Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 42

SESSION 42: DAY 17-18 – CRAGMAW CAVE

After a few minutes the sick feeling that Per, Kord and Talmark were feeling passes.  Malandir (who has Knowledge Local) tells them that it’s a reaction to the odor of defensive stench given off by the troglodytes and, whilst it is only temporary, it can be quite debilitating. 

Lucien offers to heal Clovis and Talmark before they enter the caves. Lucien has a paranoid suspicion the troglodytes may have been part of a larger group that might have taken the cave over. Maybe they were advanced guards. 

As Malandir retrieves his bow he offers to scout the cave first so that the group doesn’t run into more trouble. He tells Lucien to hold off curing for the moment until he returns. 

Malandir stealthily moves towards the entrance of the cave and then disappears into the inky darkness. 

He emerges only a few seconds later and comes back to the group. 

“False alarm” he exclaims. “Seems like they had only just gotten here. We must have interrupted them before they had the time to even enter the cave.”

More relaxed, the some of the party start to lay out the troglodyte bodies to skin them.

Lucien is concerned that the stench of the troglodytes may carry over into the gnoll pelts and ruin their value. 

Kord (who has the Survival skill) acknowledges that this is a good observations but assures Lucien that they will be able to store the skins separately and that they won’t cross contaminate them Malandir (who has the Appraise skill) adds that the troglodyte skins will likely be quite valuable given the toughness of the leather that will be able to be made from them, although he agrees their value may be lessened depending on the level of stench that their hides maintain after they are skinned. 

They set about and prepare the troglodytes. Some of the party skin the troglodytes, whilst Kord leads another group into the caves to dig some pits to hold their bodies. The remaining group work on the gnoll coats to preserve them. 

The party is heavily damaged and they rest the night of the 17^th and in the morning of the 18^th Kord and Lucien asses their status.

·        Talmark 13hp out 20hp

·        Per 15hp (full strength)

·        Lucien 12hp out of 15hp

·        Malandir 10hp (full strength)

·        Kord 14hp out of 17hp

·        Fremont 9hp out of 12hp

·        Barret 12hp (full strength)

·        Clovis 9hp out of 12hp

Kord estimates that if they rested on the 18^th the party would mostly be headed just through the rest. They could use a few spells on Talmark to boost his healing as he had been the most damaged during the combats. He advocates that they could then leave for the Burg on the morning of the 19^th at almost full strength and with a full spell complement.  

They work through their loot and find that they have the following:

They take an inventory of their consumables and find the following:

They reflect on their learnings and find that they have had the following experiences:

DEW