EXPEDITION: 2nd February 2026

Expedition notes

Over the last week Fiona and Parabola had been studying the spellbook found in the hidden room on the first floor accessed through a teleport glyph, learning new spells. Parabola also manages to identify the wand he found with the help of Tugel the Mystifier's library - it's a wand of detect metal. The Spike and Gibbet, the inn in town, appears to be increasingly unsafe for the party as their reputation, treasure and wealth grows and so, after a little discussion, the party moves into the tower of Tugel the Mystifier - there is plenty of space and it will do, for now at least. Over the last week hobgoblin raids on Traitor's Gate have increased in frequency, and so Bonk and the other more martially inclined members of the party help the townsfolk erect makeshift fortifications and start with the organisation and training of a militia. The time then comes to head back into the dank halls of Stonehell.

The goblins at the curtain wall of the canyon leading to the dungeon are increasingly suspicious of the efficacy of the party's campaign against the Open Sore orc tribe (GM note: rightly so!) but begrudgingly let the party enter the dungeon. Shortly after entering they meet a band of kobolds. Being on good terms with the caretakers of the dungeon, they chat for a bit about the north-east section of the first floor that remains unexplored. The kobolds reveal that they don't enjoy going there, but do so reluctantly to maintain the living standards of the space. They kindly reveal to the party the location of two traps in that area, and then get about their work. The party enters the musty and eerily quite halls north-east section through the imposing stone double doors engraved with an ornate depiction of the danse macabre.

FInding a room filled with embalming tools and equipment they quickly establish that this area must have been some sort of mortuary when the dungeon was functional. They find a corridor lined with crypts and start investingating. This confirms their suspicions - this area is lousy with the undead. They find skeletons, ghouls, and the normal assortment of dungeon vermin and through guile (barricading crypts shut) and quick thinking (running away) avoid harm. They explore another corridor, and find more crypts. More ghouls, more wily evasion and clever use of rope, and they make it to the end of the corridor and into a large pillared room. It's dusty and quiet and overlooked by a rusted iron statue of a veiled woman. In it's arms is a pair of flails, one of them shining solid gold. They take the flail, and awaken several skeletons. This time running is not an option, but the skeletons are defeated.

Fiona discovers a secret door to the south, and the party presses on into the quiet darkness. They find a hidden bedroom, and a scroll (clearly cursed) amongst a pile of long forgotten documents written in a blasphemous hand that no one can read. From here the party discovers a prayer room - prayer mats and faded frescoes of rapturous worship, a rack of scourges and small font, long since dried up. The fresco shows enraptured worshippers, serveral flayed, in the shadow of a large tower that appears to stand over Stonehell mountain. Opposite is a room of ghouls - bad news. However, shining blue light emanates from the wall opposite the door, in the exact same hue as the mysterious blue shining woman that's accompanied the party for some time. They attack the ghouls, surprising one and killing it before it can act and battling the other two from range. The light reveals a secret door to a featureless room of blue light - the blue woman enters and in a moment of ecstasy evaporates and is absorved into the walls of the room. The blue light fades and all that is left is a mysteriosu cerulean blue coin.

With the coming to a close the party decides to return to the surface before nightfall. Backtracking sounds dangerous - the corridors of crypts are full of skeletons and ghouls previously released, so they try to close the loop that they have started. On the way they find an embalming room, and Fiona fills a toads throat sack (taken from a previous delve and jury-rigged into a waterskin) with a gently glowing green liquid (later determined to be a potion of longevity).

Just as the adventurers are about to return to familiar halls they enter a room containing the coiled skeleton of an enormous snake. Unsure of what to expect, but not liking the prospect of backtracking, Bonk cautiously sprints across the room. This awakens five skeletons inside the body of the snake and they emerge. Fiona runs and makes it across the room but Parabola is not so lucky. With a single swing of a rusted scimitar he is cut down, never to leave Stonehell again. Bonk and Fiona flee to saftey, leaving the corpse of Parabola and his belongings in the snake room. Fiona uses a piece of flame chalk to write a plea to the kobolds of Stonehell - please retrieve Parabola's items for us!

Bonk and Fiona run for the exit, dodging crab spiders and giant shrews until they are back under the open sky. They pay their way past the goblins at the gatehouse with a fine necklace (not having any orc giblets to spare) - the goblins are getting very disappointed in this arrangement now. Then they begin the long trek back to town. They arrived as a party of three, and leave as a party of two. Upon their return to Traitor's Gate they make a plea to the townsfolk - don't ignore Stonehell any longer.