Matthew Hunter

Finally! Having saved a perfect round number of 100 silver coins as seed money, it was time to seek my fortune in the barrowmaze.

Three of my friends were ready to stake their lives on the chance for fortune as well. One of them, a haberdasher, managed to sell two of his fancy hats on the open market and had even more gold burning a hole in his pocket than my silvers worth of savings. Even pooling our money would not be enough to obtain real armor or weapons, but we could afford small luxuries: extra torches, a sling for all four of us, rope, crowbars. Rumor had it that crowbars worked well for prying open the shallow barrows likely to hold untapped treasures near the surface. My group of friends and some other newish adventurers decided we would try that.

Bancroft and Darmek queued for the barrowmaze with about eight in their group. The day began poorly: they were ambushed by six giant frogs before reaching the barrows. The party ran; three frogs pursued, then only one. They managed to kill that frog, but the group was exhausted and retreated to Helix with nothing to show.

The next day they returned and retrieved the possessions of a fallen companion, then selected a barrow to open. Halfway through removing the slab blocking the entrance they were attacked by several giant scorpions; Darmek and Uthlynk fell during the retreat. They escaped, disheartened and empty‑handed.

I was right. That absurd cloak the halfling had turned out to be worth several gold. Which I promptly turned into equipment. I picked up a Lantern and some oil crowbars. The rope and grappling hook from one of the other dead men Completed the additional loadout. We recruited a few new fellows to replace the Fallen and went back out to the Barrow maze the next day.

Our first stop was an open Barrow that had been explored previously by some of our fellows. Their bodies were still there inside the borough, but they had been dragged into the corner stripped of meat and possessions. It seemed as if some creature had made a meal of them and. Taken whatever they had. The latter suggests a disturbing intelligence. He took the time to thoroughly search the rest of the room. The corpse in the central sarcophagus had a golden ring which looked to be worth a few coins. That was our first significant find.

• Orin got a scorpion tail through the chest
• Whoodelf the halfling died from the scorpions
• Knutsachson is no more. The noble line of Knutsach is dead…
• Brak Odo was killed by a skeleton with a gem in its forehead.
• So was Cronuk
• … and Jiiib
• Steelf the dwarf died when the gem skelly reanimated the first time (mission not accomplished)
• Jaggo died to his deceased zombie wife Ethel, by strangulation, a practice the two had enjoyed consensually in life
• Vinrin the Halfling was strangled by Ethel the Zombie, non-consensually
• Borgo dies to a disembodied zombie hand he took with him while running from the rest of the zombie
• Darmek dies to a giant scorpion
• Ushlynk died to the same one
• Becca falls to a skeleton archer on the way to the barrowmaze
• Asa dies to a skeleton archer and leaves Rex bereft
• Cami died to a pit trap with spikes and yellow mold
• Deira dies to the skeleton archer
• Xanrion and another member of our crew both die to a cursed book
• Megumi died to yellow mold.
• Merrythane almost but not quite avoids dying to the same book
• Sidney died to a horde of skeletons
• Khezzean died to the same horde
• Ovarf died to a water weird
• Salazar the gravedigger is consumed by a grey ooze
• Sylas got et by the wizard of ooze
• Elec got elected from the island by the ooze
• Selfa died to a giant rat.
• Gravelgnasher almost died to a giant scorpion.
• Faolain fell to the rat horde. It’s all so Whong, who did too.
• Druidly was almost killed by bandits, but was saved by two golden tickets.
• Gemma fell to 5 skeletons because she was alone. The party recovered her body, and Bancroft held a funeral service.
• Hannah fell to a skeleton’s arrow, and drowned before El Viz could rescue her.
• El Viz died to the skeleton’s next arrow.
• Squinch followed them faithfully into the afterlife.
• Kethry died to four giant toads. She will rest in peace, even though Wiz was careful not to catch her in his spell effect.
• Druidly’s dog, Mike, was killed by a giant scorpion.
• Jaenelle drowns, crying out with her dying breath, “I have 33 gold in my purse… glugglugglug”
• Ibri fell from a rope and dies. Her final words are “Please sell my hats to the highest bidder… don’t take less than 20gp.”
• Theowyn was swallowed by a giant snake.
• Fu falls to a skeleton, dropping her torch.
• Indivian dies, all alone in the dark.
• Ali dies by giant centipede. Her last words were “There’s some kind of corpse in the rubble…” She fucked around and found out.
• Itchi is ambushed by two centipedes who woke from their slumber and dies.
• Bruzra is ambushed by the same two centipedes a moment later and dies. She learned not to take naps in the dungeon.
• Tohru fell to a blow from a stone statue. Her duck survived.
• Mira falls to a sapphire skeleton, targeted for holding a torch.
• Lessa falls to a sapphire skeleton, alone in the dark.
• Druidly is eaten by a pack of mimics.
• Luxsley got stoned.
• Mirumi joined a rock band.

The trip to the barrowmaze began on a solemn note: the party had lost friends in one of the barrows and needed to retrieve valuables from their bodies. The bodies themselves were not where the friends had fallen; something had dragged them into the barrow and a blood trail led the group onward.

Two of the party, those closest to the fallen, lit a torch and entered the barrow to search for remains and valuables. Nothing was simple. A zombie wandered near the entrance and then entered the barrow; the party’s archer failed to stop it and the creature surprised those inside.

Session map

Digging is boring. As a dwarf, I know that in my blood. I know that in my bones. I do it anyway because I’m a dwarf. And I stick to it even when other people wander off. When my group of would be adventurers started to dig open a Barrow they thought looked more likely than others to hold treasure. I kept at it. Before long, the halfling Vinrin got bored and wandered off to look into an open doorway. Bancroft, the farmer, followed him. I’m already wondering if I will ever see them again. The barrowmaze is known for swallowing people without a trace.

Session map

The barrowmaze opened today. Friends said to come help, get rich, and buy lots of drinks. Good friends. Bancroft followed. There was a line like a race, or like the market. When they reached the barrows, giant scorpions blocked the way; one of Bancroft’s friends was killed and the group fled. Afterward the party handed Bancroft a shovel and told him to dig. It was boring, like farming. He was used to farming, but had not signed up for adventures to dig holes. Still, someone must dig to search for treasure, and at least he was good at it.

Bern

Snarkscorn let us go, but confiscated my heavy shield and the religious relics we had acquired from the abbey. We needed the money from selling those; the crookhorns won’t do anything with them except desecrate them. St Clewd means nothing to me, but the money would have. He also claimed a prize from each of us, and offered to return it if we completed a task. There would be gold in it for us as well, 1000gp each. But the mission was to kidnap a local noble, Lady Harold, and bring her to his camp alive. None of us were enthusiastic about that, but perhaps we can find a way to double-cross the crookhorns.

Bern

The sailors wanted no part of any plan that involved fighting, once they heard there were a dozen crookhorns on the bridge. We had the captain drop us off on the east bank and proceed upriver in his barge. Our new plan was to find the path back to the crookhorn camp and set up an ambush for the leader when he returned. While traveling back to his camp, he would presumably leave some of his guards by the bridge, and be more vulnerable. I was able to find their trail and set the group up in a safe spot to await the targets.

Session map

Bern

The first order of business in Fort Vulgar was to collect the information we had paid for concerning the Pillar of Ambule. The local priest had dutifully collected it for us. According to the records he had found, Ambule is a local God of earth, protection and good fortune. His symbol is a single black hexagonal eye. Ambule is reported to make pacts in return for protection from hags and other creatures, and those pacts apparently involve service for life. If the service is not granted, the soul will be collected. The details of these pacts and what collecting the soul might mean, aside from the obvious, death, was not clear. Most of this information came by way of another priest called Haymen, who had once lived on the northern shores of Lake Longmere. From the age of the records, that was some time ago, and that particular priest was unlikely to still be alive.