Beginner Box: Black Fang's Lair (Inactive)

Game Master Something Wicked

"Thanks, Lugert.
"We should see if there any loot from this mighty kingdom!"

Gôlgast joins Lugert in searching the room to see if there might be anything of value or use here.

perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16

Magwyn uses the pause to throw a gold piece into the fountain, and to make a few sips from it. All this fighting made him thirsty.
After that he joins the others.

perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

Kandor grabs the goblin he just killed and drags him next to the other goblins in the throne room round 1 . He then picks up the king
while he shouts " Instead of looking around come with me if you want to be healed. round 2 and drags him into the room with the fountain round 3 With the king at his feet and his trusty morning star in his hand he prays to Desna to flood the fountain room with light and positive energy everyone within 30 feet is healed for 6 hitpoints

Left 1 spell, 1 domain spell, 3 channels

Lugert follows Kandor into the fountain room. Once there he follows suit with Magwyn and throw two gold coins into the fountain.

Gôlgast gathers around the fountain with the others.

"That feels much better!"

We're out of combat. You're free to act as you wish.

As the last goblin falls to Kandor's morningstar, you take a moment to assess your wounds and catch your breath. The sting of battle begins to grow as Golgast, Lugert, and Magwyn determine the extent of their injuries.

Searching the throne room, Lugert spots a chest neatly tucked behind the goblin king's throne. Although it is locked tight, a search of his bodyguard's reveals a rusted iron key that fits neatly into the lock. Inside, you find a cache of valuable goods (no doubt stolen from travelers along the Lost Coast):

Kandor drags the goblin king back into the fountain room, inciting a prayer to The Starsong as a wave of pure, blue light washes over everyone. However, even with this magical healing, the king remains unconscious. Magwyn hit him pretty hard! He's currently at -5hp and needs 5 more healing before awakening.

As Golgast, Lugert, and Magwyn each drink from the fountain, a curious sensation overcomes them:

PC Status:
Golgast: 8/10
Kandor: 11/11
Lugert: 16/16
Magwyn: 11/11

Kandor scolds Golgast: "Careful you stupid orc. Now you see what happens when you disrespect Desna. Let this be a warning."

Kandor prays again to Desna, asking forgiveness for Golgast's disrespect. The room fills once again with holy light. curing again 6 damage through a channel

Do we need to identify the items first, or do our characters know what they are?

Has anyone else CLW on his spell list? otherwise I will take the wand for now.

And who wants an additional + 1 deflection AC, he should take the ring. As I look at the results of the last two fights, I don't need the AC boost

Starshine illuminates the room, blinding the wicked and healing the worthy!

The goblin king's eyes slowly open. He coughs and, realizing the nature of his captivity, begins to spit and spew a string of goblin curses.

Everyone's now at full health (except the king).

When Gôlgast impulsively has a swig (or two or six) of the fountain water, he feels wretched and chokes out: "Phagh!"

After getting healed (again) by Kandor, Gôlgast mutters a mix of "thanks" and "how was I to know?"
That's what happens with lower wisdom! :o

Both Lugert and I have the lowest AC in the group.
But Gôlgast has quite a few less HP.
So it might even things out a bit if Gôlgast had the +1 ring

Magwyn sighs. "Well, I told everyone, remember?"

Magwyn kicks the goblin with just enough force to shut him up for a while. "Cursing won't help you."
"Now, are there more of your kind here?"

I have CLW, since we share the spell-list. But you should probably keep it.
And I don't need the ring, 18 AC at first level is pretty decent.

While Magwyn and the others? Tag Golgast, Lugert are interrogating the goblin king, Kandor walks towards the fountain, bows, throws a gold coin into the fountain, before drinking from it.

Afterwards he walks into the throne room to pick up his javelins and looks around if the others have missed anything.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

"You longshanksss! Think you own everything! I tell you nothing!" He spits at your boots.

You find nothing else of note in the throne room.

Note: The goblin king is EXTREMELY hostile to you after you, ya know, killed his buddies. It will take a BIG intimidate or diplomacy roll to make him help you. If you all take part, you can attempt a DC 10 roll for either of those to Assist the top roll.

"Well, if you don't want to tell us, then we don't need you. Right guys?" Magwyn lifts the sword, ready to chop the goblin's head off.

intimidate: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Wow. Just wow.

Lugert grabs the goblin by the throat with one arm and holds him in the air at eye level."Where is the monster? He holds him out to give easy access to Magwyn and his sword.

Strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Intimidate: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

You can use the ring, I'll rely on my higher HP. I rolled Strength just for some roleplaying fun. I'll need some intimidating help from everyone else.

The goblin king chokes and squeals under the force and threats.

"Wait, wait! Okay, okay! You let me go, yes?"

"Which monster?" he asks slyly. "This cave full of bad things. We always stay near entrance! Big spiders, yes, big crabs, and worse. And, and..." His red eyes go real big as he glances out the northern passageway. "The dragon! He real mean. But if you here to fight him, aim for belly. Got soft belly scales. Now you let King Fatmouth go?"

Lugert continues his hold. Hmm

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Magwyn hesitantly glances at Lugert and the others, with a silent question in the eyes, not sure if he should belive creature's words.
sense motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
Yes, sense motive is a good thing to do.

Kandor walks back into the room to just hear the last words of the king. "A dragon you say? What color is he, and how large is he?

sense motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

Gôlgast will try to jog the "King's" memory a bit:

"Povejte nam resnico!"
"Vse o teh jamah!"
"ZDAJ!"

intimidate: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

The goblin king flinches back at Golgast's yells, covering his face with tiny, trembling hands.

"A dragon you say? What color is he, and how large is he? "

"B...big! Real big!" the king croaks. "And black, like ink!"

"I think it's telling the truth." Magwyn adresses companions.
He then casts a nervous glance at the northern passage. "What should we do?"

"Has anyone ever fought a black dragon, or at least heard about black dragons?" asks Kandor, who slightly turned pale after hearing the news.

Kandor speaks again "Somehow I feel that if we explore the rest of the caves first we will find something that can help us. This feels the same as that time Desna chose to help me escape my captivity."

I had the idea that exploring the rest of the cave would give us the solution as a dragon is a huge challenge for a level 1 party, but that is metagaming. Nicely solved Wicked

What do we do with the goblin, kill it, or release it?

That, my dear dwarf, is up to you :).

"I feel the same." Magwyn nods in agreеment.
"So, what should we do with the goblin? Kill right now, release, or tie him up and let the fate decide?"

We didn't actually promised to let him go. I don't think releasing him is a good idea. Maybe just tie him up and leave in the cave. But if majority would like him dead, Magwyn has no qualms about that.

"Well, we were told that something with big black teeth had been eating livestock."
"The description fits."

I'm gonna take a little GM license, in the interest of moving us along, and assume the group agrees to tie up the king and leave him, alive, near the entrance.

Following this, the group carefully approaches the door just east of the fountain. Kandor examines the stone doors closely but can find no tricks or traps, and so you test the doors. They are unlocked and open easily.

The doors silently swing open to reveal a chamber bathed in red light. On the east side of the room, a pair of stone statues stand on either side of a dusty altar that is inscribed with runes. Atop the altar sits a large red gemstone. The creepy red light comes from this gemstone.

The moment you move to enter the room, a loud voice booms from the two statues. "Approach with humility and live!"

perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16
Just looking for really obvious things.
Like, do the statues seem animated at all?

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

knowledge religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Kandor looks at the statues to see if they are more than just statues and tries to remember if this has something to do with a god or goddess.

You don't recognize the iconography to be religious in nature. If anything, it is arcane in nature. Perception reveals nothing else of note.

"Do they want us to grovel or something?"
Gôlgast whispers to the others.

Lugert comes up from behind Gôlgast and Kandor to look inside the room that just talked to them. He keeps his heavy pick ready for danger.

Knowledge Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

"Maybe it just wants us to bow? I'm not sure."
Magwyn cautiously makes a few steps toward the statues, taking a good look at them and the surroundings.

perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
knowledge religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
sense motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16 Is there something off? Besides the talking statues.

" Does anyone know what kind of magic this is? " does anyone have Knowledge Arcana? asks a confused Kandor.

Magwyn please show me on the map where you move.

Oh, sorry. Totally forgot about that. I moved the token.

Thanks!

As Magyn steps into the room, the booming voice repeats its ominous message: "Approach with humility and live!"

Remembering which spells he had prepared this morning, Kandor casts detect magic, and informs the others what he has seen.

Next he slowly walks into the room towards the other side of the door, while carefully examining the statues and the gem.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

As Kandor approaches, only the same, loud message broadcasts through the room.

Kandor, from this angel you can just make out a small lever on the backside of the northern statue.

"Magwyn, I see a small lever on the northern statue, is there also one on the southern statue? " Kandor whispers to his companion.

I assume Magwyn shares what he saw

" Let's pull those levers together at the same time" is the suggestion Kandor makes.

If Magwyn agrees, you can move Kandor towards the back of the northern statue, and he will pull the lever at the same time as Magwyn

Gôlgast walks into the room, stopping between Kandor and Magwyn.

He casts Detect Magic at the two statues.

As Golgast enters, the voice calls about again--the same cryptic message. But nothing else occurs.

see above for the message, as well as the results of detect magic.

Gôlgast walks carefully, along the room's wall, to get behind the south statue. He'll study the lever on the statue but not touch it. Yet.

perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9

If nothing has happened, he'll gesture to the others to see if they think he should flick it or not.

Lugert hears the voice several times as his allies enter the the room. He remains outside the door watching.

Sense Motive on the voice: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Have you three come to a decision as to who is more humiliating yet?

"Yes, let's try this." Magwyn agrees with dwarf's suggestion. He slowly approaches the statue near Gôlgast and nods to the half-orc.
"At the same time."

Kandor walks carefully along the wall until he can reach the lever on the northern statue. " Okay Golgar, I will count down, and we pull when I say one." He carefully instructs the half-orc. " Three, Two, One,"

Golgast and Kandor both pull their levers at the same time.

And now we will all die.

*Cli-Click*

The noise echoes off the stone walls as Golgast and Kandor pull their respective levers nearly in unison.

Nothing further occurs. The red gemstone on the altar continues to glow, as if smoldering.

"Now let's see if those levers really did nothing" mumbles Kandor while he cast detect magic, scanning the entire room again.