Dragon's Demand: Farewell Erevel

Game Date: 2/15/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 4
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Erevel (Daniel) - Elf Rogue
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric

The Session:

Today we continued our exploration of the kobold caverns beneath the quarry.  We were guided by Nighttail the Glib, a kobold from a rival clan.  Erevel led the way down the next tunnel, carefully checking for traps as he went.  After turning a corner and reaching a T-junction, our Rogue encountered two kobolds. It was a bottlenecked fight, with the party crammed into a tight hallway, so only those in front experienced much of the action.  At one point Erevel fumbled, causing himself to bleed.  A quick heal check kept him from losing too much blood.

After the battle we searched the room.  There was a pool of water containing some snapping turtles, which we avoided.  We found a door to the kobold armory, where Lilith obtained a Cold Iron Masterwork Longsword.  A bit later we ran encountered an old kobold priest, who warned us about a "great scaly beast" before he died.  From his body we took a box with trailing ribbons, which detects as magical, but we haven't figured out what it does yet.

Down some more hallways we passed a dire rat enclosure.  Nighttail mentioned these rats had been bred to be extra powerful.  We took her word for it and passed on by; no sense starting any unnecessary battles.  We came to a room with a stone bridge, flanked by two pits.  We could see some holes along one wall, and knew it had to be some sort of trap.  Erevel crawled forward to look for triggers.  The holes then opened up, from which hidden kobolds used their slings against us.  Erevel dropped down beside the bridge, on the opposite side from the slingers, hanging onto the edge to avoid getting stoned.  He tried to shimmy the rest of the way across, but fell into the pit. Luckily it wasn't very deep, and eventually he managed to climb out the other side.

Meanwhile, the rest of us ran across the bridge, went around the corner, and fought the kobold slingers directly from their hiding place in a side passage.  Lilith blocked off the passage so no kobolds could escape, and the rest of us fired around her until all the kobolds were defeated.  We then went down another hole to go even deeper into the dungeon. 

The next room had two short tunnels to choose from, both opening into larger chamber.  Erevel sneaked down the left tunnel, and the rest of us followed.  From the lead, Erevel saw a kobold cleric and two skeletons, standing by a statue.  Though Lilith wanted to stick to our usual strategy - blocking off the tunnel for another bottlenecked fight - Raz got impatient and charged to the head of the party.  This brashness cost her a few hit points when the squishy sorcerer suddenly found herself tanking.  Luckily she managed to withdraw before getting too hurt.

Half the party continued fighting the skeletons in the left hallway, and the other half ran around so they could attack from the opposite tunnel.  Tanith used a fear spell on the cleric, who then fled down another hallway.  Once the skeletons were destroyed, we examined the statue.  It was an idol of "The Infernal Duke Vapula", who I don't know, but it certainly sounds like one of those Names To Run Away From Really Fast.  We beat up on the idol for a few minutes before continuing.

Nighttail requested that we not disturb the kobold nursery, which she called "The Room of the Future."  We happily obliged, and walked on by.  Down the next tunnel, Erevel found and disabled a tripwire.  The tunnel finally opened up into a room containing the cleric, three kobold guards, and their chieftain: the evil sorcerer Roaghaz.

Lilith turned in one of our Pathfinder bonus cards to give herself a super-high diplomacy check.  She told the three kobold guards that if they joined us, they would be spared when Nighttail took over the kobold clan.  While they didn't immediately rush to our side, they did spend the next round mulling it over instead of attacking us.  Meanwhile Erevel attempted to use diplomacy on the kobold cleric, but didn't have much success.

During the fight, Roaghaz used a web spell, which kept some of us (mostly Halfbeard) from moving very far into the room.  Meanwhile, the cleric used a powerful "Channel Negative Energy" power which damaged all of us, and killed his own guards.  This dropped Erevel, and Raz spent the next round trying to keep him from dying.  A couple of rounds later the cleric used the power again, killing Erevel and nearly dropping Raz.  Lilith finished off the cleric, leaving only Roaghaz.

The chieftain was tricky.  He cast Mirror Image, so our next few attacks only took out his illusions.  Then he hit Raz, Lilith, and Halfbeard with Glitterdust, blinding them for a few rounds.  His next spell fumbled, accidentally releasing a nausea-inducing Stinking Cloud.  Tanith made the final hit that finished off our foe.

Noooooooooooooo!

Looting all the bodies and searching the room yielded a fair amount of treasure.  We found 1895 gold, a Wand of Web with four charges left, a Scroll of Glitterdust, a magic cloak we still haven't identified, and a few more items.  We also found some large reptilian scales.  We considered having Erevel raised, but Halfbeard (who knew him best) told us Erevel wouldn't have wanted that.  Nighttail helped us free some human prisoners the kobolds had been holding, and we headed back to town.  We gave Erevel a decent burial and called it a day.

Our share of the gold is 461.25 gp each.  We each earned 1294 xp, bringing the survivors up to 3294.