🧹18. spring cleaning

session 18 • 03/12/2022 • 4,048 words

『 📜 』 adventure log

🌞 DAY 5 • 📅 ELEINT 26

Glasstaff Interrogation

Rude Revelations

(THANKS Chris for writing this part!)

Sildar forcefully wakes Iarno with a kick, beginning the interrogation. Iarno begins by promising that he would cooperate fully if only he is provided a fair trial, but when Sildar takes the bait, Iarno taunts him with a "just kidding", stating that he knows he is to die regardless -- as Lera had previously told the group during the fight to "leave him alive, we can kill him after we get the information".

Angered, Sildar threatens Iarno with threats of torture and pain. Iarno, however, seems to know of Sildar's reputation in the Lord's Alliance, citing a nickname "the Gentle Eagle", and calls Sildar's bluff -- seemingly believing that Sildar would never stoop so low as to torture, and even if he did, would be haunted by it for the foreseeable future.

Sildar kicks Iarno in the shins to try and reinforce his point -- but Iarno is not incorrect, Sildar has no intention of torturing him. Emboldened, Iarno begins taunting Sildar by bringing up this past, implying he did not put in enough effort in searching for the "Neverwintan Nobles".

Realizing that Iarno knows something about Sildar's situation with Vulmar and Aire -- and potentially about the nobles who killed them, Sildar begins furiously demanding answers.

Lera steps into the questioning, offering Iarno a fair trial if he complies with him and that he might not face death. Iarno questions what Lera had previously said, about killing him. Lera claims that she had been lying about killing him after he delivered the information. Sildar, however, who has no intention of letting Iarno live, fails his deception check (WITH A FUCKING NAT 1 BABY!), ensuring that Iarno is convinced that he would not live whether he cooperated or not.

Sildar acknowledges that he would never torture another humanoid, but states that he has no qualms throwing Iarno to the Nothic and letting him get torn to shreds. Iarno believes this threat, and his confidence wavers. He admits that he does not know who the nobles are in question, but he knows that the Lords Alliance are the ones who have covered up with the incident.

Sildar, believing this but not wanting to think it is true, pushes for any other explanation -- of which Iarno has none, for this is the truth that he knows. Sildar begins to snap, stabbing the ground next to Iarno and demanding answers where there is none to be had.

Sorennar joins in the questioning by stating:

You know of my situation with the spider, don’t you? You’re oh so good friends with the spider? Heard so many stories? Then you know that before the drow learn to talk, they learn how to inflict pain. Sildar has qualms about torturing. I do not. You will tell me everything you know about this fucking matter.

Iarno pleads that he does not know any more about the Vulmar/Aire situation, and seems frightened, convincing Sorennar that he is telling the truth. He is also intimidated enough to reveal a little more information about the Black Spider, telling the group he started working with him months ago and was tasked with scaring adventurers away to steer them away from the Forge.

Fall Guys

Eventually pushed (and offended) by Lera, he lets it slip that he has Redbrand forces spread throughout the Sword Coast, with his main group situated around Luskan, which interests Colt -- as this is where his family had been kidnapped.

Colt learns from Iarno that the Redbrands worked with the Arcane Brotherhood, a powerful mercenary / wizarding faction, in order to frame caravan escorts. The Redbrands would "rob" the Arcane Brotherhood's own caravans, leading to the escorts being indebted to the Arcane Brotherhood for losing precious cargo.

Colt, who seems to recognize the name Arcane Brotherhood, displays cold anger over these revelations: "Should have known the Brotherhood was the one behind all of this". Glasstaff inquires about Colt's interest in the matter, and attempts to use Colt's investment as leverage for his escape -- he would provide information about the whereabouts of Colt's "kidnapped friends", and in return, we let him go free.

When the group flatly refuses, even Colt, Iarno realizes that there is no escape, and instead, bargains for a painless and quick death, which the group is willing to grant.

Iarno relays the information that though the Arcane Brotherhood was fond of shipping their indentured slaves to Menzoberranzan, around the time that this was happening, Duergar raids had made this difficult. It is therefore likely that Colt's parents are in Gracklstugh, the capital Duergar city, after having been stolen from Drow caravans.

Sorennar confirms this as likely, citing his experience in the Menzoberranzan city guard and having had to face Duergar raids before.

Straight to the Heart

Sorennar tauntingly asks Iarno, as a last question before his death, what the glass staff does. Iarno replies that "it changes your name to Glasstaff", which Sorennar reluctantly admits is a decent joke before Iarno surprisingly graciously (or perhaps out of fear of a Nothic-y end) explains the use of the staff: that it can cast Mage Armor and Shield. Sorennar, begrudgingly intrigued by Iarno's skill in the arcane, inquires if the staff was what Iarno used to "teleport" across the room, which Iarno smugly replies "no, that was me".

Lera attempts to leverage any family that Iarno might have in order to gain more information about the Black Spider and his plans. Iarno goes along with this, acting concerned about his "family", only to taunt Lera with the fact that he had none, and had been faking his emotions.

Thoroughly disgusted by Iarno's lack of humanity, Sildar discusses with Colt who should get to deliver the final blow -- Colt is reluctant to take the chance from Sildar, but Sildar insists, stating that Iarno had wronged him personally.

Colt relays to Iarno that the "friends" he had kidnapped were actually Colt's parents, and stabs Iarno in the heart.

Before Iarno dies, he smiles.

Spring Cleaning @ The...

Redbrand Hideout

Secret Tunnel

After some debating, we shove Glasstaff's body into the Bag of Holding to deal with later.

Lera searches the bookshelves and finds the following books of interest:

Sorennar checks in with Colt and Sildar, as both of them had received upsetting information from Glasstaff. He gives them both a hug, but they are both still very shaken and upset.

Sildar expresses the need for a drink, but Hugh reminds him that the party still has to go clear out the Redbrands at the Sleeping Giant. Give this poor man a drink oh my god.

Sorennar searches through the rest of the documents in Glasstaff's study, finding logs that confirm Colt's parents had been taken by the Arcane Brotherhood in a scam similar to what Glasstaff described. Sorennar hesitantly explains that it may be better that Colt's parents are being held by Duergar instead of Drow, as Duergar are less interested in torture, but it does not cheer up Colt too much.

In going through the documents, the group finds out that Colt's real name is Keir Coltish, but he asks that we call him Colt still. Sildar, though awkwardly, tries to offer Colt comfort, which Colt notices and appreciates. Sildar offers to go with Colt to search for his parents in the Underdark, which alarms Sorennar.

Sorennar, while going through the documents, notices a secret door in the wall of Glasstaff's study, noting that Glasstaff had been close to it when they fought -- and that without the blind / positioning of the party, he may have escaped through it.

Skellies and Pit Traps

The group exist through the secret door, finding ourselves near the crypt with the skeletons that Droop had warned them about. We decide that it may be best to clear out the skeletons in case they cause issues later, which distresses Sildar : ( who has a fear of undead my bELOVED

We clear out the skeletons relatively easily, with Lera channeling divinity to turn undead and frightening most of the skeletons away from the group. Sorennar tries to secretly buff Sildar so that he feels better about having to fight undead. Colt and Lera raid the crypts for a few pieces of gold jewelry, while Sildar and Sorennar walk on ahead to explore the previously-unexplored dark hallway.

Sorennar is distracted trying to distract Sildar from the events of the day, and doesn't notice a pitfall trap in the middle of the hallway. He falls right into it, though Sildar, who is holding his hand in the darkness, manages to pull him back up.

Sorennar warns the group that there are traps. :)

All-You-Can-Eat

We find ourselves in a storage room of sorts, with a cistern.

The group searches the room, with Sorennar finding a satchel attached to a rope floating at the bottom of the 10-foot deep cistern. After pulling it out and searching, he finds what looks to be Glasstaff's emergency escape bag, which contains two red potions and a vial of clear liquid, as well as some coin and a set of clothing. Sorennar pockets these, ready to identify them later.

As Sorennar does this, the rest of the group finds various fresh provisions in the barrels around the room, including salted meats, apples, and kegs of ale. We take some apples and pieces of salted meat, though the kegs are too heavy to move in that moment for us, we decide to come back later for some.

Sildar comments that we could prepare these foods for dinner at Garaele's, causing Sorennar discomfort. Hugh asks if Sorennar would cook, to which Sorennar tries to deflect, knowing that the group has grounds to mistrust him and not wanting to cause another confrontation between the party members. Sildar nonchalantly asks Sorennar to cook, showing his trust in Sorennar again. Sorennar happiness noises ; - ;

Sorennar checks in with the rest of the group, hesitating at Lera especially, to see if they are comfortable with him cooking for them. Colt and Hugh agree without hesitation, and Lera gives Sorennar a thumbs up after a very brief deliberation, which makes Sorennar even happier and touched to tears.

Lera searches a smaller room, which has a few bunk beds, and finds a pouch under one of the beds that contains some coin and garnets.

We exit through the last door of the hideout that we haven't explored, and find stairs leading up to, presumably, Tresendar Manor.

Dragon?

The group finds ourselves in the destroyed and abandoned Tresendar Manor, which is full of debris and ruined rubble. We debate what happened to the Manor, with Hugh and Colt insisting, to Sildar's , that a dragon must have stepped on the whole ass manor and destroyed it.

The group heads towards the Alderleaf Farm, in order to pick up Droop and check in on the family. We arrive to find the Alderleafs having a meal around the table with Droop there as well, making a mess of his plate. Carp is overjoyed and looks at us like we're heroes ; - ;

The Alderleafs are incredibly grateful and offer us anything we want. Colt begins trying to fleece them for gold but controls himself after seeing Sildar's disappointment.

Sildar

We end up getting a basketful of fresh produce from them, which Sorennar is gleeful at.

Quelline Alderleaf, the mother of the family, inquires about our goals in Phandalin, and upon learning that we are looking for a cave, recommends that we seek out Reidoth, her friend who is incredibly knowledgeable about the lay of the land around Phandalin. We learn that Reidoth left a few days ago in search for a place called Thundertree.

The Alderleafs once again try to offer us more in repayment. Hugh offers them pork. They decline. He insists. They decline. Hugh asks for squash. It's not in season. Hugh gives Carp 1,000 ball bearings, much to the parents' horror. 👍

With this, the group heads off to the Sleeping Giant to clear out the rest of the Redbrands! :D

Sleeping Giant

The group, as they walk, begins to formulate plans on what to do with the Redbrands after capturing or killing them. Sildar suggests imprisoning them, as the group believes there's only 5 of them bc of Glasstaff.

Sorennar takes out the glass staff and ties all of the Redbrand cloaks we've obtained (about a dozen), parading it around like a theater kid. The townsfolk largely get the message, and some cheer at the idea that adventurers had cleared out the Redbrands.

We arrive at the Sleeping Giant, where several Redbrands -- much more than 5 -- are sitting around and drinking merrily. Hugh barges in first before turning around and asking Sorennar to lead the conversation LMAO.

Sorennar informs the room that the party had just come from the hideout under Tresandar Manor, killed Glasstaff (presenting the staff and glasstaff's body as evidence) and killed every other Redbrand in town, asking them "politely" to come to the town prison, or that the same fate awaited them.

Two Redbrands try to bolt, but Colt cuts them off before they get to the backdoor, causing them to back off. One of them attempts to backtalk the party, but Hugh fuckin tackles him to the ground and sits on him until he puts down his weapons, which he promptly does.

Sorennar inquires with the barkeep, a gruff dwarven woman whom we had learned from Fynn is named Grista, if she's affiliated with them. She immediately distances herself from them, calling them scum, though lamenting that they were good business and establishing herself as an opportunistic business owner who didn't care who her clientele was.

Sorennar asks to purchase some rope from Grista, who inflates the price from 2GP to 3GP for two ropes. Lera attempts to reason with her for a discount, saying that we had cleaned the "scum", as she said, from her bar. Grista scoffs at this, stating that we had cost her good business and that no one else in town would frequent her establishment.

Sorennar manages to haggle the price down to 2.7 gold, though he's not too concerned of the price, in order to buy a rope and give it back to Colt for the one he cut while interrogating the Kindreds. Hugh ties the Redbrands. Grista inquires where we're staying, and Sorennar says that we're camping in the woods, so as to not drag Toblen into the matter.

We shove Glasstaff back into the bag of holding...

Townsmaster's Hall

Bye Bye Harbin!

More people have begun to congregate around as the party parades the Redbrand captives to the Townsmaster's Hall in order to incarcerate them. There are more cheers as they realize what's happening and rumors begin to spread.

We march right into the Townsmaster's Hall with the Redbrands in tow, badly startling Harbin Wester, the current Townsmaster. He demands to know what we're doing, terrified of the Redbrands, and upon learning that we were the ones who broke in the previous night, begins angrily chastising us.

After a futile back and forth -- in which Wester states that he's done plenty for the town by allowing the Redbrands to do whatever they want so that they're not harming the town, and the party refutes that he was being a coward for not stepping down so someone more capable could handle the town / Redbrands -- the party offers to put Wester in jail with the Redbrands he loves so much.

Wester reacts with fear, and Sildar demands that he give up his position as Townsmaster to someone more capable. Sorennar subtly threatens Wester with Dancing Lights (assuming he does not know they're harmless; he doesn't) and barges into his room to take his chair, Wester finally concedes and gives the correct documents and keys to Sildar, before panicking and just running.

Hugh tackles him to the ground and refuses to let him budge until Sildar confirms that all the documents are in order. The party, disgusted at Wester's attitude, agree to put him in the prison cell for a bit any ways. While screaming about the guards, who Hugh adamantly tells him don't exist as we haven't seen any, Harbin gets dragged downstairs and put into a separate cell from the other Redbrands.

Fynn, the Redbrand we questioned the night before, notices Hugh and solemnly thanks him for sparing his life. Hugh establishes that he didn't want to, but Fynn thanks him regardless, and asks him to pass it on to the rest of the group.

The New Townsmaster

Back upstairs, Sorennar asks about the vacant Townsmaster position. The group realizes that until we resolve the Black Spider business and are able to hold town elections, the position falls to Sildar.

Hugh returns upstairs, and Sildar jokingly references what Hugh had said the night before about wanting to "fuck the next townsmaster", and offers. Hugh immediately replies "Deal, but only if Sorennar joins".

This shocks Sildar who only said it because he thought Hugh would not agree. After some back and forth in which Hugh is, to Sildar's horror, completely DtF, Sildar backtracks and says that Hugh is not his type.

For emotional compensation, Hugh demands the gavel that he was enamored with the night before. Sildar concedes it to him. Gavel in hand, Hugh and the rest of the party begins counting their loot while Sildar sorts through the papers left behind by Harbin.

The party splits the coin, then sorts through the items and gems and decide to get them appraised before splitting them. Sorennar attempts to identify some of the items by strumming at them aggressively, saying that his bard mentors had once done it before in order to identify items.

He fails, unfortunately, and dejectedly sets aside his lute. Droop says that the strumming was good music my BELOVED

After rejecting Sildar's attempt to repay him for the health potion prior, Sorennar brings up Sildar's previous offer to Colt about going to the Underdark with him to search for his parents, probing to see if Sildar was serious.

Sildar, who had offered in the moment out of intense emotions, comes to the conclusion after thinking about it a bit more that he would most likely be deadweight in the Underdark without darkvision, and sadly concedes that it would help the party more to stay on the overworld.

The group seems reluctant to leave Sildar behind, with Lera being shocked at the possibility, and discuss how they might be able to still bring him. Hugh suggests glasses, and Colt asks about magic items.

Sorennar, out of concern for Sildar's wellbeing, reminds Sildar of his desire to retire, sparking conversation about Sildar wanting to retire to a farm. Trying to make the best of their inevitable partying, the group requests crops for Sildar to grow, tomatoes for Colt, berries for Lera, mushrooms for Sorennar, and goats for Hugh. Lera gently reminds Sildar that they would come and visit.

Sildar admits that he badly wants to go with the group, but believes himself to be completely useless in the dark. Sorennar, recognizing how dejected this was making Sildar, buckles and acknowledges that Sildar going with them would increase their strength "tenfold", requesting that Sildar put in an order for Goggles of Night so that he can come with.

This slightly lifts Sildar's spirits, and he agrees to this before calling the group over to look at some documents he found of interest. Thinking that he was calling them over for a hug, Lera starts a group hug that everyone eagerly joins in, even Droop. After the hug, Sildar shows them a map of Northern Sword Coast,

New Quest!

Sildar points out Wyvern Tor, to the North West of of Phandalin, and notes that there seems to be reports of an Orc Tribe terrorizing the region. As it's near Conyberry, Sildar suggest that we check out the situation when running Garaele's errand. Sorennar notices a hint of fear in Sildar's voice, and asks about it, leading to Sildar admitting that he was almost killed by orcs a long time ago.

Sildar starts to offer the group entry into the Lord's Alliance, but quickly changes his mind when remembering about what Glasstaff had said about corruption. Colt asks of the sign-on bonus, and Sildar brusquely responds "the coverup of my sibling's deaths was my bonus".

Hugh tries to reason that Glasstaff could be lying, but Sildar is adamant in following this lead, being the only one he's obtained since Vulmar and Aire's deaths. Lera suggests tackling the issue by directly bringing the fight and investigation to Degault Neverember, the Open Lord of the Lord's Alliance, which Sildar immediately shoots down as far too rash and dangerous.

Sorennar shoots his shot at placating Sildar by reminding Sildar:

Iarno was a sack of filth. There are people like him in the Lord’s Alliance, there’s no doubt, as there are in any faction. But how much good have you done under their name?

How many people have you saved, and how many towns and cities have you brought order and peace to? How many civilizations stand tall from the fights you’ve fought, from the fieldwork and meetings and adventuring you’ve done?

There are horrible people in the world, but it is still beautiful because there are good people in it. Remember?

Once we have rescued Colt’s parents from the Underdark, I will lend you all of the rest of my years, if it takes it, in helping you ... what did he say? Tear down the whole rotten thing and build it back up, if that’s what you want.

Sildar acknowledges this and teasingly says that he'll hold Sorennar to that, asking that he does his best. Sorennar assures him that he has "never half-assed anything in his life".

Keys to the City

Hugh goes down to demand the keys to the Hall from Wester, who is unwilling to cooperate until Hugh threatens to strip him naked, at which point he hastily gives us the keys.

Sorennar asks about plans for the day, Hugh says bathhouse, then maybe get new clothes, get someone to identify all the things on the table and the gems (Sorennar looks like he’s about to cry, he couldn’t figure it out), and then dinner with Garaele.

As we return to Stonehill to inform Pip of the good news regarding Carp, word seems to have spread of the defeat of the Redbrands. The townsfolk seem to be in great spirits and cheer as we walk by.

Back to Stonehill

We inform Toblen and Pip of the good news, at which Pip immediately gives us back the pets he was babysitting and sprints to the Alderleaf's.

We ask Toblen for juice, which Sorennar tries to pay for but is stopped by Lera and Sildar. Sildar reminds him that he was meant to treat the party to a dinner at some point, and that starting with juice was the least he could do.

The topic turns to Garaele's dinner and the stories she would regale us with, alarming Sildar. After some banter, Sildar agrees to tell us one story. We ask him about how he met Garaele, and he obliges:

• He had been forced to (and changes this quickly to say that he chose) to travel on the Triboar Trail 30 or so years ago.

• He "felt like having some fun and unwinding", taking on a pack of orcs that was way over his paygrade, and almost getting killed for it

• Garaele saved him and brought him back home, but -- according to Sildar -- insisted that he needed healing when he didn't.

• Garaele "kept him captive" for three weeks while his wounds healed, though she "hurt him more than she helped".

Sorennar and Lera, recognizing that Sildar was not always forthcoming about needing healing when wounded, realize that he had probably been more wounded than he let on in his story, and are relieved that Garaele most likely had his best interests in mind and wasn't actually "keeping him captive".

We receive our juice and get ready to go to the bathhouse!