5-24-09

The bodies of the captain and his first lieutenant were quickly cooling on the marble floor of Amros' dungeon. The PCs regrouped and proceeded through the next door (leading east). The next room was circular, roughly 50'x50', with a sloping recessed floor. The large marble obelisk in the center of the room was flanked by two large stone braziers built into the floor. As the PCs opened the door and saw the assembled group of kobolds beyond, one of the small reptilian humanoids threw a hammer at the obelisk in the center of the room. This elicited a high pitched whirring noise from the monument, after which the front face slid open to release a large bladed metallic dervish that spun right toward the group. The PCs found themselves being attacked at range by the kobolds, with many of their strikes causing them to stumble forward toward the trap. A pair of the little beasts seemed to delight in taunting and jeering at Benjaar in particular, trying to get him to give chase. The stalwart dragonborn proved the wiser and stood his ground. The battle quickly tipped back in the PCs favor after a painful first round. The whirling blades trap proved more dangerous for the kobolds in subsequent rounds. Voodoo, in a spectacular display, leapt over one of the stone braziers to strike at a kobold on the opposite side. The group eventually advanced to the wooden platform on the far side of the room to dispatch the lead kobold and destroy the whirling blades trap.

After a short rest to heal any wounds suffered, the group proceeded through the next door (to the north). The room beyond was a smaller 30'x30' square room with high ceilings and runes carved on the floor. There was apparently no other exit from this room, but Benjaar noticed that the runes in the floor were Iokharic, the draconic alphabet. Each 5' space held a glowing yellow rune that described traits of each of the chromatic dragons. After some thought, the group discovered that there was probably a mechanism tied to stepping on the proper sequence of tiles. With each right step the rune glowed green. However, after identifying and stepping on what the group thought was the right tile, the rune glowed red and they heard a loud grinding noise from above. Closer inspection of the shadowed ceiling revealed spikes and that it was slowly descending. Apparently this room was a riddle with high stakes (ba-dum-bum). The door through which they had entered was sealed with a stone slab, leaving no option for escape. With everyone helping, Cassius was able to identify each of the 8 chromatic dragons (not just 5!) and step on the tiles in sequence.

The wall to the west slid aside to reveal a wide, kobold infested hallway beyond. At the far end stood a robed kobold in a small alcove. More minions and hammer-throwers stood between the group and the kobold mage. As the battle was engaged, the hammer-throwers used their skills to knock the PCs backward onto incorrect rune tiles, causing the ceiling to drop faster. The kobold in robes at the far end of the corridor pulled a lever in the alcove in which he was standing as soon as one of the PCs advanced forward. Scything blades swung out from the walls at 5-foot intervals, right over the heads of the short little reptilian creatures, but catching Olan and Voodoo each in the shoulder as they were slid along with the path of the blades and knocked prone. The rest of the group thought it best to stay in the 5' area just past the runes, but attacks from the hammer-throwing kobolds kept knocking them backward onto the wrong runes bringing the spiked ceiling closer to crushing them. Akriel and Hadarai neutralized the kobold at the far end of the hall, as Voodoo, Cassius and Benjaar took care of the melee opponents. Olan, prone and wounded, fey-stepped to the other side of the fighting and used mage hand to push the lever in the alcove back to the 'off' position. With the blades no-longer a threat, the PCs made short work of the remaining kobolds and took a short rest before advancing through the door at the far end of the hall.

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