A short story depicting how my favorite NPC from Phandelver & Below died in a game I DM’d for.
The caves weren’t as bright as they are now for Sildar. Before, they were dark. Save for the orange light of the campfire and torchlight. But fire always meant trouble here. It meant torture and deprivation. It meant humiliation from Yeemik the goblin.
Sildar roamed the caves with ease now. He was free to leave, but he felt something holding him back. Fated to hide in Cragmaw Cave forevermore. He watches the goblins as they build traps. One stacks stones atop a pond of rising water, a fitting trap to wash out any invaders to the cave. Other goblins patrol the stream towards the entrance of the cave. Yeemik and Klarg are directing other goblins outside to build defensive towers. Out of the few times Sildar looked outside, the construction was ramshackle and falling apart. But given time…
There is no time for the goblins, though. They die now, one by one. A tall and fearsome rabbit man with a powerful punch surprises them from the bushes and slaughters them. The same half-elf who ran away the other night joins him. The night that Sildar died at the hands of Yeemik. Soon, a human fighter and a woman dressed in a green cloak shows to end the rest. Sildar retreats back into the cave. His memory had been vague, but he senses hope for the first time after spawning. –And after the hope, he remembers now.
Sildar claws his way towards his most recent memories. Back to where he spawned. He let his wings unfurl where they could in the trapped cave environ. Behind him, the rushing of water and the sound of fighting resonate through Sildar. But his thoughts were of himself. He used his monstrous strength to jump clear over the large snake roosting at the ridge above him. Sildar was practically flying. Now he stomps his way towards Yeemik’s favorite spot of Cragmaw Hideout. Someplace away from Klarg, where he is free to torture the prisoners. Sildar thought of Iarno. He wondered if his guild companion was okay. Unaware, Sildar let a goblin with a torch run through him as he ran screaming towards Yeemik’s position. This slight angered Sildar. Yet another goblin desecrates his body. Enraged, Sildar let out a roar not unlike that of an eagle. He surprised himself, however. Sildar never roared before.
From Sildar’s experience, he let out the sound of a Griffon. Like the one he rode upon as a part of the Cavalry of Waterdeep. It was Sildar’s service to the city watch that allowed him to join the Lord’s Alliance. The goblin stopped in its tracks and dropped the torch. It turned around slowly, gazing at the horror that was now Sildar Hallwinter. Sildar roared again, and the goblin pissed itself. Then an arrow penetrated its heart, and it died with fear in its eyes.
Sildar feasted upon the soul of the goblin when it emerged. At least he felt some vindication. As he ate the essence of Maglubiyet’s evil, he watched the green-cloaked woman pick up her arrow from the corpse. She didn’t see him. Sildar knew why, and was glad of it. After all, he assumed she was there for him, too. Soon, Shenzi the half-elf and the rest of her party joined the cloaked one towards Yeemik’s cave. Sildar followed. The halfling magic user was in the middle of the pack—the Rabbit Man before him. The human fighter was far behind all, and Sildar was closest to him. The tattooed fighter turned back towards the cave. He looked upon Sildhar’s now massive frame, but turned around and muttered to himself.
“It was nothin’, Maquin”, he said. Sildar still followed.
Perched upon Yeemik’s ledge just above the goblin camp, Sildar watched the party of adventurers confront the murderous clan that killed so many people. His remaining band of goblins snarled. Sildar’s monstrous senses told him many were more fearful of this new fight, but Yeemik remained strong. He told the adventurers just what he’d do to them. And Sildar knew it would be true, if fate allowed.
But it was a pitiful showdown. The halfling with the party named Quinfer let out an icy barrage of death upon a group of Yeemik’s kin. Shenzi and Maquin let loose arrows into the group, too, which decimated their numbers entirely. Sildar learned of the rabbit-man’s name, Travis, after Quinfer praised him for a stunningly brutal show of force. Blood let loose in this cave of torturers, but it wasn’t the tortured blood of prisoners anymore. Some splashed upon Sildar’s ridge above.
Filled with the pride of revenge, Sildar beams when he learns it was Shenzi who would be dealing the final blow. After all, she lost her entire party after an ambush gone wrong. Her previous teammates and the prisoners she tried to save, including Sildar himself, lost their lives after taking a gamble on the sensibility of goblins. Shenzi pierces Yeemik’s heart, and her words echo in the chamber. “I will cut you down, break you apart, splay the gore of your profane form across the stars! I will grind you down until the very heavens cry for mercy! My hands shall relish ending you, here and now!”
And so it happens that Yeemik dies a glorious death. Sildar didn’t let any of their souls go. He hunted them down, especially Yeemik. He wouldn’t be allowed to join Maglubyet in death. Not ever. Sildar chirped, and he found the woman in the cloak gasping in terror from below. They lock eyes while her teammates are distracted. Sildar was surprised to learn that the woman in the green cloak is a fair-faced half-orc. As they looked upon each other, Sildar felt compelled to turn. He found his spawning place. –And he recognized why he came from here. Before Sildar was his old bag. He let out a ghostly coo, beckoning someone to find it.
Behind the half-orc woman, a voice called out. It was Maquin. “Xahri, everything alright?”, he said.
“I’m not sure,” Xahri said. “I think I saw something above us”.
It may have to be Xahri, Sildar thought. He found that he could leave this place. There was nothing left to hold him back from the adventures that lay beyond his horizons. Xahri discovered the contents. Aside from a simple gemstone and a potion of greater healing, inside Sildar Hallwinter’s bag was a peculiar item for a retired adventurer. The heavy leather harness features an emblem of the City of Waterdeep, including an expertly crafted image of a guardsman riding a Griffon. Initials are carved into it. – “S.H.”
