Expedition: Baxtaw - Seeking Scatha's Lair - 23 July 2021

[Rusty Tincanne]

Bremen rethinks his tactics and instructs Stantz and Rowine to use his bolts and rear the crossbows again.

-8 more bolts

[Jernau35]

Piers proceeds towards what he assumes is the dragon's hoard, though a little more cautiously now, without his magic to aid him. He looks for clues such as drag marks in the dust caused by the passage of the dragon to make sure they're on the right track.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- Follows Crowgar into the next room. Lets move ahead quickly. Setup defensive positions as some of us search for anything useful.

[Marullus]

Bremen directs Stantz and Rowine to cock and load the crossbows once more, which they do, remaining behind with Rowine's torch.

The party proceeds cautiously down the hallway flanked by dwarven statues, each one regarding them dubiously. The stone doors at the end stand open - Crowgar steps through and holds his torch aloft. You've found the grand treasury of the Mines of Vuldun. The chamber itself is vaulted twenty to thirty feet high, stretching up and away beyond the torchlight. You enter at the right-hand wall and it is twice as wide (~200 feet) as the chambers you just passed through and longer than it is wide, stretching on into the darkness.

You do see the slithering marks in the dust, the large clawed footprints of Scatha the wyrm, and know you found his resting place. The torchlight glints off the precious metals - untarnished gold and electrum flashing gold and white, the dull sheen of tarnished silver, all scattered across the floor. None of you have ever seen so much coin in one place - it is scattered across the floor, several hundred thousand coins mounded one to two inches deep in what appears to have been the wyrm's nest, in the corner of the room to your left, a sprawling pile about 25' on a side. Dozens of gems sparkle in the pile and across the floor. Display stands of weapons and armor, display cases of precious jewels and settings are arranged in the wider space.

Scattered among the dazzling treasures are the blackened bones of dozens of goblins, the shattered white bones of long-dead dwarves, some still dressed in decayed fabric or armor. About 20' in front of you, slumped against the wall where it died, is a charred human-sized corpse with black robes. Conspicuous in the center of the room is a giant two-headed pick, its handle over 10' long, embedded in the stone of the floor.

Date: 6:20pm, 26 July 2021
Light: Rowine and Crowgar's torches (until 6:30pm)
Effects: Resist Fire (Bremen);
Injuries: Dorbeck (Dead), Baxtaw (severely wounded), Bremen (moderately wounded), Lug (moderately wounded), Stantz (minor wound), Clouson (minor wound)

[Zhym]

"Whoso pulleth out this pick of this floor is rightwise king born of all dwarves!" jokes Lug, giddy at finally seeing all that treasure.

"Anyone got a quick spell to tell us what's magic in here?"

[Marullus]

Clauson looks to himself and Piers, then across the chamber as replies drolly, "How many days do we have?"

[Zhym]

"For magic-detecting spells?" answers Lug. "I dunno. We can pile up the weapons and gems and armor and stuff, right? Though I guess we can ignore any armor that looks broken or rotted or such." He takes an interest in the weapon rack, looking to see if any of the weapons seem to be in unusually good shape for their presumed age.

[Marullus]

(At the very least, you need to give your clerics eight hours rest. )

The treasure chamber is so large, with so many racks and display cases, that it would take at least a day to triage a single item type (such as weapons). Lug's attempt to look for untarnished weapons also seems stymied, as the scores of dwarven weapons are remarkably resilient that way to begin with.

[Zhym]

So no one has it prepared and unused for the day. That's what I was asking.

Does Lug at least spot anything like a Big Damn Two-Handed Sword or the like? That should be relatively uncommon among dwarven weapons.

[Rusty Tincanne]

As soon as the crossbows are reloaded and the scythe-trap is reset, Bremen orders Stantz and Rowine to join him as they race after the others. We really don't want to miss out on this horde! C'mon! He trusts the others will have properly marked further traps.

Once he enters the room he stops, awestruck by the riches, but that lasts only a moment. Get your sacks out and start filling them! And don't forget that that goblin-runt said there's a back way in, so stay alert. After reminding the others that dwarf law will likely leave many of the weapons and unique items disputed later, Lord Commander Bremen heads to the display cases of precious jewels and settings to fill his sacks. (If there are more sacks than necessary for that, he gathers up all the loose gems from the floor. He tells Rowine, Crowgar and Osuna to help him while grousing about needing more time and more sacks. He also looks for anything like a cart/wagon/sledge that can be used to haul treasure back to the stairs. He leaves Stantz and Clauson to gather whatever suits their fancy, be it weapons, gemstones, etc, but also asks Clauson to inspect the scorched human. Who was that? One of the Red Robes that that woman, Foxy, is always going on about?

Between them, Bremen, Stantz and Clauson have 14 sacks. I had thought about using them for dragon parts but now... How many sacks are needed to take all the precious jewels, settings and loose gems?
How many sacks do the rest of you have?

[Jernau35]

Piers is about to start digging into the treasure when Bremen's remark about the secret entrance brings him up short. "Of course! We need to watch for them, I'm sure they'll give up on that door once the traps hit them."

Unlike Bremen and his associates, Piers isn't loaded down with extra sacks for the loot. Unfortunately, he only has one, limiting his options for carrying valuables away. However, his backpack is only packed with rations. He quickly stuffs his face with handfuls of food, fills his sling-bullet beltpouch to the brim with dry rations and dumps his rations and sling bullets on the floor. Once that's done, he commences to filling the sack and backpack with gemstones and anything else that looks small and very valuable.

Fully loaded, he passes more torches out to Rowine and Crowager, then takes turns on watch with them. "Grab as much as you can carry. Just make sure you can walk out of here.

Rations etc deducted.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- Begins emptying his backpack. Setting aside his spellbook. and scroll case. Does anyone have detect evil spell so we do not pick up any cursed items. Problably like the a red robed human would wear. Stating this as he is picking up gems and sorting thru and putting what looks most valuable into his pack. Baxtaw also looks around to see if there are staffs or wands or spellbooks in view.

[Zhym]

"How many gobs are in the mountain, do you think?" asks Lug as he's surveying the racks of weapons for anything that looks big and magical. "I'm just thinking—if we could just kill 'em all, we could drag this stuff out of here as slow as we like. Hell, we could set up shop here. Make this our new base or something."

[Rusty Tincanne]

Bremen ponders a moment then shakes his head. I don't mind the treasure, but I've got the White Tower. And the Blackhelms think this place is theirs. There aren't many of them now, but it makes no sense to start a feud that'll last for eternity. They can have this hole for all I care.

But if we were to eliminate the goblins, we would have more time to take the treasure we've earned... But I'm guessing there're more goblims than we can handle.He hesitates and grimaces as he says, Not without magic, anyhow. They're nasty in bunches. But I've got a few ideas.

Bremen explains that they could either do multiple, safer, runs to the top with more magic to support the party - and they could make a second trip down the following day with more spells.
Or send a messenger up to lead the horsemen to the front entrance, while the party heads that way and kills the wargs, leaving an easier path in and out.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is the poor planning of this. We came to kill a dragon and take the treasure. How did you forget to bring sacks? He shakes his head in frustration and, once again, looks for a cart-like substitute.

Any other ideas for what to do next?

Marullus, anything like a cart in here?

[Marullus]

Please familiarize with the encumbrance rules. I don't want to explain them. Right now, we're assuming everyone has 60lbs of normal gear (and you've been moving at 3/4 speed). That means your backpacks are full and you can each pick up 100lbs if you have two sacks to hold it. If you want to be more specific, you need to calculate and post your actual individual encumberance values.

The treasure chamber is so large, with so many racks and display cases, that it would take at least a day to triage a single item type (such as weapons).

That's a bit over the top. I'll redact. Please see below, now that I've fleshed out more detail.

The great treasury of the Mines of Vuldun is overflowing with the coins of the dwarven realm, which were all minted here in the workshops above. As the party now moves into and explores a bit further into the chamber, you see a large ramp and stair leading up to an open trapdoor, presumably the "back entrance" from the workshops as it allows the smithies to cart down their finished goods. As the group spreads out and canvasses the area, you need more torches - you light two more for a total of four, then replace them as they begin to burn too low.

The party bypasses the truly superfluous amounts of coin for the moment, examining the other items. The giant-size pick is conspicuous. Other than that, Lug finds the weapons all quintessentially dwarven - a dozen axes and a dozen warhammers lie scattered on the floor among bones and remains of shredded armor. They're all still in good condition, being dwarf-forged.

Clauson and Baxtaw inspect the dead human. His black silk robes remain intact, while the body is scorched to the wall, a clear sign they are something more than normal. The human's accoutrements mark him as a wizard of some kind and he also has a 16 inch wand of basilisk bone. He was slain several centuries ago, so is unlikely to be one of the newer "red robed" Order of Monoc wizards. Nonetheless, his remains are slightly fresher than the dwarves, implying he sought the dragon after it established its hoard. Unfortunately his spellbook and other effects are reduced to ash.

Loose gemstones, cut and faceted but not yet put in settings, are scattered across the floor and in the mound of coins. Sifting through to extract them, you find eighty gemstones - diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. You also find 69 rings, pendants, and necklaces of various types scattered in the treasure pile. All are worthy objects d'art of dwarven craftsmanship, some have set stones, some ornate artwork woven within them. Together these items fill three large sacks.

There are three dozen stone pedestals, two dozen of which still have items sealed within the round glass lids which seal their tops, a dozen of which are smashed and toppled. There are 21 pedestals with breathtakingly-wrought jewelry; works of art consisting of gold, electrum, and faceted stones which would elicit envy and pride in any dwarf looking upon them and take the breath away from any other viewer. Each is labeled with the pieces' name, its dwarven artificer, and their lineage. Among them are also three other cases of sealed glass:

• One contains a large gold-stoppered jug of polished stone. It is labeled (in dwarvish), "The Beer of Guldarim, beloved of Beldina"
• An exceptional smithing hammer, bearing the signs of centuries of use. It is labeled, "Smithing Hammer of Balthnoc" (useable as [1d6] one-handed hammer)
• Three raised stands bearing vellum scrolls. They are labeled, "Scrolls of Selduffin, Blessed of Moradin"

You have the three carts of dragon parts with you, each of which is 200 pounds and requires someone to push it. You have the sacks you brought with you, finding no other suitable bags in the treasure room. There are no mining carts here, though there were a number of them at the top of the shaft in the hallway above, where you got the first three.

You could easily fill over a 100 large sacks just with gold coins and still not be done. It would take 500-600 large sacks to collect all the coins.

(Subtract 10 torches, total)

Date: 8:30pm, 26 July 2021
Light: Four torches (until 9:30pm)
Effects: None
Injuries: Dorbeck (Dead), Baxtaw (severely wounded), Bremen (moderately wounded), Lug (moderately wounded), Stantz (minor wound), Clouson (minor wound)

[Zhym]

Does Lug think he could wield the big damn pick?

[Marullus]

He may very well think he can.

...he can't though. He needs to be ACTUALLY giant-sized.

[Zhym]

Aww, man.

So all the weapons are dwarf sized or giant sized but nothing at all Lug-sized?

[Jernau35]

Piers didn't forget to bring sacks. His crappy scale mail armor weighs so damn much he had to drop every lb he could to have the same move as everybody else. That's why he pretty much only has rations in there. Emptying the pack means he can carry 40lbs in that and 60lbs in the large sack.

Any chance we could rig makeshift sacks out of rope and blankets?

[Marullus]

Nothing Lug-sized.

You can always make makeshift sledges from rope and bedrolls, if you have rope and bedrolls. Read the Encumbrance rules for that.