Stonehell Play Report - Session Four

 

This week our open table Stonehell campaign resumed play after a month or so hiatus drifting listlessly and game-less between various pubs in London (more on that odyssey in another blog post)

Real World Date Date: 23/06/2026 

Game Time: 16th Mordred 1023 

The Party:

Nido - Level One Drow Knight (Sergey) RIP

Marcus -Level One Human Bard (Dave)

Raskolnikov - Level One  Human Paladin (Cian) RIP

Perseus V - Level One Human Knight (Renan)  RIP  

System: OSE Advanced 

Last session the party traversed a switchback trail adjoining Stonehell home to a band of Brigands. The week before saw them striking a blow to the gang in slightly unhinged combat involving bolting horses, torch throwing and brave Nidor almost single-handedly holding off an army of rowdy bandits. There the party managed to rescue Nathaniel, a merchant waylaid by the crooks on the road. The bandits had kept him hostage, interrogating him for all he knew about the goings-on deeper in the dungeon.

The day's adventure began with the party enjoying a hearty breakfast in the Nag's Head on a stifling summer's morning. Over eggs, bread and porter,  they made the acquaintance of an elf known as Redshirticus. Before setting out for the dungeon they had an audience with Nathaniel sequestered in the Jewel Merchant's Jebdo's house.

Jebdo gave Raskolnikov the holy symbol he had ordered: a well wrought icon of gold and gems depicting his sacred saint. Over tea and crumpets Nathaniel shared what he knew of the infamous dungeon and how the second floor is teeming with an army of Hobgoblins who are busy preparing an attack on the  surface. Nathaniel thanked the party for rescuing him and asked them to check up on Snorri, a dwarven architect last seen somewhere on the first level of the dungeon. Full from the repast of Jebdo's table, the party set out for Stonehell. They left the Castellan's Keep and followed the overgrown track across marshland arriving by noon at the canyon housing the abandoned prison.

The party wasted no time in heading directly for the main entrance. They descended the well worn spiral staircase and arrived in the grand foyer on the first level of the dungeon. They lit a torch and were presented with multiple options of where to venture next. They deliberated for a while before being rudely interrupted by an orc patrol. The orcs, drunk on grog announced themselves in broken common as members of the Open Sores clan. Quickly recognizing how out of their depth the party was, the orcs immediately tried to exhort them of their gold pieces.

The PCS were in no mood to bargain. Nidor drew his blade, itching for bloodshed. Marcus began to play a lilting tune on his lyre and successfully managed to fascinate the leader of the gang and his second, both enchanted by the bard's deft fretwork. Seeing their strongest warriors fall under the spell of such sweet music in so grim and vile a place, the rest of the orcs fell into panic, quickly dispelled with the slash of Nidor's blade. Thus began a bloody combat where many orcs fell with only one lone straggler managing to escape the fray, seeking reinforcements from his clan.

After the battle the party were exhausted just as they were ready to take a breather, a harsh gong began to clang somewhere to the south. Not wishing to miss any treasure they opted to drag the orc corpses up the steep spiral staircase to the surface to loot them at their leisure.

An  incensed band of orcish reinforcements pursued them up the stair. The part formed an ad-hoc defensive position at the top of the stairs: Nido, Perseus and Raskolnikov blocked off the stairwell in armored formation whilst Marcus and Redshirticus peppered the pig-faced creatures with arrow and sling. The party's exhaustion played against them as the fray swiftly fell in the Orc's favor.

Reshirticus was first to fall. A well placed arrow from an orc situated on the stairway sent the elf back to his ancestors. Next brave Nidor met his fate impaled by an shortish blade, the creature succeeding where ten bandits had failed last week. The party fought on and managed to stem the orc onslaught for a few rounds.  Perseus V was next to fall leaving only Raskolnikov and Marcus alive. Despite half of their number falling, the orcs were unperturbed by their losses and descended into a wild, bloodthirsty rage Raskolnikov charged in bravely but was struck in hand-to hand combat. The lone survivor Marcus took his last chance to flee. He set off on a desperate retreat out of the canyon and back to the Keep. The last living orc Grazzle, now daubed the 'Knight Slayer' by the other Open Sores, returned  home to boast to his clan; his purse flush with gold pieces and the mouth watering promise of surface-dweller flesh for  dinner.

That evening deep within his cups, Marcus shared the story of his ill-fated band as all great bards do, in tall tales and stirring, memorable choruses; that evening all of the Keep sang of Nidor, Raskolnikov and Perseus, how they bravely faced an 'army' of orcs and died deep within the depths of Stonehell!

 DM's notes

- The party got unlucky on random encounters in today's session. I rolled two Orc encounters in a row. They flowed nicely into each other with one of the Orcs in the first encounter seeking reinforcements. So far in the campaign the combats haven't been this challenging.

- When weighing up their options the players did discuss how being exhausted and not having a rest would have a significant impact on their combat capabilities. The -1 debuff really tipped the combat in the Orcs favor.

- I feel as though I could have handled the moments between the first and second encounters better. As the party insisted on dragging the Orcs from the first battle up the staircase with them it made sense to me that the Orcs would easily pursue them as they were slowed. They didn't really make any other precautions as this evil clashing gong rang out warning them of more danger and still they were greedy for gold pieces!  Still it doesn't feel good to lose three PCs in one session!

If  you like the sound of our game and happen to be in the City State of the Invincible Overlord AKA London our game is Open Table which means any one can join just hop on our discord.

Or next session is on the 29th of June. At the Tower Bridge Arms.

https://discord.gg/JEZNMW7wb