Chapter 17

The adventurers return to the Broken Spy Glass and are soon joined by Rightside, who has discovered that Davanor is an interesting character. He’s referred to as a Damian, someone who can get you whatever you want…using whatever means are necessary. They’re usually creative and innovative in their methods, as well as unsavory and amoral. From his time in the city, Dolor knows that damians are people to stay away from, which both Rightside and Tella confirm.

Mond reveals the etymology of damian, with the root dam, explaining that it means blood in the Old Language. They surmise that’s why the woman asked for a sample of their blood, their soul and personhood is the collateral for any failures.

The door to the tavern slams open and five individuals walk in, one of whom is a dwarf that immediately spies Rightside and heads towards him. “We’d like a word with ye outside. Now.” Bilwin tries to defuse the suddenly very tense situation by offering the newcomers beer, on his tab. When they ignore him and refuse to drink with him, Bilwin becomes irrationally upset and yells “How dare ya insult Hanseath, ya fowl demons of sobriety!” The dwarf calmly shrugs his shoulders and looks over at Tella, standing behind the bar with an angry look on his face, “we tried to do this outside.”

Fight choreography

• Bilwin swings his hurdy-gurdy at the dwarf, but it’s deflected with a swipe of his shield and slides off his scale mail.
  • Bilwin casts Spiritual Weapon, and a glowing orb appears off to his side that immediately attacks and misses the opposing dwarf.
• Grindlefoot slams down his beer in anger at being so rudely interrupted and stands up, casting Thunderwave that pushes the table and benches several feet away from the group, clearing the area for battle. In the opposing group, a human and elf remain in place, but take 8 damage. The dwarf, a half-orc, and another human are pushed backwards and take 17 damage.
• Mond casts Chaos Bolt at the elf, causing 12 thunder damage.
• Elf fires an arrow at Monda and misses, then swigs a healing potion.
• Human 1 attacks Grindlefoot with their longsword and misses, twice.
• Half-orc attacks Bilwin with a warhammer, connecting for 6 damage.
• Dwarf attacks Bilwin with their warhammer and misses, but then glowers at Bilwin and seems to be drawing in strength of some sort.
• Human 2 attacks Gven with a greatsword and misses, then swigs a healing potion.
• Dolor attacks the half-orc with Gleaming Blade, causing 14 damage.
  • Following up with his shortsword, Dolor misses.
• Gven invokes her barbarian rage and swings at the half-orc with her greatsword, just missing.
• Rightside hides underneath a table close by.

• Bilwin blesses the rest of the party (roll an additional d4 for each attack roll).
  • The Spiritual Weapon attacks the opposing dwarf, causing 4 damage.
• Grindlefoot casts Invisibility on Rightside and whispers for him to meet the group at the Hall of Records in 6 hours.
• Mond casts the cantrip, Blade Ward, to protect himself from weapon attacks.
  • He then casts Shadow Blade, and an ethereal sword extends from his hand, with which he attacks and misses the half-orc.
• Half-orc glares at Gven with the hatred of betrayal before attacking and missing her with its warhammer.
• Human 1 attacks Gven with their longsword, hitting for 2 damage.
• Dwarf hits Bilwin with their warhammer, causing 3 damage.
• Elf fires an arrow at Mond and misses.
• Human 2 swings their greatsword at Gven and connects for 4 damage.
• Dolor directs a great swing of Gleaming Blade at the half-orc, connecting and killing it.
  • Dolor then swings his shortsword at the dwarf, causing 5 damage.
• Gven attacks human 2 with her greatsword, connecting for 15 damage.
• The group of five that entered the bar is looking pretty haggard.

• Bilwin smacks the other dwarf across the head with his hurdy-gurdy and misses.
  • The Spiritual Weapon misses the dwarf.
• Grindlefoot casts Shillelagh at the dwarf, causing 7 damage.
• Mond casts Fire Bolt at the elf and misses.
  • Following up with his shadow blade, he misses the elf.
• Human 1 attacks Dolor with their longsword, causing 10 slashing damage.
• Dwarf gruffly says “I’ll drink when I’m thirsty!” and swings his warhammer at Bilwin, connecting for 9 bludgeon damage.
• Elf fires another arrow at Mond and misses.
• Human 2 swings its greatsword at Gven, connecting for 5 damage.
• Dolor attacks human 1 with Gleaming Blade for 12 damage, who is also blinded by the magical blade.
  • Following up with his shortsword, Dolor kills human 1.
• Gven swings her greatsword at human 2 for 11 damage.

• Bilwin, in his fury, casts Guiding Bolt with divine inspiration at the opposing dwarf, causing 9 damage—and he’s now glowing.
  • The Spiritual Weapon attacks the dwarf for 7 damage.
• Mond casts Mind Spike at the dwarf, causing 19 damage and killing him.
• Elf disengages and yells “let’s go!” at human 2 as they run towards the door.
• Human 2 disengages and follows the elf.
• Dolor narrowly misses human 2 with Gleaming Blade and then connects with his shortsword for 7 damage, killing them.
• Gven dashes towards the elf, tackling them before they can exit the tavern.

• Bilwin, still enraged that they refused to drink beer with him, attacks the elf with his hurdy-gurdy, causing 7 damage.
  • The Spiritual Weapon follows suit, attacking the elf for 10 damage.
• Grindlefoot understands that Gven captured the elf to get information, and brings her a length of rope to tie them up.
• Suddenly, a crossbow bolt slams into the elf’s chest, dropping them to the tavern floor, lifeless.

Turning to the source of the bolt, the group sees Tella standing at the bar and he screams, “Fuck all of y’all! Do you know what you’ve done? Of course not, you bumbling nitwits! Everyone sit down, don’t move, and listen. Now!”

Tella begins moving around the room, touching each of the downed opponents, mumbling words they can’t quite make out. Within a few short minutes, he finishes whatever he’s been doing and turns to the group. “Are you stupid, ignorant, or both?” Bilwin and Dolor both begin to talk, making it impossible to understand either one, and he shuts them up with a sharp slash of his hand in the air and an audible “aught!”

“The Hand of the Wand will be here soon, along with the city watch. You’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest, mostly for yourselves. I recommend you be honest, tell them that you resorted to arcane and clerical attacks because you were protecting yourselves and are too dumb to know better. As for Rightside, lucky that rascal got out of here when he did. I didn’t see him leave, although I have a feeling one of you had something to do with that.” He gives Grindlefoot a piercing look.

Bilwin quietly says, “Spare the Dying. That’s what you cast, isn’t it?”

“Yes. If this Danavor is a Damian, then he’ll want compensation—and probably revenge—for any of his thugs you kill. Reviving them will likely save your lives, or at least give you a quicker death.”

“Listen and listen well. Most folks don’t mind that you can cast spells or cantrips or have your prayers answered, even the Hand and the Eye. They’ll look the other way if you do it sparingly, and in isolated ways. But as soon as you get together a group of folks who can wreak havoc like y’all just did, they take notice. You gotta keep your wits about ya, or else you’ll be payin the price. Now lets get this place ready for visitors.”

Dolor, in his usual calm demeanor, suggests that they put one of the humans in the cellar, where they can try to get some information from them. “Maybe the others won’t notice one of the humans is missing. Then we can question them after we get through the next few hours, assuming we do.”

Grindlefoot tells the group that they’re supposed to meet Rightside at the Hall of Records in six hours. Gven, being the only one that didn’t use magic of any sort, volunteers to duck out the backdoor and meet up with Rightside at the appointed time, in case the rest of them cannot make it for some reason.

While they wait for the authorities to show up, Dolor roots through the comatose grunts’ pockets and finds 8 gold, 12 silver, 23 copper, and 1 healing potion—although its usefulness is questionable given that it didn’t help the dwarf much.