Tahlon: ICRPG 5E Ruins of Phandelver Part 1

Tahlon Lanae, Intuitive Eladrin Wizard

Tahlon stands as tall as an average human male but bears the slender frame of his elven lineage. He has fawn colored hair and gold eyes. Tahlon’s colors tend to be leaf green and wood brown.

Origin: Inheritance (Laeth “Eternal Night” the side sword)

Destiny: Sworn (Raven Queen)

S +0 D +1 [+1/+0] C +0 I +2 [+2/+0] W +0  C +0

HP 03 / 10 Armor 14 [+1/+3]

Basic +2 [+2/+0]

Weapon +0

Magic +2 [+2/+0]

Ultimate +0

Personality I am utterly serene, even in the face of danger.

Personality I connect everything that happens to me to a grand, cosmic plan.

Ideal Emotions must not cloud our sense of what is right and true.

Bond My isolation gave me insight into a great evil.

Flaw I am dogmatic in my thoughts and philosophy.

Equipment composite bow (far, light, short range, small), dagger (concealed, fast, piercing, thrown), gryphon scarf (SPELLS are critical hits on 18-20), INT power: misty step (once per day, make a NEAR move without traveling between), jade frog statue (40 drakes), minish cap (+3 armor, no carry limit), nomad bundle (3 healing potions left), scroll of animate dead, spellbook (Magic Effort explodes), wizard side sword (use INT to attack), 600 copper nibs, 110 silver shards

[7 equipped / 4 carried]

Dimension [1] phase

Energy [2] ice barrage

Transmutation [1] disruptor ray

Opening Credits: Tessa Violet ft. heyhihello, Wizard Love

Tahlon has spent the past few days escorting supplies from Neverwinter to Barthen’s Provisions in Phandalin to help an associate, Gundren Rockseeker, in exchange for a small amount of pay: 10 dragons, the minted gold coins of the Lord’s Alliance. He hasn’t known Gundren for more than a few weeks, but the excitable dwarf insisted that he had important matters to attend to.

A half day after leaving the High Road to take the Triboar Trail to Phandalin, Tahlon sees a pair of dead horses blocking the road, black arrows embedded in their flesh. The woods press close against the trail, steep embankments and dense thickets fall away sharply from the path.

Tahlon stops the oxen and dismounts to investigate the bodies.

The horses have been dead for a while, the saddle bags looted. An empty leather map case has been carelessly tossed aside. High pitched screams erupt from the woods as two goblins rush forward. Another pair of goblins loose arrows at Tahlon, each one grazing his thighs. One goblin shoulders into him, knocking Tahlon into the path of the second goblin. A short spear slice into his arm, leaving a ragged scratch.

Tahlon falls back a few quick steps and tosses a small globe of ice just behind the two spear wielding creatures. The ball of ice strikes the ground behind them and explodes in a shower of cold shards; the melee equipped goblins scream in agony as icy sharpnel dig into their backs. The two fall, silenced.

One of the goblins races across the path then fires its bow. The black feathered arrow cuts across his ribs. The stationary goblin takes advantage of the pincered and wounded Tahlon; its arrow strikes firmly in his leg.

The wizard falls back again, taking cover behind the wagon and oxen. His hand desperately grasps Laeth and pulls her free of the scabbard.

The goblin that had crossed the trail places another arrow on his bow. It creeps around to acquire a better line of sight.

Tahlon sprints from behind the wagon and rapidly closes the distance between his victim and himself. The side sword thrusts forward; the slate grey blade pierces the goblin and emerges from its back.

The final goblin, seeing his companion run through, decides that discretion is the better part of valor and flees.

Tahlon sighs heavily and sits on the ground, leaning against the wagon. Though painful, he takes the time to prepare a healing potion before working at his more severe wound. He winces and hisses as he pulls the arrow from his leg then drinks the potion. Most of his wounds close, but the grazes from the arrows are still red and raw.

With a groan, he guides the oxen to a nearby tree and ties them to it. Their black arrows matches the ones on the horses. At the very least, they have everything Gundren and Sildar had in the map case and saddle bags. At the worst, the goblins are holding them prisoner. He takes a few moments to look over the dead goblins in the rare event they have something worth taking.

Two of the goblins, the spear wielders, have nothing of value. Even their spears were poorly constructed. However, the one that used the bow has an odd piece of loot. A leaf green, wide brimmed and floppy hat.

Odd. The wizard scrutinizes the accessory closely; what is a goblin doing with this? Tahlon turns it and inspects it for a few minutes. A minish cap! Kind of like a ring of protection for your head!

Tahlon follows the trail the goblin left. He moves through the woods cautiously, gracefully. The wizard knew the goblin was armed with a bow. Tahlon readied his own. More importantly, he sees the snare waiting for him and the pit camouflaged beyond that. Tahlon slips by them easily without disturbing them.

As he creeps along, the trail ends at a small stream that curves gently around the western bank. Creeping along behind the trees, an opening in a cliff face appears. To proceed into the cave, Tahlon is forced to light one of his torches. Just inside the cave entrance, a passage leads to the right and also continues forward.

Tahlon carefully investigates the right hand passage first.

It smells like refuse. Snarls and growls echo softly from the chamber ahead. In the flickering torch light, he can see a trio of wolves, iron chains secured to iron rods driven into the cave floor.

From his vantage point, he sets the torch on the ground and readies his bow. One arrow flies and strikes its target straight through the eye. His elven training instinctively producing a second arrow, sending that into the chest of a second wolf. Another arrow seems to appear on the bow string immediately, and the third wolf yelps and falls to the floor.

The chamber narrows to a fissure at the far end; a pile of rubbish decomposing amidst the rest of the feces and urine scattered all around.

Tahlon moves the torch to the bottom of the fissure to provide light as he climbs up to see where the fissure leads. He leaps up and pulls himself half way up. Struggling as he isn’t a natural athlete, he spends a couple extra moments to pull himself completely out of the chimney.

Ahead, the room is lit by a campfire. Piles of crates line the walls; atop those piles, even more stacks of sacks of illegitimate gains. Most of the crates are stamped with a blue lion, the crest of Lionshield Coster. Lionshield Coster has a warehouse in Phandalin.

A loud, raucous voice comes from the other side. A bugbear is bullying a pair of goblins as they cower near his feet, a mangy wolf curled up at the bugbear’s feet.

“Klarg will make a throne from your worthless bones!”

It seems Klarg and his goblin minions weren’t expecting an assault from the chimney. Tahlon takes advantage of the situation before they get an opportunity to move. He pulls more energy for the ice barrage than previously, willing to sacrifice more of his spell energy to ensure Klarg would have to deal with a heavier impact. He was glad to have channeled as much as he did.

The ice grenade skittered across the floor and exploded. Icy shards tore through the goblins and wolf without any problem. Klarg was pelted by the ice, fragments ripping through his fur and skin.

“Ripper,” he hoarsely whispers, looking down at his wolf as blood rapidly pooled around it. Then Klarg collapses, coughing up blood before becoming still.

Tahlon readies his bow again and creeps into the room to investigate the sacks and crates, keeping a watchful eye on the chimney and any other exits that may appear.

The crates and sacks are still sealed, but they may be moved by wagon to Phandalin. Amidst the supplies, an unlocked chest reveals 600 copper nibs, 110 silver shards, 2 potions of healing, a small jade frog statue and a scroll of animate dead. Another exit, as Tahlon suspected, rests against the north wall, steps leading down to what sounds like pools of running water.

As Tahlon begins transferring the contents of the chest to his pack, he pauses and considers the scroll. His gold eyes look at the corpses at his feet then back at the scroll. There was still the rest of the cave… He channels as much power as he can manage and reanimates the four corpses. Afterall, Tahlon did just find potions of healing. The wizard directs the risen dead to head down stairs and follows a short way behind.

The cavern at the base of the stairs has a waterfall filling two pools to the east. The crashing water drowning out any sound from this chamber. A bridge crosses the small chasm to the west, and a ramp leads down to the cave floor beside it. Three goblins grow attentive and say something to Klarg, though the waterfall drowns their voices. The walking corpses creep closer to the three goblins.

Tahlon calmly places the torch back down on the floor and readies the composite bow as Klarg lurches forward to bite at one of the goblins. The zombie is clumsy, missing entirely, but, as the goblin sidesteps the poorly executed attack, Ripper’s jaws snap shut on his leg. The undead canine shakes its head violently, tearing through muscle and thrashing the goblin along the floor. The other two goblins didn’t fare much better. Tahlon’s arrows fire past the zombies and strike the two remaining goblins in the torso, killing them.

Ripper continues shaking his new toy until the leg separates from the body. Klarg and the other two undead goblins make their way across the bridge where another goblin sits, keeping watch on the cave floor beneath it. The goblins shuffle forward, the guard getting to its feet, and they collapse on the guard, pinning it to the bridge so Klarg can grab its throat with both hands. Klarg squeezes the guard’s throat, lifting it off the floor and pulling it in to bite into its face.

“Maybe having undead servants isn’t that bad,” Tahlon mused, crossing the bridge to the final room, escorted by his four assistants.

This room is divided by a ten foot tall escarpment, natural stairs lead from the floor up to the second level. Five goblins are tending a camp fire while a lone goblin supervises. Sildar is bound, obviously wounded, at the edge of the escarpment.

“Wait!” shouts the goblin on the escarpment. “Come closer, and this one dies!”

Tahlon paused, briefly, to consider his options. Did this goblin think he was stupid? He would just kill Sildar anyway. This was not the time for attachment. Action. Swift action. “Kill them,” he says, walking across the room. Klarg snares the nearest goblin and pulls. Shoulder joints pop, and the goblin’s screams become gurgles when Klarg leans in and bites into its throat.  Ripper lives up to his name in death, leaping at another goblin and clamps its jaws along the goblin’s head. The reanimated goblins stumble and fail to accomplish much more than groan. Closing the distance, Tahlon gestured at the goblin on the escarpment and struck it with a disruptor bolt.

The three remaining goblins swarm the two undead goblins kicking them in the legs until they fell over, then they started stomping on them until the zombies quit moving.

Ripper bounces around the stomping goblins, a raspy bark threatening them. Klarg ambles over and grabs one by the arm, pulling it in to bite its ear. Tahlon readies his bow.

The two goblins left try to avoid Klarg and focus their attacks on the bouncing Ripper to no avail.

Ripper continues to bounce around the fight, seeming to enjoy himself. Klarg tackles one from behind and shoves its face into the floor while tearing into the back of its shoulder. Tahlon fires a pair of arrows. The first impales the last goblin between the eyes; the second, however, barely grazes the goblin on the escarpment.

“Wait!” it pleads again. “I’ll let him go!”

“Ok,” the wizard replies. “Klarg, Ripper, let him through.”

The goblin slowly backs away from Sildar and inches down the steps. It makes a wide path around the zombies and wizard; when it reaches the door, the goblin breaks into a run.

Tahlon steps up to Sildar and frees his hands. “Klang, Ripper, could you go load the supplies in our wagon?”

“That was a dangerous game,” Sildar says.

“Yeah. Maybe. Looks like it worked, though.”

“Would you take me to Phandalin? I can pay…”

“Sure, and you can fill me in on what happened to Gundren along the way.”

End Credits: Becca, I'm Alive