Big Skull - 4/15 session recap

There was no skull on the floor of the dungeon. Don't even ask about it.

A long corridor faced the party. Two alcoves were on the left hand wall. A body lay near the end of the hall, just short of a large chest. Each alcove was floored with a pressure plate. Two areas on the floor were covered by large metal gratings, set flush into the stone floor. An electricity trap, in Ander's estimation. He jammed it as best he could.

The party ventured over the zapping zones, and Boreas reached out to check the body. A small spark jumped between him and the body, and it jerked. The man, as they could see now, breathed in sharply, but lay still for a moment, blinking his eyes. He wore slick leather armor, several daggers, and a triangular amulet with three softly glowing points at the corners. Soon he sat up and started answering the questions that were asked of him.

His name was John Oldhamshire, and he said that he had infiltrated this place to discern the source of the goblinoids. He did not believe that renewed habitation was caused merely by reproduction, though he allowed that some of that was happening as well.

He politely declined to give any information about his origins or employers, but he asked if he could continue his mission with the party. His initial plan was to sneak in. But considering that he had run afoul of traps already and the party was making better progress through the use of concentrated force, John figured his mission would be better served by tagging along. Without much discussion, it was agreed that John could join them.

The chest had no traps, and the lock gave way easily. Five magic items were in the chest, which were then distributed amongst the party.

They returned to the large room with the tentacled bugbear corpses and explored one of the corridors that led out of the room. This led to a set of rooms with several pressure plates scattered here and there, as well as some recessed metal poles that appeared to be able to act as bars to a cage. Ander was able to disarm the traps for the duration of the exploration, and nothing bad happened.

Other bones were found in a corner, however, and they appeared to be from a large four-legged animal of some kind. No further encounters or treasure were found in this room.

So the party went back to the large room and tried the other exit through which the single hobgoblin had escaped. There was yet another trap in this winding corridor, a scything horizontal blade about two and a half feet off the ground. It was discovered that the blade only deployed when a weight equivalent to a humanoid creature was standing on a pressure plate in an alcove just before the trap. One of the hobgoblin bodies was dragged over to perform this guard service, and the party settled in for an extended rest in the large room.