Session 52 - Caverns
This write up is based on Kay’s notes from our March 19, 2025
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 proofreading and the screenshots.
Continued from: Ogres
Location: Rappan Athuk, “the Gut”
Date: Tuesday, June 6, 3517
4:30 PM
Nine miles from the “Last One Inn”, we had just defeated a group
of ogres (killed
four, two ran away). We were inside “the Gut”, a miles-long tunnel
system
leading from the Mouth of Doom to the main dungeon of Rappan
Athuk.
9:30 PM
After travelling northeast for 18 miles from the inn, the passage
turned due
north. Then turned east and opened into a natural cavern with
water dripping
from the ceiling, 60 ft above us. It’s almost like it is raining
in here. There
was a 40-ft-tall statue of a woman in a flowing gown, with fangs,
wearing a
necklace of skulls, carrying a 10-ft-tall jug on her head near the
entrance.
Directly north of the statue was a pool of water, crystal clear,
40 ft deep in
the middle.
Blaze moved closer to the statue and realized that it should be overflowing with water from the constant rain, but it wasn’t.
Breena sent Rocky up the statue to look into the jug. Through Rocky’s eyes, Breena saw darkness. The opening at the top is big enough to climb through; it sounded like it’s dry, not filled, as there were echoes. The neck is narrow which would not allow Rocky to climb back up if he went down.
Elron climbed up to look in and saw the bottom; it’s half-full of bones and equipment and the most beautiful gem he’s ever seen, about five feet down. He tied a rope around the neck of the urn and tossed it down with Rocky; he tied a pouch to the end so Rocky could put the gem into the pouch, then Elron pulled them both up. It’s a sapphire that looked like it was worth about 5,000 gp. Elron noticed that one of the skeletons was positioned in front of the gem, like it was staring at it.
Elron pulled the pouch closed and put it in his pack. From the number of bones inside the jug, several adventurers died in there.
Elron and Rocky climbed off the statue, using the rope to get down. When Elron got to the bottom, Breena wanted the gem. Later we learned that she would have killed him for it. Blaze asked Sinis how long it takes to cast Identify Magic. Sinis figured it’s a charming spell and that Blaze should cast dispel magic on Breena, not the gem.
Artie, sensing trouble, asked Elron to give him the pouch, which he did, and then Artie gave the pouch to Breena; she opened the bag and proceeded to stare at the gem. Blaze cast dispel magic on Breena and she snapped out of it. Breena apologized for her actions and Elron put the gem back in the pouch and into his backpack.
10 PM
We started setting up our camp site in a corner of the cavern
behind a
stalagmite. Looking around the cavern before bedding down, Elron
saw a tunnel under
water in one of the pools, going to the east. The only way to find
out where it
went was to swim.
As Elron and Blaze were checking out the cavern to the east, some
stalactites fell
from the ceiling. Blaze was hit but the blow was absorbed by her
armor. Elron
had two more drop onto him; one missed and the other glanced off
his armor.
Then they both realized these things were alive, mollusk-looking
things with a
shell that blended into the cave’s ceiling. The one that hit Blaze
was a medium
piercer; the two on Elron were small piercers. Blaze cast acid
splash on
the closest one but missed, then tried hitting it with her
quarterstaff, also
missed. She yelled, “these are alive, hit them!”
Elron pulled his longsword out and yelled, “they’re dropping down from the ceiling, look out!” Elron hit once, missed once, and hit again, killing one of the smaller piercers.
Sinis and Artie ran closer. Blaze cast acid splash on the medium piercer, hitting it.
Parahelia saw Sinis and Artie running to the north and followed.
The medium piercer started climbing up the
cavern wall.
Breena moved up, casting mage armor on herself as she
walked.
Elron moved to the small piercer with the longsword and killed it.
The medium piercer was about five feet up on
the wall when Blaze
cast acid splash on the it, but it twitched out of the
way.
Parahelia cast guiding bolt on it, hit, and killed it. It
fell to the
ground, smoking.
We all looked up, and didn’t see any others.
Artie suggested that we go back to the corridor to sleep; we
agreed. Elron
mentioned seeing the tunnel in the lake.
We went back to the corridor. Elron and Artie took the first watch
down the hallway.
Four hours later, Elron had his elven long rest. The fifth hour
went
uneventfully with Blaze and Breena on watch. In the sixth hour,
Breena heard
something from the cave, rhythmic sounding. They woke people up.
The sound got
louder. Artie thought it sounded like horses, and Breena thought
they’re
pulling a wagon. We moved into the cavern behind the stalagmite,
and killed all
our lights except for Parahelia, who refused to be in the dark.
Finally, five horses came around the corner in single file around the statue from the east. They looked like the zombie horses we saw at the stable except there were also zombie riders. One zombie looked at our light but didn’t react. They apparently saw but ignored us; they filed past the statue and down the passageway to the west. They were well equipped with armor and weapons; they may not be zombies, but some other kind of undead.
Another four hours went by with nothing else disturbing our rest.
June 7, 3517
7 AM
We ate rations for breakfast. We checked out their tracks, and
looked at hoof
prints coming from the northeast passage. Elron went to check out
the southeast
passage first and found a dead end.
7:10 AM
We left the cavern, walking east north-east following the
hoofprints. We walked
another 4 hours, covering about 10 miles.
11 AM
The passageway opened up into a vast natural cavern with runic
symbols carved
into the rock walls from floor to ceiling. None of us can read
them, but
looking at it made us slightly nauseous and gave us a feeling of
vertigo. Sinis
looked at the floor which had no runes.
It helped, so, we did as well. Elron started checking out
the side
passages, going down the south passage to a dead end, then went to
the east, telling
us to put our hands on the wall with eyes closed, but no one
thought that was a
good idea. Elron heard bats to the southwest and saw guano on the
floor.
Looking at the ground, the runes ended abruptly at a line, and
they stopped at
a side passage and to the east. We saw bat guano but no runes in
this area. We had
lost the tracks of the horses by this point.
We explored side passages that have 6 inches of
bat guano to
the east of where Elron stands. He saw the bats on the ceiling of
the side
tunnel, so no one went through here recently.
Sinis, at the south passage, cast dancing lights, and the
bats swirled
around him disturbed by the lights. They followed Sinis and
swarmed around
everyone. Sinis saw guano to the southwest. Blaze saw something
down the other tunnel,
skeletons against a wall with metal spikes holding them up.
Elron explored a SW passage to a dead end that had a swarm of bats on the ceiling and guano on the floor.
Blaze, going farther down the passage with the
skeletons, found
five more human skeletons all spiked into the wall. The group
moved up to them.
Sinis tapped one; they can be pulled off the wall if needed.
Elron moved further south in this passage, and saw a guy coming towards him; a tall, unnaturally thin, human with a hammer in one hand and a metal spike in the other. As Elron watched, the thin man’s eyes glowed yellow.
Elron then walked up to a wall and put his hands to his sides. He stood at the end of a row of spiked skeletons, waiting to join them.
Continued in Session 53 - Spiker
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