Session Report – Barrowmaze – Session 10

[This session happened last week and led to a permanent death.  It could have been taken as an omen…]

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

PCs (The Motley Crew)
Samsokn [the “k” is silent] – male Dwarven Craftpriest, 3rd level
Radagast the Wanderer – male human Mage, 3rd level
Frank the Cleric – male human Cleric of Silvanus, 2nd level
Harkyn (the Hare) – gender fluid Elven Nightblade, 3rd level
Brock – male Dwarven Vaultguard, 3rd level
Shal the Runt – male Cleric of Silvanus, heard Silvanus was making a stand against St. Ygg and there was loot to be had in the Barrowmoor

Recovering from Injury
Quillian the Green – male human mage, exploring Barrowmaze for the loot to establish a chantry [but mostly for the loot]
Kord – male human Bard, seeks tales of heroism to tell…and exploring Barrowmaze 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


Magusday, May 15th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
With some members of The Motley Crew still injured and much of the group in Ironguard Motte, a day of rest was taken.  Samsokn casts a very weak cure light wounds spell on Harkyn [rolled a “1” for effect], so they went to the Temple of St. Ygg to get the rest of the way healed, making two donations of 10 gp to cover it.

Radagast inquired at the arcane bookshop in town, looking for new spells for his greater understanding of magic [read: he needs 2nd level spells now that he can cast them].  The shop had two scrolls of appropriate power: detect evil and detect invisible.  As neither was what Radagast wanted [he was looking for invisibility or knock], the shopkeeper, Antinko the Seeker, offered to seek out the spells and get back to Radagast when they were located.  For a small deposit, of course.  Radagast agreed to this plan.

Starting to get encumbered by the coinage he was carrying, Brock purchased a chest and a good lock to put on it.  His plan was to store the chest at Quillian’s place [once it was built] as a safe storage location.  When Harkyn observed Brock’s chest, they decided to do the same and purchased their own chest and lock.

Cromsday, May 16th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The group of adventurers spent most of the day hiking back to Helix along with a few other travelers.  In Helix, Brock and Harkyn asked Quillian where they could set their chests to be safe.  Quillian rebuffed them, stating his manor was for himself and other practitioners of the arcane arts, not free-loaders.  As a result, Harkyn and Brock rented shelf space in the storage room at Turgen’s Trade Goods, paying 1sp per day, paying for nine days in advance.

Arrangements were made with Osen at the Mercenary Guild to re-hire Norman, Chick-Magnet, and the torchbearers, Peldar and Nollan.  All are told to meet at the Mercenary Guild building shortly after sun-up to get started.

Freysday, May 17th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
Early in the morning the group assembled and headed south, into the Barrowmoor.  Part way to the field of barrows, a single, large pteranodon was noticed circling the group.  The adventurers made ready as the pteranodon dove at them.  The pteranodon took large bites out of several adventurers, but was eventually driven off by combined bow fire and Radagast’s magic missile spells.  [This would be important later.]

Once at the field of barrows, the adventurers decide to investigate barrow #28.  Brock spent 20 minutes hammering the sealing stone to rubble.  With the barrow open, the group descended into the single chamber underneath.  In the center of the chamber was a stone lectern with a yellow book covered in arcane markings.  The walls were covered in frescoes depicting what Radagast identified as the mage Azcuursh the Arcane.  By reputation Azcuursh was known to be an evil wizard with a mastery of the Dark Arts.  The book was clearly magical, so Radagast was careful about opening the book.

He immediately disappeared when he did so and the book snapped shut.

This pushed the rest of the adventurers back on their heels.  Brock touched the book and attempted to open it, but nothing happened and the book would not open.  Harkyn tried next and also disappeared.  The rest of the adventurers attempted to open the book in rapid succession, but nothing happened to them.

Then they had to wait [while I took Radagast’s and Harkyn’s players to another room].

Radagast appeared in an extradimensional space where he was confronted by a grey-skinned and eye-less simulacrum of Azcuursh, who attacked him.  It quickly became apparent that the simulacrum only had the spells Radagast would have…if he wasn’t out of magic for the day.  The simulacrum cast magic missile twice, which Radagast could only answer with his dagger.  The simulacrum quickly finished off Radagast with a throwing dart.

Just as Radagast fell in combat, Harkyn appeared.  While Harkyn was an arcane spellcaster of sorts, the only spell they knew was shield, which they immediately cast upon themselves.  This meant the only spell the simulacrum also had was shield and it cast that spell.  Over the next 20-30 minutes [I lost track of how long the fight actually took], Harkyn and the simulacrum waved their weapons at each other, mostly ineffectively.  They gradually wore each other down, with Harkyn striking the deathblow first, destroying the simulacrum.  Harkyn reappeared back in the barrow where the other adventurers were waiting.  Radagast’s body never returned.  [Nor did all the magic items on his person.]

Harkyn was now able to access the spellbook.  It contained the formulae for every second level spell, including invisibility and knock, the spells Radagast had been searching for.  Disheartened, the adventurers packed up and returned to Helix.  On the way back, they spotted a troop of giant ants, but decided to avoid them.  They returned to Helix before the sun set and held a wake at the Brazen Strumpet for Radagast.

Yggsday, May 18th, 23rd year of the reign of King Shurik the Nimble
The majority of the adventurers spent the day traveling to Ironguard Motte, where they sold Azcuursh’s spellbook for a very tidy profit.

End of Session


[This was a relatively short session, due to me wanting to get to sleep at a reasonable time.  The project I was on had me getting up at 5:30 AM, so staying up late on a Monday night was kicking me hard.  With the book of spells, the group felt they had enough loot that most of them would level and they did NOT want to push it.]

[They’d forget that lesson in the next session…]


Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
Session 8
Session 9


Session 11