Well, it's Day 3 of Harvester already. Time sure seems to fly by sometimes! It's hot and overcast when we set out toward the Barrowmaze, Feno leading out followed by Niki and Ronan, then me (Kyro) and Armatzi, with Gnorcia and Calbach at the rear. I note that the crops in the fields we pass are growing well although one field of wheat looks a bit anemic. I'm thinking that farmer should grow a crop of beans next year to balance out his soil nutrients. Rotating crops gives a much better yield, even if you can't usually get as much income from beans as you can with wheat.
The dim forest is surprisingly calming instead of so gloomy today. I don't know why that would be, but I'm grateful for it. Unfortunately, the change distracted me enough that I forgot to remind Niki to get fresh holly and mistletoe while we were there. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me later since a druid needs her reagents, and fresher is always better with these plants.
As expected, the swamp is horribly muggy and there are swarms of biting insects. I think about refreshing myself on my pest-repelling cantrip, but that would require me to visit the temple of Merrika, so I can't do anything about it now (when it would be handy). Instead, we all hurry into the maze through the entrance we think of as the primary entrance and settle in the initial room to eat our lunch. I light my lantern and torches are lit by Gnorcia, Ronan, and Feno, so we have plenty of light. Fortunately, nothing disturbs us while we eat and recover from the outside heat in the cool yet eerie interior of the maze.
It's been a while since we've come this way and memories are somewhat dim, so we decide to explore to the south and see if we can find the Font of Law that we've been tasked with obtaining. On the floor, there are a pair of scuffed lines made from some sort of grey powder. Armatzi looks closely at them and can't figure out what the powder is or why the lines are there, and Ronan experimentally lights the powder on fire (it burns with a sullen, low flame and nasty smell) but quickly extinguishes it to avoid attracting negative attention. We continue through a series of rooms that I know we've been through before but only vaguely remember. It seems that my sketchy memory is common since nobody else seems to be any better.
Eventually, we come to a shrine to Farlahgan (sorry, he's not my Diety and I don't know how to spell his name, but I did my best) that I remember gave us a tiny boost last time, but it's been defiled and sorely neglected so we can't expect anything from it now. Niki considers rededicating it, but she only has some older holly and no mistletoe on her, so can't help. It is made more hopeless since she worships Obad-Hai and not Farlahgan, so her deity won't assist like he would if it were his own shrine. Sadly, we leave the shrine closed up as much as possible since the door was broken by whatever creature defiled the shrine in the first place.
Armatzi and Ronan notice some tracks heading further south and we follow them. We find a pit in the floor but safely skirt around it without incident. Just past the pit, there is an arch over the hallway that is guarded by a pair of evil-looking goat-headed stone creatures that are mounted on the wall, about 9 feet up. The normal creep factor of the maze bumps up a notch, but we all pass under the arch without incident, except Gnorcia and Calbach (being last through) both note a glint of red in the eyes of the sculptures.
Suddenly, Gnorcia hears a noise and she hands her torch to Calbach before going back to the pit to investigate. Her gnomish dark vision is sufficient for her to peer around but she doesn't see anything of note. Upon turning to rejoin us, she sees that the goats' eyes are pulsing with red light and she feels a spell attacking her. Fortunately, her saving throw against spells is successful and with effort she is able to pull herself from the enchantment. She quickly informs all of us to avoid looking at the statue eyes. Calbach gets the idea of bashing one of the goat heads with his mace but miscalculates how high it is and misses. For his trouble, he is hit by a blast of hellfire from the demonic entity the statues are dedicated to (most likely Narul). Armatzi heals Calbach while Niki shakes her head in bafflement over the idiocy of trying to blindside a dedicated statue. We've had experiences with such things in the past and most of us have learned the futility of it.
After Calbach had been healed, Armatzi falls into a trance regarding the location of the Font of Law. He says he was told to backtrack to an east-west running hallway and to there find a set of double doors with steps leading downward. I'm not sure if the steps are inside of the doors or outside, but I'm not in charge of this quest so I don't much care about that kind of details. Just lead me there and I'll bash what I need to. We go toward the nearest east-west hallway and Armatzi notices an old skeleton lying on the floor. For some reason, he feels the need to tap the skull with Melissa (his war hammer) and the skull shatters. When Armatzi just kind of shrugs about the destruction, a dark spirit cloud emerges from the skeleton and curses Armatzi temporarily. I am a bit disturbed by the lack of respect he showed, but don't really say anything at the time. We find a door that nobody remembers exploring and Gnorcia searches it for traps. Behind the door is a room filled with burial alcoves. I decide that if I can find one that is empty, I'm going to move the skeleton Armatzi damaged into it. I know it's a bit strange that I have little problem with looting the alcoves while at the same time want to show respect to the dead, but ... I'm a complicated kind of guy, I guess.
So, we searched the alcoves for about a half hour before noises from down the hall to the east let us know that we're about to have company. Six zombies shamble down the hall and Ronan throws a vial of oil into their path. Niki tosses her torch and ignites the oil, damaging some of the zombies. Feno, with a single swing, demolishes a zombie before anyone else has time to do more than blink. That elf is amazing! Calbach, not to be outdone, uses The Banisher to eliminate his own zombie but it had a companion close behind that then attacks Calbach and injures him. Even worse, the second zombie was on fire from the oil and Calbach gets burns on top of the slashing damage. Feno splats another zombie with ease while Calbach takes out the zombie that hurt him. Armatzi hurries over and heals three points of damage on Calbach. During all of this, I've been stuck behind everyone, still in the room with the burial alcoves, unable to do anything to help. It's a good thing all my fellow adventurers are so skilled that my assistance isn't so much needed this time around. Ronan manages to hit the fifth zombie of the six who attacked, and while he did damage, it wasn't enough to destroy it. Niki takes on the sixth one and kills it, while Gnorcia chases down the one Ronan had injured. Unfortunately, she skids in the gore on the floor and misses with her attack. I know that if it weren't for that bit of bad luck, she would have gotten it, and then Feno was right there to end the menace completely.
Everyone comes back to the room I'm in to finish searching for treasure, and we end up finding a bunch of silver along with a nicely tooled belt and buckle that Ronan discovers. Armatzi and Ronan get bored and wander out into the hallway, and then Feno and Niki hear some sort of noise and they go in search of whatever was making it. I didn't see exactly where they went but they described finding a strange pyramid made of slate that was almost unnaturally symmetrical. Just hearing about it makes me feel a bit creeped out, but apparently, they didn't discover anything more and barely remembered anything about it when I asked later for clarification. That's actually extra creepy, but ... it is what it is.
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