AtD 025: So Many Doors

In quick order, the party opened the two doors before them and investigated the unoccupied rooms beyond. Both were comparatively lushly furnished and seemed out of place in a goblin lair. One of the rooms featured foul decorations—a statuette and candelabra clearly wrought to venerate Braal. Both were desecrated by the party so that Braal’s influence could no longer taint them. Other treasures—some crystal goblets and two bottles of wine along with a small store of gems and a magic scroll—were also recovered.

The area seemed naught but a dead-end, however, and so the party retraced their steps to the main part of the complex. Here the party quasi-split with Saeldur and Ozloc creeping forth into the eternal dark beneath the monastery. The two discovered a bewildering array of doors (some locked), an ornate set of double doors with more skull decorations and a large underground arena of sorts.

The canny scouts also encountered four goblin scouts creeping toward them. Ozloc used his uncanny powers to drop magical slumber onto the goblins, and Saeldur quickly slew them before they could throw off the enchantment.

However, this development implied the goblins were now actively looking for the adventurers. Given the party was low on magical resources, they decided to retreat to the mausoleum roof to rest, recuperate, and plot a way forward.

Their overnight rest was mainly uneventful, but the party’s guards heard much sound of movement to the north during the dark of the night. Clearly, the goblins were up to something.

The next day, the heroes were ready to take the fight to the goblins once again. Returning to the monastery proper, they pushed open the main doors only to discover someone had piled up rubbish topped by several pot helmets behind the doors. Although the party were wreathed in silence, the effect had likely not penetrated the door, and so the falling helmets had probably alerted the goblin guards to the party’s presence.

Moving cautiously forward, the heroes gained the guardroom without further trouble, but when Gromm opened the door leading to the staircase to the goblin lair, he was immediately shot at by three goblin archers halfway down the stairs. One arrow caught a chink in the half-orc’s armour. More guards—hobgoblins—lurked beyond the goblins, ready to repel the intruders…