Kobold Run: Red Team (IC)

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Welcome to the First Centennial Kobold Run!

Red Team

Cue theme music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVezbVxp2Pw).
An overhead of Kobold City can be seen. Hundreds of thousands of joyous kobolds dance like excited ants in honey in the streets, on the balconies of their six story mudscrapers, and thousands more watch from home on their scrying stones. The emblem of XIR the Magnificent flips onto the viewing image and the announcer's voices chime in.

Hello Kobolds and Koboldettes, and hatclings of all ages, and welcome to the First Centennial Kobold Run! I'm your host Grax Greyworm.

And I'm Diane Cuddlegrub.

We come to you live today from Mount Xir for this once in a century special event. There's going to be blood! There's going to be scales! Murder and mayhem! Thrills, chills, and good times for the whole family. They dangers that await our altheletes are manifold and some of the most creative death traps in the land. The buzz is that the players will face dragon spawn, frustrating and deadly puzzles, environment obstacles, and I've heard that Xir even has an incorporeal beholder on staff.

Incorporeal? You mean, like dead and ghosty and stuff?

Yes!

The beholder is dead? That's so sad.

Sad? Wha... It's a good thing you're pretty Diane. Regardless, this is shaping up to be one hell of an event.

Oh I can hardly wait, Grax. Who do you think is going to win?

Well it's tough to say Diane. There is a good possibility no one will win, but my electrum is on the Red Team. Trombag and Tax are both powerful spellcasters. Rumour has it that Tax was selected for the games for his financial indiscretions when handling the Mighty Xir's coin. If he can bring that ingenuity to the dungeon, I think a small team of two elites has a good chance of taking it.

Yes, and of course Trombag has those powerful wildshape forms.

That's a good point Diane. I know the kids at home are really looking forward to seeing that.

But what about the Blue team? Aren't they supposed to be a classic well rounded team of four?

Yes, but they decided to go a different route. Rather than diversify their respective positions the team has decided to focus on martial prowess and stealth. Blue team has two swordsages and a rogue. And for some reason they've thrown a Warblade into the mix. I'm not sure about this strategy.

Oooo... I like swordsages.

Of course, then there's the Green team. They did a pretty good job of diversifying and taking advantage of their superior numbers.

I understand that one of them stocked up on healing potions, is that correct?

Yes, a young "Julius the Tyrannical Paladin". We'll see if it pays off for him.

I like the Purple team!

Well, that's because you're retarded Diane

Xir the Great and Powerful Red Wyrm of Ages strides proudly through main street in Kobold City. Confetti chokes the air with colour and glitter and the screams of adoration fill the whole mountain.

And here comes Xir! The crowd is going wild.

He's so handsome! Uhh! I just want to lick his toenails or something.

I know what you mean Diane. That's one fine fire lizard.

Xir approaches the City Central Dias. His Colossal claws gesture to magically raise the sounding stone with which he will make his pronouncement.

My loyal subjects,
Thank you. Thank you. You are too kind.
Please... quiet down.

The cheering respectfully subsides.

Thank you.

As you know, this is our first ever Centennial Kobold Run. One day, while I was bathing in my vast piles of gold and picking my fabulous teeth with the femur of the latest adventurer to cross my path.

A rousing chorus of booing fills the catacombs. Xir chuckles.


Now now! They serve their purposes. If we didn't have adventurers the trap cleaners wouldn't have any gore to mop up.

An obligatory city wide chuckle follows.


Seriously though, I was looking for a way to improve our security system, when it occurred to me that my loyal subjects could use some entertainment. What if we could see our labour in action, and watch as the intruders get smashes, boiled, eaten, and pickled? Wouldn't that be fun? After years of planning and careful consideration I selected fifteen special kobolds to compete in a race. The winner will be rewarded with amnesty and riches will rain upon them forever. The losers shall die. And so it is with great pride that I declare that this First Centennial Kobold Run officially open...
BEGIN!

With a single flourish, the Dragon Xir activates his teleportation spell. The kobolds magically appear in their positions and the crowd goes wild.

Red Team

The Red Team appears before a great stone hall. Although this mountain is their home they cannot remember a bloody thing about it. Xir has magically plucked these memories from their minds. Fortunately, their minds are otherwise intact. It is forty-five feet wide and sixty feet tall, made of finely crafted limestone blocks. The entrance to this great hall is lavishly decorated with glass murals of Xir and is lightly furnished with a beautiful human sized desk, a dark stained mahogany bench, and shoe rack. On the desk is a large open book. “Guestbook” it says in gold leaf on the cover. A quill, inkwell and blotter are built into the desk. The shoe rack has a pair of sandles and fine red leather boots, both human sized. The bench is clear, but looks comfortable. In the centre of the room is a crystal clear pool. Steam rises up from it. It looks rather inviting actually. The bottom of the pool is decorated with another finely crafted portrait of Xir. This one is a profile picture of his head. He has a wry knowing smile, as if to imply that Xir is so much smarter than you are (he actually is, but the smile could still be considered arrogant). Over the keystone of the great hallway are words in ancient Draconian. They say “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

There are four exits from this “lobby”. Behind the Red Team the lobby opens up to the great outdoors. They can see mountain ranges in every direction. To their right they see a set of steps leading down. The stairway is large enough to accommodate a huge person or creature but there wouldn't be much room to manoeuvre. Lit torched hang from the walls, lighting this passage. To the left a natural cave system has been left open. The architect would have had the option to build over this small opening, but they've laid the blocks around it to give the opening a distinguished look. Of course, straight ahead is the massive hallway mentioned earlier. It is a hallway big enough for a dragon.

MAP (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-aa.jpg)

At home the spectators listen to a brief commentary.

Aaaannnd the Red Team gets placed at the front door.

Is that a good thing, Grax?

It's too early to say Diane, but with so many directions to choose from the Red Team is in danger of getting lost before they start. Remember, they don't have a map.

[Sallera]

"Well, well. It never hurts to be polite, I suppose." Tax dips a claw into the pool, drawing a circle on his brow and crossing it with a vertical line down to his nose. The gesture is more symbolic than cleansing (a nightly casting of Prestidigitation solved so many problems), but even so, when he moves to do the same to Zen, the little pseudodragon hisses and hops back. That is quite unnecessary, thank you.

"As you wish." Tax gives the little prince a toothy grin, gesturing at the smaller right-hand hall, and applies a short spell to bolster Zen's defenses. "Perhaps you could scout that way a little bit, for us? Come back as soon as you sense any other creatures, or after a few hundred feet, and keep yourself safe and out of sight."

Glancing to Trombag, Tax tilts his head in question. "I am right in thinking the mid-sized route provides us with the best tactical options, yes? In the absence of our knowledge of the place, we should at least optimize our chances of staying alive to get it back."

Casting Mage Armor on Zen. Will last for 7 hours.

Zen has blindsense 60ft, a Hide modifier of +20, a fly speed of 60ft, AC26, and SR19 (which he will of course lower for a round to get the Mage Armor). He will be doing his best to stay out of sight while he scouts.

[Barsoom]

Trombag nods at his companion's question. Indeed, the midsize passage is the most appealing. Rit-Kit will have a hard time manuevering in the narrows, and wider hallway just smells of trap. He motions for his ape companion to move forward, and takes [roll0] some berries out of his pouch. While Tax is busy with his arcane spell, Trombag mumbles an incantation over the berries. He keeps half of them (round down) for himself, and hands the rest to Tax. For emergencies. He chooses against dipping in the pool, because, well, godliness is for the mighty Xir, not his lowly servants.

Taking cover behind the lumbering form of the large ape, he's ready to move forward along Tax.

Rit-Kit takes Spot and Listen checks every round as a free action (+6)

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Zen takes the lead, followed by Rit-kit, and then Tax and Trombag. The stairs continue for a long ways down, but the torch light is helpful in breaking the monotony of the decent. They come to another junction without incident. Straight ahead is a heavy wooden door reenforced with iron. It is proportionally smaller than the stairwell, which could accommodate an ogre or something similar. The door is human sized.

The stairs continue to the right, but are now metal. There are circular scrapes on the walls along the base of the stairs.

Map (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-ab-pc1.jpg)

[Barsoom]

Trombag scratched the back of his neck with a claw. The door was too small for his companion, he'd have to squeeze through. But ... Xir didn't put that door there for no reason. Either a trap, or a promise. Let's find out.

Shuffling a few short steps toward the door, Trombag medidated on what the future was to hold.

Cast Omen of Peril (http://dndtools.eu/spells/races-of-destiny--81/omen-of-peril--3037/) with respect to going through the door. 77% chance of answer, [roll0]

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Trombag's eyes roll into the back of his head. He sees Trolls picking them up off the ground and tearing their heads off with their teeth. He also sees himself floating, bloated in water. He sees razors cutting in every direction. He and his friends fall to the floor in bloody butchered pieces. Finally, he sees rocks falling on his head, caving it in. Crab like creatures come and nibble on his fingers.

The vision is over. The general impression that he gets is that they are in grave danger and that this door is probably trapped with the razor vision he saw. :smalleek:

[Barsoom]

The spirits tell me this door is dangerous... let us carry on down the stairs, Tax.

[Sallera]

Tax snickers. "Everything in here is dangerous; nonetheless, I agree. We've no need to go blasting down every door we find unless there's no better alternative. Careful down there, Zen."

I am always careful. More so than you.

Tax nods... then stops, glancing at the base of the stairs. "Actually, speaking of that, hold up a moment, and give me a hand with this. Sense anything out of the ordinary?"

Tax (with Zen's Aid Another) will take 10 to search the curious marks along the base of the walls for potential traps, giving a result of 23.

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It is well that Tax searched the stairwell first. The steps have some give to them, as if suspended. Tax examines the grooves at the base of the steps and realizes that they correspond with the the general slack of the steps. These steps are designed to fold flat and form a slide.

[Sallera]

"Hah, that's a good trick. Probably dumps a bucket of oil on you as well to speed your way down. Zen?"

Yes, yes, I shall see what lies below. You really ought to learn to fly yourself, you know.

Right then. Zen will go find out where this slide would dump us.

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Zen flies back reporting that the bottom of the stairs opens into a massive room full of ruins, sleeping trolls, and dung. At the bottom of the stairs is a bell that is attached to a string. If someone passes the string, the bell will ring. The stairs end prematurely so that a sliding person would be dumped into a huge cauldron. After seeing the trolls, Zen returned immediately, so Zen didn't get a look at the rest of the room, but it's big.

[Barsoom]

Trombag, hateful of trolls, is quick to volunteer. I can fly there in the shape of a bird, cling to a ceiling or wall alcove, and pepper them with fire until they expire. What do you think?

[Sallera]

"Hmhm... so, in theory, if we could find a way to bypass the stair slide and thus avoid the bell, we could potentially sneak past the trolls. Unfortunately, landing in that cauldron would wake them up anyway, so disabling the bell alone won't likely be enough."

Tax lets a few sparks dance across his fingers. "Or that could work. Zen, go with him to keep watch; stay out of reach, and come back to get me if there turns out to be another catch."

[Barsoom]

Rit-Kit, stay. Guard.

Trombag slouches and starts to grow a beak and feathery wings. Soon, a bald eagle spreads its wings and flies down the staircase. Once inside the troll room, he'll seek a comfortable place to settle down before starting the barrage.

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Trombag's majestic bald eagle form sails through the air with grace not befitting the sour stench and broken scenery below it. He counts four sleeping trolls in the room. Each of which is proped against a pile of rubble or a half broken wall that runs part way down the centre of the room. It acts as a kind of partition. Trombag can tell this probably used to be two rooms before it was "remodeled". He has difficulty finding a perch up high enough to support his bald eagle form, but after some searching he finds one where the lost central wall used to intersect. The outcropping is, in fact, on the west side. But Trombag doesn't know that.

Map (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-abpc2.jpg)

[Barsoom]

The perch Trombag found is a bit out of range for his fiery magic. He'll have to get closer. The eagle flies to a better position, and then ... if anyone was awake in the room, they'd be surprised to see the bird channel its draconic heritage and breathe a small bead of flame, flying toward the nearest troll and exploding in a roaring inferno.

[fly to H14, then: Standard action, Fiery Burst [roll0] on the top-left troll (auto-fails Reflex when sleeping?). Move action, fly up the staircase, putting the cauldron between myself and the trolls]

[Sallera]

Zen keeps watch from the shadows near the end of the stairs, fully expecting something to go wrong with this plan.

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The trolls speak in a tongue that neither Trombag not Tax are familiar with. They obviously aren't saying anything nice. By the time the fiery blast hit and the first troll was on her feet, Trombag was half way up the stairs. Now they are all on their feet, cursing and throwing boulders at the walls in a rage.

After a bit of this fitful tantrum one mutters something to the others. Trombag can hear them approaching the stairs to investigate.

No need to make listen checks. Trombag auto-succeeds with +15. The DC to hear Trombag gliding is 30, so they can't succeed, but where is the first place you would check?

[Sallera]

Wait, is it clear from Trombag's scouting that there's no other (visible, at least) exit from the troll chamber? We might be wasting our time here.

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Wait, is it clear from Trombag's scouting that there's no other (visible, at least) exit from the troll chamber? We might be wasting our time here.

No other visible exit. Correct. As shown on the map.

[Barsoom]

What's in that vat? Surely not lukewarm dwarven ale, but is it oil or acid? Let's find out.
Trombag launches a blast of fire at the cauldron. If it doesn't explode, catch fire, or something dramatic like that, he flies back up the stairs.

[Sallera]

Seeing Trombag's retreat, Zen gives a mental sigh and follows him back up the stairs. Are you really sure they won't be able to climb the stairs? That trigger could just be at the top.

Tax shrugs and taps Rit-Kit, pointing at the top step and demonstrating by kneeling down next to the top of the stairs and pressing down on the top one with a fist. "Let's find out."

Tax is just attempting to trip any pressure-activated trigger for the stair trap without standing on it, although he'll wait until Zen and Trombag are out. Trombag will probably have to help with the instructions, I assume, if we're to have Rit-Kit try; I doubt Tax's Str 4 would do the trick.

[Barsoom]

The eagle returns and lands at the top of the stairs. Trying to help Rit-Kit to grasp this moderately complex concept, he pecks its beak at the top stair, while beating its wings desperately.

Handle Animal [roll0]. I don't know if there are any penalties for being an animal myself ... :smallsmile:

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More screams. More rage. One of the trolls passes the stairwell to the butcher's table or an evil alter which Trombag only caught a brief glimpse of before. He wonders why. It is now hidden from view.

Another steps into view just before the second bead of fire is launched. The cauldron is very heavy, but it rests precariously on stacked stoned so the trolls can make a fire underneath. The blast knocks the cauldron off of its perch spraying and spilling the contents everywhere. It appears to be cold left over kobold stew. The troll at the bottom of the stairs picks a rotting kobold arm out of her hair and frowns at you. But before she can begin charging up the stairs after you Rik Tik clues in to Tax and Trombag's pantomime. He reveals a toothy grin showing that he is proud of this accomplishment, and stomps with his foot on the top step. The stairs collapse into a slide, as expected, and a buttery substance is secreted from between the adjoining pieces. The troll shouts something angrily to her cohorts.

MAP (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-ab-pc3.jpg)

[Sallera]

"Right then. Back up - way up - and let's get this door open before they figure out a way to climb the slide. Feel like summoning up a minor sacrifice to eat the traps for us?" Tax follows his own advice, moving several feet up the stairs, with Zen following behind.

Tax will move about forty feet up the stairs. I certainly hope the blast radius isn't that big. :smalltongue: If the 'summon a monkey' plan fails, we can resort to Storm Bolts.

[Barsoom]

Heavy reinfoced wooden door ... doesn't look like something a Str-3 monkey can handle. That's a job for ... SNA II! The eagle beats his wings again, and the floor shimmers and shakes. A small elemental of earth, well, actually not so small, but kobold-sized, crawls out of a brief-lived fissure. Trombag, from a safe distance, points a feathery wing at the door and motions for it to be open.

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The earth elemental brings itself to bear against the door without feeling. Steadily the wood dents and splinters. It tears the iron from the hinges, and wrests the wood from the frame. When the door is disassembled the spell is over. It is about this time that the stairs click back into place and a cheer of trolls is sounded from down the stairs. Tax and Trombag see a second set of stairs, this one a smaller spiral staircase heading down. No trap was set off in dismantling the door.

[Sallera]

"It could have just opened the door," Tax comments. "Would have saved some time. Now then, we've got trolls incoming, but I don't want to run down those stairs. Zen, scout ahead quick, don't touch the walls. I shall delay our trollish foes a minute."

Peeking around the corner, Tax gestures down the staircase, and the forty feet of it around the closest troll are suddenly filled with a profusion of webbing. That done, he moves to inspect the remains of the doorframe.

Tax will cast Web with the far edge encompassing the nearest troll (or just in the middle of the staircase if there are no trolls coming up yet). He will then search the doorframe for any traps: [roll0] If that turns up nothing, he will search the square between the door and the stairs ([roll1]), then the top square of the stairs ([roll2]). If Zen has not run into anything dangerous by then, he will proceed down the staircase.

[Barsoom]

"It could have just opened the door," Tax comments. "Would have saved some time."The eagle does a gesture that can be best interpreted as a shrug, and then does some stretching to tap his skull with his feathery wing to indicate Earth Elementals are not the sharpest spike in a spike trap.

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Thread ruined for rolls :smalltongue:

[boldfont]

The door was locked. :smallwink:

Trolls in webs...
Reflex or trapped (if succeed then 1/2 spd) DC 16 (10+spell lvl1+Cha mod5=16)
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
If trapped then try to break free (Str check DC 20+5/addition 5ft move)
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]

Rolls used in order rolled, not assigned to particular trolls.
Two of the trolls get plastered against the wall with wedding. Their muffled rage cries are totally benign for now, as they twitch and flex and desperately try to break free. The other two do their best to push forward. They snap through the tensile webbing, trying to make the slow and difficult climb up the stairs.

Map may come soon. It depends on your next actions. One search check only. No time for three. But you did get a considerable circumstance bonus because of the vision.

In that short time Tax is only able to survey the door generally, but this is enough to spot the slits between the mortar, presumably from which the envisioned blades shoot out of.

[Sallera]

"Ah, here it is. Now, why didn't the elemental's brutish work trigger it, I wonder... Zen, lend an ear, please." Crouching down, Tax attempts to find a way past the blade trap before the trolls find a way through his web.

Erm, I wasn't trying to center the web on the trolls. As I said, I wanted to put the far edge of the web on the nearest troll - in other words, make all four of them force their way through the full 40ft of webbing to buy us the most time.

New search check with Zen's Aid Another, trying to find the trigger for the blade trap to see if it's avoidable: [roll0]

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A. [COLOR="DarkRed"] why didn't the elemental's brutish work trigger it, I wonder...

B. I wasn't trying to center the web on the trolls. As I said, I wanted to put the far edge of the web on the nearest troll - in other words, make all four of them force their way through the full 40ft of webbing to buy us the most time.

A. I guess this answers your question...

B. You can do both! The other three were right around the corner. By webbing the one on the outer edge you get them all in the AoE :smallbiggrin:

More pending

[Sallera]

What I meant is that I'd centre the web at... D12/E13, assuming the current map is accurate. If I put it so that it goes around the corners, then the first troll only has to get through ~20-25ft of web, which is a lot less safe... er, "safe" than we'd like to be. :smalltongue:

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The search reveals that the trigger for the trap is on the spiral stairwell and not the door itself. This must be because the designer of the trap assumed there would be more than one victim. By placing the trigger further out, more victims are caught in the trapped area. So that's when the elemental didn't trigger it...

Meanwhile the trolls struggle with the web.

Don't worry about that. The trolls were on their way up the stairs on their turn. Because initiative/turn order is an abstract, we sometimes forget that everything is supposed to be happening at once. You caught them all AND maximized the coverage.

[Barsoom]

Another delicious mammal to be sent to the slaughter...
The eagle beats his wings, indicating for Tax and Zen to leave the danger area, then conjures up a wolf and points it down the stairs. Fetch.

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The wolf playfully, charmingly even, wags its tail and jaunts down the stairs. It doesn't make it far. About the fourth step or so triggers the blades which sweep out from the walls at poor wolfy.

Gross
[roll0] flat footed for [roll1]


The slash is fatal. The summoned wolf disappears as a conjured creature is wont to do.

I refer you to "Ex-druids" on pg 37 of PHB to demonstrate why this particular munchkin-esque summon and slaughter approach would not be acceptable in any of my other games. This being a fun dungeon crawl where tactics are primary, however, I have no problem with it. How else are you going to get past traps?

[Barsoom]

I hate to make it even grosser that it already is, but thanks to my Augment Summoning feat 17 damage doesn't actually kill the wolf, but brings it exactly to 0 hp. Although bleeding profusely, it can still crawl down the stairs a bit more (take a move action each turn).

Once again, I'm sorry for any images of animal cruelty this evokes
Nevermind, he's dead, Jim

[Sallera]

"Hrm. Zen?"

No.

"You're probably fast enough to - "

Do it yourself. Don't touch the walls, you said, and I'm keeping to that.

"At least go take a look ahead while I risk my life." Sighing, Tax weaves a field of force around himself - while he didn't like wasting magic, he didn't like doing his own trap testing unprotected either - and with a helpless shrug, backs off and takes a run toward the stairs, pushing off just before the trap trigger and leaping as far as he can down the stairs.

Sadly, "A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower." So we'd better hope that it's only the fourth-ish steps that are trapped...

Zen will fly down the stairwell, looking for any obvious threats, then Tax will cast Mage Armor on himself, get a good start, move to the last step that didn't trigger the trap, and jump as far as he can down the staircase. (I knew putting ranks in Jump was a good idea...)
Jump: [roll0]
So, five feet. At the very least, that ought to be able to clear the fourth stair, but I'm not trusting that level of precision from a kobold-made trap, so he'll try to get at least two or three further, even if it means bouncing off the wall. :smalltongue:

Also, I still don't see how I could possibly have caught all the trolls without losing barrier distance on the nearest one, but as long as every troll has to climb through 40ft of web before reaching us, that's good enough.

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Tax lands safely and soundly. It would appear to be only the fourth step is trapped. A rogue could tell you more about how it worked, but Tax knows that blades come out if the fourth step has pressure applied to it, and that is enough.

[Sallera]

"Alright, we're clear. Get down here, make sure you jump the fourth step, and we'll leave this trap to shred some troll. Anything nasty down there, Zen?"

Tax will move down a couple more steps to make room for Trombag and Rit-Kit, and wait for the results of Zen's scouting (although only for two rounds before moving on - trolls, and all). That should be enough to know about any obvious dangers in the next 120ft or so. The non-obvious ones... well, we'll trigger those traps when we get there. :smalltongue:

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Trombag and Rit Kit jumpp over safely. Zen returns to report that there is another door 40 or so feet down, and further down the staircase Zen reached the stairway landing. There is a door there as well, but it has been left open. It leads to a hallway with five other doors that Zen could see. Zen reports the smell of ionized air down the stairs. Now that Zen mentions it, you can smell the distinct odor of ozone too...

[Sallera]

"That smells familiar..." A few sparks play over Tax's claws before a jolt of electricity grounds itself against the far wall. "Yeah, something like that. Well, we can't waste too many minutes. Probably time to burn some more magic."

Ignoring the first portal, Tax moves down to the hallway of doors, careful not to step inside. Waving a hand, he gathers information from the hall without actually looking, motes of magic doing all the searching for him.

Casting Spontaneous Search to search everything (floor, walls, ceiling, doors) in the first 40ft of the hallway (or possibly the first 20ft? At work, and I can't remember whether the spell has a targetable range or not) with a result of 21.

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Tax's spell reveals no traps or treasures within a 20' radius. It would appear to be safe to enter the hallway.

MAP (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-ad-pc1.jpg)

[Sallera]

"Alright then. I suppose wherever the lightning's coming from, it's not going to kill us to walk forward."

Probably.

Sighing, Tax moves forward to the second door on the left, checking it for any signs of maleficent measures.

Search the door at o5/p6, taking 10 with Zen's help for 23.

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The door opens with a rusty creak. Inside is a familiar sight. A wizards laboratory! Two shelves of texts on magical theses are the first thing to catch the eyes. If the spines of the books are any indication, they are written in multiple languages and would be quite valuable to the right purchaser. The next thing they see is rather hard to miss. There in the middle of the room is a large wooden table with a small troll of some king nailed to it. She turns her head the address the Red Team as they enter the room to.

Ahem. Hello. Would you please remove the nails from my feet and hands?

Once over the initial surprise of this odd sight, the red team notices an alchemy table with an ingoing experiment bubbling. It smells acidic. Next to that is a burning brazier with irons in the fire. Apparently someone enjoys playing with trolls.

MAP (http://koboldrun.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kr-red-ad-pc2.jpg)

[Sallera]

"A good question. While I'm sure we are capable of doing so with the right motivation, we are in something of a hurry. Unless you can offer knowledge to ease our path... well, I'm sure you can see how we might be forced to press onward rather than dealing with whatever bindings hold you there." Scanning the room through spell-enhanced vision, Tax checks for any active magic in the vicinity.

This seems like a good place to throw down a Detect Magic.

Also, how small of a troll are we talking here? Kobold-sized?

[Barsoom]

Trombag comes to a landing in the doorway and changes to his normal form. Hate trolls. Why shouldn't we just burn you, filthy scum?

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The helpless troll, nailed to a table and only a few feet from bubbling acid and red hot irons, whimpered and squealed for mercy. NOOoooooooooooo
Please master kobold! Don't hurt me further. If you release me, I shall ever more be in your debt and your humble servant. *Squeal*

He was no bigger than a kobold himself. How much harm could he cause? Then again, what use was he?

[Sallera]

Tax gives a toothy grin. "Would that extend to scouting for us while we navigate this dungeon? Your regenerative abilities would make you much safer on point than either of us would be. In fact, if we make it all the way to the end, we would even set you free." He taps one of the nails, as if contemplating pulling it loose. Not that he'd do that himself, of course... probably couldn't if he wanted to. But, well, that was why they kept Rit-Kit around.

You know, I think I approve of this plan. What a rare occurrence.

This is assuming Detect Magic picks up nothing from the troll or the rest of the room. A scout that can't be killed by most traps could potentially speed our progress through the dungeon significantly.

[boldfont]

The spell sets in. Tax can see the tell tale blue glow of magic from the alchemy set, from a single sheet of paper in the bookshelves, and on the nails. Tax speculates that the nails have a form of magical binding on them that prevents the troll from ripping his own hands and feet off to effect escape. They would be benign if pulled out.

Yessss... Whatever you need! But please! Mercy!

[Barsoom]

If we set you free... know this - betray us, and you will fry. Trombag makes his point by sending an examplary Fiery Burst into an empty corner.

[Sallera]

"Naturally; I don't think that part needed saying. Zen, of course, is eminently capable of chasing down and burning to ash anyone he wishes, so betrayal would be quite utterly pointless. Now then, why don't you have Rit-Kit remove those nails? They look to be enchanted, but only to keep this one in place." Tax, for his part, takes the piece of paper from the shelf, seeing if it shows any obvious reason for the magical aura - a scroll, perhaps?

[Barsoom]

The ape, grinning hungrily, tugs at the restraints.

[boldfont]

The scroll turns out to be a simple one-time-use incantation, but in this place every bit might help. They were burning spells fast. It was a conjuration spell for a Lesser Orb of Acid (http://dndtools.eu/spells/complete-arcane--55/orb-of-acid-lesser--463/). Hardly the greatest treasure ever found in a dungeon.

Once freed, the little troll runt hopped up and down in place clapping his hands excitedly. Yes! YES! Thank you! You won't regret this decision. Allow me to shew you how valuable I can beee, by offering you some information now. His voice has dropped to a whisper and he begs the kobolds to listen carefully. We are in the lair of the Tigress Mindi, a powerful witch! What is more, she is likely very near, I could show you where, smoking her hooka and sipping Darjeeling. We must leave this place my scaled masters. There is no Dragon's treasure for you here. Oh yes! I know who you are and why you cannot simply walk out the front door. This race of yours is all the Tigress ever speaks of. She has been following closely and may even be watching you an the scrying stone now. So we must hurry! You are no match for her my friends, and if she catches you down here she will toy with you as a cat does a mouse, before she eats you. Quickly! Back the way you came!

[Barsoom]

Good job, Rit-Kit. Now, tell me, how does this thing smell to you? Does he smell like a liar?

Sense Motive [roll0]

[Sallera]

Grinning as he waits for Trombag to assess the little troll's honesty, Tax takes their own scrying stone in hand, checking on the progress of the other groups and listening in on the announcers' chatter.