An Irritating Variable Joins The Party!

The last time I discussed my third D&D campaign, our crew had narrowly survived fighting some wraiths in a labyrinth, and decided to take a rest, since there was no one to do any healing. We awoke 8 hours later to the sound of approaching footsteps, which belonged to a bard who introduced himself as Bart. Bart claimed to have been sent by the king who hired us, though Will and the elf were both skeptical. Still, he was allowed to come along, although his love of dumb, raunchy jokes meant we were reconsidering that almost immediately.

Much wandering in the labyrinth resulted in us finding a chest, which we were able to open, netting each of us 100 gold pieces. Ka-ching! When we came upon a door, the bard kicked it open, but we were just back at an earlier crossroads. Taug heard distant stomping, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. So we tried another hallway and found another chest. With a shadow lurking behind it. Thandril couldn't detect any magic involved and approached the chest, which was naturally alive. The bard shows what he's worth by running off to blow his nose, while Taug charges right in. Between the four of us that stuck around, the mimic didn't pose much trouble.

Continuing through the maze, we found a hidden door. All right! But whatever is behind it was the source of the loud thumping. Moving on then. Taug uses those half-orc senses and detects basilisks somewhere up ahead. Will knows enough about basilisks to know he doesn't want any part of them, so the group tries a different direction. We see a light in the distance that might be the way out, useful to know for later, although there are more wraiths between it and us. Still wandering, we find another door, but the stomping is just as loud behind it as it was behind the hidden door. Peering in, we see two trolls who seems trapped in the room, the door we're using being too small. For lack of better options, we rush in.

Will immediately scores a hit to the eye on one of the trolls, seriously wounding it. It responds by lashing out and swatting the bard, nearly killing him. Given the bard had spent the entire time we were searching goading Taug to the edge of violence, only to back down each time, we weren't exactly worried for him, but as long as he was alive, he might serve as a distraction. So Thandril summons the Celestial Dog again and lets loose with Magic Missiles. Rory had Lightning Touch in a bottle (accept no substitutes) and unleashed that against the troll as the bard picked himself up, healed a little and ran away.

Meanwhile, the other troll is after Will, so Taug charges in. The two of them are letting the troll have it from both directions, but he's holding up well under the onslaught. So Taug goes into Enrage to up the ante, and finishes that troll off. Thandril's finding himself in enough trouble to don Mage Armor, but can still take time to clap sarcastically when the cowering bard finds the birth certificate on the ground in the far corner of the room. The troll he's fighting, perhaps confused by this, turns to attack Will instead, only to run up against Taug. Everyone takes their shots, and the troll falls.

At which point the wizard marches up to Bart and takes the certificate. The bard tries to intimidate Thandril, and fails. He's still able to throw in a few snide remarks about the wizard's mama. With most of the crew having taken at least a little damage, we opted to make camp for a night.