Castle Calaelen

The Adventurers visit Castle Calaelen and go in the back way.

Written by Kay with edits by myself. It is based on our April 5, 2023 session.  Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop.

Continued from Arrival in Zelcor's Ferry.

Date: April 29, 3517 I.R.  
Location: Outside Castle Calaelen, Borderlands Provence.


Noon
We’re south of the castle, facing the moat, and observing from cover the guard platform with two gnolls on it. Blaze checked her pack and realized that she was still carrying her share of the goblins’ weapons from the old slave pits. After all of this time, people had just gotten used to carrying the extra weight and forgot about them.

Elron noticed that someone was coming up the trail behind us from the west. We hid under or behind whatever cover there was, except for Alain, who remained on the trail. It appeared to be an elf, an upper-class high elf, by the look of his clothes. He was striding up the path as if he owned it.

He saw Alain and said, “What brings you out here to this forsaken wasteland?”

Alain replied, “Adventuring.”

The elf explained that he’s looking for his brother, who had been using Benaddar’s name. Alain informed the brother he died in action. Elron offered the real Benaddar his brother’s belongings including the deed to this very castle. The new guy explained that his family received the deed as a bribe to keep their mouths shut about something vague, and they accepted the deed to the castle, sight-unseen.

This led to a discussion of trying to sneak into the castle. As we discussed this, Paraselene saw a black feather 2-1/2 feet long on the ground. She picked it up and carried it.

The castle is built on the side of a cliff; 3 levels tall, and is not well-designed. Elron asked the party, who has a high chance of stealth? We looked for breaks in the wall and for posterns for getting goods in. We circumnavigated clockwise around the castle. The moat dead-ended at the cliff face which is dangerous to climb. The lowest level of the wall is 20 ft high. We continued to check the right side of the castle. To the right, same thing: the wall of the castle ends at the cliff face; the lowest spot on the castle wall here is 20 feet high and the highest spot is 25 feet.

The moat is dry and partly overgrown with vegetation; 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep, with mud at bottom.

Breena Ku has a squirrel familiar and offered to send it over the wall to scout for us. It climbed over the wall to the left of the guard platform and to the right of one of the towers. On the other side is a thatched roof and a courtyard beyond; on the opposite side of the courtyard is another tower with arrow slits, 3 levels tall, and a balcony with the shadow of someone moving inside.

Climbing the tower wall to the left, which is 35 ft tall; at the top, looking over, the roof has collapsed into the interior of the tower. Going to the right past the guard platform is another tower; a ground level door is boarded up on another tower; looking over the top – the roof here is also gone and inside is an enormous raven with a 20-ft wingspan on a nest with two eggs – this is where that 2-ft-long feather must have come from.

Continuing around the wall to the northeast is a door with the sound of running water, like a broken pipe going into a barrel, and it stinks.

Farther to the north is the odor of horses; it smells like a barn, and Breena can hear a horse through her squirrel’s senses. Farther to the northwest, the squirrel smelled hay.

There is a tower across the yard from the platform, with an arrow slit. The squirrel can hear footsteps, and goblin laughter to the left; looking into the room on the 2nd level, there are a table and chairs. On the right side is a ladder to adjacent floors; to the left is a square hole in the floor with rope going down; there are chests and a door. There are 3 goblins around the table with chess pieces; one was throwing chess pieces at a chess board. One of the others pointed and said, “Look, a squirrel!” and they all laughed, thinking it’s a joke. The squirrel ran through the arrow slit to the outside wall of the tower before any more of them saw it.

Running along the balcony to the left, it peered through the arrow slit into the room, seeing crates and clothes. A four-man canoe was hanging suspended from the ceiling. The room connects to the northwest tower and there is a ladder to the ceiling and a hatch in the floor.

There were sounds of a smithy coming through a door on the west side of the courtyard. There was no sign of the one goblin seen earlier (with sock on head); it was not with the others.

After a quick discussion, Benaddar headed over to the left side of the castle and used Mage Hand to run a rope up to the left arrow slits. We all climbed up the rope and into the store room with the canoe. There was a hatch in the ceiling with a ladder. Elron looked down the hatch, and saw an empty room with double doors in northeast wall and some spider webs.

Ceilings here are wooden and 12-feet tall; the air smells of goblin.

Alain checked the door; it’s locked so he started to remove the hinges, when Artie offered to open it for him. Artie unlocked it and Alain opened it; there is an L-shaped hallway and 2 doors visible. No dust was here.

Alain asked Artie to open the first door.

Benaddar, standing near the window, heard the pounding from the smithy; this should cover some of the noises we will make. Alain the opened the unlocked door to the right.

We found a sleeping room or party room (eight beds in use); it’s messy, with a bag of apples and a keg. There’s a door on the far side of the room. Elron went to the right door going into the tower. Benaddar found a collapsed stair at the right end of the hall. It was dark, so Blaze lit a torch, and wandered around the area. Sinis cast Dancing Lights; Paraselene cast Light on Blaze’s quarterstaff as she is about the only one in the party that can’t see in the dark. She extinguished the torch and stowed it in her pack.

Elron heard goblin laughter on the other side of his door, and Benaddar’s door was not locked. Artie unlocked and Alain opened the door on the right end of the hall. The room has bones on the floor and lots of skulls, crude chalk drawings of Orcus on the walls (it looks like the demon head we crawled through at the slave pits), crude furniture including a bed. This looked like the disturbing living quarters of someone mentally deranged.

Alain pointed out an iron chest in one corner, locked. Artie pulled out his lock picks and quickly opened it. It contained raggedy clothes, a small leather pouch, a silver medallion, and a book written in elven; Artie thought there was a hidden compartment in the chest. When he found it, he pulled out 2 gold bars worth about 200 gp each.

Benaddar paged through the elven book. It is the Journal of Maybeth Calaelen, the last legal owner of this castle.

Artie checked the leather bag, it contained 33 gp.

We went back into the hall and closed all the doors we opened.

Benaddar went to the left door and found it was locked, and motioned Artie over to open it.

While he was working on it, Artie heard someone in there. Elron listened too and heard chanting. Blaze and Benaddar heard prayers in goblin; praises to Orcus. Elron looked through the keyhole and saw a table with feet on it, and bones and skeletons covering the floor.

As soon as the door was unlocked, Benaddar cast Toll the Dead through the keyhole on the feet (of a zombie as it turns out; the zombie wasn’t activated so the spell did nothing except to alert the living inhabitant).

Blaze kicked the door open, moved inside and to the right out of the way of others coming through, and cast a Chaos Bolt at the priestess chanting – it missed. There was one priestess and two animated skeletons in the room; on the table was a zombie that had not yet been activated, and a statue of Orcus behind the priestess.

Sinis cast Acid Splash on one skeleton and damaged it. Elron’s arrow hit the priestess; Artie shot the other skeleton. Paraselene cast Guiding Bolt.  The priestess attacked Blaze but failed to injure her. Benaddar cast Toll the Dead again but didn’t hit. Blaze cast Lightning Lure.

Sinis attacked the skeleton with Acid Splash again. Elron shot an arrow at the priestess; Artie shot a skeleton and killed it. Alain hit the priestess and killed her.

Paraselene cast Guiding Bolt at the skeleton. Blaze hit the skeleton with Acid Splash. Sinis cast Witch Bolt but missed. Elron’s sword hit the skeleton, bone chips flying, but it kept attacking him.

Artie got behind the skeleton and killed it, the bones falling into a pile on the floor.

Breena and her squirrel had stayed on watch safely outside, but no one had heard the battle and came to investigate. Everyone went into the temple room.  We checked the dead priestess and the room. The body on the table had been a zombie, but not yet activated.

We found a key on a string around the neck of the priestess who had a tome of necromantic rites praising Orcus. She was also wearing an unholy symbol of Orcus and had an unholy war hammer which shocked whoever tried to pick it up.

We picked up the short swords that had been used by the Skeletons.


Continued in The Castle Calaelen Tower Battle.

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