Saving a Future Sidekick

23 Marpenoth, The Year of Twelve Warnings (1494 DR)
Neverwinter Wood, The Sword Coast

Turnoroth Brimsdall, a Dragonborn sorcerer and warlock, had saved the centaur druid Aldrudis. The centaur village leader was grateful for the druid's return and as a reward provided information on where the mysterious elven woman Brimsdall was following went.

It was midmorning when Brimsdall heard the unmistakable sounds of several goblins nearby.
He hid behind a large moss-covered boulder. Not far, in a small clearing, he saw five goblins and a hobgoblin. The short goblins were dressed in ill-kept leather armor. Each had a small wooden shield hanging on its back as well as a quiver of arrows. A scimitar was sheathed in a rotting leather scabbard or simply tucked inside an equally rotted belt or rope around its waist. In its hands, each goblin had a shortbow.
The hobgoblin, however, was better armored and armed. The humanoid stood nearly as tall as Brimsdall. It wore a suit of chainmail and had a steel shield strapped to its back along with a quiver full of arrows. A longsword was sheathed at its waist, while it held a drawn longbow in its hands.
They had surrounded a badger, bigger than any badger Brimsdall had ever seen. A halfling could have easily ridden the animal if it had a saddle. He noticed a thick leather collar on the badger. A short thick frayed rope was attached to the collar.
The humanoids all had their bows aimed at the badger.
Brimsdall considered leaving the giant badger to fate. Perhaps the humanoids were hunting food for lunch? But that didn't explain the collar the badger wore.
He quietly snuck up to get closer...
When one of the goblins spotted him and yelled a warning to the others in the goblin tongue.
Brimsdall prepared a spell as he closed in on the two nearest goblins. Sparks of electricity danced across his hands as he tried to touch one goblin who jumped back in time. The second goblin wasn't as quick. Brimsdall touched the thing's head as electricity arced across its head. Smoke curled out of the thing's ears and nose. The goblin shook violently then dropped dead.
The other goblins dropped their shortbows, drew their scimitars, and moved up to the dragonborn.
Brimsdall managed to dodge or avoid most of the incoming attacks but was struck once on his side. The goblin's scimitar sliced his forearm arm and upper leg. Brimsdall grunted in pain.
The hobgoblin stood about 20 feet away. It raised its longbow and fired, seemingly not caring whether it might hit one of the goblins fighting Brimsdall.
The arrow sailed well above Brimsdall's head.
The badger snarled and moved towards the goblins fighting Brimsdall. With claws and fangs, the badger killed every goblin! It then turned its attention to the hobgoblin who was desperately trying to knock another arrow.
Brimsdall singed the hobgoblin with a fiery bolt. Although mortally injured, the hobgoblin wasn't killed outright.
The giant badger moved in for the kill, pouncing on the hobgoblin. Both badger and hobgoblin fell to the ground. The giant badger raked the hobgoblin with its rear paws, easily tearing through chainmail. It then bit down hard on the hobgoblin's throat, killing the humanoid instantly.
Brimsdall was about to say something when the badger leaped off the dead hobgoblin and ran into the forest but not before briefly stopping to see if the dragonborn was following it.
Brimsdall followed the giant badger.

***

The giant badger, whom Brimsdall decided to name Wink, led him to a ruined castle nearly two miles away.
Brimsdall realized he was looking at Cragmaw Castle. He had heard about the ruined stronghold from Errich Alderleaf who told him stories of how he and his fellow adventurers had traveled there with a druid five winters ago to free a dwarf captured by the stronghold's inhabitants.
According to Errich, they had completely cleared the ruined castle. But it had been five winters ago. That's enough time for a new group to reclaim the ancient place.
Wink ran up the castle's front steps and went inside. Brimsdall followed close behind.
Inside, wooden doors stood closed to the north and south, with a crumbling mound of rubble partially obscuring the southern hall. To the east, a broad corridor ended in two more doors leading south and east. The corridor was cluttered with dusty rubble and fallen plaster from a partial collapse of the ceiling overhead.
Wink moved towards the door to the east.
Brimsdall heard Wink snap a tripwire that had been placed across the hall several feet in front of the eastern door. The tripwire triggered a cave-in of wooden beams and heavy stones that fell from above. Brimsdall pressed himself against next to a wall to avoid being hit by as much of the falling debris as possible which nearly buried Wink.
When the dust had settled a few breaths later, the dragonborn moved to pull several large pieces of stones off of Wink. Just as he had freed Wink, both doors to the north and south opened.
Goblins, carrying shields and armed with scimitars, were visible just beyond the open doors.

Brimsdall moved to the north door. Before the three goblins beyond the door could exit, Brimsdall cast Flaming Hands into the room sending a fiery conical wave of fire fifteen feet into the room. The spell did more than Brimsdall had intended. Nearby casks and barrels quickly ignited and exploded! The conflagration killed all three goblins while the blast from the explosion sent Brimsdall hurtling back ten feet to land hard on his back on the floor next to Wink.
Meanwhile, a goblin rushed in from the south but Wink quickly killed it.
A second goblin who stayed by the door thought twice about entering the hall. It turned around and disappeared into the room without shutting the door.
Brimsdall got up as Wink took off after the fleeing goblin.
By the time Brimsdall had caught up to Wink, the giant badger was sitting on the back of the goblin who had made the mistake of fleeing. By the looks of the huge bloody gash on the goblin's back, the goblin was obviously dead.
Brimsdall couldn't help but wonder what Wink had endured while in captivity under the goblins and whatever else lived in Cragmaw Castle.
The dragonborn looked around. He was standing in the southern end of what must have once been a grand banquet hall with a soaring ceiling twenty-five feet high. The western portion of this large hall ended in a wall of rubble, but the remainder was still intact. Two large wooden tables with plain benches stood in the middle of the room, and a brass brazier full of glowing coals was tucked into one corner. Moldy heels of bread and gnawed bones covered the tables.
Brimsdall can only imagine the many lavish gatherings that must have been held in the hall centuries ago. According to Errich, Cragmaw Castle was not a goblin construction, nor was it the structure's original name. Raised by a talented wizard-noble of old Phalorm, an ancient realm that once controlled much of the North, the stronghold consisted of seven overlapping towers; however, its upper levels have long since collapsed to heaps of crumbling masonry. Now, only the ground floor was still sound enough to be habitable.
The dragonborn imagined the possibility of him living in the castle as its new lord. It would have to be repaired back to its former glory, of course, he thought. Castle Brimsdall. It had a pleasant, yet striking sound to it.
A chitter from Wink snapped Brimsdall out of his daydream.
The giant badger had moved down another hall, out of Brimsdall's sight. The dragonborn followed Wink past a dirty canvas curtain that opened into one of the castle's towers. This tower had almost completely collapsed, although the ground floor still had a little open space. Rotting crates and ancient barrels indicated that provisions were once stored here. A goblin, doing a bad job of acting like a rogue, was visibly trying to hide behind a rotting crate. As soon as Wink smelled him, the goblin dashed out to the north, through a short passage past some rubble, to disappear into the forest beyond.
Wink didn't give chase.
Brimsdall and Wink entered through a wooden door in the west wall. The hall beyond was dark. Brimsdall lit a torch and stepped in careful to make sure there were no goblins hiding anywhere.
The high, narrow hall looked as if it might have been part of a chapel or shrine at one time. Angelic figures were sculpted along the room's upper reaches, looking down on the floor below. To the north, heavy curtains blocked a matching pair of archways. Between the archways was a cracked but ornately carved stone brazier. Brimsdall considered lighting it but it held no wood for burning.
The chapel's decor included symbols of deities worshipped throughout the Realms. There was a blank scroll symbolic of Oghma, the god of knowledge. A blue-white star represented Mystra, goddess of magic, while a golden sunburst clearly symbolized Lathander, the god of dawn. One deity's symbol, that of a coin facing up confused Brimsdall. He assumed it represented Mask, the god of shadows and thievery, although he wasn't quite certain.
Stepping past the curtains to the north, he and Wink entered a small chamber that occupied the northern tower of the castle. A stone altar stood in the middle of the room, covered with bloodstained black cloth. The bloodstained cloth completely covered the stone altar, the sides of which were engraved with images of the same gods reflected in the decor found in the chapel. However, a stylized bloody axe, seemingly painted with real blood, was painted over the other deities symbol. Brimsdall didn't recognize the symbol of the bloody ax but assumed it represented whatever foul deity goblins and hobgoblins worshipped.
He briefly considered what wrath or boon he would receive from the goblins' deity if he were to offer a living sacrifice on the altar. However, the thought passed through his mind without his acting on it.
Not finding anything of worth in the chamber, Brimsdall returned back to the chapel and out into the hall. He then went to a door in the west end of the hall and opened it.
Beyond was a room with a stone brazier full of coals glows in the middle of what appeared to be a small barracks. Four straw pallets were lined up along the east wall. The wall to the south had collapsed, but a barred wooden door in that direction was still clear. A curtain hung in an archway to the north. Brimsdall walked to the curtain, but Wink's slow incessant growling caught his attention. Looking back, he saw Wink was clearly agitated as the giant badger was facing the barred door.
Brimsdall slowly walked towards the door. As he walked past Wink, he heard a low growl coming behind the door. It sounded like a bear but there was something different to the sound as well. He couldn't make it out though.
When he reached the door, he carefully raised the bar and opened the door.
Beyond, the upper floors of another tower had collapsed to create a hollow silo at least thirty feet high. The upper reaches of the room were lost in shadows. Dust, rubble, and broken glass covered the floor, and old worktables and bookshelves lay strewn to the south.
ln the middle of the room was a hulking beast that looked like a mangy bear with an owl's head. Like Wink, it wore a similar leather collar. Upon seeing Brimsdall, it reared up and roared!
Instinctively, Brimsdall pointed at the creature and let loose several magic missiles that unerringly struck the beast. The thing roared in pain and anger, forcing it to drop to all fours.
Brimsdall barely had time to step out of the way as Wink rushed past him to confront the beast.
Wink's ferocity was unmatched as the giant badger dug its claws repeatedly into the creature's thick fur while biting it twice. The beast, now severely hurt, roared in anger and swiped at Wink with a large claw. It tried to bite the giant badger but Wink was quick enough to avoid its deadly bite.
Brimsdall once again hurled a string of magic missiles at the beast. Each missile struck the beast breaking flesh and bone.
The beast groaned once in pain, stumbled, then toppled to the floor, dead.
After making sure the beast was dead, Brimsdall searched the room. He found spotted a small wooden chest barely visible on a ledge just within his reach. He tried to hang onto it and climb it but his weight caused the ledge to loosen from the wall. He barely managed to avoid being struck by pieces from the broken ledge. The chest fell and broke open, spilling its contents.
He found a 90 ep, 120 gp, a potion of healing, a scroll of Hold Person, and a scroll of Tongues.
After he and Wink left the room, they went through the curtain to the north. Beyond was a room with its door wide open. The chamber had been set up as a crude living space for someone important by the looks of it. Thick furs thrown on the floor served as carpets, while a brazier of coals burned brightly in one corner. A round table with several chairs stood to the south near the door. An empty wine bottle lay on its side next to a plate of meat that was still steaming. 
Brimsdall spotted a note laying next to the empty bottle. The note read:

We will be sending more reinforcements soon. Keep the castle at all cost! Save the giant badger as my personal pet.

- Silverclaw

That was the second time the dragonborn had heard the name Silverclaw mentioned. But who or what Silverclaw was remained a mystery. 
Brimsdall thought that by the looks of it someone had left the room in a hurry. Perhaps the humanoids' leader occupied the room and left after hearing the battle with the beast beyond the curtain? Brimsdall wasn't certain but it was just as well. He was done fighting for the day. And it wasn't even highsun yet.
He looked at Wink who was curled up on the fur carpets licking its wounds.
"Well," Brimsdall said to Wink. "I sure hope you've had your fill of revenge. I can't imagine what you endured here, but it's over. You're free."
Wink regarded Brimsdall with seeming curiosity then continued to lick its wounds.
Brimsdall thought he heard the giant badger purring in contentment.

Backdrops

Locations

Neverwinter Wood
Temperature: Low: 20 High: 50 Winds: From Arctic at 35 mph. Precipitation: No Precipitation Relative Humidity: Morning: Moderate Evening: High Dawn is at: 6:50 Number of daylight hours: 10.30 Selûne: 1st Qtr
All ranged weapon attacks have a –2 to attack rolls, and their range is reduced by half when shooting into the wind. Perception checks at -4, exposed flames extinguished, protected flames 50% chance of being extinguished.

Session played on November 24, 2020

Plot type

Chapter

Parent Plot

Return to Phandalin (5e D&D)

Player Character:
Turnoroth Brimsdall (Male Dragonborn Sorcerer/Warlock)

Sidekick:
Wink (Giant Badger sidekick)

Owlbear

Halfling on a Giant Badger