Treasure Hunt. It was a module, though--not in Dungeon.
:)
Tony M
In issue #39 there is a 0-1st Level Adventure called Below Vulture Point. But it has nothing to do with an island. Also forget using it in 3.5 as a pre-first level adventure. I converted it and its actually pretty tough for a 1st level party in 3.5.
Issue #34 has a pretty low level island adventure called Isle of the Abbey.
Treasure hunt was interesting. I ran "The Sunless Citadel" with characters that started out as 1st level NPCs. Most were just commoners, but one was a Blacksmith Expert. At 500 Ex. I let them get their first PC level. I've found this to be the best way to handle/run pre 1st level Characters in 3.5 ed. Most first level adventures can be run with pre first level PCs, it just takes a bit more player skill to ensure the characters survive.
I was going to run "The Whispering Cairn" with 12 kobolds, and still may someday, but my campaign is currently taking a different direction.
ASEO out
Treasure hunt was interesting. I ran "The Sunless Citadel" with characters that started out as 1st level NPCs. Most were just commoners, but one was a Blacksmith Expert. At 500 Ex. I let them get their first PC level. I've found this to be the best way to handle/run pre 1st level Characters in 3.5 ed. Most first level adventures can be run with pre first level PCs, it just takes a bit more player skill to ensure the characters survive.
I was going to run "The Whispering Cairn" with 12 kobolds, and still may someday, but my campaign is currently taking a different direction.
ASEO out
You allowed players to play the NPCs?
Were the characters benefitted in any way by being brought to first level the long way around, or was the idea to add disadvantage in the name of challenge?
I have flirted with the idea of running NPC classes before Level 1. My idea was to have the characters get their NPC class (Expert, Commoner, or Aristocrat) free of charge, so to speak. But in the end, it was too much headache.
DM "Lets see, you drop from your mothers womb, and since your a 1st Level fighter, you have 13 hit points (Con +3), and a BAB +1. Not bad for a newborn."
:(
You allowed players to play the NPCs?Were the characters benefitted in any way by being brought to first level the long way around, or was the idea to add disadvantage in the name of challenge?
I had the characters start off as 1st level NPC classes.
Here is the note I sent to the players, followed by the characters they created.
Session 11
Chapter 8: How My Life as an Adventurer Began
While Kag, Rand, Antiqueas, Meegoo and their party are clearing the keep, Lt Rodderick is charged with rebuilding the bridge that spans the chasm at the Tir Feldar end of the pass. It seems that a recent earthquake rocked the region and the old bridge was unable to withstand the shock and collapsed. The Settlers will need a bridge in place in order to move their wagons through the pass. Lt Rodderick organizes the Settlers and a few citizens of Tir Feldar in an effort to span the chasm with hewn trees and replace the ruined stone bridge with a new timber one.
While the initial survey of the site is being conducted one of the Men-at-arms, by the name of Leovild noticed that the falling stone from the bridge had knocked lose some of the chasm wall and exposed a landing about 40 feet below the lip of the chasm. From the landing hewn stone steps descended another 30 feet and then entered a dark opening in the chasm wall.
Lt Rodderick has called for volunteers to investigate the opening. Who will answer his call?
NOTE TO THE PLAYERS
Characters will be 20 point buy construction.
One person may play one of the Men-at-arms, a 1st level Warrior
One may play a 1st level expert who is a Blacksmith
The rest will start out as 1st level Commoners…Unless you come up with a good reason to play a different NPC class.
Characters will gain a level of any PC class when they gain 500ep. At that time characters may add an additional 8 points to their characters stats. And then progress as a normal PC from there.
Here is a list of the Settlers and the Men-at-arms. Currently they are humans, but if you wish to use a different race let me know and We'll change that family's race. There are 5 Dwarves who live in Tir Feldar and are not listed on this sheet, but may be used for character creation. Feel free to change any of the character's first names, but not ages. Any of the Settlers from age 15-40 may volunteer, but be aware of that person's relation to the rest of the family. Men tend to be fathers, grandfathers, or eldest sons, while Women tend to be mothers, grandmothers and eldest daughters.
Feel free to create as many characters as you wish. Send me a list of who you want to play and I'll let you know if you are the first to call that individual.
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE!
Private Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1
The goal was to give the players a bit of a challenge, followed by a reward. The players benifit from the NPC level in that they get extra HP, skills and BAB in some cases, but when they added their first PC level they got all the normal 1st level benifits of their particular PC Classes on top of the NPC level that they had. It seemed to work out well and is something I'll do again in the future.
If anyone is interested, I can post the write-ups for the three sessions that this adventure took to run.
ASEO out
Here is the note I sent to the players, followed by the characters they created.
Session 11
Chapter 8: How My Life as an Adventurer BeganWhile Kag, Rand, Antiqueas, Meegoo and their party are clearing the keep, Lt Rodderick is charged with rebuilding the bridge that spans the chasm at the Tir Feldar end of the pass. It seems that a recent earthquake rocked the region and the old bridge was unable to withstand the shock and collapsed. The Settlers will need a bridge in place in order to move their wagons through the pass. Lt Rodderick organizes the Settlers and a few citizens of Tir Feldar in an effort to span the chasm with hewn trees and replace the ruined stone bridge with a new timber one.
While the initial survey of the site is being conducted one of the Men-at-arms, by the name of Leovild noticed that the falling stone from the bridge had knocked lose some of the chasm wall and exposed a landing about 40 feet below the lip of the chasm. From the landing hewn stone steps descended another 30 feet and then entered a dark opening in the chasm wall.
Lt Rodderick has called for volunteers to investigate the opening. Who will answer his call?NOTE TO THE PLAYERS
Characters will be 20 point buy construction.
One person may play one of the Men-at-arms, a 1st level Warrior
One may play a 1st level expert who is a Blacksmith
The rest will start out as 1st level Commoners…Unless you come up with a good reason to play a different NPC class.Characters will gain a level of any PC class when they gain 500ep. At that time characters may add an additional 8 points to their characters stats. And then progress as a normal PC from there.
Here is a list of the Settlers and the Men-at-arms. Currently...
Impressive. Thanks for going through all that trouble to type that out, ASEO. Very informative. :)
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I think the biggest problem is that the npc classes aren't balanced against each other very well. The commoner in particular is terrible as compared to the others (unless they've beefed it up in 3.5). ASEO - Did you give the players who took commoners anything to compensate for this fact? It seems like a bonus feat or extra stat points are almost in order...
I tried doing something like this in a campaign (having everyone take a level in an npc class), but all the PCs came back as aristocrats.
I think the biggest problem is that the npc classes aren't balanced against each other very well. The commoner in particular is terrible as compared to the others (unless they've beefed it up in 3.5). ASEO - Did you give the players who took commoners anything to compensate for this fact? It seems like a bonus feat or extra stat points are almost in order...
No, they pretty much sucked. The Warrior had some armor and sword and spear. The Blacksmith had a hammer and leather apron that serves as leather armor. Each PC had a healing potion. The Commoners just had things they could find around the town.
Here is the first write-up from the 3 sessions that Sunless Citadel took to run
"How I Became an Adventurer"
Private Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1
As the volunteers step forward they gather what supplies and equipment they think they might need for the task at hand. Before they descend Grainnie, the village healer arrives on the scene and provides each of the party members with two potions of light healing. She says this is all she has and hopes that the party can return safely. The newly formed band say farewell to their friends and families and then are lowered one by one down to the platform. From there they wave their last farewells and slowly descent the stairs through the opening in the cliff face. Once inside they light a couple of torches and then continue to descend the stairs.
The stairway spirals down and then opens up onto a landing. From the landing the party is able to see a vast cavern below. Strewn about the cavern floor are the ruined buildings of some long forgotten complex.
Now only rubble and the shells of the building remain. At the base of the cavern face that the stairway seems to be descending lies a platform that looks like it may have once been the top of a crenellated wall. Across the platform lies a tower shell with a door opening onto the platform.
The party descends into the darkness and eventually emerges on the old wall. The narrow stairs empty into a small courtyard; apparently the top of what was once a crenellated battlement. The buried citadel has sunk so far into the earth that the battlement is now level with the surrounding cavern floor. The floor stretches away to the north and to the south, and is apparently composed of a layer of treacherous, crumbled masonry, which reaches to an unknown depth. To the west looms the surviving structure of what must be the main citadel complex. A tower stands on the west side of the courtyard. A single wooden door in its face beacons the party forward.
Deodantus flanked by Jo’len begin to move across the old wall toward the door when Heleren shouts for them to stop. His keen Dwarven eyes have spotted a discolored portion of the floor. Investigation shows the spot to be a trapdoor. They carefully avoid the spot and move to the door. The rest of the party also moves forward and takes up positions on either side of the door. Their shadows dance in the flickering torchlight casting larger than life images across the tower’s side.
When everyone is ready, Deodantus throws the door open. The door seems to catch on something and Jo’len is forced to push against it to get it to open fully. Beyond the door is a circular chamber, which is cobbled with cracked granite. Upon the floor are sprawled four Goblins, all apparently slain in combat. One stands with its back against the western wall, the killing spear still skewering it and holding it upright. On the far side of the tower are two wooden doors like the one through which the party entered. Above, a hollow tower of lose and crumbling masonry reaches a height of about 30 feet, but the intervening floors and stairs are gone, except for a couple of crumbled ledges.
Deodantus leads the party in searching the corpses, and he and Heleren both take one of the short swords the Goblins were armed with. Heleren pulls the spear out of the skewered goblin. The corpse slumps to the floor revealing a carved inscription that none in the party can read. Jo’len begins to pile the goblin corpses against the wall just to the left of the door the party entered from when he notices something strange about that wall. Further investigation shows that there is a long forgotten secret door in this portion of the wall. Some further searching turns up the opening mechanism. As Jo’len opens the door, his finger is pricked by an old needle trap. Shelly checks out and cleans the wound and then looks at the needle to see if it looked to be poisoned. It doesn’t seem to be. She thinks that any poison would have long ago become inert. Jo’len is relieved, but notes to him self to look for traps on any future doors.
The party then moves to open the door and finds that in the small room beyond there is nothing but the skeletons of three long0dead archers slumped against the rubble filled arrow slits along the east and south walls. Just as Jo’len is about to investigate further, glowing pinpoints of light flare in the darkened sockets of the skeletons skulls. Jo’len jumps back as the Skeletons rise and advanced. Seeing the dead rise puts quite a start into Shelly and she retreats issuing prayers for protection to any and all gods she can think of. Heleren pulls out the crossbow, which his father had given him, and takes a shot at the nearest Skeleton. The bolt clips the Skeleton’s spine, but inflicts very little damage. Seeing this Heleren switches to his forge hammer. Jo’len slashes another of the Skeletons with his sickle and finds that it is not a very effective weapon against the fleshless. Deodantus attacks with his short sword and, by the sheer force of his attack, is able to shatter the Skeleton that was moving on Jo’len. Sharah back peddles from the Skeleton’s assault and Deodantus issues a brief prayer of thanks for his armor, which wards off the Skeleton’s raking claws. Sarah swings her quarterstaff at the Skeleton advancing on her and cracks its skull, but still it advances. Jo’len finishes it off by severing its spine with his sickle. Deodantus and Heleren destroy the final Skeleton with the fury of their combined attack, but not before it tears into Jo’len with its claws. Fortunately he recovers with the help of one of the healing potions.
Once the dead are once again dead, the party searches the corpses. In the chamber they find the remains of the archers rotten and rusted crossbows as well as the remains of their rotted uniforms as well as a few scattered silver and gold coins. They do find three finely crafted and rune inscribed bolts (+1), which Heleren adds to his inventory. Following the battle Sarah has to shake Shelly to get her out of the apparent trance she had entered, or perhaps she was just frozen by fear. What ever the case Sarah is glad she made a better showing than Shelly did in the encounter.
With much bravado Sarah states that the party should try the northern most of the two other doors leaving the tower’s shell. Deodantus moves to the door, but is stopped by Jo’len who wants to make sure the door is safe. Jo’len goes through a very through search of the door and spends some time listening to it to try to discern what may lie on the other side. He eventually pronounces the door safe, moves to the back of the party and covers his eyes as Deodantus opens it. When no sudden explosion or attack of a raging monster greets the party Jo’len calmly announces, “See, I told you it was safe”. What does lie beyond the door is a hallway about 40 feet long that ends in a wooden door and has a second wooden door in the north wall about 30 feet down. Across from the northern door on the south wall is a stone door carved with a relief portraying a dragon-like fish swimming in an aquatic setting.
Deodantus watches the door at the end of the hall while Heleren and Jo’len investigate the wooden door on the northern wall. Jo’len goes through his “checking out the safety of the door” routine and once again pronounces the door safe. Opening the door Heleren finds the 20 x 20 room beyond to be completely empty. Only the dust of several years blankets the floor.
With Deodantus still watching the far door, the others turn their attention to the stone door. Jo’len finds that this door is locked, but with some wires he produced (and an ungodly natural 20 pick locks roll) he has the door unlocked in do time. Heleren opens the door and finds a 10-foot chamber hewn from stone beyond. It contains an upright keg fashioned of rusted iron. Similarly rusted pipes lead from the keg into the floor. Mystified the party closes the door and moves to the one at the far end of the hall.
Jo’len listens to the door and hears nothing so Deodantus pushes it open. Crudely executed symbols and glyphs, scribed in bright green dye, decorate the large and irregularly shaped crumbling chamber. A large pit in the chamber’s center shows evidence of a recent bonfire. A metallic cage in the center of the southern wall has its bars bent leaving a gaping hole and stands empty. A small wooden bench draped with green cloth stands before the cage. Upon it sit several small objects. A bedroll lies near the wooden bench. From a lump in the bedroll comes the sound of a high-pitched whimpering.
Deodantus and party move to surround the bedroll. Heleren aims his loaded crossbow at the lump while Jo’len and Deodantus have their bladed weapons ready. Sarah pulls back the blanket with her staff. There, lying on the cold floor is the huddled furry form of a large mouse-like, or perhaps rat-like, humanoid. The creature continues to huddle moping, perhaps unaware of the party’s presence.
Heleren: “What is it?”
Sarah: “I don’t know, poke it”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Creature: “whimper”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: “Hey you. What’s the matter?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Creature: “You go kill me Squeeiek Squeekey?”
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: “We’re not here to hurt you?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len “What’s wrong?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Creature: “Me Squeeiek Squeekey”
Heleren: “Yeah whatever, Rat Boy, What you do’in here”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “Me lose clan Dragon”
Deodantus: <poke>
Rat Boy: “Me in big trouble”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “You help me?
Jo’len: “He can’t have a dragon, lets help him and see what we can get out of it”
Deodantus: <poke>
Jo’len “What happened to your “Dragon?”
Rat Boy: “Greenlings came and took it.”
Some discussion on what Greenlings are takes place and it is resolved that Rat Boy is talking about Goblins.
Sarah: <poke>
Shelly: “I’m not sure about this”, <Prods Rat boy with her foot>
Heleren: What we get if we help you Mr. Mouse?”
Shelly: <prod>
Deodantus: <poke>
Rat Boy: “I take you to chief. She have treasure if you get dragon back”
Party: “What Treasure?”
Shelly: <prod>
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: Will you guys quit poking him!?”
Shelly: “Sorry”
Deodantus: “Um…Apologies”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “I take you to chief”
Heleren: “OK, Lets go see the big cheese.”
Rat Boy leads the party through a door on the far west wall of the chamber, which opens to reveal a hallway. The party is led up a northern side hall, which led to a long, wide, colonnaded hallway. Deterioration and decay filled the hall, however a double row of relief-carved marble columns marched the length of the hall. The warn carvings depicted entwining dragons. From a couple of doorways off this hall several mousy faces appear. Before long there are a dozen Rat Men escorting the party to the end of the hall.
There at the end of the hall a short throne stood, constructed of fallen bits of masonry stacked against an old alter. A small furry figure sat on the throne dressed in red-dyed robes. A force of six similar creatures guards her. The altar’s top contains a variety of small items, while the portion of the altar that serves as the throne’s back features a carving of a rearing Dragon. A metallic key is held firmly in the rearing dragon’s mouth. The items on the altar appear to be a large feather, a small flask and two rolled tubes of paper.
With much squeeking Rat Boy apparently introduces the party while carefully stepping out of Sarah’s poking range. In broken squeaky common, the Chieftess inquires about the party’s presence in the citadel. They tell her that they are just looking around. She seems leery and asks them if it is true that they will recover the clan’s dragon. Jo’len once again reassures the party that there can’t actually be a (he makes the Quotations with his finger every time he says Dragon) “Dragon” down here. The party says that they will get the Dragon back but that Rat Boy had mentioned a reward. The Chieftess gestures to the items on the altar and says that they are powerful items and the party can have two of them if they return with the Dragon. The party barters for one item in advance and the Chieftess agrees, but the party must take Rat Boy with them. Rat Boy isn’t to sure about this, but knows that he is already in trouble for losing the Dragon, so agrees. Shelly selects the feather (Quaal’s Feather Token (Oak Tree)), which has a tree painted on it.
The party is led with much fan fair back to the room in which they first encountered Rat Boy. There they are pointed toward a door in the east wall about 30 feet north of the door they had first entered the room from. There seems to be some discussion between Rat Boy and some of the other Mouse Folk over who gets Rat Boy’s stuff if/when he doesn’t return. Once that is resolved, with one of the larger Mouse Men claiming “Dibs”, the party moves through the door and down the hall beyond. After a couple turns, the hall ends in a wooden door. Rat Boy opens the door and the party moves into a 20 x 25 room beyond. This room is completely empty save for a door on the northern wall. Rat boy is questioned about what is past that door and replies that there is a fountain in the next room, but that he hasn’t been there since the Goblins stole the Dragon. “Dragon” reminds Jo’len, using his fingers to make air quotes.
Deodantus opens the door. Dust and odd bits of stony debris and rubble lay scattered on the floor of the next room. An ornate fountain is built into the eastern wall. Though cracked, stained, and dry, the fountain’s carving of a diving dragon retains its beauty. A relief carved stone door stands on the west wall. To the north a 10-foot hall leads from the room. The party takes one look at the carved dragon on the stone door and decides to check out the hall instead.
The party moves up the hall past an intersection that is collapsed to the east and has a wooden door to the left. Further up the hall is flanked by 6 cell type doors, 3 on either side of the hall. Beyond the cells lies a large room at the end of the hall. As the party passes the first two cell doors they are attacked by three Dire Rats that emerge from the middle cells. The fight is quick and once again Deodantus thanks his armor for the protection it provides. Still the party didn’t escape without harm. Both Heleren and Sarah were bitten and the healing potions were once again passed around. With the Rats slain the party investigates the cells and finds them each filled with filth and the rubble that has been arranged into a rat’s nest. The party moves into the room at the end of the hall when they are sure there are no more Rats in the cells.
The cobblestone floor of this chamber contains two trap doors blocked open with iron spikes. It’s obvious that if the tops of the doors were flush with the floor that they would be difficult to spot. The north wall of the chamber holds a dry fountain carved with a base relief of a rampant dragon. A lone wooden door stands in the middle of the west wall. Jo’len moves to investigate the door and detects the strong smell of rotting meat from beyond. Heleren opens the door. The stench of rotting meat suffuses the air rising from several heavily chewed carcasses of cave rats, other vermin and a few suspiciously humanoid corpses. The cadavers lie upon a floor of filth, old bones, and fur that combine to make a particularly large and vile nest. The northern wall is smashed, opening on rubble filled darkness. In this darkness the party sees their torchlight reflecting back at them in the eyes of several Dire Rats. The Party quickly closes the door and jams it shut with an iron spike.
With no other obvious choices the party backtracks to the wooden door at the intersection. Opening the door they find an empty 25 x 25 room. On the north side of the room is another wooden door. Jo’len checks the door and finds nothing out of the ordinary. However, when Deodantus opens the door the tinkling of small bells is heard from the other side. In front of the party is a 10ft-wide hall liberally strewn with sharp caltrops. The northern door to the hall is missing, but the room beyond is partially blocked by a roughly mortared 3ft-high wall complete with battlements.
Before the party can act two Goblins emerge from behind the wall and throw javelins at the party. Both miss, though one nearly takes a chunk out of Deodantus’ ear. The party is forced to slowly move down the hall toward the wall. Once again the Goblins throw javelins, this time one strikes Heleren. Jo’len leaps up onto the wall and slashes one of the Goblins with his sickle. Seeing this onslaught the remaining Goblin begins yelling for help. Rat Boy tries to climb over the wall but apparently came in contact with some unguent that the Goblins had smeared on its surface. This makes Rat Boy squeak something like “rat bane” and fall to the floor in a fit of convulsions. Shelly moves to help Rat Boy. Sarah: <poke>.
Heleren is having a hard time getting over the wall. Just as Deodantus ascends the wall four more Goblins come running into the room from the west. The remaining original Goblin remaining tries to stab Rat Boy by leaning over the wall. Jo’len swings his sickle at him but misses, fortunately so does the Goblin. Heleren gets his crossbow reloaded and fires it into the head of one of the new Goblins. Deodantus faces off against the other three and takes several cuts from their short swords for his effort. Sarah stops poking the twitching Rat Boy with her staff long enough to smack the Goblin attacking Rat Boy over the head. It takes several hits, but finally the Goblin’s head is reduced to jelly. Shelly freaks out again and goes into a plethora of prayers, chants, and speaking in tongues. Jo’len moves to help Deodantus and another bolt from Heleren’s crossbow leaves only two Goblins facing the party. One of the Goblins scores a wicked hit on Jo’len, but is quickly cut down by Deodantus. Jo’len backs away from the fight in time for Heleren to finally scale the wall and wade into combat with his forge hammer. He and Deodantus flank the remaining Goblin and quickly end its life. The girls eventually get Rat Boy to stop convulsing and the party carefully lifts him over the wall. Healing potions are handed out again and the party takes inventory realizing that they only have five potions left. The Goblin’s corpses are looted, and a pot filled with ‘Rat Bane’ salve id found near the wall.
The room they find themselves standing in is covered with a layer of filth. Trash on the floor, stains on the walls, shabby hides, and a much used fire-pit attest to the years of use this room has seen at the hands of creatures not overly concerned with hygiene. Around the corner from the small wall on the south side of the room is an open door from which the Goblin reinforcements must have arrived. Peering through the door only a short dark hall beckons the party.
The short hall opens up to the west. There, there is a room with dozens of blunted and broken javelins lying on the cracked cobblestone floor, though a few actually protrude from three crudely sewn human-sized targets hung along the center of the south wall. The northern third of the room is separated from the south by a crudely mortared and crenellated half-wall. A permanent camp of sorts lies north of the half-wall complete with a fire ring and several iron cook pots. A Wooden door stands in the middle of the western wall in the southern half of the room. A second wooden door is in the center of the west wall north of the half-wall. And a third wooden door stands in the left side of the northern wall.
The party moves through the room keeping an eye on the northern portion of the room for more Goblins. Jo’len listens to the door in the southern west wall and hears nothing, so Deodantus opens the door. Squalor reigns in this long. Low dungeon. Three small furry Rat Men are roughly tied with crude ropes to a large spike near the entrance. Farther back, a battered Gnome languishes inside a rusted iron cage, which is small even for his frame. Several sets of corroded manacles are connected to the walls, and are empty except for the occasional crumbling skeleton. Rat Boy moves to free his clan-mates while the rest of the party helps to free the Gnome. After a few bashes with Heleren’s hammer, the lock falls off the cage and the Gnome is free. He introduces himself as Erky Timbers, an adventurer, miner, entrepreneur, and humble servant of Pelor. Erky tells the party that he was captured by the Goblins about a year ago and has only been able to survive through the covert use of his clerical spells. The party invited Erky to travel with them and take revenge on the Goblins that treated him so badly. Erky jumps at the chance.
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing) Joins the party.
The three Rat Men are escorted back to their den by Sarah and Heleren and warned about the ‘Rat Bane’ on the half-wall along the way. They chatter thanks and rush back to their lair carrying word of the party’s progression with them. Erky is given a Goblin short sword, but is unwilling to try to wear the Goblin’s foul smelling and flea-infested armor.
The party then leaves the room and scales the short wall in the target practice room. From there they try the western door and find it unlocked. The north and south walls of the 15 x 15 ft chamber beyond are stacked halfway to the ceiling with ill-made barrels, boxes and crates. A clear path allows access to a door on the far side of the room. The party starts to investigate the boxes, but stop when they encounter a barrel labeled “Elf Pudding”.
Opening the door on n the west wall the party emerges in a long colonnaded hall. Several torches mounted in crude wall sconces burn fitfully in this chamber, filling the air with a haze that blurs the party’s sight. A double row of marble columns carved with entwining dragons marches the length of the hall. On the north wall 20 feet from the party is a wooden door, a second wooden door is 10 feet further down the same wall. Beyond that the hall is lost in the haze of the smoky torches.
ASEO out