Session 70: Caliburn recovered!

We arrive in the marsh surrounding the Barrowmaze, ready to excavate the buried barrow that Armaziti has identified as potentially the resting place of Caliburn, the sword that we were charged with finding. It's midday on day 12 of Flocktime, and is a muggy, overcast day. The possibility of rain hangs heavy in the air. Arnd and Armaziti take the lead in crossing the marsh, followed by Gnorcia and Myrtle Dixon, Tatania and Hilja, and finally Lhoss and Chiki in the rear. There is an eerie mist over the area, and Chiki calls out a reminder to stay vigilant and not forget the dangers of the area. He specifically mentions the giant ants that nearly overwhelmed us previously and everyone is looking around alertly. The mist makes the area seem unusually still and quiet, most noise being absorbed before it can travel far.

We arrive at the mound that we'd previously spent time working on, Arnd quickly reminding us that he had done most of the work since we'd only a single shovel last we were here, and see that things appear to be undisturbed from when we left, although it is noted that the next nearest barrow to the north is completely collapsed.  Our tools are pulled out from the bag of holding and work commences as soon as possible.  While everyone else is digging, Lhoss and Chiki walk a guard route around the barrow mound, carefully watching and listening for any trouble that might approach.  Past experience tells us that we are bound to be attacked, potentially by something extremely strong and deadly, so nobody thinks it's a good idea to not have guards, even though Chiki's digging expertise would be valuable for the excavation duties.  He reassures everyone that he will take a turn when some of the rest of us have worn ourselves out with digging.  The top layers are grass, heavy dirt and small rocks, but after an hour and a half that has been removed, and we we reach a layer that is mostly larger stones.  This is extremely hard work, especially for the humans that have little experience with such duties, but we persevere.  

As we work, Lhoss tells Myrtle about our encounters with members of the Band of The Black Hand and how she has vowed personal vengeance upon them.  Myrtle seems impressed with Lhoss's bloodthirsty attitude toward the bandits and murderers and is encouraged to give her magical sword a fitting name.  After some consideration, she dubs the +1 sword "Dawnbreaker" to much approval from the rest of the group.  

We have been working for several hours uninterrupted and everyone is somewhat on edge.  Lhoss and Chiki make the decision to swap out with Gnorcia and Hilja so that they can bring fresher bodies to the job.  Not long after this switch, Gnorcia notes movement to the north.  Tools are dropped in exchange for weapons as a group of skeletons emerges from the swirling mists.  Hilja prepares to cast "Entangle" but before she can, Armaziti is attacked and injured.  Arnd is also hit but his injury is significantly lighter.  Armaziti reacts to the skeletons by casting "Turn Undead" successfully and the bony creatures immediately all turn and begin to run away.  Arnd quickly slashes with Bonesplitter, nearly destroying the skeleton that had injured him, but because of the sudden retreat Myrtle's sword swing misses her target.  Gnorcia tries to use her speed to dart around and catch another foe but miscalculates and also misses her target.  Lhoss and Hilja use their staffs and rattle the bones of the two previously missed undead, doing a lot of damage.  Tatania, realizing that she really doesn't have any other true options, fires a Magic Missile at the middlemost skeleton, causing a bit of damage.  Hilja misses on her follow-up swing but Gnorcia steps up and hits true on her second attempt, obliterating the skeleton in front of them.  Arnd uses Bonesplitter to reduce his enemy to shards and dust.  Melissa is swung hard by Armaziti, shattering his opponent and ironically also crushes the skull that Myrtle sliced off another skeleton as it flies by.  There is a final skeleton and Lhoss batters it with her staff followed by Tatania using her second Magic Missile spell to attempt to finish it off.  It staggers away with a single hit point left.  Armaziti is anxious to destroy it but slips on the piles of bone shards like they were gravel, leaving it to Toffee Sword in the hands of Chiki to finish the battle.  Surveying the scene, Myrtle selects an intact finger bone as a trophy of the fight, an action that Gnorcia approves of.

We returned to our digging and after only another 40 minutes or so, the cover stone is revealed.  There are five glyphs in the middle of the large stone and an arch of runic text around the edge. Tatania wants to try to decipher the text, possibly by using her magic glasses, but is interrupted by Armaziti seeming to enter a trance.  He eventually comes around enough to give some instructions although he remains rather uncommunicative beyond saying that the glyphs need to be touched in the proper order to open the tomb and that we only have 30 "touches" total to achieve our goal before the tomb would be permanently closed to us.  We debate strategy for a bit, trying and failing to get any further input from Armaziti.  Lhoss urges caution, but Myrtle is feeling adventurous and touches the sword glyph.  It begins to glow with a warm, white light.  Lhoss, not to be left out, follows and touches the sun glyph.  This one too begins to glow.  Gnorcia begins to reach for the star glyph but hesitates until with Lhoss's encouragement instead touches the moon glyph.  This turns out to be an error as Gnorcia is immediately shocked severely and all the lights go out again.

Undeterred, Myrtle again reaches out and touches the sword glyph, and it resumes glowing.  Lhoss reignites the sun glyph, followed by Tatania lighting the star glyph and Hilja touching the moon glyph.  Considering that the shock caused Gnorcia actual damage, she naturally refuses to attempt touching any further glyphs so Arnd then touches the final untouched glyph, the skull.  Disappointingly, this causes the lights to again extinguish themselves.  We are all frustrated since it seemed that we had been on the right path, and Armaziti (who has remained mute) shows great distress on his face.  Taking a deep breath, we try once again with Myrtle, Lhoss and Tatania touching the same glyphs in the same order and this time Arnd touches the moon.  A grin appears on Armaziti's face when Myrtle begins the sequence and it only grows wider with each successful lighting but he still doesn't say anything that might help us.  Gnorcia is quite tense by this time and wonders aloud if perhaps our personal alignment might have a correlation to our success since she is the only one to be shocked and is chaotic neutral, not good or lawful.  Lhoss and Tatania don't believe that alignment has anything to do with it and it is only the order of the glyphs that matters but our discussion of the issue goes on for a while with no real conclusions reached.  Chiki speaks up and says that we should hurry because he is getting hungry, but nobody can agree on which glyph to touch next or who should do the touching.  Chiki refuses to do it himself since he doesn't want to risk being shocked and besides, he is only getting half share of any treasure anyway.  Finally, Myrtle just steps back up and touches the sword glyph again.  

With a grinding sound, the doors to the tomb open, showing a dark space beyond.  Tatania quickly lights a torch to see what's inside.  There is a statue that appears to be a knight holding something metal that is probably a sword.  Armaziti approaches without a word and sees that it is definitely a sword, and is in fact Caliburn.  As he stands looking at it, Tatania remembers that Caliburn is an Intelligent sword and tells Armaziti that she should announce his intent to pick up the sword and ask if it will allow itself to be returned to the Temple of Merrikka.  Apparently, Armaziti is communicating with the sword nonverbally since he picks up the sword, cradling it in his arms, and announces that he has permission to take the sword back to the Temple.  Myrtle looks around the remainder of the tomb, discovering that the stones of the walls are extremely tightly dressed marble with no gaps, making it very strong but that there's nothing else of interest within.

Due to Chiki's complaints of hunger, joined by Arnd's stomach rumbling, we stop for a few moments to each a meal.  Lhoss explains to Myrtle that our trips out here to the Barrowmaze and environs are only day-trips since we have been sufficiently shown (as well as warned by people in town) that it is too dangerous to be here at night.  Myrtle agrees that sounds like a good plan.  As we walk back to the entrance to the barrows, Hilja picks some of the long grasses that grow in the marsh and weaves them into a memorial token.  Tatania sees some lovely flowers growing around and creates a posy of them.  The two of them then leave their little gifts at the tomb where poor Adelbertus was buried.  Armaziti is unusually quiet on the return trip to Orlane but nothing else of note happens.

Upon approaching the Foaming Mug, a delicious smell fills the air.  Everyone gladly pays for a filling meal of what sounds to me like "Blanch Perae" and is proven in fact to be a delightful thick stew of small game birds with leeks and onions, accompanied by a mug of mead.  We are grateful to have guaranteed rooms and quickly retire for the night.  The next morning, following a breakfast of the usual high quality, we go to the Temple of Merrikka, arriving at around 9 in the morning.  We are greeted by Mischa, who is thrilled to see that we have brought Caliburn with us.  She takes the sword and turns toward the temple doors as if waiting for someone.  Chalkboi, who unbeknownst to us has been staying at the temple, steps out and stands by Mischa.  She solemnly presents him with Caliburn, telling him that he is entrusted with the sacred sword in his righteous quest to rid the world of the undead.  Caliburn signals that the partnership is one it approves of, and Chalkboi informs the group that he and Mischa both desire to create a shrine to St. Cuthbert here in Orlane.