One-Eyed Monolith

Stonehell Session Five

Cast

Proceeding of Events

The talk in town is that something must be done about the bandits. They've been a menace for months now, but have now been actively attacking local trade routes and making locals feel unsafe.

The party, however, decide to wait until they are ready to confront them. Perhaps someone else tries first.

Instead, owing to their possession of a partial map of Stonehell and rumours of a phosphorescent moss with healing properties, they decide to venture in. Party of three.

They find and slay Da Dragon by making good use of the Light spell and Ragnar harvests its skin and teeth. They find a delicate gold circlet in its stash.

They meet a merry band of identical dwarfs, who greet them with a song and leave with good wishes.

Their map does not contain a way around a 10 foot hole in the floor which blocks their way to the wizard's lair shown on the map. So, they decide if they can't go around, they must go under.

They climb down a well, but before they can make good progress they encounter ten crazed men, arguing around w campfire about which is It. The men block their way, requiring payment.

Zarg offers an alternative, a game of tic-tac-toe. The men don't play fair. The next, a flip of a coin, another loss. Seeing the progression of their demands, Ragnar takes them by surprising and attempts to drive his sword into one of the men. He misses.

What follows is a brutal melee, clubs are swung, oil first used as threat, then as weapon. Drik sustains a near mortal wound to the skull, but the three are able to rout the ten having killed (or been aided in the killing of) five. Zarg's threat caused two of the ten to choose peace, making the difference between life and death.

Enough was enough, and the three dwarfs decided to leave with their lives. For today.

On their way out, they overhead a militaristic chanting, and disappointed chatter upon said voices discovering Da Dragon dead.

Reflection on the Game

I was really happy with this one, I think we got a lot done but also learnt a little more about Stonehell and the freaks that live here.

I tried to sew in a few threads including rumours about the party's map, the presence of the orcs (or perhaps hobgoblins), and the bandits, which they responded to and seemed to take on board.

I'm probably happiest with my first attempts this campaign at role-playing conversations rather than giving high level descriptions of characters and their demeanour. I used to do this more often but I'm out of practise and I've lost some of my confidence. Nevertheless, it went well today and I think contributed to the fun!

The thing I'd like to improve on most is running combat. I think the players had fun, as did I, but the combat with the inmates could have been a little cleaner or even scarier. They played smartly, but I think three dwarfs could have sustained more injuries fighting against ten. On the other hand, the ten were unarmoured and wielded clubs while the party nearly all have plate armour and maces or swords so maybe it was more even than I thought.

I'm excited to run the next game, and excited to start prepping Dolmenwood now that I've discussed the idea with them!