Stonehell: The Demon Strikes Back

Session 199 was played on 5/29

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Gimble, Mage (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

With half the party trapped in a mirror, Morgana, Gimble, Borumar, and Lor’Koth wisely decide to…. Continue exploring the manor.

Beyond the lounge is a large dining hall, where a pair of stuffed dire wolves attack the party. Lor’Koth, already hurting from his encounter with the mimic, gets grabbed, bitten, shaken like a rag doll, and dropped to the hardwood floor. Borumar gets a nasty bite, but crits the stuffed critter in return. Morgana summons a water elemental with her staff, and it finishes off the soggy dire wolves. Lor’Koth and Borumar take full advantage of the stash of healing potions they bring with them. From the dining hall, they open up the back door, and head out, bringing the covered mirror with them.

Back at Lady Eric’s manor, the mirror is safely stashed, and Morgana hires a sage to help her try to get info on the mirror. The sage is unable to discover the command word for the mirror, but confirms that a sufficiently powerful Dispel Magic will release a random imprisoned person.

The following day Morgana retrieves Jameth and Joho, and Koltic and Aroon follow the next day. The next morning, Borumar, possessed by the red mist demon, attempts to assassinate Morgana. She survives, barely (1hp) and teleports away. Darryll and Koltic turn the demon, forcing it out of Borumar. News soon reaches the manor that the groundskeeper was found dead in his cell.

Morgana and Koltic go to see the body. Koltic uses Speak with Dead on the body and they ask it the following:

What is the demon’s name?
    The answer given is in Infernal. Morgana writes it down phonetically.

Where’s the book used to summon the demon?
    In the summoning chamber

Where’s the summoning chamber? 

    In the second floor of the cottage. (The cottage doesn’t have a second floor)


Gains: Koltic, Jameth, Aroon, and Joho (freed from mirror)
Kills:
Losses: Groundskeeper

Stonehell: Bad Reflection

Session 198 was played on 5/23

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Gimble, Mage (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After a little break, the party returns to the manor, heading directly to the groundskeeper’s cottage, and explores it. First up was a tool room, and then the bedroom with a weird mirror that reflected wrong. Joho tossed a rag at it.

While everyone was poking around, Morgana made a grilled cheese sandwich on the tiny stove. A detect magic spell showed the entire cottage glowing (no real help there). Going outside, Morgana casts levitate on Joho, and ties a rope to him, and Borumar drags him around like a balloon. He checks out the roof of the cottage and manor, and then they head to the garden maze.

It’s a simple and small enough maze that there’s no danger of getting lost. However the animated (demonic?) plants don’t make exploring it easy. A pair of blood rose bushes snag most of the party. One is chopped down, the other gets turned into a mouse by Morgana. In the center of the maze is an ornate fountain.A water weird attempts to drown Joho, but he floats out of its reach.

Circling around the rest of the property, they make their way to the front door of the main house. It’s unlocked, and they enter. A mirror of life trapping snags Koltic, Jameth, Aroon, and Joho. In spite of this they continue on through the entry hall and into the lounge. There a mimic grabs and slams Lor’Koth twice, and starts to gnaw on him. Borumar, Morgana, and Gimble quickly slay the beast.

Gains:
Kills: Mimic, Blood Rose Bushes
Losses: Koltic, Jameth, Aroon, and Joho (all trapped in mirror)

Stonehell: What's the manor?

Session 197 was played on 5/15

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Gimble, Mage (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Borumar checks in with the wererats about the mountain trolls. They’ve firmly dug into the mines and are working the kobolds hard. He asks if they can be bribed? Of course, but now that they have a gold mine, it’ll be expensive. 

Morgana is offered her own manor. The current owner wants to be rid of it, as her cousin who was taking care of it was convicted of demonology and burned at the stake, and since then 2 other caretakers have gone missing. The price is cheap at a mere 5,000gp, but it has to be moved in to within a reasonable amount of time or the gold is forfeit. 

As they’re on a deadline, the head to the manor to see what’s up. (the kobolds were gonna be working the mines either way, right?) The manor has a wall around it, with a couple of basically decorative towers. Pushing through the main gate, they check the larger of the two gate towers. Borumar can’t get it open, so Morgana Knocks it open. Borumar checks for traps and narrowly avoids getting dropped on by a patch of green slime. It’s torched. In the next room Borumar is less lucky and is caught by a deadfall trap. Thankfully it wasn’t well constructed and it hurts his ego more than his body. He finds a stashed bag of gold. The smaller tower is empty. 

Following the wall, and holding off on the manor, they move on to the stables. They’re attacked by 6 monkey-faced bat demons. Once they’re cleared out, they press on to the groundskeeper’s cottage. There they find the the last of the caretakers waiting for them. It doesn’t take long to realize that he’s been possessed by a demon, and when they realize this some imps start making themselves a nuisance. Koltic manages to turn a few, others turn invisible and flee. The caretaker is freed of the demon, who flees in a red mist out of the cottage. 

The party takes the caretaker to Boris’ temple for safe keeping.

Gains: 20gp
Kills: monkey-faced bat demons
Losses:  

 

Stonehell: Teleporting Errors

Session 196 was played on 5/8

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Deciding that things in the Asylum are just a little too nuts to deal with, the party decides to use the teleporter and figure out if that will help them get around without having to deal with the Vrilya. Heading up to the Quiet Halls, they take the teleporter to the junction room. Rather than try one of the other teleporters, they opt for the other door which leads out into a corridor. Joho goes first, and quickly encounters 3 Vrilya and a basilisk! The party retreats back to the teleporter room doorway, and Morgana drops a fireball on them. The bodies are quickly looted, but a second group of Vrylia show up. Morgana Lightning Bolts them, but 3/5 of them are still standing. The party launches an attack on the remaining ones, killing 2 more. The last of them turns invisible and runs (probably?). The second batch of bodies is looted, and then they all again retreat into the teleporter room, and Morgana Mage-Locks it.

Teleporting back to the Quiet Halls, they’re attacked by a large group of Skeletons, but Koltic destroys most of them, and Jojo cleans up what’s left. Quickly exiting Stonehell, they make their way safely home.

Gains: 291gp
Kills: 7 Vrylia, 1 basilisk, 8 skeletons
Losses:  

Comprehending Comprehend Language

In (almost?) every edition of D&D is some version of a spell that will easily translate any non-magical writing or even speech. It's usually trivially easy for a wizard, and in some editions even for high level thieves. It's a bypass that lets those who memorized that utility spell avoid having to run back to town to consult a sage, if there even is one available. 

On one hand, as a DM, it I can see why this can be annoying, especially if the spell has a long duration. On the other hand, it is a choice the player took to have their character take that spell. It's a slot that could have been a magic missile or sleep. It's a choice the DM should reward, or at least not punish the player for making it. 

That's not to say that the spell is going to hand everything to the PC's on a silver platter. An important consideration for the DM to keep in mind that the spell translates the words literally, and that not all languages are constructed the same way. For anyone who's studied a language other than their native one, this probably does not come as a shock. Most people I know from the US took a romance language in school, French or Spanish mostly. Either that or German. Because English shares a lot with these languages there's a familiarity to them, and a lot of other languages follow different rules. 

For example, I'm learning Mandarin. You know how in English (and the romance languages) there are different tenses? Past tense, present tense, future tense, etc... Mandarin doesn't. There's context clues, but a literal translation could potentially be any. 

Also there's nothing that says that the words have to be in an order we're used to. Maybe they write like Yoda? Or the subject might not come first in the sentence. 

    We're going to the restaurant that's next to his school with your cousin. 

    Next to his school the restaurant your cousin is going with us. 

To go further with the idea, what if there's no word in the language for restaurant or school?

    Next to his reading place the cooking shop your cousin is going with us

That doesn't take into account proper nouns. 

    We're going to the restaurant that's next to Wang's school with your cousin Zhang. 

    Next to king's reading place the cooking shop your cousin open bow is going with the people. 

Clearly that would be a little more comprehensible with some punctuation, but maybe the language doesn't use any? 

Another trick is to have a word have more than one meaning, or to be used as a slang term. 

What does it mean if the person is described as square? Bad? A herbert? A literal translation isn't going to help much there.

Do I even need to go into memes? 

One last thought. Don't make it rhyme unless it's in a language the PCs speak. I always hated in movies and TV when that happens. 

All of this does require some prep work from the DM, a little more than what would be required if the PCs were using a sage who was familiar with the language and help navigate it for them, but used properly, it can be a fun way to make an ancient civilization (or current but not native civilization) more flavorful.  

Stonehell: All Fae'd Up

Session 195 was played on 4/3

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Briefly returning to town for more supplies the party again heads for Stonehell, and is targeted by 4 hill giant teens who toss rocks at the party. The party runs for it. Past the Gatehouse in, a group of Troglins is taking a toll of 5sp per person. The party pays, and continues to Rocky.

After the usual pleasantries, they get to the questions:
1. How to close the gate the fae are using to get into Stonehell?
Oberon and Titania must rule
2. How many fae are in the asylum
Many and varied
3. Is there a path from the 5th level to the 6th that bypasses the Vrilya?
Yes

From Rocky, they head back to the other side of the quadrant, and take the stairs down to the Asylum. Entering the Asylum, they encounter an ugly little fairy who tries to shake the party down. Borumar turns the tables and tries to get him to give up his treasure. The fairy goes invisible, and kicks Borumar in the shin, and then gives Joho a wet willy.

Checking the map, they decide to return to the room full of writing. Lady Eric only noted the room, but never spent any time investigating it. Morgana spends an hour examining the writing and concludes they’re the ravings of a madman. While this is going on a fairy patrol on giant beetles spots the rest of the party. Boumar again is aggressive with them, and combat is quickly joined. Sadly for the fairies, they’re overmatched, and soon dead. The party hides the bodies in a nearby empty room.

Moving on, they find a room with some ogre sized fae (with tiny glossimer wings) singing silly songs. Morgana tries to Sleep them, which fails and upsets them. A fog quickly begins to fill the area. Aroon slams the door shut before anything worse can happen. They then backtrack and go the other way past the stairs, popping into the room with the giant stone statue head. Since the last visit the head has acquired a framework of small porches, walkways, doors and windows all over it. Tiny sprites flit about, and are sent into a tizzy with the party’s arrival.

Gains:
Kills: 4 fay guards, 4 beetle mounts
Losses:  35sp

Stonehell: Interlude Talking to Allies

 Session 194 was played on 3/29 (rare Tuesday game)

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Upon returning to town, the party pulled together funds to pay for Biffin to be raised from the dead. Sadly Biffin’s spirit wanted none of it, and the ritual failed.

Morgana spends time in her workshop making scrolls, knocking out Invisibility 10’, Knock, Wizard Lock, and 2 fireball scrolls.

A wererat comes to Borumar and tells him that the trolls have taken the gold mine, and have enslaved the kobolds that were working there to keep working.

Gathering the party together, they head to the Gatehouse Inn and meet with the Kobolds there to discuss the situation. The kobolds are obviously upset about both the trolls, and the situation in the Korners. The encroachment of the fae is making a good portion of them uncomfortable. Keeper Nolti is increasingly making judgements that favor the fairy population more than the kobolds, and has even taken on a number of pumpkin-headed bugbears as enforcers.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Stonehell: Lighting up the Hall of the Mountain Trolls

Session 193 was played on 3/20.

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Lada, Thief
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Joho, still invisible, sneaks in the back door of the Hall of the Mountain Trolls and into a large corridor. Heading to the nearest door, he listens, and hears voices talking on the other side. He unlocks the door, and carefully opens it a crack. Within are 5 mountain trolls spinning and combing wool. He decides to lob a vial of oil at one of the laps near the trolls, starting a big fire. The trolls scream, which causes another group of 5 bigger trolls to come investigate. Morgana, watching from the doorway, chucks a fireball at the collected group, then summons a water elemental to handle the smaller trolls. A somewhat protracted battle occurs while Joho tries to make it back to the doorway, and everyone else tries to clear the way for him. Biffin charges through the trolls to get to Joho, who’d gotten himself surrounded. The two of them manage to finish off the 5 bigger trolls, but not before Biffin drops. Joho grabs a few jewels from the trolls that he can easily see, and then Biffin’s body and runs for the door.

At the same time the biggest mountain troll yet, along with a few other beefy friends rounds the corner and starts charging toward the party. Morgana casts Invisibility on the party, and they all cluster quietly together as the trolls begin to search for them. The trolls spend quite a while looking, and among them is an old hag of a troll who carries her head under her arm, the nose dragging on the floor.

Once the trolls give up the search, and the way is clear, the party makes for the surface.

Gains: 400gp in jewelry
Kills: Mountain trolls
Losses:  Biffin

January ‘23 In Review

One of these months I’ll get through it without getting sick. This was not that month. While I’m hesitant to say “long COVID” the fact that I had a cold (or maybe 2 colds) for 4 weeks starting before Christmas gives me pause. 

Please, I beg of you all, if you aren’t up on all your vaccines, get them. If you stopped wearing a mask in public, especially indoors, reconsider. 

Aside from that unpleasantness it was a decent month. Got the basement leaks fixed, now I just need to get the mold in the walls taken care of, then I get my office back 

Gaming 

Getting to play in Rappan Athuk is a nice break from DMing. In our last session we decided not to face off against 8 gargoyles and instead went down the well. Maybe not the best choice, but… We’ll see how it goes. 

My #Dungeon23 project is continuing along. I haven’t posted about it here, but I’m keeping up on it, and have February’s map drawn and ready to go. 

Miniatures 

Decent month. I painted an interesting assortment of minis. I've got some fun ones on the tray for next month too... 

Media 

Bullet Train 

Lost City 

Bad Batch 

Ghosts 

Doctor Who (NuWho Season 7) 

Star Trek Discovery (season 1 rewatch) 

The Last of Us 

Goals for February 

Continue #Dungeon23 

Keep up with the session reports 

Play the next scenario for Stargrave