Session 73 - Ghouls

The adventurers follow a tunnel up to a new level and find it infested by ghouls.

This write-up is based on Kay’s notes from our January 7, 2026 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 JoJo for the screen shot.

Continued from: Session 72 - Back at Zelcors Ferry

Location: Rappan Athuk, The Gates of Gloom
Date: Thursday, July 5, 3517

5:30 PM
As we approached the Gates of Gloom from the east, Elron spotted a light up ahead and heard water running in the stream. He also heard a couple of voices, echoing off the walls. Someone up ahead was talking. 

Elron, Blaze, and Parahelia snuck up to the corner where the stairs began.

“I think I heard something. Someone’s coming,” said a voice from around the corner. Apparently, Parahelia’s chainmail wasn’t quiet enough. We stopped, and Breena sent Rocky ahead. The two cultists saw Rocky, “How did that get here? That must have been what we heard.” Breena could see through Rocky’s eyes, two red robed cultists, one with a warhammer and one with an iron bar or pipe. 

She relayed the info to us; so Blaze pulled out her red robes we got from the barracks room, put them on, and went around the corner. They saw Blaze, and the second cultist pulled out his warhammer. Elron came out around the corner with Blaze. Sinis moved up.

Blaze tried to engage them in conversation. One cultist said, “What are you doing here?” 

Blaze said, “I’m going to the temple, what do you think?” trying to talk their way through, or at least get some information.

Elron decided not to. He had his sling out and used it. He shot the first cultist in the head, killing him instantly. His second stone hit the second cultist, his third glanced off the man’s chainmail, doing little damage. 

Parahelia moved up. Breena cast mage armor giving her 8 hours of protection.

Cultist #2 kicked his pipe away and pulled out a light crossbow, shot at Elron hitting for 16 points of damage, 8 of which were necrotic.

Sinis cast acid splash on him for 11 points damage. Blaze cast witch bolt, hitting but doing no damage. Elron’s next sling shot hit the man’s chainmail for no damage. His second stone hit, killing the man. 

Approaching the two bodies, we noticed the piece of iron pipe matched the section of missing bar for the gate. They were repairing the gate where Sinis had damaged it to let us through last time.

We looted the bodies and took their robes. We got one relatively intact robe, two chainmail shirts, two warhammers, two light crossbows with 21 bolts, two holy symbols of Orcus that stung our hands when we touched them, and 7 gp. We put the armor into our cart, and Elron put the bodies in the stream at the northeast end of the stairs, hopefully hiding them. 

We continued down the hallway to the east, past the Gate. There is a cross section in the hallway and Blaze suggested looking for secret doors; after half an hour no one found anything. We continued on to the east.

Fourteen miles and 7 hours later. 

July 6
Just after midnight we entered the stone stairs to the ogres cave. Elron went down first, and a feeling of fear hit him as soon as he came into the big cave. He warned the rest about it. Blaze entered and felt nothing. Breena felt it at the entrance to the cave and Parahelia noticed her hesitation. Sinis didn’t feel anything at all. 

Breena walked over to Elron who had moved into the cave. Parahelia stepped into the cave and felt a wave of fear, but it quickly passed. Her knowledge of religion allowed her to identify it and she explained it to us. It’s an unhallow effect of a hallow spell; it affects people of good alignment and it’s a persistent area effect. Well, I guess we know who’s good now.

On a previous trip, Elron had been able to use a mouse to explore this area, including areas the rest of us hadn’t gotten to. There’s a tunnel to the north that goes up. At the end is a wall across the tunnel with a door. The mouse had squeezed under the door and saw giant rats on the other side and retreated.



Elron led us all up the tunnel. The fear feeling went away as soon as we started climbing the stairs, so the area effect seems to be at the cave itself.

Elron went up to the door and checked it out; it was locked, it was quiet on the other side and he found no traps. Artie came up to unlock it and confirmed that there were no traps. The lock was resisting and took half an hour to get unlocked.

Artie stepped back for Elron to open the door with his sling ready. On the other side were no giant rats, but there was the smell of decay. The tunnel continued in a southerly direction. Elron, going first, found a large room and saw the remains of several giant rats. We continued south to the room with rat corpses and saw some smashed coffins. 

As Breena and Blaze entered the room, they could see a rectangular room in a northeast-southwest orientation; there were a row of four coffins along the northwest wall and a row of four coffins along the southwest wall; there was also a hallway going to the northeast parallel to the tunnel we were in. 

Rocky had gone ahead to scout, when Breena yelled, “Rocky found ghouls! Twelve of them!” Ghouls 1 through 4 were hiding in the northern caskets; ghouls 5 through 8 were hiding in the southern caskets; and ghouls 10 through 12 were at the far end of the northeast hallway. 

Ghoul 7 leaped out of a casket to attack Breena, swung a claw, hitting her, but didn’t paralyze her. As Ghoul 9 scampered toward Blaze, Blaze grabbed Breena and cast thunderstep, teleporting both back into the tunnel and causing damage to ghoul 7.  

Ghoul 10 moved to Sinis who stepped back. Ghoul 4 moved to Elron, biting him but only got a mouth full of armor. Ghouls 3 and 4 moved toward the middle of the room. 

Breena cast vitriolic sphere into the room creating a 20-ft diameter sphere of acid, hitting ghouls 3, 4, 7, 8, 10 and 12 and killing all of them. Wow. That was half of them.

Ghoul 5 moved up and Rocky ran back to Breena. Artie stayed in the tunnel looking into the room, waiting for a clear line of sight. Ghoul 6 moved up and Artie shot at him with his short bow but missed. 

Elron used his sling on ghoul 6, hitting it with three stones, killing it.

Ghouls 1 and 2 moved toward Elron. Blaze moved forward, lined up both and cast lightning bolt causing damage to both of them, and killing ghoul 2. 

Breena cast frostbite on ghoul 5 but missed and stepped back. Ghoul 5 ran away toward the northeast hallway, toward the door at the end of the hall. Rocky moved up and saw ghoul 5 near the door.

Elron moved into the room. Ghouls 10, 11, and 5 were trying to escape through the door at the far end of the northeast hallway. Blaze moved to the southwest end of the hallway and cast flaming sphere, hitting ghoul 11 who died. Ghoul 10 was fumbling at the door but couldn’t get it opened, it was locked. Sinis moved to Blaze and cast acid splash on ghoul 10. Breena moved to Blaze and Sinis, casting magic missile on it. Parahelia moved into the room with Artie. Elron moved up and hit ghoul 10 with his sling, killing it.

The room smelled bad; there were smashed coffins and dead ghouls and decaying giant rats. Searching the room, we found 2,055 sp; 451 gp; and 2 gems, a banded agate and hematite worth 20 gp each. One of the caskets contained a nice-looking longsword.

This room is 50 feet higher than the temple level so it’s lower than the cave; this would be Level 3. 

July 6
1 AM
We finished searching the room; there’s a closed door in a hexagonal-shaped room between the coffins, and a closed, locked door at the end of the hallway.

Continued in Session 74 - The Troll