Her husband has been murdered, and now Mirna Dendrar and her children are captives of the Redbrands. Depending on whether you’re playing Lost Mine of Phandelver or the more recent adaptation, Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, the Dendrar family will either be trafficked by their captors, or they will be held for a ransom until wealthy relatives in Neverwinter cough up.

To me, the trafficking scenario makes more sense in terms of putting an exclamation point on the evil of the Redbrands, as well as the peril the Dendrar family find themselves in. I understand why Wizards of the Coast shifted gears on this particular plotline in PABTSO, but I find the ransom scenario completely unnecessary when you’ve got Mirna’s precious heirloom sitting there in the ruins of Thundertree.

Here’s Mirna, imprisoned in the cellar of Tresendar Manor, pondering the fate of her family, desperately searching her mind for anything to bargain with for their lives. Then it happens. She remembers the gold necklace with a fine emerald pendant her mother thrust into her hands all of those years ago, telling Mirna to hide the heirloom somewhere as, believing the town was under attack by brigands in the night, Thundertree was overrun by a herd of zombies. Fleeing for their lives, the precious necklace lay hidden beneath a cabinet where Mirna hid it a lifetime ago.

Years later, Mirna shares this story with three of her captors. Just the idea of the necklace is enough to convince these ruffians that such a treasure would be worth more gold than any of them would ever see as members of the Redbrands, and therefore worth the risk. But care would need to be taken to avoid detection, or all the gold in Waterdeep wouldn’t save their skins if the boss found out.

And so Mirna is smuggled out of Tresendar Manor by one of the Redbrands who takes her to Thundertree, while the other two ruffians take turns guarding Nilsa and Nars Dendrar, running interference, and making sure it is always they who pull gaoler duty until their accomplice returns with the necklace.

Mirna has not been back to Thundertree in many years. She certainly wasn’t aware of the dragon lairing in the old wizard’s tower. Venomfang descends upon the pair right as the ruffian finds the precious heirloom in the ruined apothecary, just as Mirna said he would. The two flee in terror of the dragon. Mirna is waylaid by twig blights as she tries to flee through a thicket, and her Redbrand captor flees with the necklace, running pell mell for the safety of…the ruined store.

The giant spiders feed on the villain for days, much to the green dragon’s amusement.

Meanwhile, Venomfang rescued Mirna from her brush with the twig blights. A handsome woman, he’d rather add her to his treasures than sup on her flesh, especially if you agree with my suspicion that Mirna Dendrar is actually a half-elf. And so she remains the dragon’s prisoner until the party comes looking for her in Thundertree once they’ve rid Phandalin of the Redbrands.

If you’d like the Redbrands in this story to have some depth, check out my free/PWYW supplement on DMsGuild.com titled Redbrand Roll Call, which contains character descriptions for all 13 Redbrand Ruffians in Phandalin. You can download it here.

Thanks for reading!

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