2. The First Delve

Pickles tags along like an enthusiastic puppy trying to peck between legs as they go. He pauses for a while looking down the westward corridor ending in two doors, before skipping off after the group again. As they enter the room with the staircase Pickles wonders towards the western exit and pauses listening for any sounds coming from down the corridor.

"West is good, one of these days I wanna make it back to the dragon's den too."

"West it is, then," Jessica nods.

Gabbro enters the lit room with the staircase tentatively, prodding the floor with the butt of the spear. He looks curiously at the room: what is providing the illumination?

Gabbro will nod at the others' suggestions. "Yeah, the same applies about leaving an unexplored area at our backs here..." Assuming nothing untoward happens, he will continue into the room to glance down the western exit from the lit room and also down the stairs.

Stairs Below
The floor is solid and shows clear signs of regular traffic.
"Ilumination is provided by lit torches in sconces around the walls."
As far as he can tell from this distance, the chamber to the west appears empty. The stairs descend into darkness, beyond the range of your lantern’s light.
To the west, Pickles hears the sound of a door opening and closing, followed by approaching footsteps. Two kobolds walk into view, one of them carrying a bundle of torches. Completely ignoring you, they proceed to check each torch in the staircase room, replacing any that are burning low.

---
Day 3, 8:30 am
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/3
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Pickles watches the Kobolds wearily as the walk around the room, before focusing on the tunnel west. "West it is then." he says with a smile and waits to follow the crew down the tunnel.

Having seen where the kobolds walked in the passage, Gabbro smiles at them. "Thanks, fellas! Appreciate the light!" Then he retraces their steps back down the western passage to look at the chamber there.

South Entrance
The room to the west of the staircase is largely featureless although, again, there are signs of regular traffic. There is also a faint smell of cooking. A door in the southern wall has an obvious peephole. To the west, an exit extends for 20’ before opening into a larger chamber.

As you take in your surroundings, there is a sudden outburst of noise from the unexplored chamber to the west - chittering and squeaks as if some sort of skirmish has broken out. Shortly thereafter, additional, much deeper voices, join the cacophony. You can’t see what’s happening from where you are.

Mapping information: square room, 30’ x 30’. You enter through the middle of the eastern wall. There is a door in the centre of the southern wall. A passage leads west from the northern section of the western wall.

---
Day 3, 8:30 am
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/3
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

"Sounds like kobolds and... something else. We'd better go see!"

Fenwick nods and motions for Ricard to lead the way.

"Let's not go charging in, " she says, advancing slowly to try and get a look at what is happening in the chamber beyond. "Could just be the local nightclub."

"Still want to go west?" Gabbro asks Ricard, then addresses the larger group. "Or does someone want to look through that peephole first?" Gabbro tests the floor, moving north along the east wall, to get a better look down the western passageway and into the space beyond.

Ricard hastens to the door and looks through the peephole.

"Rather not get involved in someone else's fight if possible..."

Agree with Ricard. Let's keep out of as much as possible.

Curious about what is going on, and Ricard hogging the peephole, Pickles follows Gabbro down the hall.

Fenwick follows after Gabbro and Pickles, keeping carefully to the spear-tested portions of the floor.

Jessica follows in Fenwick's footsteps, stepping where she steps.

Looking through the peephole, Ricard sees what looks like a kobold guard post (although there’s not much guarding going on). The room is dominated by a rough wooden table around which eight kobolds are variously chatting, snoozing or munching on rat kebabs. None of the kobolds appears to be paying any attention. A large wooden keg stands in the room’s southwest corner, and most of the eastern wall is taken up with a weapon rack that holds numerous javelins.

The door looks like it opens away from Ricard and into the room.

Mapping information (Kobold Guard Post): Square room, 30’ x 30’. The door through which Ricard is looking is in the western section of the northern wall. There are no other visible exits.

---

Meanwhile, the rest of you move to investigate the source of the noise to the west. You safely traverse the room with the peephole door and the subsequent short corridor, Gabbro’s spear encountering only solid stone floors. Peering into the new chamber, you see that a fierce battle between six kobolds and a giant shrew is underway. The shrew is clearly winning. The other voices, which sound orcish, are a mixture of laughter and cheers - spectators enjoying the show. You can’t see the orcs though - they are away to the west, beyond the range of your lantern’s light.

The room also has an empty fire pit, and rubble and debris are scattered on the floor.

Mapping information (East Hall): This chamber is too large for you to see its full extent without moving into the room. However, you’re standing at the northernmost section of the western wall, and you can see a passage leading north, 30’ ahead of you.

---
Day 3, 8:40 am
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/3
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

"Hmm, doesn't look like a fight we should be getting involved in," observes Fenwick, who reverses course to see what Ricard has learned.

"On the other hand, we might find some new allies," Jessica ponders for a moment before closing the door and following the others back to Ricard.

"What I don't like is the cheering crowd," says Fenwick. "What if that's a sporting event and we'd be interfering? I'm not sure that'd make us any friends with anyone."