Sage

The party’s other wood elf ranger. Sage would rather calm an animal than kill it — but when it comes to it, she doesn’t miss.

Notable deeds

• Tried to soothe the wild boar for a close-up attack, failed, and reluctantly landed the killing blow with an arrow (Session 1).
• Helped Hamish partially disable Facktoré’s crossbow ballista (Session 2).
• Put an arrow through the second manticore’s eye to end the Umbrage Hill fight (Session 4).
• Became the party’s liaison to Adabra Gwynn, and carried her note back for Harbin confirming she’s staying put (Session 5).
• Scouted ahead with Hamish and confirmed the large orc encampment (Session 5).
• Went in close with dual daggers to finish a split ochre jelly (Session 5).
• Read the Abbathor necklace’s inscription aloud: “This is what happens to those who displease me.” (Session 5).
• Opened Session 6 with an arrow down the corridor into the last jelly, then finished the split half with dual daggers (Session 6).
• Took the temple ledger off on her own and read it: generations of offerings to Abbathor thinning year by year, entries turning defensive, and a description of a sacrifice chamber flanked by two statues that the party has never seen (Session 6).
• Went out alone to talk the dwarves around, found their camp stripped and cold — and heard seven sets of footsteps coming up the canyon (Session 6).
• Put the arrow through the orc war-leader’s skull that ended him (Session 6).
• Healed Rut with Cure Wounds after the statue blast, and stayed outside with him rather than going in for the treasure (Session 7).
• Said out loud what nobody else would: that she had tried to keep the peace with the dwarves, that the party had done them dirty, and that the treasure was theirs by right of the work anyway (Session 7).
• Stopped Hamish from shooting the panther that came out of the underbrush for her, spent a spell on Speak with Animals, and gained an animal companion (Session 7).
• Gathered flowers from Adabra’s field to lay on Dazlyn’s body (Session 7).
• Said plainly what the party had worked out about Harbin: that he had been content to leave the town he lives in sitting in the dark (Session 8).
• Set the panther to circle the Miner’s Exchange and watch the party’s backs; named him Phantom when he came back and put Hamish on the ground — “Phantom. No, this is a friend” (Session 8).
• Worked out what an opening door would do to a weasel wedged under it, and gave Phantom his orders: wait until he struggles, take hold of him gently, do not eat him, pull him clear (Session 8).
• Talked her way past a Zhentarim guard without lying — she had lost track of her friend, she had been looking for him, and she needed him. All true, and all of it about a weasel she knew perfectly well was Rut (Session 8).
• Told Dax which of them the weasel was, which is why a wild animal spent the rest of the night riding on a fighter’s shoulder (Session 8).
• Circled back closer to the Exchange than anyone else and held the middle, watching the building and Dax at the same time (Session 8).
• Sent Phantom to watch outside the inn and passed his warning about searching figures to the party. Their target remained uncertain (Session 9).
• Learned Rut’s name privately over breakfast. He gave her permission to tell the others; she has not told them yet. Reassured him on the road that Phantom would not eat him (Session 9).

The panther

He found her — he had been asking every animal that watched the party pass, on the grounds that she treats animals well, and could not believe the cat distribution system had overlooked him for so long. He follows her commands and scouts ahead; she can only talk to him with Speak with Animals up, at the cost of a spell slot. In a fight she spends her action to command him.

She said she would think about a name.

His name is Phantom. She gave it to him in the street outside the Miner’s Exchange in Session 8, when she called him off Hamish. He understands what she says to him without the spell; she needs Speak with Animals only to hear him answer.