Session 6: Alain Leaves

The Adventurers find that the goblin blacksmith has gone missing, make a deal with a giant raven and find one of their party has left as a matter of honor.

Written by Kay with edits by myself. It is based on our May 31, 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 Finding Mortimer.

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

4PM
We were in the basement of the castle. Mortimer, the prisoner we rescued, told us he’s been there 2 weeks with his wife, son, farmhand, and 2 people from a caravan.  He was the last one left.

Mortimer took his scythe out of a pile of stuff in the outer room. In addition to the scythe, there are weapons, a wooden holy symbol to Dwerfater, an empty scroll case and a few other personal items that are worthless except for sentimental value, including a snapped longbow.

After moving up out of basement, Blaze healed Mortimer. Some in the party opened doors, making sure nothing got in behind us.

Beneddar noticed the metal sound is gone from the smithy; it was eerily quiet.

Alain opened the door to the room with the goblin prisoners that had surrendered to him earlier. He found them dead, still bound, with their throats cut.

Enraged, Alain smashed the door with the war hammer he got from the goblin priestess.

Everyone moved out into the courtyard and Beneddar cast longstrider on Rocky the Squirrel so he could explore the area faster.

Blaze checked the smithy, no one was there.

Beneddar opened the door to the southwest tower; there was an inside door that opened to a room with 5 gnoll-sized beds, with a box of food, and water barrel.

Artie looked for secret doors in the smithy and Rocky went around the castle courtyard to the doors in the northeast area. There was a stable with live horses, but he didn’t find anyone else in the castle, including whoever the blacksmith was.

Alain, still with an angry expression, walked across the drawbridge and headed down the road, apparently only Beneddar noticed him leave.

Looking up, we could see a giant raven perched a ledge of the southeast.  

It squawked at us below it, “You! Featherless! Yeah, you!”

Elron said, “Hello?”

“You taking over the castle?” it asked.

Elron replied, “That’s our intention.”

The raven said, “I’ll make you the same deal I made with the greenskins, you leave me and my tower alone and I won’t eat you.”

Elron: “OK, would you like these bodies?”

The raven replied, “OK,” and grabbed a body, flew back to the tower and disappeared.

Alain had gone across the drawbridge several minutes ago; Beneddar, standing at the edge of bridge, had seen Alain heading west with an expression of rage. Benaddar pointed out to Elron and Paraselene which way he went from the end of the drawbridge.



Elron noticed graffiti in chalk on the door of the raven tower in goblin, “No go. We let has”. There are wooden boards nailed across the door.

In the smithy, Artie hasn’t found a secret door but has found boxes with goblin-sized weapons.

On the northeast side of the courtyard are 4 doors; the first door opens onto a room with three large tubs, and there is a pipe leading to a natural spring. The entire room smells of waste but there is good water. Doors 2 and 3 open to the stable with 4 ponies tied to the back wall; the place is otherwise gutted. Door 4, to the west, we see rats scurry away when the door is opened; there’s a pile of hay and 2 bags of oats; we used that to feed the ponies.

Finally, we piled all of the bodies outside the Raven’s tower.

Mortimer askes, “Where’s the other guy?”

We don’t know; he left when we were searching the smithy and gnoll quarters.

Paraselene insisted on going after him now; Beneddar, Breena, Paraselene and Rocky went to the other end of the drawbridge. Breena asked an owl if it saw Alain; the owl said he went down the road to the west. Breena sent Rocky down the trail to follow him, but his trail disappeared. Rocky returned to the group and Breena explained what he found. 

It’s was getting full dark now by this time.

Breena asked the rats to search castle and offered them oats as payment. We’ve established that the smith is not in the castle.

We set up camp in the northeast octagonal tower on the second floor. Elron cast goodberry and handed them out to anyone who still needed some healing.

Elron and Beneddar, as elves, only need 4 hours of full rest and posted themselves on the ground floor at the gate while the rest slept.

April 30
The next morning we consolidated loot (6 shields, Elron and Beneddar took the best) Elron took out his glowing great sword, and added it to the pile of loot, saying he no longer wanted to carry it.

Sinis gathered the books in the castle and cast an identify spell on the necklace; it’s a necklace of protection. Elron picked up ¾-inch-diameter pebbles for his spell component bag.

During the night, the group figured out that Alain took the surrender from the goblins in the dining room and didn’t know they were dead. He is an Eladrin Noble and this was a stain on his honor. The stench in the latrine, where the goblins were killed, wafting throughout the castle, was a symbol of the stench of dishonor.

Elron asked Mortimer if he wanted to stay on as the castle’s caretaker; we can pay him for it. Mortimer agreed but said he needed at least 4 guards to stay behind with him. Sinis asked about the corpse on the altar, and Mortimer identified the body as belonging to his ranch hand.

Beneddar asked the Raven if it wanted to watch the castle for us; it says it wanted “shinies” as payment. Blaze gave the Raven a piece of the crystal warrior she killed up by Berryiron Creek.  It said that will pay for a month of guarding the castle. Mortimer will do the job for 2 gp/day (1 gp/day now) as castellan.

After looting all of the bodies and searching the area, we found:

     6 gp, 26 sp, 20 cp
     1 Set of Studded leather armor
     6 Shields
     10 Shields
     8 Short Swords
     4 Spears
     7 Longbows
     6 Shortbows
     1 Crossbow
     262 Arrows
     17 Crossbow Bolts
     1 Disassembled Crossbow
     1 Compass
     Wooden Holy Symbol to Dwerfater
     1 Empty Scroll Case

Beneddar said that it would take about 10,000 gp to repair the castle. That is way more than what we have all together.

Continued in: Lark Joins the Party, We Meet Talilia Greysky