Tresendar Manor

Today was the day we finally took the fight to the Redbrands at their base in the ruins of the old Tresendar Manor. First, we met up once more at the Alderleaf Farm to discuss a plan. Before we began, Ernaldis reminded us of the quasit that warned the Redbrands of us at the Sleeping Giant so Matthias used his divine sense. Though there was no quasit, Edgar was outed as a fiend to the party which has lost me some trust amongst some of our members.
 
With Carp's infromation on a second, secret entrance, we decided to split up into two groups to secure both so there was less of a chance that Glasstaff would be able to escape our confrontation. The group going through the front entrance consisted of the Lathanderites, Ignatius, Tristan, and Ernaldis. The tunnel group was made up of myself, Alphonse, Maggot, and Rosamel. Ernaldis sent Petri with me and I sent Edgar with him to establish communication between our two groups should anything unforeseen happen.
 
While Edgar informed me of the battle taking place in the old cellar entrance, my group investigated the crevasse cave in the middle of the ruins. At first we thought it empty until Alphonse reported feeling like something eldritch was watching him. Upon further investigation we found the corpses of several goblins as well as the bones of Thel Dendrar, the woodcarver the Redbrands killed only a tenday ago. Rosamel and Alphonse continued to search the cave while Maggot searched a nearby hallway. As Maggot returned to report that he found a secret door at the end of the hallway, Alphonse doubled over in pain as their flesh began to decay. It was as I both feared and hoped: this was a nothic's home. Using my knowledge of Undercommon being related to Elvish, I attempted to open up communication with it. Though difficult without knowing Undercommon, I was able to crudely communicate with the nothic which revealed themself and stopped attacking Alphonse. Thankfully negotiations with them were successful and the nothic told me it currently had an agreement of sorts with Glasstaff but it would remain a neutral party and further discuss the details of my deal with it should we be victorious over Glasstaff and the Redbrands.
 
Maggot then led us through the secret door where we found ourselves walking right into the middle of the other group's battle with the Redbrands and Cragmaw goblins guarding the cellar entrance. When one Redbrand and the goblin boss attempted to escape through a nearby door, Ernaldis cast sleep on them. Alphonse tried to retrieve the goblin boss but triggered a pit trap in the hall so they decided to use thornwhip and kill them instead. Ernaldis brought the surviving Redbrand back to their "barracks" to interrogate them with the help of detect thoughts and requested I join them. Though it became clear that this bandit was an idiot and knew almost nothing of importance but he did tell us how the Cragmaw tribe had supplied weapons to them and were about to supply armor to them in a few days. It seems Glasstaff was attempting to build a small army and take over the Phandalin region. It became clear that this bandit knew nothing else that would be useful but Ernaldis wished to further delve into their (probably) empty skull. After it was confirmed that the idiot was indeed an uninformed grunt, Ernaldis turned to me and asked if I wished to end the life of the unrepentant murderer. However I reminded him that we were actually in Tristan's new house and we let Tristan do the honors. Tristan released the bandit and armed them as to not kill a defenseless opponent though this truly did not change the fate of that bandit.
 
Now that we have secured the two entrances it is time to crush the Redbrands and defeat Glasstaff once and for all.