Session 5: Finding Mortimer

 The Adventurers take Castle Calaelen and find a prisoner in the dungeon.

Written by Kay with edits by myself. It is based on our May 17, 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 The Castle Calaelen Tower Battle

Date: April 29, 3517 I.R.  
Location: Castle Calaelen, Lower Floor


Elron and Beneddar heard a human voice to the west, “Hey, down here!”

A gnollish voice replied, “Shut up,” followed by the sound of a slamming door.

Nearer, there was the sound of tables being flipped over and plates hitting the floor.

Outside in the courtyard, the two gnolls ran to the outside gate and the drawbridge. Beneddar cast longstrider on Blaze. Blaze ran to the gnolls to stop them from getting away and raising an alarm to others.

Breena and Rocky headed down hallway to where she heard the human voice. Looking for the source of the voice, Breena walked to the staircase and took it down to the basement level. Breena and Rocky crept down the stairs. Breena, who had crept down to the basement, heard a door close in the distance, and went back upstairs to where the others were.

Alain went into one of the rooms and found food and dishes, broken crockery, and looking up, he saw a closed hatch in the ceiling leading to where we fought earlier. He found no goblins, so he moved on.

Alain went down the hallway and caught up to Breena and Beneddar.

Beneddar saw a large lock and chains on the floor in the hallway outside the room where he pulled up the ladder earlier. He found another door and tried to open it, but it was locked. He listened at the door, but didn’t hear anything. Beneddar, at the locked door, shouted out to the human, “Which room are you in?”  He opened the first door and found stained beds and a chest with a broken lock.  It looked like they’d been using the room for sleeping.

Artie moved to the trap in the hallway (the bows aimed at the front door) and disabled them. He didn’t want them to shoot and hit one of us by mistake.

Alain hit a nearby door with the warhammer from the goblin priestess.

Beneddar checked doors looking for the human he heard earlier, opened one with wave of stench. He saw a chest and a dirty mattress; the room was used as a latrine. Another room contained a cabinet and sleeping mats.

Artie moved out of Alain’s and his swinging warhammer’s way. 
The door Alain had been hitting splinters under his attack, revealing an armory that has seen better days. He went across the hall to another door and started hammering on that one. He heard goblin voices muttering behind it as the door cracked from his hammer blows.

Elron ran into the courtyard and shot an arrow at one gnoll and hit.

In the courtyard, the gnolls turned and attacked Blaze, and both of them missed her. Sinis moved up next to Blaze, cast acid splash on the two gnolls and hit one.

Elron ran into the courtyard, shot at the closest gnoll and missed. The gnoll on the right swung a short sword at Blaze and missed. The other gnoll had a bow; it shot at Elron and hit.

Sinis got to the courtyard and cast acid splash on the left gnoll while the other dodged the attack.

Blaze cast acid splash as well, but missed both. Elron shot the left gnoll with his bow. The right gnoll swung at Blaze and the left one shot another arrow at Elron. Sinis and Blaze once again cast acid splash on the gnolls and miss.

Paraselene ran to Elron, who had several goblin arrows sticking out of him. Paraselene pulled out the arrows and healed Elron.

Back in the courtyard, a gnoll attacked Blaze and hit.

Beneddar cast longstrider on himself and ran to the courtyard. Sinis cast acid splash and killed both gnolls. At this point, the fighting concluded, the party members returned to the castle to rejoin the others.

Back in the castle, Alain hit the door again and it swung open with a broken latch. He looked at four goblins; tables flipped over; plates on floor with the goblins cowering behind them, bows ready. Several arrows hit the door around him.

Alain told the others, “The party’s here.”

One of the goblins behind the table barricades had a sock on his head.

This whole time, the pounding coming from the smithy continued. Whoever it was, they were so focused on their work that they hadn’t noticed the sound of combat in the courtyard.

Breena cast minor illusion of sound of young dragon roaring and says “come out or we’ll send in the dragon” <rawrr>

The goblins hesitated.

Returning from the courtyard fight, Elron heard the roaring and approached cautiously.

Alain charged into the room with the warhammer.  The goblin in charge recognized the warhammer as belonging to the priestess and Alain hit a table with it to intimidate them.

All of them dropped their bows and raised their hands.

Beneddar went into the room and ordered them to throw their weapons in a pile. He noticed that one goblin was larger and had better armor = leader.

Rejoining the group, Sinis asked Artie, “What’s going on?”

Artie wasn’t sure and moved to door to see what was going on. Blaze went through the door to stand guard.

Breena continued making dragon noises.

The door behind Beneddar slammed open and a goblin with meat cleaver charges out and slashed Beneddar in the back. The goblin leader yelled “Stop! They have a dragon!”

Beneddar said, “Drop the cleaver or die,” and casts Toll the Dead at the goblin with the cleaver.

The goblin drops dead.

The other goblins tossed the rest of their weapons in the pile. The goblins tell us about a human prisoner and that the leader of the gnolls was guarding him in the dungeon downstairs.

The main room was a dining hall, and the door the goblin with a cleaver came out of led to a kitchen and pantry. The pantry was well-stocked with human food, no doubt stolen in a raid.

Many of the party spent time healing and binding wounds.

We put the goblins in the room that they used as latrine. Sinis pointed out that they are evil and insists on executing them.  As we ran across the Orcus priestess with the two animated skeletons and the dead body on the table being zombified; and the bones on the floors; it kinda set the tone for the entire outing and most present seemed good with this.

Alain had gone downstairs to the dungeon, followed by the others.  It was musty and damp with a 9-foot ceiling.

He listened at the door and it was quiet.  He opened the door, which was not locked. He saw a sleeping mat in the corner, a desk, and a scythe leaning on a wall. He saw another door as he stepped into the room.

Alain hit the door with the warhammer but it didn’t open. Artie had him step aside to unlock the door – not. Breaks pick. On the second try he unlocks it.

Alain stepped into the room, which was a hallway with eight doors with small shuttered windows.

When he stepped into the hall, the door to his right flew open and a gnoll with a sword charged out.

Alain swung his warhammer and Beneddar cast Toll the Dead.

Blaze started checking the other doors looking for the human prisoner to get him out of the cell.

Elron shot an arrow at the gnoll. The gnoll swung his sword at Alain but missed.

Breena used her dragon roar illusion again.

Alain swung the warhammer. He missed, slipped on something on the floor and lost his footing and fell to the ground.

Beneddar cast Toll the Dead again. Blaze found the occupied cell and tried to force the cell door open. She told the human, “Move back.”

Elron stepped back and shot the gnoll and hit.

The gnoll yelled in surprisingly good common, “Screw the dragon, I’ll see you in hell!” and swung at Alain laying on the ground, cutting him with his sword.

Sinis cast acid splash on the gnoll as Alain stood back up.

Blaze cast acid splash and the gnoll jumped out of its path, causing Elron’s arrow to miss.

The gnoll swung at Alain and missed.

Alain hit with the Warhammer; Beneddar cast Toll the Dead and the gnoll died.

Elron searched the body for keys to open the jail cell and found them as he expected.

He unlocked the cell, and the human, who introduced himself as Mortimer, came out into the hall.

All of the other cells were empty.

Mortimer tells us he’s a farmer. The goblins raided his farm and took his family.  They’ve been taking his family members one at a time and he’s the only one left.

Loot: swords, armor, silver, copper, boss goblin had a fancy necklace.

  

Continued in Alain Leaves.