DF Whiterock Session 61: Duergar Guardroom

Date:

2019-08-23

Weather:

Warm, cloudy

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 340 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 409 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 406 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 396 points
Seépravir (player not present), High-Elf Wizard, 422 points

Significant NPCs:

Pendunkle, Gnome Submariner

Zombie Sea Cats

6 Duergar Fighters

Duergar Wizard

We restarted in Pendunkle's pond, south of the Immense Cavern.  Seépravir's player was not present, but because we started in the dungeon, the wizard was there.  At the end of last session, Polly and Zaber had found a bag of coins in a rickety shack on an island, and Seépravir had cast Seek Magic and detected a magic item underwater near the south edge of the pond.  After Polly and Zaber didn't come back for a while, Seépravir asked Garreth to get their attention.  He meditated on Power Blow for a while, then threw a rock in their general direction.  They flew back.

Seépravir asked if they found any magic items in the bag.  They did not, just coins and shells and gems.  So she pointed to where she though there was magic.  Polly and Zaber flew over there, but didn't see it.  So the others flew over, and Seépravir cast Seek Magic again, to pinpoint the exact location of the magic item.  Zaber asked to borrow the Ring of Water Breathing before going under, but Seépravir chose to cast Water Breathing on him instead.  She also gave him a Warmth spell as requested, though in summertime the water wasn't dangerously cold.

Zaber dove under, and spotted a helmet made of bone.  He also saw several creatures swimming toward him.  They looked like some kind of zombie-cat-fish hybrid.  They were a few hexes away, so Zaber dove straight for the helmet, grabbed it as fast as he could, swam for the surface, then flew above it.  He was fast enough that the creatures didn't catch him, and once he was well above the water, he was safe.  Underwater combat averted.  Polly wanted to kill the zombie cats, but everyone else seemed to think it was a waste of time, so the group flew back near the entrance.  The helmet was magical, carved from the skull of some kind of giant cat, and had some pictures of orcs on it.  The group decided to wait until they got back to town to analyze it further.

Seépravir cast Seek Earth, looking for gold, silver, and orichalcum.  She thought the nearest gold and silver was far west and a bit down, and did not find any orichalcum.  She also cast Seek Magic again, and the nearest unknown magic appeared to be near Pendunkle's house.  That seemed off-limits, so the group prepared to leave.

But then the submarine surfaced and Pendunkle popped out.  He asked if they had any extra blankets.  After some conversation he revealed that he could also use some needles and thread, some clothing, and some stringed musical instruments.  He asked them to wait while he got his money.  He got back in his submarine, and drove it west.  A few minutes later, he returned.  When he got out of his submarine, he said that someone took his money, and looked accusingly at Zaber.  After some explaining that they didn't know it was his, the group struck a deal with Pendunkle: they would take half his money and go buy everything on his shopping list, then return and get the other half.  Garreth asked if Pendunkle was able to make more items that the group could sell for him to sustain an income, but the gnome wasn't interested.

The group went back through the teleporter to the Immense Cavern, then headed for the (formerly) fire trapped room to the southwest.  Garreth suggested having someone with Resist Fire go in first to make sure the trap was still disabled, right as Polly went in without Resist Fire.  Fortunately for her, the trap was still disabled.  The group went out the other exit from the trapped room and followed a long windy passage that eventually led to stairs down.  Polly (visible) and Zaber (Invisible) went down the stairs first, and saw a large room with columns in the corners, two sets of double doors, and seven duergar wearing scale armor, most of them holding axes and large shields.

Polly said "Hi."  One of the dwarves said "halt, elf!"  Then most of the duergar started advancing toward her, in ranks.  Two held back.  One said something to the other in Dwarf (Zaber speaks a bit of Dwarf and he recognized it as "hold for go fast"), then cast a spell on him.  A second later, the enchanted dwarf doubled in size.

That martial behavior was enough to convince Polly that they were hostile, and she yelled "Attack!"  Zaber, still Invisible, flew past most of the duergar to try to get in backstabbing position.  The duergar, unexpectedly fast, went next.  The huge one ran a long distance very quickly to get to Polly, then swung his axe at her and rolled a critical hit.  Polly used her Luck to make him reroll, and he missed.  Then he attacked a second time, deceptively, but Polly made her acrobatic retreating dodge straight up.  The huge dwarf yelled to his allies in Dwarf "the elf is fast; surround her."  Five other duergar charged up to surround Polly, but didn't attack yet.

Polly went next, and fired three bodkins at the eyes of the huge duergar.  He blocked the first, dodged the second, and dodged the third (but made his dodge by less than his shield DB, so it hit his shield).  Garreth used the pearly spear to Great Haste himself.  Elias used his Heroic Grace and Heroic Might abilities to become a holy badass, rolling +11 DX and +3 ST.  The final duergar, holding a staff rather than an axe, cast another spell on the warrior next to him.  Seépravir Great Hasted herself.

Zaber All-Out Defended (Dodge) while maneuvering into backstab position.  Most of the duergar attacked Polly.  She retreated and dodged the first axe blow.  Then the Enlarged, Great Hasted one ran around her for a rear attack, which missed, and a second attack, which she acrobatically dodged.  

A third one made a Determined Attack for the second step, and Polly failed to dodge.  He rolled 18 cutting damage, enough to ruin Polly's day, and Polly's Bless spell decided to avert that.  The hit was miraculously changed to a miss, but Polly no longer had +2 to everything.  A fourth duergar also swung his axe at Polly, but she managed to dodge.  One of the duergar in the back Enlarged to double size.  

Polly started flying around and lining up multiple targets so that any misses or dodged arrows could achieve second chance damage.  Her first arrow was blocked.  Her second arrow was dodged, but then targeted the duergar behind the target, who blocked it.  Her third arrow missed.  Garreth dropped the spear, fast-drew his katana, and went for an All-Out Attack (Double) for his first action.  His first attack targeted a duergar's shield arm, but was parried.  He tried again, with the same result.  For his second action, he attacked the same arm, but the dwarf dodged.

Elias, in super-DX mode, went for rapid strikes, one each on the two dwarves in front of him.  One parried.  The other failed to dodge and was hit for 24 points crushing.  That was enough to slow him and knock him back a hex, plus inflicted a knockout check, but he wasn't knocked out.  The duergar wizard in the back cast Invisibility on himself.  Sadly for him, Zaber had See Invisible up.  Seépravir cast Great Haste on Polly, because why fire three arrows per second when you can fire six?

Zaber snuck around the Invisible wizard to reach his unarmored face, rolled a critical success on his Stealth roll ensuring the wizard didn't hear him, and stabbed him in the eye with an All-Out Attack (Strong).  He rolled 11 points impaling damage, which destroyed the dwarf's eye then penetrated his brain, doing 44 points of injury, or three death checks' worth.  The wizard failed the third death check, but got out a scream on his way down.  Zaber's Invisibility spell went away, but he was behind all the other duergar.

One of the duergar rolled a critical hit on Elias, and did 14 points cutting to his torso, but that didn't penetrate his DR 15.  The duergar yelled something about having dibs on the armor after he finished killing the elf.  One of the Enlarged duergar rolled a critical hit on Garreth, but he used his Luck to turn it into a regular hit, which he parried, and he defended against the other blow too.  Polly flew into position and fired six arrows.  The first three were dodged or blocked.  The fourth hit a huge duergar in the skull for 15 points of damage, which failed to kill him, and a stun check at -10, which knocked him out.  She shot another one in the skull too, but somehow failed to knock that one out.

Garreth went after another shield arm, and this time managed to cripple it.  His next attack was a critical miss, resulting in a dropped katana.  It was on a lanyard, so he was able to take a Ready maneuver and roll a DX check to get it back, at the cost of a wasted action.  Elias, surrounded, flew over a couple of duergar next to Seépravir.  Seépravir Great Hasted him, then stepped back to a safer location.  Zaber put his Ring of Invisibility on.

One of the previously wounded duergar missed a consciousness check and fell over.  Another one attacked Garreth, who failed his dodge, and got tagged for 23 points of cutting damage.  That was enough to trigger his Bless spell, which decided to avert the damage, and went away.  Another duergar got an axe hit on Garreth, but only rolled 9 points of damage, not enough to penetrate his armor.  The one whose axe had previously failed to penetrate Elias's armor took the penalty to aim for a chink in his armor, and hit, but Elias blocked with his shield.

Polly flew behind the big duergar whose shield arm Garreth had crippled, and shot him in the skull.  He failed to dodge, and the arrow in his brain knocked him unconscious.  She tried shooting another one in the head, but he dodged, and then the arrow targeted Garreth, who also dodged.  Her third arrow hit another dwarf skull and knocked out another dwarf.  Her fourth and fifth arrows were dodged, but her sixth hit a duergar in the vitals and slowed him.

Garreth double-attacked a duergar, who blocked one and parried the other.  He then asked Garreth (in Undercommon) if the elves had him charmed and said he should switch sides, which didn't work.  He sweetened the offer by saying Garreth could eat one of the elves if he changed teams, but that also didn't work.

Elias did an All-Out Attack (Double) followed by a Rapid Strike for four total attacks on two duergar.  He hit the first one twice for 19 and 26 crushing damage to the skull, resulting in all kinds of fatal brain damage.  He hit the second one in the brain for 18 crushing, which was somehow not fatal but caused a knockout.  And then there was only one duergar left.  Seépravir gave tactical advice to Garreth: "Don't let him get away."

The last duergar accidentally ran into Zaber's hex, not knowing he was there.  Zaber evaded.  Polly fired multiple arrows into the dwarf's skull and knocked him out.  That was all the duergar, and Zaber immediately started looting while Garreth immediately started making sure they were dead.  Elias cast Major Healing on Garreth.  Zaber took some magic bracers, a magic staff, a key, and a pouch of money off the wizard.  The fighters all had scale armor, axes, and shields.  With the session almost over and two Bless spells gone, the party headed back to Cillamar with their loot.

GM's Comments:

Avoiding the battle with the Zombie Sea Cats probably made sense.  Underwater combat is no fun for land-based creatures, even if they have Swim and Breathe Water spells.  I was surprised Elias didn't insist, though, just because they were undead.

The group agreed to go shopping for Pendunkle in exchange for him overpaying for his supplies, which seemed like a win-win for everyone.  Of course they'd taken the money that he meant to use to pay them, but they worked it out.

The duergar guard post was pretty tough.  Six duergar fighters and a duergar wizard who knew Great Haste.   This was one of the few fights where the opponents had enough skill and strength and tactical sense that I actually thought they had a chance to kill a PC.  But Luck and Bless and Great Haste and high defenses and good armor saved the PCs yet again.

Seépravir probably won't be around next session, so the rest of the PCs will have to figure out what they can do without a wizard.

DF Whiterock Session 60: Fire Trap

Date:

2019-08-09

Weather:

Warm, overcast

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 336 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 406 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 403 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 392 points

Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High-Elf Wizard, 419 points

Significant NPCs:

Lord Flitwick, Human Noble

Hugin, Human Mercenary
Lowrek, Giant
2 Giants
Vulgaris, Minyad Druid

Pendunkle, Gnome Submariner
Giant Diving Beetle

The group started in the town of Cillamar.  Zaber went looking for rumors, and heard stories about Hugin's prowess and Flitwick's depravity that he and Seépravir had originated.  Polly heard that King Stormwarden's visit to Cillamar was on again, and that summoning magic does not work near Castle Whiterock.  Polly went looking for the half-elven bard Brie to see if she had a lead on any elf cookies, but Brie wasn't around.

Seépravir researched the drow wizard's spellbook and found Acid Blood, Resist Acid, and Acid Jet, plus a bunch of more common spells.  She then busted out the Seeker spell and looked for the bastard sword Damarel (not found), Lord Flitwick (in a tent in a desert to the south, with a stupid-looking beard), his Wand of Smoke (locked in a chest in Mystenmere), and Brie (in a forest, hiding behind some trees, spying on a camp).

Zaber went looking for Hugin, but didn't find him.  Seépravir used Seeker and found that Hugin was waking beside a wagon, with a greatsword on his back, and his missing arm regrown.

At that point everyone was out of things to do in town, so Seépravir cast Flight on everyone, and they flew to Castle Whiterock.  She also cast Drunkenness on Garreth, and he had a hard time low-flying drunk while pushing a wheelbarrow, and smashed it into a tree.  The trip was otherwise uneventful, and the surface level of the castle was empty.  The group went down the elevator to the underground river level, where Garreth asked Seépravir to remove the Drunkenness so he didn't crash the skiff.  Then he successfully rowed the boat across the level, to the Immense Cavern.

Everyone flew west to the previously unexplored northwest corner of the cavern.  Zaber and Polly scouted ahead.  First they flew west until they found the west wall, then they went north along the wall.  Zaber spotted a trail running up the side of the wall, leading to a tunnel to the northwest.  They explored that way, and spotted some neat stacks of small boulders.  Then Zaber saw a large male humanoid with tattoos and piercings, holding a rock.  He didn't see Zaber (who was Invisible), and Zaber started flying away, but then he did spot Polly (who was not Invisible).

The giant was reasonably friendly, though he confused Polly for a human.  He asked some questions, then asked if she wanted to come up and have some beer.  That was enough to get Zaber's interest.  He became visible and then came around the corner, interested in the beer.  Another giant came up behind the first one.  They had a brief discussion.  Then he came back to Zaber and Polly, and asked if they had anything good to eat or drink.  The conclusion was that if they brought something good, Polly could come up and party with the giants, but not now because the giant leader was away.  But Zaber would have to prove himself first with Feats of Strength.  He was deemed to be too puny for rock throwing, so he could try worm riding instead.  Zaber asked the giant's name, and he said he was Lowrek.

Then Zaber and Polly flew away, continuing north along the cavern wall.  Eventually it started curving back to the east, so they were pretty sure they'd explored the northwest corner of the cavern.  When they thought they were far enough east along the north wall, they turned back south, and flew back to the others, and told them about the giants.

After some discussion, the group decided to go back to the probably-trapped room to the southwest.  When they got there, Zaber had premonitions of danger again.  He peeked into the room, which contained a dead monster with tentacles, and not much else.  Polly walked past him and started forward into the room, then heard a click.  A stone door that they hadn't seen started closing behind Polly, and another one started closing the other exit on the far side of the room.  Polly dove for the nearer door.  She made a critical success on her Acrobatics roll, then succeeded by enough on her Acrobatic Dodge to sail clear through the door before it shut.  Then the room started heating up, and a red glow was visible under the door.  It appeared something was on fire in there.

After a few minutes, the glow went away.  Zaber checked the door and found that it was only warm, not hot.  Polly covered the door with her bow, while Zaber found the hidden lock, then picked it open.  The door was quite heavy.  Polly walked over and started trying to shove it open, with difficulty.  Zaber found just the right place to help, and it flew open the rest of the way.  Inside the room, the monster corpse was blackened.

Zaber started carefully looking for the trap.  He thought he spotted a proximity trigger in the middle of the room, but was afraid that getting close enough to disarm it might set off the trap again.  Zaber threw a rock at it, and Polly shot an arrow at it, but nothing happened.  They decided to try again with a bigger rock.  Polly flew back to get one that she'd seen near the giants.  She gave it to Garreth to throw.  He focused on Power Blow, then threw the really heavy rock into the center of the room, with no effect beyond a loud thump.

Zaber decided the trap was probably triggered by the presence of life, rather than by weight.  Polly went and got another boulder, and put it in position to keep the stone door from closing completely.  Zaber adjusted the boulder a little.  Polly tied a safety rope to Zaber.  Then he moved into the room slowly until he heard a click, and flew for the door, while Polly pulled the rope.  He needed to use his Luck to reroll his dodge, but he got through the door before it mostly-closed.  A jet of flame came through the partial opening in the doorway, hitting Zaber, Garreth, and Elias.  Elias failed to completely dodge it, but had Resist Fire on, and suffered no damage.  Garreth and Zaber dodged.  Then Garreth kicked the rock into the room to let the door close.

Elias cast Resist Fire on Zaber, Polly, and Seépravir.  They tested the trap again, and proved that Resist Fire was adequate protection from it.  This gave Zaber the courage to go into the room and disarm the trap.  He set it off and was bathed in lethal doses of heat for about 15 seconds, but the spell saved him.  He then disarmed all the fire jets.  The magical life detection trigger was still in place, until Seépravir came in and cast Dispel Magic to remove it.  She critically succeeded, and realized that there had been two spells: an Alarm to trigger the trap whenever someone came in range, and a password to temporarily turn off the Alarm.

With the trap disabled, the group investigated the monster corpse.  It was thoroughly burned, but appeared to be large, cigar-shaped, and tentacled.  It was too big to fit in the wheelbarrow, and Seépravir wasn't sure what it was.

The group went out the southwestern exit of the formerly trapped room.  The tunnel continued for a while, then reached a set of well-made stone steps heading down.  They considered going downstairs, but it was too late in the session to start exploring a new level, so they decided to go talk to the halfling submariner instead.

At this point they needed elf cookies for the halfling, and beer for the giants.  Cillamar was pretty far, so they decided to see if Vulgaris had any mushroom-based snacks or booze that might suffice.  They flew back to the northeast corner of the Immense Cavern, then back to the skiff.  Garreth skillfully piloted it back to the southern end of the underground river level, where Vulgaris lived.

She greeted them by asking if the drow they killed had any nice rapiers that she could have.  Polly responded that, sadly, all the drow rapiers were lame.  After a break to touch her crystal rock formation, Vulgaris asked if they needed healing potions.  Polly indicated that they actually wanted cookies and beer.  Vulgaris said she did have some mushroom-based Deepwine, and some sweet nightcaps.  Garreth said that sounded good, and whether she wanted coins in exchange.  Vulgaris said she'd take coins if that's all they had, but she preferred a nicer rapier.

Zaber tried one of the nightcaps, and found that it gave him a mild buzz that made him happy.  Garreth and Polly tried them too, and also liked them.  They came to an agreement: $400 for a cask of Deepwine and $200 for a box of nightcaps.

With provisions gathered, everyone got back in the boat.  Garreth needed to use Luck to avoid a critical failure on a boating roll, but they made it back to the other dock intact, then flew across the Immense Cavern to the tunnel leading to the halfling's pond.  Polly touched all the letter O's on the door, and was teleported to the other side.  Seépravir followed suit (Invisibly), and they were standing on a ledge, while the water started bubbling and the gnomish submarine came to the surface.

The submarine's glowing claw waved at the PCs, then the hatch on the roof opened, and Pendunkle hopped out.  He asked where Polly's friends were.  Elias teleported across, then Garreth and (Invisible) Zaber.

Pendunkle asked if Polly had brought elf cookies.  She said that they had brought Minyad cookies instead.  He tried one, made a funny face, then turned to Zaber and asked what he put in the cookies.
"I assume it was you."  Then he said "Wow, now the invisible ones look purple!"  Zaber claimed that he hadn't spiked the cookies.  His girlfriend made them, and they grew that way.

Garreth asked if they could explore the cave for loot or secret doors.  Pendunkle said that was okay, but they needed to follow some rules.  First, don't hurt his friends the beetles.  Second, don't break his house, which was delicate and didn't have a lot of air for big people.  Third (looking at Zaber), no looting his house.

He then offered a tour of the Incomprehensible Mark I.  Zaber, Polly, and Seépravir were all interested in one, but Garreth was concerned he might not fit.  It turned out the submarine only had two seats, one for a tiny person and one for a human-sized person.  Pendunkle demonstrated Turmoil Mode, which made the three claws thrash around and froth up the water.  He then demonstrated Sonic Mode, which let him yell really loudly.  He said he could give one of them a ride, but not right now, as he needed to feed his pets.  Seépravir asked how he figured it all out, and he explained that he's a gnome, and very patient.  (The group had thought he was a halfling because of his tiny size.)  He then climbed back inside his vessel and drove it away to the north.

Not taking no for an answer, Seépravir flew above the submarine, then used Blink to pop inside.  She asked the gnome for an internship to learn about the submarine and other clockwork gadgets.  He declined, saying he didn't do well around other people for long periods.  He then asked if she teleported all the way from the ledge.  She admitted that she only had short-range Blink.  He asked her to leave, and started breathing funny.  She tried Mind Reading and saw that he was in some distress due to her presence and was trying not to freak out.  So she cast Breathe Water, and then Blinked out.

Seépravir then saw a giant beetle swimming toward her.  She stunned it with Death Vision.  While it thrashed around in terror, she flew back to the others.  Polly and Zaber were flying around, checking out the area around the ledge.  Zaber spotted a building on an island to the east, so they flew over there.  It was a falling down cabin, made of rocks, with a low ceiling.  There were some piles of rocks nearby, possibly rubble from the cabin.  Polly checked out the rocks, and found some twine sticking out.  Zaber took a look and decided the twine might be a trap.  There was a sack attached to the twine.  Zaber thought it was a trap desided to collapse the ceiling if someone pulled the sack, but he cut it, and then took the sack.  It was full of coins, plus a few shells.

Meanwhile, Seépravir cast Seek Magic, ignoring the group's own magic items and the submarine.  She spotted a strong magical source on the bottom of the pond, and pointed it out to Zaber.  But at that point we ran out of time, and paused there.  What's the magic?  We'll see next time.

GM's Comments:

This was a zero-combat sesssion, I think our first.  The PCs explored, talked to a giant and a minyad and a gnome, and disabled a big trap and a little trap.  The big trap was quite lethal and failed to kill them, so overall it was probably a successful session.

DF Whiterock Session 59: A Submarine?

Date:

2019-08-02

Weather:

Warm, overcast

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 332 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 403 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 400 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 388 points

Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High-Elf Wizard, 416 points

Significant NPCs:

Wigric, Human Teamster

Lord Flitwick, Human Noble

Alrux, Dwarf Armorer

Quintus, Human Alchemist

Hugin, Human Mercenary

Login, Wolverine

Delver Bandit

Pendunkle, Halfling Submariner

The party started in Cillamar.  Garreth went looking for a teamster willing to transport a giant turtle shell, and found Wigric and his team of four large horses.  Garreth also went looking for Hugin, but failed to find him at home or at the Drunken Minotaur.  Seépravir used Seeker to check on the progress of his Wand of Smoke under construction in Mystenmere, and found that it appeared finished.  She also used it to spy on Lord Flitwick, and found that he was riding a camel, somewhere far to the south.  Seépravir and Zaber then spread rumors about Flitwick and camels.  Zaber took Logan out dancing.  This attracted negative attention from Cookie the bouncer, but Lady Chauntessa waved Cookie off.  Elias went looking for exploding crossbow bolts again, and once again found that nobody had heard of such a thing.

With town business concluded, the group met up with Wigric and headed toward Castle Whiterock, with most of them riding in his wagon but Polly flying overhead to scout.  The heavy wagon bogged down crossing a stream at a soggy ford, but Seépravir cast Shape Earth and Earth to Stone to improve the ford.  They reached the castle, and left Wigric and his team in the stable, while they went to get the turtle shell, down one level in the dungeon near the elevator.  A combination of Garreth's Power Blow and Seépravir's Lighten Burden was enough for Garreth and Polly to be able to slowly move the shell across the top dungeon level and then up the stairs to the ruined castle.  Then they asked Wigric to wait in the stable while they went exploring.

They went back down the elevator to the underground river, then Garreth rowed them across the level in a skiff.  Reaching the far dock, they walked through the passage to the Immense Cavern.  Seépravir cast Flight on everyone, but the wheelbarrow was a bit heavy for carrying through the air, so Garreth pushed it along the ground.  The group went back to the western end of the cave, and found the hole that the giant slug-creature with arms and stone-eating acid had dug.  

There was a discussion as to the safety of following a slug-creature into its tunnels.  They decided to send a Wizard Eye instead of a scout.  The eye went around a couple of turns, then found the slug creature.  Which detected the eye, and charged it.  Seépravir made the eye fly away, and then explored some other tunnels, descending until the eye hit a no mana zone (or something) and went away.

There was more discussion on whether to go into the tunnels to kill the monster, but the group decided it was better to lure the creature out into the open.  Zaber heard some rumbling in the ground to the north, but Technical Difficulties prevented going that way.  So the group decided to go south to a side tunnel they'd found last week instead.

Zaber and Polly started down the tunnel, which was only about 6' tall.  It ended in a stone door with a bronze sign on it, and a bronze knocker.  The sign said "It occurs once in a month, twice at noon, but never in a day. What is it?" in Common.  The knocker had a hen bowing before a jester on it.  And Zaber thought he detected a magical trap on the door.

The group thought the sign was a riddle and and answer was "o" or "n" or "no" or "on", but yelling various things didn't seem to do anything.  After a while, Polly got impatient and touched the knocker.  This triggered a trap, which teleported Polly into solid stone and then back, doing large but non-fatal amounts of damage to her.  Elias healed her, and then she drank some healing potion from the wineskin of many healing potions.

Seépravir tried using Blink Other to move Zaber to the other side of the door, but it failed, apparently because there was solid rock there.  Zaber then disabled the magical teleport trap.  Then he tried the knocker again.  This had no effect.

Since subtlety had failed, it was time for brute force.  Garreth pulled out the pickaxe and started smashing through the door.  Zaber flew back to the tunnel entrance to keep watch for anything the pounding might attract.  It did eventually attract a wandering monster, but one that made its own entrance tunnel rather than using the existing one.  It was the slug-mole-acid beast again.  It burst through the wall next to Garreth, and yelled in Undercommon to give it all their precious metals or be eaten.

Garreth translated, and the PCs started making excuses about leaving all their precious metals back in town.  The creature lost patience and slammed Elias, but he blocked it.  Polly put an arrow into it, while it dodged another arrow.  Garreth used Kiai and managed to stun the monster.  Elias, behind the creature, hit it in the back a couple of times with his flail.  Seépravir Great Hasted Garreth.

Polly put a couple more arrows into the slug beast and Elias smashed it in the back a couple more times with his flail.  Seépravir cast Lend Energy to make Garreth (who was pretty tired from digging before the fight started) less tired.  The monster recovered from stun, but Garreth used kiai again.  It resisted, but then Garreth tried again on his extra turn, and it was stunned again.

The monster started talking in Undercommon about how it was all a mistake and would stop eating precious metals and live a sober life, but the PCs had no mercy.  Polly shot it some more, and Elias smashed it some more, as Garreth started preparing a sling to help.  (He didn't want to put his katana anywhere near all that acid.)  This was finally enough to knock it unconscious.

As Zaber reached the others, he found Polly methodically firing arrows into the unconscious delver to make sure it was dead.  (She was using the ones from her Cornucopia quiver to avoid wasting real arrows that cost money on an arrow-burning acid beast.)  Elias noticed some acid on his flail dissolving it a little.  He shook it off, then used fire to burn off the remaining acid, and his flail survived.

Zaber and Polly explored the delver's new tunnel a bit, being careful to avoid touching the walls, which looked shiny with acid.  It eventually connected with the other tunnels, and they flew back.  The monster's corpse was leaking acid and making a little hole under it.  Garreth decided to make use of that.  He took off his armor (because he cared more about his armor than his skin), then used Power Blow for extra strength, then shoved the delver's corpse over by where he had been tunneling with the pickaxe.  This worked, but caused Garreth a bit of acid damage, which Elias healed.

The group sat down and rested a bit while the delver corpse's acid dug a hole for them.  Eventually, they heard a splash.  The corpse had tunneled about ten yards southeast and down, and broken through the rock into a water-filled cave, and now the acid was bubbling into the water below.  Polly fired a Continual Light arrow down the tunnel to light the area.

The group flew out to investigate, and saw a metal disc a few yards in diameter emerging from the water.  It had what looked like glass windows on top, and three large metal claws, one of them glowing brightly.  Then a voice boomed out of the disc in Common, saying "Was the giant stone blocking the tunnel too subtle?  Go!  Away!"

Of course the PCs did not go away.  The voice continued with "Ugh, you dug a hole in my wall?  What is wrong with you people?"  Zaber claimed that they didn't dig the hole, a monster did.  The disc dove underwater to investigate the delver corpse, then came back up.  The voice continued "oh, acid tunneling beast, maybe not your fault."  At that point a hatch on the surface of the disc opened, and a halfling stepped out.  Some less hostile conversation followed.  The disc was a gnomish magical device for exploring underwater, from the Clockwork Academy.  The halfling had found it, so it was his now.  The halfling's name was Pendunkle.

Pendunkle explained that he lived in this cave with his fishes and bugs, and he didn't like drow.  The group tried to barter with food, but they didn't have anything he wanted, just rations.  He seemed interested in the idea of elf cookies, though.  The halfling said something about being the last survivor of the Fellowship of the Humbled Hen.  Polly asked if he had a friend with a halberd, and Pendunkle said that, yes, his friend with the halbard got killed by a huge snake.  Then he asked them to go away so he could feed his beetles.  He told them they could come visit if they had elf cookies, and explained how to use the teleporting door.  (They had to push the "O" buttons in the sign.)  Then the PCs left.

There was one more tunnel to explore, so Zaber and Polly led the way.  Zaber saw the tunnel led to a circular chamber about 40' wide and 10' tall, containing a much-abused corpse of some kind of cigar-shaped monster with tentacles.  The room gave Zaber a very bad feeling, though he didn't actually see a trap.  Polly fired an arrow into the corpse in case it was faking, but it didn't move.

At that point the group decided that Zaber was probably right, and that it would be a good idea to go back to town.  So they went upstairs to find Wigric and his team, hitched up the turtle shell, and travelled back to Cillamar.  Once they got there, they had Wigric drag the shell to Alrux's shop to see if he could make armor out of it, but he could not.  Then they dragged it to Quintus's tower to see if he wanted it for potions.  He offered $100 for the shell just to hang it on his wall, but Seépravir said she's keep it at that price.  They then had Wigric's team drag the shell over to the Inn of the Slumbering Drake to see if Chauntessa wanted it, but she didn't think it would match her decor, but repeated her earlier offer to pay for books or scrolls or other historical information.  She did give the group permission to keep the shell behind the stable, as long as it was out of sight of customers.

GM's Comments:

The players solved the riddle door, but only thought to answer the riddle out loud, rather than pushing on letters.  So they had to resort to brute force tunneling.  And they forgot to use silence magic this time to avoid attracting wandering monsters, so they attracted the gold-seeking delver, and got to fight it again.

The delver was a tough monster, but there was one of it versus five PCs.  And it didn't have great Will.  So stun-locking it with kiai while shooting it in the back was a fine strategy.  Elias was pretty lucky not to lose his magic flail to its acid, though.  Using the delver corpse to help tunnel through rock was a good trick.

Pendunkle and his gnomish submarine provided some amusement.  The group managed to avoid attacking him, then left without exploring the water-filled cave.

The cave with the dead monster gave Zaber the creeps, so the group left rather than exploring it.  (He has Danger Sense so I guess they believe his vague feelings.)

The turtle shell ended up being not worth the effort to transport.  Not every monster corpse is valuable.

Overall, it was a negative-loot week, but the PCs did manage to explore a couple more areas.

We had a technical glitch with Roll20 maps that prevented exploring the northwest part of the Immense Cavern, so that's still there for later.