Locked In
Arising from the completed long rest, the party cautiously probed the hallway outside the room they barricaded. It was evident that the kobolds had torn it up in a big way over night. The way back to the start of the dungeon was collapsed, it felt like the kobolds were driving them forwards.
Craven probed and sneaked around, exploring the two hallways yet untouched. He found several traps but avoided them. The party decided to move north into the barracks-style room they had seen before their rest.
The roof was in poor repair and held up by some shoddy wood supports. Some rope-like wire ran in a lattice-work fashion half-hidden through crevices in the roof and walls with unknown purpose. Two barrel-tables and stools were centered in the room. A chest stood against the eastern wall, taunting the party with its innocence. No kobolds could be seen but it was apparent that some slept here relatively recently.
The party thought long and hard about that chest. In a flash of inspiration, Craven realized that he didn't remember seeing it before their rest. The party, save Stuu, was all for just leaving well enough alone. But Stuu's curiosity got the better of him. With a 10-ft pole he managed to agitate the chest enough to tilt it, but wasn't able to open it.
CLICK. Stuu dove backwards, but the cloud of noxious gas that poured from the chest quickly overtook him. He managed to avoid breathing in too much of it, but that cloud was the cue for a kobold attack. Popping out of the walls and yanking on ropes, several wooden beams collapsed, showering rocks on the party. After no more than a few seconds, the kobolds retreated back into the walls.
Returning to the junction, the party carefully explored the hallway of doors. They quickly realized that each door held a ransacked tomb, but decided not to try their luck looking for anything the kobolds left behind. Reaching the ornate door at the end of the hall, they stopped and listened.
Broadcast through the rock, the sounds of burrowing reached Craven's ear as he put it to the stone. He suddenly realized just how much the kobolds use the stone to move. There was also a far-off muted sound of something beating against metal in an irregular pattern.
The door opened to reveal a large room, decorated with carvings of a dwarven hero and his six companions fighting a dragon. The carvings were scratched heavily wherever the heroes were depicted, but the dragon was always pristine. The chamber's roof was held aloft by stone columns whose carvings were each heavily damaged.
On the north wall of the room, a makeshift shrine decorated with dragon carvings stood around a fountain filled with dark liquid.
Thorrfig was interseted in the story on the walls and took Stuu's driftglobe to examine them. After a few minutes a deep rumbling voice met the party:
I knew dwarves smelled, but that one smells especially bad. I do hope that shield washes well.
The voice taunted the party's slow progress and promised to mark them for the kobolds they've killed. It offered a deal.
If you're quite done I'll let you leave with your lives if you give me all your stuff and promise to bring me more wealth for my hoard. I'll let you leave with the clothes on your back and a few days of rations.
Thorrfig and Craven realized the voice came from the north. Thorrfig moved to get a better look with the light. He saw the top half of a dragon's head poking up out of the fountain at the north side of the room, and the dragon saw him. Rearing up its head, its neck glowed faintly green between the black scales as it prepared to expell a breath weapon at the party.