Stonehell Delve 4: Going Too Deep

On the evening of 5/14 the following brave adventurers ventured into Stonehell, and went too deep...

Drak the Hood
Nick the Pike
- Kaldue (Swordsman)
Epthalia the Blade Dancer
- Killmor B’Tches (cleric hireling)
- Raja (Swordsman)
Magnus the Barbarian
- Snotface the kobold

Teneb, the City of Darkness, floated above the town of Dahar, casting its shadow on all below. The people of Dahar were wild with their mask covered merriment, but not everyone was celebrating. A troop of adventurers marched past the gatehouse, deep into the box canyon, and into the doorway of Stonehell in search of treasure.

Before they even made it down the stairs, voices were heard below. Drak scouted ahead and returned fairly quickly, reporting that they appeared to be fairly poor bandits/adventurers who were heading deeper into the dungeon. The group waited a short time, and then ventured into the dungeon’s entry hall.

Drak led the group back into the Quiet Halls, toward a staircase that went deeper into the dungeon. From the main door, the group turned into a side passage lined with crypts full of the undead. The adventurers fought their way through several ghouls, skeletons, zombies and a crypt spirit with relatively minor damage. At one point Nick went into one of the crypts to claim a coffer held by a skeleton. It, and 3 others all lept up and attacked, raking Nick’s back before being destroyed. The coffer held several hundred copper coins. In addition to the coins, a rune covered ax and a potion vial

Past the crypts was a small room with stairs leading down. Exiting the stair room lead to an octagonal room with a smashed pillar with a stone snake wrapped around it. Moving further into the new area the party discovered a side passage flanked by a pair of rooms filled with massive machines of unknown function. At the end of the hall was a room with a large switch on the floor. Drak entered the room alone, and threw the switch to the middle position. The machinery in the side rooms all began to grind into action. The room began to shake, and then dropped fairly quickly, sealing off the end of the hall with a solid stone plug, taking Drak out of sight. It took a few minutes for the machines to come to a stop.

While waiting to see if the room would return, 4 ugly stone colored toads bounced around the corner. The machinery in the rooms began to spin again just as they appeared. Nick lobbed an oil vial at them, setting them on fire, while Epthalia charged them. As the door reappeared 2 demonic stone colored winged creatures rushed out toward the adventurers. Drak was nowhere to be seen...

The creatures slammed into the adventurers hard. Kaldue was the first to fall, followed quickly by Magnus. Everyone else ran. Kilmor fell last. Nick, Epthalia, Raja, and Snotface escaped back up to the hall of crypts. They hid themselves in one of the emptied crypts and spent some time deciding what to do. They were roused back into action with the arrival of several large centipedes that sent the adventurers scurrying back into the hall. Nick then led them back down the stairs to find out what happened to their friends. The demon beasts were gone, but they left behind the ravaged bodies of their friends. Kilmor was alive, but unconscious, and his face had been mostly removed from the nose down. Kaldue and Magnus were both bleeding out with no chance of getting them to healing before their died. Epthalia administered last rites to them. The elevator room had again gone down, and of Drak there was no sign.

Picking up their fallen comrades, the adventurers scurried from the depths of Stonehell with heavy hearts and empty purses.



As always, a big thanks to Nicholas Mizer for running a great game!