After resting a short while, the party continued searching the West side of Cragmaw Castle. The first new area they came to contained a barred wooden door. Of course it piqued their interest. Lilvari stood to the side and, using Curse Bringer, tried to pry the bar loose. Her idea was to carefully open the door a bit just to see what was inside. As she was doing so, Dare moved front and center, not wanting to miss anything. The heavy wooden bar fell to the ground, awakening whatever was inside. A mighty roar filled the halls. The smell of rotted meat wafted out through the slightly opened door. By the time Dare caught glimpse of what it was, it was too late. An owlbear came bursting from the room, taking a good chunk of the door with him. It charged straight at Dare. Dare lifted his shield in time to deflect the blows. Everyone readied for combat, but the owlbear barged through the halls and out of sight. Aside from Mercarri getting slammed into a wall as the owlbear ran past, no one was hurt. Dare checked the collapsed tower where the owlbear was kept. It was kept completely dark — the arrow slits on the wall were covered over. Aside from a few splintered bookshelves there was nothing of interest to be found.

They continued in a northerly direction where they heard an argument coming from one of the rooms to the East. They listened.

“Pay up!” said a gruff voice, “or no deal.”

The other voice coming from the room was as much calm and cool as the first one was loud and angry. “Grol, the deal was that you hand over the dwarf and the map, and the Black Spider offers you his protection.”

“Things changed,” said the first voice, the voice of King Grol. “There have been more attacks. More danger. You want the map, then you have to pay up.”

Knowing that they must be talking about Gundren, the party burst in. Dare spoke first. “What’s going on in here?” They could see Gundren sprawled on the floor in the corner of the room, unconscious. A wolf sat in the far corner, unmoving. The two creatures arguing stood in the center of the room. One was a very large but very old bugbear ,the other a female drow. Upon seeing the drow, Dare couldn’t help himself, “You are one ugly woman.”

“How Dare you enter my chamber?” said King Grol. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Whoa!” replied Dare, amazed. “How’d you know my name?”

Grol and the drow exchanged a confused look. “I don’t have time for this,” cried the bugbear. “Snarl! Attack!”

All eyes turned towards the wolf, crouched in the far corner. It still didn’t move. Now that they looked at it, the party realized that it wouldn’t ever move. While at one point it was a real-live wolf, it was now nothing more than a stuffed animal. King Grol was clearly getting senile in his old age.

A shimmer of light caught their attention from behind. They turned back in time to see the drow’s shape change to that of Mystic’s. The party looked at it in awe. A doppelganger. They’ve heard stories of them but had never seen one in person, let alone see one change into a vile interpretation of their own friend. Mystic was the first to react. She lifted her arms to the heavens and a dim glow rose up from the ground, filling the area where the doppelganger stood. It howled in pain as its flesh started blistering. It was an unsettling sight, especially because it looked to be their own friend who was burning alive.

Dare fought toe to toe with King Grol while the doppelganger lashed out at whoever it could reach. Mystic took the brunt of its attack, an attack that was powerful enough to knock her out cold. Mercarri quickly cast a heal spell on her, giving the doppelganger a chance to turn its attention to her. Lilvari, who had just cut the head off the stuffed wolf for good measure, turned to see what was about to happen. She brought CurseBringer around in an arc and sliced into the doppelgangers chest. Before it could react, she pulled it free and sliced at it over and over until it collapsed to the floor. 

Seeing this, King Grol rushed over to the unconscious dwarf. He lifted him from the ground, shielding his own body and pulled a dagger. “Back off or I kill the dwarf!”

The party hesitated only a moment. Dare somersaulted over the nearby table and cut at the bugbear’s legs. King Grol had time to either kill the dwarf or avoid Dare’s blade, not both. It decided to jump over the blade. Mystic rushed in, trying to attack him while his attention was focused on Dare, but fearing she might hit the dwarf, her attack went wide. Lilvari yelled out something that almost sounded like a command. Instantly King Grol’s hands fell to his side. The dagger dropped to the ground. King Grol toppled over, unable to move. Mercarri brought her spiritual mace down hard right into the bugbear’s face. King Grol screamed out in pain and spit several teeth out among gobs of blood. Quickly, Mercarri pulled Gundren out of harms way.

“Please!” cried King Grol. “Let me go! I’ll give you the map! I’ll give you the dwarf! Just let me go.”

Lilvari met his eyes and gave a compassionate smile. “Well, we already have the dwarf, don’t we. But sure. We’ll let you go. Just tell us where the map is first.”

The bugbear didn’t hesitate. “Under the bed. Take it! It’s yours!”

Lilvari smiled again, not so compassionate this time. “Dare. Do it.”

King Grol’s eyes went wide with fear. “No, no no!” 

The last of his cries were cut off as Dare cleaved the upper part of the bugbear’s skull from the rest. 

They found the map under the bed, just as the bugbear had said. They found a pouch full of coins and a few health potions as well. Then they forced a health potion down Gundren’s throat.

The first thing out of his mouth was a curse, even before he managed to get himself up off the ground. “What the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck are you doing here?”

As Gundren slowly regained his strength, the party explained what had happened — how he had been captured under orders of the Black Spider, and they spent the last few tendays searching for him. Gundren, in turn, told him all he knew. There wasn’t much. The map that was taken led to Wave Echo Cave, and that he and his brothers were the only ones who knew of the cave’s location. Hopefully with the map back in their possession and King Grol dead, that is still the case. He then tells them that he needs to get back to Phandalin to meet up with his brothers. First though, there’s the rest of the castle to explore.