The Torture Room (02/07/2010)

DM Note: With Dave and Brian not in attendance tonight we decided to play on. I had character sheets for all the characters, so Scott played Akta and Rich played Krstic. Hmmm ... which one will die?

With the first batch of goblins dispatched in the Guard Room the party endeavored to ensure there were no more goblins lurking in the as-of-yet unexplored rooms. Maive, Eldred, and Krstic went down the west hall and then south around the corner only to see a large curtain hanging there. Several goblins had attacked from this direction, so the three ran past the curtain only to find a storage room filled with crates and barrels, but no more goblins.

Oester and Eldred Jenneth went down the east hallway that turned to the north. Peering around the corner they saw a square room with three doors - a single door on the left wall, a single door straight ahead, and a set of double doors on the right wall. Given there were no more goblins lurking in this area at this time they decided to rejoin the party.

Bogar and Akta went south down the center aisle only to find two empty beds, likely a barracks room. They also found a closed door on the east wall of this room and a door directly to the west, only to have the west door opened by the members of the party coming through the storage room into the barracks room.

The party decided that they were at least temporarily safe so opted to take a five minute rest to heal, look for secrets, and to investigate the crates and barrels. The crates and barrels contain miscellaneous supplies, including rations, but there is nothing that would specifically identify them as having come from the caravans attacked outside of Winterhaven.

DM Note; The adventure references "crossbows" and "hand crossbows" in different places, and I have found myself doing the same. For game play purposes if you want either and the crossbow bolts that go with it please let me know. Eldred picked up 20 regular crossbow bolts, and Bogar picked up a crossbow and 20 crossbow bolts. Akta? Krstic?

The party decided to leave the closed doors to the east and west alone for now and went north to the room with three doors. The double doors on the east wall were secured by the party so they couldn't be opened, and the party made preparations to go through the door on the east wall. Jenneth's magic hand came forth, opened the unlocked door, and the party ran into ... another storage room, filled with more crates and barrels. No secrets, no magic, so the party made ready to bust through the north door.

Assuming positions, another disembodied hand opened the door and the party exploded into a room with several goblins, many carrying crossbows, some with spears, and one fat disfigured hobgoblin. Upon entering the room the party also saw an open iron maiden, a large cage in one corner of the room, and in the middle of the room some kind of torture table with ropes, pullies, several ugly looking blades and charred pokers. There was also a hallway that went to the east that appeared to hold some barred cells.

Using surprise the party was able to get the initial jump on the goblins, with Bogar tipping over the torture table and attempting to pin the hobgoblin to another table in the back of the room. The hobgoblin was able to avoid getting damaged, but found himself essentially stuck behind a turned-over table trading blows with a crazed dwarf.

The goblin sharpshooters were quite effective when given a chance to get off their shots, with Krstic assuming the role of pincushion. The party fought more effectively this time, but another round of deadly high damage bolts put Krstic on his back. Eldred was able to provide some quick healing to get Krstic back to consciousness and Maive was able to step and return fire with some deadly arrows of her own.

As the goblins began to fall Oester took a risk and jumped up on and then off the table behind the hobgoblin to find himself in a perfect position to do major damage and then proceeded to do so. This time the party managed to knock the hobgoblin down and out before he could do more damage, and as the party looked around they saw:

Two Goblin Warriors, wearing leather armor, wielding a spear, and carrying five javelins.

Four Goblin sharpshooters, wearing leather armor, wielding a short sword, and carrying a hand crossbow and 20 bolts.

A Hobgoblin Torturer, with hide armor, a leather hood, a poker, and a set of keys.

With the goblins vanquished the party took five minutes to rest, heal, look for secrets (none) and to look for magic (the hide armor). Krstic was already wearing hide armor, so the party decided he should have the magical hide armor. As the goblin bodies were inspected the party found 70 silver pieces and 77 gold pieces and each party member earned 105 XP.

As the party rested Jenneth edged down the hall with the cells, finding three locked cells, the middle cell holding a solitary goblin huddled in the back corner of the cell. The party came in to view the prisoner and as Akta and Oester began to question the goblin in his native tongue he threw himself on the floor of the cell, as close to your feet as he could get, and began to babble in a mish-mash of common and goblin that he was unfairly imprisoned and if the party would only free him he would be glad to serve as your guide.

After some more questions the party determined the goblin's was named Splug, Splug's boss was a goblin named Balgren, that Splug knew where the entrance to the second level was but that he had never been down there, that there was a "gold room" as he called it, and that the concept of drawing a map was a bit beyond his comprehension but that he really was willing to show the party around this level of the dungeon if only he could be freed from the confines of his cell.

The party was able to determine that he was likely lying, that he likely didn't know as much as he claimed, and despite his ever intensifying begging decided to leave him locked in his cell, at least for now. The keys found on the Hobgoblin Torturer opened the other two cells, so Splug would be available if the party decided he was needed.

After some deliberation the party decided to go through the double doors that they had secured from the outside several minutes before, but that's for next week.

DM Notes: With the additional 105 XP the party members now find themselves at 1045 XP, enough to go up to Level 2. Each member will get to pick a 2nd Level Utility Power and an additional Feat. However the party decided to try and clean this level out first before taking an extended rest, so the effects of the promotion are at least temporarily on hold.

So let's talk about time. The party left Winterhaven early in the morning, and it took two hours to get to where they were able to see the ruins. Let's say it took an hour to rest, and then sneak up the the ruins, then into and through the ruins, and to find the steps down into the temple. Once down the steps the first battle took 5 minutes, followed by a 5 minute rest, and then onto the next encounter. 5 minutes to storm and inspect the storage room and then prepare to storm the torture room, 5 minutes to kill the goblins in the torture room, and then 5 more minutes to rest, question Splug, and make plans on where to go next.

So, give or take, the party has a "dungeon time" of ~25 minutes so far. An extended rest is six hours (four for some).

One last thing - this was the second encounter of the day, so some of you have earned a second action point, and those of you that have used an action point already now have an action point again. You can only use one action point per encounter.