First trip into the mines

Well, that didn't go too badly.

After paying the mine entrance fee to the guards we descended into the mines proper. We were almost immediately attacked by brigands. This being our first fight together we are still working on teamwork. Rhogar the Paladin moved ahead and was immediately surrounded. In the end we triumphed, but we all learned some lessons in tactical coordination. I sustained a hit on the head, but not too bad. I can tell that Rhogar and I will make a good team as the Defenders of the company. Taliellen the Wizard had some teething problems with his magic missiles. The star of this fight was Veed, who it turns out is quite the acrobat. He proved himself to be an effective sneak attacker after vaulting over the Rhogar's shoulders behind the enemy.

After collecting the equipment from the brigands we continued down the hall. In a mysterious rain washed room (in a mine?), with symbols carved in the floor, and a secret door in the far wall, we found a magic sword (+1 vicious) hidden in a compartment in the floor. This was after much searching and mental anguish. The absence of monsters and traps can be almost as terrifying as the presence of monsters and traps.

Next up was a room full of vicious little green lizards -- drakes as it turned out. I got pretty beaten up here. It was a near thing, but laying of hands from the Paladin pulled me through. The other hero of this fight was our Wizard, whose flaming sphere must have done half the damage our company dealt out. After the fight was over we were faced with another door. They say that drakes are often used as guards -- what were they guarding that's behind that door? One of those dragons we heard about? I don't like the feel of it, and we're not ready to take on even a young dragon yet, so I think we should explore some of the other corridors first.

In any case we were battered and it was time to head back to town for a rest, so we paid the town their cut of our booty and headed back to the inn. The haul was about 64 gp each, plus that magic sword, which for now I'm using.

All in all a pretty good start.