Session 4
General Summary
After leaving the surface of Trasendar manor the party engages with a group of 4 bugbears. Quickly dispatching them they recover an iron key that seems to fit the lock on the door opposite the room. Fa-Medve asks the party to wait inside while he prepares to infiltrate the room disguised as a red-cloaked mercenary.
An officer briefly interrogates Fa-Medve but decides to leave him alone. He goes into the backroom and encounters the captain resting in a corner and feigns an injury in an attempt to draw the soldiers in the main room into the sleeping chambers. Although he doesn't know the party was followed by some soldiers that previously spotted the party sneaking through town. While they engage the rest of the party he manages to draw 2 soldiers into the room and they start to treat his fake wounds.
Outside the room, battle erupts between the red-cloaked soldiers and Torold, Artigar, Trix, Edrenyss and Reshy. After Artigar casts a spell to trap the soldiers with vines they manage to dispatch them and enter the main room to find that the officer commands the soldiers to attack. Hearing the commotion in the sleeping chambers Fa-Medve incapacitates the soldiers and attempts to escape but gets tripped up by one of the bunk beds. Now forced to duel the captain of the mercenary band.
The battle in the main room quickly develops into a melee with soldiers engaging Torold and Artigar. Artigar panics and pulls out his Wand of Wonder and casts a chaotic spell!.. It turns out to slow some of the enemies and the wand goes dark as it's out of charges. Edrenyss follows with a Shatter spell and destroys a table and severely injures a group of soldiers. The battle is concluded when the officer and the soldiers are taken out and only the captain is left engaged with Fa-Medve in the sleeping chambers. He quickly meets his fate by a thrown dagger through the eye slid of his helmet.
The party searches the rooms and finds some gold, a magic sword and a pamphlet with a crude sketch and their descriptions written on it. Someone has put a price of 25 gp on each of their heads.
They proceed into the next room and discover the office of the wizard leading this company of mercenaries. Artigar manages to find a letter in the desk ordering the adventurers captured or killed. Spying into the next room they discover a strange dome of white opaque colour. Fa-Medve identifies this as a Leomund's Tiny Hut, an impenetrable dome cast by a wizard who must be inside. After debating what to do Torold strides into the room and his eye is immediatly drawn to a shiny gem in the corner. Shaking off the effects of a charm spell he notices Reshy rush by him and fails to stop him. He stares at the gem in the corner without moving.
Trying to stop Reshy others rush in the room and the dome disappears revealing an angry human man with a short black beard and dressed in a fine robe trimmed with fur wielding a staff made of glass and topped with multicolored feathers. He casts a barrage of snow and ice balls at Reshy, Trix and Torold dealing damage and slowing them. Torold manages to put Reshy to sleep fearing he might be charmed by the mage. The mage using his teleport ability disappears from sight and in the office Artigar gets wounded by an unknown assailant and gets knocked out. This happens again to Fa-Medve who gets badly injured but manages to stay conscious. Edrenyss spots the attacker and pursues trying to blast him eldritch magic. Trix destroys the gem freeing Reshy from the charm effect.
Two battles are now taking place, one in the main room with Torold and Artigar engaging the wizard and the rest of the party hunting for the invisible enemy. Finally cornering him in the storeroom they manage to trap him with vines until he's killed by Edrenyss. The mage fights on and manages to damage the party but eventually tries to flee. Reshy having marked him as his prey with magic tracks him down and finishes him off.
After thoroughly investigating the mercenary base they discover letters between the wizard now identified as Iarno "Glasstaf" Albrek, leader of the Redbrand Mercenary Company, and a mysterious figure called the Spider. It mentions in one of the letters that the Spider is a Drow elf with connections to a King Grol who occupies a ruined castle called Cragmaw Castle. They find a rough map with a location somewhere in the Neverwinter Woods to the north of Phandalin.
The Spider has tasked the mercenaries to keep unwanted attention away from the town and the Wave Echo Cave. It mentions the presence of the Forge of Spells inside the Dwarven mines in the cave. The party also finds a book written in a blocky language that none of them understand that may hold more clues to the intention of this mysterious figure.
They decide to rest up before leaving the basement to head back into town...
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