The Stairs!

[DEFCON 1]

I roll my attempt to disbelieve the illusion.

 

[Wik]

Leeeeeeeeroooooooy Jennnnnnnnkins!

You charge down the stairs, screaming your name. In so doing, you wake up the troglodytes at the foot of the stairs, and they murder you and then chase down your friends who remained at the top of the stairs, murdering them as well.

You then get a book deal and start making money on the speech circuit. Gamers everywhere facepalm.

First, check the immediate area for signs of traffic/recent activity for an idea asto what lurks nearby then determine if the stairway area can be isolated from intrusion so hopefully nothing from level-1 follows us down/lays traps for our return before letting the "scout" proceed down cautiously while the form a defensive zone above.

Once at the bottom, determine if the landing can be isolated from the rest of the level, for use as a defensible camp for further incursions. Rig a trip-line across the stairs before exploring level2.

There is no immediate traffic in the area, although you do pick up some strange traces of slime on a few cobblestones. It smells particularly bad, and you wrinkle your nose in disgust. There is a door that you could close, blocking the stairway from the hallway.

Your scout proceeds to the bottom and looks around. He finds himself in a long hallway that turns into a "T" intersection thirty feet away. To the left, he hears the sound of grunting and bones being broken, followed by a sucking sound.

Go back outside the dungeon, take a few planks of wood from the wagon our donkeyhorse pulled in, and proceed to craft a makeshift trap door over the stairs. Weight the trap door with stones, etch it with prayers, and rig a trap on it so any creature that opens it from below will be doused on oil and lit on fire.

Then go back to the wagon, get a couple chickens, and prepare to send them into the next room on the first floor.

Unless you have a time limit, why not be paranoid?

You do so. While setting up the trap door and picking up chickens, other adventurers loot the entire first floor. After doing so, they discover a sizable treasure cache and rescue the mayor's daughter, and are hailed as heroes.

Rumours begin to spread about your unsavoury affairs involving chickens.

I roll my attempt to disbelieve the illusion.

You disbelieve the illusion, and discover that instead of stairs that go down from level 1 to level 2, they are in FACT actually stairs that go up from level 2 to level 1!

 

[ExploderWizard]

Are there obvious areas on the 1st level that we have not explored?

If so the sensible option would be to explore that area first. Nothing quite like being trapped between something nasty at both the top and bottom of the stairs.

 

[jaerdaph]

New Monster: The Stair Master!

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

You charge down the stairs, screaming your name. In so doing, you wake up the troglodytes at the foot of the stairs, and they murder you and then chase down your friends who remained at the top of the stairs, murdering them as well.

You then get a book deal and start making money on the speech circuit. Gamers everywhere facepalm.

I take half the money I made from the speech circuit and the book deal and split it with the other party members. I spend the other half of the money hiring two ladies of negotiable virtue, three gentlemen of negotiable virtue, a miniature video camera and a selection of farmyard animals.

Once I have compromising footage of the DM ready to upload to youtube, we all roll new characters and go back into the dungeon.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I take half the money I made from the speech circuit and the book deal and split it with the other party members.

How do you split $0,000,000?

I suggest using the other players for those of questionable virtue. Then you will definitely be king of th hill in that group.

 

[Whisper72]

We lob burning flasks of oil into the stairway as a precaution, then proceed to block it off with the 10 foot poles we are all carrying as part of our Standard Issue Fieldgear... Then we post our henchmen as guards on the blocked stairs and proceed to sweep the first floor...

 

[Raven Crowking]

I go down the stairs. What the heck; I'm here to play a game and have fun, and TPKs can be as much fun as anything else in the game!

Be bold, be bold
But not too bold
For then your life's blood
Shall run cold.​

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

What I want to know is: how is it all these parties can plan to sweep the first floor, when you can't buy a broom from the equipment list? Are they using the donkeyhorse's tail?

 

[rogueattorney]

I'm assuming... 1. We're in a traditional mega-dungeon in which clearing the entire first level may not be either possible or advisable and 2. I have no other information or any specific goal other than to acquire wealth and experience.

In that case, down we go. No guts no glory. We're full up on hp and spells. No reason not to.