The excerpt from The Journal of Valentine MacGee, Dark Wizard Supreme details last weekends delve into Stonehell, and was written by Chris Peterson.
The Journal of Valentine MacGee, Dark Wizard Supreme
Report – Stonehell- Location- “The Lost Level”, Date- Saturday, June 1, 2013
A Weekend In Stonehell
Following our misadventures in the Western League, Fethellen Etan and I discovered a scroll that could open a portal to the dismal dungeon known as “Stonehell” and for good reasons. Dark secrets are said to lie within, but darker dangers guard them. We rented a room at an inn, and used the scroll there. We explored the dungeons for a time. I’ve found Etan is almost as ruthless as me when it comes to exploitation of those who would trust her- I’m not sure whether to be aroused or be angered.
She may threaten to kill me bloodily, but I think I’m working my way into her heart. I just wish she would stop marking everything with her chalk. It almost makes me think there’s something wrong with her. But then again, I suppose not everybody can be a paragon of sanity, intelligence, and common sense like yours truly.
Instead of a long, boring narrative, journal, I thought I’d just go over the highlights and notable features of the dungeon:
-This place has obviously not seen use in a while. The entry chambers were covered in dust, and in a nearby room, all wine casks were all reduced to vinegar. Of course, some giant beetles didn’t seem to mind. We dispatched them heartily.
-Chained up zombies in another room. They were fond of gnawing on my 10 ft. pole apparently. We decided to avoid them.
-The discovery of a floating white door, of an architectural style unknown to me. After dispatching some stirges inhabiting it, it seemed like merely a lounge for resting. How out of place! Sadly, only a few coppers in the cushions, but I made off with some of the throw pillows.
-Several puzzles we couldn’t figure out. A 4 pillar room with each of the pillars having a roll around section with different letters on it. Also a giant clock face on the floor one room. Later I would guess this would correspond to several magic swords in another room (see below)
-Gnolls who weren’t at all familiar with this area. One named Flynn musta been from New Feierland. He let Etan lull him into a false sense of security and let her walk him into a lonely room to murder him. His friends weren’t so gullible, but my SLEEP-DO-KEN works on them just as well as anybody.
-A room filled with lizardmen chanting to some dark gods. We avoided them.
-A pit trap, and inside the pit trap a secret alcove with a chest. Inside the chest was a skeletal hand clutching an old book. Although the wretched hand did not respond to my 10 ft. pole prodding it, it did react to my hand touching the book by lunging at me. Luckily, I’m most resilient, and I wrenched the hand off and stuck it in a bag. The book turned out to be a wretched draft of the play “Springtime for Orcus”. Obviously garish and crude, but I surmise something calamitous will happen if it’s ever put on. I will have to save this for a special occasion…
-A room of swords stuck into a round dais in different positions in a clocklike fashion. Reading nearby scrolls, I discovered the tale of an order of knights sworn to battle evil. Unfortunately for them, they became corrupted and only one of them, a latecomer to the group, could resist. He dispatched the other ones, and these were their swords. We knew not the name of the uncorrupted knight, so we had to take a wild stab at picking a sword. Etan withdrew one, which turned out to be the wrong one, and we had flying swords after us.
Luckily for Etan, I was brave and stood my ground (decidedly NOT retreating for the door leaving just her and her henchman Smaar to face the swords alone.) Dodging swords coming after me, I drank a plasmid from Hexenbracken and melted some of the fell swords to puddles. Etan drew the sole uncorrupted sword and began fighting off the blades, but I rushed down the stairs and finished them off with another breath of acid.
But did she even thank me? NOOOO!! Too wrapped up in talking with her new magic sword “Niner”- a sword of decidedly Lawful temperament that didn’t like me. Imagine the gall!
In any case, the emergence of some white gorillas made us decide to make a strategic retreat, for now.
I love how character biased it is! Glad you had a good time Chris!
Ditto! I love that perspective, hope to see more of this from Chris.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it.