Campaign Journal - Session 3 - Goblins Aplenty

April 6, Northern Reckoning Year 707, continued.
When we left our heroes at the end of session 2, they were in room "8" of the map below, having fought and killed a total of 6 goblins.

Having dispatched 5 goblins in room 8, the party moved south into chambers 9 and 10. These were found to be used as living areas, and there were a half dozen other goblins to be dealt with here. A little damage was taken, but the characters cleared out the area quickly and efficiently.

The party then moved back through the fungus room (area 7) and headed north. Climbing up the passage, they came into room 6, an oblong chamber with a very uneven rock floor. Picking their way carefully across the room, they were forced to shimmy single file through a narrow passage heading further north. Coming out into a wider hallway, the party decided to go northwest. As the first few party members headed in that direction, an arrow whizzed out of the darkness to the east and skewered Melior Ardenshade (the wood elf Druid), taking him down to a single hit point. Ardenshade collapsed back into the passage while the Cleric and the two Fighters charged into a large chamber to the east. Five goblins were crouching among the rocks, shooting at the characters. A couple of hits were made, and two of the goblins ran away, exiting down a narrow passage further east. As the combat types were fighting the remaining goblins, two more burst into the room from the north. Soon, all had been taken care of, with some damage taken by the party.

Session 3 dungeon crawling (up is north)

The group did some healing (especially on the Druid), and then followed the passage that the fleeing goblins had taken. This narrow passage climbed steeply upwards, and opened into a medium sized low ceilinged chamber with exits in four directions. Sunlight was coming in from the south passage. A short climb up in that direction brought the party past an empty watch post and out into the sunlight via a cave entrance on the far side of one of the hills they had explored before going underground. From the sun's position in the sky, it was seen to be late in the afternoon.

Going back into chamber 2, the characters decided to go down a steeply winding passage leading east. This brought them to a long narrow chamber sloping down into the darkness to the north. As they moved cautiously in that direction, they noticed a few small side passages, and what seemed to be signs of recent excavation near these tunnels. Investigating what were apparently a few more small living areas that had been dug out fairly recently, it was becoming obvious that the goblins had not been here for more than a month or two, and had been digging out some of these areas since they arrived. At the far northern (lowest) end of the chamber was a pool of water.

After investigating the two small chambers on the east side of the long chamber, one unexplored passage remained on the west wall. This passage appeared partly natural and partly dug out, and was very small. For the characters to fit through, they would have to crawl on hands and knees, single file. With the rogue going first, a small widened area was found where the party regrouped. The rogue continued on, went right at a spot where the passage forked, and found a medium sized chamber to the northeast. The remainder of the party shimmied and crawled through to the chamber, where they could all stand up again. There was another pool of water in the lower southeast side of the chamber, and a narrow (but tall) opening in the north wall.

Not a sound or sign of goblins had been heard or seen since back in chamber 5...

To be Continued...

The Sage's Commentary - Our third session, a brief two hours due to schedules (and played back in mid-November), covered a lot of fighting, but not much map space. I am beginning to get a feel for how much "ground" we can cover in a session, be it literal in the sense of how much can be explored, or figurative in the sense of how much time needs to be allocated to role playing certain facets of the adventure. Combat, even relatively straightforward combat, eats up a lot of time. In two hours (including some socializing of course) we covered a mere 10-12 areas and the passages in between, and three combat sequences. It was an eventful two hours.