This session happened Wednesday, January 12, 2010. This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game. We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).
Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading
This day Super rat decided to investigate some rooms that they had bypassed previously, notably the chained door on the main part of Level 6, a door they ignored in the isolated part of Level 6, and the air and water shrines in the Elemental Temple on Level 7.
Wending their way down through the dungeon, they arrived at the chained door on Level 6. Wednesday thoroughly checked the door and removed the chains after pronouncing it safe. Sahar opened the door and entered the room, discovering four gargoyles who immediately attacked. The adventurers were not certain fire would hurt the stony creatures until Luna hit one with a scorching ray and burned it. Due to the fight being bottle-necked at the doorway, Sahar was responsible for the majority of the melee attacks. Harkaitz was able to indirectly heal her by casting shield other on her, splitting the damage she takes between the two of them and healing himself. It was not perfect, but it worked. After defeating the gargoyles, the adventurers found two coffers: one with 9000 pieces of copper and the other containing two golden crowns. [If all the adventurers start wearing crowns, does the group name change to King Rat?]
After healing up from the gargoyle fight, the adventurers descended the spiral stairs to the Elemental Temple. Harkaitz led the way, acting like he and the others belonged there. When challenged, he stated the group was looking for Tim and asked if the questioner had seen him. This worked multiple times. A door in the back of the air shrine led to a small (10 ft by 10 ft) room with two additional doors, one belled.
After Wednesday removed the bell from the belled door, the adventurers followed a long corridor behind it that ended in a door to the surface. The door was guarded, but Harkaitz again put the guards off by asking if they had seen Tim and looking dejected when they answered negatively. The group reversed course and returned to the small room. Wednesday replaced the bell on the door to the surface and Harkaitz opened the other door. This door opened to a guard room/barracks with a number of armored guards in the room. Harkaitz immediately asked if anyone in the room had seen Tim, pre-empting any questions as to why the adventurers were there. The guards offered that they had not seen Tim in “a while”. Harkaitz spotted two other doors out of this room, but could not think of a legitimate reason to continue through and did not want to initiate a combat right then. He thanked the guards for their time and closed the door.
The group next walked over to the water shrine. There was a passage in the back which led to some sort of guest chambers, one of which was occupied by troglodytes. Harkaitz’s story of searching for Tim worked here as well and the party was able to leave without a fight.
After a quiet huddle to discuss options, the group walked back to the fire shrine and passed through the wax-sealed door again. Taking the stairs up to the isolated portion of Level 6, the adventurers turned down a side passage they had ignored previously. The passage ended at a door, which was unlocked and opened after Wednesday verified it was safe to do. Beyond the door was a dark room with a single occupant – a medusa! The medusa was apparently desperate to escape and blindly charged the party of adventurers. Not knowing that she was trying to escape, the adventurers fought her and killed her. [Wednesday felled the medusa with a critical hit backstab for near maximum damage. It was very impressive.]
Searching the medusa’s room afterward, a chest was found containing 10 pieces of jewelry. None of it was magical, but it was all of value, ranging from an estimated value of 400 gold marks up to 1600 gold marks. Along with the gold crowns found with the gargoyles, this had been a very valuable day for Super Rat. The group decided not to push their luck any further and (after bluffing their way back through the Elemental Temple) they returned to the surface and eventually Aldelle to plan their next move. [And to level up to 5th level characters!]
*End of Session*
[This was a short game session. We spent time at the beginning dealing with gear and loot from the previous game plus waiting for a late player. We also stopped a bit early as another fight would have led us to playing WAY late.]
Showing posts with label Level_6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Level_6. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Dyson’s Delve – Session 8 – A Marked Room
This session happened Wednesday, January 5, 2010. This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game. We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).
Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading
Rather than risk losing another prisoner through the sheriff, Super Rat held onto their wizard prisoner until they could question him. Harkaitz and Frankie handled the questioning, playing “good cop/bad cop”, respectively, but part way through the questioning, Harkaitz seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be the nice guy. The group learned that the three wizards were members of the Temple of Fire, a group that worships the power of the elements or possibly elementals. (Maybe even elder elementals...) Tim was once one of their number but was expelled from the group for reasons that were not made clear. Tim had contacted the Temple for assistance and it was viewed as Tim making amends, so Peter, Richard, and the third wizard [his name was never given, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was John Thomas] were dispatched to assist Tim and find out what he was up to. The map the had was discovered in the “Dungeon’s Junk Drawer”.
The three amulets the wizards were searching for apparently work with something Tim has to open a portal to…someplace. Tim was offering everything on the other side of the portal to the Temple – except for the one item he is claiming for himself. The guys in platemail were Tim’s servants, assigned to keep the three wizards from leaving before the job was done. Most of this story did not add up, but the adventurers decided that whatever that one item Tim wanted should under no circumstances fall into Tim’s hands.
The group then turned Peter over to the sheriff with the warning that he was a wizard in the service of Tim and should not be trusted. The adventurers then unloaded more of their loot onto the village trader for coin while Luna identified the gold crown as providing a magical boost to intelligence [+2]. After some discussion, it was given to Wednesday as she seemed best able to use it to the group’s advantage.
The group then returned to the Delve, quickly making their way back down to the sixth level, where they had battled the three wizards. Planning to do a simple sweep of the last two rooms to verify the map, Super rat ran into a group of four were-rats. [Side note: one of the players had no idea what “were-rat” meant and it had to be explained. She was suitably creeped out.] Due to having the map, Sahar and Luna were able to run around and flank the were-rats. Both Harkaitz and Luna cast burning hands during the fight, each with a different player character in the area of effect (Frankie and Sahar, respectively). Harkaitz had done this before with Frankie with Frankie easily was able to evade the flames, but not this time and he took full damage. Sahar was able to side-step most of Luna’s attack, but still got burned enough that Harkaitz had to run around to that flank and cast cure moderate wounds on her to keep her in the fight until the were-rats were defeated. Afterwards, Harkaitz healed everyone back to full health with a couple channelings of Ra’s positive energies. [Who is the one god?/Who is the sun god?/ Ra. Ra! RA!]
Having cleared as much of this level as they could, the group started descending the spiral stairs down to the next level of the Delve. Part way down, they heard a group chatting as they came up! Super rat quickly (and quietly) retreated back up to the top of the stairs. When the group climbing the stairs got near, Harkaitz called out, “What’s the password?” The group below answered, “Nexus,” and Harkaitz called for them to proceed. The guard patrol arrived at the top of the stairs to find the adventurers standing about the room nonchalantly. They gave the group some quizzical looks but seemed to accept them at face value as other guards and moved on. Super Rat waited until they were out of hearing range and then quickly descended the stairs.
The last 40 ft of stairs were open, descending from the center ceiling of a large, octagonal room. Four of the walls have large elemental symbols on them, one each for earth, air, fire, and water. There were also several priestly types going about their business and largely ignoring the player characters, who were doing their best to look like they belonged there. Apparently, with the previous guard patrol having just gone up the stairs. the priests assumed that the player characters DID belong there and never gave them a second look. The player characters for their part marched confidently across the room and exited a passage between the symbols for fire and earth. Turning left, they entered a shrine to fire (consisting of innumerable candles burning plus many fire beetles roaming freely) and finally out of sight of the priests. Looking around the room, Wednesday’s sharp eyes spotted a door buried under a layer of wax from candles past. With no other passage except back to where the priests were (and wanting to avoid their suspicions by reappearing so soon) the group decided to try the wax covered door. Harkaitz used produce flame [2nd level granted spell from the fire domain] to discretely melt the wax only at the edges of the door. Once freed of the wax binding, the door opened freely and the group entered a very dusty passage containing stairs up to the isolated portion of Level 6.
Following the map they had taken from the wizards, the adventurers passed an abandoned guard post and slipped through a series of rooms and corridors to the secret door hiding the marked room. Inside the marked room were two coffers. The first coffer contained 400 gold coins, while the second contained two scrolls. One of the scrolls had the spell formulae for continual flame on it. The other resisted both Luna and Harkaitz’s attempts at deciphering it [bad spellcraft roll]. Shrugging and planning to re-evaluate it once they were back in Aldelle, all of the loot went into the haversack.
On the way back out from the marked room, the group checked an adjacent room they had previously ignored and were attacked by five animated statues. Barely able to damage the stone the statues were made of, Super Rat fought a retreat back to the main corridor, closing and spiking the final door to seal off the statues. Luckily for Super Rat, the statues did not seem to be programmed to follow past that door. The adventurers had taken a pounding from the statues and not destroyed a single one. Battered, bruised, and starting to run short on healing, the group made their way back down through the temple and then up to the surface, their luck holding out enough so that they were unchallenged the entire way.
*End of Session*
[I have a new found respect for animated objects now, particularly ones made of stone. We had nothing able to bypass their hardness and they took half damage from our energy attack before the hardness was applied, negating our strongest attacks. We will not be returning to that part of the dungeon anytime soon, I guarantee you.]
Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading
Rather than risk losing another prisoner through the sheriff, Super Rat held onto their wizard prisoner until they could question him. Harkaitz and Frankie handled the questioning, playing “good cop/bad cop”, respectively, but part way through the questioning, Harkaitz seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be the nice guy. The group learned that the three wizards were members of the Temple of Fire, a group that worships the power of the elements or possibly elementals. (Maybe even elder elementals...) Tim was once one of their number but was expelled from the group for reasons that were not made clear. Tim had contacted the Temple for assistance and it was viewed as Tim making amends, so Peter, Richard, and the third wizard [his name was never given, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was John Thomas] were dispatched to assist Tim and find out what he was up to. The map the had was discovered in the “Dungeon’s Junk Drawer”.
The three amulets the wizards were searching for apparently work with something Tim has to open a portal to…someplace. Tim was offering everything on the other side of the portal to the Temple – except for the one item he is claiming for himself. The guys in platemail were Tim’s servants, assigned to keep the three wizards from leaving before the job was done. Most of this story did not add up, but the adventurers decided that whatever that one item Tim wanted should under no circumstances fall into Tim’s hands.
The group then turned Peter over to the sheriff with the warning that he was a wizard in the service of Tim and should not be trusted. The adventurers then unloaded more of their loot onto the village trader for coin while Luna identified the gold crown as providing a magical boost to intelligence [+2]. After some discussion, it was given to Wednesday as she seemed best able to use it to the group’s advantage.
The group then returned to the Delve, quickly making their way back down to the sixth level, where they had battled the three wizards. Planning to do a simple sweep of the last two rooms to verify the map, Super rat ran into a group of four were-rats. [Side note: one of the players had no idea what “were-rat” meant and it had to be explained. She was suitably creeped out.] Due to having the map, Sahar and Luna were able to run around and flank the were-rats. Both Harkaitz and Luna cast burning hands during the fight, each with a different player character in the area of effect (Frankie and Sahar, respectively). Harkaitz had done this before with Frankie with Frankie easily was able to evade the flames, but not this time and he took full damage. Sahar was able to side-step most of Luna’s attack, but still got burned enough that Harkaitz had to run around to that flank and cast cure moderate wounds on her to keep her in the fight until the were-rats were defeated. Afterwards, Harkaitz healed everyone back to full health with a couple channelings of Ra’s positive energies. [Who is the one god?/Who is the sun god?/ Ra. Ra! RA!]
Having cleared as much of this level as they could, the group started descending the spiral stairs down to the next level of the Delve. Part way down, they heard a group chatting as they came up! Super rat quickly (and quietly) retreated back up to the top of the stairs. When the group climbing the stairs got near, Harkaitz called out, “What’s the password?” The group below answered, “Nexus,” and Harkaitz called for them to proceed. The guard patrol arrived at the top of the stairs to find the adventurers standing about the room nonchalantly. They gave the group some quizzical looks but seemed to accept them at face value as other guards and moved on. Super Rat waited until they were out of hearing range and then quickly descended the stairs.
The last 40 ft of stairs were open, descending from the center ceiling of a large, octagonal room. Four of the walls have large elemental symbols on them, one each for earth, air, fire, and water. There were also several priestly types going about their business and largely ignoring the player characters, who were doing their best to look like they belonged there. Apparently, with the previous guard patrol having just gone up the stairs. the priests assumed that the player characters DID belong there and never gave them a second look. The player characters for their part marched confidently across the room and exited a passage between the symbols for fire and earth. Turning left, they entered a shrine to fire (consisting of innumerable candles burning plus many fire beetles roaming freely) and finally out of sight of the priests. Looking around the room, Wednesday’s sharp eyes spotted a door buried under a layer of wax from candles past. With no other passage except back to where the priests were (and wanting to avoid their suspicions by reappearing so soon) the group decided to try the wax covered door. Harkaitz used produce flame [2nd level granted spell from the fire domain] to discretely melt the wax only at the edges of the door. Once freed of the wax binding, the door opened freely and the group entered a very dusty passage containing stairs up to the isolated portion of Level 6.
Following the map they had taken from the wizards, the adventurers passed an abandoned guard post and slipped through a series of rooms and corridors to the secret door hiding the marked room. Inside the marked room were two coffers. The first coffer contained 400 gold coins, while the second contained two scrolls. One of the scrolls had the spell formulae for continual flame on it. The other resisted both Luna and Harkaitz’s attempts at deciphering it [bad spellcraft roll]. Shrugging and planning to re-evaluate it once they were back in Aldelle, all of the loot went into the haversack.
On the way back out from the marked room, the group checked an adjacent room they had previously ignored and were attacked by five animated statues. Barely able to damage the stone the statues were made of, Super Rat fought a retreat back to the main corridor, closing and spiking the final door to seal off the statues. Luckily for Super Rat, the statues did not seem to be programmed to follow past that door. The adventurers had taken a pounding from the statues and not destroyed a single one. Battered, bruised, and starting to run short on healing, the group made their way back down through the temple and then up to the surface, their luck holding out enough so that they were unchallenged the entire way.
*End of Session*
[I have a new found respect for animated objects now, particularly ones made of stone. We had nothing able to bypass their hardness and they took half damage from our energy attack before the hardness was applied, negating our strongest attacks. We will not be returning to that part of the dungeon anytime soon, I guarantee you.]
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Dyson’s Delve – Session 7 – Deeper Delvings
This session happened Wednesday, December 29, 2010. This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game. We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).
Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading
After a good night's sleep and an early breakfast at the Aldelle inn, the adventuring group Super Rat returned to the sheriff's office to question their captive. They found the sheriff's office in a state of agitation. Once they were able to get in a question sideways, the adventurers learned that the prisoner had disappeared from the cell! No one knew how the man had escaped as the cell was not damaged nor unlocked. The adventurers suspected that Tim had something to do with it and decided to return to the Delve immediately.
After a few hours of travel, the adventurers arrived and started making their way back down into the Delve. Arriving at the 5th level of the dungeon, the group decided to investigate the side passage rather than pass through the Tapestry Room. At the end of the side passage was a T-intersection and the group went left, following a longstanding protocol. The passage turned right shortly and opened into a 15 ft wide octagonal room with a passage leading out the far side. Floating in the center of the room was a wand. A closer look made the edges of a five foot by five foot by five foot cube of some gelatinous material. The adventurers found this odd and had misgivings. [Several of the players, however, immediately recognized the danger they were in.] Their misgivings crystallized when the cube started moving towards them. Luna and Harkaitz quickly broiled the cube with fire attacks. The wand inside the remains proved to be a wand of cure light wounds, a valuable find. It was also noticed that the side walls of the room were mirrored, if extremely dirty. Luna used prestidigitation to clean them before the adventurers moved on. [She likes to leave the dungeon cleaner than when we arrived.]
Past the octagonal room, the passage turned right again and eventually connected to another room. There were several holes in the ceiling and the adventurers could hear something moving around up there. Suspecting that this was a defense mechanism against the cube, Frankie called out in draconic, asking if there were any lizardmen up in the ceiling. He received no answer, so Wednesday fired her crossbow up into one of the holes. She received a vial of flaming oil to the face in return.
While tempers are high, Frankie called out again in draconic and started up a conversation. The creatures were kobolds and they had indeed tunneled into the ceiling to avoid the cube. They never attacked the cube as it kept larger monsters out of the area and could not reach them. After some negotiations, the adventurers were able to secure passage through this room and the next, which returned them to the T-intersection.
Having no other path, the adventurers traveled through the tapestry room. After a quick side trip to verify the carrion crawler corpses were still in the room to the left (they were), Super Rat followed the right hand corridor, skipping the side passage where they had fought the guards in plate mail, to where the corridor ended with a door. Wednesday proclaimed the door safe and the door was opened. Beyond it was a room containing the stairs down, another door, and three guards in half-plate. A fight quickly ensued, during which Sahar and Wednesday were injured. Harkaitz healed them before the group investigated any further.
Not wanting to descend any further without knowing what they were leaving behind, the group of adventurers decided to check the door. Once again Wednesday checked the door and pronounced it safe. As it turned out, the door had a pendulum trap attached to it, which Sahar found by opening the door and getting hit by it. The room beyond contained another door with a pendulum trap attached to it as well. Wednesday disarmed the second trap while Harkaitz healed Sahar.
Checking the next door, Wednesday heard the distinctive sounds of ghouls on the other side. Super Rat sprung the door open, surprising the ghouls, and moved to the attack. In a quick fight, the ghouls were hacked up and destroyed. The room they were in was ringed in gargoyle heads sculptures. In the mouth of one of the heads, three pieces of jewelry were found. Everyone in the group expected a trap, so Frankie did his "snatching the pebble" monk trick to pull the jewelry out of the gargoyle mouth before it snapped shut.
The hallway past the ghoul room opened to a corridor that led back to the original guard room. There were two doors along the way and, after verifying where the corridor ended, the group investigated the first door. Behind it was a mostly square room with a number of lit candles floating in the air and a six-inch diameter circular groove carved in the center of the floor. Not certain what the room was for, Super Rat decided to skip it for now and check out the next door.
The next room contained two statues that looked like standing suits of armor flanking a chest. Wednesday checked the chest and declared it safe, so Frankie opened it and found an assortment of junk, immediately earning this room the appellate "the dungeon's junk drawer". Frankie also found that the chest had a secret compartment inside it, which he opened. While the main part of the chest was safe, the secret compartment contained a dart trap (which Frankie discovered the hard way) and three amulets. The three amulets detected as magical, but neither Harkaitz nor Luna could identify them properly, so they were thrown into the haversack for later investigation.
Not ready to descend to the next level, the group returned to the "ominous floating candle room". Sahar investigated the circular groove in the floor and worked out that it was the same size as the iron crown Frankie was wearing. After fitting the crown into the groove, two wall panels dropped into the floor, exposing a magically locked chest [and returning the room to a square shape]. Luna and Harkaitz pooled their arcane knowledge and discussed possible ways to open the chest. They noticed that there were eleven points on the iron crown and eleven floating candles. They extinguished the candles, impaled the candles on the crown points, and relit the candles, causing the chest to unlock. Inside was a golden crown that detected as magical, but again neither Luna nor Harkaitz could identify it, so it was put into the haversack.
Having cleared out this level of the Delve, Super Rat finally descended the stairs to the next level down. The stairs ended at a T-intersection. The passage to the left dead-ended almost immediately, so the group turned right. This corridor went a bit and turned right at a door locked with heavy chains. Having learned to avoid such doors, Super Rat turned the corner and continued down the corridor. The corridor turned right again and then opened to a square room with stone debris on the floor and an open side passage to the left. It appeared that the room was once ringed with gargoyle statue heads, but they had all been destroyed. Perhaps someone was looking for something?
Down the passage out of the room Wednesday spotted three wizards. [Pointy hats and arcane symbols on their clothing – dead giveaway.] Harkaitz, being the most diplomatic, walked down the corridor to talk with the wizards. While not the most forthcoming individuals, Harkaitz was able to learn that they work for Tim, who has tasked them to look for three amulets. The three amulets would grant them some sort of power when used in conjunction with something Tim possesses.
Harkaitz knew the conversation would end in a fight - he intended to start it himself. The wizards had a different plan. Looking at the situation from their point of view, it appeared they were talking to a fighter of some sort with another person or two hanging back in the shadows. Apparently they expecteding to be able to take down Harkaitz quickly and then deal with the others hiding in the shadows, all three wizards cast magic missile at Harkaitz, each launching two missiles. This heavily injured Harkaitz, but did not kill him. Luna immediately cast scorching ray and burned one of the wizards to the ground. Harkaitz fell back to heal himself while Sahar charged forward with her +1 longsword/+3 vs. spellcasters and quickly cut down a second wizard. Frankie then moved forward and, using a flurry of blows, knocked out the third wizard, securing a prisoner for questioning.
Searching the bodies, Wednesday found a map of the current level of the Delve with a room marked with an "X". The part of the level containing that room did not connect to the current area – it appeared Super Rat would have to descend a level and then come back up before they could get to the marked room. Super Rat took the time to check a secret door Frankie had noticed during the fight and verified the location of the stairs down before returning to the surface with their prisoner.
*End of Session*
Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading
After a good night's sleep and an early breakfast at the Aldelle inn, the adventuring group Super Rat returned to the sheriff's office to question their captive. They found the sheriff's office in a state of agitation. Once they were able to get in a question sideways, the adventurers learned that the prisoner had disappeared from the cell! No one knew how the man had escaped as the cell was not damaged nor unlocked. The adventurers suspected that Tim had something to do with it and decided to return to the Delve immediately.
After a few hours of travel, the adventurers arrived and started making their way back down into the Delve. Arriving at the 5th level of the dungeon, the group decided to investigate the side passage rather than pass through the Tapestry Room. At the end of the side passage was a T-intersection and the group went left, following a longstanding protocol. The passage turned right shortly and opened into a 15 ft wide octagonal room with a passage leading out the far side. Floating in the center of the room was a wand. A closer look made the edges of a five foot by five foot by five foot cube of some gelatinous material. The adventurers found this odd and had misgivings. [Several of the players, however, immediately recognized the danger they were in.] Their misgivings crystallized when the cube started moving towards them. Luna and Harkaitz quickly broiled the cube with fire attacks. The wand inside the remains proved to be a wand of cure light wounds, a valuable find. It was also noticed that the side walls of the room were mirrored, if extremely dirty. Luna used prestidigitation to clean them before the adventurers moved on. [She likes to leave the dungeon cleaner than when we arrived.]
Past the octagonal room, the passage turned right again and eventually connected to another room. There were several holes in the ceiling and the adventurers could hear something moving around up there. Suspecting that this was a defense mechanism against the cube, Frankie called out in draconic, asking if there were any lizardmen up in the ceiling. He received no answer, so Wednesday fired her crossbow up into one of the holes. She received a vial of flaming oil to the face in return.
While tempers are high, Frankie called out again in draconic and started up a conversation. The creatures were kobolds and they had indeed tunneled into the ceiling to avoid the cube. They never attacked the cube as it kept larger monsters out of the area and could not reach them. After some negotiations, the adventurers were able to secure passage through this room and the next, which returned them to the T-intersection.
Having no other path, the adventurers traveled through the tapestry room. After a quick side trip to verify the carrion crawler corpses were still in the room to the left (they were), Super Rat followed the right hand corridor, skipping the side passage where they had fought the guards in plate mail, to where the corridor ended with a door. Wednesday proclaimed the door safe and the door was opened. Beyond it was a room containing the stairs down, another door, and three guards in half-plate. A fight quickly ensued, during which Sahar and Wednesday were injured. Harkaitz healed them before the group investigated any further.
Not wanting to descend any further without knowing what they were leaving behind, the group of adventurers decided to check the door. Once again Wednesday checked the door and pronounced it safe. As it turned out, the door had a pendulum trap attached to it, which Sahar found by opening the door and getting hit by it. The room beyond contained another door with a pendulum trap attached to it as well. Wednesday disarmed the second trap while Harkaitz healed Sahar.
Checking the next door, Wednesday heard the distinctive sounds of ghouls on the other side. Super Rat sprung the door open, surprising the ghouls, and moved to the attack. In a quick fight, the ghouls were hacked up and destroyed. The room they were in was ringed in gargoyle heads sculptures. In the mouth of one of the heads, three pieces of jewelry were found. Everyone in the group expected a trap, so Frankie did his "snatching the pebble" monk trick to pull the jewelry out of the gargoyle mouth before it snapped shut.
The hallway past the ghoul room opened to a corridor that led back to the original guard room. There were two doors along the way and, after verifying where the corridor ended, the group investigated the first door. Behind it was a mostly square room with a number of lit candles floating in the air and a six-inch diameter circular groove carved in the center of the floor. Not certain what the room was for, Super Rat decided to skip it for now and check out the next door.
The next room contained two statues that looked like standing suits of armor flanking a chest. Wednesday checked the chest and declared it safe, so Frankie opened it and found an assortment of junk, immediately earning this room the appellate "the dungeon's junk drawer". Frankie also found that the chest had a secret compartment inside it, which he opened. While the main part of the chest was safe, the secret compartment contained a dart trap (which Frankie discovered the hard way) and three amulets. The three amulets detected as magical, but neither Harkaitz nor Luna could identify them properly, so they were thrown into the haversack for later investigation.
Not ready to descend to the next level, the group returned to the "ominous floating candle room". Sahar investigated the circular groove in the floor and worked out that it was the same size as the iron crown Frankie was wearing. After fitting the crown into the groove, two wall panels dropped into the floor, exposing a magically locked chest [and returning the room to a square shape]. Luna and Harkaitz pooled their arcane knowledge and discussed possible ways to open the chest. They noticed that there were eleven points on the iron crown and eleven floating candles. They extinguished the candles, impaled the candles on the crown points, and relit the candles, causing the chest to unlock. Inside was a golden crown that detected as magical, but again neither Luna nor Harkaitz could identify it, so it was put into the haversack.
Having cleared out this level of the Delve, Super Rat finally descended the stairs to the next level down. The stairs ended at a T-intersection. The passage to the left dead-ended almost immediately, so the group turned right. This corridor went a bit and turned right at a door locked with heavy chains. Having learned to avoid such doors, Super Rat turned the corner and continued down the corridor. The corridor turned right again and then opened to a square room with stone debris on the floor and an open side passage to the left. It appeared that the room was once ringed with gargoyle statue heads, but they had all been destroyed. Perhaps someone was looking for something?
Down the passage out of the room Wednesday spotted three wizards. [Pointy hats and arcane symbols on their clothing – dead giveaway.] Harkaitz, being the most diplomatic, walked down the corridor to talk with the wizards. While not the most forthcoming individuals, Harkaitz was able to learn that they work for Tim, who has tasked them to look for three amulets. The three amulets would grant them some sort of power when used in conjunction with something Tim possesses.
Harkaitz knew the conversation would end in a fight - he intended to start it himself. The wizards had a different plan. Looking at the situation from their point of view, it appeared they were talking to a fighter of some sort with another person or two hanging back in the shadows. Apparently they expecteding to be able to take down Harkaitz quickly and then deal with the others hiding in the shadows, all three wizards cast magic missile at Harkaitz, each launching two missiles. This heavily injured Harkaitz, but did not kill him. Luna immediately cast scorching ray and burned one of the wizards to the ground. Harkaitz fell back to heal himself while Sahar charged forward with her +1 longsword/+3 vs. spellcasters and quickly cut down a second wizard. Frankie then moved forward and, using a flurry of blows, knocked out the third wizard, securing a prisoner for questioning.
Searching the bodies, Wednesday found a map of the current level of the Delve with a room marked with an "X". The part of the level containing that room did not connect to the current area – it appeared Super Rat would have to descend a level and then come back up before they could get to the marked room. Super Rat took the time to check a secret door Frankie had noticed during the fight and verified the location of the stairs down before returning to the surface with their prisoner.
*End of Session*
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