Quote from RippedRhinoVikings >>

I have chosen not to read through the previous posts in order to better roleplay not knowing what has happened.

 [That’s fine but I’d still highly recommend you still look through the posts as there would be details your character would have seen on their way to meet the party that you as a player won’t know about, it only has to be a glance at some of the room descriptions and explanations I’ve given to get an idea, plus you can still roleplay being unaware whilst knowing what’s happened, especially since in-character the rest of the party would likely fill you in soon enough and it’s much easier if you go back and check those details yourself rather than have us type out an explanation. ]

Quote from AkodoDani >>

"Welcome, I'm Hugh. Could you check the key here to see what you can make of those rune?" Hugh stands and moves to make room for the tiefling.

Nodding to Hugh, the tiefling carefully steps up to the runes. "Certainly. I do confess to have a predilection for arcane sigils. If we have no urgent matters to attend to, I'll cross-reference these with my notes."

Sly will cast detect magic as a ritual and see if the runes hold any meaning related to her arcane studies [Arcana: 17].

(OOC: DM, let me know if rolling without you prompting is acceptable. Also let me know if rolling in on the character sheet is fine > the roll results can be verified in the campaign log.)

Casting Detect Magic allows you to find out that the key is radiating Conjuration magic from one glyph and Abjuration magic from the other, and that the strongbox also has some enchantments around it tied to these spells. The runes seem fairly unique, however with the knowledge of the spell school of the sigils and a basic understanding in arcane calligraphy, (the study of rune formation patterns) you can identify that the conjuration glyph will activate when the key comes into contact with another object bearing the sigil and will teleport the back to the strong box. The Abjuration glyph seems to be a method of alerting a creature once the key leaves the enchanted confines of the box, however the rune holds no details on what this creature may be.  

[Rolling without a prompt is absolutely fine, I’ve got no problem with it at all as long as you provide enough detail on what you are rolling for. You can also roll whichever way you are happiest with, in your character sheet is great!]

Quote from Shiverquill >>

The runes seem fairly unique, however with the knowledge of the spell school of the sigils and a basic understanding in arcane calligraphy, (the study of rune formation patterns) you can identify that the conjuration glyph will activate when the key comes into contact with another object bearing the sigil and will teleport the back to the strong box. The Abjuration glyph seems to be a method of alerting a creature once the key leaves the enchanted confines of the box, however the rune holds no details on what this creature may be.

Sly shares the information above she has gleaned from her studies. "Certainly seems like the suspicion was warranted." She looks into the round. "Have you found a hole in which to insert this key? Or perhaps you have met a creature that might be summoned once we remove it from the box? The opportunity to spelunk passed me by, as I hurried to catch up with you."

Eggo Lass gestures to Aria, "She had said the key was needed to get her out of the mirror. So that conjuration sigil could explain why it never worked before." Taking a moment the drow adds, "What the alerted creature could be, I don't know."

[Sorry I think there’s been a misunderstanding over the use of the key. I did state it a couple times but it might have been missed, but the key in this room is meant to open the lock that Hugh picked on the gate. The key had nothing to do with Aria aside from the fact that she knew about it, but not its use. None of that really matters though as you’ve freed Aria and opened the gate without the key.

Also, has anyone removed the key from the strongbox? It doesn’t seem so but just to be certain]

[[OOC: Sly is of a careful persuasion so she certainly has not.]]

Hugh looks up to Sly, "Do you think it is ok to remove it from the box?" He pauses waiting to hear the answer. [After an internal count of 30, if Hugh hears no objection, he carefully removes the key from the box.]

Sly looks critical and takes a few steps back. "I am loath to handle magical artefacts without knowing what their purpose is, but I'm not going to stop you. Perhaps that key is for the lock of the door to that dead lagomorph and to alert it to our presence?"

"Do you have an inkling as to what rooms of this crypt you haven't explored yet?"

"What about the unconscious elf? Is there a way to get her out of the dungeon?"

[Since Sly didn’t object, I’ll assume that Hugh takes the key out] 

As soon as the key leaves the box, the oily walls of the chamber begin to stir, and to your horror, the wetness covering the rocks begins to drain away, as a greyish blob of moisture gathers at the top of the stairway, blocking the door out of the chamber. Once the walls of the room are completely free of the slime, revealing the sandstone bricks beneath, the Grey Ooze flails its pseudopods in anger and prepares to attack. Roll for initiative!

Grey Ooze: 1

Sly lets out a very unsophisticated curse.

Initiative: 5

As the ooze slides off of the walls, a small gnome comes into the room, and gasps in shock at the disgusting thing. Immediately pulling out a shortsword, he runs up to the slime and attacks. Slashing his shortsword into the beast, he follows up with a jab from his elbow. 

Shortsword: 20 to hit, 8 damage (rolls in game log)

Unarmed strike: 24 to hit, 5 damage. 

Initiative: 16. 

[I’m guessing that’s being treated as a surprise attack against the ooze, which would make sense if your character only just entered the room and the ooze is more focussed on those in the chamber and not outside]

The ooze shudders, recoils and shifts, but as you draw your shortsword away from its acidic body, you can see that it has corroded the blade and began to blunt the edge (Your shortsword now has a permanent -1 to damage rolls) 

Current Initiative 
Bilyur: 16
Grey Ooze: 11 (-13 health)
Sly: 5

[I’m not going to take the Grey Oozes turn yet as I’m still waiting for other people’s initiative, I’ll give it a couple more hours]

[I’m not going to wait for all 8 players initiative of course since that would take ages and the ooze would get absolutely destroyed, really we only need 2 or 3 players for this encounter, I’ll be running all combat in a similar way, where minor encounters only require a few players but big milestone fights will require more people, so the amount of people playing should scale with difficulty. 

Also, this is completely unrelated, but I’m playing Storm King’s Thunder with my IRL group soon and I’m complete stuck for character ideas, we’ve got a Wizard, Barbarian, Artificer and Fighter so far so does anyone have any ideas?]

Initiative: 19

[Rolled on character sheet]

[Awesome, we’ve got probably enough players now since the ooze is fairly injured already after Bilyur’s surprise attack, Aridrey is welcome to take her turn now (if anyone else wants to join the combat feel free but I have a feeling it won’t be lasting much longer unless Aridrey misses horrendously) 

[Misses horrendously, again.]

22 to hit

7 damage with Guster (mace)

The ooze is sent flying against a back wall of the chamber and slumps down to the floor in a pool, practically comatose but still just barely alive. Since Guster is a magical weapon it is resistant to the oozes acidic body and doesn’t take any penalty to damage rolls due to coming into contact with it. 

[Since Bilyur technically took his turn outside of initiative as it was a surprise attack, I’ll go ahead and do the slime’s turn now. It will use the Dash Action to   retreat up the wall of the chamber as it’s severely injured using its climb speed and slip through the grate in the ceiling, ending initiative] 

Would it not provoke an opportunity attack from both Bilyur and Aidrey?

Eggo Lass, hearing the the commotion, rushes in. "What was that?" she asks. "If it came from taking the key, then there may be more to come. Should we head into the portal for the next dungeon?"