No, there wasn't a total party kill

To the followers and creepers of the page: players have been away on holidays, but we should be back May 31.

Even the Bravest Adventurers Know When to Flee

June 16, 3430, Age of Kings

Hearing the dwarf trying to sneak by, the kobolds in the chamber quickly turned their attention to the party. Spilling out into the hall were to kobold sub-chiefs and 10 warriors, while a couple of she-kobolds and their whelps huddled in a corner.

A melee quickly ensued. Ander stayed back firing arrows into the fray while Broak and Audrey cut the diminutive creatures down with Grabby weaving his way through the battle... foolishly finding himself separated from his allies with a swarm of kobolds between him and his friends.

Realizing his folly (and getting seriously wounded) Grabby made haste and fell back to the smelter room in hopes of finding a hiding spot while his friends did the heavy lifting. He scampered into a pile of rubble: broken stone, an old work bench and a tapestry wold act as his cover. Unbeknownst to him his large, hairy halfling feet were sticking out obviously from cover. Two kobolds chased after him into the large chamber, one looked around for their quarry while the other immediately noticed the feet sticking out from beneath the tapestry. Driving his spear through the tapestry in hopes of striking the halfling cowering behind it, the kobold instead brought the rubble down on himself (oh natural 1 rolls), knocking him prone—and leaving Grabby very exposed.

Back in the corridor the fight continued on, with Ander noticing another small group of kobolds come out from a chamber to the south. A kobold dressed in shabby robes and a larger, somewhat regal kobold (at least for a kobold) dashed further down the corridor away from the fight, while 2 sub-chiefs and 2 kobolds armed with insect filled clay jars tried to flank the party.

As the fight ensued, the she-kobolds and their young escaped to the smelting room and up the stairs. The vermin-throwers hurled their insect-filled vessels at the part but missed continuously. At this point Ander sent his limping war dog Bloo down the south corridor to attack the kobolds defending their leader's escape.

Back in the smelting room Grabby found himself distancing himself from the 2 attacking kobolds, biding his time until Broak could move in to assist. Once the dust had settled, the she-kobolds and their young has escaped up the stairs, and poor Bloo lay in a puddle of blood—his neck hacked to shreds by a kobold's blade. (Ander is banned from owning pets now)

From behind a padlocked door in the west wall of the corridor, the sounds of several kobolds could be heard clawing at the door and screeching maniacally. They sounded "off" to the party—unnatural and almost feral.

Moving on, they entered the chamber to the east where the kobolds ran from. It was a simple, make-shift throne room: a dwarvish chair adorned with metal and bones acted as a throne, and dirty animal pelts covered the floor. Finding nothing of value, the party moved further down the corridor, finding another room filled with candles mounted on dwarf skulls and filled with furs, dwarvish weapon racks and furniture, as well as a small chest acting as a dining table—the kobold chief's personal quarters. The party knocked the pewter ware off the chest and opened it up. Withing they found a pouch of shillings, small statues of dwarf warriors carved in a white stone, some potions, and a bundle of crossbow bolts. After further searching the room they found nothing and moved on to the south.

Around the corner where the other kobolds had fled the cavern corridor quickly became narrow, fornicng the party to squeeze through sideways in single file through the dark, winding passage.

Eventually they came out into a massive, dark chamber. They stood on a ledge jutting out over the open space close to 50 feet up. Around them they could make out strange structures of unknown design: the walls seemed to be carved from a strange grey-blue stone that was extremely smooth. High up the walls were small openings, presumably windows. This seemed to be an ancient, long-forgotten city built by unknown hands, now long abandoned and used by the kobolds. Further ahead in the inky blackness, down below the party, they could see the flicker of candle light coming from a chamber to the west, and the dim flicker of more light further ahead. Broak felt uneasy as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and began to recognize the stone work to be similar to the ruins where he and his troops had a fateful encounter with a beholder years before (see Broak's back story).

Ander prepared a rope with his grappling hook and the party descended to the chamber floor. Once they were all down, Ander scouted up ahead past a chamber filled with candles, to a set of massive, iron double doors, one of which was open far enough for a person to slip through. On the floor nearby a large iron slat lay, broken off from the doors, obviously used to set in place to seal the doors. He glanced in quickly only to see stairs leading down a short way to shallow water. He returned to the party and relayed what he saw.

The group then cautiously moved into the candle filled chamber, Broak becoming increasingly anxious. In this brightly lit room the floor was smeared with stained blood, and against the west wall was a relief carved into the stone wall: that of a great, five-headed dragon.

They then pushed on to the opening of the iron doors and all peered in. They saw a massive chamber, filled a couple inches of water. Here and there piles of rubble jutted up, and a mist of sickly green-yellow mist sat on the water. A cool breeze with the smell of forest could be felt blowing down from high in the ceiling. Every wall of this vast chamber was filled with hundreds of kobold holes at various heights, many of which held lit candles. At the far end of the chamber was a raised square of stone with a large, ancient dried up fountain in the centre. Something had made its nest in the fountain: it was filled with various scraps and animal remains. In front of the fountain the glitter of loot could be seen, a loose pile of coins, gems and various items sat, unguarded. In the pile they saw the handle of what might be the object of their quest: the Forge Hammer.

Broak refused to enter the chamber as memories of that fateful day flooded into his head: this was the chamber where his life changed forever. He glanced around an noted the bones of his fallen allies, still in the place where they had died. He warned the other that this may be the lair of a beholder.

The party, now sufficiently paranoid by Broak's ramblings, devised a plan: Audrey would run to the loot pile, grab what might be the forge hammer, and rush back while Ander covered her, Broak sweated, and Grabby thought positive thoughts.

Audrey secured her halberd to her pack, slid between the great doors, glanced around, then dashed through the flooded hall. She quickly came to the loot pile and saw the handles of 2 dwarvish items sticking out so she grabbed them both: one appeared to be the Forge Hammer, the other a dwarvish warhammer. Moments after picking up the two items stones crumbled from high above. As Audrey glanced up the torn body of a man plummeted from the darkness above and crashed into the loot, scattering coins all about. Before her lay the body of one of Albrecht's guards (one of the thre that had accompanied Boots to the dungeon). His body was ripped open and great claw marks raked across his flesh. Audrey then heard an ominous hiss as a caustic yellow-green fluid dripped onto the pile of coins, melting the silver and fusing it to the stone floor. She looked up and saw the glint of two green eyes high up in the dark ceiling.

Not wanting to wait to see what would happen, she turned and ran for the iron doors. As she raced back to her allies she saw a look of fear cross their faces as they watched a great shadowy shape rapidly descend from the ceiling. Just before hitting the nest a pair black, leathery wings snapped out from its form to ease its fall. The dragon hit its nest, sending bones and debris scattering about and it let out a ferocious bellow, obviously displeased with the thief in its lair.

Ander managed to hit the dragon with an arrow, but it simply shrugged off the wound and rushed after Audrey. Halfway back to the doors it raked its talons across Audrey's back leaving a terrible wound, but she managed to push on ahead and found herself leaping through the doors to narrowly avoid a second attack from the charging beast. As this happened Broak began closing the door and Grabby grabbed the iron slat to seal the doors. Now the dragon was trying to push the door open, and Ander leapt in to help Broak close the door. Audrey grabbed the slat from Grabby and slid it into place just as Broak and Ander narrowly got the door closed.

A quick decision was made to flee back to the rope. As they turned to run they could hear the sound of many—perhaps a small army—of kobolds yelping and screeching from the dragon's lair, presumably streaming out of all the kobold holes. Audrey quickly snatched up the Forge Hammer from the floor (she had dropped it and the dwarvish warhammer to help with the door) and Broak grabbed the warhammer.

As Broak tightened his grip on the warhammer, it felt oddly familiar, then, just as he realized he was holding his old warhammer from that fateful encounter with the beholder, a flood of emotion swept over his mind. He suddenly saw flashes of his comrades being slaughtered as he stood by helpless, he fell to his knees screaming in horror, closed his eyes tightly to try and block out the images. As he opened his eyes again he experienced the killing blow he brought down on Dain's head all those years ago as if it were happening all over again.

At this point the rest of the party had already dashed most of the distance back to the rope, turning around from Broak's scream to see the dwarf composing himself and run to catch up with the rest of them. One by one they ascended the rope, going as quickly as they could, while nervously glancing back at the iron doors. The doors shuddered from repeated blows and powerful blasts of the dragon's acid breath started to weaken the door. Once the last party member was up the rope they quickly began to navigate the narrow cave corridor, confident that the dragon was too large to squeeze through after them. Broak, the last one to enter the corridor, started to squeeze through just as he heard the iron doors falter and smash from the dragon's rage.

They were safe... for now.

*   *   *

 Broak now carries his old warhammer, now infused with arcane energy brought on by the pain he suffered from his encounter with the beholder. His hammer, Dwarven Despair, is a +1 warhammer. In addition, when he lands a critical hit with the hammer he deals an additional die of damage but must also make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 15) or be stunned for his next turn, as his critical hit forces him to experience the death of Dain again, as if was killing him again with that strike.

*   *   *

The Moral Dilema of Killing (Kobold) Children

June 16, 3430, Age of Kings

Note: Boots's player is once again on a month long work excursion, so... let's say Boots is just studying in the dwarven study or somethin'...

*   *   *

Our brave adventurers then headed out of the doorway past the dead shrieker and back into the great forge hall. They crossed the expansive chamber and through the double doors on the east wall. These doors opened into a long corridor lined with doors (3 on the north, 2 on the south) and ending in a set of double doors.

Sitting in front of the doors at the far end of the corridor was a strange contraption of kobold-make: a frame of wood and iron holding several tubes of iron, with several leather bellows' at the rear, and copper wires running down into the floor—obviously a devious trap of some sort.

So Audrey and Grabby immediately stepped into the hall.

This immediately caused the contraption to shudder and a bellows compress, launching a dart at Audrey, striking her in the arm and causing her to become poisoned. At this point they decided to be more cautious. Taking Broak's shield for cover, Grabby dashed down the hall towards the strange device, with the occasional dart flying out to harmlessly hit the shield. Once behind the device he set about dismantling it, only to discover all of its ammunition had been fired.

With the hall now safe, the rest of the group moved in and they began systematically checking the doors for traps and seeing what lay on the other side. The 3 doors to the north led to the remains of ancient dwarf dormitories containing nothing of value. 

The first door to the south was another dormitory, but this one was the resting place for several dwarf corpses. Broak said a little prayer.

The final door led to yet another dormitory, but this one had been mostly cleared of debris. In the center of the floor, drawn with soot, was a large dragon skull encircled by several unlit candles. On the south wall the kobolds had also drawn an image of a dragon in a strange and alien-looking city-scape in a mixture of soot and dried blood. The party couldn't make anything of it. Partly because of the crudeness of the drawings, partly because of bad rolls.

Not seeing anything of value, they decided to press on towards the double doors to the east. At this point Grabby stayed behind in the room and drew mustaches on the two dragon images with his Ander's chalk when everyone had left.

Grabby caught up with the others as they entered the room beyond the double doors. Here they found the mine's mess hall and kitchen. A small compliment of iron cookware was scattered about (obviously used by the kobolds) and in the center of the room was a small cooking pit, with two giant rats on spits cooking over red hot coals. Doors to the north and south led out of the room.

Beyond the doors to the south the sound of kobolds could be heard, but it sounded as if they were attempting to be quiet. The group moved into position and Audrey moved to open the door... Before she could get any closer a door swung open and a she-kobold leapt out brandishing a cleaver, waving wildly at Audrey.

She quickly dispatched the creature and moved into the room. Within they found a cask room filled with broken and smashed ale casks. In one corner another she-kobold stood in front of a huddled group of 4 kobold whelps. Ander quickly notched an arrow and struck the she-kobold in the neck, killing her outright in front of the (kobold) children.

Not wanting to kill the whelps (and Grabby not being pleased with Ander's willingness to kill them) Audrey and Grabby moved in to try and subdue the whelps by grappling them with bedrolls. Naturally the creatures would have none of it, and carried on quite loudly, which of course atracted more kobolds to the area. Soon 3 kobold warriors were entering the room through holes in the walls.

The party managed to fend off the small attack force, killing 2 of the kobolds, but not before Audrey fell to a few well coordinated attacks from the kobolds. Bloo the war dog rushed in to subdue a kobold whelp (but wound up snapping its neck) and Broak grabbed a whelp with his shield hand while Grabby escaped the melee to the mess hall with Ander after seeing Audrey fall unconscious.

The last kobold warrior scurried off back into his tunnel seeing he was outmatched, with 2 of the whelps following soon after. Broak, still holding the screaming, clawing whelp, let it go as not to draw any further attention to their location.

Rousing Audrey and letting her consume a healing potion, the group moved into the room to the north—the mine's larder. This room was now be used by the kobolds to store their food stuffs: skinned rat carcasses hanging from meat hooks, jars filled with writing worms, and sealed vessels of animal blood. With nothing of interest to be found they moved out of the area and back into the great forge hall, and continues through the last set of double doors in the south-east.

They entered a long, wide hall with a long slope in its middle. A breeze of wilderness air could be felt coming from down the hall, as well as the sound of chain swaying in the breeze.

The ramp seemed to be coated in a thick layer of animal fat—obviously a time-consuming process for the kobolds. This made traversing the ramp down very treacherous. The jagged iron spikes planted at the base of the ramp made it even more treacherous. Helping Grabby move carefully down the ramp with a rope, he attempted to remove a section of the spikes to no avail. This led to Audrey descending the ramp to smash away at the jagged iron with her sledgehammer. Eventually she cleared away a small portion to allow a safer descent down.

At the bottom of the ramp were to statues of Moradin looking over a vast expanse of blackness. A rough-hewn staircase spiraled down to the west into the darkness below as chains dangled from above.

*   *   *

After a long descent down the party found themselves at the bottom of a deep pit. The ruin of mine carts and equipment lay scattered all about. A large pile of rubble—the remains of smelters—lay to the south of the room. To the west a roughly carved (but well lit) cavern extended to the south and a storage chamber for equipment lay to the north.

The storage room held nothing but the long dead remains of 20 or so dwarves.

The party carefully made their way down the cavern hall to the west, coming across an opening that they could see several kobolds within, and hear even more around the corner. They decided to try and sneak past, but they had a noisy dwarf in chain mail with them...

"I stick my purple mushroom in the bottle" –Grabby McSnaggems

June 15, 3430, Age of Kings

We find our heroic dwarf fighter, Broak, wandering away from the party to be by himself and cry into his beard while the other decide to take a short rest on the (assumed) safety of the secret sarcophagus chamber.

Broak made his way out into the great forge hall where he sat and moped in the corner and questioned his lot in life. Close to an hour later, a small group of kobolds snuck up on Broak's position and launched an attack. Knowing his only hope was to escape back to his friends traveling companions, he started to fall back towards the secret door, felling kobolds as he went.

But even the somewhat mighty Broak was quickly overrun by kobolds as he tried to make his way down the corridor he suffered a bloody wound that weakened him and he fell unconscious, swarmed by yipping, barking kobolds—his allies unable to hear the melee through two layers of stone secret doors.

*   *   *

As the party's rest drew to a close, Grabby's conscious started to eat away at him as he wondered what had become of Broak, could he leave his friend to certain death in the bowels of the Orespire Mountains?

Boots was fine leaving Broak to whatever fate might meet him in the darkness, but Grabby managed to convince the others to go looking for him. Sliding the open the secret doors, they saw Broak's unconscious form on the floor in the hall, surrounded by kobolds looting him. Broak's allies rushed in to defend the helpless dwarf, killing and driving off the remaining kobolds, some of which managed to make of with Broak's backpack and warhammer (luckily Ander happened to have an extra).

The group (except for Boots who stayed back in the secret room) helped Broak to his feet and helped back to the safety of the secret chamber where he patched himself up.

The group, reluctantly together again, moved down the web-filled corridor to the north which turned to the east and ended in a secret door which led to a study chamber, its walls lined with shelves filled with hundreds of ancient and dusty tomes. To the south a crudely bricked up doorway was visible, and to the east was a short corridor that led to a set of doors. In front of the doors was the corpse of a long dead orc warrior, out of it's body grew an oddly shaped purple mushroom as tall as a man. Not wanting to get to close to the strange fungus, they decided to begin hammering down the bricked up doorway.

Audrey made short work of the crude bricks, revealing a small chamber filled with tables and shelves filled with glass vials and other vessels, many of which were smashed about the room.

At this point, they decided to deal with the strange purple fungus in the short hall. Ander let an arrow fly, striking the mushroom. Immediately the shrieker began emitting an ear-piercing wail that echoed off the stone walls. He fired more arrows at the fungus and its wailing began to subside. Withing seconds the sounds of a kobold force could be heard making their way toward their position, drawn by the sound of the shrieker. The party fell back into the alchemy lab in hopes of forcing the kobolds into a bottleneck.

As they fell back, Audrey was left behind trying to repack her sledge hammer as kobolds opened the doors to the east and poured into the chamber. Left alone to defend herself, Audrey engaged the kobolds with her halberd, cutting through their numbers. Rushing to the aid of his friend, Grabby rushed out past Audrey to engage the kobolds head on. In doing so, as he weaved past Audrey, Grabby tripped over the barbarians polearm as she swung it, causing him to trip and fall forward, releasing his grasp on his magic dagger, Mr. Shiney, which skipped along the floor. Grabby's folly also forced Audrey to drop her halberd to the ground, which a kobold quickly grabbed and pulled it behind him. Even with an unarmed barbarian and a prone halfling thief, Ander and Boots managed to give enough support to finish off the kobolds.

Once the dust had settled and they were sure the area was secured, Grabby—not wanting the possibility of food going to waste—grabbed a bottle from the lab, drew his dagger and approached the dead shrieker, sliced a piece off, to which his player proclaimed, "I stick my purple mushroom in the bottle!"

Mushroom secured, the party sifted through the lab and found several jars of various coloured liquids that seemed to be inert potion ingredients. To the west was another short hall that ledt to another part of the lab. Again, mostly filled with smashed or empty glass vessels, but the party manage to find a few vials of potions. Broak was called in to read their dwarvish labels: Healer (x2), Dragon's Breath and Vapors.

Note: At some point Boots found a scroll of Detect Magic in the study. Using the scroll, Ander ran back to the chamber with the animated iron statues, cast the scroll and only detected the statues—at some point they also destroyed one of the statues that they had seriously damaged in their previous encounter. Back in the alchemy lab he also detected a very faint source of magic from the ingredient jars, as well as the potions they found. I can't recall just where these things happened.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

June 15, 3430, Age of Kings

Note: There's about two weeks between the session and me writing this, so there may be some details simplified, omitted, or maliciously fabricated.

*  *  *

We discover that Boots had remained back in town for an extra day to do further research on the mine the party was heading to. There, he discovered the mine's "moon door"entrance, as well as, as far as he could tell, the Forge Hammer had never left the mine.

Armed with this tiny bit of information (and his flute) Albrecht assigned three of his guards to accompany Boots up to the site to join up with the rest of the party.

Conveniently arriving at nightfall, Boots and the guards easily found the door. While two of the guards set up camp nearby, Boots entered with one of the guards—named Horace— to search for the group.

*  *  *

Shortly after dispatching a small group of kobolds in the Great Forging Hall, the party was met by Boots and Horace. Boots caught them up to speed (it didn't take long, he didn't learn very much). Once done they decided which way to set out.

The hall had four exits, two on each side. The party decided to enter the double doors in the south-west wall. Through the doors they entered a long hall ending in another set of double doors and a set of doors on either side of the hall halfway down. 

Once they made their way to the single doors they opened each on in turn and found the same thing on either side: old weapon rooms, now filled with rusted and decrepit dwarven weapons covered in cobwebs and dust. Most noticeably, however, both rooms were covered in long dead creatures—mostly kobolds, dwarves, and giant rats. A blanket of ominous fungi carpeted the floor and bodies. Not willing to tempt fate, they party closed the doors and moved on towards the end of the hall.

Moving on they reached the end of the hall and swung open the double doors at the end of the corridor to find a equipment storage room lined with rusted blacksmith's tools and old shelves. in the north wall of the room there were also three kobold holes in the wall. Soon after entering the room the sounds of kobolds moving through their tunnels could be heard. 

As kobolds attempted to attack from their holes both Horace and Audrey struck them down as they entered the room. From the north "fungus room" a group of kobolds spilled out into the hall that Ander and Broak attacked and the party's sole spell caster was finally able to use his mastery (well, first level mastery) of the arcane arts.

During all this excitement Grabby decided to just hang back and search the room... which paid off! He found a secret door against the west wall.

Once the dust had settled and several kobolds lay dead, Grabby pointed out his discovery to the others. The party readied themselves then moved through the secret door. They found themselves in a short, narrow hall ending in another secret door. Passing through the second door they entered a small room, lit only by their torches. The chamber was filled with a thick layer of dust and webs—obviously the dimwitted kobolds were unaware of this area, as it had not seen any traffic in what must have been hundreds of years.

In the centre of the room was a wide stone sarcophagus with a relief of a dwarf warrior lying atop its lid, carved lying down, at peace, with his battle axe grasped in his hands. Pitch black corridors extended to the north and south.

Thinking that the Forge Hammer might (or other treasure) be withing the resting place of the dwarf warrior, the party—particularily Boots—felt it would be wise to pop it open and take a look.

This did not go over well with Broak.

Tired of arguing, Boots decided to take matter into his own hands and began smashing the top of the sarcophagus, damaging the carved dwarf image.

This also did not go over well with Broak, and resulted in a swift punch to Boots' kidney, dropping him to his knees. 

After a long argument discussion they decided to leave the sarcophagus undisturbed, for now at least. They decided to then move on down through the cobweb infested south corridor while leaving Horace in the room to watch their rear. Eventually the hall opened into a long room. Set into the floor were the lids of six more sarcophagi, also with stone images carved into their faces of dwarf warriors, weapons clasped in their hands. Obviously warriors of great renown. In each corner of the room were iron statues of heavily armoured dwarf warriors armed with massive weapons. On each of their breast plates were a different carved single dwarvish ruin of unknown meaning. 

Again, another discussion began on opening these tombs to see what they held, and again, Broak would have none of it, preferring to respect the peace of his dead brethren. When Broak finally began to realize he was on the losing side of the debate, he did what any respectable warrior worth his dwarvish salt would do: he stormed off in a huff back towards the secret door they had entered, with Grabby running after him to convince him to stay.

With the dwarf leaving, it was time to crack open some sarcophagi. 

When Audrey and Boots began prying open the first sarcophagus, the runes on the iron statues began to glow with an eerie arcane light and slowly the statues came to life.

A melee quickly ensued as the animated statues moved in to defend the tomb and Horace moved up to help his allies. As blow after blow to the statues seemed to do very little damage, the party decided they might be outmatched so they started to fall back to the other tomb chamber.

As they fell back, Horace started to fall behind as he continued to attack the statues then found himself surrounded. Despite his heroic attempt, he was seriously wounded by the statues' attacks before he could fall back to the rest of the party.

As all of this was going on Broak was still continuing on his way out, but as he entered the hall, he opened a door to be greeted by a group of giant centipedes (an ill-timed wandering monster encounter).

As Broak and Grabby fought off the centipedes, the rest of the group engaged the statues in the tomb chamber, their attacks seeming to do little, but they did manage to concentrate their efforts on one of the aberrations to damage it significantly.

Overpowering the group in cramped quarters, the statues managed to fell poor Horace and trample over his crumpled corpse as they pressed their attack. Seeing this the group fell back further to join in the room with Broak and Grabby. The dwarf and the halfling eventually managed to kill all of the centipedes—probably with the help of some of the other, I can't recall.

Once the party had all entered the room through the secret passage, the statues seemed to pause then cease their attack. They then turned around and mindlessly shambled off down the hall, presumably to return to their eternal posts. Audrey and Boots cautiously returned to the smaller chamber to crack open the sarcophagus, slid the lid open only to find... nothing. Barely a speck of dust.

The dungeon then fell silent, only the sound of Broak shuffling off back down the corridor could be heard, nursing the critical hit to his feelings...

Deeper into the Depths of Orespire

June 15, 3430, Age of Kings

After their harrowing encounter with bugs and kobolds, the party decided to make an attempt at regrouping and healing their wounds with a short rest in the hall. Shortly after sitting down to and pulling out their healing packs, the sound of chittering and chitinous feat on the stone floor could be heard from within the nearby pit. When Audrey approached to peer over the edge she was met by four giant centipedes making their way up the pit's walls.

The party quickly dispatched the vile creatures, with Audrey taking some bites during the melee. The group's wounds adding up they decided to find a more secure area where they could rest for a longer period of time to recover. They continued through the door to the north, which lead to another small T-junction. They decided to head west into a small storage room, filled with rotting wood shelves and old, rusted metal-working tools. Within the refuse they found a sledge hammer and a crowbar, which they took.

They then moved back out into the hall and traveled east. Checking the door for traps, Grabby indeed found a trap mechanism attached to the doors. Using his tools he carefully fiddled with the mechanism and... maybe disarmed it? He wasn't sure. Broak moved up to push the door open with a javelin, which triggered a massive axe blade to swing out from inside the room, which he managed to avoid.

Once inside this small room, they found it was once used as a larder, again filled with rotten and destroyed wooden furnishings and food so spoiled and old it didn't even hold Grabby's interest. While searching the room to secure it, Audrey found to small casks of dwarvish ale (which they decided they'd come back for later)... and more centipedes!

Taking more damage from the centipedes, Audrey beame more weakened, but they manage to kill the creatures with Bloo managing to grab hold of one and turn it into a doggy chew toy-ipede.

With the three centipedes dead they set about rearming the doors' swinging axe trap to make an attempt at taking a nice, long rest. During their rest they heard the sound of scratching at the door, that eventually stopped (I rolled some giant rats for a random encounter). When Audrey woke from her rest, she felt much more level two-y.

Fully rested, the party set out again, returning to the large chamber with the statue of Moradin to bash down the bricked up doorway with a sledge hammer. Audrey did the honors and took the sledge hammer to the bricks while the others stood guard. This only took a few minutes (I increased the odds for an encounter because of the noise... nothing. Dammit.)

Beyond the broken bricks they peered down into another steep staircase leading down into the dark. Ander and Grabby snuck down first to make sure it was clear, it seemed to be, so the others followed.

The group entered into another massive, vaulted great-hall, lit by wall sconces: The Great Forging Hall. Adorned with statues of Moradin, strewn rubble, and a large, circular forge pit near the opposite end of the hall, the party cautiously entered the hall. Along the east and west walls were two sets of double doors leading out of the hall, and, of course, several more kobold holes.

Audrey and Grabby walked the length of the hall to examine the forge, now filled with old coal and soot. While examining the pit, the silence was interrupted by the sound of a sling stone clumsily cracking against the stone wall as a kobold attempted a sneak attack, and instead swung his sling too close to the wall (I rolled a 1).

Within moments three more kobolds emerged from their holes firing off slings at Audrey and Bloo at the other end of the hall. With so few worthy adversaries, the party managed to make short work of the kobolds, none of them managing to escape into the darkness to warn their allies...

Nothing Motivates People Like a Dog in Peril

June 15, 3430, Age of Kings

Seeing the oddly wet crumbling stone statue of the dwarf god, Ander, Audrey and Broak all moved in to inspect in closer. Without warning, a slimey stone-grey blob whipped out towards Audrey, but she managed to duck clear. They found themselves confronting a grey ooze laying in wait on the statue.

Battling the ooze, Broak landed a blow on the amorphous blob, only to pull his warhammer back, it's head smoking and hissing from the creature's acids. The others struck from afar and, in an attempt to get some distance, Broak stepped away only to be attacked by the ooze. The attack left parts of chain mail ruined. In the end, Audrey manages to drive her torch into the blob and finish it off.

To the north the party found a small hall that ended in a small room, with its only exit being  a crudley bricked up doorway—they need to find someway to smash it down, or another way through.

Heading back where they came from they decided to head to the passage to the east, a long corridor ending in a T-junction. Broak and Audrey led the party down the corridor, passing a kobold hole in the northern wall. As they went Audrey tapped the flagstone floor with her halberd in hopes of finding any traps—luckily she had Broak with her. As the two moved closer to the junction, the flagstones gave out beneath them, revealing a 10 foot pit. Audrey managed to jump back in time, but Broak—in classic Broak fashion—rolled a 1 (but a heroic 1). He fell flat into the pit, occupied only by some scattered coins, a human skeleton and some kobold skeletons... and that's when he noticed the insect swarm.

Working quickly, Audrey began throwing down a rope to help her hapless, insect-covered dwarf companion. This commotion of course attracted a team of kobolds to the area. They could hear the yapping creatures making their way through their tunnels towards them.

While Audrey rushed to pull Broak up, Ander and Grabby edged their way to the opposite side of the pit to get some distance from the oncoming kobolds and search for some oil to douse the swarm of insects. Soon enough, the kobolds were popping out from around the corners and out of their holes to whip sling stones at the party. With Broak still in the pit and Ander and Grabby too far away, their only targets were Audrey and the ever-faithful Bloo, Ander's war dog. Bloo was struck in the head by a stone dropping him like a sack of puppies (he was still alice, just unconcious). Audrey, with her back turned and unable to move around, was struck by another stone but managed to keep her hold on the rope to help Broak up.

Clambering out of the pit, Broak was still being pursued by the writhing black mass of biting and stinging insects. Ander was able to fell a few kobolds with his long bow as they sprang out from cover to attack (a nice change of pace for Ander).

Audrey made her way to the other side to join her other two companions, who were now rifling through Ander's pack to find some oil (Grabby decided to swipe some chalk out of Ander's pack while he was distracted with riddling kobolds with arrows). Grabby then doused the edge of the pit with oil and waited for Broak to cross.

Seeing his chance for heroism, Broak hurled his shield and war hammer across the pit (his shield wound up falling into the pit), scooped up Bloo and edged across to the other side with the insects swarming after them. Just in time, Grabby set a torch to the oil as the insects scurried through it (and Broak's warhammer also happened to be in the oil), and the party eventually stomped and bashed their way to victory, killing the swarm.

Too far away and around the corners, they could hear the kobolds retreating back into their holes to regroup. Once the fire subsided, Broak returned to the pit (intentionally this time) to retrieve his shield, and a handful of coins and a couple of gems. They were now standing in a hall with double doors at either end...

It was a successful evening: Ander was actually hitting targets, Broak never dropped to less than zero hit points (and he got to save a dog), Audrey got to help a dwarf, and Grabby managed to steal a piece of chalk from his friend.

And the Dwarf is Down. Again. And again.

June 14–15, 3430, Age of Kings 

After a swift melee with some kobolds that saw two of them escape into the bowels of the earth, the party decided to give their dwarf warrior some time to recuperate (and wake up). After bandaging up his head that had been pelted with sling stones, they set of down a long, dark stone staircase after their quarry.

A faint, flickering fire light could be seen far below, so Grabby decided to stealthily make his way down to scout it out first. He entered a 30x30 foot room with a statue of a dwarf warrior in the middle and a set of double doors leading out. Off to the side was a small camp site, consisting of a small camp fire and an iron pot hanging over it, with a bubbling, foul smelling sludge, that seemed to contain insects and rat parts (and anything else kobolds could find to eat). Deciding it wise, Grabby decided to try the revolting stew, despite it assaulting his senses. He immediately regretted it.

After giving the all clear, the rest of the party joined Grabby in the room, and they proceeded through the doors (after Audrey checked them for any traps)

This led them into a massive dwarven hall, with a well in the middle of it, and statues of dwarves holding lit torches that stood on either side of the doors at either end of the hall. Broak and Audrey entered first—the kobolds knowing that their home was under attack—were waiting in ambush.

Staring with a surprise attack, a kobold hiding atop each of the statues launched small clay jars at Broak and Audrey—both hitting their targets. The jars broke unleashing a mass of spiders, centipedes and other biting and stinging insects. Needing a free hand to remove the vermin from her head and face, Audrey blindly threw her torch at one of the kobolds, missing. During the confusion, two kobolds from each side of the statues emerged from hiding to move into melee range to attack. One of them striking Audrey, and the other two attacking Broak, which...

...hit. This was enough to bring down the mighty first level tank and damage his armour (House Rule: crits from piercing weapons reduce AC by 1 until a short rest can be made to repair the damage.) From here the party retreated back into the entry room with Grabby dragging the unconscious and bleeding Broak by his ankles (and, feeling ill from his "kobold stew" dribbled some vomit onto Broak's mighty beard), but not before Audrey once again was struck by a jar-o-insects. Before the doors could be closed, the kobolds managed to whip off a few sling stones, unfortunately, one critically failed and pulled a "Wicket", ultimately killing himself with his own sling, and Ander managed to fell one with an arrow.

Cracking the door open after hearing the kobolds retreat, Ander spotted a lone kobold attempting to loot his fallen allies, only to killed himself.

At this point the party barricaded the doors to take a full rest to recover from their harrowing encounter with six kobolds, and to curse being first level. After all, it was midnight anyway. During their rest I allowed the party members to level up (except for Audrey), and Broak recovered once again from his near-death injuries, and Grabby was feeling much better (but there was a corner in the room that they don't talk about in polite conversation).

Early in the morning (they assumed, they were in a dungeon) they proceeded cautiously into the great hall. Scattered about the hall were the remains of a once great banquet table, and Grabby examined the well in the center of the room, seeing (and smelling) stagnant water at the bottom. There were also several small "kobold holes" in the walls that the kobolds had dug out themselves to navigate between rooms that would be too small for most others to attempt to crawl into.

They decided to enter the double doors to the east, to check for traps Broak decided to try to "skip" a throwing axe along the flagstone floor. Deeming it safe, he decided to lead the party on... and that's when he fell into a carefully constructed pit trap. Once the dust settled, the party leaned over to see a ten foot pit, filled with wooden spikes sticking up out of the floor—and Broak lying unconscious (again, he still hadn't fully recovered) on the ground, with a spike driven through his leg.

After hauling him out and give Broak a healing potion that Grabby was carrying, they decided to try the west doors, and this time Ander would lead the way. Carefully they made their way down the corridor. Ander triggered a trap that set of spring loaded spears in the walls to shoot out, which he managed to avoid. In a show of strength that ended in a stalemate, Audrey and Broak both broke the spears off in hopes of proving who was mightier.

Once reaching a set of doors at the end of the corridor, Broak carefully opened the a door to see some morning light streaming into the room... and that's when the bats attacked. A swarm of bats rushed out of the now open door, engulfing Broak, and eventually Audrey, but the party made short work of them.

Entering the room, they found what appeared to be an old lift-room, a chamber the dwarven inhabitants would use to raise and lower equipment to and from the surface. There was a collapsed tunnel to the north, and two small "kobold holes" in the walls. Grabby, wise as he is, decided to take a few steps inside one of the holes. Unfortunately, Broak had been using one of the broken trap spears to tap on the floor to search for traps, and this seems to have attracted the attention of two hungry giant centipedes. Emerging out of the dark they lunged at Grabby as he fell back to stand next to Broak. As he did this he yelled out a warning to his friends, "Guys! There's a...er... just wait, you'll see!"

The two creatures attacked both Broak and Grabby, poisoning Grabby. The two quickly killed the two giant vermin, and decided to take a short rest so Grabby could recover from his wounds.

When Grabby was feeling better, the party returned to the main hall and traveled through the doors to the north. Through the doors they found a shrine to the dwarf god Moradin, with a desecrated statue standing in the middle of the room. The party noticed that the statue of the dwarf god was starngely wet...

To be continued...

Character Sheets

Never been a big fan of what Wizards has put out there for character sheets, so I'm working on my own. So far I feel these are a bit more intuitive and better organized.

I can't link to it directly, but PDFs of these files can be found on Enworld, under character sheets, 5th edition. 

Chronology of Narr

I'm (slowly) working on the cyclopedia of the world. I still can't figure out if I can post PDFs on here, but for now, here's the campaign world's timeline.