map by Gunther
Previously, eight adventurers, Cressidien, Ruu Dawnhammer, Almalexia, Sauroff, Silvermoon, Koravhik Agu-Vakanu, Squirrelly, and Cernan rescued their employer, the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker from a tribe of goblins and bugbears. Gundren was heavily exhausted from his ordeal, and was riding on the horse which the party brought for just such an eventuality.
As they neared the town of Phandalin, they found that seven Redbrands, a band of human mercenaries, had set up a road block and were demanding payment in gold for using "their" road. The party objected, voices were raised, and weapons were drawn. In the short fight that ensued, one Redbrand was killed, and another, a young woman named Lucy Merrick, was captured. The rest of the Redbrand's fled towards the ruined manor on the hill above the town. Almalexia struck up a conversation with Lucy, slowly earning her trust. Lucy revealed that the Redbrands resided in the ruined manor.
After clearing the roadblock, they escorted Gundren to the Stonehill Inn. There they met Sildar and the innkeeper, Toblen Stonehill. As Gundren was helped up to a room for a good night's rest, he promised to give the party 500 gold reward in the morning. Cressidien decided to keep watch at the inn in case any Redbrands came looking for Grundren. The rest of the party then headed towards the manor, intending to confront their leader, a wizard called Glasstaff.
Lucy, her hands bound behind her back, led the party up the hill to the manor. She revealed to Almalexia that she was in Blackrock a few months ago when she was recruited by Glasstaff to join his Redbrand mercenaries. This was around the same time-frame that the Rockseeker brothers arrived from Pharesia. Arriving at the manor, Lucy led them through the ruins toward the back, where a long dark stairway slanted downward. Cernan cast a Light cantrip on Lucy's forehead, and she led the party down the stairs, struggling to maintain her footing on the uneven steps without being able to use her hands for balance or support.
The stairway opened into an old cellar. The room was cluttered with old rotting crates and barrels. The floor was covered with layer of loose dirt washed down the stairs over the years. Most of the foot prints in the dirt led to a closed door on the right wall, while only a few tracks led to a waist-high masonry cistern against the far wall.
The cistern appeared to be mostly filled with soft sediment, with only a couple feet of water above the mud. Koravhik probed the sediment with his 15 foot pole, and was surprised as a translucent gray pseudo-pod rose out of the cistern and struck at him. While Koravhik, Squirrelly, and Cernan battled the gray ooze, Almalexia started trying to shove the now frightened Lucy towards the cistern. The ooze was quickly dispatched, but not before Squirrelly struck it once with his scimitar; the weapon was partially dissolved by the ooze's acid, weakening it (-1 damage).
When questioned about the cistern, Lucy said that they were told to just use the door on the right, and avoid the cistern. Cernan then opened the door and pushed Lucy ahead of him, the cantrip on her forehead lighting the way. The narrow hallway led to a large tomb, with skeletons laid out on nine raised stone slabs. Cernan used his innate ability to sense undead to detect that the six furthest skeletons were only
mostly dead.
At this warning, Cernan and Koravhik advanced and attacked the first two skeletons. As their arms swung down, the six suspect skeletons animated, but too late to avoid the initial attacks, and everyone now noticed that the skeletons had bells tied inside their rib cages. Battle was joined, and the sound of clanging weapons, cracking bones, and ringing bells echoed throughout the room.
Lucy seemed petrified with fear when the skeletons began to move. When questioned after the battle had ended, she insisted that she had never seen them move before, and she seemed to be sincere. She said that this was probably the work of the "creepy necromancer" that had met with Glasstaff shortly after they arrived in Phandalin. Initially the Redbrands stayed in a leaky vacant building on the east side of town, but they moved to the ruined manor soon after the necromancer arrived.
No sound was heard when listening to the far door out of the tomb, but when Cernan opened it he was immediately attacked by six Redbrands who were lurking there. Cernan recognized a few of them from the earlier roadblock. The battle quickly turned against the out-matched Redbrands, and the last one standing disengaged and ran out a door in the south end of the room.
Ruu Dawnhammer was the first to chase after the runner, but his experience as a dwarven mason allowed him to spot something odd about the floor ahead - perhaps a trap? He shouted out a warning to Squirrelly, who was currently wild-shaped into a tiger. Squirrelly leapt over the suspect section of floor, landing on the fleeing Redbrand and killing him instantly.
The party managed to safely trigger the pitfall trap that Ruu had spotted, and then everyone safely crossed over it. They found themselves in a large natural cavern that had a deep ravine running down the middle of it. Along the walls were old, rotted casks and shelving - apparently this was an ancient storeroom for the manor. An old, arched stone bridge spanned the ravine. However, the recent discovery of the pitfall trap caused the party to distrust the bridge, and they decided to take the longer path around the ravine.
Koravhik led the party as they advanced around the ravine, holding Lucy (whose forehead still glowed so bright) ahead of him to light the way. Koravhik soon heard a gravely voice in his head command "Get Out!" He didn't see any threats when he looked around, and only he had heard the voice, so Koravhik decided to continue moving forward. Suddenly, a misty translucent figure of a man appeared and attacked Koravhik!
The spectral figure struck Koravhik, and for a moment it appeared to be on the verge of draining some of his life force, but Almalexia cast a spell which enabled Koravhik to shrug off the assault. The rest of the party assaulted the ghostly figure, and destroyed it just as it appeared ready to flee.
Lucy could not explain why she was not attacked, even though she was technically in the lead, and was actually glowing. She insisted that she had never seen or heard of the shimmering spirit before it attacked.
The party was somewhat winded at this point, and considered retreating to rest and recuperate before searching the rest of the Redbrand hideout. However, they decided to press on in their depleted state, rather than let the remaining Redbrands fortify their position, or get reinforcements.
They soon found themselves in dead-end, ten-foot wide passageway. Three closed doors faced them; one at the end of the passage and one each on the left and right hand sides. Cernan opened the door on the right, and a voice inside loudly yelled "Now!" The other two doors burst open, and the party was attacked on three sides at once!
The room Cernan entered was stocked with six Redbrands, while the other two doors each revealed three bugbears. Cernan's armor and skill made it hard for the Redbrands to get a clean hit on him, but shear numbers made it a battle of attrition. The bugbears fared better on the other two fronts, dealing almost as much damage as they received from the party.
At the left door, Koravhik used Lucy as a human shield as he faced off against the bugbears. One of the bugbears swung a powerful blow towards Koravhik, but instead his weapon stabbed Lucy in the abdomen. As she buckled over in agony, Koravhik threw her body further into the room, and continued his battle with the bugbears.
Almalexia then noticed a door on the far end of the left-hand bugbear room open slightly. A mage carrying a glass staff appeared in the narrow gap, cast an ineffectual spell, then the door closed. A second time the mage struck Koravhik with Magic Missiles, the door closing once more. Koravhik almost dropped at this point, but Almalexia’s Heroism spell kept him in the fight for a couple more rounds. As the party finally started to drop the bugbears, and the last of the Redbrands fought a losing battle in the far room, the mage appeared a third time and read from a scroll in his hands. A Fireball spell then detonated on Koravhik's location, flame spreading out 20 feet in all directions.
The spell finished off the last of the bugbears, Ruu and Koravhik were rendered unconscious, and poor Lucy burned alive as she writhed in agony on the floor. After rousing their fallen comrades, the party chased after the sniping mage, but found his quarters and lab to be empty. A thorough search revealed a secret passage leading down into the ravine of the natural cavern.
The party searched the rest of the Redbrand hideout, then started back towards Phandalin.
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