"The Two" venture north and east through Barrowmaze
This session (Northern Reaches 32/Barrowmaze 16) was played on Friday, March 23, 2012
Sol Level 2 Human Fighter and his man-at-arms Caldwell.
Abraxas Level 1 Human Magic-User and his Elven man-at-arms Norda
Cromwell Level 4 Human Cleric and later his Elven man-at-arms Narsal
"Killer" Kelg Level 4 Dwarven Fighter
Arn Level 2 Dwarven Cleric and the torch-bearer Sacco
The carousing between the last session and this session included Cromwell, the lawful cleric of St. Ygg, having to pay reparations to Lord Ironguard for his involvement in the death (slaying, beheading, looting, and lying twice) of his son. In addition to payment, Cromwell had to atone in the eyes of his deity and complete the building of his shrine and begin training acolytes of Ygg. Finally, Cromwell must forsake all material items and henceforth may only possess that which he can carry. A tough punishment to be sure, but one befitting his crimes. The other lawful cleric of St. Ygg, Balifar, forsook Ygg and retreated to the forest alone. But Ygg is a vengeful god, and for Balifar's betrayal he was struck down. Horribly deformed, Balifar will live out his days as a hermit in fear of what awaits in the afterlife…
With that situation as the backdrop, The Three The Two alongside their comrades, returned to Barrowmaze. This session included a number of short forays as the group, using the newfound stairwell, moved north and east encountering numerous vermin.
In a long, wide diagonal corridor they were attacked by a number of zombies dressed in the black necromantic robes of magic-users! After considering all their options they turned the zombies and then laid down oil and waited for them to return for a BBQ. The zombies disposed of, the group proceeded east and encountered a room with three dark pools. They fled that room immediately. They then found a room with an old broken sphinx that animated, chatted with them between yawns, and then told them that if they answered his riddle they could ask him a question. They fled back to the stairwell, and given the need to rest, entered the Fossil Skeleton room. Their rest was disturbed by a large group of strange looking mongrelmen who hacked the door down with their axes. Sol and kelg dropped several and then cleaved numerous times (this normally never works). Caldwell shot the hireling Norda in the back accidentally with his short bow during the battle, and killed her. The other mongrelmen fled. The party returned to town.
Abraxas decided he has seen enough of the Barrowmaze and sat out for the next expedition. The party entered through the same stairwell and headed north down the long diagonal corridor. Proceeding slowly and cautiously they entered a room and two giants spiders jumped down on Sol and Kelg. The first bite Sol but instead of posion the creature began draining his blood! The other spider, sent into a frenzy by the proximity of blood, immediately jumped on Sol too and began to gorge itself on his delicious neck meat. Sol would have died from the ensuing spider-hickey had Cromwell not stepped in and healed him with the proclamation St. Ygg Sanat Sanare!. The Blood-Thirsty Spiders were then hacked to pieces. They didn't find anything in the webs except for the husks of some Giant Flies - which they encountered more of in the next room.
The last foray to Barrowmaze included another encounter with mongrelmen back near the sphinx room. The hireling Narsal was slain during the his encounter, when the mongrelman attacked from behind. They searched another long corridor and found a plundered room with three sarcophagi decorated with gold filigree. However, they would need to procure special chisels and tools in town to remove the gold from the tomb - this would also be very time consuming but potentially worth the investment.
The Players' Map to this point. If you are keeping close track at home, this is the fourth set of adventurers since we started Barrowmaze. The other groups explored elsewhere, but the current group of characters have no knowledge of that.
[Edit: I think they are missing a room or two from this map.]
