Session 3 of “The Sunless Citadel” begins with a recap of Session 2, where the adventurers captured the young dragon Calcryx, Meepo died, and they received magical items from Queen Yusdrayl. The party is currently in the large room with the kobold queen.
The adventurers discuss trading with Queen Yusdrayl for information about the missing people. The Queen reiterates that the children went to fight the goblins and never returned. She also mentions an outcast named Belak the Outcast who helps the goblins and has a pet frog. The party learns there are multiple ways to enter the goblin territory.
The party decides to explore areas of the citadel they haven't yet visited. They encounter a door in the initial round room that the kobolds haven't explored due to a magical lock, specifically an arcane lock in addition to a mechanical lock. Navin attempts to open the lock but fails. The DM allows Navin to open the door to move the story forward.
Beyond this door is a 20-foot wide hollow in poor repair, with a collapsed section and a stone door featuring a rearing dragon carved in relief and a single keyhole in the dragon's mouth. The party realizes they don't have the key for this door, and it's not among the items the kobold queen gave them. They decide to try and get the key from the Queen, who would likely sell it for 50 gold pieces or rent it for 25. The party opts to rent the key for 25 gold pieces.
The DM reminds the players of the magical items they received: three elixirs of health, a claws feather token (to create an oak tree outdoors), a scroll of knock, a scroll of mage armor, and a scroll of spider climb, along with a bone scroll case. The party briefly discusses these items.
Tempest, the rogue, uses the rented key to open the dragon door. Beyond is a dusty gallery with three alcoves on the north wall and one on the south, each containing a dust-covered stone pedestal with a fist-sized crystal globe. The globes in the northern alcoves are cracked and dark, but the globes in the center and southern alcoves glow with a soft blue light, and faint musical notes can be heard from the southern one.
Norma approaches the southern globe and touches it. Immediately, loud music erupts, and most of the party (except Shannon) is charmed. The charmed characters are compelled to dash away from the room. Shannon, unaffected, attacks the globe with her dagger, eventually shattering it and silencing the music. The charmed characters return, and the party determines there's nothing else of interest in the gallery.
The party proceeds down a 20-foot long corridor leading from the gallery and triggers a pressure plate trap, which shoots an arrow. Navin identifies the pressure plate, and they use a piton to wedge it and prevent further activation.
At the end of the corridor is another closed stone door, which Navin opens. This reveals a dusty hall with a ten-foot tall statue of a coiled dragon carved from red-veined white marble. There are no footprints in the dust. As the party moves closer to the statue, its jaws move, and it speaks a riddle: “We come at night without being fetched, we disappear by day without being stolen. What are we?”. Navin answers correctly: “stars”. This causes a secret door to open.
Beyond the secret door is another dust-filled 20-foot wide hall with six alcoves containing marble statues of tall elves in plate armor (except the southwest one, which is obscured). At the west end is a stone archway leading to a wider room with a greenish light and a dark pit before the archway. The party uses dancing lights to illuminate the hall. They observe the statues and decide to investigate further. Damon attempts to detect magic but finds none. Shannon rolls a bowling ball down the hall, and it shatters. Tempest checks for traps and finds none.
In the wider room, they see a broken statue and discover small, claw-like footprints leading to a ten-foot deep pit filled with spikes. The room also features cracked marble tiles, sconces with greenish fire, and a large, dragon-carved marble sarcophagus with rusting iron clamps. The party uses dancing lights to create a humanoid form that walks across the pit; nothing reacts. The session concludes near the sarcophagus, with the DM suggesting a ten-minute break.