Dungeons of Saedom: Sessions 1-3

The inspiration for the blog came after I had already started the Dungeons of Saedom campaign, which itself had already started as another campaign. As I mentioned in an earlier post the campaign had a different overall plot. Now the plot is to explore an awesome mege-dungeon and loot its crypts, storerooms, and temples. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from the OSGers (check my links to other blog and sites) out there and that is the style of play and feeling that I am bringing to my 4e campaign.

I would like to give a short plot synopsis of our first three sessions before I get to our most recent session from Saturday night. After having met through responding to the local leadership's call for mercenaries and adventurers to explore the halting of communication between the city of Tyre and an important mining complex to the South of the city, the party set out. The party was harassed a few times by kobold raiding parties en route, but the fights went fast; the kobolds were easily killed. Upon arriving at the mine, the party attempted to sneak up to the entrance and failed. Kobold warriors backed by a shaman attacked and tried to hold up the party as they charged toward the mine's entrance which was about to be sealed. Kobold's on the inside of the mine's entrance had released the locking mechanism on the door. A large cog-wheel door began rolling into place. The strength of the party, Thaddeus and Hrothgar, aided by Borgon's aged muscles held the door open, successfully keeping it open just long enough for the rest of the party to jam the track on which the door rolled with enough debris to keep the door open. The party moved into the mine.

The entrance to the mine led into the living chambers of the former inhabitants: dwarfs. Knowing that they had not yet reached the great hall, where they expected to meet the kobolds' leader, the party fought on through three more groups of kobolds. The third of the three groups proved to be quite tough for the party. The group included a kobold chieftain as well as his body guards. Luckily Kral was there to provide the healing prayers the party needed to stay on its feet and keep fighting. The party chose to keep one of the kobolds alive as a hostage... at least long enough for it to be interrogated. In broken Draconic, the only thing the captive would tell them was that "she" would kill them and avenge his death.

The party moved into the final few chambers of the mine. They avoided and disarmed a trap in a hallway and moved into the great hall. The party burst through the doors, catching the worshiping throng of kobolds by surprise. But the party was also surprised. The object of their worship was a wyrmling black dragon. "She" bellowed a cry and accompanied her minions into the fight. Smartly, the party had saved most of their daily powers until this fight. The party sliced through the kobolds, including a shaman, and moved to the dragon. "She" blasted them with her acidic breath. The combined strength of the party eventually beat the dragon down. But the party had suffered some major damage; both Kral and Skavinsky Hymes were down. Here the party made camp. They looted the dragon's treasure and healed their comrades. Kral and Skavinsky both recovered.

The party chose to continue their delve in the dungeon. They began to explore the mines proper. After spending a day exploring the mines, the party found something of interest: the miners had dug into an ancient crypt complex. They moved into the remains of an ancient library. There, they met a crazed dwarf: Coppernight. He was the leader of the dwarfs who had established the mine, and one of the few survivors. When the party spoke to him, he mumbled on about snakes and never ending nightmares. He became agitated and the party was "forced" to kill him. He did give them quite a fight though. The party looted his corpse, recovered, and moved on. After moving down a long hallway, the party encountered another party of dwarfs. These dwarfs were also crazed and they attacked the party. Being dwarfs, they were quite tough. They were overcome, but Kral "heroically" charged into three of them. They swung their axes and hammers and cut him down. After the fight, the rest of the party rested and cared for Kral.