Rappan Athuk: Mouth of Doom!

Session played on 2/14

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)

While everyone else is busy with removing curses from the gems, Borumar and Nick head back through the portal to the keep, and collect some new rumors, including the location of a smaller side dungeon called the Mouth of Doom! The drunken wizard who tells of the dungeon gives the location for a fairly exorbitant price, and warns of the gnolls that guard it.

Sounds like a fun diversion for them, so they hire a couple of sell-swords, and a plucky halfling, and secure passage on a ferry to the nearby village. The boat ride is long and generally boring. The small village is set on an isthmus protected by a wooden wall on the land side. Poking around to see what can be learned of the Mouth of Doom, the party visits the local necromancer who is friendly, a bit creepy, and offers his services should we be in need. The gem cutter is similarly friendly, but has no intel on the dungeon, other than that people regularly bring him work.

In the trading post, the party finds 7 maps for sale, and Borumar buys all of them. The shopkeeper offers 2,000gp for an accurate map. Taking the maps to the inn, the party reviews the differing scraps of info to glean any useful info from them before heading out to the dungeon.

Leaving the village, they follow the river to a ruined cottage, spend 10 fruitless minutes exploring it (it’s been frequently visited and picked over) before fording the river and heading south to a large cliff face. Carved into it is a massive demon’s screaming face. The 20’ diameter mouth is the entrance to the dungeon. Carefully stepping into the mouth, the party takes the stairs down into the darkness, the gem on Nick’s helmet lighting the way. 

 

In the entrance hall at the bottom of the stairs, were 6 doors. 2 to the east and west, 1 to the north and south. The northern door on the west side was barred by an old portcullis trap that had been broken. With no way to reset it, the mighty Borumar hoisted the gate up, then handed off holding it to the two sell-swords while he checked the door. Beyond was a hallway heading further to the west and also to the north. Continuing west the party came to another door, beyond was a creepy room with fossilized humanoid skeletons partly fused into the walls. Cutting through that room to the north Borumar walked right into a gelatinous cube. Thankfully he didn’t get sucked into it, and Nick managed to avoid getting slammed by it, and the 3 of them hacked it apart while the hirelings guarded the back.

The melting remains of the cube turned up a bit of treasure!

Soon after a secret door was found, and a long passage revealed. Up ahead, a hissing chatter could be heard, and the party readied themselves for an attack. Around the bend came a small troop of kobolds, and they came swinging. Nick cleaved the first one down with a mighty blow, which gave the rest pause. “We don’t want to do this!” Nick yelled. Parlay was called, and Nick paid a blood price of 15gp for the death of Fred, and then an additional 12gp for info on the dungeon. The kobolds were very forthcoming as the gold pieces were clinked in front of them.

Included in the kobold info:

• There’s a large chamber of bandits on the other side of level 1
• A metal snake guards the stairs down to level 2
• There are a couple of known pit traps
• The Kobold camp is outside of the dungeon to the west
• Don’t trust any priests you encounter
• The necromancer in the village is okay and doesn’t bother the kobolds

Gains: opal, 40gp, chain mail armor, spear head, 5 arrow heads, gem
Kills: Fred the Kobold, Gelatinous Cube
Losses: -27gp paid to kobolds