The Side Quest: Session 2 (Part 2)

When we last left our heroes, Riordan had been grabbed and taken into a cave by an ogre, apparently, for lunch. The elf had shouted that the others should save themselves. For various motivations ranging from heroic streak to the possibility of recovering an ogre’s treasure, the other PCs did not take Riordan’s final exhortation to heart. Instead, the gathered together and cautiously approached the cave into which the ogre and Riordan had disappeared.

Peering into the relatively large cave mouth, they could see that a short corridor of worked stone led to a t-intersection with corridors leading off in two opposite directions. No sound could be heard coming from either direction. Gurdis offered up that they had been in some caves earlier, full of goblins, and that the corridor leading to the east might link up with those caves. Peering down that way, the party could see that the corridor led to another small passageway turning to the south. Reasoning that the ogre wouldn’t have gone that way given the corridor’s small size, they turned to the west.

The western corridor ended in a door. Opening it, the party found a small room that was largely filled with a small pool from, upon further investigation, a natural spring. With no sign of the ogre or Riordan, the party headed down the eastern corridor but before they could get very far, the ogre squeezed through the narrow turn at the end and he was carrying a…

…a tea kettle?!? Yes, a tea kettle. Very politely, the ogre explained that he was heading to the pool to fetch some water for tea and asked if they would mind allowing him by. They did not decline his request. As he headed back with his full kettle, he invited them all into his home, apologizing for the state that the next room was in.

An appropriate apology it turned out. The room just after the narrow turn to the south was a shambles. Debris and bones were scattered about. A few human heads, partially rotted, were hanging from the ceiling. A door led out of this chamber and the ogre opened and passed through it. With a mix of trepidation and confusion, the party followed.

Inside was quite the opposite of the prior chamber in the form of a rather homey and comfortable parlor. A large table dominated the room with various chairs set around it, including an ogre sized chair. A desk and chair, also ogre-sized, sat against one wall. A few bookshelves, filled with various books, were against another wall. A tea hutch with fine china sat in one corner and Riordan sat, a bit disheveled but unharmed, at the table. Another door, carved to look like a book, was in the middle of the opposite wall.

The ogre set the kettle on a hot stone on the hutch and apologized for not having fetched enough for everyone. He welcomed them all to his home, introduced himself as Chumley [yep, inspired by a certain troll from a certain series of books about myth adventures], and poured some tea before heading out to fetch more water.

While Chumley was absent, Riordan explained what had happened. He had heard a rumor that a rather major library was hidden in this valley and that it was guarded by a rather large ogre. A colleague had explained that one could get access to it by bringing a book and getting the ogre’s attention [which explained Riordan’s strange behavior of yelling at the ogre to come fetch just a bit earlier]. So he had never really been in any danger and that Chumley had been quite polite as he scooped up Riordan, explaining that he needed to maintain certain appearances in public.

This had various effects on the others. Callie appeared a little disappointed that this probably meant no ogre treasure to pilfer; the only things of real value looked to be the china and it was entirely to fragile to travel well. Grim was intrigued at the idea of a large library and the possibility of getting to do some magical research. The others seemed a bit confused and maybe a little put off by an ogre behaving in such a fashion.

When Chumley returned and treated everyone to tea, he freely let those interested look at the books on the shelves. It was apparent to both Riordan and Grim that this wasn’t much of a library. Chumley explained that it wasn’t really the library. He moved over to the door that looked like a book and, while shielding what he was doing with his rather ample bulk, opened the door. Beyond was what looked to be a massive library. He then closed the door. Riordan asked if he could go in and Chumley stepped aside to let him pass. When Riordan opened the door, it was just a small empty room beyond!

Disappointed, Riordan asked what happened to the library. Chumley explained that he could come for another visit again by bringing a book that was new. Chumley already had three copies of the one that Riordan had brought. The ogre also asked that none of them speak of the library or his dual personality. It was important that he maintain the public Crunch persona for various reasons. Chumley also mentioned that he had a benefactor but he would answer no questions about said benefactor or a few other topics…as that was part of the agreement he had with his benefactor. Gurdis also suggested that perhaps Chumley could use an apprentice as he wouldn’t be around forever but the ogre answered that the question of his successor really wasn’t his concern either…another thing for the benefactor.

Bidding Chumley farewell and speculating how they might explain Riordan’s miraculous escape from being lunch if asked, the party left. Still feeling the effects from their earlier endeavors, Gurdis and Aramil hoped that they could find a place to regroup, gather their thoughts, and have some lunch [and take a short rest]. The group headed back to the copse of trees in which Callie and Grim had recently hidden and did just that. As they took a brief rest, they decided that they would head into the caves that Riordan and his group had planned on originally entering instead of heading back to the goblin caves that Gurdis and company had explored.

Peeking inside the cave, there was a short corridor leading to a large chamber. Scattered all about the floor of this chamber were small rocks ranging from an inch or two across to four or five inches across. Callie went in first to see if she could deftly cross the rocks without making too much noise. She was successful…to a point. When one of the “rocks” broke under her step and the sound of crunching glass could be heard, she reached that point. Flame shot up from underfoot, damaging the halfling and sending her back out to the others for safety.

With the rocks being the apparent danger and their distance being one that could easily be jumped with a running start, Gurdis took the lead and leapt. As he was in mid-air, he noticed something that Callie had missed with her focus so much on the rocks [I had even given Callie Advantage on her Perception check since it was to spot shinys but Muse rolled rather poorly]. There were ball bearing scattered all over the floor just beyond the rocks. Somehow, Gurdis channeled the nimbleness (though not the stealth) of a cat and managed to land without losing his footing. He cleared the ball bearings all to one side of the room to allow the others to safely leap across the rocks.

A corridor and a door provided exits from this chamber. The party had decided that when they had a choice of direction to take that they would head in deeper. Beyond the door of choice was a relatively large chamber that was dominated by a murky and fetid pool of water. Two more doors led out of this room. Not trusting this setup, Morgraen took the lead and started probing the floor and wall for traps as she slowly moved forward. She noticed some small cracks in one section of the floor and the party avoided stepping there. A little further along, she noticed cracks in the wall.

Those cracks turned out to be a hidden door. After some more poking and prodding and careful examination, Morgraen was able to get it open. A short flight of stairs led up to a small chamber with a slim pedestal sitting in the middle of the floor…something shiny was sitting atop it. As Morgraen continued to make her slow and careful way in the main chamber, Grim and Callie came to the hidden chamber to check things out. Grim could detect no magic and Callie examined the pedestal and small frog sculpture, carved from a green translucent stone, but found nothing that looked like a trap. However, when she picked up the sculpture, she saw that it had a string attached to the bottom of it. A string that extended through a hole in the top of the pedestal and was quickly disappearing into said hole, closely followed by the sound of an alarm.

By this point, Morgraen had reached the corridor leading out of this room. A short flight of steps led up to a door. Kobolds were waiting behind the door and a fight was on. They turned out to be pretty easy to take down but a danger when they ganged up on a target. Both Gurdis and Aramil, perhaps still not fully recovered from their early goblin encounter, were incapacitated by the kobold’s attacks.

Moments after the fight began, the kobolds yelled out some name, beseeching it for aid. Only Riordan understood what was said but the intent quickly became clear. A large toad leaped out of the pond and attack Grim, who was at the rear of the party. The toad proved to be too much for the scrawny fellow and he dropped almost immediately. This toad thing had a more reptilian than amphibian snout, complete with some wicked looking teeth, and very much resembled the sculpture that Callie had taken from the pedestal. Fortunately, it along with the kobolds were all dispatched…with Callie stabbing the beast’s heart as it tried to leap over her for the safety of its pool. Who knows what mischief–such has grabbing someone with its tongue and dragging them into the water–it might have gotten up to from the safety of its pool?

After helping their fallen allies regain their bearing and feet, the party found a large chamber that looked to be the kobold’s camp beyond the room now littered with kobold bodies. They also found a bit of treasure on the bodies of the kobolds. The camp had nothing of real value. Gathering up the valuables, the party headed back towards the pool and the remaining door.

A small chamber sat empty beyond, save for another door. This door was carved from wood to look like a dragon’s head. It sat at about a forty-five degree angle, much like storm-cellar doors. Careful examination showed nothing out of the ordinary about the door, other than its appearance, and so they opened it. A very small empty chamber, just like the one behind the book door at Chumley’s when Riordan had opened the door, lay beyond. Putting two plus two together, they quickly surmised that they needed to open the door in some special way to get to whatever it might hide beyond.

Grim checked to see if the door was magical but it was not. Callie and Morgraen examined pretty much every single square inch of the door. They found a keyhole in one of the dragon’s nostrils but that was pretty much it. Morgraen tried to unlock the door but quickly realized that there where no tumblers or any mechanism at all within the door. Remembering that Chumley had worn a small pouch on a chain around his neck, the group reasoned that a special key was probably needed to properly unlock the door and gain access to what it really guarded.

Heading back out towards the entrance of this compound and an unexplored corridor, they were ambushed by a dragon that breathed fire down the corridor at Morgraen! It was quickly apparent that it wasn’t an actual dragon but a wooden carving of one that two kobolds hid behind. Another fight ensued as a couple of more kobolds arrived but the party had an easier time taking this group out, but not without some minor injuries. A small workroom was found beyond these kobolds. It had some wood-working equipment, pieces, of wood, and a couple of sealed jars with some kind of oil in them. The dragon construct in the hallway had a similar but empty jar upon it with a pipe that extended through the carving’s mouth anchored in it. Some sort of alchemical device.

The kobolds were looted and the party spent a few hours carefully searching some of this complex in the hopes of finding a hidden key that would open the dragon door. They focused on the kobold camp and the room with the murky pool but found nothing. As it would be getting dark soon [and with the clock ticking closer to our ending time], the party headed back to Hell’s Haven with their loot. They arrived without complication and without being pursued.

At Hell’s Haven, they were offered some complimentary ale to celebrate their survival while all of their belongings were searched and compared to their prior inventory of belongings. A couple of the Hell’s Angels set about appraising and counting all the loot brought out. As Gurdis was with the group, the dwarves announced that their cut would thirty-percent instead of the normal twenty-five (which did not sit too well with those who had only recently met Gurdis). And although Callie was a little distraught of giving up such a nice, new shiny, she did let the toad-dragon sculpture go to the dwarves. They offered 700gp in exchange and could either offer that in “store credit” or in coin but would take ten-percent as an exchange fee. The party elected for credit and used most of it to purchase potions of healing, although at an inflated price. They also used the credit to pay for lodging for night…which included bountiful and high quality food and drink.

[And that, of course, is where we stopped for the night. Not a cliffhanger but we shouldn’t see too many of those in this campaign given Rule #1 of The Side Quest: Get back to safety before the end of the session. This seemed like a pretty good session. Not only was Rule #1 met but at least one of the secrets of the valley is starting to become clear (at least to me). We had some fun with Chumley and then a bit of dungeon-crawling. They got some treasure and got some good dwarven ale in the end.

I largely made up things as we went along with the session like I did with the first one with one exception, Chumley. He was my way out of having a bunch of 1st level characters, some of whom were already pretty beaten up, take on an ogre. That could have gotten ugly and I’d be punishing some players for the actions/inactions of others. I couldn’t do that plus I’ve got what may be a fun recurring NPC and the start of some of the valley’s secrets.]