OAWYM: Working In The Salt Mines

Game Date: 5/13/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 28
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Today we left town using a Passwall spell, and proceeded to follow the path of the slave traders.  We rested during the day and traveled mostly by night.  Late on the second day we discovered we were being tracked by several ogres.  Xevrick tried talking to them, but we ended up in combat.

The first round they threw javelins at us while they drew closer.  Six of them stood in a nice row, allowing Byzun to throw a lightning bolt.  They didn't have very high AC, so it wasn't a particularly long fight.  Once they were all defeated, we found their lair and spent the night.  During one watch we saw a kobold in the back of the tunnels, but we let it be.

We kept traveling.  The next night we had some very bad weather, but we made it through.  The next morning we saw some stones in the shape of an arrow.  We followed the arrow and soon found another one.  The arrows eventually led us to some cracks in the base of a mountain, big enough to enter.

Xevrick turned into a bat and explored some of the passages, while we entered another crack.  Eventually we ran back into each other, and Xevrick showed us a large room he'd found.  We saw some big strips of meat, being prepared like jerky.  We were walking down one hallway when we set off a pit trap.  Byzun and Xevrick failed their saves and slid down an 80 foot tunnel, landing in a large mound of salt.

They were backed against the wall, surrounded by ten gnolls.  The rest of the party gradually joined them, and the fight was on.  Halfbeard flew into the room on his broom, divebombing a gnoll on his way in.  Most of the party spent the fight slowed, but we still prevailed.  The gnolls were no match for us.  After the fight, we explored several tunnels down there, but most of them led to dead ends.

The final tunnel led to a large cavern.  We saw a door on the opposite end, and we sent Robb in to investigate.  As he sneaked through the room, a couple of "piercers" (living stalactites) dropped from the ceiling and attacked.  We looked at the ceiling and saw hundreds of them writhing up there.  They were more annoying than dangerous, but we still didn't want to fight our way through that many.

Byzun threw a fireball at the ceiling, dropping a bunch of them.  We made our way to the door, only to find the door was fake.  But from that angle we did see another tunnel we hadn't seen before.  We ran for that tunnel, taking a few more hits from the piercers, and took a short rest once we were safe.  We ended the session there.