Session Report – Barrowmaze – Session 6

[The glory of major loot - the agony of too much XP!  Also - Hirelings!]

[Also?  SPOILERS!  This series will spoil what’s in Barrowmaze, so take that into consideration before reading.]

PCs
Brock – male Dwarven Vaultguard, 2nd level
Radagast the Wanderer – male human Mage, exploring Barrow…you know the rest
Harkyn (the Hare) – gender fluid Elven Nightblade, 2nd level
Boris the Fighter – male human fighter, 2nd level
Kord – male human Bard, seeks tales of heroism to tell…and exploring Barrowmaze for the loot
Quillian the Green – male human mage, exploring Barrowmaze for the loot to establish a chantry [but mostly for the loot]

NPCs
Norman – male human guide, hired to lead the adventurers to Barrowmaze but not fight
Chick-Magnet – female war dog (0-level), actually a male man-at-arms cursed into a different form
Peldar and Nollan – professional torchbearers
Cormak, Gilgar, Barloc, Aris, Radar, Wermak, Ardar, Pelwin, Darmox, Sturgard – The Diggers


Freysday, April 26, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
After some discussion, the group decided to spend a week in Helix recovering from their wounds and putting together a group of diggers to excavate those barrows whose entrances are buried.  They also want to hire two torchbearers, one specifically for Quillian [who now only has one hand and cannot cast and hold a torch at the same time].  To get the word out, they spent 10 gp on notices in Helix, Ironguard Motte, and Bogtown and to have town criers make announcements each Noon in the town square [per the Meatshields random hireling generator] .  They rented a table in the Brazen Strumpet and waited for applicants.

A side effect of this was that Tripp named the adventuring group.  Onund the Lion, the town crier, asked which adventuring company petitioners should ask for and Tripp, caught on the spot, said, “The Motley Crew.”

Brock and Boris paid for the medical attention of Eldrim Bronzeshield, Wandering Physiker, for treatment of their wounds to speed up the process.


Yggsday, April 27, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The Motley Crew signed on four diggers and two torchbearers for a May 3rd expedition.

Boris is now completely healed from his wounds.


Sunday, April 28, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The Motley Crew signed on three diggers for a May 3rd expedition.


Moonday, April 29, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The Motley Crew signed on three diggers for a May 3rd expedition.  This made the full complement of 10 they had set out to hire.

The Boon Companions head out to the Barrowmaze with three hirelings.  They do not return that night.


Hernesday, April 30, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Brock finished healing from his wounds.


Freysday, May 3, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Early in the morning, The Motley Crew and their 14 hirelings meet up in front of the Mercenary Guild and then head south, into the Barrowmoor.

Two hours into the march, the group is confronted by the bedraggled remains of the Boon Companions.  Brule Armstrong’s platemail breast plate is askew and has the noticeable imprint of the knuckles of a large stone fist distorting it.  None of the hirelings are in sight.  Sly the Medium accuses Harkyn of setting a trap for them.  The Boon Companions fled from the animated statues, which gave chase into the moors, dogging them for the last two days.  The Boon Companions finally lost the statues the previous day, but were lost themselves.  Norman politely points in the direction they need to go.

Later
The Motley Crew arrived at the field of barrows an hour before Noon.  They selected Barrow 9 as the first to uncover.  Even with 10 diggers, it took six hours to uncover the entrance.  With the sun low on the horizon, the group decides to head back and get the diggers safely home.  The adventurers can return the next day and explore without the diggers.

On the way back, the group ran into a group of seven trolls.  Not wanting any part of that, the group fled.  They failed to break off contact with the trolls until they extinguished all their lights and hid.  The trolls walked past and failed to spot anyone.  [The players failed their Evasion roll, but the trolls completely failed their roll to catch up.]  Once no one could hear the trolls anymore, the group resumed their hike back to Helix.  By the time they returned, the diggers were in better spirits and traded stories with the other townsfolk for free drinks the rest of the night.


Yggsday, May 4, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The Motley Crew reassembled at the Mercenary Guild in the morning, along with Norman, Chick-Magnet, Peldar, and Nollan.  The much smaller group headed south again.  Along the way, they spotted a pair of axebeaks and evaded them.  [ACKS does not seem to have stats for these creatures, which is a shame.  If anyone knows where I can find them, please leave a message in the comments section.  Thanks!]

At the barrow field again, Boris was set to smashing the sealing stone.  The stairs down were steep, so Tripp lit a torch and threw it down into the barrow.  This tricked a giant centipede into dropping from the ceiling.  The group carefully descended into the barrow and found more centipedes on the ceiling.  Kord cast sleep on them and then Brock and Boris went about killing the sleeping centipedes.

Once all the centipedes were dead, they group discovered that the only things of note in the chamber were four sarcophagi.  The group carefully pried up the lids and looted the four sarcophagi, gathering some gold jewelry, an ivory comb, and a bone-handled dagger.  All of that went into the loot bag.

The group then had a discussion about going back to Barrow 19 to see if the animated statues were gone or had returned.  They eventually decided to check and approached the barrow with much trepidation.  In the main chamber they found the body of one of the hirelings the Boon Companions had taken with them.  There were also a set of bloody footprints from the body heading to the stairs out.  

The group cautiously moved into position to see through the now open secret door and into the room that once contained the animated statues.  All they saw was the statue base and the statue of the elven warrior.  No sign of the animated lizardmen statues.

Feeling a little more secure [if not actually safe], the group entered the room behind the secret door.  The bodies of Hyles the Young and Marcus the Black were still where they fell, now covered in insects feeding off their dead flesh.  Harkyn carefully retrieved Marcus’ coin purse and transferred its contents to the loot bag.

Opening the wooden door out of the room, the group found steep stairs down to a room knee-deep with brown water.  They cautiously descended the stairs, concerned they had found another entrance to the dungeon below the barrows.  The quickly realized these steps did not descend far enough to reach the Barrowmaze itself.  The room at the bottom of the stairs contained a stone slab with the withered remains of an elf laid to rest on it, still covered in a tattered green shroud.  On the slab next to the corpse’s feet were a pair of boots in excellent condition.  The boots were retrieved and examined [sadly, my notes don’t say by who].  Radagast was able to verify these were clearly Boots of Elvin Kind.  They are also the boots worn by the elf warrior in the statue, confirming who was laid to rest on the slab.  After some discussion, they were given to Harkyn.

The adventurers quickly left that barrow to avoid tempting fate any further and made their way over to Barrow 30 [after 29 was discovered to be another covered mound].  After 20 vigorous minutes, Boris had the sealing stone smashed, exposing the stairs down under the barrow.

The walls of the first room were carved in bas relief, depicting Impurax, the elder God of Rot and Pestilence.  Stairs led deeper on either side of the chamber, the stairs on the left ending at a door, the stairs to the right a hallway.  The group followed the hallway, deciding to leave the door alone for the moment.  The hallway split and they could see a door at the end either way.  Already following a right-handed path, they went right again.  They were rewarded with a 50 ft by 20 ft library, full of scrolls and tomes dedicated to the worship of Impurax.

Realizing that searching through the library for valuable items was going to be time consuming and wanting to explore further, Quillian returned to the surface and asked Norman if he would be willing to start going through the library for a 10 gp fee.  Norman asked if the barrow was cleared.  The adventurers admitted there was another door on this side they hadn’t checked yet.  Norman stated that once that door and whatever was behind it had been cleared, he’d start searching the library for 10 gp.

Returning to the barrow, the group opened the door in question.  Beyond was a circular room with a standing sarcophagus surrounded by funerary baskets and urns.  The adventurers had developed a theory that standing sarcophagi were done so that whatever was inside could get out easier.  So before Boris opened the sarcophagus, they all readied their weapons.  Inside was a barrow wight, which attacked the adventurers, but went down surprisingly quickly.  [And completely failed to drive anyone insane or actually hit.  Very disappointing from a GM perspective – the players were, of course, relieved.]

The adventurers quickly verified there were no other exits and Quillian went to get Norman and escort him to the library.  The rest of the group looted the room, finding three valuable amphorae and a scroll case with 4 clerical spells of high level [one 3rd level spell, two 4th, and one 5th!].  With no clerics in the group, the adventurers nearly drooled at the amount they would be able to sell the scrolls for.

Once Quillian was back [and Norman was searching the library], the group went to the other side of the barrow, where the stairs ended in a door.  Beyond that door was a hallway that curved off to the left and a door on the immediate right.  Again deciding to let closed doors stay closed, they followed the hallway to a preparation room with shelves lined with hundreds of jars, bottles, and ointments.  They spent 20 minutes searching the jars and were rewarded with Ointment of Healing (4 doses), Dust of Disappearance (3 uses), and Dust of Sneezing and Choking (2 uses).  [There was also Incense of Meditation (4 sticks), but I have no rules for that in ACKS, so it became just some incense that was still aromatic.]

Going back to the door, the adventurers found the final room of this barrow.  The chamber contained four mummies on stone slabs.  Adjacent to each mummy was a bowl with a handful of platinum pieces.  Suspecting a trap, Brock borrowed rope from Boris and Radagast and tied up the mummies, which did not react.  Then Harkyn scooped up the platinum pieces from each bowl, directly into the loot bag.  With the mummies still non-responsive, Brock untied them and gave the ropes back to Boris and Radagast.  [Remember that – I’ll bring it up at the beginning of Session 7 once I had a chance to read up on Mummy Rot. ;) ]

The adventurers went back to collect Norman for the trip back to town.  Norman turned over two holy writs he had discovered in the piles and piles of scrolls he had searched.  He had cleared a ten-foot stretch of shelves, so only…100 feet more to go?  Realizing there was no way to search the rest before they needed to leave the area, the adventurers left the barrow, carefully closing what doors they could behind them.

On the hike back to Helix the group spotted another hunting party of froglings.  The froglings noticed the group, but seemed indifferent to their presence, so the adventurers kept marching and the froglings did the same.

Back in town, the adventurers sold their loot and split up Marcus’ money, providing each adventurer with a very tidy sum.

End of Session


[The entire party leveled off the loot from this run.  Two of the characters lost XP to avoid leveling twice, per the ACKS rules.  Kord lost 1400 XP due to this and his player was very bummed.  He also rolled a 1 for his hit points for level 2, giving him a grand total of 2 hit points at 2nd level.  Clearly insult to injury.]

[The new contract gig has long hours on top of an hour commute each way, cutting heavily into my free time.  I get every other Friday off, so there is some benefit to it, but getting started has been rough.  This is not a new thing for me, but it is always tiring while getting used to a new schedule.  I'm going to spend this weekend getting as many sessions of the Shadowrun game typed up plus yesterday's Barrowmaze session.  This will reduce the pressure while this gig lasts.  Hopefully I'll have a full-time job by then or a gig with less commute.]

[I was pressed for time, so I didn't get to do a solid edit on this.  I'll get that done later this week as well as inserting the links to the other sessions.  My apologies for whatever typos snuck in a s a result.]

Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5

Session 7