EXPEDITION: 20th March 2025

Expedition notes

The party spent some time drinking and talking in the inn. They met Cole and Romeo, two retired adventurers that have experience with Stonehell, claiming to have delved deeper than anyone they know (the fifth floor). Cole offered to sell information about the dungeon at a cost of 100gp for information about the first floor. Parabola paid him 20gp and found out about Cole, a huge black bear that lives in the canyon leading to the dungeon, and is a good omen to adventurers. He also told them that the first floor of Stonehell is about as far as most adventurers ever get, and has been more or less picked clean (although there is bound to be some well-hidden loot remaining). The innkeeper had a note for Parabola, requesting he visit The Tower of the Mystifier before setting off to the dungeon.

The next morning the party visited The Tower of the Mystifier, and met Cornwad - an apprentice mage whose master, Tugel the Mystifier, is missing in Stonehell. Cornwad asks the party to find Tugel, and gives them a transparent black dodecahedron with a glowing red light inside, telling them that the glow indicates that Tugel yet lives.

Dirk visited the Temple of Megaluno and met Frater Silcor, a novice of the cult of Megaluno, who asked him to deliver a note to an information broker rumoured to frequent a market somewhere in Stonehell. The party then set off for the dungeon.

In the canyon leading to the dungeon the party climbed over the wreckage of the curtain wall across the mouth of the canyon and explored a cave to the south. Dirk detected an evil presence, and they spotted several pairs of glowing blue eyes in the gloom, and backed away (1 new room). Exploring a four-chambered cave system in the north wall of the canyon, finding a small amount of gold (30gp) and a silver gemstone ring (worth 50gp), after seeing off a green slime, in some old crates and barrels. Fiona, being an elf, was able to read a hidden message written in flame chalk (telling of a cache of jewels hidden "two levels down, past the acolytes cells"), and found a piece of flame chalk.

The party discovered that the wooded copse in the canyon has strange properties - any person standing inside it appears as if a tree to any observer outside the copse. They encountered Cole here, and found him to be friendly as described. They fed him some food, and Bonk scratched his tummy. A shrine to an old saint, St Ras, was found and Bonk, Dirk and Fiona made offerings to him. The group also discovered a strangely warm pool of water, fed by a waterfall coming from a cave 30 feet up the cliff. At the bottom of the pool the water was very cold and there was a strong current moving toward a solid sphere made of a silver metal about three feet in diameter.

The party ventured through the imposing stone arch at the end of the canyon into the cliff wall, down the spiral staircase and into the desolate gloom of Stonehell. A short exploration of the first five rooms around the entrance revelaed some ruined and decaying domestic rooms (a kitchen, some sort of burned out feasting room), and a pile of bones and bloodied rags accompanied by a dismbodied voice warning of peril. The party suspected this to be a mere trick, and risked an investigation of the pile of bones and found a large emerald (100gp). They encountered a group of kolbolds carrying tools and repair equipment and found that a slaver in the dungeon market has a wizard for sale - perhaps this is Tugel the Mystifier - and got rough directions to the market. The kobolds would not escort them there as they did not wish to pass through the "quiet halls" for fear of the undead. As the day drew to a close the party made to leave the dungeon and encountered a trio of giant toads on their way out. Dirk attacked one of them, and Fiona used a spell of sleep to put the toads to sleep so that the rest of the party could make quick work of them.