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.

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.

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.

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, Cronuk and Jiib, our good friends, were killed by a skeleton with a gem in its forehead. 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 Merrythane almost but not quite avoids dying to the same book Sidney and Khezzean died to a horde of skeletons Ovarf dies 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.