Session 2: Here There Be Kobolds Report

General Summary

The heroes approached the looming courtyard of the Sunless Citadel. Careful steps were taken for making sure to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Hedid finally decided to head through the front door when suddenly, she was interrupted by an... unpleasant surprise. A pit trap had been left unnoticed and swallowed Hedid within. To top it off, a giant rat awaited at the bottom and wasted no time trying to get through the half-elf’s heavy chain armor. Still, a threat of this magnitude proved no match for the protagonists. With that taken care of, the path inside was open. The group was greeted with signs of battle and goblin corpses. One of the bodies was skewered to the wall by a javelin, and Thorbjörn decisively made an attempt to add this weapon to his arsenal. The attempt failed, breaking the javelin, but the now slumped goblin remains did reveal a name carved into the wall in Draconic – ASHARDALON. Since one way forward was blocked by an epic-looking carved stone door, the group headed along another passage, though Cora had a difficult time letting the door’s secret go unsolved. Thorbjörn’s decisiveness proved useful again, since him kicking down a door revealed an intriguing room – the quarters of Meepo, Keeper of Dragons. He was a member of the kobold clan apparently inhabiting the Sunless Citadel, and recently demoted and humiliated for the fact that the clan’s dragon was stolen while under his watch. The culprits were goblins, another society inhabiting the fortress. Meepo, in the hopes that they would help getting the precious dragon back, led the heroes to Yusdrayl, the kobold clan’s leader. Yusdrayl indeed promised to reward the group, should they manage to retrieve their draconic ancestor back. She offered Meepo to go along and act as a guide. Yusdrayl also had some information regarding the missing adventurers – they had gone deeper into the keep to fight the goblins, and never returned. The party received quarters from Yusdrayl and called it a night for their first day of adventuring.

30 Kythorn, 1393 DR (Day 2)

In the morning, Meepo anxiously awaited to guide the heroes to the ‘back way’ into goblin territory. Another mysterious stone door with carvings attracted the group’s interest for a while. It also took some of Shava’s hit points in the form of a scythe trap that triggered when she unsuccessfully tried to open the door. The situation was agreed to be left alone for now and be dealt with at a later time. After Meepo marked the start of goblin-controlled areas, the group still had other things to take care of – like more pest control. Norg’s Light Rock™ lit the way to a corridor filled with prison cells, rat nests and... rats. The situation got pretty tense and with a quick and gruesome turn of events, Pock had his first near-death experience. Luck was on his side though as he miraculously regained consciousness on his own while in the heat of battle, and the rats were hacked to pieces shortly after. Another matter concerning rodents was brought to the group’s attention by Meepo – the ‘Rat Queen’, who apparently resided nearby. Her stench was not hard to follow, and a plan of no small proportions was put to place for destroying her nest – burn it to the ground with torches and Firebolts. However, the overwhelming smell of rot and decay emanating from the nest proved to be quite a handicap for the heroes’ reaction time, and so they had to confront the inhabitants of the nest rushing towards them, led by Guthash the ‘Rat Queen’, a large and terrible monstrosity of a rat, with bloodthirst and hunger in her eyes...