This session happened Wednesday, December 8, 2010.  This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game.  We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).  This was a short game as I was late in arriving.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul, Cleric of Ra (male human cleric)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
“Electric” Frankie Hu (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

After taking time to sell off the goblin gear to the village trader, assess the value of collected treasure, and purchasing some additional gear (oil flasks, manacles, and some healing potions - NOT a list of related items), the group of adventurers now known as Super Rat (at least to their enemies) returned to the Delve.  The group’s goal was to root out any further goblins in the dungeon and make the village safe.

Consulting their maps, the adventurer’s decided to descend the stairs nearest the entrance to the dungeon.  This led to a small set of caves.  At the bottom of the stairs was a pile of dead rats, partially eaten and the group anticipated goblins with their giant ferret pets.  The passage forked almost immediately, one 5-foot wide passage and another, narrower one.  Frankie explored the wider passage and found a nest of rats, which immediately attacked.  After Luna used burning hands to kill most of the giant rats [doing more damage in one casting than Harkaitz in three], the rest of the rats were quickly dispatched.

The rat’s nest was a dead end, so the adventurers moved to squeeze through the narrower passage.  On the other side, Frankie found a ghoul which attacked him.  A short fight happened, with Harkaitz greatly weakening the ghoul with a wave of channeled positive energy.  After that, Frankie killed the monster.  In a side cave, the adventurers found the ghoul's larder and some stairs down.

The ghoul encounter gave the adventurers pause.  The only other stairs down the group had discovered was in a temple like area with goblin bodies spiked to the pillars supporting the roof.  This set of stairs down was guarded by a ghoul, which seemed unlikely to be allied with the goblins.  What was going on further down in the Delve?

Following the stairs down previously guarded by the ghoul, the adventurers found another cave.  Frankie edged forward quietly, but halfway across snapped a tripline, which dropped a rock from the ceiling upon him.  Luckily, his monk training provided the reflexes to avoid the worst of the trap and he took minimal damage.  [Actually, he blew his Reflex roll, but the DM only rolled one point of damage, so there you go.]  Deciding it was time for a professional to take over, Frankie called on Wednesday to take the front.  Harkaitz moved forward as well, providing light with the sunrod mounted in his shield.

Wednesday probed further into the cave, around a corner, where she found stairs down deeper into the earth…and another tripline, which dropped a boulder on her, crushing a shoulder.  Harkaitz quickly provided healing.  Tucked in a shadowed alcove in the cave (now illuminated), humanoid bodies were discovered on the floor and another passage was found in the back of the alcove.  Harkaitz stepped forward to investigate the bodies and try to determine what killed them when the bodies suddenly animated and attacked – they were actually zombies!  Harkaitz again channeled the positive energy of Ra, gravely injuring the zombies, allowing the other adventurers to quickly put them down (again).

While catching their breath, the adventurers decided that the zombies and the traps were guarding the stairs down.  This meant that there were likely no more goblins down this way, but something the goblins seemed to have feared.  After some discussion, it was decided to explore further on this level before heading down deeper.

The passage at the back of the alcove lead to another cavern which seemed to be a catacomb.  On the floor were three ghouls, obviously destroyed by unknown weapons.  Harkaitz performed rites over the ghouls bodies to keep them from rising while the other adventurers searched the area for treasure, discovering a goodly number of gold coins.  With obviously dangerous unknowns ahead, the group reorganized its marching order, putting Sahar and Harkaitz in the front to fend off any attacks.

Slowly advancing through the catacombs, the adventurers arrived at a door.  Beyond the door were stone crypts, covered in finished stone, and a breeze of charnel air.  Advancing slowly, rapping on sarcophagi to see if anything is moving inside, the party found steps down to a slightly lower chamber, the apparent source of the breeze.  In that chamber, the adventurers found the opening to a small airshaft and a flight of stirges.  Both Harkaitz and Sahar were drained of large amounts of blood during the fight, but the adventurers eventually won the fight.

With their stoutest members weakened from the blood loss and healing magic starting to run low, the adventurers decided to return to the surface and then the village.  A pair of ghouls attempted to stop the adventurers in the zombie room, but the adventurers weren’t having any and took them down quickly – Sahar’s sword arm was still deadly in combat.  After the ghouls, the way back to the surface was clear of enemies.

Back in town, the adventurers checked in with the sheriff to see if anything had been learned from the previous captives.  As it turned out, no one in town could speak the goblin tongue and the goblins could not speak the common tongue of man.  Frankie and Wednesday volunteered to help the sheriff question the goblins.  Harkaitz, with a constitution weakened by the stirges, decided to return to the inn and sleep, putting off learning what the goblins knew until the morrow, when he could seek Ra’s help in restoring Sahar and himself to full health.

*End of Session*

[I had to leave as it was a work night, but the others continued on with the questioning of the goblins.  I’ll report what they learned at the beginning of the next adventure log.  Additionally, the client site changed something in their filtering software and I can no longer make updates during the day.  As such, the next couple of updates will either post early in the morning on Tuesday or Thursday (if I have time to write them the night before) or in the evening.  My apologies about that.]

This session happened Wednesday, November 17, 2010. This is a new campaign being run by a first time DM. He is using the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game. We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul, Cleric of Ra (male human cleric, Fire and Sun domains))
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (human fighter)
“Electric” Frankie Hu (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

[Recap: After warning the village of Aldelle of possible goblin attack, the adventurers returned to the dungeon of Dyson’s Delve to fend of the goblins. After re-securing some rooms, the adventurers pressed into a boarded off area, discovering crypts with restless dead. This adventure log picks up after the adventurers defeat a zombie in a sarcophagus.]

After destroying the zombie, Harkaitz cast detect magic and found that the longsword the zombie had was magical [+1]. As Sahar, the newest member of the adventuring group, was the only one using a longsword, the magical one went to her. Not wanting to lug the heavy gold lid around with them, the adventurers left it here with plans to return once they finished exploring for the day.

Leaving a sealed of crypt alone at Harkaitz's request (plus, no sounds of movement beyond the crypt door), the adventurers headed north. Following a short hallway, the adventurers found a chamber containing a shrine and an empty water basin. After some investigation it was determined that pouring water into the basin turned the plain water into holy water. This was done with one of the adventurers waterskins and held for later use.

The Water Shrine room ended at the second boarded door (the one the adventurers had not unboarded), and so the adventures turned back and retraced their steps. The adventurers removed the gold lid from the zombie’s sarcophagus and pried the gold trip from the sides and took it all with them. The gold lid and scraped gold was set down at the door to the crypts the adventurers had entered and that door was closed and boarded back up. The adventurers wanted to explore down a nearby set of stairs with being encumbered, but also did not want any goblins wandering by to make off with their treasure.

Once that was done, the adventurers started heading down the stairs, only to be confronted with a pack of giant rats! Harkaitz used his burning hands spell, but again failed to kill any of the rats [rolled 2 points of damage on 2d4]. The fight was, however, brief due to Harkaitz weakening the rats. It was also loud enough to draw a goblin patrol from the lower levels, a patrol the adventurers met on the stairs. The goblins had giant ferrets as attack animals and the fight was a bit tense due to the confined quarters, but the adventurers won and healing magic was used.

Harkaitz had cast a bless during the fight and, not wanting to lose any use out of the blessings of Ra, the group pushed on quickly, looking for a fight. They found a goblin rest area/tavern where five goblins were sitting at tables drinking with a hobgoblin bartender. After a brief pause wherein both sides started at each other, the adventurers attacked, initiating a long brawl. The adventurers killed the goblins (eventually) and subdued the hobgoblin bartender, who they tied up.

Low on hit points and mostly out of healing magic, the band of adventurers decided to return to Aldelle with their new captive. Stopping only long enough to reacquire the gold stashed in the crypts (and reseal the door again), the adventurers headed towards the exit of the dungeon. They reached the cave just inside the entrance when another goblin and giant ferret patrol appeared from the other set of stairs down. After a short and desperate fight, the adventurers won and escaped back to Aldelle.

Back at town, the hobgoblin bartender was turned over to the sheriff for questioning and the adventurers retired to the inn for rest.

*End of Session*