“I heard a noise coming from upstairs,” Lilvari said.

All eyes turned to her. “What kind of noise?” asked Mercarri.

“Sort of like a whimper.”

“So… um, should we check it out?” asked Dare.

“Kinda feel like we have to,” Lilvari said.

Dare went first up the narrow, spiral staircase. The others followed single file. At the top stood a heavy wooden door. Dare opened it just enough to peek through. The acrid smell of urine hit his nose, and he struggled his hardest not to retch. Through watering eyes, he saw a rusted cage set against the far wall. Inside the cage, a man. Dare took a step back onto the stairs and closed the door slightly.

“Well?” asked Lilvari.

“A guy in a cage,” replied Dare. “Super skinny. Only wearing underwear.”

Lilvari turned to Aust’s ghost who was right behind her. “What kind of kinky shit were you into?”

The spirit just glared.

“So what do we do?” asked Mystic.

They decided that all but Mercarri and Nazzeth should head in. Those two were to stay behind to make sure that nothing could sneak up on them from the rear.

Dare took a breath and opened the door. The man had been crouched against the backside of the cage, but upon seeing Dare, immediately jumped to his feet and grabbed hold of the bars. “Oh thank the gods,” he cried out. “Quick, get us out of here!”

“Us?” said Dare.

Now that they were inside, Team Ramrod got a better look around. They were in a small, square room. Maybe twenty feet by twenty feet. Rafters overhead crisscrossed under a peaked roof. Across the room stood an identical cage to the one before them. It too was occupied. The woman inside was as gaunt as the man and just as underdressed.

“Kaeljil, you fool!” she shouted at him before speaking to the others. “Don’t! You can’t let us out! There are monsters in here. You let us out, and they’ll kill us all!”

Dare, Mystic and Lilvari quickly scanned the rest of the room. Moonlight shone through the narrow windows that lined the walls, casting everything and everyone in a bone-white glow. Besides the two prisoners, no one else was here.

“You’re so gullible,” said the man. “It was just a ruse to keep us compliant. Don’t listen to her. Get us out! Now!”

The man, Kaeljil, was pulling at the bars. That’s when Dare and Lilvari noticed his forearm. Carved into the soft underside was a symbol they’ve seen before. This man belonged to The Lurkers in Shadow.

“Why are you in here?” Lilvari asked.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but then he noticed the specter. His eyes went wide, and he quickly backed up against the far side of the cage.

“It’s okay,” Lilvari said. “He can’t hurt anybody. Well, I mean, he can, but he has to do what I say. Watch.” She turned to the specter. “Turn around and touch your toes.”

Aust’s specter glowered at her, but he did as he was told.”

“See?”

The man slowly nodded.

“So, why are you here?” Lilvari repeated.

“He, that horrible man, put me and Shaleen in these cages… after… after.” He took a moment to calm himself. “A group of us were instructed to meet with him. We were told that he’d help us protect the key. Then… then…” The small amount of resolve that the man had left broke completely then. He started sobbing.

“Then he killed everyone,” finished the woman, Shaleen. “Poisoned them. And then took the key.”

The key. Mystic’s flute. The Might of Thorsburrow warned about the dangers of the key being found — that whoever did so, if they knew how to unlock its powers, was one step closer to accessing the staff of Orcus. So The Lurkers in Shadow had the key. Then Aust took it. But why?

“Do you have the key?” Lilvari asked her specter.

The specter sneered and shook its head.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Lilvari said. She called for Nazzeth.

Nazzeth came up at once but had to twist and contort himself just to make it through. Between the cages and the people, there wasn’t much room for his tall frame in this small area. Once he reached them, Lilvari continued questioning Aust. “Now tell the nice dragonborn: Where is the key?”

Nazzeth closed his eyes as he telepathically listened to Aust’s thoughts. Then he nodded and opened his eyes. “He says that he left it for Interminus. Interminus took it.”

“Interminus?”

As they continued the interrogation, Mystic started towards the other prisoner, the female. As she got closer, she noticed a circular shape on the floor next to the cage.

“Guys, check this out!”

They stopped questioning Aust and came over.

Drawn on the floor in what appeared to be charcoal was a circular shape of intricate design.

“What is it?” Dare asked.

“Pretty sure it’s a teleportation circle,” Mystic said.

“So people can just teleport out of here?”

“No,” she replied. “It works the other way. You have to know the pattern, then you can teleport to the circle. One way only. Inbound.”

Lilvari stared down at the circle while Mystic spoke, not really hearing the words. She’d seen this circle’s design before. She was just trying to remember where. Then it hit her: She’d seen it in her dream. In the dream, she was falling forever into darkness, and when she finally hit the ground, she was next to a circle that looked just like this. She might not have remembered it if the rest of the dream hadn’t been so horrible. After stumbling into a temple carved from a dank cave, she’d met The Might of Thorsburrow for the first time — only they were all dead. Their chests had been ripped open, their innards gone. Her thoughts were interrupted by Dare who began scuffing his boots over the charcoal pattern.

“There,” he said when the shapes were finally smeared beyond recognition. “Like to see those shit holes try to get through now!”

“What shit holes?” asked Mystic.

“The monsters. You know, the ones the lady talked about? Maybe the monsters come through the circle thingie if we try to set the prisoners free.”

“If you’re quite done, would you mind letting me out now?” It was the man.

“I told you that if you do, we’re dead!” shouted the woman.

“So what if we just take him?” Lilvari asked the woman. “You’ll stay here by yourself?”

They could see the fear in her eyes as she nodded. Whether the monsters were real or not, she sure believed they were.

“How about we just get him out and see what happens?” Dare said, nodding towards the man. The man was more than fine with that idea.

“Want me to pick the locks?” Dare asked.

“Might not need to,” Nazzeth said.

He pulled two keys from his satchel – the ones he found rattling around in one of the many books in Aust’s study. He inserted one of the keys at random. Mystic noticed the woman take a step back as he did so.

The key fit.

Before Nazzeth could turn it, however, a red, leathery form appeared in the cage behind the man. Height-wise, it was a tad shorter than his knee, but for what it lacked in stature it made up in other ways. Sharp claws and razor-like teeth. Bat-like wings and a tail. Its devil-like face grinned a horrible grin as it slashed out the man with its tail. It had happened so quickly, that the man didn’t even know the creature was there. The tail pierced his back and exited through its chest. There was screaming, but not from the man. He was already dead before he hit the floor. It was the woman.

As quickly as it had come, the monstrosity disappeared. Mystic, Dare, Lilvari and Nazzeth gathered close together, looking for where it went. Lilvari fired two Eldritch Blasts at the cage in case it was still lurking inside. Nothing happened.

“It must have already been in here,” Nazzeth said. “It couldn’t have come through the circle.”

Mystic saw something in her periphery — some quick movement from inside the other cage. Before she could yell out a warning, a creature identical to the first pounced onto the woman’s shoulders and bit into her throat. Blood ran down her neck in sheets. She had already been screaming from what happened to her friend. Now, though, the sound coming from her was a low gurgle. The creature, just like the other one, vanished into thin air. The woman took one step forward before her eyes rolled back into her head. She collapsed to the ground.

“I think we need to get out of here!” yelled Lilvari. “No reason to stick around now.”

Everyone hurried through the door and down the stairs. Dare, who was the last one out, held the door shut. For a moment, they waited. No sounds came from the other side of the door. They gave it a few more minutes before heading down the rest of the way.

Everyone was quiet, at a loss for words. It was Dare who spoke first. “My bad,” he said. “I guess we shouldn’t have tried to get them out, huh?”

No one responded.

They’d had enough adventure for one night, and though things could have gone better, they got what they came for. The letters seemed to implicate Halia Thorton for the poisoning in Phandalin, and the journal seemed to serve as proof of shady business between the Salezzo and The Lurkers in Shadow. All that remained was to get both pieces of evidence translated. But that could wait until tomorrow.

Team Ramrod headed back to The Venturers’ Tavern for some much-needed rest. Lilvari gave the customary knock on the bedroom door while the others stood behind her, waiting for Droop to answer. But Droop didn’t answer.

Lilvari sighed. “Droop, it’s me. Open the door.”

Still no reply. A bad feeling took hold — like a chilled hand clasping her heart. She had the key and, for the first time since renting the room, used it. She pushed open the door.

The room was in shambles. Splintered furniture lay about as did broken test tubes and vials from her goblin-friend’s experiments. There was also spatters of blood. Lilvari walked to the middle of the room and knelt down next to a cracked ceramic plate. On it sat a single, uneaten slice of bacon.

A few moments passed in silence. Then a light breeze grazed her cheek. She turned in its direction, towards the window — a window that she knew had been closed earlier. She quickly hurried over, increasing her pace when she saw that one of the shutters had been torn from its hinge. She pushed her head out. A rope was tied off just outside. It dangled down into the dark alley below.

“I found something!” Mercarri and Mystic shouted at almost the same time. Lilvari turned back and saw Mystic unpinning a note from the inside of the door. It was being held by a dagger.

Mystic looked it over for a moment before reading it aloud.

“Dear brother,

“Imagine my surprise to find you in Helmshold. No doubt, you’ve come to here to catch me off guard, to murder me in cold blood like you did our parents. But you underestimate my skills. 

“You left the tavern without giving one thought to how I might react. If you would have only turned around, you would have seen me waiting alongside the tavern, watching for my time to inflict overdue revenge in the name of our family. That time is now.

“I have your goblin friend. He’s alive. Whether he stays that way is up to you. A few miles east of town, there’s an abandoned farmstead. The only part of that farmstead left standing is the stable. Meet me inside today by sundown. Come alone and face me, and I’ll set your friend free. Stand me up or bring your friends, and the goblin dies. You never cared about anyone but yourself, that much is obvious. Let’s see if you’ve learned anything about empathy. Let’s see how much you truly care for your so called friends.”

Mystic’s eyes welled with tears. She blinked them away and tried continuing.

“Your youngest brother,

“Kass… Kassd–“

Her breath escaped her. She couldn’t finish.

“Kassdian,” Nazzeth said for her, the words dripping with hatred. “My dear brother, Kassdian.”