Saturday, July 29, 2017

Stonehell: Expedition 2

The Party
Raker - Thief (Spooner) - dead
Rinnorren - Fighter (spicer)
Cotter - Figher (Chris Scott) - dead
Hammer - Fighter (Chris Scott)
Elofinde - Magic-User (Frey)
Isarn - Cleric (NPC/Spooner)
Oath - Thief (NPC)

The Crawl
Under the veteran guidance of Raker, thief extraordinaire, a new party ventured back into Hell's Antechamber.  They avoided the "Dragon's Den".  They closed the door on some giant rats feasting on fresh corpses.  A brief encounter with some kobolds was ended decisively with arrows and darts, and when they discovered a kobold outpost, they kept their distance.  They discovered a stone carving of a head, 10' tall with smoking mouth and crystal eyes.  It answered questions in cryptic phrases, but they were only interested in those crystals, which were soon pried free.  They discovered a room covered in soot, showing sillhouettes on the walls that spoke of horrible dangers.  Here they met a group of dwarves led by an archeologist named Snorri Broadshoulders.  The courageous adventurers allowed the dwarves to traipse across the the sooty room before them to ensure its safety.  This was a group that knew the dangers of Stonehell.  Warned of the poisonous snakes that leap from dark places and struck down most of Raker's old team, they proceeded into a junk room and started kicking through the garbage, startling some poisonous snakes that struck down Raker and Cotter.
Back to the inn, they recruited Hammer and Oath to fill the void of their freshly departed and swore revenge on all things serpentine.  They returned to Stonehell and made their way further in.  Avoid the living became the order of the day.  An ancient battlefield seemed promising.  Only corpses and rusted weapons here.  The mausoleum doors, adorned with dancing skeletons, promised a lack of flesh and blood beyond.  Into the crypts, the grave-robbers proceeded to ransack tomb after tomb.  Where they encountered resistance, it was in the form of newly arisen corpses, and a healthy dose of Isarn's prayers and applied fire made swift work of them.  The tombs proved valuable, and before long the party was able to return to the inn with a fair supply of treasure to show for their expeditions.  Drinks to the fallen!

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Stonehell: Expedition 1

The Party
Samo - Dwarf Fighter (spicer) - dead
Raker - Thief (Spooner)
Eneagon - Cleric (Nicholas)
Porealis - Ranger (imafrog) - dead
Kerroph - Magic-User (Michael) - dead
Father Mug - Cleric (NPC/spicer) - dead

The Crawl
Explored a few rooms of the first level of Stonehell, known to adventurers as Hell's Antechamber.  The first casualty came from a magic wheel of fortune.  After Porealis spun it and claimed a large sapphire, Samo attempted to push the dial to a specific result.  The wheel spun free of its own will and landed on a sigil of death - he was instantly struck down.  After Kerroph was temporarily paralized by his turn at the wheel, the party moved on.
In another room, the party found a dry fountain with fish statues.  Porealis poured water into it which instantly vaporized into a poisonous gas, which he narrowly avoided inhaling.  Father Mug poured holy water into the fountain and removed its curse, after which it flowed with a clean, pure water.
The party was ambushed by 9 giant rats, but Kerroph cast a sleep spell on them and they were all bashed to death in their sleep.
Further investigation of the room discovered a giant spider nest.  Three great arachnids attacked, but were slain quickly before they could harm anyone.  The nest was put the the torch, incinerating dozens of eggs.
Further into Hell's Antechamber, the party found a rough cavernous area with a stone well that whistled with gusts of wind.  As they moved to inspect it. 5 poisonous cobras struck from the darkness of the well, isntantly dropping Porealis, Kerroph, and Father Mug.  Raker and Enagon quickly scooped up Porealis's magically bestowed gem and Father Mug's holy mace and fled from dungeon, retracing their steps by Raker's chalk marks.  Without incident, they returned to the stairwell and exited Stonehell - for now.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Stonehell: Running an open table megadungeon.

There's something immediately fascinating to me about the megadungeon.  A vast network of halls delving ever deeper into stranger realms, where adventurers brave horrendous monsters, lethal traps, and cunning puzzles to win fame and fortune.  The scope of the dungeon implies a certain precedence: this is the game.  World building can be somewhat postponed when the session is all about plunging straight into the dungeon for further exploration, but the world building that emerges through play can lead to an organic, immersive experience.
I am running Stonehell, Michael Curtis's 10 level megadungeon for Labyrinth Lord, as an open table on Roll20.  I'm adapting it to Swords & Wizardry Complete, my preferred retro-clone, which is pretty much effortless.  I'm redrawing all the maps in Dungeonographer and drawing dynamic lighting in Roll20.  This allows for some fun dungeon exploration.  Easy to track the party's movement through the dungeon, and no confusion on the description, but their vision of the dungeon is limited by their light source.
I am capping players per session at 8 to keep it manageable, and posting a signup sheet a couple days before each session.  I'll post my play reports and thoughts on play as we go.  As a product, I'm very impressed with Stonehell.  I purchased the pdf and was ready to run the first session the following day.  It uses a very condensed format to make each section of the dungeon very easy to digest.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in large dungeons, but especially for someone new to running this sort of thing.  It doesn't waste any time on anything you don't need, which really lets the referee focus on presenting the dungeon.