Session 64 - Return to Castle Calaelen
The
adventurers
headed back to the castle, killed two ogres and had a friendly
encounter with
some goblins along the way.
This write up is based on
Kay’s notes
from our August 20, 2025 session. Since our group is scattered
around the
country, we use Discord for our voice communication and Roll20
for our virtual
tabletop. Thanks to Kay for the write-up and screen shots.
Continued from: Grubs, Rats and a Black Skeleton
Location: Rappan Athuk Level 2: Ambro’s Base
7 AM
Outside the coffin-making room, we saw a couple of dead rats,
one dead
wererat, and lots of rat body parts. Elron cast cure wounds
on himself and
was almost back to full health. Blaze took an inventory of healing
kits in the
group; Blaze had 3, Parahelia had 2, and Breena had one.
Blaze stepped up to the south door to the ogres’ lair; Elron listened at the door but heard nothing. Stepping through the door, though, we heard two ogres talking to each other in Giant. Blaze and Elron went into the tunnel going north. The tunnel still had the bodies of 5 dead ogres and the broken ground from Sinis’s spell; we could see one ogre on the other side of the carnage which had begun to stink by this time.
Elron stepped in front of Blaze and used his sling on the first ogre, hit it three times for significant damage. Blaze moved up over broken ground and hit the ogre with a witch bolt, killing it. The other ogre moved out of sight around the corner of the cavern.
Breena cast mage armor on herself (it lasts for 8 hrs, a necessity in here). Sinis cast a blur spell on himself. Parahelia moved up past Blaze; Artie followed.
Elron moved up and heard ogre footsteps in the dirt running away and some dirt fell from the ceiling onto him. Elron ran full out toward the ogre. Blaze caught up to Elron and saw the ogre. Breena moved up.
It was a very narrow tunnel in the rock; the ogre turned and swung at Elron, but here there was no room to swing, and caused it to miss with his great club.
Sinis moved up to Parahelia. Parahelia moved around the bend of the cavern. Artie caught up to the group. Elron used his sling on the ogre and hit twice for a lot of damage. Blaze missed with her chaos bolt. Elron was in the way and didn’t dodge and got Blaze’s full bolt of lightning in the back. Catching up, Breena finally got past the broken ground. The ogre poked Elron with its javelin, but didn’t pierce his armor.
Sinis moved up to target the ogre and cast reduce on it, but it resisted the spell. Artie ran to catch up to the group. Elron used his sling and hit for more damage; the ogre at this point was barely standing, but still trying to hit Elron. Elron’s second shot killed it.
Elron looted the bodies. Between them there were 13 gp, 10 cp, and a blood-stained cloth. We left the cloth.
Continuing south was a stairway going down. As the group continued down the rough-cut stairs, Elron felt a wave of intense fear pass over him, but he resisted it; Breena felt an aura of evil; Sinis, Blaze and Artie seemed immune to its effect. Parahelia resisted the feeling of evil and from her religious knowledge, realized it was caused by an unhallowed effect, probably from the evil temple, and it affects people of good alignment. It caused intense fear, making those affected hesitate; making their attacks less effective.
The group was headed across the bone cave to the fork back to the ogres’ cave, when Elron, taking the right fork, heard someone say, “there’s someone here”, around the corner. He didn’t look around the corner, instead backtracking as stealthily as possible and whispering to the others what he heard.
The rest of the group followed the right fork and along the
long,
carved tunnel until it opened up into a large cave that smelled
horrible. Blaze
threw up from the odor. It was Max’s cave and he’s still there,
sliding out of
a pile of garbage to greet us. We chatted with him for a bit.
Elron told Max we killed some ogres further on but we couldn’t
haul them back here.
Max replied, he can’t easily leave the cave, but that the ogres we
brought him
before were “almost ripe.”
Blaze consulted her maps and they took the left tunnel out to the ogres’ cave, up the stairs and onto the upper level to the paved hallway, back to the Gates of Gloom.
8 AM
It took 7 hrs to go 14 miles to the Gates of Gloom, where we
filled up our
water skins.
3 PM
It was 10 miles and 5 hours to the Plantation of Plants.
8 PM
We stopped at the Plantation to grab fresh produce; there were
no more
plantoids. We stopped for a long rest for 8 hours there and
collected fresh
food for rations. Elron cast goodberries. Breena used
fresh food while
everyone else had the berries.
June 19
4 AM
We ended our long
rest. Foraging
gave us each one extra ration each.
We traveled toward the Last One Inn. 4.5 hrs into the trip Elron
spotted a
goblin band coming toward us. We decided to call out in goblin and
talk. They
stopped and watched us warily, when Elron said, “hello” in goblin.
They were
surprised and noncommittal at first. Elron passed them over to
Blaze who also
speaks goblin. She chatted with them, letting them know that as
far back as the
Plantation, we passed no one else. They mentioned that the
plantoids seem to
have been attacked and we expressed surprise and confirmed we
didn’t see them
there.
We let them pass. They seem relieved not to have to fight us as we
passed each
other.
Noon
We arrived at the Last One Inn and decided to not interact
with the
Roach Man. We continued on 11 miles to the zombie stables.
5 PM
We arrived at the zombie stables and went upstairs from there.
We got to the Fountain of Pestilence room which looked like the festering pool had mostly drained away; there were only a few puddles left, crusted over and scabby looking.
6:10 PM
We were at the mouth of Mouth of Doom entrance looking
downhill. It took
3 hours to get back to Castle Calaelen.
We arrived without incident, arriving shortly after dark. We all
took very
long, hot baths.
June 20
9:10 AM
Weather is 80F and fair, it looks like it will be a hot day.
Blaze updated her maps for the library room, and made a copy for her pack.
Elron put all the treasures in a pile and Sinis cast detect magic; no magic items detected, except for the Mantle of Hope. There was also a map in an ivory scroll case that we compared with the goblin’s map, and it showed what might be an alternative entrance to Rappan Athuk. There’s also a scroll with dispel magic and dark vision spells that Sinis and Breena can copy.
Morning. The giant bird is annoyed and gets Elron’s 20 gp hematite. Elron set up something so the bird will be paid if we aren’t here again (15th of month to 15th). Elron paid the workers through July; they’re happy to see us.
Elron wanted to keep the necklace we got off the black skeleton, and keep it with the other special items like the gold wand and silver-headed mace. Blaze asked the others if they wouldn’t mind if she kept the elven chainmail, it gives her more protection in the front lines; they agreed.
We spent some days off, and got the loot together to take into
town and
barter.
Continued in Session 65 - On to the Coast Road
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