The throne room fight is over, the immediate area is clear, and the party is holding a fair amount of unsorted material: a ring off the pile of bones that did nothing when Selena rubbed it, a hundred-gold diamond ring off a second body, and a Deck of Many Things nobody has drawn from. The one thing that did get identified was the boss's "shiny stick," which turned out to be a Scimitar of Warning and is already on Theren's belt. Barzer's spell slots aren't what they were at the start of the session.
The Logic
The throne room is, for the moment, the safest place in the dungeon — the thing that was guarding it is dead. That makes it a reasonable spot for a short rest and a proper inventory pass, rather than pushing forward on partially-spent resources into a warren the party has only seen a corridor of.
The ring off the bone pile is the loose end worth closing. It came off a body in a room where the goblins were eating people, it did nothing when Selena rubbed it, and "nothing happened when we fiddled with it" is not the same finding as "it is mundane." Better to know which before it ends up on someone's finger.
Setup Before Resting
- Post a watch before anyone rests. The rats are dead and the throne room is clear, but the party has no idea how much of this warren it hasn't seen, or whether anything in it heard the fight. Theren's Scimitar of Warning makes the whole party immune to surprise within 30 feet — the watch is cheap insurance on top of that, not a substitute for it.
- Barzer ritual casts Identify on the bone-pile ring. He casts it straight from the spellbook for no slot, which means the only cost is ten minutes of the rest he is already taking. There is no argument for carrying that ring around unexamined when the answer is this cheap.
- Keep the Deck of Many Things closed during the rest. This is exactly the kind of "we have a quiet moment, let's see what it does" scenario that goes wrong. Table consensus should be to leave it shut until there's an actual reason to gamble on it.
- Get a bow into Theren's hands before the next fight. His Archery style is +2 to hit with ranged weapons and it is currently doing nothing at all, because there is no ranged weapon. He is also carrying arrows and +1 crossbow bolts with nothing to fire either from. A dead goblin's shortbow works; so does the 437 gp in his pocket.
- Elaris hands out temporary hit points on the rest. Inspiring Leader is 9 temp HP per short rest to everyone who listens to her. On Selena, who has 16 maximum hit points, that is a 56% increase in effective health for the price of ten minutes she is already spending.
- Decide who is carrying the mushrooms, the acid and the rag — and when they get used. Nineteen poisonous mushrooms, a vial of black pudding acid and a once-per-short-rest chaos rag have been in the packs for a session without anyone naming a moment for them. A rest is when that gets decided, not mid-initiative.
Pros
- Barzer gets slots back, and he is the one who has been ending fights with them
- Turns unidentified loot into known assets — or known threats — instead of question marks carried into the next fight
- Elaris's temporary hit points are free, repeatable, and currently not being collected
- Costs relatively little; the immediate area is confirmed clear
Cons
- Every minute spent resting is a minute the captives spend at the bottom of that drop, still believing the goblins are alive
- The party told them it was coming back. A short rest is the party choosing to sort its bags first
- Anything else in this warren gets the same ten minutes to notice the fight has stopped
Best If
The party would rather know exactly what it's carrying and walk into the next fight at full strength than push forward running on fumes and guesswork.