Greetings and tribute adventurers, and welcome back to the Forge and Fable podcast.
As dawn breaks, our heroes awaken a hard fought victory against the goblin infestation.
With Sildar Hellwinner safe, but Gundren Rockseekers still missing, our adventurers continue the
journey to Findalen.
What truths will they uncover in the wake of this battle?
What secrets linger about the glowing goblins?
And just how deep does this mystery go?
Grab your dice and prepare to roll for initiative.
So unfortunately we had some PC goblins get ahold of one of our files.
And we may have lost some of it.
But we're gonna go ahead and patch things up.
That way we can keep our story on the rails and on track.
So sorry about that.
We're gonna do better going forward.
Make sure that doesn't happen again.
Alright.
So you guys are just now waking up and you find yourselves at the cave.
And it's a new day, it's a new morning.
So why don't we talk about what are you guys doing right now?
Like what's the routine in the morning?
As always, I'm doing my morning stretches, my morning workout.
I'm gonna want to check on the animals, so I'm gonna start the ritual for speak with
animals.
Okay, alright.
Marin often takes last watch so that he can be up early.
And while he is on watch, mostly Darren, his familiar, does the watching.
And Marin works in his spell book or hammers out a rune on a small stone or a bit of wood
that he finds just ever growing his spell work.
Alright.
Bishop is, you know, just getting his morning coffee.
Gotta have that cup of joe.
It's the best part of waking up.
It is.
Alright, so yeah, we'll go over to Amaris.
You were preparing something to speak with the animals?
Yeah, I just want to check on them.
They've been kind of without their necessities for a little while.
We're in there kind of messing with the goblins and the bugbear and stuff.
So I just want to make sure they're good.
Okay.
And I can't speak with animals so I can more easily get to what they need.
Okay.
Hey there.
Yeah, you're looking at the two of them.
They hear you.
And the one on your left turns towards you.
I say, did you just speak to me?
I wanted to check to see if you guys are good.
Do you need anything?
Well, this is fascinating.
Ah, now that you mention it, I am a little hungry.
Could go for a warm bath.
Perhaps to be let out in the field or lunged for half a day.
Get a good sweat.
As awesome as all that could be, I think about all I can really do for you right now is maybe
get you some food.
What about your buddy over there?
Does he need anything in particular?
Oh, him.
Yes.
Well, Lenny's rather simple.
He's quite satisfied with apples most of the time.
Okay.
Chester, did you say apples?
Yes, Lenny.
I did mention an apple.
I like apples.
I'm hungry.
I'll see what I can do for you too then.
I'm going to go into the cart and kind of rummage around, see if I can find anything.
All we have is good berries.
I don't like berries, but I like apples.
Wait.
I can't understand him.
Can I, Chester?
No, Lenny.
You cannot.
All right.
I'll be right back, you guys.
Yeah, they're just hanging out.
Very well, my good man.
I shall remain here while you run off in search of sustenance.
While I'm also walking over to the cart to maybe check for food that they prepacked for
us for the horses, I'm going to see if I can forage anything that might be of interest
to them or I think could be of interest.
Cool.
Yeah, you can, if you want, like looking around and trying to find stuff, you could roll like
a survival check for that.
Okay.
I don't know if you have any druity bonuses you can get for something like that or if
you're able to just produce a certain amount of food.
If you have anything like that, make sure to check your sheet.
I've got druity bonuses.
No.
What'd you roll on your check?
16.
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
You definitely are able to find quite a bit.
Ironically enough, you're in a forest and wouldn't you know it, there's an apple tree
over there.
How convenient.
Yeah, it looks like some Granny Smiths.
Oh, excellent.
So, that's some good ones.
Yeah.
So, I'm going to go over there and pick a few of them.
All right.
Yeah, there's more than you can handle, so you can pick to your heart's content.
Okay, well, I'm just going to pick enough that it starts to get awkward to carry it
all and then I'm going to bring it back to the horses.
Okay.
I just imagine you awkwardly carrying a bunch of apples back.
I'm just leaning up against the tree just drinking my coffee watching this all go down.
It's just really fascinating.
In the meantime, Marin has been puzzling over a solution that will help us get the extra
goods that we discovered in Clark's Cave from the Lion Shield casters back to Van Dallen.
Considering we already have cart full of provisions, eventually he pulls a small vial of a silvery
metal out of his bag and sits down to begin casting a ritual of his own.
Oh, I wonder what's going on there.
Okay.
I think Sildar's up and he's still kind of beat up.
You look at him, he's not 100%.
So, I imagine he's replacing some of his bandaging.
He might have found some supplies through the crates that you guys are carrying back
and he's putting some of them to good use right now as he's patching himself up.
I imagine he just kind of approaches you guys at the camp.
Well, what's the plan?
Are we off to Van Dallen?
Yes.
I am ready to go whenever you are.
I just toast my coffee.
Hi.
Hold just a moment.
I ain't making no two trips to get these other goods back.
Oh, hold on a second.
Is that coffee you have there?
It was coffee.
In my cup, localized specifically in my cup.
Have you got any more of that?
I was just imagining what if you had a cup, like an unending cup enchantment on it with
coffee and he just poured it out but it fills right back up.
Hey Bishop, I noticed you don't have any starting equipment.
He busts out just a cup.
It's all I need.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you could have something.
Splendid.
What's it you're doing there?
And he points over towards Marin.
I just, I think, and then I just trail off as Marin pours a small drop of this silvery
liquid metal, mercury for those of us who know things, out of a vial into the middle
of a ritual circle.
And it'll stop hovering in the air in the midst of the circle before it expands and
grows into what I believe is a 10 foot by 10 foot disc that, oh no, not 10 foot, that's
way too big.
Three foot diameter, so about a six foot round floating silvery disc.
Flips three feet off the ground, so like Marin's chest.
He goes, uh huh.
And he climbs on top of it and does a couple stomps and a jump.
Impressive.
Aye, this'll do.
I'll need some help getting these boxes and such onto this.
I'm afraid I'm a little sore today.
I can help where I can.
Sure.
But I mean Marin will set to start loading boxes, crates onto this disc, iron them together
so that they will stay maybe stacked a bit awkwardly, but well enough.
I poke the disc and then as it just stays there I'll start loading up too.
Thank you.
I'll help and then I just walk over to the disc and I just sit on the edge.
Lenny sits next to you.
He realizes he's taking up the whole disc and then stands up awkwardly.
I'll have to sit from the back of a wagon as we head back into Vandalin and recast the
ritual a number of times, but we don't have to repack the wagon itself or choose to leave
anything behind.
Are we about ready then?
I think we just gotta feed the horses.
Yeah, well while you guys were doing that I think I had enough time to feed the few
apples I had to the horses and then help load afterwards.
Okay so the horses get fed up and you guys proceed to load these boxes onto the disc.
With a little portion of the morning taken from the loading process, bringing things
out from the cave, putting it on the disc.
I imagine you guys now have about a six foot high stack of these crates on this box.
It's about five or six feet stacked up and you guys are ready to head to town.
This thing is impressive.
It does well enough.
It does only hold 500 pounds of goods.
I suppose six feet might be good enough.
Once we get close to reaching that six feet though, Marin just can't reach anymore.
Well I can haul stuff over but someone else has to push it up.
But yeah, once we hitch up the cart, Marin will sit in the back and the disc will float
about 20 feet behind me following that at whatever pace we're going.
Okay great.
Yeah I imagine you guys get all your things together and you head out.
You guys are still about a half day away from Phandalin.
So you set out on the rest of your journey to reach the city.
Everything seems to happen along the way.
It seems to be a fairly comfortable ride.
A little slow in the cart and taking care to make sure that your disc isn't chopping
down any trees because it got line of sight around the bend of a path from where you guys
were and things like that.
Don't need all the crap toppling off it either.
So yeah, it's a lot of take that corner wider.
Like you're pulling a trailer.
So you guys are on the road and it's been probably half a day or so, maybe a little
more and that's when you begin to notice that the rutted track emerges from this wooded
hillside area that you're in and you catch your first glimpse of Phandalin.
The town consists of 40 to 50 simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations.
Most of the old ruins are like these crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars and
they surround the newer homes that were built like within those older stone foundations.
And you see the shops and it just shows how much this must have been like a larger town
in the centuries past to have this new town built inside the areas of all these other
buildings and structures that were there.
Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the cart track, which widens into
a muddy main street as it climbs towards a ruined manor house on a hillside at the east
side of town.
As you approach, you see children playing on the town green and townsfolk tending to
chores or running errands at the shops in town.
Many people look up and smile as you approach, but all seem to return to their business as
you go by.
What do you guys have planned?
Where do you want to head to?
Well, we need to drop off the goods at the... what was it?
Someone's goods.
It's in here.
It's in here, I know it.
Oh, Lion Coster.
Well, that's the extra goods, but the original job that Roxie got hired is for.
Barton's Provisions.
Ah, yeah.
Got to drop some stuff off at Barton's Provisions and we have to go to Lion's Shield Coster.
Ah, Barthens.
Very well.
Barthens.
Yes.
Forgive me.
I forget you haven't been here yet.
Well, let me give you a quick little rundown of the town and then from there you guys are
free to go about what you want.
If you'll forgive me though, after this I'm going to go retire to the Stonehill Inn.
I'm quite beat.
Let's see here.
Now, you guys just made your way in and I imagine you went by the first couple little
farmhouses to your left and right and you're making your way into the town square area.
As you're kind of...
So you guys make your way in and as you guys are traveling along the road, he's kind of
like just pointing out things as you're kind of slowly passing by.
He says, ah, yeah, Barthens is right here up on the left and he points and gestures
out to the left.
He says, but if you'd like to look around or go up the path a little ways, I can point
out a couple key places you might be interested in.
I imagine you guys...
Do you keep going or do you just stop at Barthens?
We can keep going a little bit.
Maybe just find a hill to get a good aerial view of the town from.
Yeah.
If you want to drop me off at the inn, I would greatly appreciate it.
I will go ahead and take this stuff over to the provisions.
I'll catch up even later.
I guess I'm getting off the cart then.
Yeah, he climbs down off the cart because you remember that the cart and the oxen belong
to Barthens provisions.
So imagine you guys saw the horses and Sildar will just grab his trusty horse Chester, but
he's walking him.
He doesn't feel like he's in the condition to ride.
Very well.
Look for Elmina when you go in there, friendly lady, and she should help you out with everything
you need.
I'll grab Lennie.
We'll just be in the town squatter up ahead.
I'll nod.
Over here on your left, this is the Stonehill Inn.
Up on the right, that's the Shrine of Luck.
That's the town's local religious building.
Run by Sista Gariel.
Across the way there, you have the town green and he points off to the west where you see
this large grass field with kids running around and playing in it.
In that direction, you have Lion's Shield Costa.
The Woodworkers is over that way.
If you look closely down that road, you can barely make out the miners exchange.
There's a couple other places around town, but why don't you settle in and you can have
a look around.
The only other place that I know of that's worth checking out could be the Sleeping Giant,
which is like the local bar.
But Stonehill Inn, that's my place.
He's got old Tobin in here.
He's got just about everything.
And what of the ruined manor on the hill over yonder?
Oh, that's old Trissenda Manor.
Been abandoned and decrepit for years.
I see.
Don't think anybody's been up there to rebuild or stake claim on that area.
Well, thank you for the directions.
I believe it's to Lion's Shield Costa's with us and then perhaps back to Stonehill.
All right.
Well if you excuse me, I'm going to go retire for the evening.
I'll be seeing you.
Make sure to come see me before you head out on any other explorations or things like that.
I might have a few things that we can discuss.
Hi, your friend, was it?
Hi, Wilpock.
Wilpock, yeah.
Sounds good.
And he's just kind of, he's kind of, I imagine shirtless with bandages wrapped all around
him.
He's just seen pushing through the door into Stonehill Inn.
You know, Bishop, you maybe could have given him some of your healing.
It's good.
He's fine.
He's walking.
So yeah, from what you guys gathered from what he told you, you kind of have like the
major landmarks of the town.
So I imagine if one of you guys were jotting it down and taking notes, you'd have like
a little labeled map of the village.
Ooh, labeled map.
And here you go.
Okay.
So we will cut over to Corrin now.
Let's see here.
Corrin, so you stand in front of Barth's Provisions.
It's the biggest trading post in Phandalin.
It's known for its things like its backpacks, bedrolls, rope, rations, you know, just the
provisions that you would need or this village and city would need to maintain good health,
you know, they get the food, they get the bedrolls.
If you need, it's like a one stop shop, little shopping center area.
It's a store run by...
It's the commissary.
Yeah, like the commissary, exactly.
So as you approach, there's two younger individuals, one red haired gentleman and a dirty brown
haired, disheveled looking guy.
And the red haired gentleman says to you, he goes, are you dropping off?
Yes, I was told by Sodor to speak to Almeena.
He looks towards his partner, nods his head and you see the one with the brown hair go
running off into the building.
Right, stranger, well, I'll take the oxen cart off your hands.
I'll start unloading and you should be able to meet Almeena inside.
Very good.
No funny business, right?
I'll never give you that idea.
And I'll just walk past him.
He just kind of stands there in a stupor, like thinking to himself, well, it's not many...
I don't really see people in masks all that often.
Poor guy.
He maybe even says that like under his breath a little bit as he grabs the reins to the
ox.
And it gets on himself for not being as brave as he wanted to just say it out right in the
first place.
He's walking the ox back with the cart.
We cut to inside.
So inside you see standing behind a counter is a young human woman who seems to have a
kindly manner about her.
She has long red hair and she looks pretty young.
She looks probably to be in like her mid-twenties.
And she turns to you and she says, oh, hello.
I don't think we've met before.
Indeed not.
I'm Corrin Thurulicar.
I am here on behalf of Sildar with supplies.
You must be Almeena.
Yes.
Pleasure to meet you.
I just nod.
So this must be the provisions that were on their way here from...where's Sildar and
Gundren?
Well, Sildar, he was kind of west for wares.
So I imagine he is going to find rest, yes.
And well, Raksika, they were...him and Sildar were ambushed on the road.
Oh.
Goodness.
How are you sure of this?
Well, Sildar is alive and he told us so.
We found him and rescued him.
My gods.
We've been having a lot of trouble lately on the roads.
Yes, he said he was attacked by strange green goblins.
Green goblins?
Hm.
The glowing type.
That is strange.
You know anything about them?
No, no, I can't say green goblins.
But we are having trouble with a band of ruffians here.
The red brands, they call themselves.
Trying to be roughing everyone up and going around and causing trouble.
Is this a new problem for you?
Fairly new, yes.
It's probably been going on for a few weeks now.
It seems to just be getting progressively worse and worse.
Where do they come from?
You see, that's the curious thing is no one really knows why they showed up.
Interesting.
Just one day they began frequenting the sleeping giant.
It's a bar of hooligans down the road.
I'm sure you'll hear of it at one point.
And yeah, they seem to just been growing in number.
It's very strange.
What brought them here?
We don't know.
At least I don't.
Perhaps other people might.
And what do these red brands look like?
Well, they look like all different types of people, but they do have a signature.
They wear this red cloak.
Most of them are armed.
As a matter of fact, everyone I've seen of them is armed with some form of a weapon.
Very intimidating.
They are attempting to shake up the local businesses, demanding that we pay them or
we have trouble.
It is troubling in itself.
Yes.
Well, Ander and Thistle were supposed to be here one day watching the store while I was
gone.
And when I came back, they had said that these red brands came and got into the things.
When I went looking around, more than half of my inventory was gone.
The other half destroyed and our money was taken.
That is unfortunate.
You're telling me.
Just trying to run a business.
Huh.
You know what?
Come to think of it, the other Rockseekers haven't come back yet either.
Other Rockseekers?
Oh, yes.
Gundren has brothers.
Didn't he tell you?
Korran, do you know one of them?
From the prison.
Yeah.
Yes.
Nundro and Tharden.
They're camped somewhere outside town and well, I haven't seen them in a little over
a week, but they should be returning any day now to resupply.
Let them know that I'm here.
Would you please?
Okay, your name was again?
Korran.
Is that spelled like Kyran, but pronounced Korran?
Kyran is plenty fine.
I'm sure I will get it right every time and never mess it up.
Do really.
If you want any more news about the red brands and why they're making it so hard on anyone,
I'm afraid I can't really offer much more.
But you might try speaking with the town master and seeing if he knows anything or maybe stop
by the inn and see what's going on in there.
Perhaps some of the people here let you know a little more.
Very well.
And do you have a shrine or some kind of local church or temple?
Oh, yes.
Yes, we do.
It's run by Sister Gariel, the Shrine of Luck.
I believe what was her goddess's...
You know, I don't remember who she worships.
I don't frequent it often, but she's very, very nice.
It's over on the west side of town.
If you're standing at the town square, it's about northwest.
Can't miss it.
There you go.
There's a big shrine outside.
Very good.
I appreciate it.
And then...
Behove me to not ask.
I have a dwarf friend that will definitely be hounding me if I don't ask about our payments.
I almost forgot.
I got so caught up in our conversation.
I'm sorry.
Let's see.
I believe it was 10 gold pieces per delivery man.
And there were four of you, so that was 40 gold pieces.
Here you are.
That's...
Yes, thank you.
Oh, thank you.
I'm just so glad these things arrived.
While we're here, if they do trouble you, don't hesitate to ask.
I appreciate that.
I hope that it won't come to that though.
I'll nod and make my leave.
Okay.
So, as you're heading out, we're going to cut over to the other guys.
What are you guys doing?
I'm loitering, mostly I imagine, in the town square, getting ready to go to Lion Shield
Caster's.
Though something occurs to me.
Has anyone seen Yeezy?
But Goblin, he's a... I ain't seen him all day.
Yeah, come to think about it, I haven't even heard a peep of him.
Has been rather quiet.
Pretty out of character, no?
Yeah, that guy couldn't shut up.
Oops, sorry.
I think he snuck off, I didn't see any tracks leaving the camp.
Last time I saw him, he was...
Hold on.
I go over to the floating disc and I untie some ropes and I say, hey, I need a hand getting
this barrel down.
I'm going to go over and help him.
You want to crack it open, maybe?
Try to open it, lift the lid, peer inside.
The lid comes off and inside you see a unresponsive Yeezy submerged in the whiskey.
Fucking legend.
I'm going to shake my head, say, well, this explains why we haven't heard from him or
seen him.
And I just gesture at it and take a step back.
Don't just gesture, we've got to pull him out of there.
We can't give this back to the line shoot, because there's a goblin in it.
I mean, it's basically tea flavored or goblin flavored tea.
It's whiskey, first of all, and gross.
Good thing I drink coffee and whiskey.
We can actually have one with the other.
I'm going to pull our whiskey goblin out of there.
And well, what do we do with him?
Maybe bury him, last little bit of respect for all the help he gave us.
All the help he gave us.
He took that goblin's head right off.
No, I took that goblin's head right off.
You were there.
Wait, I thought Yeezy took one off too.
We've got to kill you.
For sure.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, the regular goblin.
Sure, sure.
I was talking about the big fucker.
I mean, look how small he is.
I'll give him credit for eating his fucking shit.
Well, they're all big fuckers to you.
Well, regular goblins.
Quite well.
Let's throw him on the pile.
Bury him after we offload the rest of these goods.
And then I guess we're going to Lion Shield Busters.
Okay, you guys make your way over to another of these log cabin type buildings.
And you see a wooden sign shaped like a shield and it's painted with a blue lion and it hangs
above the door.
And it matches the engravings on these various boxes and barrels and whatnot.
Yes, yeah.
It's the same matching logo.
All right then.
But we're not just returning these goods to a mate, right?
We're going to ask for a reward.
I imagine.
Yeah, I mean, it's awkward.
This is a pretty life threatening ordeal.
It's got to be worth something.
Come to think, maybe Yeezy has done us one last favor, given us some proof.
Let's get her figured then.
I'm going to head in.
How big is the doorway?
Will the floating disk come inside?
If you open both of the doors up, there's double doors, then it should be able to make
it in.
You said it was six feet wide, right?
Yeah, it's six foot in diameter.
Oh, it's actually three foot in diameter.
So a foot and a half radius, so three foot wide.
It'll definitely fit.
Other than I imagine you guys for sure have a six foot tall stack of things on it.
Oh my god.
It fell tied down on there.
I was drinking, I almost spit on my computer.
I think it might be too tall to fit in the door.
Hold on.
Let me do some serious concentrating and get it to float a little less than three feet
off the ground.
Maybe I just dispelled the floating disk entirely and we just dragged the whole thing inside.
Yeah, you start to get towards the door and you realize, I don't think this is going to
work.
So maybe, yeah, that would be probably a better course of action is just to drop the spell
and try to just drag things in or bring things in.
I mean, it's all bundled up right.
Pour it onto the ground, drop the spell.
Okay.
Give it a push and shove.
You know, it's a new spell.
I'm still working out the kinks.
Yeah, so you get the doors open and standing in there behind another counter, similar to
over at Barthin's Provision, you see, well, I actually have a handout for her.
Let me see if I can share it with you guys.
That'd be neat, right?
Did it pop up?
It did.
Okay.
You see this Burnet lady who has like the drinking horn kind of like tethered off to
her vest.
She wears like this leather vest and she has long white sleeves with leather cufflinks.
She's wearing rings.
She sort of has like a gypsy vibe going to her when you see her.
A lot of jewelry, necklaces.
You can see like a white lace shirt under the leather vest.
And she has the symbol of that lion and a large circular brooch upon her left shoulder
chest area.
And you notice there's just like pouches all over the front of her ensemble.
She's got like two on her hip.
Got like a fanny pack thing going on with two coin pouches next to it and a fanny pack
under it.
And she looks at you and she flips a coin and she says, well, what do we have now?
Hello.
We ran across some goods looted by goblins with the mark of the lion shield caster upon
them, we figure with our heroic daring do and returning of said goods, that it might
be some sort of reward in order.
She flips the coin again and then once more and looks at you.
Found me goods, huh?
Where did you say you found these?
Some goblins got them, did they?
I found them up in a cave to the north of here.
Some goblins, dog bear, you know, the general run of things, some big dogs also.
Here.
And then I reach up, grab ahold of Yeezy's foot, drag him off the pile and put him on
the ground in front of us.
Oh, all right.
Looks like you got a couple of me whiskey barrels there and.
Well, more besides some of it.
No, I'm I'm I'm pleased.
I'm pleased that you got what you did.
I'm sorry.
You have to forgive me.
I'm not I don't do well with strangers, especially with all the trouble we've been having in
town lately.
Hi, more trouble than goblins on the road.
I'm afraid so.
There's been this group here.
Bastards and the red cloaks call themselves red brands or some stupid name.
Keep coming around here and tearing up me place, ruining everything.
I thought it was them that made some lads he can bring in, rough them up in return.
Well, no, just me here.
I sent sent me help back over to the city of Yartar.
That's where the goods come from originally, but it's over 100 miles to the east of here.
So it take them days to make it there and then back.
It must have known me lads had left and that's just me left here.
I really am thankful I am here.
Here, take this.
She hands you a reward of 50 gold.
It's all I can do.
I'll make it back in the goods you gave me, but not much more.
But I hope it shows my appreciation.
Marin very craftily opens the bag or some of it out into his hand and then pours it back
in.
I thought we'll do.
Thank you, I suppose.
I just kind of looked around.
Well, we'll be going then.
I suppose I ought to be saying for the kind deed you did, if you've been needing any type
of armor or weapons, you let me know.
I have some in the back, but I'll tell you right now, none of them are anything special.
Just the simple goods.
I see.
Well, I will keep that in mind.
Although I have a mind to craft me own once it's time.
Anything else?
Other than just being careful and watching your back while you're here.
Never know when them bastards are coming out.
Spend most of their time getting drunk at the bar, but when they do, it's always trouble.
Right.
We'll keep an eye out for these red brands.
Red cloaks, you said?
Red cloaks is what they wear.
They call themselves the red brands.
Right.
Marin's going to make to just go and leave Yeezy's corpse just kind of there.
Okay.
So you guys are heading out?
Yes.
Okay.
Excuse me there.
Hey, whoa, wait a minute.
Aren't you forgetting something?
At the money count she just gave us.
No, no, no.
Looking around at the other two.
The green floor mat that you dropped off.
I don't want it in here.
Oh, right.
Sure.
Okay.
Emirates, you want to give me a hand?
I guess, yeah.
We'll go retrieve the corpse of Yeezy, you know, arms and legs.
Is it normal customs to drop a pickled goblin off on someone's floor when you meet them
where you're from?
When they're looking for proof of what we went through to get your goods, yeah, we would
assume that.
Oh, I suppose so.
Practice.
Still, take it with you.
Ricks.
All right, well, who was the alcoholic sort, you know?
Sorry, well, just let me and then I drop Yeezy again and I quickly cast Depressive Vegetation
on her floor, clean up some of the schmutz, pick them back, pick up my end of them again.
We'll get down to your hair.
I have a good rest of your day.
You too.
All right, we leave.
Okay.
You're out what to do with this.
Guys are outside.
You notice that it's the sun starting to set.
It took you over half a day to get here and we're now approaching more towards like the
dusk time.
I imagine the goblins just laying on the ground and so I just give him a little nudge with
my foot.
I was like, are you sure he's dead?
Well, he hasn't moved.
I mean, you're the clannerc.
Is he dead?
I'm still holding the brains of Lenny and I just don't answer that and I turn around
and walk towards the end.
At this point, I think I would have found the shrine and I want to sit down and meditate
at the shrine.
I'm going to look towards Bishop taking off, look at Marin and then just rug.
Do you know if he's dead?
I would assume so.
Guy couldn't shut up now.
Well, that's all he's doing.
Well, we can't leave him here in the middle of the road.
It would be rude.
Yeah, and as you say that, you notice like some some passersby are kind of giving you
like the side eye like what is going on?
Is it later in the day at this point?
Yeah, it's more towards the evening now, like dusk, sun setting.
All right, I'm going to do a quick look around and see if I can like find any like open areas
that maybe we can inconspicuously hide it.
There was the town green, weren't there?
I mean, it's as good a place as any.
Maybe we can just dig him a quick hole, say a few words and get on with our evening.
I mean, you are the mud mage.
So I don't know if I have any quick words for him.
But let's I mean, I guess let's maybe not carry him through the town square.
We can go around this building, right?
Back to the town square through a less populated street.
Yeah, I'm sure there's plenty of ways around.
Sure let's have a look at them.
Let's head over over here across the town square near the edge of town.
OK, so Marin and Amras are heading out over to the other side of town to the edge of the
town green, right?
But you guys are kind of taking the long way around.
Yeah, we'll be a little circuitous and go this way perhaps.
OK.
Yeah, you're able to make your way over there.
I guess we'll go to Bishop.
OK, we'll go to Bishop.
Bishop, you are now where is it at?
There it is.
You're standing in front of Stonehill Inn.
This is in the center of town.
It's opposite of the town green, where we were just referring to.
It stands large and it's like a newly built roadhouse of fieldstone and rough-hewn timbers.
As you enter, you see that the common room is filled with locals that are nursing mugs
of ale or cider, and they all seem to be eyeing you with curiosity as you make your way in.
OK, you go sit down at the bar.
OK, you go sit at the bar and just below your line of sight, a voice speaks up.
Hello there.
What'll it be?
What are you having?
And you see in front of you is a dwarf.
She seems to be the bartender here and she has like this long braided and two braids
down each side, red hair.
Greetings.
I'll have milk.
A milk?
Well, I could do that for you.
Anything else?
Nope, that's it.
Very well.
And she's going to go and fetch your milk.
While you're sitting there, this gentleman leans over from your right.
First time here in town.
It is?
Well, what do you know, stranger?
Any good word from outside?
You know, goblins, butt bears.
Typical.
You've seen them too then, huh?
Name's Lenar, one of the miners here.
Pleasure to meet you.
He holds his hand out.
I shake his hand.
My name's Bishop.
Bishop.
Well, which direction did you come from?
We came from Neverwinter.
Oh, Neverwinter.
Make sure if you're heading out on the east end of the Tribor trailer, you be careful.
Rumor has it there's marauders that have been attacking the trade caravans out that way.
I think I heard something about the goblins who are working with them too.
You said something about goblins, huh?
You ran into them as well.
Yeah, yeah, we ran into a cave and helped out old Sildar.
Helped Sildar, huh?
Yeah, he actually captured him.
Oh, that's going to be a good story.
Looks over.
Hey, North.
This other gentleman with brown hair that's sitting just to the right of him looks to
him and he goes, he says Sildar got captured by the goblins.
What?
No, he didn't.
That's what he says.
Oh, that's a good one.
We're going to have to make sure he hears it from us next time he's in here.
Say stranger, the other one speaking to you around, awkwardly around Lennar.
You didn't happen to see a religious folk lady while you're out there, did you?
No.
Huh.
All right.
Well, Sister Gariel left a few days ago.
Haven't seen her.
Thinking open maybe you did, but if you didn't, you didn't.
Here they are.
And she's back with your milk, sets it down in front of you.
It's this huge mug of milk.
And all the cows for this, did you?
I should be 10 copper.
Give her 10 copper.
Thank you.
Haven't seen very many new folk around in a few days.
I'm just like face deep in this huge cup.
I want to imagine it's so big.
It's like I'm getting milk mustaches on my eyebrow.
Well, a fan of the big milk mug he is.
And this tall, skinny, older looking gentleman comes walking around behind the counter like
else is as well.
And he's talking towards you and he slaps his hand down on the table.
Think you can finish it all in one go.
Five copper if you're down the whole thing right now.
Isn't there like a milk challenge?
I'm pretty sure that would make me throw up.
I just.
Fine, silver then.
I hold like one hand up with the finger, like, wait a moment.
And I'm shaking my head no.
That's OK.
Take your time.
Savor it.
Comes from the finest cows in Bandolin.
Name's Tobin, stranger.
What's your name?
I like slam it down on the counter and I like wet as burp.
I got milk mustache on my.
My beard and my eyebrows.
What was the question?
The milk has had an effect on you sometimes when you drink too much at once.
He looks towards Elsa.
Careful, cut him off after another mug.
That's all he gets.
He's milk drunk.
I said, what's your name, friend?
Oh, pleasure to meet you.
I'm the innkeeper here.
This is my my in stone here.
Will you be needing a room for the night?
Yeah, I believe Sildar already took a room.
He did.
Oh, you're here with Sildar.
Indeed.
OK.
Well, Sildar paid your way that there was four of you.
Yep.
And then Sildar.
Unfortunately, I only had three more rooms, so it looks like two of you are going to have
to shack up.
Oh, that's unfortunate for them since I'm here first.
How did how did Sildar look?
Oh, he looked pretty beat up.
Said something about goblins and.
He didn't really want to talk about it, so I don't know.
He didn't mention much other than he had to run in with some goblins.
And it seems that Gundren is gone missing.
Yeah, he got captured by a bunch of goblins.
Can you believe it?
Goblins.
Sildar did.
No.
Hi.
And he looks over towards towards Linar.
He's like, did you?
I heard.
Oh, well, news is already getting around town.
I can't even spread a good rumor.
You know what makes it even better?
He got saved by a goblin.
Well, no, he did.
The whole place gets quiet.
You hear like a pin drop saved by a goblin, you say.
What what do you mean saved by a goblin?
The goblins captured him.
This is some kind of some kind of odd fairy tale.
There is this goblin.
His name is Yeezy and he he saved Sildar.
Hold on moment goes over and grabs a pen and paper.
Like a quill dabs it in ink.
Go on.
You start scribbling it down.
Save.
Save him, you said.
What does his name again?
Yeezy with a Y. Yeezy.
Oh, I've got it.
Those goblins have the damnedest names.
Can't believe he rescued Sildar.
A straight legend.
Yeah, he's a we had a fight this we had a fight this big bugbear and he took the bugbear's
head right off.
Well, where is he at now?
He didn't make it.
Died a legend.
Legend.
A bugbear, you said.
His head clean off.
Single swipe.
He actually he actually cut off two goblin heads in the same swing.
Oh, two goblin heads.
He came right in.
He swung.
He took out two goblins and a bugbear with a single swipe.
And then he picked up Sildar and like saved him.
Eyes filled with fire.
No eyes that burned like gold.
That's a that has a good sound to it.
Massive muscles able to cleave three heads in one swipe.
It's not every day you hear a story as grand as that and the accounts of it being true
with Sildar to back it up.
No doubt.
I'll have to ask him in the morning to verify.
I'm sure I'm sure he will completely agree.
It's no wonder he didn't want to just come out right out and say it.
Oh, Sildar, the likes of him being captured, let alone by goblins and then rescued by one.
It's a strange world.
Elsa.
Yes.
Did you charge him for that mug of milk?
Well, of course, Toblin.
No, lady.
Give him his money back.
It's on the house.
Any friend of the legendary Yeezy gets complimentary mugs of milk.
Thank you.
Give me a second.
That's it, though.
I'm cutting you off after that.
You've shown you can't handle it.
Elsa, fetch him another mug.
I. All right.
She walks off.
You wouldn't happen to have like a bathhouse around here.
It's like in like clean up, you know?
Well, you're in luck.
I just opened my bathhouse right around the back of the building.
Call it Stonehill Bathhouse.
To get there, you go out the door, right?
You make a left, a left, another left, and then one more left.
Can't miss it.
Would I just be back here?
No, you'll be at the bathhouse.
OK, I'll follow your directions.
If you make it to the last left, you went too far.
You got to back up.
Take the left before that left.
I'm just.
It's really simple instructions.
A left, a left, then another left and lastly a left.
But if you make the other left, you went too far.
So you back up and then you'd make a right if you're coming back.
I just I'm just staring at them.
Have you had too much milk?
No, I got it.
I got it.
Left, left, a left, left, one, two, left, back up, take a left.
Right.
Got it.
Well, you don't have to back up if you do.
Yes, you got it.
You'll get there.
There's a sign above the door for Christ sakes.
It says Stonehill Bathhouse.
You got any towels?
The finest towels in Stonehill Bathhouse, that is, in Fandolin.
Yeah, they're over there in the bathhouse.
I don't keep them in here.
Kind of tap my hand.
Rattling fingers.
Elsa brings the other mug of milk.
It's huge.
And then I just hammer that one.
Oh, God.
Jesus.
He looks at you with his eyes wide this time.
I'm doing the whole like I'm out of my seat, like half body.
I have one hand up with my finger and then I just like slam it down on the on the table
and like leave for the bathhouse.
You slam it down like right at Elsa's eye level and she's just staring at the empty glass
with the with like the milk suds running down the sides.
And then we cut back to Emerson.
It's just all over my face.
Yeah.
We cut back to Emerson Marin outside.
You know, I think this year is good enough.
Yeah, probably.
I'm going to start looking at the dirt to find a good spot to work some mud magic.
And just excavate a five foot hole.
And I guess we're going to gently throw easy in.
Oh, yeah.
Give him a give him a kick right into the hole.
Right.
Cover him up.
Well, thanks for the help, Yeezy.
You're a real one.
He was certainly a goblin.
Right.
Should we go?
Yeah.
I think so.
Good.
Go to the end.
I could get a meal and some drink.
Yeah, I got nothing else to say.
I don't know.
It sounds really good right now.
Gee.
Cheese.
OK, so we fade from that scene and we see you guys making your way towards Stonehill
Inn.
OK.
Left, left, and a left.
And then another left.
Ha!
You got it.
You can't miss it, like I said.
OK, I'm going to walk up the door to take all my left.
OK, yeah.
So you step out into the night and you make a left from the door.
You make that left around the first corner.
And just as you leave our line of sight, Marin and Emreis walk from the adjacent corner
or the opposite corner, rather.
And they come up to the entrance of the tavern.
They go ahead and walk in.
And Marin, you now find yourself in this nice little establishment of Stonehill Inn.
You know, the center of town opposite of where you guys just kind of were.
And it seems to be filled with a bunch of locals right now that are just nursing some
mugs of ale and cider.
And they're just kind of enjoying their evening.
And they all seem to eye you with some curiosity as you walk in.
Not hostile, but just kind of like, you know, who's this guy?
Who's the newcomer?
You kind of see some people leaning in, whispering to each other like, hey, you seen him before?
And you're like, no, no.
I'm going to, you know, knock the dirt off my boots, take off my cloak or whatever I
wear over my robes.
And I'm going to head for the bar, arrange some rooms and some food.
You know, end of day stuff going on here.
Some drinks.
All right, you approach the bar and in front of you, you see this tall, skinny, older looking
gentleman that has like a bald top of his head and some white hair just above his ears.
It kind of has like that Caesar cut that goes around his head.
And he looks at you and says, well, stranger, what can I get you?
I'm going to lever myself up onto a bar stool or whatever.
Same.
Well, me and my friends here are after some rooms, though I understand those might be
being covered by Sildar.
And a good drink.
Place to relax.
Oh, okay.
You must be one of the other ones Sildar was telling me about.
Very well.
I see.
Yeah.
So, you've got board here.
It's up there.
We've got rooms for you.
Yeah, it'd be up the stairs.
And what do you have as far as ale or food?
Any preference?
I'll take an ale and whatever the house is serving tonight will do me just fine.
Well, we have a house special on our cheese sticks at the moment.
Cheese sticks?
That's right.
We've taken cheese and shaped them up into sticks.
That's it?
Well, yes.
They're done good, though.
You're not like frying them or serving them with some sort of dipping sauce or anything?
It's just cold cut cheese and sticks.
Elsa, put them in a pan with some oil.
Fry them up and see how it works.
You should bread them first.
Oh, I just had an idea.
Bread them.
I'll have some of them once she cooks them up.
And maybe some meat, sausage, whatever you have.
Well, you're in luck.
We've got the finest meats.
What's up?
Elsa!
Three links.
Three or two?
Three will do me just fine.
It's been a long journey.
Where is it you're going?
Oh, I think Sildar mentioned something about...
Oh, you must be friends with the goblin.
The goblin?
You're no friends with no goblins.
I don't know what gave you that sort of impression.
That's not how I heard it.
Well, you done heard it wrong, then.
I've heard it from two different people now.
Me and my companions just came down from Neverwinter and had to deal with some goblin scum taking
out merchants on the road.
And you think I'm friends with them?
I heard that's Ymix's apprentice over there.
Now I don't know what you backwards people have heard in this town.
Which I ain't no friend and no goblins.
Oh, right, right.
All right, not trying to get you all ruffled up.
I apologize.
Here, have an ale.
He sets down a nice size mug of ale in front of you.
On the house!
Aye.
And I'll appreciate it, as you will.
And then let's give it a little toast in his direction and I'll drink away.
You raise the mug and you take a big drink and you set the mug down back on the counter
and like, he wasn't there before.
And as you set the mug down, now there's a child there to your right.
And he's just staring at you with these saucers for eyes.
He goes, are you a real hero?
I don't know about that.
But not really.
You dispatch the goblins in the cave with the other great goblin Yeezy.
Aye.
We did take care of some goblins and the bugbear.
Shouldn't be any problems on the road for a while now yet.
Wow.
Looks like so cool.
I want to be an adventurer when I grow up, too.
Oh, you know what?
My friend Carl does, too.
Or Carp, I'm sorry.
He wants... Carl.
Carl.
My friend Carp wants to be an adventurer, too.
He told me the other day he saw some really weird goblins.
Have you seen weird goblins?
Weird goblins?
Like with a green glow about them.
Yeah, yeah.
They had really long faces and green glowing magic or something.
I've not seen them myself, but Sildar told us about them.
Where'd your friend Carp be seeing these goblins?
Was out by our hangout.
We go out there, we sneak around.
We want to be adventurers, too, so we practice.
Sure.
Where is your hangout, young one?
Well we were following the redbrands.
Who now?
You know, Carp could probably tell you better.
I probably shouldn't say anything out.
You should go see Carp.
And where is your friend Carp then?
Well, he's over at his house.
Hi, and where does this house be?
I'm new to town, you see.
Oh, it's the Alderleaf Farm.
If you leave here, you're gonna make a left, go down a little bit, make a left, and then
go down a ways further, and then you make a right.
Who is, like, northeast of here?
No, no.
Uh, maybe?
Well, if I...
You know, maybe I'll just ask around.
And if you're gonna be saying so many words with a f in them, maybe stand a bit further
back so I don't get any more of your spit in my drink.
Oh, oh.
Sorry.
Ah, yeah, not much one for personal space, are you, little?
From behind him, you start to notice this gentleman had been, like, side-eyeing your
guys' conversation, and he overhears you, obviously being a little annoyed with Pip,
and he says, uh, hey, get out of here, kid.
Leave him alone.
Ah, sorry, Lenar.
All right, it was nice meeting you.
I appreciate it, Pip.
And, uh, do good, or whatever.
Then I just turn back to my drink, and I look over at this other fella, and I say, thank
you for that.
Yeah, not a problem.
The kid likes to stick his nose in other people's business.
I, well, a small town like this, outsiders are always going to attract the little ones,
I think.
You get a better look at him now, and he seems like, um, pretty muscular-looking dude.
He's human, he's probably around the, I don't know, 5'10 mark, hard to get a gauge on it,
but he's sitting down at the tavern counter with you, and he's dressed in, like, some
denim pants, and he's got just, like, a simple button-up shirt with suspenders on, and it's
very dirty.
His face looks very dirty, except for, like, his eyes, like, where his eyes were, almost
like he has a, like, a raccoon tan, you know, like he had sunglasses on, but it was dirt
covering the rest of him.
And he holds his hand out to you to shake it, and he says, uh, what's your name?
Ah, I'm Marin of Clan O'Lore Mourn'din.
It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, and you are sir?
Ah, nice to meet you, Marin.
I'm Lennar.
Lennar, you are, you're a miner by trade, perhaps?
Yeah, I guess it was my uniform that gave me away, huh?
I've seen a fair few miners coming back from the caves, looking much like you do now, and
I hear there's a rather large exchange in the town.
Yeah, that'd be, uh, Haliya's place of business.
We all work for her.
And uh...
We've been a good amount of time down in that cave recently.
Whatcha game is that?
Ah, just a simple...
Mining some rock.
Rock and stone.
Gathering materials to build more foundations around town.
Rock and stone.
There's a good life in these parts of it, eh?
Yeah.
Say, which direction do you say you guys came from?
We, uh, came down from Nevarinthir in the north.
Oh.
Oh, wait a minute.
Let me see here.
North.
Ah!
If you go outside and you go right, and then you take another right, follow the road.
Ah, haha, I know.
I know.
I just thought maybe you guys came more from the east, northeast.
There's troubles going on up that way.
What's going on in the northeast?
More goblins?
Hard to say.
They sent some trade caravans out that way and they seem to just all be getting attacked.
We're not getting anything to or from.
Townmaster claims he's looking for someone to run them off.
I see.
I don't know.
I think the goblins are working with these marauders.
Goblins do the north, marauders in the east.
Seems like a goblin job.
Does seem like a goblin job.
Or one of their ilk.
This batch to the north was run by a bugbear and they do tell of a larger organization
somewhere around here.
Yeah.
Rumor has it this area is crawling with those cragmaws.
But personally I haven't ran into any of them.
Why lucky you.
Well, it's not like they go wandering down into the caves wanting to pick up a pickaxe
and get to work.
Well, I suppose that.
But we did find them in a cave to the north of here.
So keep your eyes open.
Don't get too comfortable.
Perhaps me and me companions will speak to your townmaster about these marauders.
Appreciate it.
That would help out.
Though we are due for some rest though.
Maybe in a day or two eh.
Well one more thing.
I don't know if anyone's told you yet.
Goblins aren't the only thing to worry about around here.
Gotta watch out for these punks.
Call themselves the redbrands.
Aye.
Ever since they showed up they've been shaking down the businesses.
The boy was talking about them.
They don't bother us over at the miners exchange.
They'd be idiots too.
Too many of us there.
I see.
And why don't you and your lot at the miners exchange chase them out of town entire?
Well that's just it.
Some of us want to, others of us don't.
We're here to make money.
Raise our families.
We're not militia.
I see.
But uh, you're fine letting your companions in this town be hassled by these ruffians?
Now rumor has it that somebody was standing up to him and he went missing.
Missing did he?
Yeah.
It was our woodcarver, Cell.
Sucks too.
I need my handle reshaped on my pickaxe.
He always did it the best.
Your townmaster doing anything about this missing woodcarver?
I think he's said he's looking into it but I don't really get invited to those sorts
of meetings you know?
I suppose I do.
Talia might have more information on it.
Interesting.
Well I'll keep an eye out for some ruffians.
Here's your links.
And you see this dwarf from behind the bar.
She comes back and sets these links on a plate in front of you.
Stonehill's finest.
And here's these um, breaded cheese sticks?
She's like looking at Tobin.
Oh yeah.
What kind of cheese did you use for it?
Oh well.
I thought that Gouda wouldn't be very good.
The Swiss wouldn't work so I used mozzarella.
Hmm.
Interesting.
Well, thank you miss for me links in these mozzarella sticks.
And I'll give the guy I've been talking to another bit of a nod and then I'll just dig
in and start eating.
Um, drinking.
Probably not gonna stick around in the bar too much longer.
Assuming no one else tries to make some conversation or anything like that.
He doesn't talk much does he?
Only gestures to Emrys who's just standing there staring off blankly.
No.
Think it might be a bit of a trauma.
But uh, he'll be fine after a good night's sleep.
Um, yeah after I finish my meal I'll leave some coppers or silver, I don't know what's
customary, on the bar and head up to my room.
Catch some z's.
Oh, you overpaid for your mozzarella sticks.
Well, they were quite well done so keep it.
And I'll give her a cheeky little wink.
Oh.
Go up to my room.
She blushes.
Alright, you head up to your room.
Emrys follows, heads up to his room that he's staying in for the night.
We then, strange lot that one.
Not a word since we buried the goblin.
Heading to bed.
We now move, uh, like our view shifts from you guys walking upstairs to the upper loft
area where the beds are and then we kind of pan around the bar one time slowly and we
start to move out the doorway.
We go out the doorway and into the night and we're gonna, we're gonna make a slight right.
And as we make our slight right, we come into the scene of like the local temple that's
here.
Um, what is Corin doing right now?
Getting my knapsack down in the ground in front of the shrine and then I'm gonna sit
down in front of it and begin to meditate.
Trying to get my voice to reach the Raven Queen.
The voice that I haven't heard in a very long time.
Uh, something that I try not to skip.
And now that I'm in front of a shrine, I feel like this is a good time as ever to maybe
get my voice heard.
So I'm gonna sit down, meditate and, uh, start praying to the Raven Queen.
And kind of go into that little scene for a moment and it's just a nice night out.
You can hear like the crickets chirping.
There's like a little bit of fog starting to settle in now as it's cooling off for the
night.
This is an outdoor shrine.
Yeah.
Right now you're in front of the shrine and then just behind you is like the actual little
temple or the shack rather.
The shrine is in front of.
This is like a small shrine made of stones that seem to be taken from nearby ruins.
And it's dedicated to their local deity.
And you start to slip into your meditation and you hear some footsteps approaching.
The gate of the steps is slightly off.
It sounds like there's like a leg being dragged a little bit.
Like as it's stepping, there's like a drag sound to it and it's approaching you.
It's held from what direction?
Um, yeah, you can.
It would be to your left.
I feel like I would tense up a little bit being on being on guard, but I'm not gonna
break my meditation.
The footstep sounds get closer and approach you and then the sounds of the steps stop.
Greetings, traveler.
Good evening.
What brings you to the shrine?
Please be my home.
The shrine of Taimura.
All are welcome here.
I see.
I...
It's been a minute since I've been in front of a shrine, so forgive me if I'm not of a
follower.
What brings you to Taimura this evening?
I'm trying to reach my lady, the Raven Queen.
Been a minute since I've heard her voice and thought now is a good time as ever to reach
out.
The Raven Queen.
Hmph.
She's now walking to be more in front of you.
And as she comes around, now you see, um, she is in like a white robe that has some
gold trims on it.
She has, um, like this garment from her head that hangs down.
It's white also.
And her belt is like this greenish teal color.
And it has these three, um, symbols of like a sun that looks like it's just coming up
halfway on the horizon.
And I actually have a picture I could show you guys.
There you go.
She's holding a pretty cool looking staff and it has like this scripture on some tapestry
hanging down from it.
More hammerish.
She...
She doesn't look at the moment healthy.
She looks beat up, right?
Her face is swollen on one side.
Her eye is barely open.
Um, she looks to have like a bloody lip.
And if you weren't mistaken, you think you could see like some blood spots down on her
boot.
Like maybe she has an injury underneath her robe that she's kind of covered up.
I would imagine I kind of glance over her, but then I just feel like it would be none
of my business.
So I just keep meditating and paying mind to her though.
Well, if it's answers you seek, Taimura has a way of getting back to those who offer to
her.
I'll glance at her once more.
And I will have to bring such an offering that would suffice.
You may stay here as long as you wish, but I need to be going inside for the evening.
Very well.
Thank you.
What was your name, traveler?
Oren Turlekor.
Pleasure meeting you, Koran.
You may call me Sister Gariel.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'll give her a nod.
You hear the sounds of her footsteps walking into the direction of her place.
You hear the door open and then click shut.
We slowly start to move away from that scene now.
Kind of go up into the sky.
The moon's out.
It's full.
It's casting a lot of light into the village of Phandalin.
Take a dive back down towards Stonehill Inn.
Over this side, instead of going into the entrance, we start to make our way around
towards the back of the establishment where you can see new construction has been made.
And it's quite large, the addition onto the back of this inn.
And we swoop down towards the front and we make a left, a left, and a left.
And we're there now at this sign above a door that says Stonehill Inn Bathhouse.
And we head into there.
So we go in now to the bathhouse.
And as we go in, we can see that no expenses were spared.
Old Tobin really sank his money into this bathhouse.
And there's beautiful new stonework done in here.
There's one large pool in front of us.
And seated in there is a small redheaded gnome, female, on the left side.
And we see Bishop get in opposite side of her and sit down into the bathwater.
I just give her a nod as I slink into the water.
She nods back to you.
New in town, huh?
Yep.
Fresh from Neverwinter.
Oh.
A fancy one.
What brings you to Phandalin?
Oh, we were bringing some supplies with Sildar.
I'm sure you're not here trying out to be one of those red brands.
Oh, I got plenty on my plate.
You look a little roughed up.
You okay?
Oh, you know, just, you know, typical goblin shenanigans.
I like nursed my leg a little bit or whatever where I was injured.
Haven't had very many goblins in the town.
Outside of town?
That's a different story.
All over the trail leading from Neverwinter.
Yeah, we ran into a pack of them north from here.
It was a cave.
Had to clear out the whole place.
Actually tracked them back to where they were.
Good job.
We haven't had supplies come through in weeks.
Well, I can't speak for anywhere else, but it should be clear from Neverwinter.
Oh, I guess that just leaves us with the eastern trail issues then.
It's not one thing, it's the next around here.
What's happening on the east?
Oh, same sort of thing that's happened where you came from.
So a lot less talk of goblins that way.
Matter of fact, just rumors.
Haven't really had anyone come back from that direction.
Let's see.
What do you do?
Me?
Yeah.
Oh.
I just run the books over at the miners exchange for Halia.
Sounds exciting.
It puts food on the table.
I like to open my own place.
I like to make things with fabrics.
Robes, blankets, curtains.
I like to think of myself as a weaver by hobby.
Well, it's getting late.
I ought to get going.
She just stands up and walks to get her towel.
I just nod.
Well, be careful around here.
I'll see you around.
She's going to step back into one of the back rooms and start gathering her things.
You find yourself now seated in this bath house.
To your right, so at the end of the bath house pool, there's this cool little water feature
that's constantly cycling the water into here.
It has that waterfall sound to it.
It's very relaxing.
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of steam in the air, and you start to feel like hired.
Your day was long.
I imagine you're pretty beat.
You just kind of slip into this really relaxed feeling, and you close your eyes.
You hear a sound at the door.
Sounds like it closed or open.
You can't really tell.
At first, you thought maybe it was just the gnome leaving.
Then you hear this sound of hard shoes on stone in a very slow walk.
You open your eyes, and you look in front of you, and you begin to notice that from
that water feature to your right, the water turns like ink black.
It begins to fill up the pool.
You sit there, and you look and you watch as this inky black water is just moving towards
you, moving out from that water feature into your direction.
Then the steam in the bathhouse starts to take on the same darkish color as it gets
thick and lays down on top of the stone.
You see now this thick black fog covering the whole floor, and you're now seated in
dark black water.
You look to your left, and it's very hard to make things out now.
The whole room is filled up with this black steam, and there's a figure whose silhouette
is standing in the doorway.
What do you do?
I just stare, waiting for...
It's a renecation of what this may be.
It just stands there as if staring back at you, and then you get this feeling come over
you, this horrible feeling as if something is going through your thoughts.
It's like digging through your very mind itself and all your memories.
It's violating you.
Roll an intelligence saving throw.
The silhouette's arm comes up and its hand reaches out towards you.
In your mind, you hear this horrible clicking sound, this clacking.
It's just really loud.
We can see now from the front, your nose starts to bleed and your eyes start to bleed.
19 points of psychic damage.
This thing just stands there.
It's just not moving.
Arms still stretched out towards you.
I try to back away and get away from it.
You stand up out of the water and you back up.
As you back up, you bump into something.
You turn around and you see this disfigured person.
You don't know exactly who it is, but you remember it was somebody from the bar, somebody
that you just saw.
They're extremely disfigured.
They've got an arm growing out from where it should be, like a third arm.
Their face is distorted.
It's like somebody took it and just pushed it and then took one hand up and the other
hand down and disfigured all the features of the face.
It just kind of stares at you after you bump into it.
It's just standing right there.
You turn back around and you don't see the figure at the door.
I yell, who are you?
Now stepping out from the shadows, you see more of these figures.
You see more of these people with these distorted features.
They're approaching you from all angles.
They all in unison turn their heads to you and look at you and cock it to the side.
You hear all of them just say, who are you?
Then you hear that sound again in your head, that horrible sound, roll an intelligence
saving throw.
Roll a seven.
You take 18 points of psychic damage.
Yeah, I definitely don't have that much.
This feeling inside your head is like a spike is being driven into your head from the back
forward and your forehead starts to hurt so bad where it would be like coming through.
At the last second, you start to lose consciousness and fall.
Just as your head hits the floor, your eyes open and you bring your head up and you're
sitting in the bath house.
The water to your right and the water feature is just softly pooling into the body of water
that you're seated in.
Everything looks clear just as it was as you were there with the gnome earlier.
Is there anyone in the room with me?
No.
I'm just going to get up and grab my shit and get out.
You go to stand up out of the water and you see a drop of blood hit the water.
You put your hands to your face and you feel and your nose was bleeding.
You pick up your things and you make towards the door.
We just hover in that scene for a moment of the bath house.
We see Bishop picking up his stuff and hurriedly making his way towards the door and leaving.
We kind of hand back around to that nice waterfall feature.
The crews zoom in on it and sort of black out.
From there we next come into the scene of Marin who's laying in his bed.
Look wide open on his face because he was reading it before he fell asleep.
The paper softly rustles every now and again as Marin goes.
Such is his habit when he's asleep.
In between one of your deep breaths and the pages fluttering, the book slowly starts to
slide off to the left and then falls down to the floor.
And makes another left.
I'll startle awake the sound of my spellbook hitting the floor.
Because it's a hefty thing.
It's bound in leather and iron.
Got a lock and all.
I'll reach over to pick it up.
Get it up on the nightstand or what have you.
So you lean over and you're kind of reaching down to the floor to pick it up.
That's when you notice this really subtle blue light that's coming from the closet.
Just on the other side of the room of you.
To your left.
As I'm reaching down from my spellbook my hand will move off to the side and instead
grab ahold the hilt of my battle axe.
And I'll roll out of the bed with a thump.
And I'll give a little adjust to.
I'm gonna address the darkness.
Hey.
Who's that?
Yeah, you call out and there's no reply.
I'm gonna creep that way.
You know, my bare feet.
I'm gonna throw open the door to closet?
Wardrobe?
What is it?
Yeah, it was like a closet.
Just a small closet where you could probably place your belongings.
One of those hotel closets.
Got like an ironing board and a tiny safe.
Luggage stand.
One of those foldable counters to set your folded clothes on.
Yeah.
I'm gonna pull open the door.
Pull open the door and you can see from the cracks on the wall, on the back wall of the
closet, you see like this paint blue light coming through.
Can I get all the shit out of the way?
It's coming through like cracks in the wall or?
Yeah.
Yeah, so like there's, so it's like a wooden wall that stands in front of you and they're
running like vertically these planks and they seem to be a little aged so they shrunk a
little bit and you could tell like there's definitely something behind this and it's
making like a faint blue light and you see the light piercing through these planks and
making little blue beams on the floor of the closet.
And it's like pulsing real weakly.
I'm going to reach out and look for a better way to remove these planks or like a door
of some sort.
You begin to start feeling around on this door or this wall rather and you are running
your hands alongside of it and you don't feel any handles.
I'm just going to wedge my axe in.
Pull one of these freaking boards out of the wall then.
Okay.
Sorry.
Whatever his name is.
Tolvan.
Tol-Toblin.
Tol-Tolvin.
Whatever.
You- Doing a little bit of property damage.
You go and you go to wedge your axe in between these boards and the pressure that you press
forward on it, you feel the wall slightly go in and you hear a click and then you kind
of like draw your axe back a little bit and now the wall seems free as if it's like a
door on a hinge and you just opened it by applying pressure to push it.
And so it starts to creak open towards you.
It's garning a dude.
On the other side of this, on the other side of this, this wooden fake wall, if we will,
you see this sort of triangular looking rune.
It's kind of hard to describe.
It's like not a rigid looking triangle.
Like all the lines are rounded.
But it's triangular in shape.
But there's a like, there's like a lot of round features to it.
There's two circles in the middle with another smaller version of that same runic triangle
in the middle of it.
So let me try and paint this better for the listeners here.
Huh.
How would be a good way to describe this?
Like the Celtic, Celtic triangle?
Is that- Is that what I'm thinking of?
I don't know.
I'm looking a little bit like that.
Yeah.
So like think of like a Celtic triangle, big one.
Okay.
So there's a circle within that, then a smaller circle within that, and then another small
Celtic triangle inside of that small circle.
That's about the best I can do here.
You've never seen this rune before.
You immediately recognize that fact.
And it looks extremely dirty.
Like there's dust all over the wall and it's very hard to make out all the details of this.
And let's- I'll reach out with my offhand and I'll cast a Prestidigitation to try and
clean off this surface so I can get a better look at this rune, maybe try and discern what
it does.
You cast Prestidigitation.
Hold your hand out.
Cast it.
And you see your magic start to remove the dust.
And then very intensely and very brightly, this rune just flares up in this blue color.
And then the blue changes to this orange.
And with your arms still outstretched towards it, you feel momentarily frozen in place.
And then you watch as your whole self is sucked into this rune.
You have this experience now of like weightlessness for a moment.
You just see this rune and it seems to be so bright now that like you can't really make
out your periphery.
All that you can see is this intense color of this orange rune in front of you.
And then the weightlessness stops and you feel the heavy feeling of your weight back
on the floor on two feet.
You look up, however, and you're not in the closet anymore.
You now stand in the center of a square room and the walls are lined with shelves and shelves
of books from floor to ceiling.
And there's bright rune is inscribed on the entirety of the floor below you and it's just
glowing bright orange.
Uh huh.
Okay.
Let's let our way out.
This room.
You look around and you see that there is a door off to your right.
Okay.
It's a wooden door and this one has like some iron scraps.
You would think they're iron or metal.
You're not quite sure.
They look rusty.
But the door looks well made.
I see.
And these books, what sort of books are we dealing with?
They have titles on their spines or I'll pull a couple out and flip to the first page.
See what sort of stuff we're dealing with here.
Yeah.
You're looking around and you notice a theme that all of these books have something to
do with magic in this room.
You see evocation.
You see divination.
On another side you see like these other books that look like they're bound in like this
leathery material and you see the word necromancy on that one.
Uh.
Interesting.
And uh this room I'm standing on in the middle of the room, it's the same one?
Yes but it's much larger.
Whereas the one on the wall was probably five feet, this one is at least 15 feet.
So it's about three times the size of the one that you saw on the wall if not bigger.
Let's see.
Uh.
Okay.
Um.
I have to resist that urge to plop down and go through a billion books.
Um.
Go I guess I'm gonna go.
Oh this is paused.
Uh.
I'm gonna head this way and I'm gonna try this door.
Uh.
This is the only door out of the room.
See.
Oh okay.
Um.
I'm gonna swing it open.
I've still got my um my axe with me and I'm proceeding with caution barefooted as I am
and you know my like my night shirt, my sleeping shirt.
Right right.
And britches, not much else.
Um.
You notice that um the room you came from was lit by this light from the room coming
off the floor and now you move into a room that's significantly taller to the ceiling.
This one probably goes up an easy 30 feet and there's these two ladders, one on the
wall to the south of you and one on the wall straight ahead which would be the east and
they seem to be like on this rail with wheels and you could move from left to right if you
were to push them.
And this room as well is completely lined with books from the floor to the ceiling.
All right.
Uh I'm gonna ask maybe a bit of a weird question but these ladders, are these dwarven ladders
or are these human ladders?
How far apart are the rungs on these ladders?
No.
That's actually an excellent question.
Um.
You approach the ladder to get a better look and that's when you are easily able to recognize
that these are in fact dwarven sized ladders.
Interesting.
And uh I suppose it, now that um now that I've brought it up I think back to the books
in the other room were they, I know magical tomes and whatnot written in a many many languages
but were they written in um Amon?
Dorvish?
Uh.
Something else?
You have that thought and you go back and check and you're also looking at the books
here in this room too.
Yeah.
And that's when you notice that there are books written in common.
The ones that you uh recognized easily were in common.
You did notice some in Dorvish and you noticed that there's also a great many books written
in languages that you do not know.
Let's see.
Um.
Okay.
Um.
What the hell is going on here?
Alright um.
I'm going to, there's another door here to the north in this secondary room.
Yep.
Give that one a go.
Move on through cautiously.
You step into this room and there's an odd shape to it.
It's very tall as well.
On your right you see like this small little hallway um where two of the walls are completely
lined with books on shelves as well.
Uh but also on your right you see like a small little um work bench and there's a couple
things on it.
Uh it's, you kind of take a look.
Everything is really dirty and dusty like nobody had been here for a really long time.
The floor is covered in dust.
Um you can see that there are like some beakers and you see like some dried up leaves uh and
things like that and there's a book um that is closed and laying on the bench and it it
says in dwarvish beginner's guide to alchemy.
Moving further down this hall on your left you have one of those similar ladders from
the other room and the wall on your west, your left, uh is again completely covered
floor to ceiling in nothing but books.
This room has some books laying on the floor um like maybe they had fallen off the shelf
uh and you can see that like there's there's dust covering them.
To your right as you walk through further now you notice this large uh metal and stone
door.
This is extremely fine craftsmanship.
You don't even need to roll a check on it.
You can automatically tell when something is dwarven made and this 100% has been dwarven
made.
I see um it's just this huge door in the center it has like this shackle.
I'm gonna look at and puzzle over the door as I kind of kind of idly pick up all these
books off the floor um I don't know sort of shelving system we're using here so I'm just
gonna go put them on this table over here.
Um just put these books on the floor uh and then I'm gonna go up and examine this door
closer.
You said it has like a shackle on it?
Yeah.
Uh like a shackle for for imprisoning people?
Like what you might put on a prisoner?
You know like a hand like a like one that you would pull on to open a large door.
Okay um give give it a tug.
See does the door open like the rest of them?
This one does not this one does not even budge.
Um step back do a zoom out get a better look at the door.
Is it just it was covered in um any engravings or runes or anything or is it just a very
well crafted door?
Um it is a very well crafted door however you also see the image of that rune that same
rune that you saw in your room and on the floor when you arrived here.
I see um but this one's not not glowing it's just a just an image of it.
Right this one's just an image.
Uh is it also very large?
I see this door is like 10 foot.
It's huge it goes up it's 10 feet wide and goes up 30 feet.
But the handle is down at three feet.
Definitely door to the mid.
And there's another door to the north out of this room yeah?
There is a door to the north.
All right we'll come back here.
I'm gonna pop open the northern door and head on through.
Okay so yeah you step through the door to the north and you find yourself in a similar
room.
The ceiling is not as tall here it's about the height of the other one when you first
arrived which is 15 maybe a little under like 12-ish feet tall.
Again same theme completely lined with books from floor to ceiling.
However this room has a desk on the left and the right side of the room with a couple chairs
and there's some books scattered about on the floor.
Um I'm uh I'm once more I'm gonna make a quick round of the room picking up the books
off the floor popping them open reading their titles checking a little bit of the contents
putting them on these desks.
The first book you pick up is written in a language you've never seen you don't know.
You set that on the desk reach down pick up the next book.
The next book you pick up is written in dwarven.
There's nothing written on the outside of the book so you flip to the first page and
its title is A Tale of Two Dwarves and then underneath that you see romance novel.
Maybe later uh and yeah like I said I'm gonna gather up those on the floor slap them on
the desk um stick in I don't know how they're gonna filing stuff in this freaking library.
You're walking past some books and you see one of them one of the titles catches your
eye as you move past it um it's written on the spine of the book and it's on a shelf
it says soft dwarven whispers.
Soft dwarven whispers?
Um I'm gonna head this away down this uh west hall.
Okay yeah there was a hall to your west you move down it um and when you make it to the
end you look to your right up north and you can see a stairwell that is leading up.
Right um well we had to pass away.
You get to the top of the stairs and you see another door it's one of the wooden doors
with the metal decorations on it.
A couple more books on the floor I'll gather up and just hold under my arm for now.
And oh.
You open the door to this room and step in and there is now in front of you this large
table.
Um there's six chairs around the table and each spot at the table has like its own little
nook provided into it so it would be a round table but there's like nooks that have been
crafted into it so it kind of has this odd almost like a sheriff's badge look to it but
without the points on the ends.
Um really bad description I know I'm sorry.
You're looking around the room and you're spending some time checking some things out
and roll a protection check.
Uh alright.
Um five?
Five do ya?
Yeah you're so just enamored with everything going on in here you're caught up in the books
just walking around the room.
Yeah um I see once more on the map just a great many books scattered about on the floor.
Um oh yeah.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna gather them up.
I'm um keeping an eye out for any books on abjuration um runes in general.
Uh anything I might think will help me out this situation um what are teleportation?
Conjuration I suppose is that teleportation?
I believe so.
Elepor yeah conjuration.
Uh abjuration, conjuration, runes um it's gonna like I said give this room a bit of
a tidy and uh and see if there's anything of interest.
Okay yeah you're making your way around the room picking some books up and you bend over
to pick a book up and you grab it and you stand up and that's when you see a very familiar
word.
Olad Mordin is on the spine of this book.
Olad Mordin?
Um I'm going to grab a seat and crack it open.
Uh this is a book of my clan here.
You reach and you grab the book and it doesn't seem to come out and you pull a little harder
and that's when you hear this sound.
There's like this loud like click like and the book comes out like three quarters of
the way and stops.
You can't you can't pull it out any rest of the way.
Huh.
Weird.
Um okay.
That sound sounded to come from back down the hallway too sorry if I didn't narrate
that properly.
No I get you.
Still weird though.
Uh I'm gonna finish in this room.
And looking around the theme in this room seems to be from the languages you understand
of common in Dwarven.
Histories.
Wars.
Um there's other family names.
There's like entire books of families on the shelves.
There's logging of wars that took place that you've never even heard of.
I'm going to I'm going to grab I don't know like a half dozen books that interest me the
most you know.
Yeah and I'm gonna bundle off my sleep shirt and turn it into a bit of like a hobo bag.
I'm gonna throw all the throw all the books in there and hold them over my shoulder with
one hand my axe and the other.
Um let's go let's go see what's behind the ironbound door.
I'm gonna head back down the stairs out the room and back towards the uh the large runic
doorway.
Um and when I get there I'm gonna give it another try.
This time you give it a try and it's a massive door but you're surprised at how easily it
opens like you barely have to try it all and it makes sense.
Dwarven made.
That's right.
Well balanced.
You now see yourself in a hall um and in front of you it seems like it opens up only it's
really it's kind of hard there's like light ahead of you you can see you're not quite
certain what you're looking at you see some books on the floor and as you begin to step
in further and further now it becomes very clear what you're looking at.
You stand at the threshold of a doorway of like a 100 foot wide circular room.
It's probably 50 feet tall of a ceiling and there are books and books and books that are
just piled up in this room.
They they literally there's a path in front of you that makes its way through the books
and on your left you see this mountain of books that are just piled there and it's probably
easily 30 feet tall and to your right the books pile all the way up to almost the ceiling
and you can see that there's actually shelves behind the pile along the wall that are completely
filled with books as well and that's when you notice you step in a little further and
you're looking up and you now notice that these there's books that are flying around
in the air counterclockwise hundreds of them and they all are moving in this counterclockwise
rotation around the outer edge of this room just just flying in space above these mountains
of books.
I'm just going to take forever to sort through.
I uh I'm going to follow this path I suppose.
Yeah yeah and it's tight.
I'm overwhelmed.
The arrows down to like two feet in some spaces you know like these books have just like been
stacked and they just sloughed off and it looks like somebody cleared a path through.
I'm uh I'm in here trying not to like step on books or anything but it's a bit inevitable
at this point.
All of my all of my tidying in previous rooms is seems a bit silly.
I'm gonna I'm gonna move along this path to to the center.
Sure and you make your way there and it it seems to open up a little bit like there's
more space now in this area and that's where you see a desk.
There's a desk and a chair facing away from you.
The chair is under the desk like somebody neatly pushed it back in.
On the desk is a book you get closer and you see that the book is blank the pages are blank
and it's open and to the right of the book is this really awesome looking red quill and
the top of it has this stone in it that just glows this red pinkish color and it almost
seems to like have this aura or this like energy that's whisping off of it and as you
get closer this quill lifts itself into the air brings itself over to the book and begins
to write.
You come in a little closer and you look down and as you're looking down it's writing out
something and it writes out hello Gundren and we'll pick it back up there next time.
Wait to step on books dude.
Well it's impossible to not.
Look at it.
I can't see it.
I see Bishop.
What kind of wizard steps on books?
I mean what disrespect.
Right dude?
I don't know Levitate yet.
I bet you fold the spine of the book backwards.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah I dog ear all the pages also.
On the next episode when the books fight back.
They're all already ambulatory.
They're moving around.
Oh don't make me fight a book.
I'll leave.
No you have to fight Bookworm.
Death by a thousand paper cuts.
In bye I'll leave.
I mean I'll try and figure out how to get out of this.
You'll rip his clothes off.
Take me.
I already have my clothes off.
Thank you very much.
Prepare.
Thunder rolls 100 D1s for all the paper cuts.
Quick math that's 100.
It's going to take me so long to roll those.
Well that's going to do it for us here at the Forged in Fable.
If you like what you heard come back.
Check us out again.
Tell your friends.
Tell your coworkers.
Tell your family.
Leave us a review.
Yeah put it on for your dog.
You'll like it too.
Yeah so tune back in next time to see what else the book has to write.
Or snort.
Don't write.
Or cousin.
Thank you guys.
Bye.
Later.
Yeah.
Exciting changes are on the horizon.
In case you missed it we're only a few episodes away from switching over to the 2024 Player's
Handbook so stay tuned.
A big shout out to our music and sound creators.
Music from PandaBeats.com.
Theme song 8 Bit Sauce by Mickey Geiger.
Additional sounds from SoundBleed.com.
Thank you once again for joining us on our D&D adventure here at the Forged in Fable
podcast.
And don't forget to like, subscribe, and share the adventure with all your friends and family.