Scarlet Citadel Session 32 – Desiccated in the Dwarven Barracks

Last week I ran my first Scarlet Citadel session of 2023, as the characters returned to the infamous dungeon after reaching 6th level.

You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.

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Before leaving Redtower, the party decide to stock up on dungeoneering equipment, purchasing a block & tackle, and several shovels and broomsticks which they store in their bag of holding.

En route to the Citadel, the characters encountered a trio of goblins in the forest who are trying to lure their cat Sootz down from a tree. Unsurprisingly suspicious at first, the group eventually decides to help out. Tunde sends the cat to sleep and Maya climbs up to fetch it. The grateful goblins warn them that there are five Iron Spike dwarves guarding the ruins above the dungeon.

The characters attack the dwarves and defeat them, then waste time attempting to excavate the trapdoor inside the keep using their block & tackle. They realise after an hour of digging that they are not getting anywhere and decide to enter the dungeon via the usual stairs from the former owlbear lair.

Back on Level 1, there is no sign of the ogrepede but this time the characters are attacked by repulsive, flapping skin bats that attach themselves to Tunde and Farthrum and drain their blood (or oil, in Farthrum’s case). After a few rounds of fighting, Maya turns the undead which destroys the last three bats.

Farthrum goes down the stairs to Level 2 on his own, jumps over the pressure plates, then calls to the others to follow.

Maya opens the door into the corridor from the distillery and spots a trollkin grunt. The characters attack and defeat the trollkin – Clairmont’s fireball ensures they can’t regenerate.

Next, the group go down the stairs to Level 3. Two trollkin shoot arrows at the party from the darkness. Farthrum pursues when they withdraw, running straight into a shaman and two lich hounds who have come to investigate the sounds of combat.

Yet again, the characters find themselves in trouble with Clairmont going unconscious from the shaman’s deadly desiccating breath spell. He’s healed by Maya but things are not going well. We ended the session in media res – the two lich hounds have vanished but the shaman is still alive and kicking….

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Main image by David Auden Nash