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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4760823" data-attributes="member: 31465">Adventure #5: Tunnel TrapsPART ONE<img src="http://www.zikadik.com/silverymoon/tun1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Picking up from last time, the heroes are clustered at the top of the stairs above the now empty river corridor. They have a few options available: head east and investigate the watery spiked trap room; head west down a wide, possibly trapped corridor, or go back to the river basin and confront the weird fish-goblin-things in the lake (and the aboleth the PCs know is there).  First, they thoroughly search the immediate area for more goblin tunnels, and Merric takes a closer look at the spiked water pit.  There are concealed murder holes at various heights along both walls, making it impossible to slink by on the ledges.  He sees a dim light inside one hole, and after considerable discussion about how to cross the area, they finally decide against it. Too risky, and ultimately, they don’t know what’s around the corner.  Maybe they’ll come back.Douvan and Merric volunteer to check the river tunnel for goblin doors, provided that they’re tied off with ropes as a precaution.  Maybe, just maybe, there’s a secret entrance that will lead to the cubby holes flanking the spiked water trap.  They meticulously search down the corridor on both sides, and start following the western tunnel when they suddenly hear a distant grinding, clanking sound.  Run! They flee back to the stairs and run up, and in seconds the black wall of water explodes down the tunnel again, spraying the group with cold froth, but they’re safe. Well, there’s no going back until the river subsides, so they check the next tunnel.  It branches south and continues west, both wide, ten foot tunnels that fill them with unease.  Goblins like to trap the larger tunnels, but they don’t have any choice now.  Merric slinks to the south, and the others check the walls and floors and ceilings, finding nothing.  Everburning torch in hand, and Nari-lana carrying the supernova from the sunrod, Merric sees a long corridor and a pool of rippling black water along a wall.  Nari-lana and Douvan advance, and the ranger peeks into the pool.  It’s filled with fat albino fish that look harmless.  This rectangular area is most likely a spawning pool. <img src="http://www.zikadik.com/silverymoon/tun2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />But suddenly…TWANG!  An arrow zips past Merric’s head from a concealed slot on the wall, and Douvan sees that there are eight such concealed slots, each bristling with archers.  Douvan runs down the hall and around the corner…and into a dead end.  He immediately begins searching for a hidden door.  Merric and Nari-lana run too, arrows zipping past them, and they also spin around the corner into the dead end.  Soon the whole group is bunched up in the alcove, and they spend as long as they need pushing and prodding every square inch of the hall, and they find…absolutely nothing.  They’ve walked into a simple trap, a dead end corridor with no choice but to run back past waiting archers.  Although there IS an option…and Douvan decides to wade through the spawning pool.  Cold, blind fish bump against his legs as he sloshes through the water, and pressing close to the wall, the archers above him can barely target him. He reaches the far side and the others run past, taking a few hits, but are relatively unscathed. They continue west and find the tunnel turns sharply south to a set of stairs leading down.  They cautiously approach.  At the bottom is an archway, but then three arrows zip out from concealed slots in the wall ahead of them!  The party makes easy targets standing in the hallway, so Douvan is the first to run down the steps to the room below.  At the threshold he stops and peers into the chamber, instantly wary of a new trap. <img src="http://www.zikadik.com/silverymoon/tun3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />There is a closed wooden door on the far side of the room.  In the ceiling are nine, evenly spaced square holes leading to a room above where the archers are located, still shooting down at his allies on the staircase.  Douvan is too big to squeeze through the openings, but he wonders if the goblins can?  They can surely fire down at anyone standing directly below the murder holes.  He skirts along the side as the others come down the stairs, bunching in the threshold, safe from the sniper’s line of sight. Merric follows Douvan to the door at the far side and they take a closer look.  Built from solid wood and banded by iron, it has a black metal handle that opens inward.  Merric licks his lips and checks the door for traps, poking at the frame and cracks and hinges with a thin thieving tool, but finds nothing.  Above them, the party can see shadows shifting across the rectangular square holes.  They hear wood scraping on metal.  Everyone else is waiting for the rogue to open the door.  So Merric finally opens it, and two things happen simultaneously.First, there is only a blank rock wall behind the door, but there IS a trap that Merric failed to detect. It instantly triggers a hidden portcullis in the ceiling over the entrance to the room, and the gate crashes down on top of Jolen, the cleric of Tempus! He’s pinned to the stone floor, blooding gushing from rusted spikes puncturing his midsection.  He’s half in, half out of the chamber. “Agh!  HELP ME!”<img src="http://www.zikadik.com/silverymoon/tun4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The portcullis is extremely heavy, and Douvan rushes over to help pull it up.  He and Merric are trapped inside, with Blackjack and Nari-lana on the stairwell, also trying to pull the gate off Jolen. And that’s when the giant centipedes fall through the murder holes.</blockquote>

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