H&Y Infinite Open Table Sessions 23 (The Gnomish Spy Closet)
Characters:
Xavos (Laggs)
Regular Phil (Duress)
Silvio (Reeves) + Eclair
Summer 75, 6023
The party decides they'd like to makes friends with Grunch. They remember he was out looking for food, so they buy a couple of cows to take with them as a token of good friendship.
They head east with their cows and slaughter them at the mouth of the Puddlegrass hole. They carefully lower the cows down and walk around the cave complex until they find Grunch (luckily it happens pretty quickly). Grunch explains that he wants to prove himself to his parents and his girlfriend Donna by being able to provide. The party decides they'll give him both cows and teach him how to cook with fire, resolving that the combination will hopefully get him back into good graces with the local trolls.
The PCs head the other direction to explore more of the underground. They find the lair of their old friends the Orange Skull goblins, now sadly abandoned. They see signs of a battle inside from deeper within, long black burn marks on the walls and deep gouges in the stone floor. They continue onwards, finding a secret door in the goblins' treasure room.
The secret door leads to a strange metal room with a central console and a slot all around the room at human neck height. Fearing traps, the party duckwalks through the room to find a room full of glass screens and an obelisk with a small hand-sized hole in one side. The party continues onwards, finding a shattered glass cylinder (similar to the one from the Troll Mound) and a dead tunnel hulk, seemingly burned to death from piercing one of the wires coming out of the glass cylinder with one claw. The PCs thoroughly search the hidden complex, coming up with a broken lazpistol and 4 batteries.
The party decides to leave the area and heads down into the far reaches of the cave near their friend the Phase Spider. They continue past the spider and find a room filled with sand containing a dwarf-sized golden frog statue. They grabbed the statue and fled, discovering that the room was also full of angry scorpions only after they'd grabbed the statue. They check a few more rooms but don't find anything else of note and decide to leave.
Summer 76, 77, 78 all pass by as the PCs decide to remain in town to work on crafting projects.