Stonehell: Exploring the Canyon

Session 2 of Stonehell was played on 1/30.

Tink, a pretentious Elf (but I repeat myself) and former barkeep (Hanna)
Jorgen, a recovering alcoholic Dwarf 1 (Julia)
-Hanks, a guard dog
Shelly, a vegetarian recovering alcoholic halfling Thief 1 (Nadia)
Lex(i), a crossdressing thief 1 (Molly)
-Wormar "Wormy", a torch-bearer

After recovering from their previous excursion into Stonehell, Tink, Jorgen, and Shelly met a young human adventurer who was heading to the dungeon as well. Figuring that there's strength in numbers (even if those numbers include a non-fey) they join together and head out.

The canyon is quiet, and they head for the gatehouse. Noticing both the arrow slits and the murder holes in the abandoned structure, they go around. Heading straight for the dungeon entrance, Lex asks about other ways into the dungeon, looking pointedly at the many cave openings. With a nod and a shrug they pick one at random. The first room is mostly barren, except for some glowing graffiti on the wall that spoke of a treasure and wasps. The chamber to the side held only abandoned camp trash, and was ignored.

The door to the next chamber gave way easily, swollen, but rotted. Within was a larder that had gone to mold. Crates, barrels, and shelves full of rotting food-stuff. At the back of the chamber was another doorway leading deeper into the canyon wall. Shelly makes a beeline for the passage, while Jorgen pries open a crate. It was full of something green and slimy. Unfortunately the lid of the crate was also covered in the same slime, and it began to burn his fingers. Tossing the lid away, the slime stuck to both the lid and his fingers, and stretched like a rubber band, then snapped back, covering Jorgen all over. He started to smoke, and felt burning and itchy all over. "Get it off! Get it off!!" he yelled. The rest of the party looked on in horror and confusion. No one wanted to get close. "Burn it off!!" Lex refused to let Wormy (the only one with a torch) get close to the slime covered dwarf. In ever increasing discomfort, Jorgen ran for the pool further back in the canyon.



Meanwhile Shelly, who'd ignored the entire kerfuffle, followed the passage back into a much cooler room, saw a large rounded warm... thing. Trying to be quiet, she kept to the doorway of the chamber it was in and tried to figure out what it was she was looking at. The coffee table sized thing turned, and her brain clicked into the fact that this was a GIANT BUG. An angry hungry giant bug with hot glowing things on it's head. It charged and snapped at Shelly, who ran. It caught up to her and tried again just as she got to the entrance of the cave, where everyone else had gathered to watch Jorgen run for the pool.



The bug snapped at Shelly again, and missed again, while everyone else lept away in shock, then followed shelly in the running away. Heading straight for a copse of trees, Tink hit the treeline first, and disappeared. Everyone else halted at the treeline. Tink was fine though, and they played around with the effect for a few minutes before noticing the 3 men with short bows. By this point Jorgen had gone silent. Tink waved then said they needed to be on their way. The bandits said sure, just leave your gold. Tink offered her 9 coppers. Lex offered an arrow. They fired back. Tink dropped the coins and ran. Lex missed, and climbed up into a tree, hoping for some cover and height advantage. They shot at her again, landing a painful hit. She called Wormy to her with the still lit torch, and lit an arrow. She considered just burning it all to the ground, but settled for lodging it solidly in one of the bandit's chest. Then she ran too, leaving the undiscovered Klaus the Dwarf (Julia's replacement character) bound and gagged with the bandits.

Feeling dispirited, demoralized, and a bit despondent, they ran right back to town, and took a few days to recover. Wilhelm the Dwarf showed up looking for his cousins Jorgen and Klaus. Also, a troop of religious men were looking for some info on a man who speaks with the undead living in Stonehell. They're offering a reward for information. The more info, the bigger the reward.

Gains: 2 Quests - Find the Dwarves (Wilhelm), Find the Speaker of the Undead (religious dudes)
Kills: 1 bandit
Losses: Jorgen the Dwarf, 9cp