Boys Delve into the Dungeon, part 2

Continued from part 1.

Having come out of the evil worship area, the party of explorers chose another corridor to follow out of the throne room. They made their way down a winding hallway, finally coming to a door at the end. The lead fighter knocked on the door, and then opened it, to find a woman warrior holding two swords standing in a dark room. The woman had apparently been through some trouble, as her clothing and gear were battle worn. The room itself was once an officer’s quarters, but the beds and furniture were old and battered. The party was a bit taken aback by this woman, standing alone in the dark, and they began questioning her, and she questioned them right back. Her story was that “we” had been betrayed and abandoned by “our” comrade, and they had to hide in this room from the goblins of the dungeon. The party wizard held up the big ruby they had found in the ash/fire snake pit, and got the woman’s interest. After a few more minutes of back and forth parley, the party realized she kept using a plural pronoun.

“Who is ‘we’?” the party inquired. At that question, two armed halflings came from around a corner and from behind a bed. Further talk revealed that these three had been exploring this dungeon with an elf comrade, but the elf had turned on them. The woman and halflings were wounded, so the party cleric aided them with some magical healing. The party offered to split treasure with the woman and halflings if they joined them, and the three agreed, saying they wanted to be eventually lead outside to safety.

So the party plus three then left that room and backtracked to the throne room. From the throne room, the party took another unexplored hallway. Making their way down this even longer and more winding passage, they went through a couple more doors, and finally came to another door at the very end of the hallway. This long uneventful trek had made everyone restless and rowdy again. And even more careless. The lead fighter flung the door open without caution.

A large red dragon stood immediately on the other side of that door, and it belched forth a spray of fire on the two lead fighters standing in the corridor. One fighter was only moderately singed, but the other was severely burned. The badly injured fighter hastily backpedaled from the doorway. While the cleric applied magical aid to the retreating fighter as all the other fighters charged forward to engage the dragon. The party overwhelmed the dragon in a hail of spear and sword thrusts. Only one more fighter was lightly injured before the dragon was defeated. Everyone gave a great cheer for their victory.

But once the dragon was out of the way, the party saw goblins in the chamber beyond, guarding a wizard preparing to cast magic spells.

The fighters charged into the room. The first two threw their spears over and between the goblin bodyguards, and the wizard was skewered without ever uttering a single syllable of any magic word. Then the party cut down the goblins without much trouble.

The room the dragon and wizard and goblins were in seemed to be just an empty chamber. No other doors, no furniture, no nothing but the now-dead inhabitants. The party said that just can’t be, so they went about searching the walls for secret doors. One fighter searched the wizard and found some coins and gems, and a couple of small bottles of liquid: one milky white, one clear like water. They recognized that they were probably magical potions, but what their magic might be, they didn’t know.

Those searching the room found and opened a secret door in the back wall. Beyond was another corridor, going just forty feet and ending. As they discussed searching this whole corridor, the fighter left guarding their backs, at the doorway where they had fought the dragon, called out that more trouble had found them.

Five hobgoblins were approaching from down the hallway, and the rear guard fighter charged into them. The rest of the party joined in a moment later. In a frenzy of stabbing spears and slashing swords, the hobgoblins were slain one by one. But the last standing enemy managed to swing his axe down hard on one of the fighters, mortally wounding him. The fighter fell to the floor moaning and bleeding. A couple of the other fighters stepped up and finished off that last hobgoblin, avenging their comrade, while the others in the party tried to help their fallen friend.

The wounded fighter would die momentarily if they didn’t do something immediately, and unfortunately, the cleric was all out of healing for the day. The fighter who had searched the dead enemy wizard pulled out the two potions he had found. Might one of them help? Maybe. But which one? They quickly decided to try the milky white potion, and poured it into the dying fighter’s mouth. It worked; it was a healing potion. The dying fighter’s bleeding stopped and the wound closed. The party rejoiced. They helped their recovering friend up, then they moved back through the room and into the secret passage.

Their search at the end of the secret passage found another secret door. They opened it and found a treasure room. Prominent in the room was a large, open chest full of gold and silver coins and jewels. To either side of the chest was a pile of gold and silver coins. Four of the fighters rushed toward the treasure only to learn that a magic sleeping spell protected it. Two of the fighters fell to the floor, asleep, but the two others managed to keep awake enough to stagger back away.

When it was confirmed that the fallen fighters were just sleeping, the rest of the party put their heads together to figure out what to do. To test the magical effect, a couple more fighters marched to the treasure. They both felt the affects of the sleep spell. One more fell asleep, and the other stumbled back away. So they realized that the effect was not a one-shot spell, but an ongoing enchantment.

The party made lassos of some lengths of rope, and pulled their sleeping companions out of the room, where they awakened easily enough. They then looped the treasure chest with the lassos and tried pulling the loot out. One fighter couldn’t even move the chest. Two could only barely make it shift. So all six fighters put their strength into pulling two ropes looped around the chest, and they managed to drag it all the way out of the room.

Trying to lasso the two piles of loose coins remaining in the room revealed that those piles were just illusions, not real. But the treasure in the heavy chest was real enough, and the party gathered it all up in their backpacks and sacks. Having reached the end of this area of the dungeon, the party, with a full load of treasure, decided it would be a good time to retreat out of the dungeon and retire in camp. The group made quick and quiet time back out the way they had come in.

And so ended the adventure. Tallying up the experience points for the monsters defeated and treasure found, the fighters all advance to 2nd level.

Bullgrit