2. The First Delve

[Starbeard]

Day 1, Midday (turn 13)



Skinklob, that peddler of shady hexcraft, prepares dishes of food of water for the fox and leaves them out on the porch. The fox stands at attention at the edge of the wood, watching the scene from beside a large bush. Its ears prick up when Skinklob calls out and says his piece, but the fox does not come any closer. He retreats to another part of the house and waits for another ten minutes, but the fox continues to watch from the safety of the treeline.

In the front room, Weeba leads the way down the ladder after finding the hatch void of any obvious traps. Digsby follows suit with the torch, and soon Biddle, Doughty and finally Skinklob—with one last peek out the window to confirm that the fox is indeed still hunkered down at the other end of the large field and watching the house without venturing any closer—join the others in the cellar stairwell.

The party descends the thin stairwell carefully, in single file. It leads down straight to the north without deviation for nearly thirty steps, before it begins to twist tightly clockwise, calling to mind a narrow castle tower. Iron sconces line the walls, though all are empty of any torches.

After five minutes of very cautious descent the party comes to the bottom step. The stairs empty out into a kind of foyer, spanning thirty feet to either side and fifty feet back. The room is oddly shaped with five walls spaced before them, each with a wooden door set into the center. The floor and walls both appear to be chiselled roughly right out of the solid rock, and the overall look is quite spartan and dungeonesque.



Actions! (more on Tuesday)



Biddle Spratt, Hypnotist Extraordinaire (Wiz, ST 12/12 LK 14 DEX 10 — Adds: +2/+2) CON: 11
Digsby Mudfoot, Halfling Gardener (War, ST 7 LK 12 DEX 15 — Adds: +1/+4) CON: 20
Doughty Doughball, Halfling Cook (Rog, ST 5 LK 7 DEX 15 — Adds: -3/+0) CON: 4/16
Skinklob Nurl, Dwarven Hexmonger (Wiz, ST 12 LK 7 DEX 13 — Adds: -1/+0) CON: 17/23
Weeba Zortz, Warrior in Triplet (War, ST 13 LK 10 DEX 17 — Adds: +6/+11) CON: 10

[Khaboom]

Let's enter just as cautiously as we've come down these stairs and if all seems safe, let's listen at the doors.

[coffee]

So, if we see five walls each with a door, aside from the door we came through, then the room is a hexagon, correct? Does it appear to be a regular hexagon?

[Rusty Tincanne]

...Does it appear to be a regular hexagon?

Or one of the vampiric sort?

Doughty huffs indignantly at the fox. No pleasing some folks. That's some proper food. Better vittles than the likes of that beast has seen in years, I'd wager.

Once in the subterranean chamber, Doughty comments on how odd it all seems. Imagine that. An entire, underground banquet hall for feasts! They must have had some parties here. But there ain't no neighbors around, was there? He lights a torch and traipses off to the left, inspecting the walls as he goes.

[Starbeard]

So, if we see five walls each with a door, aside from the door we came through, then the room is a hexagon, correct? Does it appear to be a regular hexagon?

The room is a hexagon, but not regular. The more geographically intuitive among you scan out the wall lengths and angles and point them out to the rest the party:

The near wall, where you are coming in through the stairs, is 60' across.
The right and left walls are at right angles to this wall (like a normal square room), but only go back perhaps 25 feet.
The next set of walls turn inward 45º, and run noticeably longer than the side walls.
They meet at the final back wall section, which runs parallel to the near wall and is only 10 feet wide.

[ClockworkPoltergeist]

Digsby nods at Doughty's unspoken suggestion and proceeds to circle in the opposite direction. As he patiently paces along the wall he slowly sweeps his torch across the floor and walls looking for irregularities. We certainly don't need to trip a trap down here... As he comes to each doorway Digsby stops, slowly traces the outline of the door with the torch, once again careful in his examinations. He repeats the process across the floor in front of the door and once satisfied at the absence of traps examines the door itself, materials, latch and hinges. After all this Digsby slowly leans forward and places an ear against the door to listen within.

[coffee]

Weeba covers the others with his bow.

[Pulpatoon]

Skinklob, despite his parent's best efforts, was never the best student of cyclopean architecture. Nevertheless, he does his best to apply his dwarven heritage to the situation at hand. He inspects the stone walls, floor, and ceiling, looking for any points of interest.

[Khaboom]

Biddle watches closely. Nice work - maybe there are no traps. How about seeing if the doors are locked?

[Starbeard]

Day 1, Midday (turn 14)



The party carefully scans the room, spurred on by Biddle's enthusiastic recommendations. Skinklob channels his heritage as best he can, Doughty inspects the floors and walls to the left and Digsby mirrors his actions to the right. Weeba, ever watchful, guards the searchers from the stairwell with his bow.

Ears are pressed against doors, hinges are checked, door frames probed, floors swept—no traps are found, and no noises are heard beyond. All is silent below the white house.

Actions? (more on Tuesday)



Biddle Spratt, Hypnotist Extraordinaire (Wiz, ST 12 LK 14 DEX 10 — Adds: +2/+2) CON: 11
Digsby Mudfoot, Halfling Gardener (War, ST 7 LK 12 DEX 15 — Adds: +1/+4) CON: 20
Doughty Doughball, Halfling Cook (Rog, ST 5 LK 7 DEX 15 — Adds: -3/+0) CON: 4/16
Skinklob Nurl, Dwarven Hexmonger (Wiz, ST 12 LK 7 DEX 13 — Adds: -1/+0) CON: 17/23
Weeba Zortz, Warrior in Triplet (War, ST 13 LK 10 DEX 17 — Adds: +6/+11) CON: 10

[Khaboom]

You pink a door Skinklob then let's open it up.

[Khaboom]

And if you don't lnow how to 'pink' a door, just pick one and wee'll settle for that.

[ClockworkPoltergeist]

Digsby looks around at his adventuring companions, the weight of earth above them not quite as comforting as a burrow and the spartan, stone décor around them less than heart-warming. "Well, my friends, will it be a door to either side or shall we follow this funnel of a chamber and choose the door straight ahead? I'd rather check the side doors, at least a brief look, before we move on to avoid leaving our retreat compromised." With that Digsby lays his hand on the handle of the first door he checked ready to open it at their word.

[Khaboom]

I'll provide cover. Let's work our way across all of them and then you can choose which way to go.

[coffee]

Sounds good.

[Khaboom]

Maybe someone should think about the trap door. Do we shut it? What are the chances of someone coming along and putting something very heavy on it? Could just rip it off its hinges...

[Rusty Tincanne]

I dont know. That's an awful lot of steps to climb for us shorter folk. Doughty stares at Biddle, hoping he will get the message that the wizard ought to go back up if he wants the door shut. Your door or mine,
Digsby?
With the layers of dust that had collected, it isnt likely anything is going to come and find it. Aside from the magical fox or the troll... maybe Skinklob closed it after us?

[Starbeard]

Day 1, Midday (still turn 14)



The party huddles near the door on the far right. Skinklob hangs back reluctantly, subconsciously stooping his back due to his mild claustrophobia. "I don't know, this is too much for me," he says. "This place gives me the creeps. I think I'll go back up to check on that fox. Watch out for grues." He returns to the stairs and ascends out of sight.

Digsby cracks open the door and peers through it, with Weeba and Biddle providing cover. They see a long corridor extending off into darkness. Moving to the next door the trio repeat the procedure. All is normal at first, but as the door swings fully open there is a click and a twang; the corridor behind this room is a fake! It does back only twenty feet before terminating at a dead end, and set up in front of the wall is a boresighted crossbow mounted on some sturdy and intricate tripod. Three quarrels zip through the air in a spread, right towards them!

Digsby, Biddle and Weeba each need to make a Luck Saving Roll at Level 2 (2d6 re-rolling doubles, if you don't score a total roll of 4+ then it's an automatic failure;* then add your full Luck score, and you need a 25+ to succeed). Digsby gets +3 and Weeba gets +5 to the roll for their high dexterity. Those who fail suffer 5 hit points of damage, but armor has a 50% chance of absorbing those hits as usual.

Just after the party collects itself from the surprise, they are met by the eflin antiquarian Garrick the Fortunate, another adventurer aboard the H.B.M.S. Doubledeal, as he enters the room from the stairway. He carries a torch in one hand.

Actions? (more Thursday night/Friday morning)

*In 5e you need to roll a 5+ to avoid a fumble, but Khaboom has convinced me that 4+ is a better way to go, since the rule as written gives a very high chance of automatic fumbles.



Biddle Spratt, Hypnotist Extraordinaire (Wiz, ST 12 LK 14 DEX 10 — Adds: +2/+2) CON: 11
Digsby Mudfoot, Halfling Gardener (War, ST 7 LK 12 DEX 15 — Adds: +1/+4) CON: 20
Doughty Doughball, Halfling Cook (Rog, ST 5 LK 7 DEX 15 — Adds: -3/+0) CON: 4/16
Garrick the Fortunate, Elven Archaeologist (Wiz, ST 7 LK 17 DEX 12 — Adds: +3/+3) CON: 9/9
Weeba Zortz, Warrior in Triplet (War, ST 13 LK 10 DEX 17 — Adds: +6/+11) CON: 10

[coffee]

Save (DX) [1d6] = 3 + [1d6] = 4 + 17

(That should be +10. not +17; it's Luck not Dex.)

And plus 5 on that makes 22.

Weeba is hit!

[Khaboom]

Biddle's Lk is 14 - his roll on the dice roller came up 'err' so on another dice roller: 1,5 - makes L1 but not L2. In the tradition of the Trollgod (if you don't ask, you don't get) I'm going to suggest that as Biddle is not at the front maybe L1 is enough to nullify or mitigate the damage
Trollgod's hairy balls! That's not good!

Throws himself to the side as quickly as he can.