Matthew Hunter

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.

Today’s trip to the Barrowmaze began on a solemn note. We had lost friends in one of the barrows. And they had valuables remaining on their body that we could little spare. Our first task then was to retrieve those valuables from the bodies. The bodies themselves, if they had not been consumed by wildlife or. Dragged off to some godforsaken place. We gathered a small group and set out the location where they died.

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.

Barrowmaze open today. Friends say come help, get rich, buy lots of drinks. Good friends! I followed. There was a line like a race, or like the market. When we got to the barrows, there were giant scorpions in the way. They killed one of my friends. We had to run away. That wasn’t as much fun. Then they gave me a shovel and told me to dig. That was boring, but like farming.

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.

Bern Our travels back toward the inn were interrupted by a rain of fire. We paused, took shelter and waited it out, but the delay was costing time we couldn’t spare. It cleared up by noon, and we moved on, but the next day was filled with storms. Normal storms, just rain and lightning and wind, not the burning. It cost us more time. And we were off schedule already.

Bern We made our first few inquiries at the market. The prices inside the walls are no better than those outside the walls and if anything, possibly worse. Asking about sources of ale, the cheapest available was a barrel of old schweissner’s at 20gp each, and we would need two barrels to “paint the walls” of the abbey, but carts are sold for 5x the normal prices. When we asked about renting a cart, they laughed at us.