Tuesday

Bancroft and his friends returned to the barrowmaze. They chose to inspect two of the barrows to the far north. Each of the burial mounds had a pair of bronze doors. One set of doors was ornate, bearing symbols of Nergal that matched those on the free standing pillar to the south. Those doors resisted our attempts to open them. But careful inspection revealed a pentagram could be shifted to the side, revealing a keyhole.

Bancroft stood on the top of the borough and looked down upon the tilled earth with satisfaction. Weeks of efforts spent to uncover a fresh borough had finally paid off. Yesterday the door had been uncovered and opened. Revealing a space within filled with four sarcophagi and many more giant centipedes. The initial expedition had killed several of the centipedes. But not enough. And the entryway had been buried once again to prevent further interest.

Bancroft stood on the top of the barrow and watched his friends dig. Someone had borrowed his shovel and there weren’t enough to go around. Someone needed to watch, so he did. It wasn’t all that different from watching crops grow. Almost as slow. The occasional frog or scorpion or skeleton wandered by in the distance. Not so long as they did not approach, the digging continued. It has been going on for days.

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.

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.