Shadowmaze

Wyz the goblin waited by the side of the road, wringing his hands. His friends had left for the barrowmaze that morning as many aspiring adventurers did. That was hours ago. Now the slow trudge of discouraged feet returning to town rang loudly in his ears. There had been no sign of his friends. As each new group returned. Wyz clutched at sleeves, asked for news, collected whatever tales he could of the horrors that lay beneath the earth.

Our group went out to the barrowmaze. Two of my friends, Sidney and Khezzean, stayed to dig; Xanrion the haberdasher and I went to take a closer look at a tomb where others had found a pair of nice vases. That tomb contained a wicker frame surrounding a decaying body. One of the others, actually with a sword and armor, cut off its head. I expected it to rise up and kill us, but the body remained dead.

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.

Darmek and I lined up for the barrowmaze. Some of our friends joined us for a group of about 8 people. The day was cursed, however. We were ambushed by six giant frogs before we even reached the barrows. We ran from them; three followed. We ran from those, and this time, only one followed. We did manage to kill that one frog before he killed any of us, but it was a close thing.

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… 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 Steelf the dwarf died when the gem skelly reanimated the first time (mission not accomplished) 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 dies 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

Today stripped, the Barrow maze 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.