Timekeeping:
2/19: party rests
2/20: travel to 31.34, elf family visit, panther evades party, camp hex 33.33
2/21: find cliff face lair 34.32, reach 37.30, fight stirges, delve
2/22: travel back, evade hobgoblins in hex 36.31
2/23: arrive in Spen One more day of travel allowed before rest is required.
I was surprised this particular group of PC's wished to return to the hex 37.30 dungeon for a third visit. I believe there's an element of "let's finish this" combined with "it wasn't so hard last time." Travel was notable for encountering an elf NPC (on business with dwarves, he said) who was a little rude. Instead of beating him up they figured out where he lived and had a pleasant meal with his family. (Delayed and veiled threat.) Also notable, the party discovered a cliffside lair (from above) with absolutely massive stone doors, but elected not to explore it. When they reached the hex where the destination dungeon was located, they took the same path which last time went past a lair of stirges in a hollowed out tree.
This time they slaughtered the striges before proceeding to the dungeon. This dungeon is located at a local microgeography mountain valley desert (inside a broader plains hex) with three stone heads on a cliff above an open sandy floor. They approached through a safer alternative route discovered on the very first delve. This time they noticed a precarious rope ladder leading up to the middle stone head's open mouth. This they climbed. Inside they encountered a warband of gnolls in a large sandy room. Bloody combat followed. Heavy sand inhibited charges. Delcros was downed in the melee and most of the party took serious damage. I limited the amount of focus fire available on both sides with threater-of-mind combat confusion, but allowed fairly easy cover for backstabs when backs were turned and attention tunnel-focused on immediate enemies. Silas the assassin benefitted, which ruined the element of surprise for George's backstab. I also feel that enemies who don't strike downed enemies is unrealistic and unstrategic when gm-controlled enemies fight on the same initiative and restore-life-and-limb scrolls are afforable. To this end the chiefton scored a hit on the fallen Delcros bringing him to an unrecoverable -15 hp.
I'll skip the room-by-room recounting of events in favor of significant actions. The party followed tracks in the dungeon (hoping to find the blond evil elf) and discovered how this entrance connected to the left stone head entrance. The tracks lead outside to a rocky protrusion behind the stone heads but they didn't investigate it very long. They reentered, skipped the healing pool room despite damage, and found a broken eye statue (carefully approached by George), a key, and a chest. The key not did fit the chest. Everyone in this campaign is weary of trapped chests, and this one was no different. Inside they found a map (drawn, not described) which they did their best to decipher.
In another room they came upon a treasure hoard as well as a giant lizard which George failed to impress with his wildman call. Not long after this they left the dungeon. The party's choices were largely driven by the tension between (A) tracking down the elf wizard now that they had a party of badasses and (B) looking for loot in what they guessed to be an empty dungeon.
There was some discussion about deciphering the map but that conversation was inconclusive. There was another conversation about the conundrum of splitting the treasure value 50/50 with Daria/Iannavale when most of the value was tied up in magic items. On the way home the party evaded a large group of hobgoblins and then encountered two easily defeated caelians for the biggest score of the night.
Takeaways: there's a kind of language a dungeon designer speaks when he wants players to find something interesting or worth investigating. There's also an economy of motivation modulated by hit point loss, treasure finds, and to a lesser extent, unresolved but clearly presented mysteries. The PC's lost interest in this dungeon and I have lots of ideas how to create one that yeilds more return visits. It was a very interesting night for me and I believe the players had fun.
Grading Silas, E George, E Brolly, E Tuck, E Guvnor, E Neutralio, E
GM: B The sand fight was well presented and made use of environmental details to change the overall feel. However, I never asked myself whether the gnolls would guard the rope ladder entrance. I handled the caeilian reaction poorly. Their reaction was "indifferent" so they should not have moved towards the party at all, but rather fled to underground tunnels, even if they weren't eligible to evade. I think I could have presented the details of the dungeon so it would be more interesting, but this is something learned by experience.
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