Delve #11 -- Ouch!

The Delvers:

• Ragnorf -- male 2nd lvl Dwarf -- AC - 2;  HP - 20;  mace
• Norfaz -- male 2nd lvl Fighter -- AC - 2;  HP - 22-4 = 18; war hammer & crossbow
• Gylvair -- male 2nd lvl Elf; AC - 4; HP - 13; longsword  (sleep & magic missile)
• Taggert -- male 2nd lvl Fighter -- AC - 4; HP - 13; 2-hand sword

Using her resmaining healing yesterday and ALL of her healing today (so there won't be any healing tonight) Fasboo managed to get Ragnorf back to full but not Norfaz (who is still down 4 hp).

Ragnorf in particular did not feel like returning to Entrance A . . . and Gylvair was able to talk them into investigating Entrance G . . . so that is where they went.

Room 16 was empty so they proceeded on to room 17 where they encountered 4 of the Lizardfolk.  The scaleskins didn't attack right away but instead addressed the group in a language that none of them understood.

[Note:  All four delvers knew Common and Dwarvish but the only other languages between them were Gnoll (by Norfaz), Latin (by Taggert), Hobgoblin (by Ragnorf) and Greek and Taltish (by Gylvair).]

Norfaz replied first in Common, then in Gnoll, neither of which the Lizardfolk seemed to understand.  Then the others tried different languages until Ragnorf addressed them in Hobgoblin . . . at which point the scaleskins attacked (unsuccessfully).  The party replied (it was one on one) with Norfaz getting a kill and Gylvair's Longsword carving 7 hp from his opponent.

But the following round both Gylvair and Taggert's opponents landed critical hits on the delvers, doing 7 and 8 hp respectively.  Fortunately Gylvair was able to kill his Lizard with a return crit and Taggert did enough damage to off his as well.  The following round Norfaz finished off the last one.

As I've come to expect, the attempts at first aid healed nothing (two 3s were rolled).  A search of the bodies resulted in a whopping 17 gp.

First trying the southernmost western door, they discovered a corridor that eventually turned south (after an arrow trap gave Ragnorf a single hit), where they could see a four-way intersection.  They decided not to get too far from the exit so they returned to Room 17 and tried the other western door.  It eventually turned north and ended in a door.

Returning to the room they opened the north door, which revealed a steeply sloping corridor headed down.  Closing this, they left room 17 and proceeded north along the corridor to the eastern door which opened onto a small room with a couple of Zombies who staggered toward the party.  These should have been easy to kill but Ragnorf took 14 points of damage before killing his and a "crit" by the other Zombie dealt 8 damage to Norfaz before he bested his. . . . (and you guessed it, the first aid rolls were both 1s, so no relief there).

The Zombies had no treasure of course, but a search of the room found a hiding spot in the wall that contained a star sapphire worth about 200 gp.  They had taken far more damage than they should have in both fights so they decided to call it a day.

As they came to the stairs up to the G entrance a flight of 6 Stirges (wandering monsters) zoomed down and attacked the party.  There dice were very good (and they won every initiative) so that by the time the delvers had killed them, the party was in very sad shape:

• Ragnorf had 1 hp left
• Norfaz had 3 hp left
• Gylvair had 6 hp left
• Taggert had 2 hp left

And wonder of wonder, first aid restored one hp each to both Ragnorf and Norfaz as well as two hp to Taggert.

Delve 11 Results:

• Net Injuries -- Ragnorf 20 - 18 = 2; Norfaz 22 - 18 = 4; Gylvair 13 - 7 = 6; and Taggert 13 - 9 = 4
• 4 Lizardfolk killed
• 2 Zombies killed
• 6 Sturges killed
• Treasure -- 17 gp & 200 gp star sapphire
• Rooms mapped -- 1

-- Jeff