Play Report: KotB/Barrier March, Sessions 85 and 86 (A Night in the Alleyways)

With Leonard having finished his arcane training in Larkbridge since their last delve, the party is ready to return to the buried village on April 10th:

• Kilterson (MaC): Level 3 Human Druid
  • Meddle, Level 3 Halfling Scoundrel
• Ingrid Corvinsdatter (MaD): Level 2 Human Barbarian
• Leonard (JoF): Level 2/2 Elf Cleric/Mage

They bring with them quality swords and shields to offer as gifts for Stelk and Kilt, the charmed kobolds they have placed at the head of the kobold tribe at the village entrance. They make it to Warded Cross by noon and rather than spending the night again, they head directly to the sunken village.

They find the kobolds more standoffish than their recent visits and they worry a little, but Kilt is summoned and greets them happily. He informs them that Stelk was killed while on a patrol when they offer the gift, so they keep one pair back. They also learn that goblins have attacked the kobold door in the week since the last visit, but they were few and easily repelled.

Ingrid is able to track them, having fled only recently and in numbers. However, arriving at the intersection between north and south, they lose the trail. They decide to try to clear the rest of the rooms around the well room with the sink hole to the surface.

Breaking one locked door, they find three of the purple, mottled zombies there and Ingrid flees in a panic. The others make a fighting retreat, slowly following Ingrid and killing two before they find her in the last room before the webbed halls, having been stopped by their spiked door there. The last is soon slain, as well, and Ingrid calms.

They return to the sinkhole room and break another door open to find a cabin that on a search produces two gems, a citrine and an aquamarine. They wedge the doors to the northern entrance to the sink hole room and set out to search the western end of some tunnels. They send Meddle ahead and he finds two huge spiders that they decide to engage, successfully killing them before they become much of a threat.

Searching cabins on the west end, they find a purple zombie in the one at the far end, but little more of value. They return to the sinkhole chamber and wedge more doors to prepare for a night in the dungeon for Leonard and Kilterson to recover their spells.

During the night, they hear something scratching at the norther doors and someone trying to force the western door, but nothing arrive at their camp. Checking the north, it looks like only rats at the door. To the west, they find the outer door they had wedged on that side doesn’t move, even after the wedge is removed. They suspect a trap and tie their own rope to pull it open.

They are successful on their second attempt and the door slams open with another loud sound that cracks like thunder echoing through the caves not a second later. Not liking the implications of the sound, they go back through the sinkhole chamber and out the northern path, returning to the kobolds by the way they didn’t want to reveal. The kobolds heard the sound and advise them to be more careful and they set out again to go see what trap it was that something set for them.

While Meddle scouts ahead, he encounters several large spiders and returns to the party (waiting in the well chamber) fleeing from them. They use a cabin beside the well chamber to escape them, but as they emerge out the other side, three huge spiders confront them at the edge of their light. They know the spiders are faster, but they flee through the well chamber anyway, with Kilterson closing the other spiders in as they pass by. They make their way to the cabins connected to the stitched man and just manage to close themselves in.

With the huge spiders struggling at the door, they prepare the ground before another door with oil and use ropes to pull the wedge and open the door to let them in. The spiders rush right into their fire trap and are burned. As Kilterson bursts out the other door, looking to trap them inside the cabins, he sees two escaping and closes his door again.

They decide to follow and try to confront the two, finding that one was killed in the fire trap. They find nothing, however, of the spiders and it seems they may have returned to their nest after the stir of the sound. Returning to investigate the trapped door they pulled open, they find that a rope was arranged so that when they opened their door, they slammed another, which is now broken down, that led to the spider webs.

They decide to leave the spiders undisturbed and sear three more rooms in the west, accumulating a number of coonskin caps to add to their collection of porcelain and a silver platter looted from the cabins.

Determining that their evidence points to small humanoids, like the goblins they sought, being behind the trap on their door, they determine that they must have returned north (along the orange arrow in the map below) after setting the trap. They want to go after them, but decide to withdraw and make go to Endsdell to recruit more men to help with their attack.

This map shows some knowledge found in the next couple sessions as well, but hopefully helps give come context.

On the way to Endsdell, they encounter numerous merchants and patrols, and on the second day a trio of six-legged panthers with tentacles at their shoulders watching from the side of the road, but which allow them to pass. They turn back a tinker coming this way and accompany him to Endsdell where they hire two fighters, a cleric, and thief to join them in their delving after interviewing almost every candidate in the city.

Camping in the dungeon is always dangerous, but with doors that can be barred, it proved safe enough to prepare spells, even. They got to experience one of the interactions of the dungeon as a result. They’re zeroing in on the hobgoblins and goblins.