Bandits at Brewersbridge

Characters
Brittany- Monk Tai-Li
Jack- Paladin Strethwood Tryder
Katya- Sorcerer Druka
NPC- Cleric Rhys

Summary
While having dinner at the inn in Brewersbridge in southern Tsaia, there's a commotion at the door. A badly wounded teamster staggers in. Rhys goes to help and the party comes along. Rhys removes an arrow from the man's shoulder, then heals him. The man was a teamster on a small merchant caravan headed West for Lyonya. A couple of hours down the road, fog billowed from the woods. A red glow appeared inside and a demon stepped out and ordered them to surrender. The caravan master called upon the demon to depart in the name of the High Lord. The demon laughed and set him on fire. Arrows flew from the woods as bandits overcame the party. The teamster played dead and the bandits took two of the wagons and the rest of the people as prisoners. The barkeep asks him about Aldon and Gnarrin, two gnome merchants who were with the caravan. He says they were taken prisoner.
The adventurers get their horses and ride off to hunt the bandits. They find the ambush site, there are dead bodies and one remaining wagon with some merchandise. Searching around, there are no signs of demon tracks, so the party believes it was an illusion. The leftover goods are low value, so it appears the bandits took the better stuff away in the two wagons. Strethwood finds wagon tracks and they follow the tracks to a nearby shallow river, where they lose the trail. Tai-Li looks downstream and sees a ruined keep in the distance. They move quietly through the woods and approach the keep, which has the stub remains of a tower. Since the tower would make a good watch post, they approach cautiously. They find the wagon tracks again, it looks like the wagons were unloaded at a door leading into the hill the ruins rest on. Then the unloaded wagons were moved into the ruins. The adventurers open the doors and move into a dirty room which shows lots of signs of foot traffic. There is a barred door, two regular doors and an open door. Druka approaches the open door and two giant spiders emerge and attack! Strethwood kills one with his hammer while Tai-li and Druka attack the other with staff and Firebolt spells. When the spiders are dead, they hear a thumping from behind the barred door, they open it to find the two gnomish merchants. They say the bandits are lead by a wizard who plans to ransom them. The wounded teamsters were fed to the giant spiders. They think there are six bandits working for the wizard. The party sends the gnomes to wait with the horses, then rebars the cell to make it look like they're still prisoners. The next door holds the seized loot from the caravan. Druka searches for alcohol and fines a case of elven wine; she steals two bottles. The last door opens into a hallway heading deeper into the hill. There's a bend ahead and as they approach, the floor drops open beneath Strethwood. He manages to catch the opening and hold on until Tai-Li helps him climb up. The party slides along the edge and around the bend to another door with light coming underneath it. They approach and hear voices on the other side. They knock on the door to throw the bandits off. One opens the door; there are two human and one dwarven bandits in the room. The one who opened the door stabs Strethwood another grabs a crossbow and calls for help. Tai-Li charges the one at the door and pushes him back. The adventurers advance and fight with the bandits, but the wizard arrives to help. Rhys knocks him out with a Command to sleep, then blinds another with a Light spell. The party fights with hammer and staff strikes and Firebolts. Rhys blinds the wizard and he throws a Chromatic Orb at Tai-Li but misses and kills one of his men. The original bandits are down, but more come from the hallway. The wizard is killed and the party hits the last two, but one stabs Strethwood and knocks him out. Druka and Tai-Li finish him and Rhys saves the paladin with Spare the Dying. Once he wakes up, Strethwood does a Lay on Hands prayer to recover. They go to the next hall and find empty bedrooms for the bandits and two more prisoners from the caravan. They warn the adventurers that there's another bandit on guard at the top of the ruined tower. The party sneaks up on the last bandit and outnumbered four to one, he surrenders.
The party searches the hideout and the wizard's quarters and finds he was a worshipper of Lolth. They reload the wagons and take the treasure, the captured bandit and the rescued merchants back to town.

Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
The party is a cleric, paladin, sorcerer, and a monk
Brittany "We have three spellcasters and all I can do is hit people with a stick"

Questioning the rescued prisoners about the bandits
Katya "Did they get any sense of the group dynamics of the bandits?"
Jack "You're a psychology major, aren't you?"

Discussing using psychology against the bandits
Jim "Now go away, or I will analyze you a second time"

Magic Items
Azurewrath- +1 Longsword, on a critical hit, target is hit by Frostbite cantrip (1d6 cold damage, disadvantage on next attack until end of its next turn). Creatures immune to cold are unaffected, creatures resistant to cold take half damage, no disadvantage.

+2 Staff

+1 Ring of Protection