Mirtul 12
Mirtul 12, 1370:
High = 40, Low = 20
Trace precipitation (1/2" sleet) starting @ 9:10am
Calm.
Partly cloudy most of the day.
That morning, the party headed to the Fallen Tower tavern to meet
their employers - Amren Winterbrand and Denga RivenShade. Amren
and Denga were both waiting for AFAL when they arrived and had
paid the tavern owner for passage into the dungeons below the
cellar. They presented the party with a compass-like device that
indicated the horizontal direction to one of the chests they
wanted.
Roll call and Marching order:
Ag Maanamere
Tristan Steve
Darius Brogan
Dexter Staric
Elvis
Henkles Denyae (serialize for single-file)
Before going down:
* Tristan loaned his ring to Denyae
* Tristan cast Strength on Henkles for +8, bringing him to 18/00
* Tristan cast Strength on Maanamere for +2, bringing him to 18/76
* Dexter cast Find Traps
The party was lead down the stairs to the cellar, then down a
narrow spiral staircase to the wine cellar below. They were lead
through the well-stocked shelves of the wine cellar to a heavy
door. The door was barred with three iron bars, each padlocked in
place, and a fourth lock was on the door itself. The tavern
master unlocked the door and he, Amren and Denga stepped aside to
let the party continue. The door led to a second spiral
staircase, just as narrow and made of the same red brick as the
staircase above, but slightly damper, moldier and obviously less
travelled. Five feet below the level of the wine cellar floor,
the party passed a line painted on the wall labelled “sea level”.
They continued on for a total of about 100’ from the wine cellar
before the reached the bottom. About 9’ from the bottom, a second
line was painted on the wall, this one labeled “Screwed Level”.
The stairway opened into a 15' wide room with a door in the
opposite wall 30' away. The floor was composed of grey granite
flagstones and the walls of the same red brick as in the stairway
and wine cellar above. The ceiling was 15' above and in the
corridors beyond the ceiling was 10' high. Later experience
suggested that this was the norm throughout the dungeon.
Steve summoned a gargoyle in this room. Then he use Knock
to open the door in the far wall.
The door led into a corridor, around a corner, and into a 30'x35'
room. The room was strangely lit, such that some 5'x5' squares
were lit and some were in darkness (in a somewhat random-looking
pattern). In some of the darkened squares were broken bones or
the remains of clothing. Dexter confirmed a magical/mechanical
trap relating to the room. Ag proceded cautiously across the
room, sometimes flying, sometimes walking, but carefully staying
in the light. When he reached the halfway point, the light and
dark areas reversed, so that he was standing in darkness. With
some hesitation, he continued the rest of the way across the room
in the now darkened areas. He reached the opposite door safely,
then it attacked him.
The door was a mimic which grabbed Ag, but he managed to pull free
and fly out of reach. A barrage of arrows chased the mimic down
the corridor and Tristan used a Rockburst to finish it off.
975xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Staric,
Steve and Tristan for a common mimic.
After that the rest of the party made their way across the room,
sticking to the now darkened areas and Ag decided he needed some
time on DRG to calm his nerves.
Beyond that room was a winding corridor where Dexter detected
several pit traps. Each was 5' across, but the third one was
followed immediately by a fourth. The pits below were each 30'
deep with spiked bottoms. There were the remains of two fighters
at the bottom of the first. The remains of a presumed wizard were
at the bottom of the fourth. Staric climbed down and searched the
bodies. From the fighters they recovered a purse w/5ep and 7sp,
plus a silver (non-magical) ring (which they eventually learn is
worth 10gp). From the wizard they recover a magic ring, some
spell components for 1st-3rd level spells,
50'rope, a grapple, spikes, a mallet, and a scroll. Tristan cast
Read Magic and determined that it was a Wizard scroll of
Sleep, Mending, and Feather Fall.
Making clever use of magic rings the party members were relayed
across the double pit.
At the end of the corridor were three doors, each leading to a
short stair to a small room. The first two rooms help ropers
(with nothing but rocks in their gizzards). One of the ropers
scored a hit on Maanamere that reduced his STR to 13 for half an
hour. The third room held what appeared to be a dead roper, but
turned out to be a mimic. Below the mimic was a trap door to a
spiral stairway continuing down.
16000xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Staric,
Steve and Tristan for two ropers and a killer mimic
The spiral stairs went down 30'. For the first 15' every third
step was trapped. Beyond that, every 4th step was trapped.
Henkles carefully marked each step with chalk, noting that every
third step was already marked down to where the pattern changed
(including the untrapped step before the first trapped fourth).
The stairs led down to a doorway into a 35'x35'x25', magically
darkened room. The party used light buttons to dispell the
darkness. Dexter cast his second Find Traps and detected
three trapped areas, each 3' wide, stretching across the room 5',
15', and 25' away from the party. Experimentation with rocks on
the first band revealed two large blades that arced across the
trapped area from the ceiling. The party was able to step through
the areas that the blades never swung. Experimentation with the
second area showed that it was a similar trap but that the
locations of the blades alternated between two patterns. Once
again the party was able to predict and avoid the blades. The
party tested the third area with rocks as well, but nothing
happened. They just avoided stepping there.
There are two doors leaving that room. The west door led to an
(initially) 5' wide corridor that turned every 10 feet or so and
got narrower with each turn. At 3' wide, the party turned back.
The north door was locked but the kobold thief from the Ring of
Kobold Summoning was able to open it. This led to a 5' wide
corridor which led to a T-intersection. The party turned south
and ends at a door with a trapped area in front of it. Triggering
the trap safely causes dozens of metal spears to come out of the
walls. This blocks the door, so the party goes elsewhere.
In the other direction, the corridor ended in a door and a brass
plate on the wall which bore the words "No traps here." and a
picture of a smiling clown.
Beyond the door, the party found a 35'x45'x35' room with two other
exits. The floor was 20' below the floor level in the corridor
(the other exits matched the level of the door the party was
looking through). Steve sent in a gargoyle and Henkles just
jumped down to the floor.
Henkles was the first to discover the two gelatinous cubes in the
room, one of which paralyzed him while he was killing the other.
Tristan used the Feather Fall from the scroll to allow
Dexter, Steve and him to float down to the floor while Denyae used
her boots to float slightly up and in. The second cube was
quickly dispatched.
1300xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Staric,
Steve and Tristan for finishing their Jello
Dexter pointed out that the north door was trapped, so Tristan
used telekinesis to open both doors. This set off the trap, which
caused tons of sea water to burst through the noorth doorway and
fill the room to a depth of 19' in about a minute. Dexter and
Steve used water walking (rings?) to stay above the water and held
up Henkles between them. Tristan employed a magic dagger to fly
out of the water. Denyae just stayed above the water level.
The noise from the water attracted the attention of a rust
monster, which Staric spotted coming up the corridor behind him.
Darius cast Wall of Fire, but the spell misfired, creating
two walls facing away from each other - one harming the rust
monster and one harming Staric and, to a lesser extent Maanamere
and Brogan. Staric chose to step between the two walls, getting
out of the heat as fast as possible, but trapping himself. Brogan
cast Wraithform and went around the fire to observe the
rust monster leaving. Maanamere was still stuck with the choice
between taking heat damage each round or jumping in the water
behind him.
Start of 2014-11-09 Game
Ag (popped off of DRG and) was trapped between walls of fire with
Staric, but panicked about the rust monster and fled through the
opposite wall of flames. In the process he took damage and
crashed into Maanamere, sending them both into the water-filled
room behind him (and solving Maanamere's problem with fire
damage). Maanamere was able to grab the edge of the corridor
entrance to hold himself up. Ag started flailing and drowning, so
Tristan grabbed him and kept his head above water. The party
learned that Gelatinous Cube bits sometimes float but don't
paralyze after death.
The party took a break at this point and waited until:
* The fire was out.
* The rust monster was long gone.
* Maanamere's strength had been recovered.
* Henkles recovered from the paralysis.
* Dexter's Find Traps wore out.
Once things were back to normal, the flying folks ferried the
others across what was now the swimming pool to the opposite door.
Henkles headed down the corridor beyond and fell into a spiked
pit, taking damage. The compass indicated that the where the pit
ended along the south wall was where the chest should be (at least
in X and Y), but it obviously wasn't there, even after a thorough
search for secret doors.
After that, Ag took the lead and spotted the next two pits and the
line of pressure plates beyond the third pit (just before the
corridor ended in another door). Each pit was searched. In the
west wall of the third pit was a hidden panel ontaining a single
lever in the down position. Ag moved it to the up position and
the party heard some mechanical noise in the walls but saw no
other effect.
Stepping over the last trap, Henkles opened the door on a room
filled with huge (6') spiders. Henkles charged and found out
about the ones on the wall above the door the hard way, but none
got past his armor. The rest of the party joined in where
possible and the fight ended with no injuries to the party.
2160xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Staric, Steve and Tristan for huge spiders
Also in the room (against the opposite wall) was a wood throne
decorated with glass "jewels" above which was a brass sign which
said "Sitting in this chair definitely won't raise the stone wall.
Nope." Nobody seems surprised that the throne was trapped.
Nobody sits in it.
Returning to the swimming pool, Ag, Maanamere and Brogan make a
brief trip up the north corridor from which all the water came.
It starts to slope up, getting steeper and steeper to about a
60° angle, at which point it ends in a heavy steel grate with
a heavy iron hatch about 10' beyond it. There is a little water
trickling out of the hatch. They go back.
They decide to see if they can get past the spears that were
blocking the door to the south and find that the trap has reset
and the spears are out of the way. As an experiment, Ag and
Dexter return to the lever in the pit outside the room with
spiders and the throne. Ag flips the lever down and then back up,
and hears faint noises again, but nothing happens that the party
can detect. Ag and Dexter rejoin the party and Ag disarms the
spear trap.
Beyond the door is a large, very damp room, with water dripping
from the ceiling in many places, forming many stalactites and
stalagmites, some up to 6' long. Maanamere steps into the room to
take a few swings at some of the mor suspicious stalactites (low
ceiling), only to learn that the two largest stalagmites are
ropers. Maanamere and Henkles charge and discover that their
suspicions about piercers were correct after all. Maanamere gets
hit by two piercers and Henkles by one. After that the party
kills the ropers and two piercers still on the ceiling without
additional problems. Brogan collects the piercers out of Henkles
and Maanamer, plus one that missed Henkles, and uses them for
target practice.
14720xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Staric, Steve and Tristan for ropers and piercers
At this point Ag goes on DRG, which is very bad news for the
party.
There is a door leaving this room to the south. Darius summons
the kobold thief to check it for traps, after which Henkles opens
the door.
Henkles proceeds down the corridor, throwing a dead piercer ahead
of him as a means of detecting traps. He finds a pit trap, then
another that has a few large spiders crawling around in it.
350xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Staric, Steve and Tristan for pit critters
A third pit trap in the same corridor is trapped such that when
the peircer hits the bottom, it shoots up and slams into the
ceiling, crushing the piercer and blocking the corridor. The
noise attracted 3 huge spiders, which came up behind the party.
In the resulting fight, Brogan Enlarged Tristan.
810xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles,
Maanamere, Staric, Steve and Tristan for trouble they brought
on themselves
The pit trap that was blocking the corridor reset itself after
about 10 minutes while Henkles and Tristan were still trying to
figure out how to get past it. They did get as far as proving
that it could be forced downwards with enough strength.
Darius summoned the kobold again to check the door at the end of
the corridor and then Henkles opened it.
Dexter cast his second Find Traps at this point.
The room beyond was laid out in a checkerboard pattern (not the
right number of squares) and had a large bell-pull dangling from
the center. Nobody pulled it.
Beyond that room was another corridor with another series of three
pits. After passing through the checkerboard room, Tristan used
the Ring of Telekinesis to pull the rope, which caused the ceiling
to slam into the floor while no one was inside.
The third pit was once again one that slammed into the ceiling
when Henkles threw a piercer on it. While Henkles, held up by
Enlarged Tristan, tried to force the pit back down to clear
the corridor, 7 carrion crawlers that were attracted to the noise
attacked the rear of the party. By the time the fight was over,
Staric, Steve and Brogan were all paralyzed.
2940xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Maanamere,
Staric, Steve and Tristan for some more trouble they brought
on themselves
Looking through the door at the end of the corridor, the party saw
a room where some areas of the floor had many one-inch holes while
others where bare, apparently in a random pattern. There was a
chest against the far wall above which was a brass sign whch read
"Please don't take my fabulous treasure.". There were two other
exits, another door in the same wall and one in the right (E)
wall. Dexter looked through the door and pronounced the entire
room a trap.
Henkles then proceded into the room, sticking to the bare areas of
floor and throwing a dead piercer ahead of him. He made it safely
past the chest and around to the east door. He got the door open
and looked through, beyond was a straight corridor, 5' wide by 50'
long, ending in a door. The floor of the corridor was laid out in
a seemingly random pattern of colored 1' square tiles:
Henkles returned to the party and everyone waited the hour or so
for the crawler victims to recover from the paralysis. (Causing
the second Find Traps to expire.)
The party then opened the other door to the south, which lead to a
long corridor which eventually turned east. Henkles proceded down
it, followed by Maanamere, followed by Tristan, with Henkles
tossing a dead piercer into each 5' square ahead of him. When
Henkles tossed a piercer towards the fourth square, the ceiling in
the first 5' square slammed down, clipping Tristan as he jumped
back into the room. 5 seconds later when the second square came
down, Maanamere wasn't so lucky. Henkles took off to the south as
the sections started crashing down faster and faster. Reaching
the bend in the corridor, he discovered that the floor and walls
were grased and the floor sloped down into a wall of spikes, which
did a lot of damage to him as the N-S section of the corridor
finished filling with stone.
Darius cast There/Not There on the first section of stone,
which allowed Brogan, transformed into an umber hulk, to dig away
at the second block, freeing Maanamere, who got some healing. In
the mean time, Henkles, having nothing better to do and no one to
stop him, began dislodging spikes from the wall with his infamous
chisel. The party heard the noise and took it as a signal that he
was still alive.
The party began making camp in the trapped room with the intention
of resting and regaining spells, however after about an hour, the
stone blocks slowly moved back up, clearing the corridor. Henkles
used the spikes he had gathered to make a ladder up to the bend in
the corridor and the party threw him a rope. This caused the
ceiling blocks to crash down again and led to another one hour
wait. In the mean time, Henkles experimented with lifting the
blocks, which proved to be possible, but difficult. He got the
last block propped up above the floor with spikes.
When the blocks came up again, Detect Magic was cast and a
wall of magic 15' into the corridor was detected. This seemed
like a likely trigger. Brogan, Dexter, and finally Darius cast
Dispell Magic on the wall, with the last apparently
succeeding. Henkles removed his greasy shoes, ran to just short
of the wall, then jumped the rest of the way into the room with
the party.
Start of 2014-11-23 Game
Dexter cast his 3rd Find Traps spell and took a
second look at the multicolored corridor:
Dexter passed on the trapped locations to the party and they
proceeded, using the following marching order:
Maanamere
Tristan
Steve
Darius
Brogan
Dexter
Staric
Elvis
Henkles
Denyae
The door at the end was untrapped, but stuck. Maanamere opened it
to reveal a small room with a spiral staircase going down. Dexter
took the lead and the party descended.
The room at the bottom had doors opening from all four walls. The
party headed north past a pit trap into a magically lit room with
pleasant fleur-de-lis wallpaper and three couches. Along one wall
was a counter with a small continuously burning flame, a water
pump, a teapot and some cups. On a shelf nearby were several
canisters, all apparently containing tea. Henkles had some water.
The party started to search the room, but several party members
were suddenly compelled to head out the north door, soon the rest
of the party followed. Henkles was the only one who was not
compelled to leave the room. Dexter walked back in and confirmed
that the room was magical, but not trapped.
A.F.A.L. turned back south through the sitting room, which they
were able to pass through without trouble. Between that room and
the stairs had been a spot where a doorway was bricked over.
Brogan, Staric and Henkles began the job of uncovering the door
beneath while the rest of the party took a look through the west
door in the stairway room. Dexter had said the uncovered door was
trapped, but they decided to try their luck against it. Brogan
smashed through it, revealing it to be false. It was a façade
which concealed a magical cannon that fired an ochre jelly at
Brogan.
270xp to Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Maanamere,
Staric, Steve, and Tristan for setting off a trap
Having run out of Find Traps spells, the party carefully
left the dungeon at that point. They reported back to Amren and
Denga who got complete copies of the party's maps.
Phack, the kobold shaman was summoned from the Ring of Kobold
Summoning so that he could take Find Traps as his second
level spell. He was extremely unhappy about spending the night on
a ship with zombies on it, but he did as he was told.
The night passed quietly but without enough hit points recovered.
