B/X Stonehell Dungeon Session 7, Feb 20, 2021

Dramatis Personae:

Isabella Disarono: Thief of prodigious ego

NPCs:

Gort of the Shining Force, Cleric
Buffalo Head, Fighter 
Lindt, Fighter

Another solo session! This time it was the intrepid and notoriously overconfident Isabella the Thief leading her band of hirelings. 

After making the prudent offering to Coal the black bear to procure a re-roll, the party headed into the dungeon. The first area of note they uncovered was a room with a strange stone dial, designed to be spun, inscribed with runes and glyphs of luck, chance, and disaster. Because adventurers are a mercurial lot, they all decided to spin the Wheel of Fortune. It seems that Fate not only protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise, it likewise protects adventurers. Not that they don’t usually fall under the category of “fools” as well. Isabella ended up with an AC bonus, Buffalo Head had to save vs spells or die (he survived) Lindt got a re-roll, Gort with his gold doubled, but only after Isabella gave her “Coal re-roll” to him in order to avoid his being polymorphed into a small harmless animal, which would have greatly impaired his clerical abilities. 

Moving east, they meet Snorri’s now familiar archaeological crew, and also the goblin tribe they had previously helped, and which has not (yet) turned on them. The goblins are in a tense and periodically violent stand-off with the orcs further in, as attested to by blood spattered barricades and goblin corpses dimly visible further down the hall. 

Rather than get involved in this conflict, the party worked their way to the west, exploring new areas, including a room of broken statues, one of which concealed a bag of gold and silver coins and a key! Shortly after, they found a set of stairs down. Knowing that with greater risks come greater rewards, Isabella wasted no time in cajoling her retainers down the stairs. Unfortunately, this gambit would prove nearly disastrous. Just past the stairs was the smell of cooking meat coming from the west. Rather than engage the unknown chefs, the party headed east. Behind one door they found a room full of amphorae, buckets, and other containers full of tank fluids. However, they found within those containers a sizeable amount of coin. However, things were about to take a turn for the worse. They came upon a door and opened it, to discover a room full of large baboons. Despite the party’s weapons and armour, the baboons mauled them severely, and had it not been for the ministrations of the cleric Gort, all would have been lost, and Isabella & Company’s fate sealed in the dark halls of Stonehell. Battered, bloodied, and bruised, retreated back to town after only a single encounter, but with enough treasure to recoup their losses. While they found loot, they nearly paid for it with their lives. They were only a couple of rolls from a TPK at one point. Thankfully Isabella’s positional tactics helped stave off utter disaster. One does not simply walk into the second level of Stonehell, it seems. 

Undaunted, but perhaps (though not likely) marginally wiser, Isabella and her cannon fodder/trusted companions returned to Stonehell, but decided to stick to the comparative safety of the first level. They went to explore The Quiet Halls, where many of the dead (and the not so dead) of Stonehell are interred. 
Upon entering the great hall, they found it occupied by a large number of fire beetles grazing on lichen. Fortunately, the potentially dangerous creatures paid the party no mind, as the lichen was taking up all their attention. 

Heading due south, the party came upon some crypts. Opening the first one, they were immediately set upon by a ghoul, its slavering fangs eager to taste the flesh of the living. Using Gort’s ability to turn undead to gain positioning, the advantage was promptly wasted by bad rolls, and then the ghoul was in their midst, clawing and biting. Ghouls attack three times per round, with their bite inflicting paralysis to those unlucky enough to fail their saving throw. Those unlucky souls happened to be members of Isabella’s group, including Isabella herself! However, the ghoul was eventually defeated, and the paralysis wore off under Gort’s care, though the party was still bruised and battered. 

The next tomb contained yet another ghoul, which was despatched in short order. A third tomb contained zombies which also proved also to be no match for the turning, missile weapons, and melee puissance of the group. 

The fourth tomb contained an undead horror that none had heard of before: a crypt shade. It enveloped Buffalo Head in a whirlwind of broken bone, and graveyard detritus, knocking him out. In the vicious melee that followed the party used up the last of their resources, but emerged victorious. 

The rewards of this second foray were significant. Much gems, jewelry, and coins were found within. The party returned to town with their packs bulging with loot, and Isabella levelled up as a Thief again! Thieves progress very quickly in B/X, which compensates for their d4 hit die. Isabella is the first character in the campaign to reach level 3.