Stonehell Session 19

 ~ Season Finale ~

~ Militia's March ~

~ Goblin Assault ~

~ Death and the Dragon ~

Record of Lodoss War Winds of Fantasia cover

4 of Gold

Overcast

Gringle the Hero

Arwell the Nascent

Esme the Archer

Breagle the Outlaw

Melnax the Apprentice

Now that spooky season is here, and I've been getting a little close to burnout, I've decided to put the Stonehell campaign on hold for a bit. I wanted the last session to go down with a bang, so this is the message the players received:

‘A young and injured lizardfolk stumbles into Stonehome this morning, accompanied by a horse sized salamander with stubby wings. They manage a single message, before passing out. 

"I have been sent by our shaman, Ghariel. He wished me to tell you that the goblins have begun their assault. He is holding them off with some of our survivors but they will not last long. They are trying to make contact with Nightsong, the young black dragon that has taken up residence in the caves below us. Follow Silt, Ghariel's draco lizard, he will lead you to the survivors, if there are any. If they have failed, the goblins will meet with Nightsong, and gods fear any contracts they would make together."’

Knowing this mission would be hard to come back from, the party members asked to make some new characters to throw at the adventure. In the end, Gringle and Breagle decided to venture down with the newcomers, willing to risk it all. They were also accompanied by Silt the draco-lizard, as well as 30 members of the newly formed militia. I ruled they would allow the party to skip 3 encounters, to ensure the session didn't get too weighed down before they could reach the end. 

For this session, I ran encounters like normal, but for the Errant event die, the local effect would be a special encounter with members of the Goblin Occupation Army.

Almost immediately, the Hellseekers ran into a hobgoblin phalanx that ambushed them in the swamp. Esme had a special bow, which allowed her to do a blast attack once if she was the first to act in combat. This attack blew up some of the phalanx, but enough survived to pierce Gringle’s shield and arm with their spears. A few more lobbed their spears in retaliation at Esme. After suffering some minor injuries, the rest of the phalanx were dealt with quickly, and the Seekers continued onwards. 

Rather than climbing up the foothills into Stonehell Valley, Silt led the gang to the secret lizardfolk entrances below, a dank and muddy tunnel that sloped slowly downwards. 

The end of the tunnel put them into the entryway to the lizardfolk religious grounds, where they found the ruined bodies of lizardfolk warriors that had defended against the goblin incursion. Hearing sounds of fighting in each corridor ahead, they took a chance and ventured into the next room.

Here they found 3 goblin Bonecrunchers battling another draco lizard, in the bedchambers of the lizardfolk chieftain. Seeing the draco lizard on the brink of death, Gringle charged in with the rest of the party close on his heels. The Bonecrunchers were armored head to toe in black pig iron, wielding shield and mace, but that didn’t stop Gringle’s axe and hammer. Breagle and the others started a fire, and with a chain shoved one of the Bonecrunchers into it, cooking him to a crisp. The remaining goblin fled into the next chamber, leaving its prey alive to limp behind the party.

Chasing after the goblin, the Seekers found a round chamber with a mound at the center constructed of mud. More signs of battle were here, and the goblin fled into the mound, its door covered with a flap of skin. Gringle peeked inside, seeing the Bonecruncher holding Ghariel, chieftain of the lizardfolk, hostage with a knife to his throat. Gringle pulled out a bag of gold, threw it at the goblin’s feet, and offered to buy Ghariel’s life. The goblin agreed, but only if the crew retreated and gave him time to flee. Everyone agreed (except Ghariel, who told the party to hurry up and stop the dragon). Upon returning, the party found Ghariel with his leg smashed and talked with him a little. He begged them to hurry deeper, and in an act of generosity the party shared a health potion with him, offered him a militia guard, and mounted him on the injured draco lizard. Gharield pledged to keep their escape path open, or die trying. The Seeker’s ventured on.

The next room was a common area, lit by the coals of pit fire at the center of the room. They could hear the inmates feasting on corpses, as well as the intense buzzing of bloodflies. The Seeker’s decided to send in the militia to clear this room for them, using up one of their charges. 10 militia members died in the melee, leaving 20 remaining. Gringle took some time to clear the corpses of his comrades, and investigate the fallen. A three way scuffle had broken out between goblins, blind inmates, and lizard folk, leaving corpses covering up the floor.

The next room was the main shrine of the lizardfolk, featuring a statue of a cobra. A mace was shoved into one of its eyes and used to rotate it, which opened a spiral stair all the way to the 5th floor (originally it went from floor 3-5, but I extended it to floor 2 in order to ensure the party could make it to the dragon this session). 2 berserkers patrolled this room, and the party was extremely afraid of them, remembering their last encounter. Gringle didn’t want to waste time, and so drew the attention of the warriors. 

The berserkers long jumped into the party, and with their clubs made of stone ruins, brought them down to create a blast attack of shards of stone. The shards did massive damage to the Seekers, and managed to kill Arwell in one hit. His jugular rent open, he bled out on the floor. This shocked the party, but they managed to down the berserkers before any other casualties were acquired. They crossed Arwell’s arms, and borrowed his crossbow. From here they descended the staircase.

Once at the bottom, they found the main doors to Nightsong’s lair; however, they were barred from the inside. Silt had to lead them on a detour. Here we were beginning to run out of time, so we progressed quickly through the maze of mine tunnels. The party used another charge of their militia to take out some cave trolls, losing another 10 soldiers in the process.

They found their way to a watering hole, and with info from Ghariel they managed to find the secret entrance into Nightsong’s lair. Gringle passed first, and rose to find himself in the lair. 50’ cavern ceilings, water pooled on the floor, great crystal clusters growing from the walls, and a massive hoard of gold. He also spotted Nightsong, in elf form, talking with 3 Bonecrunchers and 2 goblins mounted on wargs. While he donned his armor and tugged the rope around his waist, Melnax and Esme began their descent through the flooded tunnel to join him. Silt, Breagle, and the remaining militia circled back around to the barred front door, and the encounter began.

Esme, Gringle, and Melnax approached and tried to convince Nightsong to abandon the goblins, that their promises would be left unfulfilled, and they were too weak to serve him. Nightsong, enveloped in paranoia, decided that he would make a deal with whoever survived, and transformed into a crocodile to swim away to leave the fighting to both groups of intruders.

Melnax ran to the door and unbarred it, Gringle joined the melee with the 3 Bonecrunchers, and Esme fired her explosive arrow into the warg-riders. In the lightly glowing cave, ankle deep water splashed everywhere during the fight. Gringle eliminated a Bonecruncher. Esme’s leg was eviscerated by a flurry of warg bites and scimitar slashes, knocking her to the stone floor, unconscious. The militia, Breagle, and Melnax rushed in, and joined the fray, taking out 2 of the wargs.

It is at this point that Nightsong emerged in his true form. Climbing up over his hoard of treasure, scales turning black and shiny, wings spreading to block the light from the crystals, he announced his transformation with a roar. Smoke billowed from his nostrils as he released a thick black flam across his chamber, killing the remaining goblins and taking out a few militia.

He named the Hellseekers fools to trust him to let any of them escape after they had found his lair, and offered them life in servitude if they bent the knee. Breagle accepted the offer, throwing down his weapons and falling to his knees in the shallow water. Nightsong, with the guttural laugh of a dragon, swept his head down and ripped Breagle’s torso off, killing him instantly. There would be no escape.

Gringle charged the dragon, ordering the militia to run. They passed their morale save. Knowing this was it for them, and with Stonehome in their hearts, they joined Gringle’s charge. Melnax fled and took cover, and Esme lay in the water, bleeding out and drowning.

Unfortunately for the table, Nightsong rolled to get his breath attack back and succeeded, and before the charge could resolve, he flooded the room with more roiling black flame. 

The remaining militia went up in flame, as well as Gringle, who fell into the water, the pain from his wounds knocking him unconscious.

The fight, at this point, was over, but I like to give my players a chance to have their last moments, so Nightsong went one by one to give a final deathblow to the intruders.

In Esme’s last moment, she attempted to knock some crystals loose from the ceiling. Her bow shot was batted down by Nightsong’s wing, and her body was torn apart beneath his claws.

In Gringle’s last moment, he brought out his last remaining jar of nitre and threw it down Nightsong’s throat. Interacting with Nightsong’s inner flame it created a massive explosion, blowing a hole in the dragons guts. The resulting spillage of Nightsong’s acidic blood melted Gringle away.

Hearing the explosion, Melnax returned with Silt in tow to try to get a final blow in. Silt jumped onto the dragon’s back, biting down and holding tight. Melnax picked up Gringle’s greatsword and stood face to face with Nightsong. For three turns Melnax traded blows with Nightsong, whose body was falling apart. 

In the end it came down to a final dice roll, a strength save. One final blow Melnax struck at Nightsong, but it wasn’t enough. With a final burst of strength, the dragon ripped Silt off of him, breaking his back in his claws, and tossed the lizard at Melnax. The horse sized draco lizard crushed Melnax, and Nightsong finished the job by bringing down a great clawed hand on top of the last two fighters.

The Hellseekers were defeated, but they did not lose. They prevented the goblins from striking a deal with Nightsong. The dragon had suffered immense injury as well, it would be a long time before he could emerge from his lair. The crew had earned Stonehome safety, for now.

This was an amazing finale to Stonehell. I’d like to return eventually, but it probably won’t be for a few months. Spooky season means its time for some spooky games, I’d really like to run some Liminal Horror or Mothership soon, so those are gonna take priority for a little bit.

Thanks for reading!