Stonehell: Shadowflame in the Hermitage

Session 233 was played on 10/29/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

After passing out some healing potions, bandaging wounds, and double checking their supplies, they emerged back into the hall, and continued on toward where they thought the King was. Passing a cistern, they come to a room with a locked portal in the floor. A series of ropes and gears controls a lift that would descend through the portal down to… the next level? The mechanism is rusty. They make note of it, and continue on.

Coming to a T-instersection, with the hall branching to the north, they start to head down the hall when a portcullis drops at the intersection, splitting the party in half! Aroon, Lor’Koth, Bloto, and Borumar are split to the north, while Nick, Morgana, and Koltic are to the south. Then a sliding door opens and a troop of Draugrdwergs and shadow hounds attack the party to the north. The shadow hounds’ breath attack is more powerful than the hellhounds previously encountered. Between the hounds and the 4 Draugrdwergs, the fight goes hard, and Aroon, Jameth, Blotto & Koltic (caught in the shadowflame of the 2 hounds through the portcullis) drop before the party manages to kill the attackers.

Potions are forced down the throats of the fallen, and Koltic is revived enough to use his magic staff to heal the rest. The party heads into the room the Draugrdwergs came from, to catch their breath (again) when another hidden sliding door opens from an adjacent room and more Draugrdwergs and a pair of clankers attack the weakened tired party. Luckily the party’s adrenaline was still pumping and they weren’t surprised, and Morgana got off an Ice Storm while all but took care of the Draugrdwergs. Blotto finished on off by getting his fishing polearm through the nose of one, and ripping out a chunk of brain. Borumar’s daggers are remarkably effective as getting in between the clankers joins, and breaking their inner workings.

Hurting worse than before, Morgana uses a scroll of Hold Portal on the door to the adjoining room, and the door to the hall is hammered closed with pitons. Everyone collapses down to rest.

Gains:
Kills: Draugrdwergs, Clankers, Shadow Hounds
Losses:

Stonehell: Clanking around the Hermitage

Session 232 was played on 10/22/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Exploration of the hermitage, and the running battles through the halls continue. Borumar sneaks ahead to scout the way, encountering a pair of Draugrdwergs, and runs back to the party. They give chase yelling as they go, causing more to emerge from behind hidden doors, but more concerning was the mining clanker that practically filled the hall by itself.

The battle shifted back up the hall, as the party did it’s best to avoid the heavy claw and drill of the clanker and the strength draining bolts and hammers of the Draugrdwergs. Blotto took a solid blow from the clanker, and decided to pee on it in return. Not the most effective strategy, but Morgana’s Magic Missiles helped to clear out some of the extra foes piling in on the party. Borumar somehow manages to disrupt the enchantment on his bow, and it refuses to produce any more force arrows.

The clanker is eventually disabled, after having one arm removed, and Blotto shoving his polearm into the head and jamming it back and forth till it stopped moving.

Needing a moment to catch their breath, they pile into one of the hidden rooms, and close the door behind them.

Gains:
Kills: Draugrdwergs, Clanker
Losses:

Stonhehell: Deeper into the Hermitage

Session 231 was played on 10/15/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

The party investigates past the entry hall, finding the side passages to the now burned guard posts, then heads south, deeper into the hermitage. It’s a running battle as Draugrdwergs continue into the hall as the party moves. Several domiciles spill out combatants, and then a tougher foe, a priest and a pair of hellhounds. In spite of their demonic powers, the hellhounds and priest fail to hurt the party before they’re chopped down.

Deeper still, another domicile reveals another 4 Draugrdwergs. 3 are cut down, and one is badly injured and captured. He isn’t very forthcoming, but between the cursing and insults, he reveals that their king with the magic hammer that they ask about is ready for them to the northeast, and they should make their peace. Lor’Koth kills him, and they prepare to meet with the Draugrdwerg King.

Gains:
Kills: Draugrdwergs, Draugrdwerg priest, hellhounds
Losses:

Stonehell: Hermitage Back Door

 Session 230 was played on 10/12/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Karl, Dwarf 9 (Julia)

After resting up, the party heads back into the sewers. Morgana collects the day-old slime stirge corpse for research purposes. Avoiding the door into the Hermitage, they circle around and end up in a large open room with 4 ten foot deep pits around a 20’ tall amorphous (but vaguely female) statue with 4 pseudopods sticking out of it. Investigating the pits, there’s a faint shimmering above each, right at floor level. 3 of the pits are empty, but the 4th has weird 2’ tall slime babies. Blotto and Karl pee on the statue.

Continuing north they come to another door into the Hermitage. Between Morgana and Borumar, they unlock the door. Beyond is a large entry hall lit very faintly by blue gem lanterns. The lamps seem to provide more shadow than light, so Blotto tossed in a coin with Continual Light cast on it. The coin briefly illuminates the room, flares for a brief moment, and then the light fades. The blue gem lanterns on the other hand get slightly brighter. And in that time Blotto is hit by a crossbow bolt.

The light flare did show Blotto where the arrow slits in the wall were so he rushes in to the north side and tosses a troll larynx through it, then grabs for 2 of the lanterns. He’s hit again. Morgana expertly shoots a fireball through the arrowslit in the south wall. Karl rushes in and as the arrow slit is too small for his hammer, shoves a loaf of dwarf bread through, hitting a Draugrdwerg solidly in the nose. Morgana yells “Marshmallow!” and Karl ducks. Blotto is confused, but Karl grabs him just as the fireball explodes behind the northern arrowslits.

Gains:
Kills: 4 Draugrdwergs
Losses:

April ‘24 In Review

Another hectic busy month, with a vacation right in the middle of it that just didn’t feel entirely worth it having to come back to a pile of things that needed to be done asap. The most time intensive of those I only just finished. I'll be glad when the audit is over mid-May. Then I can maybe take that day off for myself. 

On the home front we got a new roof installed. Hopefully between the basement repairs and the new roof this will be the end of the various leaks I've had to deal with.


Gaming

Got in a single session of Necessary Evil, and a couple of Stonehell/Rappan Athuk. The party just wiped out most of a Bugbear outpost, and then encountered an ancient magic using red dragon. We managed to not get eaten, and fled her territory, continuing on our way toward that temple that we need to clean out.


Miniatures

A slower month, but I’m still pleased with what I’ve got done. The sci-fi troopers I mentioned last month I haven’t touched since, and they’re all so close to done, but… instead I worked on the remaining Chainmail drakes, and a mummy lord and lady, and a rat. I also slapped together a piece of line of sight blocking terrain from some scrap bits of plastic I had kicking around. 

Media
Resident Alien
Star Trek Discovery
Ghosts


Goals for May
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal (gonna happen some month…)
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.
Take a day off and make some terrain