Stonehell Session 8
Heyy! It's another Stonehell Session report! This game we were joined by Lomwoginn the MU, Charlice the Fighter, and Tiddy Smalls "The Rock Johnson" the Fighter.
Ho-boy.
We start off again in the Quiet Halls. The party decided to explore the South passage from Room 1 here. Familiar crypt doors in pairs on either end of the hallway meet the party. Treasure in the mind of everyone, they push for exploring these rooms. These crypts could get nasty with the amount of monsters that could be rolled up. Thankfully I only rolled skeletons, and 7 of them in the first room. A fairly quick battle later, the party slays each of them. 600 GP more rich in jewelry, the party presses on.
The second crypt, 5 skeletons and a magic item (I figured to throw one in). Should be an easier fight. This is where Tiddy Smalls is killed by skeletons. A fighter understandably is on the front line, and can be the frequent target of a group of monsters. It was sadly a hard hit too. It brought them down to negative HP. Below the amount I would rule they would be incapacitated instead (which is for every HD you have, you can go below 0 and not die). Thankfully, I had this player roll an extra character before we played. Introducing, Big Tiddy "The Mosquito Bites" the MU. I still have to rub my temples after writing this every time.
Anyway, it is at this time the party decided to regroup at the Kobold Market. I wanted to do a few things for the party. One, I wanted them to explore the unexplored parts of the Kobold Korners, the Forgotten Chambers. Two, my players have complained about still being level one with current characters still after so much character death. Three, I want them to have the chance to find cool loot. I accomplished 2 out of 3 (hah). The Kobold Korners has an important NPC that may walk around called Trustee Sniv. They have been renamed to Trustee Sneeve because I didn't know how to pronounce their name. I used Sneeve as a strong hook to go explore an area that has been making ghost noises. Then, just gatta further push the incentive. Sneeve promised a lot of GP. Five thousand to be exact. I was really worried I may have put too much on the table for them, but honestly, I wanted them to level up as much as they did. My players were excited and jumped to solve the 'ghost' issue.
The party spends time searching the room where the Kobolds claimed where the ghost noises came from. Finding a loose stone, they pull it and the wall rotates 90 degrees. The Forgotten Chambers exposed. I knew my players were hyped. This was entirely unexplored dungeon that not even the Kobolds knew about. It must have been a little disappointing that the first few rooms didn't have anything in them. They fought a small group of slimes and shortly after found the Ruined Workroom with the lavender orb in the ceiling.
The treasure item earlier this session ended up being a Wand of Lightning with 45 charges. Really impressive for a group of low level adventurers, something I'm sure will be incredibly useful later on. I bring this up because the orb in the ruined workshop taken a charge of the wand. Just one, so not the end of the world. But made the players be on high alert. They quickly left the room to return to the hallway. They debated on what to do with the orb and how to get rid of it. Meanwhile, Lomwoginn took spikes and a hammer into the room. Didn't notice anything happen with no magic items on their person. Walked to the brass door on the North side of the room. And hammered spikes in to the door to pry it open. I legit thought it was genius so I didn't have Lomwoginn roll for anything. A short moment later and the brass door was pried open. I ruled the glyphs on the door meant it couldn't be opened by magical means, so this was a good way to brute force the door.
The party presses on through the newly opened passageway. They enter the Mirror Room. Thankfully, no one was hurt in any way. For those that don't know, any damage that a person may have suffered, would have suffered it again in this room. They didn't know that, but the party just knew something was off in this room. So Big Tiddy "The Mosquito Bites" did the smart thing and broke a section of the mirrors. Scraping away parts of the mirror on, glyphs were exposed on the wall. I gave them the description of the room's effect being that there were two MUs in the party today. With this new knowledge in mind, the party decides to break all the mirrors. This would create a safe passage should the need to run away arise.
And with that, we ended the session there. The party went back to get the gold from Trustee Sneeve of course (they found the ghost noises which was wind lol). And the rotating door closed so no one else has a chance for the treasures.
Two level ups today! For both Lomwoginn and Big Tiddy "The Mosquito Bites". This is exciting for me to see a couple characters hit level 2 after a few sessions. I'm sure there is some fatigue from being level 1 for a while. But I'm glad with how things turned out for them. Something to note here, Lomwoginn inherited a hireling (from VERY early on) named Gregor, the Torch Bearer. It was truly Gregor's wish to be a full on retainer for Lomwoggin. So I had Lomwoginn roll 2d6 to see what would happen and they spent 250 GP to assist. Double 6s. Okay so with a result like that, I said yeah, Gregor is a Fighter now and your retainer. I think having somebody better than a hireling will be really beneficial for them. I'm excited where this may end up. Hopefully Gregor doesn't die. Small ruling here too. Retainers are like PCs, they can go below 0 HP for as many HD they may have. I didn't see why not, retainers are pretty much like PCs, right?
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this sessions write up. Be safe out there!