I was the first down the next morning. Tolben greeted me as I sat down and ordered breakfast. Pip brought it out to me. “Where’s Elsa?” I asked Pip. He shrugged and wandered off towards the kitchen. As I ate, the others came downstairs, one after the other. Everyone except for Redium. “Must be sleeping in”, I suggested. “We’ll give him a little more time before we wake him and start our day.” The others agreed and ordered their own food. However, by the time we’d finished eating and were ready to head out, Redium still hadn’t come down. “I guess I should go wake him.” Pushing my way to my feet, I climbed the wooden stairs to the second floor. I knocked on the door. From within, I heard the sounds of someone moving around. After a moment, the door flew open and Elsa swept past me and made her quickly down the stairs. Looking in, I saw Redium, laying in bed and grinning at me.
“You dirty old man…” I say, shaking my head at him, laughing. “We’ve already had breakfast and are ready to get started. How long do you need before you’re ready to go?”
“Just a moment.” Standing, he cast Mage Hand and the mystically created hand started gathering up his clothes from around the room and handing them to him. In a few moments, he was fully dressed and dismissed the spell. “Ready.”
“Great. Let’s go.” I headed downstairs to where the others waited.
“There you are. Oversleep?” Vitarri asked.
“Nope.”
As he said it, Elsa ran from the kitchen holding a bag and thrust it into Redium’s hands. “I’ve gathered breakfast for you.” She stretched up, kissed him on the cheek and ran back to the kitchen.
Surprised looks passed between the others. Vitarri snickered as we followed Redium out into the morning sun. Vaneiros called for the groom to bring the wagon around. While we waited, I said, “I suggest we start at the Lionshield Coster.” Once the wagon had been brought around, we climbed up and headed down the road towards the center of town.
As we came to the town square, Xarus pointed at a building across the way. “That’s it.” A sign in the shape of a shield hung above the door, painted with a blue lion.
Vaneiros brought the wagon to a stop and hopped down. A man stepped out of the door and came over to meet us. “Oy, can I help you?”
“Yes. We’ve recovered crates that carry your mark. We believe they belong to you.”
He raised a hand. “Linene will want to know about this. Pull the wagon round back and I’ll fetch her for you.”
“Thank you.”
Vaneiros drove around back as asked and a woman stood there, waiting for us. She was in her mid-thirties, fair haired, roughly five feet tall. I climbed down from the wagon and walked to where she stood. “I hear you think you’ve found some of our shipment. Show them to me.”
“This way.” Vitarri threw back the tarp, revealing the crates we’d recovered.
“Yep, those are ours. So, where did you find them?”
“We were attacked by goblins on our way down from Neverwinter. We tracked them back to their lair, killed them all and found these in a cave. We bought them back here and decided to return them when we discovered that they belong to you.”
“Well, I really appreciate you returning them. In fact, considering that you’ve removed the threat, I believe a reward is in order. 50 gold each. Normally, I wouldn’t do this but I’m also going to give you a discount at our shop.”
“That’s very kind of you. We accept your generosity. In fact, I think we’d like to see your inventory, if you don’t mind.”
“I’m always ready to make a deal.” She motioned to one of her workers. “Unload our crates. Leave the rest.” Turning back, she said, “Let’s head inside.” We haggled for a few minutes and when we left, we’d managed to sell off the goblins gear and trade out what we carried for better equipment.
“Well, that went well. Let’s head to Barthan’s Provisions. See about collecting the rest of our money.”
We made our way over to Barthan’s Provisions. It was a large building. The shelves were stocked with goods, supplies of all kind. Food, backpacks, bedrolls, climbing gear and so on. A man approached us as we entered.
“Hello. Gundren Rockseeker hired us to bring a shipment of goods here from Neverwinter and we’ve arrived. Can you point us to whoever is in charge?”
“That would be me. I’m Elmar Barthan. This here is my shop. So you’ve brought it through safely? That’s good news. We’ve had a great deal of trouble recently. Come on back to my office and we can get you paid and on your way.”
We followed him as he made his way to the back of the store. Entering his office, he sat down and reached into his desk. He pulled a coin purse from a drawer. “How much did Gundren promise you?”
“600 gold on delivery.”
Elmar raised an eyebrow but counted out the coin and handed it across the desk to me. “Good for you. Gundren’s usually tight with his money but I guess you lot are worth it. Make sure you take a look at our stock before you leave with all that coin” he said with a chuckle.
“We will. Thank you.” Before leaving, Vaneiros and I bought a few items.
Standing in front of Barthan’s Provisions, we discussed what to do next.
Xarus said, “We need to take care of those Redbrands. They are hurting innocent people.”
I said, “I agree but I think we should gather more information. Figure out what’s going on before we rush into things. I think a good place to start would be to stop by and see Thel Dendrar’s wife. She might be able to give us more information about what happened with her husband.”
Vaneiros said, “Good idea.” We asked a passing woman for directions to the woodcarver’s house and made our way there. When we arrived, Vitarri knocked on the door but there wasn’t any answer. He reached down and tried the door but it was locked.
I turned to Scuttle. “Considering the recent trouble, I think it might be wise if you go in and look around.”
With a nod, Scuttle pulled a tool from his cloak and with a click, the door opened. He disappeared into the house. After a moment, he returned. “No one is home. But you should see this.”
I pushed the door open and stepped in. The others followed. Looking around the interior, I saw signs of a struggle. A chair lay on its back, knocked over. Plates with half eaten food sat on the table. We searched the other rooms but Scuttle was right. There wasn’t anyone there.
“This is serious. I think we need to talk to the townmaster. Tell them that Thel’s wife has gone missing. Maybe we can make this an official investigation.”
“Agreed.”
We exited the woodcarver’s house and crossed the street to the Townmaster’s Hall. As we approached the entrance, I saw that three men stood in front of the Hall. Each wore a red cloak. I was formulating what I would say when, suddenly, Xarus tore past me.
“What the….?”, I muttered, surprised and alarmed.
Xarus drew his sword as he ran and swung. The blow connected and one of the redbrand fell back, clutching his arm, his scream piercing the air.
Vaneiros reacted quickly. Stepping up, he cast Thunderwave. A wave of thunderous force blasted forward, knocking two of the Redbrands off their feet. The third one dodged backward, narrowly avoiding the blast.
Redium stepped forward and swung his quarterstaff but the guard dodged and his attack missed.
Vitarri stepped forward and brought his great sword up and swung it down in an arc and severed the head of the nearest Redbrand. Raising the sword again, he swung down at the other prone guard, severing his head as well.
I raised my hand and cast Charm Person on the remaining guard. His eyes glazed over for a moment but then cleared.
Xarus cast Smite. A blue glow shown along the length of his blade. He stabbed the final Redbrand through the chest, lifting him up in the air and held him there. Xarus lowered his blade and the body fell to the floor.
Looking at Xarus, I asked, “What did you do? I was going to talk to them.”
He shrugged. “They were evil. I did what I needed to do.”
“But we could have talked to them, found out more information.”
Vitarri was kneeling down, searching the bodies. “They don’t have any weapons. Gold neither.”
“You mean we killed three unarmed men? I doubt the townmaster will look kindly on this.” As I said this, I glanced over and saw Pip standing there. He was holding an apple which he dropped as he ran off.
“Fantastic”, I said. “We’ve frightened the Innkeeper’s son. This isn’t going to end well.”