This delve was manned by Buddy, Corvus, Enkidu, and James. As well as the henchmen Gelanos, Burke, and Gerald.
During downtime, two of the characters, Buddy and James, met in secret with the Lord-Prince Golthrod. He threw the serpent armbands on the table and asked them to tell him what they knew about the serpent-men. He then commanded them to relay any new information to him for small rewards of gold. He only requested that they keep quiet about this meeting.
Buddy spilled the beans quite early into the delve, much to James' chagrin. Regardless, the party found it useful.
They picked up their tracks and re-entered the hallway with the trapped stairs. James used a ten foot pole to fire off the steps, only getting a whiff of the gray lotus dust released from above. Corvus collected this in his waterskin, as well as tipping his arrows with the poison. In the process, he poisoned himself and started experience the lotus-sweats.
They found a new prisoner in the massive prison cell room (the same room that they released the sabertooth tiger from). Her name was Sora and she, like Tobruk, had a very murky memory of the past few weeks. She was a thief, of the thieves guild (the Jewelers) in Svargorod. She came here with Tobruk and Thrang. Her eyes shined silver. She was out of sorts.
Continuing south to the other two prison cells (including one with the ghoul), the characters didn't take long to find out that Sora was bewitched. She tried closing a door to split the party, then proceeded to shove James into the outstretched arms of the ghoul reaching from its prison bars.
Luckily, James stayed on his feet then dashed Sora's head into the wall. She went down immediately.
They bound her and put her aside, then dealt with the ghoul in this prison cell. Enkidu chopped off the arms, then tossed in some flaming oil. Like fish in a barrel. The flaming oil spread inside the cell and lit another ghoul on fire! There was one hiding in the shadows. The first ghoul died and the second broke off its leg and threw it against the cell bars.
The party proceeded down the bas-relief hallway lined with images of tigers, serpents, aurochs, and elephants. They rounded a corner and came to a door which had a serpent's head. The fangs were protruding and removable. Inside were hidden latches, but the party did not find their secret use.
An encounter roll (finally! the first one in three sessions) procured 7 kobolds. These kobolds, although armed and ready to fight, rolled in the "undecided" section of the reaction roll. That coupled with the party's decent command of the kobold language, kept them confused long enough for the ranged combatants in the party to kill enough of the "demon-dogs" to send them running for dear life.
The room beyond was a circular chamber with walls of ancient tortures, diabolical magicians, and massive graves of human sacrifices. In the centre, a spiral staircase led downwards.
A door stood on the other side of the room. They entered, finding a hallway and two ape-men (quaggoths) grumbling hungrily over a couple of thoroughly-gnawed bones. A good reaction roll delivers another encounter that goes well for the adventurers. That, coupled with the bribe of some rations puts James into an escorted tour to the quaggoth guard room. James sees a key on the ground, grabs it, then runs out.
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| Quaggoth by Russ Nicholson |
One quaggoth follows him to see where he's going, runs into their whole party. Corvus offers some more food doused in his poison-laced water (thankfully the quaggoths are immune to poison).
The party escapes that hallway, retraces their steps, and opens the ghoul cell with their newly-acquired key. The one-legged ghoul left from before hops out and is promptly chopped down (after sending Enkidu into paralysis). Once everyone wakes up, the adventurers loot the cell, carrying out some gold, a flask of Oil of Etherealness, and a magic-user tablet with burning hands and unseen servant.
They also find an anklet on Sora, not unlike the armbands found on the kobolds from last delve. Except this one has traces of silver along the brass banding. Once removed, Sora's eyes no longer gleam with silver. The party takes it for themselves, curious to inspect it in town.
When they return to town, they deliver Sora to the Jewelers and place their looted goods under watch.
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