Castle Caldwell

Sessions III, IV, and V 3/25/365-3/28/365

The captured goblins are safely secured and the storming of Castle Caldwell commences. The party comes up with a ruse to offer themselves up for hire to the squatters. The trick isn't very convincing, but it gets the door open and the party finds itself in the barbican with a group of human brigands that are in charge of the goblin raiders. A portcullis is dropped trapping the party in the hall. A battle ensues with a handful of goblins, a few rogues and a fighter with a glowing blade. One goblin releases two ravenous wardogs eager for the kill. Fortune smiles on the party, as our elven sorcerer notes a breeze behind one wall, and opens the hidden door to the gate control room. The gate is lifted, the breech exploited and the tight battle swings the heroes' way. Among the spoils are a magic sword found on a twitching goblin and Elandrus, (Elven for Lightbringer) the magic longsword. The sword goes to the paladin and the rest of the first level is explored. Two fire beetles and a cobra are the less threatening creatures found.

The final battle of the level was a surprise--the ringleader of this band of highwayman was a priestess of Nerull. A brief melee ensues with her and a few followers in the small shrine and after a tense few rounds, a well-placed smite from Cadman brings the evil lady down.

The second level proves dangerous as a twin of the evil priestess is discovered, which turns out to be a doppleganger. Also found are two mad mages working their nefarious alchemy. The duo proves more frightening than anything, as they are fairly easily handled by the party. Found among the alchemical lab is a book detailing the formulas of many heretofore unknown concoctions.

Later, the group is temporarily split up by a teleporter trick. Xavier and Doc are the first through and start poking around different sarcophagi. Dagny follows. Cadman comes through just as one of the lids is popped and out comes a wight. Dagny gets a negative level from the wight before the party takes it down. Perhaps the worst encounter in the dungeon was when Lume stumbled blindly into a gelatinous cube. He lost the handle to his katana and his backpack from the cube's acid, as well as many hit points. The cube's paralysis left him floating in it--it didn't look good for our rogue/samurai. Some timely applications of newly discovered slimebane did the trick, saving the intrepid explorer.

The finale of the castle featured a battle against some hirelings of the band, a few hobgoblins as well as some drugged up warriors. This battle went very well. The clearing of the castle took two days.

During a day of rest, it is discovered that a band of orcs with a half-ogre in tow has been lurking around. Ignak the goblin informs us that they are led by some half orc bigwig named Tol-rag. 'Rag' is some orcish name for royalty, like prince or king. Sighting the patrolling orcs from the battlement, the party rests the night, under siege...

Xavier Cle2Rog1 3342
Doc Sor3 3342
Dagny Bar2Druid1 3342
Lume Rog1Sam1F1 3342
Cadman Pal3 3342