When last seen, the party had been deposited on a steep ledge by a magical whirlwind, along with the 'nun' and the three guys they were chasing, Rumpus Hildegard, a low level clerk they had rescued.
Sitting there waiting for them peacefully knitting was Mrs Munchner (to the bard's dismay), who greeted them, "
I knew ye'd be coming, I prayed t'Sigmar to send me help. Now ye can take me to my sister's in Nuln."
Somehow the dwarf who had flambeed the balloon wasn't with them (his player being out sick).
After the nun introduced them to the survivors of the balloon's crew, who she knew very well as they were in on the whole plot of the first adventure; Zilda the ranger decided that they were most likely somewhere in the Middle Mountains, an easy deduction as that was the closest range to Wolfenburg. After some initial discussion they headed off to find shelter for the night.
They soon found a rocky hillside where the wall had been cut away to make a flat surface, now carved with various funerary decorations and having a smashed open door in the middle, reeking with the scent of a large animal, probably a bear. Zilda went in with a light and find a large room with the statues of four knights and two or three passages leading off of it. The fighter came in next followed by the elven wizard/thief. The fighter proceeded to find the first pit trap the hard way, falling ten feet to a hard stop. Zilda took note that one of the statue's vizor's had flipped up when the fighter fell, then bent down to get him out,. Meanwhile the elf moved in to the right and the bard entered. Unfortunately, the sound the fighter made aroused a large brown bear that laired in the left hand tombs. The elf hit it with a quick jet of fire, which only made it mad. It went into it's claw/claw/bite routine and the elf went down - like the fighter into the pit. Zilda decided to finish pulling the fighter out, while the bard cast blindness on the bear. The spell worked, as the bear placed one foot into the open pit, recovering, but losing it's attacks. With the three characters in melee with it the issue was never in doubt and the party was able to feast on bear steak that night. Healing the elf, a quick check of the side passages showed that they were lined with tombs. The elf cautiously explored the further reaches of the main room, finding that one of the rear, statues' shield was lying on the floor, cautious probing found another pit trap. Attempting to disable it by replacing the shield, the elf quickly decided it was less effort just to tell the party not to walk there. A look down the rear passage let them know it too was lined with tombs, and that no end was in sight from the stairs.
After a remarkably undisturbed rest, they awoke to a rainy day and decided to pursue indoor activities. To wit, despoiling the tombs of the dead. Levering open the intact sarcophagi did not find any treasures, but they did find a lever. After a game of "
I'm not pulling it, you pull it. Let's get Mikey, he'll pull anything."; the fighter pulled the lever and opened the secret door at the end of the right hand corridor. Asking for volunteers form the NPCs, only Volk the ranger agreed to and he did so only on the condition that no flying was involved. He'd tried it once and didn't want anything else to do with aviation.
The party advanced cautiously up the passage until the reached the intersection where it branched to the right or ended in a door straight ahead. After a loud discussion, the elf moved up to check the door and found, since no one else had looked ,that it was ajar. He also reported that he heard something shuffling inside. Zilda went to the fore and boldly pushed the door open enough to enter. At which point the troll who had been alerted by the discussion - and the light, causing it to hide behind the door, kicked the door shut and did claw/claw/bite on Zilda. The fighter, next in line, couldn't force the door open against the troll's bulk. So he called Volf up to assist.
Zilda took advantage of the troll's distraction with the door (and poor attack rolls) to tumble to the other side of the room, with the troll in pursuit. The fighter and Volf gave the now unblocked door a mighty shove, which resulted in the fighter entering the room, while Volf did a face plant in the doorway. To make matters more amusing, the elf decided he would tumble through the doorway - he ended up on top of poor Volf. Meanwhile, the troll shrugged off Zilda's attempt to defend herself and gave her a terminal claw/claw/bite and rend routine, leaving her strewn in pieces on the floor, walls and ceiling. The party got itself sorted out, with Zilda's player taking over Volf. They dispatched the troll with some awesome criticals by the fighter and flame jets from the elf. Volf stripped what was left of Zilda's corpse and the party decided, after burning the trolls remains, to investigate the bypassed corridor, instead of trying the other door.
The next room was empty except for a workbench on one wall. Finding the next door was unlocked, Volf stepped through it surprising a large number of goblins, sadly Volf couldn't really hit any of them the entire combat. A long combat ensued, where the bard (played by the daughter of one of the elf's player) decided to cast 'Lullaby' on the goblins, she put three of them into a dreamy state. But learned that it really wasn't an effective spell in combat. The elf sidled along the tapestry at the end of the room, where he sniped magically at goblins, bringing down one that was running to get help. This was well and good until he felt a sharp stabbing pain from the goblin chief behind the tapestry. He stepped away from the tapestry with the intention of setting the whole thing on fire, until he saw that it was an work of art showing a female dwarf with a black warhammer fighting a red skinned humanoid on a molten landscape against a flame filled sky. Gold piece signs ringing up in his eyes, he decided to use mage hand to lift the bottom of the tapestry and look for feet. The goblin chief saw the tapestry rise a few feet away and climbed up onto it to hide as the rest of his goblins met their usual end.
The combat not having aroused any nearby denizens, the party was at leisure to find the missing goblin, which they did by pulling down the tapestry with him in it. He immediately surrendered and offered treasure to spare his life. Negotiations were proceeding when the bard asked if there were any other goblins around. The chief brightened up at this and said yes, follow me. The party decided to collect the ransom first. Ending up some gold, +1 studded leather armor and a masterwork rapier. Before going through the door to the other goblins, they asked the chief what was in the last room, 'Jewels' he said. SO they decided to check that out first, having the chief unlock the door, Volf stepped into the 20X30 room and saw a shiny red bauble on the floor against the far wall. Walking over to pick it up, he felt the floor tip him into the 20 pit and counter weights on the floor slammed it shut on top of him. The goblin chief laughed as he ran to the other door, pounding on it for admittance as the elf hit him with magic missiles. They decided to rescue Volf, tying the fighter off with a rope, to open the trap and then dropping another line down to Volf. Then they formed up to follow the traior through the door.
The intrepid Volf entered first, stopping by a pile of large rocks, he found himself in a long room, lit in the center by a single torch, the far end in darkness. Out of the darkness, through the lit area, he saw a large rock sail straight into his face. Deciding that they weren't in any shape to go up against what ever was tossing rocks at this point, they beat a hasty retreat, although not before Volf took a goblin arrow as well.
Retreating to where the rest of the party was camped, they found that the NPC's had discovered two more doors along the cliff, one locked and one open, but they hadn't gone inside. TThey decided that they would spend the night in the tomb with doubled guards. Who didn't see the bugbears scouting their camp, nor notice when four of them came running through on a raid. The fighter struck one and was hit in return by a javelin; while two more javelins struck down Rumpus the clerk. One of the other NPC's, one handed Dieter, took out a pistol and shot one of the ugbears as they departed the area.
Wisely deciding not to remain in the tomb, but agonizing over the tapestry they had left behind, they party went downhill, led by Volf the Intrepid, until they found a stream which they followed to the village of Smalplotz.
Credit: The dungeon map is a slightly modified version of the
Three Tombs of Acker map which was posted over at
Dyson's Dodecahedron
Yet another thought provoking post over on Gnome Stew, this time on Encounter Balance in the game. As my players will tell you, I stopped worrying about it. I stopped worrying about it in reaction to their behavior several years ago in a 3.x campaign that lasted three or four years. I was originally excited by the Challenge Rating concept and wasted much time calculating CRs for encounters; which isn't straight forward when the numbers of players showing up varies from three to fourteen. I noticed occasionally players seemed to get frustrated when their character approached single digit hit points. From their reaction I realized that the concept of Encounter Balance had morphed into meaning the characters must always 'win' and that killing a character had become seen as a sign that the game had degenerated into a contest between the DM and the Players. So I pulled a few punches and the game sucked to run. I ended the campaign and took a break. 
No details are provided for the western bank, the plot quickly rushes the players across the river.
