The team began our further exploration of the barrowmaze in the room where we vanquished the vicious rats. We determined that we had come in the south door, and the door to the north was unexplored. Naturally, Lhoss opened the door.
The door opened to a corridor with two doors and an alcove with a brick wall broken outward. We explored the alcove to find there were scratches on the wall, but it was otherwise empty. There was also a bricked-over wall. Gnorcia pressed her ear to it, listened, but heard nothing.
Lhoss opened the door on the north wall to discover a table with three polished skulls. Calbach knocked them off with a pole; they fell with a crack, but nothing else notable occurred. Upon searching the room, Calbach found a catch in the wall. Lhoss triggered it to open a secret door. Behind the door a body was lying on the ground. Calbach checked out the body and found a burned out torch and bag. The bag looked pretty hefty! It appeared that the figure had crawled into the room to die. Surprisingly, it did not stink that much? There was nothing else remarkable about the room. We searched the bag to find it held 15 platinum. Nice payday!
Lhoss opened another door which led to a long hallway with more doors. Lhoss opened the door at the end, walked in and noticed there was writing on the wall. Upon closer inspection it read "the dead walk here." That was enough to scare Lhoss and she immediately backed out.
There was another door that was partially open opposite a portcullis. Lhoss moved past it to a room with a broken door. Inside she saw a creepy figure and felt a cold sensation coming from within. Shaken and filled with fear, she fled posthaste. Lhoss is noping out a lot lately.
Gnorcia decided that pushing aside a slightly ajar door is not the same as opening a closed door (a task that usually falls to Lhoss). As she peered inside the room, she saw a skeleton with a bag next to it. Perhaps more platinum? One could only hope! She also observed a bas-relief with images of the dead entering into the afterlife. Seeking to recover the bag, Gnorcia moved silently into the room. Suddenly, a spider dropped down and attacked her! It dealt a fatal bite and infected her with its poison. Calbach rushed into the room and attacked the spider. Lhoss stabbed it with her dagger. Arnd swung and missed. Chiki bound up Gnorcia's wounds. The spider attempted to flee, but Lhoss succeeded in killing it. Armaziti was able to cure Gnorcia's wound, but she was being slowly poisoned. If the poison was not quickly neutralized, she would die. As we had no means to do that, a stretcher was made to carry Gnorcia back to the village of Orlane. The group hastily retreated from the dungeon.
Gnorcia was deteriorating and becoming delirious. The group made good time and did not encounter anything that would delay us. Knowing that the priestess Misha would be our best hope, we headed for the temple of Merikka. Lhoss ran ahead to rouse the attendants of the temple as we had arrived in the middle of the night. Getting the attention of the guards and summoning the priestess seemed to move in agonizingly slow motion. We did not know how much time poor Gnorcia had! Finally, Misha came out and dispelled the poison. At last, Gnorcia was safe, though weak. She had come far too close to death!
Realizing the close call we had just encountered, the group recognized the advantage of having a more powerful cleric. We decided to pool our money and treasure to allow Armaziti to train under Misha and become a priest. This training would take a week. Fortunately for us, it coincided with the changing of seasons (Needfest to Growfest) and the associated festival. We were able to join in the partying and partake of the delicious food. It was a welcome distraction from our dreary work in the barrowmaze. So began the month of Planting and low summer. Of course to us elves, the transition from the month of Snowflowers to the month of Blossoms is a less ostentatious affair, but when in Orlane...
Priestess Misha explained to us that the life force of Nerul is in the barrowmaze and is what is generating the evil creatures. She charged Armaziti with the sacred duty of cleansing the barrowmaze. We departed and returned to the barrowmaze without incident.
Gnorcia wished to claim the fangs of the spider that nearly killed her. We easily found our way back to the site of the gruesome attack. She was able to use her nimble hands to get two fangs and poison sacs. We identified the creature as a crab spider. Unfortunately, the bag near the skeleton was gone. In our rush to save Gnorcia's life, nobody thought to grab the treasure and another intrepid adventurer benefited from our haste.
Moving on, Armaziti, Gnorcia, and Arnd used their combined strength to open the portcullis. Behind it, there was an unremarkable room. Gnorcia found a catch on the wall. Armaziti pushed it and a door opened to reveal: zombies! Ach! Armaziti failed to dispel the undead. Lhoss threw an oil flask at the creatures and missed. Sensing a difficult battle Calbach threw the switch to close the door. The party regrouped and decided to open the door back up and defeat the zombies. The group engaged and dealt some damage to the brutes. Chiki managed to slaughter one outright. The undead monsters attacked and dealt a mortal wound to Calbach. With several precision strikes (and a cool acrobatic spin by Lhoss) the party finished off the zombies. Armaziti healed Calbach and Arnd who had also been injured. Looking around, we saw hundreds of octagonal burial tombs. Gnorcia, Arnd, Chiki and Lhoss searched the tombs and found many silver pieces. Who knows if it makes up for the bag of loot we lost in the spider's room, but it's something.
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