Bancroft contemplated the holes in his gloves from handling gold coins over the past few days and the heavy weight of almost 400 silver coins in his backpack. After some thought he spent 200 sp to buy a chest and a master lock, put his remaining silver in the locked chest, and left it in his room at the inn.
Bancroft and his friends returned to the barrowmaze and descended the block and tackle into its center. They examined the area under the block and tackle, found nothing, then explored west and north. The north door was trapped, with a pressure plate and a roof stone that swiveled; Tohru disabled the trap.
Behind the door was a small room with another door at the far end. The party approached, but the door opened from the other side before they reached it. Three skeletons marched into the room and attacked.
Bancroft took a minor blow but returned a strong one. Helfa invoked Fortunata and forced two of the skeletons to flee, though a troubling cloud of darkness surrounded her holy symbol as she did. After a moment of confusion to relight the torches, and a glowing magic missile from Druidly, Bancroft and Irulan landed solid blows on the one that remained and it collapsed into a pile of bones. Uliny, one of the new crew, did courageous work bringing the lantern into the room to help the party fight. The whole party followed the fleeing skeletons further north, finding them trapped in a small alcove.
With Helfa’s holy power still forcing them to flee, the group quickly reduced the skeletons to fragments. Uliny and her friends claimed their equipment, which was at least better than what they had started with.
A thorough search determined that the rooms contained neither treasure nor secret exits. Before the party could depart, however, they heard noise from the south. Four more skeletons had appeared from nowhere and taken up positions between them and the way back up. Bancroft advanced, invoking the power of his patron Sylvanus, and destroyed three of the four skeletons outright. The one that remained fled, but before the party could advance to deal with it, a group of strange figures approached from the east. They bore disturbing physical mutations—everything from extra eyes to tentacles—but despite the horror of their form they seemed peaceful and left an offering of some kind: a small leather bag.
There was no time for pursuit with one skeleton still nearby.
