After a bit of carousing at the inn with our newfound
wealth, we decided to return to the Caves of Chaos to continue our
exploration. While we were sitting at a
table at the inn discussing our plans, we were approached by a cleric of Bast
the Cat God who was very interested in our discussions about the caves. He told us he would like to join our group to help us fight the evil humanoids at the caves along with his two young acolytes for a share of the treasure.
We didn’t really know anything about him so we asked the bartender if we could trust him and he replied that he hadn’t heard anything bad about the priests. So we agreed to let them join our next foray
into the caves, though we still weren’t sure if we could trust him and his acolytes or not. We set out from the keep once again and travelled down the road heading east and onto the trail
in the woods that led to the caves, and made it there without any problems. We decided to try the next cave on the right side
of the box canyon past the orc lair we had previously explored. There were a few large trees near the
entrance and above the cave mouth on the hillside but we didn’t really pay them any notice and proceeded into the tunnel opening.
The new clerics who had joined the group initially offered to stay in the
back but since we weren’t sure if we could really trust them, we left
Amul the monk and Rollo the dwarf in the rear so they could keep an eye on
them. Once the group had gone a little ways
into the tunnel, the characters in the front including Fauna, Ragnar and Viktor,
suddenly fell into a pit trap and several characters behind them also fell in and piled in
on top of them! As soon as this happened
the adventurers in the rear of the group were attacked by a large group of
kobolds that came out from hiding in the adjacent trees that we had noticed on
the way in! To make matters worse, as
soon as the kobolds attacked, the three clerics turned on the group and their
leader started casting a spell, while the two acolytes started attacking the
characters in the middle of the group with their maces!
The group was caught completely off guard by these attacks and we
could hear more kobolds approaching the pit from inside the tunnel. The two characters in the rear fought
desperately to fend off the attacking kobolds and were nearly overwhelmed,
while the characters in the middle of the party battled the priests. In the first round of combat, things were
looking dicey for the two adventurers in the back as they were caught between
the evil priests and the kobolds and fighting for their lives. Fortunately for the group, Lorinar was able
to cast a sleep spell on the melee in the rear of the group and managed to put
the kobolds to sleep and Illundria cast Color spray on the priests right in
front of her and managed to knock out the priests as well! As we started helping the wounded characters
out of the pit and dispatched our fallen foes, more kobolds came into the
tunnel beyond the pit to attack the group! We managed
to get everyone out of the pit while the kobolds beyond threw their spears at
us. We were now faced with a large
number of kobolds in the tunnel and it was apparent that the entire lair had been alerted!
Lorinar and Ragnar started throwing flasks of oil at the
kobolds across the pit which was followed up by a burning torch from Ragnar and
several kobolds went down in the flames, several more were hurt from the splash damage, and a few more
were killed by arrows from our archers.
After the initial group of kobolds beyond the pit was dispatched, three
more showed up at the end of the hallway and started firing arrows at the group at the edge of the pit. We exchanged missile fire with them from
across the pit for a little while but at this point, Viktor the Thugee fighter
had had enough and jumped across the edge of the corner of the pit into the
hallway beyond to charge the archers! At
about the same time, more kobolds began streaming into the hallway from beyond
the archer’s firing positions at the end of the hallway. Viktor charged the mass of kobolds and began to
wade into them wreaking havoc with his sword as Thugee warriors are known to do from time to
time. He was followed by the ranger and
the half orc and they gradually pushed the mass of kobolds back down the
hallway killing several of them in the process.
To the rear of the front line group, the spellcasters started throwing
burning oil onto the kobolds over our front lines beyond, inflicting even more
casualties. The pitched battle was over
in a matter of minutes and afterwards the hallway was littered with burned and
dead kobold bodies.
After defeating the Kobolds the group was left standing
there in the hallway pondering our next course of action. We were pretty beat up but assumed that there
may be some loot to be had in their lair.
Since we were out of healing spells aside from a few cure light wounds
potions, we decided to call it a day and try to make it back to the keep alive
and return later for the kobold’s loot. The
group fell back to heal up after collecting a nice suit of plate mail, an
ornate mace and a very nice shield from the leader of the evil clerics that
looked like they could be magical along with some coinage.
The following day we returned and explored the kobold lair a
bit more and found the leader’s chamber in the back of the complex to be
occupied by a big burly kobold and his five mates and a brief but deadly melee
ensued. When it was over, we searched
the lair and found some treasure but it wasn’t a lot - apparently, these particular kobolds weren't very wealthy. We continued our exploration and decided to check out the third cave mouth on the right side of the box canyon. After our recent
experience with the pit trap in the kobold lair, we decided to be a bit more
cautious this time and had Amul the monk and Rollo the dwarf search ahead of
the group in the tunnel for traps. Sure
enough, they found a trip wire that would set off a net trap intended to
drop down onto an unwary party and trap them just beyond the tunnel entrance! At that point it was getting late so we
decided to call the session.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Interesting. The party members who fell victim to the trap were not beset upon by the Kobolds' pet rats? I considered that to be one of the most lethal situations in the whole Caves of Chaos, especially if only one party member falls down there!
ReplyDeleteThe evil clerics played out much the same way. My players didn't trust them either, and of course it didn't make any sense for the cleric to attack the monsters of the Caves of Chaos who are on his side anyway. Basically as soon as the party entered the place they went to--the Hobgoblin main entrance--the clerics immediately betrayed and attacked. Fortunately like your group, my party felt the same way and put some party members behind them. Which made all the difference.
Dicey use of oil! Glad it worked out for them because that could have ended up hilaribad.
My group never encountered the Kobolds. The way I had them written up, they were present before the evil clerics showed up, were the cagiest of the humanoids (like Kobolds are, right?), were stealthy and their cave entrance was tucked back in the trees, and saw the writing on the wall. When the characters started slaughtering other tribes they just bailed out figuring to come back later when the coast was clear.
Color spray is the shit
ReplyDeleteWithout that, it could have been a TPK
ReplyDelete