Post by Dungeon Master on Nov 2, 2016 11:40:39 GMT -8
The party had an uneventful night, and rested set out once more to explore the dungeon. They went into a room with a vast grate across the middle of the floor, and with four pressure plates each within a corner of the room. Standing on any of the plates caused the grate to descend into what proved to be a virulent acid, one which would not dissolve metal but ate most anything else.
.... [The map is labelled, that the passageway leads to Level 3, which it did in actual play... but re-reading the description, it should in fact lead to 02C-19 to 02C-25; oops] ....
The room with the acid grate lead downwards along a passageway which eventually came to a hallway which was blocked by a porcullis/gate. The passageway ran east a distance beyond the gate, and then turned to the south. With a massive amount of noise (which was sure to alert anything beyond, and possibly attract guests) the bars were hammered apart over the course of several minutes.
This lead to a doorway and some kind of a vast room beyond. Virtually everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, but there were several sets of footprints within the room, which were identified as being that of Kobolds.
The room contained (beneath the dust) a massive silver triangle shaped set of runes, which were identified as a powerful Enchantment type of magic still in effect. The party took the time to carefully dust, without disturbing the runes, and found that the triangle (isoceles shaped) was 30 feet on a side. While everyone was carefully walking around the outside of this effect, Conan opted to step into it. When he did so, he heard a voice boom at him that he was required to deliver the bronze key which lay somewhere beyond, and that he would be greatly rewarded for his service. Everyone heard the voice, it was not a telepathic communication.
Beyond the room with the runic triangle was a chamber with numerous Kobolds within; twelve were warrior types who moved to protect the others of their band. The battle was quick and decisively ended via Fireball. The Kobold cavern had two exits, one in the South East corner, which lead south for a distance before curving to the east, while the other (on the Western wall) lead to the West. The party went West, without investigating where the other tunnel lead.
The passageway lead to a long hallway, which was a vast cavern with a small lake in the middle and a tiny stream leading both into the lake and out of the lake, each time emerging from somewhere underground and then submerging underground again. The cavern was filled with hundreds of Fire Beetle creatures, which mindlessly attacked anything that resembled potential prey/food. The party slew many of the beetles, yet more kept coming... eventually they decided to fight and move, to cross the cavern lest they run out of heals and offensive spells...
This cavern lead to a wide hallway, which came to two doors. Both of the splits ran Northward, but there was a wall between the two which separated the hallway from one wide passageway to two narrow and parallel passages. After some distance, the eastern-most of these passages angled towards the western passage and the dividing wall ended. This then lead northwards a ways before turning to the east.
Almost immediately there was a door on the North edge of this long west-east passage, and the passageway continued East further than the eye (via Darkvision) could see. A short distance to the East lead to a Pit Trap which Spion discovered without much issue; he managed to disable it with some Pitons and then discovered a secret passage to the North. The secret door was locked but not trapped; the lock did not prove to be a challenge... but without listening at the door he threw it open and stepped inside.
This area appeared to be a mirror of the first entrance into the dungeon (from the initial area with the Priests, several sessions ago). Unfortunately the area contained several guys in leather or chain type armors along with another guy in much higher quality leathers. Several of the guys moved to engage, while the better equipped guy went through a passage on the northern end of the room and began to yell about intruders. The initial set of bandits did not last long.
The passage to the north lead to a 25 ft. wide hallway with a door at the far end. Stationed about that door where four guards. Along the eastern edge of the hallway, approximately half the way down the hallway was a set of boards which had appeared to be hastily nailed across some kind of passageway. A ranged battle was engaged upon the four guards, and some of the melee types charged at them. Luckily for them, they chose to not charge along the most western portion of the hallway, as there was a Pit Trap in that location which had not yet been discovered by Spion... The guards did not last long, and the party moved into the hallway. Spion found and marked the pit trap.
Listenening at the previously guarded doorway, it was evident that several voices were beyond the door and at least a few were directing people into places to 'take out' whoever came through the door. The party did their buffs and then threw open the door. Beyond, the bandits were arrayed in five different clumps. The two near ones were set to block melee opponents from advancing into the room. The three back clumps were all using ranged weaponry, with each group doing a focus fire at a single target. Worse, they had an arcane caster of some form, who launched a fireball through the doorway and into the party as soon as the door was opened. The battle was tense and didn't look to be going well for a time, but once the melee combatants (Conan and Amon, with their massive Earth Breaker and Greatsword) got into the room, the bandits didn't really stand much of a chance. The caster went down (unconscious, but not slain) to Spion's scorching ray, but was healed and then returned her own scorching rays at Spion. Once Conan hammered her head with the Earthbreaker, healing a corpse was no longer an option.
The mooks didn't have much of interest, but the five lieutenants each had a Mithral Shirt and a masterwork Rapier. The caster type had a wand, which was later identified as Cure Light Wounds with 19 charges. The party chose to allocate one Mithral Shirt to Seven Underhill, who would have it modified for his smaller size and to sell the rest of the gear in Zelkor's Ferry, once they returned to that outpost.
Conan went back into the hallway and started to rip off some of the boards, to see what they were blocking. Beyond the boards was a metal grate, which something had cut through two of the one inch steel bars on one corner to the blocked passageway.
The bandit area was mostly explored, except for one specific section. A secret door had been discovered by Spion, but the party had opted to go back to the long east-west passageway rather than explore the 'new' area entirely. Some wanted to go back to the outpost immediately, but they were convinced to continue onwards to make it more worthwhile by acquiring more treasure to sell.
The long hallway went east a long distance and then, via a short jaunt to the south, forked backwards to the west, or continued east a short distance before heading north. Doubling back to the west, the passage came to an end with a door to a room on the southern end of that hallway. Spion entered first, to check the floors for traps and the walls for secret doors. The chamber was a fairly large room, 50 ft. x 70 ft. with four evenly spaced doors on the east wall. Something had taken the trouble to seal these doors with molten lead to create an air-tight seal. As Spion was investigating the doors, ghouls dropped from the ceiling and attacked... but aside from a scare they didn't inflict much by way of harm upon the party.
Each of the rooms contained a massive coffin. Amon investigated one, prior to Spion checking it for traps. The coffin proved to be trapped with the lid flipping over and pinning Amon. With some assitance from Conan, Amon was able to escape the trap. Most of the coffins were empty of threats or treasure, but one contained a more challenging undead creature, one which would crumble to dust after several hits, faking its destruction... before re-forming and resuming its attacks; it was eventually actually slain. One of the coffins contained three orbs, one each bronze, silver and gold; Conan took these, convinced that he had found the 'bronze key' and would be rewarded.
The switchback passageway went a short distance to the east, beyond the switchback, before turning to the North. It lead to an unlocked door and a short hallway with another door. This door proved to be locked beyond Spion's ability to pick and was reinforced beyond Conan's ability to smash. After some head scratching, Conan had everyone move into the hallway, close the first door, and then try the second door... which now opened rather easily. The party was able to leap frog forward, although some of the sections of hallway proved to be tight/small enough that the party had to be split to progress.
One of the doors lead to a room with paintings of wizards battling demons upon the walls. The room contained three depressions, one each bronze, silver and gold. Conan placed his three orbs in the corresponding colors and apparently nothing happened. However, when backtracking through the doors which could only be opened one at a time, an area that had previously been solid wall now contained a door with the same only one open at a time property as the others. This lead to the North quite a distance, with a fork to the left approximately halfway along before ending at another door on the North end of the hallway.
Only four characters could fit within that small area at a time, with another doorway to the North and one to the East. The North proved a deadend, but the East lead to a large circular room with silver runes (of silver dust) upon the floor in an intricate runic pattern. Three characters remained in the hallway, looking into the circular room, and were temporarily locked in place as Conan went back to get the rest of the party. Once everyone was within the room they went in. Some kind of demonic creature was within the circle. Knowledge - The Planes identified its type as a True Tanar'ri, a Hezrou, except that this specific individual was both larger and more menacing than a typical member of its' type... thus probably more advanced in some as yet indeterminate way. It offered a great sum of wealth, which it had piled within its binding circle along with magical items, as a reward for merely shifting the silver dust from any of the numerous runes which comprised its circle. None of the party took it up on the offer, although Spion was initially going to until his party talked him out of it. The thing radiated evil, more strongly than the Paladin (Fuhrer) had ever found before, and he vowed to return and vanquish the beast... at some point in the future, when such an endeavor might lead to an outcome other than suicide. Spion's arrow, shot into the circle was not able to penetrate the creature's defenses and a magic missile winked out shortly before making contact.
The party slept in the hallway, just down from the demon thing.
.... [The map is labelled, that the passageway leads to Level 3, which it did in actual play... but re-reading the description, it should in fact lead to 02C-19 to 02C-25; oops] ....
The room with the acid grate lead downwards along a passageway which eventually came to a hallway which was blocked by a porcullis/gate. The passageway ran east a distance beyond the gate, and then turned to the south. With a massive amount of noise (which was sure to alert anything beyond, and possibly attract guests) the bars were hammered apart over the course of several minutes.
This lead to a doorway and some kind of a vast room beyond. Virtually everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, but there were several sets of footprints within the room, which were identified as being that of Kobolds.
The room contained (beneath the dust) a massive silver triangle shaped set of runes, which were identified as a powerful Enchantment type of magic still in effect. The party took the time to carefully dust, without disturbing the runes, and found that the triangle (isoceles shaped) was 30 feet on a side. While everyone was carefully walking around the outside of this effect, Conan opted to step into it. When he did so, he heard a voice boom at him that he was required to deliver the bronze key which lay somewhere beyond, and that he would be greatly rewarded for his service. Everyone heard the voice, it was not a telepathic communication.
Beyond the room with the runic triangle was a chamber with numerous Kobolds within; twelve were warrior types who moved to protect the others of their band. The battle was quick and decisively ended via Fireball. The Kobold cavern had two exits, one in the South East corner, which lead south for a distance before curving to the east, while the other (on the Western wall) lead to the West. The party went West, without investigating where the other tunnel lead.
The passageway lead to a long hallway, which was a vast cavern with a small lake in the middle and a tiny stream leading both into the lake and out of the lake, each time emerging from somewhere underground and then submerging underground again. The cavern was filled with hundreds of Fire Beetle creatures, which mindlessly attacked anything that resembled potential prey/food. The party slew many of the beetles, yet more kept coming... eventually they decided to fight and move, to cross the cavern lest they run out of heals and offensive spells...
This cavern lead to a wide hallway, which came to two doors. Both of the splits ran Northward, but there was a wall between the two which separated the hallway from one wide passageway to two narrow and parallel passages. After some distance, the eastern-most of these passages angled towards the western passage and the dividing wall ended. This then lead northwards a ways before turning to the east.
Almost immediately there was a door on the North edge of this long west-east passage, and the passageway continued East further than the eye (via Darkvision) could see. A short distance to the East lead to a Pit Trap which Spion discovered without much issue; he managed to disable it with some Pitons and then discovered a secret passage to the North. The secret door was locked but not trapped; the lock did not prove to be a challenge... but without listening at the door he threw it open and stepped inside.
This area appeared to be a mirror of the first entrance into the dungeon (from the initial area with the Priests, several sessions ago). Unfortunately the area contained several guys in leather or chain type armors along with another guy in much higher quality leathers. Several of the guys moved to engage, while the better equipped guy went through a passage on the northern end of the room and began to yell about intruders. The initial set of bandits did not last long.
The passage to the north lead to a 25 ft. wide hallway with a door at the far end. Stationed about that door where four guards. Along the eastern edge of the hallway, approximately half the way down the hallway was a set of boards which had appeared to be hastily nailed across some kind of passageway. A ranged battle was engaged upon the four guards, and some of the melee types charged at them. Luckily for them, they chose to not charge along the most western portion of the hallway, as there was a Pit Trap in that location which had not yet been discovered by Spion... The guards did not last long, and the party moved into the hallway. Spion found and marked the pit trap.
Listenening at the previously guarded doorway, it was evident that several voices were beyond the door and at least a few were directing people into places to 'take out' whoever came through the door. The party did their buffs and then threw open the door. Beyond, the bandits were arrayed in five different clumps. The two near ones were set to block melee opponents from advancing into the room. The three back clumps were all using ranged weaponry, with each group doing a focus fire at a single target. Worse, they had an arcane caster of some form, who launched a fireball through the doorway and into the party as soon as the door was opened. The battle was tense and didn't look to be going well for a time, but once the melee combatants (Conan and Amon, with their massive Earth Breaker and Greatsword) got into the room, the bandits didn't really stand much of a chance. The caster went down (unconscious, but not slain) to Spion's scorching ray, but was healed and then returned her own scorching rays at Spion. Once Conan hammered her head with the Earthbreaker, healing a corpse was no longer an option.
The mooks didn't have much of interest, but the five lieutenants each had a Mithral Shirt and a masterwork Rapier. The caster type had a wand, which was later identified as Cure Light Wounds with 19 charges. The party chose to allocate one Mithral Shirt to Seven Underhill, who would have it modified for his smaller size and to sell the rest of the gear in Zelkor's Ferry, once they returned to that outpost.
Conan went back into the hallway and started to rip off some of the boards, to see what they were blocking. Beyond the boards was a metal grate, which something had cut through two of the one inch steel bars on one corner to the blocked passageway.
The bandit area was mostly explored, except for one specific section. A secret door had been discovered by Spion, but the party had opted to go back to the long east-west passageway rather than explore the 'new' area entirely. Some wanted to go back to the outpost immediately, but they were convinced to continue onwards to make it more worthwhile by acquiring more treasure to sell.
The long hallway went east a long distance and then, via a short jaunt to the south, forked backwards to the west, or continued east a short distance before heading north. Doubling back to the west, the passage came to an end with a door to a room on the southern end of that hallway. Spion entered first, to check the floors for traps and the walls for secret doors. The chamber was a fairly large room, 50 ft. x 70 ft. with four evenly spaced doors on the east wall. Something had taken the trouble to seal these doors with molten lead to create an air-tight seal. As Spion was investigating the doors, ghouls dropped from the ceiling and attacked... but aside from a scare they didn't inflict much by way of harm upon the party.
Each of the rooms contained a massive coffin. Amon investigated one, prior to Spion checking it for traps. The coffin proved to be trapped with the lid flipping over and pinning Amon. With some assitance from Conan, Amon was able to escape the trap. Most of the coffins were empty of threats or treasure, but one contained a more challenging undead creature, one which would crumble to dust after several hits, faking its destruction... before re-forming and resuming its attacks; it was eventually actually slain. One of the coffins contained three orbs, one each bronze, silver and gold; Conan took these, convinced that he had found the 'bronze key' and would be rewarded.
The switchback passageway went a short distance to the east, beyond the switchback, before turning to the North. It lead to an unlocked door and a short hallway with another door. This door proved to be locked beyond Spion's ability to pick and was reinforced beyond Conan's ability to smash. After some head scratching, Conan had everyone move into the hallway, close the first door, and then try the second door... which now opened rather easily. The party was able to leap frog forward, although some of the sections of hallway proved to be tight/small enough that the party had to be split to progress.
One of the doors lead to a room with paintings of wizards battling demons upon the walls. The room contained three depressions, one each bronze, silver and gold. Conan placed his three orbs in the corresponding colors and apparently nothing happened. However, when backtracking through the doors which could only be opened one at a time, an area that had previously been solid wall now contained a door with the same only one open at a time property as the others. This lead to the North quite a distance, with a fork to the left approximately halfway along before ending at another door on the North end of the hallway.
Only four characters could fit within that small area at a time, with another doorway to the North and one to the East. The North proved a deadend, but the East lead to a large circular room with silver runes (of silver dust) upon the floor in an intricate runic pattern. Three characters remained in the hallway, looking into the circular room, and were temporarily locked in place as Conan went back to get the rest of the party. Once everyone was within the room they went in. Some kind of demonic creature was within the circle. Knowledge - The Planes identified its type as a True Tanar'ri, a Hezrou, except that this specific individual was both larger and more menacing than a typical member of its' type... thus probably more advanced in some as yet indeterminate way. It offered a great sum of wealth, which it had piled within its binding circle along with magical items, as a reward for merely shifting the silver dust from any of the numerous runes which comprised its circle. None of the party took it up on the offer, although Spion was initially going to until his party talked him out of it. The thing radiated evil, more strongly than the Paladin (Fuhrer) had ever found before, and he vowed to return and vanquish the beast... at some point in the future, when such an endeavor might lead to an outcome other than suicide. Spion's arrow, shot into the circle was not able to penetrate the creature's defenses and a magic missile winked out shortly before making contact.
The party slept in the hallway, just down from the demon thing.