Session One

Being a peasant is hard but maybe your luck is about to turn around. The stars have aligned in a strange pattern and that old tale you heard so long ago maybe wasn't as foolish as you thought. Sure enough there is a shimmering portal right in front of you, just outside of town near that old and strange stone formation. There are riches there, you're sure of it. And you're not so sure it'll still be there if you take the time to wander back home and grab more supplies. It's time to take a chance and make it big. So you step through and to your utter astonishment it looks like a good dozen or more of the town had the same idea as you did. You shuffle closer towards them and unconsciously group up with some familiar faces. At least you don't need to ransack the crazy war-wizard's hideout alone.

The Not So Brave Adventure Party

Making order of the sixteen brave-ish souls wasn't an easy task. The more intelligent peasants and those with sparkling personalities managed to talk themselves into the smarter positions, the back. While those who were more muscle bound or whose occupation warranted it, were voted to the front of their groups.

Portal Entrance

The entrance faded from the outside stone ruins seamlessly to solid flagstones under your feet. Even the starlight filtered in. Down the hallway you see there is a large solid wooden door banded with iron and decorated with jewels in an odd assortment of star shapes and some unreadable inscription. Everyone mutters around you and to themselves trying to come up with a rough game plan. Nobody seems to want to take the first step further in.

at this point I lifted up the sticky notes and put on my DM hat

The second group quickly discovered the door at the end of the hallway was locked while the first group attempted to find hidden clues around the entrance, they didn't (DC 14, rolled 5) despite having one of the most intelligent members in the entire adventure party. Group four was pretty certain that the hallway wasn't trapped, given the fact that the second group waltzed right over to the door, but they double checked it anyway. Finally the third group could decipher no meaning behind the door's inscription (DC 20, rolled 13). So the groups tried again, each replacing each other in an attempt to even enter the war wizard's domain, but once again all failed in their endeavors.

At last Gared from group 2 attempted to pry open the door. As a caravan guard one would think he could handle a door, alas, his muscles failed him. Though he made a good show of it (DC 15 STR, rolled 3) his terror at what might lie behind the door caused him to falter and his prying was quite fortuitously weak. While the groups wandered about the hallway and argued over who should try forcing open the door again, Walter had a sudden flash of insight. The stars on the door were constellations! And in fact, in just a couple of hours the sky outside would probably match that pattern.

We will never know if Walter convinced the others to wait until then to try opening the door, or if it just took that long for Gared or anyone else to overcome their fear enough to try and open the door again. But either way, when they did try, it opened effortlessly, with another hallway beyond.