The next three sessions were going further and further off track, although unexpected as the emergent story twists and turns, a sort of coherent arc still builds itself: the prelude to a duel of good versus evil.

When last we left off we were threatened by an Oni. To increase survivability, we were allowed to retro-shuffle our marching order, which found my character Lencio closest to the Oni, and reinforcements on the way.

But we did not really fight it: We split and ran.
Group one killed the remaining Hobgoblin in the south and ran east, found the fabled exit from the dungeon, and ran right out – followed by the Oni, who was too big and could not exit the dungeon. So he turned around and went north after Lencio and the reinforcements.

Those destroyed some Hobgoblin remnants, then ran east up there and discovered a looping tunnel which also allowed them to leave the dungeon. Everyone escaped, the Oni left behind.

Thus the party returned to the city and explained everything that had happened. Time to put money in the bank and make merry.

Gerion the dwarf needed to go back to the dwarfhold for a level-up though, and the party split. Eban, Lencio and Gerion went on a long overland travel with Obelix and Donald while Robin, Gal, Swordbold and Kobbub remained in the city.

Overland Disaster

We (mostly Lencio) bought horses and loaded them with supplies (bought by Eban), then travelled far west. We were discovered by a red dragon who swooped down to eat us, after roasting with his fire breath. Running from the red dragon we fled into a nearby cave. He turned into the outward appearance of a normal man to adjust his size and ran after us — but then quickly turned tail and fled.

Why?

Because by pure chance we had fled into the cave of a Balrog.

Lots of protest from the players: What sort of land is this?
The GM relented and dropped a handful of hit-dice, ret-conning the Balrog into another Oni. But the Oni could also breathe fire!

We kind of won against it, but after the battle everyone was down to single digit HP, and Obelix, the mighty hero, Fifth-Level-Fighter with magical armor, was dead.
Donald only lived because he had, as a crossbow-man, retreated farther behind the lines.

A session later we had healed up a bit and kept moving.
Among the remains of dead people who had died in the Oni cave before us, we found various magical items of relevant power, among them a ring boosting Eban’s might, and an evil sword +2 of Intelligence 7: The “Tyrant Blade”, which gives its wielder the power to charm person three times a week.
In a contest of wills, the dumb blade overpowered Lencio and turned him Evil.
But he is still smarter than the blade, and while it always clamor for charming every Tom, Dick, and Harry, he refuses to be so indiscriminate.
He also registers as Evil for Eban’s paladin eyes now, so he has to tread lightly.

We crossed a big stream, avoiding some more combat encounters, met with a giant as big as mountain ranges. Luckily, first of all we were on a real mountain and not on the giant itself, we were super small by comparison, and just did not move, so we were not seen, and the dice said that the mega-giant went in a different direction, so he did not trample us by accident.

Following that we managed to get to the dwarves, Gerion got his upgrade, and Lencio charmed a dwarven lady to replace Obelix — because Dwarves are also mighty.

He also hired a magic user called Dr. Facilier, paying tons of coins for a hero funeral for Obelix to transfer his levels to him — because he cannot transfer them to the dwarvess.

Sadly, Facilier, despite his now 5th level, only knows two first-level spells: Magic Missile and Hold Portal.

We returned the city, luckily without any more mega-fauna run-ins, and reunited with Gal & Co.

Struggle for Dominance

Finally we returned to the Stonehell Dungeon. The Sword “demanded” that Lencio should charm the kobold mayor; which is why he didn’t do it. “Demanding” is not the place of the sword. It has to “ask”.
It doesn’t though, because it knows that when it/he gains control of Kobold corners, the sword becomes more intelligent, and one day will be able to talk its own way. Something that Lencio does NOT want, because he wants to be the one on top in this relationship.

That is the trouble with Evil people: They can’t truly work together because there can’t be trust.

Deeper and deeper

We went to delve deeper, multiple levels deeper. (I think level 4? Not sure) and found two suspicious guys sitting around in a dark room. When we got there they claimed to be adventurers who had lost their party and wanted to join us. But who the hell were they? We had never seen them in months of being locked in this dungeon, and what were they doing sitting around in the dark anyway? Plus, Eben saw them register as evil — even eviller than his comrade Lencio.

Neither Lencio nor Eban liked them, and when we rebuffed them and Eban suggested they might be Doppelgangers, they turned into just that — some sort of clay-creatures, and tried the stupidest stunt ever: they attempted to squeeze past us and run.

No squeezing here. We killed them in a barrage of hand-to-hand, bladwork, magic missiles and crossbow-shots.

Good bye, Fakers.

We found magical traps that add or subtract decades of life time to people, but we did not want to play with such stakes.

We found a door with a dire warning against magics foul, and while Lencio wanted to check it out, he was overruled by the party.

Hounds of Hell

In the other direction we met four Hell-hounds — again with that obnoxious fire-breathing!
They reduced Lencio to 1 single hit point, and killed our young dwarvess, and melted her expensive new armor and her expensive new axe. Dammit!

We could not retreat, because of Eban’s oath… something that the Tyrant Blade happily registered as a fatal flaw in this potential future enemy.

With the support team healing Lencio from the back to eat down the HP he lost in front, and a bless spell going on to power us up, and with Eban’s impressive smiting power, and with some bolts from Donald and Robin, and with Dr. Facilier “hold portal”ing the maw of one of the beasts (as the GM allowed, given that we could not use the door), we managed to kill two of them and neutralize a third.

As the two survivors turned to run, they ate the deadly B/X -2 issue of turning tail, and Eban + Lencio managed to slay them on the run: the paragon of Good, side by side with the newly evil fighter.

We cooped up a lot of good loot from here and then broke it off: We had taken a lot of damage, it was enough.

Conclusio

The GM felt that this level (4?) was still way too easy for us, and we should go much deeper.
We feel a bit different, as once again it was an almost-TPK, and if Lencio had gone down instead of keeping that 1 HP, and Eban unable to retreat, this could have been the end quite easily.

All things considered, with Mountain-high giants, red dragons, fire-breathing Oni, and Hell-Hounds, we are deep into the territory of myth and legend. No longer adventurers, but more akin to the monsters we face.

Where will this end?
Either in a cruel total party kill on level 6, or in a tragic duel between paladin and swordbearer.

The story in its almost-entirety can be followed through this tag: Stonehell.