A New Sheriff in Town Report
General Summary
Previously: Redbrand Ruffians
In Phandalin, we said hello to Linene's elven friend as we passed the Shrine of Tymora, where people were wishing for luck. The lady was introduced to us as Sister Garaele, a priestess of Tymora. In appreciation of other good religions, Herdyr flicked a coin into the shrine, which landed 'tails'.
Garaele's house is next to the shrine, but she travels a lot. She returned to Phandalin in the caravan that was attacked, along with the innkeepers wife and son, three dwarf brothers (some of whom disappeared) and the silver haired older man who did well in battle.
Garaele scowled at mention of the Redbrand. Apparently one drunk mercenary had the stupidity to use the shrine of the goddess of good luck as a urinal. Additionally, rumours of thefts of provisions followed the gang around town, and she didn't have any trust in their good behaviour.
She explained that she had been away for a month, and only returned to town this week. She had already heard rumors that Gnomengarde's wild magic was being bottled into wild magic oil, rumours that the orcs of Dwarven Greed were trading with the town and their merchant had set up camp near the river beyond Lluranu's house.
Tharg told Garaele and an interested audience of marketplace dwellers the newly discovered tale of the Slayers of Azdraka; heroes who fought a dragon and were buried in hill, protecting the area from evil still.
After some discussion between party members, Tharg and Herdyr decided to go to see the silver-haired man at the inn. Wearing military clothes, and appearing as a well off, civilized gentleman, he introduced himself as Sildar Hallwinter of the Lord's Alliance, here on a mission from them, and at the same time, helping out a friend. His friends were a group of dwarf brothers calling themselves the Rockseeker clan, come to Phandalin looking for a family legacy. They were travelling with the same caravan as Sildar, but two of them fled in a different direction when they came under attack from goblins, and had not returned to town. Gundren, the eldest brother, had set out with a party of adventurers to track down his two brothers, Tharden and Nundro. Sildar wished to ask other adventurers to search for the dwarves too, worried that they had been captured or killed by goblins.
Conversation returned to his own reason for visiting the area, and he mentioned his history with the Lord's Alliance and being part of Neverwintan law enforcement. He was looking for a member of the Lord's Alliance who had fallen out of contact with Neverwinter. The man was a wizard named Iarno Albrek, and while not particularly friendly, he had worked alongside Hallwinter in the past. Albrek was described as a snazzy dresser with wizard items and potion making who disappeared about a month ago.
Sildar expressed his surprise at the state of the buildings in Phandalin considering they were abandoned until recently. He had noticed that not everyone around was law abiding, but excused himself from getting involved, saying that he was not in the habit of doing his own field work any more. Rumors about people he used to know from Neverwinter had caught his interest, but not anyone he was confident he'd recognise anymore.
Sildar was not impressed with the Redbrand, who were previously good guards. Here they appear to be little better than ruffians, and he may have to sort them out himself. He said his plans were to stay around Phandalin until his Rockseeker friends had their problems sorted.
After deciding that Anathema was not being hunted for her unmentioned crimes in Neverwinter, we asked around for information on the various factions that were appearing in Phandalin.
The Lionshield is a merchant coster trading across the sword coast. It is a benign group who supports adventurers.
The Harpers are a secretive group specialising in finding and sharing information, they stand against evil and tyrrany, and work to stop bad things happening.
The Lord's Alliance is a cooperative effort between the rulers, government, military, etc. from various towns across the sword coast and beyond who work to keep civilisation and trade going. For instance, keeping road networks useable, and building alliances against encroaching monsters, or being overrun by hordes of orcs. Lots of guards and sheriffs use the Alliance's network to stop criminals crossing borders and setting up their evil elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Anathema had picked up all three wargs and was on her way to Adabra's. Ten minutes into her walk she spoted a woodcutter, whom the worgs scared silly. She then reached the windmill which had been rebuilt.
Adabra Gwynn was working inside the building, her hands covered in green mush. She greeted Anathema like an old friend, showing off her alchemical finds. Adabra offered to sell the party healing potions, but they are made to order and require some time. She also sold Gnomengarde magical oil for 2sp, which creates a small random magical effect when used. (so if the oil is used in making a potion, the effect of potion would include another additional randomised effect. It could also be used in place of ordinary oil, such as in lamps, where the random effect would go off. These effects seem to be changes in light, movement, appearance, etc.
During our adventures, Anathema had collected Ichor from an Ankheg, the residual essence from air elementals, morning dew leaves, Olisuba leaves, lightning-struck metal and amanita mushrooms. Adabra was able to apply manticore spike poison to some ammunition . Manticore arrows have brief stunning effect in addition to arrow damage. She also had a stock of Frost lichen paste, which can create a barrier against cold damage, but does not last very long. They consult the books of alchemy and decipher that a 'Dragon potion', a potion of resistance against the dragon's cold breath, needs hagfingers. Between them they had all the ingredients for several Potions of invulnerability, which would use Anathema's lightning struck metal. Adabra offered to create it for Anathema, but will still need ten days to brew the potions.
Anathema gave the metal to Gwynn, who promised to turn it into two potions for the party, and keep the rest as payment for the other materials. They talked about the ancient lost process of creating healing potions from poisonous mushrooms. Gwynn gave Anathema the necessary equipment to make potions in her downtime. Anathema bought twenty poisoned arrows, and two flasks of the magic oil. They swapped notes and books.
On the way back to town Anathema finally read the blackmail papers discovered in the thieves cant marked cache.
The first piece of paper seemed to be the bottom half of a letter, which wrote of a 'halfling thief hiding in this town' being searched for for object they have.
One paper was a declaration that 'Harbin Wester sells all his shares in the Redshield merchant company and tressendar manor for 1gp'. An attached piece of paper was a note saying 'the fool agreed to forge his brother's name' on the document, but that the blackmailer would need to go to Neverwinter to cash this forgery in. The handwriting of this attachment and a previously encountered 'curse' rune spam looked the same, so Anathema thought it was probably some scheme of a charlatan named Redbrow.
A note about 'slave trading' mentioned a 'Black Spider' that 'supports our endeavours'. It sounded to Anathema like the wizard was trying to take out Anathema's gang but not Anathema.
On returning to the Inn, we confronted Squats with this evidence. She told her side of the story:
After they abandoned Anathema, the gang of Squats, Elf and Brag travelled south to a town called Leilon. In Leilon, Elf arranged a heist at a wizard's house, but it was well and truly bungled. Being of shorter stature and lesser strength, most of the loot they did manage to grab went with Elf and Brag, she didn't get much. As far as she could make out, the other two went down in the marsh outside Leilon, but she hid and made her way to Phandalin to find Anathema. The marsh around Leilon is full of undead monsters, but Squats thought that something else was chasing them as well.
She defends her reputation to Anathema, saying that most of the work she was currently doing in Phandalin was aboveboard. She was willing to stay in our good opinion by sharing what she knew of the situation in town...
Next: Redbrand in Tresendar Manor
