[Session Report 12 - 11/30/24] Exploration of the Dungeon of Darkness

A trapped door handle

    The adventure began with the party opening the doors of the dungeon and descending down its dark, stone steps.  Immediately, the adventurers were overcome with a sense of dread and were faced with a choice - to go left or right.  They walked left and after a few minutes, came upon a wooden door with a strange handle.  The handle was in the shape of a curved snake with its tail and face facing forward.  Laying in front of the door was a corpse of an adventurer who had met an unfortunate end, although his body, surprisingly seemed to be mostly unharmed.

    Norik of the Jagged Peaks knew something was amiss and started to examine the body, first checking the hands as he thought the handle must've released some kind of dart but found nothing.  Further searching of the body showed a small prick and needle located on the man's torso.  Norik then ripped two strips of cloth, one to wrap his hand and the other to stuff the mouth of the serpent handle.  He then forced the door open and a "pffft" was heard.  The party overcame their first trap.

    Entering the room and searching amounted to nothing besides finding another doorway to the north.  They opened it, followed the passage west, and encountered another door.  This door seemed particularly stuck and took the adventurers a few attempts to open but when they were able to enter the room, they found a fear-stricken man. crouched in the corner, aiming his crossbow at the party.  After realizing that the man's mind was nearly, if not completely, gone they left him a copy of their map and a ration before continuing their adventure.

    After leaving the room and exploring a bit further, the party came across 3 corpses and figured that these were likely the poor man's companions.  Their bodies were maimed but not looted, the party was able to find 200sp, 40gp, and a well-crafted dagger (dagger +1).  They had a brief discussion about whether or not the party should leave now that they found some treasure.  Norik, Silnth, and Fern were dangerously low on rations and feared that starvation would set in but the rest of the party wanted to press on.  They decided to continue exploring the dungeon.

    Soon after, they came upon another door and forced it open.  Inside the room was a group of kobolds, surprised by the party's sudden entrance.  In a matter of seconds, the party hacked their way through the humanoids.  Then the kobolds attacked and struck down Silnth of the Tangled Woods.  More kobolds were killed and panic started to set in.  Fearing for their lives, the kobolds tried to flee but they were too slow and were cut down!  The party rested and took a look around the room and were horrified by what they saw.  Dismembered bodies hanging from hooks and chains connected to the ceiling.  The smell was overwhelming.  The only relieving thought for the party was that most of the bodies seemed to be of humanoid origin, likely goblin remains, rather than from humans or demi-humans.

    The party continued on and entered a chamber and saw that a man had been decapitated.  His head sat atop a sword, now wedged into a section of wall.  Norik heaved and managed to pull the sword out and the head fell.  They searched his body but found nothing.  They then walked several feet eastward and entered a room of pure gore.  The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in slimy, bloody, flesh and fused into the wall was the remains of a man who still drew breath!  Among the forced and guttural noises that escaped his labored breathing was a plea for mercy - "Please... kill... me..."  After locking eyes with the mutilated man, Norik ended his suffering.

    Disturbed and shaken up, the party left the room in a hurry and entered another room.  It was quite large but also quite empty.  The only things of note in the room were a golden statue with ruby eyes resting on a plinth and several rectangular holes in the ceiling.  The party quickly came to the conclusion that this place was trapped but weren't quite sure what the trap was specifically.  Someone suggested arrows, then another said that the room would likely fill with gas.  Stricken with greed, the party devised a plan - they would lasso the skull from outside the room and pull it to them so that if arrows, gas, acid, etc poured out of the vents that they'd be out of harm's reach.  They threw the lasso and caught the skull and pulled it towards them.  Instantly, the skull let out a maniacal laugh and 8 stirges flew out from the holes.  Hag the Medium held her arms out forward and cast sleep, causing all 8 stirges to drop.  The rest of the party dispatched the monsters quickly.

    Now that they had defeated the trap, they looked around the room.  The adventurers began to discuss the value of such an idol and whether or not they'd be able to pawn it off back at town or if they'd have to search for a buyer, perhaps some eccentric wizard or the lord of Dragonwrath himself.  Insulted by this, the golden skull began speaking to the party.  Initially, the skull and party were quite annoyed with each other (the skull was particularly sarcastic and critical) but after one of the party members threatened to leave the skull facing a corner of the room, he began to be more agreeable (although still quite sarcastic).  Norik cut two eye holes in his small sack and placed the skull in.  The party spoke with the skull for quite a while and learned several things - it was at least a thousand years old, his favorite color is ruby red (he had initially answered "power" but Fern questioned him further), and that most humanoids that have encountered him either ran away or worshiped him.

"...my favorite color... hmmm... POWER!!!"

    Our heroes left the room and continued their adventure, eventually entering the living quarters of some goblins after walking through a winding corridor.  An all out battle broke out and the party was victorious.  The skull admitted he was impressed with the party's combat ability, but still maintained that he was still their superior which annoyed most of the party members.

    They traveled down another hallway and encountered more goblins, making quick work of them.  The goblins had been busy getting drunk and gambling, leaving them ill-prepared for an attack from adventurers.  The party searched the room and collected the stacks of gold coins set on the table and in the goblins' purses.  The party was now fairly content with their treasure and were ready to leave, but wanted to return to check on the lone survivor that they had met before.  They opened the door and saw his lifeless body slumped over in the corner of the room.  He had shot himself.

    Saddened by this, and not wanting to press their luck, the party left the dungeon and made their way back to the safety of Dragonwrath after about a week of overland travel.  They finally arrived at the town on the 18th of Sun's Warmth.