Once more into the Void Session 22

This week’s session was an old-fashioned dungeon crawl with a lot of melee. This can be a little boring to write (but fun to play) so I am going to try and do it almost entirely from the viewpoint of one of the characters.

When last we left, the heroes had stormed a ancient ruin of a keep high in the mountains tracking the evil necromancer. After clearing the above ground ruins they found a passage down under the keep.

Before starting Otrivush Oto took the time to use his knowledge of the arcane (he was a scholar of magic at Candlekeep) to identify some of the equipment taken off of the Orc Shaman. Boots of Elvenkind are identified and are given to Mukah. The shield is +1 and is taken by Talrek. The spear is +1 and is taken by Alcor. Finally a Potion of Healing is given to Mukah.

Once More into the Void Session 22 - Rumble in the Dungeon

Looking ahead I can see the staircase of stone enters a large stone chamber. The walls are carefully fitted stone blocks covered in a sheen of moisture and mold. Talrek the dwarf murmurs, “this is fine, ancient stonework”.

The chamber is large with four stone pillars holding up the ceiling. I hear Alcor call out, “Goblins!” Across the chamber are two goblins readying arrows to fire. One arrow clatters off a pillar but another strikes the drow Thyrell. Alcor, leaps nimbly forward to charge the goblins, then I watch as his foot triggers a pit trap. The entire center of the room’s floor falls away. Alcor swings deftly to safety and lands on his feet.

“Trap!” he yells in case no of us have seen it.

The fight is over quickly, before I can even ready a spell. Mukah circles the pit and strikes down one goblin with his sword. Talrek kills the second one with one of his god’s spells. I think he calls it Sacred Flame or some such nonsense.

I wander forward carefully intent on taking a peek into the pit.

“Goblins!” Yells Alcor again. More goblins are approaching from the south. One of them fires an arrow and strikes Tinda, Thyrell’s wolf. Angrily, Thyrell shoots one of the goblins with an arrow but it continues on toward us. Alcor spears and kills the other goblin. The goblin raises his bow to fire at me, but I speak the arcane words, "Ignis Pessulum!", and point at him. Fire shoots from my index finger and a bolt of flame strikes the goblin in the head killing him.

“Is it clear now?” I ask. Everyone nods. I peer over the edge of the pit. Fifteen feet below the bottom of the pit is an undulating black mass of oil or liquid. No, it is a heaving mass of rodents crawling all over each other. I step back momentarily sickened. That is not worth investigating.

“Ughh! It is full of rats!” Talrek says. I nod. My familiar Artimouse squeaks indignantly from my pocket.

“It looks like only the wolf is injured,” I say and gesture toward Tinda who is licking a gash in her side. Thyrell glares at me. “What?” I shrug.

Thyrell sits beside the Wolf and chants a healing prayer. “Damn” he says, “Didn’t work!” The drow continues on praying. “Damn!” he curses again. Everyone turns to look at Thryell who is intently going into another round of prayers. I look at Alcor who looks like he is going to say something to Thyrell, but I wave him off. “There!” Thyrell finally says with satisfaction, stands and brushes off his boots. ”Let’s go”.

Looking at Tinda I can see much of the wound has healed.

For the next hour we wander about the maze of passages, not encountering any more goblins but finding a lot of doors that we cannot open. Either they are barred on the other side or they are locked. Probably the goblin that escaped us the day before has warned his friends. Eventually, we head back to the north to a room we explored earlier that was full of wood boards. Mukah tells us he has an idea. Normally, Mukah is the last to volunteer an idea.

Reaching the room Mukah picks up a heavy board, easily six feet long and 6 inches a side. “We, ahh, take and smash the door!” Mukah broadly demonstrates swinging the heavy beam.

“You know, that is actually not a bad idea,” Talrek says, “I’ll help you swing it like a battering ram!”

“Oh, guys isn’t that going to make a lot of noise?” asks Thyrell. We all pause. Then everyone shugs their shoulders. “Oh well, whatever, let’s do this” Thyrell sighs. Mukah and Talrek carry the beam into the next room where there are two locked doors. They set up before a double door that is locked.

Mukah has an idea

On the first swing the makeshift battering ram crashes into the door but it holds. The noise is very loud and I looks about expecting to see goblins piling out of every closed door. I had better put a stop to this before every goblin in the dungeon is on us at once. I am just raising my hands when Talrek and Mukah swing the beam again.

“CRASH!” The beam hits the door with a thunderous crash and both doors fly off their hinges. The pair of door crash to the ground in the corridor beyond. Everyone leans forward to look. In the corridor beyond are a dozen goblins armed to the teeth and not at all surprised. Make that seven goblins actually. They leap to attack climbing over the door.

“Quick! Back out into a circle and hold the door! We can pin them in the doorway!” Thyrell yells and moves forward. Everyone except me moves into a semicircle about the open door. I am not really the guy for melee so I hold back and begin chanting a spell.

“Dormitabis!” I chant and hurl the spell down the corridor. I watch breathtakingly, as the the goblins shake their heads. Some stagger but continue onward. Three of the goblins fall forward and hit hit the floor in a deep slumber. “Ha!” I laugh.

Mukah, Talrek, Alcor and Tinda move up and fight the remaining four goblins. I hear a groaning creek from the north and I turn and see the northern door opening. A scimitar wielding goblin stands in the doorway. Beyond the foul pest is a large chamber, several more goblins and a huge creature. I suck in a startled breath. It looks like some kind of enormous orc and it is carrying the biggest ax I have ever seen. I start to shout out a warning but I can see Talrek and Mukah have already taken notice of the huge orc.

Overrun by goblins!

"Orog!" growls Mukah.

The next few minutes are a blur. I try to stay back from the thick of the fight, casting fire bolts. Talrek strikes the orog with Guiding Bolt and Mukah goes into a berserker rage crushing goblins and striking the orog. As the orog forces his way through the doorway, Thyrell bravely tries to stop his charge but the drow is hit twice with the orc’s ax and the falls to the floor unmoving. A sneaky goblin strikes me in the side with a knife but Tinda appears from nowhere and rips open the goblin’s throat. Just as the orog is starting to stagger under Mukah’s attack I use my last powerful magic spell and kill it with a burst of Magic missiles!

By now Alcor, Mukah, and Talrek have dispatched most of the goblins. But another four goblins appear from behind us to the south and move to attack. Leaving the others to it, Talrek runs over to Thyrell’s still form and casts a healing spell. Thyrell stirs, groans and staggers to his feet. He looks about and grimly readies his twin swords.

The four goblins charge and I find myself at the front of the melee? I cast Fire bolt at a goblins moving to attack me but in my haste I botch it and only a tiny spark strikes the goblin. The angry goblin swings at me with his sword. I get my arm up and feel it cut deeply into my forearm. I stagger back blood pouring from my arm. Again Tinda arrives and knocks the goblin to the ground tearing its throat out. Mukah, Alcor and Talrek make short work of the other goblins but one. The last lone goblin drops its sword and runs away.

“Let it go” I wave at the goblin. Mukah had been tensing as if to run after the little bugger. Mukah snorts. “With all this noise they know we are here”, I say.

Talrek, as usual is bustling about after the fight, tending wounds and checking goblins and the orog for treasure. He binds the deep cut on my forearm. “We might want to go back to the tower and get some rest to recover” he muses.  I want to keep going despite the pain. I don’t want to give the goblins a chance to regroup. But Thryrell and Talrek make a convincing argument. While we debate, Talrek casts a ritual detect magic but finds nothing. He tramps about to the north and comes back to report that the room is a torture chamber with plenty of foul remains of humans, goblins and orcs. Thus the horrible smell.

“What was that?” Talrek says suddenly. I pause my breathing and listen. “I don’t hear anything?” I look at Alcor and Thyrell. They also do not appear to have heard anything.

“I am not sure,” says Talrek, “it felt like the earth shifted. Perhaps these ruins are not very stable”.

“Or maybe the goblins are preparing something unpleasant for us!” I say.  That earns me a glare from Thyrell but Mukah just snorts.

Talrek calls us to order and we set out for the exit staircase. Carefully we enter the room with the pit trap. Nothing looks disturbed.

“It blocked!” roars Mukah from the staircase. Hurriedly we all move forward. The doors over the staircase are closed and bowed inward like there is a huge weight on the other side. Talrek moves cautiously forward to the door and places a hand on them. He pauses a moment that quickly comes back down the stair.

“We will need to find another way out,” he says. “This entrance is closed. It feel like there is a hundred tonnes of rocks blocking the doors. It must have been that disturbance I sensed.”

Everyone starts talking at once, except me. I hold my piece and contemplate the best course of action. Talrek finally waves everyone silent. I turn to look at the dwarf.

“We go back to the torture chamber. The door can be locked. Then we rest and recover our breath and get back some spells.” Talrek looks meaningfully at everyone. We all nod.

We head back to the torture chamber and lock ourselves in.