Delve #05 -- Short and Sour

Today's Delvers:

• Norfaz -- male Fighter lvl 1 -- AC - 4, HP - 11 down to 9;  War Hammer, Crossbow
• Dleps -- male Dwarf lvl 1 -- AC - 2, HP - 11;  Battle Axe
• Ragnorf -- male Dwarf lvl 1 -- AC - 4, HP - 10 down to 9; Mace

A bit leery of returning to their previous day's delve, they decided to explore the doors in Room #1 (from Entrance "A"). 

Upon entering Room #1, Norfaz and Ragnorf were attacked by a pair of stirges . . . who fortunately missed . . . but fighter and dwarf did not and the result was two dead stirges.

Opening the far east door, they found a corridor that turned north.  Partway up was an alcove with a door.

Amazingly the door was unlocked and opened silently . . . allowing them to surprise four yellow-skinned goblins.

Rushing in, Dleps and Norfaz each killed one before the goblins could react . . . but Ragnorf must have slipped on something (at least that's what he claimed later) because he went sprawling on his face as his mace slid across the floor . . . (yes, a fumble).

Dleps quickly dispatched one of the two remaining gobbos but Norfaz, going after the last one must have slipped on something (at least that's what he claimed later) because he too took a tumble.  Unfortunately he landed right onto Ragnorf, dealing the dwarf 3 points of damage . . . (yes, another fumble).

Fortunately Dleps finished off the last gobbo.  Then a search of the room and bodies turned up a whopping 10 silver pieces and nothing else of any value . . . and nothing that would have caused Norfaz and Ragnorf to slip . . . rather a disappointing result.

Two other doors  led from the room.  The one to the south looked to lead back to Room #1 and so it proved to do.  The one to the north however seemed promising because they could hear some sort of noise from the other side.

However the door was stuck . . . and in forcing it open they alerted the inhabitants . . . so no surprise, but the Delvers won initiative as a number of big bugs turned from some body-sized lumps on the floor and scurried toward the party.

Dleps' battle axe cleaved one in two but the weapons of Norfaz and Ragnorf bounced off the hard chitin of the beetles' backs.  Unfortunately the return bites of the beetles' hard mandibles all found gaps in the party's armor (note: rolls of 17,19,17) as each of the delvers took damage.

Winning initiative, the party retreated to Room 10 and closed the door.  Taking stock of their injuries, they found the following:

• Norfaz had 4 hp left of his 11 (i.e., down 7)
• Dleps had 7 hp left of his 11 (i.e., down 4)
• Ragnorf had 2 hp left of his 10 (i.e., down 8)

They probably should have left then but decided to open the remaining door in Room #1.  It opened onto a very large room . . . indeed, the far end of it could not be seen . . . but some sort of chanting could be heard.

What could be seen was a zombie . . . a very large zombie.  Dleps gave it a good whack (as both of the others missed) but the zombie seemed unfazed as he slammed the dwarf back with 5 more points of damage just before Ragnorf finished the zombie off.

As the chanting stopped and angry sounds erupted from the dark end of the room, our intrepid (or not) delvers fled the Undercity.

Results:

• three injured -- Norfaz (7 damage); Dleps (9 damage); Ragnorf (8 damage)
• Goblins slain -- 4
• Fire Beetles slain -- 1
• Zombies slain -- 1
• treasure found -- 10 sp
  
• rooms mapped -- 1 (neither #11 nor #12 explored)

Upon dragging themselves back to the inn, they discovered that a merchant was there selling "First Aid Kits" *.   Sperl had already purchased two 5-dose kits (one for herself and another for Fasboo), and Taggert bought a 3-dose kit.

Digging into their previous day's treasure, Dleps bought a 5-dose kit, while Norfaz and Ragnorf each purchased two 3-dose kits.

Since it was too late to use the kits on their injuries, Fasboo used her two Cure Light Wounds spells:

• she healed Dleps for 7 -- he now has 9 of his 11 back
• she healed Ragnorf for 6 -- he now has 8 of his 10 back
• Norfaz still has only 4 of his normal 11 hp

* "First Aid Kits" -- these cost 5 gp for the 3-dose or 8 gp for the 5-dose kits.  These consist of bandages and ointments.  They are not magical or clerical but will if applied immediately after the damage and before any healing spells may heal 1d6-3 hp of damage.  

They are not "stackable" and cannot help heal prior damage . . . only damage just received . . . and, of course, half the time they heal nothing. 

-- Jeff