Session 2 - Dwarven Excavation Site

As the party enters the temple they see that the ceilings are ten feet high and flat. The doors are made of carved stone with stone pins for hinges. The temple is choked with dusty rubble.  There are no light sources in the temple, since the dwarf priests of Abbathor relied on darkvision to see. The foyer has two sets of double doors held open by spikes hammered into the floor. A once secret door to the north stands open. Peering ahead they see that there are two slimes sitting atop an altar in the room ahead. Diz knocks an arrow and a fight ensues.

As Diz lets her arrow fly and strikes the slime on the left, Burr unleashes a psychic mockery on the slime to the right. As the slime on the right begins to sob from the vicious onslaught, Kali attempt to hit it with a burst of ice that unfortunately flies over its head and onto the wall behind. The left slime seems to be angered by the treatment of its comrade and begins crawling toward to the party. Diz unleashes another arrow causing even more damage to the left slime as Burr casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on the right slime. It is now laughing and sobbing uncontrollably, confused and incapacitated. Kali unleashes a thunderous wave throwing the slime from the altar against the wall behind and to the ground. Diz knocks another arrow and lets it fly toward the right slime, now barely hanging on. Burr rushes forward and slashes at the left slime with his rapier, causing it to burst in every direction. He manages to dodge the slime as he continues forward. Kali unleashes another burst of frost, but it again misses as the slime flails between laughter and sobs. Diz unleashes a final arrow putting the slime out of its misery ending the battle.

Looking around the inner temple the party sees that the area contains a bloodstained limestone altar standing at the far end of the room. Everyone begins investigating the area and Diz finds two secret openings at the right side of the room. The party first travels down a long hallway leading to a partially collapsed room. It appears an earthquake has collapsed part of this room and after looking around Diz and Burr decide it holds nothing of value. Kali takes a second look and is able to find an old scroll. It is written in dwarvish, so she hands it to Diz to translate:

The Lost Sword of Filarion, Dragon Rider of Xiuhcoatl. Rider's Sword of the Dragon's Bond.

A single-edged longsword with a curve blade with a ridged edge that is sharper than any known blade forged in the Realms. Its handle is wrapped in black leather. Its guard is a thick, bronze instead of a thin square cross guard. The blade is inserted deep within. The Guard has two runes that are both marked with cravings meaning "bond", and magically glow by a dragon and its bond with the user. The weapon is unbreakable and unable to be pull apart, piece-by-piece.

Bond Charge: When you have your dragon alive and in clear sight of 50ft., Rider's Sword of the Dragon's Bond will have its runes glowing with mana, upgrading the attack to an additional attack bonus of +3 and 5d10 of slashing elemental damage based on your dragon's ancestry. While its runes are glowing, you can take an entire turn to form a magic aura around the blade and adjust its length to expand its reach range up to 25ft. When adjusted to more than 5ft, when making an melee attack using Rider's Sword of the Dragon's Bond, enemies within the weapon's range must make a save DC of 8 + your Charisma modifier. If the save succeeds, all the damage dealt is reduced by half, if failed, they must take the entire damage. After use or attack, the blade's length and aura will disappear, and will recharge at dawn. If your dragon is dead or not in clear sight, Rider's Sword of the Dragon's Bond will only deal 2d6 slashing damage.

Traveling back they continue down the hallway in the opposite direction and are surprised to end up back in the temples foyer. They take this opportunity to search the area through the secret door that was already discovered when they entered. They search through the rubble but it appears that anything that may have been here has already been scavenged. Diz calls the dwarven archeologists to see if they know anything about it. They state of course they were able to make it that far into the temple before they spotted the slime and immediately retreated. Diz is visibly annoyed that they were not warned about the slime and begins to distrust the couple, suggesting to her party that they should lie about what they find and keep most of their possible treasures for themselves. She closes the outside set of doors and uses spikes to lock them in place.

They then go back to the inner temple and travel through the second door Diz had found. She spots another slime and backs out. She pours some oil on the ground and Kali sets it on fire. Burr then attempts to cast a sensory effect on the slime to make it believe that the fire is not harmful and make it come forward. It enters the fire and is soon burnt up. After they wait for the fire to die down, the party continues through the path and sees that it loops back to the inner temple. They decide that there has to be something else to this tunnel and go to the area directly behind where the altar would be. As Diz investigates the eastern wall, Kali begins using her staff to investigate the western wall. She manages to poke it in just the right place, revealing another hidden door.

Diz offers to be the one to investigate. She travels down the hallway and in a room to the north she finds a wardrobe that she can’t seem to open. She then investigates the room to the south. Here she finds another cave in. There is a skeleton in the center of the rubble wearing torn and weathered leather vestments. It is wearing a necklace with a charm on it. The charm is that of a tiny jeweled dagger. On the back of the charm it reads in dwarvish “Greed is good.” Diz slips this on her neck and goes to investigate the rest of the hallway. At the far east end there is rubble, but it appears to be different than the piles caused by the cave ins. It looks more like someone has been recently mining.

Diz proceeds back out of the hallway and lets her party know that all is safe. As they all venture forward, she lets them know that the tunnel looks freshly mined and again voices her concern about Dazlyn and Norbus. Kali lets Diz know that it’s not the best idea to wear the symbol of Abbathor around her neck and Diz admits she didn’t know what it was. Kali continues up to the northern room while Diz and Burr call Dazlyn and Norbus to see if they knew anything about the freshly dug hall. Kali is able to open the wardrobe and finds two worn and no longer useful leather vestments once worn by the followers of Abbathor. She reenters the hall as Diz and Burr are asking the two archeologists to enter the temple and help them dig out this hallway. The party reenters the inner temple to unbar the doors. After the dwarves have entered, Diz shuts and bars both sets of doors. Everyone helps dig until they are tired. The dwarves decide that they will work through the night, and the party takes shifts sleeping and keeping watch.

Just as the night is coming to an end, Burr hears someone banging on the outside set of doors. He runs back and alerts his party. They tell the dwarves to continue digging and that they will handle whatever is making the commotion. Burr and Kali go back to the inner temple to listen by the inner set of doors and Diz goes back through the southernmost tunnel that leads back to the Foyer. As they all listen at their respective doors, they hear the outer doors burst open and banging begin on the inner door. Diz attempts to stealth open her door and pour her oil again on the ground, lighting it on fire. Two of the Orcs notice her and begin to follow down the corridor, one managing to stab her. She runs as fast as she can back to the inner temple alerting the others that there are orcs coming. The other two orcs rush down the corridor after reorienting themselves.

Burr attempts to Viciously Mock any of the orcs that he can, causing two to take psychic damage, while Diz throws down a bag of caltrops that manages to trip one of the orcs while Kali casts her mage armor and begins to run for the secret door behind the altar. The Orcs attempt to throw their Javelins at the party but all of their attempts fail. Burr Viciously Mocks them again causing one of the Orcs to fall dead and Diz takes out another with her arrows before disappearing into the secret door. While the tripped Orc attempts and fails to right itself, the final standing Orc runs towards the door. Kali manages to hit it square in the face with a burst of frost causing it to miss its strike against Burr. She then runs down to protect the dwarves should the Orcs make it past Burr, reading a Firebolt. Burr then slices opens the Orcs from navel to chin with his rapier. By this time Diz has managed to make it to other side of the secret hallway and opens the doors, managing to impale the tripped Orc, the battle again ending. The party makes their way back to the dwarves and just as they make it down the hallway Dazlyn’s pickax hits the wall one last time causing the rocks to fall inward into yet another hidden chamber.