Campaign Journal - Session 2 - Going Underground

April 6, Northern Reckoning Year 707, continued.
We last left our heroes standing in the ruins of an old town, at the top of what seemed to be a well shaft terminating 30 feet or so below the level of the surface at a chamber with a pool of water.

The characters discussed whether to proceed down the shaft, and decided to spend some additional time investigating the surface. During the course of the above ground exploring, they found other interesting things is some of the other basements and ruins: what seemed to be another well with water at the bottom, a narrow staircase down, a circular carved stone floor which may have been a teleportation/conjuring circle or other magical focus, and a small silver box containing two potions (healing and gaseous form). There were a number of vultures conspicuously circling the area.

Above Ground

While exploring, there were a few times when a character would notice movement out of the corner of their eye. Eventually, they found that a young warrior looking for adventure who had seen them in Olmsby had been following them for the last two days. It was decided that he would be allowed to remain and attempt to prove his worth, with the party being heavy on spellcasters but relatively light on muscle. His name was Mordecai.

In a deep circular foundation, the characters found an intact wooden door protected by a magical ward. Duncan was able to open the door, and the party descended into the darkness. The area proved to be a small basement/dungeon complex consisting of eleven chambers going progressively deeper underground. It was obvious that the party wasn't the first group to enter this area, as most of the chambers appeared ransacked. Judging from the remnants of furniture and other items, the characters guessed that this was a laboratory and storage area for whatever building had been above. There was no combat in this area, but several items of note were discovered, including a large but heavy (6' by 6') carved wooden panel depicting warriors fighting a dragon in high relief. The characters mulled over options on getting this piece of artwork back to town. Behind a pair of secret doors, a library and treasure room were found, including the long-dead body of an earlier explorer. The party found some non-magical books with some potential value, some coins and silver trade bars, and a magical scroll with the second level Arcane Lock spell. The treasure was left in the secret room to be returned for later. In a pack that the dead explorer had been carrying was a scroll fragment that references searching ruins in the area, and named a particular halfling in the the town of Shimmermere as having been a source of information.

The Tower Dungeon

Finding no other egress from the Tower dungeon area, the party went back above ground and went down the narrow stairs they had found in another crumbling basement. This part of the dungeon was more damp than the Tower dungeon had been, with sections of mold and fungus in some of the rooms and passages. Like the Tower dungeon, it was a man made area, with regular floors, walls and ceilings. In one of the rooms, the party was attacked by three giant centipedes and was finally able to roll some dice in anger, disposing of the centipedes quickly. This section seems to have been an underground temple area, as there was a room with an altar and the remains of crumbling stone and wood benches, along with a lot of religious iconography painted or carved into the walls. Badric, the cleric, was able to recognize the religious symbols as belonging to some of the old Onorian "Forbidden Gods". The two chambers believed to be the bottom of the two wells were found, and down a succession of stairs and behind a secret door, the party found a large and beautiful Crystal Cavern.

Both wells were actually cisterns fed by a small stream running through the respective chambers. In the more southerly of the two, the water passed out of the room through a passage with barely enough head clearance to be navigated, and Melior crawled far enough down the shallow stream passage to find a small alcove holding about a hundred gold coins and a very nice longsword that one of the characters was able to identify as being of Onorian manufacture. It remains to be seen whether there is anything special about the sword. Continuing down the stream passage brought the Druid to a natural passageway intersecting the stream that would be large enough to walk in (and there were small humanoid tracks in the dirt and rock floor). The rest of the party was led through the stream, arriving at the natural passage cold and wet, but unharmed.

The Temple dungeon and the Caves

The passage led to a chamber, and then another passage which arrived at a larger chamber with multiple entrances/exits. The party chose to go east down a narrow passage that had been behind a rough curtain made of scraps of cloth and netting. They arrived at a large natural chamber with some light filtering down from above, which was filled with mushrooms and other fungi. They surprised a goblin in the process of harvesting some of these fungi, and fleet-footed Niam was able to catch and slay the goblin before it could run out another passage.

Proceeding down the passage, the party engaged and defeated 5 more goblins quickly (4 courtesy of a Sleep spell from Duncan), but taking some damage in the process. A clerical Cure Wounds spell was needed. So far so good.

With a number of unexplored passages leading out of the last few chambers the party had been in, and with choices to make, we stopped at that point. In game terms, it was estimated to be mid- to late afternoon on April 6, perhaps 6-7 hours after the party had arrived at the ruins.

Next...More Caves and more Goblins.

The Sage's Commentary - We  played this session back on October 25 (I think), and our second session had three of our four planned players, losing one from last time but gaining the one who had missed our first session. This was the session where exploration and scene setting began to result in action and combat. I think things went more smoothly this time around. It probably wasn't much different, but just seemed to flow better in my own mind as I felt less self-conscious about telling the story and guiding the action. Being very well prepared certainly helps. Everybody seems anxious to continue, which is terrific, and I have a lot of ideas for things to do to make the game play flow more smoothly, some of which we were already using in this session (cheat sheets, spell cards, a custom player character sheet...). I'd rather do a lot of prep work so that when we sit down to play, it is about the story and not about fumbling with rule books to figure what a spell does, etc. It seems to be working.