Attending

Clockwise round the table:

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• C.DW. — a Thief named Aria
• B.B. — a Dwarf named Urgo
• T.A. — a Magic User named Octavian
• E.A. — an Elf named Trista
• M.A. — a Cleric named Jude

They trekked through the hills for 4 days (Trista downing a dear when their rations were gone), until they finally found the huge tree said to be the entrance to the old pit. Unfortunately, they were unable to find the entrance, and as they were looking they were attacked by javelins thrown from above, in the tree. Not able to see their assailants in the leafy boughs, they fled. At a safe distance they decided to run back and have the dwarf climb the tree, while the elf, thief, and cleric used their missile weapons. With the goblins concentrating on the dwarf climbing towards them, the others were finally able to pinpoint the goblins, and managed to kill one of them, by the time the heavily wounded dwarf managed to climb up to the goblins and miss his first attack. The dwarf managed to scare the remaining goblin into surrendering, and they climbed down out of the tree. The goblin swore he would leave and go back to the deep mountains, if they would let him go. When the dwarf swore he would let him go if the goblin told them how to enter the pit, the goblin did so. An argument ensued among the PCs, Octavian in particular not wanting to let the goblin go, but Urgo finally did (having sworn) and the goblin high-tailed it out of there. Several of the PCs had been injured, but Urgo had taken the worst of the damage while climbing up the tree.

They headed down the narrow dirt tunnel the goblin had shown them, concealed behind a cleverly hinged section of a huge root, and the tunnel quickly opened up into a stairway cut from stone. They passed through one empty room, where they paused to light Octavian's lantern, then down another stair to a much larger room. At the far side of the room they could just make out a demonic face carved on the wall, its huge mouth gaping blackly. As they stared at the demonic face they were surprised by 4 goblins springing down from niches high on the wall where the stairway entered, behind them. After a few rounds, they were attacked by archers in the dark beyond the demonic mouth, too. Soon all the PCs were badly injured, the dwarf at 0 HP, Octavian at negative HP, and then Aria was brought to negative HP. Urgo bound Aria's wounds, and fell unconscious himself, bleeding to death, while Trista and Jade attacked the two goblins beyond the mouth, Jade throwing himself through the gaping mouth. Jude killed one of the two goblin archers, but fell to the other, who finally fled in the face of Trista's deadly arrows. This left Trista the only conscious adventurer, with four unconscious companions to care for in this deadly dungeon.

She bound up her comrades' wounds, then searched the dead goblins, finding a single vial of thick green liquid. She gave it to the dwarf, Urgo, and when he revived they carried their comrades partway back up the winding stairs, out of easy bowshot, and secured them to iron spikes, so they wouldn't slip down the steps. There they each guarded one approach. Urgo fell asleep, but luckily Trista's keen elvish senses noticed his snores and woke him, for in the night he heard goblins approaching up the stair. He hurtled himself down the stair into the 4 goblins, killing one outright and injuring another and setting them and himself tumbling to the bottom of the stairs. Dazed and confused by the tumble, they all traded blows in the dark, flailing madly and futilely until Urgo finally killed 2 more of them, and the last remaining goblin fled back through the mouth before Urgo could catch up with him.

Eventually Jude recovered from his wounds enough to wake and pray, and then healed Aria. The companions then fled, carrying the unconscious and deeply wounded Octavian with them, headed for town!

Aftermath

I hope to continue this adventure when B.B. & C. are next in, perhaps on fall break.

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Hermes (A Magic User), who was created by D.B.
• E.A. played Elsie (an Elf) and Leanna (a Dwarf), and also played James (a Thief), who was created by D.B.
• M.A. played John (a Cleric) and Zedd (a Magic User).

Actual Play

The characters from part 1 spent several days healing and resting. Some friends who'd had the same idea about finding the brigands' treasure showed up (M.A.'s Zedd and E.A's Leanna) and were welcomed to the party. Zedd brought his pony, who sleeps with them in Mad Sammy's cellar at night.

They went back to room 6, and decided to open one of the closed stone coffins, and while pushing the heavy lid off, Elsie, along with several others, fell into the coffin on top of the skeleton. The others managed to (eventually) exit the coffin, but poor Elsie was too entangled with the skeleton. Eventually the party killed the skeleton, but Elsie ended in the negative hit points, so they went back to Mad Sammy's with Elsie on a floating disk to recover.

After healing up, they went back to room 6 and opened coffin #2, where a couple fell in again, but got pulled out more quickly. They killed the skeleton and opened the rest of the coffins and found the treasure and a key. They move through room 7, empty since its occupants were killed in room 6 in the first session, and enter room 8, where the piercers drop, impaling Zedd & Leanna & missing Arlow. They eventually pull the piercers out (doing more damage in the process, and kill the piercers. Then it was back to Mad Sammy's to rest again.

When they returned to the crypt they entered room 9 where they pulled down the hanging bodies and were attacked by the 2 blue cave spiders. John is bit and paralyzed, but the others kill the spiders. John recovers from the paralysis in 6 rounds, and makes his save vs. poison, so lives. (Maybe here is when they went back to Sam's, instead, or also?) Next they're down the stairs to room 10. John puts the key in first, gets bit, and tries to bash the statue with his flail, and gets bit again. Finally he drops the key, which rolls to the floor after the statue releases John's arm. Next they put the stones in: Elsie the green (one of her weapons glows), Arlow the gray (and he gets gray hair), James the gold (he gets a ring from the statute, which Zedd puts on then returns to James, who puts it in the statue's mouth, whereupon it falls out again), Grimmin the red (stung for 1 HP of damage), Hermes the blue (he made his save), and then Elsie put the key in. They heard the chain beyond the wall, and got the Green Rod Key, and then were attacked by the shadow. By the time they got it off Elsie, she was in the negatives, and by the time they got it off Leanna (injuring her with their non-magical weapons in the process and figuring out they could only injure the shadow the magic) she was in the negatives took, so they grabbed the girls and fled, leaving the shadow. Each time the shadow attacked from the shadows and the party was surprised. Of course, they ran back to Mad Sam's, although they did close the crypt doors on the way out.

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• D.B. played James (a Thief) and Hermes (a Magic User), and also played John (a Cleric) who was created by M.A.
• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Elsie (an Elf), who was created by E.A.

Actual Play

They reached the village of Iron City, where the bandits were supposed to have lived, in the late afternoon. They searched several of the houses, until they reached the storehouse. They broke in the door (the tongue of the lock tore out of the jamb) and questioned poor mad Sammy, who was frightened by them but called down enough to talk once they showed him no harm. He babbled about everything but several times repeated to them that they should not let “the eye” see them, and that it roamed at night. They decided to spend the night with him, and barred the door, as best they could.

The next day they searched the rest of the town, found the well, and entered the temple. They pulled out the stones and the key, and luckily pulled the key out last, so no one got bit. James pulled out the red stone, but gave it to Grimmin. Elsie pulled out the green stone. Arlow pulled out the gray stone. James pulled out the gold stone. Hermes pulled out the blue stone. John pulled out the key. After that they opened the Crypt with the key and explored room 1, and over the course of several days opened all the burial vaults in that room, killed the undead, and found the treasure and the keys. They had to rest and heal at least twice and each time took at least two days.

After clearing out the burial vaults in room 1, they went down the stairs to room 2, where T.A. insisted on searching for secret doors, repeatedly, using up almost five hours of daylight. Eventually they opened the door with the key from burial vault E. Entering, they heard the sound from the east end of the corridor, investigated, and found the pit, 4. Seeing the green-daubed hole, they decided to investigate and James slid down a rope held by Elsie and Hermes. The 2 skeletons immediately attacked, and Grimmin slid down to help, but fell. John slid down too. Grimmin blunted his battle ax on the stone wall and dropped it, while John dropped his flail after also hitting the wall. After that John turned both of the skeletons, who spent several rounds trying to uselessly climb up the east wall of the pit, while James, John, and Grimmin tried fruitlessly to hit the skeletons, seeming to fling their weapons repeatedly into the corners of the pit. Eventually they managed to kill the skeletons. James decided, looking at the green-daubed keyhole, that it was larger than any of the keys they had found so far, and probably hooked up to some mechanism, rather than a lock for a door, and that whatever it might be, it was beyond his current skill.

They crawled back up out of the pit, and one of D.B.'s characters (I think it was John) tried to step around the corner to the north corridor, which tilted and dumped him back into the pit, for more damage. Next they explored the western end of corridor 3, where James set off the arrow trap, which luckily missed. They went in to the crawlspace in 5 with Grimmin in the lead and he killed the skeleton with ease! They came out of the crawlspace into 6, a long narrow room with 12 coffins. T.A.'s characters went to look at the 4 open coffins and were attacked by two ghouls and a skeleton from room 7. D.B.'s characters, more cautious, had stayed by the crawlspace, but moved up to help their comrades. Luckily, the ghouls attacked Arlow and Elsie, who as elves were able to ignore the paralyzing effects of the ghouls. The resulting fight destroyed the ghouls and the skeleton.

They decided to open one of the closed stone coffins, and while pushing the heavy lid off, Elsie, along with several others, fell into the coffin on top of the skeleton. The others managed to (eventually) exit the coffin, but poor Elsie was too entangled with the skeleton. Eventually the party killed the skeleton, but Elsie ended in the negative hit points [1], so they went back to Mad Sammy's with Elsie on a floating disk to recover.