D&D Starter Set Session 4

When we last left our party, they had set out in search of their missing oxen and had found a small cave containing some goblins. The party’s exploration had led to Corlinn hitting his head against some rocks and being knocked out (i.e., zero hit points). Valanthe had attempted to bluff the goblins in essentially surrendering. Instead, she ended up making a deal with one goblin to take on a little mission on his behalf. He, in exchange, would release a prisoner they were holding once the mission was completed. The party was just getting started on this “mission.”

Before continuing, we’ve got some happy news! Todd has a schedule that now allows him to join us in playing! Rather than take one of the characters of off the hands of Rachel or RJ (who are both playing two characters), we all decided that it might be best for him to play his own character. Bran Hornraven, a human wizard, makes his debut this session.

There are potential spoilers below the break for the Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver. This write-up is from yours truly. My GM comments, as typical, are in [brackets and italics].

Having made a deal with the devil, er, goblin, Valanthe was reunited with the party and they all climbed up to the rickety bridge. A couple of goblins came from the opposite direction Valanthe had come–the direction that the party would soon be heading–and headed down the tunnel to where Sildar was being held. The party headed across the bridge and found a large cavern with a pool, a pool that fed the stream through the main tunnel. The pool was divided in two by a crudely constructed dam of stone and debris down its middle. There were no goblins or other creatures in the cavern but another tunnel led deeper into the cave complex.

A low groan could be heard from this tunnel and was quickly followed by the sound of someone tenderizing some meat which was, in turn, followed by more groaning. Caelynn and Valanthe took the lead (being a bit more sneaky than the others) looked down the tunnel. A wooden frame in the shape of an X was rigged up above a smoldering fire pit. A person was tied to this frame with his back to the tunnel. A fairly large and furry humanoid was working over this person’s midsection with punch after punch. [Valanthe, or perhaps I should say Rachel, recognized the creature as a bugbear. I guess it is hard to forget what they look like when you played a character whose brother was reincarnated as one.] A large, mangy wolf was nearby.

Unfortunately for the two elves, both the wolf and the bugbear were facing the tunnel. The wolf growled as it noticed the intruders. The bugbear shouted out, in third person, that Klarg would kill these intruders and combat began. Klarg dealt out considerable damage and things looked a little dicey for the party but they prevailed, although Caelynn was knocked unconscious but stabilized.

Looking about the cavern, the party went about accomplishing various tasks…not necessarily in this order.

Feran chopped off Klarg’s head to be taken back to the goblins.

Valanthe and Baren cut down the human. He was conscious [just with 1 Hit Point left] and was blindfolded and gagged. Freeing him, he introduced himself as Bran Hornraven [you did see that coming, right?]. He explained that he had been traveling to Phandalin from the ruined town of Thundertree with two dwarven companions. They were waylaid by goblins while they camped just off the road to Phandalin. The dwarves were taken to some place called Cragmaw Castle under orders from someone named The Spider. Apparently, Klarg and his goblin underlings were supposed to send any dwarves and ALL of their belongings to this castle but Bran had no notion of where it might be. Bran and the dwarves, Toldar and Radlot, had been searching Thundertree for some information about the Wave Echo Cave but the various creatures…zombies, some sort of wood/twig creatures, humans, and even signs of a dragon…had proven too much for the trio to handle on their own and so they were heading to Phandalin to find allies and to visit Bran’s sister, Mirna, who lived there with her husband and two children. Klarg had been torturing Bran to learn the location of Wave Echo Cave but the wizard did not…yet…know its location.

Since Bran had been stripped down to his skivvies, Valanthe made a tunic for him from an apple sack that was lying amongst various supplies. Speaking of which, a good part of the cavern was filled with various boxes, crates, and sacks containing a variety of trade goods. Most of them bore a blue lion symbol upon them which was recognized as the symbol of the Lionshield Coster mercantile house.

An unmarked chest was also found tucked amongst the supplies. Since it was unlocked, the party opened it as Caelynn tossed fitfully in her unconscious state. It had lots of coins, nearly all copper with a smattering of silver, a small jade figurine sculpted to look like a frog, and two vials full of a red liquid. These looked like potions of healing and so the party administered one to Caelynn…turned out that it was a potion of healing.

Back to a full five in the party [Corlinn was still unconscious outside the cave…or so they hoped] but with many not at full strength, they set off to give Klarg’s head to the goblins and get Sildar. Arriving in the goblin cavern, the 2nd-in-command [now 1st-in-command I suppose] was on the upper level again with a knife to the throat of the unconscious Sildar. At least a score of goblins were scattered about the firepit in the lower level with nocked arrows targeting the party.

The lead goblin demands that the party leave all of their treasure and weapons or they can’t have Sildar. Valanthe protested and insisted that they had finished their end of the deal, showing Klarg’s head, and that they needed to hand over Sildar. The goblin demanded all the treasure and weapons and Valanthe said no. The goblin slit Sildar’s throat and said the party could have him now.

Bran immediately came forward and tossed a lance of fire at one of the goblins and thus combat began. It was pretty tense. As a whole, the party could not decide if they should retreat or keep attacking. A couple of times one PC or another would start to retreat but the others would not. A couple of PCs went down [help me out here folks, who dropped?] but the party prevailed. Searching, there was nothing of real value in this cave. Sildar’s body was properly interred outside of the cave before the party gathered their unconscious and retreated to Klarg’s cave to rest and recuperate. As part of this rest and recuperation, Caelynn searched Klarg’s cavern, opening pretty much all of the crates and barrels to see what was contained within.

After the party had rested, they decided it was time to push on to Phandalin to see what they could do about getting the supplies to Barthen’s, find someone who might know the whereabouts of Cragmaw Castle, and, hopefully, save Gundren (and now Toldar and Radlot). Heading back outside, it was still night but the party pressed on. Bran, who has joined the others [no surprise there, eh?], found the belongings (including spellbook) he had stashed when the goblins attacked their camp not far from where the Baren and hidden the supplies from Gundren’s wagon.

The party arrived in Phandalin in the middle of the night. Everything was closed and no one responded to the knocks at the door of the Stonehill Inn. So the party camped in one of the ruins of old Phandalin in which the new Phandalin had sprung up. In the morning, they all headed over to Barthen’s Provisions. It turns out that Barthen was not expecting a shipment from Gundren but had held supplies for him in the past. It was from Barthen that the party first learned of the Redbrands, a gang that had been wreaking havoc around town. They also learned that Bran’s brother-in-law, Thel, had been killed by the Redbrands about a tenday ago after he refused to pay protection money and that Mirna and the children had disappeared not long after that. The townmaster, Harbin Wester, had done nothing to stop the Redbrands.

The party started splitting up at this point. Baren, along with a couple of the young clerks working at Barthen’s, headed off with some oxen to gather the abandoned wagon and hidden supplies. Caelynn and Valanthe headed off to Linene’s (a member of the Lionshield Coster mercantile group) to purchase some arrows. The rest of the party set off to learn more about Bran’s sister and her children.

Bran, Lord Corlinn, and Feran went to Mirna’s home. There was a large spot of dried blood and some signs of struggle but it did not look like the place had been ransacked or robbed or that anyone had packed belongings to take a trip. The trio started checking some of the nearby homes but only found young children at home who either wouldn’t talk to them or didn’t really have much useful information.

Frustrated, they went to the Townmaster to get answers! Inside the Town Hall, they found a rather weasely-looking man who asked if they had an appointment when they asked about the Townmaster. Bran insisted that they did but the attendant knew that they did not and offered to make one for them during the following week. There was a nearby door and Bran quickly rushed through it. [Todd joked about hoping that it wasn’t just a closet…it was so tempting to make it so.]

Inside was a small parlor with a chubby, middle-aged man pouring himself a drink. Turned out that this was Townmaster Wester and it also turned out that he was the spineless fool that Caelynn and Valanthe were concurrently hearing about [see below]. There was quite a bit of hemming and hawing and the Townmaster insisting that Thell had not been murdered but killed in self-defense, that the Redbrands were just harmless boys, and that the real trouble was with some orcs outside of town.

After a few minutes of this, there was a knock at the door and the attendant came in. He insisted that Thell had not been murdered. Instead, Thell had found Mirna and another man, Brummel, in a less than chaste situation. Thell was enraged and attacked Brummel and was slain as Brummel defended himself. Mirna and the children fled town soon after. When asked where Brummel could be find, the “weasel” indicated that he had also left town. The “weasel” then threatened to throw their “asses in jail” if they didn’t leave. As they left, Bran insisted that he would go and find justice for his family since none would be found with the authorities and Feran noticed that the “weasel” was wearing a red wristband. [The assumption being, of course, that this means he must be a member of the Redbrands…no comment.]

At Lionshield Coster, Caelynn got her arrows but the pair also learned more about the Redbrands and Phandalin. Linene was quite willing to share her opinion of the Redbrands and the Townmaster Wester. Wester is a spineless fool who was elected when it seemed like the most he would need to do would to be diplomatic. Something like the Redbrands is way beyond is ability or desire to deal with. The Redbrands themselves typically wear red cloaks and have demanded protection money from most in town. They have not tried to extort Linene though because, as she claims, they know that she’ll fight back. Plus, they wouldn’t want to tangle with the Lionshield Coster.

Another person that the Redbrands won’t mess with (or at least haven’t yet) is Halia Thornton, the leader of the Phandalin Miner’s Exchange. Caelynn had already heard that Halia “has it out” for the Redbrands and so the duo headed to the Exchange. It turned out that Halia, indeed, was looking for some help in dealing with the Redbrands. She shared that the leader was a man named Glasstaff, a wizard, who she had never seen but heard that he was holed up in the ruins of the Tressendar Manor at the edge of town. She also shared that the Redbrands in town holed up at the Sleeping Giant (which Caelynn also knew as she was once a Redbrand). Most of the Redbrands were from out of town but a few locals had joined the gang.

Halia offered 100gp (half now, half later) if the pair promised to deal with the Redbrands. They agreed and Halia suggested that if Glasstaff was eliminated, the Redbrands would likely fall apart. She also suggested that someone might be able to join and infiltrate the gang. This, of course, could not be Caelynn given her prior association with and style of departure from the gang. Instead, perhaps Valanthe could but it was quickly determined that she probably wouldn’t be able to steel her heart against whatever sort of initiations the gang might demand and would most definitely involve hurting others.

After accomplishing their little quests for supplies and/or information, everyone gathered together at the Stonehill Inn (except for Baren who was still hours away from returning with the supplies). The innkeeper was a very nice man but wanted no talk of the Redbrands (the party asked serving girl…who turns out to be the innkeep’s sister…about them). He stated that he paid his protection money and wanted no trouble. Over lunch, Corlinn asked about Iarno Albrek [remember…he’s supposed to be searching for Iarno for the now deceased Sildar and the Lord’s Alliance] and the young woman remembered that he had stayed just one night before going on his way. This had been months ago and he really hadn’t said much of anything.

Caelynn gave Feran some of the loot that she had been “safekeeping” for everyone so he could go and replenish his arrow supply as well. He headed out of the inn to go to Linene’s. Feran hadn’t made it far at all, maybe 50 to 60 feet, before a foursome of young ruffians come around a corner and tell him that it is time that he and his friends left town. They were, of course, wearing red cloaks.

And that’s pretty much where we stopped for the night.

[Not bad for one of our sessions. A couple of close combats where things could have easily gone against the party and quite a bit of information gathering and roleplaying. There are lots of plot threads forming…Cragmaw Castle and the missing dwarves, the Redbrands and Glasstaff, the missing sister and niece and nephew, who is The Spider, what about these orcs that the Townmaster mentioned (there was also a sign outside the Hall that read, “REWARD–Orcs near Wyvern Tor! Those of a mind to face the orc menace should inquire within,” the whole ruined village of Thundertree, oh, and Rachel realized that Valanthe is supposed to be looking for Cragmaw Castle to restore a defiled altar and that Sister Garaele (who can be found at the Shrine of Tymora in Phandalin) might aid in this quest…it was quite humorous when Rachel remembered all this. Oh, and let’s not forget Crellar’s and all that happened there.

Things are starting to fall apart and come together all at the same time. Just the way good campaigns go here at Fat Rat Games.]