[The Revengers spend some time looking around the newly accessible area in the Barrowmaze before peeling the filigree from some sarcophagi.]
[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)
Godric – male Dwarven Craftpriest (3nd level Craftpriest))
Boris the Fighter – male human Exemplar (5th level Fighter)
Adam – male human Magician (4th level Mage)
Hrglclxin [pronounced her-gull-klack sin] – male human Scout (1st level Explorer)
NPCs
Dergos – male human guide, still sold on the glory of adventuring, hired by Boris
‘Len – professional torchbearer, full name is Morgullen, but he never uses it, hired by Boris
Proximo – male human Footpad, Godric’s henchman
Vorgand – female human porter, a university student earning coin, hired by Daphne
Evening, Cromsday, July 17th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
The Revengers, just back in town [see Session 20], spend time healing up from their adventure through the use of Healing proficiencies and application of the Comfrey herb. It helps, but they are not completely healed up.
Freysday, July 18th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Not wanting to explore the Barrowmaze still bearing the wounds from their last expedition, the Revengers use healing magic from Daphne and Godric to finish healing up. They re-provision and make arrangements at the Mercenary Guide for their regular guide, torchbearer, and porters for the next day.
Yggsday, July 19th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
In the early morning, the Revengers meet up with their hirelings at the Mercenary Guild building and then headed south into the Barrowmoor. While hiking through the moors, the Revengers came across two coffer corpses and destroyed them in less time that it takes to read this sentence. [I didn’t even bother having the players roll dice – coffer corpses are not a mystery to them and the PCs can quickly take them down. We were running a bit late, so doing this avoided wasting time.]
Arriving at the field of barrows nearly an hour before Noon, the Revengers walked straight to Barrow 20, their new “shortcut” into the dungeon below the barrows. Leaving Dergos on top of the barrow, the rest descended into the barrow, released the catch on the sarcophagus, pushed it aside, and descended the exposed narrow steps into the dungeon itself.
At the main corridor they went north, their goal to explore off the grand hallway [Room 92] before settling down to strip gold off some sarcophagi [in Room 90]. The room with the pyramid of stones [Room 56] also had some zombies this time. Daphne turned them in the name of Inanna, allowing Boris to safely and quickly destroy them with his enchanted greataxe. The revengers checked the zombies for lot but found none.
The next room [Room 57] was empty [except for the three mongrelmen corpses]. Passing through the two secret doors, the Revengers entered the grand hallway [Room 92]. The Revengers first investigated their actual target room [Room 90] to verify it was still empty of undead. With that room verified clear, they went down the short hallway just north of it to investigate at its end. Godric and Proximo spent time examining the door before pronouncing it safe to open.
The room on the other side was 30x30 feet, with a second door on the north wall. Looking around the room from the doorway, pressure plates were noticed in the center of the room with a cage, recessed into the ceiling, suspended over that section of floor. The Revengers entered the room, carefully avoiding the pressure-plated center of the room. Boris and Adam went over to the door on the north wall and discussed possibly exploring further north instead of just exploring off the grand hallway for today.
While that conversation was happening, Godric retried a stone from the debris in the grand hallway and threw it onto a pressure plate in the center of the room, triggering the iron cage trap. The cage dropped from the ceiling with a shriek [it was on rusted runners] and clanged to the floor extremely loudly, making Boris jump from surprise. The group, as one, gave Godric a dirty look and took up a defensive position to see if anything showed up to investigate the noise. After waiting a couple of minutes and nothing showing up [I couldn’t believe it either, but the extra random encounter dice I rolled all said “Nope!”], the group took a rest, during which they decided to open the northern door to see what was beyond it before deciding which way to explore next.
After packing up from their rest, Boris opened the door on the north wall. Beyond was another corridor heading north with a branch to the west just at the torch limit. Rather than going deeper into unexplored territory, the group decided to close the door and go back to the grand hallway. Walking across the grand hallway, the group formed started exploring past the bashed in door, to the next chamber east [Room 100]. Here they were attacked by a group of mongrelmen waiting in ambush, one of which landed a perfect blow on Boris [natural 20 on the die]. Boris saw three of the six mongrelmen head south to possibly try a flanking maneuver. He called a warning back over his shoulder to the rest of the group.
The other three mongrelmen were indeed attempting a flanking move, and Hrglclxin fired arrows at them as they charged. The fight was brief but fierce, as one of the flankers scored a perfect hit on Godric before dying. Searching the bodies afterward, they found two keys: one a strange metal key that ended in the shape of a pentagram and the other a key engraved with a book. Daphne made the connection between the first key and Barrow 7’s sealed bronze door with the pentagram keyhole. Both keys were safely stored away.
From this room [still Room 100], the Revengers shone light down both hallways leading away. They confirmed the south hallway contained a connection to the grand hallway as well as going further south. The east hallway went further than their light pierced, but they could see a door on the left wall. Estimating that they had time to peel the gold filigree but would then need to return to town, the Revengers back tracked to the room with the gold filigree [Room 90]. After another rest, during which Godric attempted to heal himself and failed, Godric pulled out his tools and started carefully removing the gold filigree from the sarcophagi. This took two hours, during which the group was attacked by a small swarm of stirges [4 of them] and a slightly larger herd of fire beetles [6 of them, which sadly do NOT shoot actual fire – I plan on fixing this and have warned the players].
When Godric finished, the group down hit points but 1700 gp richer, everyone packed up their gear and the Revengers returned to the surface. There they collected Dergos, who was starting to get worried as it was now past the time the group normally leaves. On the way back to town two zombies approached the group, but Daphne sent them fleeing with a stern glare.
Back in Helix, Boris made a donation to the Shrine of St. Ygg and received a cure light wounds for his donation. Daphne cast cure light twice on herself to fully recover from her wounds and stirge-induced blood loss. Adam and Godric used their healing arts to restore the remaining damage the Revengers had taken in the Barrowmaze. Then the group retired to the Brazen Strumpet for drinks and the telling of tales.
Godric located Tripp and contracted Tripp to be his agent in locating a set of enchanted plate armor [looking for +1 plate armor]. Tripp agreed to the commission for a percent of the sale and half of whatever discount he can arrange. Godric accepted those terms and they wrote up a contract to that effect.
End of Session
[One of the things I need to do for future sessions is put together some generic NPC Tomb Robbers that I can use at a moment’s notice, like when they show up as a wandering monster. Barrowmaze has a monster entry for them, but most of it is “put together something that matches your party’s capabilities”. This is something I can’t easily do on the fly without pausing the game too long, so I need to prep for this. I also need to bring back the Norse Whisperers with a couple of additional levels and work out which areas they’ve been exploring. The balance here is between verisimilitude and depriving the PCs of treasure they’ll need to level up.]
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 18
Session 19
Session 20
Session 22
[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)
Godric – male Dwarven Craftpriest (3nd level Craftpriest))
Boris the Fighter – male human Exemplar (5th level Fighter)
Adam – male human Magician (4th level Mage)
Hrglclxin [pronounced her-gull-klack sin] – male human Scout (1st level Explorer)
NPCs
Dergos – male human guide, still sold on the glory of adventuring, hired by Boris
‘Len – professional torchbearer, full name is Morgullen, but he never uses it, hired by Boris
Proximo – male human Footpad, Godric’s henchman
Vorgand – female human porter, a university student earning coin, hired by Daphne
Evening, Cromsday, July 17th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
The Revengers, just back in town [see Session 20], spend time healing up from their adventure through the use of Healing proficiencies and application of the Comfrey herb. It helps, but they are not completely healed up.
Freysday, July 18th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Not wanting to explore the Barrowmaze still bearing the wounds from their last expedition, the Revengers use healing magic from Daphne and Godric to finish healing up. They re-provision and make arrangements at the Mercenary Guide for their regular guide, torchbearer, and porters for the next day.
Yggsday, July 19th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
In the early morning, the Revengers meet up with their hirelings at the Mercenary Guild building and then headed south into the Barrowmoor. While hiking through the moors, the Revengers came across two coffer corpses and destroyed them in less time that it takes to read this sentence. [I didn’t even bother having the players roll dice – coffer corpses are not a mystery to them and the PCs can quickly take them down. We were running a bit late, so doing this avoided wasting time.]
Arriving at the field of barrows nearly an hour before Noon, the Revengers walked straight to Barrow 20, their new “shortcut” into the dungeon below the barrows. Leaving Dergos on top of the barrow, the rest descended into the barrow, released the catch on the sarcophagus, pushed it aside, and descended the exposed narrow steps into the dungeon itself.
At the main corridor they went north, their goal to explore off the grand hallway [Room 92] before settling down to strip gold off some sarcophagi [in Room 90]. The room with the pyramid of stones [Room 56] also had some zombies this time. Daphne turned them in the name of Inanna, allowing Boris to safely and quickly destroy them with his enchanted greataxe. The revengers checked the zombies for lot but found none.
The next room [Room 57] was empty [except for the three mongrelmen corpses]. Passing through the two secret doors, the Revengers entered the grand hallway [Room 92]. The Revengers first investigated their actual target room [Room 90] to verify it was still empty of undead. With that room verified clear, they went down the short hallway just north of it to investigate at its end. Godric and Proximo spent time examining the door before pronouncing it safe to open.
The room on the other side was 30x30 feet, with a second door on the north wall. Looking around the room from the doorway, pressure plates were noticed in the center of the room with a cage, recessed into the ceiling, suspended over that section of floor. The Revengers entered the room, carefully avoiding the pressure-plated center of the room. Boris and Adam went over to the door on the north wall and discussed possibly exploring further north instead of just exploring off the grand hallway for today.
While that conversation was happening, Godric retried a stone from the debris in the grand hallway and threw it onto a pressure plate in the center of the room, triggering the iron cage trap. The cage dropped from the ceiling with a shriek [it was on rusted runners] and clanged to the floor extremely loudly, making Boris jump from surprise. The group, as one, gave Godric a dirty look and took up a defensive position to see if anything showed up to investigate the noise. After waiting a couple of minutes and nothing showing up [I couldn’t believe it either, but the extra random encounter dice I rolled all said “Nope!”], the group took a rest, during which they decided to open the northern door to see what was beyond it before deciding which way to explore next.
After packing up from their rest, Boris opened the door on the north wall. Beyond was another corridor heading north with a branch to the west just at the torch limit. Rather than going deeper into unexplored territory, the group decided to close the door and go back to the grand hallway. Walking across the grand hallway, the group formed started exploring past the bashed in door, to the next chamber east [Room 100]. Here they were attacked by a group of mongrelmen waiting in ambush, one of which landed a perfect blow on Boris [natural 20 on the die]. Boris saw three of the six mongrelmen head south to possibly try a flanking maneuver. He called a warning back over his shoulder to the rest of the group.
The other three mongrelmen were indeed attempting a flanking move, and Hrglclxin fired arrows at them as they charged. The fight was brief but fierce, as one of the flankers scored a perfect hit on Godric before dying. Searching the bodies afterward, they found two keys: one a strange metal key that ended in the shape of a pentagram and the other a key engraved with a book. Daphne made the connection between the first key and Barrow 7’s sealed bronze door with the pentagram keyhole. Both keys were safely stored away.
From this room [still Room 100], the Revengers shone light down both hallways leading away. They confirmed the south hallway contained a connection to the grand hallway as well as going further south. The east hallway went further than their light pierced, but they could see a door on the left wall. Estimating that they had time to peel the gold filigree but would then need to return to town, the Revengers back tracked to the room with the gold filigree [Room 90]. After another rest, during which Godric attempted to heal himself and failed, Godric pulled out his tools and started carefully removing the gold filigree from the sarcophagi. This took two hours, during which the group was attacked by a small swarm of stirges [4 of them] and a slightly larger herd of fire beetles [6 of them, which sadly do NOT shoot actual fire – I plan on fixing this and have warned the players].
When Godric finished, the group down hit points but 1700 gp richer, everyone packed up their gear and the Revengers returned to the surface. There they collected Dergos, who was starting to get worried as it was now past the time the group normally leaves. On the way back to town two zombies approached the group, but Daphne sent them fleeing with a stern glare.
[Something like this]
Back in Helix, Boris made a donation to the Shrine of St. Ygg and received a cure light wounds for his donation. Daphne cast cure light twice on herself to fully recover from her wounds and stirge-induced blood loss. Adam and Godric used their healing arts to restore the remaining damage the Revengers had taken in the Barrowmaze. Then the group retired to the Brazen Strumpet for drinks and the telling of tales.
Godric located Tripp and contracted Tripp to be his agent in locating a set of enchanted plate armor [looking for +1 plate armor]. Tripp agreed to the commission for a percent of the sale and half of whatever discount he can arrange. Godric accepted those terms and they wrote up a contract to that effect.
End of Session
[One of the things I need to do for future sessions is put together some generic NPC Tomb Robbers that I can use at a moment’s notice, like when they show up as a wandering monster. Barrowmaze has a monster entry for them, but most of it is “put together something that matches your party’s capabilities”. This is something I can’t easily do on the fly without pausing the game too long, so I need to prep for this. I also need to bring back the Norse Whisperers with a couple of additional levels and work out which areas they’ve been exploring. The balance here is between verisimilitude and depriving the PCs of treasure they’ll need to level up.]
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 18
Session 19
Session 20
Session 22
Hey Patrick,
ReplyDeleteHow's it going? Wasn't sure how else to get a hold of you... I'm hoping you'll mention my current project on social media or perhaps blog about it.
Explore the Black Pyramid! I've got a new kickstarter called Cha'alt. It's for both OSR and 5e D&D. Post-apocalyptic, eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy campaign setting, megadungeon, and hexcrawl:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/chaalt
Thanks,
VS