The third level of the dungeon was a natural cavern, which everyone knows is where the real danger, and treasure, lies. The passage sloped down steeply, taking the party deep below ground, into the cool darkness. Down here, passages twist an branch in many directions. The party decided to stick to right turns until they found something.
The first thing they found were grey oozes. The thing about oozes, jellies and puddings is that it is easy to get them confused. Is this the one that requires fire, or does that make it multiply? Can I hit this one with my weapons? It turns out that these particular flavor of oozes could be struck with normal weapons, as Sarril remembered from dealing with them in the Caves of Chaos. But it also turns out that they corrode metal. Regular metal corrodes and breaks in the same round in which it comes in contact, and magical items corrode and break one round later for each "+" of enchantment. This was a small detail the party was unaware of, as Luapan decided to throw a +3 hammer at the ooze and Pontus ran in, swinging his own +3 hammer (maul) in melee. The ooze responded by covering Pontus with part of itself. After killing the oozes, which didn't take long, Pontus immediately began washing off the ooze, consuming the available water supply of the party, but saving his equipment from destruction. Luapan was one round too late, however, in picking up his hammer, as it shattered upon retrieval (no big deal as he still has a +5 spear that he his happy he didn't use for this fight).
Continuing through the tunnels, the party next came to an area where a very familiar stench was wafting down the hall. Trolls. As Sarril had a few fire-based spells prepared, the party decided that killing some trolls would make for some quick and easy experience, and they followed the stench into the troll's nest. They encountered not just a few trolls, but dozens, maybe more. The good news is that the trolls were in a large cavern and the party was in a tunnel leading to the cavern. They merely had to wait for the trolls to come to them, where they could create a bottleneck. Sarril cast Boccob's Rolling Thunder and, much to the DMs surprise, all but two of the trolls failed their saves (the DM would be rolling terribly for the rest of the day). This means the trolls in the tunnel were stunned for a round, and the rest of the trolls couldn't advance, making them sitting ducks. The melee fighters up front began making short work of them and started burning the bodies of the incapacitated trolls.
Sebastian, having used his Ring of Invisibility to go stealthy, hung back at the last intersection to keep an eye on anything that might come at the party from behind. He failed to notice the dozen or so trolls that came down a side corridor. The party now had trolls in front and behind them. If that wasn't bad enough, smoke from the fire was beginning to fill the corridor, cutting off visibility and making it hard to breathe. At this rate, the party had only a few rounds before they would start inhaling smoke.
Sarril cast a Wall of Fire in the shape on an "L" to cut-off the trolls in front of them and those coming from the side tunnel. The melee fighters had to spend another couple of rounds finishing off those directly on them, and tossing the bodies into the Wall of Fire, which caused the tunnel to be completely engulfed in smoke. Sarril then cast Gust of Wind to clear the tunnel of smoke and give the party an escape, which they were happy to take. Unfortunately, their escape path led them to a drow patrol that were waiting for them. The leader of the patrol was hoping the trolls would kill or severely hurt the party and he could easily pick off whoever was left. Unfortunately for this drow, he faced a strong and fully ready party. Being clearly outmatched, he was, nonetheless, arrogant, and stated to the party that he was glad the trolls didn't kill them because he was going to enjoy doing it himself. Things didn't work out so well for this drow patrol leader. This must be how the drow cull the weak. As a fighter/mage of not insignificant level, he did get off a lightning bolt, and had the protection of a Shield Spell and Protection from Normal Missiles. But it wasn't enough, as his 1 HD guards can't hit any party members with their crazy low ACs and couldn't buy the leader the time he needed to do anything significant. The party searched the bodies, donned the drow cloaks and broaches, and got the brilliant idea that these broaches might be the answer to penetrating the tentacle wall upstairs, and so up they went.
When they got upstairs, they noticed a couple of things that have happened. First, all of the wall sconces that were lit from natural gas jets were out. It was pitch black upstairs. Second, they heard a loud rumbling coming from upstairs, and cracks began forming in the ceiling as small bits of debris fell. The ground shook as a series of loud booms were heard all around. The party surmised that gas must be leaking and this floor would be next if an open flame or spark were to set it off. Still, they bravely pushed forward to the tentacle room, and the tentacles moved aside to let them through.
Using Detect Magic, they quickly scoured the room to try and get anything magical they could find as fast as possible, before the floor exploded and took them with it. There were some magical candles lit, which they quickly put out, and a brazier that was still hot. They quickly put that out, too. They found some wardrobe items and gems and clerical scroll of Word of Recall, as well as a trapped coffer. Sebastian tried to disarm the trapped coffer, accidentally setting off a poison gas trap. Pontus failed his save, but Sebastian quickly cast Neutralize Poison to prevent death as the party ran from the room and back downstairs. It was not a severe loss, as most of the highly valuable items had already been taken.
Once back downstairs, the party started to explore areas previously unexplored, far away from the trolls and the smoke. They found a fire beetle nest and a secret door leading upstairs to level 2, which looks like it might have been an escape path for someone. In a large cavern to the north they encountered two young red dragons whose fire breath barely made a dent in the massive Fire Protection they all still had left over from Cadwin. They were fairly easily defeated. In another smaller cavern they encountered four hell hounds, who were also no match, but their primary purpose was to bark an alarm, and that worked because in the next large cavern was waiting King Snurr, four fire giants and a contingent of drow led by female cleric. When the party entered the cavern, the female cleric, Viconia, spoke to them:
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| Viconia |
demonic armies are flooding into your world and enslaving your people. We are done here."
And with that, she and her contingent turned and left the cavern, leaving an enraged King Snurr and his giants to slaughter, or be slaughtered by, the party. As usual, the fire giants were very little match for Sarril's multiple Cone of Cold attacks. Still, it was a difficult fight. The party retreated into the mouth of the tunnel they just emerged from in order to limit the number of giants that could melee with them at one time. But the giants in the back ranks began throwing boulders, and with the high ceilings in the cavern, were able to lob boulders to hit the party members in the rear. Although the damage wasn't significant, it forced the party forward into the cavern and cut off their retreat.
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| King Snurr Ironbelly |
And this is where we left off. It is the afternoon of the 12th Day of Patchwall, CY 580. King Snurr and (hopefully) the last of his giants are dead. The party is likely trapped underground and the drow who seem to be manipulating everything have casually walked away from it all.
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