Session 7: Lark Joins the Party and We Meet Talilia Greysky

The Adventurers finish exploring Castle Calaelan, meet a Dwarf named Lark and a sole survivor named Talilia Greysky.

Written by Kay with edits by myself. It is based on our June 14, 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: Alain Leaves

Date: April 30, 3517 I.R.  
Location: Castle Calaelen, basement.

7AM
Breakfast, then off to explore the castle fully.

We’re still going through the rooms making sure nothing is left undiscovered. One door on the ground floor is locked and gave off a lightning shock to Artie when he tried to pick the lock. The door is iron and there are metal bolts set into the wall next to it.

Beneddar tried the set of keys to the castle he was given, plus the priestess’s set of keys, and the gnoll jailer’s set; none worked.

Blaze healed Artie; and we went through the rest of the castle and then came back to the iron door. Artie tried again. Elron was looking at the bolts on the wall. Artie continued trying to pick the lock and at some point, set off the lightning trap again. This time Paraselene healed him. The trap seems to take about an hour and a half to re-charge before going off. Beneddar cast bardic inspiration on Artie, which didn’t really help.

Artie kept trying and finally unlocked the door. Beneddar used mage hand to open the door and Elron went through it first with sword in hand. He set off the trap again and was shrouded by lightning.

There were several bookcases full of books and scrolls. The air was dry, the room had been hermetically sealed, and they are all well preserved. There are names on the covers, written in Elvish. The entire inside of the room is covered with iron panels bolted to the stone walls; it’s a safe room. The bolts we saw outside connect the iron panels to the walls.

Beneddar examined the books; one is titled “the Faithful Volume of Wizardry;” it’s a spell book usable by Breena and Sinis. Blaze and Sinis looked at the other books and discovered volumes on lost family histories.

Sinis cast detect magic, there’s magic around the door; the trap is still active.

Several of the scroll cases were empty. Others contained spell scrolls; one contained a scroll of blessing, and one has a spell to protect from evil and good. Spell scrolls are one use and gone.

So in total we found 2 spell scrolls, 1 spell book and family history books.

Breena and Sinis can copy from the spell book or memorize the spells directly from the new book.

We discover that the library room trap has irregular recharge times; Beneddar got shocked on the way out. He warned Mortimer not to go into the room; the trap could be fatal for him.

Dividing up some of the loot, Breena took the crossbow with 17 bolts. Beneddar took the books; Sinis took the empty scroll case and spell book. Elron took the compass and studded leather armor.

Elron wanted to build wooden walls at the front gate to bolster security. We needed to go back in to town to get tools for the palisade, such as a saw, axe, auger, etc. Zelcor’s Ferry is about two hours away.

Before we left, Paraselene healed Beneddar; and Elron munched on some goodberries, healing some of the burns he got from the lightning trap.

Noon.
Back in town.

Rasmus Pye’s Trading Post gave us half value for the shields and weapons, 120 gp for the necklace, 200 gp for the gold bars.

Blaze restocked her healer’s kit from the Apothecary. Elron bought a longsword and the woodworking tools we needed from Rasmus Pye’s Trading Post.

Elron agreed to work as our party “banker.” Our total take for this trip was 883 gp, 76 sp, 20 cp and Elron distributed most of it as our first official payday.

After shopping, we headed over to the Bristleback Inn for some rest and recovery.

May 1^st
We spent the day fixing up the castle and barricading the gate.

May 2nd
Back to town.

When we went to the Bristleback Inn, we found that the boat had come in the day before and dropped off two passengers.

The first was a Dwarf named Lark; he was chatting with a barmaid, saying something about how goblin tastes like bear. He has thick arms like a blacksmith and tells Breena that he is a fighter looking to join up with an adventuring company.

The other is a Human fighter named Bracks Parne, who is looking for just about any kind of work.

We invited Lark to join us as a party member and hired Parne as a guard and handyman for the castle; we agreed on 1 gp per day.

We planned on heading back out the next day after breakfast, and Paraselene explained to Lark what is loot and not loot at the castle.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the front gate. The doors to the inn opened a and a couple of guards brought in an injured woman at death’s door. The guards said that they saw her crawling toward the front gate.

She’s an elf and looks like an adventurer. She has an empty scabbard and a purple bird is emblazoned on the sleeve of her armor.

Blaze healed her.

Her name is Talilia Greysky, and her adventuring group was called the Purple Cockatrice.

She and her five companions: Tion (Fighter), Mei (Wizard), Cato (Cler­ic), Tsia (Ranger), and Lem (Sorcerer) set out for Rappan Athuk several weeks ago.

They lost Tsia to a pressure plate that triggered some sort of disintegrat­ing ray.

They lost Lem when he was dragged away during an overwhelming fight with some trolls.

Four survivors and their loot made it out, but they were taken by surprise by bandits after they came out of the dungeon at the Mouth of Doom. Tion and Mei were killed in the ambush.

She and Cato were captured and taken to their camp.

Talilia freed herself the day before yesterday, Cato failed and she is still being held prisoner. There are 6-8 bandits alive, and they took the adventurers’ loot and equipment. She wanted to get it back, especially her magic rapier. If we take out the bandits, we’ll get an equal share of her loot. Their area is south of the Mouth of Doom; about two day’s travel.

Sinis asked about what kind of justice is in this town, if we bring back the bandits. Odo is the mayor and owns most of the buildings in town; he said they don’t have a jail and can’t maintain prisoners. The necromancer’s wife is a bounty hunter; these bandits may already have bounties on them. We would just need proof of death to claim any bounties on them.

 

Continued in: To the Bandit Camp