Session of April the 24th; the Tunnels of Enlandin
We began the adventure with Grian the Cleric, Duncan the thief, Ott
Ahhhht the Dwarf, Mandrake the Mage and Opi the Hobbit in the Dungeon
on Teyrsday, the 12th of Yoli, year 1495. The party had just met
Opi deep in the bowels of the dungeon and rescued him from certain
death from the tentacles of the carrior crawlers. Opi related
that he had become sepparated from his companions and wanted to find
his way back to the surface. The group agreed to let him travel
with them.
The party made their way up the halls until they came upon a familiar
looking room; they had returned to the nexus room near the former lair
of Balzor, the mage. They forced their way out of the dungeon,
fighting their way past one group of orcs and running past some other
orc guards, and
began to make their way back to the village.
On the way back, they passed the hut of the witch, Drusilla. She
greeted them and informed Mandrake that she had a buyer interested in
Balzor’s captured spell book which he had shown her earlier.
Mandrake traded the spell book for a small silver book that Drusilla
promised would raise his intelligence and 3 healing potions.
Back in the village they returned to the Stumble Inn. The
inkeeper informed them that someone claiming to be a friend of theirs
had been asking after them in their abscence. This stranger
didn’t leave a name -- he was a man in a cloak with a beard and a scar
on his forehead. Duncan slipped the inkeeper a few gold,
promising him more if he informed the
players if the stranger ever asked after them again without tipping off
the stranger to the fact that they were present.
They rested up a week (from the 12th to the 19th of Yoli, 1495) and
attempted to gather whatever info they could. Some of the info
included:
1) a witch named Drusilla lives north of town.
2) Farmers tending cows north of Nibblot have seen a fire
breathing dragon.
3)An inn in Blackmoor town contains a magic mirror.
4) The Baron Kragy is worried about assasination.
5)The Money Changer, Riley the Squint, who lives on the east edge of
town, is originally from the City of Maus.
Mandrake read his silver book and his intelligence rose.
On Teyrsday, the 19th of Yoli, they returned to the dungeon, but, on
the way there, noticed that Drusilla’s house had been burned to the
ground. Inside the house they found a pit covered by an iron
grille that contained the skeleton of some huge and monstrous humanoid
that seemed to have been burned up. They searched the ruins and
found large prints from booted feet that appeared to go back to the
dungeon. They did not find any intact potion bottles or human
remains.
Puzzled, they returned to the dungeon. Opi offered to show them
another enterance and led them to a secret tunnel from a small
ravine. The tunnel went into the same complex through a secret
door. They found a large room with the dessicated bodies of an
elf and a kobold on the floor.
They advanced to investigate and were attacked by giant ticks that
dropped from the roof. Both Grian and Otttt Ahhhht were drained
of blood
by the ticks and could only be saved by using up 2 of the
precious
3 healing potions. They finally defeated the ticks and proceeded
south.
Here they found a round room containing the statue of the grim reaper,
a decapitated and decomposing skeleton next to a spilled bag of coin at
his feet. They attepted to convince one another to advance into
the
room and snatch the loot, but finally decided to go around to reach the
door on the other side. This took them through an area occupied
by
Kobolds. The Kobolds fought and were defeated; one of their
number
fleeing. The party pursued and came to a point where the kobold
had
either gone through the room with the reaper statue or proceeded down
the
hall. After debating the best way to circumvent this obvious
trap,
Duncan just ran through and grabbed the loot. The trap activated
and
the blade whistled high above his head; obviously the trap was built to
kill taller creatures.
From here they proceeded north. All of the party save Duncan fell
through a hidden trap door in the floor into a deep pit with the sound
of rushing water below.
The pit trap was closing after the majority of PCs fell through it and
Duncan attempted to wedge it open with a torch but failed. The
hobbit thief hid in the shadows in a nearby room for an hour.
After he had waited for his friends to reappear, he made his way back
to the surface
by memory (since the dwarf had the map) and ran past a kobold guard
squad.
The Kobolds gave chase and pelted his fleeing back with tiny
arrows.
Once Duncan was on the surface, the kobolds gave up the chase.
Duncan plucked the tiny arrows from his backside and hunkered down in
the shrubbery to await the return of his companions. After
waiting around
the entry to the dungeon for a day, he headed back to Nibblott on
Wodensday,
the 20th of Yoli.
Meanwhile, Mandrake, Grian, Opi and the dwarf had fallen in ice cold
rushing water. The Cleric Grian hit the water and sank like a
stone;
his companions never saw him again. Opi landed in the water and
began
shedding weapons, backpack, etc., as the current washed him
downstream.
He washed up against an embankment in the darkness and got a grip on
solid
stone and began to pull himself out of the water. The Dwarf and
the
Mage both also managed to grab ahold of the bank -- the dwarf losing
several
weapons and other items but retaining his grip on the magic
sword.
Mandrake shed his backpack and climbed out of the water but thanks to
an
impossibly lucky die roll, he managed to grab his pack before it was
swept
downstream.
They found themselves is a cavern through which a dark and cold
underground river was roaring. The hole they had fallen through was was
lost in the
darkness above. Opi was on the west side of the stream and the
Mage
and the dwarf were on the east side. There were exits from the
cave
on both sides. The mage and dwarf managed to get Opi over on
their
side with a rope but their situation was grim. They were lost in
the
dungeon and had lost 2 companions... one was presumbly drowned, the
other
missing. Opi had lost nearly all of his weapons. The dwarf
had
lost his shield and other items but retained his sword.
They left the cavern and began to explore, looking for a way out.
After they arrived in the round room with a magical fire burning in the
center,
they saw that they had come to a familiar part of the dungeon ---
they were on the second level. They ran from a gelatinous cube
that came sliding down a hall towards them and made their way up the
stairs to the first level. Here they had to pass through the
chamber trapped with the statues of the gnome with the crossbow.
In the hall outside the trapped room, a horde of giant rats rushed
towards them. Mandrake
let loose with his sleep spell and they quickly killed the rats.
In the trapped room, the players decided to have Opi the hobbit open
the door --- their theory being that the small hobbit would be the
hardest
for the gnome archer to hit. Opi opened the door and the crossbow
shot him dead... then the door slammed shut. His callous
companions
looted his corpse and tried draping the dead halfling over the crossbow
to shield the person who opened the door. The dwarf opened the
door
next -- the DM rolled a natural 20 indicating that the gnome statue had
fired a crossbow bolt right THROUGH the dead Opi and into the
dwarf.
The dwarf was badly wounded but he and Mandrake scuttled through the
door.
They continued to make their way to the surface. At one point
they heard footsteps and ran back and hid in one of the secret rooms
for about an hour. They then emerged and encountered two
wandering giant ticks.
Since two of these monsters had nearly wiped out five of them, the two
weakened characters ran once again. They returned to their tiny
secret room and spent the night. Once again they emerged and
attempted to return to the surface. Mandrake’s sleep spell took
out two of the Kobold
Guards and they ran past the others. The Kobold’s peppered them
with
tiny arrows as they Dwarf and Mandrake ran away.
Sorely wounded and discouraged, they returned to Nibblott later on
Wodensday, the 20th of Yoli and staggered into the the Stumble
Inn. There they found Duncan, his furry feet up on a footstool
and a wench on his knee, bragging between sips of ale how he was the
lone survivor of the dangerous dungeon.
They set the embarassed halfling straight, bandaged and salved their
wounds and began discussing how to recruit like minded adventurers....
Of course, later that week, something terrible happened... but that’s a
tale for another time...