Finishing B1

 Last week my intrepid players finished off B1.  Spoilers ahead for B1!

This was their most focused adventure yet.  They knew they needed to find stairs down, then find a specific piece of jewelry.  After some quick and somewhat lucky poking around, they found the stairs down.  Huzzah!

The first room in the basement level has some random mining equipment and spoilage about.  For some reason they were convinced there might be something of value here and they spent many turns searching every inch of wall for a secret door or other remarkable item.  This delay was punished with an eventual "1" on a random encounter roll, generating their first Level 2 Wandering Monster:  a Ghoul.  The ghoul got the drop on them, charged in, paralyzed brave Dragon Wing the Fighter, and started tearing at him.  Luckily the other heroes quickly dropped the ghoul, but they are now respectful of the power of the undead!

The heroes then poked around in the basement for a bit.  They knew they needed to work their way to the north but weren't quite sure how the paths connected so there was some exploration.  They battled an ogre (an encounter which could have been avoided with more care, but it went ok) and found a few minor treasures.  

The heroes then found some minor camping supplies which they pilfered.  They were surprised by Sir Lancesome, third cousin to the more famous Knight of the Round Table, a valiant Lawful Fighter 4.  Having had a number of run ins with short kobolds, and suspecting these tiny adventurers of taking his things, Lancesome interrogated them from the darkness about his quest objectives (he was out to slay a band of hobgoblins and rescue the fair maiden Melissa, whose chambers are on the first floor).  The heroes did not know about any hobgoblins and told him of the lady's chambers upstairs, and then Lancesome evaded them, not looking for a fight himself.

Shortly thereafter, the heroes had a run-in with a wandering patrol of hobgoblins.  Only two strong and outclassed by the party, the hobgoblins rolled a reaction check (uncertain) and extorted a "toll" of 20 SP each from the heroes (one paid gladly for everyone, the others were more reluctant), then beat a retreat to tell their chief.   Encounter avoided.

Finally, the heroes linked up with their previous map.  They quickly raced to the known secret door, had their wizard fire up "locate object" to look for secret door mechanisms, and found their way to the hidden treasure room.  Huzzah!  Within after a brief encounter, the treasure was found, and the heroes began to escape...  During their escape, they felt watched; the druid cast faerie fire and outlined a humanoid silhouette who then dashed off...  a band of fighters with levels and a treasure including an invisibility potion were also on this floor, and perhaps they will follow the adventurers to their next destination...

Having retrieved the elvish crown of quest completion, the heroes returned to their camp and met with the elves.  The elves granted the druid a reincarnate spell to restore an unjustly slain neutral fighter (who came back as a faun), the fighter three javelins of lightning and identification of his magic sword, and taught the wizard a new spell.  

B1 complete!  Next stop:  B2 -- Keep on the Borderlands.  Also, later, a review on B1.