Session 78 - Rats Again

The adventurers fight a horde of giant rats led by wererats with poison arrows and then travel to a new area where they find a mad barbarian named Marthek.

This write-up is based on Kay’s notes from our March 18, 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 screen shots.

Continued from: Going Back Again

Location: Rappan Athuk, Level 4, The Ogres’ Cave

Date: July 9, 3517

5 PM
We were back at the Ogres Cave going into Max’s cave. Blaze and Artie were fine, but Breena, Sinis, Elron, and Parahelia vomited from the stench. Max came up out of another garbage pile and waved at us; we apologized for not bringing another ogre for him, but Max made a snack out of our vomit. We continued on to the bone cave, going upstairs to the next level.

We got back to the lumber room where we left our cart. We went to the western hallway and went north. We passed by the stairs on the right leading up to a tunnel with giant rats, and two closed doors on the left that led to a sarcophagus room with a trap. The door at the north end of the hall was closed. Artie checked for traps, didn’t find any and heard no sound. He opened the door and saw an empty hallway oriented east-west. We decided to hold off on exploring until we dealt with the rat tunnel behind us, as we didn’t want to get caught between two problems at once.

We went back down the hall to the stairs on the right. Rocky went upstairs and saw a lot of giant rats. We planned to have Blaze use lightning bolt down the tunnel and get most of them, then she’d come downstairs and the rest of the rats would run into our gauntlet. Blaze lit them up, killing three.

One giant rat that she missed charged Blaze and tried to bite her, but just got a mouthful of armor.

Breena cast magic missiles and killed two more. More giant rats poured out of holes in the walls. A wererat shot an arrow at Blaze but hit the wall; his second shot hit her with a poisoned arrow.

Another wererat shot at Blaze twice but missed both times.

Another wave of giant rats scurried forward toward Blaze, as a third wererat shot a crossbow but missed her.

Parahelia moved forward. Elron ran up the stairs and used his sling on the leader. He hit with one stone and missed with the other.

Blaze cast thunder step and killed one of the giant rats with the blast as it moved down to bite her; she teleported downstairs.
 
Breena backed down the stairs and cast magic missiles killing two giant rats and injuring a third.

The leader shot a short bow at Elron and hit him twice.

Two giant rats tried to bite Elron but only bit armor. Artie could see a giant rat approach Elron and cast fire bolt which missed. Several more giant rats attacked Elron but did no damage. One of the wererats shot Elron with a crossbow.

Parahelia cast a healing spell on Elron, healing some of the arrow wounds.

Elron missed the second leader wererat with his sling and ran back to the party, followed by three giant rats.

One giant rat ran up to Sinis who cast acid splash and killed it. Blaze cast flaming sphere and burned one of the giant rats with it.

Breena cast thunderwave and killed the three giant rats in front of her. Artie cast fire bolt and killed one of the giant rats, then blended into the rocks.

Parahelia cast cure wounds on Elron again; he looked a lot better. Elron could see one of the leader’s head and hit him with a sling stone. His second shot missed as the wererat ducked into the side tunnel.

Breena moved up to the flaming sphere and cast magic missiles on a giant rat, killing it. Parahelia cast healing on Elron.

No more targets; they all ran away, ducking into side passages and behind rocks. We had killed a lot of giant rats, but all of the wererats got away.

Parahelia cast healing on Blaze.

20 minutes later. Blaze bandaged up Elron. Breena went down the tunnel on her own and saw four side tunnels, 5-feet-wide, located eight feet up the wall and empty. A pile of rubble blocked the end of the tunnel. There were lots of dead giant rats.

Blaze and Elron searched the rats, finding nothing.

6 PM
Going back to the North door; Elron checked and listened, no noise; it just smelled musty, no visible traps and not locked.

Breena watched the stairs in case more rats came out. Past the door was a hallway running east/west. Elron stuck his head out. There’s a room to the west, and two doors on the south wall to the east. Going west into the room, Elron tried to be stealthy. Breena and Blaze followed. Something woke up, and Elron heard the sound of someone’s feet hitting the floor and running toward us barefoot.



Elron was charged and attacked by Marthek, an insane barbarian. He said, “This is Marthek’s place!” and swung a ridiculously large club; it looked like something an ogre would carry. Marthek must be unreasonably strong.

Elron’s sling stone hit Marthek. “Ow! You hit hard!” Elron hit twice more.

“Throwing rocks at me, eh!”

Blaze cast blade ward and moved back out of range.

Marthek swung his club at Elron and hit. Parahelia cast heal on Elron. Sinis cast acid splash but missed. Artie shot Marthek, piercing him with an arrow.

Breena asked, “I wonder if he is cursed or just crazy?”

Elron replied, “It doesn’t matter, he is beating the crap out of me.”


Continued in Session 79 - Another New Friend