Cauldron - To the Lower Levels

Rest and recover during the night. Jenya briefs us on what they learned from the Dark One. The Creepers were given Jzadirune by a bearded one in trade for slaves they capture from the city. When the Cuthbertians learn this, they place guards in the areas we have explored and cleared. The dark one thinks the lower enclave is a working slave market. Time appears short to recover the captured children. The creeper has been to the main gate of the under fortress. Many of the fortress guards may be hobgoblins.

We debate what to do and how well into the early morning. Decide to try disguising ourselves as Drow or entourage and sneak into the slave market as customers. Head back to the shop after breakfast. The city watch is guarding the streets around the shop. One Cuthbert guard is by the stairs in the shop. Several more are in the explored areas underground. Two more skulks are dead in the mask room. At the map room are four skulks and three dark creepers in addition to the ones we killed earlier. The guards report they came in two different attacks. The shaft down should be a couple of rooms away. Proceed toward where we think the shaft is. Go thru a room with pillars carved as gnomes, then up some stairs to a hallway with an N door partway down and a D door at the end. Elwin checks the N door and I look at the D door. Elwin is his slow thorough self. He finds a gas trap and I find an electrical trap. Elwin tries to remove the gas trap and fails twice as the trap keeps resetting while we wait for the hallway to clear of the poisonous gas. The third try is successful. Open the door. An odd shaped 30x30 room. A large chest sits in the center of the room with a silver cage on top. A rat is in the cage. I resist an urge to shoot the rat that has caused so many problems. Snorri approaches the cage, trying to placate the rat. The chest grins and starts waving pseudopods about. Snorri leaps back before he gets hit. Go back and retrive a dead skulker and feed the chest. It gives us the cage in return. Damn rat! Door in other corner is an R door. Use my R key and open the door. Small room. D door at other end. The D door is closing as the R door opens. Some kind of humanoid shape is momentarily visible before the door shuts. I check the D door. Show Elwin the touch electrical trap I find. He tries to disable the trap while we wait in the mimic room. Snorri retrieves another body while we wait. The mimic is pleased. Apparently it is used to being fed. Elwin hears clanking from the other side while he works on the door. We let the Cuthbertians know what we think is going on. They move up to support. I think the chain may be the elevator going down. Elwin finally gets both the lock and trap undone. Open the door.

It is a down elevator, now about five feet down and descending. Four hobgoblins are there. Several of us jump into the room, waiting for the hobgoblins to attack or not. A half-hearted attempt by Gracie at a Drow type deception fails and they attack. A brief tangled combat before all four are dropped. Elwin provides comic relief by playing with a rope tied to the top and trying to keep adding rope as we go down. Wind up about thirty feet short. Some attempt is made to cut open a hobgoblin and use entrails as rope but the slimy mess is doubtful as a climbable item. Elwin spots a hidden door similar to one at the top. A second iron door is there as well. The stone is now dark and polished. Elwin opens the hidden door. A cool dark room. An iron lever on the far wall in the down position. Stonework looks Dwarven to Snorri. He ought to know. Snorri flips the lever up. Platform begins a slow rise. Back at the top, we drag the four hobgoblins to the mimic. Wonder how much that thing can eat? Flip level in small room at the top. Ride back down.

Examine the iron door. Don’t find anything. Brak lifts the iron bar and we open the door. High vaulted ceiling. Two cages hang from the ceiling about five feet above the floor. A strange sculpture is between the cages. Cages look empty. Snorri thinks the cages may have held fire beetles for light. He moves toward the center statue. As he gets close, four crystal appendages move to point at Snorri. Combat starts. It moves to Snorri. “More carrion for my larder” bellows from behind a door at the far end. An ogre charges out of the door and attacks Gracie. After the crystal critter falls, move to the ogre. It is soon backed into a corner and surrounded, before being quickly dispatched. The ogre’s room is full of refuse and very smelly. A dung encrusted chest is in the middle of the room. Aerrion tries to open it but slips. Elwin manages to get it open. Many coins and a few gems. Plus a fungus covered flask that Jian thinks is a cure potion. Snorri finds a hidden door in the side of the cage room. Looks like a long time since it was used last. Snorri opens the side door. A long hallway, right turn, another door. The dust is undisturbed. I examine the end door but find nothing. Open the door. Weapons and armor. I also find another hidden door opposite the first.

Oosana

Action halted due to time - No rest or reset before play resumes.

Cauldron - Jzadirune Again

Head back to our house to rest. Divide up the loot. Elwin learned the blue critters are called Skulks and that Jzadirune was a former Gnomish enclave. They did mechanical and magical research before dying from a wasting illness. The doors in the place are secured by locks and mechanisms. The small tunnels were made by the skulks using one of the automatons, bypassing the locks.

Jenya sends us a message that someone from the temple will go with us to provide arcane support. Several of us go to the Growling Bow tavern to rest and relax. Jil is there but soon departs. Before she leaves, Aerrion chats with her. She seems put off by his working with the Cuthbertians. The mood in the tavern is upbeat. Several of the caravans are departing in the morning. Most going to the north. Elwin shows up later, accompanied by two HPS halflings. Claims to have helped in a refugee kitchen. Brak stays at the house as does Gracie. She would rather play with her lights. Fun but uneventful night. Next morning, restock with flour bags. Tell Elwin about the Gnomish runes and the locks. We suggest he takes what he can use from Kegan’s shop. Elwin finds enough to make up a very good set of tools.

After breakfast, head back to Jzadirune. As we leave, Jeyna shows up with a human female named Jian. Jian is a war-mage and the help we were promised from the temple. Arrive at Kegan’s. The guards report no attempts to enter or leave during the night. As we enter, Brak suggests that breaking the flour on the ceiling might be better. Humm? Snorri checks the stairwell on the way down. He thinks the Skulks were in the stairwell since yesterday. Enter the mask room. Elwin examines the doors with a J and A. He tries to unlock the J door and succeeds. He opens the door. As it opens, a gas shoots out. Elwin get a full dose in the face, leaving him staggering around. Brak steps up and heals him. Check out the room. Dusty cots and chests. No tunnels. Just dusty blankets and personal effects. White tabards. Beds made. Snorri finds a small pouch of old style coins. Aerrion finds a pivot door in the north wall of the mask room. He opens the door. A forty foot hallway lined with pictures of Gnomes and Dwarves armed with hook hammers. Elwin finds a second pivot door at the end of the hall on the west side. He also spots a weirdness on the floor. It is a pit trap with a tilt floor. Elwin starts disabling the trap. He is deliberate and very slow. Aerrion and I get bored and decide to open the pivot door.

Find dusty shelves and mostly empty weapon racks. One large locked chest. Finally finished with disarming the trap, Elwin checks the chest for hidden dangers. While doing so, he spots another door to the west. He unlocks the chest while I open the second door. A 20 x 20 room. Gracie finds a door in the forty foot hallway. My room has four cots and matching dusty chests. Nothing of note except I find an R key in one of the chests. There is an E door to the west. Gracie opens her door, revealing a room with many doors. Four doors with runes. R, N, U and E. A mosaic semi-circle is in front of the fifth door, made of iron. The mosaic has the nine runes of Jzadirune. The door into the 40ft hallway slams shut behind us. Can’t open it. Snorri thinks something has spiked it.

We regroup in the RUNE room. Aeerion uses a U key and opens the U door, ready for action. A dusty stale room. Nothing of note. I use my R key on the R door. Another dusty boring room. Search a bit. Gracie finds a door in the R room. Pivot door. Storage closet. Some alchemical supplies. Jian checks them out and thinks they have been rendered inactive. All appear inert. Gracie finds yet another door in the closet. It opens into the lab where the raggy muffin attacked Snorri. Debate trying to charge into the mask room and catch the Skulks who spiked the door shut. Elwin tries sneaking down to the mask room. I back him up. He makes it to the mask room. Notices the A room spikes are gone. The Skulks used our spikes to their advantage. Go back to the lab. Gracie and Aerrion take swords and walk back down the hallway, swinging the swords. Trying to hit any hidden critters. Toward the end of the hallway, Gracie finds a pit trap by falling in. She is unmoving at the bottom. Aerrion almost fell in but managed to grab the ledge. We pull Gracie up in time for Brak to heal her with a spell and potion. At the bottom of the pit is a long dead Skulk, xbow, rapier and bolts. Elwin claims to have locked the trap door in place. He then examines the door at the end of the hallway that is not on our map. It is an illusion. It opens into a room with a E and Z door.

At Aerrions insistence, we clear the mask room by walking line abreast, swinging swords. Find nothing. Move into the end room with Elwin leading the way. A map room with the map on the south wall. Jian and I stay in the hallway, watching behind. Then decide to open the R door. A 20x20 room with a bored tunnel out of the east side. A lit dented lantern barely lights the room. Stench of burned rat and sulphur. Several dead rats on the floor. Feel and hear a rush out of the door, followed by a swift sneak attack by things with sharp weapons. Knocked down but not out. Aerrion badly hurt as well. Jian throws a flour bag at the ceiling. Several critters revealed. Aerrion attacks back, hitting one, before backing thru the illusionary door. Gracie attacks but stops at the door. Snorri moves thru the wall into the fray. Jian tries a sleep spell and gets three in the hallway plus Snorri. Elwin yells at Brak to hold the E door when he hears it click. Aerrion moves thru and attacks the sleeping skulks, killing one and waking the second. Gracie moves in and helps me move into the map room. Then the E door opens and darkness floods 15ft into the room. Elwin briefly sees two small critters. I stand up and move to the corner of the room. Jian does a burning hands in the hallway and is rewarded by a couple of shrieks as two skulks get burnt. Gracie roughly pulls Snorri thru, waking him up in the process. Two shadowy figures move out of the darkness and attack Brak. Brak responds by cleaving one in half, splattering Aerrion with gore. Elwin shoots and misses, almost hitting Brak. One moves to Gracie, hitting and dropping her. I shoot and miss. Elwin moves to the corner and hides in the darkness. Brak hits the second one as well, knocking it down. The darkness goes down as well. The second little one is still alive. Tie it up.

Check out the E door. Most of the critters treasure is gold jester coins. Also have an E key. Look in the E door. Hallway to the south for 30ft with a T intersection. Close and lock the doors plus spike them. Flour the floor. The mosaic map matches the paper map we found. Pull and and head to the surface. The critter speaks a weird dialect of undercommon. It is a Dark One. I can barely understand it at all. The Cuthbertians claim to have someone that can do better.

Oosana

XP Kills - 450, Story - 100, RP - 100
Everyone gets an action point.