Rappan Athuk in the Mwangi Expanse (Inactive)

Game Master Zizazat

Without the missing pieces, the man in the mural could be holding almost anything. Looking around, you do get the feeling that Kwin is right that there are likely more centipedes living behind the wall.

Then unless Felix finds something of note, we'll move on to the next door. The first one on the right as we head down the corridor straight out from this room.

Leaving the door south of the room you are in?

I didn't see that! Thank you. Yes, we'll try that door before returning to the corridor, letting Felix work his magic first, of course.

Felix checks the southern door for traps, again finding none.

This room is decorated with tapestries, although Felix immediately realizes that the rough cloth and crude sewing makes them worthless. The tapestries depict the outside of the dungeon—the demon-mouth which conceals the stairway down into this level. Around the demon-mouth, a battle appears to be raging between a small army of Mwangi archers and a larger force made up of ogres, who are led by three black-robed figures wearing helmets decorated with curling ram’s horns. These leaders are apparently also Mwangi, and each one carries a mace topped with a metal skull.

Anybody have a clue as to what all this stuff means? Parfin says, waving at the tapestries. This some kind of war room?

As he asks Parfin will take a closer look around. Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

"Maybe it's celebrating some big battle? I hope the ogres didn't win."

Rose looks for any secret doors, particularly around the two nooks in the room.

Felix, Parfin and Rose begin to search around.

Parfin notices that in the southern nook, there is a section of wall that slides away. A secret door!

Rose checking the northern nook is just about to put her foot down when she realizes that the whole section of floor is on a pivot that would fall away! A trap! Just as Felix, mumbling, says "I don't think that floor is quite right, it's got a 3% grade."

For successfully finding the trap (not the hard way) you each gain 65 XP.

Well isn't this room just full of surprises, remarks Parfin. Shall we? Parfin will allow Felix to do his thing before sliding the wall away. Once open, Parfin will use his darkvision to see if anything is hiding beyond the secret door.

Dobin moves over to the hidden door, sword and shield ready just in case.

The sliding secret door opens into what looks like another hallway, heading west and south, or south and east. Felix absent-mindedly makes some notes in his journal about the trap, the secret door and the tapestries.

I say we going this way, Parfin points to the right as he comes through the doorway.

"Sounds good, Boss!"

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Moving into the corridor, Parfin scans ahead with his darkvision and sees that it stretches further east and there is a single door on the north side of the corridor.

Felix, you want to check out this hall and that door? Parfin will follow him as he does so.

As you move closer to inspect the door, Parfin notices a second door on the south side of the corridor. Also the hallway continues east then turns north out of sight.

Felix investigates the door, "Nope, no traps here. Not even locked in fact." He reaches out his hand and turns the knob to open it and the door doesn't budge at all. "Strange. It's like the door is blocked from the inside."

"Do you think we can force it?", Dobin asks.

Might be stuck. Go ahead and throw a shoulder on it, Dobin.

"We could use Jericho's crowbar. Either that, or we can keep going and see if we can get into there from another door."

"Certainly, a crowbar and some application of force seems like a reasonable solution." Felix nods.

Jericho takes out his crowbar, and he and Dobin set to work trying to force the door open.

The two warriors give a massive heave, but the door does not give way. They look at each other, somewhat surprised and try again!

Again, the pair is not able to free the door. Felix looks at Parfin's earthbreaker. "You might be able to smash it open instead. It would be louder, but all this grunting is pretty loud too."

All three of the martial types have a 16 Str, so you can try different options if you'd like but mechanically they will be the same. The door itself is iron-reinforced wood

Jericho tries again to force door open, asking for Dobin's aid, using crowbar: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 3 + 2 = 21...add additional +2 if Dobin makes aid another check.

Parfin will aid this time: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Crap. LOL.

"I suppose we could take axes to it. Or, continue following the corridors and perhaps we'll find another way in."

Aid other: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

Dobin throws his shoulder into the door, aiding Parfin and Jericho

Might sound crazy but we could use oil and set fire to the door, weakening it. Felix makes his fingers wiggle like flames.

Sorry for the disappearing act, I just got my internet back today. The snow-pocalypse did a number on my part of town. Polar Vortex can stay in the polar region!

Try as they might, the burly warriors cannot seem to get the door open even with the aid of the crowbar.

"Go team go!" Rose cheers on the warriors, but to no apparent effect.

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Kwin has Knowledge (engineering) at +9. Can he use that to offer assistance?

"Maybe if you set the crowbar here?"

Or maybe we'll come back to it. I don't wanna spend all day here. Perhaps that other door will provide less... resisitance.

Kwin suggests a different place to brace the crowbar and Jericho and Dobin put a heave into it again, and this time the door busts open! As the door comes open, you realize that it was spiked from the inside and there seems to be something leaning against the door as Jericho finally pushes it open.

When the spike has been knocked out and the skeleton toppled forward, the adventurers can get into the room, where they 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; echo 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.

The other door on the eastern wall is also spiked closed from the inside.

What were these poor souls hiding from, I wonder? Only three of them here. Why the trunk full of clothes, especially in a place like this? Parfin looks sadly at what is essentially a tomb.

Can anyone tell if these fellas died of lack of supplies, or something else?

I really liked the fire idea, but applied force works as well. Let me take a look at these bodies and see if I can make any summations. Felix checks the state of decay and types, if any, of wounds.

Rose also takes a look with Felix. Heal check = +6

She will also take a look at the map for any interesting additional landmarks.

"Poor buggers! I wonder what forced them into this room? I would rather go out in battle then...like this., he says looking around at the remains on the floor.

Looking over the 3 skeletal remains, a few things are clear: they have been here quite a while, as they are fully decomposed with hardly a trace of any stench of decay. The air in the room is quite stale smelling though. None of the skeletons have any telltale signs of death by violence, all the skulls are in perfect condition etc.

The map looks similar to the route you took to get here, but on the west side of the river in a small grove of trees is a word written 'Yorgala.'

We could see what is behind that door there. Hopefully we are better eqipped to handle whatever it was that these people here had feared so much.

Kwin makes sure that Felix includes "Yorgala" in his notes.

In replay to Parfin, Kwin says "I think we would be better prepared. This looks to have been a wizard and his servants. We are well equipped with numerous warriors, in addition to a wizard. Though I have exhausted most of my arcane power until I can rest."

Hmmm... I did not realize your resources were so low. Perhaps we should either head back to town or hole up in a safe room for a while so that we may gather our strength.

"Yeah, I used up a lot of energy keeping you guys standing against those ants! How about we head back to town and find out what this dead wizard and Yorgala is about? Maybe the old man at the inn knows?"

I'm with Parfin, skeletons who locked themselves in and starved = bad sign.

"I agree. There should be no hurry to get ourselves killed. We can come back later, rested."

It is approximately 5:30 PM, and will take 3 hours to return to Zellkor's Ferry. From where you are inside the Mouth of Doom, and knowing the path now it shouldn't be very difficult to make the return journey. I'm going to assume this is the majority opinion, but if I'm mistaken please let me know and we'll retcon things.

The party makes it back to the gates of Zellkor's Ferry without any additional interruptions.
Bernhard is standing guard at the gate and smiles when he sees you approaching, calling out to Kwin, "Back from the Mouth already Kwin? Is everyone ok?" Seeing that everyone is, more or less, in good shape he continues, "Plenty of room at Bristleback's for ya, course. My shift is over soon, and I'll be there to hear your tales!"

Bristleback's Inn is warm and cozy Amelia and Ysbel immediately begin yelling at the cook to prepare something besides the stew for you. Amelia says "I wasn't sure if we were expecting you back tonight or in a few more days. There's room, of course, and we'll have some proper food ready shortly. One coin each for the night." Lilia tells Amelia she'll take an extra hot bath and her room again.

Whatever you guys want to do in town just let me know.

Well, that could've gone worse. Well done. Parkin states as the party returns back to the comforts of civilization. A good meal, a bath and some rest is in order. Let us meet for breakfast and divvy up our well-earned profits and take the day to equip ourselves for another assault.

OK, so where is that loot thingy again? How much is everyone's share and do we have items to sell?

Kwin smiles warmly at Bernhard. "It went well, so far. We won't be buying kingdom's any time soon, but I can certainly buy you guys those drinks. I'll see you there!"

I'll do treasure talk in the discussion thread.

Felix sets his gear down and begins going over his various items, checking and cleaning them. By the gods! He suddenly exclaims. I do believe I left my extension flat pick number 4 in that last area I checked! Those are hard to come by and I have had that one for many years. His annoyance is only short lived as he begins to look through his notes and shows Ysbel and her grandfather various sketches and notes he took.

Coming across his last few pages he inquires. Do you know anything about Yorgala? If neither of them do he expands his search for questions to others in the bar and then in to the village, lastly choosing to talk with the necromancer with a dour look on his face if it comes to that.

Like Felix, Dobin goes over his equipment, starting with his sword. Taking his whetstone, he begins the task of removing the many new nicks and scratches from the weapon. Once finished, he goes over his armor and shield with an oiled rag, making sure to get any areas of rust. Once finished he puts his feet up and relaxes with a mug of mulled cider and a good meal.
"So when we return tomorrow, where do you want to start? Do we go back to the room where we found the dead group, or try another door?"

"We live another day! That is reason enough to celebrate! Kwin, I will take you up on the offer to buy drinks." Jericho, as always, eyes the room for any new unattached females.

I admit I am curious about that door, states Parfin. I can't help but wonder what terrified those people so much that they would seal themselves in to die. The barbarian takes a swig of the drink that Kwin was kind enough to buy for the party. If there is no objection, I'd like to try on that suit of chainmail we found and see if I could use it. Should be better that this hide stuff I have at the moment.

Back at the inn, Rose cleans off the bug goop from her things and gets into some more comfortable clothing before going downstairs and chatting with Lilia. "Say, you're really something with those daggers! How do you throw them so the pointy side always hits the bad guy?"

To Dobin and Parfin.

"Let's go right back where we left off! We'll be fresh and ready in the morning for whatver's there."

"Does anyone know anything about the value of gems? This fire opal we found when we slayed the gelatinous cube may be quite valuable, but I certainly wouldn't know."

Ysbel looks at Felix's drawings with interest, and seem quite taken with everyone's tales. Bernhard joins in the drinking after a while, and everyone seems to be having a great time, and a well earned relaxation. A second serving girl, Tallie, is also working alongside Ysbel running food back and from Gumbel the cook to the common room.

As Felix asks around about Yorgala, Pappy's eye widen and he seems suddenly much more alert. "Did you say Yorgala boy? You listen here..." he points at Felix, and gives his head a single, stern nod, "you and your friends would do well to stay away from that witch! Nothing but trouble, she is."

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Lilia and Rose have a nice chat about her dagger throwing technique, "All in the wrist dear." she smiles. "Well, and having well balanced throwing blades never hurts either!"

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Overhearing Kwin's question about the opal, Amelia suggests that the dwarven gemcutter Kalgor would be thrilled to take a look at them in the morning.