[Down to half the players due to work and health, the remaining players decided to go take a look in the Barrowmaze anyways. We started with the things we had to skip at the end of last game session due to time.]
[Also? SPOILERS! This series will spoil what’s in Barrowmaze, so take that into consideration before reading.]
PCs (The Revengers)
Daphne – female human Blade-Sister (5th level Bladedancer)
Boris the Fighter – male human Hero (4th level Fighter)
Adam – male human Magician (4th level Mage)
Unavailable Due to RL
Jaxby – male Elven Theurgist-Swordmaster (3rd level Spellsword)
Godric – male Dwarven Craft-Acolyte (2nd level Craftpriest))
NPCs
Dergos – male human guide, still sold on the glory of adventuring, hired by Daphne
‘Len – professional torchbearer, full name is Morgullen, but he never uses it
Freysday, June 20th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam arrived back in Helix with Felix’s corpse and the chest they pulled from Barrow 37. After depositing Felix’s corpse at the Shrine of St. Ygg for safekeeping, they tracked down Tripp and paid him to unlock the chest for them. They forgot to mention it might be trapped and Tripp, no longer maintaining an adventurer’s level of paranoia, didn’t check. This made the poison needle an unpleasant surprise and his death from it doubly so.
Somewhat embarrassed by this turn of events, Daphne and Adam deposit Tripp’s corpse at the Shrine and then disassemble the hinges to access the chest, breaking the front of the chest when they lift the lid [the down-side to this method]. Inside the chest they found over 6000 gp and two coffers. They chose to open the first coffer and found 5 pieces of valuable jewelry. They took one piece of jewelry over to The Rosy Quartz Jeweler and Money Lender and sold it to H.H.R. Huffnpuff. [This was a bit meta as they did this so they could level, but I chose to allow it as the Abomination fight was pretty major and leveling fit the flow.]
Yggsday, June 21st, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam traveled with the corpses of Felix and Tripp to Ironguard Motte to get Restore Life and Limb cast on them. They arrived early enough to get the spell cast on Felix that day. It did not work. The priests did some divining and announced that St. Ygg will allow a second attempt the next day, but Felix will need to go on a quest for St. Ygg. Daphne and Adam shrug, and agree to these terms. It’s Felix’s money they are spending.
Sunday, June 22nd, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam spend the day buying the supplies for another week-long party/wake in honor of Jaxby.
The Prelate cast Restore Life and Limb on Felix [again] and this time Felix revived, but he was now blind. Luckily, the Prelate, Donatien Smoothhands, could fix this [for another donation to the temple, of course] and cast Cure Blindness on Felix. Felix was still weakened by being brought back and will need bedrest for a month before he can go on his quest. [At this point, Felix is officially retired as a player character and joins Tripp in NPC status. Speaking of whom…]
Moonday, June 23rd, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Tripp is revived with a casting of Restore Life and Limb by the Prelate. He will need 25 days of bedrest. He suffered two side-effects: his knee is now fixed from the pterodactyl wound and his hair grows at an amazing rate [clean-shaven to one-inch beard in 8 hours] and it never stops.
Satisfied they have fulfilled their duties to Felix and Tripp, Daphne and Adam make their way back to Helix with a wagon-load of supplies for the party/wake.
Hernesday, June 24th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The party/wake starts.
Moonday, June 30th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Final day of the party/wake honoring Jaxby.
Boris the Fighter, finally done with his bedrest and fully healed from his last outing to the Barrowmaze, stopped by The Axe and Anvil to pick up the enchanted axe he commissioned from Karg Barrelgut a month ago. The workmanship is excellent and Boris gladly pays the balance of what he owes.
Boris met up with Daphne and Adam to discuss options. Adam “has a good feeling” and wanted to head back to the Barrowmaze. [This might or might not have been the booze talking.] Daphne was also ready to resume adventuring, so the three agreed to head out the next morning. Daphne spoke with Osen of the Mercenary Guild, requesting Durgos and ‘Len [who is pleased to be “back in the game” so to speak].
Hernesday, July 1st, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The three adventurers and their two hirelings met at the Mercenary Guild building early in the morning before heading south. Along the way, a giant toad foolishly attacked the small group and was killed in less time than it took to write this sentence. [I didn’t bother to roll dice after no one failed a surprise check.]
Arriving before Noon, the adventurers approached Barrow 12 as their choice for entering the dungeon. The rope at the rusted tripod was down and there was no sign of the steel skeletons – apparently others had traveled this route since the adventurers were last here.
The adventurers climbed down the rope and entered the Barrowmaze proper. They carefully made their way down the primary hallway, stopping at Room 5 to see if the steel skeletons had retreated back to this room. The room was empty, which was both a relief and puzzling. The group crossed the room and peered out the doorway on the opposite side of the room. The hallway beyond was empty, as was the room to their right, just as they had left it the last time they were here. The one difference was the door in the southwest corner was ajar. [The mandatory “is it a door or a jar” jokes were made by the players. Sigh.] With no other obvious disturbances, curiosity drew them to the door. They followed the hallways beyond and a second open door until they reached an open pit trap. At the bottom of the pit trap was the body of Dr. Venom West.
Using rope, Daphne climbed down into the pit to examine the body. The body had been partially looted. All of Dr. West’s money and his silver dagger were gone, but the Gauntlets of Dexterity [+1] were still being worn. Daphne carefully removed the gauntlets and put them is a bag for later cleaning. [Note: no experience was assigned for the gauntlets as they were not new treasure.] After Daphne climbed back out of the pit, the group decided to backtrack [plus the pit trap was the width of the hallway and they had no way to bypass it safely].
While backtracking, Boris noticed a part of the wall was made of bricks and not the stone blocks the rest of the walls were made of. Boris pulled out the sledgehammer and smashed through the bricked up area, exposing a corridor with three doors on the left side. There was also some graffiti on the right wall that read “Rhymes with numbers.” The group inspected the doors and found all three were locked. With no capability to pick the locks [and slightly creeped out by the whole situation], the trio decided to leave the doors alone for a later trip.
Continuing their backtracking, the adventurers opened a side door they had bypassed earlier and found a small room with six mongrelmen in the process of leaving through another door. Boris immediately attacked, killing one of the mongrelmen. The rest of the mongrelmen hastened their escape, pulling the door closed behind them. Nonplussed at this reaction, the adventurers decided to not pursue.
Returning to the room with the initial open door, the adventurers opened the door in the southeast corner. The adventurers were ready for a fight, as the last time they opened this door, several zombies attacked them. Behind the door this time was a Rot Pudding, feasting one the remains of the zombies. Boris attacked the pudding with a strong slash from his axe. The axe wound spurted pus all over Boris. He immediately started feeling poorly [failed his save] and the group pulled the door shut. The Rot Pudding started oozing under the door to get at the adventurers.
Both Daphne and Boris pulled out flasks of military oil. They quickly decide to use Boris’ and pour it over the extruding pudding. ‘Len lit it up with his torch. The burning pudding started giving odd noxious smoke [in addition to retreating back under the door], so the group immediately retreated back to Room 5. To keep any smoke from getting past the door, they used some rags to jam the gaps. As they rested from the exertion, Boris slipped into unconsciousness from the pus infection. Adam used his healing knowledge [and some herbs] to cure the disease. By the end of the rest, Boris was able to walk again, even if he was a little wobbly.
With the path forward blocked by the fire and smoke, the adventurers backtracked a little further to the main hallway and went down a side passage they had never explored before. Following the passage down around a corner, they found a hallway with three doors on the left [closed, ajar, and broken open, respectively], a bricked up door at the far end, and a closed portcullis on the right wall.
The room beyond the portcullis appeared empty, so they ignored it. The ajar door opposite the portcullis seemed to open onto a mostly empty room with an inanimate skeleton in the far corner. Just before entering the room, Boris remembered to look up and looked directly into the face of a giant crab spider! After a quick round of attacks, the spider was dead and none of the adventurers wounded. Adam took a moment to harvest some of the spider’s venom. Inside the room, in a bag next to the skeleton was a large handful of electrum pieces.
Moving down the hall to the broken door, the adventurers carefully looked into the room. Inside was a phantom that rose from a corpse and stared at the adventurers. Daphne and Adam were able to control the fear that washed over them, but Boris and ‘Len bolted. As ‘Len had the light source, Adam and Daphne were forced to follow the two as they fled all the way out of the dungeon and back into the moors.
After 20 minutes of panicked flight, Boris and ‘Len were able to gain some control and came to a stop. Thoroughly exhausted, the group took a rest and discussed what they would do next. Deciding they were not done with the dungeon, the group returned to the field of barrows.
Re-entering the Barrowmaze through Barrow 12, the group proceeded further down the main hallway, checking a door on the left wall they had repeatedly ignored previously. This room was a plain 20x20 room. Standing in the center of the room was a dusty table with three polished skulls resting on it. After looking around for a bit and finding nothing, Boris took the skulls from the table and the group moved on.
Further down the hallway on the left was a broken section of wall. Beyond it was another 20x20 room with no other exits. The broken wall appeared to have been broken outward from the sealed chamber. Somewhat unsettled and perplexed, the adventurers moved further down the hall to the next door on the left, bypassing a bricked up doorway on the right.
Opening the door to this room triggered a crossbow trap, which skewered Boris. After removing the bolt and applying a bandage to the wound, the group searched the burial alcoves on the walls. This took 20 minutes, during which the group needed to take a rest break. They found 108 gp scattered among the 51 burial alcoves.
The adventurers then backtracked to the bricked up doorway. Boris smashed down the bricks. Beyond was a 20x20 room with the statue of a vile demon squatting in the center of the room. Next to the statue were two full bags. The walls were lined with octagonal burial alcoves containing skull piles. After vandalizing the statue [to verify it won’t animate], the group started searching the alcoves. They eventually found 666 sp. One of the bags next to the statue was full of silver and the other gold.
Satisfied with the loot they now have, the group decided to head back to town. When they returned to the surface, they saw that it was later than they thought, but in the deep of summer, they still had plenty of time to get out of the area. [It was 30 minutes past their self-imposed time to leave, but being underground, they didn’t realize how much time had gone by searching that last room.]
Back in Helix, they sold off their loot, including the jewelry from the last expedition and the gems in the second coffer [also from last session]. Then they threw another massive party.
End of Session
[So the first part was properly wrapping up from the previous session, which ran long. We normally get about three hours of play in, but sometimes things run a bit long.]
[The reason for all the big parties is the characters are banking more experience points for their next character, knowing death can come at any time. I think I need to print out the domain rules an make them available to the players. They are high enough level that they will need to start thinking about saving up for domains and strongholds. Plus, they are cresting into 5th level, when several can make potions and scrolls.]
The Motley Crew
Session 1: The Start
…
Session 11: TPK
The Revengers
Session 12: Rise of the Revengers
Session 13
Session 14
Session 15
Session 16
Session 17
Session 19
[Also? SPOILERS! This series will spoil what’s in Barrowmaze, so take that into consideration before reading.]
PCs (The Revengers)
Daphne – female human Blade-Sister (5th level Bladedancer)
Boris the Fighter – male human Hero (4th level Fighter)
Adam – male human Magician (4th level Mage)
Unavailable Due to RL
Jaxby – male Elven Theurgist-Swordmaster (3rd level Spellsword)
Godric – male Dwarven Craft-Acolyte (2nd level Craftpriest))
NPCs
Dergos – male human guide, still sold on the glory of adventuring, hired by Daphne
‘Len – professional torchbearer, full name is Morgullen, but he never uses it
Freysday, June 20th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam arrived back in Helix with Felix’s corpse and the chest they pulled from Barrow 37. After depositing Felix’s corpse at the Shrine of St. Ygg for safekeeping, they tracked down Tripp and paid him to unlock the chest for them. They forgot to mention it might be trapped and Tripp, no longer maintaining an adventurer’s level of paranoia, didn’t check. This made the poison needle an unpleasant surprise and his death from it doubly so.
Somewhat embarrassed by this turn of events, Daphne and Adam deposit Tripp’s corpse at the Shrine and then disassemble the hinges to access the chest, breaking the front of the chest when they lift the lid [the down-side to this method]. Inside the chest they found over 6000 gp and two coffers. They chose to open the first coffer and found 5 pieces of valuable jewelry. They took one piece of jewelry over to The Rosy Quartz Jeweler and Money Lender and sold it to H.H.R. Huffnpuff. [This was a bit meta as they did this so they could level, but I chose to allow it as the Abomination fight was pretty major and leveling fit the flow.]
Yggsday, June 21st, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam traveled with the corpses of Felix and Tripp to Ironguard Motte to get Restore Life and Limb cast on them. They arrived early enough to get the spell cast on Felix that day. It did not work. The priests did some divining and announced that St. Ygg will allow a second attempt the next day, but Felix will need to go on a quest for St. Ygg. Daphne and Adam shrug, and agree to these terms. It’s Felix’s money they are spending.
Sunday, June 22nd, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Daphne and Adam spend the day buying the supplies for another week-long party/wake in honor of Jaxby.
The Prelate cast Restore Life and Limb on Felix [again] and this time Felix revived, but he was now blind. Luckily, the Prelate, Donatien Smoothhands, could fix this [for another donation to the temple, of course] and cast Cure Blindness on Felix. Felix was still weakened by being brought back and will need bedrest for a month before he can go on his quest. [At this point, Felix is officially retired as a player character and joins Tripp in NPC status. Speaking of whom…]
Moonday, June 23rd, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Tripp is revived with a casting of Restore Life and Limb by the Prelate. He will need 25 days of bedrest. He suffered two side-effects: his knee is now fixed from the pterodactyl wound and his hair grows at an amazing rate [clean-shaven to one-inch beard in 8 hours] and it never stops.
Satisfied they have fulfilled their duties to Felix and Tripp, Daphne and Adam make their way back to Helix with a wagon-load of supplies for the party/wake.
Hernesday, June 24th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The party/wake starts.
Moonday, June 30th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Final day of the party/wake honoring Jaxby.
Boris the Fighter, finally done with his bedrest and fully healed from his last outing to the Barrowmaze, stopped by The Axe and Anvil to pick up the enchanted axe he commissioned from Karg Barrelgut a month ago. The workmanship is excellent and Boris gladly pays the balance of what he owes.
Boris met up with Daphne and Adam to discuss options. Adam “has a good feeling” and wanted to head back to the Barrowmaze. [This might or might not have been the booze talking.] Daphne was also ready to resume adventuring, so the three agreed to head out the next morning. Daphne spoke with Osen of the Mercenary Guild, requesting Durgos and ‘Len [who is pleased to be “back in the game” so to speak].
Hernesday, July 1st, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The three adventurers and their two hirelings met at the Mercenary Guild building early in the morning before heading south. Along the way, a giant toad foolishly attacked the small group and was killed in less time than it took to write this sentence. [I didn’t bother to roll dice after no one failed a surprise check.]
Arriving before Noon, the adventurers approached Barrow 12 as their choice for entering the dungeon. The rope at the rusted tripod was down and there was no sign of the steel skeletons – apparently others had traveled this route since the adventurers were last here.
The adventurers climbed down the rope and entered the Barrowmaze proper. They carefully made their way down the primary hallway, stopping at Room 5 to see if the steel skeletons had retreated back to this room. The room was empty, which was both a relief and puzzling. The group crossed the room and peered out the doorway on the opposite side of the room. The hallway beyond was empty, as was the room to their right, just as they had left it the last time they were here. The one difference was the door in the southwest corner was ajar. [The mandatory “is it a door or a jar” jokes were made by the players. Sigh.] With no other obvious disturbances, curiosity drew them to the door. They followed the hallways beyond and a second open door until they reached an open pit trap. At the bottom of the pit trap was the body of Dr. Venom West.
Using rope, Daphne climbed down into the pit to examine the body. The body had been partially looted. All of Dr. West’s money and his silver dagger were gone, but the Gauntlets of Dexterity [+1] were still being worn. Daphne carefully removed the gauntlets and put them is a bag for later cleaning. [Note: no experience was assigned for the gauntlets as they were not new treasure.] After Daphne climbed back out of the pit, the group decided to backtrack [plus the pit trap was the width of the hallway and they had no way to bypass it safely].
While backtracking, Boris noticed a part of the wall was made of bricks and not the stone blocks the rest of the walls were made of. Boris pulled out the sledgehammer and smashed through the bricked up area, exposing a corridor with three doors on the left side. There was also some graffiti on the right wall that read “Rhymes with numbers.” The group inspected the doors and found all three were locked. With no capability to pick the locks [and slightly creeped out by the whole situation], the trio decided to leave the doors alone for a later trip.
Continuing their backtracking, the adventurers opened a side door they had bypassed earlier and found a small room with six mongrelmen in the process of leaving through another door. Boris immediately attacked, killing one of the mongrelmen. The rest of the mongrelmen hastened their escape, pulling the door closed behind them. Nonplussed at this reaction, the adventurers decided to not pursue.
Returning to the room with the initial open door, the adventurers opened the door in the southeast corner. The adventurers were ready for a fight, as the last time they opened this door, several zombies attacked them. Behind the door this time was a Rot Pudding, feasting one the remains of the zombies. Boris attacked the pudding with a strong slash from his axe. The axe wound spurted pus all over Boris. He immediately started feeling poorly [failed his save] and the group pulled the door shut. The Rot Pudding started oozing under the door to get at the adventurers.
Both Daphne and Boris pulled out flasks of military oil. They quickly decide to use Boris’ and pour it over the extruding pudding. ‘Len lit it up with his torch. The burning pudding started giving odd noxious smoke [in addition to retreating back under the door], so the group immediately retreated back to Room 5. To keep any smoke from getting past the door, they used some rags to jam the gaps. As they rested from the exertion, Boris slipped into unconsciousness from the pus infection. Adam used his healing knowledge [and some herbs] to cure the disease. By the end of the rest, Boris was able to walk again, even if he was a little wobbly.
With the path forward blocked by the fire and smoke, the adventurers backtracked a little further to the main hallway and went down a side passage they had never explored before. Following the passage down around a corner, they found a hallway with three doors on the left [closed, ajar, and broken open, respectively], a bricked up door at the far end, and a closed portcullis on the right wall.
The room beyond the portcullis appeared empty, so they ignored it. The ajar door opposite the portcullis seemed to open onto a mostly empty room with an inanimate skeleton in the far corner. Just before entering the room, Boris remembered to look up and looked directly into the face of a giant crab spider! After a quick round of attacks, the spider was dead and none of the adventurers wounded. Adam took a moment to harvest some of the spider’s venom. Inside the room, in a bag next to the skeleton was a large handful of electrum pieces.
Moving down the hall to the broken door, the adventurers carefully looked into the room. Inside was a phantom that rose from a corpse and stared at the adventurers. Daphne and Adam were able to control the fear that washed over them, but Boris and ‘Len bolted. As ‘Len had the light source, Adam and Daphne were forced to follow the two as they fled all the way out of the dungeon and back into the moors.
After 20 minutes of panicked flight, Boris and ‘Len were able to gain some control and came to a stop. Thoroughly exhausted, the group took a rest and discussed what they would do next. Deciding they were not done with the dungeon, the group returned to the field of barrows.
Re-entering the Barrowmaze through Barrow 12, the group proceeded further down the main hallway, checking a door on the left wall they had repeatedly ignored previously. This room was a plain 20x20 room. Standing in the center of the room was a dusty table with three polished skulls resting on it. After looking around for a bit and finding nothing, Boris took the skulls from the table and the group moved on.
Further down the hallway on the left was a broken section of wall. Beyond it was another 20x20 room with no other exits. The broken wall appeared to have been broken outward from the sealed chamber. Somewhat unsettled and perplexed, the adventurers moved further down the hall to the next door on the left, bypassing a bricked up doorway on the right.
Opening the door to this room triggered a crossbow trap, which skewered Boris. After removing the bolt and applying a bandage to the wound, the group searched the burial alcoves on the walls. This took 20 minutes, during which the group needed to take a rest break. They found 108 gp scattered among the 51 burial alcoves.
The adventurers then backtracked to the bricked up doorway. Boris smashed down the bricks. Beyond was a 20x20 room with the statue of a vile demon squatting in the center of the room. Next to the statue were two full bags. The walls were lined with octagonal burial alcoves containing skull piles. After vandalizing the statue [to verify it won’t animate], the group started searching the alcoves. They eventually found 666 sp. One of the bags next to the statue was full of silver and the other gold.
Satisfied with the loot they now have, the group decided to head back to town. When they returned to the surface, they saw that it was later than they thought, but in the deep of summer, they still had plenty of time to get out of the area. [It was 30 minutes past their self-imposed time to leave, but being underground, they didn’t realize how much time had gone by searching that last room.]
Back in Helix, they sold off their loot, including the jewelry from the last expedition and the gems in the second coffer [also from last session]. Then they threw another massive party.
End of Session
[So the first part was properly wrapping up from the previous session, which ran long. We normally get about three hours of play in, but sometimes things run a bit long.]
[The reason for all the big parties is the characters are banking more experience points for their next character, knowing death can come at any time. I think I need to print out the domain rules an make them available to the players. They are high enough level that they will need to start thinking about saving up for domains and strongholds. Plus, they are cresting into 5th level, when several can make potions and scrolls.]
The Motley Crew
Session 1: The Start
…
Session 11: TPK
The Revengers
Session 12: Rise of the Revengers
Session 13
Session 14
Session 15
Session 16
Session 17
Session 19
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