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Message: <blockquote data-quote="carpedavid" data-source="post: 445720" data-attributes="member: 6971">10.12.2002 - Session 2, Part 1"Hey guys, wait for me!" shouts Nym, as he climbs down from the airship. "I'm feeling a lot better now," he continues, passing Danklar, Dew, and Wrayce as he runs across the body-strewn battlefield. The group welcomes him back, and then turns their attention to the darkened stone staircase. Nym pushes up to the edge and peers down into the inky black depths. "It's hard to see anything," he comments, "there don't appear to be any torches down there. Does anyone have an easily concealable light source?" Taminnyd pulls a copper coin out of his belt pouch and grumbles out a light cantrip. "Here," he tosses the coin to Nym, "try this." Erendil turns to Taminnyd and asks, "Would invisibility be useful? He could scout around without being detected." "What use is a bumbler in the dark?" Taminnyd says with disdain, "I'd much rather save that for myself. With this group, I'm going to need it." Ignoring the exchange behind him, Nym begins down the stairs. He notes that the construction is impeccable - it seems as though each of the ten-foot wide stairs is carved out of a solid block of granite, the walls are as smooth as glass, and the ceiling is almost imperceptibly arched. Laurel notices Nym set off, and grabs Shoji. They hurry after Nym, and the rest of the group takes notice and follows. At the bottom of the stairs, a corridor leads off to the left, and Nym peaks around the corner only briefly before setting off down it. Laurel and Shoji shake their heads, amazed that Nym survives despite his heedless nature. The group follows him, though, and they pass a giant set of iron double doors on their right before the corridor empties out into a small chamber. On the far wall are two standard-sized doors, and Nym pauses only a moment before moving to the one on the left. Laurel, Shoji, and Taminnyd all flinch involuntarily as he throws the door open and marches in. Taminnyd and Scarlet follow Nym through the door into a small bedchamber. The floors are covered in refuse and trash, and two small cots have been pushed together into one corner. Nym is already digging through the contents of the room when Taminnyd and his guardian enter behind him. "Hey," he calls to Taminnyd. "Take a look at this," he says as he pulls a crumpled piece of parchment from under one of the cots. Taminnyd uncrumples the parchment, looks at the morass of squiggles and arcane symbols, and quickly casts read magic. The squiggles and symbols re-arrange themselves before his eyes, with a few separating themselves out by emitting a dim blue glow. He sighs disappointedly, "Unseen servant and floating disk." He shakes his head even as he stuffs the parchment in his belt pouch, "Nothing special." After watching Taminnyd and Scarlet disappear, Laurel decides to explore the other door. She checks around the edges of it for wires or switches, and then closely examines the handle. Deciding that the door is free of unpleasant surprises, she opens it and steps through, finding another bedchamber. Unlike the other chamber, this one is impeccably clean. Laurel notes a broom in one corner, neatly tucked away behind a barrel of trash, while two cots sit against opposite sides of the room. Her own search turns up nothing, and she shakes her head in disappointment as she steps back out into the hallway and closes the door behind her. "Well, I guess we go through the big doors," says Erendil, who had been covering the hallway with his bow. "Great!" exclaims Nym who comes bounding out of the bedchamber and starts walking quickly back down the hallway. He gets almost to the doors before the rest of the party can react. "Wait!" Erendil warns, "let Laurel search those doors for traps before you open them." Nym pulls his hand away from the door handle and grins sheepishly, "Ok." Laurel gently pushes Nym to the side as she begins her examination. The doors themselves are twenty feet tall and made of cast iron. They are intricately decorated with scenes of dwarves working at forges interspersed with the hammer and chain symbol of Arial, the god of the forge. Unfortunately, the intricate metalwork created numerous locations for traps to be hidden, so Laurel takes her time in searching the door. Her examination pays off, though. After a few minutes, she detects a dagger blade carefully hidden near the door handle. A moment later, the dagger trap is expertly disabled, and Laurel steps back, pleased with her work. "Now we can go in," Nym decrees happily as he pushes past Laurel. The group cringes again as he opens the doors, swings them open, and steps through. In front of him, they can see a massive chamber, illuminated by a large forge on the right side of the room. Running the length of the left wall are workbenches covered in scrap metal. On the right wall, a large quenching pool sits between the door and the forge. In the middle of the room, right in front of the forge, sit six anvils, arranged in a semicircle. Beyond the anvils is a wooden table, where two kobolds appear to be playing cards, and on the floor next to them is a giant bear, hogtied and bound in chains. Nym halts as he spots the kobolds, but the roar of the forge is nearly deafening, and they give no indication that they have noticed the party. Taminnyd pulls his wand from his belt as Nym looses his, and they both unleash bolts of golden energy at the same time. The kobolds are knocked off their seats as the magic missiles hit them, and they begin yelling to each other, their dog-language barely discernable above the noise of the forge. Shoji pushes past the two wand-bearers, and dashes further into the room, swinging his sling as he goes. He stops just before the anvils, and lets one stone fly, which arcs across the room, but bounces harmlessly off the table. Laurel moves up to where Shoji is standing, and decides to keep her bow stashed, in favor of her swords. Taminnyd lets another three bolts fly, and they all slam into the chest of the kobold nearer to the party. His lifeless form slumps to the ground, his chest charred and smoking. Scarlet moves into the room, positioning herself between the remaining kobold and her ward. Erendil moves into the room as well, and lets and arrow fly, catching the remaining kobold in the shoulder. The kobold pulls a bow from his back, and attempts to return the arrow to Erendil, but aims too high, and the arrow flies harmlessly over Erendil's head. Nym unleashes two more bolts from his wand, eliciting a squeal of pain from the kobold archer, then moves into the room. Why is the floor sticky? he wonders as he moves up in front of Scarlet.Shoji puts his sling away and dashes at the archer, and swings a fist hardened from years of hitting wood, stone, and steel at the kobold's head. Unfortunately, kobold does not get added to the list of things that have hardened Shoji's fist, and Laurel moves into position to attack. She takes a mighty swing that just misses slashing open the kobold's belly. The momentum of her swing twists her around so that she can see the area on the far side of the forge. Her jaw drops, and a wave of terror washes through her body as she sees a large, winged, red, reptilian form emerge from the shadows."Dragon!" she screams as it opens its jaws and sends a blast of hellfire racing toward her.More to come...</blockquote>

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