Lost Mines Of Phandelver : 7 – Escape The Hideout

Our heroes:

Euphemia “Mia” Tosscobble, the Halfling Rogue,

Count Erspell, the Elvish Mage,

Kui-Kui, the Human Noble Fighter,

Dave, the Human Folk Hero Fighter,

& Eorlund Granitefella, the Dwarvish Cleric

Glasstaff is dead, Mia is unconscious and possibly still under the effects of a charm spell and the group needs to escape the Redbrand hideout.

Kui-Kui volunteers to carry the halfling, as Eorlund took point. Stumbling upon Glasstaff’s lab, Erspell hunted around for anything of interest, finding various ingredients and unfinished invisibility potions. Dave found a note to Glasstaff from a ‘Black Spider’, the note was instructions for the Redbrands to attack adventures and keep the town in check. The note also revealled that Glasstaff was Iarno Albrek, the Lord’s Alliance member Sildar had tasked the group with finding.

Checking the door to the next room, Dave heard the voices of several Redbrand’s. Most of the group wished to leave them there but Eorlund wouldn’t have any of it, he demanded that the Redbrands be wiped from the sword coast, kicking in the door so hard it swung open killing one of the men on the other side.

With Eorlund deciding the plan of attack for them, the rest of the group jumped into action, Erspell sending out his trusty sphere of flames, Dave with his bow and Kui-Kui put down Mia and started swinging his greataxe, instantly slicing two of the thugs in half.

Having interrupted their game, Dave collected the wagers left on the table. Eorlund satisfied with the fight, woke up Mia in hopes that Glasstaff’s influence had subsided, much to Erspell’s relief it had, Mia was back in control again.

After clearing out the break room, Erspell heard what sounded like large creatures yelling in goblin. Checking the door at the other end of the room, The Count was able to find out that there were three bugbears in a room, yelling commands at another unknown person. Not wanting to fight them, but wanting to save their victim, Mia suggested taking the uniforms of the thugs they had just slain and trying to deceive the bugbears. Donning disguises, Erspell banged on the door yelling that Glasstaff been killed and the murderers were still in the hideout. Believing them, the bugbears rushed out towards Glasstaff’s room. Kui-Kui entered the room to find out the bugbears captive was a small scrawny goblin who fainted at the site of the human. Feeling sorry for the creature, Kui-Kui picked up the goblin to take him to safety.

Making their way back to the entrance, Mia heard more shouting to the north. Wanting to investigate, they found themselves in a long straight corridor. Thinking it looked suspicious, Erspell noticed a few cracks on the ground. He then told the group that it looked like there was a pit trap across the floor but they could avoid it by shimmying along the wall. Mia, Erspell and Dave crossed it without any problems. Eorlund, unfortunately, lost his footing and fell onto the trap, but with reflexes that defied physics, he was able to quickly jump clear of the trap. Kui-Kui, still worried about the goblin, stayed behind to make sure it would be ok. After a few medical checks, the goblin was bandaged up and Kui-Kui let him know he was free to go. Not needing to be told twice the goblin ran out of the hideout.

Exiting the trapped hallway our Heroes entered a mausoleum with three sarcophagi, each with a skeleton propped up on them. Dave went to check the coffins for any loot but as he reached his hand out, the skeleton started creaking and turned its head towards him. Looking Dave up and down, the skeleton saw the Redbrand uniform and returned to its original position. Realising the skeletons won’t attack the group while they are wearing their disguises, they started looking around the room finding a few small trinkets. Checking the exits of the room, they couldn’t hear anything behind the door to the north side of the room, but the door to the east of the room they could hear more voices.

Behind the door, they found two Redbrand standing guard in front of two makeshift cells with three prisoners inside them. The group informed the Redbrand’s that Glasstaff had been killed and the two guards ran out the room, claiming they knew joining was a bad idea. Euphemia picked the locks of the cells and managed to gain the trust of the prisoners, finding that they had been taken by the Redbrands because one of their family refused to help the thugs.

While Mia was talking to the prisoners, a bugbear entered the room from the north door. As he did so, the skeletons turned towards him and started to advance. the bugbear said the word “Illefarn”, at which point the skeletons returned back to their ready states and did not attack. Erspell was able to pick up what this word was as the bugbear left the room through the south exit, paying the group no mind as they were still in uniforms.

Telling the prisoners to stay where they were, so they could check if there are any more bugbears to the north, Euphemia and Dave went up and found the Redbrand’s armoury, which they quickly cleaned out, taking many crossbows, javelins, swords and quivers of arrows & bolts.

On their return, they gathered the prisoners spoke the phrase to the skeletons to allow them through and quickly made their way out of the Redbrand hideout hopefully to never return.

Is this the last of the Redbrands? Who is this Black Spider that was mentioned in Glasstaff’s note?

The adventure continues…