1st session, about 6:30-9pm PST on Thursday...fairly slow, took some time getting used to the roll20.net interface and each other's gaming style
[SPOILERS]
Day 1
We just had our first session, and it looks like this is going to be mostly non-RP. We didn't spend any time in town, as the other guys really wanted to just tackle the dungeon. This definitely is not the only way to tackle the campaign! First, we were given the exact location of one of the (apparently 17) entrances to the dungeon by the DM, and if we had so chosen beforehand we could have spent time trying to dig up information on how to find an entrance. There is easily enough material in town that we could have spent a few sessions there (probably), and there is a *ton* of stuff to do in the surrounding lands, from pirates and shipwrecks to trolls and clerics with evil wolves. However, we are working for a sort of mercenary dungeoneering guild (as usual), and the head honchos are not interested in anything except for the dungeon (in addition, the pathfinder edition of RA has included a first floor in the dungeon suitable for level 1's).
Our 10 mile journey south to the Mouth of Doom (most visible entrance to the dungeon) was uneventful until we came to the treeline before the hill; at that point it was early in the evening, and we decided to set up camp in the lush trees instead of the twisted and sickly scrubland extant in a large radius around the Mouth. We set up a security perimeter of twine and chimes, set up a watch schedule, and went to sleep. There was a visitation overhead from a red dragon, and we wisely chose not to engage it. Upon completion of my watch, it was 6 in the morning and time to begin breaking camp.
Day 2
As mentioned earlier, the scrubland had an evil look to it, and traversing the mile or so of it in our ascent up the hill was disquieting; we were so absorbed in the gloom of it that it was almost without warning we came upon the 30 foot tall Demonhead carved out of strange Stone. A strong aura of Transmutation (as explained by our Gayelf Wizard) emanated from it, but we were unable to tell as to what specific enchantment had been lain upon it. In my own quiet opinion, it is the source of the surrounding blight, and it was only with great loathing that I acquiesced to the wishes of the party and searched for traps around the gaping Mouth: for it was into the Mouth that our path led, down stairs of the same stone material into the dungeon itself. I detected nothing, and down we went.
The stairway opened up into the center of a spacious rectangular lobby. 6 closed doors within small alcoves stood spaced around the perimeter, 1 each on the short north and south ends and 2 each on the longer east and west sides. The door immediately to the south of us featured a Pentagram above its portal; its clockwise neighbor featured an evil Goathead, a depiction of a Demon as much as of a Goat. The neighbor of that door featured a Wolfhead, and its neighbor on the short north side featured a Mouth. To my dismay (the others were not as affected), the Mouth uttered a fell warning for us to leave the Dungeon of Graves, and then was silent.
The two final doors on the east side of the room featured a Hand and a Skull. After spending hours searching the room for traps, we found a pressure plate in front of the Wolf door, and pit traps in front of the Goat and Hand doors. Naturally, we chose to go through the Skull door. We took some time deciding what to do with our pony and horse, and what order for the party to advance; after finding that our mounts refused to go far from the lobby, we opted to tie them in the hallway within the Skull door. At that point, our standard training kicked in, and we steadily explored the beginning of a maze of hallways with me at point searching for traps. We found that the east and south doors ultimately connect to this maze (and likely the north and west doors as well); I also discovered a hidden door, but we have not opened it yet. Working our way south in the maze, I had a bit of a scare and almost fell victim to a spiked pit trap; at the bottom, we saw one of its last victims. The question is, who rebuilt the trap after it was last set off...?
At that point, while we were deciding where to go, we failed to notice the pit victims scaling the walls of the pit; they were on top of us before we knew it, and one landed a wicked slash with its rusty scimitar on our Half-Orc Barbarian. Before the other could do any damage in the tight corridor, however, our Dhampir Cleric seized control of the two of them. We were elated with such an easy victory, and I was personally relieved that we would have an animated corpse taking point instead of myself.
We had a second encounter, and this one did not go as smoothly. Luckily, none of us were harmed, but we lost one of the minons to the two giant ants before we were able to dispatch the insects.
And that's the end of our first session! Not mentioned: confusion over rules taking 20, disagreement over the cleric's Channel Negative Energy ability, gayelfry, epic half orc emotes, and more
