Red Brand Troubles

After having fought off the red brands that attacked the party, everyone met back up and discussed what happened. Donnie decided that to tell Daran about what happened and he decided that he would (after a short "encounter" with Donnie) help everyone with hiding the bodies of the red brands that attacked the orchard in his mulch pile, but with the troubles that they have attracted to his home he told them that they will not be able to stay with him beyond that night.

While discussing the events of the night the groups attention was drawn to Tresendar Manor, where the last of the Red Brands from the tavern was running to, and Grok revealed to the group that his mother's family are descendants of the Tresendar Family that once resided in that manor. He revealed that he has an old journal belonging to Vardon Tresendar, who was a great ancestor of his who lived in Tresendar Manor at the time of the great orc attack that destroyed old Phandalin. However the journal has several pages missing form the end of it not revealing the ultimate fate of his family. Among the information in the journal there was information of a large cellar with about 10 rooms that was under the manor, that could be serving as a secret hide out for the Red Brands.

Upon morning the party decided to split into two groups. One group composed of Aellora, Kuro, and Zinda, would try to stealthily search the woods south of Tresendar Manor to find a secret passage in to the cellar. While Donnie, Jass and Grok would try to learn whatever they could from the townsfolk. Bubbles meanwhile tired to secretly follow Aellora, Kuro and Zinda using his Hawk familiar to keep an eye on them from a distance. Zinda and Kuro spotted the Hawk knowing that it was Bubbles' but decided not to confront him.

In the woods they found a small piece of red fabric that had been snagged on a tree informing them that they were on the right path and eventually found a secret tunnel that seemingly led under the manor. Aellora, Kuro and Zinda decided to head back to town to report their findings, but Bubbles disguised himself as a shrub and kept his hawk watching the secret entrance to keep an eye on it. The hawk only ever saw a couple of Red Brands come out to pee on a tree, but Bubbles discovered that while he was sleeping Aellora and Zinda played a prank on him and took all of his gadgets and clockwork and replaced them with apples from the Orchard.

Meanwhile, back in town, Doonie, Grok, and Jass visited the Shrine of Luck where they met Sister Garaele. She questioned the three of them about what had happened in the night. She knew that they were lying when they tried to pass off the commotion as the sounds of Donnie and Daran's vigorous love making, but did not press the point any further. She too expressed annoyance with the Red Brands, but ultimately was not too concerned about them calling them "young hooligans." She offered a potential job to them to investigate the den of a Banshee that was a couple of day's hike north east of town. She told them that she wanted them to ask the Banshee what she might know about whereabouts of an old spell book belonging to a legendary mage known as Bowgentle. She gave them the advise that the Banshee named Agatha could be won over by appealing to her vanity and gave them a jeweled silver comb to offer to Agatha as payment for the information. Sister Garaele gave them a healing potion as a sign of good faith that the task would be taken care of, and promised more upon their return. Donnie and Grok prayed at the shrine and were granted a 24 hour boon of luck from Tymora... Jass kicked the dirt and Tymora ignored her.

After visiting the Shrine, Donnie, Grok, and Jass went to The Townmaster's Hall. They noticed a sign outside offering a reward for anyone willing to eliminate the orc menace at Wyvern Tor should inquire within. Inside they met the townmaster, a fat pompous old fool name Harbin Wester (but no one thought to ask his name). He was put off by the presence of Grok, and was not too welcoming at first. Jass intimidated him into letting go of some information. He told them that he had heard some of the Red Brands say that their boss is someone who goes by the name Glasstaff. When asked about Cragmaw Castle he said that he did not know where it was, but thought it could be in the woods to the north or town and offered 500 GP if they could manage to eliminate the chief of the Cragmaw tribe. He also mentioned that if they wanted to eliminate the orcs that there would be a 100 GP reward for that.

After that everyone except Bubbles met back at the Stonehill Inn. Donnie heard a rumor that Sister Garaele had recently gone on a trip for a few days and returned worse for ware. And everyone shared the information they had attained and decided to investigate the secret tunnel in the woods further. While journeying back into the woods they were spotted but a young guard for the rebrands who pooped himself a little after seeing such a large group of adventurers and announced his presence by saying "Oh, shit!" This young man named Joey told everyone that there was only about 20 Red Brands in the manor and gave a description of Glasstaff that sounded like he matched the description of the wizard named Iarno that Kuro had been inquiring about in town. During all of this Bubbled rejoined the group in a rage that his gadgets were stolen, but he calmed down significantly when they were safely returned.

Everyone tried to convince Joey to yell as the secret tunnel for help, but Joey told them that no oue would likely hear him because everyone avoids the area just inside the tunnel because the "Weird Eye Thing" that hangs out in there. After getting a description Bubbles identified the creature to be Gothic (a former wizard corrupted by the dark secrets they had learned but could not fathom, mutating it into a strange beast). Joey was allowed to leave without his shoes or pants.

After a lengthy discussion of how to approach the Red brand hideout, everyone decided to wait until they change of guard and so they could get the jump on some Red Brands. Bubbles told everyone that he could use some of his gadgets to set off an explosion, but this proved to be underwhelming when it only managed to start a campfire under their feet. The two guards were dealt with quickly and they decided to send Zinda disguised as a rat into the tunnel to find out what the layout of the hide out was. Upon reaching the end of the tunnel she heard a strange voice in her head that scared her back to the rest of the group.

Every decided to make a break for a hallway out of the cavern where Zinda heard the voice but as they came through many of the members of the party started to get tormented by the voice taunting them with their darkest secrets. Bubbles caught sight of the Nothic and shot it with his crossbow. The Nothic was killed and everyone checked out the room. Aellora found that the bridges spanning the crevasse were poorly constructed and would not likely hold more than 50 lbs. The crevasse itself had an un-natural coldness to it and was too dark under the bridges for anyone to see if there was anything there.

Everyone went down the hall in the south west corner of the room and found that there was a hallway with two closed doors. Listening at each door the party heard the voices of some Bugbears at one door and the voices of some humans behind the other. While discussing what to do the door to the north opened suddenly with a rebrands announcing "Hang on guys I have to take a piss." Bubbles quickly blinded him and one of the other red brands and a fight ensued. The red brands were pretty drunk and stumbled their way through the combat. Donnie managed to block the attacks of a couple of the Red Brands who were waiting for the adventurers to enter the room by using her shield as a turtleshell (Turtle Power!).

After defeating the red brands we decided to call it a night. Prev: The Eating Cave and Welcome to Phandalin                    Next:Glasstaff's Chambers