Yet another group of dungeon-explorers (and Milren) brave Barrowmaze
Muligan and…
Drambuin and his man at arms Darmar and later Hamish
and the NPC Fighter/Cleric Iressa
The wayward band of adventurers met in Barrowcrest and quickly came to a consensus that the demand for coin did not equal supply.
Milren was still a bit shaken from his last trip to the Barrowmaze wherein the entire party was killed by an evil spellcaster and his skeletal minions.
Unfortunately, they no longer had their larger map and had to make do with a smaller map that Milren was making of a second entrance to the dungeon.
The descended the stairs and proceeded down a hallway to a four way intersection. The continued through to a room with 5 hideous giant rats (not shown for some reason)! [see below]
After dispatching the rats, they listened at a door. They heard a faint call for help, and after pausing for a moment (they know their DM well) they opened the door. They saw what appeared to be an old woman in rags laying in the center of the floor. The first two in the rank, the hirelings Darmar and what's-his-name, stepped into the room and were immediately attacked from the side by two mongrelmen laying in wait. The supposed old woman was a mongrelman mimicking and threw off his sacks and blankets to joing the attack.
The mongrelmen quickly reduced the two men-at-arms to below zero HPs and then coup-de-grased them on the next round.
At this point, Drambuin the dwarf had enough and charged the remaining mongrelman. He lept at the creature and tackled it to the ground. He didn't know that Milren had cast heat metal and quickly stop-dropped-and-rolled off the mongrelman the next round.
In a side chamber the treasure-seekers managed to find a nice little horde of coins and gems tucked away by the creatures, and quickly high-tailed it back to Barrowcrest.
On their next foray the returned to the four way intersection and turned west. The proceeded by several doors and a bricked-up wall. Eventually they turned north and found several small burial alcoves that something, at some point, had busted through from the inside!
While they contemplated the situation, they heard a bang-bang-bang from the wall and a shower of mortar and stone bits as a white skinned zombie came crashing out at them! They killed the monster (again) but their Fear Factor increased from the experience (a side rule for this specific dungeon).
Finally, the group entered a room with pillars lining both walls. In the northern center of the room their was a rubble pile with a glint at the edge of their torchlight.. Convinced of a trap, they split up with half the party going up one side of the room and the other group up the opposite side.
The grou p on the eastern wall was surprized by a giant rattler snake that bit the living piss out of Hamish. He failed his save versus poison and died. The remainder landed several solid hits and downed the fell creature. They found a nest behind another pillar filled with debris, bones, and an old leather sack filled with precious gemstones. It was time to return to Barrowcrest. Feel free to comment!
There was also the part with the grafitti reading "Abandon all hope ye who enter" I always liked that quote, I was thinking about carving it over the entrance to my firend's basement, I imagine it looks very similar to the dungeon (it's a creepy basement).