Shadowdark Stonehell Session 6

They made it! It only took five sessions, but they finally got into Stonehell proper. Oh, I’m getting ahead of myself as we stopped the prior session as they descended into Stonehell. They did a bit before that so I suppose we should start there. At the end of Session 5, the group was investigating more of the caves along the side of the canyon. In one, they found some sobbing children, toddlers, and that is where we will pick up below the break.

All players were 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.

4 Spring 1024

• Korgath went deeper into this particular set of chambers despite the uneasy feeling that they all had. He spotted the source of the sobbing. Four huddling “children.” They turned to show a mouthful of needle-like teeth and red eyes. As the mutter, “Papa! Pain!” and “Papa pay!,” these “toddlers” attack. The characters prevail in the resulting combat.
  • The bodies of the children have multiple weapon wounds on them. Each wound looks just as fresh as the ones the party just inflicted. Concerned that these things might rise again, the party cuts off the feet of the children. (And because of a tradition that my clearly disturbed players have established in the past.)
  • The room from which the children emerged is pretty much empty despite various trash and debris.
  • Another room in this complex has a large monument of some sort in the middle of the room. It has a hexagonal base topped with a hemisphere curved side up. There is writing that is naggingly familiar to Clara and Ivy.
    • Clara recalls having heard of a language of some “other” creatures who reside outside of reality, horrible, deadly, and longing to reach this reality.
    • This helps Ivy to remember this as well. She then makes a connection between this writing and the twisted arrows found previously…the ones that she felt if she kept examining them, she would lose her mind.
    • Beast had been reaching out to touch the monument but stops. As he pulls his hands back, the extend like strings…like reality warping. Jano smacks Beast’s hands and the spring back to normal.
    • The group decides to leave this area and heads to the gatehouse again.
• The group enters the gatehouse through a door that they had not yet passed through. They encounter the following in this bit of exploration.
  • One larger chamber has a couple of fire pits and a lot of debris scattered about. Around one of the fire pits are a group of five ghostly adventurers. They are talking softly and joking about with each other.
    • After the last of the party enters into the room, the door slams shut. The ghostly adventurers all look in the direction of the door. One says, “It’s just Judith and Lilith.” Another screams as its throat is slit.
    • One by one, each of these ghosts shows the scene of its death. The party could see no sign of the attackers with one exception. As the last of these adventurers were slain, Clara could see a forearm and a hand holding the killing weapon. The arm has a tattoo, a rampant griffin, that she recognizes…a tattoo that her friend Judith, a fellow acolyte, had. It was an exact match.
    • After killing this adventurer, that hand then reaches into the victim’s cloak and removes something…something that the party can’t quite make out.
    • There appears to be nothing else of interest in this chamber.
    • A little more improv here to add in some “ties” to the player characters. Clara has come to Stonehell to find her friend, Judith, who came here for some reason. This builds out that slimmest of threads into something starting to be a bit more substantial. The funny thing is that Jen picked Judith for her friend’s name on the spot. That’s the name of a “friendly” succubus in our previous East Texas University campaign. I wonder how much this Judith might have in common with that Judith.
  • The party explores another room that has nothing in it but a single chair, facing the entrance. Thinking it odd, they start to examine the chair. Jano reaches out for it and…
    • …ghostly bounds lash out to grab him and secure him to the chair. He experiences the many, many beatings that prisoners here experienced at the hands of the one of the guards, perhaps a captain of the guard. No one prisoner seems to be repeated and the beatings seem to be for no purpose…no questions are asked.
    • To the others, Jano unnaturally slams onto the chair and just a few moments later, he slumps to floor out of the chair.
    • He has no physical wounds to treat, but Ivy hypnotizes him to help calm him down.
• Low on some supplies such as torches and rations, the party retreats back to Hawk’s Nest (the nearby town in our Stonehell campaign). The rest for the night and do some shopping…funds are running low now too.
• Returning to the Gatehouse, the group passes through the actual gate for the first time.
  • They find quite a bit of grafitti on the walls, presumably from other adventurers. They come across the following, among a lot of other messages:
    • “While not every game of chance in Stonehell is rigged, bet with caution.”
    • “I had it! A ruby the size of a fist was almost mine, but a giant serpent swallowed it before I could reach it.”
    • “Be careful in the lowest depths of Stonehell. The rooms there change from time to time and what once was no longer stands.”
    • “I left it here.”
  • That last message was written next to a small crack in the wall. Wedged in this crack was a crude map with an “x” on it, presumably where whatever it was was left.
• The follow the main path in the canyon and head directly to the entrance to Stonehell. They had found the entrance previously but had not yet entered.
  • Stepping through the archway into the corridor beyond, an individual suddenly appears. He is red-skinned with black horns and a black goatee, dressed in a suit. He introduces himself as J’haak and asks if the group would like to purchase insurance through the Stonehell Insurance Agency. The group declines–he notes that they can buy some later if they’d like–and continues on.
  • The corridor ends in a chamber dominated by a spiral staircase leading down. In big bold letters on the wall behind the staircase is the following, “Please do not litter or clutter Stonehell with your bodies or discarded items. Thank you, the Management”
• The party heads down the stairs…some 100 feet down…and enter Stonehell proper for the first time.

And that’s where we ended the session.

Just because I am an evil person, I will note that a lot of treasure was overlooked in the exploration of the canyon. And no, no backsies back into the canyon. Mwah ha ha!!!