Session 49: Day 19 of Planting, On the Road to the Barrowmaze

It was a cold, overcast day. Blizzard, Armaziti, Lhoss, Adelbertus, Hoddour, Arnd and I ate a hearty breakfast at the inn and then hoisted our bags and headed north out of Orlane toward the Barrowmaze. As soon as we stepped out of town, a cold drizzle started, turning the road to mud, which slopped all over our boots and even inside the boots of us smaller adventurers. We pressed on as the drizzle turned to a steady rain before we arrived at the Dim Forest.

As soon as we were inside the forest the rain cleared up under the heavy tree cover, but the temperature dropped even more with a heavy mist that seemed to have cast a disturbingly quieter-than-usual spell on the timbers. The misty hush chilled both our bodies and minds and we pulled our cloaks around tighter as we ventured deeper into the forest. We knew the road quite well now, and soon found our usual resting spot where we paused to fill our water skins in the slow-moving creek and clean the mud from our boots as we rested and ate some food.

Moving again, we had been traveling for a few more hours when Lhoss caught a glimpse of something strange off the side of the path, in the underbrush. Peering through, we realized it was a carcass of some kind of large animal. It didn’t smell like rot at all, so it could not have been there very long. We certainly hadn’t noticed it the week prior on our way back to Orlane. We discussed for a minute what to do, and of course curious Lhoss wanted to get a closer look so I went with her to investigate.

It was a cow, and a bloody mess. The neck and belly had been ripped out and seemingly devoured, the rest of it left behind in a pile of skin and gore. The flies must had been held off by the rain but we decided it couldn’t have been dead longer than 12 hours anyway. The group then considered the danger that such an unnerving attack could mean to the people of the area and decided to investigate further. Even without a ranger in the group we could see where whatever had attacked this poor bovine had then tromped off through the forest, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

Tatania and the dwarf brothers decided to stay behind as Armaziti, Lhoss, Blizzard, Arnd, and I followed the trail deeper into the brush. Before long we realized the path had petered out, but we had moved far enough past the bloody trail that by the time we stopped and turned back it was no longer obvious which direction we had come from. We picked what we guessed was the right way and moved along for about 20 yards, but didn’t find the trail. There was a buzzing sound in the air then and we turned back to where we recognized a tree we had been standing by when we first stopped. From there we moved yet another 20 yards in the opposite direction and were startled to discover a steep decline into a basin with a pool of water. Fortunately no one fell, but that was clearly not where we had come from. We also noticed the buzzing sound had become a little louder as we approached the edge.

Moving back again to the tree where we had first stopped, Lhoss carved an L into it so we could recognize it again. Suddenly we heard a faint cry of “Lhoss?!” that sounded like Tatania’s voice. Lhoss yelled back and Tatania must have heard because she started banging on her cup, making quite a racket that we were able to quickly follow to get back to the others near the path. What a relief it was to see those dumb dwarven brothers again! Our little investigation party was now an absolutely miserable mess of mud, dirt, and cold sweat. We tried to rest a few moments but before we could recover more than our wits we heard a loud crashing sound moving through the underbrush in our direction. Apparently all the noise had attracted something, and we knew it couldn’t be something good.

It seemed only natural to make an effort to get off the ground, so I suggested that everyone pick a tree and start climbing. I quickly climbed up the nearest trunk and settled myself on a strong limb, turning to find that while Lhoss, Hoddour, and his brother Adelbertus had managed to get themselves up into the trees, the rest of the party was still on the ground. We yelled down to them to try again and soon both Blizzard and Tatania were up into the safety of the tree branches.

Arnd and Armaziti, however, proved to need a lot more practice at tree climbing. Giving up on the effort, Arnd turned toward the sound that was getting ever closer, and prepared to fight whatever was coming. Armaziti prepared by casting a blessing on the group. Tatania was still trying to find a secure branch to sit on and Lhoss had pulled out an old femur bone and was holding it over her head like a club. We all then watched in horror as a pair of fast-moving zombies crashed into sight, their hands outstretched and their eyes glowed with an unholy light, spreading a shudder of fear through the entire party.

The first zombie immediately grabbed for Armaziti’s neck and got a tight hold on him, doing some small injury, and the second creature tried the same with Arnd, but the little dwarf dodged the attack. Armaziti tried to cast his Turn Undead spell, but it appeared not to affect the awful creatures.

Giving up on her weaponized femur, Lhoss decided to jump down to help. I stood on my tree limb and cast color spray at the zombies, hitting the creature that had grabbed Armaziti. It collapsed to the ground, asleep but still squeezing Armaziti in its death grip and dragging him down with it, injuring the cleric even more as he fell. Armazi grabbed for warhammer, Melissa, and struggled to hit the zombie’s locked arms but it was a futile effort.

Arnd swung his mace at the zombie in front of him, hitting it and causing it to moan loudly in what one would assume was pain, if a zombie could feel pain. This question slipped through my mind for just a moment and I watched Blizzard hit the same zombie with a bolt from her magical crossbow. It moaned loudly again.

Adelbertus then tried to shoot with his crossbow, but slipped and fell from the tree, taking bodily damage as he hit the ground in a flailing pile of arms and legs. Arnd swung his mace again, knocking the zombie closest to him to the ground, where it lay, unmoving. Lhoss then jumped in with her sword and tried to slice off the arms of the zombie that was still strangling Armaziti, but despite hitting it squarely, the weapon did nothing and slid right off the creature. Seeing that, Hoddour announced that he would be staying up in his tree, cowering in fear. Tatania and I both scrambled down to the ground.

Abandoning her non-magical sword, Lhoss shouted that we needed to use magic weapons. She grabbed her own magic blade, slicing off the fingers of the unconscious zombie that was clinging to Armaziti. Blizzard joined us on the ground again, just as the zombie that appeared to have fallen to Arnd’s attack jumped up and attacked him again, reaching out for his neck and grabbing him in a death latch! Poor Arnd tried to hit the creature but completely failed. Blizzard leapt in and also tried to slice it with her knife, but the knife wasn’t magical and it just slid right off.

Screaming in frustration with these creatures, I leapt onto the back of the one holding Arnd and sliced it open with my stout blade, Vengeance. It released the dwarf from its grip and fell to the ground, defeated. Adelbertus jumped up, brushed himself off, and tried to shoot an arrow at the other unconscious zombie, but his crossbow was not a magical weapon and the arrow just flew off into the forest, at least managing not to harm any of the rest of us. Armaziti then stood and smashed his warhammer down into the final creature, exploding its guts everywhere.

Finally free and able to talk, Armaziti told us these were no normal zombies. He had immediately recognized them as Coffer Corpses, horrid creatures more dangerous than normal zombies, with deadly grips and magical defenses. We were all relieved to put a stop to the attack, but still each doubly afraid from the encounter. Lhoss was actually shaking and starting to behave a little strangely again. Hoddour finally agreed to climb back down and everyone gathered around Armaziti as he chanted a ritual. A holy glow emanated from his gauntlet and we each felt a peaceful relief as the fear abated.

Despite my frustrated pleas to go back to Orlane, sleep in a real bed, and try again tomorrow, the group decided to leave this adventure behind us in the Dim Forest and press forward toward the barrowmaze. It wasn’t far and as we descended into the valley there seemed to be even more heavy mist than usual there as well. We were all dirty and tired from our day’s adventures, but it was good to be back on our quest. When we arrived at the entrance to the underground tombs, Adelbertus and Armaziti cast healing spells to heal Armaziti from his battle with the Coffer Corpse, and Adelbertus healed himself from his fall. We steeled ourselves for the next descent into the fear-inducing darkness.

Session 48: Return to Orlane, days 12 - 18 of Planting

 After a long day followed by a bad night's sleep, the 12th day of Planting began when we rose at 6:00 am. Because of the incident with Lhoss and her sanity, it was an unanimous decision among the group of Lhoss, Gnorcia, Ronan, Armaziti, Calbach, Adelbertus and myself (Tatania) that we should head back to Orlane post haste, although Ronan expressed some sorrow that we couldn't finish exploring just a bit more. However, the safety of the group needs to come before gold or glory, so we turned back to the dread Temple of Nerull (which is what we decided to name the area of the crypt where we found that malevolent statue of same). That place is just creepy.

As we walked toward the north entrance/exit, a screeching noise surprised us all and we looked up to see baleful eyes glaring down at us from the dark ceiling.  The ceiling is probably about 30 feet high, and unnoticed by us before, there's a ledge about 20 feet up that is apparently an ideal roosting spot for Barrowmaze-dwelling avians.  Aside from the screeching, the birds didn't act aggressively, but we all know how quickly that can change.  Ronan and Adelbertus both quickly whipped their shields overhead, just in case.  Huddled under that meager protection, everyone inventoried their weapons, specifically looking for arrows or darts that might be effective if we had to fight off the birds.  We peeked out carefully to observe the birds.  They were unfamiliar to all of us, appearing to be rather reptilian in nature, with large, leathery wings and vicious-looking claws and beaks.  It was suggested that they could be Rocs, but there was no way of knowing, and it didn't really matter much anyway.  Ronan held up his arrowhead that he'd found that featured the symbol of Nerull, on the assumption that since the birds were in Nerull's temple, it might make them leave us alone.  The birds were completely unimpressed, but didn't make any moves against us either.

In an effort to distract the birds, several of us took the meat portions of some of our rations and placed them in a pile.  We then backed away; as soon as the offering was revealed, one of the birds descended in a flurry of wings and began feasting.  The rest of the birds, realizing they were going to miss out, swooped down enmass and attacked the meat voraciously.  That was all it took for our group to move out with alacrity.  We hurried to the metal doors that guarded that area of the crypt and closed them securely.  Then, we continued to the maze entrance as rapidly as we could while still being as safe as possible.  That half hour was harrowing, but fortunately, nothing else happened while we were still inside.

Outside the dark cave that enclosed the Barrowmaze entrance, we could hear haunting howls from the North-West, sounding like wolves.  We looked around, but the swamp mist tends to keep visibility to only about 150 feet, so we didn't see anything.  We exited the cave cautiously and could hear movement, like the wolves were approaching but we still couldn't see them.  The uncertainty kept our travel brisk until we stopped for lunch.  There were no further encounters and we reached the Slumbering Serpent by midday.

As expected, Orlane and the Slumbering Serpent were both much busier than they have been on past visits.  Still, there was an 8-person room available that we decided to take, at a cost of 8 silver per person per day.  Everyone was pleased to be able to clean up and take off the heavy armor that several of us were wearing.  Since there were still a couple hours before dinner, we decided to go and have our treasure evaluated.  It turned out to be quite a haul, and most of it was sold.  We exchanged some for 50 gold piece-valued gemstones, so that if Armaziti has to cast his spell for regaining sanity again, we can afford it.  These gems were stored in the Bag of Holding.

Speaking of the Bag of Holding, we discovered that Armaziti was lugging around multiple gallons of water on his person, which was affecting his speed and stamina badly.  He was convinced to store most (if not all) of it in the Bag of Holding since much of the weight would be negated by the spells on that bag.  I wonder what other foolish decisions we are each making that will be discovered later on?

Once we had our money, we talked about who could and wanted to level up.  It's kind of silly to say it like that, since I think everyone would want to level up, but the only ones who could were Calbach and Lhoss.  Calbach obtained level 3 as a Ranger while Lhoss had to borrow from a few friends to be able afford to get her Level 2 Magic User.  Armaziti decided to make a trade from his Scale Mail armor to Banded Mail as it gives improved protection as well as weighing less.  Good choice, Armaziti!

Session 47: Final part of day 11 of Planting - the maddening

 We pick up the story again after dinner, accompanied by the memorization and prayer for spells. Lhoss, Gnorcia, Adelbertus, Tatania, Armatzi, and Hoddour all present and accounted for. Ronan and Calbach join shortly afterwards. 

The group proceeded southwards, and Ronan tripped a pit trap that was hidden just to the east. Lhoss was able to rescue him from the pit with her trusty rope. He then narrowly dodged falling into an open pit just south of the hidden pit. The group managed for the most part to slink past the two pits. However, Hoddour has a free spirit, and wandered west, triggering another hidden pit, and fell into some spikes. His faithful mate Squirbo was so disturbed by the fall that he chomped a bit of dwarven ear as he fell with him. 

A little healing happened (but no discussion of how to avoid future traps such as this). A door was found to the south, which proved difficult to open (Lhoss, Ronan, Armatzi all made attempts before Calbach finally succeeded). A room was revealed with two lime encrusted skeletons, which animated and attacked the group. The group was able to easily dispatch the two, with both magic and force of arms. The skeletons possessed two white gold necklaces. Some discussion of what white gold actually means happened. Armatzi insisted that gold is yellow, not white. 

The group decided that all of their primary weapons needed names, and these are what are now on record: Armatzi, with the previously named hammer Melissa, Tatania with a silver dagger named Sylvia, Adelbertus with his odd staff Oddwood, Lhoss, with Gary (Indiana) the dagger, Gnorcia with the foreboding stout blade of renown Vengeance, Ronan with Kimber the cudgel, Calbach with Banisher, the short sword of slaying scaly creatures, and Hoddour, with Ronald the dagger. 

The room had several rotting tapestries that were examined, but nothing interesting was found, and from fear of some dangerous mold, the group retreated. 

Lhoss discovered a secret door to the north. In the room was a worn bow, and three arrowheads, that were determined to be magical. Each of them had a different rune of some deity scribed on them: Ronan claimed one dedicated to Herne the Hunter, Calbach that to Heronious, and Ronan one to the evil god Nerull. 

The party exited, and found another door to the south east. Lhoos immediately opened the door, revealing rubble and many electrum pieces scattered throughout it. As the party scrambled to gather the treasure, a glowing yellow skeleton appeared and menaced the party. It must be noted that the horrors of the tomb began to take a toll on the minds of the party, with Lhoss being the most susceptible. She began to mutter and moan softly. The skeleton was dispatched rather easily, with a killing blow by Armatzi. 

A runic tablet was found, which Lhoss covets almost as much as opening doors. She quickly read the contents, but to her horror, she found her strength drained significantly - a curse of enfeeblement! The party realized that they needed to rest and recover, especially as Lhoss began to behave more strangely. They decided to stay in the room of the glowing skeleton (which had stopped glowing shortly after its destruction). The party healed up, and set the watch. Calbach and Tatania took the first watch, and it wasn't too far in before a moaning sound was heard, followed by increasingly discerned vocalizations of "Brains". This pushed Lhoss over the edge, and she curled up in a ball and began to mutter and mumble. 

After a bit of fight and chase (Armazti was finally successful in turning undead creatures), the group came back to find Lhoss acting in a somewhat peculiar manner, stroking her dagger. The group became quite proactive, and made attempts to grapple Lhoss, which she initially dodged. She also stabbed in fury with Gary, to no effect. Ronan was able to put a rope around her waist, but Lhoss slashed it off with Gary in a blaze of fury. Calbach then lept at Lhoss and was able to overbear her. The party held her down, while Armzatzi used a remove fear spell on Lhoss. To all the party's fortune, the spell not only cured Lhoss of her overwhelming fear, but also cured the insanity that had taken her over. The group then went back to watch and rest, but it was filled with foreboding and a growing gloom. 

Session 46: Great Treasures and Further Adventure in the Catacombs of Nerull on Day 11 of Planting

Having thoroughly explored most of the rooms in the hallway, our group went back east to the room with the door-opening levers. Lhoss manipulated them and opened the south door, then set the levers so it would to stay open. We then went south into the next room and through the door on its west wall. Moving to the end of the hallway behind that door, we found some rubble that had collapsed off the wall, though the remaining wall was intact. There the hallway turned south and we noticed a round circle imprinted on the floor, about 2 feet in diameter. As Calbach was looking at it and prodding it a bit, Yldarb noticed a movement on the wall and discovered a small alcove had opened to reveal a leather pouch. Peering carefully into the pouch, he found 5 darts. None of our magic-using party members had memorized a spell to detect magic so we added the darts (inside their pouch) into the bag of holding for later investigation.

I (Gnorcia) turned back to the circle, stood inside it, and turned around in a circle, but only managed to get dizzy from the spinning. Bored with the circle, Lhoss, Tatania, Adelbertus, Yldarb, Calbach, and I searched 57 square catacomb alcoves in another hallway to the east. In addition to finding some mummified remains, I discovered a coral shaped into a funny little fat man, Yldarb found a pewter chalice, and Tatania found a broken spear and a bag of 35 gold pieces.

Searching 49 hexagonal alcoves down another hallway to the west, we found some gnawed bones. Armaziti also found a circlet and a small wooden coffer, Calbach found a sparkly diamond, and Tatania found a much-less-sparkly dented helm. Lhoss examined the coffer and discovered a needle trap, and I was then able to disarm it, revealing a poison dart.

All this time, Hoddour, uninterested in searching, had been standing out in the hallway and staring at the wall. Fortunately his squirrel companion, Squirbo, was paying attention, recognized the poison on the dart, and ran excitedly in circles as a warning. Tatania carefully took the dart and placed it in a vial closed with a cork, where it would be safe. I then handed the box back to Armaziti, who opened it to reveal a large, human-size, gold ring. He was hesitant to put it on but it was so beautiful and sparkly that I excitedly grabbed it and slipped it onto my biggest finger. Amazingly, it shrank to fit and I felt an instant aura of protection. It was a +1 magic ring of protection!

As the group discussed their findings, I sneaked down to the next hallway to the south and discovered 51 triangular alcoves. The group soon followed and began searching there. Adelbertus discovered 54 copper pieces, another golden circlet, and a silver spear point, and I found a beautiful amethyst. The next hallway to the east contained 50 circular alcoves, each with a silver-plated skull over it. Lhoss poked at one of the skulls with her dagger and discovered she could pry it off, so we went through and pried off all the silver skulls. They were a little heavy so we added them to the bag of holding. Searching through these catacombs, Calbach found a bracelet, Adelbertus found a ruby, Lhoss found an ornate figurine, and Tatania found a small locked metal box.

Keys are very useful in opening locks so I got out my ring of keys and tried the small silver key in the lock. It opened the box! Inside was an ornate scroll and a silver dagger. Tatania carefully took the dagger in her hands and instantly bonded with it. She could tell that it was a +2 silver dagger and named it Sylvia. Looking back into the box, she lifted the scroll and discovered beneath it a pair of spectacles. The scroll was magical and written in magic language that she couldn’t read. Holding up the spectacles, she squinted through them first, then bravely put them on her face. Blinking, she discovered they magically enhanced her eyesight and she could read the scroll! They were glasses of comprehending languages and reading magic. Reading the scroll through them, she could tell then that it was a scroll of protection from missiles, a 3rd-level magic-user spell. Looking through the glasses again, Tatania pulled out the previously-unreadable spellbook that was in the bag of holding, discovering that she could now read those spells, and noted that they were the level 1 spells sleep, light, read magic, and detect magic, and the level 2 spell web.

Heading south again in the main hall, we could then see to the end of the hall and were surprised to discover a large statue of Nerull, standing in an engraved circle with a star inside it. At his feet was a sword! Hoddour suddenly got really excited about the sword, crying out, “Dibs!” and ran toward it. Unfortunately, the sword was merely an illusion and as he raced up to it the floor collapsed and Hoddour fell into a pit full of green slime! The slime began to grow across him and he instantly started screaming in pain. Lhoss quickly pulled out her rope and threw it down to him, yelling for him to climb out. Once he was out of the pit, Calbach used his knife to scrape the slime off Hoddour and was able to get it all off. It settled into a puddle on the ground and the statue appeared to be smiling at the scene. Adelbertus quickly healed his brother as Yldarb retrieved the 5 glass jars we had in the bag of holding, filling them all with the slime and stopping up the lids with wax seals. There was still some slime left on the floor of the hallway so Lhoss tried to push it back into the pit with her staff, but it instantly latched onto the staff and started growing up it toward her! She hastily grabbed her sword and hacked at the end of the staff, trying to get the slime off, but only managed to destroy her staff in the process. Throwing the staff with the slime into the pit, she cleared her throat and spat angrily down into it. The slime in the pit quickly consumed everything and wobbled with a strangely-satisfied gelatinous shimmer.

Hoddour carefully crept around the edge of the pit and began examining the statue, which was now fully grinning. One of its eyes appeared to sparkle and he poked it with his knife. Suddenly a feeling of intense nausea overcame him and he fell back, puking all over the floor in front of the statue. Disgusted with the result of his investigation, he attempted to direct his vomit onto the statue but discovered he could not, and in the process nearly stumbled into the pit again. He tried glaring at the statue but quickly found its malice was overwhelming and he was forced to avert his eyes.

Turning from the frightful statue, the rest of the group began to search the catacombs in the final hallway to the west. It was filled with square alcoves and we found they were all disappointingly empty. The last hallway to the east contained 50 circular alcoves and we continued our search through them. Adelbertus found a beautiful golden statuette, Lhoss found a bloodstone, and I found a spear that was more than three times my height. Yldarb took the spear from me and found that it felt marvelous in his hands. He quickly granted it the name of Falstaff and discovered it was a +3 weapon, so powerful and wonderous to him that he realized he had a preference for it over any other weapon.

As Yldarb stood holding the spear in great wonder, Lhoss noticed a catch on the wall at the end of the hall, and did what Lhoss does. She hastily tripped it. The hallway opened, revealing…

Session 45: Day 11 of Planting, part three

One of the oddities of the barrowmaze (the appearance and disappearance of party members seemingly at random) led to a curious reshuffling of our group. Yldarb, Chiki, Lhoss, Hilja, and Ronan appeared just as Blizzard, Hoddour, and Adelbertus seemed to disappear into the dark of the underground tomb. Aramaziti, Gnorcia, Arnd, Tatania, Kyro, and Calbach relayed the difficult encounter they had all just endured. In fact Aramaziti and Tatania had both exhausted their spells and were in need of some time to recover them. But Lhoss, being selfish and impetuous (and feeling fresh as a daisy), was itching for an adventure. Aramaziti found a quiet, secluded room and began to pray, with Chiki watching on. Tatania, on the other hand, tried several spots to memorize her spells, but kept finding her attention pulled by various distractions. She finally settled in a room separate from Armaziti and the rest of the group with Kyro guarding the entrance. So the party was separated into three groups. This seems unwise...

Lhoss, being an absolute pill, began to inch closer to the first door she wanted to open. She moved toward it like a youngling mischievously sneaking up to the pine boughs on the first evening of Needfest, eager to sneak a peek inside the knitted socks. Yldarb uttered a word of caution, which prompted Lhoss to closely examine the door before she opened it. Inside, a low table was standing in the center of the room with a bowl and black urn resting on top. Ronan began to cautiously move toward the table when Hilja rushed in quickly to stand beside him. Slightly distracted, Ronan bumped the table which upset the bowl and spilled 48 silver pieces onto the floor. Lhoss and Yldarb entered and picked up the coins. Ronan scooped up the bowl and absentmindedly handed it to Hilja who took it as a sign of affection. She jauntily placed it on her head and gave Ronan a huge grin and a wink, which he pretended not to notice. Balancing the bowl, Hilja closely inspected the urn which appeared to have something stuck inside. Using her dagger, Lhoss managed to scrape off a few unidentifiable black flakes. Ronan tipped a torch onto the flakes, deciding to see if they would ignite. Indeed they did and the entire room quickly filled with acrid smoke. Lhoss quickly grabbed the urn, Ronan grabbed Hilja, and all four exited the room with Yldarb closing the door behind him. Gnorcia rolled her eyes and asked that we stop setting rooms on fire.

Calbach noticed a south door that was slightly ajar. He pushed into the room and saw the room had bas-reliefs depicting the raising of the dead. Ronan also entered the room and noted that there were several vacant slabs protruding from the walls and sets of footprints that led out of the room. Aside from that creepy vignette, the room was empty.

Refusing to wait for their vital party members who were occupied preparing their spells, the transfixed party followed the footprints that led out of the room to a door with a keyhole. Gnorcia and her collection of keys were called upon to see if she could open the door. The silver key that she had just acquired was too small, but luckily she tried each of the rest of her keys and one actually opened the lock. Though unlocked, the door seemed to be stuck and difficult to move. Lhoss was unable to budge it, but Gnorcia opened several inches. A stale, dusty scent wafted out. Gnorcia gave a mighty heave and pushed it open a few more inches, enough for she and Lhoss to peek inside. They observed a gnome-sized body wrapped in white strands laying on the floor. Ronan slammed his shoulder against the door and created just enough room to slip through, which Lhoss did with characteristic lack of forethought. Seeing that the door was slamming shut behind Lhoss, Ronan reacted instinctively and dove through. The pair found themselves trapped in a room with two giant spiders. They had to act fast to avoid ending up like the poor adventurer on the ground! Lhoss whacked one with her staff while Ronan attempted to crack another with his cudgel. Fortunately they were able to dodge the spiders' nasty pincers. Hearing the fight inside, Gnorcia swiftly unlocked and opened the door. She, Calbach, Yldarb, and even Chiki and Kyro sprung into the room to engage the foul arachnids with the door slamming shut again behind them. Gnorcia landed a killing stab, slicing one of the beasts down its back. But she was the only one to have such luck as the rest of the party and the spiders engaged in a dodging dance with neither weapon nor pincer able to gain purchase. Finally, Ronan's cudgel struck true and caused the second spider to explode in a disgusting shower of gore. 

Lhoss cut away at the spider webs that had encased what was found to be a dead halfling. She and Gnorcia found on the body a pouch filled with 43 electrum and what appeared to be a dagger. Gnorcia picked up the dagger and realized the treasure she now possessed. In the hands of a human or elf, it would be an ordinary dagger. But wielded by a gnome or halfling, it acted like a short sword. In fact, Gnorcia realized with a start, this was the legendary Stout Blade dagger, given to heroes and was especially useful in the hand of a thief. To possess such a weapon, Gnorcia was happy to pass down her old magic dagger to Lhoss. The party glanced around the room and saw large frescoes depicting the temple of Nerul. There was a muttered agreement not to tell Tatania about what was on the walls to avoid another fire today. Gnorcia unlocked the room from the inside using her key and the group exited.

The group's pride at defeating the spiders unscathed was somewhat tempered by the chastisement from Armaziti and Tatania who had been entirely excluded from the afternoon's exploits. Moving forward, we all agreed it would be wise to pay attention to the needs of each party member. It's just that our group has swelled to such a large and unwieldly size. But fate has a way of balancing things out. It may be that this barrowmaze and it's inexplicable powers may find a way to limit our numbers.

Session 44: Part 2 of Day 11

Beginning at midday on Day 11 of Planting, we finished our lunch and decided to explore further down the hallway we were in.  Our group consisted of the dwarf brothers Hoddour and Adelbertus Goldborne, Gnorcia, Arnd, Calbach, Blizzard, Armaziti, Kyro, and me (Tatania). Little did we know, it was going to end up being a very long day

Headed west, we passed by the door warning all to "Go No Further" that we'd found earlier, as well as a couple of other closed doors.  Our goal was the doors at the end of the passageway.  First Arnd and then Gnorcia checked the northern door for traps and then, as it appeared safe, Arnd attempted to open it.  Unfortunately, it was stuck fast.  Then, Adelbertus proved that he is a complete novice to Barrowmaze adventuring.  He was talking loudly to Hoddour, probably to combat the eerie silence of the place, when we noticed that the southern door was ajar.  A serpent-like hissing drew all attention as the door opened further and we saw to our dismay that a pair of ghouls were feasting on the body of a deceased fellow adventurer.  The ghouls, disturbed by Adelbertus' loud voice, accused him of trying to rob them of their meal.  

Obviously, this was the farthest thing from the case, but they nevertheless attacked the pair of dwarves.  Adelbertus quickly tried to get his shield up while Hoddour swung his knife at the ghouls.  As would become all too common that day, Hoddour missed his target.  One of the ghouls got past the shield and scored a hit on Adelbertus, injuring him and leaving him paralyzed.  Adelbertus' reflex swing with his staff as he collapsed also failed to hit.  Gnorcia used her sneaking skills to get behind the ghouls and attack with her dagger, but the targeted ghoul dodged.  Arnd swung his sword at the ghoul that attacked Adelbertus, hitting with a glancing blow that did little to no damage.  Kyro tried to help, but his aim was poor and his arrow splintered against a wall instead.  Armaziti tried using his gauntlet to drive off the undead, but it had no effect on our foes.  I steadied myself and blasted the leftmost ghoul with a magic missile, burning it.  It was beginning to feel like a comedy of errors when Calback shot an arrow at the right-side ghoul, and also missed his target.  Fortunately, Blizzard used her light crossbow and skewered the ghoul I'd burned, further damaging it.

Then, as if things weren't bad enough, the north door that was solidly closed before opened itself, revealing shadowy figures.  It felt as though the temperature had dropped several degrees.  Using the distraction, the injured ghoul attacked Hoddour, but this time luck was in our favor as Hoddour escaped injury.  He slashed back with his dagger, finally killing the ghoul in retribution.  The uninjured ghoul mindlessly kept after poor Adelbertus, hurting him badly and knocking him unconscious.  Gnorcia again attacked the surviving ghoul with her magic dagger, and again failed to do any harm.  Kyro cursed under his breath, vowing to practice more, when his next arrow also went astray.

My attention was drawn to the three approaching menacing shadow forms, so I used my second magic missile on one of them.  It was a solid hit, but the creature didn't make a sound.  It was frustrating, as I was now out of spells and would have to rely on my meager physical skills.

Back with the ghoul, the tragi-comedy continued with first Calbach and then Blizzard failing in their attacks on the foul creature.  Arnd expressed his anger with a loud bellowing scream while swinging his mace.  As was almost becoming expected, the slippery critter managed to avoid being hit.  Finally, Calbach harnessed all our outrage and sent an arrow right through the ghoul's head, killing it for good.

Unfortunately, we didn't have even a moment to celebrate that victory since the shades wouldn't allow us a respite.  Armaziti swung Melissa at a shade and stumbled when Melissa just sailed through with no resistance.  We probably should have realized it sooner, but it quickly became obvious that these foes required magic to damage.  Kyro's third arrow was on target, but since it was not a magic attack, it was as useless as a miss.  The three shades converged on Armaziti, proving that while we weren't having any luck in hurting them, the same was not true in reverse.  He was hit repeatedly and quickly weakened.  I took a chance and attacked with my silver dagger, but while silver has inherent properties against certain monsters, it wasn't enough against these undead.  Armaziti successfully evaded the creatures and retreated to the relative safety of the other side of the hallway while Kyro swung his (non-magical) sword ineffectively.  Calbach tried his magic short sword, but had no better luck in his attack than if he'd been using a stick.

Gnorcia decided to play to her strengths and easily crept behind our attackers.  She tried to use her backstabbing ability, but the jinx that appears to have been upon us held and she missed anything vital.  Blizzard proved her worth once again by arming her magic crossbow and hitting the shade on the right with a quarrel, hard.  It was sorely shaken, with light bursting out from the site of the quarrel, although it wasn't enough to destroy the beast.  Calbach managed to slice another shade, doing minor damage. Even so weakened, a hasty "Turn Undead" spell had no effect on them.  The spell failure served to unnerve Hoddour enough that he began to retreat back down the hallway, alone.  We called for him to come back, but I was afraid that he might not listen.

Arnd realized that Adelbertus was in a bad way and set about bandaging the poor stricken dwarf, stabilizing him until he could be helped further.  Blizzard shot again at the shades, but her quarrel didn't hit its target. Gnorcia attacked again, this time severely injuring her foe.  Hoddour, seeing his brother in such a helpless state and seeing tiny Gnorcia having success, finally remembered that his own dagger is magic and he regained enough courage to come rushing back.  The shade Gnorcia had hurt turned its wrath on her but in doing so, turned its back on the returned Hoddour.  This was a fatal mistake as Hoddour stabbed his magic dagger into its back, disbursing it to the aether.  Of the two remaining shades, one attacked Calbach and hit him while the other tried to take me down.  With my lack of fighting skills, I was sure it was only a matter of time before I was in a state similar to Adelbertus.  I don't know how, but somehow it missed me. Gnorcia came to my rescue and her skill left that shade barely surviving.  Then, Hoddour followed up and finished it off.  I was so grateful to the two thieves, I decided to look the other way next time one of them decided to "acquire" something (as long as it doesn't take too much from the group collectively).

Calbach fought back against his attacker, but before he could get a solid hit in, Blizzard and her magic crossbow prevailed and the final shade fell away to nothing.  There was a collective sigh of relief, but we weren't quite finished yet.  Adelbertus still needed healing badly, so Armaziti cast "cure light wounds" and Adelbertus recovered sufficiently.  Gnorcia timidly tapped Armaziti on his leg to beg healing for herself as well, and of course he obliged.

We did a casual search of the room that the shades came from, and found only frescoes showing offerings to the evil God Nerul.  Now, I have a personal grudge against worshippers of Death Gods because of a trauma from my past.  Even though I don't know for certain that Nerul was the one worshipped by the cultists I had earlier encountered, I felt the need to destroy these worshipful paintings.  I used one of my oil flasks on the walls and ignited the frescoes with my torch.  The room quickly filled with noxious smoke, so I pulled the door shut again and left it to burn.

In the room to the south, Gnorcia saw the possibility for treasure.  Beyond the half-eaten corpse and the ghoul bodies were a series of burial alcoves.  She quickly overcame her distaste over the fresh dead and searched diligently.  She was rewarded with a bounty of 102 electrum pieces and four runic tablets, two of which were whole and two of which were too broken to read.  As the main magic users in the group, Armaziti and I each were given a tablet to read.  Armaziti read his and was cursed with a guaranteed failure of his next saving throw.  I lucked out and was blessed with a permanent increase of +1 to my dexterity.  As is usually the case, the tablets crumbled to dust upon being read.

I insisted that we honor the slain adventurer that the ghouls had been eating by interring his body in one of the vacant alcoves, and we then searched all the rest of the alcoves.  I found a topaz necklace, Kyro found a fire opal and Gnorcia found a platinum ring.  I told the group that although I intended for the necklace to be part of the common pot, I wanted to wear it until such time as we were able to sell it.  Adelbertus checked the treasure for magic, and finding it all to be mundane, I put on the necklace and Gnorcia put on the ring.  I have no idea if Gnorcia intends to allow the group to profit from the ring, but as I noted previously, I'm not going to mention it if she keeps it for herself.  Kyro put the fire opal into the bag of holding.  I was so ready for the day to be over, but it was only a few hours past noon, despite all the adventure.  I hope nothing too traumatic happens before we can sleep again.

Session 43: Beginning of day 11 of Planting

 After the adventure with the shadow, the party found space in the main room to sleep. No one slept well, with unpleasant dreams. After eating some breakfast, the party moved to the east. 

An altar was found that Armatzi examined. Hilja flirted awkwardly with Ronan, to the discomfort of the whole party. The party continued to explore, and opened a room with a dead deformed creature of some kid - it had some parts that look human, and some that looked bestial. There were plenty of alcoves to search, and the party found some treasure: a platinum necklace, a bag of gold pieces, many copper pieces, and a golden figurine. Rejoicing in their good fortune, the party marched to the north. 

There was a long hallway, with a trail of slime coming out of a door. There appeared to be several doors lining the corridor. The party feared the slime trail, and avoided it, proceeding towards the west. A door was opened with an altar with some bones. Then a message was found on the next door with the cryptic message "don't go this way" written in chalk. Of course the party decided to go that way. 

The next door was examined and then opened, which released a mysterious gust of wind, that blew out all the torches. Fortunately, several in the party have dark vision, and Armatzi has the holy gauntlet that emits light. Out of nowhere, Arnd and Gnorcia appeared and began adventuring with the group. 

Another door was opened, revealing the dead body of a magic-user. The party found a spell book and had a long discussion about the spell book, and what to do with it. It was eventually put into the bag of holding.

The party then came to a door that was on the south wall (all the other doors had been on the north wall). Once the door was opened, it revealed a strange room with alcoves on the east, and two steel doors, one on the south, and one on the west, and a box with three levers next to the western door. An examination of the doors, switches, and alcoves was done, and  some platinum pieces and gold earrings were found. 

Lhoss then experimented with the levers, and by moving the center and right levers up, a distinct *click* was heard, and the southern door opened, revealing a long dark corridor behind it. Most of the party went into the room to explore, and found some doors at the end of the corridor. Then the door slammed closed after a turn. Fortunately, Lhoss had stayed behind, and opened the door again. 

Arnd then hastily rushed down to the southern door and opened it, triggering a deadfall trap that damaged him badly. After retreating, the door closed again, and Lhoss opened the door again. Arnd was abashed to discover that with a bit more caution and examination, he would have detected the deadfall trap. 

Kyro discovered burial alcoves in the ruined room, and the party searched them, finding a bloodstone jewel. The party continued to search the area, with no further items being found. The party then examined the other door, which was on the west. After many attempts, the door was finally opened. There was some debate, and the party returned to the room of two steel doors, where Lhoss had stayed. Arnd then made an observation that there must be something else about the levers, and after some more experimentation, Lhoss found that by moving the levers up with a *click* and then back down with a *clank*, the door stayed open. Lhoss then discovered the combination for the western door (moving the left and right levers up and then back down). The group entered the passageway that was revealed. 

A series of doors was revealed in this passageway, including on north and south several feet in. The northern door was checked and then opened, revealing an altar with an array of lawful and chaotic gods and their underlings in conflict. Several items were also found. After some debate, the group looted the room, with Kyro saying a prayer of thanksgiving for the treasure:  a copper plate, some platinum, 3 small emeralds, a funerary wooden deer, 2 silver rings, a wooden funerary figure, and a cracked clay bool. The group then paused for lunch.