In Session 2, Jen and Todd joined and rolled up their characters…Clara and Collem. They joined with the other characters to continue their initial investigations of the canyon leading to Stonehell. After exploring some of the ruined buildings and some of the gatehouse, surviving a fight, avoiding some others, and finding some hidden treasure, they decided to explore some other areas of the canyon. We will pick up with these explorations after the break.
We had everyone in attendance for this session. There are, of course, potential spoilers for Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls below. My GM comments, as usual, are in italics.
Oh, just a quick note about our calendar. It is good to have something to track time and the passage of days. I created a relatively simple calendar for a prior game and we’re just using it. It just has four months which match the seasons. Each consists of thirteen weeks of seven days of twenty-four hours.
3 Spring 1024
- Leaving the ruined temple of St. Ras, the group follow the main track through the canyon. They head to another ruined building but find nothing.
- They press on, following along the canyon wall, and approach an archway in the wall at the end of the canyon. Brielle can hear an odd slurping noise coming from within, getting louder. A very large snail emerges. It has appendages at the front with heavy, club-like endings. Initially it moves towards the group, they move away, and the snail then heads off towards a pond at the north side of the canyon.
- The group checks out the archway from which the snail emerged. Inside is a worked passage leading deeper in than they can see. Collem can hear and feel a breeze from within, blowing in and out in a rhythmic pattern, almost like something breathing in and breathing out. He is not inspired to explore any further.
- Brielle spots a metal plaque above the archway. It marks the actual entrance to Stonehell and reads:
Beware All Who Enter
These Benighted Halls of Stone.
Within Lies No Solace
Nor Any Comforts of Home.
Toiling For Our Crimes
We Must Dig Where We Dwell,
With No Freedom or Mercy
In Our Vast Stony Hell.
(Source: Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls)
- Concerned that they are not quite ready to actually enter Stonehell, the group heads off to explore more of the canyon. (This discussion was probably more the players not feeling ready than it was the characters.)
- Climbing a switchback trail up the southern side of the canyon, they head to another cave. Peeking inside, they can see an open chest just at the edge of the light filtering in. Korgath steps in and a large crab spider drops down from above and attacks him. The group dispatches it relatively easily and the Beast flings the spider corpse down the cliff…with a flourish of course.
- The chest is empty and having conjured some light and lit a torch, the group can see other passageways leading deeper in. The party finds a few other small caverns and encounter a pair of the giant, venomous pill bugs. These are defeated but not without nearly losing Korgath (or was it Beast…we didn’t get this down in the session notes and neither character sheet was updated to show the below).
- The Golden Thread of St. Ras was used to stabilize Korgath (or was it Beast). The following day, there is a golden, circular scar where the wound once had been. (Korgath…or was it Beast…can now cast cleansing weapon as a priest. Of course, I’ve stressed over and over that if it isn’t on the character sheet, they don’t have whatever it may be. I suppose I should apply that here, but I have a feeling that I’ll hear a lot of whining if I don’t let this get updated at our next session.)
- Another chamber has the remains of adventurers and a camp.
- Another has relatively crude paintings on the walls. They depict some sort of anthropomorphic raccoon creatures fighting against larger, canine anthropomorphic creatures with pug-like heads. The pug-like creatures are also depicted as eating the other creatures.
- A decision is made to go ahead and camp in these caves for the night.
4 Spring 1024
- Leaving these caves, they party finds that the spider corpse is no longer at the base of the cliff. There are tracks in the area where it had been. It appears to be a quadruped with front paws like a great cat and rear tracks of some sort of large, hoofed creature. There is nothing else to indicate what may have happened here as the tracks simply disappear as they lead away.
- The group curs across the canyon to the pond at the northern side. The pond is the source of some mist that wafts through the canyon. The water is warm and gives off some steam. There are tracks all about the pond. Most are those of normal animal life, such as deer, but others are not so normal. The snail had been here. There is also a scorched or burned mark, as if lightning had struck across the ground.
- A nearby cave behind a copse of trees attracts the party’s attention. The initial chamber has the typical debris, leaves, trash, and such with one exception. There are some arrows in a quiver. The arrowheads are twisted and oddly bent. As Brielle examines them, she realizes that her mind is starting to piece together the pattern and intent behind the shapes. That realization leads to another…if she keeps trying to understand the pattern, it will drive her mad. She stops.
- A moment later, a crazed individual comes running from deeper in the caves. He is very dirty, scratched up, wearing rags, and frothing at the map. He screams about the arrows being his and attacks, scratching and biting. Beast just screamed at this individual and he responded, “You understand.” He is quickly defeated. (For those familiar with Stonehell, this is normally an encounter with a rabid raccoon. I chose to change it to: a) make it a little more interesting; b) possibly foreshadow some things that might be encountered later both potentially soon and later on in the campaign; and, c) a bunch of the players (myself included) really like raccoons.)
- Continuing their exploration of these set of chambers, all appearing to be constructed rather than natural, another room looks to be an old bed chamber. All within is destroyed and rotted.
- Another door to another room is boarded shut. Written, possibly in blood, are the words, “Mercy undeserved; death is the only release.” These words are repeated over and over.
- Listening at this door, the sounds of some kind of disturbing chewing can be heard…
That’s where we ended the session.
I don’t really have much to add today except to note that the players have kind of been jumping all over the place in the canyon…going from one location to another with no obvious logic or pattern (at least to me)…in the hopes of finding, I believe, easy treasure. That’s their decision, of course, but it might not be the most efficient way of achieving that goal.
Oh, and of course, to remind the players to keep their character sheets up to date…you know with equipment and silly things like gaining the ability to cast a spell even though they are not normally a spellcaster.
It was the Beast.