Quite bruised after such a rough fight, the party grows weary of this place and begins to feel very much at the end of their ropes.
While Brannus collects whatever he can find of use from the defeated bugbears, the rest of the party debates what to do with the unconscious goblin.
Kiara is determined to “rescue” him, so she wraps him around her back to carry him.
As they idle for a bit, they begin to notice the smell of burning wood, as if there was a fireplace nearby.
They backtrack to the large cavern and notice that smoke has began to accumulate in the chamber.
There is no doubt now that they are smelling something burning.
Aiming to explore the area beyond the crypt they had not yet visited, the party begins crossing one of the bridges, with Sigmar heading the pack.
As soon as his full weight is on the bridge, the whole structure collapses from under him.
He falls, and lands harshly below, right next to the decomposing corpse of a human that has been left in the bottom of the crevasse.
Bite marks on the body imply that this unfortunate man was food for the creature that lived here.
Nearby, Sigmar finds a unlocked chest with gold, two healing potions, and a beautiful longsword that – Kiara would eventually note – is magical.
Seeing all of this, Brannus investigates the other bridge and finds its current robustness also… suspicious.
Helping Sigmar up by throwing him a rope, the party goes around the crevasse through the alchemist’s laboratory and the secret corridor in the back of the lavish bedroom they found earlier.
Meanwhile, smoke continues to spread throughout the cavern.
They stop by the locked door, near the crypt, they found and abandoned earlier.
The main bugbear had a key with him and it seems to fit the lock.
They open the door to the room and find a storage area filled with weapons and equipment.
An assortment of simple weapons is accompanied by a decent number of red cloaks.
Brannus takes advantage of the situation to stock-up on crossbow bolts.
Moving through the crypt, they finally open the large double doors in the south-eastern corner of the room.
They find a long, dusty, corridor with walls decorated with columns that the dwarves immediately recognize as being fake masonry.
Suspicious of the visibly unused corridor, Sigmar walks carefully looking for traps.
His instinct pays off as he collapses a pit trap, near the middle of the corridor, with the tip of his hammer.
After debating for a moment how to traverse the pit, everyone jumps it successfully.
There’s some growing suspicion related to the “unconscious” goblin – he seems unnaturally unfazed about being tossed around.
Now collected on the far eastern end of the corridor, the group notices that there’s much more smoke on this end, visibly coming from under a door to the south.
Sigmar touches the door – it’s somewhat warm, but not scorching – and listens for the noise of crackling fire (which he hears).
He decides to open the door but , despite his care, is slightly burned by the heat of flames that greet him.
They are in a landing above a large cellar, and the roof of this area is made of wood since it connects to the base of the manor above. It’s on fire, and partially collapsed filling two short flights of stairs with burning wreckage.
Opening the door also exposes the party to a cloud of smoke and they begin coughing.
Faced with a fiery dead-end, the party decides to backtrack.
Everyone jumps the pit again.
When Brannus does it, however, he hesitates and very nearly falls into the pit – it’s a close call.
The goblin remains… unconscious?
Going back to the large cavern, but now on the east side of the crevasse, the party approaches the last visible corridor they have not explored.
It’s now obvious that the smoke is coming from it, and the party deduces they are circling back to the cellar on fire.
A growing discussion on the option of leaving through the tunnel they’ve used before takes shape.
Sigmar hesitates at the mouth of the corridor, so Kiara places the “unconscious” goblin on the floor and takes the lead.
Opening the door at the end of the winding corridor, Kiara finds herself on the opposite end of the cellar they saw before.
This west side is not on fire – yet – and features walls lined with kegs and barrels, and a large stone cistern filled with water from the manor’s drainage pipes.
There’s an abandoned satchel on the floor, connected to the cistern by a rope, and some buckets lying around.
Kiara gingerly investigates the wet satchel but finds nothing but broken glass.
She moves on to trying to use buckets of water to extinguish the fire.
Dwolf enters the room and, seeing the scene, decides to grab a bucket also and help Kiara.
Sigmar follows suit, but with no other bucket at hand he tries to use his shield.
All he accomplishes is splashing water around.
Left alone with the goblin, Brannus decides to follow the group.
But first he ties the goblin in-place, just in case.
He joins Sigmar in splashing with his shield, but that strategy is pointless.
Dwolf as some measure of success, while Kiara seems to struggle with her aim.
In her eagerness, she almost chokes on the accumulating smoke.
Frustrated, Kiara decides to explore a closed door in the northwest corner of the cellar for anything useful.
It leads to a storage room that has been converted to a bedroom.
It seems hastily abandoned and apparently holds nothing of interest.
Except there’s a bucket.
The party eventually starts to work together, instead of individually, and builds up to a motion that is effective at beating the fire.
After a few minutes of work, the debris in the cellar are no longer burning and the area is secured.
From the rubble, they can see the sky through the partially caved ceiling, and also have confirmation that what’s left of the manor ruins above is on fire.
Sigmar wants to exit through the stairs at the top of the cellar while some still argue that they should go through the tunnel, but it is decided.
Before leaving, Kiara goes back to get the goblin.
He’s motionless where she left him, but whatever Brannus did to tie him has been apparently pointless because it’s completely loose… or was loosened.
They reunite and move up the stairs.
They find themselves within the manor proper, in a place they’ve walked by before.
They are in the ruined kitchen of the estate.
Noticing a clear exit out, they follow it.
As the group gathers outside, they begin hearing distant voices that seem to be shouting.
The town’s denizens are clearly aware that a fire is raging.
Suddenly, however, they also hear the hum of an arcane incantation:
Webbing starts to fall all around, clinging to their bodies and the walls, and the nearby bushes.
It begins constricting their movement, and they try to resist becoming ensnared.
Except for Sigmar, everyone fails to resist the magical trap.
A dark-bearded wizard, clad in lavish red robes, and holding a beautiful glass staff faces them flanked by two Redbrand goons.
He holds himself with poise and grace, but his vaguely aristocratic demeanor is obviously betrayed by the anger displayed on his face.
One of the goons is recognizable as the one that escaped the initial assault to the party early that day – a fight that feels, at this point, like it happened a lifetime ago.
Iarno Albrek insults the party for ruining months of planning, calling them interlopers and meddlers, and curses some unidentified third-party for obsessing over dwarves and pointless searches for “mythical places”.
He cuts his speech short, however, noticing that Sigmar is free.
He attacks him with a barrage of magic missiles.
Dwolf breaks free from his bonds, and drinks a healing potion.
Kiara and Brannus try to break the webbing, but fail.
The goons rush the dwarven cleric.
He had renewed his mettle by quaffing one of the healing potions earlier, but still suffers serious wounds.
Surrounded, and near unconsciousness, Sigmar tries shoving one goon away from him.
He makes an effort, but starting from a still position he does not go far.
The goon slides back a bit but eventually finds his footing and resists.
Dwolf moves on the second goon, wielding the magical sword they found earlier.
He strikes but the attack is parried.
Kiara finally breaks free and tries talking to the goblin, spurring him to help.
Brannus noticed that the effort for her release seemed to not be entirely her own…
Brannus is finally able to free himself as well, and tries the diplomatic avenue.
He pleads to the wizard that the party “didn’t start the fire”.
Iarno scoffs at Brannus: the fire was set by his own command!
The wizard evokes four more magic missiles targeting mostly Dwolf, but also Brannus and Kiara.
Both goons attack Sigmar and manage to down the dwarf.
Apprehension finally starts to sink in on the party.
Dwolf and Kiara desperately attack one of the Redbrands but he resists.
Brannus moves on Iarno and raises his mace to strike down the wizard.
Iarno reacts, planting the glass staff between him and the cleric, uttering arcane words of shielding.
In a wide arch, coming from above, Brannus' mace connects creating sparks of arcane energy as it finds resistance in Iarno’s shielding spell.
For a minute moment it seems that the wizard will prevail, but suddenly the spell of protection shatters and the weapon hits Iarno with extreme violence, staggering him.
One of the goons strikes Dwolf down, while the other moves on Brannus to protect Iarno – but he misses.
Kiara kills the villain that struck Dwolf, all the while feeling a weight lifting off of her.
The goblin, finally ripping the support holding him, rushes the goon attacking Brannus and skewers him with a shortsword!
Brannus watches as the fierceness vanishes from the man, replaced by surprise as the bloody tip of a blade pokes out of his chest from behind.
With determination, Brannus turns on Iarno again. With another arching motion – now from below – he strikes the wizard again as he tries in vain to protect himself!
With all his rage and arrogance replaced now with fear and panic – his plan in complete shambles – Iarno casts one final spell, turning invisible, and escapes.
With the dwarves bleeding to death, those left standing rush to stabilize them.
The goblin seemingly tries to help Sigmar, but his own sturdiness is all he needs to resist.
Brannus rushes to Dwolf, who seems in dire straits once again, and provides much needed medical care.
With a moment to breathe, finally, they realize that it’s not just the manor that is on fire:
Black smoke is rising to the sky from town, roughly where the Sleeping Giant should be.
Not long after villagers arrive with buckets of water and a few helping hands…
The Draconus Dictum