Ending the Redbrand threat

Frontier Forays - Sessions 3

The ruins of Tresendar Manor
Image by Wizards of the Coast

[7 min read]

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER

Back at the Stonehill Inn, enjoying some respite from their recent travails, the party meets the very garrulous wife of the inn's proprietor Toblen. Trilena Stonehill catches them up on some local news:

‘Thel Dendrar, a local woodcarver, stood up to the Redbrands a tenday ago when they came by his shop and leered at his wife. The ruffians murdered him. Several townsfolk saw it happen. The Redbrands grabbed his body, and now his wife, daughter, and son have gone missing too’

Supping with Sildar Hallwinter when they hear this news, the group and their patron feel that the Redbrands have gone too far and must be stopped, post-haste. Their gaze turns to the ruined manor on the nearby hilltop, for it was rumoured that the Redbrands were holing up there and extorting local businesses for supplies to rebuild it.

The door to the Stonehill Inn opened, and in stepped Sildar's newest addition to the roster of heroes, a lithe, seven foot tall, mysterious figure named Alucard. 

6. Carpe diem

That night, clouds obscuring the moonlight on an otherwise inauspicious Flamerule evening, the party realises they are being tailed by a small, stealthy, humanoid. They spot Carp, halfling teenager they freed at the Sleeping Giant tavern, and convince him to turn on his malfeasant friends and help them lay an ambush.

Lured in by Wick's illusory imitation of Carp's potty-mouthed, drawling accent, the Redbrands find themselves beset upon by the party, their halfling scout nowhere to be found. Defeating them soundly, the party drag them into the abandoned hut and interrogate their leader, Kelvin, Tormentor of Puppies, on the numbers and defences of the Redbrands.

Kelvin holds firm under duress, until Alucard shows a dread visage, "shark face"
Map by Patreon | Neutral Party

During the interrogation, Carp, who probably was not old enough to be witnessing it, reveals the location of a secret entrance directly into the cellars of Tresendar Manor, where the Redbrands are hiding. He shows the party the way through the forest, then does the bidding of his new adventuring idols and sets the hut with the bodies on fire to destroy the evidence of what transpired.

Carp Alderleaf, after having his courage bolstered by the party

7. Secrets & meat

The party make their way up a long, slow incline, deep beneath the hill upon which the ruins of the Tresendar Manor are perched, hoping to catch the Redbrands unawares. The tunnel empties into a dark, dank cavern, and a strange voice fills the adventurer's heads demanding meat, fresh meat. It seems to know their innermost secrets and uses them to negotiate. When the party splits up and explores the many exits from the cavern, the nothic gets frustrated and ambushes Alucard, rotting his flesh with its gaze and downing him with its claws.

Meat, feed me meat, and your secrets are safe with me
Image by Wizards of the Coast

The rest of the party come to Alucard's rescue with healing, and pursue the nothic around the cavern, its bright green eye betraying its location. Despite its cajoling, pleading, and promising to give up other secrets, the party shows it no mercy.

Exploring the stairs to the west, behind the first door the party hears deep, gruff voices taunting a presumably smaller creature in goblin. After a failed attempt to open the door stealthily, they find three bugbears, one with a jewelled eye patch, waiting for them in a dark room. Battle is joined through the doorway, but with the bugbears failing to grapple and pull anyone into the room, they find themselves bottled up inside. The seemingly unconscious form of a goblin gets up and identifies himself in common as Droop 'the insignificant', hiding under a bed for the majority of the combat.

Frustrated at not being able to get a foothold in the corridor, the bugbears resort to yelling to the drunk Redbrand guards in the room to the north. One of these runs out to warn their leader, Glasstaff, while the other three eagerly rush into the corridor to try their luck against the raging half-orc, Terach. It is said that alcohol grants courage but dims the wits, and so this strategy proves ill-conceived as the party dispatches of bugbear and Redbrand alike. Droop, impressed at the coordinated assault of blade and blast and feeling bold, comes out from under the bed to backstab one of his tormentors.

The cellars, now cleared, could make for a functional base of operations
Map by Wizards of the Coast

8. Chasing Glasstaff

The leader of the Redbrands, a wizard known as Glasstaff, was a cautious man. A man with a plan. And when adventurers burst into his hideout and best his guards, rather than debase himself with uncivilised hostility, decides to flee. Gentlemen don't treat with brigands.

Running out from his study, through secret doors, Glasstaff tries to recover his getaway satchel before exiting the main cellar door. Alas, Alucard and Wick were hot on his tail, and Terach was not too far behind, although the barbarian was preoccupied on the decision whether to bash his own head against the cavern walls in order to stay enraged. Or not. Sanity prevails.

Wick catches Glasstaff trying to pull out his potion of invisibility and knocks the satchel from his hands back into the cistern with an eldritch blast, forcing the wizard to dash and misty step out of the cellars and out of range. Cue Alucard, with his superior speed and grace, to give chase to Glasstaff in an epic test of cunning and skill. Not before he trips trying to vault up a five foot high set of stairs...

Using perception to track the wizard's path, insight as to where he might hide, and acrobatics to tumble down the hill outside Tresendar Manor, Alucard catches and accosts the wizard. Engaging him in the kind of verbal sparring favoured by egotists and evil mages, Alucard distracts Glasstaff long enough for his comrades to arrive and subdue the outwitted and outmatched wizard. 'But let us not degrade this situation into violence gentlemen, for surely you see the Redbrands have brought order to Phandalin and we should overlook any nasty little business that has transpired? Think on how we might benefit the town together!'

Glasstaff's pleading falls on deaf ears, and is silenced by a gag.

What comes next?

A few hours before dawn, Glasstaff safely incarcerated, the cellars cleared, and the woodcarver's family found, the party can safely explore and collect the ill-gotten gains of the Redbrands who no longer pose a threat to Phandalin.

Sildar will be best pleased to hear of the progress, and the potential of the manor as a base of operations. How can he use these events to curry favour with Phandalin? For 'the Lords' Alliance!'...

Glasstaff may yet yield answers as to his mysterious leader, and their purpose in the region. What does he know of Gundren's map?

Could Droop and Carp, if deemed trustworthy and capable, be trained as scouts or adventurers, or remain merely lackeys for the party?

Mirna Dendrar, learns of the tragic death of her husband and is overcome with grief. Is she grateful to her liberators for saving her children? Will she ever love again?

These answers and more, in the next session of Frontier Forays, featuring Phandalin's Finest...

Highlights of the session

• Wick chatting up making Sildar's personal maid, Martha, the pock-marked hunchback
• The party rolling in to the Sleeping Giant tavern like ballers and casually dropping several gold to Grista each time they visit to help with restorations
• The grappler's tango - Terach and Kelvin maneuvering around each other trying to get a hold, all the while calling each other 'puppy'
• The party deliberately mispronouncing Carp's name as 'Crap'
• The nothic discovering Wick's secret - that he likes the company of older ladies
• All party members falling into the crevasse once or twice each, like an adventurer's rite of passage
• Terach spearing not one, but two, drunken Redbrands through the chest with one mighty thrust of his greatsword
• Alucard befriending Droop the goblin, who turned out to be a double agent  by changing sides twice, stabbing the bugbear and (half-heartedly) Alucard in the back
• The disco light show of Wick with eldritch blast shooting over the shoulder of Alucard, who reacted by dropping like it's hot and letting it strike the surprised enemy in the face
• Wick's sudden interest in woodcarving after discovering the body in the crevasse was actually Thel Drendar, leaving the woodcarver's wife now a widow