Chapter 2: Back to the Barrows!

[drpete]

Lhainor manages to force the door, making a fair amount of noise in the process. Beyond, there is a 20x20 room littered with debris. The room has a door in the north wall, directly opposite the door Lhainor forced open.

[Rex]

Nimh

Nimh will back up whoever has the sledgehammer in case someone is on the other side.

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

Lhainor will holster (on his back) the sledgehammer, wield the "shillelagh", and stand guard by the newly opened door on watch for wandering monsters (or something lurking in the debris). Does anyone want to search the debris in the room?

What kind of "debris" are we looking at? Wood from furniture, crates, etc? Rubble from stonework? Broken pottery, and maybe spoiled grain?

I suspect the door on the north wall of this room is the stuck door we encountered near the entrance. The rat room should lie just to the east of this one, and is roughly the same length across.

[drpete]

The room looks like it is an old storeroom. There are shattered old crates, and some other bits of debris. Looking closer, it seems like someone has used the room, in the not terribly distant past, to camp out in. A pile of debris which seems to be made of old shattered boxes is shoved against the west wall, and the eastern end of the room (where the path between the doors is) is more clear. There is, however, some food scraps, and a few used bandages on top of some of the old boxes.

On inspection, you see that the north door seems to have been spiked shut...

[Rex]

Nimh

Search the room, then look over the spiked door.

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

Was the South door (the one we came in) spiked shut too?

[drpete]

Nimh discovers that one of the boxes seems to have been used as a table. There is a bottle of ink and a quill resting on the level surface, but no paper. There doesn't seem to be anything of value in the junk pile. The door looks like it was spiked from this side. It would be easy enough to knock the spike out and open it.

The south door (that you entered from) clearly has been spiked in the past, but wasn't spiked from the inside while you were trying to get in. A small (inconspicuous) metal nail on the ground outside the south door may have been serving this purpose before Lhainor beat the door in.

[Rex]

Nimh

"Looks like someone was holed up here. Maybe we should try removing the spike and seeing what the door leads to?"

[Fingolwyn]

Nimh

"Looks like someone was holed up here. Maybe we should try removing the spike and seeing what the door leads to?"

Lhainor

We could, but I'm nearly certain this door is the "stuck door" back near the entrance where we came down the well.

Do we want to go down the hall from the slanted SW door and check out the door we haven't opened there, or go down the hall from the East door and see what lies down there?

[Rex]

Nimh

"Either one is fine with me."

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

Let's head out the SW door and down that hall to the door we haven't opened yet.

While Nimh searches the eastern end of the hall for secret doors, Lhainor moves west to check out the intersection, with support from Theglid and Moony.

Lhainor finds that the north fork is actually a triangular alcove. It's west wall extends 10 feet north, and a diagonal wall extends northwest to meet it. In the center of this diagonal wall is a door, heading north-east.

The south branch of the T intersection extends 10 feet before ending in a south door.

The "diagonal wall and door" is the SW door.

[drpete]

Satisfied that the room they are currently exploring just heads back to the entrance, the group heads back to the 30x30 room, through the door in the southwest wall, then south through the T intersection to the door in the south there.

This door, which try had peeked behind before going to sleep the previous night, opens easily. Beyond, they find a hallway. The hallway only goes west. To the west, there is a bricked up door in the north wall. Beyond the bricked up door, the hallway turns south. Directly to the east, the hallway ends in a closed door.

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

I assume this is still our marching order?:

Kohrek (Ftr)
Nimh (Cle w/torch)
Lhainor (Ftr)
Theglid (Cle)
Moony (Cle w/torch)

Let's check the East door first and see what's behind it.

Do we have any interest in bashing open a bricked up area? I'm guessing most of the loot is going to be behind bricked-up areas, or in secret rooms. Of course, that's probably where a lot of the monsters will be as well, and the noise likely will attract wandering monsters too.

[Rex]

Nimh

"I have no issue busting down bricked up areas, I think at some point it will be required."

[drpete]

Checking the door to the east, it opens onto a room about 20x20. Doors open to the northeast and southeast. This room has the smell of animal, like something's den. You remember looking in this room from the northeast corner yesterday.

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

Checking the door to the east, it opens onto a room about 20x20. Doors open to the northeast and southeast. This room has the smell of animal, like something's den. You remember looking in this room from the northeast corner yesterday.

Then that means the NE door goes to the T intersection, with the north hall of the T leading back to the Green Man shrine, and the SE door goes to the oddly-shaped room that has a couple doors we haven't checked yet. Shall we go there and see what's behind them?

[Rex]

Nimh

"Sounds good, ever forward."

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

We cross the room to the SE door, open it, and if empty proceed within. Otherwise we stop at the open door and look in. (I think it was empty last time I looked in).

[drpete]

You look in on a room that it, as you remembered, oddly shaped. The room approximates a 20x20 right triangle, with straight walls on the south and west, and a diagonal wall to the northeast. The southern half of the diagonal wall, though, has been opened into an alcove in the southwest corner.

There is a door south, and a door west (in the alcove), in addition to the door to the northwest you came through.

[Fingolwyn]

Lhainor

Let's listen at the South door first (and perhaps see what's behind it if we don't hear anything), then do the same at the West door in the alcove (depending on what's to the south). I'll do it if no one else wants to, or I can stand guard by the unopened door (West when we check South, then switch)...whatever works.

Someone should keep watch behind us (NW door) too.