After Action Report: Cauldron, Session 2

Having received the info from Keygan the locksmith that the bad guys had come up from Jzadirune from beneath his staircase, they decided to descend. Galvin visibly blanched at the prospect of going back into a darkened dungeon. He volunteered to stay behind and guard the locksmith. Fortunately, Fonzig, grandson to Tiervan Wispwort-- Keygan's missing friend--joined the party in their descent. His roguish skills were to come in handy. The party's first encounter upon descending the stairs was a room full of talking gnomish masks. Nothing too exciting here, though they saw their first pair of 'doors with teeth'. One of the doors was partially open. Fonzig stepped through and was gored by a rapier for his troubles. Bleeding profusely, he managed to throw himself back into the original room where Tenkar laid his healing hands on the gnome. Fonzig though he saw a humanoid shape. When the party went through the door, they only found a pair of 5' cylindrical tunnels bored into the walls. Not wishing to go single file into the tunnels, the party backed out and explored other hallways using the map they received from Keygan. Unfortunately, all of the doors on the map were more of these gear-like doors and all were locked. Each one had a different Gnomish letter on it....

At one point, Kurgan and Cadfan showed remarkable agility in avoiding a pit trap. Another of the humanoid creatures had not been so fortunate. The boys showed the dungeon a little more respect after that. Not seeing any obvious way to continue in the western corridors, the party returned to the original entry hall. Just as they were about to enter the tunnels, Fonzig followed a hunch and found a secret door. This corridor led to another secret door (and an empty room beyond) another pit trap (successfully disabled) and a room with more gear doors and a set of strong, locked iron doors. After Fonzig's failed attempts to open any of the locks, the party decided they were going to have to find some of the keys to the doors. They went down one of the tunnels in search of the slender rods. The first tunnel they chose came up through the floor of a room. As Fonzig lifted his head up to look into the room, a rapier went slashing over his head. Scared, he skittered back into the tunnel and pushed the dwarven fighter forward. Regaining his courage, Fonzig looked back up the hole and saw a naked, humanoid figure with a rapier. Kurgan took charge, jumped up through the hole and killed the figure with two hacks of his battle axe. Second kill of the adventure and the only one of the night. The tunnel had led them to a closet. When they found the door leading to a room beyond, they finally got some breathing room. Inside the chamber was a large chest. As Fonzig approached to check for traps, the chest opened its mouth and began to speak!

The guys were unable to understand the chest's language. It 'grew' two arms and began to motion to its mouth. First Cadfan and then Camlin offered up some gold coins. This briefly satisfied the chest, but it seemed to want more. The question before the group as they retired for the night was-- feed it, attack it or leave it?