Ch. 1: Rescue Penelope Primrose!

[Rusty Tincanne]

With her introduction, Twiddle quickly forgets about his freshly-dead companions. He looks at his own, ichor-splattered feet and blushes. He yanks his spear out of the spider. I... Uhhhh... I just killed this spider, he offers lamely.

He moves over to Finn and Geoff and rifles through their possessions. Poor bastards. Not the way I'd wanna die, that's for sure.

[GreyWolfVT]

Dax gives a salute to the halflings as they take their leave "Safe travels." his only parting words to them. Then the dwarf turns to greet the new comer "Grettin's name be Dax ya up fer a bit of adventure eh?" asks Tanta with a sly grin.

[Rex]

Tanta

"Yup, ready to find these thugs and do some rescuing!"

[VonAlric]

Iliro

Iliro watches the halfling troupe leave the room minus two members. He nods and speaks to Tanta and Status "Well met. I'm Iliro." Making sure that the spiders are dead, he will retrieve his sling stone from his first attack, making sure to look up so there are no more surprises. If he can, he will use his spear to poke around into any webbing in the ceiling area.

[The_Wanderer]

Cy drops down to the ground with a heavy sigh. He takes a swig from a wineskin and rubs the back of his hand against his face leaving a smear of spider blood. "One of you thieves want to check that door out?...and do remember to check the ceiling."

[Captain Kinkajou]

Molly

Molly scowls as she watches Bingo and the majority of the Halfling bumpkins tuck tail and scamper back to the Shire. Disgustedly, she snorts up a gob of phlegm and spits it into the dirt. It made her embarrassed to be a Halfling. Yeah, thanks a lot Bingo! You chicken shit. A fine upstanding fellah you turned out to be!

In her relief at seeing a familiar face, she'd forgotten that Bingo was all talk and no trousers. Like most Halflings, he was a good laugh down the tavern, could tell a tall tale, brew ale and smoke pipe-weed with the best of 'em but in a crisis he wasn't really the sort to be relied upon. Great!

Still, a couple of her kinsmen had elected to stay at least. She didn't feel quite so embarrassed to be a Halfling thanks to them... and Twiddle she supposed, though the latter did seem to be slightly psychotic. But, there were at least a few Halflings that had some gumption and were prepared to make a stand for something. And, to be fair, Tanta looked like she might be pretty handy in a fight.

Molly gave her new companion a welcoming nod. She didn't want to get all gushy about it but it felt like it would be good having her around.

"Let's get on with it then," Molly declares as she moves off down the hallway to inspect the far door. As she walks, she keeps an eye out for more spiders lurking in wait. She has no desire to end up like Finn and Geoff.

[Zhym]

Twiddle gets one good look at Tanta and momentarily forgets all about Finn and Geoff. He darn near forgets his own name—but then, he's done that plenty of times before. He eventually recovers his wits enough to loot his dead friends' bodies.

Available to be looted:

Finn
1 Plate Mail Armor (halfling-sized)
1 Shield
1 Pouch (sling stones)
1 Pouch
1 Tinder Box
1 Backpack
1 Waterskin
7 Standard Rations (days)
1 Rope 50'
1 Lantern
3 Oil, flask
1 Mirror, Steel, Hand-sized
17 gp

Geoff
1 Leather armor
1 Silver dagger
1 Short bow
1 Quiver
20 arrows
5 silver arrows
2 Wolfsbane bunch
1 Tinderbox
1 Dagger
1 Backpack
1 Wineskin
7 Rations, iron
2 Sacks, large
5 Torches
1 Thieves tools
5 gp

If you take any of it, say so and add it to your sheet.

Illiro looks for webbing near the ceiling, but oddly enough, there isn't any. He does notice a small pile of old bones in the far corner, however, which are probably the remains of a previous meal. He finds 83 silver pieces among the detritus.

Molly decides it wasn't as great meeting Bingo as she'd thought, the coward. But at least she has some sturdy-looking new companions. She steps forward and checks out the door. It is similar to the one at the other end of the hall: gold, or more likely gilt gold over a base metal. It appears to open away from the hall.

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Status: Grond (F1): 7/7; Twiddle (½1): 4/4; Molly (½1): 3/3; Cy (C1): 2/5; Iliro (E1): 6/6; Dax (D1): 9/9; Tanta (½1): 5/5; Status (½1): 4/4
Effects: Cy, Iliro weakened (STR:9 each)
Light Sources: Lantern (Finn, carried by Twiddle): 11 turns, Lantern (Molly): 15 turns

[Rusty Tincanne]

Twiddle claims the 5 silver tipped arrows, the 22gp, 7 rations and 3 flasks of oil. all added to his sheet

He stares at the plate mail and waffles and bit before deciding against it. It hasn't done Finn any good, anyhow. He moves to take his place towards the front of the group.

[VonAlric]

Iliro

Iliro pokes through the remains in the corner and notes the silver. "Guess we can split this later." He pockets the silver then turns to the fallen comrades. "Let's not allow good items to go to waste. There are a few useful things, including the rations." He will grab the sling pouch, small pouch, tinder box, and 3 flasks of oil from Finn's body and the silver dagger, 4 iron rations, the wineskin and the 2 large sacks from Geoff's body and place them in his backpack.

"Tanta, Status, you may want to further equip yourselves with whatever our fallen comrades had."

[GreyWolfVT]

Dax not wishing to weigh himself down foregoes looting the items from the fallen friendlies.

[The_Wanderer]

Cy

Cy kneels over each of the dead comrades and mutters a few words under his breath while tracing a shape on each forehead. He then grabs the wolfsbane, lantern and oil and repacks his backpack. "Alright, let's get going." He joins Molly at the door, ready to react when it is opened.

[Zhym]

Twiddle, Illiro, and Cy take what useful items they must from the bodies of Finn and Geoff. Dax refrains. The others wait. Everyone readies themselves for someone to open the next door.

Anyone.

Surely one of our intrepid adventurers will step forward and try to push the door open.

...just about any time now.

You look at each other, wondering who is going to open doors now that Geoff is dead.

For some reason you're sure you cannot fathom, Status changes his mind about joining you. "Um...bye!" he says, and rushes away to catch up with his friends who are heading back to their shire.

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Status: Grond (F1): 7/7; Twiddle (½1): 4/4; Molly (½1): 3/3; Cy (C1): 2/5; Iliro (E1): 6/6; Dax (D1): 9/9; Tanta (½1): 5/5
Effects: Cy, Iliro weakened (STR:9 each)
Light Sources: Lantern (Twiddle): 10 turns, Lantern (Molly): 14 turns

[Rex]

Tanta

Tanta steps forward, looks the door over and tries to open it.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Twiddle was just about to pretend to tie a shoe when she stepped forward. He sighs in relief, readying his bow.

[Zhym]

Tanta tries to open the door.

Tanta Open Door: [1d6] = 2

Go ahead and make your own open doors rolls if you would—it should save a little time (especially when rolls fail).

The door squeaks open into a large room. That's one of the first things you notice: you can actually see the whole room, beyond the reach of your lanterns. Dozens of narrow openings high in the walls allow light into the room. By the time the sunlight makes its way here—by way of what Dax supposes must be a wonderfully engineered series of vents, tubes, and mirrors—the light has dimmed to dwarf-friendly levels. But it is still quite enough to see by.

What it illuminates is a room that clearly was once the residence of someone of import in this underground realm. The granite walls are carved with intricate patterns and designs. You glimpse settings in the carvings where gems must have been set—and, alas, looted long before your arrival. The floor is littered with the ruined detritus of furniture and finery. As far as you can tell, nothing of value remains.

There are two obvious exits from the room, other than the one at which you are standing. A plain wooden door stands at the far end of the wall to your left. In the middle of the wall to your right is an ornate wooden door.

You get only a moment to take all of this in because of the other things occupying this room: three gaunt and scraggly wolves, whom you seem to have woken from a nap.

Surprise — Party: [1d6] = 6 Monsters: [1d6] = 2

They raise their heads and regard you with the same look a starving man would give a juicy cut of steak.

The party surprises the wolves. Please give me actions for both the surprise round and the first round of combat.

Map:

ZRDC UL (Current).png (18.13 KiB) Viewed 1395 times

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Status: Grond (F1): 7/7; Twiddle (½1): 4/4; Molly (½1): 3/3; Cy (C1): 2/5; Iliro (E1): 6/6; Dax (D1): 9/9; Tanta (½1): 5/5
Effects: Cy, Iliro weakened (STR:9 each)
Light Sources: Lantern (Twiddle): 10 turns, Lantern (Molly): 14 turns

[Rusty Tincanne]

Twiddle hasn't been found of dogs since his neighbors dog took a poop in his sandbox as a kid. Eat lead, ya filthy animals! He peppers the flea-bitten beasts with arrows.

Round 1: Short Bow (THAC0 19): [1d20+1] = 16+1 = 17, dmg [1d6] = 3, Initiative [1d6+1] = 4+1 = 5
Round 2: Short Bow (THAC0 19): [1d20+1] = 20+1 = 21, dmg [1d6] = 1, Initiative [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4
I'm not complaining here or anything, but there are some games when my PC's attack rolls are consistently crud.

[Rex]

Tanta

Tanta charges the closest wolf, attacking with her sword. "Die foul beast."

Surprise round initiative [1d6] = 6
Sword [1d20] = 13 to hit [1d8] = 6 damage

Initiative [1d6] = 4
Sword [1d20] = 5 to hit [1d8] = 2 damage

I wasn't sure if you needed initiative for the surprise round, ignore if not.

[GreyWolfVT]

Dax: meets the attack with a defensive counter attack on the nearest wolf.

Init: [1d6] = 6
Battle Axe [1d20] = 12 to hit, [1d8] = 1 damage

[Captain Kinkajou]

Molly

Seeing the majority of the group charging into combat, Molly doesn't draw her trusty bow this time around. Using it without skewering one of the other members of the group has become increasingly difficult. Instead, she shrugs, grabs her spear and backs up Tanta, charging in behind the tough-looking Halfling and jabbing it at the same wolf.

Surprise Round
Initiative: [1d6+1] = 1+1 = 2
Spear (THAC0 19): [1d20] = 11 to hit, damage: [1d6] = 6

1st Round
Initiative: [1d6+1] = 5+1 = 6
Spear (THAC0 19): [1d20] = 14 to hit, damage: [1d6] = 1

[VonAlric]

Iliro will move in, slide to the left and loose a stone at a wolf on the same side of the room.

Surprise round:
Init:[1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3, Hit (THAC0:19):[1d20+1] = 1+1 = 2, Damage:[1d6] = 3

First round:
Init:[1d6+1] = 1+1 = 2, Hit (THAC0:19):[1d20+1] = 8+1 = 9, Damage:[1d6] = 4