B/X Stonehell Dungeon Session 5 Jan 23, 2021 To the Second Level

Dramatis Personae:

Benji Boggins: Halfling of great bravery, coupled with neither Intelligence, nor Wisdom, nor forethought 

Captain Jane Bridgers, a cleric who has proven her faith and can now cast spells

Finlor: Elf, no relation to Finrod or Finarfin  

Liathano: Mage: she’s looking for summoning magic 

Isabella Disarono: Thief of prodigious ego 

Oryn: A dwarf of redoubtable strength, bearer of the Axe Scar

Also present:

The retainer Buffalo Head, fighter, and is I suppose, a Minotaur, named after the beer Stacy was drinking when hired

The retainer Lindt, named after the chocolate Lexa was eating when he was hired 

Interesting note: gender parity in the player group  

The group explored the northwest section of the dungeon, hitting a lot of soft targets. Due to the size and firepower of the party, they were able to take down “Da Dragon” (in actuality a giant gecko) in a few rounds with only Oryn taking damage. 

The only truly dangerous moment was when Benji (of course) decided to investigate a dry fountain which was actually a gas trap. Fortunately, everyone made their saves against this lethal poison. Benji saved so well that he merely perceived the gas as “spicy”. 

An interesting find was a room filled with tally marks, complete with straitjacket and manacles. 

They also started delving into a set of burial chambers, some of which contained the usual welcoming committees of zombies and a ghoul. This endeavour produced probably the most useful item of the campaign so far: a staff of healing. It can cast Cure Light Wounds on any given person once per day. Back when I started playing D&D, the DM bestowed one on our group, and I kept the tradition going: there are some challenging encounters ahead, so the group will need it. 

The only issue was the slow pace of play due to the sheer size of the party. I should not have allowed the NPC fighters to be hired. 6 players plus 2 NPCs is too much. Considering the sheer number of characters, I thought the pacing was as good as could be expected, but wasn’t “good” by any objective standard. My bad. 

Going forward, I’ll disallow hirelings in larger groups.  That would have sped things up considerably. 

I’ll keep the full damage for nat20 rolls as it does speed up combat a bit. 

We have also established that the Kobolds have Bostonian accents, as they obviously should. 

Each character got about 500 XP 

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