Session 41: Shafts and Ladders

The adventurers tie up some loose ends and continue exploring the third level.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our October 16, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to Kay for the screen shots.

Continued from: Exploding Zombies

Date: May 25, 3517

Location: Castle Calaelen

6 AM, Friday
It’s a warm and clear morning, we’ve all had long rests, and recovered from the day before. The party made plans to check out the first and second level ladders and shafts.

10:10 AM
We got to the entrance to the Mouth of Doom and went inside.



We went to the stirges’ nest room first, and then to the 10-ft-deep pit. Blaze’s map overlays showed that the ladder on the second level should come out at this room near two of the pools. The pools are 3-ft-deep with a 6-inch rim. Elron began searching around the eastern pool and was hit with an overwhelming feeling of fear, and he ran away from the well.

Sinis tripped him as he ran past. Sinis told Parahelia to calm Elron; she and Artie were successful after about 20 seconds, while Sinis closed the door to keep him in. Artie put his hand on his shoulder and said, “It’s OK.”

Breena, watching, asked, “What did you see?”

As he came to his senses, he said, “Just a pool”, and wondered “What was I afraid of?”

We noticed faint trails of the stirges’ guano leading to some of the pools.  No trails led to the pool that had frightened Elron or to the one at the south end of the room.

Keeping her distance, Blaze looked around the other pool, but found nothing.

Sinis checked the other pool. We asked Artie if he can lock the door; he could.

11:00
At the other location, the 10-ft-deep pit was closed (it had reset).  We opened the pit, climbed down and saw a small side chamber opening to the west. Blaze attached the rope ladder with pitons and dropped it down the 40-ft shaft we had previously found at the end of the hallway on the second level. She climbed down first to test the ladder; if it can hold her weight, everyone else is good.

We all went down the rope ladder to level two. Elron put a piton 10 feet above the floor and rolled the ladder up to it to hide it from anyone else.
On the second level, we moved north along the hallway to get to the ladder in the alcove, so we could climb it and determine where it comes out in the stirges’ room.

Someone cast a light spell on Rocky and he climbed up first. He found a black ceiling and went through. Rocky could touch the ledge on the lip of the pool; we can see through the water, see a shaft going down; can see handrails. It was the northernmost pool and there was an illusion of water hiding the rungs. Breena went up next, there’s no real water. Sinis noticed the rungs looked rusty, in poor condition; it’s going to be a problem with humans and gear if we want to use the ladder as a regular short cut.

11:45
Having solved the mystery, we headed for the 3^rd level, taking 30 minutes to reach it.

We entered the oval room that has “Healing and Recovery” carved in the north wall, and written on the south wall, “Forbidden”, with “until now”, scratched in much smaller letters. There was broken furniture and old blood stains on the floor.

We opened the door to the south hallway and it’s crawling with roaches.

Blaze’s flaming sphere convinced the insects to be elsewhere and we moved south into the hallway going west. As Blaze was moving the sphere ahead of her to clear the way, she went first around the corner going north, and saw the ochre jelly.

She hit it with a chaos bolt for major force damage. Artie backed up and prepped a fire bolt. Elron hit it with his magic stone for major bludgeoning damage. Elron’s second sling attack killed it.

An empty potion bottle was used to take a sample of the jelly.

Continuing north, Artie checked the double doors at the north end of the hallway as it turned a corner to the east. No traps and no lock. Elron opened one of the doors, with Blaze standing back behind him. The door’s stuck; with a loud squeak it opened, its hinges rusty.

We walked north into a T-intersection with an east-west short hallway. There were two doors on the south wall; one each on either side of the door we walked through. Artie unlocked the east door. Elron eventually opened it after some effort.

Through the open door, Elron saw an operating table, rotten wood, and a stone counter against the far wall to the south. Breena heard the sound of rustling to the north, around the corner of the hallway.

More roaches.

Continued in Session 42 - The Fountain of Pestilence