LFG: Spiral of the Bells

Game Date: 7/27/2013
Campaign: Looking For A Group, Session 6
System: D&D Next / 5e Playtest
DM: Rusty

Players:
Barad (Jeremy) - Dwarf Paladin
Flip (Jeremy, subbing for Trevor) - Halfling Rogue
Halfbeard (Jeremy, subbing for Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Keyleth Siannodel (Matt) - Elf Druid
Tamel (Matt, subbing for Andrew) - Elf Ranger
Zuul (Matt, subbing for Graham) - Half-Orc Paladin

Recap: 
Once again I missed a session.  While I was out last week, the party was offered three different quests.  Barad's church asked us to retrieve a bell.  Zuul's church gave him a mission of his own, but he is forbidden from telling rest of the party what it is.  Tamel was asked to deliver a package somewhere far to the North of the city.  We started with the bell mission.  The party sneaked into a castle, and an iron door slammed shut behind them.  We found an iron bell, then fought six well-armored clerics.  We barely survived the battle, and used most of our healing resources in the process.

The Session:
We had a low turnout today, so we didn't do a whole lot.  We explored a few more halls of this castle, which seem to be spiraling inward.  We found a few more bells this session, and we've kept all of them, just in case.  But I'm betting the bell we actually need is at the center of the spiral.

First we found a copper bell, then a brass bell.  Down another hall we encountered a wood golem.  Barad threw a torch at the creature, starting the fight.  The golem only took half damage from our attacks, but there were six of us, so he still only lasted a couple of rounds.

Around the next corner we found a silver bell.  Then we saw a statue.  Zuul rolled a religion check, but wasn't sure what he was looking at.  We sent Flip to check it out, and he was promptly hit in the face with a blast of magma.  Once we destroyed the magma-spewing statue, we heard a voice mocking Zuul's religious knowledge.

A bit farther on we saw a statue of a horse.  Again our knowledge checks yielded nothing, and we decided to just walk around this one.  Next we found a gold bell.  A little later we came across a small black dragon, fast asleep.  We debated a little on whether to sneak by, kill it, or talk to it.  Finally we had Flip attempt to sneak up and give it a coup de grace, but the dragon woke up before he reached it.  Since it didn't attack right away, we tried talking to it.

"Mmm... snacks!  Crunchy, crunchy snacks!" it said.  We tried diplomacy, but the dragon wouldn't allow us to pass without a bribe.  It requested 500 gold pieces per person, which was more than we were willing to pay.  When we refused, the dragon blasted us with acid breath.  It was a tough fight, and the party lost a lot of hit points, but we did survive.

After the battle, Keyleth expended the rest of her spells healing the party, so we decided to take an extended rest.  We found a safe-looking alcove and got comfortable.  Then we heard a woman's voice laughing, and a gate dropped from the ceiling, trapping us in the alcove.  There was a key in a keyhole on the wall opposite the alcove, and the mysterious voice told us we could get out if we could reach it.  Luckily, Keyleth had recently leveled up, and now had a rat form.   She skittered through the bars and raised the gate.  Then we took our extended rest, and ended the session there.

Reminders: 
So far we will be playing next week, but we won't be playing this campaign on 8/10 or 8/17.