Marpenoth 23

Marpenoth 23, 1369:

    The party returns to Undermountain, determined to find the end of
    the white flagstone trail.  Mrap-M'rap elects to join the party
    this time.  They don't bother placing bets and take the 9gp for
    getting in out of party treasure (as electrum).

    The party restarted the hidden flywheel aparatus in the room of
    columns and went running down the trail.  When the got to the Hall
    of Sleeping Kings, there was an elaborate sculpture of stacked
    bottles and jars with candles & colored oil just inside the
    entrance.  When the party entered the room, they set off a
    tripwire that caused the whole thing to come crashing down,
    splashing them with burning oil and making a lot of noise.

    When they entered the next room, where they had fought the four
    drow and two spiders previously, there were four more drow - 3
    female warriors and a male fighter/MU, each with two hobgoblins
    with tower shields acting as partial cover.  They also noticed the
    bugbear who had been leading the hobgoblins the previous week
    strapped to the altar, where he had obviously been severely
    tortured.  The party made effective use of lower water spells to
    dry some of the drow in this fight and the next.  The party fought
    them and beat them, but two female drow escaped down side
    corridors.  The bugbear took some collateral damage and died.
    Some of the drow and hobgoblins had obviously had their armor
    classes enhanced by the magic pool in the hobgoblin rooms.
        3510xp to party for damp drow & company

    They searched the bodies and came away with a +1 drow short sword,
    which Henkles used for the rest of the day, a +2 drow longsword,
    which Jan used for the rest of the day, and a dagger +2, +0
    vs. mages, -3 vs. enchanters, which Cassie elected to carry.

    The party decided to explore the two panels they had noticed the
    week before.  The panel in the back of the spider slid aside to
    reveal a 10x10 foot room with nothing significant in it, but a
    peephole to look out.  The copper key that the party had found in
    the secret room before the room of columns opened the locked panel
    in the dias, which released a winged spider.  The spider attacked
    Henkles, who had opened the panel, but he managed to kill it.
        175xp to Henkles for killing a bug

    In the compartment, the party found an ivory coffer (3gp value),
    which they threw in a sack with the spiders remains without
    openning.

    Stewart carved something to the effect of "Selune rules!" into the
    side of the spider statue with hammer & chisel.

    After that they turned to follow the white path some more, but
    found another party of drow, consisting of 4 female warriors, 7
    male warriors and a female priestess leading from the rear, all of
    them wet.  During the fight, the priestess used a sceptre with
    knobs at both ends to send forth a cone of force that injured
    several party members and killed some drow, as well as knocking
    several combatants down.  The party defeated them, but the
    priestess escaped.
        7000xp to party for soggy drow

    After looting the bodies for 11 more +1 drow short swords, the
    party continued down the trail without trouble until they reached
    the former hobgoblin area.  There, in the room which had
    previously held a wooden blockade, the blockade had been pushed
    against a wall and the floor covered with dirt, garbage, and dung,
    which 3 female hobgoblin slaves were farming mushrooms in.  They
    offered no resistance, but Stewart discovered the hard way that
    there were caltrops buried under the soil.  The party took a hoe
    from the slaves and cleared a path through the room.

    The next room had 20 or so new bedrolls, but was otherwise mostly
    unchanched, however there was a thick fog blocking the entrance to
    the next chamber.  A last lower water spell was used to dispell
    the fog, revealing 22 drow waiting in the next room, 20 female
    warriors and two male fighter/MUs.  There followed a titanic
    battle in which both sides threw every useful spell they had at
    the other (Darius managed to make a lightning bolt from a reckless
    dweomer), the party took a lot of damage, Maanamere succumbed to
    drow sleep poison, and all but 6 of the drow were killed - those
    six being female warriors who escaped.
        500xp to party for clever uses of lower water
        15000xp to party for oodles of soggy drow

    The drow were looted, producing another 20 +1 drow shortswords, 2
    +2 drow longswords, and a small key on a chain which was on the
    neck of the more powerful F/MU.

    In the fountain chamber, the party found that a drow wizards lab
    had been set up.  Darius got very excited and made the party take
    everything they could carry.  There were two hobgoblin slaves, but
    the party just chased them away.

    It was decided that AFAL was too weak to follow the trail any
    further that day, especially since they weren't sure of their
    ability to get back once the trick stairs in the fountain chamber
    closed up.  Instead they opened the door out of the fountain
    chamber that they had ignored before.  Behind it, they found a
    room with 8 beds and another corridor leaving it.  Under one of
    the beds was a chest that was not trapped and could be opened with
    the key taken from the drow F/MU earlier.  In the chest were 18cp,
    521sp, 16ep, 616gp, 15 toals, 100pp, 3 Harbor Moons, 10mp, 26
    assorted gems, and two books.  The party took the whole chest.

    The corridor led into a smaller room with no other exits.  This
    room was well furnished, with two tapestries, a statue, and a
    strange pyramid-shaped aquarium on a table.  A search of the room
    revealed a third (damaged) tapestry, rolled up under the bed over
    a loose stone that hid a locked, small rosewood coffer with ebony
    inlay in a geometric pattern.  Stewart got the coffer open without
    getting nailed by the poison needle trap.  Inside were 13 assorted
    gems, 2 large opal earings, and two scrolls.  The party took the
    coffer and everything in it.  They also took the two non-drow
    tapestries, the clothing in the rooms armoire (six women's outfits
    of exceptional quality, all in black, suitable for any drow, a
    really dpressed elf, or a goth human teenager), and the table
    cloth.  They left the aquarium, which was weird, and the statue,
    whch was too heavy.  On his way out Stewart set fire to the drow
    tapestry, which gave off magical sparks as it burned.

    After that, the party decided to return to the surface.  On the
    way back through the flooded room, the party stashed 2 drow +1
    short swords under the water.

    When they reached the spider altar room, Stewart climbed up onto
    the spider and tried to pry out the eyes.  They exploded, doing
    minor damage to the statue and considerable damage to Stewart, but
    he survived.
        300xp to Stewart for roleplaying sundry acts of faith

    The party stashed 1 drow +2 long sword and 2 drow +1 short swords
    in the secret room off of the entrance corridor. The previously
    animated armor showed no sign of having moved again.  They also
    left a matching cache buried under the sand in the shield room
    before they got hauled up.  Silver from the chest was used to cover
    their departure.

    Henkles and Maanamere brought several +1 drow short swords and one
    +2 drow longsword out with them, carefully wrapped.  The party
    returned home and rested for the remainder of the day.