Another game of D&D

Another dungeon crawl this weekend, with three players: Rickey, who went solo last time; Coach' and Coach's son, who is back from college and is new to the old-school RPG scene but familiar with online roleplaying games.  I'm running this campaign using the Holmes basic D&D rules.

Before setting foot in the dungeon, the players talked about hiring henchmen.  They found the down-on-his-luck Halfling, Banker Baggins (no relation) willing to join them for a full share of the treasure, however.  They also found a quartet of mercenaries--Marko, Darko, Sharko, and Lonnie--willing to work security for a flat 100 gold piece fee.  So three player characters (Coach's fighter Fred II, his son's thief Mavvelwinna, named after his World of Warcraft character, and Rickey's thief Alric), the NPC Halfling, and four men-at-arms set out for the dungeon.

Entering the underground chambers, they came upon a pair of large spiders in a room where other adventurers had slain a similar creature.  This time, one of the arachnids landed a bite on Fred II, who failed his save and fell unconscious from the poison.  Coach then took over Banker, as two of the men-at-arms toted the feverish Fred II around the dungeon--but not before Mavvelwinna relieved Fred of his money.

Their explorations took them through a red room that turned hot, a blue room that became cold, and a yellow room that grew bright.  They found a black leather cloak in a cabinet.  The adventuring party also encountered a couple of packs of giant rats in different rooms, prompting Coach's son to remark that he couldn't wait to get back to the tavern to boast of all the vermin they killed.  After dispatching one such group of rodents, the treasure-seekers managed to find a secret door and the trap it was connected to.  

A search of the deactivated mechanism that shoots spikes out of the wall when the door is opened revealed an enchanted woodsman's tool known as The Ax of the Ranger and a thousand gold coins.  Heading through the secret door and down the corridor it revealed, they came into a room with six gnomes (soon joined by three more) who refused to let the adventurers pass without paying a toll.  The party refused and went the other direction, where they encountered a pair of berserkers.  The  adventurers managed to cut the berserkers down, but not before Mavvelwinna fell beneath one's sword. 

Banker was also knocked unconscious during the fight, so the group retraced their route and headed for the surface.  Of course, they managed to draw the attention of a pair of gnolls on the way out, but even though the adventurers and their mercenary bodyguards were all wounded, they managed to dispatch the hyena-men and make their way out of the dungeon.  The men-at-arms took their money and parted ways, and they were last heard muttering to one another that they needed to go someplace safe, like a war zone.