1149/03/04 - The Defense of Vallington

The Heroes:

Keyleth – an elven ranger who trained under Belin Eagle-Eye, learning the art of the hunt

Yiska – a shifter avenger of Mielik, who trained under Belin Eagle-Eye as well, but to learn the teachings of their common Aspect.

Oswald Cynefried – a human priest of Foersyn, nephew of the insane Umgra Cynefried.

Grimald von Eisenberg – a human paladin of Hymdel, trained by an angel at noon each day as a child.

Ironhand – a human warlord of Nuath, trained by Werent Bloodhand, who gave a dire prophecy the day Ironhand was born.

3/4/1149 – A band of young folk in the village of Vallington, Ap Wys have chosen to be victims no longer, and are planning to deal with marauder attacks that loom in the weeks coming. They meet in Bill’s Tavern and start to plan for the marauders. Talking with the other townspeople about the marauders proves rather fruitless. The folk would rather not stand up and be a target. A philosophy engendered by the ruthless Mayor. However, they learn some of the patterns the marauders have followed in the past, and this information might be useful. Old man Hoster comes in talking nonsense and Oswald tries to learn something from him, but it too is a fruitless effort. He’s curious about the book the old man carries, but the old man is stingy with it and flees into the night. Ted Seward comes in and talks about a problem he is having with his water wheel; something wrecked it last night and stole a whole lot of grain. He'll be days trying to fix it, meanwhile the farmers will just have to wait to get their grain turned to flour and that will hold up the works. They volunteer to go there in the morning to help him with his wheel and they also offered to watch for the thieves.

The next morning, they show up at the mill and begin work. First, Keyleth finds tracks leading to the woods on the other side of the creek. They don’t pursue it there, but go to work on the wheel. It takes all day, and they have numerous occasions where they might fail and cause even more damage but in the end, they succeed with the repair. They are paid 60gp for their efforts. Night falls and they decide to camp at the mill to see if the scoundrels return that night.

Nothing bothered them that night, so the following morning they go into the woods and follow the trail without trouble. Yiska and Keyleth decide to scout ahead stealthily while the rest of the party waits behind. They successfully sneak up to a burrow without alerting the residents. They see three gnomes hanging around watching a fire beetle and rats gnaw on the grain that was clearly stolen from the mill. Yiska stays to watch while Keyleth gets the party. Unfortunately, Ironhand makes noise coming up and the gnomes disappear into the brush. The battle starts and Yiska manages to spot one of the gnomes and starts attacking it. The fire beetle tries to lock down Ironhand and Grimald while the gnome arcanist uses ranged attacks to keep Yiska away from him. The other gnome skulk continually misses with his crossbow. The battle goes on a bit and while Ironhand is bloodied for a while, the saboteurs are dealt with. They search the burrow and find a bracer, but Oswald fails to detect any magic on it. They collect the gear and head back to town.

They tell Ted Seward about what they found, also finding two of the Klonfield brothers at the mill getting some grain milled. They are impressed with the story and with the fact that the party used martial training to good effect. They go to the market square and the trading post to try and sell their loot to Saran, who buys it. When they leave the trading post, they see Bergrand Jr and his gang approach and pick on a young boy at the well. A couple of women are there also trying to protect him, but the thugs keep accusing the boy of stealing from an orchard. The party goes up, ready for a fight and use intimidate to get Bergrand to back off. He slinks away. Oswald and Yiska go see Umgra to see if she knows if it is a magic bracer, but she just berates Oswald for failing to spot the aberrations that were controlling the saboteurs. She demands that he go back and search for them. The two go to the wizard’s house, marked on their map now, and knock on the door. They get no answer. (The wizard is ignoring them, meditating and working on a ritual.) They join the rest of the party at Bill’s tavern.

Old Hoster comes again, quoting a passage from the book he clutches. They buy him a drink and Oswald tries to sneak a closer glance at the book but learns nothing. Hoster runs off again. They remember that they heard that Hoster wasn’t always crazy, but his father was until he died, and that’s when the current old man Hoster went nuts. They guess about curses that might be afflicting him, but come to no conclusions. Late in the afternoon, Selma Felry comes to find help because prize her prize sheep is missing. The party volunteers and goes out to her farm. They easily see where the sheep went into the woods and track it successfully, finally hearing its bleat in the distance.

But so have two scorpions and three famine hounds. They try to save the sheep, joining combat. The hounds forget the sheep and surround Keyleth after he makes himself a target, and they knock him prone doing lots of damage, but he is saved by the healers and Grimald’s spear. Ironhand and Oswald stay near the sheep while Yiska tries to fight the scorpions. The grabbing damage from the scorpions and their sting could have been a lot worse, but Oswald used a power of Foersyn to grant resistance to all damage. It saved their lives and enabled them to rescue the sheep easily. They earn their 40gp from Selma.

By now it is dusk and they walk up the road to town, intending to rest at Bill’s tavern. When they get to the abandoned Dancing Pig, they see the lights inside. Now, they take their rest watching the lights. They try to go in quietly to investigate, and through different entrances than just the front door, but then realize that the boarded up windows and doors will be problematic. Still, Grimald holds the front door while Keyleth and Ironhand go around back and Yiska goes through a side window. There are nightmare insubstantial creatures inside and Oswald fails to identify them because he lacks the proper training. Only later in the fight does Keyleth finally identify them as Fell Taint aberrations! They think they are undead at first because of the glow and their insubstantiality. The taints succeed in holding the entrances with their lashing tentacles but eventually Yiska makes it in and becomes more of a target. Poor Keyleth was also seriously wounded at the back door by a Fell Taint soldier. The pulsar and thought eater also do a fair amount of damage. Some more daily powers and second winds are needed to win the encounter. All healing powers were used too and at the end Yiska is nearly dead. They notice that the door to the basement is cracked open and know that more of them are probably below. Keyleth’s knowledge also tells them that the mere presence of Fell Taint weakens the fabric between the planes even further.

They go back to Ironhand’s house to take a short rest after barricading the basement door. They return, the door undisturbed and go downstairs. They are attacked by more Fell Taint and a phantom warrior. The fight is long and hard but they win in the end. They find a holy symbol of Foersyn covered in goo and blood. Keyleth detects that a dimensional rift occurred right there but it is strengthening now. They go to Bill’s to drink and rest for the rest of the evening.

The next day, they stopped by Cofostos’ home to ask him to identify magic items but he wasn’t home. Yiska hires Godolf to make a suit of leather armor, using measurements from Varg. That night as they are drinking at Bill’s, Father Terfin runs in, trying to put on his armor yelling that the marauders are early and are attacking the Jagan farm. The party runs out to help. Keyleth is struck down unconscious by a vicious attack by the marauders, but the fight turns around quickly and the marauders are all killed. But the farmer is dead and the wife ravaged. They almost go try to track down the marauders that night, but cooler heads prevail. They decide to set up watches on the Dancing Pig’s roof. Wracking their memories reveals that the last time the villagers fought back, the marauders attacked the center of town. They know that will happen again. However, when they get to town, Bergrand Sr. is there being slimy. Thurn backs him up. Grimwald tells him that he’s going to stand up for the village and Bergrand says that if he brings more attacks on the village, then his family will be turned out.

The following day they go out to follow the tracks from last night’s attack, around the perimeter of the clearing the village is in, and find they come up from the southern road. They see Geoffrey Jurken near the graveyard, and he tells them that the other day as he was visiting his wife’s grave that he saw something strange. One of the graves was sunken and there was a strange smell. He also saw that some of the other graves were open, as if something had dug its way out. They party takes a detour and investigates and finds gray oozes, zombies and decrepit skeletons. They fight these and are able to defeat them. In gratitude, Geoffrey gives them a suit of bloodthread armor. They patrol a little more, and that evening they sit in Bill’s and Grimald has an insight – the marauders will likely attack again and hit the town where it hurts. What do they do all day? They drink. So the taverns are probably targets. However, another insight and they realize that hitting the brewery would hit all the taverns at once. So they rush over. The Winton family is surprised but the father offers a reward if they keep the place intact. At first, the party seemed like they were going to meet the marauders from the south, guessing they would go through the town to get to the brewery. But the halfling’s plea changed their minds. The Wintons would go to the temple of Dianc to stay out of danger. The party sets up, with Keyleth on the roof and the rest of the party hiding in the brewery and the house. They easily spot the marauders coming through the woods and the battle is joined. Two of the marauders have ranged weapons and stay near the trees for cover. The rabble and elves close.

The battle looks very bad when in one round the elf scout hits Yiska for massive damage and the dwarven bolter finishes him off with a well-placed shot. Yiska is killed instantly. The rest of the battle is also a near thing when Ironhand goes unconscious, then Grimald does too. But the healing power of Foersyn channeled through Oswald saves the day. One by one the marauding rabble are taken down and the elves soon thereafter. The human guard and dwarf retreat into the woods, shooting their crossbows and then the guard uses his halberd when the party reaches them. The battle is soon over and all that is left is to collect their fallen comrade and return to the temple of Dianc.

The Wintons give the party their payment and Mother Yasmin accedes that there was a ritual that might be used to raise the dead. It will take all the priests coming together to see if it is possible. It would be a miracle if it worked; it was only said to work on mighty heroes. But because the party just saved the town from another attack, she will give it a try. As they are leaving, Bergrand scowls at Grimald and says there will be a reckoning for this.

The next morning, all five priests, including Umgra, Werent, and finally Jalain converge on the temple of Dianc. Jalain says that Concin recognizes that there must be peace brought and things sometimes have to get rough before they can get better. The party scrapes up cash but they are short of the 500 gp offering necessary. They offer the magical bracers of respite and that seems to be enough. The priests work on the ritual all day and suddenly, by dusk, Yiska breathes again. The priests are awestruck because nothing like that has ever happened before.

That evening, the crowd of villagers follows the party to Bill’s tavern, and they seem very agitated, almost fearful and hostile. The party succeeds in calming them down, perhaps laying some more groundwork for bringing the village out of the pit of despair it is in. A miracle has happened, after all.

The following day is Market Day! Unfortunately, it is raining all day. They watched all night without event. They go to the Red Crow and have a confrontation with Bergrand. But they are outnumbered. They get no progress either way except Bergrand threatens Grimald again. There will be a reckoning, it seems. That night, as Keyleth is going to the Dancing Pig to watch with the rest of the party, he sees smoke coming from Grimald’s family home. He shoots an arrow at the Pig to warn the others and investigates. He is attacked by rats, going to the defense of Grimald’s grandfather, who is taken down by a rat swarm. They easily dispose of a wererat, Turk, who appeared to be controlling the swarm and eventually win the encounter. They recognize Turk as being someone who does odd jobs at the tannery and wheelwright, and hangs at the Red Crow. They check the rest of their families and decide to play it cool about the encounter – no accusing Bergrand. They dispose of the body in the woods and watch the rest of the night.

All of the following day they just prepare for what they expect to be an attack that night. Sure enough, as they are camped on the roof of the Dancing Pig, the houses at the end of the street catch on fire. Shadowy figures run by. Keyleth kills one with his bow and the party jumps off the roof to fight them. Yiska ends up with a one-on-one with an elf archer and a few minions, while Ironhand gets stymied by a bunch of minions. A marauder berserker lays Grimald down for a short time, but Oswald’s heals brought him back. They are victorious in the end.

The next day, they are congratulated by the locals at Bill’s tavern. Werent gives Ironhand a battle standard of Nuath, and Viktor gives the party an old belt. Jalain is in the tavern and they have a conversation with him. He challenges them to take the peaceful route with regard to Bergrand Jr. He thinks the boy can be saved. They agree to take the challenge on. But now, they decide they are going to track down the marauders once and for all and take them out. On the way out of town, however, they run into Bergrand Jr. and his gang. The party attempts to talk some sense into him and his gang. Their main argument is about standing up for the town and they actually encourage them to join in the fight and help. They want Bergrand to stand up to his words and take charge of his life. Their arguments are persuasive and in the end Bergrand Jr decides not to fight the party, or go with them, but stay behind to defend the town in the event more attacks come or the party fails. They go back to Jalain to tell him of this plan and after careful questioning, Jalain is convinced that Bergrand Jr might be on the right path now. He rewards them with a cloak of the walking wounded. They head out of town after selling their items.

Two hours down the road they find the trail of the marauders, and hours after that they find the dead body of a marauder being eaten by dire rats and a blood hawk. They make short work of the scavengers. They move a bit away and camp for the night. On second watch a hungry pack of wolves circles and attacks the camp. Ironhand tries to protect Oswald, but because he is apart from the rest of the party, the wolves single him out. They knock him unconscious and the party has to scramble to keep him from dying. They win the melee.

They set out again in the morning, noticing the woods closing in and around the old road and that it is starting to go up into the hills. They are walking along when Keyleth and Yiska hear voices arguing around the bend. They sneak up and see goblins arguing over the body of a marauder. Keyleth snipes two of them then takes off. Battle starts. The battle is easy for the most part, and Ironhand is able to handle the healing without anyone going down. They loot the bodies, take a short rest, and set off again.

Towards the end of the day they see another body of a marauder off the side of the road, wrapped up in a bush. They go to investigate and the vines start to move. It’s bloodthorn vines, a nasty carnivorous plant, and the fight is on. It is brutal. The vines draw blood which heals the plant, making it very hard to kill, and the healing of the party is quickly used up. A potion is used to save Grimald’s life and Ironhand is also nearly killed by the vines. It takes a heroic effort to bull rush the vine away from the body to save Grimald’s life. In the end they finish the vines off, and then find a safe place in a gully to rest until they recover. They find a pouch with money on the dead marauder.

The next day they travel all day through the hills. Throughout the travels, they see the hills getting more pronounced with some gullies. Keyleth speculates about mines and hills as they go. They reach a gully with a rope bridge and a bunch of marauders defending the other side. They balk at first then start across amidst a hail of fire from an elf archer and halfling slingers. Grimald goes down almost all the way across, but doesn’t fall off. Ironhand is able to get to him to heal him in time, and through good luck, they kill the guard who was shaking the bridge before he could shake the unconscious Grimald off. Once on the other side, they make quick work of the rest of the guards and can see some huts in the distance.

They move up the road after a short rest. They see buildings, but they also notice a track going up to the left of the hill above what appears to be a ruined village. They notice tracks on both but decide to go up the hill to get a good vantage point. Little do they know that the marauders have already taken this high road and are ready for them. Kalzon, the apparent leader of these marauders, and his remaining crew have set up a defensive line, with an elf archer up on the hill top above the mine entrance. The fight isn’t too close, especially when the party spends their resources to take out the leader fast. They manage to take out the rest of the marauders without anyone going unconscious, but all their healing is used as well as their most potent powers. They decide to camp. They identify all the magic items except the shield from the chest they find inside one of the huts. They also discover a note from Bergrand Othos Sr! This note makes it clear that Bergrand is familiar with the marauder leader and has been bribing him for years to save his own cronies and the Red Crown Inn. He even has suggested that the marauders raid a specific farm, Jagan’s farm, pointing out that they have had a good year this year. This is the final straw and the party now has the ammunition it needs to deal with the tyrant mayor once and for all. They start planning how they will confront him – they are talking about bringing in the whole town to see the evidence.

The huts of the marauders are outside an old mine, so they decide to investigate. They find a barricade of old furniture, which is no barrier, and head in. Deep in the tunnel they brush up against the wall and a rockslide starts to happen. Opportunistic bats, a choker, and an ochre jelly attack during this. Grimald is bloodied many times by the acid, but in the end they are victorious. Keyleth finds an old box amidst the rubble with some money and a statuette.

They take a short rest and then look out into the village. They see that the village is infested with undead and Keyleth takes a few pot shots at them as they mill about. They decide that they must go down to be really effective. They meet the first undead encounter and easily destroy them all. They take the side road and encounter a second undead group and defeat them. They recover some loot from the old smith and finish exploring the town. They find the Hegen Fall Inn still has a sign (identifying the town), which Grimald takes. They notice the old road continuing south and Keyleth makes a simple map. They go up to the cave to rest until tomorrow.

They travel for half the day and reach the bend in the road where they fought goblins before. There is another ambush, which they deal with. The last goblin tries to flee, but is chased down and shot with arrows. They rest and continue on. Three hours later, they see something completely unexpected.

A fortress, made of strange green stone has suddenly appeared. It was definitely not there on their way up. They would surely have noticed it before. The stone is green, and the manufacture is like nothing they have ever seen before. It is only a two story fortress, but it has four squat round towers. The strangest feature, however, is that the fortress looks like it has been sliced with a sharp knife, cutting away a significant portion of the building. Further, the land it is sitting on is likewise chopped away. Bare rock is exposed, cleaved away for a good 50 feet to where the natural valley resumes. The building looks crooked, and it seems like it was dropped where it was. Once they get close they can see crushed rock and trees sticking out from the foundation.

The building shows graffiti written in blood. Tattered banners of a green mailed fist splattered with blood adorn the top and each of the towers that can be seen. The stone has seen signs of battle, there are some gouge marks and scorched charcoal areas.

Their jaws drop about this building that wasn’t there before. They hurry past; they intend to go to the village first, but they stop and Keyleth and Yiska sneak back to scout it. When they see that only 7 goblins guard the towers, they decide that they will go attack in the morning.

They go first thing in the morning. They get close to the edge of the trees; there has been very little clearing outside the fortress. The guards on the towers and wall ready actions when they spot the party approaching and hit Grimald as he runs up first. Fortunately, he used the ironskin belt to reduce damage as he gets immobilized and hit by many attacks. This allows Yiska and Ironhand to run inside. Oswald gets immobilized next to Oswald while Keyleth uses his bow and his evasive strike to get in and out of hiding and sniping the goblins up top. Inside, they open a random door and having guessed correctly, are able to see that the two sharpshooters from above are in that corridor. They go to attack. The fight goes on for a while, and it is bad for Grimald as he keeps getting immobilized and blinded out in the field of fire. Oswald makes it in first but he has to run out to heal Grimald twice. Eventually, Yiska makes it on the battlements, seeing another mass of goblins not quite in the fight yet. When Grimald finally makes it inside, he makes the mistake of opening the wrong door and alerting more goblins to join the fray. This new group includes a vicious looking bugbear. A goblin hexer and two sharpshooters have come down and also join in that encounter. It looks like the party is facing defeat for much of the time, but everyone is jammed into a tight corridor, so Grimald can’t rejoin the party. The rest of the party is relatively safe in the 10’ main corridor and use ranged weapons and powers. Unfortunately, the hexer also makes it into the back of the corridor and hexes the whole party so they are penalized heavily to hit. Ultimately, Keyleth eventually takes the hexer down and then the bugbear follows shortly. The use of their most potent powers, especially a cleric power that gives the whole party resistance to all damage, turns the tide in their favor. All healing is gone, and finally, the last goblin is killed. Only once did Grimald fall unconscious. They leave quickly and way up the road and into the forest and rest the night, undisturbed.

The next day they go back and find a new barricaded entrance. It’s a tough fight as the goblins have prepared for their return. The combat goes for a long time and a goblin hexer is again a large pain until in the end he goes down. Goblin acolytes of maglubiyet immobilize the heroes for a while but are taken down by Keyleth and his bow. They take a short rest and then enter the mess hall and are ambushed there by more goblins. They have used too resources so they have to leave and rest for the night again. They return to the blind they used the night before to camp. They rest for the day, 8 hours, and return in the evening. They catch the goblins shoring up the defenses, outside the fortress. They fight for a while, planning on just using Keyleth’s bow to take them out until they charge. The fight is pretty easy until one of the hand of maglubiyets manages to fall back and raise the alarm with the goblins in the battlements. The party tries to rest in the mess hall, but ready in case the goblins come. Which they do. The party didn’t expect the goblins to run around up top and come in a different way. The goblins come in through the other door in the mess hall, catching Oswald out all alone for a round or two. The fight looks grim until Oswald breaks out the moment of glory turning the tide of battle. Then the other powers are used to take out a goblin underboss. From there it is only a matter of time until the encounter is over and the party escapes back out into the wild. One goblin warrior almost raised the alarm with the leaders, but he was cut down as he tried to escape up the stairs. The party tries to rest back at their spot deep in the forest.

They return to the fortress, seeing that there is no one on the parapets. They cautiously approach, seeing the door wide open as it was left the previous day. When they enter the hallway, they see bodies and rubble, but the doors are closed. They go in and start listening at doors. When they open the door on the right, the hobgoblins in the mess hall attack, the soldiers open the doors and the archers hidden behind each fire. The bugbear in the back didn’t really position himself right so he was all alone. Keyleth and Oswald deal with him fairly quickly while the archers beat on Ironhand round after round. Ultimately, Grimald starts getting their attention and taking the hits. The party in the end is victorious, although they tried to capture the last archer unsuccessfully. They rest in the mess hall. When they are finished they try to decide where to go, then decide to backtrack and open doors in the main hall.

They open the doors to the treasure room and the goblins are waiting. One triggers crossbow turrets and yells for the hexer. Unfortunately for him, the party is able to break the ranks of the goblins and allows Yiska to get in back to attack him. The turrets aren’t much of a problem. The hexer does get his evil cloud up, but he is killed a round or two after that. They deal with the rest of the goblins then take down the turrets with damage. They rest, find a key, and use it to open the door to the vault. They open the second door and go down the corridor. When they get to the vault itself, they trigger a pendulum trap and the goblins however, fail to react properly and are disorganized. The party gets up and the pendulums only damage Keyleth and Ironhand. The battle does look like it could start to go downhill, but it doesn’t and they take out the goblins, then drag the chests away from the pendulums taking minimal damage. Oswald successfully identifies only one magic item from the chest, a suit of armor, which Ironhand puts on.

They rest, then go upstairs, despite their resources being low. They feel like the place might almost be cleaned out and if they leave, then the leaders might be given an opportunity to flee. Upstairs, after some short exploration, they enter the leader’s chambers. The hobgoblins are set up in defensive positions, and one bugbear is hiding in the next room, ready to attack anyone who tries to cut around or to join in when called. Oswald puts up the powerful power which grants damage resistance, and the battle is on. Grimald steps into the room, triggering all the attacks of the goblins who are waiting. He is nearly killed, but the damage resistance does good things for them. Yiska shifts in and manages, with some help, to take down a bugbear. A fleshcarver hobgoblin starts focusing on him. The leader then calls in the other bugbear, who starts attacking Yiska, grappling him and keeping him out of the fight for a few rounds. The fight is long and arduous. The halberdier is really tough and keeps Keyleth and then Ironhand occupied and separated from the rest in the other room for several rounds while the strangler fights Yiska. For a time, it looks like the party might die. It could have gone badly, but luck turned and the enemy started missing and the party started hitting. One by one the goblins fell until only the fleshcarver remained. They cut him down in the end and collapsed exhausted with little to no resources left. They rest, and find a journal of the Jade Fist and Ironhand reads it to the party. They learn that this clan of goblins took this fortress from eladrin on their home plane. And a few days ago there was a terrible storm during which the whole fortress shook like a rock dropped from a balcony. They went outside and found themselves here, near Vallington. The journal reveals that the goblins had patrolled and found Vallington and were preparing to attack. They have successfully thwarted another threat to their home. They search the upper level and find a chest of loot, where they identify a nice suit of armor for Keyleth. They lock the doors and rest undisturbed.

The next day they identify some more magic items, search the rest of the place, then rest again and finish identifying all the items. They find some love letters hidden under a false brick between two goblins. Reading them, they glean some information that the goblins were boasting of that relate to the Feywild. This further reinforces the notion that this is an eladrin fortress that the goblins took over. They also talk about their plan to usurp Othos, and reason also that they must have a replacement government. History and insight tell them that the son and maybe others will have to be dealt with and that in the past the village has been run by priests and sometimes a council of elders. They leave finally, and travel out of the hills. As they get to the base, they find a glade of unearthly beauty. In it there is faerie dragons harassing a dust devil. The dragons turn their attention to the party and the dust devil is just in a rage. The party is victorious, but during it Yiska talks with one of the dragons some. The dragon tries to bluff his way with talk about granting a wish and giving treasure treasure, but Yiska sees through it. Afterwards, they examine the glade and conclude that it is a breach into the Feywild, that will be very dangerous to stay in. Keyleth contemplates burying all the eladrin heads from the fortress here but decides to consult his elders first. They camp.

They reach town the following afternoon. They are the talk of the town as they enter, kids and dogs chasing them and running ahead to tell the others. The party splits up and goes to their respective homes. Ironhand goes to Werent after his parents and tells his tale. Werent again mentions the prophecy and tries to fit the goblin attack in it. Umgra interrogates Oswald about whether he was infested by aberrations. Keyleth tells the elves about the goblins and the heads. They start a ceremony that night to give them a proper burial. The party meets at Bill’s and spreads the tale around to everyone there.

The next morning they shop, meet with Bergrand Othos Jr and find that he and his gang have been meeting every day to practice with the weapons the party gave them. Grimald meets with Jalain and talks about his findings, including the letter from Bergrand. Jalain advises him as best as he can from his point of view. His concern with what follows after tearing down the tyrant, but Grimald has no interest in dictating what the town should do. The town should do it themselves. The party plans some more and figures out that they will be outnumbered if they challenge Othos immediately. They decide to try and remove some of his support. They identify Bergrand Jr., Krate Erfling the wheelwright, and Thasn, the owner of the Red Crow as key targets to remove from Bergrand’s influence. It seems possible, to them, that these people might be persuaded to remove their support from him. Oswald finally gets to meet with Cofostos. In fact, Cofostos is waiting for Oswald in his house with the door open and a place set at the table for him with tea. He tells Oswald that he came to the town to investigate the events spawned by the Great Cataclysm and in fact the party’s adventures in the Fortresss and with the faerie dragons were something he predicted long ago, and now they have come to pass. Oswald sort of dances around the subject of rituals and asks if maybe he can learn one sometime. He doesn’t outright ask the wizard, who sort of agrees to maybe do so at some point. No commitment is made. Oswald also learns that Cofostos came originally from the Feywild also. The party’s plan will start with Bergrand Jr in the morning.

When they talk with Bergrand Jr, they persuade him to not stand in the way of his father using diplomacy and showing him the letter. Bergrand Jr. basically just says he wants no part of it. They talk to Krate, intimidating him out of supporting Bergrand, after some insight shows them that he would respond to that. They think about Thasn and learn that the best time to talk to him is first thing in the morning.

They catch Thasn first thing in the morning when the Red Crow is mostly empty. They work out bribes to leave the Red Crow out of the discussion, so as not to harm its reputation and business. However, if they use the letter, the Red Crow will get mentioned. Thasn threatens them that if business crashes bad, he will come after them. Now the party starts working on the villagers to let them know the party will be making an announcement on market day, the 27^th. Ironhand goes to Mother Yasmin and convinces her that a discern lies ritual would be something to use at the right time on market day. She knows about the letter and accusations. He pays for the components. Time passes.

Market day arrives and it is time for confrontation with Bergrand Sr. Everyone is present, and Bergrand Sr. comes in haughty and in charge as usual. They party orates to the crowd about Bergrand’s uselessness and inability to rule the town fairly. They tell of their victory over the marauders who will never bother them again and finally, as a last straw, reveal the letter they found with the leader of the marauders. Yasmin puts the final nail in the lid when she declares Othos a liar when he is led into saying that he didn’t write the letter. In a rage, knowing that he can never rule here again, Bergrand Sr. has no options left. He commands his lackeys to kill the party. He knows it is done and over for him. Mistress Falsto unleashes the sun and hurts the entire party except for Keyleth. The party waited for the bad guys to make the first move so they wouldn’t be accused of starting it. Bergrand obliges them easily. Thurn also charges up but misses Grimald. However, other than that, luck is against the party for the entire fight. Oswald’s damage resistance power turns the tide again, and though people get bloodied and all the heals are pulled out, the party easily defeats Bergrand and his followers. Thurn didn’t last long at all since the party focused fire on him. Same thing with Mistress Falsto. And so the tyranny is ended.