Oh those Coffer Corpses…
This session was played on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 by:
Arcus the autistic and his man at arms Gulfirth
Bungle the barely known and his man at arms Larstaad as well as his torch bearer Edard
Janis half elven and his man at arms Hawk the slayer *insert hawk screech* and
Smedly the pit-walker and his man at arms Margard
Okay, let me (Alex) just start off by saying this session was as fruitless as it was fun. Which is to say very fruitless and very fun (funny how D&D can mix those two so well). Also there is an abundance of pictures here so I'll just be numbering the events to the corresponding picture to make the report a little easier.
The session began quite typically. The party gathered, bought hirelings, equipment etcetera. Smedly, recounted his previous adventure into the maze to his new companions (sans Janis), and against his vote to return where he had been previously, the party opted to return to the main maze. The party also scrounged funds together to pay a traveling wizard to remove Bungle's feeblemindedness. This costed about 1000 GP. Smedly only payed about 100 gp as he did not know this halfling at all, but felt the need to help others due to his divine convictions. The rest of the party payed quite handsomely and Bungle was cured of his affliction.
Now then, the party made their way into the main part of the Barrowmaze and descended into the labyrinth. The party ended up making their way to a door that remained previously unopened and entered into the room. The room was filled with burial alcoves and some urns. Smedly, ever wary of dark things that may be hiding in niches and corners, surveyed the room. Much to his dismay, he spotted two pale, disfigured corpses of adventurers impaled into the wall. This invoked some sort of magical, or semi-magical fear within him and he ran like a bat out of hell down the hallway, making plenty of noise as he went. Now this attracted several stirges into the room to attack the party that remained.
This battle (pictures 1-3) went like this. Arcus typically hanging at the back of the party, was attacked first as the stirges emerged from the direction the party entered in. Arcus was viciously grappled by two stirges and reduced to one hit point, while Janis was grappled by one. Margard hastily retreated to the back of the room and let loose a crossbow bolt at the strige on janis. It was a mighty shot, probably the finest in Margard's career (I rolled a natural 20, then two 6s on two d6s for 12 damage) Margard slew the stirge. Janis, being freed, charged the remaining stirge that had not connected to anyone. Now Bungle, ever faithful to his mage companion, threw a dagger at one of the stirges connected to Arcus. This almost killed the stirge but it still manage to flop around on the ground somehow. Arcus then stopped, dropped, and rolled on the stirge remaing, disconnecting it from his body and doing mild damage to it. At this point the stirges had had enough, and fled (and flopped) as fast as possible out of the room. During the pandemonium, Hawk The Slayer had been hit several times (and with his 2 HP) he had succumbed to his wounds. There was much lamenting.
Despite this drawback, the party waited a small time, and Smedly, who had his wits about him, and his darkvision, made his way back to the room, and was surprised to find some of his companions angry with him. It was all he could do to explain he was influenced by powers beyond his control. The party then searched the alcoves found found nothing at all.
The party began to search farther down the corridors. they found some coins here and there totaling to about 50 gold and came to a strange room. Now Larstaad and Gulfirth were first in the order, and much to their surprise, clay urns of ashes levitated in the air and flung themselves at the two. This scared the hell out of them and they fled, fast. The rest of the part high tailed it as well, but in a much more controlled manner. The party backtracked to a pit where Gulfirth was found, at the bottom with a broken leg. They dragged him up with a rope, and Smedly called upon the power of Mystryl to heal his wounds.
Now the party decided to rest at the entrance until Gulfirth regained consciousness. Going back to the room with the ropes, Arcus and Margard ascended. It was to Arcus's surprise though when a strange mummy-like creature began to shuffle towards him (picture 4). Arcus slid down the rope as fast as he could, hitting Margard on his way down (picture 5). Despite some bruises everyone was fine. Now it was Bungle's turn. Bungle heroically said that he would go up and attempt to hold back the creature himself while the companions surfaced and made a getaway. There was much taunting by Smedly at Bungle's heroic but crazy machinations. As Bungle ascended, Smedly sung great ballads of the halfling hero-to-be slaying horrible undead abominations. Bungle made it to the top of the rope, deftly dodged a swipe by the creature, and slid back down. Smedly had to have his smug grin wiped off his face by Arcus who pointed it out it was more than anyone else had done.
After the party rested in the bottom room of the entrance (where the undead thing could not reach) they returned to a previous area of the crypt, only partially explored. Some may recall that Arcus and his torchbearer were stricken with fear from a runic tablet in a crypt near the entrance, and also that there was a door that could not be opened even by Tymor One-Eye. Well, Smedly now opened that door. Having the prescence of mind to look upon the ceiling, he saw a giant, poisonous spider. Smedly, confident in his new armor and having no real option for retreat, held fast the spider at the doorway. The spider immediately found a chink in Smedly's armor, and bit him. It was not the massive fangs that killed Smedly, but rather the deadly poison that did him in. The remaining adventurers managed to finish the spider off, however. Also, It was at this time Margard fled (pictures 6-8).
Instead of woefully lamenting Smedly The Pit-Walker's sacrifice, the adventurers turned into what was akin to a ravenous pack of hyenas and quickly looted everything from Smedly's corpse, nearly tearing him to bits so fast were their grabbing hands. But at that moment, Mystryl sent divine retribution to the rest of the party in the form of an undead revenant corpse (pure speculation on my part). The party was backed into the doorway where the spider had been and forced to fight for their lives. The undead strangled janis into unconsciousness and outright killed Gulfirth before the party downed it (pictures 9-12).
Before the party had time to celebrate though, the undead thing rose again. Now the party fled down the hallway, some by choice, some by forced magically or semi magically induced fear. Though, the party regrouped and set and ambush of flaming oil for it down the hall. This managed to destroy the thing, but Arcus bashed its body in psychotically with his mace anyways (pictures 13-14). Now the party, having had enough of all this, went to flee the maze. Unfortunately the other undead creature waited for them at the top of the ropes. This time, Bungle did manage to hold the thing off, while Arcus and Janis (with no armor as he took it off to climb the rope) and Edard ascended. The party were forced into a confrontation somehow and came out on top, except for Edard who bit the dust unfortunately. The party quickly dowsed its corpse with oil and set it aflame before it could arise again. However, it was not enough (pictures 15-20). The thing rose again, causing Bungle and Janis to flee out the door, while Arcus who was not in a very tactical position at the time (yet again), slipped on a patch of oil and nearly fell down the pit (picture 21). As the flaming corpse lumbered toward Arcus hungrily, and Arcus shut his eyes praying to whatever god he believed in, the flames burned what was left of the walking undead and it crumbled. Arcus ran faster than he had ever ran in his life to outside the Barrowmaze.
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