Party composition is as follows:
Jake F. – Tahlrenki the Void, elf scout
James – (Hardcore) Mars the Magician, gray elf warmage
Matt – (Hardcore) Othiagauov "Kaveth" Kaveth’uthan’uvagoa, goliath warblade
Tom – (Hardcore) Ragnar the Wise, human swordsage

Ah Tome of Battle, two BoNS characters in one party. Typically I ban the BoNS as I dislike how it made melee characters better (they need to be better, I just don’t think making them casters is the way to go about it) and due to the fact that it makes anyone playing a non-BoNS character feel inadequate. Thus far it hasn’t been a problem but we’ll see how it turns out in the future (I may well end up banning it – we’ll see).

Character creation took a bit longer than I’d expected it would, but I attribute to this being the first meet that the group has had for the better part of a month. The final party yield is as noted above (a Scout, Swordsage, Warblade, and a Warmage); all current and future characters must be within 1 step of the neutral good alignment on the alignment axis.

- Introduction -

Play began with the characters located in various parts of a massive city known as Town (it once had a name but since the dungeon’s appearance adventurers ceased calling it by its real name and simply referred to it as town for ease of reference), some had been here longer than others while one was a new arrival. We zoom to the tavern nearest to the dungeon’s entrance where Mars the Magician is trying to appease a crowd of tavern-goers with parlor tricks (ex. sleight of hand checks) while a quiet Tahlrenki sits at the bar drinking a glass of wine (and taking up several seats with his legs). Ragnar skips past the tavern as Kaveth enters and promptly notices the magician attempting magic. After a display of putting wealth (a slip of paper with the word "wealth" written on) in Kaveth’s pocket, the three slink out of the tavern (Tahlrenki attempting to avoid his tab by laying it onto Mars who only exacerbates the problem by purchasing a beer for 5 gold pieces) and into the streets. Ragnar stops at the trio standing in the street and begins twiddling his thumbs, much to Tahlrenki’s chagrin. A few minutes later a party is formed and an adventure begins.

- Into the Dungeon -

The party’s entrance into the dungeon gave them an immediate example of what the environs would be like: dark. After Mars placed a light spell upon Kaveth the party made its way to the first room of the night, a long, albeit empty, room with only a set of old bedrolls and a dead campfire for decor (and a stool at the opposite side of the room). The party quickly proceeded onwards after finding nothing of value (though Kaveth took a bedroll with him) heading to a second doorway just down the hall from the current room. Kaveth listened at the door and after hearing pair of creatures on the other side he bashed the door down and quickly stepped aside at the same time that Mars stepped forward to blanket the pair of (quite surprised) orcs in magical flames with a well-placed burning hands spell. They never had a chance to draw their weapons.

After looting what valuables they could from the orc corpses the party quickly searched the room and found nothing of any particular value. They moved on.

The second room the party encountered was inhabited by a pair of zombies and a skeleton that were handily dispatched by Mars’ disrupt undead spells and the party meleeists (everyone except Mars) wading in. The fight in total took roughly three rounds to end. A quick once over turned up nothing of value beyond the shield and sword the skeleton had (Mars took the heavy steel shield and Ragnar took the scimitar).

The party moved onto the fourth room, a very large room that featured two garganuan statues of unidentifiable demons, a large pool filled with an onyx liquid (despite my suggestions to drink the liquid the party refused to do so) that they all avoided, and several long wooden benches. The room had no noticable occupants (at least that the characters noticed).

The adventure continued.

On its way to the fifth room the party was ambushed by a pair of wolves; while our heroes easily slew the beasts, Tahlrenki suffered from rather serious injury. The party returned to town to sell off what little loot that they had acquired and to hole up for a bit and lick their wounds. Ragnar was thrown into prison for the night after he dazzled several patrons of an inn with one of his maneuvers.

The next morning…

After an uneventful nights rest the party reassembled (after Ragnar was released) and re-entered the dungeon.

Onto room five. As usual, Kaveth listened at the door but was surprised to hear a sharp intake of breath on the other side. His reflexes saved his life – he dived out of the way as the door exploded outwards and an ogre lumbered forward hellbent upon smashing the goliath into the dirt with its club. Combat erupted (surprise round) with the ogre narrowly missing (ex. I rolled a natural one… *tear* so close to a kill…) Kaveth who likewise attempted an attack only to miss his foe. Once the party realized what was happening Kaveth had gained an upper hand and struck a solid blow against the lumbering brute (dealing 25 of its 26 hit points in damage with one attack) and a moment later Tahlrenki fired a single arrow into the beast’s throat, ending its existence. Sadly the beast had nothing of any particular value on it and the room it was inhabiting was filled with crates containing old rations (and no forks, much to Ragnar’s irritation).

Onward the march continued.

Heading further south into the dungeon the characters found yet another door. As per usual Kaveth listened at it but heard nothing. He promptly smashed the door open only to find himself face-to-face with a pair of lizardmen that looked quite hungry – the room was oddly empty, though. Combat was both brief and brutal, the party meleeists charged forward and began hacking the lizardmen apart while Mars sat back and threw magic missiles into the fray to soften up the opposition. It was over in moments. Upon the corpses of the lizardfolk the party found a fair bit of gold but not much else of worth.

They carried on.

After a bit of backtracking to make sure a corridor connected as they’d assumed it would (it did) the party continued to the southeast to the next room. Listening at the door Kaveth heard something on the other side that resembled chanting of some sort. After formulating a basic plan he smashed the door down (I must remember to place some sort of traps on these doors in the future to dissuade such recklessness *evil*) and was greeted by barricades and a mad screech of "Kill them my minions!" Apparently the party faced a necromancer of some sort. Combat begin with Kaveth entering the room and briefly thinking about climbing the barricades (at my noting that they had "pointies" on them he changed his mind) before taking a defensive stance and waiting. It was now the necromancer’s move, he opened with a bane spell to weaken his foes; only Kaveth and Mars failed their saves (I was going to have him throw a cause fear spell next round but he didn’t live that long). The rest of the party (except Mars), rushed into the room to combat the necromancer and its now visible skeletal minions (one of which threw itself from the barricades only to land on Kaveth) while Mars stood back and took aim with a magic missile which promptly slew the necromancer. The skeletons were easily mopped up thereafter. Looting the bodies turned up nothing of particular value beyond the necromancer’s gear (a morning star, shield, and chain shirt) which was promptly doled out. Kaveth began to equip the chain shirt and about halfway through doing so, the party was attacked by another pair of wolves (who had Mars alone in the hallway). Instead of doing anything useful Kaveth took it upon himself to continue equipping the chain shirt for the rest of the battle while the wounded Tahlrenki backed into the room to avoid injury. Mars stood in the hall blasting the wolves with spells while trusting in his shield (and 21 AC – FOR A CASTER!) to protect him from their fangs; a few moments later the wolves were promptly slain.

The party decided to return to return to town afterwards and that is where the first session ends.