2. The First Delve

"No, sorry," replies the gnome. "My previous party never made it this far into the dungeon," he adds despondently.

Like the previous portcullises, any previous mechanism has long since been removed. As such, you’re reliant on brute force to raise the western one sufficiently to pass through. However, between you, that’s easily done.

On the far side, a corridor continues for 10’ before arriving at a junction. You can either take a passage north. Or, continuing west, immediately after the northerly passage, there is a large chamber that extends beyond the range of Luther’s lantern. However, you can see that you would be entering from the northernmost section of the eastern wall and that the space is dominated by a large, round, stone table surrounded by rickety chairs.

---
Day 3, 9:30 pm
Bob, Thief 1: 4/4
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 2: 9/9 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 2: 10/10
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14
---
Johann, Gnome 1: 3/5

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

"Anyone think dinner might be waiting for us on that table?"

Ricard jests, but the thought makes him hungry none the less.

"I doubt that it would be anything we'd want to eat..." Jessica replies, feeling her own stomach growl.

Gabbro looks askance at Jessica and Ricard. "We just ate not thirty minutes ago!" He looks around to find some sympathetic soul to whom he can roll his eyes and say "Humans!" but the first non-human he sees is Pickles, and he's pretty sure Pickles eats even more often than the humans do.

Ricard scoffs,

"You call that food? Feels like it's been weeks since my last real meal."

To the north Bob can hear chatter, but it sounds like kobolds rather than goblins. Everything is quiet to the west.

---
Day 3, 9:30 pm
Bob, Thief 1: 4/4
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 2: 9/9 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 2: 10/10
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14
---
Johann, Gnome 1: 3/5

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Gabbro mutters to Bob: "The kobolds seem to be neutral caretakers in Stonehell. Messing with them seems likely to bring the wrath of every faction in the place." So saying, Gabbro creeps forward into the western room, probing with his spear and looking to see how big the room with the stone table is.

Ricard moves alongside Gabbro, using his spear similarly to prove for traps as he goes.

Pickles casually skips along to the beat of the tapping spears, bow in hand and smile on face.

West Hall
Tip-tapping cautiously into the room, you advance sufficiently to gauge its full extent. It’s a square room, 40’ x 40’. Aside from the large stone table, the other notable features are three rusted suits of plate mail on stands along the southern wall and an ash-filled fire pit towards the northwest corner. There is one other visible exit - a passage leading east in the southernmost section of the eastern wall.

Bob makes it safely to the table. There is nothing obvious underneath. However, on the table’s upper surface are some scrawled mathematical calculations done in chalk. The writer was attempting to divide 537 by four. They arrived at an answer of 144.

---
Day 3, 9:30 pm
Bob, Thief 1: 4/4
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 2: 9/9 (Lantern)
Pickles, Halfling 2: 10/10
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14
---
Johann, Gnome 1: 3/5

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

@Ricard - sorry, I forgot to mention this previously ... when you used your new sword against the giant centipedes you got a better sense of (at least some of) its capabilities. You can make a note that it is a sword +1.

Luther will walk up to the table. "I wonder what these calculations are for? They are wrong of course it is 134 1/4."

While Luther is examining the table, Gabbro will poke at the ashes in the fire pit, spreading them around with his spear tip. Are there any coals or sign that it was used recently (or anything hidden in the ash)?

Jessica, not being particularly skilled at mathematics, merely nods sagely.