The low road

Having left the Redbrands ruffians safely in the town lock-up, we retire to the Stonehill Inn where we are bought round after round of drinks by grateful locals.  It seems our rooms are on the house as well, so we carry Garrett up to bed and get a good night’s trance, having first taken care to secure our rooms against any possible reprisal from the Redbrands.  Our rest is uninterrupted however, and we descend in the morning for a good breakfast (except in Garrett’s case, who we just dunk in a coffee pot to sober up).

8th day of Tarsakh

Through the haze we remember a couple of things that people have mentioned the previous evening.  One was an off-hand comment that the Miner’s Exchange never seems to be bothered by the Redbrands.  Possibly this is because Halia Thornton is too tough for them, but we get thinking about what she offered us, which was a bounty to kill Glasstaff and take his correspondence.  For someone who was so anti-Redbrand, it is interesting that she doesn’t want us to eliminate the Redbrands entirely.  But, if she was the second in command of the Redbrands herself, and was ambitious for promotion, hiring some dumb muscle to kill her boss might be quite a cunning strategy.  Food for thought certainly, and a reason maybe to not completely trust Halia.

Sildar also asks us to keep an eye out for a friend of his called Iano Albrecht, a short, black bearded wizard who disappeared here a few months ago.  Like Sildar, he is a member of the Lord’s Alliance, and he is concerned that the Redbrands may have kidnapped him.

The second was something that Pip Stonehill said, about a halfling friend of his, Care Alderleaf, who had found a tunnel entrance in the woods, but had been scared off by the Redbrands.  Pip isn’t around (he is running errands) but Toblin directs up to Care’s mother’s farm, which is at the end of the track that leads towards the forest and the ruined Trisander Manor, which we have established is where the Redbrands have their hideout.  We find the farm easily, but Care is also running errands, and his mother, Quelline, doesn’t know exactly where the tunnel he claims to have found is.  We decide to look for ourselves, and I spend a couple of hours carefully scouring the woods, but find nothing apart from some tracks that someone has taken great care to try and cover over, meaning I am unable to determine what had made them.

The others are getting bored by this stage, so we decide to investigate the Manor directly.  Various other rumours come back to us at this point.  Glasstaff is rumoured to lair there, at the western end, and there are supposed to be many captives there, guarded by skeletons.  The Manor itself is pretty ruined, and we see no signs of any lookouts or traps on the approach.  In one corner of the ruins, in the remains of the kitchen, we find a spiral staircase descending.   Many tracks lead too and from this entrance.

I descend alone, relying on my stealth and darksight.  It descends one turn and ends in a door.  I listen, but don’t hear anything.  I go back to beckon the others down the stair, and then open the door.  It is unlocked, and opens easily onto a gallery above a large cellar, containing an open cistern, and a large number of barrels and crates.  I descend down to the floor of the cellar and listen at the two doors, but hear nothing.  We gather at the western-most door, mindful of the rumour that Glasstaff lairs at the western end of the cellars.  We open the door and surprise three Redbrands resting in their beds.  The room is too small for anyone other than Aeldrin and Elaina to enter, but we make short work of the ruffians, although one of them does manage to scratch me with their blade before we take them down.  The room has two double bunks and more barrels and crates, but no other exits.  We take their red cloaks as a disguise, and return them to their bunks, mop the floor quickly and extinguish the lights, hoping that a casual inquirer will think they are asleep.

We return to the other door, which opens in to a short passage that leads to a large vaulted hall which ends in two bronze doors, green with age, embossed with a mourning angel.  Dust lies thick on the floor, and it is apparent that no one has entered this hall in a very long time.  Since we are interested in finding Glasstaff, rather than a bunch of undead, we decide not to proceed further.

The chamber appears to be a dead-end, but the tracks above tell us that this is unlikely, so we start searching behind all barrels and crates.  Finally, we find a secret door in the south-western corner.  It opens into a long, unlit corridor that doglegs to the right before opening into a large, rough, lit cavern.  The floor is divided by a long rift, crossed by two plank bridges.  Two rough stone columns hold up the ceiling.  I advance cautiously to check the nearest bridge, and the crevasse.  There is a charnel smell in the air.  The rift is only 5-10 feet deep, and has rough, easily climbed sides.  There are bones littered on the bottom, possibly the source of the smell.  I instantly think of the stories I have heard of ghouls; terrible undead scavengers that eat the dead.  The plank bridge looks little used, and rather fragile – I suspect it would collapse if crossed.  I make my way north on this side of the crevice, and hear a quite voice in my head telling me to come back and cross the bridge.  I ignore it, and it pleads with me to come across the cavern.  I continue to ignore it.  At the northern end, the cavern opens into a worked area, and I beckon the others forward.  Aramil also hears the strange voice.  The worked area is a workshop with tools and yet more barrels and crates.  In an alcove in the north-eastern corner we find another secret door that opens into a north-south corridor.  There is a door opposite, which is silent and locked.  There is also a door at the south end of the corridor, which we open, having first heard nothing.  Beyond is some sort of crypt.  There are two large bronze doors at the south-eastern corner, which look familiar, plus three coffins, each with a skeleton standing before it.  They turn and look at us with empty eye sockets, but do not attack.  We close the door and are preparing to retreat, but then have a sudden surge of inspiration.  There was also another, normal door on the eastern wall, and the rumour mentioned that captives were guarded by skeletons.  Maybe the red cloaks that we are wearing are what is stopping them attacking us?  Elaina picks up Garrett and carries him under her cloak, and we re-enter the room and cross to the other door.  The skeletons make no effort to interfere with us.

At the other door, we listen and hear noises of laughter and screaming.  Assuming that someone is being tortured, we burst in.  The room is not large, and the northern and southern end are barred off as cells.  In the northern one is a young lad, in the southern, two women, who are being poked and prodded by two red cloaked men in the main part of the chamber.  We rush forward and engage them.  Garrett deploys his enchanted invective to good effect, and we swiftly kill the two men.  We search their bodies for keys to the cells, but find none.  Elaina, frustrated, seizes the gate to the southern cell and wrenches it open, allowing the two women to emerge.  They explain that they are Mirna and Nilsa Dendra, wife and daughter of Thel Dendra who we had heard was brutally murdered by the Red Blades a few days ago.  The lad in the northern cell is their son/brother, Nars.  Elaina attempts to wrench that door open as well, but fails.  It is made of tougher stuff.  Aramil lends a hand, but even together they cannot budge it.  Then I remember the tools back in the workshop.  I sneak back, encountering no-one, and grab a couple of crowbars.  Elaina and Aramil once again get to work on the gate, encouraged by the last of Garrett’s inspiration and a prayer from Aramil.  At last they succeed in opening the gate, freeing Nars.  There is a large pile of clothes in the room, and they quickly find their own and dress themselves more decently.  Mirna offers us a family hierloom if we will free them from this dungeon, but I instantly reply that we would free them anyway, and having just lost her husband she is almost certainly in more need of the money than we are.  Garrett aims a swift kick at me, but I avoid it.  We check the clothes to see if there is anything that might have been worn by a short, black-bearded wizard, but find nothing.  Possibly this means he is still alive.  Mirna mentions that the guards change relatively frequently in this cell, so it is not a safe place to take a rest.  We prepare to leave, although there are now seven of us, and only five cloaks.  How will we get the chickens across without the fox eating them?