Session 120: A Horde of Skeletons Attacks

Recorded by Gnorcia:

We stayed the day in Orlane and had a wonderful but not exactly memorable day. Lhoss and I spent the day checking in on the mayor, Vilma, and the elves. The next day was Day 6 of Harvester. Feeling refreshed, we arose early, had our meal, and were on our way toward the Barrowmaze by 6:30am. It turned out to be a gloomy, rainy day. Sergius grumbled about the rain because for some reason he did not have a cloak, but the rest of us just pulled our cloaks over us and started the march down the road. I loaned my cloak to Chiki, who also did not have one, knowing it would require cleaning after a day around that gnome and his chicken. Also in our party were Kyro and Eldriel the Grey.

It was a somber, melancholy march with no sunlight and a steady pour of rain. We could smell Sergius and his increasingly-wet chain mail. The road got muddier as we went, then the trees from the Dim Forest dripped on us as we traveled through there. The Barrowmarsh trail was even wetter and murkier than usual, with a supernatural-looking fog. Despite the gloom and rain, we were excited and determined to find more treasure and possibly the Font of Law. We entered the Barrowmaze and made our way back through its silent hallways to the room we had been exploring two days before.

Peering through the portcullis, we saw a lot of dust and cobwebs and two doors to the left—one of them broken down in pieces on the floor. We raised the rusty portcullis and Kyro began sweeping the floor for traps. He soon discovered a large pit right in front of the second, broken door! Avoiding the pit, Kyro peered into the room and was immediately attacked by three crab spiders that dropped down from the ceiling. Lhoss ran in and attacked one and I leapt onto the back of another, destroying them both. Sergius then ran in and attacked the last spider but it turned and bit him, poisoning him. He dug a poison cure and a healing potion out of his bag and drank them down. I managed to harvest the poison sacks from the crab spiders and carefully packed them away as Lhoss and Eldriel did a quick search for hidden doors or anything on the walls. We then headed back out to look into the other room.

The other door was ajar and Kyro pushed it open, revealing two open sarcophagi. He looked carefully at the ceiling—which appeared normal with no hidden crab spiders—and began to sweep the room. The skeletons lay still in their sarcophagi—as skeletons should. We determined to head back out and try the closed door in the large room to the west. Kyro entered the room and began to sweep the floor for possible danger. At one point he found a hollow-sounding spot on the floor and Sergius hit the floor with his battle axe, revealing the seam of a pit trap in front of the first door on the south. Kyro continued sweeping and found yet another pit trap to the northwest in front of another door there. Beyond that, the floor appeared to be safe.

Kyro then began sweeping the floor in a hallway to the south and discovered a large group of 23 skeletons that began lumbering toward us from both hallways, north and south! One attacked Lhoss and another attacked me. Fragile elf Eldriel had gone wandering off across the room and found himself attacked by two skeletons at once. As the skeletons swarmed we all took some damage and Sergius quickly fell to the floor but Chiki grabbed him and dragged him out into the hallway, then poured a healing potion down his throat. He immediately jumped up and sort of stumbled around the room, mindlessly. In the meantime, the rest of us determined to get out as well. Kyro and I both turned and ran out the door, taking a hit from skeletons as we did so, but were able to escape.

Lhoss then cast magic missiles on the two skeletons attacking her, disintegrating one and distracting the other enough that she could jump up onto the wall and climb quickly to the ceiling of the room, beyond their reach. She then doused her lantern just as I closed the door, leaving her and Eldriel alone with a horde of skeletons in the dark dungeon room. As the skeletons bashed on the door, trying to get out to us, Lhoss scrambled along the ceiling to where Eldriel was trapped in the corner by the bony undead creatures. She then cast levitate on him just as he fell to their attacks and passed out, bleeding. After Eldriel floated up to the ceiling, Lhoss bound up his wounds and poured a healing potion down his throat. She then tied him to herself so he would float along behind her as she silently moved across the ceiling toward the door. She noticed that the skeletons had stopped banging on the door and were click-clacking their way back to their hidey holes.

At the door, Lhoss made a low whistle and Kyro—who was waiting outside for her signal—quickly opened it to let them through, then closed it again. In the meantime, Chiki had cast a wall of fog to obscure the rest of us, just in case any skeletons got through, but it wasn’t needed as the skeletons had disengaged. Lhoss poured more healing potions down Eldriel’s throat and swallowed another dose herself. The poor druid looked drained, but we were all safe from the skeletal threat.