Hugo Stops Shadowing and Starts Fighting

Hugo had been near the party for a while without fully belonging to it.

He was useful, suspicious, dangerous, and tied to the Castro-hunter problem, but he still moved like someone orbiting the group instead of standing inside it. The lower cavern forced that distance to shrink.

When New Goblin City's spider fight turned ugly, Hugo followed the others down and entered the fight directly. He moved like a swashbuckler through the chaos, striking from sharp angles, using sneak attacks and offhand blows, and answering spider violence with Hellish Rebuke when the pit tried to punish him for joining in.

He stayed mobile around Jonah and Ellenthyra, fighting close enough to matter.

That did not make him trusted.

It did make him present.

By the time the boosted phase spiders were closing around the party, Hugo was no longer only the strange tagalong with his own agenda. He was a combat ally in the lower cavern, still socially outside the circle, but physically inside the danger with everyone else.