Session 80 - More Giant Rats & Cultists

The adventurers find a room full of starving giant rats and then go down to the next level where they encounter a party of Orcus Cultists.

This write-up is based on Kay’s notes from our April 15, 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: Another New Friend

Location: Rappan Athuk, Level 2 - Marthek’s Lair and Ambro’s Base
Date: July 12, 3517

8:40 AM
We were standing outside of the room with the dead giant rats and the stairs leading down to a landing. Marthek had no idea where the stairs went. We continued on to the next door to the west, on the south side of the hall. When we asked Marthek if he knew what was in the room, Marthek said he had a key and he had nailed someone to the other side of the door a few months ago.

We asked him to open the door. We found a mummified arm nailed to the inside of the door and multiple giant rats, looking emaciated. One giant rat bit Marthek twice as he stood in the doorway, blocking it. When Marthek moved out of the doorway, another giant rat took the opportunity to attack him, too.

Blaze cast flaming sphere in the doorway, blocking it, and killed a giant rat.

Breena moved toward the door and cast thunderwave at the rats fleeing the flaming sphere; she killed them and two more.  She got a good look at 13 giant rats in the room.

Parahelia moved closer and shot a crossbow bolt at a giant rat, but missed.

Elron used his sling, missed the first shot on a giant rat but hit on the second shot, killing it. His third shot on another giant rat killed it.
 
 

One giant rat ran into the hallway going east past several of the party members; Breena hit it with her dagger and Artie punched it; it died.

Artie hit a giant rat with a fire bolt, killing it, and stepped back out of the doorway. Sinis cast acid splash and killed two more. Blaze moved her flaming sphere into a giant rat and killed it.

One of the last giant rats ran past Breena who killed it with her dagger. Breena then entered the room and cast witch bolt killing one giant rat.

Parahelia moved nearer to the door with her longsword ready in case any more ran into the hallway.

Elron moved into the room with his warhammer, hitting and killing the last two giant rats.

Breena noticed a hole in the floor; she cast mage armor and jumped into the hole with her dagger while Elron watched. The hole went about 25 feet and ended in a cave-in with boulders. The rats all looked thin, like they were starving.

Marthek said the room was empty when he was here last. 

Elron looted the bodies, but there was nothing but burned rat fur.

We went down the stairs in the next room. There was a door at the landing. Elron went first and turned a corner to the west. The next level was about 50 feet down. The ceiling in the passageway was 14 feet high with stack-cut stone.

Elron heard the sound of running water in the distance. There was an archway that opened into a large cavern. Elron saw glowing green letters spelling a message above the passage: “Beware of purple worms - Spiegel the Archmage”. As we moved into the large cavern, we saw regular-sized rats, and a shallow river or stream ran through the cavern. There were fungi, stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Rocky sniffed the fungus, didn’t like the smell. Blaze identified some fungus as edible and some as poisonous.

As Blaze moved farther into the cave, she passed what Breena had identified as a huge worm casing, which may have valuable minerals in it. Elron moved into the space and saw moving lights at the south end of the room. Elron readied his sling and alerted the rest of us.

Rocky found a hole that looked like a burrow that collapsed.

Elron pointed out the lights and we saw two cultists. They spotted Blaze’s light and started to approach.

Elron moved toward them. Then we saw there were three red robed cultists and one Priest of Orcus who was in the front clad in different robes. They were casually walking up toward the river/stream. We figured they hadn’t noticed all of us yet, only Blaze’s light was visible to them at the time. The four walked toward Elron’s direction but didn’t seem be aware that he was there.

Artie hid behind a column. Rocky climbed the stalagmite for a better vantage point. Elron moved next to Marthek. Blaze moved closer to the intruders and held prepared to cast a lightning bolt. Parahelia moved closer. Marthek saw them and whispered to Blaze, “Is that who I think it is?”

She nodded.  Marthek was barely controlling himself.

The Priest of Orcus ran and jumped across the river. The three cultists moved up to the river on the opposite side and got ready to jump across.

Breena cast a 30-ft-radius sickening radiance on all four. It killed two cultists immediately and hurt the Priest of Orcus. The remaining cultist seemed fine. Blaze cast lightning bolt on the Priest. Marthek ran around the corner, straight into the sickening radiance sphere which caused him damage, and swung his short sword twice at the Priest, who looked scared as he recognized Marthek right before he died.



Sinis moved up and cast witch bolt at the remaining cultist but missed, as did Blaze’s own witch bolt. Parahelia also missed him with her crossbow bolt. However, the lingering effect of the sickening radiance sphere continued damaging him and he died. Breena stopped the effect, so Marthek could kick the body without further injury.

We intuited that this was the Priest who had cursed Marthek.

Elron looted the bodies. Loot: 3 war hammers (Marthek took one), 3 light crossbows, 22 crossbow bolts, 29 sp, 45 cp, a hardtack ration, a wedge of cheese and flask of ale, 3 red robes. We now had enough robes to cover most of us regular sized people. There was also a mace with a metal skull that we didn’t want to touch, so we wrapped it in the shredded robes of the Priest of Orcus. 

Blaze walked the perimeter of the cavern to get a sense of the space; the stream was swift, but we could jump across at the narrowest part with a running start. There were different types of fungus, and 3 huge worm casings. One of the side tunnels to the southwest went downhill, and the cultists came out of a tunnel on the southeast.

Some of the worm casings looked fresh.

TO BE CONTINUED.