne ducked and dodged the ruffians wild slashes before taking a quick backstep and firing an arrow directly between the man’s eyes, downing him in an instant. The wizened elf stepped over his enemy, not paying him any further mind as his attention shifted to covering his allies.
Back at the doorway, Peri grabbed their holy symbol and extended it, firing a burst of sacred flame at the Redbrand Sonny had just thrown on the ground. From his prone position, the ruffian was helpless as the radiant flames burned his flesh. Viola, also wanting to take advantage of their position, rushed back to the door, stowing her blades in favor of her new crossbow. The rogue picked up the weapon and aimed for the downed enemy, but stopped as she saw Droop on the ground, about to be hacked to pieces by the remaining Redbrand. She shifted targets, aimed, and fired, piercing the ruffian just beneath the rib cage.
The redbrand on the ground slowly rose to his feet. He snarled, glaring at the cleric whose holy symbol still glowed with remnants of the flame that burned him. He stepped in, thrusting his sword at the cleric, but Sonny intervened, and swatted down the strike. In response, the ruffian jerked their sword back, clipping the fighter beneath the arm on the backswing. Sonny gritted his teeth, but held fast to his position at the door. In an attempt to help, Rose loosed another fire bolt, which landed, but unfortunately due to aiming around Sonny, didn't do much damage.
Inside the common room, the other Redbrand pulled the bolt from his ribs, dropping it to the floor. In his rage he turned to the unconscious goblin at his feet, the easiest target in the room, and slashed down with his sword, cleaving into the goblins chest in a spurt of blood. Viola screamed from the doorway, angry tears streaming from her eyes as the ruffian turned to the party and sneered, his lips pulled back in a snarl of pure, unrepentant cruelty.
Sonny’s mind went blank, the cruel act setting off something primal in the young warrior’s chest. He sprinted forward, effortlessly shoving aside the foe he’d been tangling with and making a beeline for the brute before him. The Redbrand’s eyes widened in shock as the fighter slammed into him with the force of a charging bull, knocking him to the ground before plunging his sword through his chest, pinning him to the wooden floorboards in a rising pool of his own blood. Sonny rose to his feet, breathing heavily with equal parts emotion and exhaustion. The remaining Redbrand, seeing the fighter’s back turned, took the opportunity to rush him from behind and hopefully catch him unawares, but he took hardly a step before an arrow thunked between his shoulder blades and a burst of sacred flame consumed him.
The party rushed into the common room and Viola ran to Droop, who lay bleeding on the floor. She delicately lifted the goblins head and cradled it to her chest, desperately sobbing, “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”
Nice idea turning campaign sessions into story chapters. I've though about doing this myself so it's nice to see it out there. Also fun reading a story about an adventure I've gotten to play though (not too far past this intro point).
The party gathered around Viola, who held Droop close to her chest. "C'mon, man, please be ok," she said, trembling.
"Viola, he's gone." Peri said, gently.
"Can't you, I dunno, do something about that?" Viola turned to the cleric, tears in her eyes.
Peri shook their head sadly. "Lathander's magic can sometimes revive the dead, but I don't have the power to do that yet."
"Then what good are you?" the rogue snapped. Peri winced, but said nothing.
"Viola," Verne chided, "I understand your grief, but-"
"No, you don't." Viola snarled. "None of you do. He's dead because of me!"
"So are half of the Redbrands and about a dozen of the goblins we fought a few days ago. How is this different?" Rose asked.
"He was my goblin!" Viola shouted. "He trusted me, and it got him killed. What if…what if you're right, and you guys shouldn't trust me? I don't want to kill you, too." The halfling dropped her eyes to the floor, her shoulders slumped.
Rose felt a pit drop in her stomach. She reached out toward the rogue, but halted at the blood and grime on the rogue's clothes. Accepting that this was something she had to do, the witch took a deep breath and placed her hand on the rogue's shoulder. "Viola, sometimes when wizards gather material components, they make mistakes. Maybe they take a locust leg when they need a cricket's or they get a crow feather and not a raven's- totally innocent mistakes that could happen to anyone. They don't happen often, but they do happen."
"Is this supposed to make me feel better somehow?" The rogue blinked.
"I'm getting there," Rose sighed. "What I'm saying is, I believe I may have misjudged you. If you care this much for Droop after just meeting him, then you must care for us as well."
Viola looked up at the witch and wiped her eyes. "You guys are alright." She set Droop gently down and straightened her armor. "So what now?"
"Easy. We find Glasstaff, bash his stupid brains in and take him off to Sildar so he can spend the rest of his life in chains." Sonny growled, yanking his sword from the torso of the dead Redbrand.
“That’s…descriptive,” Peri said. “Sonny, are you feeling alright?”
“No, I’m not,” the fighter snarled, flicking the blood to the floor, “All this bloodshed, all this cruelty, and for what? What did these guys think they would gain from doing this?”
“It is hard to say what lies in the hearts of men,” Verne mused, “but we cannot control the actions of others, merely trust that our own path is more enlightened.”
“I don’t know about all that. But I intend to make Glasstaff pay for what he’s done- what he’s inspired. That man does not leave free tonight, mark my words.”
“I am with you, my friend,” Verne replied. “The threat of the Redbrands is nearly finished. And now, it falls to us to end it.”
The others nodded, quaffed their healing potions as-needed and proceeded down the hall to face their final foe. Before she left the room, Viola grabbed one of the Redbrands cloaks and draped it over Droop’s body, placing a hand on the goblin’s forehead and saying, “I’m sorry you never got to taste real freedom, Droop. I hope wherever your journey takes you next, you get to fly there on your own power.” Then, with a tight grip on her short sword, Viola ran to join the others.
The final hallway led to a room that appeared to be Glasstaff's workshop. A rat scurried across the floor and took refuge under a large work table set up with alembics, retorts, distillation coils, and other alchemical devices, all of it stewing and bubbling away. The walls were lined with bookshelves crowded with sheaves of parchment and strange-looking tomes. Rose walked over to the desk, casually perusing the bottles and looking over the formulas. “Say what you will about the man's ethics, but this is quite the setup,” she said, running her finger along a set of well-organized glass beakers. “Though his work is shoddy. He's clearly trying to make a potion of invisibility, but he's using xanthan gum instead of gum arabic.”
“Yeah, what an idiot,” Viola rolled her eyes.
“Can we focus?” Sonny frowned. “He's clearly not here, so we should move on.”
“Hold on, hayseed, let's not forget the other reason we're here. We're looking for correspondence and other evidence, remember?” Viola chided.
Sonny offered no argument, but moved to the door, clearly agitated. His hand tapped at his side impatiently while he half-heartedly checked around the room. Verne moved to one of the bookshelves, drawing a leather-bound tome. Leafing through it, he called for his friends’ attention, “I believe I may have found something useful. This is a journal of a dwarven adventurer named Urmon who wrote a detailed account of his experiences with Wave Echo Cave and the Forge of-”
At that moment, a loud poof and a wisp of purple smoke appeared at the center of the room as Peri came up coughing, “Sorry,” they rasped. “I was trying to catch that rat and it just exploded in my hands.”
“Don't eat rats, Per-” Rose began, but her eyes widened. “Wait, did the rat explode when you picked it up, or did you damage it in some way?”
“Well, I may have pricked it with a claw or two,” Peri admitted.
“That was no ordinary rat,” the witch's face grew deadly serious. “We have to move- Glasstaff knows we're here.”
“What, really?” Peri's eyes widened.
“I've seen this before. It wasn't just a rat, it was a familiar. Wizards use them sometimes for scouting, battle, loads of things.” Rose explained, grabbing loose vials from off the table and stowing them for later. Sonny, receiving all the signal he needed, threw open the door and ran in, with the others quickly following, Verne tucking the book into his pack as he ran.
The party spilled out into a bedchamber whose walls were covered with drapes of scarlet cloth. The furnishings included a small writing desk with matching chair, a comfortable-looking bed, and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed.
Viola ran over to the chest, opened it and whistled, “Man, what a haul.” Inside was a pile of coins and gems, the spoils of the Redbrands criminal activity for the past two months.
“Dammit, where is he?” Sonny growled, slamming his fist against the bedpost.
“Not far.” Verne asserted, pointing to a well-hidden door on the south side of the room that was slightly cracked. The elf ran to the door, pulled it the rest of the way open and disappeared down the passage beyond. Sonny followed soon behind, along with Peri and Rose, but Viola lingered a moment, walking over to the desk and snatching a letter that caught her eye: a letter emblazoned with a large black spider. The rogue's eyebrows raised and she hastily stuffed the letter into her pocket before taking off down the tunnel to catch up with her friends.
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Chapter 5.8: Redbrand Barracks
Peri, Sonny and Viola climbed out of the crevasse, rejoining Rose and Verne at the top. They shared their findings, and Verne offered no argument that Sonny should hold onto the sword. When Peri pulled out the spell scroll, Rose, having recovered from her shock, rushed forward.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked, excitedly.
"I think so. Check it out," Peri smiled as they held it out to her. Rose snatched it up and began analyzing the inscriptions on the ribbon and the side of the parchment. Her eyes widened as she took in each rune.
"This is fantastic," she whispered, "it's a scroll of augury!"
"Isn't that a fancy name for an eggplant?" Peri tilted their head in confusion.
"No, not 'aubergine', 'augury'," Rose explained. "It's a spell that allows me to predict the future."
"Wowee, that's impressive." the tabaxi mewed.
"I agree. Thank you for finding this for me, Peri." Rose smiled.
"Actually, Viola's the one who found the chest," Peri offered.
Rose turned to face the rogue, who flushed and avoided eye contact. The witch's mouth formed a hard line, but after a moment she said, "Thank you, Viola. I really appreciate it."
"Yeah, sure. You're welcome." The rogue grumbled.
The others sighed inwardly, accepting that it was probably the best outcome they could have hoped for. With that resolved, the party continued down an adjacent hallway, exiting the cavern. As the natural stone gave way to flagstone, Verne held up his hand, pointing to a nearby door. Through it, the party could hear gruff voices shouting.
"Lick the floor!" "Roll like a dog!" "Eyes to the floor, worm!"
Each of these commands was followed by cruel laughter. Sonny scowled and moved towards the door, but the elf grabbed his arm. "I understand your anger, my friend, but we must proceed strategically. Allow Viola and I to scout ahead and get into position. We will signal the rest of you when the time is right."
Verne quietly opened the door and peered into what appeared to be barracks. At the center of the room were three bugbears, all of whom were tormenting a lone goblin by barking orders at it and threatening or striking it when it didn't comply fast enough. While they were distracted Verne stepped through the door and slinked around to the opposite side of the room, silently knocking an arrow and aiming for the largest bugbear.
Viola soon followed, quietly striding through the door. But as she turned to find a place to hide, a silver coin dropped from her overstuffed pocket, landing with a treasonous clink. The bugbears snapped their heads around, all staring at the startled rogue, who smiled sheepishly as she scrambled to recover the coin. Before any of them could make a move, Verne let his arrow fly, landing squarely between the bugbear's shoulder blades. The bugbear roared, and chaos broke out.
The bugbear turned and dashed towards the elf, its mouth frothing with rage. It pulled a morningstar from one of the nearby beds and swung it, slamming hard into the elf's ribs. Seeing this, Viola ran at the attacking bugbear, slashing at its legs with both blades. The attack was shallow, but effectively drew the attention away from Verne. Unfortunately for the halfling, it also drew the attention of the other bugbears, one of which ran to the halfling and slammed its morningstar into the back of her head, sending her crashing to the ground.
Rose rushed into the room and, seeing the direness of the situation, drew a fistful of rose petals from her component pouch. With a pulse of pink energy, all three of the bugbears grew drowsy, their limbs growing heavy with slumber. Peri saw Viola on the ground and revived her with a healing word before firing a burst of sacred flame, which the bugbear, despite its drowsiness, managed to barely evade.
Sonny dashed through, interposing himself between the bugbears, Verne and Viola. As he ran, he attempted to slash at one of the bugbears, but in his haste, he mistimed his strike, missing entirely. Thankfully, it ended up not being necessary, as the furthest bugbear slumped to the ground as Rose's enchantment took its full effect. The beast began snoring loudly, its arms folded beneath it.
Now confined to close quarters, Verne abandoned his longbow in favor of his short sword and scimitar. He thrust in with the short sword, plunging deep into the bugbear's chest. He attempted to make an additional strike with his scimitar, but the pain from the earlier blow racked his ribs and threw off his aim. He ducked back behind Sonny, gasping for air. The bugbear, brought back to lucidity from the pain of Verne's attack, swung his morningstar at the elf, but instead found Sonny's shield, which easily deflected the blow.
Viola sprang to her feet and gritted her teeth, glaring at the bugbears. She slipped behind Sonny, watching the bugbear's feet for just the right moment before springing forward and plunging her short sword into the monster's belly, dropping it to the ground in a pool of viscera. She then darted forward and swiped at the bugbear that had struck her with her scimitar, cutting deep across the knee before scampering to join Verne behind Sonny.
The bugbear ran forward, trailing blood from its knee as it swung, but it met the same frustrating obstacle that its fellow had, as Sonny effortlessly shrugged off the heavy blow. Seeing the bugbears agitated awake, Rose grumbled under her breath, "For goodness' sake, why do I even bother?" The witch stowed her component pouch, and drew her wand, letting loose a fire bolt that exploded on impact, filling the room with the stench of burning hair.
Peri ran into the room, yowling with their mace held high. They leaped at the bugbear, swinging at its head, but it managed to sidestep fast enough to avoid the potentially fatal blow. The bugbear swaggered, ducking and sidestepping a barrage of sword strokes. Getting cocky, he leaned forward and sneered, not noticing the halfling who had darted in just beneath its chin. She thrusted up with her short sword, piercing through the bugbear's throat, and dropping the beast to the floor into a pool of its own blood.
Chapter 5.9: Droop
The party panted, battered and bruised from their battle. Viola wiped the bugbears' blood off of her blades, but no sooner did she move to store them than the goblin stood up from the floor and rushed towards her with arms outstretched. Viola got ready to strike, but stopped when she heard the goblin yell, "Oh, thank you, thank you!" as he wrapped his arms around the halfling in a tight embrace.
"Ahh, guys? It's hugging me." Viola held her blades above her head and looked to Verne, who shook his head in mild amusement. The rogue, having had more than enough, pushed the goblin away.
"Apologies, miss," the goblin squeaked, stepping back, holding their hands up in surrender. "I did not mean to overstep. I'm just so happy to be free of those brutes."
"Yeah, no problem, just don't touch me again, 'kay?" Viola frowned, stowing her blades.
The goblin flinched, but said, "Yes ma'am, of course, ma'am."
"What is your name, friend?" Verne asked, sitting on one of the nearby beds.
"Droop, at your service, sir." The goblin stood at attention and bowed low, his long ears nearly touching the floor.
"You need not bow to us, my friend," Verne offered, but the goblin shook his head.
"I must, sir. 'Tis the code of the goblins. He who defeats the old chief becomes the new chief, and I am honor bound to serve." Droop gestured towards Viola.
The halfling grinned mischievously. "Ooh, I've never had a minion before. So, if I were to ask you to go find me some treasure-" Before she had even finished the sentence, Droop dashed over to one of the fallen bugbears, plucked his head up from the pool of blood on the floor, ripped off its gem-encrusted eye patch and slapped it into the rogues hand. Viola's grin vanished and she stood, stunned and more than a little disgusted at the dripping wet token. "Alrighty then," Viola mumbled, shaking the blood from the eyepatch and inspecting the inlaid stones.
"How did you come to work for the Redbrands, Droop?" Verne asked.
"It isn't the Redbrands I worked for, really, I served Was-chief Mosk," the goblin explained, gesturing to the bugbear he'd taken the eyepatch from. "Was-chief Mosk received orders to scout Phandalin from one called The Black Spider, and I went with."
The party looked at each other, recognizing the name from their interrogation of the Rebrands back at the Sleeping Giant. "Did you meet this 'Black Spider'?" Verne asked. Droop shook his head sadly and said, "No, sir. Only Was-chief Mosk spoke with them. I was simply told where to go and what to do, as is my station."
"You shouldn't say that, man," Sonny frowned. "don't let people make you feel less than just because of some stupid code."
Droop winced, and grumbled under his breath, clearly torn between wanting to argue and not wanting to offend his new chief. Finally, he said, "Perhaps, sir."
"So if you've been working here for a while, can you get us around the place?" Viola asked.
Droop smiled and said, "Yes, ma'am. I know where most all of the Redbrands are and where all secret passages lie. It would be an honor to help you dispatch them. They have been...not very nice."
"Well then, lead the way, Minion Droop." Viola pointed to the door and marched in place with mock-authority.
Droop brought his hand to his forehead in a salute and said, "Yes, Chief!" and scampered into the hallway
Viola grinned, pocketing the bloodied eyepatch before following her new minion into the hallway. The others looked to each other and sighed, hoping this new power wouldn't go to the rogue's head.
Chapter 5.10: The Common Room
Droop led the party to the Redbrand common room, just down the hall. Through the door, the party could hear some of the ruffians shouting, and Droop informed them that when the room wasn’t in use for meetings, the Redbrands often played knucklebones on the table. Viola asked the goblin to go inside and make a distraction so that they might take them unawares, and the goblin obliged, pulling open the door and walking through.
Viola stuck her foot in the door, stopping it from closing all the way. She opened it slightly, chancing a peak inside, and saw several worn tables and chairs scattered around the room. Wooden benches were drawn up against walls decorated with draperies of brown and red, and several kegs were propped up and tapped. At the table, four tough-looking Redbrands were gathered around a stack of coins and trinkets piled in a heap. From the looks of the pile, one of the ruffians was making out far better than the others, and his fellows didn’t seem thrilled about it.
Droop walked into the center of the room, not drawing any attention from the Redbrands. He turned to them nervously, but before he could say anything, one of the Redbrands at the table noticed him and shouted, “Hey, goblin! Make yerself useful and get me a drink.” the ruffian threw his empty mug across the room, narrowly missing Droop’s head. The goblin let out a shriek as he ducked out of the way, drawing a wave of laughter from the ruffians. Droop wrung his hands nervously, picking up the mug from the floor and walking over to the nearest keg. The goblin looked over to the doorway as he fumbled with the tap, his small hands shaking. Viola pointed to the keg and made a pushing gesture. Droop’s eyes widened, and he shook his head fearfully. The rogue frowned and jabbed her finger at him. “Hey, what’s taking so long with that drink?” the ruffian snarled from the table. Steeling his resolve, Droop hopped up onto the table and shoved the keg over, sending the barrel crashing loudly to the ground. The redbrands rose in a fury, blades drawn, ready to punish the goblin, but before they could take so much as a step, the party attacked.
Verne stepped into the door frame, firing off a shot at one of the Redbrands that clipped the ruffian in the shoulder before slowly backing away, making eye contact as he went. The Redbrand, in his fury, rushed through the door after him, but instead found Sonny, who bashed him with his shield while Viola slashed across his legs. The ruffian, drunk and bleeding, staggered on and feebly slashed at the air while the elf effortlessly dodged his attacks.
Another Redbrand, seeing the attack that had befallen his friend, ran to the door and struck out at Viola, slashing her across the arm with his blade. In response, Peri leaped over the rogue, swinging at the Redbrand with their mace, but missing their mark. Thankfully, Viola was more practiced with weapons, scoring deep gashes across her assailants chest and stomach before jumping back and retreating a ways down the hall.
Seeing Peri in the doorframe, the third ruffian charged through and swung his sword, thinking the cat to be an easy target. Unfortunately for him, the agile cleric wouldn’t be taken so easily, ducking the first strike and quickly shrugging off the second. Wanting to protect her feline friend, Rose shot a fire bolt at the brute, but in the chaos, missed her target.
The final Redbrand ignored the fracas, still more enraged by the spilling of the ale. He staggered over to Droop, raising his shortsword high before taking two wide swipes at the poor goblin, who froze at the sight of the blade, then promptly dropped unconscious to the floor.
With two enemies in front of him, and another down the hall with Verne, Sonny had his pick of targets. He slashed down at the first, easily dispatching the ruffian that had attacked Viola, before grabbing the foe entangled with Peri by the collar and throwing him onto his back in the common room, stepping into the doorway and clanging his sword loudly against his shield.
Down the hall, Verne ducked and dodged the ruffians wild slashes before taking a quick backstep and firing an arrow directly between the man’s eyes, downing him in an instant. The wizened elf stepped over his enemy, not paying him any further mind as his attention shifted to covering his allies.
Back at the doorway, Peri grabbed their holy symbol and extended it, firing a burst of sacred flame at the Redbrand Sonny had just thrown on the ground. From his prone position, the ruffian was helpless as the radiant flames burned his flesh. Viola, also wanting to take advantage of their position, rushed back to the door, stowing her blades in favor of her new crossbow. The rogue picked up the weapon and aimed for the downed enemy, but stopped as she saw Droop on the ground, about to be hacked to pieces by the remaining Redbrand. She shifted targets, aimed, and fired, piercing the ruffian just beneath the rib cage.
The redbrand on the ground slowly rose to his feet. He snarled, glaring at the cleric whose holy symbol still glowed with remnants of the flame that burned him. He stepped in, thrusting his sword at the cleric, but Sonny intervened, and swatted down the strike. In response, the ruffian jerked their sword back, clipping the fighter beneath the arm on the backswing. Sonny gritted his teeth, but held fast to his position at the door. In an attempt to help, Rose loosed another fire bolt, which landed, but unfortunately due to aiming around Sonny, didn't do much damage.
Inside the common room, the other Redbrand pulled the bolt from his ribs, dropping it to the floor. In his rage he turned to the unconscious goblin at his feet, the easiest target in the room, and slashed down with his sword, cleaving into the goblins chest in a spurt of blood. Viola screamed from the doorway, angry tears streaming from her eyes as the ruffian turned to the party and sneered, his lips pulled back in a snarl of pure, unrepentant cruelty.
Sonny’s mind went blank, the cruel act setting off something primal in the young warrior’s chest. He sprinted forward, effortlessly shoving aside the foe he’d been tangling with and making a beeline for the brute before him. The Redbrand’s eyes widened in shock as the fighter slammed into him with the force of a charging bull, knocking him to the ground before plunging his sword through his chest, pinning him to the wooden floorboards in a rising pool of his own blood. Sonny rose to his feet, breathing heavily with equal parts emotion and exhaustion. The remaining Redbrand, seeing the fighter’s back turned, took the opportunity to rush him from behind and hopefully catch him unawares, but he took hardly a step before an arrow thunked between his shoulder blades and a burst of sacred flame consumed him.
The party rushed into the common room and Viola ran to Droop, who lay bleeding on the floor. She delicately lifted the goblins head and cradled it to her chest, desperately sobbing, “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”
Nice touch making this charter's intro-diary a prayer. Cleric or Paladin?
Nice idea turning campaign sessions into story chapters. I've though about doing this myself so it's nice to see it out there. Also fun reading a story about an adventure I've gotten to play though (not too far past this intro point).
Peri is a Life Domain Cleric, specifically a follower of Lathander
Chapter 5.11: Pursuit
The party gathered around Viola, who held Droop close to her chest. "C'mon, man, please be ok," she said, trembling.
"Viola, he's gone." Peri said, gently.
"Can't you, I dunno, do something about that?" Viola turned to the cleric, tears in her eyes.
Peri shook their head sadly. "Lathander's magic can sometimes revive the dead, but I don't have the power to do that yet."
"Then what good are you?" the rogue snapped. Peri winced, but said nothing.
"Viola," Verne chided, "I understand your grief, but-"
"No, you don't." Viola snarled. "None of you do. He's dead because of me!"
"So are half of the Redbrands and about a dozen of the goblins we fought a few days ago. How is this different?" Rose asked.
"He was my goblin!" Viola shouted. "He trusted me, and it got him killed. What if…what if you're right, and you guys shouldn't trust me? I don't want to kill you, too." The halfling dropped her eyes to the floor, her shoulders slumped.
Rose felt a pit drop in her stomach. She reached out toward the rogue, but halted at the blood and grime on the rogue's clothes. Accepting that this was something she had to do, the witch took a deep breath and placed her hand on the rogue's shoulder. "Viola, sometimes when wizards gather material components, they make mistakes. Maybe they take a locust leg when they need a cricket's or they get a crow feather and not a raven's- totally innocent mistakes that could happen to anyone. They don't happen often, but they do happen."
"Is this supposed to make me feel better somehow?" The rogue blinked.
"I'm getting there," Rose sighed. "What I'm saying is, I believe I may have misjudged you. If you care this much for Droop after just meeting him, then you must care for us as well."
Viola looked up at the witch and wiped her eyes. "You guys are alright." She set Droop gently down and straightened her armor. "So what now?"
"Easy. We find Glasstaff, bash his stupid brains in and take him off to Sildar so he can spend the rest of his life in chains." Sonny growled, yanking his sword from the torso of the dead Redbrand.
“That’s…descriptive,” Peri said. “Sonny, are you feeling alright?”
“No, I’m not,” the fighter snarled, flicking the blood to the floor, “All this bloodshed, all this cruelty, and for what? What did these guys think they would gain from doing this?”
“It is hard to say what lies in the hearts of men,” Verne mused, “but we cannot control the actions of others, merely trust that our own path is more enlightened.”
“I don’t know about all that. But I intend to make Glasstaff pay for what he’s done- what he’s inspired. That man does not leave free tonight, mark my words.”
“I am with you, my friend,” Verne replied. “The threat of the Redbrands is nearly finished. And now, it falls to us to end it.”
The others nodded, quaffed their healing potions as-needed and proceeded down the hall to face their final foe. Before she left the room, Viola grabbed one of the Redbrands cloaks and draped it over Droop’s body, placing a hand on the goblin’s forehead and saying, “I’m sorry you never got to taste real freedom, Droop. I hope wherever your journey takes you next, you get to fly there on your own power.” Then, with a tight grip on her short sword, Viola ran to join the others.
The final hallway led to a room that appeared to be Glasstaff's workshop. A rat scurried across the floor and took refuge under a large work table set up with alembics, retorts, distillation coils, and other alchemical devices, all of it stewing and bubbling away. The walls were lined with bookshelves crowded with sheaves of parchment and strange-looking tomes. Rose walked over to the desk, casually perusing the bottles and looking over the formulas. “Say what you will about the man's ethics, but this is quite the setup,” she said, running her finger along a set of well-organized glass beakers. “Though his work is shoddy. He's clearly trying to make a potion of invisibility, but he's using xanthan gum instead of gum arabic.”
“Yeah, what an idiot,” Viola rolled her eyes.
“Can we focus?” Sonny frowned. “He's clearly not here, so we should move on.”
“Hold on, hayseed, let's not forget the other reason we're here. We're looking for correspondence and other evidence, remember?” Viola chided.
Sonny offered no argument, but moved to the door, clearly agitated. His hand tapped at his side impatiently while he half-heartedly checked around the room. Verne moved to one of the bookshelves, drawing a leather-bound tome. Leafing through it, he called for his friends’ attention, “I believe I may have found something useful. This is a journal of a dwarven adventurer named Urmon who wrote a detailed account of his experiences with Wave Echo Cave and the Forge of-”
At that moment, a loud poof and a wisp of purple smoke appeared at the center of the room as Peri came up coughing, “Sorry,” they rasped. “I was trying to catch that rat and it just exploded in my hands.”
“Don't eat rats, Per-” Rose began, but her eyes widened. “Wait, did the rat explode when you picked it up, or did you damage it in some way?”
“Well, I may have pricked it with a claw or two,” Peri admitted.
“That was no ordinary rat,” the witch's face grew deadly serious. “We have to move- Glasstaff knows we're here.”
“What, really?” Peri's eyes widened.
“I've seen this before. It wasn't just a rat, it was a familiar. Wizards use them sometimes for scouting, battle, loads of things.” Rose explained, grabbing loose vials from off the table and stowing them for later. Sonny, receiving all the signal he needed, threw open the door and ran in, with the others quickly following, Verne tucking the book into his pack as he ran.
The party spilled out into a bedchamber whose walls were covered with drapes of scarlet cloth. The furnishings included a small writing desk with matching chair, a comfortable-looking bed, and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed.
Viola ran over to the chest, opened it and whistled, “Man, what a haul.” Inside was a pile of coins and gems, the spoils of the Redbrands criminal activity for the past two months.
“Dammit, where is he?” Sonny growled, slamming his fist against the bedpost.
“Not far.” Verne asserted, pointing to a well-hidden door on the south side of the room that was slightly cracked. The elf ran to the door, pulled it the rest of the way open and disappeared down the passage beyond. Sonny followed soon behind, along with Peri and Rose, but Viola lingered a moment, walking over to the desk and snatching a letter that caught her eye: a letter emblazoned with a large black spider. The rogue's eyebrows raised and she hastily stuffed the letter into her pocket before taking off down the tunnel to catch up with her friends.