Session 1: Graduation Day

Our intrepid adventuring party begins with 5 players:

Odie - Pecos "Tex" Poblano, Halfling Rogue.
Galen - Arron, Human Druid.
Cutter - Orrin Skullsplitter, Half-Orc Cleric.
Flip - Tthardas VII, Halfling Sorcerer.
Dave - Zay, Human Necromancer.

They also have a pack mule and two dogs, along with all the normal adventuring equipment you would expect.

These fine adventurers met at Shiravar Academy. Located in the Osandor mountains, the town of Shiravar and its adventuring academy has been the training grounds for many heroes and villians for over 500 years. Shiravar was an Aasimar Paladin and member of Raydra's Rangers. After years of doing great deeds, they were tasked by the Emperor of the North to settle in a small town in the mountains. Shiravar received a vision to form a training facility in the town, a duty which he reluctantly accepted. The other Rangers joined him in starting the Academy. Unfortunately, Shiravar lost his life soon after the first Academy building was completed, when the town was attacked by an ancient dragon. To honor his sacrifice and efforts to build a lasting learning facility, the town was renamed in his honor.

For their final exam, this group of adventurers were tasked with following and capturing (if possible) a wererat sorcerer who had passed through town recently. They were given some standard adventuring equipment and a set of minor potions to help them. Other than that, they were expected to succeed or fail using their own wits and resources.

They were given a map to a nearby "prison", which was where the wererat was heading. It took more than a day to reach it, and during that time it was snowing heavily. When they reached the entrance, they were amazed to find many scraps of paper blowing around in the cold winter air. Most them were coming from a huge mound of snow near the entrance. Eventually they discover what was creating the mound: the dead body of a Titan! After doing what they could for him, they entered the cave. Soon they reached an open room.

After investigating the walls, doors, and the strange darkness beyond the doors, Tex headed into the darkness. Eventually the entire party came through, and that's when they discovered the one-way feature of the door. They were trapped! Nobody had told them how to leave the prison again. What were they to do?

For now, they pressed on. In this large room they ran into three orcs whose will had been broken. They learned no new information from them and decided to leave them alone. They moved to the northwest door and opened it. What a stench! Dead bodies everywhere. Everyone except for Tex and the animals entered, but there was nothing useful to be found. On to the next door, where our thief triggered his first trap, getting toasted by the Burning Hands trap on this door. They weren't interested in the moldy sacks contained in this room, so they headed north.

Here they poked around in the stores until the mule kicked open a barrel of vinegar. While investigating, Tthardas found the rusted mining tools and set off a cloud of mold that didn't do any significant damage. Orrin was the unlucky recipient of the acid trap after it missed Tex because his character is short. They did find a way to disable this trap. (Yay!) They looted the good storage, taking 100 feet of rope and a set of tools.

From there they worked their way back to the initial large room. They find the corpses of the Orcs, foully slain by some sort of flying creature. They move on and enter the northern one of the two remaining doors. In this room they see the corpse of an orc. They check the corpse but cannot discover the exact cause of death. (The main cause of death was pretty obvious: combat damage and choking.)

Lucky for the party the Druid and the Rogue spotted the Darkmantle before anyone else does. Otherwise they'd all be being eaten right now. Anyway, Tthardas gets down to -9 before they finish it off.

In the night's climactic battle, a rat swarm mobs the party. Though many people get injured, Flip was there to offer up some delicious cookies. :) They were able to dispurse them, but not before Tex went down from the bites.

So here our intrepid adventuring party sits, waiting to continue exploring. I trust that they'll be able to complete their quest...soon...

Welcome!

This is the first in what I hope will be many entries detailing the adventures of our gaming group as we wander the World's Largest Dungeon. I'm your host, Mike Miller, and I'll be their DM and your chronicler as we proceed through this behemoth of an adventure.