*Spoilers* The tale I am about to tell may be used in future campaigns for people who wish to join The Guild, if you want to keep the traps and riddles a mystery then skip this story and pick it back up next week.
Our story picks up back at the Westgate Inn, as our heroes wake and make their way down stairs it is obvious that not everyone made it through the night. Only three from were left standing, the two monks Nim-bus and Balerin, and the Teifling Lerissa. When they stepped out into the morning air they were meet by two strangers. A Dargonborn, standing 8 feet tall and wearing a Paladins crest on his chest. The other was once a Gnome, but due to a mixture of over a thousand years under his belt and an inability to die of old age, he had started to look more like a goblin.
This party of five set out on the Princes road North, to The Guild of Sellswords personal dungeon, a proving ground for new members. Once on the road Balerin dropped away from the party as they past a shrine.
The four that were left reached their destination by noon and were greeted by three members of The Guild, a Half-Orc named Olin and two Human females. They were quickly ushered into the dungeon with very little prompts. Their objective, to retrieve the sashes that would denote their membership into The Guild.
The entrance itself was a small fugue with an old stone doorframe and new solid oak door, it opened easily under pressure. To light their way Dravis, the Gnome Wizard, cast a fireball into the darkness. It traveled ten feet back and hit a slopping wall, revealing the stairway ahead of them. Once it had dissipated he lit a torch with another fireball, by talking the Rouge, Lerissa, into hold it at arms reach.
Their descent was steady and took little time. When the ground leveled out they found the room dusty and covered in cobwebs, but they also felt the memory of feelings forced upon them. A sense of family and fear, as if they had just woken up from a strong dream and were clutching onto those emotions. The room was lighter than expected as the walls were broken up with air vents allowing shafts of light and fresh air. While looking around Palagon, the Dragonborn, noticed a large spider swing across his field of vision. It was the size of a baby’s head and looked as menacing as a spider can, so he did what came naturally and swung his sword. With a swift miss from the Dragonborn the spider ran back up the wall to the mass of webs in the ceiling and as it was watched going up nine more spiders came back down. Palagon took the offence once again, this time with an offering of dragonfire, scorching four of them in an instant. The rest retaliated on him and managed to land a few good bites before they were dispatched. Once dealt with Dravis went about collecting venom from the spiders and the others tried to open the door. The first attempt was force, as the Paladin, Palagon, slammed his eight foot frame into it, which nearly ended badly. The second was cunning, as Lerissa, the Rouge attempted to pick the lock, this two was unsuccessful. The Wizard Gnome took his time in informing his companions that he had found a key inside one of the spiders, waiting to see how far they would go to open the door and keeping himself entertained.
The next room managed to keep everyone busy, as they entered the door behind them shut and they were locked in. There was no sign of opening either the door they entered from or the door they needed to leave by. There was only two things inside the room. Firstly a wheel, on it’s end, protruding from the stone floor, it had on it an X. Secondly a raised slab, engraved on that was a Möbius strip. As the party entered and the doors shut the dial rotated and displayed an IX, the walls then moved in on them by a foot each. After a few of these rotations the room was staring to get a lot small, but once the slab was stood on the wheel reset to X and the room opened back up. The door that they had entered from opened and in walked a Dwarf, who introduced himself as Borimar, another new member of The Guild of Sellswords.
The button was held down while the wheel was inspected, it was found to have text written in Common that read,
“The reward is greater than the risk.”
After a while of reseting the wheel the adventurers were out of options. The doors wouldn’t budge, no matter what they tried. The wheel couldn’t be forced, items placed in the mechanism snapped off. Their last option was a desperate one. And so the Paladin, Palagon, championed the idea that they should try something daring, they would wait and let the dial count down. The room got smaller and smaller but it stopped at three foot in width. On the next turn of the dial the ceiling began to move down. By the last rotation each hero was on his, or her, belly waiting for victory or crushing defeat. On the final turn from I down each adventurer took a deep breath as the mechanism reset and both doors opened for them.
They were then joined by Balerin, who felt fashionable lateness was a bonus to dungeonering, and they moved on to tackled the next room. In which stood a stone knight in the centre and two gargoyles at the end. Caution was the key word for this room, so an illusion was sent in first. From the doorway the party spotted the face of the stone knight magically come alive and talk, but none of them could hear what it was saying. After a while of sneaking about, the direct approach was taken and the stone knight spoke to them,
“I shall ask you three questions
Firstly, a full cask of ale weighs 20 pounds. What must you add to it to make it weigh 12 pounds?
Secondly, a woman gives birth to two sons, they were born on; the same hour, of the same day, of the same month of the same year. But they are not twins, how?
Thirdly, I add 5 to 9 and get 2. How?”
After awhile they deduced the third riddle and it caused the Gargoyle on the right to disappear into the ground, revealing a passage. They then worked out the first, causing the second Gargoyle to disappear and reveal a second passage. They persevered with the second riddle to it’s conclusion, but received no reward for doing so.
At this point they split the party, they split the party (I know I’m repeating myself, but it needed saying twice). The Gnome Wizard, Dragonborn Paladin and Human Monk took the corridor on the left and the Dwarf, Teifling and Elf headed left.
The group heading left came to another room. This time there was no door at the other end, only a chest. The room was brighter than the rest with a large shaft of light emanating from the ceiling. It would have been comforting but for the object it was shedding the light on, a mass of rotting flesh from an unknown amount of carcasses that had been chewed by tiny teeth, even eirer was the noises coming from the air vents. Borimar took the lead and hurled his axe at the chest, splitting the lid but not revealing the contents. Lerissa the Rouge and Balerin the Sailor snuck around the edges of the room, paying attention to the air vents. Unfortunately Lerissa slipped as she rounded the edge of the room and drew the attention of the swarm of rats that poured out of the air vents. Balerin moved to the chest and discovered the contents, a thief’s utility belt, but in doing so caused another wave of rats to descend upon them. The ensuing battle was fast, the three heroes slicing and dicing the rats in no time, but the Teifling did take a lot of wounds as the rats bit and clawed at her.
The group that headed left had begun down the corridor with the Monk in the lead, followed by the Wizard and the Paladin took up the rear. Nim tried to avoid some uneven stonework, but tripped and alerted something from the other room. A Giant Spider appeared from the doorway and charged at him, dealing a terrible blow. In response the Human attacked, causing several limbs to be shed. Then the Gnome hurled a Chromatic Orb, leaving the spider dazed. It’s next attack was to web up Nim as Dravis delivered the killing blow. Palagon cut Nim free as Dravis drained the venom sacks of their pray.
Tentatively they ventured into the spiders layer. Inside the room was festuned in webs, they couldn’t even see the ceiling. At the end of the room, on an alter, they located their prize. A bundle of sashes to denote there membership into The Guild of Sellswords. The groups celebration was heard in the rest of the dungeon and the party gathered once again in the room of riddles. Dravis rode out on the shoulders of PalagonIn. He offered a drink from his water bag to Balerin, but the sailor was a little weary of the wizened Gnome and declined.
Once back into the light of day they were greeted by a bookish lady of The Guild. The present Balerin had made of the dead rats and bats in the chest he had dragged all the way back though the Dungeon, did not go down well. But she did seem as happy as she was capable of being when she sour the sashes.
The Guild of Sellswords 