Death by Dwarven Gas
This session was played one fateful evening by Greg, Alex, Dan I [and Melissa] and Dan II with the characters:
"Killer" Kelg, Uthred The Unshaven, Ziggy "Stardust" The Magician, Snake the greedy Halfling Thief and Paige, the Reluctant Healer.
The party ventured forth with a handful of men at arms, or at least a couple of unwashed cowardly fools, investigating rumors of never before seen barrowmounds off in the mists. During the course of their carousing and dealings in Barrowcrest, the party's various members heard things like "the mists cleared over there, ominous mounds were seen in directions where there was only swamp before." "How Singular!" "Eerie…" "But don't forget about the shapes lurking in the mists." Naturally the party wanted to see what this was all about.
When the party arrived at the barrowmoor, they ran over to a couple of mounds, the first was sealed with a stone slab. The party, having forgot their sledge hammers, moved on to another one. This one looked dilapidated and caved in. Extricating the rubble may have yielded some finds but that was a long and arduous procedure, and with strange and terrible abominations and flying dinosaurs lurking about, the party thought twice. They finally noticed the footprints of a large party of men, most likely tomb robbers and hostile ones. This was enough to make the party head for the maze instead, where they would be in [somewhat] more familiar confines. The party went to an unexplored branch of dungeon near the west end and found a large hall of crypt-like alcoves.
The party began to cautiously pour into the hallway and began peering into said alcoves. These alcoves were protected by small archways which only allowed entry in single file, this caused some problems but not too many. Ziggy, carrying on Sol's appreciation for the abusing hirelings, ordered his man at arms to enter the alcove and search. Immediately a swarm of carnivorous beetles emerged from the walls and ate away at him. The creatures were subdued with torches and then burned to death. The hireling lived, for now. As the party neared the next alcove, a large mouth materialized on the wall and screamed GRAVE "ROBBERS!" three times. it freaked about half of the party out who ran and fell into a a nearby pit [I believe Kelg and another were left to fight a random monster while the party was stuck in the pit, though I can''t remember what it was exactly]. After the party recovered, they went to the next alcove which contained a fantastic gold chalice worth a pretty penny, and a map which revealed a section of the map that they would go to later. The next alcove had a dead halfling resting on a burial slab, with two wooden halfling statues resting on adjacent slabs. The party moved the bones with the 10 ft' pole and immediately the two statues came to life and attacked. After the golems had been turned into woodchips, the party moved on. In the next alcove an awesome looking golden skull was found, with two black opals as eyes. Uthred became quite excited thinking it was valuable, but Ziggy said it might be magical. Noticing the inscription "dlohnoitisop" on the bottom, he spoke the words "POSTION HOLD!" and beams of energy shot from the things eyes. It hit Uthred who shook of the effects of a paralysis spell. Ziggy was quite pleased with his growing arsenal of magic items and mounted it to his staff. The next alcove contained an astrolabe or sextant, a bowl of platinum and some bone dice which Uthred pocketed.
Now it was onto the area that the map had revealed. searching through a secret door revealed an unremarkable corridor, so the party investigated a nearby room instead. Inside they were met with a peculiar sight. A large clock like door mounted to the back of the wall. There was a stone etching beside the "door" that had some sort of number puzzle besides it. The party struggled with this for a long time, and it seemed the answer to the puzzles corresponded to numbers on the wheel, it was a large safe afterall! Ziggy proved his intelligence once again by deciphering the first two patterns, and almost grasping the third, but it was the thief Snake who solved the third combination, which was a tricky one indeed. When the door flew open, an extremely dusty tomb with the remains of a Dwarf and his arsenal sat upon a stone slab. Probing into the tomb revealed nothing, so Uthred foolishly went in, Kelg did also, lured by the promise of Dwarven artifacts. As soon as the remains were disturbed, poison gas shot forth from the walls and the vault slammed closed! Kelg succumbed to the noxious gas [He only needed to roll a 5 but tragically rolled a 3!], however Uthred survived the poison, managing to barely crawl out of the vault looking pale and sickly. Paige healed him up and there was much lamenting for Kelg, their stalwart companion who had pulled the party's asses out of the fire too many times to count. The party collected the Dwarven loot which included a suit of platemail, a magical dwarven warhammer that would return to the wielder when thrown, a ring of fire resistance and a potion of super heroism.
Later, near the edge of town The party put Kelg's remaines on a funeral pyre, and tossed gold sacrifices so that he might cross the River of Styx [or whatever]. the party bellowed a requiem for their ally, sung in Dwarven fashion:
"Oh Kelg the Killer, Your tale is a chiller,
Bashing down cowards, the monsters, the fiends!
Clashing and mashing with hammer and mead
Your Dwarven fury was all that we'd need
Oh stalwart companion, you were a brazen old fella,
Save us a seat and we'll drink in Valhalla!"
