What’s Changed?
Standing in front of the iron door, Qarzdaq tries the code again… 9267… nothing. They decide to try one number up. With that failed, they try one number lower. Still nothing.
ARAN: What if we go back to the room where we saw that? Maybe it changed somehow?
They decide it’s worth a shot and they find that the number did in fact change! It is now 2878.
QARZ: Huh… that’s weird… How the hell does that work?
ARAN: Says the guy throwing fire from his hands. Face it. I’m a genius.
They approach the iron door and enter 2878, it opens as if that was the only code it ever knew. Instantly, they are hit with a burst of heat. No more or less than before, but the short reprieve is certainly gone now. They have the fortitude to withstand it, but they do lose a smidge of vitality.
It’s only now that Aran realizes the gemstone in his Ring of Universatility is cracked. It looks to still be set, but probably won’t last too much longer. It should certainly get him through another day or 2 at least though.
As they descend the steps, they realize that all of the torches have been extinguished. Rolan touches Qhortho and Aran before touching himself, imbuing them all with Darkvision. Rolan faces Qarzdaq.
ROLAN: You want some of this?
QARZ: Nah, I’ll pass.
It cost him all of his Level 2 spell slots, but it’s so very worth it.
Looking down the steps with grayscale vision, Aran notices the bones are a more scattered than the last time they were through here.
ARAN: Guys… Someone’s been down here while we were gone.
ROLAN: Some ONE? Or Some THING??
They proceed cautiously around the first corner before Aran stops them again.
ARAN: Whoa. Tripwire up ahead…
He gets up close to it and realizes he’s not the right person to figure this out. He steps over it instead. Having suffered no consequences, Qhortho and Rolan follow his lead. Qarzdaq takes a few moments to study it. He finds that some of the mechanics are visible, but not all of them. He has a pretty good sense that he could just cut the tripwire, but he doesn’t want to accidentally trigger it and decides it’s not worth the trouble.
ARAN: You think you can disable it? I can give you these if you want to give it a shot.
Aran flashes the thieves’ tools he picked up in one of the towns they visited.
ARAN: Just let me get far enough away first.
QARZ: Nah, I think I’ll hold off for now.
Suddenly, they hear snarling from around the next corner and find 2 red dragon-like beast, 1 on either side of the sacrificing table.
Qhortho lets loose a loud whinny and charges the closest one. Seeing this, Rolan fires at it first, finding it easier to hit than expected. He injures it badly and Qhortho finishes him off with a single slash through its neck. Panting, he rushes the other one.
He’s caught off-kilter by 6 little white-scaled dragon-like creatures that jump out of the off-shoot rooms. Their coordination is notable as they simultaneously draw down on Aran, Qhortho, and Rolan. Well, all except one of the creatures, who has the displeasure of popping out of the room near Qhortho. Upon seeing him, the creature scurries back into the room and slams the door.
Individually, their arrows are not much cause for concern, but in combination they’re certainly enough to take notice. After loosing their shots, the kobolds hide in their rooms.
ROLAN: What the fuck was that??
ARAN: Fuck these little things!
Aran storms into the nearest room to him and finds a kobold waiting with a dagger. Before it has a chance to attack, Aran slashes him in half with his guandao.
Rolan fells the guard drake near Qhortho with only 2 arrows.
Qhortho tromps through the dead beast and slams the door open to the Reagents room where the small frightened kobold is cowering. Qhortho kicks the creature as hard as he can muster. No one can really say why he felt the need to kick the little guy so hard. Perhaps it is out of a bully complex seeded from his childhood; perhaps it is fear of what this thing could do given its dragon-like appearance; perhaps he found himself strangely attracted to it and feared his own feelings.
The world may never know, but in any case, Qhortho kicks the small creature so hard, his foot pierces the kobold’s leathery skin.
The impact is so great, it causes the little guy to spout shit against the wall behind him just before he is sent flying against said wall, splattering its body into its own shit while also causing the body to splatter itself. The corpse then slides down the fine masonry wall, where some of the creature’s shit awaits its reunion.
Aran manages to see this transpire just as he exits the Poisons room.
ARAN: Holy shit!
Qhortho spins to see Aran’s mouth wide. Qhortho grits his teeth and charges to the next room. Upon rushing the Gemstone room, he immediately lunges the next kobold through the belly.
Two more armored kobolds with shields rush out from the rear corridor and quickly assess the room. They don’t have much time before their comrades are retreating behind them. Qarzdaq fires a bolt of flames at one of the newcomers, but it appears they are resistant to his flavor of magic.
The battle continues until the party is victorious, taking very few hits in the process. They even managed to kill all the ones trying to retreat. Unfortunately, Qhortho walked onto a large pressure plate that sank slightly under his weight, exploding a thin fireball around him. He was the only one hurt, but he didn’t seem to mind so much given his adrenaline high.
Looking over the bodies more closely, their armor is crafted, but not of very high quality. Still, these things must be at least somewhat intelligent given they also know how to apply traps. They look pretty interesting as well; their mostly white scales have small orange tips. They don’t look to have any special properties, but these are not just your run-of-the-mill beasts.
They enter the rear corridor with Aran leading the way, following it around the first right corner. Qarzdaq doesn’t bother lighting the way since all of them have Darkvision. The hall continues for about 50 feet or so, then turns right again. It continues another 50 feet before entering the large room where they fought the apparitions.
Aran stops in his tracks near the end of the hall.
ARAN: Another tripwire here. It’s fairly easy to spot, so watch your step.
QARZ: Hold up, let me take a look.
Qarzdaq looks it over and discovers the tripwire lights a fuse. He follows the fuse and it appears to be connected to a small clay jar of acid. Although the mechanism looks fairly simple, there are some bits that appear the designer had built it to resist disarming attempts.
QARZ: Yeah, I’m not touching this thing. It looks like this might cause an acid explosion. I think we just step over this one.
No sooner are the words out of his mouth do they hear snarling coming from beyond the pile of rubble at the far end of the room. A couple Red Guard Drakes climb over the rubble and stare at the party. 3 armored kobolds join their side a moment later along with 2 other scrawnier ones that look markedly different from one another: one of them has a reddish glow and what looks to be a pair of inept wings while the other one looks more like the ranged attackers from the previous room except this one is carrying a bunch of random stuff.
ARAN: Is that… a scorpion… on a stick??
QARZ: And does he have a skunk in the trunk?? Yeah, fuck this.
Qarzdaq launches a Fireball right in the center of them. Only one is killed outright from the blast, but it doesn’t take long before more are killed and the last one attempts to flee.
QHOR: I don’t think so little guy!
Qhortho rushes toward them and brings one within an inch of its life, making it easy for Qarzdaq to pick him off.
Rolan tosses his Ioun Stone into the air and it begins circling his head.
ROLAN: I can’t wait to use this Fireball on these things…
Traps 101
They proceed cautiously over the rubble to a very small tunnel. They crouch and continue forward single-file. The tunnel curves to the right as it goes deeper underground. The heat grows more intense as they continue forward, causing them additional pain beyond the cramping from having to walk hunched over.
Eventually the tunnel widens to a larger irregularly-shaped cavern with all sorts of alcoves and ledges. It can’t be more than 40 feet across and 20 feet tall, but it feels enormous compared to the tunnel they just exited. There are a few tunnels leading off in different directions.
A kobold lies on the floor ahead in the center of the room, looking as if he is trying to escape from the party.
QHOR: Well that’s weird… Didn’t we kill all of the ones up there?
Qarzdaq sends an ethereal Message to the creature, speaking in Draconic: What are you scared of?
The creature stops in its tracks and looks around. It can clearly see the party based on the longer look in their direction, but it continues to look around for the source of the message. It responds: Why are you here? Why are you after us?
Qarzdaq mumbles under his breath.
QARZ: I hate it when people answer a question with a question…
Qarzdaq sends a fire bolt his way, killing him with one strike. This was the strike that woke the hornet’s nest.
Suddenly, they are ambushed by a variety of kobolds. 6 regulars, 3 improvisers, and 3 sorcerers pop out of various alcoves. 4 flying kobolds appear from ledges about 10 feet off the ground. They immediately rush the party.
Aran cuts down the first to approach. A number of the kobolds land their diminutive attacks, which they mostly shrug off. But then one of the improvisers hurls a wasp nest into the center of the party.
QARZ: What the fuck is this shit?
They find this to be more of a nuisance than a threat. It distracts them enough to not see a series of fire bolts heading their way. They each get pummeled, but with relatively little impact on their well-being. They don’t even get a breath before a basket of centipedes is thrown their way.
This especially pisses Qhortho off for some reason. He charges forward slaying each as he passes them. Not to be outdone, Aran follows his lead. With the number of targets dwindling, Rolan fires arrows at the farthest targets, killing each with a single strike.
One of the improvisers tosses a clay pot filled of a green slime at Aran. It explodes all over him but doesn’t appear to cause any immediate damage other than the impact itself. It is a little harder to see for a moment, but not enough to matter.
The rest of the kobolds disperse and try to flee. Qhortho sets his sights on one in particular and chases him into a tunnel. Just as he enters, an extremely heavy iron portcullis slams down on his ankle, pinning him to the ground. He yells out with pain, the sound echoing through the cave system. He looks ahead just in time to see his target one last time before leaving his line of sight. A split-second later poison begins to shoot down on him from the ceiling. It collects all around him, the portcullis restraining him in a pool of thin green liquid that is beginning to burn his flesh.
Qhortho tries to lift the portcullis, but it is no use. He bashes at the gate furiously but barely makes a dent.
QHOR: Guys!
Aran runs over to help. He tries to lift it with Qhortho and feel it budge, but they can’t lift it entirely.
ARAN: Hey! Come over here! We can lift this thing if we all do it at the same time!
Qarzdaq and Rolan rush over, but Rolan has to run past the wasps and centipedes. They try to attack, but his armor and speed is too much a combination for them. Not willing to let that slide, Rolan stops halfway to the portcullis, turns and shoots an arrow through the bundle of centipedes, skewering them all with a single shot. He shoots a second arrow through the wasps.
Somehow, the arrow flies so fast that it creates a small low-pressure zone behind it. The arrow manages to strike several of the insects directly, but the rest are sucked into the low-pressure area with such force that they slam into each other, killing all that remain. Rolan reaches the rest of the group. They look around and see no other enemies in the area; if they are going to free Qhortho, now is the time to do it.
ARAN: OK, we lift on three. One… Two…
Qhortho starts to lift. Aran shakes his head and they all start lifting at slightly off-times. Even so, they manage to lift the portcullis out of Qhortho’s ankle. He immediately and deftly rolls out of the poison and into the main room, just as two more kobolds attack.
Qhortho retaliates, but is a little overzealous for his injuries, overloading his ankle and falling to the ground. The rest of the team focuses their attacks on one then the other and the room falls silent.
They decide it best to speak in hushed tones.
ARAN: Well guys, I’m hurting here.
They discuss taking a short rest but aren’t sure that will help quite enough. They discuss taking a long rest, but are concerned about spending 8 hours in this immense heat. And given that they just woke up, they’d need to spend quite a few more hours down here before they can rest again.
Rolan steps forward.
ROLAN: I have the ability to channel the Kraken to Cure Wounds.
ARAN: I’ll take it. I’m pretty beat up over here. Those things don’t pack a very big punch, but there are a lot of those little bastards.
Rolan heals Aran for about 10% of his health.
ARAN: That definitely helps. I think I need a bit more than that though.
Aran fishes out some Keog’s Ointment from his bag and rubs the gray aloe-smelling sludge on his face and arms.
QARZ: We do have a lot of potions between us. Maybe we use those up first so we can keep moving. We should head down that tunnel over there.
ARAN: Or we could go lift the portcullis and travel that way, then we don’t have to worry about things coming up behind us. Going any other way, that could be an issue. And if you’re worried about the acid, we can just throw a couple of these bodies down and walk right over it.
QARZ: All good points. What do you guys…
Qarzdaq stops mid-question when he turns his head to see Qhortho chugging healing potions.
QARZ: Easy there big fella.
It’s then that he notices something hanging from the center of the ceiling.
QARZ: What’s this thing?
He walks over to it and discovers it is a large statue just before it falls on him. He’s able to move from being entirely crushed, but he is pinned in place. Qhortho runs over and lifts the statue without issue, and Qarzdaq immediately downs a healing potion.
ARAN: We have to assume every one of these tunnels is trapped.
ROLAN: I’m on it.
Rolan begins looking around the cavern and notices a woven rug along a portion of the floor. He lifts it up to discover a hole in the ground. With one deft movement, he pulls the rug aside, sending it into a small heap beside him revealing a pit of spikes about 10 feet down. If he had walked over the rug, he would have certainly fallen here.
ROLAN: Guys… Yeah, expect everything in this place to be trapped.
Does Your Dog Bite?
Almost on cue, the unmistakable sounds of claws scraping stone comes echoing through one of the tunnels. They all look over to the source, a tunnel just to the right of the way they entered.
QARZ: I say we go check out that sound.
They are in agreement. They determine the best order is for Aran to take the lead, followed by Rolan, Qarzdaq, and Qhortho to protect the 2 ranged attackers.
After about 10 feet, they notice an off-shoot on the left leading upward and behind them. Aran deduces it leads up to the ledges of the room they just left. They continue forward cautiously around a bend to the right then back to the left where they find another large irregularly-shaped room.
Six large dog-looking things are chained to a post in the center of the room, scratching the ground and snarling. They stand side-by-side facing the party, expecting them before entering the room. On closer inspection, these things are not just large disfigured dogs; they are unnatural beasts. They look as if they are the sinister spawn right from the Seven Hells, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Luckily, or more probably by design, the chains are too short for the Hell Hounds to reach them. The party takes a few moments to assess the room, noting of the various forms of cover scattered about. It seems as if this were meant to be a defense point against intruders.
These kobolds know what they’re doing for sure. Were these things brought into the world by Light’s Sparks or were they here all along? Was Light’s Sparks working with these things or encroaching on them? All good questions with no answers… same as any other day…
Rolan steps forward, sending 2 arrows into the closest one. Aran and Qhortho step just outside the Hounds’ reach. They quickly kill the one Rolan shot and significantly injure a second one. One of the pack lunges toward Rolan, breaking its chain. It tries to bite Rolan, but he deftly sidesteps the attack. One of them unleashes a cone of fire from its mouth. The rest of them follow that tactic, engulfing everyone except Qarzdaq in an enormous amount of fire.
Ok, so this isn’t a casual slaughter anymore… They continue their attacks with a bit more caution, striking then dispersing, to prevent them all being hit by all the Hounds’ fire breath. Rolan manages to get off one spectacular shot, that bores directly through the head of one, leaving a half inch hole directly through its skull. As celebration he pulls off a well-executed backflip.
It doesn’t take much longer for the party to slay the remaining beasts.
ARAN: I’m hurting here fellas…
Rolan uses his last level 3 charge to cast Cure Wounds on Aran, leaving him with only 4 level 1 slots.
They explore the room a bit and find kobold-crafted weapons and armor. Nothing of real value, but they are certainly prepared.
QARZ: I think we’re going the right way.
ARAN: I agree. Let’s keep moving.
Another wave of heat passes over them. Aran decides it’s time to use his potion of Fire Resist. They exit the room through the only passage other than the way they entered. The tunnel curves to the right slightly then meanders slightly from side to side before reaching another large room. The floor space in this room is greater than the previous 2 combined, but the ceiling is barely 7 feet.
How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
Before exiting the tunnel, Aran notices something fucky. Aran whispers to the others.
ARAN: Guys, another trap ahead. The ground looks a little weird here. I think this is a pressure plate. I think we can jump over it though.
QARZ: That’s a bit tight for me. Let me take a look at it first.
He can see some of the gears that make the thing work, but he informs the others that this isn’t one they should try to disarm due to what appears to be some anti-disarming measures.
They each jump over the pressure plate without incident.
This room contains many wooden and clay targets for archery and melee use along with some shoddy weapons and armor scattered around. Clearly this is a training room. Aran looks around the perimeter and finds what might be a kobold-sized escape route. He sets a hunting trap at its edge.
Collapse
Finding nothing else of use, they exit the room through the only other tunnel. No more than 5 feet in, Aran triggers an extremely well-hidden tripwire. Suddenly, a ramp falls from the ceiling above, spilling a cascade of rocks upon them. Though all of them are struck, Aran is hurt the most. The way is now blocked from the collapse.
The other 3 pull Aran from the rubble and debate whether they should clear the path.
QARZ: Wait, what if there’s a bunch of centipedes in here?
QHOR: Or what if the rocks are poisoned?!
ARAN: I think the collapse is to block us because we’re going the right way.
Aran grabs a large rock from the pile and tosses it aside.
QARZ: Or maybe there are some of those stalactite things in here.
QHOR: Stalagmatites?
Aran tosses another rock. Rolan heads over to help.
QARZ: You know… those piercer roper things…
QHOR: Ah, right. Yeah, what if those things are in there?
Aran tosses a third rock and turns to Qarzdaq and Qhortho.
ARAN: Are you two done?
QARZ: Ah, yeah.
QHOR: Wait… What if… nah, I’m just fuckin with ya. Let’s clear the way.
It takes the 4 of them dig out the rubble in about 10 minutes.
They scrunch down again and follow the tunnel around a hard-left curve. Exiting the tunnel, they are in another room. Looking around the room before progressing too far, they immediately notice this room to be a little smaller than the first one they entered. There are 3 exits: 15 feet along the wall by where they entered, 25 feet on the far side to the right, and 35 feet almost straight ahead on the other side of the room. They notice no traps… so far; no enemies… so far…
Weapons… Shitty Weapons Everywhere
The room contains racks of simple weaponry. Other than the weaponry, there is nothing else of interest.
ARAN: This must be a weapon storage room. Seems to make sense with the training area and defense posts we just saw. I feel like we’re on the right track here. But which way do we go next?
They decide to follow the tunnel to the right.
QHOR: I wish these tunnels weren’t so damn small!
Upon entering, the tunnel curves to the right and descends about 10-15 feet over the same distance.
Aran stops short bringing the party to a halt.
ARAN: Trip wire here.
Qarzdaq looks at it more closely but can’t really tell how it operates, but takes it upon himself to lead the way into the room by stepping over the wire.
Another Rug, Another Ambush
A voice speaking Draconic says “Come on in!” When the party makes no further move, the voice speaks in the common tongue, “Come and get me!”
Aran steps over the wire cautiously, scanning the room as he does. It’s another irregularly-shaped “cavernous” room, perhaps a mine at one time. It’s probably 60 feet wide and maybe 40-50 feet to the other side. The biggest problem is the various alcoves and nooks throughout the room where these little bastards can hide.
They all step over the wire cautiously and stand shoulder to shoulder.
The source of the voice is a cocky little kobold in the center of the room. He continues… “Yes, that’s right! Come on in! From what I see, there’s a few of you with no skills and no bravery!”
Qarzdaq whispers back to the others, locking eyes with Qhortho, who shifts his eyes to the kobold and begins to breath heavily.
QARZ: Don’t fall for the bait. Qhortho. Qhortho?
Qhortho goes into a rage and charges the kobold. The kobold’s eyes go wide as the Valyrian steel slices him in two.
QHOR: YEAAHHH!!!
He turns to his party, still panting with rage.
QHOR: We’re in the clear guys, let’s move on. You’re welcome.
The silence is a little too weird.
Aran enters a small tunnel not 5 feet from where they entered. He reaches the end after just 10 feet where 2 kobolds jump out to attack. Aran strikes them down quickly and re-enters the room.
ARAN: These things are probably everywhere.
Rolan looks around the room and tells the group each location he sees where the kobolds would have a tactical advantage. He also notices a rug on the ground towards the left side of the room. Just as they are about to discuss a plan of attack, kobolds pop out of every single location he mentioned. 11 of them shoot at Rolan with slings, almost draining his vitality completely. 3 winged kobolds fly at Qhortho.
Qarzdaq sends a Fireball towards the area with the rug, destroying 6 of the kobolds and setting the rug aflame.
While Rolan takes a moment to Cures Wounds on himself, Qhortho and Aran split up, rushing the kobolds and killing 4 almost immediately. The remaining kobolds flee out of sight.
2 previously unseen kobolds emerge from an alcove and run towards Qarzdaq. They attack with gusto, but Qarzdaq casts Shield just in time. The first strike slams the shield and reverberates back up the kobold’s arm stunning him slightly. The second kobold misses entirely. Qarzdaq sends a couple of rays towards them retaliation, but they sail wide.
Qhortho sees Qarzdaq in trouble and meets the threats, bringing both down.
QARZ: Thanks bud. Hey check out that rug. It looks like it’s hiding something underneath.
Aran grabs a dead kobold and carries it near the rug. He tosses it into the apparent depression in the middle. Immediately, the body is ejected into the air by a small pylon popping out of the ground. It begins spinning rapidly, pushing blades from its center that extend 10 feet each.
QARZ: Whoa.
Mine!
They talk more about taking a short rest, but the heat is really getting to them. They decide a few potions might be a better tact. This room has 2 exits. They follow the one to the right. It is a fairly steep, though short, upward climb that curves to the left. The tunnel seems to continue to curve to the right and back down, but the left side opens up to another room. Thin cobwebs veil the entryway. They push the webs aside and are met with blades that appear from long slits in the ceiling and floor. Only Rolan is swift enough to dodge their full impact.
Entering the room, they see no enemies, but there is a basket of dull rock and some the glitter slightly.
ROLAN: This must be a mine. What in the name of the Kraken was going on down here?
ARAN: Qhortho, why don’t you take that basket. Unless you’re not strong enough…
QHOR: I’m plenty strong enough!
Qhortho picks up the basket and carries it with them. There is only one other exit from this room besides the tunnel that continues down along the way they entered. They decide to explore that way first instead of the tunnel on the far side of the room.
The grade here isn’t as bad as the slope they’d just climbed, but the cramped tunnel curves to the right then back to the left, causing its own issues with footing.
We end this session on Day 529 (still) just as the party is about the leave the tunnel.
From the enemies killed, each member of the party earns 2,250 XP, bringing them to 78,750 XP total and just 6,250 XP from leveling.