Return to Stonehell

After spending a pleasant evening recovering from his first delve into Stonehell, Nick the Pike hired Randolph the Herald to let it be known that he was looking for a few strong arms to accompany him into the dungeon. 4 men answered his call - Kaldue, a foreigner clad in chainmail and armed with spear and shield, Gygard in leather and shield, Sacco, Gygard's companion ad torch bearer, and Boarface, also in chainmail with a sword and defaced shield.* Nick hired them all, and also acquired 2 dogs from the Shrine of St. Guinefort.

Another outlander, an elf named Lemincanin (played by Michael Curtis) also expressed interest in seeing the famed halls of Stonehell for himself.

"Medwyn said he was going to come too, but I don't think he or Drak had finished recovering from the bender they went on when we got back last time. So we left without them. Now, the last time we went, like I think i told you before, Drak was looking for a talisman, and he offered a bounty of 500 gold for it. I figured, why not keep looking for it? So we retraced our steps from last time. At the door of the dance macabre we heard someone lurking behind us. It turned out to be an ugly orc. Now, I know, not really fair of me to call anyone ugly, as I'm only slightly more attractive than old Boarface over there!" Nick laughed.

"Was it just one orc?" Nick's companion asked.

"Yeah... odd that. I was told that the orcs and goblins of Stonehell are at war with each other, so seeing one alone was odd... but Lemincanin could speak it's language... a useful skill that. Anyway, he said his name was Bruck - or something close to that, and that going into the Quiet Halls was a bad idea, lots of skeletons and zombies. I said we should have brought a priest or two. Lemincanin agreed, which wasn't particularly helpful, but then told me that Bruck said that if we bring the orcs goblin heads that we can be friends, like Gruck. I don't know who Gruck is, but apparently he lives on the surface."

"After Bruck left us, we passed through the door of the dance macabre, and got back to the spot with the pit trap. It was easy to find because the spike that Drak put into the floor to help secure the rope was still there. We went on past the trap and into a room with a giant bull statue. It had an open mouth, and the room was scorched. Hugging the wall furthest away from the statue we moved through the room, and come to an open doorway. Beyond was a great room. Our torches barely making a dent into the darkness." Nick paused "There were whispers coming from inside... even Lemincanin's elf-ears couldn't make out what, if anything was being said..."

"Not wanting to press our luck, we moved on, and came to another doorway opening into a similar room. In fact it could even have been the same room. This time though I could see something. A body, or at least that's what I thought it was. So I lit a torch and tossed it into the room."

"Tossing that torch was perhaps not my wisest decision, but it was smarter than going in and seeing for myself! It was indeed a body on the floor, and it was only one of many, and they started to move! By St. Guinefort's scruff that was a bad spot to be in! And it turned out I was right, the two doorways did indeed lead to the same room. I yelled to everyone to head back to the pit trap and before we could get past the first doorway a pair of skeletons popped out. Luckily my investment in dogs paid off, and they and Boarface dropped them. Boarface took a hit, but it wasn't too bad. We managed to get on the far side of the pit before the skeletons, and the first one on it triggered the trap, and down he went."

"How many were there?"

By Nelson Daniel

"I didn't really have the chance to get an exact count, but we were outnumbered for sure. Probably around a score of them. We set up a shield wall with Kaldue and Gygard at the front, Lemincanin with his bow and me with my pike behind. Boarface and the dogs guarding our backs. It felt like forever as they kept pressing forward. The zombies behind did a lot of the work for us on the skeletons, pushing relentlessly forward, and pitching he bones down the pit. Some of the zombies did make it across the span, eventually shattering our shields, and then bringing Gygard down. By this point there were only 2 zombies left. One was busy eating Gygard, the other made to attack Kaldue. I grabbed the spare shield from Sacco, and pushed them both into the pit. They took Gygard with them..."

"After tending to our wounds we explored a little more and discovered an embalming chamber. We decided to grab what we could from it, and come back to town."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Now? I'm going to finish this ale, and then another, and enjoy my time tonight with you! After that, I'm going to get ready for next time! We're going to need a priest or two if we're going to find that talisman and get the bounty!"

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Hirelings generated with the ever useful Meatshields!.