Stonehell Session 23

 ~ Getting back into it~

~ A change of plans ~

~ Hammer Wan ambush ~

Dungeon Tavern from Dungeon Meshi anime

12th of Sunrise, Imperial Year 525

Overcast spring day

Vesper the necromancer

Solstice the bandit

Esau the kettlewright

Emrys the mage

Back after a little hiatus, the crew purchased a donkey and cart, and set off for Stonehell.

Through the swamps, the spring melt had caused a bit of a flood that washed away the path through the mud. With the use of Emrys' pegasus feather, they quickly constructed a crude bridge. They made it to their old FOB and secured it, parked their cart, slept, and made their way into Stonehell.

They encountered some orcs immediately. Vesper recognized one, and after a quick chat learned that the orcs are now at war with the Excavators Alliance (dubbed the Hammer Wans by Vesper).

Deciding to put off their foray into the crypts, the party teamed up with the orcs and made their way to the bazaar in Kobold Korner. On their way they passed through the Open Sore Orc tribe, witnessing the devastation of their population caused by the Hammer Wans. They also passed through some rooms that had previously held masterwork Dwarven carvings; the walls now stripped bare by their rival adventuring party. 

Upon making it to the bazaar, the party began negotiating with Trustee Sniv to get help ambushing the Hammer Wans. It wasn't hard to do, as Sniv had already lost quite a few of his kobolds to them. The kobolds also have an instinctual calling to maintain the dungeon, and the destruction the Wans were causing was beginning to wear on them. Sniv provided a few of his personal honor guard to join the ambush, as well as whatever the party could find in his unsorted warehouse.

During the negotiations, Vesper trawled the bazaar, locating some fire oil and a net, trading for her holy water.

The party set off with their war party, and immediately encountered the Hammer Wans mid fight with some other orcs. No time for thought, as the warparty's orcs rushed immediately into the fray.

The Hammer Wan party consisted of a bruiser with a giant sledge, a sapper, two marines, and the squad leader. The bruiser and the sapper dealt with the orcs, trading hefty blows with the sledge while the sapper tossed grenados. The two marines let loose a volley of crossbow quarrels and went to work with their hammers on the kobolds. That left the Hellseekers to deal with the Squad Leader.

The Squad Leader was armed with a Sack of Schemes, she released a spirit trapped inside the corpse of a squirrel to run up to Vesper and ignite her fire oil. Vesper's armor took the explosion, and in response Vesper ran over to the sapper and ignited her grenados, killing the sapper and gravely injuring the bruiser.

The rest of the Hellseekers ganged up on the Squad Leader. At this point she knew the battle was lost, she failed a WIL save, and decided to try to flee. It was a short flight, as Emrys Commanded her to Halt. The orcs and kobolds destroyed the remaining Hammer Wans, while the Hellseekers got some of their questions answered by the Squad Leader.

The Excavators' Alliance originated from the capital, but sends out squads all over the continent to dig up ruins. They have a lot of connections and can sell pretty much anything, so they just systematically break down ruins wall by wall until there's nothing left to get gold for. There were currently 2 other squads in Stonehome, and a few more at the Dragon Tower to the South East.

The party handed the Squad Leader to the orcs where she would be executed, and gathered up all the loot the Hammer Wans had gathered, gifting it back to the kobolds. Having done very well politicking, they adventured a little more but we were quickly running up on our 2.5 hour time limit. The party decided to end the adventure in the bazaar, to pick up the next session already in Stonehell.