Stonehell: Revisiting Orcs and Dragons

Session 7 of Stonehell was played on 3/18

Tink, a pretentious Elf (but I repeat myself) and former barkeep (Hanna)
Wilhelm, drunk Dwarf 1 (Julia)
-Hammond, war dog
Shelly, a vegetarian recovering alcoholic halfling Thief 1 (Nadia)
Frank, halfling 1 (Emily)

Stayed in town
Tobias, Cleric 1 of Persephone (Molly)

Due to the weird magics of Stonehell, Tobias was magically replaced by Shelly and Frank.

The party packed up their few items and chatted with Rocky, and then asked their 3 questions of the day:
Are you magical? Long rambling answer...
Can you do other things than answering questions? I can turn gems into gold.
What does this key open? The pharmacy on the level you found it on.

They thanked him for his hospitality, and Tink scratched an itch he had behind his ear. They headed back up to where the kobolds were seen working on something, and discovered a room covered in 3' tall stone faces carved into the walls. All had their mouths open, as if yelling. Pressure plates were spotted, marked with wax, and avoided. The next chamber was similar, except that each face was 10' tall and had oversized eyes. A strong breeze blew from their open mouths. Shelly stuck her head into one of the mouths, and looked down. Unfortunately the tunnel stretched further than she could see with her darkvision, and the candle they tried to use blew out in the breeze.

Out of that chamber they followed a long corridor, and spotted a pit trap before falling prey to it. As it spanned the entire width of the hallway, they triggered the trap. A half decomposed body lay sprawled on the bottom. A rope was lowered and Tink dropped in, followed by Shelly. As their feet hit bottom the body on the ground spasmed, and it reached for Tink's ankle, and missed. Everyone screamed/yelled/gasped, and Tink brought her sword down on the zombie... just as the walls of the pit trap crumbled inward, and more zombies stumbled from the dirt. Shelly scrambled out of the pit, followed by Tink as the zombies brushed dirt out of their eyes and tried to keep them in the pit. Frank poured oil all over them, then tossed a match in. Black smoke and zombie moans filled the hall, and the party retreated back to the last chamber.

They decided to give the hall a chance to clear out, and headed back to visit the orcs. Once again, they tried to strike the gong with a sling, but missed. They hid, hoping the orcs didn't notice the sling stone hitting their barricade. After a couple of rounds Frank decided to peek through the doorway, and he and an orc mutually surprised each other. Frank recovered first, and felled the orc in a single blow. The orcs in the room decided to help the party out, and hit the gong for them. Sling stones and crossbow bolts came from the party, while arrows were fired by the orcs. The orcs took the worst of it, but were quickly reinforced. Wilhelm, lacking a ranged weapon decided to toss the dead orc at his fellows. The body landed ineffectively on the barricade.

The party retreated, and ran into a room full of skeletons, and they retreated again.

After catching their breath, drinking some wine, and reorienting themselves, they decided to check out the dragon's cave. They found the lizard in it's cave, once again on the ceiling. It's 'death from above' was less effective and the party piled on the damage. The dragon tried to swallow Frank, biting down on him repeatedly. If not for his plate mail, he'd most certainly have died. As it was, the armor was destroyed. They searched the dragon's nest and found several broken shells, some coins, and a tiara. They skinned the dragon, and took it's hide with them. Deciding that they'd had enough fun (and wanted some XP) the party headed to town.

Gains: Tiara, coins
Kills: 4 orcs, 5 zombies, 1 'dragon'
Losses: 10' pole