Confrontation in the Caverns
Darvin pushes the bookcase aside revealing the secret opening to the caverns. They follow the stairs down into the caverns, Darvin and Kenku in the lead. At the bottom of the stairs, the group pauses and listens.
"I hear voices up ahead," Illayana whispers and gestures with her head.
"We better be ready then," whispers Thamila as she slips her aquamarine crystal out of its pouch. The halfling then touches the crystal to her chest, and a spectral frost spreads out covering her body.
"Agreed," replies Illayana readying an arrow in her short bow.
Darvin asks Lathander to bless his friends before pulling out his mace and shield.
Kenku draws her scimitars and whispers, "Ready Friends?"
They all nod. Then the little kenku leads her companions through the caverns. Every few feet they pass a torch burning in an iron bracket, making it easy for them to traverse the passage. The voices continue to get louder the farther into the caverns they go. As the group comes around a corner they spot a slaver with his sword drawn guarding the entrance to what looks like a storage room.
Not wasting a second, Illayana lets her arrow fly over her sister's head. The eladrin's aim is true and the man stumbles back a step from the force of the arrow's impact.
"Nice shot!" Kenku says in sylvan.
From the room behind the slaver, they hear a man call out, "Who do you think you are, coming in here trying to take over Sanbalet's operation? Well, don't just stand there. Get them!"
Then three magical missiles fly out of the room and slam into Darvin, dropping him to his knee. Darvin looks down and touches the magical damage to his chest and pales slightly. He groans from the pain, pulls out a red potion, and drinks it down. The human watches his wound begin to heal magically. Then he stands, bangs his mace against his shield, and rushes the slaver in the doorway between him and his attacker. On impact, the man crumples to the ground and Darvin steps out of the doorway to avoid another magical attack.
Thamila slips in around Illayana stopping next to the kenku. She points, sending a crackling beam of aquamarine energy at the second slaver in the storage room. The energy explodes on contact and the slaver falls to the ground. The halfling bounces up and down in excitement and exclaims, "I got them!"
Kenku yells, "You hurt Friend!" She runs into the room and sees Sanbalet hiding behind the casks across the room. The kenku then jumps up on a cask and looms menacingly over a man with a shaved head and piercing green eyes. The small woman opens her beak and roars like a lion in Sanbalet's face.
Not even slightly fazed by the kenku's attempt to intimidate him, Sanbalet says to her, "You think you can stop Sanbalet?"
Kenku's face goes blank for an instant.
She pauses looking at her raised scimitars, then at Sanbalet, and lowers her blades saying, "Sorry Friend," with a quiet apologetic whistle.
Back out in the hall, a hobgoblin steps up behind Darvin swinging her longsword at the human. Just as the longsword is about to hit Darvin light flares around the cleric, protecting him from the attack. He turns, sees the hobgoblin, and whispers, "Thank you for the protection Lathander."
Illayana moves up next to Darvin and reaches over touching his wound. Her tattoos glow a bright red-orange and magical water flows from her hand around the wound, finishing the healing the potion had begun. "That should feel better now," she says and then slips behind the human into the storage room with Kenku and Sanbalet.
"Thanks," Darvin replies. Then he swings his mace at his attacker, but she deftly moves out of the way.
A spectral tentacle emerges from the ground behind the hobgoblin stopping a second hobgoblin from joining the fight. He stops dead and stares at it wide-eyed. The tentacle whips around and just misses slamming into the hobgoblin attacking Darvin.
"I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing that," Darvin calls over his shoulder to the halfing.
She smiles and casts her spell. The hobgoblin, expecting the attack upon seeing the halfling gesturing with the crystal, dodges out of the way of the crackling energy. Despite both the warlock's attacks missing, the combined attacks put the hobgoblin off balance causing her to miss with her next attack on Darvin.
The second hobgoblin recovering from his shock at the sudden appearance of the spectral tentacle swings his longsword right through it. The sword instead slams into the cavern passage wall. The metal of the sword hitting stone lets out a loud shlang!
Darvin swings his mace and hits the hobgoblin in front of him, hard. The hobgoblin returns the attack, but her severe injury causes her to lose her grip on the longsword. It clatters to the ground and she puts her hands up saying, "I surrender."
Darvin nods his acceptance. And looks through the undulating spectral tentacle over at the second hobgoblin hoping for his surrender as well.
"Kenku. What are you doing? Put up your scimitars and attack!" Illayana calls out. Then she shoots an arrow at Sanbalet. The eladrin's arrow goes through the man's side, the fletching still sticking out.
Sanbalet looks down at the arrow, then looks at Kenku and says, "Help your friend Sanbalet." Then in desperation, he sends three magical missiles at the eladrin, dropping her to the ground.
"Sister!" Kenku calls out in sylvan.
Sanbalet calls to the bird woman again, "Friend Kenku, help Sanbalet."
Kenku looks back at the bleeding man calling to her. Then she looks back at her sister laying still on the ground. The kenku, puzzled that her new friend attacked and may have killed her sister, shakes her head trying to make sense of the situation.
Out in the hall, Darvin says to the second hobgoblin, "It's not too late to surrender too. I can see your master is down in the other room."
He doesn't answer immediately so Thamila pulls her tentacle back in preparation to swing at the second hobgoblin again.
The hobgoblin looks over at his companion bleeding out and the spectral tentacle ready to attack again. He sets his longsword on the ground and raises his hands growling, "Surrender."
"Good choice," Darvin responds.
The spectral tentacle disappears as Thamila cries out, "Illayana!" The halfling then runs into the room and drops down next to Illayana while reaching into a pouch on her belt. Thamila pulls out a healing potion and pours it into her companion's mouth, hoping to revive the eladrin.
The spectral tentacle reappears in the space between Sanbalet and the two women on the floor and slams into the shaven-head man. Frost is left behind on the wizard where the tentacle made contact.
Sanabalet persuasively calls to the kenku one more time hoping to get her help before the situation gets worse and removes his spell, "Help your friend, Sanbalet. Then you can help your sister."
Kenku focuses in on Sanbalet and says, "Help will hurt." Then she snaps the arrowhead off and pulls the arrow out.
Sanbalet screams from the pain.
"I told you help would hurt Sanbalet," she says mimicking his voice. She drops the broken arrowhead and presses on the wound with a cloth from her bag.
Illayana sits up, trying to lure her sister away from the evil wizard she says, "I'm ok Kenku. Come help me up." Then the eladrin's tattoos start glowing and a thorn-covered vine whip emerges in her hand. She lashes out at Sanbalet and then tugs him into the spectral tentacle. The thorns of the whip dig in deep drawing blood.
"Bitch," he spats, "Sanbalet won't be taken down by the likes of you." The wizard blows a pinch of colored sand from the palm of his hand at the women. Then he rushes past them hoping to escape, but stops when he sees Darvin and the surrendering hobgoblins.
Darvin turns, looks at Sanbalet, and says, "Your men have surrendered. There's nowhere for you to run. You should surrender too."
Sanbalet looks around quickly and then yells, "Sanbalet will never surrender!" He lets out an evil laugh and hurls three rays of fire, one at Darvin and each of the surrendering hobgoblins. Already severely injured, the closer hobgoblin falls dead from the fiery spell. Hoping his spell will cause chaos, Sanbalet continues running up the cavern passage hoping to get away.
Despite the fiery pain, Darvin swings his mace at the fleeing man nearly knocking Sanbalet off his feet.
From the other room, Darvin hears Illayana and Thamila's screams of terror. He steps into the doorway, turning his back on Sanbalet, and sees the two women on the floor. The halfing is holding her face with one hand and frantically reaching around, searching blindly with her other. The eladrin similarly is feeling around the ground, trying to anchor herself from the disorientating blindness.
Kenku runs to the other two women saying, "I help!"
And to Darvin, "You stop Sanbalet," she says sounding just like the narcissistic wizard.
The human turns and sees Sanbalet farther down the hall since he took advantage of Darvin's distraction.
Mustering all his strength Darvin calls out, "I said, do you surrender?"
The wizard lets out a maniacal laugh. And says weakly, "Sanbalet will never surrender to the likes of you."
Darvin levels his crossbow and shoots a bolt at the wizard.
"I can see!" Illayana and Thamila yell, almost in unison.
When Darvin looks back to check on his companions he sees the two women on the floor looking relieved and holding up fingers to check each other's visions. And Kenku shaking her head, trying to clear away the last remnants of the dead wizard's spell.
I know the module says Sanabalet prefers manipulation to direct confrontation. However, with him cornered in the storage room and one of his minions already dead, I felt like he would throw out a damage spell, wanting to create chaos.
This was also my first time writing the combat out of turn order. I was hoping to build suspense by jumping between the two settings. Hopefully, it came across ok.