Stonehell: B-Team Meets the Chosen of Zunbar & Rocky

Session 290 was played on 7/27/25

Sonara, Wizard 3 (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf 2 (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold 3 (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric 3 (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling 3 (Josh)
6 Kobold meatshields

Wary of the ogre mouth hallway, they cautiously inch forward, following the map toward Rocky. As they near the next intersection they hear some voices speaking goblin, and spot them to the east… at least they’re sort of goblins? Extra lumpy and oddly proportioned, they identify themselves as the Chosen of Zunbar! The Great! The Undying! The Moist! They aren’t hostile, and each group is happy to let the other go on its way unmolested.

Once the Chosen pass by, the party all agrees they need to get better background from their mentors.

Heading north, they go to the room marked as “Cold” on the map, and find… a cold room with a bunch of freezer-burned frozen rats stuck to the floor. They poke around at the mostly empty room, and then continue on their way.

Arriving at the door to Rocky’s room, Glimmer accidentally sets off a oil trap installed over the door. The rest of the party quickly helps to douse the flames and Rocky makes some sad comments about bothersome people coming to trap the door.

Sonra gives Rocky some quartz from Morgana and everyone introduces themselves.

Q1: How are you?
A1: Good

Q2: Any good treasure on this level?
A2: Yes

Q3: Where can we find it?
A3: Sabrine has it.

Q4: Who’s Sabrine?
A4: Sorry, you asked all your questions…

Again the party laments the lack of info from their mentors.

September ‘25 In Review

Labor Day, and then the start of school. The kid is in kindergarten now, and the autumn schedule is in full swing. My blog reached its sweet 16, which is utterly bonkers. The weather has been doing that swing between too hot for autumn and feels like late October thing. Not my favorite, and given how dry it’s been I don’t think we’re gonna get a good foliage season this year. All in all a good but busy month. When was the last time I didn’t have a busy month??

Gaming
I try very hard to avoid online gaming, especially mobile gaming, as it’s such a time sink, but… but I’ve found myself drawn into Fallen London. I’ve been vaguely aware of it for a long time, and played the Sunless Sea game, and that was enough to get me to back the Fallen London RPG kickstarter. The setting is just that cool, and I finally decided to play the actual game.

Stonehell has the B team dealing with the winter court fae that have taken over the Kobold Korners, and a good chunk of level 2. In talking to my kid the other night, telling him about the game, he had a deviously brilliant idea about what’s going on, and now I’m rethinking some things…

Work game has been canceled more often than not unfortunately. Hopefully things will settle down a bit and we can get some more consistent gaming in soon.

Miniatures
I started a 1:1 scale giant spider monster for my Halloween decorations. I definitely didn’t comprehend just how big it was going to end up being!! I’m not disappointed, but it does rather dominate the yard. I am using a lot more spray foam than I was expecting, and all told the material costs are up there with some of the smaller large yard decorations you’d get at Lowe’s. At this point I think I need at least 3 more cans of spray insulation… I’m probably gonna get 6 just to be on the safe side.

Keeping in the Halloween theme, I also painted up Baba Yaga (to go with the hut I already painted) and the Overgourd (pumpkin beholder) which is a delightful silly monster. I wish I could claim the candy corn teeth were my idea, but someone came up with it almost immediately after the mini was released. Still, I'm not above stealing a good idea.

The King of Ashes (lich on throne) was another one of those minis that I was hanging onto until I was “good enough” to do it justice. Honestly I’m kinda glad I did, because trying to get the lich assembled so that it would properly sit on the throne was a pain in the ass. I again took a fair bit of inspiration from the official art, but overall I’m pleased with it, in spite of its flaws, including the terrible mold line along the throne’s bottom edge.

 

Honestly, I’m kinda shocked by how productive this month was. Hoping to keep that momentum going into the final quarter of the year.


Media
Game Changer season 7
Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Farscape
The Studio
Fisk

Loot

Yoon-Suin 

Goals for October

Finish the giant spider for the yard

Knock out a bunch of minis

Finish writing up the game sessions from the big gaming trip

Stonehell: The B Team Begins

Session 289 was played on 7/24/25

Sonara, Wizard 3 (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf 2 (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold 3 (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric 3 (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling 3 (Josh)

The PC’s were generally all vaguely aware of each other. Sonara and Adorellen both being apprentices of Morgana, Glimmer being one of the winged kobolds from Nick’s keep, and Loahn being a local working with the thieves guild in the town and acquainted with Borumar. Kessaren only arrived recently, having had the caravan she was traveling with hit by monsters, and her making it to Nick’s castle for sanctuary. Morgana is sending her apprentices out to go deal with things in Stonehell. The others are told about the mission and are those who volunteer to join up. An additional 6 kobolds are incentivized to join in on a promise of 5sp each per day.

The party departs Morgana manse and takes the old king’s road north out of town, crossing over the causeway through the swamp and then up into the foothills where the box canyon rests. They bypass the Gatehouse Inn, and head for the main entrance of Stonehell, reading the inscription above the doorway for the first time. Beyond the doorway they see the names inscribed on the walls, and each adds their own.

They take the stairs down, and follow their map into the kitchen and banquet room off the entry room. Giving it a thorough search, they discover a map scratched onto the underside of the table. In the kitchen area, they work the stuck pump over the sink until they pop out a stone and release a green slime that was blocked behind it. Glimmer gets splashed by a tiny bit of the green slime and ends up with some burns to show for it.

Gains: 60gp gem
Kills: Green Slime
Losses:

Rappan: Immarassrath, the aftermath

Session 288 was played on 07/07/25

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

This session ended up being entirely logistical and no adventuring was done.

After the slaying of Immarassrath, the party spent weeks recovering from their wounds and being raised from the dead… again. Morgana spent the time focused on identifying the various items recovered. Immarassrath had slain well equipped dragon hunters before, and the loot was hard won, but worth it.

The group also discussed what the future direction of the group would be, and it was settled on that we would roll up some B Team characters to play for a bit, and give our high level characters some in-game down time but still moving some of the storylines forward.

Rappan: The Death of Immarassrath

Session 287 was played on 07/03/25

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

The party pauses, and Koltic returns to the surface to raise a few zombies to act as distractions/meat shields while the party again paused to bind wounds and catch their breath, and make sure Aroon’s body was safely stashed to the side.

Up on the surface Koltic encountered a little problem with some of the bodies he was trying to animate being hijacked by some overly mobile vines. Koltic has to use his brawn as the vines don’t turn as undead. This takes a bit, but he eventually gets there, and finally can raise the bodies as zombies for his own use. They begin to slowly make their way back to the stairs.

Meanwhile the party hears a lot of jingling and the movement of a LOT of metal, and then the dragon’s voice “Oh, I found it”

Sure, that could have been a trick, but the party pressed on, and hoped Koltic would be able to deal with the aftermath. Down a long tunnel the party came upon another broken vial, and then beyond a large throneroom. Blotto and Borumar were in the lead, and took a fireball to the face, followed by another a few seconds later. Borumar dropped, and Blotto wasn’t far behind. The remaining meatsticks charge in. Nick again throwing his spear, Jameth shooting his crossbow, while Morgana drops an ice storm on the dragon.

Koltic and his zombies continue down the stairs.

Immarassrath smiles and says “my turn.” and throws yet another fireball from its necklace on the party dropping Lor’Koth and Jameth. Nick, and Blotto charge in, both cutting into the dragon’s thick hide. The dragon lashes out with his claws and fangs, while Morgana drops another ice storm on the dragon.

Koltic and the zombies near the bottom of the stairs, and begin to hear the rumbling of fireballs and the roar of a pissed off dragon.

The dragon tosses the bodies of Nick and Blotto to the side, and throws another fireball bead at Morgana. She takes it full on, but still stands, and blasts it in return with yet another ice storm from her staff. The dragon’s rime covered body falters and fails under the onslaught.

Morgana checks the bodies of her fallen companions and quickly realizes that they are beyond her help. Thankfully Koltic, zombies in tow, finally arrives. They collect Aroon’s corpse from further back and prepare the bodies for resurrection and recuperation. Over the next week, everyone is returned to life, and Morgana and the zombies sort through the treasure. Eventually Morgana is able to teleport the party back to the manor to complete their recovery.

Gains: A literal dragon’s horde.
Kills: Immarassrath
Losses:

Rappan: Assaulting Immarassrath, 2nd try pt. 3

Session 286 was played on 06/22/25


Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)


Returning to the pit, the pile of money is checked. It’s mostly lead and copper with a layer of gold coins for appearances. Morgana uses her Scroll of Slug Summoning and has it appear at the bottom of the hole the dragon went down. Watching from above, the rock slug makes its way after the dragon. There’s a couple of flashes of light, the breaking of glass, some roaring, and “oh god, it won’t come off!” screamed in draconic. While this is going on the party is sharing around healing magics, and making use of Morgana’s ring of regeneration.

The party cautiously descends the 350 steps to the bottom of the hole, finding the tunnel the dragon and the slug went down, and see the remains of the slug just a bit down the tunnel in a wider chamber. The large space beyond is largely empty, but for the glint of glass at the far side. Super cautiously the party investigates, worried about the dragon having become invisible. The glinting class is an empty potion bottle…

Out of the chamber is an open passage that slopes around and up. Blotto and Aroon manage to get caught in a rockfall trap. Beyond it is the dragon, and it breathes down the passage at the party, and Nick and Aroon drop from the choking gas. Morgana, just out of the range of the gas attack, drops an ice storm on the dragon, and Borumar summons his triton heritage and spits out a stream of high power water. Even a dragon finds getting hit with a power washer a bit painful. Blotto shoots the dragon with his crossbow, scratching it… Again, the dragon flees deeper into the tunnels, giving Koltic the chance to heal Nick. Aroon took too much damage and will need to be Raised.

Sweet 16

 Happy Blogiversary to me! 

Somehow I'm still going strong. Go me! I expect more of the same over the next year, and looking forward to it. I hope you are too!