TOPIC: R3 Stonehell - Down Night Haunted Halls

Hello players! Welcome to Stonehell!

"Beware All Who Enter
These Benighted Halls of Stone.
Within Lies No Solace
Nor Any Comforts of Home.
Toiling For Our Crimes
We Must Dig Where We Dwell,
With No Freedom or Mercy
In Our Vast Stony Hell."

"Stonehell Dungeon is a classic-style megadungeon, filled with enough monsters, traps, weirdness, and treasure to keep you gaming for a long, long time. Explore over 700 rooms, encounter more than 40 new monsters and discover 18 mysterious magical items - and that's just in the dungeon's upper half!"

So, Stonehell Dungeon was a prison, where the inmates were forced to dig, if they wanted to eat. They weren't digging for anything in particular, but they found something altogether unpleasant, deep beneath the earth. The prison has not operated as such for some time now, and has become a popular adventuring site for groups of heroes seeking fame and fortune down its night haunted halls.

The System: Eyes Beyond the Torchlight
EbtT uses the Target 12 game system. You have 6 core stats; Body, Mind, Soul, Fighting, Shooting & Dodge. Each stat is represented by a die from d4 to d12, much like in Savage Worlds. To make a check, you roll 1d20 + your stat die - the Toughness of opponent/trap and try to beat 12.

For example, if I was attacking a goblin (TN1), and my Fighting was d6, I would roll 1d20+1d6-1 and try to beat 12. If I hit, the value of the d6 Fighting die would also be the damage I inflicted to the goblin.

Dice do NOT explode.

Race options;
Dwarf
Elf
Gnome
Halfling
Half Elf
Half Orc
Human

Class Options;
Cleric
Mage
Rogue
Warrior

Character creation is a doddle and will likely take less than 30 mins on the first night. Stonehell is not super heavy on story, it's more about the "emergent narrative". Can you plz pick your race/class combo and give me a paragraph on what you hope to achieve by joining an expedition into the megadungeon. It can be anything from "riches & glory" to "recover stolen family heirloom" or "investigate weird arcane anomaly" and I will try to weave it into the campaign. Honestly, if you go deep enough, things are gonna' get really weird, so anything goes.

What happens in Stonehell, stays in Stonehell. ;p

Optional Rules
These rules are not in the core book, but were added in an adventure supplement released for PDF only.

Lanterns & Torches: Upon entering a new room or hallway, roll 1d6 (torch) or 1d10 (lantern). On a roll of 1, the light begins to flicker and will go out in 1d3 rounds. It takes one round, and possibly an action in combat, to light a new torch/refill a lantern.

Escalation: At the start of combat, DM places 1d6 on table, with number 1 facing up. At the start of round 2, the dice is changed so number 2 is facing up (and so on). From the second round onward, the DM rolls a second d6 at the start of the round. If he rolls under the number on the first dice, escalation occurs. When escalation occurs, ALL damage (on both sides) increases by +2 for the remainder of the combat.

I was going to type up some background/flavor text, but this excerpt from Prince of Nothings blog/review* sums it up far more succinctly than I would have done;

"Stonehell began as a vast prison complex, hewed out of a mountain by the enemies of the Sterling Potentate, and watched over by a vizier with designs of social experimentation. Eventually the reign of the Potentate is cut short, and most of the prisoners released. Some had gone missing within the depths, others were so far gone that they no longer wished to leave. A century passes, with myriad inhabitants clawing out a territory within Stonehell’s cavernous immensity. Hobgoblins, myriad cults, some brought with the prisoners, others newer, an eccentric wizard persuing dreams of immortality, all these and many many more have entered the place from above. Other, darker things have been unearthed by the digging, and are slowly solidifying their hold upon the infinite black corridors. Welcome to Stonehell Bitch!"

* princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2021/...nted-halls-overlord/

Ooh, the creators of EbtT just dropped a new character ancestry: the Half-Ogre; so add that to your list of character options on Thursday night.

Hello all. I've been putting this off, cos' I hoped I'd be well enough to come tonight, but I've been off work all week with flu-like symptoms and I'm still not 100%. Everything for Stonehell is prepped and good to go, but I am coughing up my own organs and I really don't want to pass this on to any of you.

Next week should be good to go!!

Sorry for short notice!!

Alex is going to run an one off DND tonight instead guys.