Stonehell Session 10

Trapstravaganza!

Goblin Terminators

The last stand of the wolf gang

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17th of Melt

Soot the giant tree witch
Henar the Imperial Scholar (new character for Cassamir/Bernie/Mouric's player)
Farmboy Gringle (player's first Stonehell session!!)

They set off from Stonehome after briefly filling in Henar and Gringle on the recent orc woes. They had to eat some rations on the way through the marshes. Soot could photosynthesize in the gorgeous weather.

They passed quickly through the gatehouse and the valley, reaching the tool library and swapping some stuff out. When they got to the spiral staircase down, they put a torch in Gringle's hand and let him lead the way.

They checked out the secret lever they had left untouched in the dwarven carved room. Pulling the lever opened a secret door, revealing the backside of an orc outpost. 7 orcs, with their backsides to the party, stood guarding a rubble-formed barricade. The party quietly closed the secret door and backed away.

Heading towards the goblin camp with directions provided by Trustee Sniv the kobold boss, they came upon another octagonal room, decorated like a desert landscape. In the center of the room, a sphinx. Henar, as an Imperial Scholar, translated the text lining the base of the sphinx. He learned its name, and that by speaking it they could face a challenge and discover the secrets it keeps. Deciding to leave it for later, they moved on.

And immediately upon trying to leave the room, Henar triggered a trap by lifting up a portcullis. A slime fell on his head, and immediately began eating away at his dexterity score. Thinking quickly, soot cast a magical barricade around Henar, and Gringle began burning the slime with the torch. Henar, however, could not manage to get the slime off of him before it paralyzed him completely. They dragged his immobile corpse out of the barricade, freeing him from the slime, and burnt it to death. Soot used a blood ritual she learned from her witch lover, and restored Henar's feeling in his body, bringing back his dex score to full, but not alleviating the pain from the acid burns.

They continued forward, and didn't walk 20 feet before encountering a locked door.
They heard goblins talking in the room, and retreated to come up with a plan.

Farmboy had some fire oil he placed in the slime trap, which they reset. They ran a rope from the goblin door to behind the portcullis, and Soot pulled to rattle the door. Henar pretended to be injured, and yelled insults at the approaching goblins. The trap worked flawlessly, and they quickly eliminated 2 goblins and a direwolf with the flames and a drop of the portcullis.

The other half of the goblins came out with another direwolf. This proved to be a close fight, with Farmboy getting a scar after getting knocked on his ass. With a hasty retreat, they left through the opposite portculis, and Henar spoke the sphinx's name. It spoke a riddle and the party quickly gave the wrong answer. A sandstorm ripped through the room, tearing all goblins but 1 to shreds, and causing the direwolf to retreat down a different hallway.

They took a breather, and reentered the chamber. Farmboy had came up with the correct answer to the riddle, and revealed a drawer full of gems, health potions, and an unknown wand.

The Seekers broke into Wolf Gang goblin camp, where 4 spear goblins, the remaining crossbow goblin, and two fully plate armored goblin terminators were waiting.

What followed was a brutal fight where the spear goblins charged and scarred Henar, depriving him. In a flurry of blows, the 4 spear goblins and the crossbow wielder were killed, but all of the parties blows kept bouncing off the goblin scrap armor. The party led a controlled retreat while they got whittled down, and managed to get a door between themselves and the goblins. They made a quick attempt to regain some hp, but since Henar and Farmboy were both deprived, they couldn't. Soot held the door for a round, but the terminators broke it down and charged into melee again. Henar charged back, catching them by surprise and getting behind them. At this point Henar and Farmboy had both lost consciousness a few times, only regaining it through Soot administering health potions. But the terminators finally brought Soot down. In a valiant and last second attack, Farmboy took off one of the terminators' heads, while Henar finally pierced through the other's throat with a bolt.

We only had 10 minutes left of the session at this point, so the party looted and quickly made their way to Kobold Corner, where they paid for passage back to the surface.

A few fun things happened this session because of Gringle. The other players "showed him the ropes" in that they gave him a lot of exposition and background info as stuff came up that they were familiar with. It really felt like two veterans showing him the way! Another thing is I had to go back and describe things for Gringle, which also meant I could add in stuff that I had missed previously and give the world a bit more texture for the returning players. Good stuff!!! It really flexed my gm muscles.

The game was played using the Cairn system, with Errant downtime procedures stapled on.