Session 74 - The Troll

The adventurers fight a troll and work their way back to the Ghoul’s lair. 

This write-up is based on Kay’s notes from our January 26, 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 to Kay and JoJo for the screen shots. 

 

Continued from: Ghouls

 

Location: Rappan Athuk, Level 3, Burial Room 

Date: Thursday, July 6, 3517 
 

1 AM  

After the battle with the ghouls, Breena and Elron were injured. Blaze suggested taking a long rest to heal. We decided to take it in the tunnel leading into the burial room between 2 bottle necks. The smell of rotting corpses would have kept us from having a good rest in there. Elron cast good berries and we all got one. 

 

9 AM  
Nothing disturbed our rest. We went back to the burial room and Elron listened at the door to the hexagonal room and checked for traps and locks. Sinis cast detect magic and found the longsword was magical; the longbow however, was too decayed to use. Artie also checked the door for traps, etc. No traps, no sounds. Elron opened the door inward and peeked in; it was empty. It looks like it should have contained a sarcophagus or something but nothing was there. 

 

We then checked the door at the end of the northeast hallway; it was locked, no sound. Artie checked it; it was made of stone, like the rest of the wall. It looked like someone was digging next to the wall. Artie could not find any traps. Artie tried to unlock it but failed; it was acting weird, the pins shifted back in the lock. Sinis cast transform (10 minutes per cubic foot of stone to wood) around the lock but failed. Another 10 minutes, another failure. The entire wall was magic, that’s why it didn’t work. 

 

Blaze remembered we picked up an iron key in the dungeon near here and tried it, didn’t work.  
 
Elron walked to the wall and tried to put his hand through; it was solid.  

 

10 AM 

Searching for a secret door near the area, Blaze, Artie, and Elron found nothing. Elron used his sling with a magic stone, it bounced off. Sinis noticed the hinges were on the other side. Breena used lightning lure on the door to try to pull it toward her, no go. Sinis cast reduce on the door, no effect.  
 
We gave up and went back to the ogres cave. 

 
As Blaze entered the cave first and rounded a corner, she saw a troll, who saw Blaze and ran over to her. It tried to bite her and missed, also swung a claw but missed. Artie moved up and cast fire bolt, hit it, and then ducked behind the rocks. Sinis cast witch bolt for a continuous lightning effect, but it hardly noticed.

 
Elron moved over to Rocky and aimed his sling, two misses and one hit. Breena cast magic missiles and hurt it. Blaze tried to disengage and move away from the troll, and it missed with a claw. Blaze cast lightning bolt which left it with a nasty burn, now it looks like it’s hit. The troll moved to Blaze and bit her, and made two claw attacks which both hit, leaving Blaze badly hurt.
 
Artie cast another fire bolt and scorched it again. Sinis’ witch bolt continued to damage it.  
 
Elron hit again with his sling, killing it.  

 

Apparently, it regenerates; so Elron cut its head off. The troll was carrying a bag with an iron spike, a steel mirror, and a big bag of coins with 1,600 cp and 20 ep. We put it all in the cart.  

 

Blaze used a healing kit on herself and Parahelia cast healing, bringing Blaze up to almost normal. 

 

The troll head woke up and attempted to bite Elron. Artie cast fire bolt on the head and it stopped moving. Artie hit the body with several more fire bolts, and it started burning. Elron tossed the head on the burning troll.  

 

We continued to Max’s Lair and brought the troll head (now cooked). We offered Max the head and he ate it immediately with a single bite. We told him where the rest of the body was, but he can’t fit through the tunnels. He went to one of his garbage piles and pulled out a brass tiara, giving it to us. 

 

Elron noticed a tunnel his mouse explored earlier but we didn’t; we followed it west and then south going down 40 ft. to a portcullis; we decided not to go through there yet. We came back to Max and then to the west where we’ve been before. We got back to the ogre’s room, where there are 5 piles of skins with lice, and barely eaten rat corpses. We opened the door to the north into the east/west hallway. We went west to the secret door leading to the ghouls’ room and discovered the chalk mark for the door was gone, wiped away. We searched the alcove for the lever; Breena found the stone and pushed it to open the door.   

 

And there’s a bunch of ghouls on the other side of the door. Artie noticed the stench of ghouls and heard more ghouls around the corner approaching the door. One ghoul charged out to Elron and attacked.  
 
Artie was ready with his short bow, he hit one ghoul and killed it, and it fell in front of Elron. 
 
Breena flopped to the ground with an arrow, stepped forward, saw 3 more ghouls and cast magic missile, injuring two ghouls, and then stepped back.  
 
Blaze moved, cast lightning bolt at two ghouls, hurting them both, then she stepped aside.  

 

Elron’s first two sling stones missed, but the third hit a ghoul and killed it. Elron thinks there are at least 13 more ghouls.  

 
 
 

Continued in Session 75 - More Ghouls