DM's Log of Session Twenty Seven
Pairing up, Zamtap and Ash took first watch, with Ki and Aeron on second, and as Aeron's ring of sustenance was now functioning properly, he took third as well with Gylippus, Jebodiah happily sleeping the whole night through. After waking, wolfing down rations for breakfast and breaking camp, the group made their way through the abandoned visitors quarters to a section of the corridor blocked by a double portcullis with 10' of tunnel between them, the passageway continuing deeper into the Lode behind the barriers. Working together, Ash and Jebodiah heaved on the first portcullis, and lifted it up, jamming it there and walked forwards towards the second portcullis, their weight triggering the trapdoor in the floor!
Falling 40' down onto spikes was bad enough, but the party then realised the scale of their predicament. The trap was too wide for Ash and Jebodiah to be able to brace themselves against the walls and climb out that way, and the walls were sheer stone. Further, as a quick search of backpacks above proved, nobody had thought to bring along rope. What ensued was a long heated argument (punctuated by moans from below), that was eventually resolved by Aeron's ingenious idea of stripping the guy ropes from Zamtap's tent, tying them around his ankles, while Zamtap and Gylippus braced against his weight and him hanging down the side of the pit. Now able to see the pair below, he was able to levitate them out using his innate ability as an air genasi.
While Zamtap busied himself with healing the pairs wounds, Gylippus set to work disabling the pits mechanism, jamming it open, and once that was done, the group edged past it on the narrow 1' lip around the drop. Wrenching open the second portcullis, the group advanced deeper into the old dwarf hold, discovering a room that held the winches for the portcullises, and then a small temple to Vergadain, horribly defaced with excrement smeared over virtually ever surface. Though they could make out several smaller chambers branching off from the main room, none of the group wished to enter and endure the smell and any possible contagion within.
Opening another door, the party advanced cautiously into what appeared to be a scribes quarters, Gylippus and Jebodiah heading up the group, one checking for traps, the other opening the various doors when the rogue pronounced them safe. Finding an old scriptorium, Jebodiah elected to search the room, while Ash took over his place beside Gylippus as chief door opener.
Unfortunately for Ash, the next door they opened, led into a large lounge, with a roaring fireplace... and five kobold sargeants, three of whom immeciatly lauched themselves at him, while a fourth hung back and the fifth ran from the room calling for aid. A furious melee broke out, with Ash trapped in the doorway and only slowly able to advance into the room, the rest of the group hanging back behind him until he cleared enough room for Ki to dart in and tumble around to add his daggers to the fray. The fourth sargeant then charged into the monk and the fifth returned from where he had run too, with reinforcements hard on his heels. Gylippus cast a Mage Armor on himself and ducked into the room, seeking a good target, only to be laid low as the remaining sorceror from the previous day dropped him with a Tasha's Laughter, the rogueish wizard suddenly finding the whole fight hilarious.
With the sorceror came two priests of Kurtulmak and the kobolds King as well. Hearing the ruckuss coming from the chamber through a door in the scriptorium, Jebodiah opened it and saw another door 5' in front of him, the noise clearly coming from the other side of that. Stepping forward to it though, he again felt that plummeting feeling as he fell 60' down a narrow shaft, and then slowly started to climb his way back out, bracing himself against the sides of the shaft, all the while kept company by the distant sounds of carnage.
Back in the lounge, Ki, Zamtap and Aeron were making short work of the sargeants, a couple Gedlee's Loops stunning them, for the monks daggers and the priests warhammer to dispatch with ease. Without them to concern him, Ash charged across the room, ignoring the maces swung at him by the intervening priests and barrelled into the sorceror, cutting him down before he could lay waste to the group with any fireballs. Though one of the kobold priests then simply healed the sorceror up, as the King advanced on the paladin to try and bring down the man who was clearly the greatest threat to them. Chopping the sorceror down again, Ash then turned on the King who was being bolstered by one of the priests, the other being handily dispatched by a well placed Scintillating Sphere cast by Aeron who had now moved into a corner of the lounge. As the tide of battle swung in the favour of the party, so Jebodiah finally hauled himself out of the pit.
DM's Notes:
Wow did I laugh this session. The pit traps were funny enough, but the way the group didn't bring any rope was just classic, as everyone started blaming everyone else with the old "Well I didn't bring any rope cos you said you had it!" Classic comedy, and then Jebodiah falling down what (in my opinion) was a really obvious pit trap and thus the group having to fight the full might of the best the kobold tribe have to offer, without their barbarian was the icing on the cake. Ash fought really well this session, and Aeron is scarily good at picking his spells, setting up the kobolds for Ki and Zamtap to knock them down. I only hope the next session is as fun as this one was.
