Old-School Essentials: Stonehell

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Egare carefully prods the ground for trapdoors, tripwires and pressure plates, but a thorough test finds nothing. So he approaches the door and examines it.

Construction is very similar to other doors you've seen so far: thick moldering oak bound by black iron. There's a large pull ring on the front. Egare sees nothing unusual about the door.

From the position in front of the door, however, he can see a little further down the corridor. It continues for about 25' more, whereupon it opens into a dark room. Another hallway branches off to the left immediately before that.
Egare attempts to listen at the door.
 
Egare gamely puts his ear to the sodden wood. He hears nothing.
 
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If there is a lock he will examine it. He'll dab a little oil on the hinges if they are accessable. Otherwise he'll check to see if the door can be easily and quietly opened a crack. If he runs into any physical resistance he'll stop hopefully before it's noticed.
 
There is no obvious lock mechanism, but a light tug on the ring doesn't give a millimeter. The sodden wood has probably swollen tightly into the stone frame.
 
Egare returns to the group and says "Doors not going to open quietly. Also the path continues to a turn to the right before opening into a room I think."
 
Bron advises that opening the stuck door is likely to make a lot of noise. On the other hand most of the locals seem to already know we're here.
 
"That door should lead to the same one as the door along the corridor we just past. If we clear it out we'll have a clear path between them. However I agree with the Pirate, let's not risk noise just yet. Shall we continue straight on?"

OOC: Here is the map. Green is the spiral staircase room. Wine is other rooms. Black is corridors or tunnels we didn't take. Purple is doors we didn't open. Light Blue is the cave system. Grey is the pit the Kobolds left for us.
Dark Blue was reserved for the exits we didn't take from the Spiral Staircase room.

Kobolds were met in the right of the two rooms at the top end of the map.
Room with basin full of silver is the first one further south than the spiral staircase room.

Cave mightn't be precise as it was more uneven and twisty. However the major features and connections to the rest of the complex should be fine.

We are now at the purple door at the top right.


stonehell.jpg
 
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The party marches past the closed door. Bellitus cranes her neck to watch it as you pass, as though she expects something to emerge behind you. Nothing does.

After 20', you stand at the threshold of a room where the corridor turns left and continues beyond your torchlight. The room itself is small and rectangular, longer than it is wide, the leftmost wall flush with the hallway you would enter by. On its righthand wall is another hallway.

From where you stand, the walls of this room are thronged with roughly human silhouettes of sooty black. They look to be stains with the uncanny appearance of motionless shadows.

Obvious exits:
  • Backwards to the door you passed.
  • Down the hallway to the left.
  • Forward into the room.
 
"Into the room? See what's there?"

OOC: I assume from the two sets of halls being flush with each side of the room that it's sort of like a staggered hall?
 
OOC: I assume from the two sets of halls being flush with each side of the room that it's sort of like a staggered hall?
The passage to the right heads perpendicular to your entrance and its walls are not flush with any in the room. When I get home I’ll draw it if that’s confusing.
 
The passage to the right heads perpendicular to your entrance and its walls are not flush with any in the room. When I get home I’ll draw it if that’s confusing.
OOC: Thanks it's clear now, misunderstanding on my part
 
Copperhand ventures to the door of the new room and peers in. "I don't like the looks of these" he says of the stains, searching for any sign of what might have caused them.
 
Copperhand draws close to the marks on the walls. Up close, they look like crude charcoal drawings of figures vaguely in distress. He doesn't see anything unusual about them.

A dead, bloated rat appears to be wedged partly into a crack in the wall at shoulder level near the other passage from this room. You can see down the short 10' corridor into the next room. It appears to be have similar dimensions to your current room and is crammed with heaps of reeking junk.
 
"Why is that rat wedged into the wall?" Hildegard says looking at it in confusion "Let's head into the next room for now"
 
"Why is that rat wedged into the wall?" Hildegard says looking at it in confusion "Let's head into the next room for now"
OOC: Such a coincidence! I was just typing an OOC comment here that I was surprised that anyone could pass up on a bloated rat, and I get a notification partway through that someone has posted on the thread. Ah, serendipity.

Just to clarify, the rat doesn't look like it was stuffed there - specifically, it's backside is hanging out like it died trying to get into a hole that was too small for it.
 
"Why is that rat wedged into the wall?" Hildegard says looking at it in confusion "Let's head into the next room for now"
"What?!!? Are you crazy? I'm going to check out why there's a squished rat IN a wall. " Says Egare before carefully proceeding towards the squished rat.
 
Says Egare before carefully proceeding towards the squished rat.
Egare gets a closer look at the rat. It looks to have died fairly recently because it’s not completely rotted. The exception is its rear left leg which is bloated to an unrecognizable shape, blackened and hairless. It appears to have died while trying to squeeze into a crack which it could scarcely fit its head.
 
"What?!!? Are you crazy? I'm going to check out why there's a squished rat IN a wall. " Says Egare before carefully proceeding towards the squished rat.
"Well if you're so curious..."

Hildegard will pierce the rat with her sword, skewering it and try to pull it out.
 
Hildegard will pierce the rat with her sword, skewering it and try to pull it out.
The wretched thing leaks something vile as it is impaled on Hildegard's blade. It comes out of the wall but quickly falls apart. Ruul unconsciously takes a step backwards while Ingri grins like a loon.
 
"Pleasant..." Hildegard says grimacing at the fluid, she then tries to see if any gap or hole is exposed by prying out the rat and if there is anything of interest in there.
 
Hildegard doesn't spot anything in the hole other than some bits of rat that failed to emerge on her sword blade.
 
"On we go, whatever happened to this rat I can't tell" she says staring at the remains.
 
Egare shrugs "Mystery" and follows the rest on.
 
The party proceeds through the room, it's walls marked with shadowy figures like dark smudges. The next room has identical dimensions, although it is heaped with piles of junk. Amidst the heaps you can see broken pieces of furniture, filthy tatters of cloth, thoroughly rusted metal scrap, and less recognizable lumps of matter. There are the twin scents of rot and waste, and flies buzz loudly in your torchlight.

Bellitus' gaze sweeps around the room. "Could be anything waiting in this mess, as long as it could stand the stench. Watch your step."

Obvious exits:
  • Back to the room with the figures on the walls.
  • Straight across the room from where you enter is another entrance. You can't see much of what lies beyond due to intervening trash.
 
"Best to cleanse it with fire but I don't think we have enough." offers Egare.
 
"Worth pouring some oil on part of it, lighting it and seeing if it rouses anything within?" Hildegard muses.

"Of course smoke in such a confined place might make it hard to breath"
 
"Random fire. How could that possibly go wrong" Egare jokes as he pulls out a flask.
 
OOC: I didn't want to jump to any conclusions and declare the room aflame because I wasn't sure you had resolved to do so, or how you wanted to do it. So just to clarify, let me know if you want to watch the room burn.

Also, I just wanted to give you guys a little GM check-in and some OOC perspective. In case you feel like things are moving a bit slowly, be aware that you're still in the intro quadrant of the first level. It's pretty sparse on threats and treasure. The premise is that this area is pretty well-ransacked and traveled. Things heat up pretty quickly in the rest of the dungeon, especially as you descend (obviously). I'm not urging you to do that (or not do that), but just in case you were feeling that Stonehell is a little "basic," I wanted you to be aware of this.
 
OOC: Actually my original post was quite ambiguous. My intention was to light up one of the piles of rubbish and see if anything stirs in the rest of the room rather than light up the whole room.
 
Egare makes a flaming cocktail and lobs it towards the middle of a nice large chunck of trash. And then quickly backtracks to the edge of the room to observe.
 
Egare makes a flaming cocktail and lobs it towards the middle of a nice large chunck of trash. And then quickly backtracks to the edge of the room to observe.
OOC: Is Egare perhaps related to a Jason Mendoza from the Kingdom of Jacksonville?

Egare hucks the burning oil into the trash, the clay bottle shattering as it strikes a clump of rusted iron. The flames hiss and crackle, and the smoke forces the party to take a few steps back. For some reason, it doesn't build up, as there seems to be a gentle airflow near the ceiling.

Suddenly, a trio of serpents squirm out of the trash, straight towards you! Their heads flare into wide hoods and they lash out with dripping fangs.

OOC: Someone roll for initiative!
 
OOC: Is Egare perhaps related to a Jason Mendoza from the Kingdom of Jacksonville?

Egare hucks the burning oil into the trash, the clay bottle shattering as it strikes a clump of rusted iron. The flames hiss and crackle, and the smoke forces the party to take a few steps back. For some reason, it doesn't build up, as there seems to be a gentle airflow near the ceiling.

Suddenly, a trio of serpents squirm out of the trash, straight towards you! Their heads flare into wide hoods and they lash out with dripping fangs.

OOC: Someone roll for initiative!
What die? D6, d20?
 
The party is watching the fire and standing at enough distance that they have plenty of time to react to the snakes.

OOC: I'm assuming you are in marching order since you had to back out of the room. Declare your action!
 
Hildegard draws her sword and makes a snake come to her by clanging the sword against the ground to attract it. If it does she'll watch it closely and try to time a swing for either when it is close enough or when it leaps.

Otherwise she'll head toward a snake attacking somebody else and attempt to swipe at it.

OOC: To Hit roll if needed here. Value: 17.
 
OOC: Is everyone attacking? If so, I'll resolve in marching order. Only the first two ranks are going to have a shot at melee at this point.
 
Egare will fling a dagger at a snake(d20=18).
 
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