Because our main campaign is based on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, I went ahead and put our Stonehell in the Forgotten Realms simply for the advantage of some familiarity for the players (mainly for the religious pantheon). I’ve placed it in a box valley in the Nether Mountains and re-written the background a bit. Stonehell was a prison created by a wizard of ancient Netheril. A curtain wall blocks the valley’s mouth and an ancient Netherese magical dome of force covers the top of the valley, extending down into the curtain wall. A tunnel through the wall provides the only known access to the valley.
The small town of Hawk’s Nest has grown from a watchtower to a small town up against the outside of the curtain wall. Services for adventurers, or Hellions as the locals call them, is the primary economy of the town. Because the game is focused on adventuring in Stonehell, we’re largely hand-waving the interactions in town. There is an inn, the Stonehell Inn, for the characters to rest and recover (at the cost of 1gp per day). Sidekicks can also be hired at the inn. There is a shop and “bank” where recovered treasures can be sold and wealth stored. All prices are fair…no haggling allowed. That’s the extent of the town so far. A tunnel pierces the curtain wall and gives access to the valley beyond. Hawk’s Nest charges a toll of 1gp for each Hellion entering and an additional toll of 1gp for each Hellion leaving. Hawk’s Nest also has a Department of Tourism and Treasure that produces a brochure for wannabe adventurers, but I’ll save that for another post.
I’m not using the curtain wall or the valley as written. Instead, the wall is–as far as anyone knows–solid with the exception of the aforementioned tunnel. The valley beyond is a desolate wasteland. The magic dome covering the valley leaves it in perpetual shadow. A constant, thick mist obscures vision even more, visibility is only about fifteen to twenty feet, and sounds are muffled. The ground is covered in a layer of ashy pale grey dust, about six inches deep. No fauna of flora exists. It is an eerie and apparently lifeless place.
However, it is not empty. Barrow mounds dot the valley and various caves and worked complexes pierce the valley’s walls. Some of these, so far, have been persistent from foray to foray. Others have not, with new mounds appearing in new locations or where a different mound was found previously. These barrow mounds are largely from Greg Gillespie’s megadungeon, Barrowmaze. I originally adopted this approach to the valley to mix it up some (we’ve played a few sessions of Stonehell before). It has, however, taken on a bit of a life of its own and now has something of a background story and logic in my head.
To date, there have been eleven separate forays beyond the curtain wall. Only two of these have actually been into Stonehell proper. The others have all explored various locations and barrows in the valley. Eight different PCs have been involved in these forays and half of those did not survive the excursion. Another eight sidekicks have perished in the explorations as well. It has been a little deadly.
While the dungeon of Stonehell follows the standard trope of the deeper you go, the higher level you need to be, the Valley does not (Up a Level, Down a Level). One of the “tombs” in the valley wall, for example, is blocked by a set of large iron doors. A sigil is prominent upon the doors. One group of PCs (sadly no longer with us) identified the sigil as that of an infamous vampire warlord. If true, even a party with a good bit of “experience” under their belt would likely not survive that encounter. The current PCs have talked about going in but do not. Something about it looking a bit scary, dangerous, and well beyond their capabilities…nothing at all about knowing it belongs to a vampire warlord. 😀
This is somewhat analogous to how wilderness encounters in older editions would often include creatures that would be quite difficult for a party in a straight up fight (or any fight). It would often be in the players’ best interest to avoid such encounters outright. When that shadow of a flying dragon passed across a low level party, it was typically wise to head for cover. The Valley is similar. The encounters are not necessarily “Level Appropriate” for the player characters. (One might even say that they are nearly random, if were one so inclined and could be guaranteed that his players would never read this.) It is incumbent upon them to decide if they should risk the encounter or not. It would likely be even better if they can recover whatever treasure might lie in a barrow and avoid the inhabitant(s) as much as possible. All of those PCs deaths I mentioned up above…they’ve been in the Valley and not the dungeon.
That’s enough for this post. A bit more on the Hawk’s Nest Department of Tourism and Treasure and the adventuring “Rules of Stonehell” in the next post.
