The next expedition into Stonehell featured
an expanded party; Turrick was a little beat from slogging through the swamp,
so he chose to sit out this trip. Erijay and Rylee were instead joined by Eazam,
a fighter eager to show his daring and skill in the dungeon. Also coming along
was Kern, a merchant with a flair for acquiring items, and his mule Sweet
Jenny. Rounding out the party were the
dogs Fifi and Ruff.
After taking some time figuring out how to
get the mule down the stairs, the party found itself back in the familiar entry
hall. Reviewing their previous
explorations with the newcomers, the party chose to explore the area west of
the old Open Sore tribe lair to fill in the blank areas on their map. Kern and
Eazam both showed their worth by leading the investigation of the first halls,
Kern sneaking ahead to scout and Eazam bolding taking the torch and lead when
opening doors. A pair of giant toads were encountered and quickly
dispatched. A group of hungry fire
beetles followed, who were dissuaded from attacking when Rylee threw the dead
toads into their midst, which the beetles proceeded to rip apart. Cautiously, the party exited opposite the
beetles to continue exploring, but only after Eazam collected some mushrooms
from one musty room, continuing a party fugal tradition.
The party next explored a serious of
octagonal room, similar to those encountered before but with different
themes. In the desert chamber, they
encounter a sphinx who challenged them with a series of riddles. Though at
first unsuccessful, and suffering the sphinx’s dusty breath as a consequence,
the party answered the second riddle easily and were rewarded with a treasure
of coins, two Potions of Extra Healing,
and a Wand of Metal Detection. In the
chambers of the sea, a series of tunnels dug out of the wall were found but avoided,
while in the chamber of the jungles a
pile of offal and junk was cleared of giant centipedes and Eazam recovered a
quiver of 3 arrows +1.
Further exploration brought the party in
contact with a goblin outpost. These proved to be members of the Wolf Gang
tribe, who recognized and were overjoyed to see the “Elf Witch”. In the
conversation that followed, the party learned that another goblin tribe had
settled in the old Open Sore orc lair. Although the Spider Rider tribe was
originally invited to help the Wolf Riders fight the orcs, they had taken over
much of the area themselves and the Wolf Gang were not pleased. Kern, showing
his wily merchant side, took the opportunity to bargain with the goblins, to
see what they would offer the if they helped the goblins deal with the Spider
Riders. Taken to meet the Korag, the
goblin chief, a bargain was struck where the Wolf Gang tribe would join forces
with the party to eliminate the Spider Riders. In return, the party could have
all the treasures recovered except for a single piece to be chosen by Korag.
Goblin squad in tow, the party set up an
ambush at the four way intersection near the former orc lair. They then sent
one of the goblins down the corridor to knock on doors and yell insults at the
Spider Riders before running back. This brought four goblins, who were quickly dispatched
by missile fire and melee. Trying to
repeat the tactic, the party found the goblins adamant that they weren't going
deeper into the lair to act as bait. Kern, after learning a few goblin curses,
played the bait instead. Quite successfully, as somewhere between 15-20 Spider
Rider goblins chased him back to the intersection. Here, the party laid a
barrage of oil, torches and Erijay`s Sleep
spell. This took care of all but two, who fled back to the lair. Following, the
party confronted the remaining goblins, three riding on giant spiders. Trapping
them in a room, they pelted the area with oil. This not only made it all but
impossible for the spiders to charge due to the slippery floor, it again resulted
in a fiery inferno and a lot of charred goblins and spiders. Only one goblin survived, the Spider Riders chief.
He charged the massed group and went toe to toe with Erijay before falling to
the fangs of Fifi.
Fetching Korag, the party broke into the
goblin treasury and looted a load of silver coin and a number of gems, the largest
of which was claimed by the Wolf Rider chief. Loaded with treasure, the group
parted ways with the goblins and headed back to Westmist to rest and refit.
No comments:
Post a Comment