1. The Gates of Hell

Ricard nods as Druin waves the humans forward and advanced down the east corridor with the others.

Seeing the okay sign, Swan strides up in her rental scale armor with a shield and sword ready for action as she looks about. "Looks safe here."

There's three obvious ways to continue: the room with the beetle (reached through the northwest passage), the mildewed door to the north, and the room to the northeast (reached via the eastern passage). On the premise that it's good to avoid monsters and everyone agrees to NOT go through the mildewed door (for the time being anyway), Gabbro will quietly advance 10' north from the point where the eastern passageway turns, proceeding just to the entrance of the chamber for a quick glance around and listen. "I'm just going to get a closer look before the lantern light spoils my view. Then I'll tell you what I see." He sidles along, peering into the darkness, wondering if there's any truth to the message written on the wall, and, if there is any truth to it, how someone is supposed to get down two levels. Are there stairs somewhere? Or...a trap slide?

::Get it together, Gabbro. You're jumping at shadows. Don't borrow trouble that isn't there. There's no reason anyone would trap this passage, as it's the only way in...unless the smell behind the door was a trick to get people to not use the correct entrance....::

Orelia has remained silent and pensive during the group's foray into the long dreaded dungeon. She had her shield at the ready, as well as her mace, upon following Gabbro and Ricard to the aid of the other against the beetle. She thanked her goddess silently as the group backed away from it.
"I hope nothing looms ahead," she mutters as Gabbro moves forth from the false protection of the lantern light.

Old Camp

Gabbro advances north and peers into the room. It's empty, but seems to have been used relatively recently as a camp. Discarded ration wrappings litter the floor. There are signs of an old campfire. A broken brandy bottle lies discarded in a corner.

The single bright object in Gabbro's infravision is a small cylinder, about 4" long and with a diameter of 0.5". It's buried beneath the litter.

Mapping information: rectangular chamber, 30' x 20'. The corridor enters through the centre of the southern wall. There are no other visible exits.

---
Day 1, 12:30
Druin, Dwarf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Orelia, Cleric 1: 3/3
Ricard, Fighter 1: 7/7
Swan, Fighter 1: 6/6
Tess, Thief 1: 3/3

"I see a bunch of trash. Someone camped here recently..." Gabbro narrates to his companions behind him as he moves into the room, "...but not too recently: the campfire's completely cold. There aren't any other obvious passages or doors, so we might have to go back after all. I'm looking to see if I can find anything hidden..." Gabbro skips a bullet off of the pile of litter, trying not to hit the cylinder, but to trigger any snare or similar pressure release trap. "There's something warm under the litter, though..."

Good question. This is how I generally handle searching ...

If you describe searching for something specific, in a specific way, I will generally let you find it without the need for a roll. For example "I check the bottom of the chest for a hidden compartment" or "I check the torch sconce to see if it is a concealed lever".

If you want to do a generic search, e.g. "I search the east wall for secret doors" then I will make the roll in secret. That way, if you don't find anything, you won't know whether that's because there isn't anything, or that there is something but you failed to spot it.

The real penalty of searching though is time (= wandering monsters). It takes 1 person a full turn to search a 10' x 10' area. So, if you were to search all of the walls in the current chamber for secret doors, it would take 9 turns (although, obviously, multiple people can search simultaneously). So use searching judiciously. An accurate map can be a great aid in spotting potential locations for secret doors.

Nothing triggers. The bullet bounces harmlessly off the floor, and then off the far wall, before coming to a rest.

While waiting for the others to join him in the room, Gabbro will retrieve his bullet, pull out his handaxe, and poke through the refuse until he can see the cylinder.

Swan strides in but just glances about as she watches others frisk the place. She is playing lookout.

Entering the room with the rest of the Hellions, Tess assesses the situation. She approaches the pile of refuse and uses her short sword to rummage through it.

Seeing Gabbro move to secure the cylinder, Druin will simply enter the room and stand guard. He'll idelely inspect the old campsite and see if he can get an idea of how many were here and how recently.

Ricard stands beside Druin on guard as the others root through the trash.

"Looks like a boarding house on the shady side of town, let's get back out to the canyon and find the real entrance to the prison."

"There's a few doors more here to check out before we leave. Perhaps this place wasn't raided hard."

As the rest of the party, including Tess with the lantern, enters the room, Gabbro’s infravision fades. In normal light, the previously bright object reveals itself to be a stick of orange chalk.

Looking at the remains, Druin reckons the camp consisted of no more than five members and is probably weeks (rather than days or months) old.

A cursory search through the debris reveals nothing obvious of interest. You may undertake a more thorough search, but that will take at least a turn.

---
Day 1, 12:30
Druin, Dwarf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Orelia, Cleric 1: 3/3
Ricard, Fighter 1: 7/7
Swan, Fighter 1: 6/6
Tess, Thief 1: 3/3

Leaving the others to search the rest of the chamber, Orelia approaches the wall straight ahead from the passageway. If she sees any ridges or round bumps, she'll casually, yet cautiously, run a finger over them.

"I wonder if that was the chalk used to write the message on the wall that you pointed out to us earlier?" Druin ask Gabbro.

He turns to Ricard. "Before we head out to the main area, we may want to consider what that message told us--there may be gems here for the taking, that sounds promising. However, it said at the least we'd have to get past some wasps and the acolyte cells to get at them. The only insect we've seen so far is that beetle--could it really be a wasp? In any case, I doubt it would be alone, does some type of giant wasps' nest and a cult of whatever the acolytes are sound like the sort of thing we'd be willing to risk for the reward?"

"That's a very good guess about this chalk!" Gabbro takes the chalk (is it warm to the touch?) and tries writing a "G" on the wall. Is the writing visible in the lantern light, or not?

"As for the risk...I must admit that I don't want to fight giant wasps, but the note didn't mention GIANT wasps, just wasps...of course, I'd rather avoid ANY wasps." He turns around and leans on the wall. "But I've got to be honest with you: I spent my last copper on this mission; I need to find something of value here or I'm going to starve to death back in town. Either that, or I'll have to scavenge or steal to survive. That prospect...doesn't appeal to me. So I think it's worth investigating more." He puts the chalk in his pouch and dusts off his hands. "All that said, let's not borrow trouble from tomorrow. The acolytes and wasps are 'two levels down;' we haven't even found stairs yet! Or a ladder, or a chute, or any kind of a slope leading downward! I say we look around a bit further and deal with what's in front of us, then worry about the wasps and acolytes if we manage to find a way down. Do we want to open that foul door, deal with the beetle, or go back outside to check the other entrance on the far side of the ravine?"

It generally feels like ordinary chalk, but it does have a very slight warmth to it. When you attempt to write on the wall with it, although you get the sense the chalk is being deposited, it doesn't leave a visible mark in lantern light.

It works as you suspect. You can mark this on your inventory as "flame chalk" (your first magical item!). Any writing created by a stick of flame chalk is invisible to the naked eye, but the substance produces a faint heat that makes it legible to creatures with infravision. It's small enough to not require an inventory slot, so make a note of it somewhere else on your character sheet.

The wall consists of rough-faced limestone blocks of generally poor quality. There are plenty of cracks and crevices, but nothing that strikes Orelia as out of the ordinary.

---
Day 1, 12:40
Druin, Dwarf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Orelia, Cleric 1: 3/3
Ricard, Fighter 1: 7/7
Swan, Fighter 1: 6/6
Tess, Thief 1: 3/3