Stonehell Session 9

oh no raccoons

Orc Duel!

Kobold Korner!!!

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10th of Melt

Breagle, Outlaw
William Irons, Merchant
Mouric, new Outlaw
Emrys, Mage

The Hellseekers set off for Stonehell. They ran into some trouble traversing the ice melt-flooded swamps on the way, so the trip took 16 hours instead of 8. Making their way into the valley, they discovered that the rabid raccoons had destroyed all of their 60 stored rations. Mouric wanted to go after them, but rumors (generated by Cas the Cleric) about their divine power dissuaded the party from seeking vengeance.

They made their way down the spiral stair and into the foyer. Traveling their former mapped out path, they ran into Snorri Broadshoulders and Co, cataloging some dwarven carvings. A short hello and chat later, they moved on, with the dwarves holding a 1-way door open for the party.

After much deliberation, they continued southwards and put out their torch to sneak past the orc encampment. They passed the intersection, lit their torch back up, and immediately ran into an orc hunting party.

Rolling on the reaction table, the biggest orc challenged Emrys to single combat. Mouric, in an act of “bravery” shoved his way forward to accept the challenge. The orc deemed this suitable.

After an exchange of 3 quick blows, the orc knocked Mouric unconscious, reached down, and plunged both thumbs through his eyes, killing him.

The mood among the orcs lightened, they picked up their dead firebeetle, and left for their camp.

The Seekers claimed Mouric’s equipment, and dragged his body back to be watched by the dwarves. Snorri lent the Seekers one of his guards, Fozznem Leadstone and they backtracked to where Mouric had been killed.

They saw some big frogs, and began walking East.

Fozznem came to an octagonal room, painted to look like a forest with a pile of dirt and branches in a corner. Through the room ran Snorri (a Doom Lure in disguise) where he disappeared into a southern hallway. The young dwarf lifted a portcullis and dashed after! Snorri did a massive leap and cleared a pitfall. Fozznem could not stop in time and fell in, but survived. Looking up, he saw Snorri point down to him, while Snorri’s face stretched vertically and morphed into a clay mockery of cruel laughter. Emrys, rounding the corner, saw this change, and watched as Snorri bounced away southwards. Emrys helped Fozz up, and they both returned to the group shaken. They elected to continue east, hopefully following the kind kobolds instructions from last session.

Greeted by 10 kobolds armed with shoddy spears and piecemeal armor, they finally arrived at Kobold Korner. They passed over their weapons, and entered the bustling bazaar.

Breagle found a kid’s book to assist his learning of the kobold language. Fozznem posted up at the small brewery, and began spilling his life story to the nearest listener. This happened to be Trustee Sniv, the owner of the bazaar, a Shiba Inu kobold, wearing once-fancy red fur robes. Conversing in kobold, he let the party know that for a fee he could give them some helpful information. They bit, and he drew onto their map the path to the goblin Wolf Gang camp.

The group wanted to stay in the Kobold Bazaar until the next session. I let them this time. In the future it will act as a launch point, but will require a constant gold cost to allow them to treat it as a home base.

I also rolled a bandit ambush at the start of the session. I was going to have them ambush the party as they made their way out, but the party never showed. Will the bandits wait?

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