Session 13: Drooling Slime and Bandits

Artie returns to the party and they continue to explore the Mouth of Doom.

This is based on Kay's (Blaze's) notes from our September 20, 2023 session. The screen shots were taken by JoJo (Breena). Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop.

Continued from: Entering the Mouth of Doom

Date: May 12th, 3517 I.R.  
Location: Inside the Mouth of Doom

Artie had not been feeling well since second breakfast and had gone back to Castle Calaelen with the worg skin. After taking a dump he felt better and went back to catch up to the party.

He went back to the ruined cottage and went up the hill and saw the big carved demon head at the head of the valley. He went into the dark cave, using a candle to see, and took the stairs going down. He saw the opened door to the south; in a niche above the door was a pentacle. Through the double-doors was a hallway oriented to the east/west. The doors in the hallway had locks that looked corroded with acid, and doors that were chopped with an axe. He could see a door on the south side of the hallway to the east, showing a light through the open door.

4:30
Breena and Rocky, on the other side of the open door heard footsteps to the north near the door. Artie came through saying, “It is I.”

Back in the room with the three skeletons, were three adventurer’s packs.  Sinis took out 8 torches and 8 pitons from one of the packs and dropped them, keeping the rest of the pack. Artie picked up the pitons; Elron put the 8 torches in a corner of the room. The door in the south wall of the room had a skeleton lying in front of it with 3 spikes holding the door shut. Lark pulled out the spikes and opened the stuck door with some effort.

Artie put his candle away as both Blaze and Parahelia had items that can emit light in a 20-foot radius.

Beyond the door was a hallway going east/west, 12-ft-high and, like the rest of the rooms, the ceiling was made of black stone masonry. To the west was a dogleg in the hallway that turned to the north, then west, then south; to the east was the end of the hall; Elron found a secret door to his left (north) in the first bend of the dogleg, before going back to rejoin the others.

Beneddar and Lark headed east along the hallway and came to a door on the south wall; Artie opened the door after checking for traps. Breena went around the corner at the east end of the hall and turned north into a hallway oriented north/south; there was a hole in the floor in front of her.

Artie tried and failed to open the door, so Lark used force; it was stuck and finally opened. The southern portion of the room had collapsed into rubble; the ceiling had fallen in. Lark said the room was unstable and could collapse at any moment. Back in the hallway to the east, the hallway turned north with a long hallway, oriented north/south.

Lark checked out the hole; it looked like it was made by claw marks and something chewed its way through. Beneddar asked Lark if he smelled anything; it smelled like rodents, and he heard scratching sounds in the distance.

Going north, we found a hallway going west.

Beneddar was standing at the ‘T’ junction at the W/N intersection. He stepped on the floor which hinged into an open pit. He then gracefully backflipped out of it.  That bard had some acrobatics skills.

We started using the spikes to scratch arrows on the walls and floors to show us the way out.  Arrows pointing back to the stairs leading out; an ‘X’ for a trap - one on each side of the pit.

In the west hallway, Lark opened a door on the south wall; it was stuck so Blaze helped him. The room was empty and featureless, and had one door on the east wall, a secret door. Artie checked it for traps, and pulled open the secret door into a hallway oriented to the south; Lark went south down the hall and found another secret door along the western wall, which Artie opened.

Pushing a rock on the wall opened it, it was not trapped.

The door opened onto a room with green slime dripping from the ceiling, which was bowed down and badly cracked. The room looked otherwise empty. Green slime covered much of the floor. Lark stepped inside the room, avoiding stepping in the slime.

Back in the main hallway, Elron and Sinis opened the door in the north wall of the corridor. The room was empty, covered with cobwebs but no spiders. The ceiling’s condition was better; Elron checked for traps.

Back at the slime room: Beneddar, Blaze, and Breena checked it out. Beneddar tied a rope around himself with Blaze holding the other end out in the hallway.

He stepped into the slime room to check the walls on the north side of the room. We’ve worked out that there should be another room there, and he found a secret door as we expected. Artie tried to open it and failed after 10 minutes; then tried again. While waiting, slime from the ceiling dripped onto Beneddar’s headgear which sizzled and took damage; he removed and replaced it. Artie finally found a catch and opened the door. The room was empty except for three nice fancy chests against the northern wall. Beneddar, Breena and Artie went into the room while Blaze stayed outside holding the rope.

The room was clean and not disturbed; it looked like it hadn’t been accessed since before the slime happened.

The left chest first: Artie checked for and triggered a trap with mage hand; a poison needle shot out harmlessly.

The middle chest: Artie checked; it’s locked but not trapped. The right chest: again, was locked but not trapped. Artie unlocked them and used mage hand to open the left chest lid about one inch and checked again; it was mostly empty, but had one bag.

The middle chest opened with mage hand; there’s a single flask in the chest. The right chest was locked, which Artie unlocked with mage hand; inside was a scroll case and a potion flask.

Beneddar pulled out the bag, which felt like there were coins in it. From the middle chest he pulled out the potion flask, it looked like a purple potion full of crystals. He wrapped it in his cloak and put it in his bag. The right chest had a solid red potion that was sealed which he wrapped in a cloth, and he took the scroll case as well.

Everyone succeeded at getting out of the rooms safely without getting slimed.

They headed north back up the hallway to the T-intersection to the E/W hallway and rejoined the others. Heading to the west along the new hallway, there was an unlocked door at the end of the hall, with well-oiled hinges, and the room beyond was the stairway we came down from the entry cave. This door was the one that had a skull symbol over it; Lark went through it and headed north to the next door on the same wall; it’s the one that has a goat’s head, and he detected a pit trap in front of it. Lark used his axe to trigger the trap; it opened in the floor about 10 feet down.

Beneddar used mage hand but couldn’t open the door. Breena used Rocky to get to the door.

While they were working on access to the goat door, Lark walked to the north end door that has no symbol over it. As he approached, a mouth formed above it which said, “YOU STAND AT THE THRESHOLD OF RAPPAN ATHUK, THE DUNGEON OF GRAVES. TURN BACK, TRESPASSERS, FOR YOU WILL FIND NOTHING BUT YOUR DEATH IN THESE DARK HALLS!”

Lark was all for going through the door; the rest of us dissuaded him. We went back east to the 4-way intersection and continued north to the next intersection, which had an open pit in the middle of the floor, and two side halls continuing north around it on each side.

Beneddar took the east hall and walked up to a door at the end of the hall. As he reached it, it opened and fighter types came out to investigate the noises we were making.

Elron shot one with an arrow and combat began.

Beneddar tried to de-escalate the situation, but failed and fighting began in earnest.

Breena was next to the door and she ducked when one of them swung a sword at her. One fighter hit Rocky and he vanished to wherever familiars go when they are dismissed. Breena will have to resummon him.

Elron stepped forward and swung his longsword, killing one, which prompted one of them to say, “Fuck, these guys are tough!”

Parahelia fired guiding bolt. Breena cast thunderwave; one died, and two others were pushed back 10 feet by the wave. Sinis cast acid splash on one and killed him. Lark moved up, Beneddar moved next to Lark and cast Toll the Dead on the remaining fighter, and he was.

So now, all four fighters were dead, and we were all standing in a room with bed rolls and personal effects.

Continued in Rats and a Temple of Green Flame