Week 1
Day 1
Currently we consist of 2 miscreants, caught in the local town performing “unlawful” acts. Our punishment, as determined by the mayor, is to investigate the large number of bad, evil, ugly monsters seen entering a cave up in the mountains.
Our guards lead us up to the cave and wish us off. In the first room of the cave we find a dead giant (well larger then a giant, but still dead). After climbing over, walking around the giant, we find the path we've been following diverges into two paths. We decide to take the one on the left as it was closer.
Going further into the cave, we enter a room with two doors, one down the wall to our left and the other across the room in the opposite corner. Again choosing the closest of the two we took a close look at the door. Upon opening the door we look into a sea of blackness. Having no other alternative, we pass into the blackness.
Coming out on the other side, we see another room surrounding the first. In this room are 3 haggard orcs huddled in the corner. There are several doors leading off of this room. We look around the room, noting the stench of decaying bodies at one door before speaking to the orcs. These orcs have completely given up on life, claiming the dungeon takes everyone sooner or later.
Since we have no options being unable to pass back through the blackness, we begin to explore the area, including those that the builders attempted to hide. Along the way we find a few interesting trinkets, a garbage pit, and a swarm of rats….which we were fortunate enough to kill.
We ended the day at a T-intersection after passing by several rooms that looked nearly destroyed by an earthquake.
Day 2
More exploration. Introduced to flying black octopi (dark mantles) Avoid the rat swarm. Three rooms with odd effects. The first room is completely silent. The second room attacks us with tentacles. In the third room we find Bragdor, an ogre who we knock down and out then heal back to health. He gives us some information concerning what is going on in the dungeon.
Day 3
Bragdor joins us. Kill rat swarm. Find trinkets in room with pillar: feather token, necklace (modified fireballs, sonic dmg). Find Turag. Kill 2 Trogoldytes. Enter Celestial area. Found scrying room. Found secret door back to Trogoldyte area.Locked secret door leading back to Trogoldyte area. Back tracked and went through big iron door without Bragdor and Turag (they think something bad will happen). Find a pit trap, loot the kobold bodies that fell into it: retrieved magic armor, bow, magic arrows. Spent night in scrying room.
Day 4
Explored more of Celestial area. Found a work shop with a war-hammer, lots of ingots. Found a room belonging to High Marshal Seranith. Found a Ward Staff and met Marut, an Inevitable, who took said staff.
Day 5
Joined by more people looking for a way out. Think about killing the remaining Trogoldytes, after passing through 2 doors, being attacked by some rats, and suffer through a pretty major earthquake decide this is a bad idea. At this point we returned to the Celestial area.
Decide we should head up through the iron door and determine what is beyond the pit trap. As soon as Bragdor, Turag, and one of the new people pass through the iron door they're hit by a ward trap that didn't effect anyone else. They think we did it on purpose and attempt to kill everyone.
First Ward Trap
There we were, a complete group of adventures at last
(1). During the previous weeks, the original group of three (occasionally 4) had befriended two unlikely occupants of the dungeon. The first was Bragdor, an ogre left behind by the orcish army he had accompanied into the dungeon. The second was an orc named Taurag, whose company had been killed by the flying squids.
The original plan for the day when we realized our size was to drop back into the welcoming section and kill the band of trogoldytes living there. After turning a few corners we realized how bad of an idea this was since that section of the dungeon was completely without light, which kept the trogoldytes happy but left us with the short end of the stick. At that point we turned around and headed back into Celestial Territory.
Taurag and Bragdor did not want to venture past the iron door we encountered a short distance into the Celestial Territory but that's where we were headed. Unfortunately, the door had a warding against evil creatures. As both were evil, they attacked as soon as they recovered from the damaging ward. At this point they were joined by the only evil member of the group. That put 2 fighters and an ogre barbarian against a human necromancer
(2), an aasimar warmage, a human …, an elven cleric, and Boc, a halfling rogue. Before you could blink, everyone was down except for Boc.
By this point Taurag was catatonic (disbelief in what he had just done?) while the human fighter and Bragdor were looking for a fight. Boc escaped combat and headed for the end of the hall with Bragdor and the fighter in close pursuit. When Boc reached the door at the end of the hall, he stopped and waited for the others. Just as they were about to run into him, Boc jumped out of their way. Bragdor immediately set off the pit trap left behind by the Celestials. Of course Boc was already out of its reach and heard Bragdor and the fighter hit bottom.
Boc rushed back to the hallway entrance, killed Taurag and revived his fallen companions with potions of healing. The only companion to actually die from the encounter was the elven cleric.
Day 6
Finally return to the door on far side of Pit Trap. As soon as we open it, there's more people willing to join us, replacing our losses after the First Ward Trap. We continue heading north and enter into some kind of mist. Attacked by monstrous insects, kill them off, and blunder around the mist for a while. Finally exit the mist, pass through two doors and run into a giant spider…who turns out to be friendly, and introduces us to his master, Farggalaan, a goblin wizard. Farggalaan is the one that tells us about the magic necklace and feather token we found earlier. He trades a spell book, a ring of protection, information on the other items, and a path north for the necklace. He also tells us to watch out for the Barghasts.
The path north supposedly leads us to the Celestials.
Day 7
Lost 2 pc's for the time being. This drops us back to 4 players/characters. At this point, our characters are only 2nd level. We left much of Region A unexplored.
We headed north as Farggalaan suggested, specifically to the north-east. After looking around, finding the jungle in the middle of the dungeon we discovered Morsaq's room. In the room we found the best thing possible, a map detailing this entire region of the dungeon. Shortly thereafter, Morsaq, an Inevitable, himself showed up. After a short conversation in which he learned of our deeds concerning the Ward Staff we discovered, he offered us the map. From his room we found Tekarus studying over a couple of books. Spent some time discussing our histories and the history of the dungeon with Tekarus. During these conversations we learned the general location of the Barghasts and with this information, decided to head west.
In the north-west corner of the region we discovered the Celestials…specifically they found us. The first to find us was Doje, but he moved back into the shadows and disappeared while we were determining what the symbol on the west wall meant. We determined this was the Celestial garbage pit. After locating the garbage pit, we began exploring some of the rooms in the area and found Sper.
We spoke with Sper for a short while, then waited while Sper sparred with Nanashi. After the sparring session, Sper took us all to meet with Kelera and Morkor, who lead the Celestial garrison. Kelera questioned us at length about our purpose in the dungeon. After determining we are trustworthy for the most part, she gave us the history of the Celestial Garrison, the All-Door, the Ward Staves, the Garrison Charter, the Inevitables, the Redeemed, and the various monsters found in this region of the dungeon. She also gave us an idea of what the garrison was keeping in the dungeon.
She ended the night with an offer of us joining the Garrison by locating and signing the Charter.
Footnotes:
- first session with all pc's attending
- ironic isn't it, the necromancer isn't evil