All's Well that Ends in a Well, V.2 (Inactive)

Game Master Choon

Hmm. Okay. So, we head out to exit the dungeon and enjoy some smoked snake for lunch or dinner (Zadira has lost track of time)... retracing the same path that we took to get in. We proceed cautiously, despite having already checked these rooms.

Does anything scary happen on our way?

You exit the dungeon about half an hour after you entered. The dew hasn't even burned off the shady bits of grass yet.

Wow. I thought we had been down there forever. says Zadira.

We have a snake picnic lunch and the people with the skill will smoke meat and tan skin.

Possible event here if the meat is toxic... let us know

When everything is cooked/smoked/tanned, we head back in. Not sure how long that takes though, so if it is the whole day, then we camp with the same watch as before... another possible event and THEN head back in.

How does Con damage work... do I get it back after a rest, or does it take longer?

You recover 1 point of ability drain to each stat in a night of rest. So you will be okay.

Catarya blinks as they emerge from the Mouth.

"It was strenge tat we saw no one but te snake. I tot tere would be many foes."

"Neferteless, we should camp a fair ways from here. And cofer our tracks."

I could have gone on... but there's always tomorrow.

Yeah, I think we all could have, but snake picnic is funny, and this should help people who didn't bring enough rations... dried snake jerky should last at least a few days, right? Also, it's just game time. We can jump right back in after the GM rolls for events.

Edit: Can prestidigitation accelerate drying/smoking meat? If so, someone could probably do that... I don't have the cantrip, but someone might. If so, we could just do that and then jump back in now. I'm not worried about the Con. I was just wondering in case it did take all day.

Don't forget those giant centipedes. Those were scary too. :)

Ah! The sunlight! You are right, my sense of time is definitely off. Since it is still early, and we are mostly uninjured, we could simply hang the snake up to drain the blood, and cook it when we are ready to leave the dungeon (assuming nothing else gets to it first)? It is my understanding smoking is a bit of a lengthy process.I didn't realize it had already been skinned, I missed that somehow, I rescind my comment.
Grelthe has no skills relevant to the snake processing and is antsy to continue in the dungeon, she paces around the other adventurers, staring off into the distance for enemies.

How large is this snake? Is it big enough to feed all 6 of us, and have left over to smoke/dry? Checking bestiary 2 it is "Large" so that I think that should be enough?

Information in regards to the snake that Grelthe is not actually wise enough to know: Eating snake meat should be fine, as long as whoever is cutting/preparing it knows what they are doing and avoids the venom sac (after looking it up this organ is in the head, so we're fine with the decapitated body).

We can't just hang it up, because they said they already skinned it... and they are super-fast at that, since we were only down there for 1/2 an hour. However, we can pack all the meat in waterproof bags and make a tree cache or something if we don't want to do it now. Or abandon the meat. I was just trying to go with Elion's suggestion, and thought we could fast forward,
but ... if that isn't working, I am totally good with going right back down. Just say it. So let it be written, so let it be done.

No, it's fine, I was just trying to find a way to do both, because in my roleplay-head it doesn't make sense that they would just abandon the dungeon after 30 minutes of work, but it would be nice to be able to eat snake. Smoking just takes forever, so we really do need to choose that or adventuring, unfortunately. I was thinking we could smoke it overnight with the watches feeding the fire, but that won't work if the meat is already sitting out ready to go, I don't think we have that many waterproof bags and Grelthe doesn't want hers filled with snake blood and grossness, it's where she keeps her scrolls.

Yep, good point. We can skip the smoking if it takes too long... or leave it to smoke and probably get it stolen, but who knows... at least we tried. GM, I assume you will update us on anything previous if there is anything to update. If not, we proceed:

So, after their little snake picnic, the party hangs up the long strips of meat to smoke, and they return to the dungeon. They take the same door from the entrance as last time, and they proceed through the secret door, but this time they take the left fork.

Moved party.

Zadira casts open on the door in front of her.

There is plenty of meat to eat and smoke for later.
The party sets up an impromptu smoke house and heads back in after a quick and pleasant brunch.
1d20 + 1d2 ⇒ (3) + (1) = 4
As the party makes it's way into the hall you come face to face with a single zombie. A couple screams and reflexive head bashes later the corpse twitches no more.

The door to this room refuses to budge, but is unlocked...
(hardness 5; hp 20; Break DC 28),

I can try breaking it down, or we can go around trying different doors and maybe come at it from the other side? I'm hesitant to make a lot of sound since we haven't cleared out the other rooms yet.

Excellent point, Grelthe... although we haven't been being very stealthy, but we'll skip this one for now.

Zadira pulls out a piece of chalk and writes OUT OF ORDER: PLEASE USE NEXT DOOR on the door.

Then they proceed to the next door down the hall, and she casts Open on that one.

sorry I didn't get to post this earlier, but snake has venom, well usually, can I harvest any of the venom?

ok looking at the map, which door is stuck? we moved so much since I last was here I don't want to explore what we already did.

I made the stuck door red

sorry I didn't get to post this earlier, but snake has venom, well usually, can I harvest any of the venom?

Yes. Kn:nature to harvest, if I remember correctly.

The southern portion of this room has collapsed, and is filled with rubble and dirt.

Thanks to Catarya for our new and improved Map!

I like it, and it gives away less in terms of avoiding metagaming.
However, it is also harder to see doors and the traps and the secret door we've already identified. Mind if we put those back in?

Hmm. I wonder if there is anything under all of that.

Zadira uses mage hand to start moving things around, to see if there is anything under the dirt. If she finds anything interesting, she'll consider casting Expeditious Excavation, but for now, she's just doing a cursory search.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 <--add 2 if there is a potential cave-in, or if there is an undead creature hiding in all of that. :)

The potential for a cave in is pretty high and you find no evidence of anything buried in all that rubble.

Okay. We leave the room alone and look around the next corner. I think there were doors along here as well, but don't remember where... so, we might need a description of what we see.

You come to no other doors until you reach the intersection you spied from the first room of doors. Here you notice inconsistences in the stone level indicating yet another pit trap.

Does it look like we can we get around the trap safely, or like it would be safer to go around the other way?

dungeoneering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32 in case it is needed (Int 17/wis 12 in case one of those is more applicable than a knowledge roll.)

Wow... Critted on a knowledge roll. :) Hope it was worth it. :)

The north door in your starting room probably leads to the areas on the other side of the trap.

Totally just meant catty-corner, but that's some awesome information for later. :)

We backtrack to just outside the centipede room. I can't tell where the doors are, but I think there were at least a couple that we didn't check because we didn't go down the hall in this direction. I cast open on whichever is the first unopened door that we come to.

EDIT: Thanks Grelthe! My eyes must be going bad, or it is just really hard to see on my screen at work... or both. Who knows.

Made the unopened doors more obvious, and moved the group to the first one. (It's not just you, it took me awhile to figure out where the doors were too)

This room contains a very rusted, iron fire-pit that is set beneath a small hole in the ceiling. This was originally a small kitchen; the hole leads to the surface and is well-ventilated, but it is too small to serve as an exit from the dungeon.

Darn. We could have had the snake cookout here. :)

Zadira moves closer to see if there is anything in the pit.

Pit Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14 <--+2 if there is anything hazardous

Still have Detect Magic up

EDIT: Sorry Grelthe... posting at the same time. I'm going to look in the pit, but then we move on.

"We should be torough, and egzamine efery place we come across. Tere might be hidden compartments or doors. Like tis: tis might not haf always been a kitchen."

Guys: I think we should extend our SOP to searching all the rooms. Even a mundane-looking room may have been repurposed from something more interesting long ago. Also, GM: After the take 10 by Elion and Kalya working together, the rest of us could just roll perception normally. You can roll secretly for perception if you want.

"It looks like we could just jump across te corner of tis pit. Or we could tie people off when tey cross. Do you tink tere might be an exit in te bottom like te oter pit?"

Meklar licks his fingers after enjoying the succulent snake meat. "OK, now I'm ready for a real fight!"

When they find the kitchen, he can't help but chuckle. "Whatever we kill next, now we know where to bring them!"

He inspects the pit with Zadira.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Sorry, what was the deal with the stuck door? Can I force it open?

The room is empty of valuables or other hidden exits. Zadira, however, is feeling a bit under the weather. (see discussion)

Meklar licks his fingers after enjoying the succulent snake meat. "OK, now I'm ready for a real fight!"

When they find the kitchen, he can't help but chuckle. "Whatever we kill next, now we know where to bring them!"

He inspects the pit with Zadira.

[dice=perception]1d20+9

Sorry, what was the deal with the stuck door? Can I force it open?

You can. Stats above

Ok I see it now. I will attempt that pending the resolution of Zadira's disease.

When the group is ready to proceed, Melkar takes his earthbreaker to the stuck door.

attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 5) + 12 = 19

attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 4) + 12 = 18

With a couple of swings, the door crumbles before his might.

We had chosen to not smash the door until we cleared out the other rooms, is what had happened, but that's fine.

Zadira looks at the door that has been shattered into toothpicks.

Wow, Melkar. Impressive. :)

"Crumbles" is a bit of an understatement. The door practically explodes in a shower of splinters.
The reason for the block is clear once the door is "opened": it has been spiked closed. A skeleton lies toppled over from where it had been leaning on the door. As you enter and search about you find two more skeletons wrapped in bedrolls. A burned-out lantern stands on the floor in the middle of the room. The room also contains an old-looking wooden chest, which is not locked. It contains ten sets of garments: eight of these appear to be servants’ clothing, one of them is a silk gown (30 gp), and one of them is a crimson wizard’s robe embroidered with stars and astrological symbols (20 gp). There is also a backpack beside each of the two bedrolls; these contain a large ball of twine, a bottle of holy water, 30 sp, and sketched map from Zelkor’s Ferry to the Mouth of Doom’s entrance.

Zadira takes the sketched map as a souvenir, and divides the silver among the party (5 to each person).

Does anyone want any of the rest of this stuff? Some of it looks useful, but I can't carry it.

"Tese must haf been oter adventurers. But why are tey dead? Tey secured te room wit tese spikes, so it wasn't from a attack."

I have my own twine but that is a very useful thing to have if someone else wants it.

I have a +8 to throw the holy water but is someone else has better they should take it. Also I don't have a lot of carrying capacity left (1 lb.).

We can sell the clothing back in town. Maybe find out who owned them.

Grelthe looks longingly at the silk gown for a moment, then looks down at her rough hands and decides against it. With how much fancy gems and such you wear, Zadira, I thought you might be interested in the gown. But otherwise, that and the wizard's robe looks to be in good enough shape that we could probably sell them for a bit back in town. If no one else claims any of it, Grelthe will just put it all (except servant clothes) in her backpack, since she still has carrying space.
Is the holy water a flask, or a bottle with multiple 'doses'?

Well, yes, given. I like the gown, but I don't really go anywhere you have to dress up. And... I'm kind of weak. I could fit more stuff into my backpack, but not much. If I save up enough someday I am going to buy a nice magic strength belt or something. What would that be like? Mmm. I would love to be strong. But for now, I don't imagine we'll find too many fancy parties down here, so... no reason to take it.

Catarya, yeah, I was worried about that too. But, whatever they were afraid of, it doesn't seem to be around at the moment... and it was a long time ago if they are already skeletons. So... no new information. We already knew it was dangerous. I think we should press on.

Bottle

Should we check this room for secret doors or move on?

The party moves on opening doors. The first opens to a hall connecting to the room of dead adventurers. The second opens into a completely empty space.
1d20 ⇒ 12
But the stones give away a secret entrance in the wall. That leads to an empty hall ending in yet another door. This door opens onto something... exciting.
The entire ceiling of this room and the floor below it is covered in green slime. It drips down in irregular intervals. The room is devoid of anything save the stone it's made from.

Whispers to the party: Slimes and oozes and things without limbs make me nervous, I've had bad experiences with them before. Does anyone know more about these ones in particular? Either way, I have some alchemist's fire I can toss at the largest group, if we want to fight them.

"I don't like te looks of tat."

I don't have knowledge (dungeoneering) but the description of green slime makes it unlikely that anyone would want to touch it.

"Tere's noting here anyway. Let's skip tis one."

Kayla, Melkar & Zadira should be able to tell us more about the slime

ok where are we? let me see what is going on? how did we get to where we are? I thought we were in a hallway near a stuck door?

if its knowledge nature I may have to re-do my skills since I do not have that skill but I get a bonus on craft alchemy to make poisons so should we make it craft alchemy? if not then I will have to redo my knowledge skills to accommodate what I should already have known

You were. Then you searched it. Then I moved youall around to the next door.

This has turned into a Very fast-paced game. If youall want me to slow down just let me know.