In the last session, the party gathered together for the first time and delved into the dark tunnels of Stonehell, gaining little in the way of treasure but cutting their teeth on the dungeon. What will they find as they press their luck beneath the earth? Join them in this week's journey to find out...
The Party
Sonari, elf mage/thief with a wimple, played by Jada
Norbeth Yelfiel, elf mage/thief with a periwinkle wide-brimmed floppy hat, played by Finn
Akiva ben Moshe, beetlefolk fighter with a short ponytail, played by Ali
Occam, goblin fighter with a greathelm, played by Anne
Innus Entus, goblin cleric/fighter with a bishop's mitre, played by Cao Linh
Ingvar Duram, human cleric with an extravagant tricorn hat, played by Jackson
Eileen Longtail, human soldier
Tork Longtail, ratling scoundrel
Precious, domesticated rat
Casualties
Sonari (mortally injured by zombie, healed and recovered)
Loot
9500sp
30gp
Broad-headed key
Worked ivory necklace (600gp)
Jeweled bracelet (300gp)
2x potions of healing
Bag of holding
Treasure map (undeciphered)
The Game
22 Plantings 1113
- When last we left off, the party had united with a band of beetlefolk delvers to decimate a guardpost of Festering Wound goblins on the first level of Stonehell. After confirming the other goblins nearby were not alerted by the scuffle, looting the bodies, and executing their captive, the two groups went in separate directions. One of the party's clerics, Ingvar Duram, elected to stay behind with the beetlefolk and give them some aid, and was exchanged for an elf named Sonari. They also recovered Precious, a docile giant rat whom they knew was being ransomed back to the wererats on a lower level, in the hopes of getting that reward themselves.
- The party combined their map of the level with that obtained from the beetlefolk, and wound up exploring further to the south. In one chamber filled with broken statuary, Occam's innate goblinish sense for hidden mechanisms and secret things located a sack of coin and a strange broad-headed key. Nearby was a glyph which Sonari determined was a glyph of teleportation, and a stairway down to the second level...
- Descending down to the second level, the party comes across the sound of low muttering and a crackling fire beyond a closed door. They elect to knock, and are received cautiously by the people within. The party identifies themselves as 'the architecture enthusiasts' their go-to party name now, and the inhabitants of the room, ragged and wild-eyed humans, demand to know their relationship to 'the architects.'
- The humans conclude that the party are philosophers, and invite them in to indulge in their feast of roast snake, which the party politely declines. Seeing that the humans are fond of carving strange, abstract shapes on the walls, Akiva spins them a tale of the Perfect Circle and an accompanying philosophical doctrine. They turn out quite receptive to these ideas, and the party eventually convinces them to journey to the surface in search of the Perfect Circle.
Akiva: Now, you can't look at it directly or it will hurt your eyes because it's too perfect, but we just like to bask in it.
- On the surface, the party allows the humans to acclimate to the sunlight (realizing that these people have been below ground since they were born). Akiva's brother Eliezer arrives conveniently on the scene and escorts the former inmates to the village of Beegrove, and thence to the larger town of Bowerness, where they can hopefully receive the succor of the church and integrate into surface society.
- Returning to the first level, the party continues to fill out their map, and eventually comes to a dead end with a great oaken door. Beyond is almost no sound, except for the occasional shuffling of something trying to make no sound. Once again, they decide to knock, with Sonari taking the lead. This time it turned out much less well for them.
- A rotting fist punches through the door and rends through Sonari, immediately dealing her a mortal wound. Even as the party reaches her and helps her recover, a group of shuffling zombies rip the door apart with their bare hands and shuffle towards the party.
- Though they suffer some less serious injuries, the party is eventually victorious. They find nothing in the room beyond, and conclude that someone left the zombies here on purpose...
- They still want to push their luck, and decide to return to the now-vacant room occupied by the inmates in order to rest in the dungeon. However, once back on the second floor, they discover a hunting party of lizard-men outside that very door, looking for prey. Only by sheer luck does the party manage to remain undetected by this superior foe, and skulks back to the surface. On the way out, they encounter a patrol of Festering Wound goblins, who have discovered the destruction of the alarm outpost but make the same mistake the others did, and the party coordinates with the neabry beetlefolk to pincer them and destroy the patrol. They return safely to Beegrove with something to show for their endeavors, and partake of the feast of St. Quiscal.
24 Plantings 1113
- After some recovery time and Innus Entus' generous healing ability, the party returns again to Stonehell. This time, they follow the kobold signs toward 'Da Dragons Den' and discover a strange series of natural caverns amid the worked stone. Though they spy upon a group of kobold harvesting bat guano from the caverns, they encounter no dragon. But they do find a pair of sturdy, locked metal double doors, which the key so fortuitously found in the last expedition opens.
- Within are a series of tombs which the party searches methodically. Though some skeletons within animate with baleful blue fires in their empty eyes, they do not attack unless the party steps over the threshold. In one, they find a group of small skeletons on separate biers, and Innus Entus' turning allows the party to extort one skeleton out of a jeweled bracelet. In another, the party is very nearly surprised by a ghoul, whom Akiva cuts down before its poison jaws can harm anyone, and they recover a valuable necklace of worked ivory from its ritual vestments. Finally, in a room with two zombies resting upon a single bier, which are swiftly dispatched, the party finds a brightly-colored satchel worked with masterful patterns: a bag of holding.
 |
| They spent a while nerding out over this thing |
- Beyond these tombs remains a single door, and therein lies a chamber engulfed in a wicked power, with an altar against the far wall made of skulls and bones. The party determines that this place has not been in use for quite some time, and a thorough search of the room uncovers a secret door. Beyond is a hidden cache of ritual vestments and an unlocked chest. Innus Entus steps forward to open it, and only good reflexes save him from taking a poisoned needle through the hand. Within the chest they locate silver coins, brass rings, and a pair of weird stoppered vials with a murky mixture within.
- The party takes a break in that chamber, and Norbeth swallows his much-prized live goldfish; he positively identifies the bag of holding, and discovers the vials are in fact potions of healing. Most interesting of all, there is one item still within the bag... a treasure map.
- With a solid take and no (permanent) casualties, the party celebrates... but who knows what shall come of next session? Join us for next week's session of Cascabel!
Takeaways
The contents of the tombs were generated randomly; one entry calls for a 'minor magic item', which I interpreted as a 'miscellaneous magic item'. Maybe that means something specific in Labyrinth Lord, but by the time I rolled out the result and discovered a bag of holding (definitely not a minor item!) I had committed to the throw of the dice.
Where last session was positively impecunious, there was plenty of treasure to be found this time around. Some of the PCs are not far from leveling up! The first session only went for two hours due to character creation for the first two, and we spent the first hour of this session with Sonari's player making her PC, but went for three this time. Even so, we got plenty done, and they go by fast.
I got some feedback on the combat: it felt quite unadorned, with lots of attacking and not much else. I'll try to challenge the players a bit more by making enemies move and act in unexpected ways, but I'm not changing too much based on this. After all, most of the combats thus far have been against outnumbered foes, often caught by surprise, and end quickly. They're still in Stonehell's tutorial area, and I expect combat will get a lot more interesting once they start dealing with foes they can't overpower or easily outmaneuver without thinking tactically.
I've spent some time since the session working on handouts, including in-universe dungeon maps that show where other characters have been and what they are doing, but also the treasure map, spellbooks, etc.
They never did touch that teleportation glyph. I wonder what lies beyond it...
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