Dyson’s Delve – Session 6, Part 1 - Super Rat Makes Friends

This session happened Wednesday, December 22, 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).  Due to a pet emergency, Luna's player was not able to join us.  As I was on vacation, we were able to run the game later than normal, which makes for a long write-up.  To avoid a "Wall o' Text", I'm breaking this up into two blog entries.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul, Cleric of Ra (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
“Electric” Frankie Hu (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

In Aldelle, the town trader let the adventurers know that the "really interesting thing" he had been promising had finally arrived.  Curious (and wanting to use the credit they had accumulated from the sale of goblin armor and swords), the adventurers went to see what the trader had.  What the trader was offering was a belt of giant strength [+2].  Seeing the immediate use of the item and purchased it for Frankie's use, trading in the spare +1 leather armor and +1 longsword in addition to using all of their credit.  Two healing potions were also purchased, replacing the one used by Wednesday during the manticore fight and adding an additional cure moderate wounds potion to the groups resources.

After gearing up, Super Rat returned to the Delve.  Quickly making their way back down to the manticore level [Level 4 of Dyson's Delve for those keeping score at home], Super Rat investigated the gas trap room.  Wednesday disabled the auto-closing and locking mechanism on the door nearest the landing room and she and Frankie entered the room to investigate.  They found the room contained four free-standing iron candelabra and little else.  The gas vents were coin-sized round holes in the walls.  There was some suspicion that the gas might be flammable and the trap was designed to go off after some of the candles were lit.  It was decided to close the door to this room and leave it alone.

The group headed down the side passage and turned left at the T-intersection.  Wednesday checked the door at the end of this corridor, then unlocked it and open it.  This surprised a group of four goblins as well as the adventurers, who were not expecting to see any more goblins.  Harkaitz advocated the group fall back behind him as the goblins rushed the door.  Wednesday gladly complied and Sahar stepped back after taking a swing at the lead goblin.  Once his companions were behind him, Harkaitz unleashed burning hands, and this time it killed all three goblins in the area of effect [I finally rolled something more than absolute minimum].  Frankie then quickly stepped over the dead goblins to deliver a flurry of blows to the remaining goblin, killing it.

Wednesday searched the room while the rest of the adventurers looted the goblin bodies (scoring only some slightly toasted sets of leather armor and short swords), locating a secret door in the south wall.  The adventurers formed up and then opened the secret door.  Behind it was a group of four lizardmen at the ready, but not attacking.  Sensing a possibility to talk, the adventurers paused.  Both sides tried to establish communication, only to learn neither side shared a language.  [Luna knows draconic, which the lizardmen speak, but she was not with us.]

Harkaitz stepped up to attempt some measure of communication with the lizardmen.  Borrowing some chalk from Wednesday, he started drawing stick figures on the wall.  This led to one of the lizardmen stepping forward and (borrowing more chalk from Wednesday) making queries and replies through his own stick men.  The adventurers establish that they are no friends of the goblins and have killed the manticore, which impressed the lizardmen.  The adventurers had good feelings about themselves until the lizardmen conveyed that there were, in fact, TWO manticores.  Que the roar of a manticore in the background.

Having established common cause against common enemies with the adventurers, the lizardmen ushered the adventurers into the hidden room and closed the secret door to keep the manticore out.  The lizardmen then showed the length of the secret passage and where it connected different parts of this level.  The lizardmen had been trapped here by the manticore and kept hidden from the goblins also trapped on this level.  Using chalk, the lizardmen leader outlined what they knew of the adjacent rooms and indicated that they had stolen the goblins treasure without the goblins knowing.  They were willing to share the treasure with the adventurers if the adventurers would help them escape back to the surface.  Always ready to kill goblins (who had threatened to wipe out Aldelle), Super Rat agreed.

The goblins were concentrated into three linked rooms and possibly a fourth, accessible by two secret doors.  The adventurers decided to enter through the secret door in the middle of two of the rooms with the majority of the adventurers pushing into the room while Harkaitz formed a barrier isolating the room.  The plan was to clear the first room quickly and then switch to the second room.  This adventurers attacked and the plan was working fine, but would have been close due to a total of 12 goblins between the two rooms (plus a goblin leader) - until the lizardmen flooded in through the other secret door, crushing the goblins in a pincher attack.

The sounds of the battle drew the second manticore to the area, roaring challenges.  Seeing an opportunity to catch the manticore in a pincher while the aid and shield of faith spells Harkaitz had cast were still up, the adventurers and the lizardmen redeployed in the goblin chambers to attack the manticore.  Harkaitz, Sahar, and the bulk of the lizardmen prepped in one chamber, Wednesday and the lizardmen archers took position to open a second door that would expose the manticore's flank, while Frankie prepared to do an end-run all the way around the level through the secret passage.

After the quick restaging was done, the attack was started by Sahar opening the first door and swinging her sword at the manticore.  This drew the manticore's attention and the fight started.  The manticore attacked the main room, Wednesday and the lizardmen archers opened the side door and attacked, and Frankie started his sprint around to the far side of the manticore.  The combined attacks from the lizardmen and the adventurers killed the manticore quickly, quick enough that the manticore died just as Frankie got into position.

As a gesture of good will, the adventurers gave the manticore carcass to the lizardmen.  In return, the lizardmen gave the adventurers ALL of the goblin treasure, not just half.  The lizardmen then packed up their belongings.  While they were doing that, the adventurers took the time to add some more Super Rat graffiti, posting "Super Rat: Kills manticores dead!"

Once the lizardmen were ready to travel, Super Rat escorted them out of the dungeon.  At the surface there was discussion as to which way the lizardmen were planning on traveling.  Their home was on a path that would have taken them through Aldelle, so the adventurers offered to escort them safely past the town, which the lizardmen accepted.  The village guard gave the adventurers some strange looks when they showed up with the lizardmen in tow, but after it was all explained, things went smoothly.

Once the lizardmen were safely away, the adventurers returned to the inn to eat, sleep, and plan their next foray into the Delve.  [We also leveled up at this point.]

[This is where I'm breaking the narrative.  The next adventure log posting will conclude this session.  There was no Southern Reaches game for two weeks, so it will not be until the second week of January before the next adventure log appears for that game.  Dyson's Delve will continue on its regular schedule.]