Quest: Mouth Of Doom! - Thursday 11th Feb - 10am (GMT) / 2pm (GMT+4) / 2am (PST) / 9pm (AEDT)

Quest - Mouth of Doom : A trio of local children recently returned from their rambling in the wilderness speaking of a strange doorway built into the side of a muddy hillock. They described it as looking like the mouth of a great demon, with stairs beyond leading down into the darkness. More curiously, the mouth spoke to them as they drew near, warning them against entering this so-called 'Mouth of Doom'. Adventurers eager to test their mettle and plumb its depths for treasure are advised that it lies South of Hope. In-game Date - We are looking at the 2nd  Eleint (The Fading). Player Character Level / Race / Class Eddzy Plank Level 2 Tiefling Fighter Wardog Davrek Smelthammer Level 1 Gnome Artificer Ayla D Teres  Level 3 Human Thief Rogue Draggo Pixli Level 2 Deep Gnome Artificer Richelle G Trym Tosscobble Level 2 Halfling Rogue Crimton Shane Level 2 Serafu Celestial Warlock Drago Burglekutt Level 3 Gnome Divination Wizard

I don't care that I'm going tired for work that next day! I would send my level 3 human rogue but I need to know the in game date just in case I need to swap a character

Ayla D. said: I don't care that I'm going tired for work that next day! I would send my level 3 human rogue but I need to know the in game date just in case I need to swap a character I feel like Teres might be spreading herself a bit thin with this quest *and* the other three she is signed up for haha. 

I'm probs going to swap her out with Aerfrey for pushing daise or goblin bounty depending on availabilities 

What in-game day you're planning to go there?

Crimton said: What in-game day you're planning to go there? Ayla D. said: I don't care that I'm going tired for work that next day! I would send my level 3 human rogue but I need to know the in game date just in case I need to swap a character Sorry for not clarifying a in-game date. We are looking at the 2nd  Eleint (The Fading). I'll add it to the original post.

No worries. It will be my rogue that will come along 

I can sign up Pixli, Level 2 Gnome Artificer.

I'm in with my new character! Astra Willowvale  Level 1 Darakhul Gunsmith ... pew pew 

I will be happy to tag along with character TBD

Looks like we are full! ;D

Edddzy said: Looks like we are full! ;D There’s technically room for one more, but we’re a go. 

Ummm soo... I thought about it and it just doesn't make sense for Trym to NOT go the mouth of doom again. Yes, she won't get to be the main rogue, but for her it's all about the treasure anyway. Plus, she's higher level than Astra, so better for you guys!  Trym Tosscobble Level 2 Halfling Rogue 

Richelle G. said: Ummm soo... I thought about it and it just doesn't make sense for Trym to NOT go the mouth of doom again. Yes, she won't get to be the main rogue, but for her it's all about the treasure anyway. Plus, she's higher level than Astra, so better for you guys!  Trym Tosscobble Level 2 Halfling Rogue  Yaasss #roguesgetitdone

Is there room for a 7th person? If so I can bring Burglekutt, lvl 3 Gnome Wizard

That’ll bring us to capacity!

Crimton said: I will be happy to tag along with character TBD I will go with Shane (Level 2 Serafu Celestial Warlock) bcs I'm concerned about lack of healing

*wheezing* Four midgets! FOUR! We're looking like the damn Lollipop Guild going into this dungeon.

Burglekutt's Diary We headed south to the "Mouth of Doom" today. Again that ghastly fog surrounded us during our journey. I do hope my companions back at the Fog Temple are successful putting an end to this nuisance! Our party was led by Trym , a Halfling Rogue who has visited this dungeon before. She is an interesting character, full of enthusiasm and quite handy with a shortbow in a pinch!  We managed to arrive at our destination without too much trouble. An encounter with Bullywugs held us up briefly along the way but everyone performed well during the incident and we were back on course in short order. Entering the dungeon we were set upon by some horrid Giant Rats in the antechamber. Trym then led us to another chamber with the tomb of a  "dead rich guy" and in the room beyond we encountered a Bandit Hideout. The battle with the Bandits was fierce with Plank and Trym getting knocked unconscious early on in the fight. We were beginning to turn the tide and I was sure the day would be ours when the Bandit Leader grabbed poor Tyrm's body and held a dagger to her throat. He demanded a truce, proposing that he would return Trym to us if we left him in peace. We had no choice but to accept - any amount of gold is not worth the life of a companion.  We continued to explore other areas of the dungeon but it was a fruitless affair. A few weak zombies and a pair of chests that had already been looted was all we discovered. We decided after that to call it quits and return to Hope. 

Dear Captain Frasolus Partifiway III The landlubber expedition has not gone as hoped – I have settled down into a town called hope and I can tell you that its name is clearly someone’s ironic joke. My only hope is to complete the job and get back to filling my lungs with the bracing sea water air and the delicate creaking of a strong ocean bound ship. I had recently heard some muttering about a local caves that was packed to the rafters with treasures beyond comparison, and so joined a team of ...mostly short... adventurers to head off in search of a valuable prize. The expedition begins by heading due south -an ill omen in itself-, Trekking through dense marshland which seemed have a earnest desire to bog us down and impede our progress, But the swamp wasn’t the only malevolent force in the world today as multiple Bullywogs attacked the group. The battle wasn’t terribly long lived (well from my perspective anyway as I took a heavy blows to the side of the head and was rendered unconscious) However  Pixili   -A tenacious gnome artificer who I had dealings with before- came to my aid with a healing spell to bring me back into the fight. When I came to the group were busy rifling through the downed reptilians extracting items of value such as a particularly grizzly hunting trap made from the head of a crocodile. We then resumed our voyage across these wretched lands and came upon a familiar site, The mouth of doom which me and a previous expedition had accidently stumbled upon. Taking the lead on navigating was  Trym , Who seemed to have had previously dealings in this place, Though after this encounter I find it hard to believe someone would come back to this place willingly. She quickly regaled us all with pinpoint accurate details about her previous time in the mouth of doom which proved to be an invaluable resource given the caves relatively complexity, I am extremely glad for her help. We made a decision as a group to settle down on the descending steps to catch our breaths and steel our resolves, However it appears this place does not permit those with a stout heart a moments respite as from a nearby pit packs of ravenous -dare I say rabid?- looking rats quickly swarmed the party and began to chew and gnaw at our flesh, Perhaps mistaking us for a easy meal. The true hero of the moment being Burglekutt who casted some form of sonorous wave energy at the vermin causing them to be blasted into smithereens. Moving along after realising that the rats probably had nothing of value to us, The group did spend some time fiddling around with a nearby mechanism of some description which once triggered lowered a portcullis, limiting our options somewhat in terms of direction. Our progress found us heading northward and while Trym acted as our guide in terms of direction and local knowledge - I seemed to find myself at the front of the group acting as the frontline defence, A job I was more than happy to fufill.... That was until we encountered a vey unpleased encampment of what can best be described as bandits. Very quickly I found myself back in the void between this world and the next as the orcs landed a direct swing across my abdomen, Spilling out a lot of my somewhat important blood and rendering me out cold. Coming to was the strangest occurrence as I found myself under some kind of miasmic spell? Or other worldly influences as I found myself rather fond of our supposed enemies and decided to fight them would be a direct insult to the friendship we had forged moments ago through mutual sword swings. I decided to spend the rest of the...disagreement between my friends sat in a corner just shielding myself from any potential harm, However it turns out that one of my fellow adventurers got a rougher deal than me when they were held hostage by the bandit leaders resulting in both sides deciding to back down from a all out blood bath. As my mind cleared of whatever pernicious curse had befell me, I grow concerned for the relative ease which I had become bewitched. I must learn to resist such controlling spells If I am to succeed in my mission. After investing in a extended rest to tend to any wounds and recharge assorted arcane energies we continued to search through various chambers and antechambers, encountering a group of rat people who seemed rather quite friendly once one of our group decided to impale a arrow directly into the eye sockets of one of their own, They divulged some further details about some local treasure past a water room, and some information about a machine that lets you gamble with the ultimate price - You can either end up very rich or very dead. Following the directions of the ratfolk we encountered some undead- they proved a poultry foe and were quickly cut down, Continuing on we followed the long pathway round and I encountered a treasure room, It seemed mostly harmless with a few charred bodies but with no obvious source of danger I bravely strode into the room, Apparently one of the group found it extremely funny to... expel some gas as I smelled a most pungent odour that can only be described as a cross between midshipman Breckleys feet and the breath of a sea hag. They did try to explain it away as some kind of fuel and ignition type trap designed to lure in unsuspecting folk and incinerate them - But after spending numerous years at sea I can see straight through a liars teeth and kindly asked that they refrain from such behaviour while adventuring. The final room was filled to the cobblestone ceiling with a familiar foe - giant rats. Having faced such trivial enemies before I forced my way into the room to take the bounders head on, I stood my ground and despite numerous wounds the rest of the group managed to destroy the swarms of pestilence leaving us to claim the treasure that laid within. Sensing that the groups energy reserve were running low and time was short it was decided to head back to the town with our rewards in our pockets and a hope in our hearts that the next visit will prove to be a more...financially rewarding experience. Yours faithfully, Land Advancement Officer -Plank

Love it! Welcome to the level three club, sir!

2 The Fading Finally going out to the famous Mouth of Doom everyone is talking about. I'd heard the last party had a very lucrative experience (I could almost taste the money now). This new crew seemed ready and able, with Trym having already been here before - thank the gods that I now had a map to plan with. It was only a days journey south of hope but we still got attacked by Bullywugs. Trym held her own very well, I can't say the same for the wizard Burglekutt or Plank the fighter (he really liked spending time on the ground). Regardless, they didn't slow us down and we still we made it to the Mouth of Doom in good time. Trym suggested that we rest on the stairs, from her experience it was the safest place in the dungeon. Wrong! Rats came swarming all over us. Rule number one (or is it number two?) Never assume anything, she maybe good but she has a lot to learn. Scouting out the first room Burglekutt and Pixli found a bag at the bottom of one of the traps. Those idiots, they fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, bait to lure dipshits to their death - at least they were able to fish it out safely.   After the magic uses stop faffing around, we got down to business. We went to a secret door, behind which is where the last group scored some decent coin. We pressed on opening the door to the far side. I was not expecting to find bandits and orcs and whatever in the hells their ringleader was. Needless to say it was a disaster, we got stuck in a corridor and Plank developed some kind of Orc obsession. We nearly had them until the ring leader threatened to split Trym's throat and negotiated that we leave them along and he'll spare the halfling. Personally I think they are hiding something BIG, but until I have any evidence of it, it seemed best to save our teammate. 3 The Fading  We were able to rest safely in the dungeon and planned our next move. Going back to the first chamber we moved through one of the safe doors on the right hand side which opened up to a series of corridor's. Scouting around I heard some voices behind one of the doors - we went in and found rat people. Trym outright killed out one and they surrendered pretty easily, she must have felt guilty and threw some money at the.  Amateur! Never put a value on a life, everyone is expendable, save your coin rookie. I jumped on the threatening bandwagon and got them to tell us where some loot is. I also tried to get their weapons so we could sell them, but the goodey goodies of the party complained. The rats people didn't attack us and we continued down the corridors with only a few zombies to contend with. We finally got to the area that was pointed out to have loot. I'm way too pissed off to go into the details ,but we were been beaten to the punch. Both chests had been already looted of anything decent. As much as I love the thrill of a dungeon crawl, I can't help but feel that I was the one who was robbed!!! This is bullshit.        

2 The Fading What an amazing day this has been, in both its ups and downs. First, the ups; we were a party of mostly Gnomes today, which I was giddy about. It's so nice to know there's more regular folk here, and not just tall ones, even if none of them were Svirf. Plank was back with me again, and it's a good thing I was here for his love for laying down full of holes. We also had Burglekutt, a very strapping man of a Gnome, intelligent (a blessing) and confident in his abilities. I can tell he's been out here before, as he shrugged off the more minor issues we suffered, not at all like the flimsy casters back home. Then there's Teres, who struck me as the 'money over friends' type. I guess it's understandable out here, I'll just have to be careful not to get in the way of that. Trym the Halfling, someone I very nearly mistook for another Gnome at first, if not for her different proportions closer to a Human, was our navigator. She'd been inside before, while I'd only seen the front door during my trip out to find those Lizardfolk. And lastly was Shane, some kind of angel-like being who joined us with healing powers that had me a little green. I think there was meant to be a seventh, but they never showed up. The trip was pretty simple, what with the Mouth of Doom actually only being a day's journey away; both good and bad for how close it is. On one hand, we're less at risk of getting jumped on the way. On the other hand, if anything did  ever decide to come out, Hope is well within the danger zone. And we still  got jumped on the way, by Bulliwugs no less. Big dumb toads gave us some trouble thanks to their poisoned weapons, but we dealt with them easily enough. Jumpy bastards wouldn't hold still to take their licks, though. Frustrating! We arrived at the dungeon before it got dark, though, and decided to rest on the stairs where it seemed safe enough. Sitting on stairs like that is a little uncomfortable, but we'll make do. Poxy rats! Just as we were getting settled, one of the pit traps Trym explained about later flooded with the miserable things. They went after us ravenously, a shame it took little more than being stepped on to kill them for the trouble they caused. Couldn't be helped too much, I guess, and we got up to move on with Trym guiding us to the juicy stuff. At least that was the plan. What we found was a) a desecrated tomb that she claimed belonged to someone of wealth, though I guess she'd already helped herself with whoever had come here before, and b) a bandit ambush. Who lives in a dungeon?  These weirdos, apparently. We saw the door, which had been trapped before, and Plank took the lead in opening it. And of course, they seemed to know we were here and were, of course, ready for us. He got peppered with bolts, fell back in time to get chased out by an Orc, and the fight went terribly. Four of theirs went down, but it meant nothing when Trym got grabbed, and the guy leading them used her as a bargaining chip to get us to back off. We had to, I wasn't going to risk anyone for trinkets, and so we moved away long enough for them to take back their dead and leave Trym, stable and alive but beaten up, for us to salvage. We settled in the tomb to sleep off our shame, and I felt myself sleeping with an eye open in case they turned on us in the night. 3 The Fading What a disaster. First the bandits, then the Ratfolk. They didn't see us coming, and the first  creature we  actually get the jump on turns out to be harmless. Teres made it all the worse by threatening them for information, seeing the situation as unsalvageable after killing off one of them. I had to convince her to let them keep their weapons for the sake of not dooming them entirely in here, and we left them to mourn while we moved on to find a treasure they pointed us to; some kind of device that brought fortune or death to those who used it. I'M certainly not volunteering first. Not that we found it, after beating down some petty undead, then wading through *more* rats, only to find meagre pickings left behind in a pair of chests. Plank nearly walked into some kind of fire trap that had expired, then had the gall to blame us for passing wind when we tried to warn him, the cheek! After that, we collectively decided to go home. I had to be back in Hope for another obligation anyway, and this place is easy enough to reach. Maybe there'll be something good the next time around.

Mouth of Doom: Second Attempt Early in the morning me and a group of randos headed to the Mouth of Doom for a second attempt to get more gold and treasure! My last run was pretty fantastic for loot, but unfortunately, this one was just okay, although I did get a pretty awesome magic fork out of it.  Here's who went with me for reference: Fancy Fingers Madame Smarty Pants Bumblebutt and his weirdo owl Planky Tank Angel Cakes So since I had already been to the MOD before, I took the lead on telling everyone what to do, because obviously I know best and you cant trust Bleach Boy with anything even though he's been here before.  So, on the way there we had to fight some bullywogs. They were pretty much a piece of cake for me, but not so much for Gurglegutts and Plank the Tank . I think I know why they call him Plank because he's always on the ground.  Anyway, we healed up and went on the stairs for a rest like last time, but this time we got attacked by tons of rats! I just kept stabbing them on the stairs until they died.  After a quick rest we decided to check the door with the trap I found last time in the North West. We found a skeleton with a backpack back there, and we activated the trap to try and get the backpack. Smarty Pants had some whole complicated thing she was really excited about with the trap when she could've just had me or Fancy Fingers disarm it but whatever. When we got the backpack all we found was a rock inside. Basically, the concept is that if you step on it the trap locks you in there, even if you're light because of the weight of the rock. The others were disappointed but I thought it was kind of funny. Especially since Smarty Pants worked so hard to get it.  Next, we went North, the same way as last time. We had Bumblebutt looking for traps and Fancy Fingers disarming them with my help. I showed them the secret door and the rich dude's coffin, and then we continued onto the next room. Plank the Tank opened the door and there was a bunch of dudes and orcs in there, so we started blasting. They shot him down really fast and then hit me too and I passed out. Next thing I know everyone is standing over me saying they had to trade an orc for me as a hostage. Awkward.  Honestly, the whole thing was super embarrassing but I won't tell the others that.  So we decide to spend the night in the dead guy's coffin room and I wedge both the doors shut with an iron spike so no one can get in. On my watch, I heard zombies but they couldn't find us. Then I got bored so I put some rocks in Smarty Pants' pockets. It was really funny in the morning when she woke up and found them.  So the next day we continue back to the main room and go through the Southwest door. There was no trap but it was really loud opening it. We go along the hallway until we find a short hallway North. This leads to two rooms. One has sounds coming from it and one doesn't. We decide to sneak attack the noisy room, and I immediately shot an arrow in there without really looking because I was feeling kind of jumpy after almost dying. Plus they looked like the rats that attacked us the day before. Turns out they were innocent ratfolk who started crying about their dead friend and I felt really bad... so I gave them some coins and ran away. I still feel super awkward about it, but they did eat him, so I don't feel as bad now. Then we checked the other room to the left and it was full of random skulls in the corner with holes drilled into the top. WTF? The ratfolk told Fancy Fingers that there was treasure around the water room, so we continued down the hallway where we were attacked by zombies. They were super easy to kill. Then we went up and around the water room and down a hallway.  The first room we went into had a chest and was full of gas. I think it was Bumblebutt who said we shouldn't light a fire if we went in there. There were lots of dead burned bodies on the floor who probably stupidly lit a torch. We opened the chest but there was nothing good in there. LAME. It was getting kind of late at this point so we went to the next chest room and we had to fight a TON of giant rats AGAIN. This time there was another chest but in that chest was just a few more coins and this magic fork which I took.  We decided to cut our losses and head back to town, but man was this run kind of meh. It's so weird, we visited more of the dungeon this time but all the rooms were way less profitable. I need to get back there and see what else there is because there's NO way I found all the best stuff on my first time out. Especially since there are deeper levels and stuff. Thankfully no one else had enough coin to identify the magic fork so I got to keep it. Suckers.  [Below Trym has sketched an extremely detailed map of the dungeon, but you're going to have to take her with you or ask her in person if you want to see it ;) ]